We develop coping skills early in our lives. Some of these coping skills may be effective in our adult working lives, but in some cases, we may need to develop new skills for dealing with personal issues while still producing at work. This is particularly true for consultants. In the corporate world we may be able to close our office door for the day, or work from home. We can choose mundane things to work on like clearing out our email or organizing our files. But as consultants, we don’t … [Read more...]
Dealing with Personal Issues or the Blues? 3 Ways to Ensure We Can Still be Effective for Our Clients
July 14, 2011 By 2 Comments
The Five P’s: An Alternate Approach to Time Management
June 30, 2011 By 1 Comment
The concept of time management remains an enigma for many and it’s understandable. On any given day, we start with 24 hours and within that time-frame process through personal and professional needs, tasks, projects, responsibilities, priorities, and everything else. There are days when we feel very accomplished and others when we feel completely defeated. It can be a continuous see-saw of productivity versus ineffectiveness. Rather than monitor the minutes and attempt to control every … [Read more...]
The Power of a Single Word
June 21, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Like most of you, I wear a lot of hats—mother, business owner, WIC president, and caretaker to name a few—all of them requiring time and attention. On top of that, the universe has thrown what feels like a bajillion curve balls over the past three years, from big stuff (death and major illness) to a constant string of annoyances (power outages, sitter on jury duty, computer crashes, you name it). A while back, I developed a mantra—go with the flow. But lately, the flow has felt like a … [Read more...]
Consulting Tip: Problem Solve Like a Yogi Not a Two-Year Old
March 24, 2011 By Leave a Comment
I love my walks. Besides a stress reliever, they’re the genesis of many a blog post. And my last walk was no disappointment – although the idea came not from a free flow of thought, but rather a bothersome technical glitch. I love listening to music as much as I do walking, but my iPhone was taking away from that pleasure. Every 1 – 4 minutes, it would make this odd beeping sound and jump to another song. It started doing it about a month or ago, and I couldn’t figure out why. … [Read more...]
Consulting Tip: Carry Your Own Baggage and No One Else’s
February 26, 2011 By 4 Comments
I used to be an owner. If someone reacted negatively to a situation or an exchange, I owned their reaction. I focused on it, internalized it, and wouldn’t let it go. What an energy drain that was – and a total waste of time. I knew the only thing I could control in any given situation was my own actions and reactions, but did that stop me from owning the person’s negative response? Nope. And if you would have asked me anytime last year if I thought I’d ever be able to relinquish … [Read more...]
Acknowledging Your Own ‘Stock Value’
July 5, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Recently, I had a big ‘personal event’ in my life (I got married!) and for the week before and the week after the wedding, it was difficult to stay as focused on my work and my clients as I normally am. I had every intention of working on client projects right up until the day before the wedding and to return to work the following Tuesday since we weren’t taking our honeymoon right away—I wanted to minimize the impact of my marriage on my clients. However the clients I had active … [Read more...]
Work-Life Balance: A Walk a Day Keeps the Doctor Away
October 23, 2009 By 5 Comments
Anyone who knows me is probably wondering how I could be writing a post on work-life balance. This year has been full of days that start at 6 or 6:30 and don't end until midnight or later and working weekends. In fact, I've found little time for one of my favorite stress relievers: exercise. NOTE: this post isn't about the benefits of exercise. I love the endorphin rush I get from a good walk in our hilly neighborhood while listening to some of my favorite music -- another top stress … [Read more...]
Work-Life Balance: 8-Step Stress Management
July 25, 2009 By 2 Comments
As I mentioned in my last post, Work-Life Balance: Finding Inner Peace Despite External Turmoil, Simma Lieberman shared many pearls of wisdom at the last Women in Consulting (WIC) meeting. As I was going through the business cards from that meeting, I came across Simma's. On it was eight steps to stress management. I thought I'd share them with you. Make sure to check out her site and blog for more stress management and work-life balance advice. Breathe. Remember to breathe. Start each … [Read more...]
Work-Life Balance: Finding Inner Peace Despite External Turmoil
July 22, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Last Thursday, at the Women in Consulting (WIC) meeting at Michael's at Shoreline, I had the pleasure of listening to speaker Simma Lieberman discuss work-life balance for consultants. Given all that's happening in my life, this was a timely topic indeed -- one that I was looking forward to with great anticipation. I was not disappointed. Simma (www.simmalieberman.com) shared many pearls of wisdom that evening. One that really struck a chord was the idea that real balance comes from … [Read more...]
It’s TOUGH to Get Away From it All…
November 22, 2008 By 4 Comments
I've just returned from an 8 day vacation (I say that, because something about being gone even one day over 1 week makes things more 'serious'!) and am reflecting on how much of a vacation I really got... It's always been very difficult for me to 1) prepare for being away from my business and 2) really BE away from my business when I'm gone! And my vacation-mates get annoyed at my need to keep connected via email and the 'quick little thing' I have to do to respond to a client's urgent … [Read more...]
