Recently, an executive we work with was describing that he was struggling to get out of the weeds of the day-to-day. He knew that he needed to be more strategic in his thinking and actions, but instead found himself pulled into doing the work that his team was assigned to do. To succeed in his job, he needed to support others to do the work that needed to be done while he created the vision, strategy, and relationships to…
One of the biggest frustrations we hear from people in leadership is that they have to be available to their teams “all the time” to answer questions and solve problems. They say that they read about dream teams that know how to move forward in the face of challenges but their team just doesn’t get it. When we ask them to share some examples of how this plays out, we often hear a long history of our client (as team…
Today is Martin Luther King Jr, and to honor his work around civil rights, we want to share with you a present-day voice advocating for a better world. On January 7th at the Golden Globes, Oprah gave a powerful speech about the importance of speaking up. The speech she gave was moving, and the reaction of the audience was equally, if not more, moving. You see, as Oprah spoke, her words fueled their hopes and their conviction for a better…
There is a big difference between sharing your opinion and giving credible input and knowing that difference can have a powerful impact on your success. Giving relevant, useful input is an important skill that requires practice and thoughtfulness. Without a framework for giving input on a question or issue, many of us get anxious and then resort to giving our opinion. Yet, when decision-makers look to you for your expertise, they generally don’t want your opinion—they want useful input.…
Fear is like a virus – it’s contagious. It spreads among individuals and, when left to flourish, it can take down organizations. Let us share an example. A few years ago, we worked with an organization where the CEO of the company was not a very skilled leader. She was harshly critical of the work of others at all levels of the organization. Her critiques were not always wrong mind you, but the delivery of the message was often highly…
Whenever we hear, “Life is anything but fair,” most of us think about the ways that life has not been fair to us. We think about all the ways that life could have or should have gone differently – in our favor. Our challenge to you today is this: Take a moment to consider that life is anything but fair and then think about how you have benefitted from life in ways that others have not – through no fault…
We’ve been contacted by many of you over the years saying that you’re unhappy or worn down by your work and are considering a change. You feel like your company isn’t the same place anymore and you’re unmotivated or frustrated. You’re looking to update your resume and cover letter and see what’s out there that will be better than what you currently have. At first glance, this makes a lot of sense and yet it’s often the wrong first step.…
“Anticipating problems and figuring out how to solve them is actually the opposite of worrying: it’s productive.” — Chris Hadfield, An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth We love this quote and the distinction it makes between problem solving and worrying, and they are very different. Worrying is defined at Dictionary.com as: “to torment oneself with or suffer from disturbing thoughts; to fret.” We have all been there, feeling truly tormented by disturbing thoughts about our life, our…
In the past few weeks, we have had several conversations with both clients and with friends who were feeling down because something that they had hoped would go one way had gone quite a different way, and now they were “stuck.” To support them on their journey, we shared with them one of the pillars of leadership (from our Leader in You framework): A leader sees the possibilities inherent in obstacles and challenges The key word here is inherent. It…
We want to start this week’s post by thanking our incredible Monday Morning Business Coach community. Your questions and comments continue to fuel our thinking and shape what we think about each week. In the past couple of months, quite a number of you have written to ask why we are sending out, free, these powerful tips to claiming your power and stepping into your leadership. So this week we wanted to take a moment to tell you how much…
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.
