Our Archive

Blog Archives

Dropinceo > Blog > 2023 > April

How To Be The Leader You Are Meant To Be

So often aspiring C-Suite Leaders think they still have a long hill to climb when all they need to do see themselves at that level. I’ve met so many talented people that should be in the C-Suite, even if they have many of those skills. When I meet one of these individuals I try to put a mirror in front of them so they can see what they cannot see. Here are some ways they can be behave like they’re in the C-Suite and then other will see them as well.

Learn how to do Strategic Planning

If your leadership doesn’t paint a picture of what the future looks like, why not you? I have found once you can see the future, create a vision, identify guiding principles, pillars, detailed plan and needed resources, your confidence builds and you’ve crafted a strong message to communicate. Bounce it off colleagues, enrich it with their feedback and soon you’ll find others migrating to you as a true leader.

Listen and ask more questions

The person that sits quietly and listens to the collective input of the team slows the process down and can gain clarity in the situation. When people are part of the brainstorming or data download, they lose perspective. Slowing your mind down and asking more questions can get more data for you to formulate a response. The combination of listening, asking, reframing and coming forward with perspective is what your team needs and to set them on the right track. It takes discipline to be present and speak last, but the team will follow you or pull you for your perspective over and over again.

Have the courage to blaze a new path

I promise you if you have a crazy idea or a proposal that requires courage to come forth, others will cheer you on because you had courage. You need to be the voice that presents an alternate view and even if it’s met with dissent, you’ve pulled a conversation forward. It could be with your courage, you spawn the conversations that need to be had, but others were afraid to go first. You may be stirring the pot, but people need you to do that; if not you, then who?

While I could enrich this with stories of my own, I wanted to impart these thoughts for you to consider. If they resonate with you, let’s partner on your path to the C-Suite. Let’s talk; a quick 15-30 minute conversation may be all the support you need. If you need more, I offer a twice a month forum called The Drop In Collective; you can network, learn new skills and receive spot coaching on this topic or anything else where your struggling.

If this is you, don’t wait to invest in yourself. Have the courage to elevate yourself; the world is watching.

Be well-Deb

Read More

The Framework for Overcoming Mental Overload

The loss of my dog Reagan this last week has been an inspiration for my conversation with you. My dog was bearing a heavy burden of managing his illness as well as continuing to protect our family. His final hours were outside in the yard keeping us safe from birds, people and delivery trucks. I’m inspired by his strength and lack of complaining, but his pain must have been tremendous and he barely showed it. As our family is healing, I now turn my thoughts to you who may have a heavy burden to carry in your life and work. 

In my last role, there came a point of tremendous chaos for which I and my team were scrambling to keep up with the multiple quality issues.  We swiftly identified the problem, moved quickly to deploy resources and established communication plans, but it soon became overwhelming. The mental load on myself and the team was extraordinary. I remember coming home to my husband and saying something has to change because I can’t seem to mentally unwind and see my way out of the stress. It was one of those inflection points I remember deeply and never want to return. It’s the same state of being I see in so many C-suite leaders, founders, and CEOs that compels me to provide a framework to manage the mental load and hopefully navigate through with more confidence.

Pause and acknowledge it. It happens and sometimes without warning. I propose you take a moment and shut the door. Breath. Turn down your laptop, silence your phone for a few minutes. Close your eyes and recognize the feeling and bring yourself down. Maybe clean out some files. Clean off your white board. Water your plants…just something to create a break between spiraling and feeling frazzled.

Prioritize your next move: Do you need to reach out for help? Do you need a whiteboard for all the issues to see everything so you can prioritize what you work on and who can help you? Block out time on your calendar for what you will work on today and not work on so you can get real focused and gain some clarity. It’s about working on the critical few and pausing on the less important. Your leadership behaviors need to ground you and project a sense of calm for both you and your team. 

Be Patient with yourself for not doing the routine work as you can ask for forgiveness, delegate, delay or even miss a week on doing something. You are a Super Human, but you don’t have to be superhuman all the time!  If you’re worried about other things not getting done, block out time in the future for when you will have the time to get it done.

More private or people time – go to your source of energy or rejuvenation. I know I prefer to be alone, but I also like verbalizing to my spouse. I also prefer walks or running to get out the excess energy and gain clarity. Others like to be with friends as a source of energy. 

