Today I Showed Up as a Leader...

HOW TO DEAL WITH THE LACK OF PROFESSIONALISM IN TODAY’S ORGANIZATIONS

Are you struggling with team members who lack professionalism? Have you found this to be a regular occurrence with cross-functional teams that you work with? Or are you the client and find that the agency working on your business lacks professionalism? Recently, I was conducting a corporate training and several managers in the group confessed that they are challenged with a lack of professionalism from their direct reports – specifically employees who were hired during the pandemic and had only worked remotely thus far. When coming into the office, as hybrid situations came to fruition, their managers were shocked at …

Leadership Transformation

WHY SOME CLIENTS SUCCEED & OTHERS STRUGGLE

Have you ever wondered why some people are extremely successful while others consistently struggle? You may have watched friends or colleagues move up the ladder of success while you saw others staying stuck. Perhaps you even felt like some are super luck and others just aren’t. I am sharing two real client case studies to illustrate the reasons why some people have rapid success and others continually struggle. They will reveal the mysteries so you can make changes in you own career journey. These two professionals have similar educational backgrounds and both work for great companies and they both chose …

Leadership Transformation

DO YOU COUNT YOUR RAINBOWS OR THUNDERSTORMS?

I have a lot to be grateful for. The Northeast got hit hard by Tropical Storm Ida. She took us by surprise, especially since she had passed through several states before hitting New York. I had been at an all-day training event with clients and was racing to get home before the storm hit – and I did. I am grateful for that because the roads suddenly turned into rivers and flash floods overtook cars and their passengers. When I was driving to the gym two days later the roads were still littered with abandoned cars on the sides of …

Leadership Transformation

WHAT IS “UP LEVELING” AND WHY DOES IT FEEL SO LONELY?

This photo popped up on my Facebook feed as a memory from last year. It looked beautiful and bucolic, yet the memory it evoked was not. It was 2020 and COVID was raging in New York City along with riots and protests. It felt like the world was ending. I lived in a suburban area just outside the city. The sun was out and it was a gorgeous day. It felt luxurious after months of living in fear and isolation to just take my lawn chair to the park and read a book in the sun. When I posted the …

Leadership Transformation

DO YOU HAVE THE COURAGE IT TAKES TO SPEAK UP?

I’ve been contemplating how difficult it is to speak up and be heard as a woman and was pondering why. I did a little research on two women who found their voices and spoke up. I discovered that they both were able to do this despite some very intriguing circumstances. Let’s take a peek behind the curtain… Let’s begin with Eleanor Roosevelt. One of my favorite quotes from her is: “Speak your mind, even though your voice shakes.” When we think of Eleanor Roosevelt we think “Strong, Smart Woman;” after all she even has US stamps with her image on them. Yet everything …

Leadership Transformation

ARE YOU THE ALPHA OR THE OMEGA IN YOUR CAREER?

Are you familiar with Alpha and Omega energies? If you are like me, perhaps you have ‘heard’ of it but may not know a whole lot about it. When I began to explore this topic – it blew my mind. In work life and in wildlife, there is a “status” and a pecking order whether we realize it or not. In the wild, whether it be wolves or lions or other packs of animals, there is an “Alpha” who is the leader of the pack. All the way at the end of the line there is an “Omega” who is …

Leadership Transformation

BE AWARE OF YOUR THOUGHTS…THEY ARE A PREDICTION OF YOUR FUTURE

Did you know that when we have a thought; just a mere though in our minds, that we have already created it?  It already exists and it is our job to take action to bring it to fruition. Wallace Wattles in “The Science of Being Great” (which was written in 1910 – I find it fascinating that this was written over a 100 years ago and it is so simple) says, “If you desire a thing, picture it clearly and hold the picture steadily in the mind until it becomes a definite thought form…the thing you want will come to …

Leadership Transformation

ARE YOU A POWERFUL FEMALE LEADER OR A MAN IN A SKIRT?

