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Time for a Career Change? 5 Sure Signs

August 20, 2018 By Sherry Dutra Leave a Comment

Jan’s Story

Jan* was facing a dilemma. She had just turned 40 and had been with her current organization for over five years and was feeling discontented, frustrated, and stressed. At the request of her Vice President, Jan had laterally transferred about a year earlier to take on the challenge of a newly created management role. Though the function she would be managing was not her first choice of next steps, Jan felt that the opportunity would add positively to her resume and she accepted the position. After much hard work, late hours, and tight deadlines, the first major initiative in this role was successfully completed. Awesome, right? Well, though pleased with the results, Jan recognized that she didn’t enjoy the work, dreaded the end of the weekend, and was feeling constant stress.

The company was in the process of several acquisitions. As each one came on board, Jan needed to roll out the same initiative to each acquired company. With each new project, Jan could feel her dissatisfaction growing. She knew she didn’t like her work and the company was having difficulties. Yet, the job paid well, the benefits were good, and it was close to home. Also, she enjoyed the people she worked with. Despite that, Jan struggled each day with whether she should look for a new opportunity or just stick it out.

Maybe this sounds like you. Or, your story of career dissatisfaction may have a different back story but the undeniable bottom line question is still the same – “should I stay or should I go?”

How do you decide whether it’s time for a career change?

5 Sure Signs

The money and benefits are the primary reason you’re still there.

We all have financial responsibilities and no one is suggesting that money and benefits aren’t important. However, we often talk ourselves into believing that moving into a position that fuels our passion and brings meaning to our lives will automatically pay less than our current role. Additionally, even if it does pay less initially, it’s likely that more money will follow when you are able to bring your best self to work that you love. And, if needed, I’ll bet there are some things you could adjust in your budget to accommodate bringing joy back into your life.

Your body is feeling the effects.

Even if your mind hasn’t caught up with the notion that you need to pursue something different, your body is likely giving you clues. Are you having trouble sleeping at night? Like Jan, do you experience anxiety as Sunday night approaches and you’re dreading the start of a new week? Have you noticed a significant gain or loss in your weight for no apparent reason? Do you find yourself feeling ill more frequently? Are you experiencing a constant feeling of stress or exhaustion? While there may be other reasons for these symptoms and seeing your doctor is highly recommended, many have to look no further than their job to find the source of their discomfort.

Something just feels like it’s missing.

Often, we fail to recognize that aligning our needs and values with our career is critical to a feeling of well-being. As we progress in our careers, it’s important to check in periodically and reflect on what’s most important to us. While many of our needs and values remain constant, some may evolve and shift as we move through various stages in our lives. What adjustments to your role, manager or environment might be able to be made to shift you back into alignment again? If this isn’t possible, it’s time to find a career or role that fits with who you are today.

You’re constantly complaining about your job.

We all have bad days even in the best of jobs. Yet, if you notice that your primary topic of conversation with your family and friends tends to be complaints about your work, it’s time to pay attention. What were you like when you were in a position that you really enjoyed? What would it take to reignite that part of you again? Who is the person you’d like to be?

You’ve lost your energy and drive.

If you find, that once in a great while, you experience moments of feeling a little bored or not overly excited about your work, that’s completely natural. Over time, there are very few jobs that keep you excited and energized every moment. If, on the other hand, you notice that you’re finding it difficult to get motivated about most anything, it may be time for a change. Find a place where you can use your strengths each day; where you are energized and inspired by the work and the people around you.

Your Call to Action

While there are certainly other signs that a career change might be in order, these are the ones that I’ve seen most frequently with clients. As the fall season approaches, it’s a great time to start thinking about what you want to create in the coming year so that you can hit the ground running in January. If you recognize any of the 5 signs in yourself, I invite you to step back and do some self-reflection. Discover where your passions lie, set a new direction, and take action toward a happier and more fulfilling career.

*Name and details changed to protect confidentiality.

About the Author: Sherry Dutra is a Talent Development, Career and Retirement Coach and Facilitator who believes we each have far more potential than we typically tap in to. She helps you learn how to step into your full potential so you can create consistent, optimal performance for yourself and your team with less stress and more enjoyment. 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.

Seven Principles of Extraordinary Results

July 23, 2018 By Sherry Dutra Leave a Comment

Image Provided by ThoughtAction LLC

Are you consistently getting the business results that you desire? What if you had a model that easily conveyed how you create the results that you experience each day? What if you could gain insight into the patterns of your thinking and behavior that serve you as well as the patterns that do not? What possibilities might be open to you if you could learn to run your system rather than having it run you? The Results System™ allows you to gain these benefits by providing the framework, tools and solutions that raise the bar and drive results.

