Inspired Choice

How to Follow-up on Job and Business Leads

Are you someone who is challenged when it comes to following up on a sales lead, a job opportunity, or something you are promoting? What stories do you tell yourself... that you will appear needy, greedy, pushy?

Read this article I wrote on TCW's new feature, the Minute Mentor, for tips and insights on how being mission-driven can help you take action for the sake of others. Hint: it's NOT about you!

Today's Chicago Woman -- "You: The Expert"

The article "Be the Expert in Your Field" is available for a limited time on the Today's Chicago Women website.

Learn how you can identify, claim and announce your expertise, especially if you don't see yourself as an expert.  Practical steps are offered to let the world know how you can help and the subject you know well.

Download a printable copy here You - The Expert or click on images below.

     

Overcome the difficulty of saying "No" by saying "Yes!"

If you are like me, managing time and getting all you have to get done completed is an elusive goal.  Fitting in time for what you want to do seems impossible.  I used to joke that while I slept at night, little time-stealing gremlins scheduled things on my calendar without my knowledge! 

Is this you?  As your "to do" list grows and your calendar groans, every day you resolve you are going to work smarter, be more efficient and finally get it all done! And then, not only do you only get a few things done but now you have more tasks on the list! No matter how much you try, day after day is the same! You feel overwhelmed, hopeless, stressed and out of control. 

Overview.  Join me as we look at the underlying issues and emotional hooks that contribute to this feeling of powerlessness over your time. Not to mention the bit of resentment (anger) you feel from the pressure that can "leak out" as uncharacteristic impatience in traffic, with your family, co-workers or service people waiting on you.

Below are solutions you can put to immediate use including a proven technique that helps you shift your perspective about saying "No" and take inspired action! 

Listen to a 23-minute success interview with my buddy, Joe, a financial services senior executive, who has had amazing results empowering others and himself AND reclaiming 3 hours each day by saying "No" by saying "Yes, and...!"  Click here, use the player below or download the MP3 file.

10 Tips to Overcome Stories You Tell That Keep You Stuck

Think about a time in the last week where you got out of bed or sat down at your desk determined to take action on one of your most important work goals.  And it didn't happen.

Perhaps you were going to make a networking call, sending an email to ask for an introduction or follow-up with a prospective client or employer.  Instead you found yourself answering emails, surfing online or rearranging the papers in your files to create busy-ness and feel productive.  Part of you wants the goal to be achieved and part of you creates a diversion because of a perceived risk, discomfort or fear. Welcome to procrastination! 

Here is a new twist on what's going on in that wonderful mind of yours and a new way to think about being stuck AND solutions to help.

This happens to ALL of us... full disclosure.  As I wrote this article, I had some not-so-quiet self talk going on saying things like, "I'm not feeling creative enough to write, so this article won't be good" or "This isn't going to interest my readers and maybe a nap is a better idea!"  See how active that inner critic can be? Two or three times I had to laugh out loud and ask myself, "So what story are YOU telling yourself, Gail? And what story would you rather tell?!"  It was like a big DUH moment.  It turned out to be great research!  So even in the midst of writing to tell you how to overcome negative self talk by changing the stories you tell yourself, it happened to me!  

For more on the value we get from acknowledging the voice of fear and how to make it work for you, go to my article here.  For more on the impact of judgment in the workplace (and in your head), how it protects you and how to work with it, go here for another oldie but goodie.

What are the stories you tell your Self that keep you stuck?

Isolate a recent procrastination moment and imagine that your thought processes where spoken out loud and recorded.  If you could replay your inner dialogue, what would you hear?  

Gail's article in "Planning Possibilities" Newsletter

I am happy to have an opportunity to spread the word about being mindful and reducing overwhelm in the "Planning Possibilities" newsletter from Plan B Consulting headed by Michelle Coussens.  Michelle is also the Dean of the School of Business at Kendall College where I serve on her Senior Advisory Board.

Plan B Consulting's mission is to assist nonprofit organizations and small businesses across the U.S. to become both more effective and more efficient short-term and long-term through practical business planning, resulting in meaningful and measurable organizational benefit and societal impact.

Read Gail's article, "Reduce Overwhelm with Unplanning; Tips to Mindful Calm Moments," by downloading this newsletter here PlanningPossibilitiesSept2010-CopyrightMichelleCoussens.

How to Love Selling Your Skills w/4 Perspective Shifts

What feelings come to mind when you think about the word “selling” or “sales” or “salesperson?” How do you feel when you imagine selling your skills, services and value in the market place? Can you feeling the “ick factor” kicking in? 

