What Career Builders Do You Believe Are Holding You Back?

Have you ever been passed up for a special project but didn’t know why?  Did you assume the boss just didn’t like you?

Assumptions are dangerous.  They affect how you handle things and may be detrimental to your business position.  As career builders, assumptions put you in a state of not being confident in your abilities.

You may have been passed up because the boss didn’t know you were interested in the project.  It may have been completely unintentional, but you jumped to conclusions that may have made for a bad situation.

What career builders do you believe are holding you back?

Some assumptions that could get you in trouble:

•    Assuming no one is interested in your opinion
•    Assuming you are passed up for projects because you are not a good employee

Don’t think if you are not asked for your opinion that no one is interested.  Contribute your ideas to show management you are thinking of new ways to help the business.

Don’t assume no one is interested in what you have to say.  They may just be busy and are relying on you to tell them your thoughts.

If you are interested in a project you heard about, set up a meeting with your boss and let him/her know that you would like to be a part of the project and why you feel you would be an asset.

Keep the little voice in your head that is chattering on about your limiting beliefs quiet.

Take a leadership role in your own mind and you will be able to stop the damaging assumptions that pop up from time to time.

If you would like to understand the causes of communication breakdown, prepare for any conversation, and develop strategies for managing through interference sign up for my FREE Ebook Concept to Action.

Is Your Business and Money Outlook Affecting Your Job?

Each person is different in how they want their life/work balance to be.

Many companies tell “workaholics” not to work so hard because it makes other employees feel bad or guilty that they are not doing more.

As a business owner, manager, or executive you are in a leadership position.  Let your team find the balance that works best for them.  This approach will improve your business and money because your team will become more productive with your support.

If you have a “workaholic” that LOVES their job and can’t wait to work with customers each day, don’t tell them that’s wrong.  Just because everyone doesn’t do that doesn’t mean that one person isn’t working as hard as the other.

If you have staff that wants or needs to leave by 5:00 each day to be with their family that’s fine too.  As long as the obligations to the company are being fulfilled, time shouldn’t be a determining factor in someone’s position.

Is your business and money outlook affecting your job?

•    Let everyone find their balance
•    Show your support
•    Be positive so you have a positive team

Call a meeting and let everyone know that their personal balance is important and if the job is getting done it shouldn’t matter what time they leave at night.  Work out schedules with each individual that works for both them and the company.

Make great strides with your team and let them choose their balance.

If they are working at comfortable times for them and are happy you will be able to grow bigger because they will put their all into their job knowing you support them.

Do you know what happens when your head and heart are integrated?  Can you stop the thoughts that get in the way?  Do you want to learn how to speak with your heart?  Sign up to receive my FREE Ebook Speaking From Heart to get all your questions answered.

Do You Dress For Success When You Attend Networking Events?

Networking is such an important aspect to business.  Many people don’t put enough value in networking.

Networking isn’t just about meeting for a meal or drinks.  It’s about sharing information, tapping resources, leveraging your work with thought partnership with others.  To dress for success at networking events you need to be prepared to find resources that will benefit you and make use of them.

You need to meet people with other expertise than your own to grow in your business.

Do you dress for success when you attend networking events?

Networking isn’t all about selling to other people, it’s about helping them and building relationships so they can help you as well.

When at a networking event:

•    Ask people about themselves
•    Make connections
•    Think of ways you can help others

People love to talk about themselves.  You’ll build more relationships by being interested in those around you.  As you learn, you make connections and can think of ways to help that person, or of other people that you could introduce.

Be sure to network all the time and you will build a great relationship with others and can begin to leverage your business.

If you would like to understand the causes of communication breakdown, prepare for any conversation, and develop strategies for managing through interference sign up for my FREE Ebook Concept to Action.

Are You Stuck In A Double Bind Personality Type In Your Company?

Many females lead their teams in sports or their organizations in college.  They are capable and self assured and show that.  They are mentors to their team members.

Then they enter the work force.  Reality suddenly changes.  In most companies, unfortunately, they are still male dominated.  There is a new personality type to contend with now.

If you sit a female employee next to a male employee holding the same position, and they answer a question identically, the male employee will be seen as confident, while the female employee will be seen as assertive.

