Category: Blog

  • Are You Ready to Leave an Unfulfilling Work Environment?

    Are You Ready to Leave an Unfulfilling Work Environment?

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    Since we’re still in January, may of us are trying to figure out where we want to go next, how we want to get there, and who will help us on this journey. Many of us ask ourselves if we’re in an unfulfilling work environment before we look inward to self-reflect.

    The real question here is, who do you want to become?  

    For that, we want to look at three areas:

    1. Your current environment and whether it supports your goals.
    2. How you show up in that environment and where you need to show up differently.
    3. How to course correct so you can get back on a path that’s best for you.

    Here are five articles to help you out of an unfulfilling work environment.

    1. How toxic is your workplace exactly?

    Here are six behaviors that will keep showing up if you work in a toxic environment. As this Inc. article says, 61% of employees said that workplace stress has made them sick. If you find that you’re affected by three or more of these behaviors, you’ll need to take action. So what’s a person to do? Evaluate whether it’s healthy to stay. If you can’t leave (due to any number of circumstances) then start setting strong boundaries. This is not easy but it is in your control and can lead to change.

    2. At Netflix, radical transparency and a blunt culture.

    On the other side of the coin is this Wall Street Journal article about Netflix and it’s culture. While on the outside, it may appear that the culture is cut-throat and toxic, their retention rates are high, and the people who left, or were asked to leave, still praised the company (“at least I can say I worked at Netflix”). Very successful companies with high growth, like Netflix, can afford to have a strong results-driven culture. So what’s the lesson? Well, that’s up to you. I would find this culture difficult to navigate and smack of an unfulfilling work environment, but others might like the rules of engagement. Decide for yourself what kind of culture fits your ambition and find your tribe.

    3. Getting to the bottom of destructive behavior.

    We all have a self-destructive side. There is something inside us that will make us feel uncomfortable when we reach a point that’s outside our comfort zone. Some of us step into it, some of us walk away from it, and some of us try to destroy it. Eventually, we can look back and see where we’ve exhibited all three choices throughout our lives. If you find that the “destroy it” behavior is now flaring up more often and consequently holding you back, this article from Harvard Business Review gives you a great framework for keeping that behavior in check.

    4. Five books that help you set boundaries. 

    Yes, it’s another article about books. For those of you who dive in and read anything you can get your hands on in an effort to find self-improvement, or even just self-validation, I’ve got you covered. There are five books in this Fortune article and they’re all good, but the one I like the most is F*ck No! How to Stop Saying Yes. Sometimes we have to be tough on ourselves to really learn how to stand firm on our boundaries. This is the latest in a series of books by Sarah Knight, but they’re all good. Now, if you don’t like salty language … then this book might not be for you. The other books on this list are also equally great.

    5. Eight questions to diagnose your career status

    If after reading these other articles, you’re ready to assess your current situation and formulate a plan to make a move, this article from Entrepreneur gives a great roadmap. The article is an excerpt from Kanika Tolver’s book, Career Rehab and provides some simple yet powerful coaching questions throughout. It’s a great way to evaluate whether you work in an unfulfilling work environment and what to do to change that.

    On a final note, I’d like to quote Paul Coelho, “If you think adventure is dangerous, try routine. It’s lethal.” In the spirit of this week’s email, take the time to look around you and evaluate if you’ve fallen into these behaviors or attitudes out of complacency. Small changes can also lead to big adventures.

     

    Christina Holloway is an executive coach and business coach. She helps executives and entrepreneurs grow their companies faster, create results-driven teams, and increase profitability. She has been featured in ForbesThe Huffington PostAddicted2Success and Fast Company. If you’re interested in working with Christina, take a look at her strategy sessions and contact her to get started.

  • How to Define Your 2020 Goals and Find Your Voice

    How to Define Your 2020 Goals and Find Your Voice

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    Happy New Year! If you’re like me, you spent the last six weeks reconnecting with old friends, spending time with family, and eating way too much despite your best intentions. I always try to stop and enjoy that time as a way to reconnect with my dreams and ambitions. Now that the holidays are behind us, I’m ready to hit the ground running and make some 2020 goals and resolutions.

    Here are five articles to get the new year and new decade off to a terrific start.

