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Three Ways to Improve Your Gratitude Networking

When was the last time you contacted a colleague and let them know how well a connection they made for you went?

In a business environment so focused on the transactional aspect of networking, it’s easy to forget to nurture all of the relationships that produced the end result. If this sounds familiar, you have an opportunity to refocus your networking efforts on building these bridges to create a solid foundation for success. 

Gratitude networking is the art of paying it backwards to those who took the time to make introductions.

People who are gracious with their network do it because they truly care about you. When we come back to them and tell them the connection was valuable and how it was valuable, you solidify a trusting relationship for which they will remember you. When we forget these people in the process of gaining new business, we miss the opportunity for repeat referrals and burn bridges without realizing it.

I must admit, I did not realize how valuable networking was until the business development pipeline was drying up. What happened next as I navigated the labyrinth of networking organizations taught me a few lessons I want to share with you.

The lost art of the Thank You note

Remember to contact the person who referred you and share why the connection was (or was not) valuable. After I thanked a very gracious podcast host for their time to refer me to another host, the gift just kept giving. I must thank some of my best experts on The Drop In CEO podcast who have come from an abundance of referrals thereafter. Those guests soon became amazing referral partners and also reciprocated for an appearance on their podcast. Taking one minute of time to express gratitude has paid dividends in building brand equity and a trusting relationship. 

Write a review or recognize a colleague on social media

Content creators create for the love of creating. They don’t seek accolades, but when they receive them, it feeds their soul to continue the work. When we take the time to share with the world how they make you feel or consume their content, we serve humanity. Even more interesting is the side effect of recognizing our network is the impact on people that are watching you. You build trust with those you don’t even know yet because they see you expressing gratitude to your network. This increases the likelihood that they will engage with you in the future.

This week, I did a social media post recognizing someone’s book launch and podcast appearance on my show. That person’s network then generously downloaded my podcast and another reached out to me to be on the show. A five-minute social media post led to a bump in my network. 

Pick up the phone and tell someone how much you appreciate their support

As email and text convey information and emojis add an emotional dimension to communication, nothing replaces the joy of receiving a phone call and hearing the tone of your voice. Every time I have called someone and with my voice conveyed information, emotion and energy, I have 100% of the time received a response. This is especially important as it relates to completing a transaction. Every person that has been on my podcast has received a voice message or call from me expressing gratitude. Each and every time, they have come back with a thank you for my message. When we humanize our gratitude we leave a lasting impression. Just this month while vacationing in Florida, a past podcast guest referred me to a client to help solve a crisis. I later thanked the person who referred me and said I was always top of mind. 

As we move into the Thanksgiving Season where we express our gratitude for those in our immediate family and community, pause and reflect about who else you should reach out to. Don’t worry if too much time has passed. An expression of gratitude knows no boundaries. Make a list and when you return from your Thanksgiving holiday, remember to give thanks to those who want to see you succeed. 

If this makes sense, but you’d like to learn more about applying these principles to your situation, you can email me, direct message me on linkedin or simply grab a few minutes on my calendar.  

I find through casual conversation leveraging The CEOs Compass often has all the answers for you to get back on track. 

The CEO’s Compass: Your Guide to Get Back on Track – If you’re that leader who feels in their gut something is off track, this could be the resource for you.

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Resources

Good Reads

The Game Changer’s Guide to Radical Success Paperback by Tevis Trower and an upcoming podcast guest on The Drop In CEO Podcast was an amazing resource for me.  Sometimes when we’re already successful, we can’t see what the next leap is for us. We stay in the present of what we’re good at, and with the insights from this book, you clear your mind to find what is your true calling and make a radical change towards success. 

Good Music

Loyalty Remains by Veigar Margeirsson As I finish my blog post while my copy editor patiently awaits to post this just before the thanksgiving holiday, I skurry to find an inspirational piece that conveys how I feel right now. While I’ve had some ups and downs this month emotionally, this piece renews hope that the work we’ve done together will come to fruition in 2022 and impact more people than I can imagine. Take a moment to listen and be emotionally uplifted by the end. 

Good Advice

My friend Clay Hicks podcast aired last week and as I think of our gratitude theme for this week, his quote was very appropriate. 

“We’re here to help each other right now. This is our moment. Let’s do that.”

–Clay Hicks

Listen and subscribe now: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/clay-hicks-finding-champions-of-your-brand/id1498953914?i=1000542447218

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Can you tell the difference between urgent vs. important relationships?

“Deb, do you have a minute?”, my Manager of Food Safety asked.

I dropped my things on my desk after spending two hours that morning sorting email at home, only to find 20 new messages waiting for me.

I returned with my coffee, getting ready to call over my employee when the phone rings. It’s the VP of sales saying there’s an urgent issue with a customer and could I jump on a conference call in 30 minutes. Quickly, I rethink my morning and feel depleted because I was responding to urgent matters vs. what’s important.

This same “fire fighter” behavior is a common practice when handling business challenges and team relationships. We build relationships with our team in order to support them as they perform within the organization, but often push the maintenance of those relationships aside for more urgent matters.

We need to rethink our relationships and the time we allocate to each in order to get ahead in our work. Think about it, who should really be in an important relationship where we focus more of our time vs. those that we deal with on urgent matters. Wouldn’t a day be better spent with customers, working in partnership with sales or aligning with operations leaders to prepare our operations for regular customer or community visits? How many of you “wish” they could spend their day with these “Important” relationships vs. “Urgent” relationships?

Three important tips to change where you spend time in your relationships.

