I love meetings. Said nobody ever. What’s worse than going to a meeting? That could have been an email going to a meeting with all the senior leadership in your organization where you’re expected to sound brilliant the whole time. So what do you do when you feel your own insecurity setting in ahead of a big important meeting? Keep reading because I’m going to share my best tips for sounding smart in meetings.

Does the idea of speaking up at the meeting make you feel a little queasy? You’re a smart person. Yet, does it feel like the moment you open your mouth at a meeting, all your brilliance goes out the window with your ability to form coherent sentences? It can be intimidating to be in a room full of people you respect, presenting and persuading your ideas and your vision, but sounding smart in your next meeting doesn’t have to be a stomach churning event. I’m going to break down all the prep work you need to do and what you should do during the meeting to sound polished, professional, and smart, in your next meeting.

Phase One: Meeting Preparation.

Step #1: Review materials.

Review the minutes from the previous meeting and ensure your dues are complete.

Step #2: Review the agenda and prepare your talking points.

To master this step, you’ll want to read the upcoming agenda and prepare to persuade or present on important topics and you’ll want to come prepared with an idea, opinion, or thought about the ideas on the agenda. Doing this type of legwork ahead of a meeting, will set you up to make important points in a concise and intelligent way.

Step #3: Know your audience.

Know the stakeholders and the key people attending the meeting so you know where you stand in the meeting and how best to approach the topics, who the stakeholders are and who you might need update after the fact.

Phase Two: During the Meeting.

Step #1: Engage in the meeting within the first 10 minutes.

Step #2: Use the acronym L.I.V. (listen, interpret and validate).

Step #3: Read the room appropriately. Choose your battles wisely and understand your role in the meeting. 

Step #4: Keep it simple. Be a translator of complex ideas.

Step #5: Review the meeting action items and prioritize them for the next meeting.

Are you a busy manager trying to run your team or department like a professional, but you have one employee who gives you headaches. He or she needs lots of direction, time, attention, and he or she zaps your energy. It’s gotten to the point where you need to give some tough feedback. It can be stressful to sit down one-on-one and give crucial feedback, but it’s also part of the a great leader. If you’re feeling the stress or the struggle of giving tough feedback, then this blog post is for you. I’ll tackle the most effective ways to give feedback that builds bridges, not destroys them.

If your frustrated and tired of watching your employee struggle, but you’re stressed and nervous by the idea of giving your employee tough feedback, then keep reading. I’ll walk you through step by step how to give candid, tough, but effective feedback to your employee,  so he or she can grow and thrive (and you can stop sweating!). I’ve seen this work time and time again with my own employees and have coached my managers and clients to use these strategies to make the process not waves.

Step #1: Make it private and confidential.

It’s preferable if this space is not in your bedroom, just to create a healthy boundary between your sleep space and your workspace. But if you have to add this space in your bedroom, opt for a partition or divider to keep these spaces semi-separate.

Step #2: Remove personal tasks and distractions from your view

“How do you think things are going?” Let the employee open up about what they think is going well and what they think could be better. Giving your employee space to provide this feedback to you will allow you to see if your employee knows he/she is struggling or if you need to reset expectations.

Step #3: Level set with the employee’s emotions.

It’s time to break the bad news that the employee isn’t performing as you’d hoped. If the employee knows this already and has acknowledged it, you can say something like, “I can understand how it must feel frustrating for you.” However, if the employee is way off track, it’s better to try something like, “I have some news that may catch you a little off guard and I want to prepare you that this might be hard to hear.”

Step #4: Acknowledge your feelings and perspective.

Step #5: Invite the employee to problem-solve with you.

Step 6: It’s about coaching, not venting.

Working remotely. It sounds like a dream come true to some. I mean, the commute is hard to beat! Right? Yet for others, the idea of working from home can feel like a bad test of their will power. It’s okay if you’re in the latter camp. Perhaps you don’t like the idea of mixing your personal life and your work life within your home. Or perhaps you’re not sure how you feel about trying to focus on your work when your personal obligations are staring you in the face. I get it.

I am going to give you some of my best practices for setting yourself up for success when working remotely. These are practices I had to implement myself when I was put on forced modified bed rest during my pregnancy and they really helped me create healthy boundaries between work and my personal life while ensuring I was productive and successful working from home. So, let’s not delay any more. Let’s dive in.

Step #1: Create a dedicated workspace

If you have the space for a dedicated office in your house, great. But if you’re not necessarily rolling in bedrooms, I totally understand. Find a designated work area where you set up your laptop, your wireless mouse, your work notepad, your to-do list, etc. Make it a work-only space where you can concentrate and be in work mode.

It’s preferable if this space is not in your bedroom, just to create a healthy boundary between your sleep space and your workspace. But if you have to add this space in your bedroom, opt for a partition or divider to keep these spaces semi-separate.

