“I cannot get my work done because all of my days are spent in *^#@ meetings!” Sound familiar? Meetings are supposed to be a means to success, but most people in organizations describe meetings as a time-suck that actually prevent them from getting their work done. We’d like to suggest that at the beginning of each year, you take time to inventory your meetings to decide if they are adding value and contributing to your success… and if they…
Welcome to 2016, the year that you are going to claim your individual power! But how, you ask? Not by making resolutions. Instead, we want to you have 2-3 specific goals that you can achieve this year, goals that enable you to create your best life. Come on, let’s get started. Spend a few minutes thinking about the following areas of your life (if there are other areas you want to address be sure to include them in the “other”…
To ask him about it you would assume that it was no big deal. He’s just not the kind of guy who is going to hype it up. He isn’t the type to brag, or grab attention just because he saved someone’s life. Not Noah. He’s a soft-spoken guy who keeps his own counsel and is pretty low key. But, he’s willing to step up and lead when the situation calls for it and saving someone’s life is one of…
One of the more challenging aspects of being in relationship with others is navigating the different truths that exist. As individuals, we each have a way of seeing and experiencing the world. Your way of looking at things is different than your neighbor’s or mine. There are certainly some common truths. Most of us can agree about things that are more objective, like the weather. “Raining” or “not raining” is a fairly simple truth that people share if they’re in…
Last week, we talked about Disappointing Others. A number of you wrote to thank us for that post and asked about an even more challenging person to disappoint… yourself. You described having the experience of being disappointed in something you did or didn’t do, or gave up on too early and found yourself paralyzed by self-doubt. Self-doubt is a debilitating emotion that leaves us unprotected in our inner world and unable to take action on our own behalf in our…
One of the toughest parts of being human is disappointing others. Yet it happens all the time, whether intentionally or unintentionally—there is no way to truly stop disappointing others. In the managing world and in the parenting world, disappointing others goes with the territory. Unfortunately, in order to be a good manager (and a good parent) you have to get used to disappointing others. There is no way that you are going to make everyone happy all the time. Sometimes…
“I feel like a zombie — like the walking dead. I float through my life, doing one task after another without meaning or purpose. I am always doing, but I’m not fully alive. I’m always running… from work, to home, to my daughter’s soccer game. I’m constantly trying to keep up and yet feel like I’m just going through the motions, and showing up without really being there. How did I become like this? This was not the life I…
Last week we wrote Take Small Steps and talked about how small steps taken consistently over time can lead you to your goals faster than big steps taken from time to time. There are benefits to moving slow, as slow change is less likely to evoke resistance from inside of you and from those in your world. Slower, more consistent change over time can decrease others’ fear that you are changing, things are out of control, they are going to…
If you’ve been reading the Monday Morning Business Coach for a while you probably know that we are big fans of small steps. When you take small steps, you’re less likely to evoke internal, psychological resistance to change and start to get traction. And when you take those small steps consistently over time you can end up in an entirely new place! “Small steps taken consistently over time will lead you to your goals faster than big steps taken from…
“Mountaintops inspire leaders but valleys mature them.” — Winston Churchill Leadership isn’t just inspiration, it is also the ability to get things done. We’ve met many leaders, young and old, who have wonderful ideas (they can see the mountain tops), but they have no idea how to turn those ideas into reality (walking through the valley). When we work with leaders, we are always asking them to keep an eye on the mountaintops that will inspire their teams but to…
We stand shoulder-to-shoulder with leaders, teams, and individuals who are passionate about growing in their leadership and in their ability to create cultures of psychological safety and engagement.
Carpenter Smith Consulting is a Women Business Enterprise, Oregon Cert ID 7047.
