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The Benefits Of Random Acts Of Kindness

“No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.” —Aesop

In honor of Random Acts of Kindness Day, we’ve come up with even more reasons for you to join us in celebrating this National Awareness day on February 17, both in your personal and professional life. When kindness is at the core of your business, your company embodies trust, inclusion and commitment. This fosters a culture that is conducive to both employees and clients.

Often we think of acts of kindness as something we inherently do throughout the day, but it’s not often that simple. Do you always go to help...

6 Ways To Weather Change And Still Feel Sane

Everyone has one friend or family member who tells the same jokes and stories over and over again. It’s the same episode we've seen just in different rooms and multiple dinner parties. Regardless of if they are entertaining or mildly bearable, it speaks to the palate about the life experiences this person has obtained. At some point, the same story gets old and it would seem this person stopped observing, packaged up what they knew about the world and turned it in. Now they never really change their opinion or ideals about anything and stick to what they know.

Yet, with the way...

3 Creative Ideas for a Better Recruitment Strategy

Filling an open position is not only about finding the right person to do the job, it’s also about finding someone who’s going to gel with your company’s work culture.

Unfortunately, finding people is actually the easy part.

Keeping them is much more difficult, and realistically, it’s much more important considering the cost of resources it takes — time, money and gray hairs — to constantly replace employees.

In fact, one study found that to replace people who make between $30,000 and $50,000 annually, it costs up to 20% of their annual salaries. To replace executives? It costs...

Is Going to a Leaderless Structure the Right Solution?

Convention says that quality of leadership usually makes or breaks projects, businesses and other collaborative-based ventures. Yet, there is a growing list of companies that have either explored or employ a holacratic, or leaderless, organizational structure.

At first glance, it might seem easy to outright dismiss the idea that going leaderless could be a viable foundation to build a business upon, but the debate surrounding the concept is much more complex.

Let’s take a closer look at the pros and cons of a leaderless structure, as well as whether or not it’s the right...

Gratitude:  Negativity’s Natural Enemy

Gratitude.  Is there any greater gift that we can give ourselves and others than gratitude?  Gratitude costs us nothing and gives us so much back in return.  Every action in life takes energy.  And usually, when we spend our energy, we feel it.  We feel a bit expended after certain activities, tired and less willing to spend more of our energy on other things.  Isn’t it amazing how when we spend our energy focusing on our gratitude, that not only do we not feel expended, we feel energized and more powerful?  

Gratitude is real-life magic.  It instantly changes our mindsets and...

Keeping Your New Year’s Resolution

Sure you make a resolution each year, but do you know why? The traditional New Year’s resolution originated in Mesopotamia. Babylonians would make promises to gods in the coming New Year to pay debts and be good, hoping to keep favor with their deities.

Jump ahead to now where our children try their best to behave so they can make Santa’s good-kid list and adults set resolutions based on where they would like to see change in their lives.  Often in January, health club memberships spike while people hit the ground running. Taking a step back, the basic idea behind the ancient...

4 Reasons Why You Need a Mentor

Merriam Websters defines mentorship as, “the influence, guidance, or direction given by a mentor."  They define mentor as, “a trusted counselor or guide.” So, the goal and intention in having a mentor is having a trusted person in your life who can help guide your life, ideally in a very positive and meaningful way.

Here are just some of the ways in which mentors support the goals and lives of their proteges.

1. Mentors Offer a Different Perspective

Mentors are often successful leaders in their field.  They have years of experience in dealing with particular situations or...

12 Ways to Relieve Holiday Stress Right Now

12 Days of Self-Care and a Partridge in a Pear Tree

The holidays can be a wonderful time to take a break from your every day, connect with family and celebrate the good times that have passed over the year.  Unfortunately, the holidays can also be a cause of stress with things like hosting a guest in your house, organizing party plans, making sure to get the perfect gift, and so much more.

The good news is that you don’t have to wait for Santa to receive the gift of holiday stress management.  Here are twelve things that you can do right now to help yourself with holiday stress...

12 Ways to Keep Your Employees Motivated When You Are on a Budget

Retaining your best and brightest employees is always key to a successful business. But what if your best and brightest are wanting something more than your company is not prepared to offer? If your company has a tight budget, there are still ways to make them feel like they want to stick around. Studies show that employees with the highest job satisfaction are more productive, engaged and loyal to their companies.

Good, hard-working employees are hard to come by, and retaining employees is much more cost-effective than hiring new ones. Plus, if your top employees are not...

5 Signs You Are Resisting Change

The truth about change? Our lives are driven by change. Some of it is planned. A lot of it just happens. We experience change in many of the same ways, but our individual experiences are also uniquely different and deeply personal. It’s those experiences - both the similar and dissimilar - that provide the foundation for effective and lasting change.

But what often happens is change is met with resistance. Because it’s unfamiliar, out of our comfort zone and just plain trying, a common response to change is that “change is scary.” We may know deep down that because change is...

When Culture is All Talk

I once participated in a retreat full of leaders of a major healthcare organization.  The CEO was talking about how excited he was to look at the future healthcare culture; how things were going to be on the rise from now on and how he was committed to growth.

Interestingly, this same CEO had worked with three of our top coaches and had quit all of them prior to this retreat.  One, he was just done with. Another, he didn’t feel connected to. And the third just stopped showing up for his meetings.  It seemed as if he was committed to other people’s growth, but not his own.

You...

Celebrating World Heart Day

Each September, we at David Couper Consulting are excited to celebrate World Heart Day.  We will be sharing our gratitude for each beat we have been given, and for each beat yet to come.