Identify “important” relationships

By identifying who you need to spend more time with and why the relationships are important, you have an outcome you are targeting. In The CEO’s Compass, I talk about Peace of Mind where if you spend more time with these important relationships, you will achieve the outcome you seek. For instance, spending more time with your customers because in the end being in partnership vs. reactive situations will ease the stress and you’ll realize a higher level of accomplishment.

Identify “urgent” relationships and how to remove yourself from them

Establish the framework and systems needed to triage urgent events and how they can be resolved without your involvement. Think about creating work standards where you give rules to your people to make decisions on their own and only the most important come to you.

Could these issues be grouped together for a weekly meeting and dealt with all at once vs. one by one? Have you delegated decision making to your team or given them additional responsibility to handle some of the urgent matters vs. the world being centered around yourself? Sometimes as companies grow in numbers, the leaders don’t know how to shed these urgent matters from their plate that can easily be managed by their people. The People, Process & Platform compass points in The CEO’s Compass give you the tools to elevate your people to handle “urgent” issues and giving you back the time to cultivate the “important” relationships.

Be a disciplined leader and spend 80% of your time on important relationships

‘You’ve got to be kidding’ you say to yourself when I espouse 80%. How is that possible? Well, it’s you that has to set the boundaries and block out your time to invest in the important relationships. It all starts with you. I discuss this in the first chapter of my book. The most important thing about making changes in your relationships is the one you make with yourself.

In full transparency, I struggled with this and it took time to move the needle from the urgent relationships filling my day to spending more time cultivating the important. During my last few years in corporate, I had the pleasure of spending more time visiting my customer locations as well as inviting them to our location for collaborative conversations.

Today, as The Drop in CEO, I invest in 80% of important relationships where I can now say I have Peace of Mind. The question to ask yourself is do you have the capability or capacity to find your way to the True North Compass point and feel the same way? If you need a guide, I can be that person for you… you don’t have to do this alone. Be the leader you need to be for yourself so that others can follow your lead and spend more time with Important vs. Urgent relationships. 

If this makes sense, but you’d like to learn more about applying these principles to your situation, you can email me, direct message me on linkedin or simply grab a few minutes on my calendar.  

I find through casual conversation leveraging The CEOs Compass often has all the answers for you to get back on track. 

The CEO’s Compass: Your Guide to Get Back on Track – If you’re that leader who feels in their gut something is off track, this could be the resource for you.

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Resources

Good Reads

7 Keys to Navigating a Crisis by Dr. Elia Gourgouris PhD (Author), Konstantinos Apostolopoulos – I had the good fortune of interviewing Kon on The Drop in CEO Podcast and realized the book is about resiliency that transcends leadership through a crisis and also everyday life. An easy and impactful read. He has a Roadmap to Resilience 30 Day challenge beginning November 22nd that is an excellent accompaniment to this book. You can learn more about that here.

Good Music

Josh Kramer – Where the Light Goes This song is a little soulful and sad, but uplifting at the same time. Today, I’m a bit under the weather as I write this article and while I don’t feel optimal, I still find strength in this peace as empathetic to my condition. I wish you good health and keep positive energy to move you forward. 

Good Advice

 â€œIf you’re not standing on firm ground for yourself, you cannot give what you

don’t have.”

–Konstantinos Apostolopoulos

Listen and subscribe now:

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How to Create your Own “Crystal Ball” to Influence and Solve Challenges

As a mid-career manager, I used to say “I wish I were a fly on the wall in the director meetings so I would know what is happening and why.” In those days, I was stuck in reactionary mode, my next move dependent on data handed to me from above. I felt helpless to influence the future. I was missing a “crystal ball”; a tool similar to The CEO’s Compass allowing me to influence and solve challenges in the workplace.

I haven’t figured out how to predict tomorrow’s winning lottery numbers, but I have figured out the secret to predicting future challenges in the workplace.

For this exercise, I will pull out my compass and explain how “Process”, “Past” and “Pride” are used at the same time to gain insight.

Observe the Process of team interactions and watch for power plays

Being an engineer, sometimes collecting data is the only way I can make sense of the world. I started taking notes on observing people’s interactions and writing down my predictions. Over time, I found that these predictions of the future increased in accuracy as I honed the process of data in an interaction and then an expected outcome was recorded.

Watch for these interactions to see changes in the environment and potential calls to action (CTA):

When someone goes into the boss’s office and then walks out with extra energy in their step – most likely they’ve been given new responsibility, a new assignment or a pending promotion. 

  • CTA: Engage with our boss that you’re open to new opportunities or challenges and why you should be considered. If one person is changing, there should be opportunities to engage with the new project or backfill openings that result from the change. 

When the boss is traveling extensively and you’re not sure what they’re doing, they’re potentially going through some strategic changes in the organization.

  • CTA: Engage with your boss in a proactive way such as: I want to be proactive about my career; what are some areas of the organization I should be learning more about in case there are changes and I need to navigate quickly in the organization. 

Watch for people that have started to miss deadlines, are periodically taking a day off more often than not or are disengaged from work and don’t seem to care. They’re most likely going to leave the organization.

  • CTA: If the person that is disengaging is in an area you’d like to have more responsibility; discuss with your boss your interest and willingness to expand your role. What can you do proactively now to learn more about a particular area. If you understand the gaps in the person’s performance, start sharing ideas to improve the person’s area of responsibility. You may be seen as the next go to resource to fill a gap. 

History repeats itself, so studying the “Past” gives you clues about the future and relationship power. 

