Tag: personal-development

I Ain’t Gonna Lie. Leadership Ain’t Easy. 11 Hard Things You Have To Do To Be A Great Leader…

You have to try and fail and try again

I Ain’t Gonna lie. Leadership Ain’t easy.

The Hard Things – INC Lolly Daskal. Here I share Eleven.

  1. You have to make the call you’re afraid to make
  2. You have to give more than you get in return right away
  3. You have to care more about others than they care about you
  4. You have to feel unsure and insecure when playing it safe seems smarter
  5. You have to lead when no one is following you …yet
  6. You have to invest in yourself even when no one else is
  7. You have to deliver results when making excuses is an option
  8. You have to make mistakes and look like an idiot
  9. You have to try and fail and try again
  10. You have to run faster even when you’re out of breath
  11. You have to meet deadlines that are unreasonable and deliver results that are unparalleled

Does any of the above resonate? Any you want to add? Do share. We would love to hear.

Cheers!

What Happened To Friday?

Friyay! Yay! Every-day-a-Friday! Thank-God-it’s-Friday! All popular BC. Yep! Before Corona. The virus. Before the world became infected with the silence that’s so deafening. Questions prevail. What is Corona? How do we avoid? Will it ever leave? Panicked? Curious? Hopeful? Wash hands. Change clothes. Sanitize. Clean. Clean. Clean.

Remote Work

Now with remote work everyone is at home…but quarantined. Yikes! That’s not what we were thinking? Every-day-a-Friday meant being able to stay home, enjoy life, work when you want, go on vacations, long days at the beach soaking up the sun, time with friends and family… simply lounging around doing only what you want to do.

So what happened to Friday? For now its here everyday…though employers watch closely in the distance. Workers, co-workers, family feel more relaxed, yet hopefully more productive as work gets done in a more ‘soothing’ environment.

Tell it to Our Hearts

Tell it to our hearts. With kids at home away from school…maybe that’s not what we meant when we said every-day-a-Friday.

Hold strong. This too shall pass and our real Fridays will return. In the meantime, wash your hands. Keep safe.

Cheers!

Professionals Share 21 Pro-Tips on How To Work Remotely…

Either you run the day or the day runs you.

In a public forum, renowned author Seth Godin asked professionals to share their approach to working remotely. Here are a excerpts of their responses I gleaned as they thunderously chimed in.

  1. Create a designated working space with everything in reach.
  2. Deep work in the morning. Lighter work in afternoon.
  3. Go outside at least once a day
  4. Divide time into 30 minute segments, making sure a task is attached to each. Regular short breaks, food.
  5. Stick to a schedule and treat self to a half hour sitcom during lunch. A good lunch keeps mindset light.
  6. I work from home but my husband doesn’t. Feel like my space is being invaded a little. I always stick to a routine and make sure I dress as though I’m leaving the house. That helps my mindset a lot.
  7. Shower and dress well. Focus on one (only one) major item to accomplish that day.
  8. Act as if you are in an office. Dress, voice and stature. Be even more engaged by email and on calls ideally video. Make presence felt virtually. Do brief turn-the-chair around update chats by messenger and quick zoom call.
  9. How can some (e.g. a dentist) work from home? In response to this question personally I say, plan, strategize future business and/or personal goals.
  10. Do breathing exercises and make sure environment working in isn’t distracting.
  11. Take one hour shift with partner to manage young kids home from school.
  12. Eat lunch with friends over video calls.
  13. Set up own schedule and share with friends to chat when not working
  14. Building a machine learning model.
  15. No prototype…no work meeting. Have a tangible artifact to collaborate on or review
  16. The one thing I appreciate is that I can work from home (and thinking of those who cannot).
  17. More focused… meaning work gets done earlier than disruptions in office (i.e. called to meetings, discussions etc). Then Netflix to end the day.
  18. This is a time to reflect, learn and innovate.
  19. Bought flowers this week. Brightens the view on a rainy day
  20. Made office space private and more organized. When door closed, no one bothers.
  21. Set a goal that you can meet each day that will help you feel accomplished at the end of the day. Oh… and talk to someone each day about something other than work. Social distancing does not mean social isolation.

