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The Story of My Word For 2011

by KarenTax on January 3, 2012

Selecting a word to represent your intentions for the year is a powerful practice.  It sets the stage for the year, can take you beyond your limits and learning edges, and defines a laser-like focus for the year.

Trust Starts With YOU

Early in 2011 I selected a word to be my theme for the year. It took a long time for this word to come to me – I wasn’t clear about what I wanted. After a lot of patience and inquiry, I selected ‘trust’ as my word for 2011.

I picked ‘trust’ because I was working too hard to make things happen and I wanted to put more trust in the flow of life. For example, I wanted to trust whatever people said or did as being right and good.  Little did I know just how powerfully this intention would play out during the year!

Two things happened in 2011 that are beautiful examples of how my intention to ‘trust’ played out.

First, while driving across the country on vacation with my family in July, I experienced extreme frustration and emotional pain. I kept feeling excluded from what my husband and two boys were doing and I got to the point where I couldn’t stop crying. At this point, my son Alex said to me “I feel like you’re ruining our vacation”…

You might think this was a mean thing for Alex to say but it was the perfect ‘right and good’ response: it was exactly how I felt on vacation as a child. In that moment I trusted Alex and I realized the truth of what he said and thanked him. I shared how when I got emotional as a kid, my parents didn’t know what to do, so my emotions got ignored and stuffed. Now in the middle of Yellowstone’s burbling and gurgling geology, my emotions were bubbling over!

I trusted my family to witness my feelings and healing process. We sat down at a picnic table, I shared what I was thinking and feeling, and so did they. It turned into a profound experience of being open and vulnerable with each other.  My emotions became a catalyst for all of us to heal and connect.

After Yellowstone, if we saw a little kid being unruly or having a tantrum, we collectively cheered them on saying ‘let it out!’ Even better, I was able to receive love and inclusion from my men like never before. My son Lucas checked-in toward the end of the trip asking, “Are you feeling heard now Mom?” Was I ever!

Second, Diane Craver was my business partner in the IAM Learning Community during 2010 and most of 2011. There were several challenges we faced that we just couldn’t seem to overcome…

In September Diane met with Dick Hoffmann about his interest in IAM and Diane said to both Dick and me: you have to meet each other!

As a result of Diane’s grace, generosity and trust, Dick and I are now leading IAM, and those challenges that Diane and I kept facing are being overcome. Diane shifted to participating in ways that are a better fit for her, without any conflict, blame, or drama of any kind.  How many business partnerships have you seen explode into drama when tough decisions need to be made? No, Diane and I trusted what was happening as ‘right and good’ for both of us, and indeed it was!

What I didn’t realize when I picked trust as my word for 2011, was the extent to which I could trust the desire and intention behind my choice to carry me throughout the year. Indeed, my ability to trust is stronger than ever, it is becoming stronger every day, all without any special effort or activity on my part. Easy!

I will admit to effort when it comes to the discipline of inner work. I believe trust is an inside job: it is a faith journey of believing in myself, expanded through the challenges and opportunities of Drama.

The author and minister Blaine Hartford defines trust as:

A feeling of safety in our self
induced by how much
caring, competency, and commitment
we sense another person demonstrates within our relationship.

I believe the world is a safe place. I use the IAM Touchstones with both my family and colleagues to learn from Drama. This perspective and framework give me the competence to create experiences where everyone involved can know ‘we are working for each other,’ we will ‘take 100% responsibility for ourselves’ and we will support each other fully in what we each want.  Caring and commitment are easy when this type of interpersonal skill is present.

My discipline of inner work and the IAM concepts allowed trust to explode inside of me and then with my outer experiences in 2011. Did I know all of this would happen at the beginning of 2011? Absolutely not!  But I am deeply grateful, and I eagerly dove in to selecting my word for 2012 as a result!

Selecting my word for 2012 was easy compared with selecting my word for 2011. I consistently meditate and I’ve added ‘talking with my future self ’ to my practice. I’ve asked this ‘future self’ for guidance and she has clearly responded with suggestions to ‘chill,’ ‘relax,’ along with some very specific priorities to focus on. When I asked her how I could move forward ‘quickly and easily’ with my business, she responded with the delightful: ‘use the key to the magic kingdom!’

If any of you are Disney fans like me, you’ll know exactly what this suggestion is all about: imagination. My last trip to Disneyland, after many, many visits as both a child and adult, was inspiring because I finally realized how brilliant Walt Disney was at demonstrating the power of imagination. Creating anything begins in our mind’s eye. Actually, most of the work happens there!

And so my word for 2012 is ‘imagine.’ I picked ‘imagine’ because I want to move even farther along the path of creating my experiences with ease and grace, further trusting the flow of life to bring me exactly what I want. I’ll let you know where this theme for 2012 takes me. I have a feeling I will go even farther than I can imagine!
Please comment on this article! I’d love to know what your intentions are for 2012 – as a word or otherwise. And what do you think about what I shared here?

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The Myth of Hierarchical Leadership

by DickHoffmann on December 22, 2011

Managers who direct, monitor and adjust other people’s productivity are not leaders.

This myth began during the Industrial Revolution when workers in factories and on assembly lines were managed by overseers. The seeds of this myth were no doubt also planted during the Agrarian Age when the productivity of serfs and slaves was managed by lords and foremen on farms and plantations. Perhaps its roots even stretch back to biblical times when, out of self-defense, Moses divided the people of the Exodus into hierarchical groups with a middle person those people could go to for their needs rather than all of them coming directly to Moses.

