I read this HBR blog by Whitney Johnson, “How to Lead with Your Disruptive Skills” and loved it, click on the title to see the entire blog post. She explains a slightly different way to look at your strengths and realize that you and you alone have a power that you possess to do something naturally well and differently than anyone else. It may be so natural to you that you do not even realize it is a strength […]
If you have been reading my weekly blog for awhile you know how much I love to write about the power of using your strengths and focusing on the positive. I’ve listed some of my prior blogs below with links if you are a new reader or if you want to do a quick review. As I learned about my strengths (and continue to learn) I realized that the real value (and transformation to extraordinary results) comes when you […]
Let’s face it, obstacles happen. How you deal with and plan for those obstacles is what sets you or your business apart from the competition. Imagine this scenario, you are having a great morning, all goes well at home and you sail through the morning commute and arrive at your office. You are greeted with this message, “Our supplier’s Asian facility burnt down last night and all of our prototypes are destroyed; I don’t have any additional information but […]
“I am so busy that I even had to cut out my exercise time.” My client was stressed. She is not alone. Most of my clients, at one point or another, have challenges with too much to do and too little time. Time is our most precious commodity and the ultimate equalizer. No one can buy more time but you can differentiate yourself significantly through your management of this limited resource. How do you create more time? First identify […]
“Let’s have a meeting to discuss our strategy” was the response to a question about how we were going to proceed with a big supplier negotiation. Ugh, another meeting to try and cram into our busy schedules. Why can’t we just move forward? “Why are we using this supplier again in this design? They have inconsistent quality and a terrible delivery record!” A design was completed with no connection to the strategy to exit the supplier. Why was the […]
It is unfortunate that one of our American idioms- curiosity killed the cat- is fear-based and encourages us to stay put. There is so much power and enjoyment in shifting to an inquisitive attitude that encourages new discoveries and an open mind. It is possible to grow your inquisitive skills through practice and shifting of your thoughts to become more curious. Use of these skills will make your path to success more interesting and enjoyable and may even shift […]
I continue to work on catching myself in offering up my opinion about something before I am asked for it or before I ask permission to give it. This was a good lesson in my coach training; let the client work through and decide based on what is best for them and hold back on my opinion unless they clearly ask for it. This is a big distinction from consulting where the client is paying you for your opinion […]
Have you ever discovered that your assumptions were more like obstacles than tools on your path to your destination? Sometimes we have to make assumptions based on our experience but unfortunately these assumptions can also cause obstacles and challenges if they go unexamined. Or they are assumptions held deeply in our belief system and we do not even realize that they are there. Crystal Daigle is a local artist here in the Phoenix area; I recently attended her creativity […]
Focus is something I continue to work on; it is more challenging for some of us than others and I know for me it varies based on what I am doing. In our culture, many of us have the “shiny object syndrome”, jumping to the next interesting new e-mail, conversation, blog post, or video before the current task at hand is done. I recently heard that if a video on You-Tube is longer than two or three minutes […]
Ok, it is impossible to ignore the pile of torn up cardboard, paper, and broken glass in the middle of the kitchen floor from the dog’s rebelliousness while you were out (this was my afternoon today). But you can clean it up quickly and then focus on more productive actions. Or you can rant and rave about it for awhile and let it ruin your mood for the rest of the day. It is a choice. Choose to take […]
