Cortex Leadership Consulting

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This is why it’s so hard to unplug from work and why you need to anyway

This is why it’s so hard to unplug from work and why you need to anyway
By:  Lynda McNutt Foster

61.5% of people, in a Cortex survey poll conducted by K92 radio, said they were not going to unplug during the Christmas holiday.  I asked folks on my FB today if they planned on unplugging, not one person said they were going to.

One respondent to the K92 poll question, “Do you plan to completely unplug during the Christmas holiday?” said “No way… it’s the only way to escape my family!”  Ha!

Even when we want to unplug, why is it so hard to do?

It used to be that our phone did one thing.  It rang, and when it did, we answered it.  Or, we didn’t.  When I was growing up we got an answering machine when I was like 10 and we didn’t have voicemail until I was like 18 or something.  Getting call waiting was transformative.  I was allowed to talk on the phone when my mom was waiting for a call to come in – wow!

Lynda McNutt Foster; Gwen McBride, Ned Moulton, Nancy Moulton [Read more…]

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What is your appearance at work costing you?

It’s possible that how you appear at work could be costing you thousands of dollars.  Changing your appearance at work can have a positive impact on your income level.  What you wear to work can leave a lasting impression for the good or bad. How is that, you might say?  Because your executive brand is either moving you toward the position you want or away from it.  You either look the part or you don’t.  Sure, there are plenty of examples of someone who doesn’t present themselves well, for the industry or culture they want to fit into, and they get promoted or land their dream job, anyway.  There are many more examples I can site for the opposite.

In less than .07 seconds we create a lasting impression on others.  Sort of scary, isn’t it?  How much can you say in less than a second?  Nothing.  In a flash, you make an impression with how you look.

executive presenceYou don’t have to look like Brad Pitt to have a great executive brand.

Brad Pitt once explained in an interview, after being asked about what it felt like to be the “sexiest man alive”, something like… My father taught me that looks may get you in the door, but your personality and smarts will keep you there.  You don’t have to look like Brad Pitt to get in the room.  You don’t have the perfect face or body (thank goodness).  What to consider, moving forward, is whether how you dress and present yourself is keeping others from “opening the door”.

Our brain thinks in pictures.  How many times have you heard someone say to you, or you
have said to someone else, I am good with faces and terrible with names, can you tell me yours again?  That’s because we can remember visual images, many times, more easily than things that were quickly said and not repeated.Appearance can be a very sensitive subject.  It’s hard for us to see ourselves the way others see us and even more difficult to tell someone else how their appearance is working for or against them in a situation.  What this means to you is that if someone mentions your appearance in a way that seems hard to take, it probably took a great deal of courage for that person to tell you about it.  Even though it’s only one person you may want to weigh what they say with more weight than the silent majority who say nothing.

Appearance can be a very sensitive subject for some.  It’s hard for us to see ourselves the way others see us and even more difficult to tell someone else how their appearance is working for or against them in a situation.  What this means to you is that if someone mentions your appearance in a way that seems hard to take, it probably took a great deal of courage for that person to tell you about it.  Even though it’s only one person you may want to weigh what they say with more weight than the silent majority who say nothing.

Here are a few things to consider in regard to your appearance from an Executive Brand standpoint:

  1. Consider culture and situation. If you are in an IT culture where you everyone dresses in jeans and t-shirts – great!  Wear jeans and a t-shirt and you got it.  If everyone dresses in suits and you show up to work in jeans and a t-shirt you need to consider that how you dress may not be serving you to create a higher level of influence at work.
  2. Everything communicates. The question is, what are you communicating with how you are dressed, how you smell, how you wear your makeup and hair, what shoes you wear?  You may think you are “cool”, or that you will standout by dressing extremely casually in a formal environment.  Are you sure that’s the impression you are leaving?  Have you asked someone that you want to influence what they think of your attire and do you think they gave you an honest answer?
  3. Dress however you want off the clock. Just dress.  Those FB pictures from a wild party last Saturday night or years ago are visible and shareable.  If you think “only my close friends” on FB see my posts, that is simply not accurate.  Everything you put on line is visible digitally and shareable, with sometimes surprising little effort, whether you want them to be or not.  Look, if you don’t care about rising through the ranks at work or you never need to get another job, go for it.  Post away with carefree abandon.

