Tag: Crafting your career

Inspiring Events, Part 2

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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!

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!

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!

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!

Feel motivated at work – the quick how to guide

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What is it:

Dan Arley’s engaging talk unpacks what motivates us to labour, to work. Dan demonstrates work without end, with repitition and no purpose is the most de-motivating.  At the other end of the spectrum, work which has meaning (not the highest paid), is the most motivating.

How is it different:

This is one of the longer Ted talks at 20 minutes. That said it is well worth it. To illustrate his work, Dan provides engaging and charming examples. 

How it can help:

Dan’s very practical talk provides interesting food for thought about motivation in the workplace. Below are the stand out ideas for me:

  • It can be helpful for us to think about our work as something meaningfull.  Such as creating something, overcoming a challenge or as part of our identity for example.
  • Effort that leads to an outcome has more of a driving effect than money – think of the furniture you have self assembled that you love!
  • Morph your effort when things go wrong – even when things don’t go to plan, morph it to another meaning to keep your motivation up.

Enjoy!