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In my journey to learn more about running a business I hear that you need two different mindsets to be successful. I’m told you need the CEO who is the visionary who will pull the organization forward. In support of that notion, you need a COO who will manage the process to assure accountability and results in day to day operations. Both are critical for long term sustainability, and you won’t often find both talents in a single individual. As organizations grow, the owner tries to do both; but often falls short on one side or the other until additional talent is brought in with the missing skills and capacity to fulfill the business strategy. As a child I always questioning everything. As an adult I continue to challenge these assumptions and simply ask why can this not be in a single person and still be successful?

I’m inspired to write this piece because yesterday I was asked by a colleague which aspect of the business I prefer and I found it a curious question. My years of training in Operations spawned my initial response of enjoying the execution of tasks to achieve results. Short term rests satisfies instant gratification as I’m sure all of you can relate to that. However, my soul is filled when I endeavor in the creative space and explore possibilities; often referred to as the “Shiny Penny Syndrome”. These two worlds of the CEO (visionary) and COO (execution) live in harmony as I build my business and the two roles fill all aspects of my purpose.

Is it possible to do both roles successfully? Does it require different types of personality types to excel in each to elevate the organization? As I build my business, I’ve enlisted the skills of resources that build capacity & capability in both my CEO and COO offices. So as I question these assumptions, I’ve come to the conclusion that successful businesses must survive with the CEO & COO embedded in one individual and here’s why…

The CEO says “why not” and the COO says “it’s possible if we do ‘X'”.

The CEO says “I see us changing the industry” and the COO says “it will cost you ‘Y’ and you need ‘Z’ resources”.

The CEO says “I want to create a better tomorrow” and the COO says “while you dream, let me go back to making money”.

If the CEO did not have the COO, dreams could not be created.

If the COO did not have the CEO, the business would become extinct over time.

When you combine both vision and operations into a single person, isn’t that what you want in a leader? In a business owner? Why not create a single mindset that evaluates both toward a common goal? If you have talent around you in both domains, you should be able to lead with the CEO & COO mindsets.

I bring this up not to delve into the details & challenges of why this is not possible. I bring this up to make you think about what you’ve been told and why it is not successful. I ask you to think about how it is possible to have both mindsets; and become the model leader of tomorrow. Isn’t vision & operations simply the characteristics of a Leader? And thus was created the CLO, Chief Leadership Officer.

If you’d like to engage in a conversation about this topic or to learn more about my consulting, leadership academy or the podcast, please connect with me at [email protected] or my website at dropinceo.com/contact.

-Deb Coviello

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Dear Business owner or VP of Operations,

We’ve not met yet, but let me introduce myself; I’m Deb Coviello Founder of Illumination Partners and I simply wanted to reach out to you to learn more about you. I find when I get to know you first; out of that we learn what excites you, what is your business, your amazing past and what are you most proud of. I love to hear these stories and simply build meaningful relationships with you. It’s because I’ve worked in so many of these similar businesses that I know both challenges and aspirations and I’d simply love to be your partner.

You see, when you share with me your business aspirations such as market growth, achieving a Quality or Food Safety Certification or simply elevating the impact of your Quality Organization, I have that expertise. I can also be a Drop in Quality Leader helping you during a time of leadership change or challenges and provide you peace of mind that I know what to do. All of this I can provide to you while you focus on the areas that leverage your passion and strengths.

I can also simply be a sounding board to frame what the future looks like. I’ve been told by numerous colleagues I’m tremendous at active listening and the ability to reframe what you said into a strategic outcome that opens up your mindset. I’ve become that business partner that not only takes care of your short term business challenges, but I have a way of bringing out the best in you to a strategy that compliments your business growth.

So having said all of this, the next step is for us to connect. I offer you my email [email protected] or LinkedIn or you can contact me via my website https://dropinceo.com/contact and we can start a conversation. I sell nothing, but I do extend you this offer: Peace of Mind. If Peace of Mind is what you aspire to, then let’s continue the conversation.

Be well and be safe

Deborah A. Coviello (Deb)

This week I had the good fortune of traveling to a client to help on-board new talent as well as accelerate a strategic Quality Initiative and I’ve gained some amazing insights. One professional was ready for my visit and full of questions, taking copious notes and re-framing what they heard in order to absorb my input. The other professional was fully engaged in our meetings and very collaborative; but something was missing. When I reflect on the feeling I had from these two individuals I saw one had a fire inside and the other was a low simmer. So what’s a leader to do when we are tasked with elevating both individuals?

