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The World is Your Stage to Speak Loudly!

When I was 5 years old, I was selected to be the lead of Rosina Dainty-Mouth in an adaptation of Hansel and Gretel. I was chosen because of my great communications skills and singing. I remember how much I loved the stage. In summer school, I would join theatre classes and make puppets and write scripts for plays. In middle school and through high school, I sung in choir and played clarinet and saxophone for various stage performances. The opportunity to perform in multiple media has always been apart of who I am and often not shared with others.

As you look at the image of a stage, on and off I’ve been behind and in front of the curtain depending on the season of my life. I’m currently peaking out through the curtain, because I realize I’ve not been my truest self; yielding to societal norms and situational needs. While I have one foot in the corporate and entrepreneurial world, I have another foot on the stage to share my insights and with the world. I’ve often wondered if both can co-exist for which I’m grateful to have found another guide in my life that said the two personas can exist.

Putting it all out there for everyone to know, I’m in pursuit of that stage with bright lights. I want to be able to share insights to large groups and hopefully inspire them to reach their potential.

As with all my articles, I turn my conversation to you. Do you have a stage for which you can speak and share your insights? While you may / may not be one for bright lights and a stage, metaphorically, I’m asking you how are you leaving your legacy? Do you share your insights with others? Do you mentor people? Have you set up sustainable systems so others can continue in your footsteps? Have you spent time with others to share your wisdom or give back? Do you write down your thoughts and write a blog, publish an article, give a talk, deliver a lunch & learn? This is the stage of life for which everyone should aspire to leave a lasting impact.

Think about your existence and have you walked out onto a “stage” to speak loudly and connect with humanity? Can you recall if you connected with others and lived your fullest day? We’re here for a finite time and when our time is done, it is done… or perhaps not? Our lives live on through the impact we have on others and I ask you to take inventory of how you connect with others? The world is your stage and it’s ours to speak loudly and leave your legacy!

Many wise people have told me that when we put our aspirations out into the world, we manifest them to happen in the future. I do believe in that now for which I’m speaking loudly now to anyone who wishes to partner with me on this journey. I’d love to be on a stage and reach more people can I imagine. Waiting patiently for that opportunity to help me pull back the curtain and claim my stage.

If my story was inspiring, I’d love to hear your stage story!

Be well-Deb

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‘We were afraid you would be like most other consultants…’

I’m laughing inside as a recent client of mine commented during our debrief, ‘We were afraid you would be like most other consultants…’ to which I am grateful I was excluded from that demographic!

As the Drop In CEO, I don’t come in to cause chaos, but to take a business through the crisis scale from Crisis->Chaos->Control->Continuous Improvement->Competitive Advantage, while elevating their team’s capabilities for a lasting impact.

Then I wonder why so may (not all) consulting experiences leave a bad taste in ones’ mouth? Don’t blame it on the consultant; they were just doing their job. Could it be how they were introduced to the organization and how they were deployed? It goes to leadership practiced that could be responsible for the havoc they cause an organization. It could be how we set the expectation for what we want consultants to do. Is it to achieve a business transaction and / or is it to bring people along for a change? Again, go ask leadership what the expectation should be.

To avoid creating chaos for you, I’m offering a few tips to help you navigate the changing landscape for you and your team:

Ask what do we hope to achieve?

If we want to implement a new system for better efficiency, that is the wrong answer. A better outcome statement may be: want to help our people realize efficiency gains while making they’re lives easier. With a better outcome in mind, the consultants might create a workstream that engages the people in how best to deploy the new platform. Simply deploying a new platform will bring an organization to a screeching halt if the people don’t realize the gains.

How do we prepare the team for a consultant?

Often, they show up on your doorstep with little notice leaving a very awkward moment when the consultant starts reaching out to people. Your team does not have context nor know their role in the change you are hoping for. Leadership needs to communicate in advance why is the change needed, how the change will impact them and how they consultant will engage with them. Oh, most important during this period is to let people know how much their valued and maintain constant communications. An information void will damage what you are trying to achieve.

Find the right consultant; they’re not all created equal.

