Author: WorkAuthentically

Instant Innovation

Posted on by WorkAuthentically

We got a ping pong table as a family gift for Christmas. So it’s official. Just like all those other fun workplaces with ping pong, we can be innovative now!

Oh wait, the ping pong table doesn’t actually create the innovation. It’s the humans. *Somebody quick tell all those companies that installed the tables!*

And innovate we have! It turns out that no one in my house is inherently good at ping pong (though my spouse is easily the best player here) so we need lots of practice. The balls spend more time bouncing on our unfinished basement floor than on the table. We were spending most of our time chasing them. Until we innovated.

We had a few random pieces of drywall that we were able to lean against some other items to create a ball blockade. They don’t go all the way up like a wall would, but they do keep most of the errant ping pong balls from rolling too far away. In some cases, the bounce off the makeshift wall is enough to get the ping pong ball back in play!

Sidebar: No, I haven’t checked the official ping pong rulebook to know if that’s legal or not!

We didn’t set up the drywall the day we unpacked the table. It took time and experimentation to see what was and wasn’t working for us. That’s usually the way innovation works. It’s not the modern furniture or the gaming tables that create innovation. It’s the humans that have the time and freedom to experiment that are fixing problems, big and small.

One of the most important questions leaders can ask themselves is what they should stop doing so their team has more time. Stressed, overworked employees can’t be innovative, no matter how hard they try.

If you want innovation, create the space for it. Ping pong table optional.

#PositiveAction What’s something that’s been annoying you at work or at home that you could fix today? Take a little time and experiment to see if you can make it better!

Photos by me. The first is a fancy portrait of the paddles. The second is the unfancy but functional ball blockade.

Resolutions Need Accountability

Posted on by WorkAuthentically

About this time, the crowds on the resolution bandwagon have started to thin. We’ve been looking at how to make resolutions stick. You don’t stand a chance without belief or support. But the odds are against you without the third component: accountability.

I know! Accountability isn’t sexy or cool or even interesting to most people.

Accountability is often the very thing we try to avoid at all costs! But I’m here to tell you friends, that accountability works. It’s the rocket fuel that will take your resolutions to outer space (or wherever it is you want to go)!

Of course, anyone who’s been around the blog for more than a minute knows that I talk a lot about the importance of using your strengths at work. New here? Check out all these strengths posts.

I go blathering on about strengths on the regular because they are a critical component of doing your best work, finding your place in a community, and getting more joy out of work and life. And who doesn’t want those things? Yup. It’s pretty much what everyone is looking for after funny cat videos.

Some people get stuck wondering what their strengths are, so here’s a really simple way to find some of them: think about what people compliment you on.

I told you it was simple!

Those things that people compliment us on tend to be strengths that we don’t notice because it came so easily to us. Those compliments can be about the way we approach our work, our work style, why people like working with us, or how we make life easier/better for someone else.

Sidebar: If you can’t come up with anything, start a list today of compliments you get and track them until you see a pattern.

One of the compliments that I regularly get is that I’m a good accountability partner. I never set out to weave accountability into the fabric of the lives of my family, friends, and co-workers. It just happened. I can’t even fully explain how I do it (another sign of a strength!) other than to say my brain seems to remember when other people tell me something important to them and I follow up to hear about the progress they’re making toward said important thing.

Sometimes when I ask people how their important thing is going they tell me how awesome it is! But more often, they get embarrassed and mumble about how busy they’ve been. And let me be the first to tell you that just because I’m a good accountability partner doesn’t mean that I never get stuck. Excuses are often a lot easier to come by than the simple action we know we need to take. We all need accountability to keep us on track.

#PositiveAction Find someone who will regularly check in with you on your progress toward your important thing.

Resolutions are hard, so I’ve got 2 things to help make yours easier.

  1. My e-book, Change Authentically is on sale this week. It’s exactly the boost of positive action you need to get your resolutions back on track.
  2. This is the final week I’m going to be offering FREE calls so you can make sure you’ve got the belief, support, and accountability to manifest your dreams! Even if you’ve been struggling with taking action on your resolutions, a call with me is painless, easy, and fun. And of course, free!

 

Image by kropekk_pl from Pixabay

Resolutions Need Support

Posted on by WorkAuthentically

Anyone give up on their resolutions already? Or maybe you haven’t quite managed to start yet? I know people in both camps! There are also some people that are committed to making their resolutions stick. As the Cowardly Lion asks in Wizard of Oz, “What have they got that I ain’t got?…Courage.” Or more accurately, belief. 

Belief will get you started, but it won’t always be enough to keep you going.