    1. How to set realistic New Year’s resolutions for your business.

    If you’re into New Year’s resolutions, this article from GoDaddy is for you. It goes into the measurable results you can set for your business growth, but it also anchors them in the SMART goals approach. If you’re not familiar with SMART goals, have a look at the article. They can be applied to personal 2020 resolutions and goals as well as business objectives.

    2. Ten must-read books to expand your mind.

    Make no mistake, this is a list of leadership books, but the interesting part about this article from The Enterprisers Project is that it focuses on the importance of emotional intelligence. It includes some notable authors like Daniel Pink and Tim Ferriss, as well as links to additional content from the authors.

    3. Don’t set too many 2020 goals for yourself.

    This Harvard Business Review article comes from one of my favorite authors, Dorie Clark. Here she talks about the benefits of having a long-range plan for yourself, but also checking in frequently throughout the year to course correct, if necessary. Conducting a 90-day review each quarter can have a huge impact on your progress and success as you map out your 2020 goals.

    4. A decade detox for your 2020 goals. 

    This article from Well & Good is an easy read. The interview with Patty Morrissey, who is an expert on organization, is simple and direct. What I like are the clear coaching questions to help you understand how the last decade played out for you. When did you feel the most alive? When did you feel the most drained? When could you have shown up better? Taking the time to understand the last 10 years goes a long way to understanding what you need going forward and how setting your 2020 goals will propel you in a new direction.

    5. Coffee and chocolate make you smarter. 

    It’s frivolous, I know. But when I saw the article, it made me smile. And that’s kinda the point. We all know the cycle by now. Studies show something is good for you and then another study a month later says it isn’t. You can’t win, but if you enjoy your cup of joe in the morning or your chocolate hit in the afternoon, then take this moment to savor the fact that a study supports your dietary choices … until next month, when it doesn’t.

    And don’t forget to start the new year with some reflection. Many of us are evaluating the choices we’ve made over the past few years, where that has taken us to this moment, and what we need to do to continue on this path, redirect, or let it go. It can be overwhelming.

    For that, let me ask you this. If what you’re feeling right now had a voice, what would it say to you? Listen to it, think about it, and then take small steps to honor it.

     

    Christina Holloway is an executive coach and business coach. She helps executives and entrepreneurs grow their companies faster, create results-driven teams, and increase profitability. She has been featured in ForbesThe Huffington PostAddicted2Success and Fast Company. If you’re interested in working with Christina, take a look at her strategy sessions and contact her to get started.

  • How to Start 2020 on the Right Foot

    How to Start 2020 on the Right Foot

    How to give feedback the right way

     

    With the year (and decade) coming to a close, new beginnings in 2020 may inevitably be on your mind.

    We all want to show up in 2020 with a sense of change for the better, a sense of empowerment, and a sense of bigger and better things to come. It’s a new decade after all! The draw of new beginnings is strong.

    And I’m here for it … all of it!

    Here are five articles that focus specifically on making small changes in how you show up every day to help you develop the skills and habits that amplify your leadership potential as you embark on new beginnings in 2020.

    1. Organizations don’t change — people do.

    This article from McKinsey digs deep into the idea that change happens in an organization when the people show up differently. If you seek to lead powerfully and effectively, take the time to look at your internal experiences. Once you take accountability as a leader by understanding your motivations and inner drives, you can focus on developing awareness.

    2. To be an authentic leader in 2020, embrace your inner loser.

    This article from Transformational Leadership explores the relationship between stepping outside your comfort zone and the fear of failure. The underlying message here is that a fear of failure can inform and undermine your best efforts to find your authentic leadership voice. There’s some great advice here about what authenticity means in terms of navigating challenging situations.

    3. From potential to potent: small identity shifts for everyday evolution.

    This article from B the Change talks about how making small changes every day can open a path to significant change down the road. And it doesn’t take much effort. As the article says, new beginnings start with awareness and character.

    4. Find your leadership style in 2020. 

    There are many articles on what it means to define a leadership style and step into the strengths for the style that suits you best. This article from American Express goes into the basics of the different types of leadership style that you have most likely run into throughout your career. The article concludes with a simple exercise for stepping into your preferred leadership style with confidence.