I propose you find someone who becomes integrated into the day to day operations of your business and is seen as a business partner. When they become one with your team while on a mission, people will trust the resources more and move as one. When you hire someone that promises a result and then complains how the team is not supporting the work, you may have mis-represented what you wanted from the consultant. It always goes back to leadership to set the expectations. Some consultants are just think tanks and want to give you their expertise and simply execute. They are note as interested in working with the teams from a change management perspective. The want to get in and get out. You then have to determine if you have the capacity for change management or do you want to hire someone that has both the technical and change experience?

The choice is yours. If the consultant fails at the outcome, you may want to look inside and see what it was you asked for.

Shameless plug here, I’m the Drop In CEO and I drop into organizations and partner with you to assess what is needed in the changing landscape and also elevate the people in the process. I love that work and would love to be “that consultant” who is memorable.

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How Networking is an Investment in Elevating Humanity

I took a chance and reached out to a CEO of a company with an invitation to get to know who they were as a person and what did they do to leave a legacy. What unfolded was 45 minutes of realizing what an amazing human I found and someone who was so aligned with my values and leadership style. I can’t wait to get them onto my podcast for you to meet them, but until then here are a few things we can learn:

Take a chance and just say “Hi and I want to learn more about you!”.

I reach out to 100-200 people per week just to connect with humanity. Unfortunately, there is so much transactional outreach, people are numb to entertaining a real conversation. I persevere for the few that are willing to say yes! For those who have met me, I think you will agree that I’m sincerely interested in learning about you and also imparting some kind of value during that time. No transaction, but real human connection. I take a chance on humanity and it has rewarded me in people I can help and even those who come onto the podcast.

Be present and seek the outcome of building a relationship.

I’m sorry, but networking groups who advocate for “closing the deal” and get 2-3 referrals or push “how can you help” makes the encounter transactional and puts too much pressure on people. What we are truly after is building relationships that if you’re patient can turn into trust and possible collaboration. I made this mistake early on in my networking days and since being more intentional about relationships, the transactions come in the form of a collaboration or commitment of support. Play the long game and don’t be fooled by the guru’s that promise 10x inbound calls or 10x your Linkedin or YouTube following.

Treat those as you want to be treated.

If you are lucky to arrange a networking call, lead by seeking to learn about the other person. This is no time to download your CV/Resume because you revert to the transaction vs. the outcome of building a relationship. When people see you are sincerely curious about them and asking follow up questions, you build trust. Naturally the person will reciprocate and ask about you; ensuring you lead with who you are as a person and then what do you do to be in service to others. When you treat others with respect, it will come back and further deepening the relationship that is part of humanity.

I leave you with one last thought that while Humanity has evolved to be fast paced, divisive at times and we lose sight of what really matters, we need to depend on each other to survive as a race. Connect with others, seek to build deep bonds and help the collective survive what can feel like impossible times. Networking if we do it right can be the key to survival in business, careers and even family and community.

Focus on what really matters. The Human race depends on it.

If you like this article, please share with others so we can inspire others to reach their fullest potential.

Be well-Deb

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LEAN is a Four Letter Word: How to avoid the inherent waste in a Lean Initiative

Let me give it to you straight. No amount of operational efficiency you glean from a Lean Initiative is going to give you sustainable results without three fundamentals:

  • Responsibility & Accountability Institutionalized
  • Prioritization mastery
  • Critical thinking and decision logic maturity

Without these inculcated into your organization with front line leaders and those that drive the ship, you will ultimately lose money and then blame the Lean Leader for their failure.

Let’s look at waste: TIM WOODS stands for Time, Inventory, Motion, Waiting, Overproduction, Overprocessing, Defects and Skills which is the fundamental framework for eliminating waste in a Lean Organization.

However, let’s apply this to the humans vs. processes and see the waste through a different lens.

Example 1: A quality supervisor makes a decision to reject material and hold it until a disposition of scrap or rework can be made. The production manager understands the issue and pressures the supervisor that the specifications are just guidelines and in the end application, there will not be an impact and pressures them to release.

What’s wrong with this picture? While conversation is necessary in such situations, who ultimately is responsible for these key decisions? Refocusing the energy from pressuring the release of a product to identify the root cause why the product is not in specification is a better use of time. However, in this process without clear Responsibility and Accountability defined, there is Waste. I don’t care if you have an efficient production process to create products with defects; under the surface, the organization is generating waste.

