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Get Recognized at Work by Doing The Chores!

Name: Get Recognized at Work by Doing The Chores!
Rating: 5.0 (11 reviews)

Learn proven strategies to help contributors stand out at work.

Created byDavid Elser

Last updated 10/2026

English

What you'll learn

Learn practical ways to showcase your contributions so your hard work gets recognized and rewarded.
Use structured one-on-one updates and professional documentation tools to clearly communicate your value to managers and stakeholders.
Strengthen attention to detail and professional communication skills to build trust, credibility, and recognition at work.
Apply smart followership principles as a complement to management to strengthen collaboration with managers and teammates.
Use practical workplace tools such as RACI diagrams, meeting agendas, and structured notes to improve organization and accountability.
Identify performance improvement opportunities using ATD’s Human Performance Improvement process.
Use AI tools to generate clear, structured meeting minutes that improve communication and documentation.
Track AI productivity using an AI Usage Tracker to demonstrate time savings and innovation to managers.

Course content

8 sections • 38 lectures • 2h 51m total length

What will my learning journey be during “Season One” of Doing The Chores?5:03
This guide is packed with "Chore Check" and "Chore Challenge" questions for each of the 32 lectures. These coaching questions have been carefully crafted to challenge your thinking and inspire innovative strategies for achieving your career goals. I strongly encourage you to download, print it out, and arm yourself with a pen and paper - there’s something truly powerful about capturing your thoughts on paper as you engage with the videos. This process isn't just about note-taking; it’s about sparking ideas that can propel your career to new heights.
Who is David Elser, my instructor?4:57
Meet David Elser, a transportation veteran and organizational development advisor who coaches leaders, shares his certifications and wide experience, and discusses his book Doing the Chores and smart followership.
Where did “smart" followership come from?4:13
Explore the origins of smart followership, from grandpa’s farm chores to the hashtag follow smart, and learn how purpose, process, and payoff shape effective followership.
What are the three Ps?1:48
Identify your purpose for taking this course, follow the process using storytelling and farming themes with participant guides and questions, and pursue the payoff of recognition and career opportunities.
What's the purpose of incorporating a farming theme into the course?3:18
Explain how the farming theme builds foundational leadership skills, links business and farming through vision, mission, and strategy, and highlights influential leaders plus smart followers for organizational success.
What are the engagement rules for this course?2:21
Adopt engagement rules for leadership and followership—be open minded, set time aside, engage the materials, and have fun—use Udemy reminders, print participant guides, and write notes with pen and paper.

How are we going to plow a path into leadership?4:55
Explore how hungry, humble, and smart traits influence hiring decisions and learn to plow a path into leadership through follow smart and five followership styles.
What are Robert Kelley’s followership styles?5:08
Explore Robert Kelly's five followership styles, including passive followers, conformists, pragmatists, alienated followers, and effective followers, and how engagement and independent thinking shape leadership.
What are the most common leadership styles?6:46
Explore eight prominent leadership styles, from autocratic to situational, with real-world examples and how followership and readiness levels influence effective collaboration and leadership development.
How does a manager assess your willingness and ability?7:05
Learn how managers assess your competence and commitment through observation, skills tests, 360 feedback, and training needs analysis, then demonstrate reliability, initiative, and alignment to company goals.
What is the collaborative leadership and followership model?4:03
Examine the collaborative leadership and followership model, mapping competence and commitment to how managers lead, empower, and advance high-competence, high-commitment followers toward busy bee performance.
What are the three key competencies we will focus on during Season One?2:54
Develop responsibility, detail focus, and initiative through a RACI model, meeting minutes planner and templates, and weekly updates, applying the human performance model to identify improvement opportunities.

