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Unleash Your Peak Potential

Relationships and Value: Considerations for Entrepreneurial Success

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Recently, I read Gerard Adams’ article titled “Social Currency and Your Circle of Influence”.  Adams defines social currency as “your value to the world” and your circle of influence as the people you spend the most time with.  It’s a great reminder that to grow our entrepreneurial success, we must pay attention to both.  So, it prompted me to share some ideas to help you take action.

Evaluate Your Relationships

Let’s start with your circle of influence.  While the notion that you begin to take on the traits of those you surround yourself with makes complete sense, how often do you really evaluate the quality of your relationships?  As the saying goes, “old habits die hard”.  There is often a tendency to continue to hang out with the same people out of habit or because it’s comfortable rather than to take notice of whether it’s a positive relationship or not.

Call to Action – Relationships

  • Define what a positive or healthy relationship means to you in both your personal and professional life.
  • Make a list of the key people you spend time with in both environments and note whether they are part of your personal or professional life.
  • Evaluate each relationship against your definition(s).
    • Which ones lift you up?
    • Which ones bring you down?
  • For those that lift you up – identify strategies to continue to nurture and grow each relationship.
  • For those that bring you down – you have 5 choices
    • Stay in it, as is
    • Change it
    • Change your view of it
    • Accept it
    • Leave it
  • Work with someone you trust to help you put a plan in place to grow the positive relationships and effectively manage or shift the negative ones.
  • Notice what happens as you consciously focus on crafting your circle of influence.

What’s Your Value?

Let’s move to your social currency or the value that you bring to the world.  You may be able to immediately articulate the gifts and talents that bring value to those you interact with. If so, go right to the call to action below and jot them down. In some cases, however, you might find that pinpointing the value you offer is more difficult – not because you don’t have value but because it is something that is so easy for you to do, you discount it and don’t see it as valuable.  If this sounds like you, enlist the help of those who are positive members of your circle of influence to help you answer the questions below.

Call to Action – Value

  • What natural gifts, talents and strengths do you bring to your business/work?
  • What is unique and different about you?
  • Listen to your emotions while you work. What activity or activities bring out your passion and make you happy or satisfied?
  • Share your value within your circle of influence and with all you encounter. Shine your light and watch your business grow.

Make a commitment to surround yourself with those who energize and inspire you and leverage your strengths while continuing to grow and develop. The combination will play a key role in your success.

About the Author: Sherry Dutra is a Talent Development and Career Coach and Facilitator who helps you create consistent, optimal performance using all your capacity and potential in both your work and life. If you would like to uncover and address hidden challenges that may be sabotaging your success, leverage your strengths, and accelerate your progress toward the results you desire, contact Sherry for a complimentary consultation.

A Blueprint for Leadership Mastery

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“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” ~ Aristotle

Core Leadership Skills 

Fundamentally, there are a collection of key skills that prepare someone to step into a leadership role. These include things like the ability to:

  • communicate effectively,
  • influence others,
  • be adaptable and flexible,
  • drive for results,
  • build cohesive teams,
  • delegate and empower,
  • make decisions and problem-solve,
  • think strategically and
  • develop talent.

While every leader should have the opportunity to learn and build skill in these areas, skill-building alone is not enough to create leadership mastery.  Have you ever noticed that regardless of your skill level, there are some days you’re “on” and some days you aren’t?  There are some days you are filled with confidence and others where you question your ability? Some days where you crank out the results you want and others where you’re distracted and have difficulty staying focused on a project or goal?

What is Leadership Mastery?

All of the challenges that you face as a leader, no matter how skilled, come down to one thing.  The one thing that changes everything is the understanding of, implications for, and ability to control the energy of performance.  You know as well as I do that your competency level doesn’t shift from day to day. Your energy, however, is fluctuating all the time.  Your energy is what determines how well your skills and competencies are expressed in any situation and what your outcomes will be. Leadership mastery, then, is about:

  • understanding the nature of the energy of performance,
  • utilizing that knowledge to create the conditions for optimal performance, and
  • making any necessary tweaks as any specific situation unfolds.

The energy that a leader presents in any situation is influenced by a number of different elements.

  • Mental ability that allows for clarity and focus
  • Emotions that are experienced throughout each day
  • Social factors that relate to your interactions with others
  • Environmental factors that relate to the conditions in which you are performing
  • Physical factors related to your level of health and wellbeing
  • Spiritual factors that speak to the connection you have with a sense of purpose, meaning and motivation.

