Strategic Serendipity

 I love New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.  They hold such promise, enthusiasm, and hope.  2020 was not as bad for me as for so many in the world.  After losing my dad in 2018 and my mom in 2019, the worst thing 2020 gave me was frustration and worry.  And for that I am very thankful.  But that doesn’t mean that the dreams don’t start to build this time of year.   As I was planning this year, I wanted to make sure I wasn't rushing forward too fast.  As the single mother of a nine-year old, we most likely will not be doing that big Disney/Harry Potter trip we had planned in 2021.  And that is okay.  But there are a lot of things I can do to build (or build on) good habits.   So here it is, my 2021 New Year's Resolutions.  Watch here to see if I succeed! Take 100 beautiful pictures .  This is a self-indulgent, self-care item.  My 2018 began with my son being admitted to the hospital and ended with my father's ...

Goals should be things that are a stretch.  They should be things that aren't easy to achieve.  If you are truly setting goals (and not benchmarks) you will sometimes fail to hit the mark.  Take, for example, the 31-Day Blog Challenge I participated in this month.  Add in the most teaching and program days at work I have had in a while, designing a new program that has to be presented to and approved by my equivalent of the C-Suite, getting a cold from constantly going back and forth between 107 degree F heat index and 70 degree F air conditioning, and top it off with my first trip to the ER with my 21 month old son because of a fall (official diagnosis and treatment: a small bruise and a popsicle).  Needless to say, I have failed my 31-Day Blog Challenge.  And I failed it in front of all of you. So, we are making this a teaching moment on goal setting and resilience.  I will continue blogging through the end of the month AND I will redo the challeng...

There will never be a perfect time, sometimes you just have to make a move.  For what?  Honestly, it doesn't matter. We are constantly saying I will do that when I have more money, I will apply for that job when I have more experience, I will volunteer when I have more time, etc.  There will never be a perfect time.  If you spend your life waiting for "when" you will miss some amazing opportunities.  Does that mean you should take a fantasy vacation on your credit cards or apply for an executive chef position if you have never even been able to make toast?  Of course not.  It means you need to break your big goal down into small goals and make one move today that will get you closer.  Start  putting $25 a paycheck in a savings account for that vacation. Pick a new recipe to try for dinner. Read a book, a magazine, or a blog in an area that interests you. Research volunteer opportunities you can do with your child or in the time you have after...

You know my opinion that when it comes to professional development , you get out of a program what you put into it.  So now you get my opinion on the single most important element of personal/professional development. 
SELF AWARENESS 
 What is it?  Self awareness is knowing your strengths and how to maximize them, knowing your weaknesses and how to buffer them, knowing that you have blind spots and being open to feedback about them, and being willing to do the necessary reflection and work to constantly improve yourself. I have observed so many people in leadership development programs (1 hour to 18 month) listen to an amazing instructor describe an action, reaction, or career derailer and immediately speak up and identify someone else who has that quality.  You would not believe how often, that person has the same quality.  However, they often even follow up with because of my experience working with that person I make a point to not do this.  Awkward....

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is based on the work of Swiss psychiatrist Carl G. Jung. Jung observed that people have inborn preferences for gathering information and making decisions and that these preferences guide an individual’s behavior. The mother/daughter team of Katherine Cook Briggs and Isabel Briggs Myers expanded on Jung’s theories and created an assessment to make the combined work accessible to all individuals. Today, the assessment is used by most Fortune 100 companies and over two million people worldwide, annually. The assessment identifies an individual’s inborn preferences on four dichotomous scales: where you focus your energy, how you prefer to take in information, how you make decisions, and how you deal with the outer world. Type is best used to understand other people, improve communication, and develop individual skills. The first dichotomy is Extraversion (gets energy from other people) and Introversion (gets energy from reflection).  The second...

Are you the type of person who likes to start one thing, finish it, and move on to the next? If so, I truly admire you! If not, I feel your drive (and sometimes pain) to be in the middle of many multiple projects all at once. People with this quality have to watch out for two major detailers - not finishing anything and losing track of things. Before I got pregnant, I rarely kept a solid calendar and made lists only when I was feeling overwhelmed. Call it mommy-brain or call it exceeding my capacity to remember things (or call it way too much Diet Coke) but now if something exceeds three things I have to make a list. Considering that I am usually juggling multiple types of projects at work, multiple volunteer commitments, multiple home-based businesses, a pile of bills that always seem to add up to more than my income, and raising a 17-month old son this new "rule of three" means everything goes on a list. 1. Consolidated Source for Lists My favorite way to do this...

When someone engages with you in a virtual "conversation" via text, message, or e-mail how do you balance being responsive while staying on task. I have heard people who have a rule that if three or more messages go back and forth it is time to pick up the phone. This is a good rule for high priority discussions (which includes family members, friends, etc.) if you are in a situation where you can pick up a phone and speak with the person. There are those times when that just isn't an option. Here are four easy steps for handling those "conversations" when you can't pick up the phone or when you have to stay focused on your current task.  1.  Prioritize Is this something that requires your attention right now?  If yes, either pick up the phone or stop and shift your focus to responding. Many times that back and forth virtual exchange is caused because one party (sometimes more) is multi-tasking and not fully reading the exchange. If you stop and fo...

In so many of the development programs I work with, people come in with an attitude of what will you teach me?  Or worse yet, what is the minimum I have to do to get credit?  If there isn't a change after the program, the assumption is that the program failed the person. If you're trying to learn how to work a computer program, like Microsoft Excel, then yes, if you can't work Excel after the program, the program failed you. If you're trying to develop yourself as a leader, however, you have to commit to the homework and reflection.  If there isn't a change after the program, I suggest you failed the program. Keeping that in mind, here are my recommendations for anyone considering entering a professional development program (works for a coaching relationship, too). 1.  Be willing to commit to honest self-reflection. 2.  Know how you will define success after the end of the program or relationship. 3.  Do the homework!  (If you don't, the on...