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Author: Sharon Smith

You are a successful CEO, passionate about the continued growth and health of your organization.

Because you are responsible for the strategy and success of your organization you are losing sleep over the continual reports of security breaches, stolen data, and ransomware. It appears that no one is safe anymore.

But all the terminology and acronyms (i.e., cloud, IoT, BOD, APT, IAM, IDS, Pen Test, malware, ransomware, identity access management, patch management, change management...not to mention all the compliance regulations) is overwhelming. And that makes sense because security is not in your wheelhouse, but it’s in mine! And I can help you!

WHAT I DO
As a 12-year veteran of the information security, audit, and compliance industry, I understand the technology your organization works with and the challenges you face.

I translate cyber security into business terms for executives who want to implement security but don’t know how. I help create the proper internal messaging, education, and shape the organizational culture needed for sustainable success in security.

Too many people believe that security is an IT problem and and that simply throwing budget at the IT department equals security. Instead, I help you paint a full picture of your security posture, the risks associated with it, and the most effective strategy to help close the gaps.

Security is not insurance - it is force protection (think of the armed guards in front of a military base). Isn’t it time for you to put the proper protection in place for the long term health of your organization?

WHAT MAKES ME DIFFERENT
It is rare to find someone with a background that includes in-depth information security knowledge and hands-on experience who has a business degree, and is a Certified Coach. This mix of education and experience equips me to best serve you in creating a long term sustainable security culture.

NEXT STEPS
Email me at sharon@c-suiteresults.com or message me via LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/smithsharonj/|You are a successful CEO, passionate about the continued growth and health of your organization.

Because you are responsible for the strategy and success of your organization you are losing sleep over the continual reports of security breaches, stolen data, and ransomware. It appears that no one is safe anymore.

But all the terminology and acronyms (i.e., cloud, IoT, BOD, APT, IAM, IDS, Pen Test, malware, ransomware, identity access management, patch management, change management...not to mention all the compliance regulations) is overwhelming. And that makes sense because security is not in your wheelhouse, but it’s in mine! And I can help you!

WHAT I DO
As a 12-year veteran of the information security, audit, and compliance industry, I understand the technology your organization works with and the challenges you face.

I translate cyber security into business terms for executives who want to implement security but don’t know how. I help create the proper internal messaging, education, and shape the organizational culture needed for sustainable success in security.

Too many people believe that security is an IT problem and and that simply throwing budget at the IT department equals security. Instead, I help you paint a full picture of your security posture, the risks associated with it, and the most effective strategy to help close the gaps.

Security is not insurance - it is force protection (think of the armed guards in front of a military base). Isn’t it time for you to put the proper protection in place for the long term health of your organization?

WHAT MAKES ME DIFFERENT
It is rare to find someone with a background that includes in-depth information security knowledge and hands-on experience who has a business degree, and is a Certified Coach. This mix of education and experience equips me to best serve you in creating a long term sustainable security culture.

NEXT STEPS
Email me at sharon@c-suiteresults.com or message me via LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/smithsharonj/|You are a successful CEO, passionate about the continued growth and health of your organization.

Because you are responsible for the strategy and success of your organization you are losing sleep over the continual reports of security breaches, stolen data, and ransomware. It appears that no one is safe anymore.

But all the terminology and acronyms (i.e., cloud, IoT, BOD, APT, IAM, IDS, Pen Test, malware, ransomware, identity access management, patch management, change management...not to mention all the compliance regulations) is overwhelming. And that makes sense because security is not in your wheelhouse, but it’s in mine! And I can help you!

WHAT I DO
As a 12-year veteran of the information security, audit, and compliance industry, I understand the technology your organization works with and the challenges you face.

I translate cyber security into business terms for executives who want to implement security but don’t know how. I help create the proper internal messaging, education, and shape the organizational culture needed for sustainable success in security.

Too many people believe that security is an IT problem and and that simply throwing budget at the IT department equals security. Instead, I help you paint a full picture of your security posture, the risks associated with it, and the most effective strategy to help close the gaps.

Security is not insurance - it is force protection (think of the armed guards in front of a military base). Isn’t it time for you to put the proper protection in place for the long term health of your organization?

WHAT MAKES ME DIFFERENT
It is rare to find someone with a background that includes in-depth information security knowledge and hands-on experience who has a business degree, and is a Certified Coach. This mix of education and experience equips me to best serve you in creating a long term sustainable security culture.

NEXT STEPS
Email me at sharon@c-suiteresults.com or message me via LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/smithsharonj/

Categories
Growth Management Skills

The Dirtiest Word In Business – Multitasking

There is one word in Corporate America that makes my blood boil. It’s not the typical clichés like synergy, think outside the box, right size, paradigm shift, or leverage. It’s a word used in job descriptions as a positive skill and one used as an excuse too many times to count for why someone is not listening during a meeting.

The word is “multitasking”! I hate this word more than any other word in business and in life for that matter. “Multitasking” is what society has decided means it’s OK to stop listening to those you are talking to. When did that become a skill to be proud of?

Keep reading if you feel that you or your team could be more productive, but you are not sure how. Let’s talk about why multitasking is not real, why it’s not an asset to your organization, and then examine what you can do about it so that you and your team are more productive and more effective.

“I’m sorry can you repeat yourself? I was multitasking,” was a phrase I would hear at least 5 times on each call with one particular client. As a consultant I politely said sure and repeated myself while in my head I was screaming, cussing, and thinking, “How rude are you to waste my time and everyone else’s time on this call by making us repeat ourselves because you have more important things to do. Well excuse me for interrupting your day with what I believe is your job.”

That’s an example I’ve experienced on phone calls, but it happens so often in conference rooms too. There is the one person sitting in the conference room with you and your team looking at their phone whether for text or email. They look up when someone says their name for the second time to blank stares of the people waiting for them to answer a question. They of course say, “I’m sorry, can you repeat that? I was multitasking,” and the person repeats the question.

If you are going into a meeting and you are not responsible for keeping the lights on or the network running there is really no reason to have your phone. I’ve heard the excuse, “Well, I have to look at my calendar so I know where my next meeting is.” Great, then look at it between meetings or write it down on a piece of paper like we used to. 99% of the time you don’t need your phone during the meeting. I believe there should be a no phone rule in all meetings and that goes for everyone in the room.

It seems that people have turned to technology for everything, but most business problems are really people problems. That means technology cannot always solve our problems and it is time to put the technology down and step away. It is time to get back to the human connection that built this country and economy. It is time to start communicating and respecting each other again and that cannot be done behind the screen of your phone, tablet, or laptop.

When people say they are multitasking, they are typically talking about doing two things like reading and listening or listening and writing at the same time. They make claims – to themselves and others – like, “Keep talking, I can listen while I type this report,” “I can be present on the conference call while reading the email that just came in,” “I can write this presentation while watching the news.” Can you really do those things simultaneously? The answer is that you cannot and there is a scientific reason why.

The reason you cannot do these things at the same time is because all those activities are being handled by the same part of the brain and your brain cannot do multiple things at the same time that are processed from the same place.