This is the “Myth of Hierarchical Leadership” – the concept that organizations are best led top down and that leadership and decisions flow primarily in that direction.  This Myth has proven to be completely untrue as we’ve moved through the computer, information, global communications and internet revolutions, but many people and organizations still cling to the Myth.

Management Hierarchy

Old Habits are Hard to Break

The Myth is a difficult one to break primarily because it is a self-perpetuating model rooted in power, ego and control. For people in “management” positions who are all about control and personal ego stroking, the Myth is very much in their interest to keep alive, despite the fallacy of its application in reality.

Creating and perpetuating the Myth of Hierarchical Leadership in organizations does not create cultures of people who venture to think, act, manage and lead on their own.  Just the opposite, the Myth serves no cultural purpose but to artificially over-inflate the egos of the supposed “management” and artificially demean and under-value the competencies and intelligence of the supposed “staff”.  A Myth culture conditions people not to think, but to wait for direction from an all-knowing “management” and not make decisions on their own. It does not empower people; it drains power away from people or offers them little control or autonomy in the first place.

The reality is that the majority of people in organizations understand their functions and the processes in and around their functions far better than the “managers” to whom they report. People on the front lines see the action first-hand and are in the best position to decide real-time courses of action. Perhaps most importantly, people want and need to be empowered and autonomous in their decision-making to feel valuable in their jobs, satisfied in their careers and, thus, of most value to their organizations.

Because of the downsizing and attrition that has occurred in many organizations in the last few decades, the reality is that organizations have become so flat that many of them have almost nobody who isn’t a “manager” of their function. Yet, the mythical Hierarchical Leadership management model maintains a flimsy facade that considers employees as “staff” who must wait for “management” to tell them what to do.

The Need for an Evolved Model of Leadership

A resounding and consistent theme in studies of leadership conducted by universities, management consulting firms, corporations and the military proves that true leadership happens from all directions – bottom-up, outside-in, across divisional and organizational boundaries, as well as top down. One military leadership model calls it “leading from the edge”, acknowledging that the majority of leadership decisions are made in real-time on the front lines of engagement – “the edge”.

Management at the top of any organization may provide strategy, high-level goals, organizational structure and a framework for decision-making, but mature organizations understand that leadership and real-time decision-making happen best in the field and on the front lines. The majority of leadership decisions and actions happen where people meet the market, customers, partners, collaborators and competitors.

Mature organizations enable the power and control where it belongs … where the rubber hits the road.

Leadership Hierarchy

Timely Non-Scientific Study on LinkedIn

Within the popular business networking site, LinkedIn, there is a group that formed called “Developing the Leader within You”.  As of this writing, the group contains 2,913 people from all walks of organizational life.  In August of 2011, a question was posed to the group by Richard Blakemore, one of the group’s members based in Australia.  The question was, “If you could find a synonym for ‘leader’ what would that be?”

Over the next four months, 128 people responded to that question with individual words, phrases and paragraphs describing their views of leadership. We have captured those words and views in a document that sums up the result.  That document can be found at the following link.

Synonyms for Leader – LinkedIn Summary Report

Within the summary report, you will find 69 words and several pages of directly-quoted prose that describe what we believe define an evolved model for leadership. The leadership characteristics named and described in this report break the centuries-old Myth of Hierarchical Leadership.

You will not find one word in this summary about “control”, “ego”, “hierarchy” or references to “management and staff”.  Quite the contrary, the most popular and consistent concepts you will see within the posts of this group describe leadership qualities of vision, empowerment, humility, servant-hood, advocacy, enablement, stewardship, collaboration and inspiration.

Leadership in Our Time

Leadership in our age requires people who think and act not within antiquated models of hierarchical structure and control.  Our time requires people at all levels of organizations to act with attitudes of purpose, visionary direction, enablement, shepherding, stewardship and, perhaps most importantly, humility – a confident knowledge that none of us individually has all the answers and trust that collectively we can always find them.

Organizations that understand and operate by this model of leadership will be those that attract the most talented people and will receive the most from those talents.  Empowered people who operate within a culture of supported trust, inspiration and autonomy are people committed to the needs of the organization that provides them with that support.  The result is that the people and the organization both operate at peak performance and consistently at their Essential Best.

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Honoring The Gifts Of Your Soul

by KarenTax on December 18, 2011

I’ve noticed a paradox this holiday season: people grateful for family and jobs while at the same time they are disappointed with their work situations. “Is this all there is?” clients guiltily ask me, thinking they have no right to despair when they have so much – especially when others don’t.

The holidays are a time when we allow the light of hope to peek into the long and dark winter days – at least in the northern hemisphere! ‘Daring to hope’ intensifies the gap between what feels right and good, and what doesn’t. You may experience this gap as sadness, depression, or simply feeling hollow.

Most people are not aware of the source of ‘holiday blues.’ A lack of light or vitamin D or less exercise contributes. But deeper than these issues is a quiet “crying out of hope” that is too often shut down or ignored. After all, shouldn’t you be feeling grateful and generous?

There is a knot of scarcity thinking inside that causes conflict between gratitude and longing that must be unraveled if you are going to hear the voice of your soul.

Winter is naturally a time to slow down and hibernate. Give yourself the gift of time to notice the internal conflict that keeps your longings tied-up. When you proactively make space for feeling both gratitude and longing, you will avoid the ambush of sadness and depression caused by your soul demanding your attention.

At a time when you might be ignoring your own needs as you enjoy the spirit of giving, don’t forget to give yourself the gift of time and space to listen to the whispers inside, before they become more demanding.  Now is the time to acknowledge the seeds of hopes and dreams that are ready to germinate in the New Year.