How to demonstrate responsibility by “Doing The Chores”?1:59
Discover how to demonstrate 100% responsibility by doing the chores, including feeding cattle, and use the RACI diagram to clarify roles and accountability.
Chore Chat: What can of feeding cattle teach about demonstrating responsibility?6:12
Lead through a routine of feeding cattle twice daily, modeling responsibility and accountability through Grandpa’s example, and using an automated auger system, silage, and hay management.
What does practicing 100% responsibility mean?2:53
Demonstrate 100% responsibility by completing 100% of your chores and tasks, owning mistakes, and applying farm lessons to workplace challenges. Commit to engagement rules, take notes, avoid the forgetting curve.
What are the key indicators of demonstrating responsibility?4:23
Discover the indicators of 100% responsibility in the workplace, including admitting mistakes, offering solutions, and learning from failures to earn respect and drive leadership.
How to use a RACI diagram?7:56
This RACI diagram template is a quality tool designed to help you clearly outline and document your responsibilities and accountabilities. It includes the four key components: Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed. Use it to eliminate confusion and ensure smooth, effective communication with your manager and team.
What actions can one employ to enhance their demonstration of responsibility?2:01
Reflect on the first chore, explore the chore chart and the RACI model, and define 100 percent responsibility. Translate intention into action by actually jumping off the log.

How can you learn to pay attention to details by “hoeing the weeds”?3:30
Learn to pay attention to detail by hoeing the weeds, stopping small problems from growing, and use two tools—a meeting notes template and a weekly update template—to sharpen this competency.
Chore Chat: How do you hoe weeds?2:45
Learn how to hoe weeds with a weed hoe by staying in your row, focusing on removing small weeds before they grow, and embracing attention to detail on the farm.
What does paying attention to details mean?5:22
Explore the 110/100 rule for paying attention to details and apply practical steps - slowing down, being thorough, using checklists, and seeking feedback - to deliver quality, build trust, and enhance your leadership.
What are two tools to help with my ability to pay attention to details?2:36
Learn how to sharpen attention to detail using a meeting minutes planner and a weekly update communication template to organize notes, showcase work, and communicate progress to leadership.
How to leverage templates to help my ability to pay attention to details?10:56
These templates provide formats for capturing meeting minutes and planning one-on-one meetings with your manager. Feel free to customize them to fit your specific needs.
What can you do to improve your ability to pay attention to details?2:34
Develop attention to detail by using tools like OneNote, seeking feedback, and using playback features to review accuracy, while leveraging templates to improve your ability.

What can be learned through the experience from picking up ears of corn?4:04
Learn to take initiative by identifying improvement opportunities, volunteering for challenging tasks, and solving problems proactively, as demonstrated in picking up ears of corn on the farm.
Why pick up the corn cobs that the corn chopper missed during fall harvest?4:55
Explore how taking initiative on the fall harvest, picking up corn cobs missed by the chopper, drives leadership, reduces waste, and yields tangible rewards.
How to identify performance improvement opportunities and potential solutions?11:13
Identify performance improvement opportunities using ATD's human performance improvement model. Walk through seven steps from business analysis to change management to propose practical solutions.
What steps can you take to enhance your awareness regarding taking initiative?4:55
Identify and act on opportunities to take initiative using the human performance improvement model, proactively identifying opportunities. Balance responsibilities while communicating ideas to advance toward leadership.

How do you take harvest to market?3:06
Learn the harvest to market process, from the combine to the elevator. See how crops become income through trucks and storage, with focus on return on investment and leading wisely.
What is your ROI from Doing The Chores?5:29
Discover the return on investment from doing the chores by pursuing the three P's—purpose, process, and payoff—and applying meeting templates and the RACI model to shine with managers and peers.
What is next for plowing a path into leadership?1:13
Explore what's next for plowing a path into leadership by developing smart followership competencies to position yourself for promotion and be seen positively by your leaders.

Lecture 33: What are the bonus tools in my Doing The Chores course all about?3:27
Lecture 34: How can DTC's AI prompt create structured meeting minutes?3:18
Lecture 35: How Do I Use DTC's AI Meeting Minutes Prompt? (Demonstration)5:10
Lecture 36: How can I showcase the business value I am creating with AI?2:07
Lecture 37: Why and how should use DTC's AI Usage Tracker? (Demonstration)11:27
Lecture 38: Thank you for Doing The Chores!2:01

Requirements

An open mind and willingness to think differently about work.
A desire to improve your communication, collaboration, and career development.
No prior management or leadership experience is required.