Step #2: Remove personal tasks and distractions from your view

Remove your personal tasks from your workspace, such as your piled up laundry, the pile of thank you cards you need to write, or those bills you need to pay from your view. If your personal tasks start piling up near or around your work-dedicated space, you’ll be tempted to take those on instead of work. This also means removing your TV from your workspace. There is nothing more distracting than a new season of your favorite Netflix show to binge.

Step #3: Create working hours and stick to them

Just because you’re working from home, doesn’t mean you need to work all the time. It is easy to run back to your workspace to send one more email at 9 pm when you’re in your pajamas when you’re working from home. But don’t do it. Instead, create working hours and stick to them. Power up your laptop and log in to your work email during your work hours and power down your laptop when your work hours end. This will ensure you’re creating healthy boundaries between your personal life and your work life. This also means not leaving your workspace in the middle of the day to run personal errands during your work hours. This is a big no-no and will become a slippery slope if you let it.

Step #4: Create a morning and evening routine around work and your personal life

Step #5: Create a priority list

Step 6: Get out of your house

ProTip:

Picture this. You walk into an interview and instead of freezing up or mixing up your words; you actually sound polished, smart, and confident. You might be thinking: who is this body snatcher? Don’t worry, you weren’t abducted by aliens – this could be you after reading this article. So, let’s dive in to my keys to confidence in interviews. 

How many of us have felt imposter syndrome? That feeling that you’re a fraud and you’re going to be found out? I’ve felt this way, and I know it manifests itself at the least opportune times: like in an interview for a new job. My keys to confidence in interviews will help you sound polished and professional in your next interview. I’ve used these keys to help coach my clients through phone interviews, in-person interviews, and panel interviews. So, if you’re facing one of those soon, you’ll want to keep reading.

#1: Approach the interview like a conversation, not an inquisition.

Remember that an interview is not just an opportunity for your future employer to determine if they like you, it’s also an opportunity for you to determine if you like them. So, instead of approaching your next interview like an interrogation, approach it like a conversation. Prepare your own questions ahead of time about the organization’s culture, workplace environment, values, and growth potential. Don’t be afraid to ask questions that relate to the work environment you may be potentially entering.

#2: Capture the vision for the role & paint yourself as the ideal person to execute that vision

One of my favorite ways to determine if I am the right fit for a role is to simply ask the hiring manager what he or she envisions for this role. Most hiring managers have a vision of what their ideal candidate for the role will be like. If you ask, they will often tell you exactly the skills, personality traits, and strengths of their ideal candidate. If what they describes sounds like you, then you know exactly how to paint yourself as the ideal candidate to execute their vision. If their ideal candidate sounds very different from you, then don’t be afraid to say, “I don’t know that I’m the right fit for this role,” or “I feel my strengths are X, Y, and Z, do you feel these strengths would be helpful and/or important in performing this role?”

#3: Prepare stories that emphasize your experience addressing issues, pain points, positive outcomes, and the impact of that outcome on your organization

“Tell me about a time when you had to overcome a difficult problem…” 

This question haunts far too many candidates. Instead of being the candidate who comes up with a bad story on the fly, try preparing your stories ahead of time.

I highly recommend sitting down with your Brag Book and identifying key stories that show you’re a problem-solver. Here are my tips for preparing good problem-solving stories:

1. Document and prepare stories that show an issue or problem that you helped solve.
2. Be specific and call out any pain points that your team or organization was experiencing as a result of this problem.
3. Emphasize the outcome you helped achieve.
4. Express how your work and contributions impacted your organization. 

#4: Ask questions to show engagement.

Why are some managers consistently rated the best, while others fall flat? The difference between the two types of managers is a specific skillset called soft skills. If you’re looking to make the leap into a managerial role or are currently a manager looking to level up, then keep reading. This post and corresponding video will change your entire approach to your professional development.

When I first became a manager, I thought my role was to be a master delegator and taskmaster. I’ve been lucky in my life to have some great mentors and managers who have steered me away from this misguided approach toward a more human-centric approach to management. What is at the core of being a great manager? People skills aka soft skills. Soft skills differ from hard skills in that they are not technical skills, they are learned through practice and repetition. They are the most difficult skills to develop, but also some of the most valuable. 

But how do you determine what soft skills to build out? Well, I coach people every day on this exact topic and I’d like to share just a few of my secrets with you right now. So let’s dive into what soft skills are worth developing and how you can level up your management and leadership skills.

Soft Skill #1: Emotional Intelligence

Remember that managing others is about people; not tasks. Determining what motivates your people will make you a far more effective leader. Remembering that you manage human beings, who have families, emotions, and stressors outside of work, will take you so much farther as a leader than operating as if your employees are widgets or machines. 

Soft Skill #2: Communication

Taking time and making time to communicate your expectations, your vision, and your goals for your team is key. All of this requires strong communication skills.

