Your superpower is your brightly shining essence of self, your true being, encapsulated in your natural talents, true gifts and special traits. Many of us find it difficult to name our superpower, because we’ve been programmed to focus on what we are not versus who we are. We direct our energy toward “fixing” the weaker parts of ourselves rather than celebrating and strengthening our brilliance. But the leaders I know who have success on their terms play to their strengths. They do not shore up weakness; instead, they build within their power alley.

Success and Significance Question

If you were a superhero, what would your superpower be? The workplace and the marketplace reward mastery, not mediocrity. In what areas of your leadership and life are you a true master?

Or perhaps you experience these 8 styles in yourself all in one day.  I thought this was a humorous way to look at ourselves.  And a fun way to self-assess what you believe may be your more dominant leadership style.

Are you smiling while you look at the cartoon or feeling uncomfortable?  There is no right or wrong answer to this question…but the answer will tell you a lot about areas of self-development you may wish to address.

February 6, 2012 – Issue #43

Be purposeful about disengaging from physical activity AND mental activity. Take time away from the running around AND all the pressures that occupy and stress out your brain.

Unplug from your smartphone, Facebook page and addiction to being connected and busy all the time. Go to bed earlier, take a day off each week for rest and rejuvenation.

Take your vacation days. And then watch as you crack the code on working smarter…not harder.

This Week’s Action: Ask yourself: Do I value my sense of worth based on how busy I am? What am I afraid of if I slow myself down?

You may subscribe and encourage others to subscribe by clicking here.

© Betsy Jordyn and Lisa Martin 2012. All rights reserved.

I’m a big fan of Sandberg and her commentary on what holds women back from succeeding in the workforce.

In this short video she hits on a number of key issues:

1.  There is an ambition gap all around the world – no equality for women anywhere in the world.

2. In underdeveloped countries girls are not educated to the same level as boys.

3. In developed countries women are getting as many or more degree than men, yet only 16% of C-level suite jobs are occupied by women. There has been no movement up with this percentage  in the last decade…it is stagnant.  The numbers are lower in underdeveloped countries.

4. In a recent study by the Economist women were polled as to their level of ambition.  When asked to self-identify if they were very ambitious positive responses included:  US – 36%; China 66%; India 85%.

5. Ironically women in the more developed countries are less ambitious and some of the reasons are:

• We don’t raise our daughters to be as ambitious as our sons;
• Little girls are called bossy, little boys are not;
• We don’t have an equalized workforce because we don’t have equalized home fronts;
• Success and likeability is positively correlated for men and negatively correlated for women.

Sandberg’s potential solutions include allowing men to be equally ambitious to contribute at home while allowing women to be equally ambitious to achieve in the workforce.  The workforce needs to give flexibility to men.  Men and women need to understand the success and likeability correlation.

Women and men who have a vision to change the world understand they need a leadership role to get there.  It has to be okay for women to have the ambition to lead.

She finishes by saying: “Why not use the talents of the entire population to address the very considerable needs this world has?”

View the video here:

Creating that vision enables you to visualize your future. It is open-ended and arises from your internal perspective of what you believe is possible for your career, your leadership, your life. Simply put, your vision gives you a destination. If well crafted, it will inspire you to live the life you want, pulling you forward by creating a vacuum between where you are in your life right now and where you want to go. When your vision is clear, the steps toward your future become obvious and feel much easier to undertake.

Here’s how to create your vision:

1. Look for negative patterns. To figure out where you want to go, you need to recognize what you’re not happy with at this point. The surest way to determine what matters most to you is to pay attention to what you’re complaining about. Look for negative patterns in your own thoughts and your conversations with others.

2. Acknowledge your complaints in writing. Developing your vision means giving yourself permission to wish for what could be possible in your life. To get started, jot down all the negative patterns you discovered in the last step, and any aspects of your life you find yourself complaining about to friends, family, or colleagues.

3. Analyze your complaints to find your priorities. Examine each complaint, looking for a request that might be hidden under the surface. “I never have time to myself” most likely translates to “I want to have some time alone.” Narrow the list to your top five priorities.

4. Consider the tough questions. Think about your ideal scenario, and ask yourself how you can get there. Frame your questions in the format “What do I want,” “What do I need,” and “How will my life be different once I achieve this goal?”

5. Write your vision statement. Incorporate the answers to the questions you asked yourself in the last step. The simpler the language, the stronger the vision. Aim for a maximum of 35 words.

Don’t feel stifled by striving for perfection – you can revise your vision at any time.

January 30, 2012 – Issue #42

ROI of Silence and Solitude

The soul is like a wild animal – tough, resilient, resourceful, savvy, self-sufficient. It knows how to survive in hard places. But it is also shy. Just like a wild animal, it seeks safety in the dense underbrush. If we want to see a wild animal, we know that the last thing we should do is go crashing through the woods yelling, for it to come out. But if we walk quietly in the woods, sit patiently by the base of the tree and fade into our surroundings, the wild animal we seek might put in an appearance.
Parker Palmer, A Hidden Wholeness

The quickest way to build your capacity is to add silence and solitude to your list of daily practices. Taking time alone to reflect, think, plan and just be will do far more for you than keeping yourself busy and inundated with the noise and constant stimulations that compete for our attention. The benefits that you will receive will far outweigh your guilt for not being more productive or your discomfort with quiet. You will gain:

• Access to your inner creativity
• Clarity
• Opportunities to tap into insights that go beyond typical thinking processes

This Week’s Action: Pick a time and location that feels comfortable and safe from distractions and disruptions and simply do nothing. Try it for five minutes and see what happens.

You may subscribe and encourage others to subscribe by clicking here.

© Betsy Jordyn and Lisa Martin 2012. All rights reserved.

