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How are you being disruptive vs. being disrupted?

While technology can be disruptive, I want to remind people to stay the course with your vision and don’t be distracted by what “everyone else” is doing.

I’m probably late to the game with AI and I should educate myself on the benefits and challenges.

But while other people are jumping on the bandwagon and creating initiatives to react to the disruption, how many of you are disciplined to take in the new information, take time to process it and respond responsibly to it while staying true to what you are doing.

Following the crowd positions you to be always behind.

Being a responsible leader and forging ahead with your mission while making concisous decisions about how to apply the disrpuption will put you in the lead and other will turn around and try to catch up to you.

Remember, there are always disruptions and crisis and pandemics and acts of mother nature that we’re conditioned to react based on humanity’s need to survive.

But remember, some of what you do is in your control.

Follow your way and not that of others.

I’ve never been one to follow the crowd, because I know I’ll never win with that strategy.

Creating my own disruptive category “The Drop In CEO”; serving C-Suite Leaders of Today and Tomorrow to Navigate Challenges with Confidence, sets me apart from Fractional Leader, Consultants or Business Advisors.

I’d love to hear your reaction #linkedin and the rest of the #dropinceo community.

Friday thoughts while I procrastinate starting my day! -Deb

#ai#csuiteleaders

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Time Management Habits of CEOs

Poor time management was the beginning of the end of my firefighting leadership style. Having received a very poor performance review because I didn’t complete my objectives, it was eye opening and liberating for me. I had fallen victim to what was easy and activity based vs. being the leader focused on moving an organization to an outcome that served our business and customers. After moving through that mindset shift, I see this behavior plagues numerous C-Suite leaders as well as those who seek the secrets to the C-Suite. Does it take an “aha moment” such as mine, or can we build those skills so you and others don’t have to struggle? 

Before I move to a framework that has served me well, I do want to take a moment to help you shift your mindset if you are not yet in the C-Suite. How do you think you will get into an influential role, even if it doesn’t have a “C” in front of it? It’s by seeing yourself in that role already and behaving as if you had the position. See those above you as peers and you become the person you aspire to be. I thought I’d throw that in there, because that was a stepping stone into being a C-Suite leader myself and some of those I coach find it transformative.

Time Management Habits to move you to Strategic Leadership

  • Major Mindset Shift:  Ask yourself if you want to be a leader at all? If you see your value more as a firefighter than having the discipline to stay the course on strategic work, it’s okay. But your ascend into the C-suite may stop there. If you set your expectation that you will make the shift, then we can proceed.
  • Decision Logic Ground Rules: What are your non-negotiables or values? In the face of making a choice between activity vs. strategic work, you need a set of rules that will help you with making good decisions. Does this work support the strategy? Does this work help someone on my team to be self-sufficient? If I make this decision, will I violate the time I want to invest in well-being? Will I sacrifice time with my family? Get these down on paper and decisions will be easier. 
  • Prioritization made simple: Look up Eisenhower and you’ll know how much I love this matrix. Everything that comes across your desk, assess it if it is a “Do Now”, “Do Later”, “Delegate it” or “Delete it”. It’s a lifesaver and I talk more about this on the podcast releasing later this week. I get hundreds of emails a week. I review everything and delete as much as I can. I do the urgent, I schedule important tasks into the future and others I delegate. You’ll thank me for this tip!
  • Discipline is what separates you from other leaders: Let’s set a principle first; 80% is good enough in completing your daily/weekly/monthly tasks. We have to make space for urgent matters and people coming to us for help. We are not heroes, but we must be heroic in self discipline. If you have good decision logic and prioritization, you’ll find your “to do” lists getting closer and closer to 80% done as you hone these skills. As of today, Thursday I’m at 60% complete, but feel confident based on how I’ve set my schedule I can get to 80%. Discipline is a leading indicator of success in making strategic work being realized.
  • Reflection: If you’ve done well, remember what worked and repeat. If you failed, be kind to yourself, but what can you change in  your behavior the next week to increase your odds of being successful? You have one more chance to decide if you want to be a firefigher or evolve your Time Management Skills of a C-Suite leader. 

So there you have the framework: Mindset / Decision Logic / Prioritization / Discipline / Reflection

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

This framework enables you to do it yourself, but I’m here for you to be a resource. 

To hear more about my story about How to achieve Time Management Skills of the CEO, please tune into my podcast that is releasing this Friday 5/19/23. 

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 in June 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. 

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How Mitigating Risk Showcases Your C-Suite Leadership

The worst time to mitigate a crisis is when you’re in the middle of one. Leaders think their greatest purpose is to rush into battle with their teams to work tirelessly at all costs and celebrate surviving another day. While those leaders seem like heroes that live in the glory of their team seeing them as a great leader, I challenge you to rethink what true C-Suite leadership should be. It is the patient leader who discusses risk everyday and collaborates with their team to identify ways to reduce risk as part of daily work that should be the leaders worth following. When we have the time to methodically identify, qualify, prioritize and set a course for action during a time of calm will assure the business can respond responsibly to a crisis vs. react and be part of the crisis. 

Having been caught off guard during a crisis in a past role, all I could do was organize my team to react based on predefined protocols. We followed the protocols and came out of them with a few battle scars. And I wondered, how could this have happened despite what we thought were all the controls to avoid a crisis. We only were able to detect and then seek to contain. Given my overwhelming exhaustion from such an experience, I later found a better way and I have to say the ISO 9001 Standard for quality management systems provided me guidance on how to be a proactive leader vs. a reactive one. 

The new version of the standard which came out in 2015 was rooted in Risk Based Thinking and how to identify risks in all areas of the business both internally and external factors that opened my eyes up on a better way of leadership. Combining this with my Continuous Improvement Methodology, I developed a best practice for Mitigating risk in your business. The ISO auditor when we showed the approach was astonished at our approach and had nothing more to offer except validating it was a best practice and the company truly understood what it meant to manage risk. 

