Many of our clients hit a point in their work life when they question their choice of career. This happens for a number of perfectly sensible reasons but it can leave them feeling foolish and asking, “How can I be this old and not know what I want to do when I grow up?” We remind them that the question, when asked of a child, was meant to be answered with a simple and static answer: “I want to be…
It’s a simple question but it’s one that we all need to be asking ourselves if we are to be effective leaders in our work and in our lives. We all operate with a certain set of “rules” that guide our thinking, decisions, and actions. We have rules for our kids, ourselves, our family members, as well as rules for our teams and our staff. It’s important to regularly assess if these rules support our current needs and goals or,…
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts.” — Winston Churchill This quote by Winston Churchill speaks to us as way of being in the world that we find distinguishes great leaders. As executive coaches, we have the privilege of working with many great leaders, leaders who have experienced huge successes and great failures. In fact, they often come to work with us on the heels of those successes and failures…
A number of you wrote describing your efforts over the past years to communicate effectively and clearly—and how, despite your efforts, others didn’t hear you accurately, got reactive before you even finished, or just didn’t get it. Communication can be frustrating. No matter how thoughtful and clear you are there are times when others will not hear the message you intend to send. If we take a moment to think about what we know about humans, you might begin to understand…
Over the past few months we have had several executives say (in almost these exact words), “I’m getting grief for not communicating effectively—but I don’t have time to explain every thought!” We are in a time where every person we talk with describes feeling frazzled, overwhelmed with demands, and say they barely have a minute to breathe, let alone pause to consider how to communicate with the people in their lives. We understand the sentiment—it can be a challenge to…
While personal talents and individual contribution are important in the new economy, the ability to engage collaboratively on a team and contribute to a successful team outcome is equally, if not more, important. In today’s economy sharing information in a team setting is vital to generating new ideas and solving complex problems. Organizations want to make the best use of their resources and so they are asking employees to not only do their individual jobs effectively but also to join…
Over the past few weeks we’ve been writing about pursuing work that you love, showing up effectively, and assessing what makes you unhappy in your work life. In this fourth and final post about creating a rich and satisfying work life, we want to get you thinking about how you get paid. Often when we ask this question, our coaching clients look at us like we’re a bit crazy. “What do you mean?” they ask, “Do you mean how often?…
Last week we talked about the importance of your Career Leadership to creating a life of meaning and satisfaction. This week, our Director of Career Services, Jill Banks, has developed a post to help you to understand and address some of your feelings about your work. Understanding What You Feel by Jill Banks The statistics are stunning – a recent Gallup poll reported that 70% of Americans range from feeling “blah” to totally hating their jobs. As coaches, a…
The past two weeks we have been talking about Jim Carrey’s commencement speech at Maharishi University of Management. During that speech, he made two statements that spoke to us and clearly to many of you (based on your notes to us): You can fail at what you don’t want to do so you might as well take a chance on doing what you love. AND The effect you have on others is the most valuable currency there…
Last week, we described Jim Carrey’s commencement speech at the Maharishi University. In that post, we described Mr. Carrey’s wise words for the Class of 2014, “Remember, you can fail at what you don’t want to do, so you might as well take a chance on doing what you love.” In that same speech, Mr. Carrey described the importance of being aware of how you show up in the world, saying: The effect you have on others is…