Yes, you can walk and talk, or read and walk on the treadmill, or listen to music and clean the kitchen at the same time. You can use different parts of your brain at the same time for those activities. But you cannot use the same part of your brain for multiple tasks at the same time.

It might feel like you are doing them at the same time, but in reality your brain is switching back and forth between the two tasks. One moment you are writing and the next you are listening and then back and forth. That means you are hearing half of what is being said and slowing down your thoughts around what you are writing or working on. You are most likely increasing your error rate while decreasing your effectiveness and productivity, neither of which are benefits to you or your organization. Don’t forget the fact that you are being rude in the process.

Did you know that on average people look at their phones nine times an hour and 110 times a day? That’s once every six to seven minutes! That is not my definition of productivity. If you stop what you are working on that frequently to look at your phone, how long does it take you to get back on track once you stop looking at your phone? If an employee is working on a project, how much is your company spending on them to check their phone when they could be working on the project, delivering it faster and for a lower cost? How about you? How much is it costing the company when you do the same thing, at your salary?

This is not just about work and meetings; it’s also about life and how we treat our family and friends. Nowadays, it’s commonplace for people to look at phones while at the dinner table; to hold their phone during a conversation indicating that something more important might show up in the form of a text, email, or call; or to read email while chatting on the phone. I am guilty of this, and I am working to do better. The first step is admitting that something needs to change and then observing our patterns so we can change the actions.

Start to take inventory every time you stop to look at your phone. When you think you are multitasking, what is it costing you and your company? What about the conference call that could take 20 minutes that ends up taking 40 minutes because people have to keep repeating themselves? How much focus and money are you actually losing to multitasking?

Every time you catch yourself saying “what?” to someone, check in with yourself to see what happened. Were you truly unable to hear or understand what they said, or were you not paying full attention? Become more self-aware of your own habit around multitasking.
Decide what kind of leader do you want to be and then be that leader. Be the change you want to see in your organization and then lead by example, walk the talk and create an organization of respect where everyone is more productive and more present. Only good things can happen if you chose to take this journey, so will join me in debunking the multi-tasking myth?

For more resources or to contact me please visit www.c-suiteresults.com

Categories
Growth Management Personal Development

Nothing to Fear

A great quote from Franklin D. Roosevelt “the only thing to fear is fear itself” rings loud and true today. There are so many people that I hear speaking from a place of fear. Fear of change, fear of failure, fear of speaking up, fear of being judged, fear of public speaking, and fear of rejection to name a few of the fears I often see stop people from reaching their goals.

What are your fears? How much do they affect you and your decisions? How have they held you back?

Have you ever stopped to think about whether fear is real? Can you see, touch, eat, smell, or hear fear? Can fear even hurt you? Since the answer to those questions is no, why do we spend so much time living with it? People and situations can injure you physically or emotionally, that is true, but fear cannot, and fearing situations that are not life threatening and pose no actual harm will stop you from reaching your true potential in life and in business.

Fear makes sense from the fight or flight response that we needed when and bears and neighboring tribes were the enemy. Without laying out all the science of the hormones behind your fight or flight response, what is important is to understand is that your body releases stress hormones when you have to take action around something you “fear.” These hormones increase blood sugar, heart rate, and blood pressure, while shutting down nonessential systems like digestion and immune and hampering our focus on small tasks. This all made sense because we needed the increased blood sugar and heart rate for big tasks like running or fighting, rather than small tasks like digestion or focus on details.

The challenge is that we are now constantly putting ourselves into this state of stress when we create fears around non-life threatening events. You don’t often have to run for your lives anymore, but our bodies and brains do not know that. We still have the caveman part of our brain and our fight or flight response has not changed. As a result, all the fears that do not threaten your life are not only causing you to waste time and energy in reaching your goals, but are also causing physical and emotional issues as well. I am not saying that having a healthy sense of fear is bad, you do need to know when to step back from the ledge, when to jump out of the way of a speeding car, or when to grab a child away from a rabid animal; and fear or the flight or flight response gears us up to do all of that.

However, how many times have you worried about or feared a situation, conversation, or outcome, only to find that what ended up happening wasn’t even close to what you had created in your mind? I’ve spent more time than I would like to admit having made-up conversations in my head, causing stress and fear out of nothing and wasting precious time and energy that I could have used being happy and productive. I have also been able to trace digestive and join pain issues to stress caused from fears that I created in my mind as well.

One of the things I have learned to do is to observe the fearful thoughts and stop them in their tracks the minute I notice them happening. When you observe your thoughts you can change them. The next time you start to worry or fear something ask yourself “what evidence do I have of the outcome?” What’s another outcome or story that could be just as true as the one you are telling yourself? The old acronym for FEAR is good to remember – False Evidence Appearing Real.

Because your brain translates what you see into perceptions based on the filters you have created, you really do create your reality. The filters are the stories you use to explain the world around you. These perceptions feel like reality, but they are only as real as you want them to be. You can always change the story.

Some people see a rain cloud and think, “Oh man, it’s going to rain and ruin my day,” while someone else sees a rain cloud and finds gratitude because their garden is dry. Different perceptions = different realities. Someone gets on stage excited because they get to share something with a group and make a difference while someone else sees the same group and the same stage as a place of judgment and thinks, “What if I mess up and look stupid? What if I fail?” The events are the same, speaking on stage and sharing information. The only difference between these two speakers is their thoughts. My bet is the person who is excited will be a much better presenter than the person who is afraid of failing or looking stupid even if they have the exact same information to share. They are indeed in control of their outcome and through their thoughts create their reality. Just like I said before the more you start to observe your thoughts and ask meaningful questions of yourself, the more you can change your thoughts, change your story, and change your reality.

The reason I like the quote “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself” is because it is the fearful thought itself that is debilitating not the thing you fear. Of course bad things can happen that you cannot control. You can make an investment that goes south where money is lost, you might loose a job, not get the second date, and great opportunities are sometimes missed. While you can’t completely control these situations you can control how you respond to them, how you might plan in the event that they happen, or use them in your basis for making decisions. And since you cannot predict them or completely control them you should not live in fear of them.

When you stop doing new things because of a fearful thought, now that is something to be afraid of. When you are able to let go of the fear and live your life, magic happens. Or you can decide to “feel the fear and do it anyway” as Susan Jeffers discusses in her book with the same title. Whether you let go of the fear or do something despite the fear, your results are going to include more fun, more joy, more love, more abundance, and more wealth. You are going to continue moving forward and towards your goals and dreams.

When you live in fear you question those around you and you don’t let new people or new experiences in. You miss out on the journey and experience of life and when you really think about it that is the purpose of being here. You don’t get to take any of the material things with you when we go. Most likely we will only be remembered for a few generations at the most, I honestly cannot tell you my great grandparents names, so why spend the precious time you have in this beautiful life fearing anything that is not real?

None of us know what the future holds, we never will, regardless of how hard we try to predict the future by creating scenarios in our head. So if you are going to spend time trying to predict the future by telling yourself how something is going to turn out, change the story so the ending is one of happily ever after. After all you do create your own reality so choose one that is fun and fulfilling.

For more resources or to contact me please visit www.c-suiteresults.com

Categories
Growth Management Personal Development

What do you want to be when you grow up?

