What are your 2023 Highlights?

The end of the year is a great time for reflection. But let's get our of our routines and take a comprehensive inventory. What are the key categories of your life? When you look at the various areas of your life, how satisfied are you with your year?

Tune in to a conversation on a very non-routine intentional reflection.

#reflection #lifeaudit #wholeself

In a recent poll published by Fast Company, 52% of U.S. workers are considering a job change this year, and as many as 44% have actual plans in place to make the leap.

In this episode we’re talking about making changes in our careers. Changes like shifting roles, industries, or re-starting your career entirely. Doing something like this may seem daunting but with a little self-reflection and planning, you may be surprised how exciting and fulfilling it can be.

As leaders it's an incredible responsibility to be the container for answers, comfort, inspiration, but it's even more fraught when navigating through crisis. Here's a behind the scenes discussion with Cathy and Van as they talk about leading through crisis.

Research has shown that business cultures rooted in kindness are also equitable, more diverse, and have stronger employee retention. Can APIs thrive in this culture when so many of us have grown up in families where praise and recognition are not prevalant?

Cathy and Van talk about their own experience cultivating kindness, and discuss pitfalls that can limit kindness cultures from thriving.

Why is it so scary - but so important - to have big dreams? With special guests Sarah Kim-Tomcek, Client Services Lead, Digital Experiences for Avanade, and Jennifer Lin, Sr Manager, Philanthropy Communications at Salesforce, we explore our Career Rising approach to dreaming big, ambitious dreams, and discuss how having a dream is both grounding and uplifting.

We’ve been talking about doing hard things and setting big goals over the last couple of episodes, it only makes sense for us to talk about our own big goal of launching API Rising in 6 weeks.

In this episode, we talk about our initial conversation, setting our own ambitious timeline, our strategy to launch, what we had to build, and most importantly what we learned along the way.

At some point in our lives, we’ve all experienced the daunting feeling of tacking a challenging goal. We might procrastinate, we might dread it, we might even lose sleep over it. Sometimes the hardest part is just getting started and taking that first step, or maybe it’s about the endurance needed to accomplish your goal. 

In this episode, Cathy and Van talk about one key ingredient in accomplishing a challenging goal.  

When promotions are on the line, we may find ourselves playing it safe when it comes to setting goals. Easy goals might be mistaken with challenging but attainable goals, but what does that do for your overall growth?

Have you eaten? Are you hungry?

In this episode Cathy and Van explore how family dynamics can slip into the office. Are we unconsciously bringing API values and cultural patterns of communication into the workplace and how can we be more intentional?

Many of us fall into the misconception that following a simple framework is all it takes to master the art of giving and receiving feedback. However, the truth is that a framework is merely the starting point.

Engaging in a meaningful feedback discussion requires us to tune into emotions, reactions, and how individuals process what we say, allowing us to adjust accordingly. The same principle applies when receiving feedback. In essence, honing this skill demands continuous effort.

In this installment, Cathy not only shares an easily understandable framework, but we also delve into role-playing scenarios where initial feedback serves as a launching point for deeper reflection and information gathering. It's invaluable to practice giving and receiving feedback through role-playing, as there can be a significant disparity between what we read, what we intend, and what we actually do when the moment arrives.