Attitudes about sales. Whether you are a job seeker, career builder or entrepreneur, you may experience a lack of confidence, discomfort and negative self talk when you think about selling. Some people think sales must include trickery, sleaze, canned sales pitches, manipulation, and pressure. Some believe sales means having to “make” someone do something or that people have to be convinced, coerced, incented, and lulled into participation.

We all sell, even you! Selling is at the core of most activities in your life that involve relationships. You are selling when you, ask your team to help you complete a project, tell your prospects what you offer, enlist a co-worker (child or parent) in letting you help them, negotiate a choice of restaurants with friends or design a change in a fitness habit to be healthier (relationship with Self).

It’s all a matter of perspective. Get ready to experience a shift in thinking, beliefs and your mindset about selling! Read the 4 perspective shifts below with an open mind and allow yourself to experience a new perspective. NOTE: These are deep concepts. The ideas are simple. Applying them in your life and making these thoughts and practices habit will take some effort. 

SPECIAL OFFER!  To help make this easier and avoid writing a 10-page article, join me for a 2-part no-cost “How to Love Selling” teleclasses. I’ll teach you how to apply these perspectives so you can engage people in your mission and sell without selling to boost your career or business! Go here to get dates, details and sign up.

Tips to stop the frenzy and dis-ease of too much DOING

The Symptoms. You just returned from vacation and there is SO much work to do so you immediately re-engage your good 'ole multi-tasking behavior and your vacation is a dim memory 2 days later. ***  You spent and extra 30 minutes with your 5-yeard-old before leaving for work and now you feel you are behind and will be trying to catch up all day. *** You decided to help someone in the office or at home with a special project instead of doing a To Do list item so now you are beating yourself up and trying to be Super Hero to still get it all done!

Sound familiar? It happens to me. Learn what this behavior costs you and some tips that have helped me and my clients.  See the small steps I recommend below so you can immediately break this cycle and begin a new habit.  Learn how to achieve more mindfulness, inner peace, purpose and mission-driven action which results in increased efficiency, better solutions, and JOY.

Giving up the struggle. Nature's lesson on freedom.

On a recent walk around the newly renovated South Pond in Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoo, I was gifted with a lesson from Nature, taught to me by a baby duck.  See my special no-cost offer below, inspired by this story, so YOU can benefit from Nature's lesson, too!

While strolling along the gorgeous new boardwalk, my husband and I came upon a family of ducks.  A mom and 3 babies maybe 2 weeks old, about 5 inches long, all cute and fuzzy.  What wasn't so warm and fuzzy is that the 3 ducklings were trapped on the wrong side of a continuous circuit of chicken wire set up on wooden stakes to protect the newly planted seeds on the edge of the pond! 

We watched intrigued and concerned as these 3 babies tried to get back to their mother.  The longer they struggled, the more we thought of ways to intervene. 

Then we decided to see what Nature would figure out.

Using Emotional Intelligence to Increase Success

Below is a recently published article I wrote as a guest columnist for Winning Workplaces...

Source: Winning Workplaces - Ask an Expert.  Winning Workplaces is a nonprofit providing small and midsize employers with proven, practical and affordable people practices.

Published: April 13, 2010 

Q: I've run a small business for about 10 years, and I see the term "emotional intelligence" popping up more and more in business publications. What is it, and how can I use it to improve my business results?

A: What if you could reduce or even avoid conflicts at work? What if you could elicit more volunteerism, cooperation and collaboration in your organization? What might happen if you could better manage your emotional reactions to incidents and respond versus react without control?

That is the power of emotional intelligence. This is a set of skills that includes control of one's impulses, self-motivation, empathy and social competence in interpersonal relationships. Daniel Goleman, author of the classic 1995 book Emotional Intelligence, popularized this term. In the Harvard Business Review he reported on his study of emotional intelligence and its role in the success of business leaders. The good news is emotional intelligence can be learned and improved, and it has a 2 to 1 success ratio over IQ and technical skills!

Tool to help you manage and emotions and conflict

Are you someone who avoids having difficult conversations to avoid conflict?  Do you let uncomfortable interactions with people in your career or business hold you back from going after what you want?  When someone does something that angers you, do you react in ways you regret later or feel you don't know how to respond and just stuff your feelings?

I'm here to share a conflict management tool (below) to help you sort out the elements of what I'll call the "trigger event," real or imagined, and get clear on your feelings, judgments and needs so you can respond consciously for better results. This is a deep topic with huge opportunity for you. Give yourself some quiet time to really give this a chance to create change in your life.   Note: This is Secret #5 in my eBook "10 Secrets to Boost Your Emotional Intelligence" offered here.