You: CEO

This article is all about being a CEO. That's right: Chief Executive Officer. If you are reading this, you may already be one, or you may want to be one someday soon. In this article, I am going to show you exactly how. Are you excited? I am!

The reason I am excited is because I am going to tell how you becoming a CEO of yourself is going to kick your gear into high. While you may want to be the next Mark Zuckerberg or Sundar Pichai, I can tell you that you may be well on your way to leading Facebook or Google, but first you are going to have to be the CEO of the person staring back at you in the mirror.

WAIT! Before you click away because you thought I was going to give you REAL advice about how to become a REAL CEO, let me just ask you one question. Are you showing up as the CEO of your own life today, or are you showing up as the Intern? You see, a lot of people like the idea of greatness, or a title, or being perceived as being important, but when you show up as the CEO in your own life things start to change.

You're probably wondering what I mean about being a life CEO, so let me explain. What I mean is, look at every area of your life as if you owned it, as if the livelihood of tens, or hundreds, or thousands, or millions of people depended on it. Take a second to think about all the areas of your life: health, relationships, finances, your job-- how are you showing up?

In my career I noticed a huge shift when I really started to look at my job like I owned the company. I started coming from a place of contribution and thinking how I could add value. I started to act like my role was my personal company, and I began wondering how I might approach my work differently if Wendy Burbridge was a business and not an employee.

So today, I ask you- what would you change if you owned your own role? How would you show up differently if you focused on your work like it was your product (Guess what? It is!) and your co-workers, supervisor and senior leadership as if they are your customers (Guess what? They are!)?

You may be thinking, Gee, that sounds like a lot of hard work??? Well, maybe it is, but if you want to be a REAL CEO someday, the work is not going to get easier. However, if you start being your own CEO today, I can assure you that the work you do will be a whole lot better.

Being a CEO if my role has allowed me the opportunity to increase my income, do more work that I am passionate about, and create a life that I am excited to live. That same passion is available for you, today, right now. So, if you are tired of being in the same job, doing the same thing, punching the same clock, then take a step back, and think about how things could be different.

If you are stuck, and not sure if you are even in the right job, then connect with me, and I'd be happy to share my own Goal-Setting Manifesto with you from my upcoming book 30 Reasons You Didn't Get Hired to help you get clear on your own direction.

Have a great day everyone- get out there and Crush It!

The Top 3 Things Keeping You From Achieving Your Goals This Year.

Since we are half way through this year, I thought I would ask the question, “How are those New  Years Resolutions coming along?” Remember that list you created on January 1^st, the one you pinned on your corkboard  underneath all of the “important stuff.” Or perhaps its buried so deep in your iphone notes that you’d have to scroll for days to even find it.

Like many people, I created a list of things I wanted to achieve this year: I wanted to publish my book (in progress), I wanted take a trip to France (scheduled for October), and I wanted to work on my “stuff” (ongoing, but I'm doing it).

Ah, stuff! We all have it, we all know it’s there, but for some reason, it always gets swept under the rug because there’s always something else to do. Fortunately, I have found a really cool way to deal with my stuff, and I wanted to introduce it to you in this way, because I think it is actually part of why you may not be achieving your goals, whether they are for New Years, yourself, or any other reason.

So, let’s break this down here. Honestly, if you haven’t achieved your goals then it’s probably because:

1.       You Didn’t Set Any Goals. If you live with the expectation that everything great idea that pops into your head will just manifest into reality without a plan, then I would love to talk to you because you are a total phenomenon!

2.       You Didn’t Create an Action Plan. Perhaps when you made your list you had several things you wanted to accomplish, and you thought that somehow you’d figure it out. Unfortunately, we don’t always have all the answers, and sometimes we may want things to happen and have no idea how to do it. So what happens? Naturally, we give up. Instead of finding someone who has achieved what we want and modeling their behavior, or doing research on how to accomplish your goal, you throw in the towel and call it quits. This concept actually leads right into the third thing keeping you from achieving your goals…

3.       You Can’t Get Our of Your Own Head! In my upcoming book, 30 Reasons You Didn't Get Hired, I go into specific detail on how this one thing keeps people from getting their dream jobs. One of the things I’ve been learning on my own journey is that our brain will strive to answer any question we think.  If you ask, “why can’t I lose weight?” Your brain will probably say “because your lazy!” Why? Probably because you’ve been telling yourself over and over again that you’re lazy. If you change the question , though to, “What can I do today to bring me closer to my goal of having a healthy lifestyle?” Your brain will probably think of 100 things you could do: go to the gym, make great food choices, stop eating when you’re full… see what I mean.