What do you want to be when you grow up? That is a question most, if not everyone heard when they were kids. Now as adults have you ever asked yourself that question again? Most likely if you have it’s for one of two reasons. Either you found yourself in a career that does not align with who you are at your core or you have reached a level of success that has you feeling “now what”? If you have many days where you are just going through the motions, not feeling engaged or satisfied it sounds like you may no longer be enjoying your work.

Gallup continues to report numbers like 30% for employee engagement and it seems that it is only a rare few who are excited about their work.

If you are part of the 70% who are disengaged at work, you might feel that the other 30% just got lucky and maybe you even feel that it’s not fair. Let me put your mind at ease a bit: it’s not your fault. You can only blame yourself if you continue to do work you don’t like once you understand the paradigm I’m going to share.

A quick caveat, this is not about the people you work with. If you love the type of work you do, but don’t like the people you do it with or the company you work for, that is different from not liking or being disengaged from the work itself. What I’m talking about are those people who are disengaged from the work because of the work itself or the way the work is carried out.

Now let’s get to the new way of looking at the problem and discuss the solution. Most likely, you picked your field of study based on external conditions or pressures vs. an internal understanding of how you are wired. What I mean is that many people go to school and study what they are told to study, what their parents encourage them to do, what teachers encouraged them to do, or in a field that they believe is practical so they can find work after school. That’s what I did, I was told I had to go to college and I picked business and accounting because that meant I would find a decent paying job when I finished, plus at the time it meant that I didn’t have to write many papers. That was a decision that took over 15 years to correct and a lot of disengagement along the way. I won’t call that choice a mistake because I did the best with the tools and knowledge I had when I was 17, but let me tell you, if I knew then what I know now about how I’m wired I sure would have gone in a very different direction.

What do I mean by how I am wired or who you are at your core? What I mean is that you are a unique recipe that makes you like and dislike certain activities, excel or flounder with different skills, and makes up who you truly are. It’s like what Maslow discusses with his hierarchy of needs and self-actualization. Human beings have an inner bent – the innate unchanging part of us that gives us a sense of fulfillment and contribution. Another way to say this is that people have an innate unchanging nature that predisposes them to want to make a certain contribution in a certain way. When you are not working or living in a manner that allows you to contribute in the way you were born to contribute, that can lead to disengagement.

The good news is that regardless of how grown up you are, it is never too late to discover what you are meant do or how you are wired, as long as you want something different. Instead of continuing to live based on chance or what other people think you should or shouldn’t do, you can design the life and career you want.

What would be different for you if you jumped out of bed every morning because the work you do is aligned with who you are at your core? What would be different if you were really excited about your job, your company, and what you contribute?

The first step is to really know who you are and how your innate nature drives you. Are you someone who loves building relationships and teams, and is driven by ideas, but not so much by details? Or are you someone who loves numbers, budgets, research, and all the details? Do you go a little crazy when someone else just wants to wing it? Maybe you like to invent, create, lead, and build; or maybe you like to listen, gather information, and work on creating solutions. These are all valuable, we all have different combinations of these types of energies, and when you get to use the energies that you are wired for, the magic starts to happen.

My personal experience with this comes from the fact that it took over 15 years to align who I am with what I do. I was a very successful information security consultant and I was very good at my job, but it made me miserable. I dreaded Monday and definitely had the Sunday night blues. I had anxiety at times about the work because I knew how much I did not want to write that next report or nit-pick the smallest details with the QA department. The part of the job I liked the most, was the part I got to do the least. When I would get to help my clients actually solve problems and when I got to spend time really getting to understand their businesses and how things work. I did not enjoy the repetitive questions I had to ask every client and the same report that I had to write over and over. I enjoy being creative and fluid, not systematic and sequential. I also know that people assume that I am an extrovert because I am not shy and can talk a lot, but in reality I am really quite introverted. I get drained when spending days on end talking to people and that part of the old job exhausted me. However there were lots of other folks who thrived in that role because they liked and were wired for the tasks and roles that I was not.

It took a lot of trial and error for me to figure this out, but there are lots of tools and ways to go about assessing who you are to better determine what you should be doing. This is not something I can go through in this article. I am writing this for you to start thinking about who you are and the work you do. This is a paradigm shift where you start to understand why you have been disengaged for so long. I want you to know that it’s never too late to do something different, something that lights you up.

So if you are like many people (previously this included me) who wound up in a career where there is little to no satisfaction, then it’s time to discover who you are and make a change to the work that aligns with you. I like to remember that the pain of discipline (or the pain of change) is much better than the pain of regret.

This is one of the services I offer my clients and If I can help support you in making a change or identifying your core values and strengths please reach out to me at sharon@c-suiteresults.com or visit c-suiteresults.com

Categories
Entrepreneurship Management Personal Development

What does mindset have to do with it?

Have you ever woken up on the “wrong side of the bed” followed by a bad day? Better yet, have you ever felt good for no reason and then had everything that day go perfectly?

Did you know that you created both of those realities? It’s your mindset that creates the world you live in and as Henry Ford said, “whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right.”

You might be thinking, “I’ve heard of this mindset thing, but isn’t it just for yogis and hippies?” The answer is NO! It’s for everyone and for anyone who is serious about taking control of their life. So let’s talk about what mindset is, what the right mindset can help you accomplish, and ways to create a mindset of abundance and possibilities.

This is not a concept I was brought up with, so if that’s true for you as well I’ll tell you this is something that can be learned and mastered.

Simply defined by the dictionary, mindset is an attitude, disposition, mood, intention, or inclination. But in this context what I’m talking about it is the power of your thoughts to create the world around you.

Do you see the glass half full or half empty? While that’s a cliché question, it has a lot of merit when talking about mindset. We all know people (family, friends, co-workers, etc.) that see the negative in any situation and assume the worst. These are the people who think the sky is falling all around them all the time. You also know people who see the good in all situations and really know how to make lemonade out of lemons. Actually they see the lemon as nothing more than the opportunity to make a drink they like. You might call them Pollyanna, but in reality these folks are living much happier lives than their “Chicken Little” counterparts.

Your current mindset, whether a half-full or half-empty belief pattern, has been with you for a while now. Your thoughts have been with you for a very long time and the older you are the longer you have held your beliefs. Your beliefs are the thoughts you have been thinking and if you have been in a negative place for a while now these are deep-seated beliefs.

The more I “play” with mindset the more I find that I have so much more control over my life than I could have imagined. Sure, I always knew I had some control, I can make choices, and do whatever I want, but I didn’t realize that I had actual control to create exactly what I want and have the exact perfect people show up at the exact right time. That is the type of creation I’m talking about. When I choose to have a positive mindset, one of abundance, I find positive people and abundant opportunities. When I choose to feel fear, disappointment, overwhelm, guilt, jealousy, or blame, the world around me provides more situations to match those feelings.

Without going into the science of how your brain works, what I want you to know is that you can start creating new thoughts, new neuropathways, new patterns, and new beliefs. Since your current beliefs are just reflections of your thoughts, then it is completely possible to change your thoughts in order to change your beliefs.