Example 2: Production is realizing the benefit of Lean and is producing products with a lower takt time (a measurement in Lean for how fast you need to produce to keep up with customer demand). Management is celebrating a win, but there is a bottleneck in the quality lab. The quality manager has two people out for COVID, another is out for training, they have several research projects to complete for R&D, Customer Complaints to be resolved and they have to work with maintenance who is coming down today to repair a leak. The Manager is stressed and sees the work piling up and is working late hours to try to meet all demands.

What’s wrong with this picture? Clearly in this situation without further context, the Research work and possibly the customer complaints can be paused in favor of the leak and managing resources to get the work done with a reduced staff. However, this manager lacks the prioritization savvy to make those decisions or doesn’t have a support system to help them manage the increase in work and reduced resources. Wouldn’t it be a better use of time in concert with speeding up production to also work with Quality to ensure they are also level loaded to meet the demands of production? Could we also help this leader to have a framework for prioritization and a voice to message when they’re in trouble? Sometimes these situations cause burnout without us realizing it in the spirit of creating a lean production machine.

Example 3: Returning to the Quality Manager who is overloaded with a reduced workforce, they make the following decisions to manage:

  • Authorize overtime
  • Work 12 hour days
  • Delay the repair of the leak in the quality department

Where did they go wrong? Their decision logic based on a position of helplessness made the decisions based on what was in their control. Instead, they could have contacted customer service to see if any orders could be rescheduled. With the increased efficiency in production, there were resources that could be pulled in to do administrative work; moving resources to where the work was needed. And let’s talk about that leak they delayed. Short sightedness may cause a long term expensive issue if that leak introduces safety or health hazards in the lab. They could have reschedule to the weekend when people were not around.

Critical thinking and better decision logic might have had a better outcome for quality keeping up with production. By not preparing them with better skills, they sometimes make wasteful decisions which is what we’re trying to eliminate.

So my advice to you is next time you think of a Lean Initiative, look at yourself and the organization.

Do they have skills to prepare for the improvements you are making or are there skills under the surface you need to Lean out Waste before moving forward?

Think you got this because the Lean Consultant is on a mission to realize cost savings on behalf of your stakeholders? Think again as your Lean Initiative can be that Four Letter Word that leaves an irreparable legacy on your organization.

For the unfiltered, off the cuff discussion about this topic, please listen to my podcast airing on 1/19/24 and view the video so you see how I really feel about this topic!.

If you are a CEO who would love a partner to help you with a business challenge, be your #2 or help develop the team of tomorrow, let us partner in 2024.

To hear more about This topic please tune into my podcast that is releasing this Friday 1/19/24

Be well-Deb

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A Guide to Transforming Hope into Action for a Successful 2024

The year is coming to a close and your fate has been sealed. It often feels anti-climactic as you then have to ramp up to a new year of setting goals and “Hoping” you can achieve them or get that new role. Stop hoping and start “Owning” your future!

As you can see, I’m nudging you a bit to make sure you don’t get stuck. Within the last month, two people came to me who have expressed frustration in their current situation and through some active listening on my part, reframing back to them what I saw as their value and some self awareness on their part, they came to the conclusion that they can see the future and take control. Something magical happens when I speak with people, but until we speak, I’d like to impart a few thoughts with you.

Reflect on all the value  you have brought in 2023 and use that data to predict your future performance:

  • Can people see your future potential?
  • Can you tell stories to show how past data and performance is a predictor of future performance?
  • Do you know what words or phrases to use to project your value?

And let’s ask yourself another set of questions about the future:

  • Can you see the future?
  • Can you see yourself in a new role or project?
  • Can you see yourself at the next level?

When you can see the future, articulate the future and act like your future self, you will get pulled into opportunities either of your own doing or external factors.

When you see the future, you can identify the barriers or actions needed to be addressed in order to move forward. If you’re in a situation that you cannot control the environment, then it’s time to move to a different environment where you will thrive. No shame in moving on, but regret if you stay put.

I can help you whiteboard your thoughts and future state and close the gap on the current and future state. It’s that easy and the only thing standing in the way of your successful 2024 is your decision to work with someone.

