In Search of Confidence - June blog
It always warms my heart to witness the transformational changes that occur when people tackle their fears and step into confidence.
I can’t give you a recipe for the result as there isn’t a formula but I CAN tell you that, as a rule of thumb, 2x confidence = 10x results. It benefits everyone when confidence is increased. This month’s post features suggestions on how to do just that.
===============
In Search of Confidence
Be the Best Version of Yourself
Celebrate your Idiosyncrasies
Everyone knows that ‘nobody’s perfect’, yet our self-judgements can make us feel less confident. Treat your thoughts and your idiosyncrasies with patience, grace, and even humor to build a more positive and confident mindset.
Explore and Embrace your Values
Be clear on what’s important to you - your personal mission and corresponding values. Clarity on your values will help you confidently choose opportunities which are in alignment with your own purpose and intentions. This level of self-knowledge can develop into a ‘sixth sense’, which may help you confidently and efficiently filter in and out opportunities and connections.
Manage the Voice in your Head
Befriend the voice in your head so that it benefits you, focusing on what’s within your control, and on how to be compassionate and supportive of your process while also learning from your mistakes. Remember that the goal is not to be more perfect, but to be more confident!
Choose to Learn and Grow
Explore with curiosity and purposeful passion where you are being called to continue learning and growing. People learn more from their failures than from their successes, so be on the lookout for the gift in every shortcoming and find the real treasure in your experience.
Courageously Embrace Uncomfortable Opportunities
All the points above will help you to more confidently and courageously embrace select uncomfortable opportunities which would, in turn, help you become a better version of yourself.
Communicate and Connect
Connect Your Thinking, Speaking and Actions
If you choose to be the best version of yourself, you can also align the way you think, the way you speak, and the way you act so that you trust yourself to communicate, connect and coordinate with confidence.
Speak with Passion and Purpose
If you think, speak and act with authentic passion and purpose, you will more likely connect with like-minded others to achieve common objectives.
Empower Others with Confidence
Continue to connect, inspire and empower others to overcome obstacles with grace, and incrementally achieve milestones. Encouraging and guiding receptive others is a powerful way to build the confidence and integrity of a team or community.
Transcend Beyond Self and Others
Address Unwanted Patterns
Identify and respect patterns around the data and the feedback, so that you can be grounded in your confidence, knowing that you and the group are progressing toward your goals, making decisions that are backed by the data.
Use the Wisdom of the Crowd
Gather input from a diverse set of stakeholders to ensure continued alignment with the mission, vision and values of the cause. Solicit feedback and input from a wide range of others so you can better serve the larger vision, the greater good.
Confidence is a choice. Choose to know yourself, grow yourself, and step into the next version of you and maximize your impact on the people around you and the world at large.
Notes from last month’s When She Speaks Online Program
FountainBlue's May 12 When She Speaks program was on the topic of 'Expanding Your Circle of Influence'. Please join me in thanking our esteemed panelists and our hosts at Cisco.
Our dynamic, diverse and inspiring panel spoke eloquently on the topic of influence. Below is a summary of their thoughts and recommendations.
Be fully your authentic self, and invite and support others to do the same.
Be self-aware enough to know your values, your intentions, your personal purpose. Then choose to work with the people, projects, and solutions which are in alignment.
Encourage, support and reward others you touch to reach for this alignment.
Communicate and Connect with Boldness and Courage.
Stand up, speak up, take the space and think/speak/act not just for yourself, but for the people you touch, and the people who follow after you.
Be open and vulnerable and listen deeply with the intent to understand not just what's communicated, but also the implications of the communication - like the motivations of the speakers, like the message about the product, team or organization.
Pave a path for those around you, those who follow you.
Walk with intention and courage in order to forge a path for others. At times, this means you have to break the mold or swim against the tide.
Respect the people who supported you along the way by paying it forward, mentoring, sponsoring and supporting select others to be more influential in specific ways.
Strategically grow your impact and influence, for the benefit of all.
While you're inviting and collecting input, err on the side of action so that you can impact and influence a specific goal/intent/milestone in measurable ways.
Choose to be prepared, to communicate well, to execute well, in collaboration with trusted others, to deliver the measurable impact for eager customers and stakeholders.
Work the relationships and the network and keep increasing and improving your personal network of trusted other as well as the broader ecosystem.
The bottom line for all influencers, no matter your role or impact, is to manage and project a positive energy forward with intention. This means that we must each choose to be the vitamin rather than the germ, and choose to filter the energy impacting us, so that you can deliver positive energy to the causes which align to our values, our purpose, and our intentions.
