Staying informed but not overwhelmed with negative news can be a challenge.

Ed Samuel started us off by saying he uses his faith to help him stay sane in a broken world.

Jim Tam thought that his career was going to be very global, living the ex-pat life, speaking multiple languages. And at first it was very cool working with people from all over the world and learning about their cultures. But then the realities of being awake in the morning to talk to South Africa and at night to connect with Singapore started to take a toll. Not to mention the atrocities that are happening all over the world.

Atif Agha brought up how connected we all are. And wondered about navigating the major changes we see in the world while still having an identity, having a purpose, having a meaning in life. We are living in a world that is very different from even the world our parents grew up in and it is only changing faster for the next generation.

I feel like if it’s not something I can control or impact directly, I can’t let it make me crazy every day.

What works for you? How do you keep your sanity when it feels like the whole world is a dumpster fire most of the time?

Connect with the panelists:

Ed Samuel: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edsamuel/

Is a career coach at Sam Nova where he helps mid to senior leaders get to a better place, whether they are working or in transition.

Jim Tam: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimtam/

Is a Principal Client Director with Korn Ferry’s Digital group where he advises organizations on how to improve their sales effectiveness using world-class sales methodology and technology.

Atif Agha: https://www.linkedin.com/in/atifagha/

Technology specialist doing data analytics and avid runner, based in Chicago

Dr Robyn Odegaard: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robynodegaard/

AKA Mental MacGyver. My doctorate is in organizational business psychology with a concentration in sport and performance. I provide luxury level, high performance support and coaching to executives, founders, celebrities and athletes.

Want a summary of Quick Hits plus the links to the LinkedIn pages of each of the panelist in your in-box every week? Let me know where to send it: https://drrobynodegaard.com/quick-hits-notifications/

#QuickHits are designed to exercise your brain by letting you listen in on an unscripted conversation to get other people's thoughts on pertinent subjects. If you would like to join a conversation or have a topic you would like to hear discussed, please message me. https://www.MentalMacGyver.com

Before we turned on the recording, we talked about how to word the question. I wondered if we should make gender part of the equation. We talked about how anger can be used for power (Steve Jobs was known to cry to get his way).

In the end, we landed on how to express anger at work. This turned out to be part one of a three-part conversation.

Catarina von Maydell started us off at the beginning – where is the anger coming from and what is the context of the situation?

Claire Schwartz added that knowing the goal is important. You can’t just expect to explode at work and for that to be acceptable. Yes, express your emotions. Also, yes you must have it under control.

Laura Agafitei brought in the cultural aspect, that in most cases anger is seen as a negative emotion and it is important not to escalate the situation.

How do you think anger should be expressed at work?

This is a panel of brilliant, powerhouse women. If you aren’t connected with them, make that happen today. I am better for knowing each of them.

Connect with the panelists:

Strategy and design Consultant for the health and wellness industry. Based in Dublin.

Catarina von Maydell: https://www.linkedin.com/in/catarinavonmaydell/

She helps business leaders build disruptive business models and define key leverage points to create powerful change and impact using a process of systemic, organizational, and human evolution.

Claire Schwartz: https://www.linkedin.com/in/clairemschwartz/

She is a Grief Coach and Trauma Healing Expert. Demystifying and Destigmatizing Grief and Trauma healing. Working with Individuals, Organizations and Families.

Dr Robyn Odegaard: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robynodegaard/

AKA Mental MacGyver. My doctorate is in organizational business psychology with a concentration in sport and performance. I provide luxury level, high performance support and coaching to executives, founders, celebrities and athletes.

Want a summary of Quick Hits plus the links to the LinkedIn pages of each of the panelist in your in-box every week? Let me know where to send it: https://drrobynodegaard.com/quick-hits-notifications/

#QuickHits are designed to exercise your brain by letting you listen in on an unscripted conversation to get other people's thoughts on pertinent subjects. If you would like to join a conversation or have a topic you would like to hear discussed, please message me. https://www.MentalMacGyver.com

Oof. This was a tough one. There was no way we were going to cover something this deep in ten minutes. But we gave it a good try.

Christopher Jerjian started us off by admitting this question stumped him. He thinks it must be about being worth in a specific area because you can’t be worthy of everything.

