by Caroline Leach | Dec 26, 2015 | Corporate Communications, Learning
What’s an upside to waking up in the middle of the night?
Here’s one: when a pre-ordered book from Amazon downloads after midnight on the publishing date.
A Christmas gift arrived early this week with Amy Cuddy‘s new book, Presence: Bringing Your Boldest Self to Your Biggest Challenges.
You may have been among the 30 million views of her TED talk, Your Body Language Shapes Who You Are.
If so, you know about “power posing.”
When you’re facing a challenge – whether it’s a big presentation or a job interview or an everyday interaction – strike a powerful pose for 2 minutes. Making your body big will make your mind feel more confident.
Two years ago I tried this for the first time. I was planning our Chairman’s annual leadership meeting. As I was meeting with my boss to finalize the agenda, he suggested I should speak at the meeting.
WH-A-A-A-T?
The terror and excitement of speaking before 200 of my leadership peers fought a valiant duel. In my mind. In seconds. And then I said, “Sure, I’d be glad to speak.”
The opportunity won out over the fear. But now I had to perform. And it had better be good.
I began with the usual speaking preparation I would bring to any C-suite leader in my role at the time leading corporate communications.
The topic? Leading Communications.
Or, how my fellow leaders could lead communications among their teams, cascading leadership meeting messages across the enterprise.
And perhaps not so coincidentally, it’s also the original title of this blog.
The brainstorming, writing and practicing began. The weekend before the event I set up my iPhone to record myself giving the presentation in the meeting room.
Two days before the event, I did a dry run for a few colleagues and team members.
And it it fell painfully flat. No connection. No spark. No magic.
They were nice about it. But their body language spoke louder than any words of encouragement ever could.
There were still 48 hours to redeem myself.
I remembered the time Mark Cuban came to speak at our company in the early 2000s. He drove all night to get there. He was friendly and engaging with our employees.
Most memorable were his words about client meetings and commitments. A client would ask for something, and the group would agree it would be delivered the next day.
Later, Mark and his colleagues would look at each other and say they had no idea how to do what they’d just committed to. But they had all night to figure it out. And figure it out, they did. Time and time again.
If they could do it, so could I.
Picking myself up off the metaphorical floor, I got to work. I revised my speech so it focused more on the audience. And what was in it for them.
But what made the most difference on the day of my speech was the simple, yet powerful advice of Amy Cuddy in her TED talk.
It was to adopt the Wonder Woman pose for 2 minutes, before my speech.
The only problem?
My talk was right after a few other speakers, so I couldn’t power pose in private, as Cuddy recommends. So I did the next best thing. I took up as much space as I could, without violating too many social norms.
I sat up straight. I stretched out one of my arms across an adjoining chair. I put another hand on my hip. I planted my feet solidly on the floor. I took deep breaths.
The audience body language post speech? Smiles. Applause. Fist bumps.
Yes, power posing really works.
Two of my work colleagues screened Cuddy’s TED talk at a Lean In circle last year. It was a great session, with ideas like jumping into group conversations one beat after the current speaker’s last word.
So I couldn’t wait for Presence when it came out this week. I wanted to know more secrets to bringing my best self to the challenges of life.
What is presence? Cuddy defines it as “the state of being attuned to and able to comfortably express our true thoughts, feelings, value and potential.”
And what did I find? A well-researched, highly entertaining, inspiring and actionable book. Most of all, it reminded me to do the following:
- Start each day with a power pose
- Stand up straight
- Take up space
- Breathe deeply
- Share the power of presence with others.
The book also underscores the importance of personal power – an infinite resource that’s always available to you. It’s yours for the taking.
As Cuddy describes personal power, “it’s about access to and control of limitless inner resources, such as our skills and abilities, our deeply held values, our true personalities and our boldest selves.”
As a new year dawns, I hope you’ll bring your boldest self.
by Caroline Leach | Dec 20, 2015 | Change, Learning, Work/Life
One of my favorite year-end rituals is to take stock of the last 12 months.
