The John Poelstra Show

I recently installed a new dishwasher and here’s what I learned that will hopefully save you more than $150.   Here’s What I Learned Pay someone else to do it Don’t start at the end of the day Minimize the chaos and noise Get moral support from a friend An empty house makes it easier to think Eat good food and get all the tools ready before help arrives Don’t give into the pressure of other p...

John and Alene Gabriel talk about how to manage our  inner critics  and the benefits of having your own board of advisors.   Identifying Your Inner Critics or Gremlins What are typical things your inner critic says to you? This is that voice that talks you out of certain things and encourages you to play it safe and maintain the status quo. It may be a critical voice or mantra you repeat to y...

Today John examines an article titled “Why project managers need to lose control” by Jason Coghlan from opensource.com. John mostly disagrees with this notion, believing that ownership across the team is more important. Resources “ Why project managers need to lose control: Software-driven projects are rarely predictable—so project managers should loosen up and become more agile ” by Jason Coghlan...

This episode takes an in-depth look at the book Life on Purpose by: How Living For What Matters Most Changes Everything by Victor Strecher.   Other Mentions This is Water  by David Foster Wallace The Unstuckable Podcast episode that inspired me to play frisbee with my neighbor–“ An Overlooked Cure for Anxiety Discovered ” by Charlie Hoehn “ Reflections on the Book Peak Performance ” by John P...

One of my favorite moments as a project manager was being told it was impossible to draw a picture of all the people on the project. Here’s how I did it.   Music   Hallon by Christian Bjoerklund Cold Funk by Kevin MacLeod All songs licensed under Creative Commons The post 29: Using People Maps to Understand Your Project appeared first on John Poelstra .

This episode shares the highlights John found in the book  Peak Performance: Elevate Your Game, Avoid Burnout, and Thrive with the New Science of Success  (affiliate) by Brad Stulberg and Steve Magness.   Resources Mentioned Sustaining Your Peak and Avoiding Burnouts with Brad Stulberg podcast interview with Pete Mockaitis Peak Performance: Elevate Your Game, Avoid Burnout, and Thrive with th...

  In this episode John has a conversation with Alene Gabriel, certified coach and founder of Blue Sky Coaching .  John and Alene met at CTI’s Co-Active coaching training and took a few of the classes together. In this conversation they reflect on those experiences and the things they are learning as coaches.  Alene also shares her experiences from CTI’s Leadership program that she is currentl...

Sometimes the best next step is simply to start, even if it isn’t the perfect next step.   Music   Hallon by Christian Bjoerklund Cold Funk by Kevin MacLeod All songs licensed under Creative Commons The post 26: Just Do Something appeared first on John Poelstra .

  This episode explores the topic of loneliness, some ideas for “finding your people,” and how John found one group of “his people.” Mentioned: Books, Podcasts, Etc. The Top Five Regrets of the Dying: A Life Transformed by the Dearly Departing by Bronnie Ware Scary Close: Dropping the Act and Finding True Intimacy by Donald Miller A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: What I Learned While Edit...

    This episode riffs on my thoughts from reading the book  Fire in My Eyes: An American Warrior’s Journey from Being Blinded on the Battlefield to Gold Medal Victory  (affiliate link) by Brad Snyder and Tom Sileo. I’m particularly struck by his idea of focusing our energy on the things we can change, not wasting energy on the things we can’t, and the importance of living in the present...

This episode explores the different ways I manage my todo list items and along with techniques I’ve learned to avoid feeling overwhelmed by them and get more done. Background The topic of managing task lists and todo items comes up often with coaching clients. I find that many people (including me) sometimes experience their task tracking system as depressing and discouraging instead of helping th...

  This in-depth episode examines and explains the steps for creating and publishing your own podcast. Five key ingredients to creating a successful podcast 1) Recorded content 2) Produced show 3) Media hosting 4) RSS Feed to automatically tell the world that you have new stuff 5) Syndication on major services like Apple Podcasts (previously known as iTunes), Google Play, etc. In our conversat...