That’s where support comes in. We all need somebody to lean on. *spontaneous song break!*

Becoming the best version of yourself doesn’t happen at the stroke of midnight when the calendar changes from 2020 to 2021. It happens slowly over time as you begin to embody your new intention and identity.

My dream of becoming a bestselling author didn’t happen overnight. It was a day-by-day activity that I had to keep showing up for, even when it was hard. Some days all I could muster was a single new sentence. Some days the words flowed through me like a torrential downpour. No matter the day, I had to keep the promise I’d made to myself and show up.

The same is true for those big dreams you’re trying to accomplish this year. Your resolutions need you to keep showing up. Daily.

But showing up isn’t usually easy or fun.

This is why you need support! Share your dream with other people so they can encourage you. There will be days when you want to give up, but having the support of someone else can give you the lift you need to keep at it.

In order to make my bestselling author dream a reality, I had some good people cheering me on that wouldn’t let me give up. They helped me find the resolve to keep making progress when I would otherwise not.

Support can be the difference between becoming the new you and reverting back to old habits and patterns from last year (and let’s be honest, no one wants to go back to 2020!!).

#PositiveAction Tell your resolution to one other person and ask them to support you on your journey.

You’re ready to create your best life, your dream job, and the best version of you. Except there’s that voice in your head, telling you that you can’t. That you won’t be successful. Just like all the other times you’ve tried. But that ends today, because with change coaching, you have the support and accountability you were missing all the other times you’ve tried.

This time will be different, because you’ll have the secret weapon: change coaching.

Looking for help with your resolutions? Schedule a FREE call to get support (hey, we all need that!) and recommendations on your journey.

 

Image by Wokandapix from Pixabay

Resolutions Need Belief

Posted on by WorkAuthentically

I love this time of year! It has nothing to do with the holidays and everything to do with the possibilities.

It’s time to dream up new dreams, big and small.

It’s time to improve those things that aren’t working well anymore.

It’s time to release those habits and beliefs that no longer serve.

It’s time to make change happen!

I live to make change happen in my own life and help others do the same. There’s few things more exciting than making progress toward something you really want or seeing the dream you’ve had for a long time finally come into being.

The change can be simple, like forming a new healthy habit or monumental, like building a new career or life from the ground up. I find all kinds of change thrilling!

And this is the time of year to create a plan to change. Most people go the route of saying or writing resolutions. I prefer to call any change I make an aspiration, basically a dream for the future that I try to live into daily.

Regardless of what you call it, change is hard to do. What separates the large number of people who are going to fail on their resolutions in a few weeks and the small number of people who are going to succeed? It comes down to 3 things.

  1. Belief
  2. Support
  3. Accountability

The great news about belief is that it’s basically a given this time of year.

Celebrating the new calendar year is a time of hope and optimism. We believe this year can be better or different than the last. We believe in possibilities. We believe that we’ve got what it takes.

That’s why resolutions are so common right now. We’re all bursting at the seams with belief!

Hang on to that belief because you’re going to need it if you’re heading toward change! Knowing that most resolutions fail, we need to keep our rose-colored glasses on as we dare to be different.

Over the next 2 weeks, we’ll take a look at support and accountability as the other necessary pieces to make change stick. Can’t stand to wait that long? Check out my books You Got This and Change Authentically for more motivation.

#PositiveAction Remind yourself that your resolution is not only possible, but probable. Believe that you can do it!

Have you already decided on your resolution? Awesome! Let’s hang out!!

I’m offering 1:1 coaching so 2021 is the year you finally keep your resolutions and make change happen. Want to learn more? Book a FREE call with me today to talk about creating resolution rocket fuel to get where you want to go!

 

Image by Mabel Amber from Pixabay

Successful Year

Posted on by WorkAuthentically

Well here we are, at the most anticipated year-end that I’ve ever known. It’s been so – what’s the word I’m thinking of? No, not unprecedented. Different. It’s been so different in so many ways.

I know most people are going to call it a dumpster fire of a year and it definitely had its moments. But it was also a successful year.

I know it was a mess! It still is, really. But there’s also success hiding within it. Here’s what I mean.

For my work, I had to re-think how I delivered education and coaching services. The pandemic changed the way I interact with people and organizations. But I was still able to help over 200 people this year. That’s a whole lot of people that have learned to surface their authentic career story, grow their confidence, communicate their value and find their best work!

I couldn’t do that work the way I’d done it before. It was dramatically different than how I thought the year would go. And yet. I know how our workplaces, families, and communities are transformed when people are doing work they love, so helping even one person do that would be successful in my book.