How did I do on my goals? What am I proud of? What am I grateful for?
It’s something I write free form and by hand, as a numbered list. It’s roughly chronological, but several items inevitably creep in out of order. That’s okay. It could be a metaphor for how life plays out.
My camera roll, calendar and to-do lists all provide digital breadcrumbs to capture the highlights of the last year.
When I started to reflect on this year’s goals, I didn’t feel I’d achieved as much as I set out to do. The year started with a few big question marks.
What was going to happen when the company I work for was acquired by another company? Where was my son going to go to high school? Where was my daughter going to apply to college?
For the last 5 years, I’ve chosen a theme for each year. It’s a personal rallying cry, and all of my goals for the year fit in with it in some way. This will be the subject of another year-end blog post.
Then comes my life vision statement, as a reminder of why I’m on the planet and how my theme keeps me focused on that reason for being.
And then there are goals in the categories of health, family, career, finances, spirituality and social/community.
Health. Everything starts with good health – for me and my family. I did pretty well with near-daily exercise. And it was fun trying new activities, like standup paddle boarding, yoga and cardio barre.
My green day challenge with Fitbit is ramping it up to a daily action. And the new exercise shoes I break out every Jan. 1 are in my closet, ready to go for my 2016 workouts.
This reflection makes me thankful for good health. It always makes me think about what I could do better next year. My biggest opportunity is sleep. That is, getting more of it. My goal was at least 7 hours a night.
It was frustrating to see minutes subtracted for restlessness on my Fitbit, so I stopped tracking sleep. I wanted credit for every last minute in bed.
It’s time to try Sleep Cycle over the holiday break. I’m eager to see what it feels like to be awakened during the lightest phase of sleep, within a 30 minute period of my choosing.
Family. This has been a year of transitions. Our son finished 8th grade and needed to choose where to attend high school. He decided to continue at his same K-12 school and increase his academic commitment. Happily, heading into winter break he’s on a better path, scholastically speaking.
Our daughter started her senior year in high school. She made her list of colleges, finished most of the apps over Thanksgiving weekend and is wrapping up the few due in January. Much to our surprise, she already received a letter of admission. But for the most part, it’s a waiting game until March.
It’s like anything in life. You do your best. You focus on what you can control. And then you do your best not to worry about what you can’t control.
It’s time for her to finish her first semester strong, enjoy experiences with her friends and keep up with her job and other activities.
Also in the family arena was doing fun activities with my spouse. We worked through the NY Times-inspired 36 Hours book with weekends ranging from Malibu to Hollywood to Dallas.
We visited colleges in Seattle over spring break, went to our nephew’s graduation from college in San Francisco and returned to our alma mater for a UCLA football game at the Rose Bowl.
On New Year’s Day 2015 while I watched the Rose Parade, I decided I wanted to go the following year. That’s where we’ll be on Jan. 1, 2016.
For this, thanks go to author Laura Vanderkam and her advice to create a list of 100 dreams – or activities within a few hours of your home that you can do on weekends to make them more special.
Career. On New Year’s Day of this year, I launched this blog. My purpose was to explore the field, the function and the future of corporate communications, against the backdrop of our rapidly changing world.
Part of that change was a pending acquisition of the company I worked for. The deal closed in July. The goal I set at the beginning of the year was to contribute to the success of the merger of the two companies. Beyond that, I wasn’t sure exactly how the rest of the year would take shape.
But I’ve been surprised and delighted to find myself in a new role this fall, doing new things and working with new people. What a tribute to the company I’ve joined and the focus on developing people.
Finances. While I did save the max for retirement, I now need to focus on diversifying my investments for better performance. I’m looking forward to a financial planning day over the holiday break.
Refinance our house before interest rates rise? Check. And my goal to buy a new car? Well, let’s just say that some goals come to fruition, but not in the way that was initially intended. We got my daughter a car this summer, so she can drive to school and work. It makes all of our lives better.
Spirituality, social and community. A few highlights here are that I enjoyed my involvement with a mother-daughter charitable organization, a city committee on traffic safety and leadership of the women’s employee resource group at my company.
