If you are wired like most humans, when confronted with uncertainty, your questions would be oriented from your limbic brain – how to create stability, security and safety for yourself. Your questions would be oriented more toward the short-term - solving your immediate problem versus satisfying a longer-term vision of where you really want to be. ... [Read more]
Leadership & The Art of Boundary Setting
Being a great leader requires you to have clear, strong boundaries – and also know when to be flexible and collapse or expand them. It’s knowing in any given moment where your boundary needs to be in light of: What you want to accomplish How you need to lead your constituents - what they need to hear and the way in which they need to hear ... [Read more]
Magic Monday: The Complexity of Priority Setting Today
Where can you find the magic at work today? Some people say that setting priorities is very simple - it’s a yes or no. Yes, focus on this task now. No, not now (defer) or ever (discard). However, in today’s current environment deciding which of these labels to put on your to do list in a given day or week can be more complex than at first ... [Read more]
Follow up Friday: The Bare Essentials -Taking my Laptop and Cell Phone for Sure!
This week’s reflection questions: If you have to pack yourself up and live or work somewhere else for a few days, what would you take with you? What priorities would you focus on and leave the rest for another day or just take off the list? If I was displaced for a few days, and I could still, or needed to work, I would take my laptop, cell ... [Read more]
Follow up Friday: Reaching Out is Key
This week’s reflection question: Where are you less than confident? What supports do you have to help you get clear and think things through? As an entrepreneur, here is what I noticed about myself this week - I get less than confident when I am too scattered, trying to do it all. In this moment, I can lose sight of my core competency as a Coach ... [Read more]
Magic Monday: Embracing the Unexpected
Tucson at sunrise this morning. Where can you find the magic at work today? I attended a mastermind business retreat in Tucson last week. My flight home was scheduled for yesterday. Of course all flights were cancelled because of the Blizzard that slammed the Northeastern United States this weekend. The first flight I could get home is ... [Read more]
Resolutions Are Really About Commitment, Nothing Else
Seth Godin has a way of cutting to the core on an issue in a really impactful way. Sometimes it's the simplest idea, just executed - or executed well - that only matters. Want to lose 10 pounds? Eat less. Exercise more. Simple formula. WE are the ones who complicate matters - our physiology, our will, our fears. There is no shortage of reasons ... [Read more]
2012 Shake Up: Crow’s come a calling – mythic, symbolic or just plain old grubs?
I find exploring myths, symbolism and how stories affect us, help us create meaning and sense of our lives. A couple days after the New Year, I was in my office when my assistant yelled to me, "Come quick! Look!" “It’s like Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds!” Ew, I thought. Out the bay window I saw dozens of crows descending on the property - with no ... [Read more]
Innovation: What Would Grandma Say?
Yesterday as I reflected on my Grandma's life, I learned that new technologies take longer than we think to make it to market, if at all, or to become popularized and cashed-in on their commercial value. I'm sure you've heard the adage: Is there really anything new under sun? I'm sticking with Grandma's leadership this week: old wisdom is the new ... [Read more]
Co-Piloting, like Leadership, Requires Volleying and Complete Alignment
When the stakes are high, it’s necessary to be in alignment to get the right results. During my flight lesson this week I sought a safe, informative and fun flying experience. I put my life in the hands of my pilot/instructor – what could be higher stakes? You’ll notice in my video clip that my shoulders couldn’t be closer to my ... [Read more]
Leading in Turbulent Times Requires Implementing Plan B
Joseph Campbell, a great prophet of mysticism and the human condition, once said: "We must let go of the life we have planned, so as to accept the one that is waiting for us." Instead of fighting the tide and wondering when things will return to normal, focus on what lies in front of you and accept this is what IS, not what SHOULD be or what you ... [Read more]
Work Life Balance Is About Choice, Values and Consequences
I just came across an article in the Wall Street Journal written several months ago where Jack Welch commented that there is no such thing as work life balance, particularly for women. You bet he got strong comments! Here is my take: I think work life balance is all about choices based upon what you value. As with all choices there are trade offs ... [Read more]
Strategy Requires Discipline and Forced Choices – No Way Around It
Many of my clients want to do it all - and this year or this quarter. Wouldn't we all like to have it all? Think about what are the tasks that will REALLY get you to where you want to go? Many of us deal with noise all day. We have busy activity but what are we REALLY accomplishing? Yes, there are things we need to do to keep the lights on, keep ... [Read more]
Be Resilient Like Water
An ancient text - the I-Ching - has words of wisdom we can all heed when faced with obstacles. Nature can be our greatest teacher, if we let it. Pause and Build Strength. "When flowing water ... meets with obstacles on its path, a blockage in its journey, it pauses. It increases in volume and strength, filling up in front of the obstacle and ... [Read more]
Obama on Kennedy & Leading In These Times: Leveraging Technology For High Touch
Do I know Obama Personally? No. But "he" sent me an email. He is the first President who has ever sent an email to me (and thousands of other people too!) to share his thoughts and feelings about a leader who has left the planet. Getting a "personalized" email has a different feel than seeing him talk on TV or even You Tube news clips. This ... [Read more]
What Does a Millenial's Career Search Look Like?
Is it "funemployment" or "wiseemployment"? It depends on your perspective. There is some bad press out there about Millenials - "Generation Ys" - who are twenty-somethings just entering the workforce. If you are a Baby Boomer or a "Gen Xer" and you hire or manage a Millenial, you may be questioning their commitment, drive and ambition. One ... [Read more]