And speaking of books, did you know I published 4 this year? Crazy, right? I actually spent a lot of time in 2019 writing the first book, but Change Authentically wasn’t ready until February of this year. It almost feels like January and February 2020 were their own distinct year since those months were so dramatically different than the rest of the year!

I published two short e-books during the pandemic, but the majority of my writing time this year was spent on (you guessed it!) Success Authentically. It was an idea that kept nagging at me until I had no choice but to sit down and start. It was not convenient timing, since I had recently been promoted to teacher for my two school-age children who were thrust into the ever-challenging world of virtual learning. Given the constraints on my time and the unknowns at the start of the pandemic, I shouldn’t have even tried. And yet, I wrote a little bit every day until one day, it was magically complete. When I launched Success Authentically in December, it became a best seller on Amazon!

It’s funny. Becoming a best-selling author was not on my list of things to do in 2020, but that sure feels like success, even if it is different than the goals (which now seem hilarious!) that I set at the start of the year.

I volunteer my time for an organization that is dedicated to catalyzing a global solution to the climate crisis. One of the key components of that work, up until this year had been in-person education and conversations to help people understand how they can be part of the solution. You would expect that this work would have been on hold after we couldn’t gather in groups this year, but we were able to pivot, imagining a different way to achieve the same goal. I volunteered more than 60 hours with the Climate Reality Project, mostly from the comfort of my own home this year. The Milwaukee chapter of the group (where I’m a co-chair) grew our membership by 3x and launched a new monthly education program. So yeah. Success was definitely hiding in our challenges there too.

Of course, there’s also been lots of challenges at home. Having 4 people trying to work and learn and live in the same place isn’t easy, but we’re finding ways to make it fun, even if it’s different than before. Like everyone else, we’ve changed how we interact with our family and friends (excited for the day when hugging those far away folks becomes a reality again!). We’ve changed holiday traditions and created some awesome memories. We’ve been frustrated, angry, and disappointed. But we’ve found success in being together in different ways (virtual spring break, family book reading, picnics in the yard, and more). This year helped us all build resilience and it helped us get more intentional with our time together. And that’s the most important measure of success I can think of.

2020 wasn’t all bad and it wasn’t all good. It was different. Just like every other year.

#PositiveAction Look at your year to see the success hiding within it. If your list isn’t what you hoped, you’ve still got 2 weeks to change that!

 

Programming Note: There won’t be a blog post next week as I prepare for some time off with my family. Yup, it’s with those folks I see all day every day, but I’m still looking forward to our very different holiday!

 

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Successful Disappointment

Posted on by WorkAuthentically

 

What is disappointment? It’s the experience of having reality not align to our expectations. Basically we’re hoping for one thing and get another instead. Pretty sure we’ve all felt it and felt it acutely in 2020.

Recently, I experienced a major disappointment. I had been hoping for and working hard toward one outcome (for an award/recognition), only to not see it materialize after all the effort I’d put in. It was crushing.

But in a year that has handed out more than an average number of crushing disappointments, I was in good company.

I talked to a friend that same day who was experiencing the disappointment of the sale of their house unable to go through as planned. A few days later, I talked to another friend who has been brave enough to return to school for an entirely new degree, but is disappointed with field work that has been far more challenging in unexpected ways, causing her to doubt her choice to return to school.

Can there be success in disappointment?

Absolutely. You just have to be willing to look for it.

For my friend with the college challenges, the disappointment is changing the approach for the remainder of the field work, but it’s not changing the brave new direction that’s been set. She’s staying in the degree program to eventually gain employment doing work that matters deeply to her.

For my friend with the house drama, it’s changing the timeline of when they will move and how they will accomplish it, but it’s not changing their decision to move. Moving was and is the success measure and they will hit it. Eventually.

As for me, I needed to remind myself that although awards and recognition are nice, they aren’t my measure of success. I’m not here to be the most highly decorated coach in the industry. I’m here to help as many people as I can find work that they love because our families, workplaces, and communities are transformed when people love what they do. When I looked at my disappointment with reset expectations, it was a lot easier for me to see the success and to celebrate it.

The punk-rock poet, Frank Turner said it best, “Everyone can find a song for every time they’ve lost and every time they’ve won”. So whether you’re killing it or getting killed by it, turn up the music and take another look. You might see more success than you expected!

If you are struggling with disappointment (from mild to crushing and everything in between!), check out my new book Success Authentically: Unlock Excitement, Purpose, and Joy At Work. You’ll find a brand-new approach to success!