Founded in 2000 by the World Heart Federation, World Heart Day was created in an effort to raise awareness of cardiovascular disease and educate us all about what we can do to keep our hearts healthy.  Today, more than 90 countries participate in World Heart Day each year.

We at DCC let this day serve as a reminder for all of us to take a step back, examine our lives, and ask ourselves, “Are we...

3 Tips to Improving Patient Satisfaction Through Your Staff

In recent years, legislation such as the Affordable Care Act, among others, has changed the focus of healthcare from bottom-line outcomes to overall quality of care. As a result, decision-makers now seem to constantly obsess over how to improve patient satisfaction scores, which, aside from percentage of positive outcomes, are one of the determining factors in who gets or loses money -- not to mention how much.

In fact, according to HealthLeaders Media’s 2013 Industry Survey, over half (54%) of healthcare executives say patient satisfaction is one of their top three priorities.

Dealing With the Boss From Hell

There’s no written formula or instruction manual on how to deal with a bad boss. Every situation has different variations.  However, there are some similarities. You’re not the only one having stressful work dreams. You’re not the only one waking up feeling uninspired and dreading to leave the shower because you know drying off and getting dressed means it’s time to go to work. A bad boss can even make a great job not so great. A bad boss that is controlling, intrusive, constantly on a power trip, has no desire to communicate, micro-manages or is a mean bully can be enough to...

The Power of Forgiveness in the Workplace

The power of forgiveness can often be an overlooked quality in a working environment but is incredibly important when building a strong team in your workplace. Have you ever carried a grudge or harbored resentment toward a fellow colleague or even your boss? Or perhaps you’ve fallen victim of someone else’s grudge or resentment?

Mahatma Gandhi said, “The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.” While it does require great strength to accept responsibility for your own mistakes and forgive others for making mistakes as well, it may take even more...

How Championing People Makes Companies More Profitable

When you’re in a position of leadership in an organization, it’s natural that people look up to you. After all, it’s leaders who handle the responsibility of making sure operations run effectively, efficiently and even peacefully, and those who do it well usually move up the ladder quickly and are well-compensated. 

Eventually, your style of leadership, insight and business acumen is going to strike a chord with some of your less experienced colleagues or employees and they’re going to put themselves in a position to learn from you.

And why not? It’s people like you they aspire...

To What Degree are Patients Customers?

Inherently the healthcare industry faces a sticky conundrum; doctor’s offices, hospitals and other types of facilities are not only charged with keeping people healthy and healing the sick, but also with being profitable.

While there may be a wide range of ethical opinions surrounding that notion, the fact remains that healthcare administrators have to strike a balance between the business and public service side, and there has been widespread debate in the industry about whether to treat patients more like customers. 

While there’s some truth behind the idea that patients are,...

The Biggest Reason to Bet on Your Own Horses

All eyes will be on this summer’s Belmont Stakes, as Justify looks to become just the second horse in 50 years to win the sport’s prestigious Triple Crown. While fans mull over where to place their bets on race day, organizations around the world are banking on a largely untapped resource to gain big profits and better savings -- their own workforces.

While there are endless reasons you should invest in your own people when strategizing how to propel your company forward, one reason stands out among all the others: engaged teams are more profitable.

In business, every debate...

Lessons Learned from the Airport Dash

Whether I’m heading to a conference, a client’s location or to visit friends and family, I’m traveling more than I ever have. The thing about being a frequent flyer is you’re always looking for ways to save time -- even short trips can take half a day, and long lines, delays and missing meals can really zap your energy.

Plus, like any good business person, I take a certain pride in my own efficiency (time is money still, you know), and what better place to test your skills than at the airport, a place where they seem to burn more time than fuel.

So, I set off to get from my home...

How to Manage Errors from the Top Down

As the snow melts and the birds began to chirp, the sounds of the ballpark echo across America. After four months of winter, there’s nothing like hearing the crack of the bat, the thump of a baseball hitting the catcher’s mitt and 30,000 people singing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” out of key.

But one of the most underrated things about baseball is the way play-by-play announcers react to errors on routine plays -- you can almost hear them smack their palms against their foreheads.

It’s a little bit of unexpected comedy during a somewhat repetitive and sometimes sleepy game....

Better Business Results Start with You -  How Leaders Learn to Lead Better, Part 3

In this three-part series, we’ll examine senior leadership-types we’ve coached, who, while talented, passionate and experienced, weren’t getting the results they had hoped for. In part 3 of the series, we’ll look at how Joseph got his emotions under control and as a result, helped improve the culture of his team. Click here for part 1, and here for part 2.

Joseph, the Emotionally-Triggered Leader

Joseph was a talented, highly-respected CEO of a medium-sized hospital. Everyone knew Joseph as the “go-to” person. He was enthusiastic, extremely hardworking and good at fixing...

Better Business Results Start with You -  How Leaders Learn to Lead Better, Part 2

In this three-part series, we’ll examine senior leadership-types we’ve coached, who, while talented, passionate and experienced, weren’t getting the results they had hoped for. In part 2 of the series, we’ll look at the strategies Cindy used to gain confidence in her decision-making skills, as well as the ensuing results. Click here for part 1.

Cindy, the Too-Nice Leader

I worked with Cindy for a year. She was well-respected and often described as “super nice.”

Cindy excelled at empathy and was a great listener. She often solicited everyone’s input and took the time to hear...