March is Women’s History Month. You probably want to stick a needle in my eye after reading the headline, but let me expand upon what I mean. I have spent nearly 20 years in the corporate landscape and what I have observed time and time again is that many women, when they step into a Leadership role, begin acting like a man. They make decisions like their male predecessors. They heartlessly restructure departments and entire companies; and they seem to be void of feelings. It is as if they checked their emotions at the door before entering the building. Shamefully, …

Leadership Transformation

TURN YOUR CAREER PASSIONS INTO ACTIONABLE PLANS

7 Days of “ahhh…” A few weeks ago I went on a Spa vacation that I had been looking forward to for a long time. While I was indulging and enjoying absolute relaxation, I was able to notice all the little beautiful moments that usually pass me by because I am rushing through life, focused on work and attaining my goals. Then I had this amazing realization that some of the best actions can be put in place during these little moments of “ahhh.” I wanted to share my learnings so get out your journals and notebooks. I’m giving you …

Musings from An Evolving Mind

SOCIAL ISOLATION CAUSED MY BOOBS TO SAG

Perhaps your journey in isolation has had similar emotional twists and turns as mine. Back in March of 2020 it started out fine. I was feeling really motivated and thinking this was only going to last a couple of weeks. I was really happy to not be commuting 90 minutes each way to the World Trade Center each day. Working from home was awesome and I loved getting eight hours of sleep each night. It was like a wonderful gift. Then as the weeks progressed, I found myself being the inspiring one – the extra cheerful one for my family, …

Leadership Transformation

AN UNLIKELY TOOL TO GET YOU THROUGH TODAY’S TUMULTUOUS TIMES

“The text has disappeared under the interpretation.” – Friedrich Nietzsche This quote is a great reminder – what is happening today has all sorts of “interpretations” about the events. Each person, each side, each movement, has its own interpretation of the “event.” The “event” can be a pandemic, protests, political rallies, etc. If we want to look at the “event” itself, we are not honestly in a position to have a real interpretation if we were not there. So, the “event” takes on a meaning which people have assigned to it that represents a bigger movement. In essence, the “event” has …

Leadership Transformation

ADAPTING TO CHANGE IS OUR ONLY CHANCE OF SURVIVAL

Charles Darwin wrote this way back in the 1800’s:“It is not the strongest of the species that survives,not the most intelligent that survives.It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.” We are going through a tremendous period of change right now. No one is really calling it that. They are calling it things like “horrible,” “awful,” “terrible,” “unjust”… yet it is all just a huge shift in the way we do things. We are all resistant to change. Why? Because our Ego Function, the part of our mind whose job it is to keep us safe and …

Leadership Transformation

HOW BEING BANNED FROM TINDER (FOR LIFE!) BECAME A LESSON IN LEADERSHIP

Who knew that Sharon Stone and I would have so much in common? Back in December, 2019 Sharon Stone’s profile on the dating app, Bumble, was shut down due to reports of it being a fake. Just a few weeks prior, I had been on Tinder for fewer than 24 hours and was banned for LIFE. What?? At least Sharon got her profile back up and running again – no such luck for me. Tinder was never my “thing” – the profiles are too short and people have the attention span of a flea. But when I heard that my …

Musings from An Evolving Mind

DITCH YOUR NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTION AND DO THIS INSTEAD

It’s that time of year when people start to take stock of what they accomplished throughout the past year. Upon reflecting on the year, many realize that they didn’t achieve their goals and dreams for yet ANOTHER year. So, what happens? People will make the same or very similar New Year’s Resolutions year after year – which NEVER come to fruition. What is a New Year’s Resolution anyway? According to the Cambridge Dictionary it is a promise that you make to yourself to start doing something good or stop doing something bad on the first day of the year. And that usually lasts, how long? A week, a month, tops? …

Leadership Transformation

I Volunteered at Ground Zero—Now My Office is Moving to the World Trade Center

Several months ago, my company had a Town Hall announcement about where our offices will be moving. Rumors had been flying around for months, with much speculation. I wasn’t really that concerned. However, when our CEO announced that our new office space would preside at the World Trade Center in New York City, my head started uncontrollably shaking “no, no, no, no, no, no”—I was aware it was doing this, yet I couldn’t seem to stop it from moving.  After the announcement, we all headed back upstairs to our desks, and the floor was buzzing with everyone’s chatter around the …

Musings from An Evolving Mind

HOLIDAY STRESS – ONE UNUSUAL PRACTICE TO REDUCE IT

The holidays are upon us and along with decorating, shopping and baking cookies comes a tremendous amount of unwanted STRESS! It’s the most beautiful time of the year and we are filled with STRESS!!! Some of it is about getting everything done in the time we have to do it; but there is a much bigger, silent cause of stress going on that we may not even be aware of. We are all playing the “comparison game” in our minds. The game is going on all the time and it is absolutely exhausting. We are silently comparing ourselves to others …

Leadership Transformation

STOP SPINNING IN CIRCLES & GET OFF THAT HAMSTER WHEEL!