Notes from last month’s Front Line Managers Online Program
FountainBlue's May 5 Front Line Managers Online program on the topic of 'Leveraging Data to Make Decisions'. Please join me in thanking our panelists.
as a People Leader - Tammy Sanders, Lam Research
as a Program Leader - Susan Eagleson, Jade Global
as a Business Leader - Dennise Gearty, Cisco
Our panelists represented a range of organizations, backgrounds and roles, but they had much in common:
They are experienced managers and leaders committed to making decisions which benefit the individuals, teams, and organizations they work with.
They are open-minded and strategic while also being plan-ful and action-oriented.
They are clear and inspiring communicators who help us all think through how we make decisions leveraging data.
Below is a compilation of their suggested best practices.
Be Strategic
Create guidelines and guardrails for the decisions you make:
Guardrail: Choose to be in compliance with mandates and requirements for your selves, your team, your product, your organization.
Guideline: Choose to be in alignment with your core values as well as the corporate values and business goals for your organization.
Organize and prioritize the vectors which impact the success of a decision (like efficiency, culture, customer requirements) and consider how various solutions might serve the needs of the range of stakeholders before deciding which solution is optimal.
Consider which parties are the responsible, accountable, consulted, and informed parties (RACI) as you strategically think through what decision to make and how the decision will be implemented.
Use past experiences, projected future demands and scenario planning to make decisions which would impact our teams, products and organizations in the future.
Choose Relevant Data
Collaborate with stakeholders to help ensure that the data in consideration is relevant, timely, accurate, updated, etc., so that a decision is made based on accurate data.
Err on the side of action, but be nimble about pivoting to another strategy should the data suggest that's warranted. If a shift should occur, proactively communicate the shift and reasoning and ensure alignment and buy-in from stakeholders.
Focus on the larger strategic objectives rather than repeatedly focusing 'ditch-to-ditch', doing deep dives into collections of raw data.
Communication is Key
Clearly, authentically and transparently communicate throughout the decision-making process.
Send detailed updates, reports and roadmaps after a decision is made to keep stakeholders in the know.
Invite input, feedback, data and perspectives throughout the decision-making and implementation process.
Choose to Be Inclusive
Chime in and be heard, and help make it culturally safe to do so, welcoming others to share their perspectives, no matter where they sit at the table, and even if their opinion deviates from the norm.
Solicit input from multiple stakeholders and facilitate collaborative conversations to help ensure that the goals and requirements are clear, the right data is collected, the right people are involved and supported, and that the results are in alignment with the objectives.
Empower, train and motivate a wide range of people to participate in the decision-making process.
It's not simple or easy to leverage data to make decisions. But this month's leaders and managers show how we can more clearly and strategically manage and lead through the decision-making process.
Notes from last month’s VIP Roundtable Online Program
FountainBlue's May 12 VIP Roundtable was on the topic of 'Carbon-Neutral Energy Solutions'. Our executives in attendance represented a wide range of backgrounds, industries and perspectives, but they agreed on the following points:
Carbon-Neutral energy solutions drive both sustainability and business goals while serving CSR goals and the needs of customers.
The cost-efficient production, generation and usage of energy is foundational to all industries and organizations. Each innovator and leader might have different strategies for optimizing how energy is produced and managed at the office and at the plants, but sharing best practices across industries may benefit all.
The customer fervor, international policy, and employee penchant for sustainable solutions is driving business initiatives and goals.
Our executives pointed out that the challenge is to create and manage a cost-efficient source of energy for the products manufactured and produced, and to manage the energy generated so that we can proactively ensure 1) that energy is consistently available and plan-fully distributed, 2) that the equipment used to produce, store and manage the energy is safe and functional, 3) that the people using the energy are kept safe, 4) that the platform and infrastructure is operational and scalable, and 5) that the data respects privacy, security and access protocols.
Our executives agreed that innovation will drive the development of carbon-neutral solutions.
Automation of tasks, systems and even factories will continue to generate astounding results, including automations to create more sustainable impact. We continue to do more work reliably with less human-power (which is not to say that humans will be replaced by robots or automation).
Innovation in fuels will help us all more efficiently travel through cars, boats, planes, scooters, etc.,
There are tremendous opportunities to monitor and measure energy usage so that we can proactively plan where energy is distributed, when to use it, how to distribute it efficiently and fairly, etc.,
Successfully innovating on the edge can help us all better manage energy usage and distribution, but the solutions themselves will need to be powered by some form of energy.
But it's the people and the policies which will define how well carbon-energy solutions succeed.
We need to choose innovation while managing risk.
We need to better collaborate and share best practices.
We need to provide solutions which are easy to use and readily adopted.
We need to create and serve a connected, intelligent network of leaders, entrepreneurs, investors and executives.
We need to create and drive policies which build infrastructure and support so that solutions can be more broadly adopted.
The conversation this morning was mind-boggling in different ways as each executive brought a new perspective to the table. The bottom line is that it takes an army of innovators and leaders, working in collaboration for the greater good of all, so that most can benefit from the transition to more carbon-neutral energy solutions.