 

#PositiveAction Take a good, honest look at your latest disappointment. You may be surprised to discover there’s a lot of success hiding in it!

 

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Successful Holidays

Posted on by WorkAuthentically

We’ve just finished Thanksgiving, which is the unofficial start to the holiday season. This year, more than any other in recent memory, our holiday celebrations will be different from the past. Will they be successful, though? That’s up to you!

The holiday celebrations that my family enjoys don’t look like the ones we see on TV. They aren’t the perfectly prepared images on social media. There’s no spontaneous snowball fight or caroling door-to-door or 5-course meal on fancy china. There’s no diamond jewelry or car with a giant red bow on it.

So if it doesn’t look like all the holiday images we’re shown, is it unsuccessful?

I guess that depends on how you define success.

If your number one goal for the holiday season is to have a spontaneous snowball fight, then you should probably start with being in place that has snow. It’s not going to happen somewhere warm.

If you’re hoping for the fancy meal, you’ll need good food and lots of plates.

If you want a certain gift, tell someone or buy it for yourself!

The point here is that you need to decide for yourself what will be most meaningful for you. It doesn’t have to look like anyone else’s celebration. You get to define success for you and you get to collaborate with the others in your life that are celebrating with you.

A successful holiday season for me includes more intentional time together (yes, even in the year of constant togetherness!!) playing games, watching holiday movies, and singing songs. It includes special, once-a-year, homemade treats. And it includes extra time for people and causes we care about.

It doesn’t include a whole lot of other things because none of us consider them necessary for success.

If you are looking for an exciting new way to think about success, my latest book, Success Authentically: Unlock Excitement, Purpose, and Joy At Work is here just in time for the holidays! 

#PositiveAction Take time today to think about what the most successful holiday would look like for you. It’s easy to make a plan once you know what’s important!

 

Image byBUMIPUTRA fromPixabayplus the cover to Success Authentically!

A Festivus Miracle

Posted on by WorkAuthentically

Is “I’ve got a lot of problems with you people!” something you say out loud (or mutter under your breath!) at every family gathering? Even this is something to be grateful for! Stay with me…

There’s a reason that the made-up holiday Festivus from Seinfeld is still so popular, more than 20 years on. We all have a lot of problems with people. Especially people we have to spend large amounts of time with. Isn’t that what makes all those ridiculously awful reality shows so exciting? It’s the drama (real and/or invented by producers) that arises after people are together for a while.

It’s not socially acceptable (nor is it advised) to go berserk at work, so more often than not, we end up losing it with our families. You know, those safe spaces where we don’t have to be polite.

But before you go airing your list of grievances, let me suggest another option. You could create a list of gratitude instead.

Being with people is a chance to practice listening and empathy and understanding another viewpoint (regardless of how wrong you think they are!). It’s a masterclass in patience!

You don’t have to agree with everyone you’re related to, but you can celebrate the differences that make every single person unique!

#PositiveAction Thank someone in your family. Every day, our families create opportunities for us to practice gratitude through the things they do and say. Whether you had a good laugh or had a chance to practice patience, express your gratitude for it.

 

Image by ashish choudhary from Pixabay

 

 

Indebted to Difficulty

Posted on by WorkAuthentically

You know how sometimes things are easy and everything is awesome? And then there’s 2020. There’s been a lot of challenges and difficulties this year (to put it mildly). It’s easy to celebrate the smooth sailing. It takes more work to be thankful for the difficulties.

There are tiny annoyances like spilling coffee on yourself right before heading out the door. There are bigger obstacles like a seemingly impossible problem that is your responsibility to solve at work. And there are the major issues of loss and grief we all experience over the course of a lifetime.

Whether tiny or large, it’s a chance to be grateful. We are shaped into the people we need to be through our challenges more so than our successes.

When I was suffering with burnout and depression, being grateful for the experience was the last thing on my mind. I was only focused on surviving it. Now, however, I greatly appreciate the experience.

I know that only something as dramatic as that situation could have forced me to assess what I was doing and what direction I was heading. If it weren’t for the difficulty of that experience, it’s unlikely I would have dared to make a change. I would have kept muddling through, being bored and unfulfilled, for who knows how long!

We all have challenges like that, big and small, that give us a chance to practice gratitude. It’s not always easy, but when I remind myself that difficulties are as much a part of the career journey as awesomeness, it’s a lot easier to be thankful for the challenges.

#PositiveAction What challenge or obstacle are you facing right now? Give thanks for the chance to learn something new and the opportunity try a different approach!

 

Image by Mike Foster from Pixabay