The Art of Reflection – Do we really get better with age?

There are a host of tradeoffs when it comes to getter older. For most of us, we lose the firm body and the endurance in exchange for the wisdom that experience provides. From a work standpoint, we lose the freedom of time and opportunity to experiment in exchange for increased responsibilities, higher positions and better compensation.

When you think of yourself as a young, ambitious, up and comer, do you remember what you worried about? Do you remember the insecurities you experienced and the situations which caused you anxiety? If you could go back in time, what would you tell yourself?

In this month’s O Magazine, Orprah asked 17 celebrities to share the advice they would give to their 25 year old selves. I want to invite you to do the same.

Please share your thoughts on the advice you would give your younger self with me via a short survey. (click to access the survey). Your story could be featured in an upcoming ReThink and/or on my blog.

I believe that as our collective wisdom is gathered, together, we will be able to transform my opening question of “Do we really get better with age?” to a better question: “In what ways does age make us even better?”.

This week’s action: Think about the advice you would give to your 25 year old self. Use that insight to reflect on how far you have come over your life. Also use that insight to encourage the next generation.

Betsy
Accelera Consulting Group
407-376-8622
betsy@ACCELERACONSULTINGGROUP.COM
www.acceleraconsultinggroup.com

Clients call Betsy Jordyn “the ultimate think partner for growth oriented senior leaders.” A consultant, mentor and executive coach, Betsy helps great people and organizations be even better by igniting their potential and talent.

5 Reasons that 5-7 Steps to Anything Don’t Work

A quick google search of the phrase “7 steps” yields the following results:

“7 Steps to Performance-Based Acquisition”
“7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential”
“7 Steps to Better Presentations”
and my personal favorite – “7 Steps to Instant Calm”

We love these lists because they make the world seem more manageable and within our control. The reality is that these formulas rarely work for at least the following 5 reasons:

1. Life and people are complex.
2. Everyone and every situation is unique. What works for one person doesn’t guarantee that it will work for someone else.
3. If it really were that simple, everyone would already be doing it.
4. Real change and success always comes with a price that is paid in the form of time, resources and effort. Shortcuts will only yield short-term results.
5. Over the long term, formulas actually create more harm than good because they create unrealistic expectations. When they don’t work, we inevitably feel shame or disappointment in ourselves and question why we can’t make the system work vs. the system being flawed in the first place.

When you are tempting to enact major change with the proverbial silver bullet, stop and re-consider. Look inside yourself to see if you are acting as the change leader (either for yourself or for others you are leading) you need to be.

This week’s action: Consider the changes you want to make to yourself, your personal life or the team/organization you lead. Decide today to reject wishful thinking that major change should be easy and come without a price. Pick up a mindset and attitude of clear vision and absolute commitment to making that vision a reality – regardless of the cost.

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.”

Betsy
Accelera Consulting Group
407-376-8622
betsy@ACCELERACONSULTINGGROUP.COM
www.acceleraconsultinggroup.com

Clients call Betsy Jordyn “the ultimate think partner for growth oriented senior leaders.” A consultant, mentor and executive coach, Betsy helps great people and organizations be even better by igniting their potential and talent.

It’s nothing business…it’s all personal

We want to believe that at work, we are able to act neutrally and objectively. That the decisions we make and how we behave are all about professionalism and the business. The reality is that the commonly used phrase “It’s nothing personal, it’s all business” is backwards. The truth is that it is all personal and in many cases nothing business.

Take the many well-intended efforts to improve employee engagement. If those efforts do not take into account the emotional intelligence capacities of leaders and employees and their abilities to create meaningful attachment with one another, there is no hope of improving employee engagement. Very few employees wake up every day wanting to help an organization increase shareholder value or achieve doubt digit revenue growth. However, most people do want to invest their talents working with people they trust to accomplish something significant for the greater good (and be equitably compensated for that investment.)

Every decision you make and every decision that everyone around you makes are deeply rooted in very personal issues and perspectives. The more you become aware that organizations are nothing more than entities comprised of a collection of real human beings with stories, issues and challenges, the better you will be at harnessing the power of the talent you are surrounded by.