    5. What great leaders really do. 

    This article by John Kotter originally appeared in the 2001 publication of Harvard Business Review, and it explores the differences between management and leadership. It’s a pretty deep read with a focus on the differences between coping with complexity (management) versus coping with change (leadership). The point? Management and leadership are two very different distinct roles, and this article helps you clearly identify what it means to step into leadership, in 2020 and beyond.

    This week’s blog post carries a pretty heavy dose of internal change! Remember to be kind to yourself and progress at your own pace. The best change happens within and it only takes small tweaks to see big momentum. And that’s the best way to start 2020 on the right foot!

     

    Christina Holloway is an executive coach and business coach. She helps executives and entrepreneurs grow their companies faster, create results-driven teams, and increase profitability. She has been featured in ForbesThe Huffington PostAddicted2Success and Fast Company. If you’re interested in working with Christina, take a look at her strategy sessions and contact her to get started.

  • What Does Work-Life Balance Look Like to You?

    What Does Work-Life Balance Look Like to You?

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    If you’re like most people these days, you’re finding that the end of the year can become overwhelming pretty fast. There are holidays, tight deadlines, and personal responsibilities all with their own expectations. Throw in unexpected obligations and spending time with family (that may or may not be pleasant) and you find yourself feeling more stressed than blessed. It’s easy to forget what work-life balance looks like.

    For me, I’m finding this time of year especially full. I hosted Thanksgiving dinner, and then immediately headed to London for a training program on the Hogan assessment, which coincided with my birthday, along with an influx of new client opportunities.

    And it’s this trip that has me thinking about how to creatively find work-life balance.

    If you had asked me just a few months ago if I could squeeze a trip to London into my schedule, I would have laughed. And yet, when the opportunity presented itself, I realized it would be the perfect time to step away and clear my head.

    If you struggle with work-life balance, especially at this time of year, here are five articles on how to manage stress, practice self-care, and balance priorities.

    1. Three techniques to avoid burnout.

    In general, burnout is one of the top indicators that signal when we have lost equilibrium or balance in our lives. This article from Inc. Magazine dives into how damaging it can be, especially for startup business owners and entrepreneurs. The article also outlines three very important techniques that will help with the overwhelm.

    2. The importance of work-life balance.

    This video feature for Entrepreneur by Jack Canfield provides great advice for better time management. His advice includes a creative method for prioritizing your time, setting clear boundaries, and yes … taking that vacation.

    3. Five signs you need to check your work-life balance.

    Naturally, an article from Self Magazine is going to focus on self-care, and that happens to be a very important part of finding work-life balance. What makes this article interesting, and an easy read, is that it reminds us what stress can look like once we internalize it — moodiness, forgetfulness, negative thoughts, or lack of interest in the things you once loved. It’s an important reminder why balance is so important to our well-being.

    4. Why you should take time away from your to-do list. 

    This article from Swirled goes into the benefits of actually stepping away from your prioritized responsibilities and how it can positively influence your life and state of mind. The article explores the reasons why stepping away from your action items or to-do list can help clear your mind, reduce stress, and foster productivity.

    5. The evolving definition of work-life balance. 

    This is an interesting article from Forbes that explores what work-life balance looks like across generations, and what it means to offer work-life incentives that create a flexible and happy work environment for everyone. As the article states, attitudes on work-life balance will continue to evolve with cultural, generational and economic changes. A company that can adapt will find itself ahead of the curve.

    This can be a crazy time of year, so make sure you take the steps necessary for self-care and reflection. Ask yourself what one thing you can focus on starting now until the end of the year that can help you find balance? Make sure it’s realistic so you can achieve it without too much struggle. Some ideas might include focusing on your health (massage, exercise or diet), setting up times to unplug, setting tighter boundaries at work or at home, or making time for yourself (reading, baking, or even shopping).

    On a final note, it’s my birthday! … and I’m in London. Not a bad way to find work-life balance, so here’s a picture of me celebrating after the training seminar.

     

    Christina Holloway is an executive coach and business coach. She helps executives and entrepreneurs grow their companies faster, create results-driven teams, and increase profitability. She has been featured in ForbesThe Huffington PostAddicted2Success and Fast Company. If you’re interested in working with Christina, take a look at her strategy sessions and contact her to get started.