 

I’m going to deep dive into this one a little more because we all have automatic thoughts that are popping into our head all the time, and controlling them can seem akin to wrangling a toddler hyped up on sugar smacks. BUT, there is a tool I found that has been exceptionally effective in helping me manage my thoughts, called The Model, created by The Life Coach School founder, Brooke Castillo. I am inserting a photo of it here,

 

 

which is barely legible, I know, and is also messy (I KNOW) because one of my issues is getting over perfection, which is why I am comfortable sharing it with you here, instead of wasting 10 hours creating a beautiful one for just this article. But, I keep this at my desk as a handy resource for when the thoughts start taking up my energy.

 

Brooke has a great youtube video where she teaches the model, so please watch it if you’d like in-depth analysis on it, but here is the basic idea:

When you have a thought, consider the following:

 

C- Circumstance: What is the circumstance you are reacting to?

T-Thought: What is the thought I'm thinking about the circumstance?

F-Feeling: How do I feel when I think this thought?

A-Action: What is the action (or non-action) I take when I feel_____?

R-Result: What is the outcome I created with this (non) action?
 
If you are struggling to achieve your goals because of the thoughts you are telling yourself, then I absolutely encourage you to go through The Model with your thoughts to create a new result for yourself. If you're just starting then begin by getting clear on what you want, set a specific action plan, learn from others who've already achieved what you want, and keep your thoughts focused on the positive action that will propel you forward.

I hope that this content has given you some ideas on how to get back on track to achieving your goals. If so, I'd love to hear from you! Have a wonderful day everyone!

Farm Credit Leaning In to Close the Leadership Ambition Gap

 

 

When I was in college, I majored in English in my undergrad years, and there were very few men in my classes. Most of the women in my class were planning careers as teachers, and at one point I was as well. However, after observing the usual discord that happens within a sixth grade English classroom, I promptly marched myself into my advisors office and switched my concentration away from teaching and instead pursued technical communication. Every day, I wake up grateful for this choice, as I do not believe there is enough coffee that exists in the world for me to effectively manage a classroom of sixth-graders. For those who educate our youth- thank you!

When I switched my focus from education to technical communication, I realized that the student population was more evenly distributed between men and women, but as I look up at what lies ahead, I am surprised that men still dominate senior and executive leadership in companies. Why is this surprising? Perhaps because there are now more than a million more college educated women with than men. However, the number of full-time working men, according to the 2011 Census was 58 million, compared to 43.7 million for women. Women are more educated, but not pursuing positions within their potential. Why?

Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook and author or Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead, identifies this as the Leadership Ambition Gap. Sandberg’s Lean In movement has inspired mentorship programs and small development groups on a global scale, but there is still work to be done to help women actualize their own potential.

Recently, I had an opportunity to connect with some other women in Farm Credit, and when I inquired about what we were doing to make an impact; I learned that presently, there is no official program that exists. Immediately, we acknowledged there was work to be done, and now we are in the process of creating such a program.

In July of this year, I will be presenting at FCC Services’Learning Conference in Charleston, South Carolina, and we will begin dialoging with women and men in Farm Credit to discuss how we can encourage women to advance into leadership roles. As we journey together to find solutions of how we can close the Leadership Ambition Gap at Farm Credit, I would like to invite you to participate in the discussion.

While I am hoping to solicit feedback from my cohorts at Farm Credit, I would invite anyone who is passionate about this matter to share their insights, whether it be on presentation topics, types of groups you would be interested in attending, and your personal interest in joining us in leading this initiative. Please feel free to leave comments, below, send me a private message, or email me directly at wburbridge@agloan.com

I look forward to your feedback!

