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Imposter Syndrome: Why You May Feel Like a Fraud, is an article from VeryWell Mind that provides a comprehensive overview of what imposter syndrome is and some solid ways to overcome it. The author, Arlin Cuncic, MA, breaks down imposter syndrome into five different types:

While imposter syndrome can act as a motivator for some of us, for others it can cause anxiety and have a negative impact on our health and well-being. While it is not recognized as a mental health disorder, the anxiety it causes can be problematic. If  imposter syndrome is negatively impacting your life, you might want to seek help from a mental health professional.

There are many reasons that explain why organizational trust erodes. In their brand new book: Move Fast and Fix Things (a direct hit on Facebooks famous mantra: “move fast and break things”) authors Frances Frei and Anne Morriss discuss ten reasons that destroy organizational trust. Each relates to one of their three pillars of organizational trust: “that you care about them (empathy), that you can actually meet their needs or deliver on your promise (logic) and that you will do what you say you are going to do (authenticity).”

Aversion to making choices: This can be chronic in some organizations as they become watered down and lack focus. Trust Pillar: Logic Reliance on heroic employees: Not everyone is a is very driven and wants to work 24/7. Design work loads for real people with real lives. Trust Pillar: Logic Shiny object syndrome: Focusing on the next new thing can be very distracting for the organization as it follows the latest new idea or project, while losing focus on what matters. Trust Pillar: Authentic Disengaged middle management: When middle managers are overlooked by the leadership, not part of the solution and ground down by the realities of the business. Trust Pillar: Empathy
Casual relationship with other people’s time: This is a classic problem when managers waste their employees time with outdated software or unnecessary processes. Trust Pillar: Empathy

If you would like to read more, go to 10 Pitfalls that Destroy Organizational Trust or pick up a copy of their book.

When I think about being curious, I think about being inquisitive or interested in something or someone. But when I started digging into the subject, I learned that it is not simply about being curious, but about answering the question: How are you curious?

There are five different types of curiosity, according to HBR’s series on why curiosity matters, and they run the gamut. Which of these five most resonate with you? If you are not sure, check out the article because it includes a quick assessment you can take.

1. Deprivation Sensitivity: Those who need to solve a problem, or they will stay up all night thinking about it. They are coming from a place of deprivation.
2. Joyous Exploration: Those who look around the world with a sense of wonder.
3. Social Curiosity: Those who actively talk, listen and observe others to learn.
4. Stress Tolerance: Those who “accept and even harness a level of anxiety”.
5. Thrill Seeking: Those who take physical, social or financial risk.

The authors also correlate the different types of curiosity to work outcomes, stating that Social Curiosity and Stress Tolerance are particularly relevant. People who are socially curious are good for collaboration and building trust and cooperation, while those who can handle stress seek challenges, can manage limited resources and are not afraid to speak up.

Take a minute and check out: The Five Dimensions of Curiosity

In this article, written by Kendra Cherry, MSEd, the author does a good job of providing an overview of resilience – the types of resilience such as mental or physical, the causes of personality traits that help us remain “unflappable in the face of challenge”, the impact of having resilience and how to become more resilient.

She also shared that people who are resilient have a set of characteristics that include:

• A survivor mentality – knowing you can make it through tough situations
• Effective emotional regulation – the ability to manage emotions in the face of stress
• Feeling in control – feeling that our actions play a part in determining outcomes
• Problem solving skills – looking rationally at a situation and coming up with options
• Self-compassion – the ability to treat yourself with kindness, especially when it is difficult
• Social support – having a solid network and being able to ask for help

Read: How Resilience Helps You Cope With Life’s Challenges including the tips on how to bounce back from hardship, they are also quite useful. My favorite technique is “reframing”, something I talk about often with my coaching clients.

In this article from Chief Executive, the author, former CEO Jay Sidhu, addresses the subject of leadership versus management. In Essential Lessons for Leadership, he said that “leaders must:

1. have a clear vision, mission, goals and strategic plan to achieve those goals with alignment throughout the organization;
2. master their internal environment through authentic self-assessment of strengths and areas for improvement;
3. master their external environment, i.e., how are the economy, competition, and customer needs, etc., changing and impacting performance; and
4. be passionate about continual improvement.”

The fourth bullet point really struct home with me as an executive coach. Beyond building a personal board of directors that he met with frequently, and taking leadership development programs, it sounds like he remained intentional about his own personal and professional development throughout his career. He also spoke about “understanding your strengths and weaknesses”, learning more about himself and being open to change. Read the full article for more insights.

Personal change is tough. Convincing others to change can feel impossible. I am thrilled to welcome back Deb Graham, who shares with us how to uncover and mitigate resistance in the workplace. Here is her article, Unmasking Resistance: Unlocking the Secrets to Successful Change…

Have you ever experienced that frustrating moment when you’re ready to embark

on an exciting journey, only to find your partner dragging their feet? Well, it’s not just a personal phenomenon – resistance can rear its head in various aspects of our lives, including the workplace. You’ve likely seen one or more of these subtle forms of resistance. What makes them so challenging to identify is that they can be easily explained away.

The Deceptive Smile and Nod:
Picture this: you present your groundbreaking idea, and your colleagues nod along, seemingly agreeing with you. However, these nods might not necessarily translate into genuine agreement. More often than not, they simply indicate that your message has been heard, while the actual buy-in is still lacking.

