The pessimist complains about the wind. The optimist expects it to change. The leader adjusts the sails.
John Maxwell
Follow the Leader, the popular song says. But is it always true to follow every leader? Are some better leaders that others? You can be assured that indeed some leaders are in fact better than others.
An INC’s article shared the top 5 signs that a leader is not a fit. Here I share my top 4 favorite.
Narcissistic Tendencies & More
Narcissist tendencies
Look out for themselves only
Treating people like numbers
Too much control
Which stands out to you? Are there other signs you can recognize? Do share, we would love to hear.
Let no one define what Success means to you. Define it for yourself
@Dr. Shelly C
It was a pleasure sharing my background and coaching experience with the International Coaching Federation (ICF) South Florida Chapter Host, Eric Goeres, PCC. Listen to the Podcast recording or read the details below to learn more about my Journey.
My Journey
How did I become, what was your journey to, how did you wind up becoming a coach? What is your background?
I worked with a major global pharmaceutical company for over 14 years in a HR Strategic Leadership role where I held HR responsibility for countries in the Caribbean reporting into USA/Latina region. I coached and advised business managers on managing their people. At the height of my career, having led the project to successfully achieve the employer of choice award, I decided to go in a different direction. The goal was to make a difference in healthcare and the wider community in the USA.
Even though I already had a masters in HR Management, I enrolled full-time in the Masters Health Administration program. On completion, I got my dream role to manage a group of medical practices located throughout South Florida.
I eventually partnered with the Institute of Caribbean Studies in Washington DC, where I am Chief Judge for its Flagship 30 Under 30 Ignite Caribbean Initiative recognizing the changemaking efforts of outstanding individuals under 30 years old.
As I reflect managers I have worked with kept reaching out to me at major crossroads in their life. Ethics, trust, and confidentiality were always my standard and I guess it followed me. People would reach out to share and talk with me confidentially about their next steps. After noticing the pattern and giving myself to any opportunity that arose, I realized that coaching was something I was passionate about but never considered officially. It was then I decided to take the leap into becoming accredited. That’s how my formal accreditation journey began early 2022.
Leadership Coaching
What kind of coaching do you do? And who do you work with?
My focus is on Leadership Coaching. I work with 40+ Mid-Life Corporate Leaders in Transition. This niche was perfect for me as my experience included several global mergers and acquisitions and was formally trained in change management. On top of that my doctoral studies focused on organizational leadership. I later published Journal article titled: The Leadership Challenge: Success Strategies of Immigrant Leaders in the USA. This was also published in books titled Success Strategies as well another titled “Your Career: Ditch it Switch”, which I now use to help coach leaders in transition.
Coaching Style & Philosophy
What’s your coaching style? How do you coach? What’s your coaching philosophy?
Versatility, depending on the needs of the client.
Special Project
Is there anything specifically you’d like to talk about?
My writing is something that is special. I write to satisfy my curiosity or personal growth and development. It then turns out that others seem to have the same issues as me, so I share, and it inspires. So, I will continue my publishing journey. I also talk a lot about Fear because it’s something that holds us back. My philosophy is to “do it in spite of your fear”.
I have partnered with Dr. Indiana Robinson to publish book titled Women Immigrants and the Challenges Faced: Perspectives on Higher Education in the United States.
Growth of coaching in organizations and its link to change management
The Future of Coaching
What do you think the future of coaching looks like?
The market is filled with many who call themselves ‘coaches’ but are untrained. I believe with the rise of credentialing; the world of coaching will become attractive to organizations and individuals who are credentialed and stick to ethical standards of the ICF. Accountability will be the gold standard for success.
With the influx of the pandemic changes, I was already coaching individuals for years across borders, but the pandemic made the process official. Individuals liked the flexibility of being able to meet virtually on zoom at times convenient to them.
Never hesitate to go far away, beyond all seas, all frontiers, all countries, all beliefs.
Amin Maalouf
With just a carry-on, I felt led to travel solo to a faraway land. Was it nerve racking? Kinda. I travelled without fear, more intrigued by curiosity while discovering the unknown. Most of all my learnings forced me into a new realm bursting forth with a new sense of unhurried flair.
