Today we’re sharing insight from guest blogger, Nancy Owsianowski, Founder of RoundTable Consulting, LLC. We hope you enjoy Nancy’s wisdom and perspective.

It’s January. Time to open that brand new calendar and think about goals, dreams, and the potential of the year ahead. With the new year, we get a fresh start and the chance for a new perspective. After 2020 drew our collective attention to health-related topics we have a greater appreciation for good health and the significance of strong relationships. We want a healthier life and healthier organization.

Today we’re sharing insight from guest blogger Michelle Mei, Founder of Leader Momentum. We hope you enjoy Michelle’s wisdom and perspective.

Fourteen years ago, just a few months into my first professional job as the Catering Sales Manager at Radisson Plaza Hotel & Suites, I received a call that my mom had a stroke. She almost didn’t survive. My mom, a vibrant and motivated woman in her late 40’s, survived the ordeal but lost most of the mobility in the right-side of her body. I was fresh out of college, ready to show my boss, the company, and the world that I was capable of anything. During the next quarterly meeting with my Sales Director, I went on and on about my lofty client prospects and sales goal. My Sales Director didn’t say a word. Uh-Oh. Then, he pushed my goal list to the side of the table and said, “I need you to re-do this. I would like you to add another set of specific goals to your plan. How many times are you going to visit your mom in a week? How many times are you going to have dinner with your parents in a month?” I was speechless. I never thought a company, or a manager, would care about me as a person, or that my success in setting and meeting goals in the areas of my life that mattered the most, would matter to them too. I gave it my all for that company and because of that, I was successful at my job.

Today we’re sharing insight from guest blogger Jim Coyle, Certified EOS Implementer and Chief Advisor at Nexus Business Solutions. We hope you enjoy Jim’s wisdom and perspective.

“Jim, we just need to make sure we get all the details and every part of the process documented, so people don’t mess it up anymore.”

“I think we just need to give our clients more choices. If we had 10 to 15 options, then they would get exactly what they want.”

“What we need is a more detailed plan, so we are all on the same page.”

Today we’re sharing insight from guest blogger Jon Brickner of HR Collaborative. We hope you enjoy Jon’s wisdom and perspective.

Whether the radical disruption of 2020 thrust your business into fight, flee, or freeze mode, none of us can deny that the way we work will never be the same. And change isn’t done yet. It may never be. Always-on transformation seems to be here to stay.

And while quarantine-required remote work initially boosted productivity, as organizations return to their old ways of working, engagement, collaboration, and business performance are starting to fall again.

But this trend isn’t equally distributed across all companies. At HR Collaborative, we’ve seen “a tale of two cities” this year. The organizations that embraced modern leadership and a remote infrastructure pre-pandemic weathered the storm much better than those that hadn’t.

Today we’re sharing insight from guest blogger Rachel Pritz, Certified Life Coach and Certified Enneagram Coach. We hope you enjoy Rachel’s wisdom and perspective.

Rarely do you see skills like compassionate, self-aware, or emotionally intelligent show up on a resume. These are often called "soft skills", but there's nothing soft about them. It takes daily intention and effort to learn these skills. It's a journey not a destination. No book, podcast, or personality assessment will be a quick solution to building these skills. But the Enneagram personality framework can give you a starting point along with a GPS map for your journey.

Today we’re sharing insight from guest blogger Alex Perry, CEO of Practically Speaking, LLC, host of the Minivan Mogul Podcast, and author of Minivan Mogul: A Crash Course in Confidence in For Women. We hope you enjoy Alex’s wisdom and perspective.

As I sit down to write this, I'm already battling the little voice in my head that says, "Why are you trying to write a post on leadership? Seriously, Alex, stop, you're going to try to come up with something that sounds business-y (is that even a word), and you're going to sound ridiculous! Why don't you just leave this one to the experts and go back to scrolling through Facebook or something like that. What on earth could you have to say to professional people who don't make their living writing and talking about their adventures self-discovery in their minivans." ((sigh)).

I'm fighting the urge to make this sound like I think you expect it to sound and doing what I know works for me as a leader, which is writing exactly what I think. You didn't realize when you started this that you were going to get an express ticket to the inside of my brain. Welcome, please make yourself at home. Being true to myself as a leader is tough work that's only gotten minimally easier as I've gone along. Is the same true for you? (if not, feel free to scroll on over to another blog.)

Today we’re sharing insight from guest blogger Kristine Hilger Carles, Executive Director of Leadership South Bend | Mishawaka. We hope you enjoy Kristine’s wisdom and perspective.

My oldest son, a senior in college, is an acting major. Through the experience of being a theater mom, I’ve learned that acting isn’t the chaotic creativity I once believed and that “going off script” is frowned upon in most situations. Acting, though inherently creative, has scripts, procedures, and norms.

Many aspects of life today, from project planning to decision making to meeting management are scripted for us. There is comfort in the script, security in our routines, assured results in our procedures. What happens, though, when an unprecedented pandemic obliterates our routines, and there is no choice but to go off script?

During our board of director’s meeting last fall, I shared the story behind the Miracle on the Hudson, and pilot, Sully Sullenberger’s, quick, creative landing which saved 150 passengers in 208 seconds. When Captain Sullenberger was asked to define his thought process in the middle of a life-threatening crisis, he attributed his unorthodox solution to a “could” approach.

Today we’re sharing insight from guest blogger Chris Mills, Chief Operating Officer/Partner at ML Talent Strategies. We hope you enjoy Chris’ wisdom and perspective.

We think of business strategy as a three-legged stool. Each leg is distinct, yet all three legs must be integrated effectively to grow a dynamic, value-based enterprise.

Today we’re sharing insight from guest blogger Randy Taussig, Chief Navigation Officer at BlueCore Leadership and Certified EOS Implementer^™. We hope you enjoy Randy’s wisdom and perspective.

The ability to solve substantive business challenges could be the most important skill your leadership team must master.

It can either propel your business forward at light speed or, if done poorly, keep you orbiting through chaos and frustration. Beating business obstacles is one of the most difficult skills to master, but when you do, magic happens!

Today we’re sharing insight from guest blogger Kim LaGrange, President of Prime Talent Insights. We hope you enjoy Kim’s wisdom and perspective.

Even though we are only halfway through 2020, we can be sure it will long be remembered as an incredibly challenging year for our country and our world. We might consider it to be the year of “uns”, since the events of 2020 are described as unprecedented, uncertain, unsettling, and perhaps even unbelievable.

Within today’s challenges, we can find opportunities – for our organizations and for our own growth as leaders. To quote management expert Peter Drucker, only three things happen naturally in organizations: friction, confusion, and underperformance. Everything else takes leadership. Leadership matters, today more than ever. Never has it been more important for a leader to be resilient, to be able to grow and to drive their organization’s growth, even in times of adversity. Seizing the possibilities and creating a great tomorrow is exciting and important work!