by Caroline Leach | May 31, 2021 | Change, Work/Life
What’s on your mind as the unofficial start of summer arrives this Memorial Day weekend? As we emerge from 15 months of pandemic-induced staying at home?
As a coach, I’m often collecting interesting questions to ask people. One of my favorites came from someone in a coaching class through the Co-Active Training Institute. The question is: what’s an area where you consistently let yourself down?
On long weekends, we often have time and space to pause and reflect on our lives. What’s going well? What could be improved? And even more importantly, what’s an area where you consistently let yourself down?
The answer to this last question might hold the key to what you really, really want from your life. Your thoughts might surface wishes and dreams that often get forgotten and overlooked in the rush of our busy lives.
For me, where I let myself down is living too much in the future and not enjoying the present, in my rush and zeal to get stuff done. What’ I’d like to do is enjoy the present moment (now that I’ve finished a morning’s worth of work on this holiday … ha!). What is means is I’m going to go read a chapter or two in a new book I got from the library (which after a year of drive-through book pickups is now open to go inside!). Then a bike ride around the neighborhood. And some time with family tonight, reconnecting and and enjoying each other’s company.
What’s missing in your life? Where are you letting yourself down?
Right now is the perfect moment to put yourself first. Do what your heart is calling you to do.
by Caroline Leach | Dec 31, 2020 | Change, Leadership, Learning
What do you share on social media when life is difficult? When life is even busier than normal because of pressures that come with living in the Covid era?
For me it’s meant I haven’t posted on social media as much in the last few months. In part it’s because my business is growing — consulting, coaching, speaking, and teaching — and I have more work to do. That’s a good thing. It’s a blessing in this environment.
Yet it also brings new pressures. How do I continue to deliver my best work? How do I scale my business to the next level? How do I automate certain processes and which ones?
The other part is just how difficult it’s been. The struggle. The juggle. The terror of wondering, day after day, will everything work out?
This part comes mostly from the steakhouse my husband opened in the summer of 2020, after two years in the making. The dream became reality, and Covid turned it into a nightmare. And we have lots of company in this strange space.
The good news is people love the restaurant. Tonight we’re delivering three times of the number of New Year’s Eve meals we estimated.
The bad news is takeout and delivery is not a sustainable business model. I understand why indoor and outdoor dining has been prohibited to help stop the spread of Covid. What’s harder is moving forward day after day when most of your ability to operate isn’t there, with 260 empty seats.
This has all run headlong into my guiding mantra to only share positive news and information on social media. My focus is providing insight and inspiration about personal branding, social media, and leadership that others may find valuable in their own professional lives.
Some words in a book I read this month crystallized the downside of this approach. “This is where we are now, endlessly cheerleading ourselves into positivity while erasing the dirty underside of real life,” says Katherine May. She’s the author of Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times.
The dirty underside of life right now, for many people, is it’s really hard. Life is difficult. It always has been, but the last year has brought it into sharp relief.
It’s okay to feel down. It’s okay to feel discouraged. It’s also good to connect with others and ourselves to be with the reality, at the same time as we strive to improve upon it. The dirty underside of real life is present. And that brings new challenges. Many of them are outside of our control. But our response remains within our control.
In my case, my operational, marketing, and human resources skills are increasing exponentially because things need to get done at the restaurant, and I’m doing them, working with a great team my husband has formed. Setting the uncertainty aside, this “dirty underside” is also a huge period of growth.
So I’m consciously shifting my mindset, as a strategy to get through this. The reality is present and unchangeable and a huge bummer. What is changing is me.
Also, a year goes by in a flash. Next year has the potential to be very different. Although Covid is sadly spiking now, a vaccine is on the way. There is light at the end of the tunnel. We will all have new skills, experiences, and perspectives from this time that we can apply to the future.
How about you? What parts of your real life are you struggling with? How are you growing and transforming as a result? What will be different and better a year from now?
by Caroline Leach | Aug 6, 2020 | Careers, Change, Social Media, Work/Life
Three aspects of Covid-19 stand out in August 2020.
