The Corporate Woman

I had the opportunity to speak to the local Toastmaster’s group and guests yesterday on the topic of public speaking.  I shared with them my journey from terror and lots of mistakes to finally learning how to be comfortable and myself in front of an audience.  I was happy to share my pain and suffering in the hopes that someone could learn from what I have learned.  The most fun was hearing the questions people asked!

It was also thought provoking to look back and remember how much speaking used to terrify me.  Did it used to scare you?  Or does it still?  Why is this such a scary thing?  At the time, it seemed so clear to me why my knees were knocking, my breath was short and I couldn’t remember a darn thing I planned to say.  But I can’t seem to pin down the why.  It just was.  I am so thankful now that these experiences are actually fun and interesting.  I am fortunate that I was able to learn from all those mistakes and overcome my fear.  Now I get to share what I learned!

Tags: Public Speaking

Sorry for not posting for a bit but I have been sick (again) and feeling pretty muzzy when I am awake.  Not exactly at my stellar best when I am upright and (relatively) mobile.  I have the opportunity to work from home on some days, which definitely helps but I still operate at something less than optimal brain efficiency.  Add to that – my husband and daughter are both getting tagged with each cold/flu/whatever. 

Due to a weakness in my lungs (long story/another post covering allergies, asthma and turpentine), I get sick quite a lot during the winter.  I’ve learned to manage, no doubt just like all of you. 

My top things:  drink lots of warm tea (preferably with honey and lemon) and work from home whenever I am able and sick (which helps me rest more and not share the germs with co-workers).  What are your top tips for working through illness?

Tags: Family, Health

The business planning cycle I have gotten used to seems to be one of good intentions but just slightly off.  I have had the good fortune to see this planning cycle work the same at more than one company.  I ask myself this (and you, of course) – is this cycle a necessity or can it be successfully improved upon?  Here’s the one I mean – it starts with budget time (where you hope you have a solid long range strategy to lean on).  It’s approximately mid-summer.  Now, for some it actually starts a bit sooner or a bit later but I picked a mean.  You haven’t solidified your plan for the next year yet but you have the framework, so you can put together the money.  Then year end hits (for those of you on the calendar fiscal year, which is quite a lot of you) and everyone is focused on that.  Come January, you hope to have a finalized budget and plan for the year.  That is always the goal.  It’s part of why you start the budget cycle early, right?  But how many of you make it to the goal line of early January?  Part of that is because you need to see how year end close went but there are often other factors that get in the way.  So you may not have a final plan and budget until February or even March.  It’s a crazy cycle – shampoo, rinse, repeat!  Every year this happens, everywhere I work or where my friends and colleagues work, it tends to happen.  Does it work better where you are?

Tags: Balance, Change, Leadership, Work

I recently met a great social media expert and interesting guy (who I now follow on Twitter).  Anyway, he recently wrote a great blog about how he does his annual goals and I really liked his approach.  It’s memorable and thought provoking.  http://www.chrisbrogan.com/your-3-goals-for-2009/  He talks about finding three words that represent your filter, your purpose, your goals for the year – so here are my three words:

1) Breathe – this year, I will breathe better, it is my health goal – I will do what it takes and I know what that is (ever had surgery for a deviated septum?  Then you know the pain of which I speak.)

2) Pocket – I always think of time in carved out sections now.  Probably because I have been trained in the corporate view of time in half hour or hour increments.  But this year, I will make more small pockets of time for those I care about.  Pick up the phone for just a few minutes, play a game with Samantha, go to lunch with Shawn – that kind of thing.

3) Fearless – I love that question, “What would you do if you knew you could not fail?” So that is going to be my filter, my gut check for my decisions this year.  I may not change all of my choices based on that but I will know more about why I make the choices I do.  I am going to try to fear less in 2009. 

My three words for 2009.  Let’s see how I do with this, shall we?  Stay tuned and I will let you know.

Tags: Change, Goals

The holidays are over and I am back to work after my longest vacation off in my working history.  It was lovely but it will come as no surprise to those close to me when I mention that I managed to snag an awful virus and was sick for the whole two weeks.  I am still dragging through the dregs of it…  All of that aside, it was a lovely and quiet holiday, filled with family time and I treasure the opportunity I had.

And now, it is time to work with my team to put definition to the strategy elements for 2009.  This is always such a great time of year for work, in my opinion.  I love looking at the long term plan, figuring out what needs to be done this year to get to fulfill that vision and breaking it down to quarterly chunks.  This is the year for retention and customer focus, no doubt about that.  Any company not thinking in those terms are going to have an even tougher year.  

Step one – find our retention version of the angled measuring cup.  If you haven’t heard the President of Oxo International talk about this invention and how it fulfills their principles, you missed out (http://gelconference.com/videos/).  In short, it’s time to find a clearer way of looking at the information to better understand what our challenges are.

Step two – use that information to make the customer experience even better, so we are able to deliver more value to our customers and they want to stay with us longer.

Which brings me back to the beginning – it’s time to plan!  Is that what you are doing this month?

Tags: Balance, Customer Experience, Loyalty, Vacation, Work