Articles

I received a little Christmas cheer aggravation cheer yesterday from the car service people. You know, just like how we used to be told to deliver feedback – the positive negative positive sandwich. Not so tasty… The cheer: I thought I’d be extra clever – book the express 1-hour car service and go for a walk instead of hanging around in the ‘customer lounge’ with the bad coffee machine. The aggravation: The first whiff was 10 minutes before I was due to arrive. I got the call: “Are you coming to your appointment?” “Yes, I’m on my way. It’s at 8:30am isn’t it?” “Yes, that’s right.” Weird. I wasn’t late and had confirmed the day before. The cheer: I handed over my keys and set off on my walk. It was great. I smelt the salty sea air, sat on a rock with the sunshine on my shoulders and listened to the waves gently lap on the shore. And on the way back I stumbled upon a café that made excellent coffee. The aggravation: At 2 hours into the 1-hour express and now in the ‘customer lounge’, I approach the desk. “Any idea how much longer?” She disappears and returns

Expectations I pulled on the pristine white Nike tennis skirt. It’s barely been worn. Lucky it’s very stretchy because I’m pretty sure I’ve grown in the wrong direction since it last had an outing a year ago. I was filling in for my Mum and her injured ankle. The truth is, I didn’t expect much from myself, and neither did anyone else.   Lesson #1 – if you don’t expect much from yourself, that’s what you’ll get. Not much. The conditions were perfect – mild weather, no wind and my favourite surface (grass). The regulars paired me up with the best player, thinking that would even the odds. The first set score was 2-6. The opposing team teased me gently: “there’s that hole in the racket again”. I bravely smiled while secretly feeling flat. At 0-2 down in the second set, I’m about to serve and my partner had had enough. Competitive by nature, he came over and whispered: “serve to their backhand”. I wasn’t sure I could, but I didn’t want to let him down. I gave it my all and it worked! We won the game.   Lesson #2 – If you’re lacking motivation, find a reason bigger

I eased into the vinyl chair, the scent of chemicals floating around me as tiny tools whirred faintly in the background. I handed the bottle of my carefully selected colour (Tickle Me Turquoise) to the nail technician. “Oh, I like this one. Beautiful colour!” she said. I nodded, smiling in agreement, and dipped my hand into the glass dish of water she had set on the desk. Little did I know, my manicure session would soon become an engaging afternoon of people-watching. I witnessed some tricky interactions between the salon workers and customers that really got me thinking about the different ways that people communicate their needs, and about what is effective and what is not. The first customer was seated next to me. She kept huffing and sighing – audibly and frequently enough that I took notice. Moments later, she abruptly left her seat and walked to the front desk.“I’m not paying for this. My nails are too short now, and I can’t do anything with them.” The salon owner looked to the nail tech and back at the customer, apologized, and acquiesced. She left without paying and her nails halfway done. How difficult would it have been to

“I still think people will find out that I’m really not very talented. I’m really not very good. It’s all been a big sham.” – Michelle Pfeiffer “I have written eleven books, but each time I think, ‘uh oh, they’re going to find out now. I’ve run a game on everybody, and they’re going to find me out.’” – Maya Angelou “There are an awful lot of people out there who think I’m an expert. How do these people believe all this about me? I’m so much aware of all the things I don’t know.” – Dr. Chan, Chief of the World Health Organization Sound familiar? Impostor syndrome plagues more than 70% of successful people. It’s the persistent feeling that you are a fake. This feeling persists despite all evidence to the contrary. You don’t belong here. You’ll never be good enough. One of these days, they’ll see right through you. These thoughts have an amazing capacity to hold us back from our potential. They make us doubt our abilities and question our right to be successful. Sometimes, we chalk our successes up to luck or downplay our achievements. It often goes along with a fear of being found out.

I don’t normally have such interesting exchanges walking on my way to the park. The budgerigar was just sitting there, on the wrist of her outstretched arm. At first, I couldn’t understand why the budgie didn’t fly away. And then I saw it. The bird was on a leash! Our eyes met and she said: “I just took it for a fly at the park”. What the??? Now if you’re a bird, I think that’d be a frustrating situation. Sure it’s safe and predictable. But there’s only so far you can go, and you don’t have control of that either. Is that how you feel about your work? Comfortable, sort of. But really, it’s like you’re on a leash. And you’re stuck in a frustrating situation. We both know you’ve got two options. You can wait and hope, or you can go into action mode, work on yourself and get a coach to help you build the skills you need to uplevel. There’s nothing wrong with waiting and hoping. But my guess is that it will either take you much longer or you may become so discouraged, if you haven’t already, that you give up on your career dreams and

