Executive Coaches Archives - Equanimity Executive

What Lessons from Physical Therapy Can Teach You About Business

May 16 2019Sep 8 2020 Belinda MJ. Brown Career Success, Executive Coaches, Insights, Testimonials

I recently had a hip injury that took several months to heal. After all of that time keeping movement to a minimum and exercise nonexistent, my body mechanics had forgotten how to move properly, not to mention I had lost a lot of strength and stamina. To combat this and keep me from reinjuring myself, my doctor sent me to physical therapy.

Without a long medical description, the first part of my PT experience involved reactivating muscles that were underused during my injury but are necessary for healthy and normal body mechanics (and would help prevent my back muscles from kicking in and causing further strain). These types of exercises are small, tedious, and painstaking, albeit very important. Being a former athlete, my instinct was to go big and push my limits, but that isn’t the goal of physical therapy. Instead, the best thing I could do was hold back, and let my muscles rebuild properly. So every day I did my assignments, regardless of how monotonous and boring they were.

Each week, I made progress, though small, and after several weeks I moved on to strengthening exercises, which also start at a low level and build up, and feel fairly tedious. But each day I made the commitment to do my PT regimen, and am finally starting to feel stronger and moving correctly. I am now hitting my goals and making much more noticeable progress.

I find this experience to be an excellent analogy for life and for your career. Starting small, even when your instinct is to accomplish as much as you can, will help you build a solid foundation from which to work. You may not feel you are getting anywhere, but trust me, you are. Just put in the work one step at a time, and one day you will look back and realize the small progress has all added up. Once you get the wheels turning, you will suddenly have a ton of momentum and strength, which will propel you far, wherever you choose to apply it.

When I say start small, I do not mean pare down your aspirations or efforts. I simply want you to put first things first. In a new business, you may just want to hit the ground running with selling your product or service, but you have to do the sometimes tedious work of making a business plan, creating a pricing structure, and figuring out how things are going to work for you. These tasks create the very foundations of your business, and by having your affairs in order, they won’t come back to haunt you when you are doing bigger and better things. If you can push through those crucial first steps and stick with it, your business will be booming before long.

So trust the process. Every baby step contributes to the giant leap, even if you can’t see it know. My physical therapist is definitely right on this one.

Creating Momentum in Your Career: You Have the Power

May 9 2019Sep 8 2020 Belinda MJ. Brown Business Success, Career Success, Executive Coaches, Leadership, Walk the Talk...

For many of us who feel the hustle in our veins, we are always trying to level
up in our careers. Success is a constant carrot dangling in front of our
noses; the higher we climb, the more we want to continue. The fastest way
to progress your career and achieve your dreams is to create your own
momentum, which can be easier said than done.

Let me take you back to middle school science class for a moment.
Momentum is calculated as mass multiplied by velocity. So the more you
expand and grow and the speed in which you do it creates momentum. It is
hard to start the pendulum swinging when you are at rest, but once you get
moving, momentum in your career will build, and there will be no stopping
you! While there are many ways to build momentum in your industry, here
are some options that you can start with right now.

Learn to Recognize and Create Your Own Opportunities

Opportunity is always out there. The more you train yourself to recognize
them, the more opportunities will present themselves to you. Whether it’s a
new networking connection suggesting you meet for coffee sometime, a
manager looking for solutions on a company pain point, or a local school
needing volunteers to work with students on Career Day, opportunity exists
in many forms. Take note, and throw yourself in wholeheartedly! You never
know where a conversation can lead.

If you are finding that you are in something of an “opportunity drought,” dig
deep and create a new endeavor for yourself. Map out a proposal for an
exciting project at work. Finally, start writing the book you’ve always wanted
to publish. Learn to code your own website. Regardless of what you want to
pursue, you don’t need anyone’s permission to do it. Adding more irons to
your fire will help your career ignite.

Talk Up Your Endeavors

As you embark on the countless opportunities at your fingertips, don’t forget
to tell people what you are up to! They will never know about your new skills
and adventures if you never bring them up! Plus, your coworkers, family,
and friends are likely to want to support you in any way they can. As you
create buzz around yourself and your work, the odds become higher for your
success.

For those of you who avoid self-promotion because you don’t want to “brag,”
don’t think of it in a negative way. Whatever your career entails, it likely involves helping others in some way and that has value. Plus, when you
encourage others to talk up what’s new in their lives as well, and offer them
your own support, you are creating a mutual benefit.

Give Back and Support Others

On a more spiritual side, gratitude and goodwill create more abundance in
your life. By being grateful for where you are right now, you are inviting
more good things into your life. Giving back generates good karma, and
gives you connections with others who you may be able to collaborate with
in the future.