Clarity is the ultimate goal: when you’re in a mental overload, we have to give time and space for the “ah ha” moment to provide you some clarity. During a challenging time and while running, I invented my Framework of One – one team, working in one way towards one goal – simple and clear.

Pause / Prioritize / Patience / Private or people time is a framework for which you can gain Clarity; the ultimate goal of mental overload.

On a personal note, my husband and I are still in a place where we’re mentally challenged, going through the phases of grief. We’re talking to each other, cleaning our home and spending the time we need to get re-energized. We’ve put away some of his things, displayed others and through this, we realized he made us complete as a family. We’re still a strong family for which we’re grateful he protected us, kept us grounded in routine, kept us moving and showered us with much needed love. His mission is complete and we are grateful we found him and he claimed us.

Now is the time for you to collect your thoughts and take action. 

To hear more about my story about Reagan and challenges that I and clients have faced, please tune into my podcast that is releasing this Friday 4/28. 

Maybe you simply need a support system to apply these new insights. I find leaders simply need a place to talk through the challenges and that’s why I created The Drop In CEO Collective, a forum for C-Suite leader support. To learn more about our next event, you can visit our page and register. 

Would you rather have a quick 1-2-1 to discuss your specific challenge? Could The Drop In CEO be your support system? Direct Message me on LI or contact me via my website and let’s have a conversation. Until then, I wish you much success.

Read More

How to Inspire Your Team Mid-Project

This month has been challenging despite so many exciting and new initiatives. I’m distracted due to the poor health of my dog Reagan. He’s been in and out of the vet and today after two days in the hospital we’re bringing him home hopefully to rest comfortably and enjoy the outdoors. He’s my bodyguard in my recording studio; protecting me from invaders or the UPS truck outside and challenging any bird or squirrel to step foot on our property. It’s times like these that I think joyously about his life and sad that it may be coming to an end soon. It’s hard to remain inspired in my work and to keep inspiring others. However, I’d like to impart a few thoughts this week to help you as I too navigate through some challenges. 

Starting a project or initiative for most leaders is easy and the energy of forming is exciting. When teams start to delay their deliverables, stop showing up to meetings or provide more problems than solutions, we see the signs of lost inspiration. It’s nothing that anyone has done wrong, but to be recognized as a natural part of the process for which your leadership is needed to help them through it.

I offer a few brief suggestions for you to use to re-engage and get your initiatives over the finish line:

Reconnect with your team: Take a time out to ask how they’re feeling; what is working well and what are the barriers. Do this outside of the regular meeting agenda to simply show you care and to check in. You will glean so many insights about how to empathize with the team and ways to re-engage them.

Market the team’s successes: So often teams just execute the work without recognizing that internal marketing is a way to re-energize teams. With a small investment of time, people will feel a sense of pride in the work they’ve done in the past and it will motivate them to perform again. Consider a newsletter to share with others, an internal podcast interview series, share best practices with other teams and let  your people shine in the delivery. 

Watch for the signs of inspiration: A leader needs to turn up their rader to start seeing and hearing the signs their team is motivated again. When you see an email praising their work or a team member sharing that they were invited to present their results at a meeting, these are the signs you need to celebrate and show your leadership. People love their work, but they love to have a sense of pride which needs nurturing. Your role as a leader is more than the work, but helping to elevate the confidence and pride of your team

Coming back to my dog Reagan, I’m inspired by his strength and stoicness for which he’s not complained much. We received mixed reviews about his recovery, but now more than ever I have some clarity. He needs to come home to be here to protect us; that’s where his source of pride is and will remain until he can no longer. I want to support him and give him what he needs to finish his mission. 

But now I turn to you and your leadership… 

While the concept is simple, it takes courage to pause, reflect and create a plan to move you and your team to remain engaged and inspired. I simply want to see you succeed and I’m here for you. 

Now is the time for you to collect your thoughts and take action. 

Maybe you simply need a support system to apply these new insights. I find leaders simply need a place to talk through the challenges and that’s why I created The Drop In CEO Collective, a forum for C-Suite leader support. To learn more about our next event, you can visit our page and register. 