Organizational Cultures are like the Titanic and are very slow to change, so study who got ahead in the organization and who can give you clues into being proactive about your future. To get ahead by merit alone is noble, but will slow down the process. Believe me, I know! Study the people that are steady & quiet workers or those who are loud – they always seem to get amazing opportunities and here’s why:

Watch the person that is steady & quiet and who they’re having lunch with or who they spend breaks with. They may have been working together for 5, 10, 20 years and have a long history of watching each other’s backs. One may have risen to a more senior role and is the advocate for the steady & quiet. 

  • CTA: Align with the leader that is advocating for others and form a relationship. This can be a shortcut to moving forward, but understand what they value and how you can help them. They may start watching your back and advocating for you

Watch the loud person and for sources of strength. Look at who they’re aligned with in conversation for enriching or supporting what they said. Look at who they’re speaking to before or after their meetings for their alignments. They have a strong message, but it’s reinforced by someone in the room.

  • CTA: Find your advocates. Presenting ideas is not good enough unless you’ve formed similar alliances with people that share your views. This is often done when you find someone who has shared values based on a similar past, building an alliance. When you show up to present a point, they have your back and your influence increases. 

When we pay respect to an individual’s â€œPride,” we build trust and champions of our causes. 

Ever wonder who that really smart person in the corner is who only speaks when spoken to? You wonder about their great wisdom akin to Yoda and how they got to be so smart and survive the numerous changes in the organization and remain untouchable. These individuals have gained power through protecting their knowledge or “pride” and only a few are privy to their world. When you need these people to help us with important projects, what can you do to gain their trust? 

Observe who they are aligned with and have quiet conversations that no one can hear. 

  • CTA: Schedule a 1-2-1 with the person you want to align with and take the time to learn about their many accomplishments and pay respect to their knowledge.
  • CTA: Seek to understand why they spend more time with certain individuals and if they were part of their past successes.
  • CTA: Ask for additional time to learn about their accomplishment in more detail and develop a bit of expertise in their area. This way you can advocate for them during a meeting as you have paid respect to their knowledge

When we pay respect to their “Pride” or area of expertise, they start watching out for you. They pull you aside and share information with you. It is up to you to determine if it’s relevant or are they trying to pull you astray or into their world of alliances.

Very often these people have been burned and are protective of their knowledge. They’re seeing if you will be aligned with them or not. It’s a delegate balance, but having these folks on your side can be mutually beneficial.

Now given all these compass points to understand the future and use relationships to gain insight and position, how do you apply all of this?

I stayed away from forecasting for many years, but later learned it was an essential skill not taught in school nor cultivated in your career, unless you had an advocate.

So if you don’t have an advocate, following some of these relationship building skills with the use of “Process,” “Past,” and “Pride” from The CEO’s Compass, you can use your own crystal ball to influence the future you want to have. 

If this makes sense, but you’d like to learn more about applying these principles to your situation, you can email me, direct message me on linkedin or simply grab a few minutes on my calendar.  

I find through casual conversation leveraging The CEOs Compass often has all the answers for you to get back on track. 

The CEO’s Compass: Your Guide to Get Back on Track – If you’re that leader who feels in their gut something is off track, this could be the resource for you.

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Resources

Good Reads

The Long Game by Dorie Clark – finally finished this great work; I mentioned it over the past few weeks, but it came at a time where I’ve put in so much work into building my career and business. The strong message of quality & consistency and staying true to the strategy ultimately yields results. I so needed this read and recommend you read as well!

Good Music

Wake up, Moving on by Kevin Penkin – I was a little down this past week as not everything I had invested in was showing results. We need these moments of doubt to pause and reflect on how far we’ve come and how much closer we are to what we want to achieve. When we validate our convictions, you have a renewed sense of purpose and drive to continue forward. This song was light and refreshing and playful and lifted my spirits as I listened and pondered my future. I do hope you enjoy it. 

Good Advice

“If we just get a little bit better, we have a massive return on our overall success

and the success of our organization.”

–Mark Herschberg

Listen and subscribe now

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Adding Humanity to Your Leadership Simplifies Your Life

Imagine you’re heading into a company-wide meeting excited to share a new initiative with your team. You speak into a sea of faces and can feel the resistance in the room. Instead of sharing your excitement about new possibilities, your employees shake their heads. They can’t see past the overwhelm and promise of more work.

Some would say that this is a passion problem, filling roles with bodies rather than people who are passionate about the work they do. The truth is, it’s a leadership problem. When leaders come in lofty expectations, they fail to embrace the humanity (remember, humans still run the world) of our workforce. When this happens, the CEO’s compass is once again challenged with a changing environment, leading them off track from true North or Peace of Mind.

To navigate the complexity back to true North, three Compass Points give us the answers:

Leaders are sometimes off track, because they move away from their true Purpose, the northwest compass point. The purpose now sits in the wings while we implement the next greatest initiative, but they don’t validate it against the purpose and whether it makes sense or not. I recently interviewed Joseph James Slawek who spoke about “Wholesome Leadership” which is akin to “Purpose” and sought to get clearer on what he meant. 

There is not a lot written on Wholesome leadership and was fortunate to find this article that defined well what it means to be a wholesome leader. In the article Wholesome leadership and self mastery by Anu Wakhlu she writes leaders, irrespective of their industry, need to be:

  • good at creating a powerful vision,
  • inspiring people to follow that vision, 
  • thinking strategically through various business options, 
  • adding value through innovation, 
  • leading teams and people and most importantly, 
  • being in integrity and acting as role models for their teams.

I propose as a leader who is off track from “Purpose” to validate their work in the context of Wholesome Leadership to ensure it meets all those criteria when moving forward with new initiatives. 