How can you break free from scarcity thinking? By pausing long enough to listen to what your soul has to say.

Slow down! Breathe! Listen.

Know that you can experience both gratitude and longing. As a matter of fact, gratitude is the fertile ground that your dreams need to sprout into reality.

When you gratefully acknowledge the abundance in your life, and respectfully honor your longings, you will shift from feeling guilty and conflicted about your disappointments, to clearly seeing the next steps you are ready to take.

Even better, your hopes will be fueled by the abundant energy of the real you: grateful and creative. You will be confident that your dreams deserve to see the light of day! When you are internally conflicted, you sabotage your dreams. When you are confident about your creative desires, your way forward is cleared of obstacles.

And those little whispers of “is this all there is?”, they are the gifts, the seeds of your dreams for 2012. Give yourself the gift of time, space and listening attention. It’s the perfect way to transition into 2012!

Wishing you a holiday season filled with joy, gratitude and spacious time for your longings to speak to you!

“I wish I could show you, when you are lonely or in darkness, the Astonishing Light of your own Being!”

~~ Hafiz

I welcome your comments below!

ALSO, do you need some help flushing out the seeds of your career dreams for 2012?

The IAM Career Desires Navigator is an essential guidance instrument to orient the GPS for your career journey. Includes detailed instructions and a step-by-step process to navigate to clarity on your career focus.

 

The IAM Career Desires Navigator …

  • clarifies your career likes and dislikes
  • profiles your career strengths and weak points
  • pinpoints key areas in which your career may have led you rather than you leading your career
  • provides key insight into the illusive “soul journey”

Purchase access to the Career Desires Navigator tool here.

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The Next Phase of IAM

by KarenTax on December 12, 2011

IAM is all about transformation, from the current version of yourself to the next best revelation. This Fall, we’ve transformed into the next best version of ourselves with our latest offering, The IAM Way Newsletter, and exciting changes in leadership and on the website.

The Newsletter

I can’t tell you how many times I have been in a client conversation and thought “other people need to hear this.” I have piles of notes from these moments that I’ll finally get to share with you.

We’ll send you high value tips and stories that will align our heads, hearts, bodies, and souls – so we live in our essential best and achieve the goals of our work and life. Drama will be learning fodder!

The newsletter is also where we’ll share members only early access and special deals that we don’t provide anyone else!

Want to subscribe to the IAM Way Newsletter? Join as a free member here.

Changes in Leadership

When Diane Craver and I started the IAM Learning Community we had an understanding that a man would eventually emerge to lead the business with us. We knew more masculine energy was needed!

Dick Hoffmann joined the IAMLC as a Free Member in June 2011. After personally meeting with Dick late in September, we all knew Dick had an important role to play with IAM …

Karen and Dick have taken the lead of the business side of things. Diane continues to be involved as our biggest supporter, an IAM Coach, contributor to this newsletter and whatever else is her pleasure.

Changes to the IAMLC Website

In the meantime, Dick and I have been on fire. We’ve clarified and modified the IAM message on the website, and we’ve re-packaged most of the offerings on the site so they are easier for you to access and use.

Go ahead and checkout the changes we have made here:

>>> The NEW and Improved IAMLC Website <<<

Honestly, you will not recognize much!

Let us know what you think in the comments below.

There’s a lot more to share, but that will come over time. We have an extraordinary 2012 already in the works. Every day I feel ready to burst with energy. The anticipation of sharing all of this with you is beyond exciting!

Oh the places we’ll go, fueled by IAM!

“The more that you read, the more things you will know.
The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.”

Dr. Seuss

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Stress and Stress Management Tips Rarely Help You Deal With Crappy Situations At Work

by KarenTax on November 3, 2011

Until now …

You’ve likely seen the typical health related stress symptoms:

Physical Stress

  • Headache
  • Back pain
  • Chest pain
  • Heart disease
  • Heart palpitations
  • High blood pressure
  • Decreased immunity
  • Loss of sex drive
  • Stomach upset
  • Sleep problems
  • Skin rashes
  • Nail biting or picking

Emotional Stress

  • Anxiety
  • Restlessness
  • Worrying
  • Irritability
  • Depression
  • Sadness
  • Anger
  • Feeling insecure
  • Lack of focus
  • Burnout
  • Forgetfulness
  • Overwhelm

Behavioral Stress

  • Overeating
  • Under eating
  • Drug or alcohol abuse
  • Indecisiveness
  • Social withdrawal
  • Excessive use of
    prescription medication
  • Relationship conflicts
  • Procrastination
  • Frequent illness
  • Poor exercise and
    nutrition choices

The bottom line: the latest research shows that stress causes heart disease, unhealthy weight gain, kills brain cells, and impairs our ability to make good choices for ourselves and others.

There is a plethora of advice on ways to relieve stress and ways of dealing with stress that address health concerns. But what about dealing with stress at work that is often the root cause of these stress symptions? What about the causes of stress at work?

Assess the Causes of Stress at Work

Assess the stress you experience at work with our quick and easy stress test. Keep track of the number of checks you make in the list below:

The IAM Learning Community Stress Test

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey, the world’s leading questionnaire tool.

How many stress test experiences did you check on the stress test above?

IAM Perspective on Stress and Stress Management

How to interpret the results of the IAM Learning Community Stress Test depends on your situation. Experiencing just one item in the stress test is likely an indication of extreme stress, especially if the experience persists over time.

