Archive for July, 2008
I know I wrote about RSS feeders before but I love them so much I just have to bring it up again. As a working mother, you need every minute you can get. This can help you. Seriously! (Sorry, Yes, I admit, before I started blogging I was, in fact, a Grey’s Anatomy fan). I was talking to another Six Figure Mom today and I showed her how easy it is to use RSS. She was amazed and ecstatic about her new toy. If you already use an iGoogle or My Yahoo page, you have what you need to accept RSS feeds (there are others you may be using too but these are most mainstream). If you don’t have a personalized homepage, you can establish one in about 2 minutes. If you are still having doubts about whether you want to invest the time, read this post, “RSS, It’s Not Just For Blogs Anymore”, written by John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing. His post includes a link to 100 Cool Things You Can Do With RSS Feeders.
If you are saving time using an RSS feeder in a unique way, leave a comment here and help me influence others to save time and improve efficieny with RSS.
Tammy Erickson at Harvard Business Publishing has written an interesting article about how today’s tweens see the world and how that might effect how they behave as adults. She makes great points about how these 10-13 year olds are very informed about war, the economy, conservation, ecology, gas prices, and the housing crunch. I posted a comment and asked Tammy to consider writing a followon article about how her predictions might impact the corporate work environment. It seems that the writing is on the wall. Corporations must change to address what this generation wants or risk losing altogether. Read her article and then consider what you saw around you everyday when you were a tween. The world is very different today and the access to information is almost unlimited. The cultural change that we are about to witness over the next 50 years should be an amazing ride. These kids want/need/require a different work arrangement than we did at their age. I see it as our responsibility to start opening doors for them by leading by example. It might not always be an option, but we need to pursue flexible and remote work options or at least be willing to ask for them. You can be a pioneer in this new age.
During a break at the ASTD conference last month where I was coaching, I wandered over to the conference book store to see what they had to offer. The selection was quite extensive. I smiled when I saw a stack of Nan’s books, Hitting Your Stride: Your Work, Your Way 
- When he heard what I was writing about, my friend Dan recommend I interview Nan, “You’ve got to meet my friend, Nan. She’s fabulous. I love her writing and I love her stories. She gives great advice”. He’s never met Nan in person either! However, they’ve corresponded via email and he often comments that he feels so comfortable that he might just pay her a visit some day.
- She lives in Whitefish, Montana, one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen. I spent a week there last year and never wanted to leave.
- She’s a Six Figure Mom…in and out of the corporate world.
- She left a lucrative career as a Vice President at QVC to follow her life dream.
- And here’s the best one, she planned it all when she was in college. Really. She had the foresight at a very young age to see her dream clearly. She has always wanted to live in Montana but knew she had to have a successful career to finance her dream first. Amazing clarity at such a young age.
So, if you can’t tell. I’m recommending you look into Nan’s writings. In addition to her book, she publishes e-columns and is featured on more than 80 websites.
I arrived upon a car crash today just seconds after it occurred. It looked like a one car accident with a single person in the car. The car was pretty smashed but the driver looked unharmed other than being dazed and seemingly in shock. This was a Sunday afternoon in a suburb so not like an urban holiday when crazy drivers are everywhere. It’s rattling to be around the strange energy of an accident. I wondered, what was going on with this driver? Was he thinking about unmet commitments at work? Relationship conflict? Not spending enough time with his kids? Or maybe even sleeping at the wheel from exhaustion? Whatever the case, he wasn’t present. I’m sorry his Sunday afternoon was traumatized but I thank him. You see, he gave me a gift. Just another reminder to continue to work on being present at whatever I’m investing myself in every given moment. Like most working mothers, I’ve got a lot on my plate. It’s easy to spend too much time on one thing and get out of balance on the others. Everyday I must continue to strive to get better at focusing on the highest of my priorities and to really be in the moment. For me, this means I must rank priorities often and make sure every task I do is in line with my goals. I keep a list of my top 10 goals with me all the time. When I feel I get off track, I just need to refocus and realign my tasks to the goals and I feel more centered. This means, if something is on my to do list that doesn’t fit my top 10 goals, then it’s deleted or delegated. It’s not a grey area, it’s black and white. It’s the only way I can keep up. Now, let me confess, my life is clearly not black and white. When it comes to my family, I can’t control or predict what they need. However, having personal clarity allows me to have an available margin to offer when the unexpected pops up…and it always does. If you want to work on being present in your life, I suggest starting with Steven Covey, The Franklin Covey website has lots of good stuff in their online library. Enjoy!
Randy Pausch died this week and will be featured on ABC News several times Monday through Wednesday next week. Who is Randy Pausch you ask? Here’s an excerpt from ABC News, “It all began with one, age-old question: What would you say if you knew you were going to die and had a chance to sum up everything that was most important to you? That question had been posed to the annual speaker of a lecture series at Carnegie Mellon University, where Pausch was a computer sciences professor. For Pausch, though, the question wasn’t hypothetical. Pausch, a father of three small children with his wife Jai, had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer — and given six months to live. Friends and colleagues flew in from all around the country to attend his last lecture. And — almost as an afterthought — the lecture was videotaped and put on the Internet for the few people who couldn’t get there that day. “ (Full Article from ABC) You can Full Article from ABC) You can watch the lecture on You Tube. Although Randy’s video is less than 5 minutes, it’s filled with messages. His attitude, despite terminal cancer, is amazing. In 5 minutes he covers perseverence, family values, life passion, life leadership, personal character, karma and much more. Working moms, Randy’s given us a reminder to really pay attention to what’s important because we just never know what lies ahead. It’s so easy to get caught up in the demands of our busy lives that our do to lists take precedence over the good stuff. It takes a consistent effort to make sure we run our lives versus let our lives run us. Remember, you’re in control.