The next compass point I would examine is that of Platforms, the southern point to ensure we have the right tools in place for leading people. In the context of ensuring Simplification, Lisa Bodell speaks about having the right metrics in place in her article: Planning to Simplify at Work? Do this first:

  • Decrease in number of approval layers required for a process
  • Employees appear less overwhelmed by their workload
  • Number of steps or layers removed from our product-development process

If your new initiative is making the lives of your people easier with the right measurements in place, they will support you and follow your leadership. 

Finally, the compass point of Process, the southeast point is often circumvented when we don’t engage in dialog with our people about the changes. The “eyeroll” or “heads down” gestures are indicators that they’re about to tune out to what is coming. Process speaks to the role of the leader to ensure the team has everything they need to succeed whether in time, resources or capability. When the leader pauses here to understand any concerns of the team and involves them in navigating the changes amidst the daily work, they become part of the solution and more willing to engage with the new initiatives. They do this because you approached them with humanity and you are seeking to give them the tools they need.

When you respect your people with Wholesome Leadership and give them the tools to Simplify their work, you will instantly elevate your leadership for a lasting impact. 

If this article resonated with you or you have a challenging situation, you can email me, direct message me on linkedin or simply grab a few minutes on my calendar.  I find through casual conversation The CEOs Compass often has all the answers for you to get back on track. 

The CEO’s Compass: Your Guide to Get Back on Track – If you’re that leader who feels in their gut something is off track, this could be the resource for you.

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Resources

Good Reads

Take Care of your People by Paul Sarvadi – I started this book during my book launch of The CEO’s Compass and noticed so many similarities between our two brands – take care of the people and they’ll take care of the business. I traveled to Florida this week for a little play and plan on finishing this great read. Make sure you get your copy!

Good Music

Trial by Warriors by Veigar Margeirsson….while sitting in Florida this week knowing I had to get myself in gear to write my weekly blog post, this song came up in my favorites. A highly uplifting piece from my “Epic” collection. I suggest you follow all of Veigar Margeirsson’s work if you’re looking for inspirational content. 

Good Advice

I feel honored to have captured Joe’s voice this week on my podcast; a leader who truly understands what it is to leave a  lasting legacy. He spoke at length about his insights and this quote from our conversation is a gem. 

“As a CEO, businesses run on trust, they don’t run on money.”

–Joe Slawek

Listen and subscribe now: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-drop-in-ceo/id1498953914

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Your Team Wants More Freedom, Here’s How to Give it to Them

Picture a time when you relinquished control to your team and you had the freedom to simply be an observer. Can you see that image? If a situation doesn’t immediately come to mind, you’re likely wading through the details of your organization and missing out on the ability to lead with peace of mind. There’s a better way I’d like to share with you now.  

I’ll be completely transparent here, I periodically feel off track. As I continue to evolve and grow my business there are times I take back control of the details and then once stable I hand off to more capable people. I also realize that this business model is also not sustainable and we simply have to ask our team to take projects and trust the results.  It’s hard for a leader to do this; perhaps due to a deep rooted value of personal accountability.

High performers take ownership and initiate solutions. Organizations celebrate that personal accountability by giving you more responsibility. That’s likely how you landed in a leadership role in the first place.

However, with more responsibility comes the need to focus on big-vision goals and sustainability – that includes both organizationally and personally. You cannot sustain a leadership role without relinquishing the daily tasks and trusting your team to get things done. Recently, I relinquished a business process to a highly capable team and while I trust the outcome, it doesn’t remove the uneasiness we may have as leaders. 

As I pause and reflect on this challenge today, let me propose to you three compass points for you to consider so you can do the work you are meant to do:

Clearly articulate the Purpose of the work that needs to be done. 

The Northwest compass point is Purpose and if vivid enough for you to convey to others, they will carry on the work needed to achieve that Purpose. When leaders are clear on this and can articulate what that means to achieve Peace of Mind, people will follow and execute towards that Purpose.

Ask your people if they have everything then need to achieve maximum Performance.

The Northeast compass point is Performance and when we evaluate each person’s role and their capability to meet that Purpose, we may identify gaps to be closed. When a leader puts people in roles, but never asks “do you have everything you need to succeed?”, their performance will not be realized. As leaders, our roles are not to get results, but instead ensuring we remove every barrier from our people to succeed. 

Ensure the right Platforms are in place for your people to succeed.

This southern compass point is about the leader stepping away and giving them the tools they need to be self-sufficient and successful. Even when we have the courage to step back and allow your teams to perform against a well defined purpose, we need to provide them the Platforms needed to anchor their work. This may be an accountability system, decision criteria so they can be independent of you and frameworks for addressing issues or elevating them. When we give people the right tools to navigate complexity, they grow and learn from these experiences.

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While you contemplate these compass points for your situation, let me share with you the rest of the story and how I’m now realizing freedom and peace of mind. 

I relinquished control of my podcast management to a team of experts with the outcome that I use my time to focus on creating meaningful relationships with my podcast guests as well as all my business development efforts. They understood the outcome, they had all the skills and tools needed for success and after quick alignment, I now enjoy the freedom of enjoying my conversation with you.

I feel absolutely amazing and I want to continue to connect with more people like you. You are successful and should be proud. However, if you have come to a place where you don’t have the freedom you seek or peace of mind, I’d love to connect with you. 

If you’d like a bit more time to kick around your thoughts on this article, you can email me, direct message me on linkedin or simply grab a few minutes on my calendar. 

The CEO’s Compass: Your Guide to Get Back on Track – If you’re that leader who feels in their gut something is off track, this could be the resource for you.

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Resources

Good Reads

Unlock the Sales Game by Ari Galper I know I’ve shared this one before, but now I’ve finished his interview and can’t wait for you to realize great value. When I stopped chasing people trying to close a deal, I focused on the person and asked them: “Where do you see this going from here?”. This has changed everything for me and takes the sales pressure out of the conversation. 

