For almost fifty years I’ve worked to get just a little better at one thing every day. I got the idea from an author whose name I don’t remember anymore. He suggested that you pick one thing to work on every day and write it down on an index card the night before. Then, look at it several times during the next day to remind yourself of what you want to do.

I’ve done something like that for years. Today, those little notes aren’t on index cards, they’re on my smart phone. But the principle is the same. Try to get just a little better at just one thing every day.

My Life in Small Improvements

I’ve done a lot of things over the last fifty years. I was a fast-track executive in a multinational corporation. I was the business manager and development director for a seminary. I started and ran businesses. The habit of trying to improve a little bit every day has helped do all those things better and helped prepare me for the next step in my life and career.

Fit Tips into Your Life

Tips and small improvements won’t do their magic alone. You need to read. You need to take courses. You need to reflect and to plan your development as much as you can. But the tips can help you do that better. Tips can help assure that you keep moving forward, getting better.

Those tips and the habit of using them were the inspiration for my latest ebook, Become a Better Boss One Tip at a Time. There are 347 tips in the book, covering many of the challenges that face bosses every day.

There are tips on how to handle those tough, performance conversations and how to deal more effectively with your boss. There are tips on decision making, documentation, and making meetings work. There are tips on personal growth and development and just about anything else you may want to do better.

Ways to Use the Tips

You can do what I’ve done for years. Pick a tip the night before and use it as your guide to small improvement the next day. Try to make a little progress every day.

If you’re facing a tough problem, ask your peers and friends for advice. Then use the index or the search feature in Become a Better Boss One Tip at A Time to find tips that will give you ideas about what you should do.

If you’ve got a new developmental assignment or if you’re taking a course, use the tips to supplement what you’re learning on the job or in the classroom.

Where the Tips Come From

You should know that I didn’t make these tips up out of whole cloth. They’re the result of decades of working on my own improvement and of working with and studying other bosses.

I taught first line supervisors basic skills. Many of the things I learned researching and teaching those classes are in Become a Better Boss One Tip at a Time. Many of those supervisors shared tips that worked for them. Those tips are in the book, too. And of course, I read a lot and I pulled ideas together from my reading that turned into tips.

I’ve tried the tips myself. I’ve suggested them to other people, and gotten their feedback. The result is a book full of field-tested tips.

Bottom Line

If you’re responsible for the performance of a group and you want to get better at what you do, check out Become a Better Boss One Tip at A Time.