Sometimes even a small pivot in your appearance can make a big difference.  For clients that ask, hire me just for the purpose of improving their executive brand, ask me, or are clearly being affected at work because how they are dressing is holding them back at work, I tell them.  Don’t wait to ask someone about the appearance portion of your executive brand if you want to move to higher levels of influence.  It’s one of the easiest things to modify.

For more on executive brand click here.

If you are getting ready to be on TV or Facebook Live or a make a YouTube video for your organization, click here.

For a private, confidential, coaching session to discuss your executive presence for the purpose of rapidly accelerating your progress towards reaching your potential at work, send me a note.

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Do THIS, Not THAT – to reduce stress at work this week

 

When choosing things to do to reduce stress at work this week, here is a list of some do’s and don’ts.

Reduce Stress at WorkDO:  Eat things that fuel your body’s energy tank. Here’s a list of snacks that increase your energy from Cleveland Clinic Wellness.

DON’T:  Eat things that quickly spike and then crash your blood sugar levels.  Not eating for many hours at a time is also a don’t.  Starving your body will result in lower energy levels.

DO:  Find at least 10-minutes, 3x this week, to either get your heart rate up or get your blood pressure down.  Here are 100 ways to kickstart your brain.

DON’T:  Think that exercise has to been an all out 1-hour sweatfest to be helpful to your health.

No excuses this week.  Take a walk outside, jump on the treadmill, do some squats next to your desk, park farther from your building, do some yoga, try a few push-ups in the morning – anything that gets your body to feel alive and well for even a few minutes, consistently, can make a difference over time in reducing your stress levels.

DO:  Have a 10-minute sweaty conversation with someone that you need to.

DON’T:  Avoid having a necessary conversation with someone at work.  It will only prolong your pain and internal drama.  Remember, when anxiety is up, production is down.

A 10-minute sweaty conversation is one you know you need to have.  It’s that one with your boss that you have had a hundred times in your head and not once out loud with her or him.  You talked it through with everyone but the person you need to have it with.  Write a short script if you need to wherein you show respect and empathy for their side of the situation and you take time to listen to what they have to say about the thing that is bothering you the most.

You may need to have that 10-minute sweaty conversation with a colleague who has missed 4 of the last 5 deadlines.  Their delays are causing you to work late and harder than you have to.  Use the technique stated above.

DO:  Look ahead at the week, make a list, and place the items on your calendar.

DON’T:  Make your brain remember everything you have to do.

One of productive people’s secrets is that they schedule everything they do so they can measure how long things take them.  That way, they can schedule those items more effectively and efficiently in the future.  They don’t clutter their brains with mundane tasks they need to remember to do.  (Why do you think Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs and Albert Einstein all made decisions to wear the same thing every day – they didn’t want to waste any moment of thinking time on mundane items.)

If you haven’t had a chance to read or listen to Time Mastery: 7 Simple Steps to Richer Outcomes, here’s the link.  There’s a whole system for reducing your stress, over time, by designing your time more effectively.

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5 Tips to Help You Kick Off Your Work Week Right

Work Week
Kick off your work week right

Come with me to the no drama zone to kick off your work week right.  Here are some quick tips to help you jumpstart your day with an injection of empowerment.

  • ALARM – what is your alarm set to? A buzz, ding, ring?  Become intentional about what your brain is first exposed to in the morning.  Try setting your iPad or phone to be a something that triggers your prefrontal cortex.  A flood of gratitude works well to immediately quiet the bully brain, as my new friend, Bud Pierce, calls it.  Try this 7-minute gratitude meditation or simply ask yourself questions like:

What am I grateful for today?
Who I am grateful for today?
What material things am I grateful to have today?
Who can I show appreciation to this morning?

