So we looked at the inner critic and your inner beauty. Now its time to leap. To get real. So come on, do stuff you love. Use your strengths and courage and follow your calling!
Enjoy this video!
Category: Craft your life
Inspiring Events, Part 2
This is the second of three instalments of my inspiring events series this month. It was a coaching network event by London Coaches. I was pleasantly surprised and wanted to share some of the ideas in the hope you would find it useful.
The trainer asked us to think about the stories we play out on our lives, the:
- Characters
- Location
- Genres
- Plot lines
He asked one powerful question: Would changing one of the above elements get you
better outcome/story?
For example, do you play the warrior at work but nothing works, everyone is screaming -a horror story. The trainer suggested instead using the character of jester to see if this changes up the energy and gets better outcomes, the story you want. That is slaying the dragon/reaching work goal via humour.
My take away was to be mindful of the narratives we have about ourselves and situations and not to get locked into stories that don’t service you- be flexible. You are the director.
Try it!
Enjoy!
No, really, lean in
I went to this talk by Lazlo Block in May, quite some time ago (sorry, I tweeted but forgot to blog). It was a close call between seeing Lazlo and going to a gender lecture. In the end, I decided to go to the talk where I knew least about the speaker- to learn new ideas.
I wasn’t disappointed. Lazzlo was full of ideas about work. He is the VP for People Operations at google, so Human Resources. He had a lot to say about his own journey, getting to google and where google is going next. All chronicled in his book Work Rules.
A hugely likeable and charismatic speaker, (he once worked as an actor), but don’t let that fool you, he had some hard hitting messages. My favourites were:
- work really hard. not hard, but super hard. that will cover most things
- work with the best and learn all you can, so you can work hard some more
- leadership is about others not you
- but know why you want to lead, what contribution you want to make and be authentic.
Enjoy!
How to lead yourself first
This is a great video about dealing with resistance to change, from elite athlete coach Tod Herman.
Tod is a Sport Psychology consultant to Professional and Olympic athletes.
In this video, Tod and Marie explore growth, confidence and adventurer. Tod offers 5 clear steps to successful change:
1. Get clear on what you want to achieve
2. Set trigger goals that lead to you tacking action
3. Set micro goals where you can track improvement
4. Have a support team around you
5. Plan how you will deal with challenges ahead of time.
Know what to do when things are not going well!
Carrie Green – The Confident Mindset
What is it about:
In this video Carrie Green the founder and owner of the Female Entrepreneur Association gives an energetic talk on achievement. Broadly, from Carrie’s point of view, success is achieved by design, by (re)programming your mind.
How is this different?
Carrie is an inspiring and award winning Entrepreneur that offers lessons from her own life. She started her first successful businesses at 19 and went on to found the Female Entrepreneur Association. So she has walked the talk. As Carrie describes her entrepreneurial journey, we get some insight into the challenges she faced. Important for us, Carrie also talks about the strategies she used to achieve her own success, on her own terms.
How it can help
There are some great every day tips for ‘getting out of your own way’ in this video. In this talk Carries takes you through what I would call as self mastery or self leadership strategies. To use Carrie’s own words, you will lean about the ‘power of your mind’ to empower you to achieve your goals. Her top tips are:
• The importance of getting clear about what you want. Crystal clear.
• Challenge your self limiting beliefs as they happen.
• Daily positive visualisation
For more info check out her website here: www.femaleentrepreneurassociation.com
Enjoy!
Women in Tech: Lessons from Silicon Valley- a leadership event and reflections on serendipity
What is it:
This last post of 2014 is about the power of serendipity. I went to an event in November titled Women in Tech: Lessons from Silicon Valley. The event brings together a range of executives to the UK to talk about their experiences in the work place. The speakers were:
• Megan Smith, U.S. Chief Technology Officer and Assistant to the President
• Margaret Gould-Stewart, Director of Product Design, Facebook
• Angela Lin, Head of YouTube Education, Google
• Catherine Mohr, VP of Medical Research, Intuitive Surgical
• Crystal Hutter, Founder & CEO, Edmodo
• Liz Dickinson, Founder & CEO, MIO
How is it different?:
It was an inspiring event, as it gave you access to people you don’t normally get to meet every day. All on the panel were very candid. The panel spoke about insights they had learnt on their career journey, their lessons as well as advice they wish they had known early on.
How can it help?:
I said this post was about the power of serendipity and I’m going to tell you about that now. When I went to the talk the speakers on the panel shared lots of interesting lessons and even more so in the after drinks session where you could talk to them one on one. For instance one of the speakers recommended a book on the growth mind-set (I did a review here). This isn’t a book I had come across before and I have done a lot of reading on the topics of personal development! Even though these individuals may feel superhuman, through power of networking, I myself learnt lots of new ideas. Very helpful. Even powerful. Its an endorsement of placing networking high on your to do list for 2015.
Enjoy networking and serendipity in 2015!
The Women in Tech: Lessons from Silicon Valley, was a Leadership event. The talk was part of a series called Silicon Valley comes to the UK. More details can be found here.
Remembering- The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
What is ist?
This book is classic and sets out what the author, Stephen Covey, sees as the basis of successes. In the book he will walk you step by step through his 7 habits of effectiveness.
How is this different?
As I mentioned, this is a classic. and was first published in 1989. This is one of the books that has effectively stood the test time. I can honestly say that, because I have been listening to it on audiobook recently. I have picked up some real gems, ideas and strategies that I can use now, in my day day life. I love the section on prioritising based on values for example.
How can it help?
As we go into autumn and have more nights in, this book is perfect.
This is a book with a lot of depth and scope and I find the the holistic approach in tune with my modern life. This isn’t just about the c suit, but about your family life, your well-being and your sprit, alongside your job. The seven habits are:
1-Be Proactive
2 – Begin with the End in Mind
3 – Put First Things First
4 – Think Win-Win
5 – Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood
6 – Synergize
7-Sharpen the Saw
I would suggest reading this with a a friend would be helpful so you can discuss ideas and tips -its pretty meaty and this will help with working through all the info.
Sharleene May Bibbings's Blog 