Why Should You Keep a List of Your Career Achievements

career achievementsWe keep lists of everything – daily tasks, ideas, reminders. But we don’t keep a list of our achievements.

 

Every day we write down so many things that we don’t want to forget but we miss the big picture. Post-it notes and agendas are not only for casual errands. We need to learn to keep a list of the big things we accomplished. Maybe we see that as a form of  narcissism and we are afraid that we will look bad for everyone else reading them. It doesn’t matter – a list of achievements can come in handy when you are in different situations.

 

1. Keep track of your career – You are wondering if you are taking the right steps and if your strategy is taking you where you want to be? Check the list – do you feel like you are adding something new, does it seem like those accomplishments are adequate for your career track? Keeping this list would give you a great way to monitor and control your goals. Prepare a list of milestones to go with the list of achievements – base it on your expectations. This is the easiest way to keep control of your career and discover problems as soon as they start to be noticeable. This being said, don’t obsess over following your milestone agenda – a month or two difference from your plan is normal. Even a year could be acceptable – if you know you are doing the right things and following the right steps.

2. Prepare to show your success – Whether you want a raise or a new position at a different company, knowing your great accomplishments will go a long way. Look at your list and select the best and most relevant success stories that you have to offer. Those should be all projects and tasks that would not have been done without your personal involvement – select achievements that show just how valuable you are. Make sure to focus on 2 or 3 entries, because otherwise it might have the opposite effect. Knowing how to select the most relevant examples is an achievement itself.

3. Keep your LinkedIn profile up to date – Your virtual resume can open a lot of doors even if you are not in the mood for knocking on them. This is where recruiters, managers, and colleagues, spend a lot of time.  The summary section on your profile is a great place to display those achievements. This is the first thing that people would read on your page – if you are not compelling enough, might be the last. Sometimes it doesn’t matter if you work with the biggest companies in the world, but if your achievements are of a big scale.

4. Sometimes you just need to be reassured – It happens to all of us. We forget how great we are and start thinking that we don’t do anything right. In such a moment you should take a deep breath, open your list of achievements and start reading. Every point has a story and you know it best. You know how much you had to fight for it, what did you do and how did it make you feel. Going through those past success stories is also a great creativity boost – you will remember times when you were basing your decisions on different factors. Try to implement one of those models in your current activities – it might help or it might show you that you went a long way.

You can read the testimonial one of our former clients who started to implement an achievement list to prepare his annual performance reviews. His story was simple: he was qualified, delivering quality work and remained unseen for over 5 years. Consequently, he was not getting promoted expecting his hierarchy to notice him and his great work. After our coaching he recorded small successes, his impact on a project and found himself excited and confident about his next performance review…He got promoted less than 6 months later,  gained exposure within the organization and most importantly has change his mindset about success: it is not about chance, it is about choice!

Keeping a list of your achievements is a great thing to do – I recommend it to everyone, no matter what your career goal is. It’s like keeping track of your savings account – you need to if you are investing the right amount to achieve your milestone in time.

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Women success motivations – what keeps you going?

Executive Female executives successEveryone has its own motivation factors – do you think your success depends on them?

The most recognizable motivation factors in the past 3 decades are money, power and sex. But they sound a lot like male-dominated. Do you think that they are relevant when we are talking about women? If you search on Google for women and motivation, most of the result would be about motivation to lose weight, be a good person, etc. It’s not a widely accepted idea that women need corporate success motivation – is it because we are afraid to talk about it or because we accept the success motivation factors are the same for both genders? If you are reading this article, you are probably interested in success – but do you know why? What are your own motivations? If you need to define the terms for yourself, have a look at this article.

Independence and Freedom – A successful woman can choose her own lifestyle, support her choices and live without following other people’s rules. Diktat and restrictions have existed and I feel that this period is over but we continue to believe that women success depends on what society as define for us in organization, at home and in our community. We keep telling ourselves that we earn less because of men, we compete against each other since we still feel we have to fight and we become women in disguise and play those conflicting roles to please everyone but ourselves.