Description

Welcome to the Farm!

Unlock your potential with a practical career development course designed for contributors who want to stand out at work, get recognized, and grow their careers.

Whether you are a contributor who wants to get recognized or a manager looking for practical manager training to develop a more proactive and collaborative team, you will gain tools you can apply immediately.

Using farm-inspired storytelling, this course connects everyday lessons from doing farming chores to the realities of today’s workplace. You will strengthen communication skills, improve collaboration, and build the trust, visibility, and credibility that help contributors stand out and teams perform more effectively.

Managers can also use this course with their teams to improve one-on-one meetings, performance discussions, communication, accountability, and collaboration.

You will also receive downloadable tools and templates you can start using right away.

The course is facilitated by David Elser, a certified talent development professional through the Association for Talent Development and an executive coach with extensive experience in both field and corporate environments within the transportation industry.

Through Doing The Chores, along with scenes filmed on the farm where many of those lessons began, David connects everyday workplace responsibilities to the foundational behaviors that build discipline, trust, competence, and long-term success.

Throughout this course, you will learn how to strengthen workplace communication, improve collaboration, and use practical tools to improve individual and team performance.

Strengthen attention to detail and communication skills
Develop habits that improve organization, accuracy, follow-through, and professional communication.
Improve one-on-one meetings
Use DTC’s Weekly Update Template to create more productive conversations between managers and contributors and improve communication, alignment, and collaboration.
Improve meeting management and documentation
Use DTC’s Meeting Agenda Template to plan, organize, and document meetings more effectively.
Communicate responsibilities with RACI diagrams
Clarify roles, responsibilities, and accountability on projects and processes.
Improve performance discussions
Learn a structured process for identifying performance improvement opportunities and creating more productive conversations about performance.
Develop more proactive and collaborative teams
Managers can use the course with their teams to improve one-on-one meetings, performance discussions, meeting management, role clarity, accountability, and collaboration.
Leverage AI to address workplace performance challenges
Explore practical ways to use AI to reduce time spent in meetings, reduce the need for unnecessary meetings, create clearer meeting agendas and follow-ups, and support more productive one-on-one and performance discussions.
Understand leadership, management, and smart followership
Better understand workplace dynamics and how managers and contributors can become stronger collaborators.
Learn and apply followership styles
Use Dr. Robert Kelley’s followership styles to better understand initiative, independent thinking, engagement, and the manager-contributor relationship.
Apply course concepts to your job and team
Use DTC’s Participant Guide, coaching questions, reflection questions, and downloadable tools to support career development, manager training, and team development.

This course is designed for contributors focused on career development and managers who want stronger communication skills, better collaboration, and more effective teams.

Bonus Lessons: Using AI While Doing The Chores

Put AI into practice with two downloadable resources: the AI Meeting Minutes Prompt and AI Usage Tracker.

Use them to create clearer meeting follow-ups and document where AI saves time and adds value to your work.

Both resources are included with the course.

Well... what are you waiting for? It's Time To Do The Chores!!

Who this course is for:

Contributors who want to get recognized at work, strengthen their communication skills, and grow their careers.
Managers looking for practical manager training to develop more proactive, accountable, and collaborative teams.
Managers and contributors who want to improve one-on-one meetings, performance discussions, meeting management, and collaboration.
Professionals who want practical ways to leverage AI to save time and improve workplace communication.

Get Recognized at Work by Doing The Chores!

What you'll learn

Explore related topics

Course content

Course Introduction and Engagement Rules6 lectures • 22min

Leadership Styles and Followership Styles6 lectures • 31min

Chore One: Demonstrating Responsibility - Doing The Chores6 lectures • 25min

Chore Two: Paying Attention to Details - Hoeing the Weeds6 lectures • 28min

Chore Three: Taking Initiative - Gathering Ears of Corn4 lectures • 25min

Chore Four: Reaping the Benefits - Taking Harvest to Market1 lecture • 3min

Conclusion and What’s Coming Next3 lectures • 10min

Bonus Chore: Leveraging AI while Doing The Chores6 lectures • 28min

Requirements

Description

Who this course is for: