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Free Webinar Replay: Don’t Let Fear Sink Your Career

Our free webinar series includes a free webinar offered each month. In this month’s program we covered the topic: Don’t Let Fear Sink Your Career. 

Learning Highlights From Webinar:

How to identify the fears holding you back from living your best life.

  • 7 surefire steps to conquer fear confidently and courageously—including a real-world example of the process in action.
  • What “courage” actually is and what it is NOT. (Hint: This is a critical distinction many people don’t understand!)
  • A simple, effective exercise for evaluating your courage in the workplace.

(We are re-sharing and re-posting this link due to technical errors with the first post.)

 

Access the Webinar Replay:

free-webinar-career-fear [Read more…]

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How To Leverage Criticism At Work

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Autumn is here and I’m loving it. Are you enjoying the cooler weather of fall?

I love fall (yes, even in Las Vegas). To me, fall represents cozying up at home, days ending a little earlier, a new television season, football, cooler evenings and mornings, sweater weather and . . . pumpkin. I am so ready for fall, that I recently brought a pumpkin-scented candle into work for my office, bought pumpkin caramel corn from Trader Joes (for an office staff treat) and am enjoying my pumpkin spice coffee. Yes, I am definitely ready for fall. Life is good!

As long as we are in the workplace, we are going to be criticized at some point by someone about something. Sometimes it hurts when we are criticized, especially when we think we’ve done a good job or handled a situation the best we could. Many people take criticism about their work personally. They carry it with them all day and bring it home to their families. When this happens, their work is affected, their attitude toward co-workers and customers is affected, and they make costly mistakes.

When we disagree with the criticism, we can become so intent on defending ourselves that we lose perspective. We reject the criticizer along with the criticism, rather than objectively examining the criticism to see if there is any wisdom or perspective to be gained for our growth and development. Often, we build our case to justify what we did and why. We become stressed out and angry. Our pulse races, our stomach hurts and we wonder, “Why?” instead of “Why not?”

It’s true that not all criticism is justifiable. Not all criticism is correct or even offered in a healthy way. But we are not in control of others; we are “only” in control of ourselves. Fortunately, that is exactly what is necessary to turn criticism, of any kind, into something we can leverage toward greatness. [Read more…]

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Do you have the courage to be the best?

courage-to-be-the-best

It takes courage to be the best at what you are good at. As children, we are each gifted and talented in different ways. All of these are good and carry the capacity to change the world and enable us to live happy, fulfilling lives. But something happens.

Somewhere along the line, we prize blending in over self-fulfillment to embrace our destiny. We are afraid to stand out and be good at something. We fear being noticed for what we are good at, so we shrink back and avoid opportunities.

What would it be like if you were the best “you” that you could be?

  • How would you be different than you are right now?
  • What would you be doing?
  • How would you be feeling?
  • What about your appearance would change?
  • How would what you say change?
  • How would your attitudes and thoughts be different?

It takes guts to live a showcase-worthy life. First, you’ll need to stop filling up all your time with random things that do not bring you any closer to using your talents. Something will have to go, and it could well have a remote control!

Next, you will need to meet some great new people who love that talent the way you do. Perhaps they like using that same talent or perhaps they appreciate it and are great fans. And you’ll need to experience using your talents. You’ll learn some new skills, understand your talents framework better, and begin to leverage yourself to use your talent. This will all be exhilarating and exciting because it will draw you so much closer, close enough that you can almost taste it.

There will be people along the way who tell you that since they cannot yet see the talent in you being showcased to its full potential that it doesn’t exist or is not worth the effort or time to try to do so. Perhaps most frightening of all, sometimes the person who tells you those very words will be in your own mirror.

Still, the courage to showcase your talent is worth it all. Because in the end, at some wonderful magnificent point, you will showcase your talent. You will actually use it and feel more in tune with yourself than ever before.

