Jennifer Touma's Blog, page 2
July 11, 2016
Six Workplace Skills Mentally Strong People Turn to When Mental Toughness is Tested
Workplace pressure and stress often colors our attitudes, hampers job performance, and can derail our success. It pushes business professionals to feel as though we are constantly struggling to do our job well.
But does it have to be so hard?
Mental Toughness in the workplace is the key.
Mental toughness is the ability to cope effectively with the pressures of the job, regardless of what they are. It’s making an effort to maintain your posture as a decisive, influential and self-assured professional no matter what challenges are swirling around you.
When mentally strong people realize their mental toughness is tested, they turn to six workplace skills to help guide them through trying moments, keeping them focused, alert, and poised. Click on the file below to get access to the six workplace skills.
Six Workplace Skills Mentally Strong People Turn to When Mental Toughness is Tested
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Copyright 2016 Jennifer Touma Mindscape Mindscapemind
June 13, 2016
Bringing Agility into Leadership Performance
Intelligence, education and experience are all helpful ingredients for being successful in business, but one key competency missing in most leaders today is agility.
Leadership agility is the ability to bring flexibility and alertness into your leadership brand. It enables you to make leadership decisions by responding quickly to changing conditions and a variety of circumstances.
The consequences to a lack of agility are unmet goals, lost productivity and lost revenues that derail success, not to mention emotional and mental turmoil that can destroy your organization.
But…
What if you could demonstrate emotional control so you could respond resiliently to the world around you?
What if you could move freely through your responsibilities without feeling stress or struggle?
What if practicing agility offered you the best chance of personal success beyond measure?
I invite you to learn two specific ways mentally strong leaders embrace agility:
1. Agile leaders carry out responsibilities with purpose. They have a clear line-of -sight of both smooth paths and obstacle courses. They successfully and repeatedly zig-zag their way to successful solutions.
Agile leaders remain in control of their state of mind by remaining in the present moment. They never entertain thoughts that allow circumstances or situations to temporary dictate how they feel and what they think. Retreating to the safety of familiarity and sameness until the turbulence settles is not the answer.
Followers, clients, teams and organizations deserve purpose-driven leadership. Agile leaders make decisions every day, affecting life and business, all the while retaining control of their state of mind.
2. Agile leaders with a history of performing their role feeling comfortable and confident, are not afraid to confront change. The catalyst for change may be positive or negative, welcomed or unwelcomed.
Being an agile and adaptable leader means embracing an ability to see the different undercurrent patterns and movements of change by being in a constant state of readiness to respond to any situation or circumstance with well-timed and appropriate actions.
Leaders who “flow like water” enjoy a path clear of any resistance, allowing change to move them from ordinary to extraordinary.
The recent passing of boxing legend Muhammed Ali reminds all of us that agility is essential, whether in sports competition or in business. Are you demonstrating agile leadership in your own business affairs? Call today for a consultation if I can help you hone your agility skills as a mentally strong leader!
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Copyright 2016 Jennifer Touma Mindscape
Bringing Mental Toughness into Leadership Performance (sm)
May 16, 2016
Career Women and Mental Toughness
As a woman in business, I know how challenging and ruthless, however rewarding, the workplace can be. My experiences range from the high point of being recognized as the recipient of The President’s Award in Leadership to the low point of being refused admittance to a closed door meeting after being told “no one wants hear a woman talk”.
Today, whether you’re a female entrepreneur building a business, holding your own in a public or private company, or conducting business from your home office, your mental toughness is tested in everything you do. Make no mistake, women desiring success need to hone the skill of mental toughness. I know from first-hand experience after one particular situation in which I faced imminent personal danger, how mental toughness enabled me to escape unharmed.
Mental toughness does not mean you have to be a bully, displaying unruly, arrogant behavior toward someone or something in order to convince others of your mental superiority. Mental toughness is an inner strength we can cultivate and a skill we can learn. Mental toughness is responding resiliently to setbacks, adversities and challenges. It is the ‘grit’ that helps you work through difficult situations, remaining focused on your goal.
Mental Toughness should no longer be dismissed as a “notion” reserved exclusively for the C-Suite. It is a “must-have” developmental skill for everyone.
Here are two top workplace challenges women face today and how mentally strong women overcome them.
Every Woman Can Fiercely Own Her Career
Mental Toughness is a “must-have” developmental skill necessary in order for you to fiercely own your career despite encountering relentless competition and intense stress. Feeling the deck is stacked against you often dissuades you from applying for promotions that translate into better opportunities and increased pay. Fearing success often results in feeling disempowered to the extent that you feel you can neither control your career or your emotions.
