Accepting accolades. It's hard. Here's how.

Estimated read time: 2 minutes.

An award proudly displayed in our house!

In two sessions today, clients talked about being uncomfortable about being recognized, and when something comes up twice in one day, it's in the air and goes right into a newsletter (with client permission, of course).

You've heard the adage, "it is better to give than to receive." Giving is great. Of course it is. And this adage makes the receiving part sound "less-than" or worse than the giving part. We've grown up in a culture that has taught us to be uncomfortable with receiving, teaching us that we're not worthy of the praise and recognition we deserve. Boo. Hiss.

Here are the two client stories to illustrate the point:

One of my clients received a 12% pay raise. Twelve, amazing percent! Money is one of the ways that organizations show love, and this guy got a giant, hand-delivered care package covered in corporate hearts! Know what he said? "It kinda freaked me out because now I wonder what I have to do next."

The other client was named "Employee of the Month." Not for her department, not for her division, but for her entire center of 2500 people! Know what she did? She emailed the decision makers and told them they must have made a mistake and then told me that she really didn't work that hard and that other people deserved it more.

Good thing they both have a coach to set them straight.

Are you thinking, "wow, these people are amazing. They deserve their accolades. But not me?" Perhaps you relate to one of these popular ways to deflect recognition and praise:

• ignoring it
• skip past it
• turning it into praise for other people
• denying it
• finding all kinds of smart reasons why it isn't true

You deserve the praise you receive, too. Here are some tips to help you gracefully receive kudos, awards, and compliments:

1. Practice abundance thinking. There is room in this world and in your workplace for every person to shine bright and be amazing. Praise and recognition is not a rare commodity. Everyone can have some!
2. Don't compare yourself to others. Accolades for you doesn't mean diddly about other people. It's just about you.
3. Enjoy your moment. Stop for a moment to acknowledge what you did well and let yourself bask in that glow.
4. Celebrate! Mark this great event with a special dinner or a treat for yourself. You deserve it!
5. In the moment when everyone is emailing you with congratulations or patting you on the back or your boss is telling you, "well done," just smile, say thank you, and keep breathing.

Just breathe and receive. Breathe and receive.

You can do this.

Christina

Do you work for a boss or a leader?

A micro newsletter! Testers register than one minute to read.

Leadership lessons at the lobby coffee pot

Last week, I was in San Diego for strategy meetings with my business mastermind (i.e. my coach and business peeps). Being from Minnesota, I was awake every morning at 5:00 while my CA roomies were still asnooze in their beds. Luckily, the hotel served tea very, very early so I found my way to the lobby each morning to grab some caffeine and catch up on email.

At the coffee pot, I met a hotel employee, Luis. One morning, I commented to Luis that he seemed to really enjoy his job. This is what he said, "I love working here. We don't have bosses. We have leaders. They don't just sit in their offices and order us around. They come out here to help us."

Luis got me thinking about you. We've established in the past two weeks that you are a leader regardless of your role. Many of you are also bosses. If you are a great leader, you will also be a great boss. We've all had great bosses. (If you haven't, call me now!)

It doesn't work the other way around. We've all known or worked for sucky bosses who weren't leaders (that NEVER happened to me in my corporate days).

Luis pointed out important differences between the two so you can see where you (and your boss) are behaving as leaders or, ugh, as bossy-pants:

1. Bosses sit in their corner offices and tell people what to do. Leaders inspire the team.
2. Bosses have positional power and use it. Leaders have power by virtue of respect, trust, and affection.
3. Bosses micromanage and want everything done "right." Leaders delegate and play to people's strengths.
4. Bosses take credit. Leaders give credit and praise generously and often.
5. Bosses stand in the limelight. Leaders fade so that other people can have success and attention for their accomplishments.

Think of leaders you've loved and bosses you've hated. What can you learn about your own leadership (or bossy-ness) from them?

Lead on!

Christina

You're running into obstacles. What do you do?

Estimated read time: 1.3675 minutes.

Webinar problem-solving central! (The replay is below!)

You walk into a conference room. Your presentation is gorgeous. You have butterflies in your stomach because the next hour feels like a chance to establish your credibility with an important group of stakeholders. You set up your laptop, connect to the projector, and...

Thud! Bleep! Bam!

The projector doesn't work.

Actually, your sound effects are probably more like this... &^*%*%($#@#

Participants are due to arrive any minute. What do you do?

Have you ever experienced something like this? Maybe this description is enough to make you stop breathing. There's hope! Keep reading.

I've had mucho experience with things going wrong this week (thank you webinar technology fairies) and have lived to share my lessons learned with you.

Here is what you do:

1. Breathe. Ground yourself so you can feel your feet on the floor and your butt on the chair. This gets you ready to do #2.
2. Remember why you are doing what you're doing. What's the bigger picture? What do you want your audience to learn? Stay connected to the bigger picture which enables you to do #3.
3. Problem solve. Problem solve. Problem solve. Send someone out to make copies of the slides while you deliver a riveting introduction. Talk to your slides while doing interpretive dance. Suppose the webinar system doesn't send out any reminders for your upcoming event. Problem solve by setting up another system to send the reminders. Then, maybe, the webinar system fixes their issue and sends out all four reminders at THE SAME TIME. (All examples are purely hypothetical, of course). Move to #4.
4. Maintain your sense of humor. Seriously, all four reminders at once? No projector? It's comedy. Laugh out loud. A sitcom couldn't do this better. And #5 brings you home.
5. Remember that people are on your side. Be transparent about what's happening and how you're fixing it. Use the obstacles as a chance to ask for help and show that you value your stakeholders and what they want. They want your success as much as you do, and your situation makes them feel better about the times they've been in the hot seat.

You can trust yourself to handle anything that happens. Hit reply and tell me a story about a time you creatively problem-solved an obstacle.

It's been a week!

I hope this helps.

Christina