Five Lessons Learned At My First Awareness Training

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Five Lessons Learned At My First Awareness Training

At least once each year, I attend another coaching program. I enjoy getting coaching while I benefit from watching how others work and learn new techniques. Last month I attended a four-day program in NYC that was eye-opening, by definition, because it was my first awareness training.

I was able to do a lot of personal development at the program and will share in this article some of what I learned. First, let me explain awareness training.

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Seeking a Meaningful Career: Matt’s Path to Trajectify

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Seeking a Meaningful Career: Matt’s Path to Trajectify

The last several months of my professional career have been incredibly rewarding as I have taken on the role of Business Coordinator for Trajectify. I am part of an amazing team where my contribution is valued and I have the ability to grow both professionally and personally. This career is a great fit with my values, strengths and personality. Things weren’t always this wonderful for me. Like many others, I have struggled over the years with “what I want to be when I grow up.” In searching for the answer to this question, I’ve come to realize that figuring out my career was much more of a journey than a destination.

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Does Your Organization Have a Warning System in Place?

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Does Your Organization Have a Warning System in Place?

Over a family dinner recently, my brother-in-law explained that my mother-in-law’s car has some high-tech alerts on it. I asked my mother-in-law if it had a collision avoidance system, and she responded, “All I know is that if I hear three beeps I need to stop so I don’t bang up the car.”

What if we had a similar alert system for leaders of businesses – when something goes wrong, you hear three beeps and you know you need to stop so you don’t damage your business?

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Four Top Challenges of Leadership and Business Growth

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Four Top Challenges of Leadership and Business Growth

As a business grows, its leaders face new challenges, often in strategy, organizational development, and values and culture. They may be faced with complicated decisions regarding capital, partnerships or corporate structure. In November, we hosted our Fall Leadership Retreat where Trajectify coaches were joined by CEOs and business owners from a variety of industries. In focused, mastermind-style discussions, each leader took turns sharing business challenges they are facing. The group got a chance to provide feedback and offer outside-in perspectives to their peers.

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Building a Business With Partners: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

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Building a Business With Partners: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

We recently facilitated a panel of four pairs of co-founders/partners. They shared their experiences in building a business together - exploring benefits and challenges, offering advice and personal perspectives. Putting business partners on stage - including friends, siblings, and spouses - also made for great entertainment (watch the video). If you’re going to make partnership successful, have a good sense of humor :-) Here are some of the lessons learned and insights:

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3 Strategies You Should Adopt in Your 2020 Planning

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3 Strategies You Should Adopt in Your 2020 Planning

We don't want to have to be in a position to make passionate decisions, especially in business. Good planning means accounting for all outcomes while we are in our natural state, operating in Quadrant II (one of Strategy), not Quadrant I (Crisis). Here are some strategies to follow to help you do just that.

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Leadership Lessons from My Mother's Death

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Leadership Lessons from My Mother's Death

My mother died earlier this month. It wasn't something we were expecting. She had been successfully fighting breast cancer. Complications from treatment led to a series of cascading medical issues over several weeks until her heart was no longer able to take it.  I woke up early the day after her death and my mind was racing, so I grabbed a pen and paper to slow down my thoughts. Some of what I wrote ended up being about observations and feelings that I could connect to leadership.

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Three Pillars of Effective Leadership: Insights From Experienced CEOs

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Three Pillars of Effective Leadership: Insights From Experienced CEOs

Being a leader means always having your fingers on the pulse of your business. It means juggling responsibilities, putting out fires, and claiming responsibility. You are responsible for the vision, agenda, and strategy of your entire team. While sitting in the driver's seat can be exhilarating, it can also be exhausting and lonely. But what if it doesn’t have to be? Learn some of the basic pillars of leadership: strategic planning, building a healthy you and a healthy team, and getting outside-in perspectives.

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2019 Trajectify Summer Reading List

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2019 Trajectify Summer Reading List

Here’s that world famous list that thousands have been awaiting. Each year, Trajectify coaches and clients put together recommendations for books that they've been reading. We encourage you to use some of your vacation time and your days away from the office to invest in growth through reading. Wherever your adventures take you, even if it's just in your backyard hammock), use this out-of-office time to learn, reflect, and challenge yourself.

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Four Tools To Improve Your Time Management

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Four Tools To Improve Your Time Management

Time management is the process of organizing and planning how to divide your time between specific activities. Successful time management allows you to work smarter, not harder, getting more done in less time but this is not always an easy process.

Time management, including work-life balance, prioritization and decision making, are elements of the most common struggles for entrepreneurs. It is difficult to make time for the important things when it is even hard to decide what is actually important.

