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What is the Monday Morning Business Coach?
For over 12 years and running, every Monday morning we’ve sent out an email containing an executive coaching “nugget”—a simple, practical tip or strategy for you to easily take action on to start off your work week.
We use the situations of our clients (anonymously, of course) as well as what we’re pondering or reading about to write a short post. We keep it short because we know your life is busy and you need the “quick tips” to solve your problems, help you focus, and move you forward. We’re not claiming we can solve every issue, but we aim to give you the knowledge and wisdom to help you find your own power and create the future you want. You can view past posts below.
(Although we are talking about this in an organizational setting today, you will see the necessity for similar considerations in your family life, decisions about finances, and in roles in your community.) In today’s economy, there is a lot of pressure to take risks that will increase the company’s market share and bottom line. Recently, we heard the CEO of a large, conservative financial organization state that he wants his teams to “go for it and ask forgiveness later.” And,…
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We live in a world where many things are said with great certainty, as a proclamation of “truth.” Yet, in our work, we find that people in all their various roles often have more power if they can show up as curious rather than certain. One of the things we ask of our clients is to engage with a spirit of curiosity instead of certainty. We know, staying curious when you are stressed or in a hurry is easier…
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We saw a great bumper sticker recently: How people treat you is their karma, how you respond is yours. When something happens to us, particularly if it is something that is challenging or hurtful, it’s tempting to spend a great deal of our time and energy responding to it, over and over and over again in our thoughts and in our emotions. This bumper sticker is a helpful reminder that we cannot control what others do, say, or…
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On November 25, 2013, our post focused on The Wisdom of Africa. We reflected on a simple but powerful proverb: If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. In our write-up, we noted that it doesn’t say that one way or the other is right; instead it suggests that the more you can make a conscious choice about how you move in the world, the more likely you are to get where…
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We were recently asked, “What can a new manager do when they need to have a difficult conversation?” As we thought about this, we were struck by how we’d all like to think that it’s just new managers who struggle with this, but in fact, people from seasoned CEOs to soccer coaches to spouses and kids all struggle with having difficult conversations and, as a result, often avoid the important conversations that can contribute to creating greater connection, development of…
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Two weeks ago, we talked about Creating Effective Meetings and last week we shared the contributions of one of our readers in Beyond Effective Meetings. We trust that you are starting to think more deeply about the meetings that you initiate and the meetings you are in. It is critical to ensure that your meetings are moving your teams forward so that they can create success vs. impeding success. Once you have paused to reflect on the meetings you are…
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Last week our focus was on Creating Effective Meetings. We heard from a lot of members of our community who said that the post was tremendously helpful and one of our readers provided some excellent ideas to consider. Bill S. in Illinois sent this note: Great ideas on meetings! Let me offer another suggestion: group all meetings in the morning or afternoon to leave large blocks of time available to actually work. I work in Information Technology and it is…
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As consultants, we hear a lot of complaints about meetings. We hear that there are too many, they eat up the bulk of the workweek, and most of them are ineffective. From our perspective, the only reason to get 3 to 5 or even 10 or more people in a room is so that when they leave, they are able to be more effective. They leave with information that creates confidence, they leave feeling they have influenced decisions that are…
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You may have noticed that more and more companies are telling you their stories. Understanding a company’s story allows you to identify with the meaning and purpose that shapes a company, and it builds a personal relationship to them – which translates into greater loyalty. In this same way, if you are looking to hire great people and great leaders, you need to share your organization’s story. You need to tell potential employees why your company was started, what the…
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Last week we talked about the power of distractions to derail you as you try to move forward in your day and your life. One of the things we mentioned as important in combatting the impact of distractions was sleep. We know we bug you about this stuff with some regularity and we don’t want to be a broken record but there is some new data on the importance of sleep that is critical to understand if you are committed…
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