We hear a great deal about the frustration our clients face as they deal with the demands in their lives. In many cases, we can see (because we have some distance) that the frustration is more a result of not having the right tools to responds to life’s demands rather than the demand itself. For almost every challenge we are confronted with, there are tools (some physical, many not) that would make the challenge easier and increase the likelihood of…
There is a wonderful quote from Elie Wiesel, “We must see in every person a universe with its own secrets, with its own treasures, with its own sources of anguish, and with some measure of triumph.” As coaches and consultants, our world is working with people and their secrets, treasures, anguish, and triumphs. It is an honor and a privilege to do this work and to be able to open the hearts and minds of the people we work with…
One of the things we tend to give up when we become adults is the joy of dreaming. We get all serious and grown-up and forget that our dreams provide us wisdom, perspective and direction about how we can create rich and meaningful lives. Lives that are good for us, our family, and for the world. This week, we invite you to answer the question, “What would I do – if I knew I couldn’t fail?” By asking…
We have been working with an extraordinary executive who is powerful, thoughtful, effective, focused and afraid. “What?” . . . you may ask, “how do those five words end up in the same sentence?” Fear is a central part of the survival mechanism the brain has used to keep us safe since the dawn of time. We feel fear quickly and intensely because from the perspective of evolution, it is what kept us alive. Like the rest…
We recently read a story about a young woman who had the opportunity to train with Philippe Petit, the man who walked between the Twin Towers on a wire 1,300 feet above the ground. As she was working with him, he noticed that she would get so excited about getting where she was going, she would falter where she was. He told her she needed to understand the final three feet. He said, “You’re not there yet. You can…
Last week we talked about how important it is for individuals to grieve and heal their losses in order to move forward. Just as with individuals, organizations, as a whole, get “attached” to a truth and when that truth fails to materialize or is no longer true, they, too, need to grieve the lost future in order to integrate the new one. When we say “organizations,” we are describing the people who make up the organization and who by…
There comes a time in each of our lives when we are faced with painful, life-changing events over which we have no control. Whether it’s a big event or a small event, it will require two things of us: time to grieve and time to heal. The life-changing events we speak of here don’t have to be catastrophic in nature. Life-changing events can include: being passed over for a promotion, not winning an RFP, working for someone who is…
One of the more challenging aspects of being a human is that we have the ability to cognitively understand the need to change and what needs to happen to bring about a change, but we struggle with practicing the behaviors that will actually sustain the change. Often, we hope that change will occur without us actually changing. Ah, humans. We are a funny species. We tell ourselves that because we understand that we need to change and because we understand…
One of the things we regularly remind our clients is that everything is a communication. And by that we mean, everything. What you wear, how you stand, how fast you talk, what your eyes do as you listen, how quickly you return a call or email, how you set up your office… you get the picture. And, that means that if everything is a communication, so is silence even though you may have believed it is a lack of communication. As…
Here we are once more, on the brink of a New Year. We are entering this New Year having just experienced a heart-breaking end to the old. And yet, we would encourage you to look forward with commitment to growing in your ability to love and be connected – to yourself and your sense of purpose, to your family and their success, and to your world and its commitment to caring for all people. In George Valliant’s new book,…
We stand shoulder-to-shoulder with leaders, teams, and individuals who are passionate about growing in their leadership and in their ability to create cultures of psychological safety and engagement.
Carpenter Smith Consulting is a Women Business Enterprise, Oregon Cert ID 7047.