I know this was a bit of a pep talk vs. a framework, but it’s actually simple. You can do this on your own or you can make the decision to work with someone like myself, a mentor or a trusted partner. Regardless of who you work with, move yourself to action.

If this was helpful, let me know!

If someone could benefit from this DIY lesson, please share it with them!

If you need some help, I’m here for you.

I’m here to listen and perhaps we can have a conversation and unlock your future!

To hear more about This topic and goal setting for 2024, please tune into my podcast that is releasing this Friday 12/29/23.

Be well

-Deb

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Three Ways to Think Differently

I think I’ve found the keys to success and I’m over the top excited to share this with you. If you’re ready, let’s take a leap towards greater success with this simple shift in mindset!

I’ve been working with a client to enhance their client experience, and the feedback I received was incredibly rewarding. It reminded me of my superpowers: deep listening and facilitating conversations. I believe these skills can be beneficial to you as well, as they can help you understand and connect with others on a deeper level. With that said, sometimes we don’t leverage our superpowers because our mindset is not in the right place. 

About 7 years ago, a personal training trainer encouraged me to focus on the possibility of success rather than worrying about failure. This shift in perspective was a game-changer for me. It boosted my confidence and made me realize that feedback, whether positive or negative, is a gift for growth.

Many professionals are risk averse due to scrutiny and they adopt the mindset of potential failure. When you shift your mindset to the possibility of success, confidence is enhanced. That confidence that comes with the mindset shift is my key to success and hopefully yours. 

When considering your own mindset, there are three main things I invite you to challenge yourself with:

  • Reflect on your own initiatives, presentations, or proposals. What is currently within your control? Focus on only the things that can directly influence the outcome of your goals.
  • Avoid letting a negative mindset hold you back? Remember your past successes and trust in your ability to figure things out. 
  • Don’t worry about perfection or the opinions of others. Instead, focus on your growth and the value you bring.

Remember, keep pushing forward and keep growing. Your mindset is the key to your success.

If you are aspiring to the C-Suite, and tired of the hustle, are you ready to change how you work and implement these tips? 

If you are a business owner or C-Suite leader, are you ready to invest in your people and help them be successful? Their success is your success! 

Now is the time for you to collect your thoughts and take action. I want you to succeed and this framework can enable you to do it yourself. 

However, if you need more help, I’m here for you as the Drop In CEO, CEO whisperer or as a sounding board. 

To hear more about my story about framework, please tune into my podcast that is releasing this Friday 9/1/23. 

Maybe you simply need a support system to apply these new insights. I find leaders need a place to talk through the challenges and that’s why I created The Drop In CEO Collective, a forum for C-Suite leaders of today and tomorrow. 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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Strategies for Staying Focused While Everyone’s on Vacation

As we all know, summer brings with it a whole new set of challenges when it comes to getting things done. The sun is shining, the beach is calling, and it feels like everyone and their dog is on vacation. It’s no wonder our productivity takes a hit during this time of year.

For example, I am having a challenge with a client, this client and trying to schedule a kickoff meeting. I’ve been met with vacations and all kinds of scheduling issues. In the end, the Project Lead agreed to push it off an entire month when we knew everyone was back from vacation. While it didn’t meet my own self-imposed sense of urgency, it was more important for the entire team to be present and rested. After all, the greater calling is to have people present and engaged. Starting something in haste just to check it off your list is not the true purpose. Your purpose is to guide others. And sometimes the timing may be different than when you planned it. You have to accept this. 

You cannot always be in control, but you can be in control of your discipline and patience with the process. When you start later, you’ll have the opportunity to show your skills and your leadership because you were patient with when to start the process. Leaders need discipline to know that timing is everything and sometimes the greater need for your people is patience.

Here’s a simple framework for practicing patience as a leader during the summer months:

Step 1: Accept the Situation

First things first, let’s acknowledge the reality of the situation. It’s summer, people are out enjoying their time off, and that means things might move a bit slower. Instead of fighting against it, embrace it. Accept that things may take longer than usual and use this as an opportunity to practice patience and flexibility.