Would you rather have a quick 1-2-1 to discuss your specific challenge? Could The Drop In CEO be your support system? Direct Message me on LI or contact me via my website and let’s have a conversation. Until then, I wish you much success. 

Read More

How CEOs Deal with Self-Doubt

This weekend I had the pleasure of attending a wedding in New Jersey for which I enjoyed dancing, conversation and catching up with relatives. During this occasion, I also had some free time to visit relatives for dinner and engage in conversation about my business. They were sincerely caring about how I built my business, and asked a few questions about how it was going. After I shared the positives and negatives, they then shared their advice on what I should do more of and less of. I thanked them for their thoughts that I would consider. What ensued was 24 hours of self-doubt and a process for dealing with it.

The following 9 hours of driving back to Ohio from NJ was a time of self reflection and processing these new inputs for me to consider. I wanted to move on quickly, but needed to understand why I had self-doubt, not feel bad about it and think about what valuable changes I could make to remove the self doubt and continue to evolve as the CEO of my own business. During this time, I was also inspired to write to you. 

CEO’s have self-doubt; which on the surface you may never see due to well honed coping mechanisms to maintain a confident presence. I’ve realized a few tips for both myself and other CEO’s & C-Suite Leaders of Tomorrow can learn about dealing with self-doubt.  This can be the difference between those who succeed and those that fail.

The Three “A’s” of Dealing with Self-Doubt:

Awareness: Why do you feel self doubt?

Did someone question your decision?

Are you not getting the results you expected?

Did you deviate from your plans and now don’t know how to get through it?

The good news is you’re aware and now can do something about it. Self Doubt is a superpower showing a high level of awareness and willingness to listen and learn.

Actions : What can you do to confirm a gap that needs to be changed?

Does the person who questioned you have important points that you can take action?

If you’re not getting the results you expected, do you need to change or stay the course? Too often leaders will make changes based on only a few data points rather than letting all the processes mature and come into alignment to get the results.

If you deviated from your plans, can you get some help to get you back on track?

Once you’ve identified these actions, can you or with some support make any changes to get back on track?

Accountability: How are you going to manage your actions to completion?

Manage them in your calendar or daily habits.

Enlist the support from your admin or business coach

Check the changes each day and ensure you’re moving in the right direction.     

When you have awareness you can take an action and be accountable to completion, little by little, the self doubt will go away and you simply realize each of these challenges are an opportunity to evolve as a leader. I often think about the British show Dr. Who, who every 11 episodes would regenerate into a new version of themselves. 

While the concept is simple, it takes courage to pause, reflect and create a plan to move you through challenging times such as self-doubt. For me, it has been a time of growth and self assurance that I am doing the right things and making small course corrections in supporting you wherever you are at in your business or career. I simply want to see you succeed. 

Now is the time for you to collect your thoughts and take action. 

Maybe you simply need a support system to apply these new insights. I find leaders simply need a place to talk through the challenges and that’s why I created The Drop In CEO Collective, a forum for C-Suite leader support. To learn more about our next event, you can visit our page and register. 

Would you rather have a quick 1-2-1 to discuss your specific challenge? Could The Drop In CEO be your support system? Direct Message me on LI or contact me via my website and let’s have a conversation. Until then, I wish you much success. 

Read More

Self-Doubt, Adaptation, Failure: What to Do When You Miss the Mark

This past weekend, I planned every detail for serving 100 people at a curling tournament and planned every last detail to create an amazing experience.  Everyone said the food & hospitality was great, but I was so hard on myself when I failed twice. My homemade mac n’cheese was a big hit, but I underestimated the amount to make. People came to me looking for more of it for which I smiled and redirected them to the abundant soup, salad and bread. While there was plenty to continue to feed them, I shrugged off that miss only to make another mistake. We ordered sandwiches for Sunday pick up, but when my volunteer confirmed I had ordered it for Saturday instead, I couldn’t believe I made that mistake. We picked up the sandwiches and stored them until Sunday. I soon learned that bread can not withstand salad dressing and tuna fish for 24 hours. I felt so bad, but did anyone really notice? Probably not, but I did and again felt I missed the mark. 