  • Does Your Communication Style Help You or Hold You Back?

    Does Your Communication Style Help You or Hold You Back?

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    It all comes down to creating a communication style that projects confidence.

    The overwhelming majority of the work I do with my clients centers around helping them find their voice in difficult situations. This is about creating a powerful communication style that projects confidence. The biggest question most people ask me is, “How do I handle this situation and come out looking like a leader and a professional?”

    An effective communication style is a really big topic, so this week I wanted to spend time focusing on what it means to communicate holistically. In other words, how do we show up across the board — in meetings, in email, on social media, in arguments, and as a visionary?

    To help answer those questions, here are five articles on how to communicate more effectively.

    1. The best communication style for workplace success.

    This article by Glassdoor goes into seven points that remind us what it means to communicate in the workplace. This includes how we listen, how we speak, how we move, and how we write. The article may come across as listing some basics that we all should know, but together, it gives a comprehensive look at how communication is more than just what you say.

    2. The power of person-first language.

    This article from Entrepreneur starts out with a powerful story about Fred Rogers and a moment he had with a disabled boy. It then explores the connection to how we should approach disability in the workplace. There are key reminders here of how our language affects the people around us, and what it means to speak with awareness.

    3. Diffusing an emotionally charged conversation.

    Here’s a great article from Harvard Business Review that explores the psychology behind conflict and how to navigate a difficult conversation. The author, Ron Friedman, provides a specific series of relationship-building statements to make conversations more productive, which he outlines through the PEARL acronym.

    4. Five habits of highly effective communicators. 

    This is another seemingly simple article from Forbes that outlines five habits to improve your communication skills. In this article, however, the author, Susan Tardanico, is asking us to reflect on our communication skills as a way of fine tuning our emotional intelligence. She talks about trust, simplifying complex concepts, finding your own voice, and much more.

    5. Effective communication style under pressure. 

    This article from Workforce Focus explores what communication looks like during stressful situations. In this circumstance, it isn’t really about conflict. It’s more about navigating a high-stress situation while getting better results from the people around you. One interesting tip is about challenging your story. Have you positioned yourself as a victim or helpless participant? Do you have a tendency to find a villain so you can emerge victorious? What we think of ourselves is a large part of how we choose to communicate to others. Is your communication style self-defeating? If so, it’s time to re-evaluate how you show up.

    Keep in mind, having strong communication skills is a work in progress. We are always finding ourselves in new and unfamiliar situations; we always wish we had said something else in hindsight. These tips and techniques are intended to provide you with self awareness, and communication tools that help diminish the impact of the fear of the unknown.

     

    Christina Holloway is an executive coach and business coach. She helps executives and entrepreneurs grow their companies faster, create results-driven teams, and increase profitability. She has been featured in ForbesThe Huffington PostAddicted2Success and Fast Company. If you’re interested in working with Christina, take a look at her strategy sessions and contact her to get started.

  • How to Nail the Hiring Process

    How to Nail the Hiring Process

    “Setting

     

    As 2019 wraps up and we head into the new year, many of us will begin taking stock of what we’ve accomplished in the past year, and even the past few years. As such, I’d like to focus the last few blog posts on how to step into the new year with some positive momentum, starting with how to nail the hiring process.

    This week, I’m sharing best practices on the hiring process.

    The focus here is on understanding our mindset when it comes to hiring decisions, and improving the entire hiring process so that we find and interview the best people, while removing any kind of bias that might lead us towards making the same hiring mistakes we’ve made in the past.

    To help make the process less complicated, here are five articles on how to hire the best person for the job.

    1. Be honest with yourself about why you’re not hiring.

    This is a short article from Inc., but very important for those of us who need to hire help. The most important statement comes at the end of the article — if you hired someone to do the busy work, are you confident enough in your ability to handle the higher-level tasks? Sometimes we sabotage our best efforts out of fear.

    2. Seven ways to improve your hiring process.

    While this article from Business News Daily seems simple enough, it includes one point that often gets overlooked — make sure to fit the personality to the job. There are also a number of links to other articles for each tip listed, including how to do a background check.

    3. How to hire the best person, not the right person.

    This is a pretty thorough article from Software Advice about what it means to hire the best candidate for a job opening. It includes many interview questions and interview scenarios that will help you zero in on the best person to fill your open job posting.

