This month, we're talking about the theme of business planning. And we've covered a couple of lessons already. So you can return to podcasts 84 and 85 if you missed the first few lessons. But today, we're going to talk about step three, which is casting the vision. So when we talk about casting the vision, we're saying, let's paint a picture that's so clear that all of our employees, stockholders, and supporters know where we're going. They feel really good about it and can connect the dots from what they do daily to the vision. They see how they are contributing to the vision. So let's break it down.

Don't Forget: Invite your friends

- Rising tide lifts all boats.

- Grow together

And that's it for this week. I hope these tips are helpful to you.

I'll be speaking at:

• SHRM - Las Vegas. June

• ICF Converge- Orlando, August

Have a question for me? Please email me: at  [email protected]

My mission is to make work fun again by building better leaders. Please find out more on my website: shawnacorden.com

Contact us at [email protected] for:

- Leadership Coaching

- Workshops - in-person/virtual

- Consulting and Mentoring in building a coaching culture- External, Internal, and Leaders with Coaching Skills.

MEET ME IN THE MIDDLE AMAZON LINK: 

https://www.amazon.com/Meet-Middle-Overcoming-Preventing-Polarization-ebook/dp/B0BSVPJ6CM?ref_=ast_author_dp

We are in the middle of a segment all talking about the general basics of business planning. So if you're an entrepreneur, you might be a little bit intimidated by this. I used to do business planning for a Fortune 10 company and now subscribe to a simplified version of business planning that'll get you through most of what you do.  And it really helps set a focus in terms of what needs to be done now rather than focus. So last time we talked about the importance of leaders casting a vision, which inspires people. It makes them feel connected in that they can see what they do every day in their job. It connects to the vision for the business and ultimately what we deliver to our customers, whoever they are.

So, today I'm going to talk about step two of that business planning and it's determining your focus, and you might be wondering, well, what is that about? What's the focus about? Well, Just like values, we always want to lead with values because we don't want to serve a market that we don't believe in. We don't want to produce a product that is the antithesis of our values, etc. It determines what we do and what we don't do. And sometimes what you don't do, is even more important than what you do.

Don't Forget: Invite your friends

- Rising tide lifts all boats.

- Grow together

And that's it for this week. I hope these tips are helpful to you.

I'll be speaking at:

• SHRM - Las Vegas. June

• ICF Converge- Orlando, August

Have a question for me? Please email me: at  [email protected]

My mission is to make work fun again by building better leaders. Please find out more on my website: shawnacorden.com

Contact us at [email protected] for:

- Leadership Coaching

- Workshops - in-person/virtual

- Consulting and Mentoring in building a coaching culture- External, Internal, and Leaders with Coaching Skills.

MEET ME IN THE MIDDLE AMAZON LINK: 

https://www.amazon.com/Meet-Middle-Overcoming-Preventing-Polarization-ebook/dp/B0BSVPJ6CM?ref_=ast_author_dp

In today’s episode,  we're entering into a new theme for the next ten podcasts or so. It's all going to be about business planning. Whether you're a small team within an organization,  an entrepreneur, or the CEO, this set of business planning podcasts is all for you because it will take you step-by-step through how to do this. You're probably thinking, how does a coach know anything about business planning? I did business planning for a long time for a Fortune 10 company. And in addition to that, I have helped my clients who are running their own businesses with their business plans. And, of course, I do my own. So let's get started.

Step one in the process of business planning is the values informing your vision. As a leader, your job is determining the vision and project that inspire the team. And you need to form your vision based on values. So how do you do that, and why would we do those values before the vision? Well, your values really determine what you do and what you don't do. They also determine who you hire, and whomever you hire must match the values. So the conflict that we're seeing in organizations today is because of organization. Organizations have hired people with values that are contrary to the organization's or the team's values.

Don't Forget: Invite your friends

- Rising tide lifts all boats.

- Grow together

And that's it for this week. I hope these tips are helpful to you.

I'll be speaking at:

• SHRM - Las Vegas. June

• ICF Converge- Orlando, August

Have a question for me? Please email me: at  [email protected]

My mission is to make work fun again by building better leaders. Please find out more on my website: shawnacorden.com

Contact us at [email protected] for:

- Leadership Coaching

- Workshops - in-person/virtual

- Consulting and Mentoring in building a coaching culture- External, Internal, and Leaders with Coaching Skills.