There’s only so many hours in the day or energy to expend and while we can push both individuals, I’d prefer to invest my time in the High Performer. During our time, I was “dripping” insights from my Human-Centric Leadership course and they were an absolute sponge. This is the kind of person who has arrived at a place of self awareness to up their game and the perspective that they were presented with an expert and taking full advantage of it. The other leader while enthusiastic, was waiting for me to provide the tools and insights in order to execute the project. That is my job and I’ll do it with all my experience and passion, but the leader was not showing any depth of self awareness that either develop new skills or to improve existing skills. In both these situations, I’ll serve, but at a different level.

I share this story with you because I want to raise your awareness to these High Performers who need so much more in order to elevate them, but lack the support structure within their organization. The person who was pulling all my knowledge reports to the person who did not have the same level of self awareness and maturity to grow their skills. That can be a problem for many professionals for which I provide several solutions.

My podcast The Drop in CEO provides Insights and Inspiration from Industry Leaders

The Human Centric Leadership course is a 6 week course launching shortly; we received tremendous feedback from our pilot students – please contact me so we can determine if this is the right course for you; space is limited.

If you are a Leaders who has a team of High Performers but you simply don’t have the capacity to elevate them, let’s discuss a custom approach for you to Elevate your team. I‘m also having a webinar on July 21st and again on July 28th to share more about the impact of this offer.

I’m passionate about investing in our future leaders, accelerating their impact and leaving a legacy.

Will you join me?

Be well-Deb

As a Thought Leader who communicates discipline and accountability; quite frankly I’m embarrassed. My love for writing started out as a daily ritual when I started my business, then it went to once a week and now I don’t make time to post my own thoughts. Now one could argue I post a significant amount of content via The Drop in CEO Podcast and I regularly post on my LinkedIn Feed. However, I realized I was getting caught up in the Social Media Frenzy of posting “Consistently” vs. posting for myself. I don’t chastise myself, but as a growth mindset leader, I reflect on where I went off my path and renew my belief in writing for myself and getting back on the path that is meaningful to myself.

So what is your path that you have started on? Have come to a place where you don’t recognize yourself or you had well intended goals but at mid-year, you’re not on track? Do you move to a place of disappointment in your self or do you see it as a positive opportunity to reflect and get back on track; or even better adjust your compass? You have choices and depending on how you feel about yourself, you can set you up for failure or as I like to focus on; your successes for the rest of 2020.

Here’s another story that I’d like to share with you and I hope it inspires you to propel forward with your goals.

Up until I started my own business, I had poor decision logic when it comes to whats important or urgent. I would always take on the tasks that were easy and I could check the box, but lost my way to complete some of the harder tasks; probably because they didn’t excite.. At the end of the day, I didn’t get a good performance review and while it didn’t feel good, it was what I needed to get me back on the path. I checked the box on all the things I didn’t get done and was meeting expectations again, but I didn’t feel like I was on the right path. I no longer was satisfied with checking the box, but sought more meaningful work. So I changed course, left my job and started my own business.

So going off course is sometimes a good thing as it gives you information to decide if you need to get back on the course or take a different path. I share my story as one that hopefully inspires you. If you are a high performance professional who is seeking insights & inspiration and mentoring to achieve your goals, please reach out to me for a free consultation. We have our leadership academy that is going live in August and this may be the place for you to help you to stay on the path or take a different one to achieve fulfilling work.

Be well and I wish all of you amazing success and thank you for following the Drop in CEO; may all of you be CEO’s of your own destiny!

-Deb

You’re a talented young professional who up until this point was a high performer and moving through the organization like a superstar. Then this happens; it all stops. You’re frustrated with what worked in the past no longer works now. You find the people dynamics are more challenging than the work you are doing. You start to doubt your capability and lose some confidence. You stop taking risks or sharing new ideas and start to feel frustrated. At this point, you either fall in line with simply doing the work, or a spark inside of you is telling you that you need a change, but not sure what to do.

I’ve seen this pattern time and time again and some of you are lucky enough to find a new opportunity and renewed joy in your work. For others, it simply is not possible at this time and you seek guidance from peers or managers and find it’s simply not there. You may have performance reviews or 1-2-1’s where you may take an assessment or go out for training in hopes you’ll raise your awareness or find a new skill; but seldom is there the support to evolve your performance.

