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  1. Defense Acquisition University
  2. Training
  3. Leadership

Toolkit

This toolkit provides tools to help you lead. Specifically, the tools range from strategies, tips, guidelines, and templates to checklists you can use to help you get your job done.

Communicating with Others
Includes tools that discuss barriers to communication as well as guidelines, tips and checklists for preparing various communication modes.
Barriers to Effective Communication - There are many barriers to effective communication that can lead to your message becoming distorted. This tool provides a good starting point for overcoming communication barriers.
Enablers of Effective Communication - This tool provides examples of communication enablers that will ensure your message is delivered effectively and clearly understood.
Email Checklist - Use this checklist to create an effective email.
Guide for Writing Emails - This tool provides the guidelines important to use for writing professional emails.
Information Briefing Guidance - This tool provides some helpful guidance to help build your information briefing as well as some guidelines to consider for presenting the briefing.
Plain Writing Guidelines - This tool provides the guidance for assessing your written communications against these common writing mistakes.
Tips for Delivering a Briefing - This tool provides tips for both verbal and nonverbal communication techniques to ensure your delivery is successful.
Tips for Preparing a Slide Presentation - Use these tips to identify things you should consider for effectively building your slide presentation.

Optimizing Team Performance
Work teams are the backbone of the DoD acquisition system; however, a work team needs to be more than just a collection of people following orders, these teams need to achieve the level of “high performing work teams." Use the tools in this category to assess the current state of a team to help you focus on opportunities for improving team performance.
5 Dysfunctions of a Team - Use this worksheet to diagnose dysfunctional behavior on a team and make changes so the team becomes high performing.
Dimensions of Effective Teams - Use this worksheet to diagnose behaviors that limit a team's capacity to operate as a high performing team.
Keep-Abandon-Invent-Reinvent (KAIR) - Use this worksheet to assess what actions a team or organization should take to be more successful in the future.
Team Charter - Use this template to capture the reason the team exists and what it was created to accomplish.

Personal Development
Includes tools for improving your own personal development and growth. For example, tools for handling your emotions, decisions, reframing challenges and mindset for thinking positively.
Cognitive Restructuring Worksheet - Use this tool to help you overcome negative thinking, improve your mood, or think positively.
Mastering Challenges Worksheet – This tool will help you to reframe how you look at challenges, focus on a growth mindset, and reinvent yourself.
Mastering Commitment Worksheet - This worksheet tool provides you with valuable tips for working towards mastering commitment.
Mastering Personal Control Worksheet - This tool will guide you to mastering your personal control, specifically, how you can control yourself, your emotions, your decisions, and how you show up when things get tough.
SMART Goals Worksheet - The SMART Goals Worksheet tool will help you focus your efforts and increase the chances of achieving your goal.
The 3 Ps Worksheet - This tool will help you to recognize and challenge your negative self-talk and think about it as Personal, Permanent, and Pervasive enabling you to change your point of view.

Strategies for Leading Yourself and Others
Includes tools, tips, worksheets for developing others, as well as improving your own leadership style, and how to identify and improve delegating tasks to others.
Commanders Intent Worksheet - This tool helps you to identify ways to communicate your intent on tasks you delegate and will help your employees complete them.
Delegating Worksheet - This tool will help you to determine which tasks are viable candidates for being delegated.
Delegation Process Worksheet – The Worksheet will walk you through a six-step process to help you successfully delegate a task.
Five Dimensions of Leadership Action - This tool will guide you through the actions you can take to practice and improve in the five leader dimensions.
Grow Your Leaders Job Aid - Growing the next generation of leaders is one of the most important jobs of a leader. This DAU job aid offers some tips to Grow Your Leaders.


Time Management
Includes tools for focusing your attention on being more efficient, effective and productive. For example, planning time efficient meetings, determining and prioritizing important tasks, time wasters or consumers, developing a plan for achieving desirable new outcomes.

Creative Tensions Method Worksheet - This tool will enable you and your team or organization to assess where you are now and to develop a plan for achieving your desirable new outcomes.
Quantifying Your Busyness – This tool will help you to identify your “busyness” and enable you to understand the things that are most important to be done and which are time consumers.
Time Management Matrix - This tool helps you prioritize the important tasks and identify time wasters.
Tips for Holding Time Efficient Meetings - This tool provides some good tips for holding time efficient meetings.
Tips for Managing Your Attention - This tool is a compilation of strategies that can be used to help you focus your attention and be more efficient, effective, and productive.
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