When your energy is out of alignment and you’re feeling a bit “off”, you might experience anxiety, fear, worry, lack of confidence, or lack of motivation to name a few.  How often do you actually get the outcomes or results that you want when this is going on?  Likely, not very often.  So how do you turn this around and have your energy work for you rather than against you?

Your Blueprint for Leadership Mastery

There are 5 key components to unleash your full leadership potential. Whether you run your own small business or you are leading a large organization, the foundation of your performance is built on these components. These 5 components make up COR.E Leadership Dynamics.

Component 1: Creating Your Plan
Self-awareness, a clear vision and specific goals are the essence of this component.  Having a complete picture of the performance you want to create is critical.

Component 2: Establishing Your Energy and Performance Foundation
Energy fluctuations create inconsistent results. To sustain consistency and performance excellence, you must learn to manage your energy.  Explore leadership mastery, understand the energy of performance, and identify and address blocks that stand in the way of your potential.

Component 3: Finding and Harnessing Your Performance Influencers
Earlier, I mentioned the 6 elements that influence your performance in any moment. Recognizing and understanding the impact of those influencers in the moment allows you to make immediate adjustments that keep you firing on all cylinders or get you back on track if things are going awry.

Component 4: Mastering the 10 COR.E Disciplines
Successful leaders have developed a personal approach or philosophy that keeps them motivated, resilient and aware of opportunities that present themselves. This component helps you to develop your own philosophy, built on the foundation of the 10 COR.E Disciplines, that will tap into your true leadership potential and performance.

Component 5: Optimizing and Sustaining Your Leadership Success Formula
An important element of this component is to embrace the need to evolve your approach over time.  The world is a rapidly changing place and developing the capacity to be flexible and adaptable in the face of uncertainty is key to success.

My Invitation to You

If you would like to learn more about how COR.E Leadership Dynamics can help you to maximize your energy and optimize your performance to be the best leader you can be, please click here.

About the Author: Sherry Dutra is a Talent Development and Career Coach and Facilitator who helps you create consistent, optimal performance using all your capacity and potential in both your work and life. If you would like to uncover and address hidden challenges that may be sabotaging your success, leverage your strengths, and accelerate your progress toward the results you desire, contact Sherry for a complimentary consultation.

 

What Lights You Up?: Expressing Your Passion in the World

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“To love what you do and feel that it matters – how could anything be more fun?”  – Katherine Graham – American Publisher

Being in the Zone

When was the last time that you were so engaged in what you were doing that you completely lost track of time?  What is it that you were involved with?  Were you organizing, planning, decorating, running a meeting, painting, gardening, helping others, or teaching? Whatever you were engaged in, you were experiencing being “in the zone”.  This is a state of being fully focused, motivated, and passionate – a state where you are doing what you are uniquely gifted to do.

One of my teachers, Laura Berman Fortgang, has said, “your satisfaction will not stem from what you do but from who you get to be while you do that thing.”  We often get caught up in what we are “supposed” to be doing.  This can stem from a wide variety of influences including parents, friends, teachers, and societal pressures to name a few. Forget titles and look at the essence of who you get to be in any occupation or pursuit you consider. It can open up doors you never imagined.

Find what it is that uniquely lights you up. Your passion can be something that you’ve known all your life or you may evolve into it as you notice what you most love. To begin your own exploration, consider the following questions.

Ask Yourself

  • What gets me excited about life?
  • What brings meaning to my life?
  • If I could do exactly what I’d like to do, what would it be?
  • What are my natural gifts and talents?
  • What did I most like to do as a young child?
  • What are my criteria for happiness?
  • What are my values?

Your Next Steps

Once you have jotted down the answers to these questions, it can be helpful to share them with a close friend, a mentor, or a coach to flesh them out and look at possibilities. It’s never too early or too late to decide on the best path for you. No matter where you are on your life’s journey – early career, mid-life, or planning your next chapter – dreams can be realized. Take these first steps to open the door to what could be next for you.

About the Author: Sherry Dutra is a Talent Development and Career Coach and Facilitator who helps you create consistent, optimal performance using all your capacity and potential in both your work and life. If you would like to uncover and address hidden challenges that may be sabotaging your success, leverage your strengths, and accelerate your progress toward the results you desire, contact Sherry for a complimentary consultation.

