“Where Are You?”: Secret Sauce of Introverts

Portrait of Mildred Bailey, Carnegie Hall(?), New York, N.Y. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Indulge me while we imagine vinyl spinning Mildred Bailey’s song, “Where Are You?”, and please do put your feet up and enjoy some cool lemonade. There now. I’m about to get feisty.

Yes, I said ‘secret sauce’. I want a turn with the buzz word. Full disclosure: I am an introvert. Extroverts are fun and all, but it turns out introverts bring their own secret sauce to the executive suite. (Okay, I’ll stop with the secret sauce references.)

Ask good questions. Practice on yourself. Mildred Baily asks, “Where are you?”, and this is a great question for self check-ins. Introverts do this often. We tend to spend a lot of time in our heads, reflecting. If I am stressed or unhappy, healthy questions remind me of who I am, what energizes me, what I value. Strengthen your core with good questions.

Care less about the crowd. Know your unique power. Look, it is exhausting trying to be, do, think what you imagine you should. Rather, be informed of what is current, know what is relevant, and sell, serve, iterate yourself. Hire out the rest.

Fun. Remember that? Fun is still there for you. You may have been busy with someone else’s version of fun. Not a bad thing, but your soul needs sprinklings of what you delight in or fatigue sets in. Where are you, that you that you used to love? Charismatic leaders know fun.

Related articles

• 23 signs you’re secretly an introvert… (huffingtonpost.com)
• Introverted? The Power Of Being Alone (urbantimes.co)

Find Your Creative Inspiration

Steve Jones, www.brandlikearockstar.com, shares on how to reboot your creative thinking. Are you ready to grab that next rock star idea?

Related articles

• Why Weird Experiences Boost Creativity (creativitypost.com)
• Need to come up with your next thought leadership campaign? How to create a Building 20 at your professional services firm (blisspr.com)

Where does trust come from?

Leadership on any level depends upon trust. Unlike respect, which may be given based on position alone, trust is cultivated — or eroded. Seth Godin offers a great self-check in his blog post Where does trust come from?.

Working For Free And Living With Abundance

Favors, Freebies and Discounts. Where do we draw the line and should we draw the line?

I want to support my favorite charities and delight when my work fills a need. When I can help a friend or relative, it is a blessing for both of us. Usually.

We have all been there. That uncomfortable moment when we know we are overextending ourselves and resentment is creeping in. It doesn’t have to be this way and we do not need to react by saying a firm ‘no’ to all future pro bono work.

The solution has to do with understanding our time is a limited commodity, as is our money. Take a quiet break and a pad of paper and write down a budget for types of donated work with time allotments for each per week and  month. Study your list, are you uncomfortable? Edit until you feel satisfied.

Working free, free of resentment, contributes to a life of abundance.

For more detail about working for free, check this article by Marc Zegans.

Do you have any tips on handling requests for pro bono work? How to you manage your yes and no response?

How to Build the Stamina You Need As An Entrepreneur

How have you been starting your day? Is that working for you?

 

At www.entrepreneur.com, Jen Groover shares very helpful recommendations  that will boost our productivity. She likens stamina to a muscle we have control over to develop or not.
Listen to Jen Groover in this 60 second video as she makes a compelling case for an entrepreneur’s vital need for stamina and how to tap into your personal stamina building habits. How to Build the Stamina You Need As An Entrepreneur

 

What is one habit you can change or eliminate to increase your stamina? What positive habit do you have that just revs up your stamina? 

 

Executive Presence: How To Act The Part

Image via Wikipedia

It is an unmistakable quality: executive presence.

 What women’s names would come up at your table discussion? And what is it about her that gives her that presence?

TED Prize Winner City 2.0 Aims to Crowdsource Cities

Give CITY2.0  a look if you love visionary views of what your community can look like. This is not for skeptics or naysayers.

And as an aside …
the video is visually stunning.

How would you use crowdsourcing to change your city?

There Is No Career Ladder – Priscilla Claman – Harvard Business Review

No career ladder? Is anyone sad?

In the Harvard Business Review Blog, Priscilla Claman suggests your career path will most likely look like, well, a path. This is a good thing. You will have more options for exploration of new skills and a more active role in the story of your career.

Read about 3 ways you choose to move your career forward.

There Is No Career Ladder – Priscilla Claman – Harvard Business Review.

Can you share your experience of what this looks like? What is your experience?

Social Media: A Positive Change for Humanitarian Aid

We can no longer trivialize social media’s importance and what it means for communities around the world. Rather, we must all learn to use it, leverage it, and invite all the potential good out if it respecting the power it holds. This is a game changer.

TED — Social Media: A Positive Change for Humanitarian Aid

Haiti allowed us to glimpse into a future of what disaster response might look like in a hyper-connected world.” (Paul Conneally)

Don’t Miss The Cohoes Falls In Upstate New York

I have to admire Cohoes mayor, John T. McDonald, III, for standing up and daring to champion the Cohoes Falls. I grew up in this town. The author’s remarks are true!

I can only imagine the resistance he received in this small town from the “it’s never worked before” crowd. Prime waterfront real estate had remained a diamond in the rough for centuries, until this visionary wouldn’t let it rest.

I am delighted to show my children and grandchild­ren the Cohoes Falls in all her glory, and the credit goes to John T. McDonald, III.

Do you have a diamond in the rough story? Please share; I never grow tired of tales like these.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost