Right out of college, I worked in the IT department as a help desk representative for an insurance company in upstate New York where I grew up. I was the person you called if you had a computer problem, forgot your password, or couldn’t get your macros to work in Word Perfect. I didn’t really know much about leadership or managing, but from the outside, it looked pretty cool. Better pay, better title, a nice…
If you’re like most leaders, you spend your days rushing around dealing with emergencies, challenges, meetings and emails. Your days seem like a blur, and you struggle to articulate what you accomplished in your 10+ hours at the office. This may be the norm for most leaders, but it doesn’t have to be. One of the biggest challenges leaders face at work are interruptions. Whether it’s phone calls and texts, emails pinging all day, or…
Have you ever felt so overwhelmed that you want to crawl back under the covers, eat a pint of ice cream, and watch Friends on TV all day? I had a moment like this last month when I overextended myself and felt swamped with all my commitments. I was flying back from California after traveling for business, and felt a wave of panic as I thought about the week ahead. I had a week full…
I’ve never been a morning person. Or so I thought. Before I got married, my typical weekday schedule was waking up around 7:30 a.m. and dozing off around 11:15 p.m. as I watched Friends. My morning routine consisted of showering, dressing, and grabbing a breakfast Hot Pocket as I dashed out the door (don’t judge). On the weekends, I would go out with friends or binge watch movies until the wee hours of the morning…
Last month I attended an event for professional speakers where a well-known keynote speaker shared ways to create connection with your audience. During his speech, he mentioned the town in upstate New York where he grew up. He grew up only 15 minutes from my hometown, so I was excited to talk with him afterwards. He certainly created a connection with me in that moment. We had something in common. His speech was excellent, and…
A couple of weeks ago, I spent two days in West Virginia for an individual business retreat. I used this time to review my goals and progress, make necessary adjustments, and work on some strategic goals that I find challenging to complete during my everyday work. It can be hard to find time to really focus and get meaningful work done when you are surrounded by distractions, interruptions, and a calendar booked with meetings. Sometimes…
I’ve often admired people who are flexible and laid back; who have a more carefree approach to life and live in the moment. I know I can benefit from a dose of that approach, although I’ll admit those traits often trigger my Type A tendencies. I like to seize the day, get a lot done, check things off my list, and feel a sense of accomplishment most of the day. When I took the StrengthsFinder…
You’ve probably spent some time over the past few months creating your business plan to map out the actions necessary to achieve the organizational strategic plan. Planning is an important component of achieving organizational goals. You have to know where you want to go in order to make it happen. But many leaders struggle to put their plan into action and actually achieve the results identified in their business plans. So how do you dust…
It’s a new year, and no doubt you have some ambitious goals you want to accomplish. This is the perfect time of year to reset and determine what is important to you to focus on this year. I didn’t achieve all my goals last year, but it was still my best year ever. I used to feel like I failed if I didn’t accomplish all my goals, but that just put me in a negative…
Organizations that have a vision of where they want to go and can align the entire organization around that vision create momentum towards their goals. Just like it’s important to create a vision in an organization, if you want to make positive changes in your life, creating a vision for each area of your life can be a powerful way to get clarity around what you want. One of the main reasons why most people…
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