Companies are looking for more creativity and innovation. This creativity often comes from looking at problems through different lenses. At the team level, this can be fostered by increasing the diversity of the team members ensuring there are varied...
Self Awareness
Life in Five Senses – Book Review
The latest book by Gretchen Rubin, Life in Five Senses, was recently released and I highly recommend. I’ve been hearing about the development of the book on the Happier podcast that she hosts with her sister Elizabeth Craft. As you might imagine, I was excited to...
Spread Out vs. Spend Out
In an earlier post, we talked about a pairing tied to how you might approach an hour of free time. Today, we will look at another word pair as it relates to how we balance our professional work and the work we do to run our homes. This concept covers all home...
Are We Asking the Right Questions?
There has been a lot published since the pandemic on the benefits of remote work compared to in-office work. There is also more conversation about asynchronous work – when employees aren’t expected to be online or in the office at the same time. Depending on your...
Frustrating Co-Workers
Everyone has them. A person at work that never seems to see the situation the way you do. They rub you the wrong way. Interactions with them are a challenge. Yet, there isn’t an option to avoid them. You may be on a team or project together. They may be your client or...
What Do Others See?
Thinking about several topics – personal branding, intentional connections, career development – a collision happened in my mind. How does our professional brand change as our career evolves? Can we be more intentional about what the long-term imprints look like? Is...
Routines Can Create Ruts
There are so many benefits of routines that help us keep positive habits. Morning routines can ease us into our day. A nighttime routine can do the same to ease into sleep. We add healthy habits to routines like exercise, skin care, brushing our teeth, meditation, and...
Navigating Career Capital
Careers are interesting. There are no roadmaps out there to help you navigate. The process is extremely personal and no one else can define what is best for you in your career journey. Personal branding is an area I’ve spent time learning and...
Celebrate What Makes You Unique
Every day we have a million thoughts running through our head. To do lists. Schedules to follow. Memories of the past. Hopes for the future. In between we assess ourselves and “how we showed up”. Often with a bit of judgement. Today, May 22nd, it’s time to set...
When Work Feels Like Middle School
A few weeks ago, I had a thought that work meetings can start to feel like middle school. You go from class to class, on the hour, and when the day ends, the homework begins. Conversations with many adult knowledge workers sound similar. We just...
Stop, Drop, and Roll
We are taught at a very young age the fire safety technique of stop, drop, and roll. This process is the best method to attempt to put out fire on clothing. The process is simple and clear. You STOP. You DROP to the ground. You ROLL on the ground to put...
Time Perceptions
Time is finite and we all know that we can’t stop the clock or turn back time. However, we can start to influence how we perceive the time we have. Time Abundance vs. Time Scarcity When we have a lot to do, we focus on not having enough time. Each day...
Understanding Your Motivation
The last two days, we have covered time and strengths as two self-awareness areas to help achieve our goals. Today, we are going to cover the third (and final) area - motivation. The three assessments below can help us understand projects that get us excited to wake...
Understanding Your Strengths
Understanding your strengths can be a great way to support you in achieving goals. There are advantages to all the self-assessment resources out there. Today, I want to focus on one of those alternatives - CliftonStrengths. Below is an overview of the assessment and...
Do You Have Time & Space?
Before setting out to check items off your career bucket list, understanding time and energy can help develop plans. The first step is to understand where your time is currently going. Spend a few days tracking what you do in 1/2 hour increments. After a couple days,...
Begin with Self-Awareness
Yesterday, the blog focused on a career bucket list. Our lists were likely full of all kinds of dreams. Creating an innovative approach to your work. Taking on a special project. Speaking at a prominent event. Achieving a promotion. Better work life integration....
Reflection as a Practice
We tend to “reflect” at the end of the year, the end of a big project, or another milestone. What if we made reflection a more regular practice – monthly, weekly, daily? What questions would we ask? My Story For the last 10 years, I’ve had a practice of...
Everyone Has Customers
Today (April 20th) is Get to Know Your Customers Day. This day occurs once a quarter on the third Thursday of each quarter. This is a day when businesses are reminded to reach out to their customers and ask questions. You can find out what they need. Do they...
Consider a Haiku Journal
Keeping a journal isn’t for everyone. For those who do journal, there are a lot of different approaches. The Gratitude Journal. The One Sentence Journal. The Bullet Journal. Since today, April 17th, is National Haiku Day, you could give Haiku journaling a try...
Where and When to Do What Work
Many businesses continue to evolve and learn the new world of hybrid work. Teams have proven for many years that on-site work works. During the pandemic, teams proved all-remote work works. Now, the challenge is to blend the best of the two and achieve...
Are Barnacles Holding You Back?
There was a concept from the book That Will Never Work by Mark Randolph the co-founder and first CEO of Netflix. He incorporated a process in business that he called “scraping the barnacles off the hull. Background For those who aren’t familiar, barnacles are marine...