Good Music

Dragonfly Keeper by Phildel  This is a very light hearted song that stirs up creativity and hope in me. Today I was actually in a bad mood for unknown reasons. When this song played, it changed my mood. It also sounds a little like the theme music for the TV Sitcom, The Office. 

Good Advice

I love this quote my podcast production team pulled from my solo episode this week. While in flow and being grounded in my values and talking points, sometimes these thoughts come and I have the honor of sharing them with you. 

“When we focus on outcomes versus just the short term results, we bring people

to work for their minds and their creativity, and the possibilities are endless.”

–Deborah Coviello

Listen and subscribe now: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-drop-in-ceo/id1498953914

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There’s More to Leadership Than Results, Here’s Why

The internet landscape is flooded with content on leadership overwhelm and burnout. While we can blame the systems, a lack of skills or work/life balance to avoid burnout, we need to look deeper at the root causes where society has fallen very short.

Leaders think they are seeking results, when in reality they are in pursuit of Peace of Mind.

Peace of mind is that emotional feeling when the family is whole and safe. It’s the feeling when the community comes together and celebrates a High School football victory and its a leader looking on at their team seeing collaboration and great results without their intervention. That’s peace of mind.

When leaders focus their teams on pure results, that is all they will ever achieve. However, when a brave leader focuses their team on an outcome first, they bring together their team’s creativity and possibilities that align with the purpose. Ultimately they are the sustainable winners, rather than the typical results-oriented leaders. We do have to get results, but it’s a lagging indicator to the health and creativity of the workforce. 

When leaders focus on results and they miss the goal that month, they run their teams into the ground as firefighters with extra emails, meetings and long hours for the team. When the leader is in pursuit of Peace of Mind, they are far wiser than the previous leader to focus the team on a greater outcome and remove emphasis on month by month results. They give the team time and space to move forward on achieving the greater outcome.

For example, a leader says, “We want to be number one in market share.” The team will game the system to get that result at all costs. When they hit that goal, they high-five and celebrate. When they miss the goal, they beat their teams until they break.

Alternatively, a brave leader says, “We want to be the customer favorite.” They have the greater outcome in mind. People come to work energized to create an experience for the customer. Loyalty is created and they will be top of mind to partner with, even if there have been some mistakes along the way. When they become the customer favorite, the leader can step back and see the team perform at the highest level.

I’ve seen these leaders and when I interview them on The Drop in CEO podcast, they have truly achieved Peace of Mind. These are the companies I’ll follow. Will you?

So if this concept still intrigues you, seeking results vs. pursuit of Peace of Mind, let’s have a conversation on Linkedin or DM me. I’m your partner to help you move to Peace of Mind. 

If you’d like a bit more time to kick around your thoughts on this article, let’s book a call to discover your authentic leadership style. 

Resources

The CEO’s Compass: Your Guide to Get Back on Track – If you’re that leader who feels in their gut something is off track, this could be the resource for you.

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Good Reads

7 Keys to Navigating a Crisis: A Practical Guide to Emotionally Dealing with Pandemics & Other Disasters by Dr. Elia Gourgouris PhD and Konstantinos Apostolopoulos – I just interviewed one of the authors Kon Apostolopoulos and it was a book about leadership resiliency with concepts that had never been discussed before. Particularly about “Kindness” that too often leaders focus on the firefighting and miss respecting humanity. A great quick read! 

Good Music

“I believe” by Giuliano Poles – I was listening to this yesterday as I was driving to a keynote speech for The American Business Women’s Association; my first keynote and part of launching my speaking career. It was playing while driving through corn fields of Indiana and I had a wave of joy over me as I was racing to my dreams. I was so inspired because I believed in myself. 

Good Advice

I love this message from JD Gershbein because Linkedin has been my playground to grow my brand and build know like and trust with my audience. I wish more leaders realized the power of this platform.

“LinkedIn gives you an opportunity to really build out that personal information reservoir on yourself. It’s almost boundless in the way that you can market yourself.” – JD Gershbein

Listen and subscribe now: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-drop-in-ceo/id1498953914

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Why Your Team Doesn’t Need You To Read Another Leadership Book

If you have ever felt stuck at the top of a leadership ladder, you’re not alone.

You’ve read leadership books, attended personal development workshops and enlisted the services of a coach and still have not found a path forward to get a different result. You start to wonder if you’re no longer cut out for this line of work.

I’ve been in a place where I question not only what I’m doing but if I’m really making an impact at all. No book out there really tells you how to lead differently from a place of  your own personality. In fact, no book can help you because you are unique. However, what I’m about to suggest is not rocket science, but a question for you to ponder. 

What would your leadership style look like if you led from a place rooted in joy? 

Joy is a place where you can play, be spontaneous and exist with no effort. Think of those moments in your life where you experience joy. Is it watching a child excelling at sports? Is it experiencing the exhausted accomplishment of crossing the finish line of a 5k run? Is it serving food on the table for family and friends? Maybe it’s a good book, read in solitude from beginning to end. We experience these feelings in our personal life and then check these feelings and ways of behaving at the door when we enter our work environment. What some may call boundaries, I call a missed opportunity for a higher level of leadership.

What if we showed up at work like we show up in our personal life; would that get you a different result? 

Is it possible to share our personal experiences at work without being judged? Those same activities that bring us together as a community outside of our organizational doors are the exact activities that lead to high performing teams. While I know companies that enlist programs to try to bridge the gap between work and personal life experiences, this is not something we revert to the community building committee. Being an authentic leader means connecting with your team outside of task-oriented communication. This is a journey for you to ask yourself deeply, can you be your authentic self at work? If not, should you still be a leader?

