Saying goodbye to 2017 is like saying goodbye to a relationship I’ve outgrown. I learned a lot. There were very good times and some tough times. Now it is time to turn the page.
I believe one purpose in life is to personally grow. With each year, hopefully we reach goals, jump unexpected hurdles, discover new aspects of ourselves, come closer to God, and understand more about what is important to us and why we’re here. That was 2017 for me. My mother passed away this year. We were not close, but I was involved in her care at the end and helped make decisions for her comfort and to support her wishes. I feel grateful to have specifically (with my sister and brother) helped support her final wishes of spending her last days in her home and helping her pass with dignity and in peace. This year I traveled, had great times with friends and family, built my business, and pushed myself to be more honest about who I am with myself and with others. I am more honest now about my personal and professional experiences of abuse. I feel grateful to others who really put themselves out there, to the Silence Breakers and the #MeToo movement for being role models for speaking out and being honest. For my business I expanded my coaching practice to offer more support to my clients in a variety of convenient ways. I also offered online support groups. And (drumroll, please!) I started my book which I plan to release early next year. I am SO excited about that. My book is part business book and part memoir. I’ll be telling more about it in coming months, so please subscribe to my blog. Personally, I finally had the back surgery I put off for four years, I started my daily meditation practice, and I focused my reading on spirituality and metaphysics. All of my new habits feel congruent with my True Self, and I feel myself opening up more and more. I started this year marching in the Women’s March in Houston on March 21, and I spoke up often this year about what I saw as a “chipping away” at human rights in our country. Gloria Steinem said, “Women grow radical with age. One day an army of gray-haired women may quietly take over the earth.” I feel myself getting more radical with age. I understand what she’s talking about. We become more brave. We get tired of censoring ourselves, apologizing, and acquiescing. The butterfly must emerge from the cocoon. I look forward to my new adventures, challenges and growth in 2018. And I look forward to my local and online friends sharing with me how they are learning and growing too. We are all in this life together, after all. To 2017, thank you… and buh-bye. Big hugs, everybody!
Snarky fun. Enjoy! Oh, and Buh-Bye...2017.
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The holidays are upon us. I'm coaching now under the business name of "Loving My Life Coaching, a Liszcz Consulting Company". I'm so excited about this!! Here is some free "homework" to prepare for what can be a stressful time. I hope this helps you love your life! Comment below, please, and let me know what you think. Hugs! Click here for a great article by Josh Bersin on simplifying HR systems, processes, and priorities. It's another good reminder to keep things simple.
Project success relies on effective communication. Technical skills are key, yes. But communication is essential for on time, within budget completion of projects. According to the Project Management Institute, the message is clear. In their 2013 white paper, the PMI notes some impressive statistics. So, get your communication flowing, or plan to have mediocre results. Sources:
When you are listening to someone, give that person your undivided attention. Focus on his or her body language, tone of voice, and other nonverbal cues. Tone of voice can convey emotion, so if you’re checking text messages, doodling, or thinking about your "to do “ list or your next vacation, you’re almost certain to miss the nonverbal cues and the emotional content behind the speaker's words. If you find it hard to concentrate on some speakers, try taking notes—this habit will reinforce their message and help you stay focused.
Creativity and innovation are differentiators in the workplace. Bring more originality to your work this week. Here is an great talk on balancing planning and procrastinating for optimizing originality. It's 15 and a half minutes, but it's worth it. Enjoy!
