 Connect with Verve Newsletter – 6.27.2020 Change has been a big theme the past couple weeks/months/years, not only in my life, but in the lives of my clients, as well. About a year ago at this time, we were packing up the last of our boxes to complete our move from Pittsburgh, PA to Fort Myers, FL. It was a new adventure, a fresh start, where everything was possible. (Check out the Verve Podcast episodes where I share my thoughts and feelings of our New Beginnings and Next Phase). While the boxes have long been unpacked, after I send out this letter, I have plans to do yet another purge, clean and refresh of our space – letting go of the old and making room for what ‘sparks joy’, as we now say. (If you haven’t watched Tidying Up by Marie Kondo on Netflix, add it to your binge watch list today!) Because the need for things in our lives change, as our situations change. In our move, we ‘right sized’ from a six bedroom house to a three bedroom townhome. Of course, at the time we chose our accommodations, we had no idea shelter-in-place would be a thing! Being home SO MUCH, I realize that the best way to keep this place clean and to stop the COMPLETE MADNESS of constantly tidying up is to NOT HAVE SO MUCH STUFF to have to tidy! A discussion that the family has had in the past couple of days is that ‘everything needs to have a place‘. I’m going to roll with that momentum, and instead of buying more furniture and storage, I first want to evaluate what we really need. I have books galore, kitchen utensils and gadgets aplenty, more art supplies than you can shake a stick at (which shall be organized, but not purged, thank you very much). In the darkness of shelter in place, online retail therapy has been my salve, and while I’ve brought in things that feel good and necessary for my life right now, I’m excited to do that ritual of releasing some of the things that aren’t serving me in this moment. Shifting work life For some of my clients, this re-assessment has taken a different look. Shelter in place and working from home has highlighted cracks and gaps in their work/life balance. They are starting to see that their work situations aren’t sustainable, or that the work they are doing is not worth the drama that is required. Some are getting laid off and others are taking on increased responsibility as their companies are shifting agendas and priorities. A few others are completely fed up with the corporate structure and are looking at ways to start up new initiatives and businesses to solve new problems that have surfaced as our new normal materializes. With the super competitive job market ahead of us and all the opportunities that we may want to take advantage of, it is imperative that we all look at ways to upskill our talents and showcase value for our employers and customers. Consider that now may be the exact right time for you to start exploring options for making a change in your own work life, whether it’s enhancing your leadership skillset, exploring a new career path or tackling that business plan you’ve been pondering. With so much up in the air, I want you to be well poised for success when the dust settles. Check out the Lead with Verve Resources section below for three ways that you can level up and master the game. Coaching Reflection Question: What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail? – Robert Schuller Resources: Lead with Verve Find the language that reflects your best YOU Oftentimes, we know we want a change, but we don’t know where to begin. I always advocate starting from within. To paraphrase Oprah, “what do you know to be true”? About your passions, your truest self? You KNOW how you were meant to spend your life energy, you’ve just forgotten, or chosen to bury it. It’s calling you, pleading with you, and now is the time to listen… These resources will help you find language to give voice to that yearning. 1) The Career Leader (TM) assessment goes back to basics by naming the things that you are uniquely qualified to do and interested in doing. You may very well have taken it in college, and believe it or not, it is just as relevant today. Clients have found so much value in being reminded of core skill sets and seeing alternative applications in roles they might not otherwise have considered, which has enhanced their resume writing and expanded the pool of jobs they have considered tremendously. I’d like to offer you a chance to take the assessment and have a coaching debriefing session to create your own action plan. Explore your career options 2) Refreshing one’s resume can be an absolute pain in the you-know-what. I, for one, have spent hours making micro adjustments to format and wordsmith my resume, only to preview it to a friend who tears it apart. That was before I created my ODD BIO template. In this worksheet, you move away from the confines of the resume template, and really assess what work life you really want. The worksheet allows you to stop regurgitating old job descriptions and helps you essentially write the job description of your dreams. You unlock what skills you have that you want to use in the future, and what work experiences have brought you pride and a sense of accomplishment that you’d like to replicate in the future. Since using this worksheet, I, and several of my clients have revamped our resumes into simple, powerful, straightforward representations of our truest, most value-added desires and contributions, and have secured new positions to match. Send me a free copy of the ODD BIO template 3) The Gallup StrengthsFinder is a tried and true way to take stock in your innate talents and turn them in to strengths. While you may not refer to these talents explicitly in your resume writing, they can help shape the direction of your job search and allow you to share your abilities with extra confidence. When you see yourself written so clearly on a page, as you do from the generated assessment report, it puts a little extra pep in your step! You can take the Strengths Finder assessment online or purchase a book such as Now Discover Your Strengths from Gallup or StrengthsFinder 2.0 by Tom Rath which will include online access codes. *Note: Beware of buying hardcopy/possibly pre-used versions these titles, as the access codes can be disabled. Schedule an assessment debrief and action planning session Resources: Create with Verve Creative community We’ve had such an amazing 8 weeks of Meaningful Me Time Moments. We’ve crafted handmade notebooks, visually mapped our changing identities post-motherhood, creatively processed emotions from BLM and COVID-19, and had some fun free-for-all making sessions. Most of all we’ve made some beautiful and unexpected connections with like-hearted women from a variety of geographies (Venice CA to Melbourne, AU), life stages (new mothers to retirees), and backgrounds (law, real estate, human resources, and art history, to name a few). The incredible DIVERSITY this group has showcased has been the biggest surprise and my greatest joy. And yet it should not be a surprise to me because if coaching is my superpower, then diversity is my cape (?!)…it’s the thing that I wear, the thing that makes me, me. One of my strengths is that I hold a container for multiple perspectives and points of view, and I am very good at connecting dots between seemingly divergent ideas — and people. And this has been one of the best benefits of our time together. A recent participant said it best: “Yesterday’s Me Time Moments was such a gift to my soul. Meaningful conversation with some smart, interesting women about things that concern them AND seriously relate to the world now?! My jam. Thanks for creating this space for us!”  Selection of completed work from Meaningful Me Time Moments May 8 – July 1, 2020 Join us on July 1 for our LAST Meaningful Me Time Moments gathering, and SAVE THE DATE for the next Meaningful Me Time Moment Mini-Retreat on July 17. Learn more and register now Spaces are still available for the three day in-person Creating Space Retreat in Sanibel, FL in October 2020. Til next time, be safe and be well, Lauren Lauren Travis Lambrecht Founder, Verve Leadership http://www.VerveLeadership.com 510-239-3482 Copyright © 2020 Verve Leadership, All rights reserved. |
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