Better Business Results Start with You - How Leaders Learn to Lead Better, Part 1

In this three-part series, we’ll examine senior leadership-types we’ve coached, who, while talented, passionate and experienced, weren’t getting the results they had hoped for. In part 1 of the series, we’ll look at the strategies Marcus used to find trust in his team, as well as the ensuing results.

Marcus, the Non-Delegating Leader

In my profession as a C-Level and CEO coach, I’m privileged to work with some amazing and talented senior leaders. They all possess a bevy of skills required to not only get the job done right, but to do it with the passion, experience and grit to...

Good Leaders Champion the Fundamentals

Good Leaders Champion the Fundamentals 

March is upon us, and with the NCAA college basketball tournament in full swing, it’s a good time to reflect on legendary Coach John Wooden’s enduring legacy, as well as his teachings about leadership.

The late Wooden, by all accounts a gentle soul in nature, has a mythic backstory; from a humble farm in Indiana, his UCLA Bruins men’s basketball team won 10 championships, with a stretch of dominance that included 88 wins in a row and seven straight titles.

After he retired as undeniably the greatest college basketball coach in history, he...

Thanksgiving

In the US 11/23 is the day that people say thanks and express gratitude.  We also eat a lot and spent a lot but that’s a different story.

Expressing gratitude for some can be hard.  They may have suffered a loss – a job, a home, or a loved one.  Being thankful is far from what they are feeling.  Other find it hard to be grateful because they feel that they are not doing enough, not achieving their goals, or being good enough.And others look at the world with its poverty, disease, and violence and wonder what we have to be grateful for.

I too feel like that.  My partner of 14...

“Doing Nothing” is Good for You

Meditation has many benefits, but many people struggle to get started because they feel that meditation feels like you are sitting around “wasting” time. This is because a primary goal of meditation is to stop doing other things, so you end up doing nothing… or that’s how it can feel.

But there is a critically important distinction between sitting around wasting time by watching television… and taking, say, 15 minutes to give your brain a break entirely.

Writing in MIndful magazine, Christine Carter observes:

“Our brains benefit when we waste time… When we let our minds go…to...

Making Space for New Opportunities

Clearing out the clutter in our lives--things we have no use for, grown out of or no longer need--can free us from the past that might be holding us back and opens us up to new possibilities.

I have just read “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up - the Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing” by Marie Kondo. Her approach to organization is to connect with each item you have and see if it brings you joy.

I am fairly tidy, but there are always areas that seem to defeat me: my papers in my office that need to be filed, the junk drawer, and the cables, which must belong to...

Finding the Divine Spark in All of Us

This is going to sound like the start of a joke, but it’s not: what do a doctor, nun and prisoner have in common?  The answer is in the title. They all talked about seeing the divine spark in others.

A few months ago, we were facilitating a session on quality improvement in healthcare which starts with open and authentic communication. When we talked about how the doctors were living their mission, one stood up and said that every day he tries to see the divine in others. Today, I was with PeaceHealth, and one of the sisters talked about the importance of compassion and the...

The Top Tips for Employee Retention

$11 billion is lost every year in employee turnover (Bloomberg BNA).  So, how do you ensure you hire talent that wants to stick around, and how do you keep them engaged?  Here are fifteen tips to help.

1.  Hire the right people the first time.

Rush to hire just anyone, and you will get just any results. When you take the time to do a thorough process, you end up with thorough results.

 2.  Promote from inside.

When you promote from inside, you already know the person. You know what they can (and can’t do). If they fit the job requirements, they can be a good bet.

3.  Getting...

A Tale of Two Stories

I booked tickets for my son and I to go and see Cirque du Soleil in downtown LA, and here are two versions of what happened. While we can't change events, we can change how we react to them, so which story works better for you?

We leave the house at 3:00 to get to the event at 4:30. It’s Friday and rush hour, but we should be fine. There is traffic. Everyone is driving crazily. No one will let me in as I try and get on the freeway. The traffic doesn’t move, and my blood pressure is getting higher and higher. What is wrong with Los Angeles? We are heading downtown-shouldn’t...

Forgiveness Heals

Forgiveness is at the core of the healing process, whether it's forgiveness of others or forgiveness of oneself. With the passing of the year and the start of the new one, it's a perfect time to heal old wounds and open the door to happiness.

Every single time I volunteer at the prison bringing the principles of spiritual psychology, when I counsel people, or when I coach my clients, forgiveness is the core of the healing process. It doesn’t matter if the issue is small or big, it doesn’t matter if the person I coach is an inmate or a top executive. Forgiveness opens the...

Giving Thanks at the Holidays

One of my clients recently asked these two important questions:

How can Gratitude improve my life in real and noticeable ways?  What is the value of keeping a gratitude log or journal? 

Gratitude is a positive emotion of feeling thankful or grateful. I’ve read several articles about gratitude by psychologists Drs. Blair and Rita Justice, and how it influences our overall well-being. In one of their columns they explain that gratitude “is felt in the same frontal regions of the brain that are activated by awe, wonder and transcendence. From these cortical and limbic...

Are you Addicted to Busy-ness?

Even before I was a single mom, my calendar was filled with triathlons, workshops, volunteering, a coaching practice, writing a book and consulting business travel. Becoming a single mom only fed into this story and addiction to "doing", with lots of opportunities to tell myself that I didn't have time to sit still...there was laundry to fold, poop stains to scrub, dishes to clean, diapers to change, toddler tantrums to address on top of my consulting and coaching, cleaning and shopping, handling the bills and finances for our household. 

After several years of "doing" I fainted...