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What If You’re the Problem with Your Team?

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What If You’re the Problem with Your Team?

“Sometimes I’m trying to finish the project you gave me earlier in the week, and I’m nearly done. But you tell me to drop it, that it’s not as important as some new thing you want the team to start on. I like your ideas – and you have a lot of them – but I wish you would let us finish what we start before you tell us to do the new thing. It gets kind of frustrating because I feel like you don’t appreciate that we’re trying to do the things you want, but it’s always changing.” Have you been there before with a team like this? No matter what you might put in your strategic business plan, you will not succeed unless people can learn to work together effectively.

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What is your Double Doink for 2019?

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What is your Double Doink for 2019?

If you happen to be a football fan, you’ve probably now heard about the Double Doink. Let’s have some fun and create a general purpose definition for a double doink: the accomplishment of an improbable feat or an achievement from an impressive effort that results in failure or negative consequences. I’m not sure if I’ve had a double doink yet this year, but I know I’ve had plenty over the course of my career. I’ve been contemplating some of the things that you should do to recover from a double doink. Here are five things to consider after a mistake or failure.

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All the Videos from Trajectify’s Business Growth Conference

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All the Videos from Trajectify’s Business Growth Conference

2018 brought Trajectify’s inaugural live business growth conference which brought together dozens of leaders, entrepreneurs, and professionals. We held Trajectify Live on September 13, 2018 at the Science History Institute in Old City, Philadelphia, featuring four Trajectify coaches plus a line-up of guest speakers and presenters while filled the day with insights, lessons and experiences

If you missed the opportunity to join us in September, we’ve got you covered. Here are videos we took of ten presentations from the conference. If you’re interested to attend the next Trajectify Live, please sign up here to be notified about the next Trajectify Live.

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Four Lessons Learned in 2018: A success and failure retrospective

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Four Lessons Learned in 2018: A success and failure retrospective

2018 was an incredible year. I know it’s not over yet, but I’m not going to send an email next week, so let’s get it out there before we’re swooped into 2019. I took bigger risks with Trajectify this year and accomplished a lot, including some big ones. Some of these met our goals or are beginning to perform. Others missed expectations because of invalid assumptions, or bad execution, or unforeseen externals influences. I almost always practice what I preach. Almost. There’s a lot I learn about myself while coaching and working with other business owners and leaders. In all that I’ve accomplished this year, here are some lessons I’d like to share.

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Our Annual CEO Gift Guide

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Our Annual CEO Gift Guide

Amidst the closing of 2018 and the planning of 2019, we wanted to have a little fun. That's not an extravagant holiday party for the Trajectify team. It means some new content! We asked each of Trajectify team to share an idea of what holiday gift to get that successful person who might already have everything they want. Maybe you’re a business owner or CEO and you’re wondering what put on your gift wish list? Or maybe you need to buy something for that special business leader at your company or in you life. From $50K to $50M, there’s something for everyone.

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Leadership and Lure of Email

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Leadership and Lure of Email

How often do you spend in your email each day, sifting through your inbox, reading, reviewing and responding, attempting to reach that glorified empty inbox by the end of the day?

The fact is - the majority of CEO and leadership work does not happen on email - it happens face-to-face. According to a Harvard Business Review study, only about 15% of a CEO’s time is spent on email. How do you compare?

At the 2018 Trajectify Leadership Retreat, we heard that dealing with the time-consuming and dreaded sea of emails was a common complaint regarding the stresses of a leader.

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"Why Didn't I Realize That" Lessons Shared by Growth Stage CEOs

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"Why Didn't I Realize That" Lessons Shared by Growth Stage CEOs

As a CEO, there is an expectation of fearlessness. Does not mean we need to pretend that we have all of the answers? Vulnerability is an important leadership attribute. We welcomed CEOs and Trajectify coaches to the 2018 Trajectify CEO Leadership Retreat a few weeks ago. We discovered and worked on many of the challenges in growing a $1M+ business. Each CEO took the hot seat in a mastermind session, most discussing with their peer struggle they are facing. Everyone gained new insights and perspectives. After a day long event of content and mastermind sessions, we asked each attendee for their biggest takeaway from the event.

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You Seriously Don't Have an Annual Plan?

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You Seriously Don't Have an Annual Plan?

This time of the year, I find myself in a lot of intense conversations with founders and leaders about their plans for the coming year. I am always disappointed to discover that many do not have a plan. They often have next year's goals and financial forecasts, usually required if they have a Board of Directors, but they don’t know the details of how those goals will be met. It’s all good and well to declare what you are going to do, but how much thought have you given to how you’re going to get it done?

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