Fallon Siniscarco said it depends on who is making the measurement. How gets to decide worthiness? If it is someone in authority over you, a teacher or a boss, they get to decide if you are “worthy” of a good grade or a raise. And you have to decide what you have to do to prove you are worthy if you think you are.

Bill Haase compared it to Boy Scouts. If you earn all the badges, you are worthy of being and Eagle Scout. He also agreed with Fallon that if you believe you are worthy, run with that.

I believe what determines worthiness depends on what you follow it with. Worthy of… of what? As a human you are worthy of happiness. Worthy of certain human rights. There are other things that you have to jump through hoops to be worthy of. Like Bill pointed out.

We then get into how different the perspective is for Fallon, just finishing college, and for the rest of us who are further along in your lives.

What do you think? What does it mean to be worthy?

Connect with the panelists:

Student Utica university studying occupational therapy. She will be going to grad school in the fall to study the same.

Christopher Jerjian: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisjerjian/  

Commercial real estate for 40 years he focuses on creating spaces for small businesses

Bill Haase: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bill-haase-a506299/

Co-Founder/CEO MetaEd Partners. He is developing global virtual and live conferences to support the underprivileged and building programs in the US to help high school students understand how money works.

Dr Robyn Odegaard: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robynodegaard/

AKA Mental MacGyver. My doctorate is in organizational business psychology with a concentration in sport and performance. I provide luxury level, high performance support and coaching to executives, founders, celebrities and athletes.

Want a summary of Quick Hits plus the links to the LinkedIn pages of each of the panelist in your in-box every week? Let me know where to send it: https://drrobynodegaard.com/quick-hits-notifications/

#QuickHits are designed to exercise your brain by letting you listen in on an unscripted conversation to get other people's thoughts on pertinent subjects. If you would like to join a conversation or have a topic you would like to hear discussed, please message me. https://www.MentalMacGyver.com

I recently heard someone give this advice to a group of students, “You have to be able to lead yourself before you can expect to lead others.”

Everyone nodded along like it was sage advice. But I wondered, “what does that even mean and is it true?”

Lucky for me I have a platform designed to asked exactly those kinds of questions.

Kevin Wash answered the second half of the question first with a strong yes. He believes that being a leader requires leading by example. Anything else is hypocritical.

Kelle Jacob agreed saying she believes that leading yourself means having a vision. Too often people are running on autopilot and checking boxes rather than being clear about where they are going.

Michael Sicuranza came in with conceptual agreement – The best leaders do all the things Kevin and Kelle talked about. Then he pointed out that there are lots of examples of people who didn’t practice what the preached and weren’t very great people. And yet, they managed to maximize leadership, gotten people to follow them and created success both personally and professionally.

My experience working with high powered, successful people – On paper it looks like they are “leading themselves” but that often isn’t what is actually going on.

What do you think? What does it mean to “lead yourself” and is it a prerequisite for leading others?

Connect with the panelists:

Kevin Wash: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-wash-23b90915/

Coach, mentor, author, trainer, and speaker running a consultancy business specializing in sales for international property development. Based in Spain

Michael Sicuranza: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelsicuranza/

CEO of Affinity Wealth Management where they focus on helping small business and corporate executives make better choices with their money

Kelle Jacob: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelle-jacob-0912a523/

She is a Master level Holistic Health, NLP, EFT, and Hypnotherapy Practitioner and the founder of ASRI Wellness, she helps high-performing professionals on the verge of burnout create better habits.

Dr Robyn Odegaard: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robynodegaard/

AKA Mental MacGyver. My doctorate is in organizational business psychology with a concentration in sport and performance. I provide luxury level, high performance support and coaching to executives, founders, celebrities and athletes.

Want a summary of Quick Hits plus the links to the LinkedIn pages of each of the panelist in your in-box every week? Let me know where to send it: https://drrobynodegaard.com/quick-hits-notifications/

#QuickHits are designed to exercise your brain by letting you listen in on an unscripted conversation to get other people's thoughts on pertinent subjects. If you would like to join a conversation or have a topic you would like to hear discussed, please message me. https://www.MentalMacGyver.com

It isn’t a secret that the farther up the corporate ladder you go, the less diverse it becomes. I decided to ask three guys who have been at the top of their respective ladders about it.