I have fish. For around two years, it’s been two fish. Until last week… Then I had one. After a two-day mourning period, I decided my Nemo needed a friend. I fell for two tiny Tetras. At first, they kept their distance. No surprise. We can all a bit shy until we know the lay of the land. Like a good boss, I onboarded them carefully. Acclimatized them as per instructions. But the next day, to my horror, the Tetras had disappeared. Zero retention of my new recruits. I looked all around the bowl, nothing. I moved the plants, nothing. There was only one possible explanation… My Nemo ate the Tetras! And that was my mistake. Two days later, there they were. Two Tetras swimming happily with my Nemo. I felt guilty. Turns out Tetras are excellent at hiding. And it got me thinking how easy it is to jump to conclusions. Don’t make that mistake. No matter how much we know, no matter how much we think we’ve done our due diligence, there are always more leadership lessons to be learned. If you’re a boss: Beware your assumptions about others. I wanted to punish my Nemo. I wasn’t sure

My brother hated the household rule, “No cartoons after school.” It was fine by me; I didn’t like them. For years I’d say: “animation isn’t my thing.” But now, having just seen the movie Kung Fu Panda, I’m wondering what else I may have missed. And I’m reminded to be careful of closing my mind to something I may think “isn’t my thing.” It’s fun. It’s funny. It’s a fun way to learn about leadership, too. Here are 3 surprising leadership lessons from Kung Fu Panda: 1. We all learn differently Po the Panda is different than the other Kung Fu animals. They’re all skinny; Po is portly, he loves to eat. When Master Shifu, the trainer, realises that food motivates Po, he builds food rewards into his training regime. Almond cookies are a 10-foot jump above the ground and a perfect split away. The last dim sum can be had after a fight. With this new approach, Po starts to learn. Do you know what motivates each of your employees? If not, why not take the time to find out? Just like Master Shifu, you might end up with an unexpected talent like Po on your team. **Warning: Spoilers below** 2.

On a Friday… At 4pm… Do you panic? Will you need to cancel your weekend plans? Or, do you fear that you are about to be *gulp* fired!? On the other hand, you could be calm, cool, collected and ready for the unexpected! If you are anything like I used to be, then you probably started to sweat and get overly nervous, for no valid reason. The committee in your head might have even started to argue. Stop. Think differently. Time to find opportunity (even if there’s bad news) and show your leadership potential to the head(s) of your company. Do what needs to be done and get the guidance you need for the best outcome. As an executive coach, organisational psychologist, and former insecure employee, I can help you flip the script and make the promise of promotion come more quickly. All you need to do is give yourself permission to pause and schedule a complimentary 30-­minute consultation call with me. Click HERE. Bring questions. I’ve got answers! You have nothing to lose. Stop letting those Friday afternoon calls sabotage your career. Schedule your free consult call right now.

They say flattery will get you everywhere. I won’t deny it. I love receiving spontaneous comments like this: Thank you for a great session! Fantastic session!! I really did enjoy it and got a lot of value out of your advice and connected to the case studies. Thanks so much Michelle! It was great.   That was after last week’s FREE online class:   Boss Up Your Career Plan. Do you know what gets you further? Civility. Good old fashioned Ps and Qs. They’re a little out of fashion in some workplaces these days. In fact, a lot out of fashion. According to Professors Christine Porath and Christine Pearson… Incivility at work is on the rise. They found that 98% of people report experiencing uncivil behavior at work. They researched thousands of people. About half of you are treated rudely at least once a week. That was in 2011. Up from about a quarter in 1998. I don’t think it’s any better since then (but I’d love to know your experience). That’s why I was delighted to receive polite emails from you Asking nicely if I’d be running it again: The FREE online class Boss Up Your Career Plan. 2am

Doing what you say you will do. It’s called integrity. It builds trust. It matters. Even when it’s inconvenient. Or you don’t feel like it. And there are way better options out there. Like Pokemon Go about a week ago. Maybe you feel like that about planning your career. Something you’d rather not do or think about? So you don’t. Or you only sort of do it. Feel free to enjoy the wandering around. Some call it the drift. There’s nothing wrong with it. I did it for years. The world is a better place when you feel intentional. Hell Yeah! about your career. You might be great at what you’re doing now. But, to stay at the top of your game, you need a plan. You know you won’t get far resting on your laurels.   What can you do? Save this date. Friday, September 2nd at 6am Melbourne (Thursday, September 1st at 4pm New York; 9pm London) As promised last week, it’s the FREE 1-hour online class I’ve been preparing for you.   Boss Up Your Career Plan! I’ve been playing very close attention to what my clients have been saying. I listened to what you told me