There are multiple areas that at this juncture in your career you need to assess:

Me: What do I know about myself and what are my Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities or Threats. What am I really good at and have a strong passion for, but I’m not leveraging that in my current role. What can I do to bridge the gap, take action and hold yourself accountable.

Them: Understanding the people around you is probably your biggest challenge, but going deep into understanding what makes them tick can be invaluable to connect with them and be able to do work with and through others.

Us: Even trickier than understanding yourself, the people in your work environment, but is the dynamics of then working together through situations. This process takes a higher level set of skills for which mentoring is needed; but seldom available.

So what is the solution for which is probably common sense to you, but are not share where to find the guidance for such skill development? It’s unfortunate to say most of this is reserved for executive leadership or in a few organizations, reserved for a select few High Performers with focus development and mentorship.

This under served market can gain so much momentum if we provide a framework to take you through the skills and provide mentoring to elevate your performance. It is this market that Illumination Partners sincerely cares about and we think we can provide some simple tools to get you started. Here are a few things to start you on your journey:

1) What are those mindsets that you have about yourself, your value, your skills and abilities and what you are capable of.

2) Which one of these are limiting beliefs and ask yourself why and what holds you back.

3) Prioritize the limiting beliefs and which one or two you want to change. Identify the action you will need to take to close the gap to what you want,

4) Take action, practice with someone to help you make the change,

5) create a tool that will help you practice the new skill and make it stick.

If you need more help or guidance or wish to learn more about our New 6 week course that is in pilot, but want to get in on the next round, please connect us on our Contact Page.

Until we connect, I wish you success in your career and hope these few tips were helpful.

Deb Coviello, Founder of Illumination Partners and The Drop in CEO.

When you adjust the lens through which you see yourself, others and the collective team, everything comes into focus and your career will move forward. Now that doesn’t mean you need to get a new eyeglass prescription, but it does require you to look at things differently in order to elevate your already amazing Intrapreneurial skills. You are the future of what it takes to lead others in business, but you’ve reached a point where you’re challenged and overwhelmed to get ahead.

For you, I write this piece because I see so much of myself in you as I moved through my career. I followed the path of “getting the job” and ascending to get the next great job and while on the surface satisfying, upon reflection it was simply a grind. I have seen so many high performing professionals hit a wall and then they don’t know what to do next. It is in this moment that these high performers come to a place of self awareness that the need to do something different, they’re busy writing down their goals and getting ready to sign up for their MBA or certification in the hope that they’ll get ahead. Perhaps they will try working harder to push their way through, but only to be met with more frustration. These are noble pursuits and definitely part of your growing portfolio, but not what’s going to get you ahead.

It comes down to three essential areas to focus on in your new awareness and skills development that we need to get you on the road to your greatness.

Me– You need to work on your mindset and limiting beliefs that hold you back. I find this is where I spend 2-3 sessions with people I mentor to reveal what is holding them back. It is during your self discovery we need to break down the choices you have in how you see your self, make changes and develop habits to act in a way that serves you.

Them – You often start with looking at others through a lens of being difficult, not playing by the rules or having some kind of power over situations or yourself. This actually is about understanding what makes other people tick and seeing them through a different lens in order to better understand others and how you interact with them. This shifts your mindset from one where you perceive others don’t play by the rules to truly understanding them and interfacing with them differently.

We – Once you see yourself and others through a different lens of performance, you need to develop the skills to elevate the collective group to achieve the goals and that takes another set of development skills about interactions with others, having challenging conversations and opening the doors to continual feedback.

So where do you sign up to gain these essential skills? Well, the problem is it doesn’t exist in one place. We often send our high potentials to different courses to focus on one skill vs. in the context of Me, Them and We. We may assign this person a mentor, but without a structure broken down into focusing on you, then others and then the collective performance of the team. Having seen such a gap in business to support High Potential Intrapreneurs, I’ve designed such a course and we’re going into production soon to bring it to you.

If you have any interest in this and want to get into our early offering, please go to our contact page. and let’s talk.

Until we meet, I wish you great success and if you want to learn more from industry experts, please listen to the Drop in CEO podcast.

Be well- Deb