by Caroline Leach | Jun 6, 2023 | Careers, Work/Life
With all the news about return-to-office policies, a middle ground of hybrid work seems optimal in many cases.
This gets the best of collaboration and culture building with a few days in the office, balanced with a few days of remote work for better focus, productivity, and work/life integration.
As an example, I’m working in Mammoth Lakes, California this week, a five-hour drive from my home base in Los Angeles.
My dad is visiting from the East Coast to attend meetings in Mammoth. While he’s a pretty active 80-something-year-old, I jumped in as the driver and travel companion.
How is this working out?
🔴 Coaching and consulting client meetings continued on as usual via Teams and Zoom
🔴 New client proposals got created and delivered as usual
🔴 Admissions committee work for the graduate program I teach in continued on
🔴 Event and catering inquiries for my family’s Redondo Beach restaurant Pacific Standard Prime got responses
🔴 Driving from LAX to Mammoth, my dad and I met my son for lunch at UCLA between his classes
🔴 My dad and I spent time together and caught up on each other’s lives
🔴 The change of scenery in the stunning and still-snowy Eastern Sierras brought new perspectives and ideas
Overall, it’s been an integrated and effective way to combine work and life.
Of course, having my own coaching, consulting, and speaking business The Carrelle Company means I can work wherever and whenever I need and want to.
Doing restaurant-related work remotely was a bit trickier, however, and more limited in scope.
There are many ways to do great work from anywhere. There are many ways to combine the best of being in the workplace at times and being remote at times.
What works well for you?
by Caroline Leach | Feb 28, 2023 | Careers
When people ask about my career background, I tell them I spent 30 years in the corporate world, and I’m now into 30 years of entrepreneurship.
At first, it felt a little strange. Do I want to work another three decades? Can I work another 30 years? And how will technology change my work?
It’s year 5 of my coaching, consulting, and speaking business. It’s year 3 of my husband Kevin’s steakhouse, Pacific Standard Prime. And while it hasn’t been an easy road (pandemic, anyone?), the momentum continues to build. Entrepreneurship increasingly feels like a sustainable path for both of us.
While I’ve been busy pursuing my 60-year career, I had no idea it was a broader trend. Until I read Here Comes the 60-Year Career in The Wall Street Journal this month.
The ancillary lesson here? You could be part of a bigger trend without even knowing it. What are you doing or thinking in your own life that could be part of a societal shift? What trends are you setting?
by Caroline Leach | Jul 30, 2021 | Careers, Leadership
How can you solve a difficult problem?
Counterintuitively, almost by deliberately not thinking about it.
First, you can go for a walk. Get out doors, pick up your stride, and enjoy being in nature. (That’s what I did today, and I took a picture of Crystal Crag in Mammoth Lakes.) A little forest bathing and forest therapy are good things.
Second, you can go to sleep, whether it’s for a nap or simply time to turn in for the evening. It can help to give yourself an assignment to come up with solutions to the problem you’re facing. Then switch your focus to something else, perhaps some reading before bed.
In both cases, you might be surprised that ideas to solve your problem seem to magically crop up from seemingly nowhere.
If you’ve tried to solve a problem by walking or sleeping, and not actively thinking about it, what happened?
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