I was driving home from work the other night at 5:30pm and suddenly a bird smashed into my windshield. Of course it shocked me and then I felt terrible for that little bird. The clocks had turned back one hour and it was the first evening that it was dark at that time. A friend explained to me that the bird’s internal clocks would still be the same, so he wasn’t used to as much traffic being on the road at that time. Perhaps. Or…. As many of you know I love symbolism; and if a bird smashing into my …

Leadership Transformation

TRANSITION FROM “PEOPLE PLEASER” TO “LEADER” IN 6 EASY STEPS

“If you want to make everyone happy don’t be a leader – Sell Ice Cream.” – Steve Jobs I love Steve Jobs and he wasn’t always liked – in fact the company he started fired him. He wasn’t portrayed as a very “nice” person in the movie about his life. So why do I like a person who wasn’t very nice? Well, he had courage and he was a Leader and he didn’t worry if people liked him or not. Lots of people love reading inspirational quotes and imagine themselves stepping into their leadership potential and being powerful. But making that …

Musings from An Evolving Mind

LISTENING TO YOUR “MIND CHATTER” IS ONE OF THE WORST THINGS YOU CAN DO

I have desperately needed new bedroom furniture for years, literally YEARS. I still had my childhood chest of drawers that followed me from Brooklyn to New York City to Los Angeles to Westchester. It was falling apart (although furniture was much better quality back then – it was my mother’s before it was mine!) and I had a few other pieces that had followed me around to both coasts. My bedroom didn’t feel like a place of soft luxury; it felt like it was just holding place for my stuff. It didn’t feel relaxing to go to bed; it just …

Leadership Transformation

SYNCHRONICITIES – HIDDEN POWERFUL LEADERSHIP GROWTH LESSONS

Recently three people showed up over an hour late to different appointments with me – a business appointment, meeting a friend for dinner, meeting someone for a cocktail. The strange thing was…it happened all in one week. It got me wondering…when people are late it is not as huge a trigger for me as it is for others. I usually have something else to do with me, so that I am not sitting there idly just staring into space. Or I use the opportunity to make new friends. I always have something to do or work on. However, when an …

Leadership Transformation

5 STRATEGIES LEADERS USE TO AVOID CORPORATE BURNOUT FOR THEIR TEAMS

In today’s ever evolving corporate world, the only constant is change. And with change comes learning new technology, new responsibilities, taking on greater workloads and covering roles that may not necessarily fall to you or your team’s area of expertise. Even the most amazing Rock Star Teams BURNOUT – yes whole teams of people burn out! According to the Mayo Clinic, “Job burnout is a special type of work-related stress – a state of physical or emotional exhaustion that also involves a sense of reduced accomplishment and loss of personal identity.” Right now my team and I are teetering on …

Leadership Transformation

YOUR SUPERPOWER IS YOUR GREATEST WEAKNESS

I used to think I had this really special skill. I had a Superpower, I could go Invisible – not literally but in a sense I could fade into the background and become the fly on the wall, the listener. I could take in everyone around me and know all their strengths and weaknesses while never revealing my own. I thought this was powerful. I thought: “I have a Superpower they don’t know about. I can do this thing. I can be Invisible.” While some of these aspects are good skills to possess, (like being an excellent listener) the overall …

Musings from An Evolving Mind

ON-LINE DATERS WHO LIE CREATE A KARMIC BOOMERANG

After a break up, and several months of not dating, I went back to the dreaded on-line treadmill again. Ugh. What a drag. This time, my goal was to be “open” to new possibilities, without judgement, and observe what showed up. My new motto was “What can I learn from this experience?” My dating life had gone from “I want to meet the one.” to “How can I use this date to free my mind?” Sounds boring and a little woo-woo but it was actually pretty amazing once I was able to let go of being attached to wanting to find …

Blog, Musings from An Evolving Mind

A Difficult Trip To a Holiday Party Led Me to My Purpose for the Night

Ever have one of “those” days?  Yes, I’m sure we all have, where everything seems to go completely wrong.  I recently had one, that was so maddening, it almost seemed funny… almost. It was the night of my company’s big Holiday Party in New York City.  I had to work during the day in our offices in Connecticut, drive home, get ready, take the commuter train into NYC and then find transportation to the venue from Grand Central Station.  It was a lot of jockeying around, but I was excited to go – it was my first one with this …