Any missing that you would like to add? Do share. We would love to hear!

Cheers!

When Things Change Perspective Steps In…

𝓟𝓮𝓻𝓼𝓹𝓮𝓬𝓽𝓲𝓿𝓮 The cellphone. The Device that many complained about and made rules for, now keeps us connected at work, school, church, now home..

When things change, perspective steps in. Change. Adapt. Grow.

GreenLight….he uses what we have

It Isn’t The Mountain That Wears You Out…

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Be master of your petty annoyances and conserve your energies for the Big, worthwhile things. It isn’t the mountain ahead that wears you out…it’s the grain of sand in your shoe. ~Robert Service

Will Anyone Want To Read What You Write?

Raise your words not your voice. It’s rain that grows flowers not thunder ~Rumi

With exclamation signs and all the teacher sent an email titled “Important! Please read!” Parents rolled their eyes. Who wants to read a lengthy email captioned like that? The essence of what she wrote was students folders were sent home with report cards. Why not just say that? What parent isn’t interested in his/her child’s performance?

Corporate Communication

It’s the same with communication sent to employees by supervisors and managers. That’s essentially what  Aaron Orendorff   discussed in his insightful New York Times article Your Colleagues don’t read anything you write.

Simply say what you mean. No need to shout. It’s what Rumi’s quote alluded to Raise your words not your voice. It’s rain that grows flowers not thunder. 

3 Communication Gems

Personally, I walked away with three gems:

  1. Put action words in your subject line
  2. Listen more. Talk less
  3. Don’t answer. Ask

Often it’s not what we say but how. So check your manner, tone, words and how you speak. Chances are your tone precedes your voice. Something to think about.

Cheers!

Ditch It. Switch It. A Story…

Most of us have only one story to tell. I don’t mean that only one thing happens to us in our lives: there are countless events, which we turn into countless stories. But there’s only one that matters, only one finally worth telling. The tale of someone’s life begins before they are born.

Listen to my interview with former Regional Director turned Radio personnel, singer, songwriter, Poet and Musician shares how he Ditched It to do what he loves in order to follow his passion. Learn the strategies he used.

Most important his audience was exposed to the inner secrets of the man behind the mic.

Stay tuned for new book soon to be released “Your Career: Ditch It. Switch It”

Cheers!

Someday I Will…

Never give up; for even rivers someday wash dams away. ~Arthur Golden

Success Strategies

Never give up; for even rivers someday wash dams away. ~Arthur Golden

Someday I will do this. Someday I will do that.

How many of us often sit or live at the ‘wishing well’ that someday I’ll do this, or that. Someday I’ll get that perfect body. I’ll have that perfect house, job, spouse, marriage with the perfect kids; go on that dream vacation, and much more! Oh if wishes were horses so many would ride.

Someday is Today

Why not let someday be today? I reflect on the movie Hidden Figures where each of the three women at NASA — Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson served as the brains behind one of the greatest operations in history: the launch of astronaut John Glenn into space.

The inaugural team at NASA decided to step out and do something that was never done before. From the astronaut, NASA’s president, the…

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Life. Take. Another. Shot.

Life is like a camera. Just focus on what’s important. Capture the good times. Develop from the negatives and if things don’t turn out – just take another shot.

Do Something That Don’t Interest You…

That’s how you grow. Be curious. Do something that don’t interest you. Sounds contrary to today’s thinking right? But it’s a valuable lesson. Many are the career paths and relationships that we never thought would interest us.

HBR Writer Joseph Grenny shared in his stance on being creative on the go. Included in it was his stance on doing something that does not interest you. Personally, I never thought of photography but based on my writing interest developed years ago, I realized that I needed photographs to go with my social media posts. Rather than buying, I chose to take them. This has developed an unexpected interest in photography through taking just about anything. My preferred pics include nature, the sand, sea, waves, and just about anything other selfie-takers may miss around them.

So today I encourage you to do something different. Who knows you may find a new delectable pleasure you can’t resist.

Cheers!