Keep Yourself Accountable (WT812)

Keep Yourself Accountable (WT812)

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by | 16 Jan, 2026 | Blog, Leadership, Mindset

WT 812 Keep yourself accountable

With the start of the new year and many of us making New Year’s Resolutions and decisions about what we want to achieve this year, I’m prompted to remind you to “keep yourself accountable”.

Gretchin Rubin has a free quiz you can do to discover your tendency to keep yourself accountable.

Check it out here: https://gretchenrubin.com/quiz/the-four-tendencies-quiz/

Rubin discovered that people fit into Four Tendencies: Upholders, Questioners, Obligers, and Rebels. Our Tendency shapes every aspect of our behaviour, so understanding this framework lets us make better decisions, meet deadlines, suffer less stress and burnout, and engage more effectively. The Four Tendencies explain why we act and why we don’t act. (Source: Gretchen Rubin)

The Obliger – You can count on me, and I’m counting on you to count on me.

The Questioner – Keeping an eye on why

The Upholder – Discipline is my freedom

Rebel – You can’t make me and neither can I.

Knowing your tendency can help you keep yourself accountable.

I’m an Obliger. I can’t keep myself accountable, however I will be accountable to you. When I learned this about myself, I understood why I always committed to clients.  I was relying on them to keep me accountable. For example, if I told a client they would have their documents by 3pm on Thursday, I would deliver. Sometimes it meant pulling an all-nighter on Wednesday, but I got the job done.  If I didn’t commit, I would find 1000 reasons to procrastinate.

So, what are you going to do to keep yourself accountable this year?

Will you write a list and tick off things as you go?

Will you engage an accountability buddy?

Or are you like some of my very successful clients – the Upholders and just rely on your sheer discipline to do what you say you will.

Regardless of your goals for the year, the important thing is to keep yourself accountable and take action. Even just 5 minutes towards your goal is action.

Just get started.

Keep yourself accountable to start.

One of my sayings to get me going is, “It’s not going to do <insert action I need to take> by itself” and up I get and get going.

Let me know what your tendency is and how you are going to hold yourself accountable?

I’ve registered with an exercise physiologist – not so much for exercise tips – but for the sheer accountability of having to report in. 

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Go to https://shirleydalton.com/Weekly-Thoughts.

I Was Exhausted (WT811)

I Was Exhausted (WT811)

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by | 9 Jan, 2026 | Blog, Mindset

WT 811 I was exhausted

It was the end of the year.

It was the start of the festive season.

I was exhausted.

We’d had a big year with work and cleaning up my uncle’s place and now I felt the pressure to be social; to contact people and wish them a Merry Christmas etc.

I didn’t have anything left in the tank, so my calls and letters went by the wayside.

“Not to worry”, I thought to myself.

“I’ll contact people in the new year and wish them all the best.”

The new year came and went and I still hadn’t contacted my peeps.

It wasn’t that I didn’t think of them. I just didn’t have the energy.

Why am I telling you this?

This week I had to coach a team member who was going way above and beyond.

I was concerned for her health. The hours and the pressure were not sustainable.

She had a little reminder call with her health.

“I’m also being selfish”, I shared.

“If you have 100 tasks and you get through 75 of them, that’s a good effort. There is always tomorrow.”

“If you push yourself to get the 100 done and continue to push, at one point or another, you’ll fall over and then none of the tasks will be done.”

Today’s thought is for all the over-achievers.

There are only 24 hours in a day.

Those hours need to be shared amongst work, family, sleeping, hobbies and interests and rest.

Let’s not start the year feeling exhausted and let’s make sure that we do take the time to rest and recharge. Afterall, I’m told that recovery time is the most important time for an elite athlete.

Let’s follow their lead.

This year, let’s not end exhausted.

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Go to https://shirleydalton.com/Weekly-Thoughts.

It’s All In The Timing (WT810)

It’s All In The Timing (WT810)

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by | 2 Jan, 2026 | Blog, Mindset

WT 810 It's all in the timing

Happy New Year! Wishing you all the very best for 2026.