Showing up as you is the only way you will get a different result, people will follow you and you will leave a lasting impact. 

I have felt like you in my business life, so while I write about myself, I can be sure there are 10 others reading this post who feel the same and don’t know how to break free. Let me share with you a few tips that will help you go from simply leading to a role where people will follow. There is a difference!

  • Laugh more – when we allow ourselves to “giggle” or “humf” a bit more, the soul is pouring through and people will see what’s inside
  • Smile more – for some this is hard because work is serious stuff. I had to force myself to smile more and with time, those muscles took over in how I show up. I also show my teeth more. I was very self conscious about the gap in my front teeth, but no longer am. When I smile, I feel more confident and people feel it and connect better. 
  • Move more – we need to deprogram ourselves from society when parents or teachers say “sit still.” This squelches our expressiveness and hides the child inside. I now stand at my desk during interviews which allows more of myself to pour through in the conversation. Moving more will make you stand out and peoples energy will respond to the increase in the energy you project
  • Celebrate your imperfections more – people respond to our quirks and mistakes. This is not about failure, but more about what we stumble on that we often apologize for vs. laugh more at. I can’t tell you how many times I would re-record a video because I would trip over my words. Being a fast talker and thinker, when the two are misaligned, I trip over my words. But for someone intently listening may not notice. So it’s simply who you are. Celebrate it, laugh at it and move on! Others will celebrate you because you are brave enough to acknowledge these and give them permission to be themselves and not apologize for mistakes. 
  • Tell people how you feel more – when you can share with someone how you feel in response to something they said or did, this is the ultimate connection with another person. Taking a pause in the conversation and reverting from the exchange of information, but your reaction to the information, creates a whole new dimension in relatability. For example, right after I finished a podcast interview with someone, I shared with them that they almost made me cry when they shared their bit of wisdom. It was so relevant to feelings I had about myself and the validation that it was okay. When we pause and connect with people, the relationship exponentially grows. This individual and I are now super fans of each other’s work

If these tips do not make sense, you might ask yourself another question; do you know your authentic self or is it long buried away in who you used to be?

If you’d like a bit more time to kick around your thoughts on this article, let’s book a call to discover your authentic leadership style. 

The CEO’s Compass: Your Guide to Get Back on Track – If you’re that leader who feels in their gut something is off track, this could be the resource for you.

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Resources

Good Reads

The Gamechangers Guide to Radical Success by Tevis Trowler is what I’m currently reading and it makes so much sense when it comes to mindset and fulfilling your potential. I recently interviewed Tevis and can’t wait to bring the conversation to you via my podcast, The Drop In CEO. 

Good Music

Loyalty Remains by Veigar Margeirsson another inspirational epic song that helps me get into creative flow when writing. All of Veigar’s music is uplifting and I recommend you check out his work. 

Good Advice

“Instead of reinventing the wheel, I need to talk to people that have already done this on a much higher scale so that I can humble myself and learn. I need to be the student.”

–Nicole Espinosa

Listen and subscribe now: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-drop-in-ceo/id1498953914

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Three People You Need in Your Support System to Prepare for Tomorrow

I pride myself in thinking differently. Like you, I have clients and team members that depend on my insights and leadership skills.

But when the buck stops with you, it can often make decision-making an isolating task. The stress this imposes on C-Suite leadership is one of the main causes of burnout.

So how do we mitigate the stress of constant decision-making and the responsibility that comes with it? Just as a construction crew builds a foundation to support skyscrapers, CEOs should be building a solid foundation of support figures to allow for future growth.

As leaders we need a safe space to think and ask better questions.  I want to awaken leaders to the support systems and advisors you need to invest in today to be better prepared for tomorrow. 

You need a Public Relations / Media expert on your team

Now why would I say media is important to your business? You have a Marketing Manager, a social media team and if you’re big enough, someone adept at corporate communications. Leaders feel that they have all the bases covered when communicating their message both internally and to the external ecosystem.

The problem with this logic is that you have the systems in place only for when things are going well. This lacks risk based decision making and leaders are caught off guard when things go south.

Having a media expert will enable you to build relationships in the community, in the media, trends in the market place and have visibility to risks in your industry and human perception of what you do. You need to proactively be building trust and education amongst consumers of your products, services or those simply watching you. When a competitor has issues or the industry is getting unwanted attention, you have already created a mitigation strategy to manage the viral nature of information.

Having someone who understands the industry and the position your company is in will allow you to stay ahead of any issues and act quickly in the event you need to adjust your public messaging.

You need a Human Capital Strategist

The “great resignation” is not a surprise. The symptoms of people wanting a different way to pursue their careers has always been there; we’ve simply not seen it as a risk. When the pandemic accelerated our ways of working, we now have a new issue that needs to be cured like it’s a disease worse than the pandemic itself.

The real problem is leaders either don’t know what is simmering below the surface of their human investments or choose to ignore it for the more tactical work in their day to day. When leaders take the time to ask better questions like how will I protect my investments in my human intellectual property and capacity, we might be better prepared for the future.

We start to ask questions about the characteristics of the generation coming into the workforce preparing to attract and retain that talent. What if we had a military escalation and lost both men and women from the workforce, have we evolved our successors to step in sooner than later? If there was a world-wide outage of infrastructure and loss of connection with our employees, how would we communicate with them to assure business continuity?

While bleak, asking these questions while things are going well allow us to make decisions with confidence proactively, rather than pivoting at the last moment. The foresight of an expert in this field allows you a window into the future and the ability to create a plan before it’s needed.

