Category: Living with heart and courage

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

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!

How to lead yourself first

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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

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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

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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.

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Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? How to drive your career and create a remarkable future by Seth Godin

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What is it

This is a book about work in the modern age by Seth Godin. Seth is a prolific writer and blogger who talks about how the workplace has changed. He sees the industrial model of a job for life, producing the same thing over and over on the factory line as over. Seth calls us to action,  to adapt to succeed. To do this we need to care, to give and to produce gifts at work. To be a linchpin.

How is different
This isn’t a book about doing less or downsizing. His hypothesis is: coasting is risky. If your not giving your best you will be left behind. It’s an interesting notion as we ponder the New Year ahead.

How it can help
Seth asks us to accept that coasting is a waist of our time.Seth doesn’t just set a challenge, but sets out an alternative, a road map to be a linchpin, to produce art and succeed. A constitution of ideas if you like. What I took away as his top 5 cornerstone ideas are set out below. What are your thoughts?

1. Be different and create something that matters to you and the company- give emotional labour.
2. Create and ship. Beat the resistance.
3. There is no map, or people to tell you what to do. Make your own map. Lead.
4. Always give more than was asked, give gifts
5. Make mistakes, learn from them and keep giving.

Enjoy!

Join the Strengths Revolution

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What is this video about?

This is a Tedx WhitehallWomen talk by Andy Woodfeild, a partner at PWC . In his this video, Andy takes us through his career journey to illustrate the power of working with your strengths.

How is this different?
Andy explores the tensions between fitting in and being yourself and how this can lead to performance anxiety. He challenges the notion that a focus on your weakness is the best way to go, to be a success in your job.

How this can help?

Andy walks us through the benefits of focusing on your strengths and strengths of others. First, people are happier at work. Second, evidence shows it mutes unconscious biases such as those relation to gender ethnicity for example. Third, by exploring strengths, this helps people to tackle their weaknesses more productively.

If you want to join the strengths revolution Andy advises:

• Let yourself believe that you have unique strengths
• Ask people for strengths based feedback -when they saw you at your best
• Give people strengths based feedback
• Create more spaces to discuss strengths and shut down spaces that are conversations solely focused on what is wrong with people

How to get the most out of high stakes situations

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What is this about?

This is the final contribution to the theme of productivity this October. We will look at a book that helps you get the most out of high stakes situations. The book is called Gravitas by Caroline Goyder. In short Caroline will help you own the room in a variety of anxiety inducing social situations.

How is this different?

I really like the non prescriptive style of the author. Caroline sets out a range of tools and, encourages you to pick out the ones that fit best. This relaxed approach helps you get the best from yourself.

How it can help

This is a mini voice coach in your pocket. Its practical and easy to read. The book will talk you through the features of Gravitas step by step. As a bonus, Caroline provides situation specific tips such as interviews, presentations and talking on TV. A real gem.

Caroline recently did a talk at Ted X Brixton. Check her out here when the video goes up.
You can also get her book on amazon.

Enjoy!

 

Dr MAYA ANGELOU – living with heart and courage

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What is this video about

I was saddened to hear of Maya Angelou’s passing. In this week’s post you will find an  interview with Time Magazine. The video gives some insight into her work and her life and, her infectious laugh.

 

Why is this different

Maya is different. Regardless of how you feel about her work, she is a person that is easy to admire. Her passion for her craft, her life and her individuality makes her stand out from the crowd.

 

How this can help

Maya lived a value based life.  While there is plenty of editorial about her hardships in her life. What I think is most memorable is that she lived her life on her own terms – with heart and courage. I think this is something we can all learn from. For more inspiration visit the New Yorker for her life in pictures.

 

Enjoy – and be inspired!