Most people spend more time planning their annual vacation than they spend planning for the non-financial components of their retirement. Now that increased longevity has extended the lifespan of the average North American, people can anticipate living 20 – 30 years beyond the typical retirement age of 62 or 65. Since this is becoming known as a “second adulthood”, it deserves your time and attention to ensure that this time in your life is filled with meaning and purpose, health and well-being, and social engagement in addition to financial stability. It’s never too early to begin giving consideration to how you’d like to craft this part of your life. Here are three key tips I’d like to share that can help set you on the path to an easeful retirement transition.

1. Create a plan well in advance

Benjamin Franklin is credited with saying, “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.” It is an abrupt change from working full-time to having the expanse of 24 hours a day at your fingertips. Once the glow of an extended vacation wears off, you may find yourself clamoring to find another job, if you haven’t decided in advance how you’d like to spend your time. While working in some capacity may be a part of that plan, let that be a conscious choice rather than a reaction to feeling at loose ends.  What would the perfect day or week look like for you in retirement? Creating some level of structure goes a long way toward staying engaged. Spend less time thinking about what you’re retiring from and more time considering what you’re retiring to.

2. Think holistically

Financial security is a critical factor in retirement preparedness. Yet, it is far from the only thing to take into consideration. As you create your plan, look at all aspects of your life. What is important to you? What are the values and beliefs that provide meaning in your life? How will you sustain your mental and physical capabilities? Where will there be opportunities for connection to others? What hobbies might you want to pursue? How will you continue your personal development? How important is it to you to give back in some way?

3. Communicate

Be sure to include your spouse or partner in your retirement planning. Do they work as well? When do you both want to be retired? What do you each want out of retirement? How can you work collaboratively to create a shared vision? What activities will you do together and where will you explore your interests on your own? How will you divide home related chores? How often will you see your children and grandchildren? What expectations do family members have of one another? Having these conversations in advance and getting on the same page will relieve a potential stressor down the road.

Be proactive and make this significant transition a rewarding and fulfilling next chapter in your life.

About the Author: Sherry Dutra is a Talent Development, Career and Retirement Coach and Facilitator who works with corporate leaders in small to mid-size businesses, across the span of their careers. She helps them to accelerate business outcomes and team performance, navigate their own career path, and transition to retirement with ease using proven methodologies and strategies that get results. 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 common frustration that leaders and managers share is that their organization has difficulty with execution. While they may do well in accomplishing daily activities and tasks, they consistently struggle with effectively executing on time, within budget, and with high quality on the strategic issues that impact the long-term success of the organization. Over time, this can lead to losing market share, decreasing revenues, and even the demise of the organization itself.

There are many factors that impact an organization’s ability to execute. In this blog, we’ll focus on 4 perceptions that noticeably make a difference in a person’s ability to execute effectively.

4 Perceptions that Get in the Way

1. Relationships: Some individuals refrain from initiating and nurturing professional relationships. They don’t step back and take the time to think strategically about building a strong network within their organization. As a result, when they need to make a high priority request, they may not have the necessary political capital to get what they need.
2. Influence: Others are unsure of how to sell an idea within the organization. They may not recognize that different approaches are needed for different people or situations and continue to use the same approach every time. Consequently, they struggle to know how to get buy-in for their ideas from key stakeholders such as their boss, peers, team, and cross-functional colleagues.
3. Time: Ah, the illusive time. We all have the same 24 hours in the day yet we’re not all as effective as some at using them wisely. Some procrastinate. Some say “yes” to everything and need to set boundaries. Some fail to establish and stay focused on their top priorities. Some let email, text messages and chatty colleagues distract them.
4. Results: Finally, some leaders focus on the wrong results. Rather than keeping an eye toward the long-term success of the organization, they may focus on being right, looking good in front of others, or perhaps as the person with all the answers. While short-term success may be achieved, this view of results often has a negative impact on their career in the long-term, their team and/or their organization.

An added factor to keep in mind is that leaders can often have limiting beliefs that get in the way of their ability to execute and can often link to the perceptions outlined above. For example, a manager who has a belief that everything must be perfect will have issues with time management and difficulty building relationships because of their unrealistic expectations.

