Use this strategy to get unburied from your too-tall paperwork pile. Make one large pile, out of all the random piles. Like raking leaves or sweeping your kitchen floor, get all the “debris” in one place to collect for movement elsewhere. Sort with a TRAF mentality. With each document, you will either choose to: Toss […]
Besides the basic questions of “Where do you work?” and “How long have you done that?” it’s good to have a repertoire of questions to start and continue conversations. Be curious and ready to listen. Play off their answers; you may only need one or two of these to get you started. Here are some […]
Speak up more often in meetings. Despite your proclivity to “take in” the information/conversation, take the leap and share your opinion on a topic. If this is too big a leap, start by affirming a teammate’s idea by showing how you think it might be successful. Become more of an expert on a topic and […]
A couple of years ago I spent a lot of time thinking about the definition of a leader. There seemed to be so many different books and articles about what it means to be a leader and what leadership is that I was struggling to distill the information into what it meant for my own […]
Have you heard of the spiritual ritual of fasting? It’s giving up something for a period of time, to focus on something more important to you. I’d like to convince you to fast from…excuses! Recognize the futility and powerlessness of excuse-making. I’ve heard it said that “Excuses are the loser in you talking” and “You […]
Disagreeing or ‘fighting’ in a primary relationship may not necessarily be sign of incompatibility. That is, as long as there is resolution to the disagreement that is acceptable to both partners and the conflict is resolved. So how often does that really happen? Not nearly as often as it could. The first step is to […]
Networking is always mentioned as a necessary activity in developing a successful professional career. Many view networking as a commodity: that contacts and relationships are something to be exploited and collected like assets. They feel that having a full rolodex of highly successful people will open doors, solve problems, and give them some names to […]
When bringing on a new team member for your company or non-profit, the orientation process is crucial for starting them out as an “aligned contributor” in that very first month. And if YOU are the one new to a team, and there is no formal onboarding process, you can use this as your up-to-speed learning […]
Your focus is your key to success. That’s because what you focus upon increases. When I think about that word FOCUS (which is also one of my 5 strengths on the StrengthsFinder 2.0 assessment), I think about a laser-lock on one thing. Not getting distracted (squirrel!). Not multitasking (which technically isn’t possible). It’s training your […]
Anger is simply one of our emotions, given to us as an indicator of an injustice and a motivator to take constructive action to right a wrong. Unfortunately, anger also shows up whenever our goal is blocked (e.g. when our time schedule gets suddenly altered) or whenever one of our fears, pain, or struggles (e.g. […]
