#2 | Tips On Leading During Hard Times

Do you ever text a friend the day before you meet up just to say, “Thank God I’m going to see you tomorrow because I have A LOT going on!”?  That’s how I felt sending out my email Tuesday night.  This community gave me so much wisdom last Wednesday and I was really looking forward to our chat this Wednesday after such a hard weekend.  If you didn’t get an email from me Tuesday night here’s the link to my email list to make sure you don’t miss another one.

Last week we talked about business book recommendations.  Holy cow did you guys deliver! I was overwhelmed with the amount of suggestions I received.  I made a list on my last blog post that you can look at! Each link will lead you to a summary.  I haven’t even made it through every summary because of how LONG the list is but I’m so excited to have so many to choose from.  Bookmark that Episode 1 page for your next book store or library visit!

Our coffee conversation today was just what I needed.  There is so much going on in the world right now and I’ve been feeling overwhelmed.  The reason I started this Coffee With Kim Live every Wednesday was to create consistency and create community during these tough times and I’m so glad I did.  We all needed to come together to talk and share over a cup of warm coffee or tea.

I’ve been waking up each morning lately thinking, “How do I lead during this time?” and I keep going back to two major things CONSISTENCY and PRODUCTIVITY.  For consistency, I’m doing simple things like waking up and going to bed at the same time and making a goal to move my body each day.

How do we stay productive with all the distractions?  I read a good article on Fortune.com talking about distractions while working from home.  We’re getting pulled in a million directions lately. I’m on week 12 of working from home and I’m still trying to figure it out! I asked what you’ve found that’s helped and I received great recommendations on how to stay productive and consistent.  Whitney mentioned Monday.com as a way she’s been staying organized and productive. Jesse uses calming background music and he shared his playlist with us!  Jennifer uses Full Focus Planner as a way to track her goals. I can’t wait to try all of these suggestions!

SO much relates back to how to mix work and life.

The best example of that I’ve seen recently (and gave me a huge smile!) was the NASA and SpaceX Launch. Did you watch it?!  I loved seeing the dinosaur strapped in next to the astronauts. It was chosen by the astronauts sons because they love dinosaurs and I thought, “Yes even the astronauts are making this whole work and personal integration thing work!” Here’s the link if you missed the dino!

Also, notice how I said personal integration and not work/life balance.  Because what even is balance?! You can not be all things to all people!  You can be a great daughter one day and a great boss the other but you can’t always be all things to all people.  It’s just not possible.  I got on my soap box about this one on our live today.

The last thing we talked about today was saying no.  We all need to say no at times.  No is a complete sentence. No is necessary when we don’t have the bandwidth.  I heard a great quote this week, “If it’s not a full body yes it’s a no” and it’s helped me so much.  I listened to this Tim Ferris podcast with Elizabeth Gilbert who wrote Eat Pray Love and she talks about how to say “no” without saying “but”.  Don’t say “I’d love to but…” because often times people will find a solution for your “but” and then you’re stuck doing something that you wanted to say no to! Struggling with “no” is because we’re NICE not because we’re WEAK. We want to be helpers.  Matt mentioned the book Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by George McKeown as a resource for saying no and I’m adding that to my ever growing book list!

I loved our talk today friends and I can’t wait to see you next week!  This world can feel heavy and we can often feel divided so THANK YOU for showing up to talk to me this week, thank you for the book recommendations and the conversation and the community.  Please meet me for coffee next week? You can put it in your calendar here.

Let’s talk.

Let’s connect.

Let’s remember that the world is not so divided as we might feel like it is right now.