Make a difference – This is one of the major motivation women have. They naturally tend to nurture and to want to be at service. Nowadays many women decide to leave their executives roles or to be part of non-profit organizations as they feel meaningful. Bringing this vision in for-profit organization will benefit the world at large. It is our responsibility as women to exhibit women leadership and to quit playing the role of a perfect male influenced leader. We both – male and female – have qualities to enrich an organization and to positively generate profit while serving our community. In an era of economic stagnation, creatively involve men and women to work together from a feminine perspective might be the way to innovate, to engage and to succeed.

InfluenceInfluence is an important part of a leader’s ability to lead and motivate. Respect will come naturally. One theory of how leaders can positively influence their followers is through emotional intelligence. The influence occurs when one’s emotions, opinions, or behaviors are affected by others. Leaders use it to maintain engagement, develop a culture of respect and order with their direct reports, team and hierarchy. Influence can be a success motivator for people who want to make a change – influence do not have to be tied to force but instead to powerful energy and ideas. If you feel the need to affect others and their action in a meaningful, non-manipulative way, you probably want to become and influence among your colleagues. And we all know that they would trust you more if you are successful.

Balanced compensation package – Even though money is included in this motivation factor, it is not is the main source of drive for many women, flexibility is. Money indeed, is also the less important motivator when it comes to career and life choices. You might feel like you are taking a lot of daily based decisions because of money, but it is usually a second-level motivator. Most of the time, women tends to value a lot more flexibility at work, time off, medical packages than money itself.

Is your motivation factor not listed above? We have a special online training for executive women – The Women Success Factor. You can read more here and book your course directly. I will help you ACE IT!

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Women Empowered Series – Andrea Jepson on Changing Your Career

Is changing our career after 20 years an easy decision? Is it even possible to make it work and become successful?

Every month Belinda MJ.Brown interviews a “Woman Empowered” who will share her passion, her tips to succeed and her news. Our objective with this series is to provide Men and Women with material to explore the feminine vision of success, balance and life in order to create new opportunities not only for Women but for organizations and communities. This month we are speaking with Andrea Jepson.

Andrea is an inspiring woman who decided to change her career after 20 years of touring with bands and artists as a Lightning Technician. Today she is a successful Financial Advisor with SE Wealth Management at Merrill Lynch. After enjoying her long career in entertainment where she traveled the world, she decided it was time for a change. She made the difficult decision to leave her job, to go back to school, and to join the financial services industry. She assists her clients plan their financial future and reach their goals.

Watch the video interview where she shares her perspective on success, passion and life.

If you want to contact Andrea, feel free to do so by writing her an email – andrea.jepson[at]ml.com

Are you willing to make a step towards your own success but feel insecure? Join our Woman Success Factor Course and start working on your goals! Learn more here!

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Redefine success on your own terms

Redefine success on your own termsWhat is success for you? Do you have your own personal definition or do you follow other people’s dreams?

Everyone is inclined to see success differently because we have different goals, we make different choices and take specific actions based on that. There is not a single definition of success and there can never be one! Success is a choice and personal point of view – there are billions of different definitions therefore. Here you can find a couple of great examples on how different can success be for different people. It’s interesting to see that there is a difference between personal and professional success. The problem with people not feeling accomplished is usually a derivative of a gap between his own perception of success and the one that people around him pose as normal. Let’s dig into these different situations:

1. You don’t feel successful because you are not moving up in the corporate ladder.

2. You don’t feel successful because people around you don’t see you as successful.

3. You don’t feel successful because you are only doing great in the personal or professional area – and the other one lacks attention.

4. You don’t feel successful because you follow someone else’s definition of success.   All of these problems have solutions and have their own way of dealing with them. Those statements require that you challenge the definition you have of success. Asking  yourself the following questions will assist you to assess in the process of  re-defining success on your own terms.