When you go to an event with the mindset that it is going to be boring, be a waste of time, and not be of any value, of course that is what you will receive because your mind will do everything to make that reality happen. Your mind needs the external world to match the internal world you have created through your thoughts. So if you have a mindset or attitude that something will be a waste of your time before you experience the event then your mind will get to work finding all the reasons that the event was a waste of time after it is over so that your outside world matches your inside world.

On the other hand if you go into the event with the simple mindset that “I am going to meet one new and interesting person” I guarantee that you will. You are going to create your reality by the words you use in your mind first.

Now don’t misunderstand me, I’m not saying you can make a million dollars materialize in your bank account just by thinking about it. I am saying that you get to create the situations, people, interaction, and opportunities that can lead to the million-dollar idea or partnership. In order for that to occur you have to be ready to see those opportunities when they present themselves because they don’t show up with obvious neon flashing signs that say look at me over here, I’m the million-dollar idea you are looking for.

The question is – what are you doing in order to create the life you want? Do you know why you get up every day and go to work? Do you have a purpose behind what you do or do you just do it because “that’s what people do”? Are you allowing life to happen to you or are you making life happen?

The most successful athletes, artists, musicians, and business people have coaches because they know that the investment will help them create the mindset they need to get the results they want. They also invest in personal development, meditate, and focus on what they want rather than focusing on what they don’t want. They don’t just hope for the results they want; they go after the results they want. They understand the power of mindset.

Here’s an example (I love this story): Back in 1992, before his career really took off, Jim Carrey wrote himself a check for $10 million and on the memo line he wrote ‘for acting services rendered.’ He dated it for Thanksgiving 1995, approximately three years from that time. He stuck that check in his wallet and it was right before Thanksgiving 1995 that he was offered a role that would pay him $10 million. Watch this 3-minute interview on that story.

Do you want to be like Jim Carey and the elite who understand the power of and utilize mindset for what they want? Or do you want to be like the average person that spends their days letting circumstances just happen to them, focused on the negativity, and letting life pass them by.

You have to decide whether you are getting the results in life that you want. If you are not, its time to think, act, and be different because the only way to get different results is to start doing things differently. So how do you do that? It’s the difference between something being simple vs. easy. This in theory is simple; you don’t need to learn a new language, go back to school, or move to a monastery. However, that does not mean it’s easy.

Start small. There is no need to go big, which can quickly make you feel overwhelmed, say “see, I knew this was too hard,” and then quit. That’s a formula for disaster. You want to see success in this so start small and build. Find one thing every day to be grateful for. It can be the sun, your family, or your job. Even if you don’t like the work you do right now be grateful that you have the job. It puts food on the table, a roof over your head, and supports your family. When you know what you don’t want, you get clearer about what you do want. That means use any dissatisfaction at work to allow you to focus more on what you do want.

Then, once you have your gratitude in focus, make sure to state it in the positive. You will say, “I am grateful to know that I want a job that allows me to be
more creative.” Don’t say, “I want a job where I don’t have to make sales calls.” Always state what you are excited about rather than what you are not happy about. This is a subtle shift but will have you thinking with a different mindset.

Positive affirmations also help with a positive mindset. For some people it is a true affirmation with an I Am statement – I Am happy, I Am healthy, I am abundant. For others it may be focusing on positive quotes or prayers.

One of my favorite affirmations is, “today is a beautiful day full of infinite possibilities.”

If you are having challenges with positive affirmations and really believing what you are saying you can start with more general thoughts. You can be grateful for the abundance of sunshine. You can find something general that makes you happy and focus on that. Sometimes the key is to start small and once you get comfortable with this you will start to see abundance everywhere.

Another idea is to keep a journal, write down your thoughts and when one is negative ask yourself for another way to look at it that is positive.

So ask yourself: What am I grateful for? Start and/or end every day with gratitude, whether spoken aloud or written in a gratitude journal. These simple and small efforts are the first step on a journey to the life you truly are meant to live.

Categories
Growth Management Personal Development

High Performance Critical Thinking

Critical thinking is often characterized as a scientific, analytical way of thinking. It helps us form more knowledgeable opinions and make better decisions. As a business leader critical thinking is not only necessary, but when you become a high performance critical thinker it will differentiate you from others. This is impetrative today in the business world we live in with much more complicated technologies, customer demands, and drive to go to market quickly.

High performance is defined as better, faster, or more efficient than others and we all know about high performance sports cars that are in a class of their own. High performance also applies to leaders and like the car is carefully crafted to be elite, so can you.

I have no doubt that you already have strong critical thinking skills, but you can learn how to improve and develop your mind and become a much higher performing leader.

Here are three steps to high performance critical thinking:

1. Ask the right questions

If you are going to be high performance in the critical thinking department you need to make sure you have a clear understanding of the problem you’re trying to solve. This begins with how you clarify the problem and what questions you ask. You cannot make assumptions or have ambiguous information, which may seem obvious, but how many times did you think you had a clear picture only to find out later you were missing critical pieces of information? Pieces that could have easily been uncovered if better questions had been asked or different people had been questioned.

You won’t be able to reasonably analyze a situation and locate a solution if you’re not completely clear on what you’re trying to accomplish!

The best way to get a clear understanding fast is to ask questions, but not just any question, the right questions. You want to ask open-ended questions. These cannot be answered with a yes or no. You want to start all open-ended questions with who, what, how, why, where, or when. Close-ended questions that allow the respondent to say yes or no are the wrong questions if you want to be a high performing critical thinker.

For example instead of simply asking will this change have an impact to the project, ask the team what impact will this change have on the project? Who will be impacted, how long will the impact take to overcome, what is the benefit of the impact, etc.?

Don’t ask can we implement this idea; ask how can we implement this idea? Rather than asking can we do this, ask how can we do it?

You will also need to make sure you have asked everyone the questions and not assume that someone in a different department does not have valuable insight. Just because the problem is in one area of your business or on one team or in one project, it does not mean that understanding the problem lies only within that area.

Talking to the business users who will use the solution might best solve an IT problem, but you will never know if don’t ask. Maybe the impact is not that big and assumptions are being made. What if the solution that IT is working on will have an even bigger production impact to the users? Are you asking everyone that might have insight or ideas; and how confident are you that the right questions are being asked?

Many corporate challenges are systemic and uncovering that is going to lead to even better solutions. When a project breaks down it may be a symptom of a much larger issue than just the specific project. What if the policies in place throughout the organization are no longer adequate?

Lastly on the topic of asking questions: Make sure those you ask are open to answer freely without any repercussion and that they know that it is safe to tell the truth. Without this it really doesn’t matter how good the questions are that you ask.

2. Identify possible solutions

If you want better solutions, high performance solutions, you need a different way to come up with them once you have clarified the problem.

Start with a core group of people who are familiar with the problem. These are most likely the people who helped you identify the problem in the first place. This means that they could be people from different departments and different areas of your organization if you followed the guidance in step 1 above.

One of the biggest mistake leaders make is assuming that the executive team is best suited at coming up with the best solutions. Or even worse thinking that they must be the one to come up with the answer and work in a vacuum. You do not have to have the answer and knowing this is a key factor in being a high performance leader. The answer is in the room, but it may not always come from you. High performance leaders understand this.

