• Skip to content
  • Skip to footer

Michele Woodward

Powerful Coaching. Powerful Results.

  • Home
  • Coaching
    • Individuals
    • Executive Services
    • Groups
  • Resources
  • Books
  • Blog
  • About
    • Media Mentions
    • Speaking
    • Testimonials
  • Contact

WiseWork

WiseWork: Working Smart With Heart

January 6, 2013 By Michele Woodward Leave a Comment

So, it looks like it’s going to be a big year for you and me.

This year, we’re going to have A Theme. A focus. Something to guide us through.

I’ve decided on “WiseWork”, because – let’s be honest – where do you spend the vast majority of your waking hours every day? Where’s most of your energy? Your focus?

Even if you don’t have a job-job, you’re doing something with your day, aren’t you? You’re looking for your next thing, you’re a full-time parent, you’re a retiree.

Doesn’t matter what you do all day – what matters is how you do it.

You’ve got a choice, so why not do it smart? Wisely. Thoughtfully. With heart.

Because your day can be more about just showing up. It can be about making a difference, and having the opportunity to be you at your absolute best. Having the opening to deliver results that are important and satisfying to you – delivered from a place of honesty and generosity, collaboration and connection.

You at your best, doing what you do well.

That’s what WiseWork is all about.

All year, I’ll be blogging on ideas, approaches, tips, tactics and resources to help you work smart with heart. I’m also starting an internet radio show – WiseWork – where I’ll interview authors, experts and regular folks who have something to share. I’m happy that Harvard Business School Publishing is making some of their writers available to me as guests from time to time throughout the year. The first show is Tuesday, January 15th at 2pm ET – plan on joining me then by logging in to BlogTalkRadio.

In related news, I’m also bringing on two fantastic coaches who will be working with me to handle the clients on my wait list, expand the concepts and to offer WiseWork programs within organizations. I’ve trained both of these highly-skilled, highly compassionate coaches, and I know you are going to love what they bring to the table. I’ve also partnered with an outstanding executive recruiter who will coach and write resumes and update LinkedIn profiles for our clients  – making sure the end result is exactly what recruiters want to see.

That’s smart.

More on these new team members soon, but trust me – they are at their absolute best when they’re coaching. For them, it’s their WiseWork.

One other thing, I’m also going to be offering free teleclasses throughout the year which you can listen to live, or via recording.

All designed to help you move from here ——————–> to there.

So your work can have the resonance, meaning and power that you want it to have.

So you can get ahead, sure – if that’s what you want. Get promoted, get a raise, absolutely – without having to sell your soul or compromise your integrity to get there.

Sure, start your own business – and have it reflect what it is you’re here to do in the world.

Speak in front of audiences, balance your life, get what you want.

Maybe you’ll even finally figure out what it is you want. And, together, we’ll figure out how you can finally make it happen.

It’s all a part of the WiseWork year you and I are about to share.

Bring it on, baby. I am so ready.

Filed Under: Career Coaching, Clarity, Happier Living, Uncategorized, WiseWork Tagged With: career, career strategy, heart, meaning and purpose, smart

Who Wins?

August 7, 2011 By Michele Woodward Leave a Comment

There is no winning formula.

Regardless of what anyone tells you, success is not one-size-fits-all.

What propels one elite athlete to excellence may not propel you to the same level of performance.

Someone else’s business plan cannot be grafted onto your business idea with the same result.

Your brother’s job search is not your job search.

You are you.

They are them.

So, beware people who want to sell you their “secrets”.  Who offer you a success template.  Who say being successful is fast, easy, and assured – but only if you follow their plan.

You are you.

They are them.

It’s so natural, so human, so very optimistic to wish and hope and pray for an easy solution.  And, we think/hope/pray –  if it worked for someone else, then maybe it will work for me.

We think: Maybe success will finally be easy.

Because we’d all really like easy.

Most of us would like what that old song promised: “That ain’t workin’, that’s the way you do it, Money for nothin’ and your chicks for free…”

But life doesn’t work like that.

The best winning solution is the one relevant to who you are and where you want to go. The best solution is the one you can visualize for yourself, and create to your own specifications.