Teams Make the Biggest Sales

Many sales professionals don’t like to sell in teams. They don’t like to share information, leads, or commissions.

I understand this mentality, but not for the reasons you might think.

My son plays soccer on a U10 (age 10 and under) team, and in his league they have a number of “star” players who can take the ball from their own defensive end of the field all the way to the opponent’s goal, where they shoot and... miss.

These “stars” seldom consider the possibility of passing the ball, so their team can score and win. All they see is the glory of scoring.

In...

Loyalty to your Values=Purpose

article from Access Development:

• 56% of executives say promoting loyalty is "not a major focus, but valued nevertheless" (American Management Association).
• Declining employee loyalty is thought to harm organizations by causing low morale (84%), high turnover (80%), disengagement (80%), growing distrust (76%), and lack of team spirit (73%)  (American Management Association).
• 52% of Millennials think employee loyalty is overrated (Elance/Odesk).
• 6 in 10 Millennials cite a “sense of purpose” as part of the reason they chose to work for their current employers (Deloitte).

Can you...

Are You Extinguishing Your Employees’ Light?

When we manage others, our words can inspire others to be their best selves or turn away from living up to their potential. How can we be sure that we encourage and inspire others to be their best?

NPR was running an interesting story about a scientist working with genes. The reporter explained how the scientist had been interested in science but hadn’t thought about becoming a scientist herself until a female scientist visited her school. At that moment, the girl decided that she too wanted to have a career in science.

It reminded me of a time when I was about 11 and was in...

The Needless Death of a Doctor

Sometime in April, Dr. Jon Azkue committed suicide in his Chicago apartment, not far from where he worked as a senior internal medicine resident at MacNeal Hospital. Jon was 54 and had graduated from Central University in Venezuela.

We do not know what motivated Jon to become a doctor at an age when some people are starting to wrap up their careers, nor do we know what led him to be so filled with despair that he ended his life.

Here’s what we do know.

In the United States, each year we lose the equivalent of an entire medical school graduating class to suicide.

According to...

It’s Not All About the Benjamins

Take a gregarious and loud man to church, and he will suddenly grow silent as he takes his seat. What tells him to do this? Culture.

Strong cultures dictate our habits, actions and beliefs. Weak cultures allow chaos to thrive.

These are a few of the lessons I took away from a recent presentation by Dr. Gustavo Grodnitzky, who is widely known as Dr. Gustavo.

In his highly readable book, Culture Trumps Everything, Dr. Gustavo argues that culture tells us which behaviors are acceptable, and which are forbidden. Culture is what says: that behavior may be okay in the world at large,...

It’s Time To Take Your Own Advice

I’m not a doctor or a nurse, I don’t even play one on TV, but one thing I have noticed about my caregivers over the years is that they have given me some great advice about staying well. They have all suggested exercise, weight loss, stress reduction, and even counseling and yoga to deal with life’s issues; yet, so many of them don’t seem to follow their own advice. When I visited my local hospital recently, I noticed how many healthcare professionals seemed stressed and unhappy. In fact, many research studies and my own work experience with healthcare companies show...

You Are Never Just Your Job Title

Healthcare is a system in which many diverse human beings work together to care for many other diverse human beings. Fill a hospital with just doctors or just nurses or just lab technicians, and the system won’t function at all.

The roles are different, but none is consistently more valuable than another. To some patients, I imagine that the nurse’s presence and contribution is more meaningful than the doctor’s. But in other cases, a doctor - or a team of doctors and nurses - literally saves that patient’s life.

The janitor is valuable. So is the hospital’s CEO.

Your ability to...

Who’s Taking Care of You?

In 2014, CareerBuilder asked over 3,200 professionals to report on their stress levels, and health care workers shouted the loudest, with over 69% reporting they felt “stressed” and another 17% saying they were “very stressed”.

Jason Lovelace, president of CareerBuilder Healthcare, observed, “Stress is part of the environment in many health care settings, but high levels sustained over a long-period of time can be a major detriment to employee health and ultimately stand in their way of providing quality care to patients.”

The health care industry is highly...

Is Your Body Talking to You?

If we're not listening to our bodies, sometimes, they'll make sure we listen through physical ailments. Just this morning I found myself having an impromptu coaching conversation with our daycare teacher when I noticed she had broken another toe yesterday. Eight weeks prior she’d broken a toe on the opposite foot. So what does this have to do with coaching?

After years of working in pharmaceutical research, collaborating with doctors and personal interest in intuitive and holistic healing, I’ve learned that our bodies communicate with us through major and minor symptoms...

Two Steps to Greater Calm and Clarity

Overwhelm is a major cause of stress for many of my business coaching clients. Too many thoughts, too much to do, in too little time, with everything feeling like a priority. Years ago, when I was having my own overwhelm attack, I reached out to one of my mentors who shared this extremely simple and miraculous cure for overwhelm. I call it the Mental Relief Two-Step, because it’s easy and almost as fun as learning the two-step! 

Step 1: List Everything

Grab a pad and pencil (or your tablet or PC) and list EVERYTHING that is on your mind right now – EVERYTHING. That...

Take a Moment and Take Care of Yourself

Last week, I was hurrying to go to an exercise class. My car had been on empty for a day and I decided I needed to fill up before I set off on the five-mile trip. I was feeling pretty pleased with myself.   Budget completed – check. Sitter with my son – check. Going to do some exercise and feeling good about it – check and double check. 

I went to my usual gas station. I am a creature of habit. But tonight someone was in my “space”. I drove around to the next pump, picked up the handle and filled up my car.  