Are you as clear about what you want as you think?  This episode explores some ways to get clearer. Resources Getting Things Done When You Are Not in Charge by Geoffrey M Bellman The Five Whys Accidental Genius (a book about free writing and it’s benefits) Being a True Owner John’s Coaching Program Music Pulse Rock by Kevin MacLeod Cold Funk by Kevin MacLeod All songs licensed under Creative Commo...

Today we have something a little different. In this episode I share one of my hacks for creating peace and quiet when I need to concentrate. I created my own ambient soundtracks of the Umpqua River from the Horseshoe Bend campground in southern Oregon (about 45 minutes from Crater Lake).   Tracks You Can Download Each of these tracks are approximately 25 minutes long which make for good Pomod...

Paul Frields joins the podcast to talk about working remotely and what it takes to succeed. John and Paul also discuss some of the misconceptions about remote work and how to overcome them.   Articles and other episodes mentioned: The 10 Biggest Misconceptions About Remote Work Remote is Dead. Long Live Distributed How to get unstuck via What Could Be Fun Music Pulse Rock by Kevin MacLeod Col...

In this wide-ranging conversation, John and guest Paul Frield s, talk about working at Red Hat, how they got started with collaborative meeting minutes and Paul’s love of playing the bass.     Here’s Paul with one of his bands…     The post 18: Talking Red Hat, Meetings and Music with Paul Frields appeared first on John Poelstra .

This episode explores some techniques for facilitating meetings with stronger personalities or those that dominate the discussion too much. Dominant people tend to Hog the discussion Be the first to speak speak Often want to make sure they are heard at the expense of others It’s the faciliator’s job to Be a referee Keep input balanced Make sure all voices and perspectives are heard Keep things mov...

Sometimes the best way to get your day out of a ditch is to find something fun. Any amount of fun might be good enough. That’s what I explore in this episode.     The music track is  Hallon by Christian Bjoerklund and licensed under Creative Commons . The post 16: What Could be Fun? appeared first on John Poelstra .

This episode explores the topic of personal ownership through the eyes of two books: Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin QBQ! The Question Behind the Question: Practicing Personal Accountability at Work by John G. Miller   Other resources mentioned on the episode A Few of John’s Favorite Things (013) Tim Ferriss: The Scariest Navy SEAL Imaginabl...

This episode explores the topic of listening through the Co-Active coaching model and an article from Harvard Business Review. Co-Active Coaching: Changing Business, Transforming Lives by Henry Kimsey-House, Karen Kimsey-House, Phillip Sandahl, and Laura Whitworth (affiliate link) What Great Listeners Actually Do by Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman Here’s a downloadable PDF from CTI explaining the t...

This episode is a collection of some of my favorite things. It was inspired by some similar things I shared in a recent podcast interview on How to be Awesome at your Job. Links and recommended books My mission statement and it’s theme of Ownership Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin QBQ! the Question Behind the Question: Practicing Personal Accounta...

Listener Feedback and Questions This episode responds to listener questions and feedback from two previous episodes around how to collaboratively create meeting minutes and how a central mailing list repository for meeting minutes works. How to Invite the Right People to Your Meetings (007) Avoiding the Dreaded Meeting Roll Call (008)     Discussion About Etherpad Etherpad is a collabora...

This episode covers some of my thoughts on a recent return from vacation and how to keep the vacation glow going for as long as possible.  Nothing is more disappointing to me than watching it evaporate 30 minutes into the first day back.     As you are preparing to leave Leave a clear trail of what you need to work on when you return. I like using Trello cards for this. Set your email au...

You can’t know if you’re ready to release unless you know what done means. …. When you use release criteria to know when a project is done, you have taken potentially hidden decisions and made them public and clear. Make your release criteria objective and measurable, so everyone on the project knows what they’re working towards. Use the criteria as you progress through the project and up to the f...

This episode talks about coaching and uses the recent Netflix documentary “I am Not Your Guru” as the the jumping off point. The documentary examines Anthony Robbins’ “Date with Destiny” event and his approach to helping people change.       Topics and links covered in this episode: I am not Your Guru on Netflix The importance of restarting and Michael Hyatt’s podcast The difference...