This is referred to as a double bind, which means when women act like women they are discounted as weak and if they act like men they are seen as aggressive.

Are you stuck in a double bind personality type in your company?

To get past this double bind:

•    Act in a way that is comfortable to you
•    Call it as you see it

By choosing to behave in a way that is comfortable for you, the people around you know what to expect.  A combination of qualities may be best.

Call it as you see it so the company is aware of what is happening.

You can make your work situation more pleasant by being you.   Once the company is aware of the double bind, hopefully they will start to take control of the situation and change the way the workforce is for the better.
If you would like to understand the causes of communication breakdown, prepare for any conversation, and develop strategies for managing through interference sign up for my FREE Ebook Concept to Action.

“There came a time when the risk to remain tight in the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.”

Anais Nin

How do you change your mindset when your mindset is that you cannot change?  Change is driven by aspiration or desperation.  In other words, you change because you have a dream, goal or objective; or, you change because you are on a burning platform – your situation is so unbearable that you have to change.  It probably comes as no surprise to you that most change comes from desperation.  You change because the alternative to not changing is no longer acceptable to you. 

We all have habits that do not service us well.  Many of these habits provide some form of pleasure or they are the manifestation of a belief that you carry.  For example, you end up doing lots of things that you don’t want to do because you can’t say “no.”  You can’t say “no” because you have a belief that to do so means that you are not a good person.  However, doing things you don’t want to do makes you angry and/or stressed.  So it affects your mindset toward people who cause you to do things you do not want to do. 

A mindset that often comes up in coaching relates to interpersonal relationships.  You may intimidate others, or put people down.  This type of mindset often stems from beliefs about competency.  For example, you may believe that if you are not the smartest person in the room, then you will not be viewed as competent.

The first step to change a mindset is to develop an awareness of what this mindset is costing you and what it is based on.  The second step is to become an observer by noticing when the mindset you are trying to change comes into play.  Writing in a journal can be very powerful, but simply making mental notes can be effective as well.  The goal of this step is to begin to detach yourself from the mindset, to recognize that it is not an inherent part of you.  In addition, by becoming more conscious of your mindset, you have a better chance of controlling it.  The third step is to reframe your belief.  For example:   “When I say ‘no’ to things I don’t want to do I am being a good person because I am respecting myself and my relationship to this other person.”   “When I let others express and develop their views, it shows that I am confident in my competence.”   

If you keep repeating these three steps, little by little you will begin to notice a difference. 

“The important thing is this: To be able at any moment to sacrifice what we are for what we could become.”

Charles Dubois

 “It is not always the people who start out the smartest who end up the smartest.” 

                                                                                                                                  Alfred Binet

The definition of mindset is:  “The established set of attitudes held by someone.”  The definition is so simple, yet it describes something so complex.  There are many dimensions to our mindset.  In part it represents how we approach life, and what we bring to every experience that we are a part of.  Mindset is affected by longstanding beliefs and values, and it is affected by specific situations that evoke emotions of excitement, happiness, sadness or anger.   For all of us, our mindset is a primary  source of power because mindset determines outcomes.  Mindset allows you to go far beyond what you or anyone else thought possible, and it allows you to fall far short of your potential.

One line of thinking that is very popular in the corporate world right now is that you are born with a set of talents or strengths, and while they may change in magnitude, what those talents or strengths are do not change.  The same is not true with mindset.  Mindsets can and do change.  We can control our own mindset. Our mindset reflects the choices we make to be optimistic or pessimistic, tolerant or intolerant, confident or insecure, trusting or skeptical, adventuresome or cautious, flexible or rigid, spiritual or not spiritual, focused on the greater good or only on our own needs and interests. We all fall somewhere on each of these dimensions.

Changing our mindset can take a lot of effort.  We may have to let go of the voice that is a constant companion in our heads and that is always trying to cause mischief.  And, the more our beliefs and values are embedded in our mindset, the more work and determination it will take to change it.  I often hear in coaching:  “I don’t want to be this way, but this is the way that I am and have been my whole life.”   It’s a catch 22, how do you change you mindset, when your mindset is that you cannot change?  Over the next few days, my blogs will focus on to deal with this catch 22 situation.

“Not he is great who can alter matter, but he who can alter my state of mind.”

                                                                                                                               Ralph Waldo Emerson