Laura Wolfe Coaching LLC

Supporting the Evolution of Careers, Leaders,

& Climate Consciousness

Jazzed About Entrepreneurship

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word cloud entrepreneurshipLast night was the BRAC Shareholders Meeting and the keynote speaker was John Elstrott, chairman of the board of Whole Foods Market, active entrepreneur, head of Tulane’s entrepreneurship institute, and former CFO of Celestial Seasonings. He shared with us some of what he has learned from 40 years of entrepreneurship.

Here is just a bit of that wisdom:

  • A team of between two and four founders enhances the likelihood of success because each person brings different experiences, skill sets, and a larger network from which to raise capital.
  • Regarding sources of capital – make sure they share your values and purpose, risk tolerance, and time frame.
  • Use both facts and intuition to make decisions. Gather timely and accurate financial info and also customer, market, and competitive intelligence. Then step back and consider it intuitively.
  • Never pass up an opportunity to help others or do someone a favor. Karma happens.
  • Always stay flexible, decisive, and swift. Resist bureaucracy as you grow.
  • Choosing partners and new hires are the most important decisions. Make sure the people you choose share your values, purpose, mission, and vision.
  • Every business will hit a wall and be forced to dig deep. Frugality is essential to success. Know your numbers, pick up pennies but at the same time maintain an attitude of abundance. Also, be generous with your stakeholders.
  • Vision is what you hope to evolve into over time and should “embrace the heroic”.
  • Honor those who help you.
  • Celebrate along the way.

It was a fantastic evening! So exciting to be part of a thriving and engaged business community.

What have you learned as an entrepreneur? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Get (another kind of) Fit

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be trueDon’t you just love the possibility of the new year? Did you resolve to get fit in 2015? As in diet and exercise?

What about the other kind of fit – that between you and your work? My experience is real satisfaction plus more comes from fit between who you are and what you do.

In the world of I-O Psychology, the concepts of person-job fit and person-organization fit are often studied. Both are important. Correlates include better employee performance, better attitudes, and lower turnover – all desirable outcomes for companies. What is interesting about these findings is the relationship between fit and engagement and also how employees with both take an active role in making it happen.

Steve Jobs sums it up best:

  • “Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it.”
  • “Your time is limited, don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma, which is living the result of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other opinions drown your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition, they somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

Did you resolve to get fit? If you aren’t being true to who you are eight (or more) hours a day, now is the time to start exploring what it would take to find your way there. Some get lucky and figure this out with little trouble but for most it takes time and a plan. Only you can make it happen.

Coaching can help.

Would love to know your thoughts on fit. Share your comments here.

 

Time for Greatness

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Laura Wolfe, Cultivate Coaching & ConsultingHere’s one from the archives to consider as you look toward 2015.

December 31, 2012

Get around some greatness. You can find it all over the place – in architecture, museums, books, nature, community, movies, art, people, music, history, science. Get near it and absorb that energy. Do this while you are setting your goals for the new year. Breathe greatness in and infuse it into your new year plans.

My husband and I are fortunate to spend a lot of time in New Orleans where we stay a block away from the National WWII Museum. I simply can not get enough of that place. It is full of artifacts from a time when mere mortals became great and beat back heinous evil forces.

Besides the stuff and stories on display, we regularly see current and veteran members of our armed services visiting – people who sacrificed much for the greater good. To be around them and this history fills me with awe and admiration. I wonder will my life and work ever make that kind of difference in the world.

Recently, the B-17 bomber named My Gal Sal with an interesting history was moved to the museum campus. It was in pieces in the parking lot by us for a couple of weeks and we we were able to get pretty close. Standing so near something from that era can really choke me up.

Now is the time for setting goals and making plans. Do this in a mindset of greatness and then go forth to achieve it.

If your plans call for change, think about what you are listening to. I’m a big believer in the inspirational power of music to support and fuel transition. I’ve added a couple of new ones to the playlist.

Happy New Year everyone!!

As always, I’d love to hear what you think.

Positively Thankful

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button with plus signResearch by University of North Carolina’s Barbara Fredrickson counted how often both positive and negative statements were used in sixty companies’ business meetings and found better financial performance in those with more positives (when > three positives for one negative). Fredrickson’s career has focused on positive emotions and outcomes and her findings are fascinating.

This research caught my eye because I just attended BRAC’s BIG THINK where I was again* struck by the positivity of entrepreneurs. Not that their paths were adversity free. No, not at all. One told the story of unexpectedly getting stuck with a quarter million dollars worth of inventory but ultimately figuring out how to turn it into a positive.

All this got me thinking about the work of Jeanette Maw and Esther Hicks and Martha Beck and the idea that what you think becomes. It does seem to happen that way in my life.

And this led finally to considering the most effective way for me to shift my thinking from negative to positive – which is to remember and be thankful for all that I have. Gratitude works. Here’s more.

How handy to have a holiday specifically focused on doing just that.

So if you haven’t been living in an energetically positive state, this is the perfect week to control+alt+delete. Plus, the food is pretty incredible.

How does being positive happen for you? Share your thoughts in the comment section.

* I’ve written before about the mindset of entrepreneurs and their incredible energy; it’s powerful being around them.