How will you acknowledge these feelings, yet remain resilient? Here are three ways mentally strong women develop the mental toughness to stay motivated as they work their way up the ladder.
1. They leverage the three key resources of skills, people and finances.
2. They seek help from career coaches and mentors, and invest in career development courses.
3. They confidently build their careers by setting realistic goals, developing a strong mind through discipline, and humorously admitting their mistakes.
I encourage you to shout out loud that being a woman in business is a win for everyone. Stand firm and bring vitality to the life-affirming journey of owning your career and living life on your own terms.
2. Effective Self-Promotion in the Workplace
Mental toughness is an attitude that leads to fearless risk-taking. Do you know why most talented women in business are not promoted as quickly or as often as men? The major reason is that most women are not assertive in communicating their accomplishments. When you are committed to being assertive, it increases your confidence to declare your successes, effectively manage your career, and be perceived as someone of value, authority and influence. Assuming peers and managers know about your successes and accomplishments is a mistake that can be fatal to your career success. By not claiming credit for your work, you cheat yourself out of the recognition you deserve.
Here are four ways mentally strong women assert themselves in order to establish a high value on their presence in the workplace:
They establish authority and trust by demonstrating such assertive behaviors as good posture, good eye contact and simple body gestures.
They talk about their professional experiences with confidence, poise, and purpose.
They act decisively and avoid being wishy – washy, either in word or action.
They tell stories highlighting their successes. Storytelling helps to illustrate skills, accomplishments and expertise, making you memorable in the minds of others.
Clearly understand that effective self-promotion is not bragging. It is an important and essential way to help you stand out from the crowd, feel worthy of tremendous success, and feel more in control of your life and your career’s direction.
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Copyright 2016 Jennifer Touma Mindscape
April 14, 2016
How Mentally Strong People Expect Adversity and Rise Above It
Imagine my chagrin when I was told just prior to an important meeting with a political official, “You don’t have TV celebrity status, so no one will watch you. Nor do you have the political clout in the city to get your project idea approved by the Mayor.” But I continued making my pitch over a number of visits, and the Mayor ultimately accepted my cable TV series project on leadership, resulting in over 375,000 monthly viewers.
Maxcy Filer was thirty-six years old when he earned his law degree. Each time he took the exam he failed. Fast-forward to a time when most people are thinking about retiring. After taking the law exam twice a year for twenty-five years and spending $50,000 in fees for exams and countless review courses, Maxcy Filer took the California bar exam for the forty-eighth time, and he passed. Maxcy was sixty-one years old.
Do you have a similar story about encountering failure without having it derail your goals? What do you do when you meet adversity, whether in your professional career or your personal life? Mentally strong people reach for the deep strengths that reside inside them that can make all the difference. They take advantage of these strengths in coming back from the brink and in emerging out the other side in triumph, despite the mental turmoil and inner conflicts that may arise.
Consider this question: “What is the impact in your personal and professional life when you VIEW adversity as …”
1. A Precursor to Positive Change. This is an empowering statement because the exact moment you say it out loud, you’ve taken charge of how you want the situation to unfold rather than becoming its victim by giving it permission to take charge of your emotions and thoughts. Looking around your home life and work environment, you’ll find numerous reasons why you can overcome adversity. Notice how your performance at work becomes more effective and focused despite the adversity. So stop wasting time whining and allowing the adversity to influence your mental state! As a mentally strong leader, you expect adversity, so respond to it as a precursor to positive change, as learning something new, a chance to see obstacles as open opportunities to new possibilities.
2. A Strength Disguised as a ‘Life Skill’. When confronted by adversity, you’ll do one of two things. Either you’ll disengage from it, not acknowledging its current and future affect, or you’ll view it as a “life skill”, a survival mechanism in improving motivation in response to certain situations. Adversity becomes an opportunity for positive change, helping you work through difficult situations in pursuit of your purpose. Mentally strong leaders know that every situational adversity makes you more resilient. Use adversity as a springboard that inspires resilient thinking because it is your thinking in a resilient fashion that determines the action influencing your final result.