The Elusive Follow-Through:
You’ve managed to secure apparent agreement from your team, but progress remains stagnant. They constantly find excuses for not taking action, claiming they’re too busy or promising to do it later. But you wonder, are they legit busy or simply waiting you out?

The Absent Attendees:
Frequently missing or cancelling meetings about the change may be a sign of resistance. When individuals fail to show up it may be an indication that they are intentionally avoiding participation. If your boss frequently reschedules, she may be signaling that it’s not really a priority.

The Vocal Complainers and Confronters:
Sometimes, resistance takes a more overt form, with individuals openly complaining or confronting the proposed changes. While these expressions of discontent can be challenging, they provide valuable insight into the reasons behind the resistance. By engaging in open dialogue and active listening, it becomes possible to understand the concerns and discuss options that everyone can get behind.

Perhaps the most treacherous aspect of resistance is its ability to remain concealed. Just because no one is explicitly talking about it doesn’t mean everyone is committed to the change. Unaddressed resistance festers and becomes deeply entrenched, posing a significant obstacle to successful change implementation. Instead of persistently pushing forward, taking a step back and engaging in meaningful dialogue can work wonders. By asking questions, actively listening, and genuinely understanding the perspectives of others, we can diminish emotional resistance and identify logical hurdles that require course correction.

Digging a bit deeper into the remote work world, as it exists today, I found two competing lists of the best remote companies to work for.

Forbes published the Top 30 Rankings from Flexjobs, and only included jobs that are fully remote, with no restrictions of city, state or region. They also talked about the growth of remote jobs in finance and marketing.

I confess, I am unfamiliar with many of these companies, including their top picks Wikemedia Foundation, Protocol Labs and Kraken. Check out their full list HERE.

Indeed, the online search firm, published a very different list called 20 of the Best Remote Work Companies in 2023. On this list you’ll find several tech and blue-chip companies including Microsoft, Intuit, Meta, Johnson&Johnson, and SAP. Each company’s listing includes a Work Happiness Score and a Flexibility Score. If you are in the job market, and want to be fully remote, check them out.

Do you have a sponsor or two? We often talk about mentors, and many of us have business or executive coaches, but do you have a sponsor? It continually surprises me that most of my clients are unfamiliar with the concept of having a sponsor.

While a mentor shares experiences, offers moral support, listens and might share advice, a sponsor is an advocate, someone who intentionally brings up your name when you are not in the room. Someone who says, “what about Michelle” for a stretch assignment or when talking about a bigger job or promotion is a sponsor.

In this article, What Great Sponsors Do Differently, the authors talk about the relationship from the perspective of the sponsor and share six tips which I have included below. What strikes me about this list is that it is the ideal scenario. In a fast paced business world, the most important role of the sponsor is that the sponsor acts on behalf of the sponsee (#3) by promoting them to other high level executives. Sometimes we have sponsors, and are not even aware that they are advocating for us and our work.

If you are a sponsor, and have a formal structure to your sponsor/sponsee relationship, here are some tips to maximize it. Great sponsors:

1. Show up – they attend regularly scheduled meeting and respect the time of their sponsee.
2. Are patient and without judgement – and invest in really understanding their sponsee.
3. Act outside the one-on-one meetings with their sponsees – and advocate for their professional growth with assignments and promotions.
4. Seek out relevant information transparently – to better know and understand their sponsee.
   Offer feedback and provide psychological safety – and are candid while providing a welcoming space to talk, listen and learn.
5. Talk to each other about sponsorship – and the impact sponsoring has on the organization as a whole.

Check out What Great Sponsors Do Differently to learn more.

My former partner at a communications company we launched in NYC was a theatre director. Ellie Heyman often spoke about “business speak” and how it gets in the way of communication. I agree.

On the lighter side of all the job-elimination news out there, this refreshing opinion piece

from Fast Company breaks down some of the prevalent business speak we hear today – in job descriptions and in-person communication.

Written by Whitney Posterick, it shines a light on the absurdity of it all. Her point is that jargon filled job descriptions turn off potential employees. She focuses on stakeholder, cross-functional and multi-level marketing in her piece. I would add to that, the acronyms that companies use ad nauseam such as KPI, SEM, POC, TOFU, MOFU and BOFU.

Take a minute a check out Want to hire someone creative? Don’t do any of these things, and please, take the author’s advice to heart.

The other day, there was an essay in the Wall Street Journal entitled: Our Hesitations in Speech Are Much More Than Filler. Written by Dr. Fridland who is a professor of Linguistics at the University of Nevada, Reno, she studied when people use um and uh in speech, referring to them as filled pauses.

What she learned is that people use um or uh when they are deciding between competing

word options, formulating what they want to say, signaling that your brain is processing what to say and giving them time to think. She also mentioned other research from the 90s on um and uh that shows the two “words” are used in different contexts, um to signal a longer pause and uh for a shorter pause.

But here’s the thing: so what? All of Dr. Fridland’s research and conclusions are rooted in the study of linguistics, which is all quite interesting, BUT when talking about effective communication, um and uh are a big challenge for the listener. Using them is a habit, and with effort, you can eliminate the use of um, uh, like, so or any other filler word.

In fact, pausing is far better than hearing filler words that add no value. When you do not know what word to choose or want to give the listener time to process what you are saying, PAUSE. It will make you sound infinitely more polished and professional. Filler words are distracting, they dilute the message and make the audience work harder to hear what the speaker is actually trying to say.