Deliberately Growing Up

Those of you who read our posts regularly know that we at SmarterWisdom are quite obsessed by several general approaches to leadership development. Themes and thoughts about self-awareness, intentional thinking and action, growth mindset and (Marcie’s favorite) letting the structure do the heavy lifting, are just a few that run through our writings, just as they percolate through our thinking. Many of these approaches that we care about help to form the framework of our work with the individuals and teams with whom we spend our time. Many of them even come together and align to create a structure that we can overtly share with people in an explicit form.

Know Thyself

Self-awareness is certainly a key element in being effective at your work. What is tough about tackling self-awareness, however, is that it is rarely identified by the person being mentored as an area of challenge: understanding one's level of self-awareness is inherently difficult, since it is obviously dependent on the level of self-awareness you possess in the first place. The ability to know yourself and to know how you are viewed by others is key for success. The internal and external mirrors that exist within and outside of us needs to be activated, made shiny and clear, and available at all times in order for any kind of growth and personal development to take place.

Working Friendships

By the latter stages of the pandemic, when many of us had been working from home for close to a year, we ached for more connection. We missed the ready-made interactions in the office and the various low-key ways we tried to see friends and families during our free time. Perhaps this renewed attention to significant others in our lives was partly because we had to decide actively, and with intention, to cultivate and find these moments. We thought about our friends, missed them terribly and reached out frequently over the video waves in order to feel connected at a time of great loss. Without the ease of existing relationships, in pretty much most aspects of our lives during the height of Covid, we felt bereft and at sea; we perceived that something was lost and unavailable.

The Power of Influence

There is no doubt that the pandemic has pushed us all to the brink in many areas: the definitions of work, parenting, schooling, family and friend relationships and even grocery shopping have all changed. SmarterWisdom’s basic philosophy is that within us we have the solutions to many of our problems and that we can always capitalize and make the most of the situation at hand to learn how to approach difficult issues in different ways. In the same way that we faced the recent upheaval in our daily lives, there is little doubt that leaders who were able to access their highly developed soft (or power) skills have not only fared better themselves, but have ensured the success of their teams and workmates.

Design Mindset, Empathy, Team-buildingJane MouldingNovember 2, 2022workingfromhome, Pandemic, Flexibility

Building on a Soft Foundation

There is no doubt that the pandemic has pushed us all to the brink in many areas: the definitions of work, parenting, schooling, family and friend relationships and even grocery shopping have all changed. SmarterWisdom’s basic philosophy is that within us we have the solutions to many of our problems and that we can always capitalize and make the most of the situation at hand to learn how to approach difficult issues in different ways. In the same way that we faced the recent upheaval in our daily lives, there is little doubt that leaders who were able to access their highly developed soft (or power) skills have not only fared better themselves, but have ensured the success of their teams and workmates.

Design Mindset, Empathy, Team-buildingJane MouldingJune 7, 2022workingfromhome, Pandemic, Flexibility

Hiring Bringing on a 19th Nervous Breakdown?

The hiring process is filled with hopes, fears and expectations on all sides. Hiring someone is a challenging process---especially in this labor market---and everyone is eager to get a good person on board. Candidates themselves bring their own dreams and watch-outs to their job searches, and, at least right now, the market is in their favor. What is aligned across all participants in the process (at least in most situations) is that everyone is eager for a positive outcome. Of course, exactly what that vision looks like may not be fully shared by both the candidate and the hiring manager. In many cases, it isn’t even shared across the hiring committee.

Don't Go It Alone

SmarterWisdom has written a lot recently about uncertain times, times of change that provide opportunities to transform your approach to leading and learning. We see the leading with people, not the leading of people as key to your team’s success, especially now. Placing the science and expertise of organizational change front and center, will ensure that you can navigate unknown situations ahead, and be ready for a sustainable future. In a recent blog, Marcie wrote about psychological safety and how leaders can create workplaces that are healthy; earlier Jane wrote about burnout and resilience, teams redefined and how individuals need to consider the ethos of the culture where they work to ensure they are in the right place. In all of these pieces, we urged leaders, at all levels of the organization, to ensure they had time to lead and coach their team members, checking in, asking them how they can help, and engaging in active, forward-thinking mentorship. In some ways this need for leaders to coach and tend to their colleagues is a new aspect of leadership, but in many ways not: generative leadership always pays attention to the health and well-being of the team, building trust and developing engagement.

2020 In the Rearview Mirror: Top Takeaways for the Year Ahead

As SmarterWisdom Consulting celebrates its first birthday—during the entire month of January—we have been reminiscing about what we learned during twelve extraordinary months. The good news is that exceptional experiences--and 2020 was, if nothing else, an exceptional year—can lead to great learning! As we speed away into the new year, we want to build on these insights that have inspired us.