The best solution really works for you.

So why not ask the person who’s selling you their wholesale, turn-key, nearly guaranteed thingy,  “Don’t I deserve a customized solution for this price?”

Because you do. If you want to be truly successful.

Unfortunately, the seller’s personal success plan is based on wholesaling solutions to you and hundreds or thousands of hopeful types just like you.  Customized takes too much time, is too difficult, is too specific, is too long-term. Customized requires a relationship, for heaven’s sake.  It’s hard to be a jet-setting, Internet famous, location independent superstar when you have to bother with relationships with clients!

The real problem for “secret” sellers is this:  Customized can’t be re-sold in the same way turn-key solutions can be sold – over and over and over again.

[Which, by the way, is the “secret of success” many folks will teach you. Just saved you $15,000.]

There’s not the same kind of money in telling you that success may take a little thoughtful customization. Telling you success may take some time.  It may take some failure, and learning. May need revision.  May be found in something completely different than you expected. May not come at all.  Hard to sell that in a weekend workshop, or a high-priced mastermind group, huh?

When you were a kid, did you ever read Aesop’s fables?  I did. And there’s one I keep coming back to – The Tortoise and The Hare.

Let me ask you, in that old fable, who ultimately won the big race? Was it the Hare, who ran so fast that he could rest during the race, who impressed the girl bunnies, who had so many tricks up his sleeve, who was so flashy?  Or, was it the Tortoise, who kept on plugging away, kept going step by step, kept to an approach consistent with his turtle nature?

Of course, it was the Tortoise. But it’s easier to sell the flash of the Hare than the steady plodding of the Tortoise.

That is, if you’re selling flash and tricks.

Friends, there’s just one secret to success: be yourself.

Consistently.  Patiently.  Kindly.  Generously. True to your own nature.

That’s it. That’s all. That’s the starting point.

You deserve a customized solution. Demand it.  And you’ll win your race.

 

Filed Under: Authenticity, Blog, Career Coaching, Getting Unstuck, Happier Living, WiseWork Tagged With: generosity, gurus, mastermind, salesmanship, solutions, success, tortoise and hare, winning

Mentoring Mojo

August 9, 2009 By Michele Woodward Leave a Comment

 

annewexler

 

When you’ve been mentored — when you’ve been really taught — by someone who is deeply invested in your success and well-being, your life is multifold in blessings.

One who mentors is someone who gives with no expectation of payback.  In my experience, a mentor is large of heart and measured of ego.   She’s kind, she’s funny, she’s a career fairy godmother.

And, today I have to write that she’s gone.

Because the mentor who profoundly affected me and my life, Anne Wexler, passed away on Friday.  And in the days since, I’ve been reflecting on the gifts I received from her.

Anne was a remarkable woman.  You can read more about her in The New York Times or The Washington Post. Yep, she was the kind of woman major newspapers cover. “She is easily the most influential female lobbyist in a world still dominated by men,” magazines said about her.  Yet, she was also the kind of woman who never forgot that she had been an at-home mom who had completely reinvented her career in midlife.

I worked for Anne for five years.  After my first maternity leave, I returned to the office to find that all of my peers had been promoted in my absence.  I went into Anne’s office and said something like, “I see there have been some changes while I was out.  Can I get my title changed, too?”  Anne’s eyes twinkled, “And what title would you like?”  I thought for a beat, “Queen?”  Anne smiled, probably templed her fingers, and said, “That, my dear, is taken.  What do you think of Senior Vice President?”   I took it.

She went on. “Now, while you were gone there was no one here to take care of me.  So, I want you to sit right there,” she pointed to an office outside her door, “and help me.”  I began attending all of her meetings, and we’d discuss strategy, planning, personality. We construct, we’d revise, we’d hash things out.

I sat at the feet of the master.  I soaked it up like a sponge.

And I learned so much about integrity — Anne’s client roster was solid gold with companies like AT&T, IBM, The Motion Picture Association, Comcast, and she never dumped a client for its better paying competitor, despite the lures of bigger money.   Anne always kept her word, or she wouldn’t give it in the first place.