Dr Cole Galloway, who works in social justice, started us off by talking about mission. If you are looking for leaders who will continue to propagate and manipulate and cultivate a top-down mission, you are going to have a hard time getting diversity at the top.

Dr Bob Choat agreed and then added that with startups, the mission comes from the founder. As they grow the culture gets stuck in ridged thinking. To get out of that they might need to bring in people from the outside.

Gary Fredericks really like the bottom-up approach. And pointed out that you can’t legislate people or an organization accepting someone different from them. He believes it starts with teaching creativity and outside-the-box thinking.

About halfway through the conversation I picked up Dr Bob’s point about culture. If we are hiring for “cultural fit” it is REALLY easy to hire people who are just like us because they are easy to talk to and connect with. I feel like that causes diversity to be squeezed out as we move up the ladder.

I asked the panel what they think can be done about that.

At the very end with no time to discuss it, I asked this: Are the people you want to be in leadership tomorrow, getting the skills to do that today?

What do you think?

Connect with the panelists:

He has eight years military experience, worked with the LA PD, he is now the founder of the Integrated Mind Institute and is going back to school for another PhD. This time in physics 

Gary Fredericks: https://www.linkedin.com/in/garyfredericks/

CEO of On Point Partners where they provide back-office services for small businesses. They make business easy.

Dr Cole Galloway: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cole-galloway-1ba715107/

Recovering academic working in social justice and disability, primarily with babies as the Founder at Go Baby Go

Dr Robyn Odegaard: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robynodegaard/

AKA Mental MacGyver. My doctorate is in organizational business psychology with a concentration in sport and performance. I provide luxury level, high performance support and coaching to executives, founders, celebrities and athletes.

Want a summary of Quick Hits plus the links to the LinkedIn pages of each of the panelist in your in-box every week? Let me know where to send it: https://drrobynodegaard.com/quick-hits-notifications/

#QuickHits are designed to exercise your brain by letting you listen in on an unscripted conversation to get other people's thoughts on pertinent subjects. If you would like to join a conversation or have a topic you would like to hear discussed, please message me. https://www.MentalMacGyver.com

This question came from a real-life situation. Regardless of whether you are the one left out in the cold or the one asked to abandon the person you worked with to create the proposal; this is messy.

Karen Loomis started us off by sharing a story of her experience with this exact issue and that when it happened, she wondered what she would have done if she had been on the other side of it.

Rick Alcantara went next saying he believes it is conditional and that he has been on both sides of a situation like this. It really requires an understanding between you and the person doing the proposal so you both know where you stand if something like this comes up.

Bonnie Sussman-Versace agreed saying that anything you can do beforehand to preempt these types of issues is ideal. When she had this situation she and her partner went back to the client and explained that it really was a two-person project and asked for a trail period to work on it together.

What do you think is the ethical thing to do in a situation like that? What does having integrity look like?

Connect with the panelists:

He does public relations, digital marketing and crisis communication at Rick Alcantara consulting

Bonnie Sussman-Versace: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bversace/

Re-imaginer at FOCUSED LLC. Where she specializes in developing leaders, building positive and productive workplace cultures, and improving individual, team and enterprise-wide performance

Karen Loomis: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kloomis/

Founder at No Moss Brands. 20 years as a marketing and branding professional. Adjunct professor at Grand Canyon University.  She is passionate about social change.    

Dr Robyn Odegaard: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robynodegaard/

AKA Mental MacGyver. My doctorate is in organizational business psychology with a concentration in sport and performance. I provide luxury level, high performance support and coaching to executives, founders, celebrities and athletes.

Want a summary of Quick Hits plus the links to the LinkedIn pages of each of the panelist in your in-box every week? Let me know where to send it: https://drrobynodegaard.com/quick-hits-notifications/

#QuickHits are designed to exercise your brain by letting you listen in on an unscripted conversation to get other people's thoughts on pertinent subjects. If you would like to join a conversation or have a topic you would like to hear discussed, please message me. https://www.MentalMacGyver.com

This conversation did not go as I expected it to. I thought we would talk about how you decide when to give 100% and when to let something slide a little bit so you can put more effort into something else.