  • DRINK – lots of water first thing when waking up. Your body has been dehydrated as you slept.  Kick starting your brain with 16 oz. of water feels great.
  • COLD – At the end of your nice, warm, soothing, shower kick that puppy to full boat cold. Yes, freezing cold.  Tim Ferris, Tony Robbins, and many others have tested this and that slap of cold helps boost your energy level.  WARNING:  It takes a few days to not feel like you are being beaten tortured.
  • BRAIN FOOD – Start with a boost of food for the brain. The brain loves the right kinds of protein, fish oil, spinach, almonds, blueberries.  I’ll be on Good Day Virginia with a recipe for a Brain Smoothie tomorrow morning.
  • STRETCH – your body. Get the blood flowing to your brain.  A few minute routine of yoga can help you feel great as you slowly move and feed each part of your body with an infusion of the right types of chemicals that will help get you in alignment for the day.

Think all this it too much to do in the morning.  EVERYTHING just described may take 2 minutes to set up (permanently) and about 9 minutes to execute.  I promise you, this will make you money, reduce your stress, and help you focus your energy where it will matter the most – outside of the drama zone.  You got this!  Go forth and conquer the day, my friend.  Let me know what you try from this list and how it goes.

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A Leader’s First 90 Days – Onboarding for Successful Outcomes

Many of the executives we work with receive promotions, land their dream job, or become CEO’s.  Having the first 90-day transition, also known as onboarding, go well, can be essential to create connection and engagement with the team they will need in order to be successful.

First 90 Days Cortex CoachingThe First 90 Days:  Proven Strategies for Getting Up to Speed Faster and Smarter by Michael Watkins, is a strong and helpful reference guide for you, as a leader or executive, as you transition to your new position.  Here’s the quick video (a little over 20 min) that has solid take-a-ways that you can immediately use.

  • Promote yourself – not in a self-serving way. Michael explains that you need to mentally prepare for the new role and be sure to get a running start.
  • Accelerate your learning – you’ll need to adopt structured learning methods and ask these questions to your direct reports one-on-one:
  1. What are the biggest challenges the organization is facing (or will face) in the near future?
  2. Why is the organization facing (or going to face) these challenges?
  3. What are the most promising unexploited opportunities for growth?
  4. What would need to happen for the organization to exploit the potential of these opportunities?
  5. If you were me, what would you focus on?
  • Match strategy to situation – diagnosing your situations is key.
  • Secure early wins – the right way by avoiding the most common traps that afflict new leaders, according to Watkins:
  1. Failing to focus.
  2. Not taking the business situation into account.
  3. Not adjusting to the corporate culture.
  4. Failing to get wins that matter to your boss.
  5. Letting your means undermine your ends.
  • Negotiate success – engage with your new boss to shape the game so you have the best chance of reaching the desired outcome and hitting the goal markers along the way.
  • Achieve alignment – make sure that key elements of your team are in alignment.
  • Build Your Team – to create leverage to deliver value. You’ll want to avoid the following traps:
  1. Keeping the existing team too long.
  2. Not repairing the team where it needs it.
  3. Not working organizational alignment and team restructuring issues in parallel.
  4. Not holding onto the good people.
  5. Starting team-building before the core team is in place.
  6. Making Implementation-dependent decisions too early.
  7. Trying to do it all yourself.
  • Create coalitions – by mapping the influence landscape and identifying the key players.

Based on these same types of principles, Becky Freemal did a story for WFXR’s Virginia at Work series on the first 100 days in a new position.  Here’s the video of the story.

 

Start here:

  • Get a head start before the first day, so you can hit the ground running
  • Think team

Focus on these 5 building blocks for increasing tactical capacity for a highly effective team:

  1. Get buy-in for one burning imperative
  2. Use key milestones to drive team per performance
  3. Invest in early wins
  4. Get the right people in the right roles
  5. Shape team culture with an ongoing communication plan

If you are thinking right now, Lynda, I wish I would have had this a year ago when I started this position.  No worries, you can still use these principles and practices to know where you might have pivoted off course.  It can be helpful to hire an executive coach (that would be me or a member of my team) to be a strong and objective thinking pair to give you perspective and help identify how to get things back on track.

The best time to use this list is well before you start the position.  Following this roadmap can help you get off to the best start possible.