There were a few other community and civic involvement activities I pursued but that didn’t come to fruition. They became learning experiences in what I’d do differently next time.
Looking ahead. This year-end wrap up had many benefits. It made me smile to remember good times with family, friends and colleagues. It made me proud of several accomplishments. It reminded me that I can bounce back from adversity. And it highlighted how much there is to be grateful for.
by Caroline Leach | Dec 13, 2015 | Change, Learning, Work/Life
With 18 days left in the year, it’s tempting to put off new goals until New Year’s Day.
But now is a great time to get a jump start on what you want to accomplish in the new year.
Whether it’s physical or fiscal fitness, revitalizing your career or community involvement or enjoying time with family or friends, start now.
Why?
Skip the crowds. Being a contrarian and doing things when others aren’t often leads to a more efficient and pleasant experience.
Gyms aren’t busy right now, as they will be the first few weeks of the year. Now is a great time to enjoy a workout when others aren’t.
You can mix up your routine in early January to avoid the crowds. Exercise outside or change the time of your workout so you aren’t waiting for a machine or a spot in class.
Build momentum. Rather than feel like you’re starting from zero on Jan. 1, build three weeks of momentum heading into the new year.
It’s easier to continue along a path you’ve already started. And you can accelerate faster if you’re already moving.
Developing momentum builds commitment and confidence in achieving your goals. My Fitbit green-day challenge is energizing me to add other goals to the mix.
Develop a new habit. Science now says it takes 66 days to form a new habit, rather than 21 days, to establish a new habit.
Even with that longer lead time, if you start now you’ll be more than a quarter of the way to establishing a new habit by the new year.
For forming new habits, Gretchen Rubin‘s Better Than Before is a great place to start.
Combine complimentary goals. If one of your goals is to read more, think about how what you choose to read can drive other goals. For my learning project, much of my reading will be about marketing.
And I can read while I’m walking on the treadmill, bringing another goal together with my green-day challenge to hit a series of fitness metrics every day.
Set goals, not resolutions. The concept of New Year’s resolutions makes me cringe. A resolution sounds negative to me, like something you resolve to do or not do whether you like it or not.
It sounds punitive. And because sheer willpower is required to keep a resolution, they’re also a recipe for failure. Willpower isn’t a sustainable strategy.
Goals on the other hand feel more positive. They are affirmative statements of what you choose to do and what you will do. They can be aspirational and inspirational.
Just as you set performance goals in your professional life each year, now is the ideal time to be thinking about your goals, desires and dreams for the new year.
Just start. You don’t have to be perfect to start working on your new goals. Just begin. The future will come into focus as you do.
Take this blog, for example. I’m in the process of shifting the focus from exploring the future of corporate communications to learning about the process of learning.
The future isn’t completely clear or totally defined just yet (if it ever will be). But I’m blogging in the meantime, as I figure out the path forward.
“Take action now and learn as you go” is the valuable mantra from Just Start: Take Action, Embrace Uncertainty, Create the Future.
What could you start now that would turn into a positive new habit by the time you ring in the new year?
by Caroline Leach | Dec 6, 2015 | Learning, Work/Life
19 days into my green day challenge, what have I learned?
Here are 5 lessons that apply not only to my goal of taking 10,000 steps every day, but also to any goal worth pursuing.
- Plan ahead. Today is Sunday, so I’m planning the week ahead. As I review the calendar, I’m mapping out when and where I’ll exercise. This week I’m traveling, so my exercise gear is the first thing I pack.
I’m also thinking about the many small ways I can rack up steps – take the stairs, walk around at the airport, pace in my office while preparing for a meeting, stroll around the floor and say hello to colleagues.
- Get steps in early in the day. This is similar to “eating a frog” – or doing the most difficult project of the day early on.
Taking 10,000 steps isn’t hard, but as the day wears on and demands stack up, it’s more challenging to work in exercise time.