-Does this definition is aligned with your core values?

-Where does this definition come from?

-Who do you want to please when you set your goals and objectives?

I want to have a more in-depth conversation about the standard definition of success. Indeed, based on our cultural background, religion country of origin, language, we as a group set standard for what success should mean for each of us.  In some region of the world, success is hard work and social status.

In other places, success is strictly oriented toward building a life around family reputation and values. You can also find as well nations who define success on their health or happiness. Human beings are far more way complex and it is important to recognize our uniqueness. Because of this singularity, it is important to consider success related to our desires and our own filters and beliefs, not on other people definition of success.

When You follow someone else’s definition of success you ultimately compromise yourself, your authenticity in addition to your relationships, your support system your health and more. As hard as it is for us to understand and differentiate between our own beliefs and the ones that society poses above us, you want to re-think of the image of a successful person – he is driving a luxury car (or has a driver), she is wearing haute couture clothes, they travel the world, they are brilliant and make at least 7 figures. Everyone has different expectations and needs, different options and decisions to make. To you the small bakery shop on the corner might not be a glamorous success, but the owner’s family is proud of the accomplishment and he doesn’t want to hide it. This leads me to the main idea I want to leave you with- define and measure success in your own terms. Decide what do you feel success is for yourself, write it down and when you feel down about something – look at it. It will motivate you, it would help you change your mindset and get back on track.

Remember that even if you meet someone else’s definition of success, it doesn’t mean you will be happy nor fulfilled. You want to be confident and accepting of your own definition of success if you want to be happy and proud of it. So it’s all up to you to decide what is your goal – to be a VP of a global company, to be a small business owner, or to work as little as possible and have the time and income to be with your family. If you are having problems reaching the success point that you defined – contact us.

We have designed several programs that help you to learn to say “No” to the common definition of success that drags you down and leave you unhappy and to say “Yes’ to true success, the one that leads you to be authentic and content at all times.

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Women Leadership Problems – Unhappy with Being at the Top

We fight so hard to get at the top that we don’t really stop for a second to think – and then what?

Women Leadership Problem A lot of women encounter this problem but never share it with anybody. It feels strange and stupid to complain about being successful or managing a great company. But this is not something that you should be ashamed of. We know a lot of good reasons why you feel this way. And yes, feelings are not bad, either. Your first step towards dealing with this problem is to analyze the root of unhappiness – and then take actions accordingly.

 

You don’t have plans for “after” – you were planning and taking strategic actions with one focus – getting there. You are a thriving expert and you need to be challenged. Probably this is your biggest fear – the loss of challenges. You can find a lot more things to focus your energy on but you might lack the motivation. You might need to find a new goal, a more personal – but don’t think it’s that easy. You have been following your previous one for a long time – probably more than 15 years. It’s not easy to just choose something new you want to achieve. You are not the same person that you used to be 15 years ago – you’ve changed and it’s normal for your decision making process to be different. But are you willing to accept this fact?

It’s different than what you expected – a cognitive bias is not an unusual thing. It’s really disturbing, I know, because you are used to having a lot of energy. The gap between your expectations and the reality might not be too big but is still demotivating. What you need is to take a deep breath and evaluate – does this mean that you don’t really like where you’re at? Do you want change or are you willing to go on and make this position fit your expectations? It’s up to you.

 

It’s designed to fit men better than women – and this is not your fault. It’s really common – the definition of success is a good suit, export cigars, matured drinks and young companions. But this idea doesn’t fit the women success definition. You want to keep on winning and not just bragging with being good. You want meaningful success and not meaningless achievements. Women simply want to define success on their own terms.  You all need to accept that you have different perceptions of success and express them.