Call to Action

Do you find yourself having a difficult time getting things done? If so, do any of the perceptions outlined above sound like you? What step are you willing to take to begin to make noticeable improvements in your execution performance?

Adapted with permission by Center for Executive Coaching.

About the Author: Sherry Dutra is a Talent Development, Career and Retirement Coach and Facilitator who works with corporate leaders in small to mid-size businesses, across the span of their careers. She helps them to accelerate business outcomes and team performance, navigate their own career path, and transition to retirement with ease using proven methodologies and strategies that get results. 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.

No matter the organization, you have likely experienced the caustic leader who delivers exceptional results yet how they go about getting those results leaves much to be desired. Often this leader needs to be in complete control, believes they are smarter than everyone else, and tells their team what to do rather than develop, coach and trust their employees.

Unfortunately, people don’t want to be around this person, don’t think the leader is very smart at all, and become disengaged and demotivated by the caustic environment. Results are achieved through control and fear rather than a collaborative environment. Over time, this behavior can lead to high turnover and may even create potential legal liability for your company.

Sound familiar? Yet, at work, this is only one example of the perceptual limitations that can ultimately get in the way of leadership success. People with perceptual limitations that inhibit long term success, choose a value, such as being perceived as smart, over being truly successful. While they may still be valuable to the organization, they could enhance their value further by reframing these perceptions.

Consider people in your organization and whether anyone comes to mind who displays any of the additional perceptual limitation examples covered below. A question you might ask yourself to identify someone with a particular type of perceptual limitation is:

“Would they rather ______________ or be successful?”

Look good. While getting results is a great way to look good, some will shift blame, take credit, and do whatever is necessary to look good, even at the expense of results.

Be right. Often this shows up as an “I told you so” mindset. You might also notice it when a leader wants to win no matter what – even if that win damages relationships and the team.

Get credit. When managers are more worried about getting the credit for the great idea or for driving a project to completion, they may not get the results they desire. Sharing the credit with others builds collaboration and relationships.

Be liked. New managers often struggle with this perceptual limitation, especially if the people now on their team used to be their co-workers. In fear of losing their friends, they would rather be popular than make the tough decisions and gain the respect of their team.

Have harmony. Conflict avoidance is common. Yet productive conflict breeds better decisions and innovative ideas through open discussion and the exploration of varying views.

Be perfect. Perfectionism can lead to analysis paralysis. Waiting for perfect data, perfect products, and perfect ideas allows others in the marketplace to get the upper hand. It’s okay to go with less than perfect, see what happens, and continue to improve over time.

Avoid being involved. When things go wrong, do you retreat and leave others to handle the issue? Success comes from diving in and being part of the solution.

These are just a few of the perceptual limitations that can sabotage leadership success. Did you recognize others, or even yourself, in any of these? If so, the good news is that these limiting ways of thinking can be re-framed and new behaviors developed to create sustainable results.

Dutra Associates, LLC has a proven methodology that leads to more effective behaviors, collaboration, and impact on the team and the organization as a whole. If you’d like to learn more, I invite you to reach out at Sherry@DutraAssociates.com. Why tolerate ineffective behaviors in your organization when you don’t have to?

Adapted with permission by Center for Executive Coaching

About the Author: Sherry Dutra is a Talent Development, Career and Retirement Coach and Facilitator who works with corporate leaders in small to mid-size businesses, across the span of their careers. She helps them to accelerate business outcomes and team performance, navigate their own career path, and transition to retirement with ease using proven methodologies and strategies that get results. 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.

In a previous blog, (Click here to read) we looked at 5 Tips for Executing on Your New Year’s Resolutions. As you continue to work towards the results you want, you may run into some resistance. Let’s look at how your Results System™ may be running interference.

Have you ever found that no matter what you try differently, you keep ending up with the same result? Have you felt stuck at times and been without a clue on what steps to take to move forward? That’s your Results System in action!

The Results System, developed by Sydney Rice, M.Ed, illustrates a masterful internal system that allows us to effortlessly repeat tasks and apply our ways of thinking and doing things as we have always done them. It is masterful in that the system allows us to create consistency in our results without a second thought. Yet, while the system often works for us, it can also work against us when what we are striving for is change and new results in our personal and professional lives.