May it be a wonderful year for you.

Speaking of timing, let’s ponder what it means.

I was preparing breakfast the other morning for Christmas.

We were celebrating with family.

There were so many things to take care – the drinks, the eggs, the croissants, setting the table etc.

I don’t know about you but I’m a List Maker.

I write down everything I have to do so I don’t miss anything. Well, that’s the aim anyway.

So even though I had my list, I was still struggling to get it all done by myself.

Thankfully, Superman Ross was on hand.

Without asking, he could see what needed to be done and just did it.

I couldn’t help but think about how important timing is.

Everything had to be ready on time and served hot.

True, it was one breakfast held once a year, but think about timing in general.

Think about the times you’ve ended up in the right place at the right time with the right people and other times when you maybe felt the timing wasn’t quite right.

One of my favourite quotes comes from the movie, “The World’s Most Exotic Marigold Hotel”, “Everything always works out in the end and if it’s not working out, it’s not the end.”

This is something I remind myself of when I feel like I’m not in control or things aren’t going to plan. It really helps me to stress less about the timing, knowing that everything happens as it should because “It’s all in the timing”.

As you head into a new year, if you are feeling a little overwhelmed with all the festivities, please relax and remind yourself, “It’s all in the timing, everything works out in the end.”

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Go to https://shirleydalton.com/Weekly-Thoughts.

I Want To Be Micromanaged (WT809)

I Want To Be Micromanaged (WT809)

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by | 26 Dec, 2025 | Blog, Business, Leadership

WT 809 I want to be micro-managed

I trust you enjoyed a nice Christmas day doing whatever makes you happy with people that are special to you.

It’s Boxing Day, so I trust you’ll enjoy today as well.

“I want to be micromanaged”, said no-one ever.

This week I conducted some recruitment interviews for a client.

One of the questions I ask is, “How do you like to be managed?”

The answer to that gives us a clue as to how to work with them rather than taking 6 months to work it out during probation.

In all the interviews I’ve conducted, not one person has ever said, “I want to be micromanaged”.

In fact, most start with “I don’t want to be micromanaged”.

So how do you manage and supervise to give yourself a level of comfort that your people know what they have to do and are doing it correctly?

The answer is a special type of job description known as Key Performance Indicators and Key Behaviour Indicators. There’s a whole chapter dedicated to this in my book, “The Loyal Lieutenant: How The Second-in-Command Brings the CEO’s Vision to Life”.

People want to know what they have to do, to what standard so it’s your responsibility to make it clear for them.

Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) describe the outcome for the role. Why is the role important? For example, one KPI for a property manager could be “a maximum of 2% of tenants in arrears”.

Key Behaviour Indicators (KBI’s) are the tasks the employee does to achieve the outcome, including the standard to be met. For example, “Generate a Weekly Arrears Report”. The employee will either do it or not. One advantage of using KPIs and KBIs is that you get to set the standard. If you want weekly, then it’s weekly. Another advantage is that it is measurable. They either do or do not generate the report weekly. This takes away any subjectivity for you. Performance is based on competency.

If the report is not generated weekly, look for the reason. Is there a system problem that caused them not to do the report? Are they unable or unwilling? If unable, do they need more training?

If they know what to do and they know how to do it (ie. you have trained them) and there is no system problem, then it’s a case of unwilling.

In my experience, KPIs and KBIs are much better than the generic job descriptions that state responsibilities because job descriptions don’t generally include the specific measure, e.g. responsible to ensure tenant payments are made on time.

KPIs and KBIs also ensure you revert back to your policies and procedures by including something like, “Follow the company policies and procedures to complete the below” before listing the KBI’s.

This way you can change the way you do things (your procedures) without having to update the KPI/KBI. It simply means, in this example, the employee is using a different procedure or app to  generate the weekly arrears report.

That’s how you can make it easy for yourself to supervise and manage without micromanaging whilst making it absolutely crystal clear what the employee is expected to do, to what standard.

Let me know what you think.

Reach out if you’d like more information or some help to prepare your own KPIs and KBIs.

