Throughout our lives, we receive all sorts of criticism, some valid and some that are simply meant to pull us down. And yet, for many of us, the worst criticism we face is not external; instead, it’s those comments we make to ourselves that question our ability to succeed or receive recognition from those around us. Consider, for example the following comments:

“No one is going to listen to me.”

“This isn’t going to work.”

“I hope they don’t hate it.”

“I don’t deserve all this attention.”

On the surface, these comments seem fairly harmless, which is probably why many of us have said it either out loud or inwardly to ourselves. However, the problem is that such comments can not only have a negative impact on how we see ourselves, but also in how we present our abilities to others.

To give this a proper frame of reference, consider the examples of business leaders Jack Welch and Ursula Burns. When they attain the goal they set out to reach, their response is Click here to continue reading »”How To Put A Stop To Negative Self-Talk”

Last month marked the completion of my first year of writing for this blog and my second year of blogging in general. Looking back over the last twelve months, it’s hard not to feel a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction regarding the opportunities and relationships I’ve attained as a result of writing for my website. As this milestone also coincides with the year’s halfway mark, I also saw this as a good opportunity to review how much progress I’ve made in reaching the goals I set out for myself at the beginning of the year.

In some ways, it felt odd to be performing such an exercise in the middle of summer, especially when one considers the downtime most companies are experiencing right now thanks to vacationing employees and customers. As it turns out though, the summer downtime actually provides an excellent opportunity for businesses and their leaders to review their team’s efforts, in order to assess how much progress has been made in reaching their shared goals. By performing this review during the summer break, leaders will develop a better understanding of where to focus their team’s efforts when they return to full force at the end of summer.

Of course, in assessing the efforts made so far by your team, it’s important that you Click here to continue reading »”Using The Summer Downtime To Assess Your Organization’s Direction”

Today’s piece is a guest post by Gwyn Teatro. Gwyn is a Certified Professional Coach with a Master of Science degree in Management and 15 years experience as a Human Resources Consultant to Executive and Senior Management in the Financial Services Industry. While she may have retired from the corporate world,  she maintains an interest in coaching leaders with the drive to help them achieve results, both for their organizations as well as for themselves.  You can read more of Gwyn’s writings on her blog, “You’re Not the Boss of Me”

Only one man in a thousand is a leader of men — the other nine hundred and ninety nine follow women. – Groucho Marx

I bumped into this quote while surfing the Internet and just kept it for a while feeling that there might be something I needed to say about it. In the end, I guess I just found it amusing in a wry sort of way. And it reminded me of Mary.

Mary was my first HR boss. Before working with her, I was a clerk, an efficient yet uninspiring one.

Mary was looking for a Personnel Assistant at the time and having rifled through the roster of internal candidates that might fit her bill, she chose me.

Initially, I was very flattered until I learned Mary’s selection criteria. It was less than scientific. Specifically, Mary gave me the job because I could type; I was presentable; and I hadn’t ticked anyone off…yet. Click here to continue reading »”Mentorships… and Mary”

As with most kids on summer break, my girls have been spending part of their days taking swimming lessons to help advance their skills in this particular sport. While attending one of their lessons, I noticed something that was reminiscent of what many companies go through when managing the growth of their organization.

For one of their lessons, my daughter’s swim teacher asked the students in her class to swim the length of the pool and then toss a ball into the basketball net. One by one, the kids took their turn swimming across the pool and attempting to varying degrees of success in getting the ball into the net.

When it was my daughter’s turn, she swam toward the basketball net and stopped to one side to take her shot. On her first try, she bounced the ball off the rim of the net. In her next shot, she tried to throw the ball with more force, which ended up sending the ball past the net and over to the other side. Although she tried and missed another two times to get that ball into the net, she never once showed any sign of wavering in trying to succeed, even though she was clearly having no luck with this exercise.

After her class, I applauded her for being so determined to get that ball in the net, but I also had a question for her – why didn’t she just swim to the front of the net where she could have had an easier time shooting the ball? As soon as I asked her this, she gave me this sheepish smile, now realizing how she had made the task harder for herself simply because of where she chose to take the shot.

Watching her single-minded focus in performing this task reminded me of how many organizations and their leaders can also Click here to continue reading »”Learning From Your Mistakes – 4 Steps To Turn Failure Into Success”

A few days ago, my wife and I decided to take the kids to the beach, to take advantage of the beautiful summer weather that’s been absent in previous years. Admittedly, I did question whether I should bring along my laptop to use some of that lounging-around time to do some writing and such. It only took a moment’s consideration, though, for me to dispel the idea, preferring instead to use this time to watch my kids build sandcastles, or simply floating in the water while my mind drifted off. After all, spending time in such carefree pursuits is what we often associate with taking time off work to enjoy our lives.

Unfortunately, many people are either feeling guilty about taking time off work to go on vacation or worse still, forgoing it altogether in favour of staying ‘on the job’ in order to try and diminish the number of issues currently found on their plates. Many leaders have been very public about their decision to skip taking a vacation this year, rationalizing that it would be unwise to be away from the office given the problems arising from today’s economic climate.

And yet, the reality is that the only unwise thing about these situations is thinking that you’re helping your team by not taking time off from work, a decision that can prove to be more harmful than beneficial for you or your organization. To help prove my point, here are four reasons why you should be going on vacation this summer. Click here to continue reading »”Thinking Of Skipping Your Vacation This Summer? Think Again”