Each item on the stress test above is potentially an indication of a serious stress concern. Each item on the stress test is an opportunity to do something about workplace stress and stress management.

If you checked 5 or more items from the stress test, you are likely experiencing serious stress symptoms related to work. The more stress you tolerate in your job, the more stress symptoms you will experience over time. You will experience health issues as a result.

Ultimately, it’s up to you to determine the results of taking our stress test. What’s most important is to be aware of workplace stress and do something about it …

IAM Approach to Stress and Stress Management Parallels the Latest Stress Research

You may be thinking that the experiences listed in the stress test are simply an inevitable part of life in organizations, or the way people work. We are challenging this thinking!

We know that people tolerate the situations listed in the stress test for one simple reason: they don’t realize they have other options. The fact is, the potential of any individual, organization or business can never be fully realized when work situations are overly stressful .

Relief from stress and stress management is needed. It’s in everyone’s best interest to stop the stress!

The latest research on stress confirms what we have known for a long time: oppressive and/or dysfunctional work situations are stressful. Ongoing relief from stress and stress management at work is critical. Learning how to create empowering and healthy work environments is key.

The following video is a fun introduction to Robert Sapolsky, a professor of biological and neurological sciences and stress researcher at Stanford University:

The Latest Research On Stress


A synopsis of this short video: our social rank in a hierarchy is much less of an indicator of stress than our perspectives on our situations, our ability to fend off oppression (be empowered), and the extent to which we come into real contact and connection with each other (care about each other, tend to each other).

We highly recommend watching the National Geographic movie on stress mentioned in the above video. (We found it on Netflix.) This movie presents Sapolsky’s research on baboons and the Whitehall study on stress in Britain’s civil servant population. Both areas of study found that whether you are a baboon or a British civil servant, when you live lower in the hierarchy of an organization, your:

  • ability to adapt decreases
  • life span decreases
  • risk of disease increases

    stress test

    If Baboons Can Pass Our Stress Test, So Can You!

as a result of stress being ‘displaced’ onto subordinates within an organization by people with position power.

One of the troops of baboons that Sapolsky studies suffered a terrible loss about 10 years into his study- all of the alpha males in the troop were killed by tainted meat. Ironically, the troop re-established itself after the loss with a non-hierarchical culture. The troop maintained this culture over the next 20 years, and eliminated stress symptoms and their consequences in the process.

If baboons can do it, so can we!

Stress Test Experiences, In Reverse, Provide Relief from Stress and Stress Management That Makes Sense At Work

Did you check “you have begun to feel apathetic about your work” on the stress test? The reverse is to “rediscover your passion for work.” Any stress test experience, in reverse, offers relief from stress and stress management suggestions that makes sense . Stress test experiences, in reverse, are antidotes to stress!

Relief from Stress and Stress management Suggestions

The following are excellent ways to get started dealing with workplace stress, and experience relief:

  • Learn to set boundaries and say no to any work where you can’t be your best
  • Become more proactive where you can be your best and less reactive
  • Focus on your strengths, not weaknesses
  • Insist on being involved in decision-making processes; follow your passion
  • Listen to others; carve out time for others to listen to you
  • Pay attention to how your work fits (or not) with business/society needs
  • Love yourself and the people you work with

Ironically, eliminating stress also provides ways to reconnect with being your best – aligning your actions with the ‘original you’.

Stress Test Experiences: Going, Going, Gone

The IAM frameworks and concepts provide additional approaches to creating conscious, equal, non-hierarchical ways of working together, whether as solo entrepreneurs or in larger organizations. What’s needed is the desire to obliterate workplace stress, and a commitment to working at your best.

We welcome your comments and questions below about our stress test, about our suggestions for relief from stress and stress management…

How are you eliminating stress and reconnecting with your best?

What stresses are you finding most difficult to handle?

What questions do you have about how IAM can guide you out of stress?

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Career Help is the Key to Success in Challenging Times…

by KarenTax on October 31, 2011

We are living in a time of extreme challenges where traditional thinking about career choices, career exploration and balancing work and life no longer ensures success. Moving up the career ladder, seeking more money, looking for the next hot technology or job … are these strategies leading to the fulfillment and success you want? Not according to what we’re seeing…

career help

Get The RIGHT Kind of Career Help!

Solid career help comes from leveraging information, tools and coaching that help you stop being paralyzed by uncertainty & fear and start blazing your own trail by being clear, confident, and courageous in your actions.

Strong career help supports you through online development, community and career coaches that help you make career changes that work for you. Dive into career exploration so you can answer this question: “What is the right career for me now and in the future”?

Career Help Leads to the Best Career for You

You can know for sure that the ‘right career for me’ is one that results in you being your best every day, where you are passionately engaged in your work.

The ‘right career for me’ is created by using career help that leads to deeply satisfying, meaningful, and lucrative work that also contributes to a life you love and the betterment of business and the communities around you. And you don’t have to compromise anything!

The Best Career Help Leads to Authentic Career Choices

Your best career choices come from within: authentic choices based on knowing your talents and contributing your talents in ways that lead to the creation of what you want to see happen in your life and maybe even the world.

Your worst career choices happen when you look for security and success by chasing the fickle winds of relentless change, seeking certainty in an external world of uncertainty.