In this space I am sharing a person, an article, an idea, a visual, a comic – basically the “best” material I’ve seen during week regarding success and significance – with you.

This week amazing blogger (among other things) Chris Brogan wrote a terrific post about building your platform.  Even though this piece is written mainly for those wanting to build an online presence I believe many (not all) of his 97 tips are relevant to building a career platform and your leadership and life success.

I particularly liked tip 60: Remember that praise and criticism are the same: other people’s thoughts that shouldn’t sway your overall mission. (We tend to accept praise but loathe criticism. Learn to loathe it equally.)

And tip 74: Success, as I define it, is the ability to choose how you spend your day, and a full belly.

To read more of Chris Brogan’s ideas go here

As we sipped from our mugs my friend was enthusiastically showing me the new “super sonic” bird feeder her children had given her for Christmas.  She explained with much excitement how this glass and steel contraption was so much better for the birds in terms of keeping them safe from other animals that might like to access the feeder (like bears).  Did I mention she backs on to a greenbelt?

Having two cats myself, and knowing that my friend has a couple of rent-a-cats that come by often for meals and love I asked:  “What do the cats  think of the bird feeder?”

“Oh, we haven’t seen much of them lately – so I don’t know.”  A few minutes later there was a neighborhood cat, named Java, at the glass balcony door eyeing up the bird feeder.

My friend first spoke eloquently about how beautiful Java was (he is a gorgeous and big cat) and then opened the door and tried to “shoo” Java away.  Have you ever tried to “shoo” a cat?  It doesn’t work…especially when there is bird feeder and LOTS of little birds flying above its head.  But after several scoldings Java seemed to disappear.

With the birds now safe we sat back down on the couch and resumed our conversation.  My friend remarked on how great it was to have this bird feeder as there now were all these new birds she’d “never seen before” coming by.  In the exact moment those words left her mouth, one of these unusual birds swooped through the sky towards the feeder and WHAMO Java pounced out of nowhere and caught the bird mid-air in his jaws and they both disappeared.

“Well,” I said. “I guess that’s one bird we’ve never seen before and one we’ll never see again.”

The event was masterfully choreographed with words of wisdom from 12 seasoned professionals sharing career planning “hindsights” interspersed with a dance competition, the Price is Right and Deal or No Deal.  The truly magnificent part of the evening was that each speaker had only 5-minutes (think ‘petcha kucha’ style) to share their insights (and, yes, most kept to the clock).

I was last up of the 12 and shared my “Seven Steps to Career and Leadership Success.”

I shared not only my personal experience, but more importantly, I shared the collective wisdom and hindsights of the hundreds of individuals I’ve coached to career and leadership success over the past dozen years.

Here’s a brief summary of what I said.  I decided to create a mnemonic to make the steps easy to remember. A video of the event is coming soon.  But until then, this will have to suffice.

Set a vision and goals:  The most successful folks I know set a vision (1 or 5 years out) for what is possible for their leadership and life.  They take a holistic view and determine the destination they aim to reach.  Then they put that vision up on the shelf and trust in it and themselves. Next they take an action everyday (large or small) that moves them in the right direction.

Understand self-esteem CPR:  Self-confidence is knowing the you have the skills to do something well.  Self-esteem is knowing your worth even if you are doing nothing.  Lack of self-esteem can stunt your career; no matter how talented you are.  You know you have strong self-esteem when you stay on an even keel no matter how great the wins or losses.  When you have strong belief in your worth regardless of market conditions you can practice Self-Esteem CPR:  you make Choices that move you toward your vision; you make Positivity a priority (your attitude, people and environments that surround you); and, you take measured Risks because you feel good in your own skin.

Create value security:  Job and career security has gone the way of the Brontosaurus.  It is extinct.  Yesterday’s world was about being employed.  You put in the hours and they gave you a gold watch.  Today’s world is about being employable.  You are measured on the value you bring and the results you deliver.  The more value you create, the more you make your performance shine, the more career options become available to you.

Contribute to others:  Don’t give to get.  Give to give.  Endeavor to make a meaningful impact on others.  Further this philosophy in your networking, volunteerism and day-to-day interactions.

Exercise your superpower:  The workplace rewards mastery not mediocrity.  The marketplace rewards mastery not mediocrity.  The leaders I know who have success on their terms play to their strengths.  They do not shore up weakness; and, instead build within their power alley.  In other words, if you were a superhero what would your superpower be?

Synergize your career and life:  Do not sacrifice your life for your career. Avoid burnout.  In our crazy busy world there is no such thing as balance and forget trying to achieve it.  Strive for harmony between your roles and responsibilities. In doing so, you will stop worrying about whether you are doing the right things and focus on doing the right things the right way.

Seek success not perfection: Perfection is a career killer.  When you focus on everything being a 100% right you get stuck.  You hold on too tightly and do not delegate or let things go.  You try to control everything and everyone. You miss opportunities to grow and take risks.

January 23, 2012 – Issue #41

Balance Thinking and Action
You become more personally powerful when you balance your external action with internal reflection and contemplation. Action without thought and replenishment (which is far, far more common in corporate life and western culture) leads to:

• Frenzied activity
• Controlling efforts to impose your own will
• Pay later decisions (ones that require a great deal of rework, hidden costs, etc.)
• And ultimately…
  • Frantic exhaustion
  • Burnout
  • Sense that our souls are fragmented

When you take a more balanced approach, you achieve greater capacity that enables:

• Your best decisions
• Growth
• Resilience to handle challenges and setbacks

This Week’s Action: Assess how well you balance your actions with reflection.

You may subscribe and encourage others to subscribe by clicking here.

© Betsy Jordyn and Lisa Martin 2012. All rights reserved.