The Seven Principles of Extraordinary Results provide a simple introduction to the key concepts behind The Results System™.

Results First and Foremost:

What is the outcome that you desire to achieve? Start first with defining your end result and work backwards from there. You create what you focus on.

Goals are Not Results:

It’s important to make a distinction between a goal and a result. When you do not, you run the risk of limiting your choices and options. A “result” is the outcome you want to create. A “goal” is a target or milestone designed to achieve the result. For example, when you say, “I want to reach my sales target for the quarter,” you might think you are describing a result. In fact, this is actually a goal. The result is what you will have when you achieve your sales target, such as financial stability.

Choices Not Actions:

Choose your actions wisely. Often, you might feel you are making progress when you can check items off of a list. Yet, you may end up wasting time by leaping too quickly to action and completing tasks that are not fully aligned with creating the results you desire.

Invisibles Make the Difference:

Remember that everyone has blind spots and other factors that are not yet visible. Take time to become more self-aware to reveal the aspects that are operating behind the scenes. Doing so drives better choices and actions.

Silent Partners Make Predictable Patterns:

All humans have a unique and wonderful “operating system” that creates unconscious repeatable patterns of thinking and behavior. Having such a system allows you to motor throughout your life without having to consciously think about each step you need to take to complete daily tasks like getting ready in the morning or driving your car. Over time, these patterns of thinking and behavior become invisible and operate behind the scenes. In most cases, they serve you well. Yet, when you want to change in order to get a different result, these automatic patterns kick up a fuss. In order to dissuade you from changing, there are even three lines of defense to keep you from making a shift: remaining invisible, making change awkward, and telling us stories in our own voice that convince us that change would not be beneficial.

Change is a Process:

Any change that you set out to make has an emotional component to it. To create change that lasts we must deal with the inevitable feelings that will come up. While initially you might start off positively fired up about making the change and are certain you will be successful, the actual practice of creating new habits and permanently changing your behavior may cause you to swing from confidence to doubt to hope. When you experience this roller coaster, it may be enough to have you give up and go back to your old habits. Keep in mind that the emotions that arise are all a natural part of the change process. In knowing that, you can design strategies to manage the emotional ups and downs and achieve the result you want.

Use the System:

Take a systems based approach to creating your results. The Results System™ model helps you to reveal the visible and invisible factors that drive your ability to create results. Your Results System™ is unique to you. Even teams and organizations have a Results System™. Using the model will create greater self-awareness around the strengths and the detractors that impact your results and provide you with a means to make conscious choices and choose the actions that support the achievement of your key outcomes.

Call to Action

Are you willing to make changes to achieve the result you desire? If so, what action(s) are you willing to commit to in the next week to help you achieve this result by implementing the above principles into your life and work?
If you would like to learn more about how you can reveal your own Results System™ and develop strategies to create the results you desire, please reach out to me to discuss how this system can help you in all areas of your life.

Adapted from “Seven Principles of Extraordinary Results” by ThoughtAction, LLC, 2015. Adapted with permission.

About the Author: Sherry Dutra is a Talent Development and Career Coach and Facilitator who believes we each have far more potential than we typically tap in to. She helps you learn how to step into your full potential so you can create consistent, optimal performance for yourself and your team with less stress and more enjoyment. 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.

7 Keys to Enhancing Entrepreneurial Resilience

July 22, 2017 By Sherry Dutra Leave a Comment

Entrepreneurship can be an exciting and rewarding experience. Yet, building any kind of business is not without its ups and downs. There is no question that you will encounter situations where the outcome isn’t quite what you expected or you’ll experience what you might view as a “failure”. To weather the inevitable challenges you’ll face, resilience will be a muscle you’ll want to enhance. Resilience will allow you to ride the roller coaster of entrepreneurship and to continue to offer your gifts to the world when you might otherwise give up.

What is Resilience?

The dictionary.com definition of resilience is, in part, “the ability to recover readily from adversity or the like; buoyancy”. The word buoyancy brought a childhood memory to mind. I grew up near the ocean and used to play for hours in Cape Cod Bay. I can remember tossing around a beach ball with my friends while we splashed in the water. No matter what any of us did to push that ball under the water, it always popped right back up to the surface – ready for the next game. Resilience is very much like that beach ball. No matter what you face, if your resilience is strong, you can learn from your experience, reset your course, and be ready for what’s next.