    4. Interview questions that will reveal the best candidates. 

    Here’s a great article from TLNT – Talent Management & HR. It breaks down the interview questions into four specific categories with explanations as to why each category of questions is important to the interview process. It also provides additional links to explain why standard interview questions fail and how to avoid making the same mistakes outlined.

    5. How to reduce personal bias when hiring. 

    This is a great article from Harvard Business Review on what it means to have bias in the interview process, how to avoid falling into the bias trap ourselves, and how to educate ourselves on what bias really looks like. The author, Ruchika Tulshyan, provides many links to books and additional articles, as well as Kristen Pressner’s TEDx talk where she discusses how she dealt with realizing she had a bias against women. It’s quite powerful.

    The underlying theme here deals more with self-awareness. The more time we spend figuring out exactly who we are (as a business or a department or a hiring manager), the less time we will spend interviewing people who are wrong for the job. In other words, do as much pre-work as you can to attract the best people.

     

    Christina Holloway is an executive coach and business coach. She helps executives and entrepreneurs grow their companies faster, create results-driven teams, and increase profitability. She has been featured in ForbesThe Huffington PostAddicted2Success and Fast Company. If you’re interested in working with Christina, take a look at her strategy sessions and contact her to get started.

  • How to Give Feedback the Right Way

    How to Give Feedback the Right Way

    How to give feedback the right way

    Ah, feedback. A word that can send a shudder up the spine, cause sweaty palms, create anxiety, or send even the most emotionally intelligent person into a frenzy. And that applies to the person giving feedback, as well as the person receiving it.

    So what’s going on? Well, the term has always been associated with reviewing a situation that went wrong, and for years corporate culture has been working to remove the stigma of giving feedback as a necessary evil. It’s true, feedback doesn’t have to be painful, but at its core, feedback is a human interaction and this can be complicated.

    To help make the process less complicated, here are five articles on how to give feedback in a constructive and meaningful way.

    1. Everything you know about giving feedback could be wrong.

    I’m starting with the most powerful article I’ve seen on how to manage effectively with feedback. This interview with Marcus Buckingham for The Washington Post is clear: management is messy and humans aren’t perfect. For more insight into his methodology and an excerpt from his book, head over to this Harvard Business Review article.

    2. How to make it safe for your team to give you feedback.

    As this article for Entrepreneur clearly explains, it’s your responsibility to create an environment that encourages people to speak their minds. The author also goes into behavior profiles like the Bureaucrat, the Blue Blood, and the Glory Keeper that prevent healthy feedback from happening.

    3. The psychology behind better workplace feedback.

    This blog post from Cognology discusses the 15 surprising facts around the psychology of behavior. The first fact: people don’t take feedback from someone they don’t trust. Truth!! The list only gets better after that.

    4. How to give constructive feedback in the workplace. 

    This article by David Rodeck for ADP gives a straightforward outline for how to prepare to deliver feedback in a healthy and productive way. He puts the focus on creating the right environment and ensuring your in the right mindset before starting the feedback process.

    5. Highlight success and not failure. 

    Ayelet Fishbach recently gave an interview for the Chicago Booth Review on learning from success vs. learning from failure. In the interview, she talks about her research, which indicates that we remember our successes better and tend not to internalize our own failures. What does this have to do with feedback? If we learn more from our successes, then providing feedback that redirects us back to those moments can be powerful.

    This last one is a little controversial. My approach has always been about using positive reinforcement and strengths development to build high performance teams. There is research, however, to illustrate that taking this concept to an extreme does no good, either. Finding balance is important, but avoiding feedback or difficult conversations only creates bigger problems down the road. Ask yourself how you can step out of your comfort zone to have a productive conversation. Where can you start small? Then build from there.

     

  • The Value of Mentorship

    The Value of Mentorship

    “Setting

     

    As Steven Spielberg once said, “The delicate balance of mentoring someone is not creating them in your own image, but giving them the opportunity to create themselves.” This is the value of mentorship.

    This, above anything else, is at the heart of what it means to …

    1. Give in a mentoring relationship
    2. Receive in a mentoring relationship

    I’ve had many mentors in my life — people that I knew very well who guided me through tricky situations professionally, as well as people I’ve admired from afar. That second group served as guiding lights, helping me discover who I want to be professionally and how I want to show up in front of others. Both are valuable and both can have tremendous impact on our careers.

