We set an intention to lead our organization towards a common and clearly defined goal – of impact – by (literally) getting everyone on the same page.

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“You’ve got to be sure of yourself before you can ever win a prize” – Napoleon Hill, author of  Think and Grow Rich

What does it mean to be “sure of yourself?”

On the surface, it may sound like Napoleon Hill is talking about confidence, but I believe it goes much deeper than that.

As leaders, we do our best work when we know who we are, and what we are truly capable of accomplishing. Having confidence is a start, but there is a distinct difference between feeling confident, and having a calm, centered, certainty about us in our work.

True certainty comes when we combine confidence AND clarity.

When we lead our organizations (or ourselves), it’s important to always check in with that “big picture” of what we’re aiming for, WHY we are aiming for it, and why we feel passionate about it.

I believe that’s what Napoleon Hill meant by “win a prize.” When we feel that sense of certainty and fulfillment in our work as a leader, we really come alive!

When we connect emotionally to who we are, what we want, and WHY, we create even more impact, and naturally inspire people to follow our lead. Our energy instantly becomes more magnetic, and our calm, centered certainty spreads through our team.

Recently, many of you completed my survey where I asked you to share your ideas, challenges, and preferred methods of learning. When reading the results, I experienced my “prize,” as I got excited knowing all of the ways I can aim to add value to your lives in the future.

What’s most exciting is that a majority of your responses indicated that you like learning in groups of like minded people. I can’t wait to share with you what’s coming in the future. I am certain that when we grow and learn together, we can lift each other up even higher.

just to get “unstuck,” schedule your complimentary clarity call with me here.

To your success,

Kathryn

use it. – Jack Nichols

In my role as a professional interim leader, I am constantly getting to know new organizations, communities, and people. One of the most important skills I’ve learned quickly create impact is to practice is listening. I set an intention every day to really hear and SEE the people with whom I’m blessed to interact.

As my e-community is growing – now with more and more people who I have not yet met personally – I realize that I need to listen and learn more about YOU in order to continue to provide the most relevant, helpful tips, tools and inspiration.

Would you complete this short, 4 question survey so I can learn more about the challenges you are facing, and what kinds of content might be most useful for you?

It will only take a few minutes of your time, and it will enable me to make sure I’m serving you in the BEST possible way.

CLICK HERE to take the survey.

You can choose to remain completely anonymous, and I will use the confidential information to identify common threads, and inform my decisions about what kinds of content and programs to bring to you in the future.

I’m grateful for your support!

Kathryn Martin

Do you feel like the past few weeks have been unusually filled with pressure, extra deadlines, and seemingly endless “to-do” lists?

You’re not alone. Up until the Labor Day holiday, things traditionally slow down, as many of us are on vacation, and the phrase: “Let’s touch base after Labor Day” appears in a lot of emails, texts, and phone calls.

Then, all of a sudden, the holiday is over, and everything we’ve been waiting until “after Labor Day” for suddenly becomes more urgent, right?

During these intense periods of deadlines, goals, and urgent “to-do” lists, I find it’s extremely helpful to get re-connected to our “WHY” again.

When we shift our thinking back to the impact we are making with our projects and initiatives, it can have a calming effect that grounds us to WHY all of those deadlines exist in the first place. Once we focus on the impact of it all, it often becomes much easier to prioritize, meet our obligations, and provide the best help to others. 

When we’re scrambling around trying to frantically move from one urgent item to the next, it’s easy to get discouraged, overwhelmed, and actually way off track from our purpose.

So as we move towards the last quarter of 2016, I encourage you to center yourself and get connected to how you feel when you KNOW you are making an impact. As you prioritize your action items, really think about the lives you a touching, the people you are helping, and why you set forth on your mission in the first place.

Feeling pressure is common this time of year. Give yourself the gift of re-connecting to the “WHY” of it all, and notice the shift in your energy.

If you’d like to hop on the phone with me to help you get re-connected to YOUR ‘why,’ and identify your best next steps to achieving your goals, I invite you to schedule your FREE Clarity Call with me here. To your success,

Kathryn

Earlier this summer, 12 of my fellow entrepreneurs and I had the opportunity to meet with award-winning filmmaker Barnet Bain. Like so many of my experiences in 2016, that conversation – along with reading his “The Book of Doing and Being: Rediscovering Creativity in Life, Love and Work” – continues to resonate and percolate with me.

As I work with clients, common themes continue to appear – regardless of the organization’s budget size, or the individual’s professional success. We all have a need and desire to solve problems, and address the internal and external forces that seem to prevent growth, advancement, progress, and even happiness.

Since the journey of organizational and individual success seldom travels in a straight line, it’s also extremely common to find moments (or extended periods) of resistance, or feeling “stuck.”

When we feel “stuck,” there are tangible strategies that we can all call upon to move ourselves forward and identify the embodied actions that will enable creating the change we want and envision. I’ve witnessed transformation first-hand with clients enrolled in my 90-day Leadership Coaching program, and in every organization I have led as an Interim leader.