As you can see from the illustration below, the Results System consists of two components, one above the surface and visible – one below the surface and invisible. Ms Rice writes that we are generally aware of about 80 percent of the visible component. So, for the most part, we are pretty clear about the goals that we’ve set, based on the choices and options we feel are available to us, that lead to the tangible actions we take, and thus create our results. Below the surface of the system, we have the invisible perceptions, beliefs, habits, expectations and assumptions that we are likely to be largely unaware of. At times, without us knowing it, this invisible side of the system limits our ability to make the changes we want to make. It truly wants to keep us safe by repeating the patterns that have worked for us in the past…even though they may not be working for us now.

In order to master our Results System, we must shine the light on the invisible aspects and determine which ones are supporting our efforts to change and which must be reexamined and replaced with new beliefs, habits and assumptions that will allow us to move forward and obtain the results we desire. Making these shifts, in a conscious way, allows us to open up more choices and options that can help us take the next leap in our personal and professional growth.

Image provided by ThoughtAction LLC

Happiness is something that most of us strive for, and in fact, feel that we deserve to have. After all, our Declaration of Independence references “certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

So what does it mean to pursue happiness? When we think of pursuing something, we usually mean that we’re going after something we don’t already have. In Marci Shimoff’s book, Happy for No Reason, she points out that in Jefferson’s time, “to pursue something meant to practice that activity, to do it regularly, to make a habit of it.” There’s a huge difference between chasing after happiness and practicing happiness. When we chase after happiness, we’re coming from a perspective of lack – we don’t have the thing that we want. But when we practice happiness, we’re active participants in making ourselves even happier.

So how can we practice happiness at work and at home? The first key is to know that you can weather your moods. Like the weather, your moods are always changing. Recognizing and accepting your moods and knowing that they will change is important to “being happiness.”

If you realize this, when you are up, you can fully appreciate the moments of pure pleasure. Instead of being disappointed when your great mood doesn’t last, you know that not only won’t it last, but it is not supposed to, and so, you can appreciate it while it does.

When you are down, you also know that it won’t last, and because of that, you can weather the low. If you are really down, know that your natural balance will soon bring you up. From a very high level perspective, you can now appreciate the downs, for you’ll know that each of life’s experiences are opportunities to appreciate the gifts that life brings us.

So next time you have a great day – or a “bad” one – appreciate it for what it is, know that it won’t last, and know that that perspective will put you well on your way to pursuing happiness.

How often do you find yourself overwhelmed with the “to-dos” on your list? How many of those items actually fall into the category of energy draining activities? Perhaps they are important tasks, activities and projects needed to run your business, yet they involve work that you’re just not good at or interested in, and you don’t really want to do.

Welcome to a common circumstance experienced by entrepreneurs. If this rings true for you, you may believe you have to do everything that needs to be done in your business. This belief may have been born from a variety of circumstances. Perhaps you’re afraid to spend the money to hire someone to help because you’re concerned about whether you can actually afford it. Maybe you believe that, as an entrepreneur, you “should” be able to do it all.

In the end, it doesn’t really matter where the belief came from. Instead, it’s important to acknowledge that doing it all isn’t supporting you in reaching your desired results. To release the feeling of overwhelm and get your focus back on what you do best…Build an Anabolic Team. What exactly do we mean by that?

There are two primary types of energy – anabolic and catabolic. Anabolic energy is building, constructive, positive energy. Catabolic energy, on the other hand, is destructive, negative energy. So, when you think of those activities that drain you and bring about overwhelm, you are experiencing catabolic energy. Conversely, when you are focused on the work, activities and tasks that you love and you feel “in the flow”, you are experiencing anabolic energy.

One of our teachers, Callan Rush, has passed along a quote that states, “If it’s not my genius, it’s not my job”. Well said! If you can install that belief into your thinking, it will support you in following the steps below to create your anabolic team.

Consider the following questions:

1. What do you do well?
2. What could you use more help or support with?
3. Identify the key types of people you would want to team up with.
4. Who exactly are these people?
5. How will you connect with them?
6. What’s the first step you will commit to take to build your anabolic team?

Following these steps will put you on the path of creating a powerful team that allows you to focus on what you do best and love to do. Additionally, as you build your team, you are inviting others to tap into what they do best as well. And, that’s a winning combination.