    So let’s take a deeper look at mentorship. Here are five articles on how to make the most of mentoring.

    1. What the best mentors do.

    This article from Harvard Business Review explores the evolution of mentorship in a tech-enabled world and provides four guiding principles for making the most of a mentoring relationship while understanding the value of mentorship from this perspective.

    2. How mentoring in the workplace can strengthen a company.

    If you’ve ever considered implementing a mentor program at your company, this article by Robert Half provides five foundational elements for ensuring your program is a success.

    3. Understanding the value of mentorship.

    This article by The Balance Careers provides a great breakdown of how mentorship works, what it means to be a mentor and what to expect as a mentee.

    4. How the value of mentorship equals a mutually beneficial partnership. 

    Yes! This article from Mind Tools explores the benefits of mutual mentoring, which includes engaging with someone who encourages you and challenges you to reach your goals.

    5. The do’s and don’ts of mentoring. 

    This article from Forbes provides guidance on where a mentoring relationship can go off the rails. My favorite part: don’t be the hero.

    I’m going to wrap this article up with another quote. As Winston Churchill said, “We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give.” So tell me, do you currently have a mentoring relationship? If so, ask yourself how you can show up differently to breathe new life into the relationship. If not, what’s holding you back? How can you redefine what mentorship looks like so you can open that path before the end of the year? Did you find the value of mentorship to be one-sided? How can you add more balance to that relationship to start 2020 strong?

     

    Christina Holloway is an executive coach and business coach. She helps executives and entrepreneurs grow their companies faster, create results-driven teams, and increase profitability. She has been featured in ForbesThe Huffington PostAddicted2Success and Fast Company. If you’re interested in working with Christina, take a look at her strategy sessions and contact her to get started.

  • The C-Suite is Calling — Are You Ready For It?

    The C-Suite is Calling — Are You Ready For It?

    “Setting

     

    So, you have your sights set on the big prize — the head honcho, the top dog, the big enchilada … the c-suite.

    Great! Let’s talk more about that. Whether you find that your progress has stalled, or that the possibility of a c-suite position sounds intriguing, the articles below will help you lay out a concise and effective strategy for accomplishing your ambitious goals.

    And hey, even if you aren’t angling for that big position, most (probably all) of the advice in these articles will set you up for success in any role or circumstance.

    Here are five articles on how to enter the c-suite.

    1. Four keys for reaching the c-suite.

    If your biggest aspirations include getting to the c-suite, then you’ll want to start by cultivating these four key areas of readiness as defined by William Pasmore for the Center for Creative Leadership. His readiness parameters include experience readiness, personal readiness, network readiness, and relationship readiness. The important takeaway? Interpersonal relationships define three of the four areas. In other words, learn how to deal with people.

    2. How to get on the shortlist for the c-suite.

    Once you’ve done the work of making yourself a strong contender for the c-suite position, you want to work on making yourself one of the top potential candidates under consideration. This HBR article by Cassandra Frangos outlines simple, yet important, fundamentals to follow. They include timing, experience, impact, culture, broad support, and CEO chemistry. Don’t be surprised if you see a few of these elements pop up in any one of the other articles mentioned here.

    3. Navigating the c-suite and managing relationships.

    If you’re the kind of person who likes to pour over detailed research and analysis, you might enjoy this downloadable PDF from Deloitte. This study focuses on the importance of stakeholder buy-in coupled with effective communication techniques. There’s even a chart to illustrate the different business personality types and how to interact with them for maximum impact.

    4. Four tips to ensure that you thrive as a successor-CEO. 

    Transitioning from an out-going CEO to a new business leader will usher in an era of change for any company. According to this article by Entrepreneur, as the new CEO, the best transitions involve setting realistic expectations, using strong and effective communication techniques, taking decisive action, and establishing a strong culture. If you happen to be the newbie CEO, this article gives great advice on how to navigate uncharted waters with success.