So what does too little mac n’ cheese and soggy bread have to do with business? It is a story about being human and how we are conditioned to respond to such failure.  In business we fail to prepare leaders to manage these setbacks. We focus on the 1% of failure and fail to celebrate the 99% of successes we take for granted each day. I see so many C-Suite leaders of today and tomorrow lacking a framework, I’m compelled now to share some ideas to change your mindset. 

What to do when you miss the mark!

Self Doubt: Acknowledge it! By doing so, it shows you’re growing. Reflect on why you feel this way. Did anyone else doubt you or just you? Was there an experience in the past that you’re projecting now? It’s okay to have these feelings, but the key is in how fast you can move on. What did you learn? Can you take note and apply next time? Self doubt can quickly move you to action.

Adaptation: With this new insight, can you create a system that helps you to adapt to self doubt, identify an action, improve and repeat. Adaptation is your skill to respond to changing conditions and the ability to execute with a new current state. Did you make a mistake in a presentation? Could you have reviewed with others in advance? If yes, can you do this going forward to minimize risk? I know you can! So is it really self doubt any longer?

Let’s talk about failure: I suggest you shift your mindset. Consider you have 100 opportunities of success each day. How do you feel about being 99% successful? You wake up in the morning, take your vitamins, put out the trash, pack your lunch, get the kids to school on time… why do we adopt the narrative of failure? Could we celebrate 99% good and with that 1%, celebrate an opportunity to improve? If nothing else, you build a good story to tell others and get a laugh from our humanity!

Returning back to mac n’ cheese and soggy sandwiches… I now know that curlers are hungry people; really hungry! If I have to feed 80, I now know to prepare for 90. With regard to ordering food a day early; next time I’ll have someone else check my work. Error proofing was not built into my process. I’ve accepted this and despite some soggy sandwiches, I had plenty of soup and other leftovers to keep our curlers happy! 

Now is the time for you to collect your thoughts and take action. 

Don’t let “missing the mark ” be your narrative and dictate your ability to adapt and and improve everyday. You know you’re wildly successful and occasionally you’ll be human in the process.

Are you getting ready to do another presentation, but you fear failure because your last one did not go so well? Did you fail to get that initiative over the finish line, but learned more about stakeholder management? Not sure how to manage through another crisis because the last one you were in did not fare so well?

Maybe you simply need a support system to apply these new insights. I find leaders simply need a place to talk through the challenges and that’s why I created The Drop In CEO Collective, a forum for C-Suite leader support. To learn more about our next event, you can visit our page and register. 

Would you rather have a quick 1-2-1 to discuss your specific challenge? Could The Drop In CEO be your support system? Direct Message me on LI or contact me via my website and let’s have a conversation.

Until then, I wish you much success. 

Read More

Three Questions to Set the Stage for Q2 Like a CEO

My first quarter has been absolutely amazing! I’ve been true to my theme of Simplicity and focusing on the levers to grow my business: investing in my business, my reach and my well being. I’m pleased to share that we’ve been moving forward according to plan, but amidst my joy I contemplate about how others are doing. I’ve seen so many people focus on their 1st quarter only to see their best laid plans start to fall apart and then they repeat the cycle of hurry up with activity vs. reflecting and asking well placed questions. When we think vs. just do, we get focused and back on track must faster and here’s how: 

 How are you feeling?

   Excited, accomplished or frustrated, tired and feeling off track?

 I was feeling off track this month and realized I had to finalize my goals and actions. Now that I have my monthly goals set and my weekly & daily accountability tracking, I feel like I’m set up for success and realizing peace of mind.  I start here, because if you don’t analyze your gut, mind & heart about achieving your goals,  we need to make quick course corrections now.

After working with a client for about 3 months, I asked them how they felt. They said things seemed calm and felt good about working on strategic work vs getting caught up in the weeds. I was grateful for the feedback and was rooted in needed accountability processes to manage the chaos. Feeling is a good barometer, but we always need to know that things are going well.

    What are others saying about your Q1?

 If you’re projecting your goals and regularly communicating them, stakeholders will respond to you. It may show up such as “How can I help?” or “can I get a copy of that report?” or “can you come and present that at our next meeting?”, or “can I provide you some feedback”. When the world is responding, it’s a good indicator you’re focused. 