3. Visualizing an Expected Outcome. Adversity brings with it the uncertainty of how your next decision will play out in the final outcome. Envisioning the intended outcome impels you to unfold your own personal powers of intent, creativity, and the opportunity to transform what is to what could be. So don’t pull back or play it safe, taking a wait and see attitude. Why not do what you can do now? The advantage of visualization is that it mentally and emotionally prepares you to adapt to adversity’s unexpected tactics that are beyond your control. You’ll be prepared to skillfully respond confidently and decisively, which in itself is a powerful victory. As a mentally strong leader, retreat often inside your mind to plan how to play out different realities and find new possibilities. When visualizing, focus on implementing your ideas into action, imagine what happens moment by moment, without focusing on the results. If you want to know how to deal with uncertainty on your terms, you can find it in my blog article here.
Napoleon Hill (1883-1970) said “ The strongest oak in the forest is not the one that is protected from the storm and hidden from the sun. It’s the one that stands in the open where it is compelled to struggle for its existence against the winds and rains and the scorching sun.”
Where are you standing?
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Copyright 2016 Jennifer Touma Mindscape http://jennifertouma.com
March 22, 2016
How Mentally Strong Leaders Succeed Despite Uncertainty
What today’s business environment needs is mentally strong leaders who can co-exist with uncertainty rather than trying to manage it. Most people cope with uncertainty by retreating to the safety of familiarity and sameness. When faced with numerous unknowns, they seek comfort in habitual behaviors.
But mentally strong leaders know that to move successfully through today’s business field of unpredictability, they must get comfortable with and make friends with being uncertain. They deliberately bring newness into their world and deal with uncertainty on their own terms in a number of ways that promote success:
• Never assume there is only one outcome for any problem. Prepare for multiple outcomes regardless of what is expected, be aggressively inquisitive by asking questions, and see uncertainty as an opportunity that offers you a different perspective. See things through multiple lenses rather than a limiting single lens.
• Don’t dismiss feelings of uncertainty. Uncertainty offers you a chance to step back to reassess numerous possibilities. Take the offensive approach by being inner-directed, not allowing the uncertainty of the situation to dictate your thinking or control your emotions. Think through your decisions and then act on them, but not as a knee-jerk response to fears, the opinions of colleagues, the business environment or momentary situations.
• Grow by learning something new about your craft daily. Being an inquisitive lifelong student builds your confidence to deal with whatever comes your way. Stay up-to-date on current trends in your business.
• Invest your time in nourishing productive current relationships at the same time you build new ones. Healthy relationships offer you confidantes to bounce things off of with the peace of mind that they can provide wise advice when needed.
• Shake up your routine. Experiment by taking a different route to work, choosing a new restaurant, or approaching your job in a different manner.
Apply these strategies to gain the freedom to break free from conventional approaches, a stagnant mindset that no longer serves you, and ineffective behavior patterns. I acknowledge that at times, like you, I also experience that uneasy feeling of uncertainty. But in working at becoming my own person, I’ve taken the “road less traveled” because of its empowering effect to design my own life rather than leave it to chance.
I urge you to get comfortable with uncertainty and use the aforementioned strategies to offer you new insights into who you are and how you want to affect the future as a mentally strong leader.
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©Copyright 2016 Jennifer Touma Mindscape
February 20, 2016
6 Signs of Mental Weakness in Business Professionals
Life is full of obstacles, uncertainty, challenges and potential for failure. But you may often wonder, why does it have to be so hard? Those who are mentally strong and resilient have the best chance of rising above those challenges to reach their goals. By contrast, mentally weak people fall victim to false and glorified promises that masquerade as short-cuts to success, fast cash, and immediate industry recognition. Sadly, in the end, a weak mind infects business and ultimately derails success.
Here are six signs you have become a prime candidate for demonstrating mentally weak behavior:
Handing Over Control: You’ve given up managing and controlling your own thoughts and emotions and allowing them to be controlled, directed and influenced by the environment around you, the opinion of others, or momentary situations.
Tip: Become more inner directed and self reliant. Pay attention to what you are thinking and feeling. Train your mind to be alert by staying in the present moment.
2. Acting on Impulse: Acting on impulse has become second nature. You respond to unprovoked emotional outbursts, prone to the highs and lows of your own emotional moods, and respond mindlessly to the emotions of others.
Tip: Resist the emotional pull of the moment. Emotions may drive the behavior of others, but your objective should be to intertwine emotion and logic when responding to everyday situations.
3. Playing the Blame Game: Unmet business objectives seem overpowering, leading to finger-pointing and blaming others. You may go so far as to blatantly lie about business results whether it’s due to handling setbacks or company downturn, or with issues regarding your product or service.