    5. How robots will transform the c-suite. 

    It’s no surprise, robots will play a critical role throughout the evolution of the modern workforce. But how does this affect the top spot in a business? This article by Strategy + Business outlines some fascinating scenarios, as well as a breakdown for each chief officer position. It also includes a downloadable PwC study that examines the impact on senior management.

    The one theme I found repeatedly throughout the articles was the importance of establishing a healthy culture early. And while culture can be a difficult area to change or impact, consider asking yourself what a high performance culture with you at the helm would look like. Then, take three of those techniques and start using them.

     

    Christina Holloway is an executive coach and business coach. She helps executives and entrepreneurs grow their companies faster, create results-driven teams, and increase profitability. She has been featured in ForbesThe Huffington PostAddicted2Success and Fast Company. If you’re interested in working with Christina, take a look at her strategy sessions and contact her to get started.

  • Are You Having a Productive Day, or Just a Really Busy One?

    Are You Having a Productive Day, or Just a Really Busy One?

    “Setting

    I love to procrastinate and then believe I’m being productive when I’ve waited until the last minute to get stuff done.

    It’s Friday, and I absolutely do not feel like writing a new blog post at this very moment. So what do I do? I’ll do absolutely anything else first before I come to terms with the reality that it’s not going to write itself. For situations like this, I have to ask myself if I’m being productive or just getting through my to-do list because I’m procrastinating.

    That’s why I decided to talk about what it means to procrastinate and turn that into productivity. We’ve all done it at some point: spend a lot of time avoiding the stuff we need to do and instead focus on the small stuff that’s easy. Then we end up having to deal with the important stuff at the last minute, which creates chaos for us and everyone around us. And somehow, we might convince ourselves that’s just the way we are. Not so!!!

    Once you get into a habit of creating this kind of work environment, it can feel like something deeply ingrained in your psyche. It’s our inability to separate our habits (the ones that may be working against us) from our personality traits (the way we navigate our environment) that allows procrastination to take hold and show up disguised as productivity.

    I am always working on improving my productivity, so here are five articles on how to break the procrastination habit and become more productive.

    1. Stop procrastinating and get stuff done.

    I’ve done or tried most of the techniques on this list from Self Magazine and I can say that some of them have stuck. If you struggle with procrastination, this list may present you with ideas you haven’t tried before. I suggest making #1, #5 and #11 your new reality.

    2. You’re not good at multitasking — just accept it.

    You may have seen reports that men are better at multitasking, or that women are born to be multitaskers, but research presented by Harvard Business Review shows that men and women are equal on this point — neither one is better at multitasking. The takeaway? Make extra effort in your day to work on your focus strengths and not your multitasking strengths. It’s time better spent.

    3. Create a more productive work environment.

    Here are 10 ways to create a more productive work environment from Entrepreneur. Each of the 10 points outlined in this article feature a step-by-step approach to making changes. If you need help make changes at work, this list (and the subsequent articles featured here) could help.

    4. Productivity apps that will set you up for success. 

    Productivity apps are a mixed bag. Some people claim that apps are the reason they get so much done in a day. Others, like me, can find these apps to be a black hole of information and threads that take us away from the more important stuff. You’ll find a healthy collection in this article from Refinery29 of self-limiting apps, along with group productivity apps. Take a look, and choose wisely.

    5. If you need a quick fix, these productivity hacks may help. 

    Productivity hacks can come in helpful when you’re facing some tight deadlines and a large list of deliverables in front of you. This article from Swirled features the book, Productivity Hacks: 500+ Easy Ways to Accomplish More at Work — That Actually Work. The article is a great way to see some of the unique and creative ways to introduce more productivity into your life. And if you like the article, make sure to check out the book by Emily Price.

    So the bigger question here is this — do you feel more productive if you’ve procrastinated to the point that you have to rush to get things done? Do you find that you spend your time just accepting that this is how things are and they cannot change? If so, what’s one behavior, approach, or belief you could change (or hack) right now to take you from being busy to being productive?

    The goal is to make small shifts that lead to bigger change.

     

    Christina Holloway is an executive coach and business coach. She helps executives and entrepreneurs grow their companies faster, create results-driven teams, and increase profitability. She has been featured in ForbesThe Huffington PostAddicted2Success and Fast Company. If you’re interested in working with Christina, take a look at her strategy sessions and contact her to get started.

Christina Holloway