Everyday Leadership for Smart Women

In today's episode, I bring you a special Leader Spotlight with community builder and local political candidate, Kourtney Branagan. 

Listen in as we talk about her journey to running for local office, why more women don't run, and how she manages the ups and downs of public life. 

This is a thoughtful, wide-ranging conversation with a smart, brave woman. I hope you enjoy it! 

Recommended Resources:

Visit Kourtney's campaign website

Connect with Kourtney on Twitter

Connect with Kourtney on TikTok

Connect with Kourtney on Facebook

Sign up for Sips and Leadership with Kourtney & I on Sept 29/2021

Sign up to receive my weekly Leadership Letters

Last week's episode: For the Exhausted

Join LEAD.Well – a community of practice for women who want to be better, braver leaders

Book a complimentary call with me

Join me on Twitter here

In today's episode, I bring you a special Leader Spotlight with community builder and local political candidate, Kourtney Branagan. 

Listen in as we talk about her journey to running for local office, why more women don't run, and how she manages the ups and downs of public life. 

This is a thoughtful, wide-ranging conversation with a smart, brave woman. I hope you enjoy it! 

Recommended Resources:

Visit Kourtney's campaign website

Connect with Kourtney on Twitter

Connect with Kourtney on TikTok

Connect with Kourtney on Facebook

Sign up for Sips and Leadership with Kourtney & I on Sept 29/2021

Sign up to receive my weekly Leadership Letters

Last week's episode: For the Exhausted

Join LEAD.Well – a community of practice for women who want to be better, braver leaders

Book a complimentary call with me

Join me on Twitter here

Thanks for listening to the Rise without Compromise Podcast. 

Today I'm talking to you if you're feeling exhausted, depleted or just plain tired. 

Here are the links mentioned in today's episode. 

Recommended Resources:

 
Sign up to receive my weekly Leadership Letters

In praise of micro moves

The question I keep asking myself this season

Decision fatigue is real. And I have it.

What you need to get about decision fatigue

Join LEAD.Well – a community of practice for women who want to be better, braver leaders

Book a complimentary call with me

Join me on Twitter here

The show is back! 

I'm thrilled to be back on the mic, and in your earbuds. 

This episode is an audio version, with bonus riffs, of my weekly Leadership Letter newsletter. 

You can sign up to get the full letter, including added curated content for leaders, over at StephaniePollock.com 

The original essay first appeared here. 

“The most important possible thing you can do, is do a lot of work.” ~Ira Glass

Over my years in coaching, I’ve heard many, many stories about something being ‘too hard’ or ‘too overwhelming’. And I’ve heard stories like, “I’m just not good at technology” or “I can’t ever seem to figure out how to launch my new thing,” a million times. 

What I want to remind you of today is that what you tell yourself about your work will inform how you experience your work. 

If you tell yourself that you suck at writing, you’re going to avoid it like the plague or never put it out there and you’re never going to get better at it. 

If you tell yourself that you’re never going to catch up to those further ahead, you won’t because you won’t even begin to try. 

If you tell yourself that you’re terrible and inexperienced at managing staff, you’ll avoid dealing with them and make things worse (for you and them). 

If you believe that marketing is slimy and overly-complicated, you’ll stay the world’s best-kept secret. 

It’s ok to be nervous about something new. And it’s fine to acknowledge where your real (not perceived) limitations are.

We are not meant to be brilliant at everything. It’s time to close the gaps.

Enjoy the episode.

Recommended Resources:

Truth: Good things take more time than we’d like

The Taste Gap – Ira Glass video 

Join LEAD.Well – a new leadership subscription for women who want to be better, braver leaders.

Sign up to receive my weekly Leadership Letters

Join me on Instagram here or on Twitter

People will thank you if you created good rules, because otherwise it’s awkward, and you’re leaving everyone to figure them out on their own. ~Priya Parker

Over the past few months, tens of thousands of meetings that would otherwise be conducted in boardrooms, coffee shops, libraries and dining room tables are now being held virtually – over Zoom, Google Meets and Microsoft Meetings.

And while current technology allows for connection and continued business communications now more than ever, it isn’t without its problems. Hosts who’ve never conducted an online meeting are trying to push in-person ways into virtual rooms. Participants are exhausted, depleted and Zoomed out. Many meetings leave people feeling disconnected and confused.

In today’s episode, we get really practice and offer up a ton of tips and strategies for both hosts and participants.