Here’s what Barnet Bain says:

Becoming a “Solution-Maker”
”To meet the challenges of the world that is becoming new, to effectively address problems that appear to have too few solutions, creativity must be awakened.  From business and politics to the way we tend to our personal lives, we need to stretch our imaginations beyond outmoded practices.
We can all become weapons of mass creation”

To DO this, Bain says, we need to “Reach and stretch in new directions, engage in activities and rituals that awaken positive potentials.  Practice, because your old linear, logical approaches, as valuable as they are, are not valuable enough, not extensive enough.”

Barnet provides many powerful exercises throughout the book, and here’s a simple one that you can try this weekend… no matter how busy you are:

Rearranging the Routine in Your Life
Doing ordinary things in a different order, consciously mixing things up, rewires and refires the flow of creativity.  Try different approaches to routine activities:

• Sleep on a different side of the bed
• Drink from a cup instead of a glass
• Use chopsticks instead of a fork
• Follow a new path through the grocery store
• Find new routes for your drive or walk to work
• Fold the laundry in a different room
• Greet people in a new way
• Answer your phone in new ways
• Reposition the items on your desk.

By rearranging routines, you actively generate new perspectives. Creativity does not come unbidden.  You have to encounter it and invite it.  Ask yourself, “How can I approach common things more inventively?” Have fun with it.

As we head into Labor Day weekend, we have another opportunity to “shift” before starting a new school year, a new Season, a new Fiscal Year.  What are the actions YOU can take to start that process?

If you’d like support in creating purposeful intentions, and creating the personalized strategies to move those intentions forward, I invite you to schedule a Clarity Call with me.
Click here to schedule your complimentary Clarity Call today.

As always, I’m grateful to have you as a part of my email community, and I stand by you in FULL support of your intentions, dreams, and commitment to making a big difference in the world.

To your success,
Kathryn

As a professional interim CEO and transition strategist, and as a leadership coach and consultant, I have the privilege of helping purpose-driven leaders and organizations create the impact they envision, and move forward with clarity in making the choices needed to reach their goals.

Based upon some of the common themes that appear when I work 1:1 with my clients, I’ve created an E-Guide: Take Charge and Be Confident – 4 Actions to Immediately Increase Your Value, Impact and Happiness. 

The e-guide offers a straightforward way to take charge and immediately break through the internal and external forces that may be keeping you “stuck.”

This E-Guide Is For You If:

• You are a smart leader who wants to make an even bigger difference in the world
• You’re feeling pulled towards embarking on a NEW chapter for yourself or your organization
• You’re ready to reclaim that SPARK in your work, and live your life’s purpose

RECEIVE YOUR FREE COPY HERE (just enter your email on the landing page and you’ll receive the e-guide right away)

My intention is two-fold: to provide you with another tool to help you achieve what you want, and to create an easy way for you to introduce my work to other like-minded individuals who may benefit.

Since January of this year my decision to choose a path that “makes my heart sing” has been a life changing journey for me, and I am so blessed to be living my purpose every day.

To your success,

Kathryn

As we head into the home stretch of the summer, do you find yourself thinking “I can’t believe it’s August already!”   Or when you celebrate family or career milestones, is it hard to believe the years have passed?

In our fast paced, technology driven world, it’s easy for the days to fly by even faster as we move from one project to the next, then one week to the next, until one day we look up and ask: “Where has the time gone?”

While it’s perfectly natural and human to reflect on the passage of time, we have a powerful choice when it comes to the meaning we place on the time that has “passed.”

When we focus on the things we haven’t accomplished, we unconsciously pass judgment on ourselves and imply (to ourselves and others) that we are unsatisfied about how we’ve invested that time.

Instead, I suggest we reframe that question to:  “What are the things I’ve accomplished this past day , week, month, or year that I’m most proud of?”  and “What is the impact that has occurred because of my actions and how I choose to BE in the world?”

Can you see the difference? Both questions address the passage of time, but the focus of the two questions is entirely different! The “Where has the time gone?” question focuses on lack, while the “What have I accomplished?” question focuses on abundance.

It’s a subtle, but important shift in thinking when it comes to living a purposeful life and making the greatest impact in the world that we can.

It’s also important to remind ourselves that the only thing that’s real is what’s happening right now.

All we have is this moment.

Days, months, years and decades are just human inventions that help us measure the quantity of those “moments,” and passing negative judgment on ourselves about what we haven’t yet done, is usually not going to serve our greatest good!

While viewing the glass as “half empty” sometimes can strengthen our motivation, there is a difference between getting more inspired to create what we want, and looking at the past in a judgmental way.

I explain this approach in more detail in the new e-guide I released a few weeks ago that you can download here.

So as we finish up the summer of 2016, I encourage you to focus on all of the amazing things you’ve done this year… and how your actions and choices have made a difference – and to whom.  In your organization? Your community? Your family?  Start by making a list for just this past week!  Noticing and acknowledging those small “wins” – especially when stacked together will both reveal and create your momentum and trajectory!

