Ever wondered how to do more with less? It's not about magic or miracles. It's about strategic leadership and understanding your team's strengths and weaknesses. In this week's episode: - Discover why middle managers are the unsung heroes of the workplace. - Learn how to do more with less without sacrificing quality. - Effectively do more with less with your team and when making your case to your boss. "Middle managers are the glue that is holding the entire organization together." - Elissa...

Leadership month continues! As a middle manager, it's crucial that you influence down through your team and up to your manager and leadership above you. This is important because without influence you feel powerless and invisible, ultimately limiting your impact and career accomplishments. Fortunately, it doesn't take a magic formula to create influence. It only requires intention and these three principles :: Inspire enthusiasmCreate a sense of purposeProvide recognition You inspire...

Ever wondered why some leaders seem to have a magic touch? They effortlessly guide their teams to success while others struggle. The secret isn't some mystical leadership gene; it's communication. In this week's episode: - Discover the importance of communication in leadership - Learn 3 practical tips to enhance your communication skills - Uncover real-life examples of communication in action Communication is the lifeblood of leadership. It's not just about giving orders; it's about...

Ever felt like you're juggling the demands of your team and the expectations of your higher-ups without a manual? You're not alone. Middle management can be a maze, but with the right strategies, you can navigate it like a pro—boosting performance and aligning with company goals. Discover the leadership techniques that can elevate your career and energize your team. In this episode: - Master the art of performance alignment with your team. - Learn strategic alignment secrets for impressing...

Do you know what your leadership style is? You have one whether you have a leader/manager role or not. In this week's podcast, I'm kicking off a month of leadership focused episodes. I share four cornerstone behavioral strengths and the implications each of those (depending on which one is dominant for you) has on your natural leadership style. This is an episode you're going to want to go back to over and over as you put the pieces together of your natural way of leading and how you can...

The experience of working in a harsh or toxic environment is all too common. It is, however, possible to overcome and even thrive in a workplace such as this. In this episode, Elissa talks about how to produce your best work in the midst of negativity and toxicity. It's important that you be committed from a healthy place, or you will be overwhelmed and burned out with people pleasing. Here, Elissa gives you three ways that you can stay focused and do your best work while maintaining...

Sometimes loving your work life means getting out of where you are and into someplace else. If that's you and you're ready to make your move, remember that in every situation, every time you are interviewing you are evaluating THEM as much as they are evaluating YOU. In this episode, Elissa gives you some questions you can ask -- and talks you through the reason behind each question -- that will uncover the values, culture, team dynamic, and leadership style of the organization you're...

Science says that we have something like 60,000-80,000 thoughts each day, and sadly the vast majority of them are negative. In this week's episode, Elissa invites you to join her in turning the tables on that. The number one key to success in life is to master your own state. If you can master your state, there's nothing you can't do. - Tony RobbinsYou can master your state. You can master your attitude. Your approach. Your emotions. Elissa walks through 5 primary primal emotions and what...

When you get someone to adopt your idea, you just sold them something. This is what selling is. It's not pushy, creepy, or uncomfortable. It's the ability to transfer enthusiasm and belief, motivating someone to take action. In this episode, Elissa shares the key to motivation and tips to make it happen -- whether it be your team, executive leadership, in a job interview, or even yourself. Here it is: make it for THEM, not for you. When you do this, you win. You get the job offer. You...

Frustration. Energy drain. Disillusionment. These are signs that you've lost a sense of purpose and you're overly focused on the practical in your career, and the effects can be devastating. So, how do you know what purpose is? How do you get a sense of that with regards to the work that you're doing? In this episode, Elissa guides you through three elements: >>>Contribution >>>Quality >>>Realized potential Practical vs. purposeful is about not forgetting who you...

The key to ensuring you don't repeat mistakes and repeat successes is to evaluate. In some industries, it's called a post-mortem. It's a way to bring people together and figure out how to do more of what you want and less of what you don't. A simple framework for post-mortems is asking yourself three simple questions: What worked? What didn't work? What would we do differently? These three Ws are especially powerful when you apply them to yourself and your career. Elissa likes to include...

What makes you tick? Why is it so important to identify your strengths? When you have a sense of your strengths, you get a sense of possibility. You start looking at opportunities and evaluating if those fit YOU, instead of you trying to fit into the mold of a job. A strength doesn't necessarily have anything to do with a record of success or ability, it goes far deeper than that. In this episode, Elissa walks you through Marcus Buckingham's acronym for identifying your strengths from his...

What would it look like if you talked to yourself like someone you love? Last week we talked about lies and how when we lie to ourselves, it becomes so easy to break the promises that we've made to ourselves. In this episode we're going to dig deeper into how to identify the lies and replace them with truths: --Acknowledge the negative feelings. Allow yourself to be real and vulnerable with yourself. --Question whether a thought is actually true or a lie you're telling yourself. --Write a...