Tip: Work closely with subject matter experts and team members, define responsibilities, stay in touch with the concerns and problems of your teams and keeping people focused on the highest priority goals and objectives. Collaborate with and involve all members in crafting a clear purpose, values, goals and expected outcomes.
4. Flying Under the Radar: Adopts a minimalist approach to avoid taking on additional responsibilities due to fear of failure, runs from challenge and adversity, procrastinates due to laziness or lack of interest, or delegates own work to others due to lack of knowledge or inadequate skill.
Tip: Ensure adequate resources and tools to do the job such as training, coaching, and the proper equipment.
5. Easily Intimidated: Prefers to back down quickly when challenged, won’t stand their ground, intimidated by competence or excellence in others.
Tip: Gain self-confidence by facing adversity and meeting challenges. Project this self-confidence through strong body language, high quality work, measured tone of voice and a firm hand shake when dealing with others.
6. Displays Short-sightedness: Many professionals fail to see business opportunities as they arise, making short-sighted decisions, reacting from stereotypical ideas and opinions, making snap judgments without reviewing options.
Tip: Replace mechanical and rigid thinking with flexible and creative thought. Expand your awareness to see different points of view and solutions. Apply convergent thinking when you have many solutions to address one problem, apply the process of eliminating alternatives to arrive at one preferred option or choice. Whenever you are faced with an issue or problem at work, apply these thinking skills in everyday business situations.
You can reach inside yourself and draw out those deep strengths that can make all the difference. Take advantage of them to turn back from the brink of mental weakness and emerge out the other side in triumph, despite the mental turmoil and inner conflicts that may arise.
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Copyright 2016 Jennifer Touma Mindscapemind.com
[New Post] 6 Signs of Mental Weakness in Professionals
January 27, 2016
Powerful Ways to Improve Your Mental Toughness
Intelligence, education and experience are all helpful ingredients for succeeding in business, but the two qualities that are mandatory are confidence and mental toughness.
Mental toughness is often misunderstood by many leaders, entrepreneurs, and professionals. Some believe you have to be a bully, displaying unruly, arrogant behavior toward someone or something in order to convince others of your mental superiority.
Because none of us is born with mental toughness, it is an inner strength we can cultivate and a skill we can learn. Mental toughness is responding resiliently to setbacks, adversities and challenges. It is the ‘true grit’ that helps you work through difficult situations, remaining focused on your goal.
Here are 3 ways you can improve your mental toughness:
Completely Eliminate Whining and Complaining!
Mental toughness is putting an end to all whining and complaining about the way things are. How many people do you know who whine and blame others for their mistakes or misfortune? In business, as in life, we all make mistakes and experience setbacks and disappointments. Stop wasting time whining! Dwelling on your mistake will increase the chance for additional mistakes, which drains energy from achieving your goal.
Recover quickly, and keep your eye on your desired outcome. Look for the value in the present experience. Most successful people fail on their way to getting what they want. They see failure as a chance to learn something that will help them down the road. Don’t allow negativity to become a rent-free tenant in your mind!
2. Stop Allowing People and Circumstances to Influence Your State of Mind
Mental Toughness is being in charge of our own state of mind and responsible for our own results. Have you ever caught yourself saying “They make me so angry,” “I doubt if they will listen to me,” or “I’m not in the right state of mind right now.” These responses and others put you in the role of disempowered victim. Like Pavlov’s dog, whose salivation was triggered by the sound of the dinner bell, our state of mind is anchored to an internal response or external trigger.
Take back control of your state of mind by remaining in the present moment. Realize that you decide what to think and how to respond resiliently to the world around you, rather than having your thoughts and emotions influenced and controlled by the business environment, the opinion of others, or a temporary situation.
3. Create a Strong Mind Through Discipline
Mental toughness is learning to maintain a strong and disciplined mind, conditioning it into knowing you can press on and persevere by doing your best regardless of your feelings or circumstances. When your mind is strong and disciplined, you have a better chance of accomplishing what you set out to do. Having a weak or undisciplined mind is like an internal foe that gives us permission to flounder and even tempts us to do less. An undisciplined mind leads to dependence on others, reckless thinking, and poor decision making, all of which can compromise your reputation and career. An undisciplined mind is an open invitation giving others permission to control you, leaving you vulnerable to their own personal agendas.
Use the above three strategies as part of a mind game that continually improves your mental strength and teaches you to accept and prepare for life’s challenges, both anticipated as well as unexpected.
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Copyright 2016 Jennifer Touma Mindscape
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