MEET ME IN THE MIDDLE AMAZON LINK: 

https://www.amazon.com/Meet-Middle-Overcoming-Preventing-Polarization-ebook/dp/B0BSVPJ6CM?ref_=ast_author_dp

In today’s episode, I'm reviewing my experience on 75Hard. If you're unfamiliar with 75Hard, you'll learn more about it. It is a program that builds mental toughness. Why are we talking about mental toughness when this podcast is about building better leaders? Well, sometimes leaders have to make tough decisions. It means they must be disciplined to make those decisions and not defer to the path of least resilience. So, if you're not familiar with 75Hard, this is a program that Andy Frisella formed. Andy owns several businesses, including First Phorm and some other organizations. 

Again, it is a program about creating mental toughness. Many people believe it's about building physical endurance, fitness, or something like that because there are those components, but that's not what it's about. It is a series of tasks that must be completed daily, consecutively, without fail, for 75 days straight. Hence the name 75 hard. There are also some follow-on pieces to it. So if you choose after completing 75 hard, you can go on to live hard, and more tasks are added, etc.

Who is it for?

- Anyone who wants to build mental toughness.

-  Those who want to create discipline.

- Those who want to have a format.

REMEMBER: "We build self-esteem by meeting commitments to ourselves."

Don't Forget: Invite your friends

- Rising tide lifts all boats.

- Grow together

And that's it for this week. I hope these tips are helpful to you.

I'll be speaking at:

• SHRM - Las Vegas. June

• ICF Converge- Orlando, August

Have a question for me? Please email me: at  [email protected]

My mission is to make work fun again by building better leaders. Please find out more on my website: shawnacorden.com

Contact us at [email protected] for:

- Leadership Coaching

- Workshops - in-person/virtual

- Consulting and Mentoring in building a coaching culture- External, Internal, and Leaders with Coaching Skills.

MEET ME IN THE MIDDLE AMAZON LINK: 

https://www.amazon.com/Meet-Middle-Overcoming-Preventing-Polarization-ebook/dp/B0BSVPJ6CM?ref_=ast_author_dp

Congratulations, you have really done a great service for yourself and the rest of the universe because strong, resilient people really make a big difference in our world. Today, we're going to be talking about celebrating, and you might think, well, why is this a lesson in the 20-week challenge? How does this make us more resilient? Well, there are a lot of reasons why. So let's get started.

When do I suggest this lesson, particularly when we cannot acknowledge just how far we've come?We are constantly comparing ourselves to our perfect or ideal. And if you've been following the news at all about Facebook and Instagram, et cetera, you can see that over a third of our young women are feeling depressed and have had thoughts of suicide, and I chalk it up to the fact that the algorithmsare pointing them to unhealthy examples, but also, that they are always comparing themselves to an ideal. And I would encourage people to look at an amalgam of different examples in their life. Let's create our own ideal. What are the steps that I can take to get there? What are the habits that I need to create? What's the identity I need to assume to create that? What is it about that's so appealing?

Instead of comparing ourselves to others, we can compare us to where we started from, not the ideal of other people, because as we mature, we may decide that the ideal is simply not attainable for someone of our, you know, flexibility or whatever that might be.

Don't Forget:

- Rising tide lifts all boats.

- Grow together

- Theme sheet at our site

And that's it for this week. I hope you found these tips helpful.

Have a question for me? Please email me: at  [email protected]

My mission is to make work fun again by building better leaders. Please find out more on my website: shawnacorden.com

Book and lunch and learn:

[email protected]

Grab your PDF copy of the Theme Planning Sheet

#20weekChallenge #resilience

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xwJKoN6Wr_f8gORDvKfUpoJdccJUs8Ty/view?usp=share_link

MEET ME IN THE MIDDLE AMAZON LINK: 

https://www.amazon.com/Meet-Middle-Overcoming-Preventing-Polarization-ebook/dp/B0BSVPJ6CM?ref_=ast_author_dp

We are on week 19 of our 20-week challenge, where we are building our resilience so that we bend instead of break when we face adversity.