Forget Resolutions: Tips to Create the Life You Want in the New Year

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A fresh new year is before us. Sometimes that might feel a little daunting and other times it can be filled with excitement. Which is it for you?  Instead of creating New Year’s Resolutions which, let’s admit it, we often don’t follow through on anyway, how about trying a different twist? One of the most effective ways to kick start the year with enthusiasm, engagement and excitement is to establish a clear vision.  When was the last time you gave yourself the luxury to dream about what you’d like to create in your life?  There’s a saying that “if you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there”. Not having a vision is like expecting a GPS to get you to a specific destination without entering the address. You might find some interesting sights along the way but you have no idea where you’re going to end up. So get comfortable and follow the tips below to do a little dreaming!

Creating Your Vision

Focus on What You Want
Describe what you want as clearly as possible. Write in the present tense, as if what you want has already occurred.  Describe what it looks like, feels like, sounds like, etc. Catch yourself if you start describing what you don’t want and shift your focus back to what you do want.  Our brains are powerful creators and are programmed to go after what we focus on. What you attract into your life will be in alignment with what you give your attention to.

Think Holistically
You are a multi-faceted human being with many dimensions to your life. As you describe what you want, be sure to consider the following eight dimensions:

  1. Business, Job and Career
  2. Personal and Professional Relationships
  3. Finances
  4. Health and Well-Being
  5. Fun Time and Recreation
  6. Personal Development
  7. Contribution/Community
  8. Spirituality

Establishing Powerful Goals and Actions

Once you have created your vision, the next step is to set specific goals and objectives that will bring that vision into reality.  In each of the eight dimensions, write down what needs to happen and by when, in order to reach your desired destination.

Finally, we must break these goals down into action steps. Mark Twain said, “The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex, overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one”.  Determine the specific next action steps required to meet each of your goals.  It can be helpful to think in terms of what steps are necessary to be completed 6 months, 3 months, 1 month and one week from now to get you started.

Following Through on Your Commitment

How do you want to stay true to your commitment to yourself?  Telling someone what you plan to do is a proven method to help you stay on course.  Just putting it out there and sharing your vision and goals with someone else makes it more real. You might consider telling a family member or friend. If something a bit more formal works for you, perhaps you can team up with someone else who is committed to their own vision and schedule brief check-in calls either daily or weekly to help you both stay on course. Working with a coach can provide you with one-on-one support to help you stay on track and develop strategies to navigate any obstacles that might arise.  Whatever method works best for you, be sure to have something in place that will motivate you to accomplish at least one thing per day toward the vision.

To your success!

What’s Your Perspective?: The Impact Your Level of Energy Has On Your Performance

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Have you ducksever noticed that different leaders can experience the same situation, at the same time, and react or respond in completely different ways?  Ever wonder why?  It all has to do with our core energy. Bruce D Schneider, Founder of the Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching (iPEC), defines core energy as “the energy that is at the core of thoughts, emotions, and actions that relate to how people see themselves, those around them, and the world itself.”

Recognizing the impact of different levels of energy allows us to make conscious choices in the moment that support or influence our performance in every area of our lives. Let’s use a scenario, which most of us have probably experienced at some point in our lives, and see how energy plays out and impacts performance.

Scenario

You are walking down the corridor at work, on your way to a meeting, and you see your boss coming your way.  As he/she approaches, you smile and cheerfully say “good morning”.  Your boss doesn’t acknowledge you and continues walking right past you.

What’s the first thing that runs through your mind? As you read the potential reactions/responses at each level, see which perspective sounds most like you.

Perspectives

Level 1: “My boss never pays any attention to me. I can’t do anything right. I don’t think I’m ever going to get ahead. Maybe I should just look for another job.”

Level 2: “ARE YOU KIDDING ME??!! I go out of my way to say “good morning” and she completely ignores me!”

Level 3: “That’s strange that he didn’t say “hello”. Maybe he didn’t hear me.”

Level 4: “Wow, that’s so unlike her. I hope she’s okay.  I’ll check in with her after my meeting and see what’s going on and if there’s any way I can help.”

Level 5: “He must be totally focused on that new deal we’re going after. I’ll swing by later and offer some of my ideas on how we can collaborate with this potential partner. I know we can make this a huge win for both of our firms!”

So, which level did you resonate with the most? Can you feel that what happens next will be completely different given the perspective this leader takes?