As I left the garage something was not right with the car....

Finding Power in “Doing Nothing”

I just hung up the phone with a client who said these words to me (nearly shouted them, in fact): “The power is in the space!” You see, one of the reasons she hired me as her coach was because her frenetic schedule and stress level had landed her in the hospital not long before our first meeting. She then went on to say, “This is big. This will change everything.”

The power is in the space? How can that be? Space is full of…well…nothing. How could there be power in nothing? Her old paradigm made much more sense. It told her that busyness is power, doing is power,...

Fuel Up Before You Fuel Up (Clone)

Last week, I was hurrying to go to an exercise class. My car had been on empty for a day and I decided I needed to fill up before I set off on the five-mile trip.  I was feeling pretty pleased with myself. Budget completed – check. Sitter with my son – check.  Going to do some exercise and feeling good about it – check and double check. 

I went to my usual gas station. I am a creature of habit. But tonight someone was in my “space”. I drove around to the next pump, picked up the handle and filled up my car.  

As I left the garage something was not right with the car. ...

Career Rule #1: Be Loyal to Your Values

article from Access Development:

• 56% of executives say promoting loyalty is "not a major focus, but valued nevertheless" (American Management Association).
• Declining employee loyalty is thought to harm organizations by causing low morale (84%), high turnover (80%), disengagement (80%), growing distrust (76%), and lack of team spirit (73%)  (American Management Association).
• 52% of Millennials think employee loyalty is overrated (Elance/Odesk).
• 6 in 10 Millennials cite a “sense of purpose” as part of the reason they chose to work for their current employers (Deloitte).

Can you...

Keeping Health Care Workers Healthy

“Some very talented and socially adept physicians learn to balance compassion with emotional detachment,” writes Dr. Sanaz Majd, “...But for the rest, it’s simply about learning to cope, a survival of the fittest.”

As a health care professional, you work long hours, and encounter kind people who are beyond your ability to help. Since you entered this field to help others, this creates internal conflict and tension. You can’t ignore it; you must manage it.

You also wrestle with conflicting emotions, stressful conditions, bureaucratic roadblocks, and the very real...

“Wasting Time” is Good for Your Brain

Download our free "Breathe in Peace" guide.

How Do You Think About Money?

To put this simply, Duran asks us to consider the foundation from which we think about money. He writes: when faced with important financial decisions, you will revert to your dominant Money Mind, which will always affect the way you make decisions.

By understanding your starting point - you might think of this as as a concise summary of your biases - you will have a better sense of your natural tendencies.

That is, if you are fearful, you will tend to see the glass as half empty. You may be too cautious, and this may cause you to miss many good investments. In 2008, such a...

Serve Investors, Don’t Sell Them

After two years of thinking about getting a financial advisor - but doing nothing - I finally overcame procrastination and actually met with two of them. My experience reveals the difference between talking about trust versus actually building it.

I was predisposed towards the first advisor who someone recommended to me. My sense was that he advocated a holistic “it’s not just about the numbers” approach. Since my work centers so strongly around people and human relationships, this notion appealed to me.

We set up a formal call, and one of the advisor’s colleagues...

Employees Work Harder for Cause Than Cash

Take a gregarious and loud man to church, and he will suddenly grow silent as he takes his seat. What tells him to do this? Culture.

Strong cultures dictate our habits, actions and beliefs. Weak cultures allow chaos to thrive.

These are a few of the lessons I took away from a recent presentation by Dr. Gustavo Grodnitzky, who is widely known as Dr. Gustavo.

In his highly readable book, Culture Trumps Everything, Dr. Gustavo argues that culture tells us which behaviors are acceptable, and which are forbidden. Culture is what says: that behavior may be okay in the world at large,...

You Need a Coach, Mentor, AND Sponsor

If you don’t know the difference between a coach, mentor and a sponsor, your career could be a long, tough slog uphill. In a perfect world, you will have all three. Let’s start with the differences...

Coach: This is someone paid to help you. In most cases, their mandate is quite clear, such as to polish some rough edges that have prevented you from being more effective in your current position. A coach is all about action and making a measurable difference in a modest amount of time.

When you first start working with a coach, make sure you both have agreed on specific tasks...

How To Know if Coaching is Worth the Investment

So your ROI formula would look like this: 

(Value of Idea x Percent likelihood) - Cost of Coaching = Total Return

Cost of Coaching/Total Return from Coaching = ROI

Let’s say you choose the doubling revenue as your goal. It’s worth $250,000 to you. Given your past attempts, you feel that without support you have a 50% chance of succeeding.  Your ROI on coaching then would be as follows:

(250,000 x 0.5) - 11,000.00 = 114,000.00

You invested $11,000 and made $114,000, or a 10% return on your coaching investment. 

Of course these numbers are made up. We don’t know how much...

DCC is Expanding the Team

We believe that when people are happier at work, they do better work and companies get better results. Using deep processes based on positive psychology, we help clients solve their inner issues so that they can get better outcomes on the outside. This approach is unique in the marketplace, and our clients get exceptional benefits from our consulting and coaching solutions. As one of our major accounts said, "If I had got half of what we have achieved in this last year, I would have been happy!"

We are a rapidly growing talent management and executive coaching company with over...

When I’m Not Judging Myself

I, for one, would much rather live with myself from the mind and heart of self-acceptance, than from judgment and criticism. Wouldn’t you?

"If you deliberately plan on being anything less than you are capable of being, then I warn you that you will be unhappy for the rest of your life" - Abraham Maslow

Nicola Albini, MA, is an executive coach and high performance strategist. He guides individuals, teams, and organizations to actualize their full potential.Find out more about Nicola and his work here. 