First, transmission of the coronavirus is largely airborne through respiratory droplets, when people talk and interact.
Second, wearing a face covering and physically distancing are our individual best defenses against the virus.
And third, we’ll probably need to spend a lot of time at home as the virus rages on for the better part of a year.
Wow. Let that sink in. A year of remote work (and life), for those of us lucky enough to be in a profession that can be done outside of a physical office.
In my case, writing, consulting, coaching, speaking, and teaching can all be done remotely. The first three were already remote work activities. But how about speaking and teaching? Thankfully, they’ve both moved online to Zoom.
Since the pandemic sent us home in March, I’ve spoken (remotely) in several graduate school courses on digital communications and marketing. A highlight this fall will speaking in an executive education program. And a few interesting developments are happening in the teaching space, which I’ll share more about soon.
One question seems to loom large. Simply because an activity can be done remotely and online, does that mean it’s of the same or higher quality? Many people might say no. However, I disagree. Why? It’s an opportunity to innovate, experiment, and iterate. As we do that, it will be on a scale none of us has ever experienced before.
From Surviving to Thriving
For those who love to play in ambiguous spaces, this is a dream come true. Yet the uncertainty and capriciousness of the pandemic has pushed even me to crave a bit more structure and concreteness.
And while this might seem to be a matter of survival, I’d like to do more than simply grit my teeth and get through it. How about you?
As the renowned internet commentator Mary Meeker says of this pandemic period, we’re in the process of, “getting to the other side.”
What is the other side? And how long will it take to get there?
There’s no way of knowing for sure. So rather than feeling like a rudderless ship being tossed about in a storm, I choose to captain my own ship. I choose to create my own environment, to the greatest extent possible. I choose to thrive, rather than simply survive.
This topic of thriving is one I’ll explore in my upcoming writing. For today, I’ll couple this with my focus on boosting your career through social media. How do the two interact? It’s a topic I’ve written about this year on a few levels — from How to Pivot Your Personal Brand on Social Media to How to Engage People with Your Social Media Content.
With an eye toward thriving in a stay-at-home world, here are three ideas for making the most of your social media time.
Create a Learning Environment
Now is the time to experiment with social media. Within the bounds of respect for all people, it’s an ideal moment to try new types of content. See what resonates with your network. Use new features you may not have engaged with much before. Rarely share an Instagram story? Give it a whirl, play with the features, and see how people respond. Or use the newly announced Instagram Reels video feature. This can be your own personal learning environment. In fact, I gave a TEDx talk on the subject. It’s called How Social Media Can Make You a #LifelongLearner. Check it out for more ideas.
Follow New Voices
The move toward social justice through the Black Lives Matter movement and others can present an opportunity to seek out new voices and perspectives. It’s an ideal time to actively listen. On Instagram and Twitter, a few accounts I’m now following are Black Lives Matter and PrivtoProg. LinkedIn has a great feature in “My Network” where it suggests Black voices to follow and amplify. Mellody Hobson of Ariel Investments, Carla Harris of Morgan Stanley, and Karamo Brown of Netflix’s Queer Eye stood out to me. Mellody’s TED talk called Color blind or color brave? is excellent. Carla has leadership motivation for the ages in a talk she gave about how to own your power.
Say No to Negativity
With all the polarization in America, it has sometimes felt to me that I shouldn’t retreat into my own echo chamber of similar voices. Often, I kept people in my feed in the name of listening to a variety of perspectives. However, that doesn’t extend to negative, disrespectful, or incorrect information. It has become increasingly important to consider the source of information, whether it’s scientifically based, and how healthy it is. It’s okay to unfollow people, or to simply mute their content. There’s so much negativity in the world. Why perpetuate it by tolerating people’s feeds who are insulting your deeply held values?
In Closing …
People are spending more time on social media during the pandemic. Increased usage has plenty of downsides. However, with a slight shift in how you view social media, it can become a force for good in your life. With a spirit of curiosity and innovation, you can get playful and have some fun with it. I shared a few ideas here. How are you using social media to help you thrive and transform during this time?
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