Where do you take yourself out of the game?

Where do you take yourself out of the game?

We all have our tipping points:  We decide whether to “pass” or roll the dice depending on the risk we assign to the next move. While we know intellectually that growth and change rarely happen without some level of discomfort, most of us are not inclined to put ourselves in harm’s way.  We’d much prefer to remain safe and dodge the prickly emotions that arise if our actions don’t yield … [Read more...]

What Are You Tolerating?

This is the “finger in the rib” question. If you put your index finger on your rib and apply light pressure, most people feel irritated, but still are able to carry on. Over time, you may even start accepting the annoyance as “normal” and a part of what you signed up for when you took this position. Our self-talk includes phrases like, “well, nothing’s perfect,” or “I have bigger battles to … [Read more...]

Brand YOU

What is meant by your leadership brand and why it’s important? For starters, your leadership brand is how you convey value. It’s the distinct set of talents and personality traits for which you are known. Your leadership brand is reinforced by how you “show-up” and behave on a daily basis. If I were to ask you to select key words to describe the leadership brand of Elon Musk, for instance, you’d … [Read more...]

What Can You Control, Really?

Woo!  There’s A LOT going on across the world stage right now. These are not your garden-variety gnat-type changes that annoy you for a little while, or are easily remedied by clearing out the fruit bowl.  No, the pace and magnitude of change is more like one of those tenacious, squawking seagulls at the beach that make you cover your picnic basket and grab a stick to protect the … [Read more...]

How To Minimize “Shiny Object Syndrome”

Is there any better place than the land of adolescents for harvesting lessons learned in dealing with distractions? My husband teaches high school English (ever-courageous soul).  One of his favorite principals, now retired, had two questions he would ask students when he’d see them wandering the halls during class times: Where are you supposed to be right now? What is the most important … [Read more...]

Put Your Superpowers to Work

Quick! Answer the following questions: Spreadsheet or doc person? Big picture or detail driven? Phone, email, text or Slack communicator? People or data preference? Siri or Google search? White board thinker or mull privately? Generally, we have an affinity for how we think, communicate and make decisions. Tapping into the skills that come naturally to you is vital to capitalizing on your … [Read more...]

Unwrap the Gift of Time

I read recently that the average workweek is now 47 hours.  Based on many of my clients’ experiences, that’s an understatement.  For all the talk about work-life balance, the pressure on business leaders to be available 24x7 does not seem to be dissipating any time soon. And, all the ever-connected technologies at our fingertips don’t help the situation. Nonetheless, as a leader, your … [Read more...]

How do you spend your most important asset?

24 hours a day, 168 hours a week, or 8,736 hours a year.  That’s what we get.  It’s the one resource we all have in common.  The difference, of course, is how we each choose to spend this incredible gift of time. Off the top, most of us spend somewhere around 56 hours of each week sleeping.  That leaves 112 waking hours a week.  Then, if you take the “normal” workweek of … [Read more...]