Category: Lean In

Coach your ‘inner critic’ and step into your greatness

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Coach your ‘inner critic’ and step into your greatness

As we go into the new year I would like you to think about giving something up. I don’t mean the extra biscuit, glass of whine or that toxic friend. I mean something closer to home.

 

My challenge to you is to give up letting your ‘inner critic’ rule you. You know that voice, the one who gets you to be smaller than you are and gets you to play it safe.

 

Susan Brady who works with women leaders, provides in this short video, a good basis from which to start giving up the tyranny of your ‘inner critic’. Susan asks us  to coach your ‘inner critic’ rather than let it coach you. Her top tips in this video are:

  • Give up perfection and get comfortable with being imperfect
  • Vulnerability is ok too, make it ok for others to be vulnerable too
  • Know your enough, right now, as you are
  • Separate worthiness (what you are born with) from confidence (which comes from action)
  • Know that the more you engage, the louder the critic will become- strengthen your courage

 

My message to you as 2015 draws a close: don’t make yourself small, go big in 2016.

 

Enjoy the video.

http://vi-et-animo.com/

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Inspring female leaderhsip

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This is an insightful video about Claire Conner McCaskill’s leadership journey.This isn’t a post about her political positions. This is a video about a women chronicling her career  and, the lessons she learnt along the way.  A lawyer by training, Claire was the first women to be elected to the U.S. Senate for Missouri in her own right. What I found most striking about her story was the importance of confidence in yourself:

  •  tackle gender inequality in your workplace
  • develop your authentic voice
  • take risks
  • get  comfortable with being challenged and, challenging others
  • hold power in balance
  • get  comfortable with making mistakes

Enjoy! Let me know your comments below.

http://vi-et-animo.com/

#liveyourbestlife

No, really, lean in

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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!

www. vi-et-animo.com

Gloria Larson- Women in Corprate America

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Wow, what a talk! Gloria Larson is a former politician and lawyer and in 2007, she was the first woman to be selected President of Bentley University – an american  business school. I went to an inspiring  event she held a few weeks ago in London . In fact, I got caught in rush hour and missed the first bit, but it was well worth persevering.

Gloria talked about her own very impressive leadership journey as well as wove in lessons from academic research. My take aways were:

  • Go for the tough assignments- stretch yourself
  • Make your partner a real partner at home
  • Breadth of experience is an important as depth
  • Do things you love- that passion is needed to go the extra mile.

What have been your leadership lessons? Leave comments in the box bellow.

www. vi-et-animo.com

Navigating Major Career Transitions

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Harvard University Prof. Michael Watkins outlines some great advise on career transitions.

Michael tells us that understanding successful transitions is relevant to all and not just when you get promoted. Michael says that due to the impact of economic cycles restructuring and job shifting can be the norm.

What stood out for me was these three gems:

  1. Understand what you need to do personally to adapt
  2. Understand what you need to let go of
  3. Understand that the ability to adapt is a source of advantage.

Enjoy!

www. vi-et-animo.com

Centred Leadership

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This is a great video on  how remarkable women lead from Joanna Barsh. I found this clip and the whole body of work very inspiring. I believe leadership happens at all levels- this video is relevant to you wherever you are in your career.

I came across this video through the work of Sheryl Sandberg the founder of the lean in movement. I’ve talked lot about lean in,  in previous posts and, have run a lean in circle myself. I’m an advocate.

Once you have a look at this overview video, I highly recommend that you take the time to look at the whole series  – there are 7 videos: http://leanin.org/education/.

If you’re not already joined up to a circle this might be a great time to join.

Enjoy!

Lead yourself first

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I’m excited to be sharing this video  as it helps me approach leadership from a slightly different, but, helpful angle.

In this post, Kim Lyons takes us through her journey as a personal trainer, including a stint on the Biggest Looser USA. This story is full of great insight into the importance of #leading yourself first.

This video also reminds me of my own leadership journey, it didn’t start with leading others, it started with leading myself.

The lessons I took from the video are relevant to many areas of your life not just health. The take homes that stuck out for me are:

• Do stuff that energizes you
• Take care of yourself
• Learn to keep yourself motivated when it gets tough
• Find your voice and speak up
• Take action towards your goals, however small.

Let me know what you think in the comments box below.

Enjoy!

Oprah on Leadership

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I’m really excited to share this video with you today. Oprah is an impressive individual and a personal inspiration to me. She has accomplished so much and overcome many challenges. As her first-hand testimony will show – a lot of hard work goes a long way.

The lesson that most struck me in this video was the importance of her own inner journey to her outward success. Oprah talks a lot about her self reflection. The ‘how’ and the ‘why’ questions behind what we do in work. This stood out to me, as often we think about what we want at work. What we want to be paid. What company we want to work in. What promotion we want next. Oprah talks a lot about mission, giving and contribution through our work. A great lens to look at leadership.

This is an extended video at over an hour long. It’s well worth it.

Let me know what your take aways were.

Enjoy!

Cultivate the leader in you with Gabrielle Bernstein

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This is a great 90 minute video training about authentic leadership. Gabriel looks at leadership through the lens of spirituality. This may be, or may not be ‘your thing’- that said, I feel you could swap out the lexicon of spirituality with that of your own and the message will be the same: if you’re called to lead – lead. There are also some practical tips for those who are action oriented. The ‘take homes’ for me in this very engaging video are:

  • Lead yourself first, inspire you
  • Be authentic
  • Deal with your own challenges
  • Trust your intuition
  • Be grateful for what you have now
  • Be specific in your messages
  • Cultivate your core audiences
  • Lead from where you are

Enjoy!