Photo via Flickr.

Seeing with New Eyes

The drive home from my office takes me over a big hill. As I come over the crest, I’m greeted with a beautiful vista of rolling hills with far away mountains in the background. I come over this hill to this view at least five times per week. Up and over. Up and over. Up and over.

You’d think I’d get tired of this, but if anything, I look forward to it more each day. The reason?

I never know what I’m going to see.

The other evening I almost stopped the car because the rising moon nearly filled my windshield. A few days before I was greeted with something I’ve never...

Anatomy of a Big Idea

The action level thoughts are things like:

“How will I find the time?”

“Where will I get the money?”

“Which path will I choose?”

“How can I stop procrastinating?”

Moving through the action level is the easiest, because all you have to do is take one step after another.  When you’ve gotten to the action level of the idea, you can raise your chance of implementing all the way to 100%.

Distinguish a thought or a ‘want’ from an Idea.

Steve had a Big Idea for his business. He had read all the books on success:  The Secret, Think and Grow Rich, all the classics.......read on

10 Tips for Hiring a Coach for Employees

Somewhere between “this person has so much potential” and “we need someone to turn this person around”, you recognize that it may be prudent to hire an executive coach for one or more of your employees. Either way, it’s not enough to simply hire a coach; you need to match each employee with the right coach.

In other words, you will increase your odds of success by following these ten principles.

1. Has the coach gone through his or her own transformation? Knowledge isn’t enough to make a successful coach. The best coaches understand transformation, because they...

Five Myths about Talent Management

2008 study, “only 5 percent of organizations say they have a clear talent management strategy and operational programs in place today.”

3.  HR owns Talent Management

OK, when things go wrong, such as not being able to hire top sales people or nurses, then this is probably true.  Certainly when my company has coached senior HR executives, including the Head of HR for a large healthcare organization, when the chips were down with talent acquisition, the blame was not shared fairly!

But for Talent Management to be successful, we need more than the HR department working on this. ...

On Perfection

What does perfection mean to you?  I always disliked the idea of perfection, but a new definition has made me think differently.  Maybe perfection isn't as unattainable as we thought, and we can see moments of perfection all around us.

I am addicted to “Call The Midwife,” a British show about midwives in a poor part of London in the 50’s just after the Second World War. 

In Episode 5, two of the characters face challenges. One of the midwives, a religious sister, has an alcoholic brother, and a couple have a daughter with Downs Syndrome who becomes pregnant. The sister...

Messages

Tuesday was the 2^nd year anniversary of my partner’s death.  He died just after Thanksgiving when we were on vacation. It felt sad and strangely it felt worse than the first year. I was confused why. I had great plans for celebrating and not mourning but somehow they were not working out.

I was in my office trying not to work but not sure what to do and feeling no joy in going out or staying in, eating dinner or going to the gym, or even being quiet or singing along to something silly. I saw a book on my shelves, “Under the Tuscan Sun”. This is the story, written a few...

Are We All Alone?

I was in Florida for a few days for work and also spent some time with my son enjoying the glorious weather, the pool and the beach. On the last day, we had a couple of hours in the sun before we left for the airport. I tried to relax but I felt uneasy, unsettled and confused. Normally, when I feel like this I would have gone into action. I would have bought another book, found my computer to do some work, or started making lists in my notebook. I resisted the temptation to get busy and so stop the feelings and start the thoughts. 

I eased into the feelings. I realized I felt...

Party Pooper or Party Pooped?

I must be strange – OK, well some of you already knew that! – but for me, the most fun part of a party is when it is all over, everything is cleaned up and the house is back to normal! Don’t get me wrong; I do like parties, too. I just had my son’s class – kids and parents – over to the house for Halloween, and it was great fun. The kids had a blast, and the parents got to hang out and chat. It was a good time with no tantrums from the kids not getting their turn or the adults getting too many libations.

But I love the after-after party. I have such a sense of...

How Do You Inspire…or Not?

Our words can inspire others to be their best selves or turn away from being their best selves. How can we be sure that we encourage and inspire others to be their best?

NPR was running an interesting story about a scientist working with genes. The reporter explained how the scientist had been interested in science but hadn’t thought about becoming a scientist herself until a woman scientist visited her school. At that moment, the girl decided that she too wanted to have a career in science.

It reminded me of a time when I was about 11 and was in an art class. I was enjoying...

Getting the Whole Picture

I was recently in London, Paris and Berlin and noticed how healthy some things were getting!  Everywhere there were bikes you could rent and people were using them.  And people were walking.  Exercise was not something you drove to but was something that was happening as part of your daily city life. 

I also noticed the food.  In all three cities, portions were smaller.  I didn’t see many super size anythings, especially in Paris.  There were also more healthier choices in Paris and Berlin – England still has some way to go on there – but there were fresh vegetables,...

Meet Me in Paris

So, some people would say there are no coincidences.  I would have to be one of them.  Recently, I was in Europe meeting with my business partner in London and seeing a potential client in Paris.  One evening, I stopped to have dinner at a little restaurant.

I was on my own. I had not been to Paris since my partner passed away two years ago, and there were lots of memories.  I also had planned to be here with a friend, but unfortunately it had not worked out, and I was sad about that, too.

I love eating and restaurants. I don’t mind having lunch by myself, but in the evening,...