I learned about how to take care of people — she was so loyal to people who’d worked for her, and that loyalty was returned.  During her recent campaign, Hillary Clinton praised Anne recalling how Anne gave Bill and Hillary their first jobs in politics.  But it wasn’t just the famous people.  Anne recognized talent where she found it, and had a prodigious memory.  Which is why she could build such broad-based coalitions in support of her clients — she knew everyone, peon to President, and treated each person with respect.

But most of all, I learned how to be a strong, confident woman who uses her voice even when she’s the only woman in the room.  Who uses her voice even in a room full of other women.

From Anne I learned more about how to be me.

Recently I was teaching a class for coaches on setting prices and valuing your service.  I told an Anne Wexler anecdote, which I’ll share here.  Anne once said to me, “Michele, if I can solve a billion dollar problem with one phone call, should I charge for the fifteen minutes of my time, or should I charge based on the value of the solution?”  Well, when you put it that way…

My friend Kathy Korman Frey, founder of The Hot Mommas Project, is offering an upcoming Mentoring Workshop and says that “Mentoring and role models are the number one success factor for women.”

True.  And I can trace my own success to having been “taken under the wing” of Anne Wexler. When I began my coaching business, I had lunch with Anne who asked me to explain coaching.  After listening intently she said, “I think  I’m a coach!” and I smiled and nodded.  Because she was.  Through and through.  Another example of her leading the way for me.

And, given the gift I received, it’s imperative for me to pass it on.  That’s why I mentor.  Anne did.  I will.  Hope you will, too.

One hard task I’ll have today is removing Anne’s name from my newsletter list.  See, she read these columns every week.  She’d write to tell me what she liked, and what she thought.  If you look in the forward to my book Lose Weight, Find Love, Declutter and Save Money, you’ll see I mentioned Anne.  I referred to her there as “wise and kind” — small yet apt and powerful words.  When I gave her a copy of the book, this woman who was on a first name basis with Presidents, Senators, Congressmen, and Cabinet secretaries beamed.

And so did I.

Yes, it’s hard to imagine a world without Anne Wexler.  But in many ways, I don’t really have to.  Because the lessons she taught me, her mentoring mojo, endure.  I am who I am in large part because she was who she was.

Rest in peace, dear friend.

Filed Under: Blog, Clarity, Happier Living, Managing Change, WiseWork Tagged With: Anne Wexler, Bill Clinton, careers, executive coach, Hillary Clinton, mentor, mentoring, work

On My Mind

June 20, 2009 By Michele Woodward Leave a Comment

Watermelon

 

Just some random thoughts…

A loaf of bread, a jug of wine and thou still sounds pretty good to me.

A lot of stuff we spend time on just isn’t that important. Think reality TV, for instance.

Wonder what the world would look like if every boss was a trained coach.

You know you have done an OK job parenting when see your children spontaneously do a kindness for a stranger.

If you’re over 35, stop saying “I’m trying to figure out what I want to do when I grow up.” You’re doing it already. And if you don’t like what you’re doing, shut up and do something different.

It’s possible to be tidy without being clean, and clean without being tidy.

You are the best expert on what makes you tick. Have the courage to be your own guru.

Happiness is not the absence of pain. Nor is it a reward for doing things right. You were born happy, and can return to happiness whenever you want by simply entering the slipstream of being.

My best summer memory has its own soundtrack.

Regardless of what you think, you are probably more than good enough.

Successful business strategy: Strive to serve repeat customers, rather than focus on one-hit wonders.

I am old enough to call anyone “darling” and “sugar” and get away with it.

Strangers are just people I haven’t Twittered yet.

Looking back on my life, my single biggest regret may be that I didn’t think up “Lady GaGa” first.

Democracy will always topple tyrants.

Remember when fashion was all big hair, big shoulder pads and big earrings? Someday, we’ll look back at 2009 fashions and hoot with laughter, saying, “What was I thinking?”

The world is full of good people whose basic instinct is to help another person in need. I think you are one.

It is possible to re-wire your brain by examining your thoughts and changing them.

I have a great life. I’d say I’m lucky, but really it’s more like I’m just letting the good stuff happen by staying out of my own way.