Here I share a few of learnings:
Learned self-confidence. To be confident in who I am and who I want to be.
I learned to accept differences in cultures
I learned to accept the uniqueness of different lifestyles
I learned to say YES to myself, to what I want and to say No to the desires that others want for me.
I learned to hold firmly to my belief to never give up.
I learned to grow up and out to spread my wings.
I learned to try things that force me out of my comfort zone.
I learned to take rests.
I learned to take risks and not be afraid or most importantly, to take the risk even when I am afraid, despite my fear
I learned that education is critical to success but also to have a life.
I learned to be me.
I learned to not be of afraid to be me – to speak the way I want to speak.
I learned to write to help others through coaching.
I learned to express myself in writing to help others develop and maximize their potential.
I learned to laugh.
I learned to accept life’s simple things.
I learned to love dogs and animals.
I learned to accept help from others despite my independence.
I learned to accept love from others
I learned to accept what success means to me and not what others expectations are for me.
I learned to challenge myself to step out into the unknown.
CNN headline news shared the news of Karly – a 27 year old who ordered a cake with her resume printed on it and sent it to the company of her dreams. Guess where? Nike!
This feat was done from her location in North Carolina to their headquarters in Oregon. Talk about innovation! All with the help of an equally ferocious delivery driver. Karly then shared the picture of the cake on LinkedIn …that’s the place for top jobs, right? Sure enough it sparked lots of interest. Some ‘meanies’ chimed in too. They thought it was a bad idea and voiced how they would never hire her.
The Creativity of the Creative
Personally I’m a lover of anything different. Of thinking outside the box. Same result but with a twist. It brings in the new; makes one stand out against the competition (whether or not there is competition) and shows initiative, The open-minded for sure will snatch up the innovative.
Step out today. Try something new, something different. Heck, you may even surprise yourself! And oh by the way, don’t limit this to jobs only. Travel, relationships, entrepreneurship ventures and more are all included.
What’s the most creative step have you taken? Do share. We would love to hear.
A career is an occupation undertaken for a significant period of a person’s life and with opportunities for progress. For example, a child who goes into the family lineage of what they do…lawyer becomes lawyer, doctor becomes doctor, business owner hands down business to the child/children.
A vocation is a divine call to the religious life. Or a strong feeling of suitability for a particular career or occupation. For example, a physician who feels led to heal.
Advice
What advice would you give to someone who see themselves as having a vocation so that the work they do is part of who they are?
Sometimes a vocation and a career can be intertwined. Diving deeper, a careerist can remain in the same career for many years but enjoy…
Just drive! Hit the road! It doesn’t matter where you’re going. Just drive! There’s not much to that. With no plan, anything you do will get you nowhere. But that’s more than likely not your intention. There’s more interest and satisfaction for example when you plan your career, or a vacation…knowing exactly where you’re going; researching the cost of airfare, hotel accommodations, tours, not to mention the ton of fun you’ll get from the planning exercise itself!
Quotes That Inspire
Here are 11 Goal-Setting Quotes selected that will inspire you to achieve:
Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.
You cannot change your destination overnight, but you can change your direction overnight. – Jim Rohn
When you say ‘Yes” to others, Make sure you aren’t saying ‘No’ to yourself.
If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much. -Jim Rohn
The greater danger for most of us isn’t that our aim is too high and miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it. -Michelangelo
This one step…choosing a goal and sticking to it…changes everything. -Scott Reed
A goal without a plan is just a wish.
It’s not about the goal. It’s about becoming the type of person that can accomplish the goal. – Tony Robbins
If the plan doesn’t work, change the plan, but never the goal
People with goals succeed because they know where they are going. – Earl Nightingale
A goal should scare you a little, and excite you a lot. – Joe Vitale
CHALLENGE:
Adopted from MoveMe. Set one Goal that you can commit to achieve. Then, make sure you put it in a place where you can be reminded of it every day. For example, you could turn your goal into a poster and place it on your bedroom wall, or you could make your goal your smartphone background, or you could put your goal on your work desk – anywhere that you will see it often. Finally, try to tell somebody what you’re doing and tell them to hold you accountable. The power of accountability can never be overemphasized. When you have somebody to report to, you will be more likely to push through on days when you don’t feel like it and see your goals through to the end!