Enjoy the episode. 

Recommended Resources:

Setting digital boundaries

Embrace your humanness

Zoom Effectively: Discover Ways to Lead Inclusive Meetings and Participate Productively

CV Harquail’s mini-book, Bringing Feminist Practices to Online Work Sessions

Why Zoom is terrible

The inescapable pressure of being a woman on Zoom

Join LEAD.Well – a new leadership subscription for women who want to be better, braver leaders.

Sign up to receive my weekly Leadership Letters

Join me on Instagram here or on Twitter

“The courage to be vulnerable is not about winning or losing, it’s about the courage to show up when you can’t predict or control the outcome.”

Brené Brown

Yesterday, while cooking my seven thousandth meal in the past few weeks, I was listening to one of my favourite podcasts, NPR Politics.

These hosts, who have been in my earbuds for years, are now recording from home – trying to produce a high-quality news show, while toddlers climb up their desk chairs and dogs bark in the background. I laughed yesterday, as one hosts’ dog barked a few too many times and she had to tell Buster to just “shush!”

It was a moment of realness that pre-pandemic, would have quickly been edited out.

There are have been many more of these moments over the past few weeks, as Late Night Show hosts introduce us to their family members, business owners share challenging behind-the-scenes moments of keeping operations afloat, Bon Appetit chefs teach us how to make gourmet Kraft Dinner, and closer to home, we all get glimpses into how people really live thanks to Zoom.

And while we all wish COVID19 wasn’t a word in our lexicon, let alone dictating the way we live and work, there are some bright spots amongst the clouds.

Our new willingness to let our audiences in – whether they be our friends on Facebook, our team members, our clients or our audiences-at-large – is an opportunity to connect with our people in a deeper, more authentic way. And I think that’s a great thing.

Enjoy the episode.

Recommended Resources:

Join LEAD.Well – a new leadership subscription for women who want to be better, braver leaders. 

Buster the NPR podcast-interrupting dog

Notice these moments

Children interrupt BBC News interview

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Faith includes noticing the mess, the emptiness and discomfort, and letting it be there until some light returns.

Anne Lamott

As we find ourselves in the middle of this global pandemic; past the shock and awe of those first few weeks of the shutdown and quarantining, yet still months away from anything that looks like 'normal,' I've been thinking about what we can notice about our experiences, right now.

The conversations I'm having with friends, family and clients are ones around the future - what we want, what we no longer want and where we want to put our attention and focus when this is done (or close to done).

In today's episode, I talk about the importance of noticing: paying attention to the rhythms of our days, to our energy, to where we find ourselves pulled. I believe these quieter moments in this global pause, can be helpful informants for how we make decisions about the future.

Recommended Resources:

Join LEAD.Well – a new leadership subscription for women who want to be better, braver leaders. *Price goes up May 11th.

Keep a quarantine diary

Sign up to receive my weekly Leadership Letters

Join me on Instagram here or on Twitter

All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.

J.R.R. Tolkien

As we all navigate working from home, with partners and kids, and new learning curves – it’s easy to find ourselves feeling foggy, scattered and completely unfocused.

Given that most of us are now working from home with more familial demands on our time, it can feel discouraging and futile to carve out focused blocks of time to do your most important work.

Here’s where using your margins becomes so very important.

Enjoy the episode.

Recommended Resources:

Join LEAD.Well – a new leadership subscription for women who want to be better, braver leaders. 

Pomodoro Technique

3 Reminders for Uncertain Times

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In these shorter episodes, I’ve been primarily focusing on how you can better navigate these challenging times. This is the idea of putting our own oxygen masks on first as we can’t give what we don’t have. 

Today, I’d like to shift focus and speak to how you can lead others through these times – whether they are co-workers, employees, clients, customers, contractors or even your family members. 

We’re all carrying a lot right now, and as uncertainty runs high, it can be easy to find yourself with intrapersonal challenges because everyone is on alert. 

This has been a source of many conversations with clients over the past few weeks. As they try to manage their own feelings and actions as a result of the pandemic, they’re also very mindful of the leadership responsibility they have to the people they lead. 

So while this list is hardly exhaustive, let me take a moment to share five ways to lead your people through uncertain times.

Enjoy the episode.

Recommended Resources:

Join LEAD.Well – a new leadership subscription for women who want to be better, braver leaders. 

Sign up to receive my weekly Leadership Letters

Join me on Instagram here or on Twitter