Make sure it is crystal clear that there are no bad ideas, nothing is off topic, and no one will be reprimanded for anything said. And then mean it! If you cannot say this and mean it there is a much deeper issue you must face and that is an issue of ego. Great leaders check their ego at the door and that is something to start practicing if it’s a new idea for you.

Remove emotional attachment to the outcome. This means remove the emotional attachment to wanting to be the one who comes up with the solution and remove attachment to what you think the outcome should be. Go into this stage of the process with an open, clear, and present mind.

You’ve got the right people in the room now it’s time to restate the problem clearly so everyone knows what they are working towards. Allow everyone to ask their own clarifying questions and then start brainstorming. It may be beneficial to bring in a facilitator who is not close to the challenge to help with the brainstorming and discussion process.

Take some time with a pen and paper to define all possibilities. Brainstorm without thought as to how the solution can be implemented. Be creative, be open, and just write; don’t delete or omit anything yet. Bring other people into the brainstorm if there is a team of people who will help implement the solution or benefit from it.

To improve and develop your high performance critical thinking skills, you must be open to new ideas, so try and incorporate as many solutions and ideas as you can into your list. It does not matter initially how they could be implemented or how realistic they are. Everything that is said must be included in the list.

3. Analyze the Solutions

You have your problem clearly defined and now a list of solutions, so it’s time to start analyzing and gathering more detailed information in order to support or refute each one. This is where you will start to weed out the solutions on the list that just don’t seem the most viable and get down to the top 3 – 5 that have strong merit.

Gather as much information as possible to support all the solutions you’re considering, as well as information you need to refute them. Include the benefits and challenges of each suggested solution.

Ask each team member to work on different solutions to gather this information and bring it back. Considering your solutions from all angles will keep you from making a haphazard decision, and don’t assume you know anything without the information that can support it.

Once you have the information that supports your 3-5 top solutions start talking as a group. Ask lots of questions, open-ended questions, and start asking how. This is where the rubber will need to meet the road. The solution will need to be realistic in both tec
hnology and cost, specific enough to implement, and you must have or be able and willing to get the resources needed.

Final Thoughts

By following these steps to high performance critical thinking your organization can become faster, better, and more efficient at not only solving problems but identifying them earlier, saving time, money, and energy.

Thinking critically in this way can help you with many aspects in your life. Keep practicing these skills on a regular basis and soon you’ll enjoy the benefits of high performance critical thinking.

Categories
Growth Management Personal Development

Detoxing Corporate America

Organizations are not just names on the side of the building or a stock symbol. Organizations are made up of people, living organisms, and as such Organizations are also living. We have seen the birth of new organizations, their growth, and sometimes their death.

Because Organizations are made up of people and are indeed alive it makes sense that like people, organizations can become toxic. So what does it look like when an organization becomes toxic, why does it matter, and what can be done?

The signs of toxicity for individuals can be pretty apparent; weight gain, digestive issues, cognitive challenges, emotional distress, use of drug, alcohol abuse, and other coping mechanisms.

What about the signs of toxicity for an organization? These are not always obvious. For example I spent several years as a consultant in my previous life for a very large company. Actually this organization was a leader in its industry in terms of size. They spent years on the Fortune top 100 best places to work list so from the outside looking in it seemed like a really great place. Their mission is great and extremely important. Most of the people I worked with were really outstanding individuals. However when you pulled back the covers and became immersed in the culture you started to see toxicity everywhere.

The events that lead to the toxic environments included: inconsistent messages from management regarding expectations or priorities, resource constraints – leaderships goals being out of touch with what the team could support, redundant work effort because teams operated in isolation, management decisions that were made in a vacuum without input from team members that better understood the impact, tasks or assignments that were given to favored individuals, lack of feedback – employees learning about dissatisfaction from side channels and not from their management team, managers and executives who were bullies – yelling behind closed doors, Leadership appointing or hiring individuals into key roles who do not have the qualifications demanded for the role and then not removing them when it becomes obvious, projects that were always behind schedule, and obvious conflicts between departments that felt like they were at war. These were just some signs of corporate toxicity. Others include the fear to speak up, dysfunctional teams, political infighting, falling profits, high turnover, gossip, and low engagement.

It’s quite difficult to get good deliverables complete when management keeps changing their mind and even harder when they don’t remember what they asked for in the first place. When you work in an environment of CYA all the time it’s not a productive or engaging place to work.

When I looked around, one of the biggest problems was that the C-Suite was blinded by the fact that they kept making list after list of great places to work. I don’t believe they could see that there was actually an underlying toxic culture at work and that they were responsible for it. They only saw what they wanted to see, they never got out and asked questions or talked to the workforce, and it seemed that many of the issues plaguing the rank and file employees were systemic in the C-Suite as well.

Why does this matter? I mean for a global organization with over 13,000 employees, the biggest in their industry, and financially sound, why does it matter that under the covers things are toxic? It sounds like things are good enough doesn’t it?

I don’t think “good enough” is good enough. This organization could not only be creating more profits enabling them to do more for their customers, employees, and community, but they could also create an environment that lifts people up rather than tearing them down.

When employees are engaged, empowered, and inspired they do more, they go the extra mile, they provide more ideas, work together, see opportunities, create safer environments, solve problems faster, bring products and services to market faster while also creating more joy and ultimately more success for everyone. This is very powerful and not only is good for each employee, but creates an organization of unparalleled excellence that has a natural competitive advantage.

So how does an organization begin to detox and start to thrive?

When you hear someone say, “I’m doing a detox” most people don’t think much about it. We have all heard of a detox and some associate it with a cleanse around the food that goes into the body, some around removing drugs and alcohol from the body, and for others a detox can be one of emotional and mental cleansing.

A detox for an organization is not all that different except that it addresses more than one person and usually involves a close look at the company culture and the habits that make up the culture. It could be the entire organization that needs a detox or it could be a team of people, a specific department or location.

It starts with the acknowledgement from the top that something might need to change. While things appear okay, maybe a closer look is in order, especially if trends like failing projects, overrun budgets, high turnover, low engagement, or decreased worker safety have been seen. Sometimes the detox can be accomplished without external help, but often an expert is needed, at least for an initial consult.

A corporate detox will also take longer than an individual detox because more people are involved so this is not something that will be done in a week and it will take fortitude to complete. It may not be easy, but it will be worth it. Because when people love what they do, how they do it, who they do it with, and who they do it for, they will be the biggest advocates for the organization. They will do more, expect less in return, bring in more business, be more efficient, stick around longer, and be a catalyst for the organization. That means reduced turnover, better engagement, greater customer satisfaction, new customers, returning customers, more employee engagement, and higher profits.

While many companies say that employee satisfaction is their goal or even go as far as to say it is a non-negotiable component of their workplace, how many are really walking the talk?

How well are your employees engaged? Are you doing better than the 32% engagement that Gallup reports? How much is low employee engagement costing you? Are you retaining your top talent or losing them to organizations that offer the connection that your employees are missing?

I know I’ve posed a lot of questions and by giving them some real heartfelt thought you may just realize that your organization is due for a corporate detox.

