Tag Archive for: careers

Are You Dying to Get to the Top?

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Guest contributed by Laleh Hancock

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Image via Shutterstock

Yes, the pun is intended! It’s well documented that executives who ignore the warning signs from their body put themselves at risk of serious illness and injury, if not death.
I am not about to give you a list of do’s and don’ts. You’re smart. You’re talented. You’ve read it all and you know what’s required. You’re a leader and an executive, and yet you are reading this for some reason.
 
Maybe you have started to notice some of those warning signs, such as being tired all the time? Maybe you’re being distracted by your busyness and you just need some assistance with implementation? Maybe, even though you have it all – the job and the life that everyone wants – you are not as happy as you thought you would be, and you feel like there has to be more to life?
 
You can have, be, and do it all. Don’t let anyone tell you any different.
 
Best of all, you don’t have to give anything up. In fact, you need to include more! You need to include YOU and your body!
 
It is not about ‘balance.’ It’s about mindfulness; remaining aware of everything, no matter what is going on, and taking effective action, which includes making YOU and your wellness a priority.
 
It’s easy to ignore all those whispers from the body when you are busy – “Sure, I need to go to the bathroom, but I’ve only got one hour to get this done. I can wait.” But can you really afford to? The more whispers you ignore, the more likely your ‘glass hammer’ is going to turn into a ‘sledge hammer’ to the back of the head! It starts with whispers, but if you don’t pay attention, it ends up shouting at you with debilitating illnesses or injuries that force you to take a break.
 
Three things can turn it around for you:
 
1. Breathe – Focusing on your breath reconnects you with your body. Try taking a breath up from under your feet, to the top of your head, then release it back down to your feet; reconnecting you to the contributing energies of the Earth. This has a calming effect, adds oxygen to your body, allows you to refocus your attention and energies on the thoughts and actions that will create your desired outcome with greater ease.
 
2. Ask questions. The point of a question is to gain additional information and awareness, not rely on answers we’ve already concluded. Questions are expansive, and they put what you desire out into the ether, so the universe can contribute back to you and your body. 
 
Start with, “What would it take?” questions. Ask them often, and expand your sense of the possibilities available to you that you may have not considered.
 
For example: You’re on a tight deadline, but your body wants to move. Ask, “What would it take to move my body and meet the deadline?” Really wonder about it. Then continue with your activities and see what ideas shows up. Asking the question without a conclusion in mind makes you more receptive to possibilities that you may not have considered before. Ideas might come to you that enable you to do both, such as taking your phone to record ideas while you walk around the block. You can have a planning and creativity session with yourself on more effective solutions, and still give your body the contribution it was asking for.
 
3. Expand Your Zone of Awareness. It’s so easy to become myopic when you are busy, yet this is so contractive and counter-productive to the creativity required for success.
 
Throughout the day, stop and ask, “Where is my focus?” and expand it. All you have to do is ask, and it will automatically expand.
 
Also ask, “Is anything required of me?” and follow any ideas you might have. You may find a particular project pulling on your attention, or you might hear a whisper from your body.
 
The more you include your body in your goals, the more your body will have your back. It’s a two-way street!
Like most of us with ambitious goals, Laleh Alemzadeh-Hancock tried to do it all. Climb the corporate ladder, be a great spouse, and the perfect mother. She would self-sacrifice, eat at her desk, stay late, and still manage the household. Both her family and her work were priorities. The only one who wasn’t was herself. Now, Laleh is a management consultant, Joy of Business facilitator and the CEO of Belapemo and Global Wellness For All. With nearly 30 years of experience in operational excellence, change management, and organizational wellness, Laleh has inspired and empowered hundreds of thousands of individuals, including Fortune 500 executives, to seek greater success, happiness and wellness.
 
 
Laleh Alemzadeh-Hancock is a management consultant, Joy of Business facilitator, and founder and CEO of Belapemo and Global Wellness for All. A passionate change-agent, Laleh has empowered thousands of individuals including Fortune 500 executives, government agencies, not-for–profit organizations, athletes and veterans to achieve optimal growth.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions of Guest contributors are not necessarily those of theglasshammer.com
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Maybe Next Year: The Promotion or Bonus Promise That Was Not Kept

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By Nicki Gilmour

What do you do when you are told that you did great work this year but you are not getting the promotion or the bonus you were set up by these managers or HR people to expect? Nicki Gilmour

Many people come to me with this issue and frankly are not very happy about it. Depending on the exact circumstances, this could be a deal breaker for some professionals who start looking around for a different opportunity in a new firm. For others, it is time of working with their boss to plan to replay what the goals were and to look at instances which met, exceeded or came close to the expectation. Why do this? Why delve into the past? Well, sometimes it can be useful to  ensure that the criteria to progress is made explicit for this year. This process is helpful to set up a system, so that during the year you can have formal or informal check-ins to show that you are meeting the milestones and that your success is hard to refute. Moreover, maybe it is about making busy people notice.

How can you have this conversation without it being inappropriate, weird or reflect badly on you?

Firstly, know your boss. How will he or she react to an after action review? Will they find it constructive if couched as such?

Secondly, know the cultural norms of how things are done there. Stay safe, play within norms (unless you have a huge appetite for risk in which case do what you need to do but be able to live with the consequences).

Lastly, understand the importance or including or excluding HR as each firm is different on the use of human resources and talent processes. I say this with respect, because if you have a strategic and involved HR team who really get the talent retention piece and can see you are trying to develop yourself, then that can help you immensely as their systems might make for a less subjective process. Conversely, if they are all police and there is no strategic process then perhaps finding a different route to your manager as it pertains to how you reach the next level is ok too.

Is it as easy as asking your manager the following? In some cases, yes.

A direct question like “What do I explicitly need to do to get the x title and be paid y with z in bonus starting January 2018?” is suitable for some firms and not for others as is, “If I fulfill on tasks as discussed and fulfill on what we agree realistic success to be, can you give me a reassurance that we are going to be both happy and rewarded this time next year?”

This gives your manager a chance to think about what success looks like for you and them at the very least and in more subtle environments, just asking “what does success look like?” might be a good way to build that relationship and clarify some benchmarks.

Getting any sort of criteria in writing can be useful and on a weekly, monthly or quarterly basis as appropriate, send an email to your boss and other stakeholders with an update on how the activity is furthering or completing the stated goal.

And, if it is a moving target then ask your boss to break it down based on today’s live time view and suggest a formal time every month or quarter to talk about how goals are evolving based on the external environment or whatever stimuli is making them constantly move. Just make sure this is not an easy out for your manager to stay vague on purpose.

Because, you do not want to be having the same conversation this time next year now, do you?

(If you are interested in hiring an Executive Coach please contact Nicki@theglasshammer.com to discuss further)

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