When you are transitioning from a job, it takes time to start seeing, especially if you were at an organization or role for many years. This is what happened to me. And I can only appreciate it now in retrospect.
As Albert Camus shared: “A [wo/man's] work is nothing but this slow trek to rediscover, through the detours of art, those two or three great and simple images in whose presence his heart first opened.” Continue reading
Many people spend their lives escaping instead of truly being available to the moment. Our heads are filled, from a young age, with the notion that we must have goals and a purpose. We get asked: what do you want to be when you grow up? Not: “what type of life do you want?” Continue reading
I have been coaching a woman (let’s call her Sarah) who is struggling at work. Her boss gets sadistic pleasure in making her life a living hell. Recently, I listened to her share the latest abusive antic and gave her some very tough love. I can see what she can’t see because she is living this nightmare. And it is so hard to see when you are in the thick of it. We were brought up around concepts of truth and justice but as we go into machine, reality shows us that it is about playing the game and survival. Continue reading
All we have is time. Take time for you. Invest in knowing yourself and what you want. Move away from what was drilled into your brain about what you are supposed to do. If you look at your watch right now, you’ll find that the time is now. And if you look again in a few minutes, it will still be now.
We have choices. You are allowed to make your own rules and never let anyone get in your way. If you keep encountering the same roadblock — a bad relationship or stressful work situation — then there is a lesson you have yet to learn. Continue reading
When you want something bad enough, you will figure out how to make it happen. How badly do you want it? That is the question to work on.
One day I woke up and realized that there is nothing left in the organization that I wanted. I was a c-level executive in a $2+ billion business. There was no promotion. There was no title. There was no project. There was no purpose.I felt like work became a giant vacuum cleaner that kept sucking up my energy. My reward for doing good work was more work. Continue reading
If you see life as a journey, you won’t expect instant gratification. Like any journey, there are highs, lows and twists in the road.
I feel sad when people give up hope. My take is that when you run into roadblocks, you need to:
1. Stop and breathe. Always breathe.
2. Turn down the volume on the voice in your head. What’s in your control? What can you do right now?
3.Are you waiting to be picked for the next job, project or event? What can you do to pick yourself?
And lastly, be kind to yourself. Sometimes you start something and it’s not for you. That’s not failure. That’s wisdom. Know when to turn up the volume and when to simply walk away.
When was the last time you asked someone for help? Can you remember it and what you asked for? If you did ask for help (and you are probably in the minority), what did it feel like? What was the outcome?
Since I left my job at Cisco, I have been connecting with a lot of fantastic people. I have 3-4 new conversations a week either through Skype, Google Hangouts or meeting in person. (I want to include Zoom in that soon). When I ask for help, people are connecting me to both new ideas and other smart people. It’s exhilarating to have so many meaningful interactions and some turn into friendships and maybe even more.
Having designed and implemented billion dollar strategies for organizations, it is refreshing to not be following a PowerPoint plan but taking the first step of listening and learning. I have some really big, crazy ideas that I am working on but I am doing my research first and learning how to shift from having to be the “expert” to the “artist” and “creator.” Continue reading