I have the template to share with you if you want and I’d be happy to go through it with you if you think it will help your organization. Connect with me and let’s have a conversation. 

If you would like to do it yourself, here is the framework: 

  • Invite every functional area to the conversation: Sales, Operations, Finance, IT, Regulatory, Quality, Supply Chain, HR, Security. You would be surprised how many risks can be identified no matter how obscure. 
  • Identify the risks – short term and anything that could happen in a 2-5 year horizon
  •  Categorize them into people, process, platforms, regulatory, compliance, safety – any category that makes sense to your business. It enables what will be an overwhelming list to sort and manage different workstreams and simplify the work. 
  • Rank them based on Severity & Occurrence. This is typically done on a scale of 1-10, but can be as simply as High, Medium and Low. A bonus would be a ranking of Detection which is the ability of your systems to detect the issue before it becomes a crisis. You can have a super high risk, but if you have an extraordinary detection system, the risk can be mitigated. Finally multiply all three numbers to get a final score; often referred to as RPN or Risk Priority Number. 
  • Sort the priorities – you can do the entire list or do it within the individual categories. This reduces the overwhelm and helps the team to focus on the critical few and plan for lower priorities in the future 
  • Take action – including assigning an specific action, assign an owner, due date and status. 
  • Re-evaluate on a quarterly or semi-annual basis. This is a living document that should regularly be reviewed to assure we are mitigating risk and add new ones as they arise. 

So there you have it: Invite, Identify, Categorize, Rank, Sort, Action, Re-evaluate. Sounds simple? It can be, but I’m right here for you if you need help to implement this. 

On a personal note: I hate surprises and managing through a crisis. I do it very well and that is why companies pull me for that support. However, out of that dislike for managing a crisis, I find the best work I can do is to help leaders like you to mitigate a crisis. It’s hard work to sit down and do this work, but most rewarding and ultimately can lead you to a place of Excitement, Optimism as well as saving a lot of time in the future. Doesn’t this sound like the leader you want to be? If you’ve got this, but know someone who is struggling, could this framework help them? Pass it along if you think someone would benefit from this framework of if my support will help another leader mitigate a crisis. 

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

To hear more about my story about How to create emotional consistency as a leader, please tune into my podcast that is releasing this Friday 5/12/23. 

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 on 5/15/23, 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. 

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How to Create Emotional Consistency as a Leader

Update on Reagan: Thank you to all who have expressed their sympathy on his passing; it has meant a lot to us as we celebrate his life and feel less sadness. There’s a void, but the memories make us smile. As we exit this story, it feeds into the topic of how to create emotional consistency as a leader when faced with challenges.

When we are exhausted from overcoming challenges and dealing with overload, we must find the mental fortitude to keep it going. Even when the team bears bad news, we must behave with emotional consistency to tackle it head on. We must rally the troops and foster their creativity and intellectual horsepower to rise above and become better. It’s not firefighting, which can be negative and draining. Instead, we must create positive energy and help the team climb the mountain. 

Moving from Chaos to Control

I had a client that needed a certification and we had arrived at that final date. We had worked tirelessly to prepare the team, dotting I’s and crossing t’s to unfortunately come up short with one minor finding. It was not a full system breakdown, nor a crisis, but it was an overwhelming event for the client who expected to come out of this with their certificate. It is rare to receive their certification on the first try, but it was clear they were going to be delayed. The team was a bit emotional and I was as well, but I knew the process. I knew that a thorough investigation into the matter, correcting the deviation and setting up the system to error proof in the future was the path forward. While the team was down, I had renewed energy knowing I could take them through the final few steps to certification. Within hours after the auditor parted, we cleared off the table, created a problem statement, a detailed analysis, had a solution in place and understood how to set up their systems for success. We returned a response to the auditor within a few days and 3 weeks later the client received the certification. When all was said and done, the client said to me, they couldn’t have done it without me. They were panicked and needed a guide to see them to the finish line. In these times, we must be that steady hand to listen, ask questions and guide. 

The point of this story: When the team is down, but you can see a path forward, you can energize the team through the challenge for which their pride will shine through. Now I turn to you to provide a framework you can apply to your teams: 

Emotional Consistency as a Leader Framework

It’s so easy to get caught up in the details and firefighting. It’s time to show consistency in how you behave. A few simple tips will enable you to be emotionally consistent for your team: 

  • Breath / slow it down / take a moment before jumping in.
  • Listen and ask clarifying questions – slowing it down
  • Ask for their opinion or how to address and continue to listen
  • With clarity, come forward with clarify the problem and path forward based on the collective input
  • Ask, how can you help with next steps?

 What this has done is slow things down for you and the team. You remain calm because you’re buying some time to think and process. Your team will feel a sense of calm because you’re not reacting as they may in the moment, but instead responding with steadfast confidence on the course of action.

This consistent calm and clarity seeking persona will help your team remain optimistic and excited to do what is needed.

I once had someone say my voice is so calming despite chaos and I now turn to you to find the calm that is  needed for your internal self and what your team needs.

Remember: Slow it down / Listen & clarify / Ask for input/ Ask for solutions/ Clarify the path forward / How can you help.

On a personal note:  a past client said my voice is so calming and how  it helped the team focus on the problem at hand. When you hear feedback like this, you know you’ve mastered the skill of managing optimism and creating excitement. 

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

To hear more about my story about How to create emotional consistency as a leader, please tune into my podcast that is releasing this Friday 5/5/23. 

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. 

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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

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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.

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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. 

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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. 

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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. 

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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. 

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