Betsy
Accelera Consulting Group
407-376-8622
betsy@ACCELERACONSULTINGGROUP.COM
www.acceleraconsultinggroup.com

Clients call Betsy Jordyn “the ultimate think partner for growth oriented senior leaders.” A consultant, mentor and executive coach, Betsy helps great people and organizations be even better by igniting their potential and talent.

Saying No

The root cause to the majority of time management challenges is not excessive workloads or even unreasonable expectations. I believe the primary reason many of us feel overworked is simply because we are challenged with the ability to simply say “no.”

It is hard to say “no” because we perceive that in doing so we are not compassionate or service oriented people. But the reality is that our compassion grows when we learn to live as boundaried people. The better we are at protecting what is good and right in ourselves (our hearts, how we want to invest our time and talents, etc.) the better we will become at extending that type of respect to others. We cannot truly accept people who we experience as hurting us or walking all over us.

So next time you are tempted to say “yes” when you really want to say “no” to that last minute request or that lucrative job assignment that you don’t have the time or passion for, stop and consider what it looks like to increase your kindness through your firmness.

This week’s action: Make your “yes” a “yes” and your “no” a “no.” Resist the temptation to be “Johnny on the Spot” to others and listen to what your gut tells you about what you should and should not be involved in.

Betsy
Accelera Consulting Group
407-376-8622
betsy@ACCELERACONSULTINGGROUP.COM
www.acceleraconsultinggroup.com

Clients call Betsy Jordyn “the ultimate think partner for growth oriented senior leaders.” A consultant, mentor and executive coach, Betsy helps great people and organizations be even better by igniting their potential and talent.

The Power of Love

Love is not an emotion. It is a decisive action that that brings about good in others. While it warms our hearts to conjure up an image of a mother holding a newborn baby as the ultimate picture of love, that image is has to be expanded in order for it to provide a full and accurate picture of what real love is and its power. When you add to the picture images of the arduous labor that came before and the sleepless nights that come after, you get closer to being able to visualize what real love requires.

The band U2, in their song “Pride: In the Name of Love,” provides additional pictures of what true love looks like. They celebrate the examples of individuals like Martin Luther King, Jr. and Jesus whose powerful love led them to lay down their lives for the sakes of others.

As a leader, you have power given to you by your title and your place in the organizational structure. But if you want to be a leader who makes a true difference in your company, industry, community and the lives of those you lead, you must seek to expand your capacity for real love.

This week’s action: This week was the anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s death and tomorrow is Easter that celebrates the resurrection of Jesus. Find inspiration in the examples of these truly personally powerful individuals and what their love (combined with their power) has yielded to the world. Consider what it looks like for you to add true love to your leadership competencies.

Betsy
Accelera Consulting Group
407-376-8622
betsy@ACCELERACONSULTINGGROUP.COM
www.acceleraconsultinggroup.com

Clients call Betsy Jordyn “the ultimate think partner for growth oriented senior leaders.” A consultant, mentor and executive coach, Betsy helps great people and organizations be even better by igniting their potential and talent.

The Silver Bullet for Extreme Success

There is a lie that many people secretly adhere to but will not admit out loud. This lie is that if you are good enough, talented enough or just stumble upon a right strategy, great success and the life you dream of will materialize. The reality is that talent and luck is not enough. It has to be coupled with hard work and commitment. Jon Bon Jovi was asked about his band’s longevity and the luck involved. His response was, “the harder we work, the luckier we get.”

The silver bullet for success begins with rejecting the belief that it should be effortless. It is about setting meaningful and reasonable goals relative to our strengths and competitive positioning AND finding discipline and intentionality to make aspirations a reality.

This week’s action: Review the personal growth plan you created at the beginning of the month. Ask yourself what disciplined actions you can take to realize your intentions.

Betsy
Accelera Consulting Group
407-376-8622
betsy@ACCELERACONSULTINGGROUP.COM
www.acceleraconsultinggroup.com

Clients call Betsy Jordyn “the ultimate think partner for growth oriented senior leaders.” A consultant, mentor and executive coach, Betsy helps great people and organizations be even better by igniting their potential and talent.