The Old Way of Getting Career Help

The old way of getting career help would have you assess current job or work opportunities, pick career goals based on how your strengths match these opportunities, make a plan to achieve these goals, and then implement your plan. Once you’ve completed your plan and gotten the job you want, you can rest easy…

There are several problems with this approach:

career choices

Old Ways of Providing Career Help Cause Stress

  • Many career opportunities are obsolete before career development planning is complete.
  • Career help becomes a rare event you make when you’re stressed.
  • What you really want, your passions and interests, are not considered … or even leveraged.
  • Too often you end up sacrificing your authentic career path, for the practicalities of what others need or the sake of maintaining a steady paycheck.

With the old way you can never truly rest easy because you focus on things beyond your control. You hope for the economy to change and do nothing, when now is the perfect time to take charge and do something different!

Unless you eventually learn how to take a stand for your authentic career path, you will eventually sell your soul for the sake of that steady paycheck. At a minimum, you will end up with no idea of how to handle the crazy uncertainty and challenges of our times. And that steady paycheck is really just an illusion.

The Old Way of Getting Career Help is Reactive

The old way of getting career help and making career choices is reacting to ‘what is’ rather than ‘creating the right career for me.’ You react to an uncertain external world, expecting to create certainty.

You try to play within known variables. You play it safe. You settle. You stay in a box whose boundaries are defined by ‘what is known.’ You become attached to the status quo.

You become more and more invested in the way things have been done at a time when the rate of change is only increasing.

Ironically, in trying to create stability and certainty, you actually end up less engaged, less relevant and less safe. You become ossified: less flexible and able to move with change. Ultimately, you create more uncertainty and stress for yourself.

The New Way of Getting Career Help

Ironically, the certain uncertainty of our challenging times ensures that opportunities are abundant for getting a life, balancing work and life and creating the ‘career for me‘. The question then becomes how do you get career help and make career choices that take advantage of these opportunities as they emerge, evolve and change? How do you create certainty when everything seems so unstable?

Get Career Help that Leads to Your Happiness

The answer is to get career help and make career choices that lead you to become brilliant at emerging, evolving and changing based on the development and contribution of your talents – ongoing.

The best career help maximizes your learning and growth. So, your choices are not in reaction to events, but instead are in harmony with your authentic path of soul evolution and the needs that interest you in the workplace and the marketplace.

The key is to exercise your career choices to the fullest extent possible: to live the American dream of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. To not hold back on what you want in any way.

The worst strategy is to ‘wait and see’ and react to the waves of change as they come crashing down upon you.

The best strategy is to ride atop the waves of change, taking charge of which waves you ride and how you ride them by learning, growing and evolving both personally and professionally, by relentlessly exercising your choices and freedoms to the fullest extent possible.

Career Help and Making Career Choices in the New Way are Proactive and Creative

You are the creator of the waves of change you are experiencing. Knowing this helps you actively participate in shaping your work and life in exactly the ways you want.

You’ve Got Talent

Shifting to new ways of finding career help is tricky because old ways are embedded into how most people think about work and how many corporate career development planning programs are conducted.

How many times have you heard the word ‘sacrifice’ when it comes to work? Or heard people say you must ‘pay your dues’ before you get what you want?

In traditional career development planning, people in perceived positions of power decide ‘who’s got talent.’

By thinking about work as a sacrifice, by letting others decide when you’ve got talent, you put others in charge of one of the most important aspects of yourself: your talents and how you contribute these talents to the world in the form of your work!

In most situations, this approach contributes to ‘wait and see’ career strategies because talent is ‘other determined’ not ‘self determined.’ Or you’re delaying what you really want or what you’re best at, until some later time. Too often you compromise the ways you can be at your best now, for the needs of others, rather than finding a path forward that creates synergies between both.

The result of ‘wait and see’ career strategies is a dis-empowered and passive workforce … not what is needed to foster creativity, innovation and new markets.

If you have read this far, you are likely a person who is ready to decide for yourself that you’ve got talent, you are ready to maximize your talent now, get career help, and make career choices that allow you to get on top of the waves of change.

We Provide Career Help that Empowers You

You don’t need us to tell you ‘you’ve got talent,’ but you might need some help in learning new career development planning strategies that help you focus on your talents and their ongoing evolution. We know there are not a lot of examples of ‘the new way’ out there, but that doesn’t need to stop you!

You are Essential

The secret to thriving in challenging times is to get career help and have career development planning strategies that show you how to remember your talents, the joy of giving your talents, and to exercise your career choices and freedoms to the fullest extent possible in an ongoing fashion.

Get Career Help That Shows You How To Give Your Gifts Every Day

You can start by thinking of your talents as the greatest gifts you have to give. You access them by remembering the value of your strengths, experiences and perspectives. Remembering is a process of learning, growing and healing: becoming more and more whole every day.

We like to call this gifted, growing, evolving part of you your ‘essential best’ because it’s the part of you that the world needs most – you at your best.

Your ‘essential best’ is the essence of the real you. Your soul’s purpose. Essential in the world. Nothing less.

If you do not feel essential, if you are not at your best every day, if you are not passionately engaged in your work, if you are not learning and growing, if you are tired more than energized in your work … then you are being passive in your career choices and not getting the right kind of career help.

Career Help that Empowers Results in Your Feeling Engaged – Every Day

The alternative is to get the right kind of career help that shows you how to take charge of your career and actively make career choices that keep you at the top of your game, relevant, engaged, evolving and changing – in ways that are fun and easy!

The alternative to a ‘wait-and-see’ strategy is to remember that you are essential and do whatever is needed to enjoy riding the waves of change and challenge.

Now is the Time

Yes, these are challenging times!

And now is the perfect time to get career help and to remember your essential best, to stop waiting & get back to who you really are. Now is the time to transform yourself from the person who has slowly and unknowingly settled for the status quo to being a person who loves your work and life.