I am noticing now as I type this, that when I’ve had this conversation before (not on Quick Hits) it has been with women. Now I’m wondering if having more competing priorities makes a difference.

I can 100% tell you, there are things in my life I choose not to do perfectly – weed my flowerbeds. As long as they look good from the sidewalk, I’m (mostly) not going to worry about the little weeds only I can see when I’m actually in the bed.

But work stuff that is different.

Here is the summary of how the conversation started.

Pascal Derrien started us off by asking us to look at the other side. What if you are expected someone to do something to a high level and you get mediocrity instead? He believes if you are going to do something, do it really, really well or just don’t do it.

Joey Robert Parks wondered no important benefits for who? And depending on expectations, it may or may not be a big deal not to do something perfectly.

Ed Samuel thought it depended on the situation. If you are in a time crunch or up against a deadline, you simply might not have the ability to do something to the highest level possible because you have to get it out the door. However, he like the other two will tend to err on the side of doing something of a high quality if at all possible.

Do you think there is ever a time when it is acceptable to do something at say 85% because it’s good enough? Might there be a difference in the way men and women answer this question?

I might have to do an all-female panel and find out.

Connect with the panelists:

CEO of the nonprofit Migraine Ireland and an avid athlete

Ed Samuel: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edsamuel/

Is a career coach at Sam Nova where he helps mid to senior leaders get to a better place, whether they are working or in transition.

Joey Robert Parks: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joeyrobertparks/

He is a 32-book author and ghostwriter and The Da Vinci of Writing. He can write in any style, genre, or topic, and make it sound natural, like he’s been an expert in it for decades.

Dr Robyn Odegaard: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robynodegaard/

AKA Mental MacGyver. My doctorate is in organizational business psychology with a concentration in sport and performance. I provide luxury level, high performance support and coaching to executives, founders, celebrities and athletes.

Want a summary of Quick Hits plus the links to the LinkedIn pages of each of the panelist in your in-box every week? Let me know where to send it: https://drrobynodegaard.com/quick-hits-notifications/

#QuickHits are designed to exercise your brain by letting you listen in on an unscripted conversation to get other people's thoughts on pertinent subjects. If you would like to join a conversation or have a topic you would like to hear discussed, please message me. https://www.MentalMacGyver.com

Michael Davis started us off with the perfect framing: a cynic is negative ▪ and stays planted in his or her beliefs. A skeptic is a healthy optimist. It's a difference between being open minded and closed minded.

Stewart Wiggins agreed saying he thinks most of us are probably skeptics but that there are some people who always believe something bad is going to happen. That cynicism often leads to those bad things actually happening.

Gary Fredericks came in strong with the idea that being skeptical is a key ingredient to good leadership; having that ability to go through the checks and balances to make sure the facts are adding up. He also shared that he can be cynical – particularly about spinach (we disagree on that. I like spinach.)

I followed up by wondering if someone is being negative, if they are skeptical, are they are open to changing their mind but if they are cynical, is it a waste of time to even try to talk to them?

Toward the end I asked a more practical question: How do you notice if you're kind of sliding into that cynical space? And how do you pull yourself out of it?  

Do you agree or disagree with Stewart’s point at the end about marriage being helpful to keep you from being too cynical?

Connect with the panelists:

Induna Advisors – where he offers Fractional Chief Operating Officer services and Brings resources together to help scale your business.

Gary Fredericks: https://www.linkedin.com/in/garyfredericks/

CEO of On Point Partners where they provide back-office services for small businesses. They make business easy.

Michael Davis: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaeldavisspeakingcpr/

Founder of Speaking CPR where he helps business leaders and speakers improve their presentations and speeches

Dr Robyn Odegaard: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robynodegaard/

AKA Mental MacGyver. My doctorate is in organizational business psychology with a concentration in sport and performance. I provide luxury level, high performance support and coaching to executives, founders, celebrities and athletes.

