I was sitting in a book editing retreat to learn the best ways to edit my book a few years ago. It was a small group event held in a beautiful resort in upstate New York to teach all the future authors in the room how to edit our books. During one of the first days of the event, each of us was supposed to take a turn reading a small selection of one of our chapters to the rest…
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Are you labeling yourself without realizing it? On a recent podcast, I talked about being an introvert and how I embraced that label. Although it seemed like a good thing at the time, I may have leaned on that label a bit too much. Assessments I first learned about being an introvert when I took the Meyers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) assessment. My experience with this assessment was quite a few years ago, and at that time, I had no…
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Are you familiar with the term impostor syndrome and what it means? Do you know how to recognize it in yourself or in others? The term impostor syndrome was first identified in 1978 by Dr. Pauline Clance and Dr. Suzanne Imes, whose research determined that this challenge impacts overachieving women who try to fit in and be perfect. The high achieving women attributed their success to mistakes, luck, or because someone hadn’t yet figured out that they didn’t belong where…
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When someone first told me that I should “slow down to speed up,” I couldn’t even process what that would mean for me. There was too much to do and no time to get it all done! If I slowed down, then I would fall behind even further. What I came to realize though, is that slowing down is what is needed to prepare for what is ahead. Taking the time to reflect, be strategic, plan, create new ideas or…
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It’s okay to ask for help. This wasn’t something that I believed for many years. I saw it as a negative thing. I thought you had to do it all yourself and if you couldn’t then you were a failure. I know that this isn’t true now, but back when I was still learning about being a leader, it felt true. What I didn’t realize is that it is actually a sign of strength to ask for help, not a…
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“Is there such a thing as too much visibility?” This is a question that I get in nearly every speaking engagement that I do. When I press them for more information, it is usually a response similar to this one: “I don’t want to be seen as someone who brags or who takes up all the space in the room. I am afraid that I would be seen as that kind of person if I am being visible and I…
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When is the last time you reviewed the work that you are doing? I have spent time with a few different people this week on the work that they are doing in their groups and exploring if they could accomplish it in a new way. The conversation usually starts with a few questions like, “where are you overloaded or what are you or your team saying yes to instead of saying no?” They can usually come up with a list…
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If I could only find some time to just think. I have heard this from some of my friends this week and to be honest, I have said it to myself. When there is so much happening, it can be easy to get caught up in the mode of being busy and not taking any time to think. You just keep doing more things without a lot of thought behind them. Sometimes you can get paralyzed by the sheer number…
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Are you ready to take some action today? It’s time to get off the sidelines and get into the visibility game. There is a huge misconception that creating visibility for yourself is a lot of work. That is 100% untrue. Here are some simple ideas to try so you can see that it only takes intention and consistency to show a new side of you to others. Create a visibility partnership – find someone who you can partner up with to give…
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I am just not smart enough. I remember thinking that as I sat in the back of the room of a big meeting and looked around at everyone contributing to the conversation. I felt completely inadequate. How do all these people know the answers and what to do to get things done? I can picture sitting in that room as if it was just yesterday. Unfortunately, I carried all those feelings with me for a really long time and even…
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