Now is the time to get career help that empowers.

Now is the time to take charge and make the most of your career choices.

Now is the time to be the leader of your life … of your career.

Now is the time to rediscover the essential best of who you are.

You Get to Decide

The learning and resources that we provide within the IAM Learning Community are designed to provide career help that guides you in remembering that you are indeed essential. Talented. Gifted.

We offer a new way to experience career development planning, a way that supports you in making career choices that result in you being your best every day, in being passionately engaged in your work, that leads to creating work and life you love, for your benefit and the good of others.

If you are ready to wake up to your essential best … to learn how to create a life you love, then check out our free membership in the IAM Learning Community. Discover the extraordinary opportunities available to you in these challenging times.

We offer career help through a variety of ways.

Online Development Programs: IAM Career SMART! Group Coaching and IAM Career SMART! Online Development

Free Membership: Join and Receive our FREE Gift & our online development course, IAM Touchstones. Get connected in our Community.

Career Coaching with one of our IAM Coaches.

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Clear Out Your Brain Fog and Discover More Career Possibilities

by dianecraver on August 31, 2011

I never gave a lot of thought to my career until I started dreading going to work.

My career strategy (I’m stretching here) began with an idea that I would take a job that would eventually lead me to a great job. I would work hard, do a good job, continue learning, get along with people, and capitalize on opportunities along the way.

People would see what a good worker I was and help me get to where I wanted to go. No big deal – should be easy!

It wasn’t long before I discovered that “strategy” wasn’t so good after all! I felt stuck and aimless – it was like my brain was encased in fog, and I couldn’t figure out how to get what I wanted. I don’t even think I know what I wanted.

Have you ever found yourself experiencing something like this:

  • Not learning, and oh so bored
  • Underappreciated and taken for granted
  • Roadblocks! You can’t get promoted because you don’t have the qualifications.
  • Culture change! Where teamwork was the norm, now you’re surrounded by political maneuvering and superficial value
  • Nutty, unpredictable boss
  • Unstable industry with constant layoffs, so you’re constantly worried about being on “the list”
  • Can’t find that right fit for what you’re good at and enjoy doing

I’m pretty sure I’ve experienced everyone one of those situations, and it’s not fun. In fact, it’s very discouraging.

When I look back on those experiences now, I realize they actually helped to discover the “real me” so I could maximize my own creative desires and build the career I want and enjoy.

But … there’s one mistake I made, and I see many, many people making that same mistake. It’s a whopper … it shuts down opportunities and keeps you in the frustration zone. I want you to know about this mistake so you don’t make it, or if you are making it, you’ll know what it is and get some ideas for what to do about it.

To learn about How to Avoid the #1 Mistake You May be Making in Your Career, AND tools that you can use to clear the fog that gets in the way of making progress toward what you want in your career …

CHECK-OUT:  Tools to Clear the Fog

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A Big C Requires Career Development Planning

by dianecraver on July 22, 2011

career development planning

career development planning can help you know

Career Development Planning Can Give You the Results You Want

Recently I learned about Big Cs and Little Cs from my friend, John Berkley, owner of Competitive Edge, an experiential training and development company.

Here’s how it works: You have a decision to make about your career, and you’re not sure what to do. If the consequence is low (little C), use trial and error. If the consequence is high (Big C), you need to plan more.

Career Development Planning Using a Little C Approach

The way I see most people approach their careers is through trial and error. They graduate from college and are just happy to get a job. They don’t really think about their careers, and certainly their managers don’t think about helping them. They go to work every day, do a good job, and collect a paycheck.

But it isn’t long before they stagnate, get laid off, are overlooked for a promotion, feel lost, get tired of working 24/7, doing the work of 3 people, and so on. And so they try to do something about it, but it doesn’t work. And then they just settle, and wind up miserable.

What happened? They thought the consequences would be low if they didn’t invest in career development planning. Maybe they didn’t even know about career development planning!

Career Development Planning Using a Big C Approach

The clients I work with view their careers as an extension of who they are – at their best. They may not start out thinking that way because they’ve been a part of a system that encourages them to be average; but deep inside they know they want more out of their life. They want to shine brightly and shine the light on others as well.

I know for sure that the consequences are high when it comes to making decisions about your career. If you hate going to work, you likely hate your life. If you don’t have the skills, education, or experience you need for the work you want to do, your self-esteem suffers. If you are unclear about what value you create, you don’t get the support you need. If you have gifts but aren’t using them, you become resentful.

And guess what shows up in our organizations, communities and relationships? Stress symptoms such as memory problems, poor judgment, anxiety, depression, anger, chest pain, nausea, alcohol/drug abuse, loss of sleep, overeating. You become poor at balancing work and life so your family suffers. Your energy is low, and you’ve lost your creativity.

These are the things people bring to work with them every day. Is this what we want to contribute to creating? I don’t think so. At least that’s what my clients are telling me.

The consequences of having a career you love can easily shift over to the positive side by simply investing in yourself through career development planning.

Career Development Planning Requires Strategic Thinking

One thing I love about John’s Big C/Little C tool is that it gets you thinking strategically. I believe that we’re all strategic, we just may not be aware of our strategies, and sometimes we choose the wrong strategies.

Let me explain. Say you’re in a job where you’re making a good salary but you don’t fit in with the culture. Your strategy is to stay where you are because you’re getting paid “good money.” You can live with the culture and just do your job, staying away from the politics. But then a new “sheriff” comes into town – boss, CEO, whatever. And that new sheriff decides you’re just not his cup of tea, so you get pushed aside.

