Let’s talk about 2021.

I want you to have the best year yet in 2021. I want it to be the year that you change things and make that big step up in progress that you’ve been dreaming of.

I want you to know that everything is possible in 2021. Especially after a year like this year.

But how do you do that? How do you ensure that a year can and will go well?

Well if 2020 has taught us anything, its that the best-laid plans can go sideways for all of us. Life really does throw a lot of curveballs from time-to-time.

But what I do know, from personal experience and from the experience of coaching some simply inspirational women in tech, is that good planning isn’t about having a single plan that you stick to 100% and then feel let down by life when the world throws us a year like 2020. No great planning is about knowing what we want and the options for getting there.

If you are wondering how on Earth this works, and why myself and many of my clients have been having great years despite COVID, then join me in the first of a two-part planning special as we set you up for 2021 success.

Ready to make 2021 the year you soar, the year your career and ambitions really take off?

Let’s go to the show!

We are well and truly into the December slowdown.

But what do you do in a slow period?

Do you put your feet up, pause and breath a deep sigh of relief?

Do you just keep going because you don’t know what else to do?

Or something else entirely?

Whether December is a time when you slow-down, or if this comes at another time of the year for you, what you do in these calmer periods is the foundation to your success in the medium and long term. And yet so many people miss out on this opportunity.

Because success isn’t built on maintaining the hustle and high productivity. Success is built on leveraging slower times to thrive in busier times.

But success does require that you know exactly how you are using that time, and being as strategic as possible with it, whether for you personally or your organization.

So let’s talk slow-down strategy, and how to ensure you operate at your best all year round by enjoying times such as these.

When was the last time you were told you weren’t going to get that next opportunity or promotion because you didn’t have the right Executive Presence, the gravitas or the networking capabilities?

Maybe you’ve been told to work on your office politics?

Or maybe you’ve been told you need to get experience of direct reports, but that’s exactly why you want the role you are asking for.

Maybe in an interview you’ve been told you don’t have the right experience, even though the experience they are asking for is in your resume, just from two jobs ago.

What’s going on? Why aren’t these people seeing you as the superstar candidate you know are? (And side-note: while doing that, your impostor syndrome is flaring up sky-high, alongside a whole load of anger and annoyance!)

Why are they holding you back?

Let’s dig into the 6 things you can do to re-position yourself to overcome these positioning obstacles without having to go out and get another job you don’t really want, or spend a year getting a certificate that probably won’t fix the problem.

Are you sitting on a decision? Stuck in a loop of indecision?

Perhaps you are thinking of investing in yourself, getting help in your career.

Maybe you know you need to go for a new role. Deep down you know you should. But you aren’t taking action.

Maybe there is some exciting training coming your way, but you just aren’t pulling go.

But you also aren’t letting go of the decision and saying no.

It sounds like you are stuck in the indecision cycle. And it’s sitting there inside you.

And it applies to our work decisions too. Although we may find it easier to make decisions when it is about a product, or team action, instead of about us, from time-to-time you still find yourself in a decision-making loop.

Well, for what it’s worth, this is 100% normal. But also completely stifling.
When we sit in this space it is stifling, and it fills us up with stress and anxiety.

So today I’m calling you out, my love, on your indecision. I’m here to provide that helping hand to help you get off the decision fence, and feel GOOD about whichever side you land on.

Back in October, I hit a wall.
A pandemic wall.

For the first time since March, I cried because the pandemic was impacting me personally.

That might seem odd – I mean haven’t we all had a good cry from time to time between the start of the pandemic and now?

Well for me, I’d started the pandemic with the intention for optimism and a truckload of self-care. So although I’ve cried – because hey I love a good cry (zero judgment if you do too!), up until October it had not been about me. It had been about other people hurting, the lives lost, the fact that people had to put their lives on the line to take care of us. I cried that people had to put their lives at risk to get heard because of the injustice that has meant we are finally listening as a species to the BLM movement – that they had to demonstrate in a pandemic to make the world wake up to something truly horrific.

But I hadn’t cried about me. Until October.

And then I hit the 6-month wall.

So today I’m taking the lid off how we are all feeling about the pandemic as we are now more than 7 months into something that is here with us for a good long time to come. I’m sharing with you what you need to be doing for yourself, and for your team as a leader. And I’m sharing a whole lot of love in your direction too.

So if you are hitting a pandemic wall this one’s for you, my love. Because yes, you may well be a leader in tech. But you are also a human experiencing a crisis. And remember: you are a human, even at work!