How about that?

Filed Under: Authenticity, Blog, Getting Unstuck, Happier Living, Managing Change, Random Thoughts, WiseWork Tagged With: happiness, inspiration, life coach, Michele Woodward, quotes, random thoughts

Make Mine A Whopper

December 20, 2008 By Michele Woodward Leave a Comment

bigstock-Fast-Food-Burgher-Lg-1305935

Since my kids were little, we’d back them up against the wall, ask them to stand straight and tall, and make a little line to mark their height. Today, they can stand at the same wall and see physical evidence of how much they’ve grown.

It’s much harder for us adults to see evidence of how much we’ve grown. But I got the chance this week.

Because this week I learned I have cancer.

It’s thyroid cancer, and I’m having surgery later this week to remove the gland. One dose of radiation later, and, as my surgeon chirpily said, “you’ll be cured of cancer by December 30th.”

The C-word is a toughie for so many of us. Cancer’s got a ton of “dirty pain” associated with it. Ever heard the phrase “dirty pain”? Dr. Steven Hayes, a noted psychologist, coined the term in his development of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, as a counterpoint to “clean pain”.

Clean pain is the pain that naturally flows from an action or situation. You stub your toe, it hurts. You say, “Ouch.” That’s clean pain. Dirty pain is the story you tell about what happened. Like, “Geez, I am always so clumsy! What a jerk! I can’t believe I stubbed my toe! What an idiot!”

So here’s how I know I’ve changed. There was a time when a cancer diagnosis would have prompted me to take to my bed. I would have been overwhelmed, obsessive, swamped, anxious, fearful, and cranky. I wouldn’t have been able to listen to my doctors for the whirring sound of panic in my ears. I would have eaten a gallon of chocolate fudge brownie daily to soothe my mind, or treated myself to something “nice” (and stupidly expensive) at the mall.

I would probably watch “Beaches” eight times. In a row. Kleenex stock prices would soar.

I would have told myself really uplifting things like, “you brought this on by doing something wrong”, “of course you’re a loser, you got cancer”, “see, nothing good ever happens to you,” and, the whopper, “you are going to die and leave your children motherless and no one will even care.”

Plenty of stories. Stories that serve only one purpose — to extend the dirty pain, promote suffering, and keep us one-down, a victim to circumstance.

But how I took this cancer diagnosis surprised me. The diagnosis came with absolutely no story. Well, just a little story. And here it is:

I am a woman who found a lump. I had my doctor look at it. Tests were run. It’s cancer. It’s coming out.

Sure, there may be some pain after the surgery and I’ll let that be whatever it is. Right now, I’m fine. And so, I’m going to be fine until something hurts and then I’ll say “Ouch”. What’s the point of zooming ahead and feeling next week’s pain today? That will only give me two weeks of pain when I really only have to — maybe — do one.

OK, I’ll admit it, I’m slightly amazed at my own response. But it makes sense. After all the years of work and study and practice, I have arrived at a place where I can be clear and have pretty clean pain around this whole situation. It’s a rather welcome validation of the hard changes I knew I needed to make in my life. I have actually done what I set out to do. Ain’t that something?

Yep, I look at my own personal growth chart and like what I see — I’m standing tall, back up to the wall, clear and aware of exactly how much I’ve grown. Who knew having cancer could feel so good?

Filed Under: Authenticity, Blog, Clarity, Getting Unstuck, Happier Living, Managing Change, WiseWork Tagged With: ACT, cancer, clean pain, dirty pain, life coach, Steven Hayes, thyroid

Gratitudinous

March 14, 2008 By Michele Woodward Leave a Comment

 

I am grateful for:

Teenagers who aren’t too cool to giggle with their mom.

Friends who throw parties. And let me tour their upstairs.

Crocuses.

The promise inspired by synthetic Easter basket grass.

Smart people who become business partners.

Resiliency.

England Dan and John Ford Coley. And ITunes.

Shoes that fit and look cute.

Love.

Great salads.

The ability to take chances.

Writers of books that make me think.

Friends who move to Costa Rica to start a new life.

Email.

