As “CEO of your Life”, it is important to understand the “secrets” of happiness. One of those secrets is the ability to feel joy in everyday things. I came across “The Book of Awesome” by Neil Pasricha. http://www.amazon.ca/Book-Awesome-Neil-Pasricha/dp/0399156518 The author was going through some personal diffculties and he realized how many little things he could notice that were “awesome” and could improve his mood. A couple of my favourite examples are “Peeling an orange in one shot” and “popping bubble wrap”. He made a commitment to notice one awesome thing each day and has continued that on his blog. I encourage you to also practice this and notice how it can change your mood and actually make you more observant as well. Please note that your awesome things may not always be the same as other people’s but many times they are and this makes it interesting to share the feeling with others.
What little things can make you smile?
Maria Saley
I’ve been following the stories about how environmentalists in the US and the UK have been criticizing Alberta due to the oil sands and saw the following headline from the Calgary Herald “Alberta tourism sector feels wrongly targeted in anti-oilsands ads” http://www.calgaryherald.com/business/Alberta+tourism+sector+feels+wrongly+targeted+anti+sands/3430808/story.html We could ask, “ Why is this happening to such a fine province as Alberta with all the natural beauty and other great businesses and people that are there”? There are many possible answers and discussions on this topic, but the bottom line is that Alberta’s brand is being tarnished and now people are making plans to visit elsewhere as a result.
This reminded me of how often people can be perceived far differently than they want to be and the consequences of that. Unfortunately, even though our parents might have told us not to worry about what others think of us, it is extremely important that others understand and value who we are. We could easily substitute a hypothetical personal situation into this sentence, such as “Bob feels wrongly targeted by comments made by his colleagues about his lack of dedication to the team” So what can “Bob” do about this? His brand image is being tarnished and is not what he wants to portray. The first step is to determine what he wants his brand to say about him. An interesting exercise is to ask yourself these three questions.
- What do others say about me now?
- What do I want them to say that fits with who I am and my personal vision for myself?
- How do I start making that happen?
What are your experiences with personal branding? What have you done to work on your brand image? Comment on this page or e-mail me at maria@inspiredstrategies.ca
Maria Saley, MBA, CEC
Inspired Strategies is now offering The Birkman Method® personality assessment to support our coaching packages. The Birkman Method® is one of the oldest and most recognized personality assessments and investigates not only usual behaviour, but also stress behaviours and underlying motivations. A detailed report is provided that gives important insights for our coaching to start from, as we explore appropriate strategies that are based on who you are and the challenges that you face. Contact Maria Saley at info@inspiredstrategies.ca for more details.
See www.Birkman.com for more details on this assessment.
Inspired Strategies is now offering Coaching out of the Box®, a dynamic workshop to quickly teach basic coaching skills to leaders. This program was developed by Alison Hendren, MCC, who is a founder of the graduate coaching program at Royal Roads and is also faculty for the University of Texas. Contact Maria Saley at info@inspiredstrategies.ca for more details.
I just finished reading “Eat, Pray, Love” by Elizabeth Gilbert and she used this quote by Sextus, “The wise man is always similar to himself”, to describe how she finally realized how important it was to follow her natural character, instead of trying to be someone else. There are numerous examples of the power of authentic leadership in the business world cited by authors such as Marcus Buckingham and Jim Collins. The challenge in this for many people is being clear about who you are to start with. How can you be similar to yourself if you are not sure who “yourself” really is? If you have worked in the corporate world for many years, chances are that you have developed ideas about who you think you should be and you may have learned how to be some of those things, at least on the surface. However, your energy and potential are greatly diminished if you are not able to work from your natural strengths and interests. When I coach people to “Be the CEO of your Life”, we always start with defining who you are and developing a vision that builds on this. This can be hard work and often takes some time. However, once you have a clear vision, then that can guide your actions. One thing you can do to start on this is: Notice what projects seem to come more easily to you and give you energy when you are doing them or thinking about doing them. Write them down and ask yourself – what is there about them that I enjoy? In future posts, I will explore other ideas related to being the CEO of your Life . Reply to this post with your questions or thoughts on this or send them to me at info@inspiredstrategies.ca
Maria Saley
Maria Saley teaches several business and leadership courses for the University of Calgary Continuing Education.
The following upcoming courses are open for registration through the University of Calgary.
Business Management (online) – January 17- April 11, 2011
Strategic Selling – March 7-April 18, 2011
Coaching Out of the Box®: Coaching skills for Managers and Leaders – March 24 and 25, 2011
Coaching: Inspiring Excellence in Others – April 9 and 16, 2011
Contact Continuing Education for more details at http://conted.ucalgary.ca/
or call Continuing Ed at 403 220-2866