Strategic Serendipity

You've seen them in front of your grocery stores.  In DC, they even stand at the top of the escalator of the subway after work.  When you are weak.  When just a little chocolate will go a long way to washing away the hassles of the day.  And that price, $4 a box.  Really, it is a good cause, just keep the extra dollar.  (You know you've done it!)  As I sit here eating my Thin Mints I am looking at the side of the box.  It says: The Girl Scout Cookie Program Selling Girl Scout Cookies helps girls develop 5 skills that they use throughout their lives: 1.  Goal Setting 2.  Decision Making 3.  Money Management 4.  People Skills 5.  Business Ethics Now I was a Girl Scout, in 4-H, and in Junior Achievement throughout my youth and I can tell you that they are all excellent organizations with amazing and lifelong leadership lessons.  But as I sit here wondering if I can really open that box of Tagalongs before the ...

Every January 1 there is a rush to make New Year's Resolutions.  I don't know about you, but a list of resolutions never seems to stick for me.  In the training and development area we are constantly talking about Executive and Individual Development Plans.  I will be honest, I can really get into these with a client.  But, I don't have one in the form I recommend.  Is this part of do what I say, not what I do?  Maybe.  Maybe not. I've been thinking that one plan for what you want to accomplish at work and one for home and one for your volunteer work can be as aggravating (and ultimately useless) as trying to maintain a paper calendar at work, an outlook calendar, a hanging calendar on the fridge at home, and a google calendar for your extracurriculars. I think what we really need is a one-stop shopping personal plan that merges everything you do now and everything you want to achieve in the next five years (or whatever time period you are using). ...

Quick quiz: 1.  Which would you be more often if you could choose? 2.  Which are you more often? 3.  Is there a difference?  If so, why? I would love to be more proactive in my life and I am working towards this.  No matter how hard I try, however, I tend to spend more time in the reactive arena than I would prefer.  And it makes me feel stress.  I know the more time I spend in the reactive, the less time I have to move things forward and create new things.  In essence, the less time I have to spend on the things I love.  So, my challenge for this week is to schedule "proactive" time every day.  Will you join me?  What will you do?

As a single working mother, when a child is sick and cannot go to daycare, I have no other choices, I must stay home.  My work flexiplace contract requires that I cannot work from home if I do not have daycare so these then become sick days.  Now granted, when I am going back and forth from the doctor everyday like I did last week, I didn't have time to work anyway.  So here's my question for those of you out there who have done it before...how do you "catch up?" Let me say, I was on the phone and e-mail via blackberry for emergencies so at least I knew those were covered.  When I could go back to work on Friday, I started with prioritizing (yes, we should all be doing that all the time).  But seriously, when you have a day to do a week's worth of work, you do the most important things first...it seems so easy in that moment.  I tried to schedule babysitter time to go in on the weekend and work, but I was only able to get a few hours (including commute ti...

My earliest memories of my son (now 15 months old) are taking him to the grocery store whenever he got fussy. He would stop crying and focus on the people in the store. When he turned 11 months old he went to daycare for the first time. That was when I realized with a certainty that he has a preference for extra version. On the weekends I make sure that we have a play date or go somewhere he can be around people (even if it is just walking around a store). If we haven't been out because it is too cold...he gets fussy. If I suck it up and bundle us up and go somewhere...he is happy.  As adults, even though we don't cry when we are operating outside of our preference it does cause us added stress.  I always advise people to know what their preference is, when they are operating outside of it, and what they can do inside their preference to renew their energy.  From a Leadership perspective, when you give your employees "stretch" assignments outside of their pr...

I spent this week in three days of intense coach training, sounds stressful, right?  On the contrary, I feel renewed.  Like most of you, I go and go and go and rarely have time to renew myself.  I know the importance of renewal - you can't give 100% to others if you aren't giving 100% to yourself, but sometimes finding the time is next to impossible. I thought of some of the other things that renew me and realized they are generally peppered throughout the week.  Things like: Walking my son to daycare in the morning and home in the evening. Spending time with my son at Barnes and Noble. Reading for pleasure. Taking a shower or bath for leisure (not just a quick get ready for work one). Getting my tea from Starbuck's before work. Sitting in the small office I made for myself (whether I am doing something "productive" or not. Throughout the next week I am going to really focus on renewal when I am doing these simple, ordinary things.  Want to join me...

I am in training this week instead of teaching and it is always such a renewal for me.  Today we spent a lot of time talking about our life purpose.  For me, I am getting grounded in what I want to do (more to come over the next few months) and as I do I am building my courage to pursue it. Over the last year, I have found an inner strength I didn't know I had.  I have also prioritized my values and become really clear about what I want.  My dreams today are not really that much different than they were four years ago when I first started considering my purpose.  But I am a completely different person today.  I have more education, experience, and belief in my capabilities.  I now know that I can dedicate my energy to my life purpose and I will be successful. What is your life purpose? Are you pursuing it?  Tell us how that feels! Are you considering a move to bring your life and your purpose into alignment?  What is holding you back?...

Many supervisors use competition to motivate employees either obviously (through bonuses and promotions) or subtlety (through assigning the "good" work).  Most also advocate that their group is a team and should work together.  Putting aside the issue of what is a team and what is a group of people who work together for another post, can competition and teamwork truly coexist? I don't know the answer to this one and would love to hear your thoughts.  Personally I tend to shy away from competition and teamwork, preferring to work on a project independently.  Over the past 22 months I have had the privilege of working on two volunteer committees that both functioned as highly-performing and personally enjoyable teams.  The team was packed full of type A leaders and yet everyone left that at the door and worked together to make tough decisions and produce consistently and on-time.  These two committees (each led by a different leader) have been my best exper...

In working with senior leaders I typically find an outright aversion to social networking.  I hear people say "I would never want the people I work with as Facebook friends," "That is just a time waster," and "Our organization blocks it so it must be bad."  When used properly, however, social networking can be a huge asset.  There are lots of posts on how to use it, what to use, etc.  I recently gave my personal Facebook page up to just be a way to update friends and family on my son's progress.  Riveting to some, but not necessarily something that everyone wants to read.  I warned everyone before I did it and directed those "work" connections to my Strategic Serendipity Facebook "Page" and my Linked In account.  This works really well for me.  I'm currently experimenting with Google Plus so feel free to "circle?" me on that if you wish.  Here are the general guidelines I use when posting. Rule #1 - Don't post ...

Every leader faces it at one time or another. You've mastered your technical domain and are encouraged (subtlety or not) to transition to delegating to and developing others. But what if you really like what you do?  But what if you are worried you will get bored eventually without a new challenge?  But what if you feel like that is a long way down the road and you still have enough challenges to keep you busy for a few years?  Sound familiar?  At what point do you decide to transition from doing yourself to developing others?   How did you move into formal leadership?  What were the primary factors that encouraged your decision?