Most of us are highly critical of ourselves, believing we should be “better.” We judge what and how we say things, get disappointed with our performance, and then mad at ourselves for not being more patient. We give all our energy over to judgement. What might be different if Instead of directing energy toward judgement, you practiced acceptance? What would change if you were able to accept that in the moment, you did the best that you could? What if you let go of all judgement of yourself?

How many times have you attended a training course eager to develop new skills, find yourself completely engaged in the content, and leave the training feeling motivated to apply what you learned. . .only to walk back into work overwhelmed and toss everything you learned out the window?

It is very common to see little or no behavior change as a result of training by itself. If you are interested in changing your performance based on a new skill you have learned through training, incorporate coaching.

“To attain knowledge, add things everyday. To attain wisdom, remove things every day.” ~ Lao Tse

Each day we have so many distractions, so much to do, and so many priorities. When was the last time you sat down and made a list of all the things you wanted to stop doing? Probably never. When it comes to improving you listening skills, I am giving you permission to STOP doing everything. Just listen. What level do you typically listen?

Have you ever been thrown into a situation that you didn’t expect or even see coming? You feel that sense of panic. The stress of the situation is too much, you can’t think logically, your words don’t come out, and as a result your performance is less than optimal. At that moment, it doesn’t feel like you have a choice, but you do. You have a choice in how your react under stress.

In honor of Women’s History Month, this blog is for all the powerful female leaders! If you don’t happen to be one - please share with one you admire.

How do you measure your own success? Do you view success based on your growth or do you measure it based on your ability to surpass others? How does your perspective impact your stress level?

This blog highlights two perspectives of achievement orientation - Mastery and Performance.

To build a successful team, leaders must create an environment where employees feel safe to take risks and be vulnerable.

Want to build a culture of trust? Find out how you can increase psychological safety by adding these skills to your leadership approach.

Job burnout is not a medical diagnosis. As described by the mayo-clinic, “job burnout is a special type of work-related stress — a state of physical or emotional exhaustion that also involves a sense of reduced accomplishment and loss of personal identity.”

I am increasingly hearing from you about your level of burn-out, especially now as we move into another phase of the pandemic and things just don’t seem as though they will ever get back to normal (whatever “normal” might be). It seems as though burnout is so high it is having an impact on your behavior and how you show up. A cycle you can’t seem to break.

Oftentimes we jump to training as a solution to fix employee performance issues. Have you even used training to change employee behavior, only to find out the problem didn’t go away?

The fact is, there are many reason why employees don’t perform and training is only one of them. Have you considered the other reasons?

Do you live for the weekends? Wonder how is it possibly summer and where spring went? Do your days fly by while you live life.

When will you take care of you? When was the last time you did something just for you? What was it?

It is so easy for the days to blur together to become weeks then months, at some point we come up for air and realize just how much time has passed. This blog post is just for you - a human being.

I am often surprised that people have no idea what their career looks like down the road. I have always been a planner and for the most part, very clear about what I wanted to achieve. I am realizing, through my coaching clients that this is not the case for most people and am discovering that many people leave their career to fate. No judgement. For many, it works out just fine.

If you are wresting with this decision, I have outlined a few things for you to consider.

As employees we become "someone we don't recognize" so that we fit into the culture of our company and work team because we want to belong. It shouldn't be that way, that is the opposite of what we are trying to accomplish with diversity. Organizations should not hire for diversity and then expect the employees to assimilate into the company culture. It just doesn't work.

Understand what you can do as a leader to create a sense of belonging in your work group.

How do you as a leader switch from compliance focused, mandated employee development to employee empowered development?

At this point in the year, performance and development goals have been created, entered into the system, and now it is time to start checking in on how employees are progressing.

I often talk with leaders about their struggle to get their employees to take initiative and drive their own development. Another challenge leaders often have is finding ways to make development meaningful for those employees who are nearing the end of their career, this can be particularly difficult.

A leader wears many hats. A leader must be a teacher, enforcer, director, disciplinarian, evaluator, coach. . .and the list goes on! What hat do you wear most often?

I think one of the most foundational skills a leader needs is that of coach. Learn the coaching skills leaders need to be effective.

I was recently reminded of the Five Dysfunctions of a Team model, by Patrick Lencioni. This is a model that I believe in. I have worked in environments where trust was present, and where it was absent. I have also been part of a team where the idea of trust wasn’t even a possibility. The problem I find is, it is difficult to get employees and leaders to open up and be vulnerable enough to have a conversation about trust. This level of openness is rarely achieved in the corporate world. Just the thought of having this conversation can be terrifying.

One of the most important decisions a company makes is who they select to fill their leadership positions. However, according to Gallup, they fail to choose the candidate with the right talent for the job 82% of the time. The truth is, these decisions are made on unproven methods that rarely yield good results.

You know you are ready and want to broaden your responsibilities to make a greater impact, but you feel stuck in your role. You might even see others being promoted into positions for reasons you cannot understand. You have been a dedicated, strong advocate for your company and are passionate about what you do but the messages you are receiving are completely mixed and it continues to get harder and harder to stay positive.

When was the last time you deliberately celebrated an employee who did something good? How often do you consider how to celebrate things that are working?

So often leaders miss opportunities to engage their employees by simply sharing the enjoyment of good work. Everyday countless tasks and goals are completed by employees without notice. Employees show up and work hard because they care. While it might feel as though your world is focused on everything that is going wrong, I guarantee you there is much more going right. Celebrating what is working doesn’t have to cost you anything, not even time.

People everywhere are saying, “I had my performance review today”.

Yes, it is that time of year when leaders gear up for the big performance discussion. By this point your performance ratings have been long since entered, you survived calibration meetings, changes have been made so there is a perfect bell curve, approvals have been given by senior leadership, and everyone is beyond frustrated. Now you get to sit down with your employee and provide a summary of their performance for the past year, set aside your frustration, and hopefully find a way to keep them motivated.

Make it an effective performance discussion so that you are not a negative topic of conversation at your employees dinner table!

As a leader, the beginning of the year is a time to take a strategic look at the year ahead and determine what specifically it is you want to accomplish throughout the year, understand where you are and what it will take to get you there. Many leaders see goal setting as something that they "have to" do rather than "get to" do.

If you are a leader who looks at goal setting as something that must be done, to enter into the system, and stay off “the naughty list”, I encourage you to consider the impact this attitude has on your employees.

The most important thing we can do is be in the moment, be fully present. Being present in the moment requires active, open, and intentional attention. The present is where we show up and make our biggest impact. Staying in the present keeps us focused and allows us to understand more deeply. Right here, right now is the only thing we can control. Now is all there ever is.