Today we're going be talking about perfecting your present. So what does that mean? That sounds like it's such a strange thing. Well, the present is the current moment. So living in the now, and depending on what you did yesterday, you have today's situation as it is because of the preparation or the activities that you did.  I weigh what I weigh today because of things I ate yesterday and the days before, the amount of working out I did, how fit I am, et cetera. We can only do something about the moment, right? We can only act in the moment. So if we were living in yesterday and we're thinking about regret and things like that, not productive, we can't do anything about it except maybe do lessons learned or post-mortem analysis. And we can't do anything about tomorrow because we're not there yet. So what we really want to do is recognize today. What it is because of what comes before tomorrow will be what it is based on what we do today. And so we really want to think about how we can enjoy and be present at the moment and what's happening right now. So let's get started.

Don't Forget:

- Rising tide lifts all boats.

- Grow together

- Theme sheet at our site

And that's it for this week. I hope you found these tips helpful.

Have a question for me? Please email me: at  [email protected]

My mission is to make work fun again by building better leaders. Please find out more on my website: shawnacorden.com

Book and lunch and learn:

[email protected]

Grab your PDF copy of the Theme Planning Sheet

#20weekChallenge #resilience

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xwJKoN6Wr_f8gORDvKfUpoJdccJUs8Ty/view?usp=share_link

MEET ME IN THE MIDDLE AMAZON LINK: 

https://www.amazon.com/Meet-Middle-Overcoming-Preventing-Polarization-ebook/dp/B0BSVPJ6CM?ref_=ast_author_dp

We are in the middle of our 20-week challenge to build resilience, and we're getting close to the tail end. In our lesson today, we're going be talking about attracting because the more we attract things naturally, the more ease and choice we have. So let's get started. 

When somebody wants something different than what they've been getting, they need to understand the whole law of attraction. And if you haven't watched the movie The Secret or read the book, I think it does a really good job talking about the kind of quantum physics of it all, and how it works. What we emit into the universe returns back to us. We attract that like for like, and when they want to be more creative, what can they do to help them create that situation? A couple of things to keep in mind when we talk about attracting joy is contagious. It is a wonderful thing; frankly, we need much more of it. That's why I have been writing. I finished my book, it's published now. You can find it out on Amazon, meet Me in the Middle, it’s all about overcoming polarization because, in the midst of polarization, there isn't a whole lot of joy. So it's not promoting, it's not seduction, it is this thing where naturally, things come to you. Now, it doesn't mean that you haven't visualized, and it doesn't mean that you haven't done the work behind it to prepare for it, but you are bringing back what you put out there.

Don't Forget:

- Rising tide lifts all boats.

- Grow together

- Theme sheet at our site

And that's it for this week. I hope you found these tips helpful.

Have a question for me? Please email me: at  [email protected]

My mission is to make work fun again by building better leaders. Please find out more on my website: shawnacorden.com

Book and lunch and learn:

[email protected]

Grab your PDF copy of the Theme Planning Sheet

#20weekChallenge #resilience

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xwJKoN6Wr_f8gORDvKfUpoJdccJUs8Ty/view?usp=share_link

MEET ME IN THE MIDDLE AMAZON LINK: 

https://www.amazon.com/Meet-Middle-Overcoming-Preventing-Polarization-ebook/dp/B0BSVPJ6CM?ref_=ast_author_dp

We continue with our 20-week challenge to build your resilience. This week’s lesson is about building a reserve.

 Now, you're probably familiar with this concept of building a reserve regarding emergency preparedness. In my area of the world, I'm in the Pacific Northwest, we are bearing up for a potential overdue earthquake that goes along the fault line that we have. So, both civic organizers, as well as others, are trying to help us put together kits that will help us, whether it's extra food, water, a go bag, etc., and neighborhoods organizing around this situation about what will we do if there's an earthquake. That concept is very similar to what we will apply here, except we will do it with multiple areas of your life. I'm a mom of two gals that are almost 29 and 30; when they were in school, we would regularly get surprised by things like, oh, I need to bring two dozen cupcakes tomorrow, or I have my science project due tomorrow, and I need to put it on the presentation board. It’s like a three-sided board that, you know, can stand on a table. And that stuff would drive me crazy because they'd say it at eight o'clock at night. And so, after a while, I learned to stock up on the things I might need. So I wasn't going crazy at eight o'clock at night or punishing them by not having the materials there and saying, suffer the consequences; you didn't prepare or being resentful about it. And so I just started to stockpile things. So we stockpiled those presentation boards and glue sticks and ensured we had extra inkjet pins for our printer when they needed to print projects. I also started carrying boxed cake mix and those horrific shelf-stable frostings in case we needed those things too. And so that's just one example, but we're going be talking about several areas in your life where this could be really helpful to you to have a reserve.