Whether you become a mentor, volunteer with a local organization, or
simply broadcast the successes of others, you are broadening your horizons,
learning new skills, and reminding yourself of what is truly important in life.
At the end of the day, true success means having a positive impact on
someone else, whatever that looks like to you. Regardless of anything else
going on in your work and personal life, if you took the time today to help
others, you are a success.

Essentially, creating momentum in your career starts and ends with you.
Putting yourself out into the world and using your work to interact with
society is crucial to growth and progress. Don’t hold back. Take some risks.
Do what you’ve always wanted.

Why Fearing Failure Prevents Your Success

Mar 14 2019Sep 8 2020 Belinda MJ. Brown Executive Coaches

“Success is not final; failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts.”

— Winston S. Churchill

Failure is a fact of life—especially in business. Not every great idea is
destined for commercial success, and a dedicated effort doesn’t always end
with the desired result. As frustrating as it may be to fail, it is perfectly
normal. However, modern managers fear failure so much that their instinct
is to punish or reprimand their team, rather than praising the effort and
going back to the drawing board. This approach is harmful—more so than
the failure itself. In fact, there are specific downsides to creating a workplace
culture that can’t work with failure.

You Miss an Opportunity to Learn

There is always a teachable moment in any mistake or malfunction. Without laying blame or feeling upset, take the opportunity to look back at how the initiative unfolded, noting what could be done differently, what happened unexpectedly, and what policies need to be updated. If you take the time to learn from failure, the effort will always redirect you towards success. You will not only have gained a valuable experience, but you will be better prepared in the future to avoid the same mistakes.

Your Team Will Be Afraid to Try Again

A failed initiative doesn’t mean that it’s failed forever. In fact, many projects
that don’t work out the first time around can be rectified and redeemed in
another attempt. This offers you a unique opportunity to analyze what went
wrong and how it can be corrected. With this new information, why not give
it another go?

Think of a failed project like a failed experiment; you simply haven’t found
the formula that works yet. You won’t find that perfect solution unless you
keep plugging away at it. However, if you are desperately afraid of failure, it
will seem easier to completely scrap your work at the first sign of something
wrong, rather then seeing it through multiple attempts. And if you don’t
keep trying, you might miss out on a truly wonderful result.

Employees Living in Fear of Failure Cannot Work to Their Full
Potential

If you create a workplace culture that punishes mistakes, your employees
will live in fear of failure. This is one of the worst things you can do as a
manager; morale will be down and confidence will be lacking. Your
employees will never take risks, use their creativity, or be innovative
because they won’t be comfortable in their position. As a result, you
company will keep doing the same old things, with the same results. Holding
your employees back inhibits their personal growth, and that affects your
business.

Failure isn’t comfortable for anyone; however, you can embrace the
experience and use it to your advantage. If you’ve taken calculated risks on
a project, failure isn’t the end, and it certainly isn’t forever. If you empower
your employees to really commit to their work, there will be growth,
regardless of the outcome. And that is a sure sign of success.

How to Cultivate Positive Change in Your Business through Personal Branding

Mar 11 2019Sep 8 2020 Belinda MJ. Brown Business Success, Executive Coaches, Leadership

Shifting your personal brand can actually lead you to greater success. While change can be painful, at the same time, it’s the only way for you to continue to grow. And if you don’t grow, how can you change things?

Dian Diaz, brand strategist and self-proclaimed brand geek of The Brand Teacher joined us on the Planting Seeds of Change podcast to share insights from two decades of branding and teaching experience that will help us creative positive changes beginning with our personal brand.

Trust Comes with Consistency

Personal branding is at it’s core making sure your personal presence comes through everywhere it touches your audience. Consistency with how you show up in your brand builds trust in your audience. That’s what draws people to you. When your brand is consistent and your audience gets the same messages wherever they encounter you, they’ll trust you and then want to do business with you. Personal branding is all about building trust.

Bring Forward Your Personality

Personal branding is important because people are doing business with you personally. Yes, it’s your business, but they’re really doing business with a human being. Personal branding applies to everyone from the executive to the stay-at-home mom. If your personal brand comes across differently from the way you want to go with your career or life, it’s not going to take you there. You have to shift it around so certain attributes about you will come through. It’s about taking your authentic personality and bringing it out so it shows up online.

Get Feedback on Your Brand

Survey your audience to find out how you’re coming across. Make sure their answers align with how you want to be perceived and in a way that will lead you to your goals. If you don’t know how they’re seeing you, you can’t make those changes. Get feedback from them and then make changes to your personal brand.

Ask your friends, family, and co-workers. People who you trust will be able to give you insightful feedback. Tell them you’d like to better understand how you’re coming across to other people so you can meet your goals. This will get you started on understanding where there’s a disconnect between how you want to come across and how you actually come across.

