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Susan M Barber Coaching & Consulting, LLC > Blog > Blog

Can You Be Strategic and Have Fun at the Same Time?

This is the time of year that many clients are focused on goals in preparation for the new year. It can feel a bit overwhelming for leaders to get started so I will ask my clients to share what their big outcomes are for the next year. They bring rough ideas to the conversation based on the gaps that need to be addressed, opportunity areas or upcoming business plans that they know are coming. The questions that I ask them are intended to…
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Are You Using Strategy When You Prepare for a Career Change?

Most people think about strategy in a business context. It is important to identify and implement strategies at various levels in a company to move the company forward and accomplish their goals. However, there are also other places where strategy is equally important, but it is about you and not the company. Let me share a client case study of how strategy is involved in a career change.  Mary who was a Director at her current company reached out to me…
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Are You Ready to Show Your Strategic Side?

Kathy was a mentee of mine who met with me monthly. She would bring various challenges that she faced to our meetings and we talked about how she could handle them. One of those conversations focused on some feedback that she received from her manager who thought she was really good at leading projects, but she needed to be more strategic. She asked me for advice because she wasn’t sure what to do to be more strategic and how to show…
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Do You Have a Strategic Plan To Achieve Your Career Goals?

I sat in the big auditorium back in my corporate job with about 100 people in the room and many others who joined remotely. We were listening to a career panel discussion put on by the employee resource group called Women@Kraft that I led. Some amazing women were up on stage and shared their stories of how they got to their current position. I had what is known as an accidental career. Every time it was time for a new role, a manager…
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Is Having a Strategy Important to Success?

The dream manager is the one who gives you opportunities, even when you aren’t sure you are ready for them. I attended a conference with my manager when one of those “opportunities” arrived. We sat in a session to hear someone speak on a new technology that we were implementing. We wanted to see how others used the software and learn lessons from them. As we sat there and listened to this speaker who was an “expert” by all accounts, we realized that we knew way more…
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How Can You Positively Influence Someone?

  Let me share a story that I recently heard. Gloria was in the grocery store line and had six cans of beans in her cart. She put her six cans on the conveyor belt. Suddenly, the cashier stopped her. He said, there is a limit on the beans. You can only buy four cans of beans, so you have to put two of them back. The woman didn’t know that there was a limit of only four cans per person in…
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Is a Leadership Point of View Important for All Leaders to Have?

By definition, influence is the capacity to have an effect on the character, development, or behavior of someone or something. When I read this definition, there are so many people that would fit into this definition and be considered an influencer. Some examples could be family, friends, teachers, managers, mentors, peers, and coaches to name a few. They share their lessons, ideas, and beliefs with us every day and influence us. We are not only influenced by the people in…
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Want an Advantage? Use Influencers to Help Push Your Ideas

The most important thing when you have an idea is to get it implemented, right? Does it matter to you if you are the one to sell the idea or if someone else does it for you instead? It doesn’t mean that you are going to give your idea away or lose the credit for the idea. It just means that depending on the situation you are in, you may have to do things differently to move your idea forward.  You…
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Do You Want to Grow and Gain New Perspective?

The thought of leaving your current role creates so much fear and may cause you to hesitate. You will only do it when the pain of staying is too great and the new role seems like it will be a much better fit. In my experience, change occurs when you are ready for it.  Going through the job change might feel like scary, but the experience can help you grow in so many ways. You will meet new people, learn new…
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Job Change Can Make You Uncomfortable, But Isn’t That A Good Thing?

Although there are unhappy people in their jobs, they will stay and put up with it far longer than they should. They avoid making the change because they know that they will need to meet new people, learn new things, and most of all be vulnerable. They will no longer be the person who knows everyone and understands how everything works. Starting over at a new place taps into their vulnerability and creates uncertainty. Is that a good reason to…
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