Since it’s Sunday I decided to treat myself to a morning workout at the beach. I caught up on some reading on the treadmill (in the picture above), and it will be a green day before lunch.
- Do whatever it takes. Some days, despite the best planning, it’s not possible to get the steps and the big projects done in the morning.
Because I’ve committed to this challenge, my decision isn’t about whether or not I’ll take the necessary steps. It’s about how I’ll get them in.
Sometimes that means a late-night walk with my husband in the rain – after I’ve already spent an hour on the treadmill.
- The progress principle fuels other goals. The pass/fail nature of my green-day challenge means I only have to focus on the quantity of my efforts, not the quality.
There’s no value judgement to how well I carried out my green-day tasks. All that matters is the yes/no aspect of whether I took the steps or not.
The only fear of failure involved is if I don’t take action. That action creates momentum and a feeling of accomplishment. It frees up energy and bandwidth to focus on other, more challenging goals.
- Make it fun. On Friday when my husband picked me up from the airport, we headed to a nearby beach city for dinner.
We spent a half hour strolling along The Strand, enjoying the beautiful sunset (pictured below) and catching up with each other.
My Fitbit buzzed with 10,000 steps as we were walking into Love and Salt for dinner. Reaching one goal made the meal all the more enjoyable.
While I was traveling and using the hotel fitness center, I streamed episodes of a favorite show on my iPad. The time flew by.
The best part of my green days?
By New Year’s Day 2016, I’ll have racked up 45 green days.
And instead of setting a goal to start exercising, I’ll be able to pursue a far more interesting goal.
by Caroline Leach | Nov 28, 2015 | Change, Learning, Work/Life
It’s crunch time.
College apps for many California schools are due on Nov. 30. If you have a high school senior, as I do, this makes for an interesting Thanksgiving weekend.
Thankfully, the University of California and California State University apps are done. Now it’s on to the other schools with a variety of submission dates.
But all of the heavy lifting is done. The college visits. The standardized tests. Three years of academic high school courses. Extracurriculars. Volunteering. Work experience.
And that was all on my daughter’s part. For my part, it’s been encouraging, advising and a lot of driving. Okay, and a little nagging – no, actually, a lot – along the way.
As part of my learning project, what have I learned through this process?
Where you go to school does not define you. Opportunities are available wherever you are. You just have to look for them.
This applies in life; not just in college. Wherever you are today, there are opportunities. As Thomas Edison said, however, they may be disguised as hard work.
- Put in the work. The real work happens every day. It involves having a vision for your life, setting goals and working toward them every day.
Making consistent progress toward goals is what makes people happy. Read more about how that applies to work in Teresa Amabile‘s The Progress Principle.
- Follow the directions, and push the boundaries. A lot of school and life consists of following directions. That’s especially important in navigating any big bureaucracy.
But it’s also important to learn how you can push the boundaries in an ethical way, to make your own unique contribution.
In college applications, this is where the essays become so important. Rather than simply being a number with a GPA and SAT scores, your teen can show their unique approach to life and learning.
In life, it’s constantly asking how you could do things better. What would delight your family, your colleagues and your customers? What would delight you?
- Don’t be afraid to make a change. Our culture places a huge premium on tenacity and perseverance. I’m one of the biggest adherents. There’s rarely a problem that can’t be solved through intense effort.
Yet there’s also wisdom in knowing when to cut your losses and make a change. I learned this when I ended up at the wrong college for me.
Instead of hunkering down and trying to make it work, I transferred to another school. I ended up in a better place for me. And it made all the difference.
(That’s one of my beloved alma maters, UCLA, pictured above. It feels only slightly ironic to be writing this on the day when my two alma maters are facing off in college football.)
This change principle can apply to anything in life – a career, an exercise program or a volunteer activity.
This blog started out as a way to explore the future of corporate communications. Many changes in my life this year – both personal and professional – have altered my course.
This blog has evolved. It’s still evolving. Just as life is constantly doing the same.
It’s part of finding the way to the future – just as college serves the same exploratory purpose. The next posts are still to be written.
What will they hold?
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