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Go to https://shirleydalton.com/Weekly-Thoughts.

Don’t Skip Steps (WT808)

Don’t Skip Steps (WT808)

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by | 19 Dec, 2025 | Blog, Business, Systems and Processes

WT 808 Don't skip steps

This one’s for you if you’ve ever been responsible for training someone new to the team.

You’ve probably learned the hard way that you can’t skip steps.

This came up this week for one of my clients.

We recently restructured and engaged an offshore team member.

The team member is smart and enthusiastic and keen to learn, however she is new to the industry so she needs to learn everything from scratch.

This goes for everyone being trained.

Your students don’t know what they don’t know so you have to assume they don’t know anything.

Here’s what we call the Training Agenda. Follow this and you’ll be fine, BUT don’t skip steps. Teach in the following order:

1. Start with WHY. Why is this important to know? Why do we do things this way? (Team members who need to know “why” can’t get past it and when you explain why, they can usually work out the how.)

2. Next is WHAT. Give some context or definition or history so they can understand a little about the task.

3. Now we get to the HOW. This is where you explain STEP BY STEP what needs to be done. Start your steps with verbs (doing words) because they need to know what they have to DO.

4. WHAT IF? Answer their questions. What if this happens? What if I do that? This is also the part where they get to practice and actually have a go.

What is second nature to you is alien to them.

Start back at the beginning. Follow the Training Agenda and have patience. The more you explain in the beginning, the quicker they will pick it up. If you don’t, you’ll waste time having to go back and clean up your mess because they made a mistake because you missed a vital step.

If you’re training someone, whether it’s at work or home, just don’t skip steps.

And speaking of skipping, I trust you’ll skip your way into Christmas and if you celebrate it, have a merry Christmas. We’ll be here next Friday to celebrate Boxing Day with you.

Happy Holidays!

P.S. Invite your friends to get the Weekly Thought delivered directly to their inbox.

Go to https://shirleydalton.com/Weekly-Thoughts.

They’re Not Ready (WT807)

They’re Not Ready (WT807)

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by | 12 Dec, 2025 | Blog, Leadership, Mindset

WT 807 They are not ready

This week I wanted to scream.

I’d been talking with some business owners about the next Leading Yourself and Leading Others experience, coming up in February 2026.

“They’re not ready”, they kept telling me, referring to their team members.

I was so frustrated because I’ve seen the transformation in people who were “not ready” and who absolutely did not want to do the leadership training and yet they did.

The frustration comes from knowing what is possible for people and not being able to help them see it.

I’m guilty of it myself. Years ago, my mother and father arrived one weekend with a mysterious box which turned out to be a barbeque. 

“We don’t need a barbeque”, we thought.

How wrong we were. We ended up using that barbeque about 4 nights a week.

It was a classic example of you don’t know what you don’t know.

Having invested in personal and professional development all my life, I just don’t understand why people don’t rush to take advantage of what is being offered to them, especially when it can make such a positive difference in their lives.

Still, you can’t force people to do something if they don’t want to do it.

So, I will console myself with one of the topics we teach in the Leadership experience: The Cycle of Change by Prochaska & Di Clemente (who originally devised it in the health industry to understand the process to help smokers quit smoking).

The cycle goes like this:

  1. Pre-contemplation (not ready, not aware, not even thinking about it or in denial)
  2. Contemplation (aware that change might be beneficial, starting to think about it)
  3. Preparation (getting ready to take action, planning)
  4. Action (making the decision, taking some steps toward change)
  5. Maintenance (keeping on with the new behaviours, thoughts or attitudes)
  6. Relapse – what most of us suffer from at one time or another. Start again.
  7. Transcendence – having changed, it would feel strange to “go back to the old ways”. Change is most likely permanent.

If you’re in business you too can apply this to your customer decision making process as well as your team.

Are they ready or are they getting ready?

And if they are getting ready, DON’T GIVE UP ON THEM.

As frustrating as it can be, one day “They’re Not Ready” will turn into “They’re Ready” and then the change can begin.

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