Why? Because more than receiving the applause, accolades, recognition, and more than any other single aspect (including being paid for it), is the delight you will have in yourself and in using your talent.

And you will be so happy and glad that you were courageous enough to go for it.

Wishing you a great week.

Joan Burge

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9 Ways To Choose Where You Place Your Attention

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I hope your September is off to a good start. We are quite busy here at Office Dynamics getting ready for our big administrative conference in Las Vegas starting October 10. It’s always a lot of work but we love hosting more than 400 assistants from around the world.
Anyway, on to today’s topic: choosing what you focus on. Thanks to Jasmine Freeman who led our Friday Pillar Huddle, I was reminded about focusing on abundance and the positives in life rather than paying attention to all the negative news, people, and events. For decades I have known the importance of choosing where we focus and how it impacts our moods, work and how we treat others during the day. In our huddle, we discussed things that have negative power over us, such as certain neighbors, the news, Facebook, etc. We have no control over the news and events that we hear about on the news. But the idea is to stop focusing on things you can’t control and focus on things you can control. For example, take the neighbor who never has anything good to say, that person will probably never change. You can stay away from that person or change the conversation to something positive if they start talking negatively. [Read more…]

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How to Positively Slay Your Office Dragons

Office-DragonsI have been speaking on how to slay your ‘Office Dragons’ for 25 years now. It is a favorite topic in my Star Achievement Series® training program.

Dragons are huge, dominating, fictitious creatures. Medieval writers had vivid imaginations for big, scary things. For many people, work is like a dragon. It can be overwhelming and certainly dominates well over half of our waking hours. Sometimes the people we work with can be pretty “fiery” creatures to deal with, too. In dragon-fighting, the important thing to remember is that it’s a matter of the mind. Take care of your attitude today … it’s your primary weapon against office dragons!

There are many dragon species at work. Three of the most common perceived species are leaders, co-workers and self. Yes, you can be a dragon to yourself. [Read more…]

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Thinking Like Leonardo da Vinci Webinar Replay

A free webinar replay is now available. This week we spoke with Lisa Olsen. Our “Thinking Like Leonardo da Vinci” webinar replay is now available. Please feel free to view, share and view again!

Apply the strategies of one of the world’s most revolutionary thinkers to solve complex problems and ignite your creativity in the workplace.

As an attendee, you will learn…

  • A brief introduction to the 7 “da Vincian” principles. (Note: Lisa will dive much deeper into them at the Conference!)
  • How to develop your intuitive decision-making skills and tap into “systems” thinking for problem-solving and process improvement.
  • Powerful strategies that inspire creative thinking and new approaches to self-expression.
  • Simple ways to immediately apply these ideas in the workplace and use them to partner with leadership more effectively.
  • Embrace your inner da Vinci and become a revolutionary thinker!

free webinar for administrative assistants [Read more…]

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8 Tips To Help You Deal With Conflict Better

How do you deal with conflict? Are you a person who holds onto everything or do you let your anger out?

Conflict affects our attitude, which impacts our ability to be productive. Conflict is destructive if not positively handled. It damages peace and orderliness within us as relationships are broken. Our ability to trust people is hindered, and we pull away rather than build relationships.

C = closed-minded
O = opinionated
N = negative attitude
F = frequent frustrations
L = low self-esteem
I = ignorance
C = creates hostile work environment
T = temperamental

Now is the time to resolve conflicts or any long-time resentment. Conflict actually can be good if we use positive energy and strategies to deal with it. Here are a few quick ideas: [Read more…]

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9 Step Process To Manage Your Remote Team

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Companies are going after global talent now and that means hiring remote workers. However, managing a remote team requires a framework that needs to allow for all team members across different time zones to collaborate effectively.

A simple solution to this problem is to use a project management system that helps capture all your ideas in one place. By delegating tasks to individuals, you can track their efficiency. All communication regarding a task should be done on that tasks card.