Want a summary of Quick Hits plus the links to the LinkedIn pages of each of the panelist in your in-box every week? Let me know where to send it: https://drrobynodegaard.com/quick-hits-notifications/

#QuickHits are designed to exercise your brain by letting you listen in on an unscripted conversation to get other people's thoughts on pertinent subjects. If you would like to join a conversation or have a topic you would like to hear discussed, please message me. https://www.MentalMacGyver.com

Jim Tam’s first thought was, if you’re on zoom, turn off your camera. It takes practice to keep a straight face and can be important in negotiation situations. He suggested preparing ahead of time to avoid being surprised because surprise might be the hardest tell to hide.

Stewart Wiggins shared an adage from his time in the military: “if you're smiling, you're not doing your job.” But that learned behavior didn’t serve him when he got out of the military because people would misread his body language.

Catarina von Maydell built on what the other panelists said by saying one of the hardest things about a poker face is deciding when and if we should or should not use it because it can be damaging to relationships if we need to be building trust.

We shared a few stories and towards the end I asked the group how the learned when and how to use or not use a poker face.

Since most of communication has nothing to do with the words we say, this is a topic we would all do well to think about a little more than we do.

How do you keep a straight face when the emotion you feel is not what you want to share?

Connect with the panelists:

Is a Principal Client Director with Korn Ferry’s Digital group where he advises organizations on how to improve their sales effectiveness through using world-class sales methodology and technology.

Stewart Wiggins: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stewart-wiggins/

Induna Advisors – where he offers Fractional Chief Operating Officer services and Brings resources together to help scale your business.

Catarina von Maydell: https://www.linkedin.com/in/catarinavonmaydell/

She helps business leaders build disruptive business models and define key leverage points to create powerful change and impact using a process of systemic, organizational, and human evolution.

Dr Robyn Odegaard: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robynodegaard/

AKA Mental MacGyver. My doctorate is in organizational business psychology with a concentration in sport and performance. I provide luxury level, high performance support and coaching to executives, founders, celebrities and athletes.

Want a summary of Quick Hits plus the links to the LinkedIn pages of each of the panelist in your in-box every week? Let me know where to send it: https://drrobynodegaard.com/quick-hits-notifications/

#QuickHits are designed to exercise your brain by letting you listen in on an unscripted conversation to get other people's thoughts on pertinent subjects. If you would like to join a conversation or have a topic you would like to hear discussed, please message me. https://www.MentalMacGyver.com

Glady Baradaran started this conversation by say unequivocally yes. For her, having a best friend at work who she can send an eye roll emoji to during a meeting to feel the relief of having a shared experience is super important.

Dave Roberts agreed saying that having friends at work for the emotional support makes the day-to-day experience better. He also shared a personal story about how having friends at worked helped him get through the loss of his daughter.

Todd Karges brought in the idea of friends being able to provide and help create psychological safety that managers or the larger organization as a whole just can’t offer. Which might be a flaw in the organizational structure that employees have to figure out how to make that happen on their own with each other.

I followed up with the question, are friends at work different from friends outside of work. You’ll have to tune into our conversation for their answers.

Do you think that having a friend at work is important?

This panel enjoyed their time together so much they asked me to schedule them together again to answer the question, what if you don’t have friends at work?

Look for that conversation in the coming days.

(Apologies for Glady’s scratchy mic. She was able to get it sorted ahead of our next conversation.)

Connect with the panelists:

15 years of HR experience and a love for organizational development. Based in Canada.

Todd Karges: https://www.linkedin.com/in/toddkarges/

Has a background in project management and building agile development mindsets.  He is a transformation and change management practitioner and a leadership development coach. Based outside of Toronto.

Dave Roberts: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-roberts-56690513/

Teacher, co-author of the book When the Psychology Professor Met the Minister and a bereavement support specialist

Dr Robyn Odegaard: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robynodegaard/

AKA Mental MacGyver. My doctorate is in organizational business psychology with a concentration in sport and performance. I provide luxury level, high performance support and coaching to executives, founders, celebrities and athletes.

Want a summary of Quick Hits plus the links to the LinkedIn pages of each of the panelist in your in-box every week? Let me know where to send it: https://drrobynodegaard.com/quick-hits-notifications/

#QuickHits are designed to exercise your brain by letting you listen in on an unscripted conversation to get other people's thoughts on pertinent subjects. If you would like to join a conversation or have a topic you would like to hear discussed, please message me. https://www.MentalMacGyver.com