That was not your goal. Did you go with the flow and follow the path that everyone was drawing ahead of you? Or maybe you wanted to make someone proud? Or prove that you can do it? If this wasn’t your genuine path, the one that you chose for yourself, it’s no wonder that you have a problem finding your comfort here. This might be your biggest problem. You have been a real leader by playing by the rule of others so far but now you feel disconnected and that something is missing. This is not what you wanted after all… This is the time to evaluate, regroup and draw another strategy – if you need help, hire a Women Success Expert or an executive coach – someone who understands and can help you re-define success on your own terms and be who you are wherever you are.

People around you don’t appreciate your success. Sometimes we all need a little push, a pat on the shoulder to let us know we are doing great. A friend to listen, a mentor to guide us. We also need a lot of support – and understanding. Is your family not happy about your achievement? Are there people around you who are jealous of your success? Let them know how you feel – the ones who are genuinely happy might not know how to show it. The others – those who can’t accept you being better than them – are just not right for your life.  

You feel like you didn’t deserve it. It’s strange that everyone else but yourself knows how capable you are.  It’s possible that you use this reason as a shield – you have other concerns that might fit the problems listed above. Or another – personal insecurities based on some previous experiences. It’s important to focus and find what makes you feel like this – this will take you closer to solving the problem. What should you do if you realize you are facing one of the mentioned problems? Make new strategic plans, reevaluate your goals and find what stops you from being content with the results. You might need help from someone who has faced similar situation – this is when a professional executive coach is of a great value.

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Executive mother-to-be – How to handle the big news at work

executive mother-to-beThe decision to grow your family is a happy news. But you need to handle it the right way in the office.

One of the biggest problems for women executives is finding the right work-life balance – we already discussed it. Starting a family while you are at the top is hard – not because of your own doubts, but mainly because of people around you. The biggest problem that pregnant executives report is dealing with prejudice in the office. How should you handle the reactions of higher management, fellow executives and your team? Here are some guidelines:

1. Make a plan – Make sure you know what you want to do during and after the pregnancy. If your work requires a lot of travel, meetings and on field visits, decide what part of them you could actually do effectively in the following months. Decide when and for how long are you going to be on a maternity leave. Make a list – you will need to re-evaluate it every couple of months.

2. Talk with the management – Let the management know your business plans – discuss what is going to change, for how long and how do you plan to make the transition back to work. Make sure you have set your points straight and think of it as just another business meeting. Some women think their management will limit them if they share too much with them. Actually, it is reassuring for management to see that you have integrated work and personal life. You have proved yourself already, remain the person you were, be authentic as people will not expect more from you at this time and will not judge you for being pregnant.

3. Talk with the team – People who are under your direct management need visibility. They want to know if something is going to change or not in their daily work activities the following months. This is the right time to empower a team member, not only it will give you more space to work but it will increase the level of engagement of your team. Disclosing all that information ahead of time would will create a trusted environment and will serve your team, your career and your organization.

4. Plan disclosure with clients – You are working directly with a lot of clients. They would appreciate to be prepared and to know who will support them during this transition. Our recommendations: a two to four weeks notice can be a good timing – you can introduce them to their interim contact. Make sure they meet and have enough time to set good communication before you leave.

With all that being said, don’t forget to take care of yourself – if you want to take a day off, do it.

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Executive business coaching – why asking for help is actually good?

business coaching for womenExecutive coaching is a service for successful people. Not the other way around.

Some people see coaching as a thing for people who struggle with their career and don’t know what they want. This can sometimes be the case but executive coaching actually helps high performers and successful people. Let me tell you what is the difference with this program and why having an executive coach or women success expert might be the best decision you are about to take.

1. Executive coaching saves time – As a top manager or executive you value time but some of the more important decisions are time-dependent because you need to evaluate the different options ahead of you. You need to decide if the pros are more than the cons and how would that impact your future. And sometimes even the best of us lose too much time trying to find the right answer. If you work with a coach, you will learn how to make those decisions faster and to trust your own intuition.

2. Executive coaching means directing  your efforts – Imagine the typical day – you start working on a really important task and you have to evaluate the options. But you can’t focus as there are way too many things that are interrupting you.  Coaching will give you tools to clarify and prioritize then you can really focused on what is important and not urgent. You might be already ready to take the decision as soon as your coaching meeting starts – just because you gained clarity which leads you to direct your energy toward what will serve you and your organization.

