Do you ever dream of ‘going big’ in your career?

 

Book review: Playing Big: Find Your Voice, Your Mission, Your Message by Tara Mohr

I can’t recommend this book enough. Tara provides us with a comprehensive  ‘how to’ guide on playing big in your career, finding your mission and your message.

The advice is practical and easy to incorporate into your life and therefore, in my view,  likely to have a positive impact for you.

It’s a great read as the author has an easy and ‘big sister’ tone. She does this by combining warmth, academic research and ‘saying it as it is.’

Case studies are drawn not only from clients but her own experiences of overcoming the same challenges, the book is not at all preachy

The topics Tara covers include

  • Your best self
  • Dealing with your inner critic
  • My favourite – living your purpose
  • Managing your fears
  • Communicating with impact and much much more.

This book comes in a range of formats from a traditional book, audio, and kindle. Something for all your needs.

As we head into new year, if you read only one book this winter, this is the one.

 

Wants some tips on ‘going big in your career’? Then check out my free online webinar in December here on Eventbrite.

Sharleene

From dark can come light

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Hello, its the first day of summer. I hope your enjoying the good weather. This is a quick post this week. I attended the Women of the Year Lecture recently, and was introduced to the most amazing woman. I was quite embarrassed that I had never heard of her, given all that she achieved.

Dame Stephanie Shirley had quite a challenging upbringing, having fled Natzi Germany during the war, she  was taken in by a British family, arriving with her siter as a refugee. She suffered great loss as an adult with the death of her only child. There were challenges in business as well for her. So much so, she used the name Steve in business correspondence.

Shirley achieved many things despite these setbacks. She became one of the pioneering female coders in the 60s, her company was responsible for coding the Concorde’s black box. And, when she floated her company she made many of her employees, alongside herself, millionaires.

I’m highlighting Shirley not only because of the amazing things she has achieved in tech, but because her story of challenges were equally important in forming who she became and what she achieved for herself and for other women. Her courageous, and heartfelt discussion was very moving and I recommend her book, check it out.
Enjoy

www.vi-et-animo.com

Coach your ‘inner critic’ and step into your greatness

 

 

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/

Inspring female leaderhsip

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.

Welcome!

#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

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

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

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!