Step 2: Take an Inventory of Your Goals

Now that we’ve accepted the summer slowdown, it’s time to reassess our goals. Take a moment to reflect on what you want to achieve during this period and prioritize your tasks accordingly. Maybe there are some projects that can be put on hold until things pick up again, or perhaps you can focus on those independent tasks that have been lingering on your to-do list.

Step 3: Get Back on Track

Okay, so we’ve accepted the situation and reevaluated our goals. Now it’s time to get back on track. Look at your schedule and identify those pockets of time where you can really make progress. Maybe it’s early mornings or late evenings when the distractions are minimal. Whatever it is, carve out that dedicated time for focused work and make the most of it.

Step 4: Catch Up on Independent Work

Summer is the perfect time to tackle those solo projects that require your undivided attention. With fewer interruptions and distractions, you can finally dive deep into that research, write that article, or revamp your website. Use this time to power through those tasks that don’t necessarily require the input or availability of others.

Step 5: Embrace the Personal

Last but certainly not least, don’t forget to embrace the personal side of summer. Take advantage of those longer evenings and sunny weekends to recharge your batteries and indulge in activities you enjoy.

If you are aspiring to the C-Suite, and tired of the hustle, are you ready to change how you work and implement these tips? 

If you are a business owner or C-Suite leader, are you ready to invest in your people and help them be successful? Their success is your success! 

Now is the time for you to collect your thoughts and take action. I want you to succeed and this framework can enable you to do it yourself. 

However, if you need more help, I’m here for you as the Drop In CEO, CEO whisperer or as a sounding board. 

To hear more about my story about framework, please tune into my podcast that is releasing this Friday 7/7/23. 

Maybe you simply need a support system to apply these new insights. I find leaders need a place to talk through the challenges and that’s why I created The Drop In CEO Collective, a forum for C-Suite leaders of today and tomorrow. 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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Why is Mid-Year Evaluation Important for Your Goals?

Are you feeling overwhelmed by the challenges of achieving your goals? Do you feel like you’re off course and struggling to find your way back? When we hit the halfway point in the year, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by how much we still have to accomplish by the end of the year. Taking a moment to reflect and refocus is critical for avoiding burnout and optimizing our actions for better results. 

One of the ways we do this is by focusing on how closely our actions align with our purpose (one of the seven points of the CEO’s Compass.) Recently I sat down and tracked all of the business connections and opportunities I was creating and realized that only about 5% were truly aligned to the work I wanted to do. While other opportunities might be good financially or appealing to my creative side, they weren’t getting me closer to my ultimate goal. Understanding that allowed me to make decisions to utilize my time in ways that more closely aligned with my purpose, and while I can say no with confidence, I can also say YES to the right opportunities faster. 

Making fast, aligned decisions is easy when you run it through the first 5 points of the CEO’s Compass:

  • Purpose: Are your current actions aligned with your true purpose?
  • People: Do you have the right people with the right skills in place to lead them to success?
  • Performance: Performance is human centric. Are you utilizing the people around you (yourself, your team, and your community) in a way that gets you to your goal?
  • Process: Is your current process streamlined to get you where you need to go, or is there room for improvement?
  • Platform: Are you using the right tools for this process? How can technology help you?

Ask yourself these questions. Invest in yourself. If you already have your clearly defined actions and you are on track, Kudos to you. But if you found that people around you are not on track, consider sharing this article with them. Maybe talk to them about the CEO’s Compass – a tremendous resource that might get you unstuck from where you happen to be.

If you are aspiring to the C-Suite, and tired of the hustle, are you ready to change how you work and implement these tips? 

If you are a business owner or C-Suite leader, are you ready to invest in your people and help them be successful? Their success is your success! 

Now is the time for you to collect your thoughts and take action. I want you to succeed and this framework can enable you to do it yourself. 

However, if you need more help, I’m here for you as the Drop In CEO, CEO whisperer or as a sounding board. 

To hear more about my story about framework, please tune into my podcast that is releasing this Friday 6/30/23. 

Maybe you simply need a support system to apply these new insights. I find leaders need a place to talk through the challenges and that’s why I created The Drop In CEO Collective, a forum for C-Suite leaders of today and tomorrow. 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 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 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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