As the year unfolds and my focus on women clients increases my reticular activating system (RAS) is kicking in. And the subject of ‘underestimation’ keeps coming up. I am not sure I am able to answer this. Even Sheryl Sandberg in her book Lean In admits on many occasions that she was ‘guilty’ of this. And that is coming from a woman once voted the 5th most influential woman… Read More »Why Do Women Underestimate Themselves?
Many ‘experts’ and ‘gurus’ talk about the fact that we all have the same 24 hours a day. It’s what you do with it that counts and matters. Am I preaching to the converted? My plan for 2015 is to ‘Make More Happen’ in those 24 hours. But not just anything. Meaningful stuff that matters to you and me. Over the next few weeks and months you will notice a… Read More »Make More Happen
Knowing how others perceive you can be one of the most important pieces of information that you can gather about your personal brand. Getting feedback from others is something you MUST do on a regular basis, because it helps; You understand if what they say is how you want to be known. Identify areas that you might want to work on to raise your profile. Show others that you are looking to… Read More »Do you know what others would say about you. And would you like it?
Probably the most widely used mis-understood piece of communication today is the e-mail. We have become so over whelmed with it that we rush read or rush reply. This opens us up to a whole host of problems. There was a recent article in the Wall St Journal on this very subject with a story of a consultant feeling things were wrong with a client because of the pressure to… Read More »What Is Someone Trying to Tell You?
When you are able to incorporate a passion that you have in to the work you do it makes for a an even more engaging experience. When you run your own business this of course can be a whole lot easier. You decide what you want to. For the last year or so I have taken up running again and also do the annual climb for cancer in May. This… Read More »Bring Your Passions to Work
With all it’s recent economic troubles, the Spanish government is seriously considering abolishing the country’s siesta. This would be a major culture shift and potentially more damaging than good. There are many famous examples of leaders and geniuses who were regular nappers. It is something I do on a regular basis and my Dad always did. So what are the benefits? A recent article in the Washington Post highlights… Read More »It’s Siesta Time at Work
Wow the car park was empty, people must have walked or be running late. The lights were on but there did not seem to be any activity in the meeting room. It suddenly dawned on me. I had the wrong day. In fact I had the wrong month! All day I had been running non-stop from meeting to phone call to meeting. I had driven 20 miles, wasted… Read More »Have You Ever Been a Month Early for a Meeting?
I had the pleasure of attending a recent women’s entrepreneur lunch at the McMaster Innovation Park in Hamilton. It included a Dragon’s Den or Shark Tank style pitch by 4 local women run businesses in competition for some services and prizes to help them with their development and growth. The panel was made up of local service and successful entrepreneurs, but they were certainly much nicer than many of the… Read More »What is your personal brand U.S.P. ?
According to recent Ladders.com research, the average time spent by a recruiter reading your resume is now just 6 seconds! Hopefully if the recruiting person is internal or a hiring manager the time is longer, but realistically it still might only be a few more seconds. The article shows images of two different resumes and the heat spots where eyes were tending to focus on in the short time they… Read More »Why are you still sending your resume?
For those of you that have heard me speak you know that coffee is one of my popular brand examples. After all why drive past five Tim Horton's to get to a Starbucks black coffee – especially now that you can get 4 oz of extra liquid for at least 60 cents less in Tim's new Extra Large cup versus a Venti? The answer is it's not just about the… Read More »Does Size Really Matter? It’s not just about the coffee