There are great articles about this man everywhere in the news this morning. This Time Magazine article is a nice one if you want to read more. You can also read his book: 
Well, it is! I love emoticons. I remember laughing at my desk at Qualcomm when chat software first became popular. I was chatting with three IT guys when we got into a laugh fest with tummy hurting giggles after learning how to send each other messages with emoticons. Looking back, we sure were silly but it was a much needed break from the technical project we were racking our brains on. Who knows? Emoticons might just have reduced job related stress a few decibles. Read more here about the history of emoticons. Have fun! Oh, and what are your good memories about these fun digital expressions?
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I have been following Nancy Collamer’s writings since my daughter was born in 2005. She writes about career options for working mothers. I got excited when her blog reminded me that I needed to check out the new WSJ blog, “The Juggle”. Thanks Nancy, for the reminder. However, I was a bit surprised and disappointed when I read the site. I had the preconceived idea that if WSJ was reporting it, then the subject matter would be refreshing for the six figure mom. Back to the old rule, “never assume anything”. I felt out of touch with most of the topics (although I did like, Do You Read Your Kids Diaries or Facebook Pages and left a comment) and wondered why WSJ isn’t writing for their target market. At least I think we’re their target?
I don’t mean to imply that the topics aren’t important to me but I can get that kind of information from many other sources. I expect a higher level of subjects from the Journal. Is it me or do you guys also feel this blog is a bit lackluster? What topic would you like to see in the their blog? Maybe we can help them kick it up a notch. I’m all for molding what is offered for the six figure mom because sometimes we certainly seem left out.
It’s easy to find news about Fortune 500 and other corporate women CEO’s. They seem to be featured everywhere. I guess featuring them comes with the ever popular gender pay difference topic that promotes big readership. I applaud these women but I’m always wondering about everyone else. The Average Joyce, if you will, of highly educated and capable women who are happily succeeding in the $75,000-$250,000 income arena. That’s still something to celebrate I’d say. I want to hear about the others who might not be in the mainstream public eye but are making it work in forward thinking, sociologically changing jobs using remote work options and telecommuting. I want to lavish in the stories of women who are thinking outside of the box and creating a best life option for themselves and their families. Those stories are everywhere but not so often covered by the media. However, I think Pink magazine just might get it. Seems they’ll be focusing on at least a part of this demographic starting in the September issue with “My Beautiful Business, a section devoted to women who own or dream of owning their own firm”. I’m looking forward to seeing the contents. I’ll also be adding a Feature section to this site highlighting an accomplished business woman doing her own thing. Want to be featured? Add a comment to this post and I’ll get back to you.
Speaking of Pink, they are sponsoring a Women’s Conference in various cities on various dates. Until Maria Shriver helps with some tickets to her Women’s Conference , you can still buy tickets to these Pink events.
I heard Anthony F. Smith speak this week about his new book, The Taboos of Leadership. Really deep, on point and interesting stuff that everybody suspects but no one really talks about. Mr. Smith himself was inspiring, straightforward and very humble given he’s been one of the major business coaches for ESPN for over 20 years. The Taboos cover everything from executive compensation to the power of charisma (over technical skills) to the necessity of politics. The audience asked Anthony about Taboo #4: Women Make Better Leaders (When They Want To). He talked about the importance of emotional intelligence in upper management positions and how women are naturally wired to be better at this. He also discussed how women don’t often need to be the leader as much as men do and that we aren’t always willing to do what it takes. Take it easy. What he means is we choose to pursue other things because the kill to get to the top isn’t the driver for many women. Mr. Smith also talked about mergers and acquisitions and why they fail. He used the merger of ESPN and Disney as a good example of what companies should do when they buy other companies. Look at why you bought them in the first place and give them authority to help make change for the rest of your company. His example, the ESPN team is now in charge of all marketing for Disney. Creative. I wouldn’t be surprised if that was humble Mr. Smith’s idea in the first place. Anyway, his stuff is definitely worth a look.
In his bestselling book, The Dip, Seth Godin, Internet Marketing Extraordinaire writes about leadership and perseverance. Seth tells us that great leaders are the ones who can push through the hard times to get to the finish line. Specifically, The Dip indicates that most of us can achieve a moderate level of success. Next, things level off again and then we experience a little dip in performance because it gets much harder to get to the next level. Maybe we get bored, maybe the highs of accomplishment wear off. It sometimes feels easier to regroup and change direction than to continue pushing boulders uphill. I like Seth’s concepts. They fit nicely with the “Whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” mantra. The Dip is especially relevant for working women and entrepreneurs because there are so many tests along the way that it’s normal to have days where you want to give up on pursuing what’s most important to you. You have to be committed and you have to keep reminding yourself that The Dip and other bad days are all part of the learning process to get to the next level. Easy stuff is boring anyway!
Andy Wibbels also has a nice explanation of The Dip if you’re interested in more.