 

How to Crush It Even When Your Team is in Last Place!

 

Brian Tracy says that “you become what you think about all the time.” When I consider this phrase, I am often filled with thoughts of achievement, goals, planning, and the general sense of where I’d like my future to lead. The desire to be great, to win, to lead, is actually something that I spend a significant amount of time thinking about, and over the last several years I’ve found that the more important winning becomes, the greater I value those who positively impact my performance, and encourage my desire for growth.

Granted, this could go the other way as well. For example, have you ever hung out with a Debbie Downer when you’re in a great mood? Despite your personal enthusiasm, negative energy can really take over. If you are a positive person who continuously surrounds yourself with negativity, then at some point, your personal desires may get side-swiped by someone who’d like to live under a rain cloud.

We have a video on our careers page at my company, where the CEO talks about why we select talented people to work at our company, “winners want to work with winners,” he says. While this is an absolute truth that I have fully embraced, this week I am humbled to have experienced the absolute benefit of working with a winning team.

You see, a year ago I went to a seminar for work. My boss and I sat in the crowd of attendants and as soon as the awards session began, we both lit up. We watched, enviously, as the representatives of visionary companies, walked to the front and crossed the stage to accept their awards. We looked at each other, and she said “next year, that’s gonna’ be us.”

“I know,” I replied.

I am delighted to report that the commitment we made that day, albeit informal, was followed through yesterday as our team accepted the Rave Award for Visionary in Performance Management at the Cornerstone OnDemand Convergence Conference. I share this with you today partly because I am a proud person, but mostly because everyone knows it’s awesome to work on a winning team. Getting acknowledged is an incredible honor; the benefits I experience from working on a winning team are honestly realized every day. People on winning teams not only have a desire to be their best, but they motivate others to also achieve, create accountability for all team members, and drive overall organizational performance.

But what if that’s not you?

What if you are the lone ranger on a team full of people who spend the day painting their nails in white-out (OK, I’m dating myself—spend the day posting their life on Insta)? What if you are the only person who wants to win and you can’t get anyone else on board with your plan for greatness? What if you are awesome, and despite your best efforts to stir enthusiasm in your team, you feel like you’re working in a morgue?

Glad you asked, and here’s what you do: be great anyway. Before you click-away and dismiss me as overly-optimistic, stay with me. Also, I'm not saying to throw out the baby with the bathwater. My first recommendation is to always work with your team, seek support from management, and work collaboratively to solve issues. However, if you continue to hit your head against the wall because you find a general lack of accountability and consistent underperformance in your team, then do not let yourself fall into the pit.

While it is easy to point fingers at people who may be underperforming, if you want to win, you have to do it even in the face of resistance. Fortunately, I’m on a winning team now, but it hasn’t always been that way. In my upcoming book, 30 Reasons You Didn’t Get Hired, I provide loads of stories about times when I’ve actually been in those situations. But, I also share a lot of activities that help people find their passion.  

Why is passion so important? It is important because it is what will drive you to be great even when you aren’t part of a winning team. It will drive you to learn, read, grow, attend workshops, network, and spend your free time improving. People who work hard and love what they do will find that new opportunities will become available. How? I wish I could list them all for you, but to keep things concise I have a brief list of things that can happen when you follow your passion and find yourself without a winning team.

·         Gain recognition within your company as an expert

·         Get promoted at your company for being recognized as an expert

·         Get recruited by another company for being recognized as an expert

·         Gain credibility within your community for writing a blog

·         Start a podcast where you bring on experts in your field

·         Create a video blog, educating other professionals in your field

·         Present at industry conferences about things you’ve improved where you work

·         Write a book on your passion

·         Offer great ideas to other professionals in your same field who struggle with a problem you already solved

·         Take a vacation with all the additional revenue you can make by implementing one of the above-listed ideas J

Implement any of these ideas and you will start building a personal brand at an exponential rate, but more importantly you will be able to continue to push yourself to achieve and grow, even when you’re not on a winning team.