Shifting Your Energy

Our level of energy can bounce around all day long as we experience a variety of situations. At what level does your reaction tend to fall?  In what type of circumstances do you experience Level 1, 2, 3 energy, etc? How empowering would it be to know that you can learn to recognize different levels of energy in yourself and others and choose the response that will support you most effectively in any given situation?

When your energy is working for you and you can tap more frequently into higher levels of energy, you can expect to experience…

  • Inner certainty
  • A sense of calm amidst change and chaos
  • Ease in making and committing to choices
  • A broader perspective
  • Being more present in the moment
  • Taking the initiative and fully engaging in every aspect of your life.

Working together, you’ll discover the nature of the energy of performance and be able to take steps to proactively create consistent experiences and make quick adjustments in the moment if things go awry.

If you’re intrigued and would like to discuss how this process can help you create your personal leadership formula for success, please contact Sherry for a complimentary consultation.

About the Author: Sherry Dutra is a Talent Development and Career Coach and Facilitator who helps you create consistent, optimal performance using all your capacity and potential in both your work and life. If you would like to uncover and address hidden challenges that may be sabotaging your success, leverage your strengths, and accelerate your progress toward the results you desire, contact Sherry for a complimentary consultation.

Anabolic Leaders and Gaining Buy-In

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teamwork_1-300x300In the past, we have explored the characteristics of anabolic and catabolic leaders. Click on the following link if you’d like to review that blog. Leadership: Inspiring and Motivating Yourself and Others This time, let’s look at another aspect of leadership – how information is passed along to others – to further see the difference between the two types of leaders.

In any type of leadership role – whether as a CEO of a Fortune 500 company, a small business owner, or as a parent, imparting information to others is an integral and essential part of leading. Catabolic leaders give information, while anabolic leaders share information.

Giving vs Sharing

“Giving” means to convey, transmit, or assign. When we give to others, we no longer have ownership of what we give. “Sharing,” on the other hand, means to partake of, use, or experience with others. When we share, we’re still part of the process – we’re “in it” with the other person.

When a catabolic leader gives information to others, they do so without much explanation, and with little buy-in or justification. An anabolic leader who shares information, however, explains well and gets buy-in, which builds trust, develops rapport, and deepens the connection with the other person.

Here’s an Example

Which of the following leaders is more likely to get the result they desire?

Catabolic leader – “John, I need a rundown of the responsibilities of the people in your department. Please get it to me by tomorrow afternoon, if not sooner.”

Anabolic leader – “John, we’re considering bringing in some additional staff members to ease some of the production crunch you and your department are under. I’d like a rundown of the responsibilities of the people in your department so that I can see who’s doing what and where some gaps might be. Since I’d like to get this process underway soon, how possible would it be to get this to me by tomorrow afternoon or earlier? After I take a look at it, I’d love to sit down with you to hear your ideas for resolving this. How does that sound?”

The two leaders asked for the same information – but how differently they asked, and how different the result is likely to be! John’s response to the catabolic leader would probably be to question what was going on and to worry about his department and the people under him, and to either put off doing the task or do it in a perfunctory way. His response to the anabolic leader, on the other hand, would most likely be to jump right into the task, do it well, and generate ideas for improvement.

My Challenge to You

Anabolic leaders get results! Over the next month, try sharing instead of giving information, both at work and at home. Those extra few minutes of explanation and getting buy-in can make all the difference.

 

Image courtesy of SMarnad/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Where is the Whitespace in Your Day?

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I had the opportunity to be in attendance for a talk by Juliet Funt, who is the founder and owner of WhiteSpace® at Work, and found her to be especially inspiring. In a completely engaging and amusing way, she made the case for whitespace in our days. What exactly is whitespace?  As described by Juliet, it is a purposeful, freedom experience for the mind; an opportunity for the mind to dance, play and end up at unexpected junctures that serve us.  It is setting aside time and thought for which you have no specific plans.

Our typical workdays are comprised of “reactive busyness”.  This brings to mind notions of fire-fighting and problem fixing that, while giving us the illusion of getting things done, are really lots of activity without necessarily true productivity.  Juliet indicated that “we have no relationship with thoughtfulness as a key to success in the workplace”. What is missing, she indicated, is whitespace.  Pointing to benefits such as, developing more game changing ideas; increasing productivity, creativity and engagement; being more calm and present; connecting interpersonally; she suggests that we must “redistribute effort and excellence” to allow whitespace in our days.

