MSMP 141: TaJuanna Taylor on Learning from Other Leaders and Mastering Your Skillset

Joining me on today’s episode on the Mads Singers Management Podcast is none other than mompreneur TaJuanna Taylor, and we’re going to talk about my favorite topic – management. TaJuanna is the D.O.N.E. Lady who loves helping you get things done using the D.O.N.E. Formula™ to equip business leaders & entrepreneurs with a more straightforward, more approachable way to adapt project management. She is also very passionate about leadership and helping small businesses flourish. 

Contrary to popular belief, starting a business is more than just earning some extra income to fill your pockets; instead, it is about investing in human beings, people like you and me, who have their hopes and dreams. It is through proper management that one’s business can succeed. Coming from this context, the importance of listening comes to play because most performance issues come from the home or internally rather than from the workplace. Once you listen to your employees, they feel valued and cared for, thus making them your greatest ally.

When employees are heard, you will see a change in their momentum and energy because we human beings will always strive to be good, heard, and seen as an essential asset. However, to do that, one needs to listen – now, this may be hard for some people, especially if listening isn’t their strength, but listening can be worked on like all skills. However, you’ll need to learn to be quiet and take time to pause no matter how excited you are.

We all come with our wavelengths. Some may be easily excitable, while some may need extra motivation; however, regardless of what wavelength they belong to, learn to gauge your employees and see things from their perspective.

Take care of what you own, take care of what tasks have been assigned to you or what you have assigned to otters – nurture it so that there is quality. A plan is a roadmap, not a guarantee, and if one path doesn’t work out, there are many other ways to get there.

Key Learning Points:

1. TaJuanna says that management, leadership, project management is not just for big companies or big, big teams – it’s for anybody who wants to move something forward; their extraordinary ideas, turning it from nothing into – 01:43
2. By reminding yourself that you’re not in it by yourself, TaJuanna says when we permit ourselves to allow other people to come in, seek out what you know you do not have. – 03:03
3. TaJuanna stresses the importance of listening – 03:41
4. TaJuanna shares how you can be a good listener or learn to be a listener, especially if it is not your strength: To be quiet and pause no matter how excited we may be in a room with one or more people.- 06:38
5. Mads shares his two golden rules as a manager: 
6. 1.) Speak last, 2.) Speak the least. He adds that you can become a practical (or more effective) leader if you follow these two things. – 09:00
7. TaJuanna says that regardless of whether you’re an entrepreneur or solopreneur, everyone has a role to play so that you can free yourself to bring in other people. – 12:51
8. TaJuanna says many people and even things can become your bosses if you don’t manage yourself or something you are doing well. – 15:28
9. Mads shares his trick: try and cut every day down to just 4 hours and ask yourself: 
10. What are the most important things? What are the things that move the company forward the most? What are the things that only I can do? – 16:39
11. TaJuanna says that she had to learn quickly to minimize her enthusiasm because not everyone is on the same wavelength as you are. However, this doesn’t mean they have less value. – 19:52
12. TaJuanna says that project management is about delegating tasks to people, giving them autonomy and the freedom to do jobs at their pace. – 24:00

Resources Mentioned:

D.O.N.E. Formula™

Connect with TaJuanna Taylor:

Website

LinkedIn

Instagram

LinkTree