Remember, that if you have a clear intention, a clear purpose, and a strong “why,” you will be able to use each moment in the highest way. It won’t always be perfect, but it will be great!
If you’d like to get clear about creating YOUR purposeful intentions, and make sure you’re focused on the best actions to move those intentions forward, I invite you to schedule a Clarity Call with me.Click here to schedule your complimentary Clarity Call today.

As always, I’m grateful to have you as a part of my email community, and I stand by you in FULL support of your intentions, dreams, and commitment to making a big difference in the world.

-Kathryn

“ …living birds, they essentially sing from the heart. Their vocal organ is deep in the chest. And we and crocodiles, our vocal folds are in our mouth.”  – Julia Clarke’s “New Research Debunks The Dinosaur’ s Roar”

I started 2016 with a clear, overarching intention:  to mindfully choose the work, the clients and the embodied actions that would make my heart sing.

This may sound like such a non-professional and simplistic-sounding intention.  In fact, the first time I said it out-loud was when I resigned from ACG, a firm with colleagues I hold in high regard.  To be honest, conveying my decision in those terms felt a little awkward… at first.

Now, seven months later, I shout (or sing!) it from the roof-tops.

It’s so easy to get caught up in our “should’s,” which are the external expectations, and practical or realistic concerns. We approach our lives and our decisions from our head, and at times, approaching things this way certainly serves us well.

Those “practical concerns” are there to protect us. Our brain doesn’t want us to get hurt. So when starting a business, for example, the “head” tells us to be extra conservative and stay in our jobs a little longer. That is useful information, and can lead us to make smart financial decisions.

Setting an intention for “dropping down” into our heart, however, can be transformative. When I first considered starting my entrepreneurial journey, it just “felt” like the perfect choice. I couldn’t explain it. I was pulled towards it. Granted, I had no idea HOW I was going to do it (practical concerns), but I knew I had to follow my intuition.

Thinking in this way is not always easy, especially for adults. We have responsibilities, families, bills, and lots of other reasons why we should really choose the practical approach. But if we ignore the heart, it’s only a matter of time before we start to feel unhappy, and wonder “what if?”

I encourage you today to really listen for your heart song. What is it saying? What shifts do you want to make?

As always, if you want some personal support in tuning into your heart song, AND approach it from a practical perspective, I’m here. I invite you to apply for a complimentary clarity call with me and let’s see how we can connect the head and the heart to hit your targets!

Kathryn

“People don’t notice whether it’s winter or summer when they’re happy.” –  Anton Checkov

It’s true isn’t it? When we are doing what we love and feel like we’re making a big difference, we feel great, no matter the season.

Still though…I love this time of year!  Vacations, barbeques, trips to the beach and lots of time spent with family and friends.

And while we’re having all that fun…does being in “vacation mode” reveal any new insights?

Do you become more aware there is a stark contrast between your work life and personal life?  Do you gain new perspective that a change is needed in relationships? Do you find yourself not wanting to return to work? Or at work, do you wish you were somewhere else?  Or find that there are days that resistance shows up so strongly that you just don’t feel like doing much work at all?

Can you relate?

Whether it came in the summer or not, I used to fight this resistance, or ignore it, and just push harder and harder against the resistance and try to power through. I accomplished a lot this way.

Over the years though, pushing like this has consequences, and can prevent us from finding the place where our work and personal lives are in alignment and we are passionately and purposefully having the impact we are meant to have.

I’ve learned that resistance is simply part of the creative process whether we’re an artist, a writer, an entrepreneur, or a leader in an organization. It’s normal. It’s human, and fighting it doesn’t help.

In fact, I’ve learned that fighting the resistance will actually make it worse! Have you ever heard the quote: “What we resist…persists?”

So this summer, when you have those days where you just “don’t feel like it,” or when you feel completely stuck, here are 3 quick tips to take your resistance and LEVERAGE it to create deeper understanding and then a strategy to actually address what is in your way:

1. Breathe, and acknowledge that the resistance is normal. Don’t pretend it isn’t there. Notice what you are feeling.  And, does it feel familiar – are there other times in your past when you’ve felt this same feeling? [hint:  YES] Any observations?
2. Remind yourself that the resistance/avoidance/frustration may be there under the belief that it will protect you. It’s your brain trying to keep you from taking an action (that in the past may have “hurt” you in some way.  Failing, being criticized, being told what to do by someone who didn’t value you, etc.).  Write your observations down.
3. Take 5-10 minutes and write about your why. In my prior messages and on Linked In, I’ve written several articles about the importance of being connected to your why and also what you really want – in terms of IMPACT. Spending a few minutes writing about these things will help re-energize you to take charge of your situation, knowing that your work matters.  Or it will help you make a change so that you can use your time for your true purpose!  As I work with my leadership coaching clients 1:1, all forms of resistance show up… and that’s when a breakthrough can occur!  If you’d like to dig a little deeper with me, you can schedule a complimentary clarity call with me by clicking here.

These calls are a great way to shine a light on what actions would make the biggest impact for you, and to see if and how I might be able to support you along the way.

Happy Summer!

Kathryn