Does the word networking have a negative connotation for you? For me, it triggered me a bit. It was like that uncomfortable feeling on the first day of school. Do you remember that moment? You walk into the classroom, without knowing anyone yet and you must find ways to make friends. I don’t know if it was any easier back then, but we all figured it out somehow. Networking from a place of scarcity. Connecting with new people was still…
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I met with a Director about the results of a leadership assessment that she recently completed which included direct feedback from her peers, direct reports and management. In that conversation, we also talked about the feedback that her manager had shared with her… she wasn’t communicating or acting like a Director. She was obviously concerned about the feedback and couldn’t understand what she needed to do differently. We talked about what she was focused on and she shared some of…
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We have all grown up with programming and messages from our families, teachers, media, society, culture, etc. that tell us what we are “supposed” to do in our lives. Some of these messages may include: get good grades, go to a good school, get a good job, get married, have children, save for retirement, follow the rules, don’t talk back, respect your elders, etc. You get the gist of the messages that we have all heard and internalized over many years. Those messages…
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Every week there seems to be a theme that occurs with my clients. This week that theme is value. The value conversation shows up in different ways depending on their thoughts and how they perceive themselves. It may require some reflection to understand what is going on at a deeper level. Here are a couple examples to look at with a few questions and potential solutions. I am frustrated because the person I have to work with is only focused…
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It is time for some straight talk today about managing up. Some people view managing up as a negative and that the people who do it are using that time to gain favor over other team members. The truth is anyone has the opportunity to build a stronger relationship with their boss. If someone else is doing it well, then learn from them instead of seeing it as a bad thing. Here is what it really is – Managing your…
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Are you ready to overcome perfectionism and get things done? I was a perfectionist for so long. I was even proud of myself for being a perfectionist which is hard to imagine now. I am sure that I made everyone else around me feel that they needed to be that way too. I realized that those expectations weren’t good for me and it definitely wasn’t good to place those expectations on my team. I had to change the way that…
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Let’s be honest, being perfect isn’t worth your time. The extra time that you could take to make something perfect is most likely not going to make much of a difference. If this is you, then you spend time doing the extra work to make others happy, avoid criticism, and because you are trying to meet someone’s unrealistic expectations. What if I gave you a permission slip on the project you are working on and said just do what is…
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Client Question: “I am forever trying to control everything and I want things to be perfect. How can I stop doing this all the time?” You may feel the need to control things when everything is going wrong around you or you are feeling really anxious inside. It can also happen when you want things to be perfect. Trying to create the perfect set of rules to follow or not ever allowing mistakes to occur is just about impossible. Why? …
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We have all grown up with the messages from our families, teachers, media, society, etc that tell us what we are “supposed” to do in our lives. Some of these messages may include: get good grades, go to a good school, get a good job, get married, have children, save for retirement, etc. You get the gist of the messages we have all heard and internalized over many years. Those messages create some ideal picture of who we are supposed…
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Yesterday’s post focused on perfectionism and the fear of failure. This is another perspective on how perfectionism is playing out in the younger generations today. In this article by Thomas Curran and Andrew Hill called Perfectionism is Increasing and That’s Not Good News, studied 41,641 American, British and Canadian college students between 1989-2016 to look at perfectionism in a few different ways. Their findings determined that “recent generations of young people are more demanding of themselves, perceive that others are more demanding of…
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