Listening is one of the most natural yet difficult things to do. We say we are listening. We pretend we are listening. Yet most of us aren’t, we are simply taking in the auditory notes of the other person. When we do listen, we can hear things that aren’t said and we learn more. Truly listening is one of the greatest gifts we can give anyone. It is also our key to success in life …
Are you at a point where you have done and tried everything you know to move the needle on your personal and professional goals? Do you feel that as a capable business person, you SHOULD be able to make this happen? The glut of information on the Internet contributes to this feeling of “should.” With information so freely available you SHOULD be able to figure this out, right? Just because you are a capable business …
Engaged workforce. Purpose. Accountability. Ownership mentality. Balance. Autonomy. Collaboration. Communication. These are the words heard daily in conversations with business leaders and their employees. Seldom are the words money, pay, compensation, salary heard…from either party. It suggests that we all seek something more than just the paycheck. At a recent presentation, the speaker asked participants to think about a time recently when the participants had felt powerful. After a few quiet moments of reflection, three …
Have you ever wanted something badly? So badly, that the thought of “it” consumed you? Perhaps you felt that you were incomplete without it. Or maybe that you couldn’t do something without it. Other relatively important things in your life faded into the background. Your sole focus was “it” and the fact that “it” was not part of your life consumed time and energy. Perhaps a feeling of regret or let-down was part of it …
I recently attended a presentation given by another executive coach and gleaned two interesting observations. See what you learn from this. Question to the audience: How many of you have worked with an executive coach? Out of 40 plus attendees only two hands raised, mine and one other. The presentation proceeded focusing on the topic of life and balance. Then the next question came: Think about a time recently when you have felt powerful. A …
What does it take to have an engaged workforce? 37 companies around the world have found just the formula for their workforce. These are the winners of the annual Gallup Great Workplace Award. This is the 11th year for the award that recognizes organizations that achieve performance excellence through engaged workforces. Only 16% of employees are actively engaged in their workplace, according to Gallup’s worldwide research. That leaves an astounding 84% that are not engaged, …
How do you find that greater purpose with your work? Does it require a retreat into the woods for some navel gazing? Does it just appear like a vision? Is there a course you can take? Sounds like a daunting task with few guidelines to help you get there, doesn’t it? Let me offer a hands-on, action-focused way to get you there. As a college student I could not wait to graduate and get to …
When did work become a four-letter word? Always. It literally consists of four letters. Figuratively speaking, even back to its earliest roots, work has more of a negative than positive connotation. Is work a four-letter word to you? It does not have to be. I won’t be changing the spelling but read on to see how you can change your perception of work. From the first use of the word, work has been synonymous with …
19 years without a major win. 19 years of finishing in second place or worse when it comes to the big matches. 19 years, but who is counting? Would you stop counting? Or would that number loom large in your head as you faced yet another challenge in your professional career? Almost two decades is a long time even in our ever-increasing lifespan. Assume a life span of 100 years and it is one-fifth of …
Confession time. Have you ever read a book because you thought it would confirm something you already knew or understood? Usually I seek out books to learn about something new or for a view of the world that differs from mine. When I starting reading Mindset by Carol Dweck, it was for a different reason. I fully expected the book to confirm something I thought I knew about myself. I was wrong. Carol’s oft-referenced book …
What if you could get a grasp on this slippery nebulous topic of time management? How would your days, weeks and life look and function differently? If only…if only you had a trick or magic wand. If only… Instead of a trick or magic wand, how about a tool to help you identify the areas of time management that are holding you back? Yes, there is a tool that can help you do just that. …
What would your life look like if you took control of it? Imagine your perfect day at work and sketch it on a piece of paper. How would the day start and how would it be structured? Would there be specific times for meetings and other times for executing? Where does professional development fit in? Can you see that some days or part of days may need to be focused on specific tasks and goals? …
As big as the concept of time is, there are just as many underlying issues, remedies and strategies to help you control it. Instead of the continual ticking of the clock, what if we approached our days with the idea of rhythm? A piece of music has harmony and melody and we use a metronome to keep us in rhythm. A horse also moves in rhythm and we use a metronome to measure the rhythm …
Something has come back onto my radar screen that I haven’t addressed in some time. Perhaps it is because I put it out there. Perhaps it is a shift in our environment that has brought it back to the forefront. The issue is time management. In a recent presentation, I shared that this is often one of the first issues brought up when I work with a business owner or leader or an individual contributor. …
The question, ‘Is it nature or nurture?’ often comes up in the workshops I lead and in one-on-one coaching with clients. Once someone has identified their natural talents and can see the role they have played in their life, they become more and more curious. How much of what I do today and how I view the world was determined before birth? How much was developed by the environment in which I lived? Research doesn’t …
GRIT is written by Angela Duckworth, a 2013 MacArthur Fellow and a professor with degrees in neurobiology, neuroscience and a PhD in psychology. This lady has studied our brains and how they function. In GRIT she addresses the keys to human performance uncovered through decades of research and brought to life by real-world examples from her studies and her own life. Included in the book is a simple assessment to determine just how GRITTY you …
The most valuable asset of any organization is not reflected on the balance sheet. It is not fully insurable and at times can be hard to replace. This asset can also represent one of the biggest risks to a firm. It can result in lost revenue and clients and increased expenses. It can personally drain you of income and of energy. Challenging and time consuming and not why you created a business, your team is …
Every single one of us is talented. Natural talent exists in us from the moment we are born. For some, talents present early and for others talents lie latent awaiting an experience that demonstrates their existence. Either way, the existence of talent does not mean we are or will use it. Here is how we limit the power of our natural talents and what we can do about it. Dismissal of talent – occurs when …
Early on in my blogs I shared this story… Usache (my horse) and I began showing competitively in early 2008. For the first few shows we (okay, me) were thrilled just to be there. After our third outing came the wake-up call. We had an okay showing but it was obvious there were some skills yet to be learned by me and some teambuilding for the two of us. Usually the Sunday night after a …
Curious to know more about the book that ranked #2 on the Wall Street Journal best seller list behind StrengthsFinder 2.0, I downloaded The Energy Bus on Audible. Less than a week later I was ordering multiple hardback copies as holiday gifts. What inspired and excited me about this book to want to share it with others? Why do I recommend this great little book? Because it visualizes possibility and potential and makes it accessible …