How’s that “good money” working for you? You’re stressed out, you feel like a failure, and your talents are being wasted. Poor strategy!

Career Development Planning Requires Courage

It takes courage to assess your strategies and redirect your course! And it really doesn’t take that much courage. All it takes is getting real with yourself. Tell the truth about what you want. And push all those thoughts inside your head that say, “It can’t happen, there are no jobs, people don’t get paid to do what they want, you should just be grateful you have a job …” [Yuck! I got nauseous just writing that.]

Have the courage to ask for help so you can create new strategies, ones that are effective and align with who you really are and what you have to offer.

Career Development Planning Requires Persistence

After courage comes the hard part – the work. What is the work? The work is knowing and taking a stand for who you really are at your best, and then creating win-win opportunities.

I’ve seen some people get really, really close to discovering a great career path only to give up on themselves and stay in what they think is a safe job, or a job others think they “should be” happy with. And then they get sick – physically, emotionally, spiritually, or mentally. You may fool everyone else with your plastic smile, but you can’t fool your body. Big, fat consequence!

From my heart to yours, I want you to know that you are worthy of a career you love in a place where you talents are valued. And it will be easy because you will make it easy. You will make it easy because you’ll be clear about what you want, why you want it, and the steps you need to take to get there. And when the winds of change shift around you, you will not be caught off guard because you’re always working your plan to get exactly what you want.

Your career is an essential part of your well being. And career development planning is abundance personified through you.

Look Ma, No Hands!

Career Development Planning is Like Riding a Bicycle

Did you have a bicycle when you were a kid? If so, think about the day when you got the hang of riding your bicycle and one day, you let go of the handle bars, and said, “Look Ma, no hands.”

It wasn’t that hard. Just a little planning & practice, courage, and perseverance, and you were sailing down the street getting a taste of success and freedom.

So, hop on your Big C bicycle, and get that career development plan going.

Enjoy the ride! It’s awesome!

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Getting a Life and Career You Love Depends on How Well You Handle Change

by dianecraver on July 10, 2011

What if getting a life you love were easy, fun, and energizing?

getting a life

Change happens! Getting a life you love is up to you.

Today I heard someone say, “Our employees need to just deal with the changes around here. Move on. Get over it. We have work to do.”

Well, twinkle, twinkle little star… if change were only that simple!

We’re all being asked to change quickly because situations outside of us are changing so fast – technology, global economies, highly connected societies. And yet, many people struggle with how to change.

  • How do you reorient yourself when your situation changes?
  • How do you redefine yourself when what you knew is different, sometimes radically?
  • What helps you with getting a life where you easily transition from one change to the other without sacrificing your true self?

Author William Bridges Explains the Difference Between Change and Transition

My go-to person for change is Dr. William Bridges, author of the book (along with many others) Transitions: Making Sense of Life’s Changes. Bridges has made a career out of helping individuals and organizations make the most of change, especially personal change.

In the early ‘90s the company I worked for was going through layoffs. Since I was in HR, I was part of a team that had to burn the midnight oil putting together severance packages that would be passed out the next day. I still recall waves of nausea washing over me as I read the names of people I knew – people who had no idea that they would soon be getting a life they likely did not want.

Fortunately my manager had the foresight to give all of us a copy of Transitions. Reading this book helped me to process what Bridges describes as the “personal side of change called transition.”

Bridges explains that change and transition are different. Change is situational, physical. Transition is psychological, emotional. It’s important to understand the difference and then you can do something about it. Ponder these questions…

  • How do you re-create yourself in the midst of change you don’t want? Reorganizations, layoffs, new manager who doesn’t know what you do, being fired, new project assignment
  • What helps you stay productive and engaged in the midst of all the change going around you?
  • What happens when change is good (new baby, business growth, marriage, etc.) but you’re not feeling particularly energized or happy?

Author Angeles Arrien Teaches the Art of Letting Go

Another book I recommend is The Four-Fold Way, by Angeles Arrien, especially the chapter, “The Way of the Teacher.” In this chapter, Arrien suggests that we must learn the art of letting go.

Letting go doesn’t mean you stop caring or become passive. It simply means you are more open-minded and flexible, trusting yourself and your own creative abilities to make the transition. And you might just discover getting a life that’s better than you imagined.

8 Ideas to Help with Getting a Life Where Change is Easy

I’ve put together some ideas from Bridges and Arrien’s books to help you work through the changes in your life – to assist you in the transition process. Getting a life where change is easy could be closer than you think…