To redistribute effort, consider letting go of some things.  We often hold on too hard for a variety of reasons.  Ask yourself: What can I let go of in my life – both personal and professional?

  • What baby steps can you take to stop responding as if each email and text is urgent?
  • Do you really need to attend every meeting you’re invited to?
  • Can you truly get your work done if you are in back to back meetings all day?

To redistribute excellence, it’s time to curb your perfectionistic tendencies.  Perfectionism is a real talent and we must make choices on where we will spend that talent.  Ask yourself: Where could good enough, be good enough?

So, where to begin?  Start small – manage your calendar to create whitespace; appreciate the forced whitespace that comes when stuck in a traffic jam. According to Juliet, if you’re aspiring to whitespace and give it value, you are ahead of 90% of others in the workplace. Be creative and design a little whitespace that works for you and watch your success grow!

Worry Not: Handling What Life Throws Your Way

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Change is inevitable – after all, nothing really stays the same.  But in today’s challenging times, it seems like we’re on “uncertainty” overload, never knowing what will happen from one moment to the next.

With uncertainty comes stress and confusion, and while most of us would be quick to say that we want less stress and more certainty in our lives, what we really want is less of a stress reaction to what life throws our way.

We can’t choose what happens to us – but we can choose our responses to the situations we encounter.  Let’s take a look at five different responses that people have to stressful situations. As you read, you may want to think of a recent stressful event or news that you may have received, and see what your reaction to that event can teach you about how you habitually respond.  You may have one type of response at work, and another at home, or you may react differently depending on who else is involved.

The first and all too common response to stressful events is to suffer and be a victim to it. People who respond this way don’t take action. Things happen TO them – and though they may complain and be generally miserable about it, they don’t take any steps to do anything. They allow life to control them, instead of the other way around. This way of responding is certainly not recommended, and eventually, it will take its toll on one’s physical and mental health.

The second type of response is to accept the situation. Someone with this response may say “so what,” or perhaps get some perspective on the situation by asking if it will matter in a year – or a week – or even in a day.

The third way to respond is to actually take steps to change the situation – taking action to bring it to resolution (or at least move toward resolution). This is a very powerful response, and one that many effective leaders employ.

The fourth way to respond is to avoid the situation. People responding this way make a decision not to get involved in a situation that they don’t see as concerning them, or upon which they can’t make an impact.

The fifth and final way that people generally respond to stress is to alter the experience of the situation. When we look at a situation differently, the experience itself changes. Changing perceptions is probably the most challenging of the responses, because we tend to be stuck in our own interpretations and assumptions about what’s happening, but it is also perhaps the most powerful of all.

It’s your world, and you can create it as you wish. Remember, what one person sees as stressful, another person barely notices, or sees as exciting and full of opportunity. How are you going to choose today?

Leadership: Inspiring and Motivating Yourself and Others

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Leadership

As leaders, inspiring and motivating yourself and others is critical to creating transformational and sustainable results. Yet, what allows you to do this well and do it consistently?

Research has shown that how well you are able to lead is connected to your level of energy. Well, what exactly do we mean by “energy”? There are essentially two types of energy: Anabolic energy is building, constructive energy that allows leaders to build strong relationships with their teams, clients, colleagues, etc. Catabolic energy is destructive and repels success in relationships, business dealings, etc.

Recognizing and understanding the characteristics and impact of catabolic and anabolic leaders will allow you to choose the type of leader you want to be.

Let’s start off with looking at the overall style of the catabolic leader. This leader manages. If we look at the definition of “manage” we find that it means, “to handle, direct, govern, or control in action or use”, and “to dominate or influence”. So, catabolic leaders tell others what to do and how to do it. By maintaining control, others with whom this leader interacts are in a non-powerful position and as a result, probably aren’t particularly engaged in their work.

An anabolic leader, on the other hand, leads. Consulting our dictionary again, we find that “lead” means “to go before or with to show the way”, and “to guide in direction, course and action”. This sounds much more supportive and empowering and it is. The anabolic leader doesn’t control or push people, but instead, inspires and motivates through words, actions and personal example.

Anabolic leaders believe that everyone has their own answers and gifts that they bring to all aspects of their lives. Consequently, there is no need to tell people what to do.

In the coming weeks, as you interact with those around you, notice when you are leading and when you are managing and pay attention to the results.