A Chief Mindset Officer replaces the 800 lb gorilla in your boardroom

When we say things like ‘that person is difficult’ or ‘that person doesn’t have the skills needed for the next level’ or even the infamous ‘we’ve always done it that way’, the mindset of an 800 lb gorilla in the room is your biggest risk for unleashing potential and sustainability.

There is an infinite amount of research and strategy based on mindset and how to help our people achieve one that aligns with our organizational goals. However, too often we see problems with team mindset and we accept it as is. If leaders have some short-term consciousness, they may choose to mentor someone or send them out for training to ‘fix people’ and their mindset.

But how often does a leader take the time to understand their own mindset, that of the individuals they lead and the collective mindset or culture created by the leader?

We waste so much time and money when we fail to address our own mindsets in our daily leadership. When we ask people what they think, how they see themselves, how they see others and what they’re capable of (or not), we start to see the great divide in what is possible and unleashing human potential.

What would it look like if you had a resource on your team that partnered with you to evolve the collective mindset of your people? Would people have more confidence? Would teams perform at a higher level? Would your problems move from managing poor performance to everyone is a high performer and how to keep feeding the engine of exceeding expectations? 

How to create your own support system

Before you immediately dismiss the idea of adding three more people to your payroll, consider your immediate needs and a few creative ways to slowly add to your circle:

  • Rather than keeping a media expert on staff full time, you could hire a consultant to come in regularly and discuss trends, competitive messaging, and audit your current communication efforts to catch mistakes before they become habits
  • Determine the area of leadership you feel is most challenging and join a mastermind of peers that focuses on that topic. This is a great opportunity to find trusted resources, discuss problems and exercise your own credibility as an expert in your space.
  • Ask your high performers who they trust for personal development and consider hosting an event or workshop. Some lessons are better heard from different voices. Create relationships with thought leaders that can help you support your team while you focus on the growth goals of your organization.

If you disagree with what I propose, then let’s engage in a conversation that promotes future thinking and better preparation for tomorrow. 

If you agree with what I propose, how do you move one step forward to being the leader everyone else wishes they could be? If this is you, let’s book a call. 

The CEO’s Compass: Your Guide to Get Back on Track – If you’re that leader who feels in their gut something is off track, this could be the resource for you.

Resources

Good Reads

Speak Inside the Box: On-screen Presentation Tips for Speakers, Trainers, and Leaders, by Dave Bricker This book was enlightening when my entire world was confined to a computer screen and learning how to technically and strategically continue to make a connection with your audience. Dave Bricker has also become a trusted partner of The Drop in CEO Brand and you should check out his profile 

Good Music

When Leaves Dance by Shoshana Michel As the season starts to change in the northern hemisphere so does the music to inspire me when I think or I write. This piece is so full of playfulness of the leaves falling, the wind swirling bringing in cooler air and also a sense of wonderment of what lies ahead. That is the phase I am in right now as I prepare for the next season of my business and immense possibilities. 

Good People

“As leaders, we need to know what our personal mission, vision and values are so that we can use those as a competence to help us in times of difficult decision-making.” –Chuck Cooper

Listen and subscribe now: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-drop-in-ceo/id1498953914

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3 Questions for Leaders Facing Burnout

Waking up in the morning with my mind going faster than I can write my to do’s on my list is a bad sign.

My checklist is full of things like networking, blog writing, cold outreaches to potential clients, prepping for an interview, prepping for this week, prepping for next week, but it’s all in pursuit of my goals, right?

Here’s the hard truth: the hustle is not getting me any closer to my goals, and it’s probably not working for you either.

A wise person said to me recently you have all the right pieces, but you have to give yourself some air. Why “air” I asked? And that’s when they said, sometimes trying too hard is met with some resistance from the universe saying stop pushing so hard; similar to an airplane taking flight. Resistance is good, but sometimes going too fast is met with even more resistance.

If you’ve ever questioned why doing everything “right” still isn’t producing the results you want, the reason could have nothing to do with how hard you hustle.

Following the advice of others has to be tempered by what feels right to you and serves you vs. serving others. We do need to serve others and pay it forward to help the entire ecosystem whether you work for someone or work for yourself.

However, we have to pause and evaluate if chasing these goals really helps us to achieve them.

Here are a few questions to consider on how your actions are helping you to achieve your goals:

  • Does the activity make sense to you or are you only following the advice of a “guru” promising fast results?
  • Do you feel good about doing the activity? If it stresses you, it’s probably not right for you
  • Do you get signals that indicate the activity is making an impact? If not STOPPPP!!!!

Now, the other piece of advice I can share with you I learned from Dorie Clark. When our goals are large it’s sometimes hard to determine what progress looks like and we need to look at what Dorie calls “the long game.” The most important thing to think about when it comes to progress is if your actions feel good to you and you’re getting small “raindrops,” you may be on the right track. 

So how do you stop chasing your goals and start attracting results? I recently had a discussion with my friend and colleague Jeffrey Shaw about this.

Here are some examples of attracting your goals, feel free to modify for yourself:

  • Instead of asking people to be a guest speaker, consider creating your own Lunch & Learn and attract the people who really want to hear you speak.
  • Instead of hoping for a promotion for all the hard work, ask for feedback on what you are doing well, what can you start doing that will position you for a promotion. You’ll quickly learn if a promotion is on your horizon or you should start looking in another direction.
  • Instead of networking heavily in one networking group to try to find the people who value your work, navigate many until you find the one that does not feel like networking, but you can build meaningful relationships. 
  • Instead of trying to keep all your commitments and feeling overwhelmed, consider downsizing them so the ones you maintain give you joy and fulfillment.