3. Executive coaching means growing smarter – The goal of your executive coach is to ensure you are making conscious decision to lead your career in the direction you want prepared for each transition. The result is that she helps you understand what your next steps need to be and how to overcome some current limitations or roadblocks along the way. Your executive coach is your partner knows and will encourage you to strengthen your own qualities and to identify possible blind spots to grow.

4. Executive coaching is not a sign of weakness – If you ask for help you are not telling the world that you are incapable. You are showing yourself and people around you that you know what are your weaknesses and your strengths, you know how to overcome the small bumps on the road and you are focused on a long term growth.

5. Coaching takes off the pressure – Some people feel they make better decisions under stress. Most of us actually don’t. If you feel a lot of pressure over you regarding taking the right decision, you will be nervous and most probably will be stuck. What coaching does is it takes that pressure of you – sometimes only the fact that there is someone else that might be able to help is enough.

6. Executive business coaching gives you new perspective – You know how a nice conversation with a friend or an expert makes you thrive with new ideas? Well, your coach is better than a friend because it does practice detached involvement and has nothing at stake in your partnership but help you to define success on your own terms.  As an expert, a strategic thinker and a leader – she will use your energy and focus it on finding the great ideas and solutions that already lies within you.

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Feminism is a Process, Not a FightFeminism is a Process, Not a Fight

Feminism is a long processFeminism is a process – a long, never ending process as it seems.

I bet you think feminism first started appearing in the middle of the 20th century. I dare to say you are wrong – do you know that the first recorded uses of the world date back to the 1872? And yet we still live in a world where equality is not the norm. But still – we are moving faster ahead than ever before. Just think of society’s perception of a childless (by choice) woman in the 1800’s, in the 1950’s and now. Pursuing a career was not a girl’s most popular sacred dream during those times.
And yet today we have CEOs, COOs and a lot of other CO’s “occupied” by wonderful women. The biggest mistake we all make when thinking about feminism is that we forget it’s a long process – it has never been easy changing people’s mind. This means that we need to choose a strategy carefully and be consistent in our efforts if we want to achieve faster results. We all want to see results as fast as we can but sometimes that is just not possible. There are a lot of topics left to address but here are among the ones important currently:

1. Equal pay rates – This is currently one of the hottest topics – while high level management assigns themselves big bonus checks, regardless of their contribution to company’s success, it still feels a challenge for female executives to earn as much as their male executives. The gap is currently reported by IWPR to be a medium of 23%. A woman get’s paid $23 less for ever $100 earned by a man. And this inequality is visible in every sector, every industry, every country. I hear often that “if you felt like feminism is not your battle, think again – your income is one of the biggest metrics for how much your company appreciates you”. But does it have to be the metrics? While I am working with my clients, fair pay conversations rarely come up, because when we work through redefining success, pay and salary are relevant against what women truly desire and not against what men are earning. Usually, we talk about more flexibility, more time, and more opportunities. Of course women want to see their wages increase and if they have to choose, pay rates is a small factor of the compensation package they would design. Maybe it is time to rethink compensation and shift women mindset about asking for money. Indeed, women usually fight more for others than for themselves, while men will do the contrary and get what they want in their wallet!

2. Society perception – We discussed the problem with external audience feeling like you own them explanation for every decision you take. We need to work together to make them understand that a personal decision is exactly this  – personal. Do you know where to find society’s discrimination against female executives – you might not be getting the best project due to your boss being afraid you might decide to start a family, or because you already have kids which deems you unreliable. People assume that something is going to happen because this is “normal” and stop you from achieving your goals. Women are still seen as housewives who only play executives before they find a man to marry and have children with.