Empathy: A daily act of bravery

There is a common misperception that strength in leadership can best be measured by decisiveness and directness. The reality is that the hallmark of the best leaders who change the world, and who have followers who do so out of desire vs. formal lines of command, have an ability to extend empathy to others.

Empathy (not sympathy) is the ability to enter into someone else’s challenges and communicate understanding and appreciation for that person’s experience. Offering empathy is an act of ordinary courage because it is not easy to put oneself in someone else’s shoes. The byproduct of empathy is trust, which is the currency that drives employee engagement and customer loyalty.

You want employees who can deliver exceptional service recovery? You want your leaders to engage employees? If yes, then start being intentional about increasing your organizational competence in extending empathy.

This week’s action: Assess if you are brave enough to extend empathy and if you create the conditions for those around you to be brave enough to do the same.

Betsy
Accelera Consulting Group
407-376-8622
betsy@ACCELERACONSULTINGGROUP.COM
www.acceleraconsultinggroup.com

Clients call Betsy Jordyn “the ultimate think partner for growth oriented senior leaders.” A consultant, mentor and executive coach, Betsy helps great people and organizations be even better by igniting their potential and talent.

Getting Naked at Work

Back in 2010, Patrick Lencioni released a book entitled, “Getting Naked: A Business Fable About Shedding The Three Fears That Sabotage Client Loyalty” in which he encourages the value of authenticity. According to Lencioni, to be vulnerable we need to overcome our fears of losing business, being embarrassed or feeling inferior. I would add a fourth to his list, which is the fear of being known.

Being vulnerable is more than being honest and real. It is about taking a risk to embrace our global humanity that recognizes we are imperfect creatures and inviting others to do the same. If we want to create high performance environments where failure is simply a part of the process, we have to begin by living in reality that perfection is an illusion…whereas progress is not.

This week’s action: Embrace your imperfections and weaknesses. Transform any black and white thinking that you and others are either all good or all bad. Find the middle ground of seeking progress while knowing that perfection can never be truly achieved.

Betsy
Accelera Consulting Group
407-376-8622
betsy@ACCELERACONSULTINGGROUP.COM
www.acceleraconsultinggroup.com

Clients call Betsy Jordyn “the ultimate think partner for growth oriented senior leaders.” A consultant, mentor and executive coach, Betsy helps great people and organizations be even better by igniting their potential and talent.

Real Passion at Work

Passion isn’t about doing what you love…it is about doing something to fix what you hate. Real passion is not about your strengths but rather about the conditions by which your strengths are ignited. You can have a job or even a career without passion. But you cannot have a purpose that is greater than yourself without passion. For this reason, if you want success AND significance, you have to get brave and explore the terrains of this broken world and the places in your heart that connect to it. You have to identify the unique ways that you are wired and how you can become an agent for making a difference.

This week’s action: Pay attention. Take note every time you say, “someone should really do something about…” and consider that person might be you.

Betsy
Accelera Consulting Group
407-376-8622
betsy@ACCELERACONSULTINGGROUP.COM
www.acceleraconsultinggroup.com

Clients call Betsy Jordyn “the ultimate think partner for growth oriented senior leaders.” A consultant, mentor and executive coach, Betsy helps great people and organizations be even better by igniting their potential and talent.

Good to Great Ambition

Ambition is that inner drive that pushes towards growth and continuous improvement. Consider redirecting your ambition from what you will accomplish to the person that you can become. Don’t set your vision on arbitrary roles that can change with the next reorganization. Set your sights on who you want to be, the characteristics of your inner self that you want to strengthen. When you do that, you will be ready to capitalize on whatever opportunities come your way!

This week’s action: Refocus your career plan towards more of a personal growth plan.

Betsy
Accelera Consulting Group
407-376-8622
betsy@ACCELERACONSULTINGGROUP.COM
www.acceleraconsultinggroup.com

Clients call Betsy Jordyn “the ultimate think partner for growth oriented senior leaders.” A consultant, mentor and executive coach, Betsy helps great people and organizations be even better by igniting their potential and talent.