7 Keys to Enhancing Resilience

Here are some practical keys that you can incorporate into your life that will support you in enhancing your resilience. These keys will not only positively impact your entrepreneurial life but also your personal life. So what are you waiting for? Let’s explore.

Stay aligned with your purpose: I believe that we all have a purpose and that discovering yours will keep you on track no matter what circumstances arise. What are you uniquely equipped to offer to the world? What brings you the most joy and passion? The answers to these questions will give you some clues to your purpose. With a defined purpose, that you are aligned with, you naturally attract people, resources, ideas, and opportunities that support you.
Practice gratitude: Take a few moments each day, throughout the day, to appreciate and express gratitude for the people and things in your life. Stopping to notice what you are grateful for on a regular basis develops a habit of looking for good things and releases dopamine that supports a positive outlook.
Set clear goals: Research has shown that the brain loves a good goal. It will work tirelessly to give you what you focus on. The most successful and resilient people set specific, measurable and time based goals and consistently take action with the certainty that they will achieve them.
Be present while working on those goals: A 2010 Harvard study found that people spend 47% of their waking time thinking about things other than what they are working on. When you are focused on the past or focused on the future, you are taking your energy away from what’s going on right in front of you. Mindfulness, or being focused on the moment, has been shown to modify brain processes that support resilience. And, experiencing and enjoying the moment is part of the journey.
Act “as if”: Your brain doesn’t know the difference between a robust vision and reality. Don’t believe that? Then, take a moment and imagine that you have a beautiful, fragrant, juicy lemon in your hand. Cut off a slice of that lemon. Breathe in that lemony scent. Now, bring it to your mouth and take a great big bite. Salivating yet? You didn’t really just take a bite out of a lemon, did you? Yet, in creating that vision, your body reacted “as if” you had. So, start to take action in accordance with who you want to be. Act “as if” you already are being, doing and having whatever it is you want to create in your business. Your attitude will be shifted to a more optimistic place and your resilience will build.
Build a supportive team: Going it alone typically doesn’t work. Without the support of others, we tend to get stuck in doing things the way we’ve always done them. Create a community of supportive people from different backgrounds and professions who can help to keep your mind open to fresh perspectives and new ideas. Having others to lean on creates resilience-building social support.
Look for the gift: What is the opportunity in the situation you’re facing? What might the situation be trying to show you? By focusing on the opportunity rather than the challenge, you open the door to solution-finding rather than problem-solving. You choose how you want to “show up” in the situation and your positive focus enhances your resilience.

There is no one formula for enhancing resilience. Find what works for you and practice it on a regular basis. Over time, you are likely to find that how you respond to those entrepreneurial ups and downs is very much in your hands.

What has helped you to build your resilience? If you’d like to share your strategies, please add a comment.

A Blueprint for Leadership Mastery

February 15, 2017 By Sherry Dutra Leave a Comment

“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.

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

December 19, 2016 By Sherry Dutra Leave a Comment

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:

Business, Job and Career
Personal and Professional Relationships
Finances
Health and Well-Being
Fun Time and Recreation
Personal Development
Contribution/Community
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

December 7, 2016 By Sherry Dutra Leave a Comment

Have you ever 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.

Seven Principles of Extraordinary Results

June 19, 2016 By Sherry Dutra Leave a Comment

Image Provided by ThoughtAction LLC

What if you had a model that easily conveyed how you create the results that you experience each day? What if you could gain insight into the patterns of your thinking and behavior that serve you as well as the patterns that do not? What possibilities might be open to you if you could learn to run your system rather than having it run you? The Results System™ allows you to gain these benefits by providing the framework, tools and solutions that raise the bar and drive results.

The Seven Principles of Extraordinary Results provide a simple introduction to the key concepts behind The Results System™.

Results First and Foremost:

What is the outcome that you desire to achieve? Start first with defining your end result and work backwards from there. You create what you focus on.

Goals are Not Results:

Choices Not Actions:

Invisibles Make the Difference:

Silent Partners Make Predictable Patterns:

Change is a Process:

Use the System:

Call to Action

Are you willing to make changes to achieve the result you desire? If so, what action(s) are you willing to commit to in the next week to help you achieve this result by implementing the above principles into your life and work?

Adapted from “Seven Principles of Extraordinary Results” by ThoughtAction, LLC, 2015. Adapted with permission.

About the Author: Sherry Dutra is a Talent Management 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.