Did you know that the lies we tell ourselves can be the biggest roadblock to our success? It's a hard pill to swallow, but the truth can set you free. When you tell yourself lies like "I'm too old," "I'm not good enough," or "I've tried everything," you’ll break promises you made to yourself, stay stuck, and prevent yourself from reaching your full potential. "You define you. Age is a circumstance. Age does not define you." – Elissa ShuckIn this week’s episode: - Discover the common lies we...

When you're in business (as most of us are) forecasting is an activity almost every organization participates in during Q4. It's about data, historical trends, competitive intelligence and market analysis. Good business forecasts determine what's realistically possible. But if you're not careful, this business process can become the same framework you use to plan your future. The result will be limiting. Your future is not based on :: past success or failureyour real or perceived...

Our lives are run by paradigms. They were planted into our subconscious early and control our experience and results throughout our life. Your paradigms are the multitude of fixed concepts controlling your habits and behaviors. Some are good, some not so good; like the messages about your value, capabilities, capacity and self image that are attached to the report cards you got throughout your education. Listen to this episode as Elissa dives into how paradigms are created and how you can...

What if you didn't have to follow your bliss? Or do what you love so you never have to work a day in your life? I'm not a fan of those statements because they're a little fluffy for me but mostly because I believe doing hard things like overcoming obstacles and feeling the discomfort and doing it anyway is where the magic is. Instead of avoiding the messy, uncomfortable stuff in your work life because you think it means something is wrong, embrace it. That's how you tap into the abundance...

Just before I sat down for this episode, I was on the phone with a client who had just received a job offer. It was such a celebration. She overcame career disruption! And not only that, she still has interviews in her pipeline which she fully intends to see though. Who knows? She might get a better offer. While we were talking, I suddenly remembered the Billy Squire song, and said to her "Everybody wants you!" What a power sentence! Whether your outward circumstances match or not, thinking...

We're all facing some kind of challenge. landing a new joba difficult talk with your bossjob performance reviews on your teamideas, aspirations and goals that feel far off You hear lots of advice to grit, hustle, and grind your way through. But what if it was much easer than that? As easy as feeling good. Many of us have been taught to avoid our feelings. Even if we haven't been taught to avoid them, we not taught how to manage them and certainly not trained on how to leverage our feelings...

What do we have in common with the rest of nature as carbon-based life forms and what does that mean for your career? In this week's episode, Elissa shares some intriguing facts about the nature of carbon and the implications it has for how you can reframe your approach to work life. What if the ability to overcome adversity and the impossibility to get it wrong was already baked in? What if you automatically have the right stuff? Having the right stuff means complexity, versatility,...

When we hear the word "stubborn" we often think of the definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over, expecting a different result. But there is a good kind of stubborn. It's the tenacity, dedication, and commitment that comes from deep inside you. This week, Elissa talks about that good stubbornness, and compares healthy vs. unhealthy stubbornness. Be stubborn enough to believe that what you want is possible, and stubborn enough to invest in yourself. Sometimes that stubborn...

Whether you realize it or not, you are in a value exchange with your job. How you feel at work is a direct reflection of that exchange. Feeling not-so-hot? That's a good sign that the value exchange is not equitable. In this episode, Elissa walks you through the following steps to take if you're not feeling great about your job: >>> list what you are receiving/want to receive in exchange for what you're providing in your job >>> write out what each thing on the list means...

It's that moment when you are sitting at the computer and you've got the document open and the cursor is blinking -- you are about to do something new. Last week's episode was about how to stay motivated. Well, consider this week the prequel as Elissa dives deeper into the process and the way we can face that blank page. It's all about answering the question, "Who am I to do this?" with 3 better questions: 1) What am I good at? 2) Why should I try? 3) Who am I NOT do to this? Our brains are...

Have you ever wanted to do something and at first, you're really excited about it -- but then you just start losing momentum, you're not really motivated anymore, and the desire just sort of dissipates? It is possible to not only stay motivated, but to leverage the way your brain works so that you're excited to keep going, the ideas and creativity keep flowing with ease, and you're having fun doing it. In this episode Elissa shows you the best way to achieve sustained motivation: from...

We have a relationship, so to speak, with our jobs. We want it to be fulfilling and joyful. We want to have impact and make contributions. But we also want something in return. We want to feel heard and have opportunities. We want to grow. We want our jobs to participate in the health of this "relationship". In this episode, Elissa shares what you can do when you find yourself disagreeing with a policy or direction, or some cultural element happening at your workplace. There are four...