Categories
Growth Management Personal Development

Birds of a Feather

You know the saying, birds of a feather flock together, but have you ever considered what that means for your business or organization?

In this discussion the birds are your workforce, your employees. Top talent, the Rock Stars that seem to be so elusive want to be in organizations that not only appreciate their hard work and talent, but also don’t put up with mediocrity from everyone else. When you find an organization filled with A players it is because they flock to each other, they support each other, they inspire, influence, and make work a great place to be.

Do you have the Rock Stars that I’m talking about the A and B players? Those who go above and beyond, have new creative ideas, get behind the company and mission, and bend over backwards for your clients and customers? Or do you have average or below average workers (C and D players)? You know who I am talking about, those employees that do the bare minimum to get by or even worse aren’t doing much of anything.

When you find an organization with C and D players it seems like everyone is just hanging in there; no one really cares about doing better. They are getting by with just enough to keep them employed and everyone around them is doing the same. What incentive do they have to become A or B players and why would the A and B players stick around? People want to be around like-minded individuals.

The same is true outside of work. Have you ever looked at social circles and noticed what they have in common? Usually they have a lot in common. The type of work they do, the amount of money they make, how they spend their money, their health, and their ambitions You don’t often find groups with a big mix because like attracts like and that rule is the same whether you are looking at social circles, family dynamics, or work environments.

It has been said that you will become the average of the 5 people you spend the most time around. How does that translate to your business? It means that your business cannot be better than the average of your workforce?

Okay, I know this might sound depressing, so let’s look at the ways to employ Rock Star talent, not only in hiring them off the bat, but turning your average employees into A and B players.

Hire Differently – It is no longer acceptable to hire the way you have in the past. A job description does not actually provide the right information to determine if someone is going to be a top performer or an average one. The experience people have on paper is not who they are and you have to hire the whole person, not just the person’s experience.

For example, my resume reads very well, with lots of technical experience in a very niche cyber security field. If I were to apply to a job where that experience fit the job description I would be a great candidate. But when you peel back the layers of who I am and get to the deeper levels of the whole person I make a horrible candidate for that position. They need someone who can ask the same questions over and over again, enjoys working independently, and is happy to write the same long report for every client. While I can do those things and have done those things with great success I was not happy with the work because I like change and innovation, I like to be in a community and collaborate, and I like to deliver creatively. That job was not one that I was going to innovate, go above and beyond for, find new solutions, or stick around for more than a few years.

It’s about creating a personality or persona for the position and matching the candidate to it before looking at skills and experience. Someone can learn a skill if they are the right match energetically for the position and do much better than someone who has the experience and is not an energetic match for the work.

If a position requires the individual spend 50% their time working independently and the person applying loves to be around and collaborate with people they may have a hard time being engaged and could eventually become an average employee, or they will leave. This of course is just one of many examples on how a person needs to align with the position at a much deeper level than skill set.

There are lots of ways to do this and tools you can use. I personally use the Core Values Index (CVI) to do this and am happy to tell you more about it, just shoot me an email to sharon@c-suiteresults.com subject line: Tell me more about the CVI for hiring.

Create a Culture of Engagement – This does not necessarily mean Ping-Pong tables in the break room or really cool employee benefits like wearing jeans to work and discount movie tickets. A culture of engagement has to do with your workforce being aligned with the mission of the organization, doing work that lights them up, and going above and beyond because they want to provide excellence.

In my 10+ years as a consultant I rarely saw this type of engaged culture; mainly I saw fairly toxic environments, which is why I wrote The Corporate Detox (www.amazon.com or www.c-suiteresults.com/book.) There were too many employees dissatisfied, too many managers who were disengaged from their teams, and too many projects that were behind schedule and over budget.

Engagement happens when people feel heard and honored for who they are and how they work. Trying to fit all employees into a mold of when they come to work or how they work will create disengaged employees. I understand that you can’t have employees coming to work at noon and there has to be some core hours that everyone is working, but you can honor each employee by hearing them, knowing them, and tailoring as much as you can to who they are.

This means having real conversations and caring about your people. Not just once a year during the annual review, but continuously. Do you know their career goals, do they know their career goals, do you know about them on a personal level, do you ask questions beyond that of what they are working on? When people feel heard they will naturally be more engaged. This is not about more employee satisfaction surveys, this is about getting out from behind your desk and talking to your people; but more than just talking, it’s about listening.

Focus on High Performance – This is a topic that I am becoming obsessed with because there is such a difference between those who are motivated to become high achievers and the rest of the world. Since I find that the average person is not focused on high achievement, how do you create a high performance team or organization? Of course hiring those with this mindset helps, but sometimes you end up hiring other people too. So the key is teaching your entire workforce to have a high performance mindset.

When people work together you want them to know and respect each other, have the same mission for the project or organization, and be able to work together regardless of differing opinions. The way you build a team, nurture the team, and foster teamwork will make or break how well your team performs. T
he more creative a team can be in how they think, the better their results will be. This means that there is an environment of safety. There are no dumb answers and no bad ideas. Everyone is invited to participate in discussions and share what they are thinking. This is where each member of the team is able to use their natural abilities, strengths, skills, and unique brilliance in a way that honors them.

Now, where do you go from here? This was a high level discussion on how to create important change. Hiring differently, creating engagement, and focusing on high performance is a process that will take time. It is my role is to help you figure this out, to help you take C and D players and turn them into A and B players. What if it were really possible to only hire A and B players going forward and to completely change the low engagement that is so prevalent in most organizations.

What would your business and your life look like if you went to work every day surrounded by the best of the best people? What will your business look like a year from now if you don’t learn how to do this now?

For more information on hiring and retaining top talent and creating high performance teams, schedule a consult call with me by sending an email to sharon@c-suiteresults.com subject line: I want Rock Star Talent!

Categories
Entrepreneurship Management Personal Development

5 strategies for getting unstuck

It happens to everyone at some point in time; you are going along in life or business and then one day you don’t feel like you are making progress anymore. You feel stuck, you’re not moving forward and you know there is more you want to accomplish. You want to get unstuck, but you’re not sure how.

Being stuck is not limited to any one area of your life. You may feel great at work, but stuck at home in your family dynamic. You may feel great at home but stuck in an aspect of work or business. You may feel stuck in your relationship and have fallen into the same old boring routine or maybe you are singles and you feel like you will never find that perfect someone.

These are just a few examples. The point is that feeling stuck can be about anything and the good news is you can get unstuck from most situations. Here are five strategies you can implement any time and start moving forward again.

1. Surround yourself with excellence. Start by looking at the people you spend your time with. You want to surround yourself with people who are going in the direction you want to go, who are smarter than you, and have accomplished more.

The reason for doing this is that when you surround yourself with the type of people who already have what you are trying to accomplish you will learn what to do much faster. You will have people you can learn from, whether through asking questions or learning from their examples and inspiration.

In doing this you will also learn habits of those who are successful and have reached similar goals to the ones that you have set for yourself. Then you implement the same habits.