Coming Out of Any Closet

I just saw a very inspiring Ted Talk. In it, the woman talks about her experience coming out of the closet and relates it to other hard conversations. She believes, and I agree, that we all share that common experience of finding it hard to tell someone something personal about ourselves, whether it’s that you’re gay, you just declared bankruptcy, or you just got fired. The common factor is we’re human and we’re afraid.

I recently saw this with a hard conversation I had with someone who was working with me. This person was a good person, good at what they did, but not...

Introducing our new VP of Business Development, Ryan Hutto

A while back, my wife came back from a coaching intensive where many of the top coaches came together for training and she told me about one of the games they played. It was something about “tell me what you most don’t want me to know about you” and they shared that exact thing with one another. Here were a bunch of ultra successful coaches sharing their most deepest secrets and epic “failures.” As I sit here thinking of what I might share in this blog, I thought of that “game” and how much more common it is to share our wins, successes, and the great things...

Cold Hard Change

We bought a new refrigerator recently.  Not really a big occasion.  Our old one was ten years old, was working fine, but was showing its age (like me) with some dents and dings.  A friend needed one for an apartment he was renting so we bought a new one and he got the old one.  It was the exact same brand, model, and size.  When my eight-year-old son came into the kitchen and saw the new one and the old one sitting in the breakfast area waiting to be picked up to go to its new home, he went bananas.

“Dad, I want you to put back that refrigerator.  I loved that refrigerator...

Customer Service:  The Other View

In my previous blog, I talked about how it felt as a customer in two different stores.  In this blog, I want to talk about how it feels from the customer associate side.

In Home Depot, the woman who worked there seemed to like her job.  She was interested in what I had to say.  As a result, I felt valued and I felt that I was respected.  It was also a good day for me.  I was enjoying buying the plants.  It was a lovely day, and although it was warm, it wasn’t oppressively hot.  My gardening project was going well, and after a few false starts with expensive contractors, I...

A Tale of Two Customers

Since I have been doing work on my house and yard, the home improvement store has become a regular haunt. But, on one day, I had two very different experiences as a customer. It was interesting to see how two competitors could be so different and what impact their culture had on their outcomes. 

Home Depot

Home Depot was full of construction guys and the place was like that-a little dusty and dirty. I went to the Customer Service first of all. I wanted to have some plants delivered to my house, as the car was too small to transport them. The Customer Associate explained that I...

What Room Do You Need to Clear Out?

This past month has been one of clearing out for me. After about six months out of my house after a flood, I moved back in. I was surrounded by 400 boxes and realized I need to pare down and cut back. 

I donated a truckload of furniture, ornaments, pictures and books. I threw out things which I hadn’t used, were broken, or were just past their sell-by-date. I even tackled the attic where things had been packed up for eight years. It was amazingly freeing to release those things. There is space to breathe. It makes things possible.

I also found that I have shed some pounds as...

Forgiveness Changes Lives

Forgiveness is at the core of the healing process, whether it's forgiveness of others or forgiveness of oneself.

Every single time I volunteer at the prison bringing the principles of spiritual psychology, when I counsel people, or when I coach my clients, forgiveness is the core of the healing process. It doesn’t matter if the issue is small or big, it doesn’t matter if the person I coach is an inmate or a top executive. Forgiveness opens the doors to happiness for us all. When we as individuals or communities relate to each other from an open wound, we keep creating more...

How to Handle Conflict at Work

If you've ever struggled with handling a difficult situation at work, Executive Coach Jeanne Verger has some excellent advice for dealing with these situations professionally and objectively.  

Be Here Now

Overwhelm. Too many things to do. Not enough time to do them. Most of us would agree this is a terrible place to be yet day after day, there we are again. Ugh.

Sure you can look at things like paring down, saying no more often, and delegating. But what about when those options are exhausted? What then?

Well, then we’re left with ourselves and what we have to do. If we have no more flexibility in altering what we have to do…we’re left only with ourselves.

One of my clients recently told me, “I was reading my kids bedtime stories but all I could do was obsess about...

Managing the Chaos

If you are a human today chances are great that you have a very full plate. If you have a job and a family, you are likely desperately trying to keep all your plates on a tray without dropping any. In my opinion, this is why so many start-up businesses employees feel stressed to the point of non functionality. There’s no way to manage that kind of chaos in the way most of us try to manage.

Let me repeat that last sentence. There is NO WAY to manage that kind of chaos, especially not alone. You cannot do it all, certainly not if you expect to grow a successful business.  If...

Looking to Make a Difference?  DCC is Hiring a VP of Business Development

We believe that when people are happier at work, they do better work and companies get better results. Using deep processes based on positive psychology we help clients solve their inner issues so that they can get better outcomes on the outside. This approach is unique in the marketplace and our clients get exceptional benefits from our consulting and coaching solutions. As one of our major accounts said, "If I had got half of what we have achieved in this last year, I would have been happy!"

We are a rapidly growing talent management and executive coaching company with over...

Four Questions to give you answers

Four questions and four answers can give you a lot of insight. You may want to ask yourself and answer these to give you a sense of who you are and what matters to you. I'm sharing my answers with you.    

Thanks to Rebekah Green and Dror Amir for coming up with this concept:  Four things about me that make me who I am.

1. What Personal Transformation Means to Me and How It Impacts My Leadership …

Only by knowing myself and facing both my opportunities and my challenges can I have the knowledge and courage to lead others.

2. I Love the Work I Do Because …

It makes...

Why Everyone Needs a New Leadership Model

"The female leadership principles I identified are: Compassion – Uniqueness – Empowerment. Women should lead on C.U.E."