  • Invest in self-renewal. You don’t have to go away for months of meditation (unless you just want to and can afford it). Set time aside daily for silence, listening to what is true for you. Just be! Don’t be surprised when wisdom starts oozing out of you!
  • Don’t be reactive. Many people go into firefighting mode when they are going through a change. Essentially they focus on tasks (to-do lists) and are not thinking about the big picture. Their strategies aren’t very effective because they are trying to short cut the process. I advise my clients to enjoy the process and don’t let fear sidetrack you into getting a life that’s even more difficult.
  • It’s okay to be uncomfortable. Stress symptoms are a sign that something is changing. You don’t have to be afraid that something is wrong with you. Don’t resist either. Recently I experienced a change I did not want; my usual response is to fight the feelings of anxiety and fear, and see the bright side. This time I tried a different approach – I invited the scary feelings in. I began pruning my gardenia bush & saying out loud every fear I had about this situation. I was just about to finish my pruning when I lost my footing and fell right into that bush. Laughing out loud, I said, “Thanks for the nudge, God! I guess it’s time to move on.”
  • Don’t change too much at once. When everything around you seems to be changing so fast, look for something that’s stable. Maybe it’s a ritual of eating Mexican on Friday nights (mine), watching a favorite tv show with your whole family, or walking your dog on Sundays …
  • Talk to someone. A coach, trusted friend, or professional counselor will help you make sense of how you’re feeling. You don’t need someone to tell you what to do (although you may think you do); you need someone to help you brainstorm creative ideas for working through the transition. You need support, encouragement, and ideas for authentic action.
  • Explore your future. Bridges states, “Transitions clear the ground for new growth.” As you are working through the change you’re in right now, there are growth opportunities waiting out there for you. What skills, abilities, interests, passions need to be explored? Who can you talk with to help you answer the question, “What do I really, really want”?
  • What else do you need to learn? When things change, you’ll likely have to learn new skills and increase your knowledge about certain things. I walked away from my corporate job with a plan to use the time to figure out what I wanted to do with my career. My strategy was to explore lots of different paths and be open to what emerged. Soon I reconnected with a former colleague who said, “You should check out the coaching field. You’d be great at that.” So I did, and I knew after my first day at class that coaching was the career for me. Be a lifelong learner so that you will always be on the leading edge of change.
  • Change has a shape. This is something I wasn’t aware of until I read Bridges’ book. Something ends, next comes a season of “fertile emptiness”, and then there is something new. This is how change occurs.

Now is the Time for Getting a Life You Love 

Nourish your Transition Process

If you think about that last bullet, the “fertile emptiness,” that’s the part that most people don’t even think about. We think we can take a shortcut and just hurry through, but keep in mind that part of that term is “fertile.”

It takes time for seeds to germinate, babies to grow, and bread to rise. Getting a life and career you love requires you to nourish and tend to your transition process so that change is easy, fun, and energizing.

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Online Development Provides Affordable Access to Top Talent Resources

by KarenTax on July 5, 2011

It’s time to consider new approaches to learning, like online development…

Developing people is what will grow your business. Unfortunately, as budgets tighten the first thing many businesses cut is learning and development. online development

I know, paying for that pricey training program is hard to justify when money is tight. Believe me, as a tiny business owner I’ve felt the fear of spending money on learning, even online development.

Whether you are a large corporation or a micro business, finding ways to select and fund strategic and ongoing learning is key to sustainable growth.

Businesses that find the courage and the resources to keep people at their personal learning edge, will be the ones to find their way into the leading edge of their markets.

Makes sense, right?

Traditional classroom training is just not as effective as we need

Then why are many people still so resistant to funding development? Because most development, even online development,  is solely funded (motivated) by an employer and typically comes in the form of high priced training that takes time away from work and is marginally effective, at best.

I know. I’ve conducted some of those trainings.

Coaching is more effective than traditional training

Coaching Conversations Have High Impact

When I discovered coaching, I was thrilled because it addressed many of the issues associated with training. Coaching is:

  • Time effective. It usually happens within 30 – 90 minute sessions.
  • Laser focused. Specific learning goals are typically established up front.
  • Personally motivated. There is no way for participants to slip in and out unnoticed.
  • Context specific. Coaches work with clients on their specific challenges and situations.
  • Results oriented. It is very clear when learning becomes competent behavior.

The remaining challenges with coaching are price and access; coaching is typically very, very expensive ranging from $150 per hour and up… a resource that only select few can access, typically those identified as ‘top talent.’

As large organizations downsize, each employee becomes more and more critical. With micro businesses, every person involved makes a difference. In the new economy, every person needs to be top talent – both self identified and recognized as such by others.

In my goal of being the best coach and teacher possible, the issues of affordability and accessibility of development were the last obstacles to overcome in providing ongoing, effective, coaching style learning.

Online development makes coaching accessible and affordable

The solution? Coaching delivered as online development provided in the context of a social environment, where all the benefits of coaching can be realized, and more including:

Access Online Development from Anywhere!

  • Learning rigor. Critical topics are covered that you just may not get to in a coaching conversation.
  • Participant synergy. With online development delivered via discussion forums and virtual interactive sessions, participants learn from each other.
  • Asynchronous access. Engagement, including socializing, can happen at any time that is convenient for the participant.
  • Excellent quality. With technology we are easily able to update content and provide fresh and relevant case studies.
  • Affordable pricing. The hourly cost of coaching plummets to levels that any and all can afford – who are motivated!

Online development is ideal when it replicates the dynamic nature of a coaching conversation, and is designed using the disciplined approaches of traditional training.

Online development works when the participant is personally motivated

Online Development is Effective When People are Motivated

Yes personal motivation and commitment are critical aspects of effective learning. The most powerful coaching and learning happens when goals are both personally and contextually relevant.

We’re even playing around with the idea that online development should only be paid for by the participant to ensure personal motivation and commitment – a reasonable idea the more affordable we make the learning – yet priced high enough to convey the real value we offer.

The importance of personal motivation and commitment are the reason we provide our online development to the public. ‘Top talent resources’ are thus available to anyone who decides they want to be top talent. No more excuses! No more obstacles!

Online development allows us to have the greatest impact possible

Our motivation is to have the most engaged participants we can possibly have, in ways that meet whatever demand comes our way, because in the end this is how we’ll have the most fun – and impact.

Find out more about our approach to online development here!

Have you decided for yourself that you are top talent? What resources will help you be top talent – indispensable and highly relevant?

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