Jim Rohn is known for saying that you will become the average of the five people you spend the most time around. What average do you want to be? Once you decide on that, then ask yourself who should those people be that you spend your time with? If the people who currently surround you do not average the future you want, it’s time to start hanging around new people. Find out where the people you want to be the average of hang out and start going there to expand your horizon.

2. Be Interested Not Interesting. Do you want to find new opportunities, maybe attract new people to you, or land that new job or promotion? Your goal is to be interested, not interesting. You were blessed with two ears and one mouth for a reason. To listen twice as much as you talk.

To be interested all you have to do is ask good questions about the other person, sit back and listen. Hear what they are telling you and when you have that urge to say “me too” stop yourself. This is not about you being interesting and telling your story, this is about you being interested and hearing theirs.

People want to be heard and they want someone to listen. Most people go through their day, weeks, and even years just wanting someone to really listen to them. Be that person and you will be invaluable to those around you. Not only will they benefit so will you as you start to listen, new ideas and opportunities will come to you.

3. Ask! Ask for what you want. Not asking is a definite No, when asking gives you a 50% chance of getting a yes. If you feel stuck because there is something you want or need from someone else and have not asked for it maybe it’s time to just go for the ask. You might be surprised to find that most people genuinely want to help others, especially those they know, trust, and like.

4. Get Scared. Go for the choice that scares you. Growth only happens when you get uncomfortable. When you go with what scares you, growing is required. When you go with the safe bet there is no requirement or opportunity for growth. Growth is getting unstuck.

Apply for the job or promotion you really want, the one you don’t know if you are ready for. Ask for the business or ask Sally or John out on a date. Do something that scares you and when it is no longer scary it’s time to do something new that scares you again. In all actuality if you can find something scary to do every day that is going to skyrocket your growth like you have never imagined possible. Check out the Book I Dare Me by Lu Ann Cahn to see how she overcame being stuck by doing something new every day.

5. Find a mentor. Sometimes it takes someone else to help you move forward. If you have tried everything and you are just not gaining momentum it may be time to find a mentor, coach, or group that can help. There are professionals in every possible field imaginable that have already figured out the solutions to your problem and they want to help you.

What I have found as a coach and working with my own coaches is that when I have a problem with a solution I can’t see, it’s like trying to examine my own eye without a mirror: It’s just not possible. Your coach (or mentor) can be that mirror for you and help you see what you have been missing, help you gain valuable information faster, keep you accountable to your actions, and help you move forward.

You can do this through a one-on-one coaching relationship or group coaching. In groups you will find others that understand what you are going through and you have the support of not just one person, but many. With one-on-one coaching you have dedicated time that is all yours in a safe and private environment to work through anything that has you stuck.

The point to all of this is that being stuck is completely normal and happens to everyone at some point in time. Some have figured out how to get unstuck faster than others, and you can too. Start to implement these five steps; the more you can implement at once the faster you will see that forward momentum you are looking for. If you are stuck in more than one area and you feel overwhelmed, work on one item at a time until you get that movement and then you can start to implement what is working in other areas of your life.

Don’t give up. Setbacks happen, remember: it’s not your setbacks that define you, it’s your comebacks.

Categories
Growth Leadership Skills

The Time Management Myth

 

When was the last time you said “I don’t have time” following a request by someone at work or at home? I don’t have time to exercise, I don’t have time for that project, I don’t have time to volunteer, I don’t have time to cook, I don’t have time to….fill in the blank.

Since everyone has the same 24 hours in the day, how is it that some people have time to do a lot while others don’t have time to do much of anything other than eat, sleep, shower, go to work, and maybe watch the News or some TV?

For those of you who have figured out how to get more done in those 24 hours I congratulate you. For everyone else I say that’s okay because you have been told there is such a thing as time management, but there isn’t. Time cannot be managed, but your priorities and your focus can be managed. So I am going to briefly let you off the hook since Time Management is a myth, but I am also going to say that if you don’t plan to look at this differently from now on, it’s on you.

Let’s start looking at those 24 hours that you have as a math problem. Don’t worry, it won’t be complicated; math is not my strong suit. Let’s start by assuming you are getting 7-8 hours of sleep each night. If you are not, that is one area to think about making a priority. If you look at studies on success you will find that the most successful people don’t compromise in this department.

OK so that is 24 hours minus 7 (we are going with 7), which equals 17 hours. Let’s assume a 1-hour commute round trip each day. Now we are down to 16 hours and we are going to assume a 10-hour workday (adjust the hours worked and your commute accordingly.) After those basics you have a whole 6 hours left.

You need to eat and shower, you need to groom and do other sorts of activities just to be able to sustain life. So let’s take another 2 hours off the clock for those activities. Down to 4 hours a day to do with as you wish. Oh wait, that may not be true, that would only be true if you have no extracurricular activities and no other responsibilities. So if you are lucky you have 4 hours, for everyone else let’s take it down to 2 hours. That’s 2 hours of what I will call “free” time. Even if you only have 2 hours left you can do a lot with that time if you focus on your priorities.

What you choose to do with that time is going to directly correlate to your overall success in life. Your health and your wealth will be improved or diminished in the choices you make around these “free” hours. You can choose to exercise for 30 minutes to an hour, you can choose to read or educate yourself, take an online class or go to a classroom, you can choose to write, meditate, visit with friends, join a social group, you can volunteer. Or you can sit on the couch and watch TV, surf the web, check out what everyone else is doing on Facebook and say I don’t have time when someone asks you to do something.

It’s not about having time; it’s about having priorities. I have learned and truly believe that if you have more than three priorities you have none. This makes sense since a priority by definition is a thing that is regarded as more important than something else. You can’t have a whole bunch of things that are the most important or of the same importance because, when that happens, nothing is really important at all, it all has the same value, meaning that none of it is a priority. This is the same for work priorities, you should only have three and the rest can be delegated or outsourced.

So this is where we remove time management and look at priority management. It’s time to pick your priorities (no more than three). Then when someone asks you to do something, it isn’t about not having time; it is about “that’s not my priority right now.”

When you say “I don’t have time” you are really saying that is not your priority right now. “I don’t have time to work out” translates to “it is not my priority to work out.” “I don’t have time to read or go back to school” really means, “reading and learning is not my priority right now.” If you are using those “free” hours a day on what you determine are your priorities, it’s perfectly fine to say “no” to other things that don’t fall into those categories. If they become priorities, then you will find time for them by removing other less important activities and reprioritizing what you are working on.

Now it’s time for a gut check – Think about the last time you said “I don’t have time”, what is the current priority taking the lead in that moment? Or the next time you say “I don’t have time,” what is the current priority taking the lead in the moment.

Did watching TV become the priority? Do you know that on average Americans watch 5 hours of TV per day: an hour using the Internet on a computer, an hour and seven minutes on a smartphone and two hours, 46 minutes listening to the radio? I assume the radio bit is in the car, but think about what would be possible if instead of listening to the radio (or satellite or iPod) in the car you listened to an audiobook or a personal development podcast? That is one heck of a way to use that dead time commuting to do something positive, and you still have those remaining “free” hours a day doing other important stuff while getting in your education and personal development.