These principles are important for women but I believe they are vital for all leaders.   Without compassion you don't understand how people are human - not perfect, not machines, but beings who have successes and challenges.  Without uniqueness you cannot have creativity and originality.  Without empowerment you cannot have a workforce who is engaged in doing the best and the right thing.

This leadership model is not just for 50% of the world but for all...

Assessing Your Uniqueness

How can we take a step back and look at what we have to offer a prospective employer or other people?

Let's look at how to define the "product" we are selling by assessing our skills, knowledge and behaviors.  

We can look at our uniqueness in various ways:

Skills – what you can do – speak French, program in C++ or ride a unicycle.

Knowledge – what you know – all the names of the seven dwarves, how a tractor engine works, or how to make a perfect muffin every time.

Behaviors –  what you do - easily give honest and motivating feedback to others, smile when you meet...

Addicted to Doing

Even before I was a single mom, my calendar was filled with triathlons, workshops, volunteering, a coaching practice, writing a book and consulting business travel. Becoming a single mom only fed into this story and addiction to "doing", with lots of opportunities to tell myself that I didn't have time to sit still...there was laundry to fold, poop stains to scrub, dishes to clean, diapers to change, toddler tantrums to address on top of my consulting and coaching, cleaning and shopping, handling the bills and finances for our household. 

After several years of "doing" I fainted...

The Power is in the Space

I just hung up the phone with a client who said these words to me (nearly shouted them, in fact): “The power is in the space!” You see, one of the reasons she hired me as her coach was because her frenetic schedule and stress level had landed her in the hospital not long before our first meeting. She then went on to say, “This is big. This will change everything.”

The power is in the space? How can that be? Space is full of…well…nothing. How could there be power in nothing? Her old paradigm made much more sense. It told her that busyness is power, doing is power,...

Is Work-Life Balance Really Dead?

Don’t Miss Your Opportunity to Make a Real Connection

What would our relationships look like if we looked up from the screen?

This article made me think:

//www.npr.org/blogs/health/2014/04/21/304196338/for-the-childrens-sake-put-down-that-smartphone

I was on the computer doing some work while checking messages on my smartphone.  Two screens competing for attention and the TV on in the background.  My son was talking to me and to be honest I was only half - no a quarter listening.  Then something made me look up.  He looked sad.  There was something going on.  I shut my computer - it was hard - but I went cold turkey, put my phone...

Executive Coaching Doesn’t Work If It’s Set Up to Fail

                                                                                                                                                                                     
In the realm of athletics or performance, the question “Does coaching work?” rarely gets asked. The proof is in the outcome, and you’d be hard pressed to find a top athlete that didn’t also have a top-notch coach. But in business we still have to justify investing in the kind of coaching that yields those kinds of best-in-class results.

We know why coaching works, on and off the field. This...

On Bravery

This is interesting and moving stuff from a friend of mine's son who just took a break from being at Oxford because he was so stressed. 

//henryegar.wordpress.com

My dear friends Caroline and Phil have raised two amazing children.  Henry was accepted to study at Oxford University.  Oxford and Cambridge are the top universities in the UK, maybe even in some ways in the world, and it was a huge achievement.  But he was stressed - and, as he put it, worried - so he has taken some time off to stop and evaluate where he is going.  

I wonder how many of us are also stressed at work...

Sorry, I Don’t Have Time!

Sorry, I Don’t Have Time!

Running a company, raising a child by myself, dealing with a house renovation, and trying to have a social life sometimes feels like I don’t have any time. I can easily go into overwhelm.

But that’s an illusion. I have plenty of time; not to do everything, but only to do the important things. I can’t spend time catching up with HGTV, reviewing the work of one of my employees who is totally competent, and writing a blog which shares my heart and tells people about what is important to me. I have to choose.

I saw this last week when I was going...

Leadership qualities

Millennials can teach us Baby Boomers a thing or two…

 Maybe we could learn from this generation who are looking at engaging with life. I especially like this quote.

"I think it has less to do with lack of conscientiousness—it’s more a recognition that no company is going to bury you when you die," said Scott Ruthfield, 39, who runs Rooster Park, a recruitment firm in Seattle. "You’ve seen your parents go through large companies that don’t take care of them, and you realize that you’re responsible for your own well-being."

We have created companies who are not loyal to their workers. They create secret succession plans, make HR...

Fuel Up Before You Fuel Up

Last week, I was hurrying to go to an exercise class.  My car had been on empty for a day and I decided I needed to fill up before I set off on the five-mile trip.  I was feeling pretty pleased with myself.   Budget completed – check.  Sitter with my son – check.  Going to do some exercise and feeling good about it – check and double check. 

I went to my usual gas station.  I am a creature of habit.  But tonight someone was in my “space”.  I drove around to the next pump, picked up the handle and filled up my car.  

As I left the garage something was not right with...

Celebrating Freedom on Passover

For many years, I have been fortunate enough to share the first night of Passover with good friends who open their home, cook enough food for a small country, and celebrate freedom. That’s what Passover, when the Jewish people were freed by God from slavery, means to me.  

Over the years my friends have talked about freedom from Nazi Germany, freedom for women, and freedom for LGBT. It is always a celebration that I look forward to and enjoy the opening that freedom brings.  

But many people create their own prisons. They are free, but they are not free. They can't go on...

Gender Bias in the Workplace

What a Difference a Year Makes

November 25^th, 2012 started out as a happy day in a bright and sunny paradise.  Then, one event took place that turned my entire world upside down and led me to step into the leadership role that I was destined to assume.