Are you a manager or leader of some sort? Harvard Business Review article shared 4 points to help managers be seen as more human. Here I share:
Be Personal
Be Self-Aware
Be Selfless
Be Compassionate
In my research on what makes leaders successful, self-awareness was one of the traits that stood out. But being of service to others depends on your own self-development.
Again, are you a manager, or leader of some sort? Take a moment and look at your leadership style. Do people working with you, whether at work or otherwise find you approachable? Easy to get along with? If not, you have some work to do. Enroll now. To be successful as a leader, your people should not fear you. So do what you have to do to improve.
Hospitality leaders gained first hand knowledge of the changes at the NLRB, fines for violations of Human Trafficking laws and Minimum wage changes from Board Certified Labor Attorney Bob Turk. Thanks Bob for encouraging leaders to Heed the warnings.
Minimum Wage rose from $8.65 to $10 an hour.
The Sonesta Hotel hosted the HHRABC Association and Dade Membership event. We are grateful to those who joined in virtually and those who came out to meet in person to learn about these important compliance updates.
Deep thought. Articulate she was as she shared her soul searching work to a global audience captivated by her eloquence during the historic inauguration As a writer and lover of words like she is, how could I resist the opportunity to share the work of a Quiet Storm, Amanda Gorman.
The Hill We Climb by Amanda Gorman, USA Youth Poet Laureate
When day comes, we ask ourselves where can we find light in this never-ending shade?
The loss we carry, a sea we must wade. We’ve braved the belly of the beast. We’ve learned that quiet isn’t always peace, and the norms and notions of what “just” is isn’t always justice.
And yet, the dawn is ours before we knew it. Somehow we do it. Somehow we’ve weathered and witnessed a nation that isn’t broken, but simply unfinished.
We, the successors of a country and a time where a skinny Black girl descended from slaves and raised by a single mother can dream of becoming president, only to find herself reciting for one.
‘This is our historic moment of crisis and challenge’: Joe Biden calls for unity in first speech as president – live
And yes, we are far from polished, far from pristine, but that doesn’t mean we are striving to form a union that is perfect. We are striving to forge our union with purpose.
To compose a country committed to all cultures, colors, characters, and conditions of man.
And so we lift our gazes not to what stands between us, but what stands before us.
We close the divide because we know, to put our future first, we must first put our differences aside.
We lay down our arms so we can reach out our arms to one another. We seek harm to none and harmony for all. Let the globe, if nothing else, say this is true: That even as we grieved, we grew. That even as we hurt, we hoped. That even as we tired, we tried. That we’ll forever be tied together, victorious. Not because we will never again know defeat, but because we will never again sow division.
2020 The year of the pandemic which shocked many. There is hardly anyone left untouched. Rich, middle class or poor. The lives of many were turned upside down as lives were lost, jobs cut, business closures as the world simply stopped. As the year draws to a close in this fourth quarter, a social media tribe was asked the question:
What’s the best thing that 2020 has taught you?
Susan Ancillotti
2020 Learnings
Here I share excerpts captured as entrepreneurs chimed in:
Always have more than one income
Be willing to pivot rapidly
To love peace and calm over a frenetic stress filled life
Building a completely online business around your purpose is pandemic proof
Just get it done
Be true to yourself while honoring others to do the same
The need for true leaders to step up
That so many people put ‘fear’ in the gas tanks instead of filling up everyday on ‘love’
Take full self-responsibility for health and spending time with loved ones
Doing nothing differently
Containment
Plan B
Don’t book a holiday until the last minute
I can rebound
Be yourself. Don’t follow the crowd
What is your opinion of the year? Any omitted from this list? Do share. We would love to hear!