Don't Forget:

- Rising tide lifts all boats.

- Grow together

- Theme sheet at our site

And that's it for this week. I hope you found these tips helpful.

Have a question for me? Please email me: at  [email protected]

My mission is to make work fun again by building better leaders. Please find out more on my website: shawnacorden.com

Book and lunch and learn:

[email protected]

Grab your PDF copy of the Theme Planning Sheet

#20weekChallenge #resilience

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xwJKoN6Wr_f8gORDvKfUpoJdccJUs8Ty/view?usp=share_link

MEET ME IN THE MIDDLE AMAZON LINK: 

https://www.amazon.com/Meet-Middle-Overcoming-Preventing-Polarization-ebook/dp/B0BSVPJ6CM?ref_=ast_author_dp

Did you know that there are three factors that really indicate the success of a change effort? If these three things are done poorly, the effort will fail. If they are done well, it will ensure the success of a project. Those three factors are:

- Number one is leadership. Have we painted the vision? Do we understand this change and why we're going about it?

- The second is communication. Are we giving frequent updates about the decisions that have been made, the changes, the rollout, the timeline, et cetera?

- And the last, surprisingly, is employee resilience. If your employees are burnt out or beyond their capacity, the effort will fail. But if they are resilient and can weather change well because they have a strong foundation, the change effort will succeed.

And that is why we are pursuing this 20-week challenge. We are on week 16 of our 20-week challenge. We're almost near the end here. Today, we're gonna be talking about one that is so important. It affects homework and everything in between, that is choosing a healthy attitude. So what do we mean when we say building resilience? We're talking about being able to withstand situations, big or small car accidents, illness, a no-show appointment, a canceled air flight with some grace, and having it not upset you too much, etc. That's what we're really talking about. And that you have a good attitude about it. And this piece, choosing a healthy attitude is really essential.

Don't Forget:

- Rising tide lifts all boats.

- Grow together

- Theme sheet at our site

And that's it for this week. I hope you found these tips helpful.

Have a question for me? Please email me: at  [email protected]

My mission is to make work fun again by building better leaders. Please find out more on my website: shawnacorden.com

Book and lunch and learn:

[email protected]

Grab your PDF copy of the Theme Planning Sheet

#20weekChallenge #resilience

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xwJKoN6Wr_f8gORDvKfUpoJdccJUs8Ty/view?usp=share_link

MEET ME IN THE MIDDLE AMAZON LINK: 

https://www.amazon.com/Meet-Middle-Overcoming-Preventing-Polarization-ebook/dp/B0BSVPJ6CM?ref_=ast_author_dp

This week, we're talking about making your work an extension of yours. This is part of our 20-week challenge to build resilience, so let's get started.

So when do I suggest this lesson?  I suggest this lesson when…

- people feel like they're a cog and a wheel.

- their work isn't really aligning with their values, and 

- they want a bigger life. 

So work can meet a lot more needs than just earning money. Your life's work utilizes your gifts, and you can take the time to discover what is your life's work.

When I was teaching this regularly in corporate, probably one of the biggest pauses my students had with this lesson was that I didn't have time to be Gandhi, and I feel wrong about that. I had to remind people that sometimes, being a provider for your family is your life's work, or caring for a special needs child is your life's work. We're not all supposed to be Gandhi.  But it really is essential, and that is a gift to be able to do that. Not everyone can be a provider. Not everyone can care for a special needs child. Not everyone can deal with the hardships that they are facing. And so do recognize that is where you're supposed to be now. And it is utilizing your gifts. Don't think that it isn't. Okay.

Don't Forget:

- Rising tide lifts all boats.

- Grow together

- Theme sheet at our site

And that's it for this week. I hope you found these tips helpful.

Have a question for me? Please email me: at  [email protected]

My mission is to make work fun again by building better leaders. Please find out more on my website: shawnacorden.com

Book and lunch and learn:

[email protected]

Grab your PDF copy of the Theme Planning Sheet

#20weekChallenge #resilience

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xwJKoN6Wr_f8gORDvKfUpoJdccJUs8Ty/view?usp=share_link

MEET ME IN THE MIDDLE AMAZON LINK: 

https://www.amazon.com/Meet-Middle-Overcoming-Preventing-Polarization-ebook/dp/B0BSVPJ6CM?ref_=ast_author_dp