All I’m asking you to do is challenge yourself next time you realize you’re about to say those four little words “I Don’t Have Time.” Challenge yourself to instead say, “That is not my priority right now. My priority is, (fill in the blank).” Then really think about the answer; is that really your priority? Is it a priority that will add value to your life, the lives of others, or add wealth and prosperity to your life? Is it a priority you can be proud of? One that you would gladly tell everyone you are working on? Or is it less of a priority and more of a bad habit that you have formed over a period of time?

Don’t let the “I don’t have time” excuse become a natural response. Use it to evaluate what it is you are doing and how those activities are serving you or not serving you.

Will you be better one year, three years, and five years down the road based on your current priorities? If not, what are you waiting for? It’s time to make a change and reevaluate those priorities.

Categories
Growth Personal Development

Building Habits – Five Ways to Create Stronger Discipline to Reach Your Goals

How many times have you tried to create a new habit or break an old one? How successful have you been and where did you go astray? Whether it’s the new year and you are thinking about new years resolutions or it’s spring and you want to fit into your shorts from last year, as humans we seem obsessed with setting new goals, but we are not always so great at the execution.

I believe it has a lot to do with discipline or lack there of. I am defining discipline as consciously doing something repeatedly in order to obtain an end result or reach a goal. Without discipline we do not get very far, but many people were not raised with strong discipline (myself included). That means at some point we have to decide if this is something we want to improve and then we have to go to work on it.

Reaching goals is often done by creating new habits or changing old habits. For our purposes here I define habits as actions we take or thoughts we repeat enough times that they become second nature. I also recently heard habits described as patterns and that resonated with me. For some reason it felt easier to think about creating new patterns and breaking old patterns than habits.

We begin to create habits when we are young by observing those around us, seeing patterns and repeating them ourselves. Over time many of those patterns and thoughts become subconscious and turn into habits, some that serve us well and others that do not.

As we get older we continue to create new habits. Like some of the habits we created when we were younger some of these serve us well like exercise, personal development reading, and drinking lots of water. These are the habits that are created through discipline.

The ones that don’t serve us are the ones we tend to create without much thought like watching TV after work, checking email at the table, or having something sweet after dinner.

Just like it takes discipline to create the habits that serve us it also takes discipline to stop the habits that do not serve us once we acknowledge what they are and choose to create new ones. An example for me recently was giving up coffee that had become such a habit it no longer served me. I was drinking it whether I needed it or not, whether it tasted good or not and I found it was actually making me more lethargic. It took discipline to break that habit because it was so ingrained in my subconscious behaviors. What I did however was replace that habit with one that served me. Replacing coffee with hot water with lemon or the occasional cup of tea.

Because discipline comes into play not only when you want to purposely create new habits and patterns, but also when you want to break the old ones I want to share five ways to create stronger discipline in order to build new habits or break old ones along with some of the pitfalls to avoid.

  1. Set a Small and Specific Intention

If you have tried to create new habits before and were less than successful it may because you tried to take on too much change at once. Change is hard, especially if it is something you have been doing subconsciously for a long time.

By setting a small yet specific intention you have a much greater chance for success. First of all it will be much easier and take less willpower than doing it all at once. Secondly you will be able to celebrate your victory sooner and that will spur you on to add the next small but specific intention.

Setting a specific intention could be getting up 30 minutes earlier every day, walking on the treadmill for 20 minutes a day, three times a week, meditating for 10 minutes a day, or eating dinner without dessert three days a week. This last one is the intention around removing something that is no longer serving you like dessert that may have become a habit. Often times the focus on removing an old habit is harder than the creation of a new habit.

Many say that it takes doing something (or not doing something) consistently for at least 21 days before a new habit is created or an old habit is broken. 21 days is a pretty dated number and more current studies have said on 66 days on average. That means a specific and small habit could take less time than the average. Doing something or stopping something consistently for an average of 66 days takes discipline so the easier it is to do the more likely you are to stick with it.

That means that starting small and doing what you intend to do consistently will pay off much greater than going all in and not being able to stick with it for 66 days. After you feel you have created the new small habit you can set another small specific intention for the next habit you want to make or break. After enough time they will compound into the larger goal you were setting out for in the first place.

  1. Know Your Why

You will need a strong why if you are going to make change. Change in habits is not easy and not always fun. Setting a specific intention is only as good as your reason why. If you don’t have a strong why it will be easy to give up when it gets tough. Simon Sinek’s book “Start With Why” is a great book on this topic. You can also find his Ted Talk here http://bit.ly/2cweLpJ

Your why could be something for you or it could be for others. Many times when someone wants to get healthy their why has to do with their kids or family. Many people only have a strong enough why to quit smoking when they want to be around to see their grandchildren. Your why could be your team, your organization, your spouse, your kids, or yourself. The point is you need to have a strong why associated with your intentions in order to stay focused.

  1. Create a New Routine

Because habits are activities we end up doing automatically, it is easier to create a new one when we put it into a routine. It is even better if you can put it into a routine you already have that works.

You will want to be systematic in how you do this. It cannot be willy-nilly. It has to be something you are going to do every day until it becomes a habit and the best way to do that is to build your new habit into your routine.

Pick a time that is natural for your biorhythm. If you say I’m going to start working out every day at 5:00am but you have not been up before 7:00am in years this may prove to be two new disciplines you are starting, getting up early and exercising. If your new discipline is going to be meditation or writing you need to figure out the time of day that is going to be best and if there is something you are already doing that you can add this new habit to.

Maybe you currently watch the 6:00pm news and you can add 10 minutes of meditation before you turn the TV on. Instead of creating a completely new routine you are adding a small intentional new action to an already existing habit.

Once you have the discipline of doing it daily you can start to look at a different time or location that you like better or creating new routines around it.

  1. Track Your Progress

 Often when we don’t see immediate results it’s easy to stop what we set out to do. That is why tracking your progress is important. Find a way to measure your results incrementally. It could be as simple as writing down the time you wake up and how you feel if your new habit is around getting more sleep or getting up earlier. It could be tracking how much writing you do each day if that is the habit you are working on. If it’s a fitness goal there are lots of ways to track progress like number of steps, calories burned, minutes of exercise, etc.

The objective here is to see your progress even when it isn’t obvious. Just because you have not reached your destination does not mean you have not made significant progress on your journey. But the only way to really know where you are on your journey is if you track it.

It’s often hard to congratulate ourselves for something we’ve accomplished that isn’t yet obvious, but when you see the progress staring you in the face through your documenting and tracking you can easily say, “look how far I’ve come.”

  1. Find an Accountability Partner and Don’t Quit

It’s completely normal to want to create a new habit or break an old one and have trouble with it. Most people do not make big changes fast because it is hard. If it were easy we would all do it. If you find it’s difficult break your habit into smaller habits and work on one piece at a time, but just keep working on it.

Successful people do what unsuccessful people are unwilling to do and they do it longer.

In conclusion remember that building discipline is not easy and you are not alone in having past failures, which is great because according to C.S. Lewis “failures are finger posts on the road to achievement.”

Anyone who has ever succeeded failed many times so don’t let your past attempts at any goal or any new habit deter you from continuing on your path. Learn from the past, try again, do things differently, learn new things, and most importantly don’t quit!