3.  How we see ourselves – Sometimes we are the reason we are still not appreciated as much as we need to be. Fighting aggressively, thinking only about a single win and not the whole war – this is why feminism is often seen as a bad influence. All reasonable people agree that equality should be the norm. A lot of the negativity comes from the perception of a feminist being harsh and attacking all the time. This is why some executive women try to stay away from the fight of feminism – they are not willing to carry the burden of those who attack.

I am one of them and I am revisiting this fight. I feel we can achieve greater results by educating and challenging our own limitations on this long walk to equality – but dare I say we are almost there. We often see ourselves as minority, limited and stuck in a box, and therefore we tend to fight to break those invisible walls. I was born in a household with a single Mom of 5, my grandmother was as well a single Mom of 5 and I never felt women were limited or could not accomplish professionally because both my Mom and my grandmother worked and even owned their own business. Consequently, my belief was that women from any background can make it and reach their goals like everyone else. This belief led me to enter the corporate world free of those invisible limitations that my female friends were talking about, and guess what? I never was paid less than my male co-workers leaders and executives, nor found it more difficult to climb the ladder because I was not in the box and not trying to break those invisible walls. Instead I was asking for what I wanted without fear I am not saying women and men are equal at this point, I just feel that your mindset and your approach can make you more successful by focusing on your goals instead of on the “box”.

 

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Executive Women: The Myth of Having it All

having it all“Having it all” – from executive women’s perspective that means having a personal life and career. Why is it still almost impossible today?

There is a work-life balance problem that is seen mainly as female related – and no level of feminism and equality are showing satisfactory results. Unfortunately, we are still living in a society where personal choice is seen as a possibility to attack someone. With the level of privacy close to zero, it is understandable why people feel like they have the right to have an opinion on other people’s decisions. There are three main points that you would have to address when you decide to combine career and family but they work the same if you as a woman decide that you don’t want to have children.

1. The enemy at home – For some women family is very important and they might feel like they are betraying their expectations. The role of a stay-at-home mother is accepted as a rule but a successful executive can’t see the full value of leaving the daily activities that bring her joy. What you can do – Talk with your spouse about your plans of managing a family before getting pregnant and even before your engagement. If you are not on the same page, chances are you will never be. If he believes your place is at home, while you are planning to go back to the office as soon as possible – talk about it!

2. The enemy at work – The biggest problems you might face at work. You might see less important projects sent your way, less long term plans, less of everything. Even if your managers and leaders know about your decision to get back in the office as soon as possible, they just don’t rely on you. It would take a lot more to convince them  – you might never even succeed with that. What you can do – Ask for more responsibilities but don’t overfill your agenda. Know your limits and show that to your co-workers. If they see that you are confident and nothing is changing, they will even trust you more. The problem might even be trickier in Europe if you don’t ever want to have kids because women are still expected you to surprise them with a pregnancy – most people would not understand your decision and keep on insisting you would change your mind.

3. The enemy within you – You think the society is your biggest enemy but it might actually you. You can’t win this fight without creating awareness. My advice is to question your thoughts and your beliefs system – why do you really care what people are saying about you? Are they an important part of your life? If you decide to pause your career and be a housewife and mother, they would say you throw away so many great chances. If you go back to work soon after work, they would say you are a bad mother (Do you remember the articles about Marissa Meyer when she took over the CEO position at Yahoo just 3 months after giving birth?). If you say you don’t want to have kids,  they would try to prove you are lying and you are just a lonely feminist. What you can do – Believe in yourself and trust the decision you made based on your core values. A reality check of your values and beliefs will help you understand why what other people think about you affect you so much and overcome the challenge. Awareness about your self imposed limitations is your way to design your life on your own terms. This last enemy is the biggest of those three. If you are not willing to make a choice, or if you are not 100% confident about it, you might never feel like “you have it all”. Remember – happiness is a state of mind that depends on you.   A study conducted last year  by networking giant LinkedIn and Cross-Tab, shows that 63% of women find success in the possibility to achieve and maintain a good work-life balance:

Infographic- Women have it all
Click to see the full infographic

Are you trying to find the right decision? Do you need a guidance on the topic? Here are 2 solutions:

 

1. Check our video interview with Laura S Scott – She talks about prioritizing, taking strategic decisions and being childless by choice.

