What does AI mean to you?

Most people, especially technologists, would immediately think of Artificial Intelligence. However, it could also mean “Appreciative Inquiry”. How to use AI to have a SOAR conversation and implementation? It is important and critical to apply AI into any conversation to have a more meaningful and impactful outcome. The energy we deployed into the conversation can either support or break the communication.

Thanks to Jackie Stavros for her great research and insights on this topic.

Career MAP

On May 8th, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger gave the OSU commencement speech. He shared a lot of life lessons and career wisdom. His career MAP is a great summary. Of course, there are so many success factors at work and in life, each person will need to create their own map.

M - Mentors, find them and listen to them

A - Audicious Goals, ruthlessly prioritize your time against your mission and goals

P - Passion, find something you are good at that you love doing and do it with people that you enjoy doing.

What is your audicious goal(s)?

Starts with hiring

People ask me how I build high performing team. It starts with hiring. I look for the following characteristics in a new hire:
- self driven, have passion to make a difference
- team player
- continuous learner
- relevant skills: this isn’t the most important thing, because with the above, people can learn new skills and technology.

What do you look for in a new hire?

Grow old

I was catching up with a leader I admire deeply. Our kids went to visit the same college campus on the same day several years ago and now they graduated/graduating from college. I joked that “the good thing is they are getting old and we are still YOUNG! “. He reminded me the following quote from Bernard Shaw.

“We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.”

If you don’t want to grow old, keep playing, stay curious and continue learning.
#continuouslearning

Attitude

If you are a leader, do you care for Skills or Attitude? Check out what Seth Godin says below. iPEC energy leadership index assessment is the only assessment available that assess your attitude.

Expertise vs Attitude 

The typical online job site lists millions of jobs. And just about every one of them is a cry for expertise.

From the title to the requirements, companies hire for expertise.

Logic helps us understand that only one out of ten people are in the top 10% when it comes to expertise. And that means that most companies are settling for good enough. If the organization needs people with expertise in the top decile, they’re going to have to pay far more and work far harder to find and retain that sort of skill.

So most companies don’t try. They create jobs that can be done pretty well by people with a typical amount of expertise.

That means that the actual differentiator in just about every job is attitude. From plumbers to carpenters to radiologists to pharmacists, someone with extraordinary soft skills (honesty, commitment, compassion, resilience, enrollment in the journey, empathy, willingness to be coached… the real skills that we actually care about) is going to outperform.

If this is so obviously true, then why don’t organizations hire for attitude and train for expertise?

Do something that scares you

Recently I skied a difficult trail (Imperial Bowl) at peak 8 in Breckinridge. It looked scary at the top, but I used the same techniques as those when skiing on easy trails - one ski at a time. What seemed impossible became a reality.

When was the last time you did something that scares you at work or in life?

Empathy

There are many different definition of what empathy is. To me, empathy is to understand and accept the other’s feelings/experience without judgment. I don’t have to experience the same situation, but I understand what you might feel when you describe to me. Even if we went through similar situations, your feelings and experiences might be different than mine and I accept that.

Ask ‘Why’

In my own life and career, in managing teams and working with my business partners, I always try to remember to ask, “Why?" - Why are we doing this? Why are we doing it this way? Why is this our metric? Why is this our goal? You can (perhaps want to) continue to ask the ‘why' until you strip layers back to the true foundation of anything. I found that knowing the ‘why' can help both; motivate myself and others, and help us understand the impact we have on the clients we serve. Knowing ‘why' gives me clarity to think differently and outside the (current) box.

First day of 2022

The first day of a New Year is always an exciting time to reflect on the past year and set (new) goals for the year to come. I spent some time today to reflect on my own 2021. I can’t be more proud of what I have accomplished and am looking forward to an even more exiting 2022. 

Despite the pandemic, I have achieved tremendous growth in all areas of my life. It doesn’t mean that I don’t have occasions when I am feeling down. However, the number of times that I was down was negligible comparing the most fantastic days I enjoyed throughout the year.  Giving credit where it is due, I am forever grateful for the energy leadership coaching I am blessed to be able to practice on a daily basis. I want to share my growth in a few areas of my life. 

Family 

• Our love and relationships among each family member continue to grow stronger and more intimate.

• Everyone is thriving in their own way.

• We often have conversations on some big topics - racial justice, equality, climate change…and what we each can do to make an impact.

Personal

• I have never been felt so powerful as I realize that I have nothing to prove…to anyone, for anything. It’s the authentic me being the best I can ever be on a daily basis.

• I read more than a dozen books and listened to hundreds of hours of various podcasts.

• I went through many trainings.

• I have great health - physically, mentally, emotionally, socially, spiritually, financially and psychologically.

• I hired a voice coach.

• I have several mentors and sponsors.
  

Work

• Received ‘2021 Technology All-Star Award’ from Women Of Color STEM

• Continue to grow the scope of the technology portfolio and what it influences

• Reduced user ticket volume by 60% through strategic partnerships

• Delivered multiple critical modules through SaaS (Software as a Service) serving 250,000 employees

• Completed several application cloud migrations

• Taking on a strategic role in Site Reliability Engineering, building API/ML capabilities
  

Friends

• Continue to build and strengthen relationships with friends and their families

• Pandemic doesn’t stop the love and caring among the families we choose ourselves
  

Business

• Successfully launched our Career Breakthrough Energy Leadership Group coaching practice and graduated 2 groups of change agents.

• Offered webinars to ~4,500 attendees.

• Grew my base of private clients and made significant impacts to their lives.

• 2021 Top 20 Coaches in Columbus by Influence Digest

• Started “Your Energetic Authentic Self Today” podcast on Easter day

• Gained international clients
  

Community 

• Co-lead a 1,400 women technologists group

• Founding member of Columbus Ignite Manager Community

• Organized and facilitated the first-ever Columbus Tech Center DEI day event

• Offered Energy Leadership Training to hundreds of colleagues

• Mentored several colleagues

• Participated in and helped organize a Stop Asian Hate rally

• Dublin Chief’s Advisory Committee member - reviewed and revised police policies

• Sponsored several non-profit communities that do good in the world

• Volunteered on many occasions

Life is good! I am looking forward to more meaningful connections and bigger impact in 2022!

2021 Favorite Podcasts

I would like to share the podcasts I listened to in 2021. My favorite when I run, walk my dog, cook in the kitchen or drive somewhere, in no particular order:

• The Rich Roll podcast By Rich Roll

• The Chase Jarvis Live show By Chase Jarvis

• Dare to Lead by By Brene Brown

• Unlocking us by Brene Brown 

• Work Life TED by Adam Grant 

• Ten Percent Happier by  Dan Harris 

• Women On the Move by Samatha Saperstein, JPMorgan Chase 

• Exponential Wisdom by Dan Sullivan and Peter Diamandis 

• Negotiate Anything By Kwame Christian 

• Innovative Leadership by Maureen Metcalf 

• Remarkable People by Guy Kawasaki

And our own production. 

• Y.E.A.S.T. (Your Energetic Authentic Self Today) - by Hope, Joy and Sheila