I recently took a short pause and cleared my calendar of all the complexity I had created and felt soooo good! I have a clearer mind and now can see what serves me and what does not. While I’m a bit superstitious and don’t want to share what has recently happened to me, let me share that I can see that slowing down just a bit is already getting me closer to my goals. I’m hopeful to share some of these in stories to come.

What I’d like to know now is what you think about what I’ve shared with you and how by not chasing goals actually gets you closer to your goals. If this is you, let’s book a call. 

The CEO’s Compass: Your Guide to Get Back on Track – If you’re that leader who feels in their gut something, this could be the resource for you.

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Good Reads

The Long Game: How to Be a Long-Term Thinker in a Short-Term World by Dorie Clark. I haven’t read this book yet, but let me tell you if it’s anything like her last 3 books, you will be inspired. We discussed her new book on the podcast and I just received my copy. I’ll be sharing my thoughts on social when I’m done. She’s also written Stand Out, Entrepreneurial You and Reinventing you

Good Music

Passaggio by Lavinia Meijer

Sometimes a tune like this gets the mind focused on the task at hand. Each week when I write these posts, while I love to write, I also may procrastinate. I want to create content that is meaningful to you. This song was exactly what I needed to get focused and be in service to you!

Good People

“When you build connections with people who are outside what you’re doing, that’s actually where you have the greatest potential to change your direction and to learn dramatically new things.” – Dorie Clark 

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The Aftermath of The Road Less Traveled

If I had a dime for every time I took the road most traveled, I wouldn’t have enough for a cup of coffee. Call it stubborn (as my mother would say) or simply leading with the childlike curiosity of asking “why,” my life is rich by traveling the road less traveled. 

But how do you help your team deal with both the successes and failures of traveling adventurously?

Leadership requires you to lead people down the path of changing, evolving or growing. What I find missing is we rarely give leaders a compass to know what to do once we’ve come through to the other side; the aftermath.

Aftermath: the consequences or aftereffects of a significant unpleasant event.

When you think about “high fiving” your team for a job well done, did you ever pause and reflect on the impact of that change with your team? Sure we help people get ready for change, navigate change, but how much do we spend with them addressing the aftermath of change?

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The answer is simple – not enough. Leaders often don’t take the time because like squirrels, we’re off chasing another nut. The problem is you’ve left your team feeling somewhat deflated because you haven’t taken the time they need to evaluate the impact of change. After any transition your people need time and feedback to stabilize the new state of being before chasing the new nut.

Leadership in action

We had an aggressive requirement to get 100 people through problem solving training across 8 plants and like most operations, we executed flawlessly. However, we left people in shambles because we had conducted the training, yet people were not given time in the day to practice their craft. We achieved the goal, but the aftermath did not get us any closer to where we needed to be. We needed to be critical thinkers to resolve issues and prevent them in the future. I see this over and over again when we “high five,” yet we are no closer to improving the experience of having issues or repeat issues. That is why leaders are so often “off track” and unsustainable.

Navigating the aftermath of this change, we debriefed the experience. We agreed the training itself was good, but how we delivered the training was all wrong. We went back and created a Problem Solving 2.0 to create critical thinkers vs. checking the box on training. We kept what was good in the training and added new experiential learning elements to enable learning. We also took our time vs. being pressed by the higher leadership because checking the box would yield a bad result and going down a different path would leave a lasting impact. We later saw a significant improvement in both internal and external problems. 

Leadership requires a different way of thinking and managing the aftermath of change is new muscle we need to develop. 

Here are three things you need to do to manage the aftermath of change:

  • Check in and ask how is everybody feeling
  • Leverage the Feedback model from The CEO’s Compass and ask them to think about:
  • What should we continue (what went well)
  • What should we start doing (what should we do to enhance the outcome we achieved)
  • What should we change (what should next time so we don’t detract from the outcome we want to achieve)
  • Does this change lead us closer to our outcome? (gut check to assure everyone is still aligned and keeps them in a reflective mode)

My challenge to you is this: Think about a recent change in your organization and could you use these tips NOW to help your team regain it’s confidence in the aftermath of a recent change? 

Let me know how you applied these tips. 

I see and feel the leader such as yourself who is going through major changes in their organization. When we meet, you are keenly aware of a need for a different approach and see the value in an external set of eyes. If this is you, I truly want to learn more about what you do first. Let’s book a call 

Resources

The CEO’s Compass: Your Guide to Get Back on Track – If you’re that leader who feels in their gut something is not right, let’s talk. If you “high fived” your team after a major project, only to feel in your gut it’s not right, think about this resource. A recent acquaintance said after they read the first chapter, they put down the book and had to think about their situation. This could be the resource for you. 

Good Reads

Unlock the Sales Game by Ari Galper

Oh my! I have been following the guru’s when it came to extending my offers and I had it all wrong! I’m excited to have met the author and we’ll be recording an interview on the Drop in CEO Podcast. You got to read this and realize your gut was right all along when it came to selling! 

Good Music

Awake-Megan Wofford 

Sometimes I procrastinate on my weekly social media blogs and while my copy editor patiently awaits my content (shout out to Amanda Lund!). I use music such as this to get me in flow and squeak in my content under deadlines. 

Good People

I usually post from past episodes, but this week I’m doing something differently. I really, really want you to put a note on your calendar to listen to my solo episode on Friday. I feel for certain people it can be life changing and I’m honored to share a story from my life and how I am transformed because of it. 

“I hope you are inspired to not live a life of what could have – of being just so close, but living one with a purpose and moving forward down a road that you know who you can be.” – Deborah Coviello

Listen and subscribe now: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-drop-in-ceo/id1498953914

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