Soft Skill #3: Teamwork

Being a manager means you need to be a leader. Leaders aren’t just delegates, they are also the person responsible for identifying when their teammates are struggling, need help, or are at capacity. Having a team player mentality is absolutely essential for any strong manager.

Soft Skill #4: Problem-Solving

Soft Skill #5: Empowerment

Take the Quiz!

I don’t know a single person who enjoys reviewing their entire year in one day with their boss. Talk about gruesome.

Annual reviews are a necessary reality of working in the professional working environment. If you’re about to go into yours and you’re feeling nervous or unsure, definitely keep reading because I’m going to walk you through, step-by-step, how to go into your annual review feeling refreshed, excited, and confident. Finally, assertively request that merit increase, a promotion, or just the recognition you deserve for all the hard work you’ve put in this year.

Step #1: Get in the right mindset.

First and foremost, you want to go back and review your brag book. Remind yourself of all the accomplishments and projects you’ve completed this year. You really are a badass and you deserve to be recognized for all the work you’ve put in.

Forget what a brag book is? A brag book is just a document or one place where you keep all your greatest hits or greatest accomplishments for the year. Think of it as your resume 10x. Your brag book is where you keep track of all the projects, the day-to-day tasks, and the goals that you have and what you’ve accomplished as the professional and a leader within your organization. If you haven’t yet created a brag book, check out this blog post where I cover all the details of crafting your very own.

Step #2: Use the three Rs to discuss your accomplishments.

Remind, reiterate and reinvigorate.

• Remind your boss of all the great things that you’ve accomplished through this year and re-tell the stories of success you’ve had.
• Reiterate how things progressed and how you were able to overcome challenges.
• Reinvigorate him or her and re-excite him or her with the progress you’ve made and how you’ve grown as an employee this year.

Step #3: Use the three Ls to discuss your growth.

Discuss what you liked, what you learned, and how you plan to level up.

• What did you like about your position? What did you enjoy doing? How did you position and its current role make you feel empowered and grow as a leader?
• What did you learn from the whole entire process? Recount failures and how you grew as a leader.
• Finally, how did you level up? How did you level up in your current role and get to that next level as a leader?

The ultimate goal of this part of your review is to set yourself up to get comfortable with your ask. Whether it’s a merit increase, a promotion, a bonus, etc. The three Ls help you easily define this and demonstrate your growth as a leader.

Now that you have a clear picture of how to get straight on your annual review, feel free to download my free guide: The Guide to Strategic Promotion Discussions. It walks you through step-by-step what you need to do to get your next level promotion. You definitely want to read it and check it out. It’s free.

In October of 2019, I had the privilege of speaking at the LMA Southwest Regional Conference. The keynote presentation focused on building teams and included an interview with a NASA astronaut. I remember sitting in the room as the astronaut described how many of the astronauts at NASA were former military and how in the military the motto to work-life balance is simply: mission first. NASA has adopted this same motto when it comes to missions. 

As I sat there listening to an astronaut discuss his very dangerous and incredibly high-stress job, the weight of his position landed on me. Astronauts have the lives of their crew members in their hands. If one person screws up, they all could die. 

Nevertheless, I couldn’t help but think that I also had adopted this unrealistic motto for my own job. And let’s be honest, being a law firm executive can be high stress, but if I miss a meeting, nobody dies. Maybe my employee has to track me down later to ask for approval on some expense, a project gets delayed, or a new pricing structure doesn’t go into effect. But nobody dies. 

Yet, I spend a lot of my time operating like my job is the single most important thing in my life. In fact, I’ve adopted a completely unhealthy viewpoint of how my identity is defined by my career success.

When Work & Self Identity Merge

It’s easy to fall into the trap of conversations around work at social events. Frequently when you go out with new friends or acquaintances the conversation can easily segway into a discussion of your work. What do you do? What is your job like? Do you enjoy it?

Does it make you feel important and proud to say you are a professional? A leader? A manager? It always has for me.

But when does the association between work identity and self-identity become unhealthy?

How to Fix an Unhealthy Work/Self Identity

First, congratulations on getting a wonderful promotion! How exciting!

Getting a promotion is such a wonderful opportunity. Now that you have the new title and you’re settling into your new position, you’re likely wondering what’s next. What should you do to ensure you prove your commitment to your new role and responsibilities?

(1) Take on a positive and eager mindset.

I’ve hired a lot of people at my firm. Over 40% of the firm’s employees actually. But one of the hardest roles to hire for is a good manager. Beyond the obvious factors, such as skills, experience, and technical know-how, what differentiates one manager candidate from the potential manager I end up hiring?

There are three traits I look for in a manager. When I think of my best managers, they exhibit these three traits. These are the traits that lead me to develop strong lasting teams that grow in strength year-over-year.