Trello allows us to manage all our tasks in one place. By prioritizing each task and designating a reasonable time to the task we’re able to manage our effectiveness.

We have decided to kill email and have instead resorted to using only our project management system for all internal communication. We haven’t regretted it so far.

We also use time-tracking software to better understand where most of our time is being spent on. Screenshots allow us to provide proof of work and many times has even helped us recover data.

[Read more…]

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Is Mobile Tech Making You Uneasy At Work And Home?

mobile-tech-making-you-uneasyDoes work seep into your life, after hours and on the weekends? For many people under age 44, unfortunately, that is the case. And with this blurring of lines can come an unease at both the office and home.

There are a lot of reasons for this anxiety. Many of us feel an urgency to emails—that we can’t wait or put it off, that we must respond immediately. Very few of us wait very long to attend to electronic communication. Although the problem crosses genders, it seems to be more of an issue for men, as well as a bigger issue for those that are younger. Just a few percentage of people say that action isn’t nearly always required at once. We’re checking email after hours and on weekends, too. And nearly one-fourth of us in middle age are checking it while we’re supposed to be taking a vacation.

[Read more…]

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Are You Suffering From The Impostor Syndrome

impostor_syndrome

I am so excited it is my birthday this week. I have always loved celebrating my birthday. This year it is extra special because last year, at this time, I was in the hospital having open heart surgery for a mitral valve repair. I am elated I will be spending this birthday with my entire family and not laying in a hospital bed. I am very grateful that I am well and even doing better than ever.

In honor of this year’s birthday, I want to offer you a special gift. A 50% off discount on all Office Dynamics’ online learning programs. Enter coupon code: BDAY64. We have a broad selection of topics and I’m sure you will find something that will benefit you.

Ok, for today’s Monday Motivator I have selected a topic from our Who Took My Pen…Again? book. It’s short and sweet but powerful.

 

The Impostor Syndrome

(From Who Took My Pen . . . Again? By Joan Burge, Jasmine Freeman and Nancy Fraze)

Talking about your shortcomings to your peers or executive—or a mentor—or even a friend outside of work is beneficial. Frankly, it can be a relief when you have people who know you as you really are “today” but who will support your ongoing growth over time.

Have you heard of The Impostor Syndrome? It’s named for the concept that all people cover up to some degree; that they do not always know perfectly what they are doing. We all have a small voice inside, telling us, “If other people only realized what I don’t know ….”

Everyone is so amazed at the opportunities that present themselves and yet here we are, so imperfect. The Impostor Syndrome is that mental merry-go-round of thought that is based upon the idea that we must first be perfect and expert before we would be given this opportunity; we know our ignorance, our own blind spots, yet here we are with the opportunity! Don’t get hung up there. Move on to accept the opportunities and then to grow success in the field where you find yourself. “Bloom where you are planted.”

Honesty is refreshing. Everyone is living life behind a mask, scared to think people might discover what they do not know. Stop hiding. Start talking. “You don’t know what you don’t know” can be a liberating mantra to adopt.

In some instances (and industries) ongoing training and growth is mandatory. And there are some times we are best positioned to allow others more skilled in those areas to take the lead. The important point is to figure out when each of these points comes into play.

We are human, we have strengths and we have shortcomings. Be aware of what these are but do not dwell on them.

 

My Tips:

  1. They say that nobody is perfect.  Then they tell you practice makes perfect.  I wish they’d make up their minds.  ~Wilt Chamberlain
  2. Since you only get out of life what you put into it, stop complaining and get busy!
  3. Accept your shortcomings, but don’t get comfortable with them.
  4. Stretch yourself; develop new skills each year.
  5. Investing in yourself always pays rich dividends.
  6. Don’t accept mediocrity in yourself.
  7. Don’t beat yourself up for what you don’t know.
  8. Reward your growth and goal completion with something nice.

Wishing you a super fantastic week!

Joan Burge

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