A colleague and I had dinner a few weeks ago with a woman who could not stop talking about her accomplishments and abilities for two hours. Essentially, she was telling us how great she was, always had been, and would continue to be. She worked hard at trying to convince us that she is, indeed, great. This young woman is talented and bright and is having a marvelous career in her large, global company. However, people can’t stand working with her. People have said behind her back and to her directly that she is full of herself. This is a problem. Are the behaviors exhibited by this professional woman egotistical or self-confident? Self confidence is often seen as a strength in leaders and professionals while begin egotistical is seen as a negative. The tricky part is that walking the line between being self-confident and being egotistical can be a balancing act for some people. Self-confidence comes from an intrinsic sense of self-worth. It comes from deep awareness of what you are and are not good at, what you’ve accomplished and what you still need to learn. Once you have insights in these areas, it is easy to be confident without being egotistical. People like working with and for leaders who are confident. These leaders build others up and instill confidence in others. Legitimate self-confidence can be contagious. Egotistical people are usually insecure and are looking for external validation to make them feel good about themselves. They promote themselves so that they can get praise from others. They are competitive high achievers more than team players because they enjoy the praise that they achieve as an individual. Consciously or unconsciously they strive to get enough praise to prove their self worth. They are exhausting to be around. As a leader or a professional, being perceived as egotistical will undermine one’s career and success. Getting insight and coaching in this area helps build self-awareness, insight, and the ability to adjust when needed. There are a variety of tools and processes that can help in this area. Developing authentic self-confidence takes time and effort, but is essential to being the type of leader others want to work with. This is critical to being the leader you want to be. If you have been reading my new blog, you probably see that I like to look at history of leadership and find what still works today. I also like to look at new needs and future needs of leaders in relation to changes in the market, workforce, and technology. I synthesize what is unchanging from history with the new requirements to make recommendations for future leaders. Are you a leader now? Do you plan to become a business leader or people leader within the next five years? While then, hold onto your hat. The pace of change continues to be fast and furious. Being a leader in the business world is a wild and exciting ride, and it will continue to be so. It is critical that as leaders, we look back and look forward and consider our leadership styles, skills, and behaviors. It is important that we look at our character and our commitment to leading our companies and the people who run them. We must figure out what is working for us and will continue to work for us and keep doing that. We must also, however, learn new skills and adapt as needed. The workforces that we lead, markets we work in, and technologies that we market and work with are changing… quickly. Leadership does not need to change completely. We can learn from what is still true and effective from past decades. Some leadership practices may need to be pulled out of storage, dusted off, and repurposed. We also need to challenge ourselves to stay fresh and up-to-date with new skills. We need to expose ourselves to new information and new ways of leading if we are to be successful in the future. What market does your business operate in? What part of the world does your business operate in? For business leaders, a lot of times these questions matter less than we might think. Today, market changes continue to present increasing challenges no matter what you do or where you are. Increasing commoditization, tight economies, regulatory compliance requirements, workforce changes, technology changes, and the increasing speed of business are universal issues for leaders. I propose that the leadership behaviors, styles, and competencies that led to success for many over the last 10 to 20 years will not lead to success to the same degree in the next 10 to 20 years. There will be less room for "shooting from the hip," company politics and alliances will be less helpful, and a primarily internal focus will be more damaging than ever before. Business leaders will need to be experts in strategy development (or work with experts in this area). If you think you already know about strategy, learn more. And find experts you can call on when needed. This will be an increasingly differentiating factor in business success. Find experts in business analytics to work with, understand trends, and get good at anticipating change. Be ready for what is on the horizon. Build and strategy and execute it. While you still need to pay attention to company politics and power systems, it is time to get very serious about character and integrity. Now and over the next 10 years, customers, employees, and other partners are going to have increasingly high expectations around trust, character and loyalty. Be known in your market for having high standards and impeccable character. Be known for being trustworthy. This is your second differentiating factor for market success. Finally, benchmark. Know your market inside and out. As you progress to higher levels of responsibility, adjust your focus to be increasingly external. Expect the people who work for you to do the same. What you learn from governments, regulators, competitors, customers, and the media gives you the information and the “big picture” that you need to be competitive. The last 10 to 20 years saw a lot of change in our markets. I see this period as a “warm-up” and anticipate greater change in the next 10 to 20 years. Are you ready? I was actually in the workforce before laptop computers and BlackBerries were common work tools. I know that dates me, but it also gives me an interesting perspective. Technology has significantly changed the way that we work. The impact of these changes has been significant on people's lives and the human experience. Something's got to give. Don't get me wrong. I love the convenience of a laptop computer. I have traded my BlackBerry for an iPhone, and I love it. I love the efficiency and convenience that these work tools provide. The flipside for our workforce, however, is that knowledge workers are now at work 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. This new work condition is exaggerated by the fact that so many knowledge workers now support global companies. Many leaders resist giving up the traditional expectation that employees be in the office 8 AM to 5 PM (or longer). They pile on top of that the expectation that their employees are available 24/7 by virtual means. Instead of being clear about top priorities, many leaders make excessive demands. In response good employees exhaust themselves by working at home early in the morning, grooming themselves for the office, commuting to the office, working a full day at the office, commuting home, logging on from home to work some more, and checking their smart phones and emailing before bedtime. I have received horrendously composed emails written by the author at 2 or 3 AM at their local time. I have seen colleagues drag into the office at 8 AM looking like zombies from a netherworld because they were up all night conducting a webinar for the other side of the globe. It is unrealistic and unhealthy for leaders to expect this type of ongoing marathon performance. In this age where devices allow workers to do amazing things, it is critical for leaders to use common sense, good judgment and compassion when defining their expectations. Is more important now than ever to set priorities collaboratively with employees. Just because we have the technology to make it so does not mean that everything needs to be done at the expense of the health and well-being of employees. Copyright 2014 Liszcz Consulting LLC |
AuthorLisa Liszcz has over 20 years of experience developing leaders and teams in four different global organizations in a variety of industries. In 2014 she became an entrepreneur and is rocking her inner superhero and loving her life like mad. Archives
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