The latest installment of my Sixty Second Success Seminar includes a quote from Dr. Randy Pausch's presentation Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams. If you're not familiar with Dr. Pausch and the significance of this particular presentation you can get more information at either his personal webpage or his Carnegie Mellon University web page. You will find information on how to order a DVD of the presentation at the CMU website; I highly recommend it.

It's been a busy few weeks here in my neck of the woods, filled with practicing, presenting and assorted other projects. Of particular note was my presentation this past Saturday to an appreciative audience at the Toastmasters International District 40 Fall Conference. They enjoyed an action-packed 45 minutes while learning a number of tips and techniques for using visual aids effectively. I had a great time and I believe they did as well.

Although I like to stay busy, I'm happy to say that things are just a bit calmer now. That means that you can look forward to a resumption of the Sixty-Second Success Seminar. In fact, if you head over there now you can listen to the latest installment on adding extra value to what you offer. Of course, if you would prefer you can now subscribe to the series via iTunes - it's easy, it's convenient, and best of all, it's Free!

The first time I was placed in a leadership position I made the same mistake countless other new leaders make - I assumed that my team would follow me because of my position.  I learned very quickly that relying on the power of my position would not necessarily achieve the results I expected.

From that painful experience and from observing successful leaders I was able to adjust my approach the next time I earned a leadership position.  From the first day in my new position I made it a point to demonstrate what I believed and what I expected.  And, not surprisingly, as my team observed my actions they began to pull together to assist me in achieving our goals.

You can hear more about the Do as I Do approach to leadership in this week's Sixty Second Success Seminar.  It's a powerful technique, and one that will help you become more effective as a leader.

"So, what do you do?"  It's an innocent enough question and one that most of us answer without much thought.  More than likely you answer by stating your job title or profession - "I'm a truck driver" or "I'm a doctor."   True enough on the face of it, but those answers leave too much to the imagination and are especially ineffective if you're trying to generate interest.

In this week's edition of the Sixty Second Success Seminar I offer you a more effective method for answering that simple question.  Listen to the lesson and then use my suggestion and see if it doesn't make a difference the next time you're asked "so, what do you do?"

Actually you don't have to be too observant to know that I'm a bit behind schedule.  If you follow me on Twitter or The Daily Doug you know tht I've been battling some website gremlins for the last few days.  I think we killed off the last of them yesterday evening so things should start getting back to normal.

Thankfully the gremlins didn't keep me from posting this week's Sixty Second Success Seminar on time.  Go give it a listen if you'd like some quick advice about a useful technique for someone who's taking over as a leader in a new (to them) team.

And, now that my website problems are behind me I'll be rolling out some new and improved features.  The first one is already up and running - If you look to the left you'll see a new menu item titled "tools and resources ."   This will be your source to products and services to help you improve your Team Building, Leadership and Communication Skills.  I'll be writing more about the products and services currently being offered - and some to be introduced in the near future - but in the meantime I encourage you to go take a look.

If you recognize the pop culture reference I've used in the title to this post you'll also appreciate the title of this week's edition of the Sixty Second Success Seminar ; "Get SMART."  Of course, if you didn't recognize the reference, you might now that I've tied it to the seminar title.

But then again, maybe not.