Remember that your brand lives in the heart of your audience, Dian advised. You don’t get to decide how others feel. You can only align how you want to come across with how you actually are coming across.

Look at Feedback as a Whole

You will get feedback that surprises you. It may be just one thing one person says that stings. Try to look at feedback as a whole and not only one word someone says. That could be an outlier. You’re not going to make an overall change based on that one thing. That feedback might not even impact how you get to your goal. Instead, look at the aggregate and find themes. You can do something with that.

Accept the gift of feedback and dismiss what doesn’t impact your goals. Focus on your goal.

Be Yourself in a New Position

I’ve seen professionals that think because they’re a professional they have to behave a certain way. We connect with human beings with personalities and we want to feel those connections. If you don’t understand why you aren’t getting the results you expect, it’s simple. It’s being authentic and sharing who you are.

Sometimes we want to go in another direction, but we’re stuck using the same set of characteristics. You shouldn’t not be yourself, but you want to take what matches in your personality with the position you want to move into. If you’re moving into a leadership role, you can still be outgoing, but you might shift to highlight other aspects of you.

Start with Massive Curiosity

Approach everything with a level of curiosity, including yourself. Be inquisitive about how others see you and how well you’ve done your job. Being inquisitive to get feedback that might be a little uncomfortable will be the catalyst for great growth and positive change.

Characteristics to Look For in Your Next Executive Coach

Mar 1 2019Sep 8 2020 Belinda MJ. Brown Career Success, Executive Coaches, Leadership, Team Success

Finding an executive and leadership coach that is the perfect fit for both you and your business takes a fair amount of research, but is well worth the effort when you connect with someone who can unlock your potential as a leader. If you’re new to leadership coaching, the process may seem overwhelming and it can be tempting to simply start working with the first coach you find. However, there are specific qualities you should be looking for in an executive coach to ensure that they are both qualified and a good match for your needs. Here are five steps you should be taking when shopping for a coach, and what they will reveal about their methods.

Evaluate their profile

It is essential that you interview any coach that you are interested in working with, just as you would with a potential new employee. This will be most telling about their style of coaching and approach. You are looking for someone who is open-minded, an active listener, and completely focused on the process. An ideal coach will create a safe and exploratory environment for you to grow, and will have forward-thinking conversations with you to help you find the solutions that work for you. They should also feel strongly that any success belongs to you. Red flags include coaches who promise extraordinary results or have a one-size-fits all approach.

Check for Credentials

The leadership and executive coaching market is saturated with many professionals, but not all of them have the skills or experience to give you and your business the value you deserve. When looking at a potential coach, look them up on the International Coach Federation registries or the registries of the Board of Credentialing for Coaches. These two accrediting boards register coaches based on their experience, education, and the number of hours they have worked with clients. They also require continuing education to ensure that their coaches have the most current information and are keeping up with their skills.

Look Out for Coherence

It is important to evaluate the level of coherence a potential coach has between what they promote and what they themselves practice. In particular, you should find out if they have their own executive coach. Theoretically, if they believe in the power of coaching, they should also have a coach of their own so that they can continue to expand just as their clients are. Similarly, an executive coach should belong to a supervising group to reflect with on a regular basis about their practice as a coach. If an executive coach is encouraging your growth, but is not working to grow themselves as well, there is misalignment between their mindset and actions.

Understand the Coaching Process

An executive coach worth their weight must offer a customized approach in working with you. Cookie-cutter consulting isn’t providing you any value and certainly cannot be considered coaching. Valuable coaching is about adapting to you as the client, and bringing individual solutions for your specific situation. An executive coach is there to help you build and design the strategies for what you want and need.

Investigate References and Recommendations

Finally, when researching executive coaches, it is imperative that you look for their references and recommendations. Most commonly, you may be able to find these on the coach’s LinkedIn profile or perhaps even on their website. This will be useful to you in two ways. Firstly, you will be able to see who the coach works with, and whether or not they have worked with individuals or businesses that are similar to you. Secondly, you will get a feel for how the coach works and how they help manifest success for their clients, and whether or not that will be useful to you.

These key indicators are important to consider when researching possible executive coaches. You may be interested in an industry-specific coach, but here at Equanimity Executive, we don’t believe that is necessary. Coaches with industry-specific experience may wind up becoming more of an advisor or consultant due their inside knowledge, but keep in mind that this advice isn’t what you are looking for. You ultimately need a coach that challenges you and gives you the opportunity to create new opportunities for yourself. Similarly, industry-specific coaches can have biases based on their own work and that may limit your exploration and innovation. As adaptive executive coaches, Equanimity Executive focuses on your needs as they are, from a fresh and open-minded perspective.

Looking for an executive or leadership coach may seem like an overwhelming prospect, but by considering these qualities, you will find a professional with the personality and ability to relate to you and your needs.