As a bonus, I propose you journal these events. When we take note of how others are responding to you, it reinforces these behaviors. It also provides self feedback on what to continue, start or change. It may be that you’re getting lots of attention in one area, but not so much in another area; you have an opportunity to course correct in multiple areas. Leaders do this over and over as part of their personal development. 

Are you still passionate about the work?

 If you’re not, your energy will wane and so will the project. Ask yourself what is hard, challenging, or areas where you’re not confident. This is the time to speak to your inner circle just to validate you’re still on track. Sometimes talking to someone else will give you clarity and the passion will come back. If you are passionate, move on. If not, when were you passionate and what changed? (failure to delegate, lack of support).

THE CEO’s COMPASS is a great tool to help you see where you’re off track

Are you capable of getting the work done or do you need help?

 So many leaders feel a sense of pride to do it alone. Please don’t wait too long for technical support. I call this corporate courage; when leaders find the strength to ask for help the moment they feel it in their gut they’re off track. I find leaders simply need a place to talk through the challenges and why I created The Drop In CEO Collective, a forum for C-Suite leader support. To learn more about our next event, you can visit our page and register. 

Now that I’ve shared with you some questions to confirm if you’re focused and on track, let me know about your conclusions. If you are on track, let’s celebrate together! If you’re not on track, who could you turn to for support? Do you have a colleague, a mentor or an accountability partner? Could The Drop In CEO be your support system? Message me and let’s have a conversation. Until then, I wish you much success. 

Read More

Secrets Behind the CEO’s Task List

A C-Suite task list is a balance between strategic work, tactical work and personal development. Studies show at the C-Suite level the balance should be 70/20/10, but depending on the season it can vary. High performers love tactical work. The quick wins of putting out fires and completing tasks can easily throw the schedule off balance. When you stay consistently in the tactical work and never return back to the steady state of 70% working on the future, things get off track.

I used to get stuck in the tactical, but soon learned I lacked skills in prioritization, decision logic and how to not procrastinate on strategic projects; breaking them down into bite size chunks. That’s where leaders fail as did I, but now I have some tips to help you stay in this zone. 

Before I continue, ask yourself:

  • Why don’t you stay in the zone of 70/20/10?
  • Is it easy to check the box on tactical work and you lack the skills for strategic work? 
  • I also ask you if you’re up to the C-Suite role or not? 

If you like the tactical work and find your value in being a SME and go to person, then accept your place and be fine with it. We sometimes think we need to do more, but if where you’re at is just fine, then you can stop here. But if not, let’s talk more about the secrets of the CEO task list.

Framework:

  • It’s not a task list, it’s your performance management system! We set up these systems for the front line, but why not you? It sounds like leader standard work from the lean world and it is, but I’m breaking it down for you to make it easy.
  • Qualify the 5-8 Projects you have to move forward or continue to monitor. Qualifying them will help you to stay focused and strive for 70% strategic, 20% tactical, and 10% personal development
  • It has to be achievable. Set your battle plan for the day or I suggest the week. We don’t get everything done each day, giving ourselves grace, but by the end of the week, we should get it done.
  • Put everything you get done on the list. Disruptions happen for which we address, but never credit ourselves for crossing it off. We have to see what we actually get done in a day and give ourselves a high five when we get 80% done!
  • Cross it off and feel good. When you get to the end of the week, ask yourself if you feel accomplished and did you move the needle in your strategic work? If yes, celebrate. If not, do you have the right things on your list? It’s a constant reminder to evolve your daily / weekly plan and get it right.
  • Reminder: As you look at your next week and assess how much you were able to accomplish the prior week, do you need to have every meeting, do you need to do everything on the list or delegate it? You want to increase your % of success each week so you’re performing at the C-Suite level.

On a personal note, so many people ask how do you do it all? I don’t always get it all done for which I’ve raised the white flag for help. More importantly, I’ve stopped, reassessed and peeled things away or reset my priorities. No C-Suite leader has all the answers nor is it perfect. But they’re resilient, they experiment, they learn from what worked well and what did not, refine rinse & repeat.

I would love to continue this conversation with you via DM. It’s really me on the other side of that screen, no bots, no gimmicks. Message me your questions and I can send you a short voice message with my thoughts.

·   Thank you and much success!

Read More