2. Book a coaching session – We have already helped other women like you who were afraid of taking the wrong decision. We can help you understand what YOU really need and how you can make it happen.

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What Do You Gain by Leading Out of Fear?What Do You Gain by Leading Out of Fear?

Courtesy of HubspotWhat kind of leader are you? Are you loved or feared?

There are many different kinds of leadership styles, but the one that is most detrimental is leading out of fear. Sometimes when leaders are afraid they express it through the way they lead their employees. This can make you aggressive and feel like you are in control, but in reality you are not.

According to Laurie K. Cure, PhD, author of the book “Leading Without Fear”, there are three main reasons that leaders resort to spreading fear:

 1-Need to establish a sense of urgency. It may seem that instilling fear in your workforce and team members may be the most effective and fastest way to create a sense of urgency, which does work in the short-term. But, it can create mistrust and cynicism, which can lead to diminished morale.

 2-Don’t know of any other way. Frequently new entrepreneur leaders reach a point where they become desperate when dealing with others and hope that they can scare, shame, or anger people into changing their behavior or creating desired results.

3-Engulfed in the flames of their own fear. Sometimes leaders may use fear simply because they are afraid and are incapable of hiding it. It takes great skill and discipline not to project your fear onto others. Leaders can become blind to how they may be utilizing fear in their leadership, whether it is caused by the fear for their security, self-esteem, sense of affiliation, etc.

Leading with fear has devastating consequences which appear when you look at the long run effects. Here are some of the consequences or negative effects that can happen:

◐ Lack of shared vision and not everyone is on the same page.
◐ Not reaching full potential.
◐ Deficiency of full engagement from employees and loss of productivity.
◐ High turnover rates.
◐ The team may stay in “safe” positions, giving competitors an advantage.
◐ The stifling of creativity, innovation, and change.
◐ The limitation of rational discussions of alternatives, which can lead to poor decisions or lack of action.
◐ Creates mistrust and suspicion of the leader.
◐ Changes the focus of the company from the customers to internal survival.

If you find that you are leading with fear or have been told that your leadership style is too aggressive, there are ways that you can reduce your fear or at least keep it in check so that you can avoid the terrible consequences. Here are some suggestions:

◐ Increase your own self-awareness. This is basically your ability to know yourself, your personality, your drives, your motives, and your fears. By identifying these things you will become more aware of how you deal with things or act/react in different situations. Why do you do the things that you do? Becoming more aware of yourself will allow you to grow, learn, and become empowered. Self-awareness entails an ongoing practice that becomes a lifestyle.

◐ Be clear on all your goals and have regular communication with your team. This will allow for everyone to be on the same page and work towards common goals. Have a clear vision so that when it comes to decision making, you and your team can ask “how does this help us achieve our vision?” This will open up conversations to new ideas, new opportunities, better communication, constructive feedback, and reinforcement of strong ethics. This will also increase the team’s ability to identify risks and will avoid anyone from feeling dissatisfied, torn, or afraid.

◐ Focus more on the positive side of risk. In most cases, you will not be able to eliminate risk, but you may be able to reduce it. And you will have a better outlook if you stop concentrating on everything that could go wrong and focus on the success and rewards that you and your team will be able to celebrate once the obstacles are surpassed; anticipate the good instead of dreading the bad.

If these things are hard for you to practice all at once, just think, if you’re going to be afraid, be afraid of never accomplishing your goals or mission. That thought will give you courage, which will allow you to confront your fears. Courage is not the absence of fear, but the ability to overcome it. Courage has a destination; it looks ahead, not back.

So, what are you afraid of not accomplishing at work or in life if you let fear hold you back from reaching them? Join the discussion on Facebook and Google Plus.

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