Being able to express myself.

Kissing a baby’s feet.

Creating.

The feet in sand, fingers in seawater kind of vacation.

Which I will be doing this week. So, enjoy yourselves in my absence. And remember: it’s hard to be stressed when you’re grateful. List the things you’re grateful for… and it will be just like you’re on vacation, too.

Filed Under: Authenticity, Blog, Clarity, Happier Living, WiseWork Tagged With: easter, gratitude, joy, life coach, love, stress, vacation

When Life Meets The Fairy Tale

December 23, 2007 By Michele Woodward Leave a Comment

bigstock-family-christmas-x-mas-wint-53829334

At this time of the year there are so many expectations. It’s as if we’ve bought into a collective fairy tale, and it goes something like this:

It’s Christmas morning. A large, happy, healthy, attractive, educated, polite, loving family gathers in tasteful bathrobes and slippers under a tastefully decorated tree in a tastefully decorated, expansive home. Beautiful little children are appropriately excited, and the well-behaved, well-groomed dog lazes nearby. A fire crackles in the hearth.

Let’s put you in the scene, now. Your handsome, loving spouse sits with you on the couch, your head on his shoulder, his arm around you. He pulls out the most beautifully wrapped box. You open it, eyes wide. It’s perfect. You kiss passionately. Your attractive and healthy parents link arms and smile in appreciation for such a wonderful son-in-law. His equally attractive and healthy parents beam smiles in their heroic son’s direction.

And everyone lives happily ever after, having had The Perfect Christmas.

Nice story, huh? But real life often fails to match up to this fairy tale, and we feel somehow cheated, disappointed, less than, or maybe even mad.

Because real life can be messy.

Maybe this is the first Christmas you’ve had to plan, organize and shop for — because your wife will be in Baghdad this year.

Maybe this year you won’t get a gift from your spouse — because his Alzheimer’s has robbed him of the ability to think of you as anything but that nice woman who visits him every day.

Maybe this year you’ll be alone on Christmas morning, because it’s your ex-spouse’s turn to have the kids.

Maybe there won’t be a perfect present under the tree because there’s not enough money for the tree, let alone gifts.

Maybe you’ll be missing your mother, who passed away in the spring. Maybe you’re, once again, the only single person in the room on Christmas morning. Maybe you’re in the middle of chemotherapy this Christmas.

There are plenty of ways your life is different from the fairy tale, huh? No wonder so many of us are snappish, moody and melancholy.

Because our lives don’t match the fairy tale.

And that, my friends, is OK.

Because if your wife is in Baghdad this Christmas, you can still give your kids the best Christmas you know how to. And your spouse with Alzheimer’s? His gentle wonder that such a nice lady is there with him is a precious gift. And when your kids spend Christmas morning with your ex-spouse, you are telling your kids that their own relationship with their dad is important — can you be more loving than that?

In all of our real lives, there are great challenges — and great gifts. When you feel angry or depressed or unhappy that your real life doesn’t measure up to the manufactured, unreal fairy tale — take heart. Just accept your own, unique life — messy, loud, fractured, silly, disorganized, untasteful. Because it’s all yours. And it’s perfect, just the way it is.

Honestly, would you have it any other way?

So, love it because it’s yours. Love it because it’s very real. Love it because love is what Christmas is all about.

Filed Under: Authenticity, Blog, Clarity, Getting Unstuck, Managing Change, WiseWork Tagged With: Christmas, difficult people, divorce, family, gifts, life coach, love, soldiers

  • « Previous Page
  • Page 1
  • …
  • Page 9
  • Page 10
  • Page 11

Footer

Subscribe

Recent Posts

  • I Was Just Going To Ask You The Same Question
  • Who’d Like A Little Homework?
  • Maybe You’re An Anxious Striver
  • When Office Politics Get Out Of Hand
  • Quit Your Job

Looking For Something?

Contact

Phone: 703/598-3100
Email: michele@michelewoodward.com
FB: /michele.woodward
LI: /in/michelewoodward
 

  • Download the 2019 Personal Planning Tool

Copyright © 2019 Michele Woodward Consulting · All Rights Reserved.