Complacency is your enemy! One of the things that can slow down your effectiveness as a leader and in your results is complacency. You got to where you are by becoming an expert in your field, moving into leadership roles or carving out your own path as a business owner. But being an expert will only tak you so far and can derail your ambitions. If you become complacent as a leader, relying too much on your expertise, you will lose enthusiasm and risk the results you want.  I walk you through several clues that you may be relying on your expertise and missing opportunities to accelerate your influence, growth, and questions to help you shift from complacency to mastery.    

If you’re anything like me, I imagine you’ve got a lot going on. Projects, hiring team members, putting out fires, keeping the day-to-day on track, and trying to lift your head and keep your team and initiatives on track.  You’re longing to have more space and energy for yourself and the things that matter. And to do this, you know you need to hand off responsitibity to others on your team. But delegating isn’t like handing the baton in the relay. People and projects are complex, and to delegate well, we need to hone some new skills.   Learning the skill of effective delegation takes some upfront investment from you.  And it’s an investment that will pay off exponentially, allowing you to focus on thinking strategically, using your strengths and developing your team's strengths. Avoiding putting in the time to learn to delegate well, your team will be underutilized and frustrated by the lack of opportunity to learn and take on new responsibilities. Learning delegate effectively, you’ll want to focus on these  Outcome Clarity- essential to know what you want the outcome is of the project or task you’re delegating to be. If you don’t  know what the result is, you can’t  expect someone else to know either Define and Assess: the skill and capabilities needed to do what you want to be done.  Determine the Decision: Decide the authority the person you delegate to will need. Set up the Conversation with the person you’ve identified as the best person to delegate to and ensure you have uninterrupted time to talk it through. Check-in on Their Capacity: Ask them if they have the time, energy, and bandwidth to meet your quality expectations and timeframe. STAY INVESTED in the person’s success to deliver a great outcome Follow up Afterwards- have a conversation, see how it went for the person you delegated to, and provide feedback from your perspective.    Delegating is how you develop your team to make and fulfill more complex commitments together. You’ll limit overwhelm and free up time to focus on high-value activities, so you can accelerate your results.   Let’s connect on LinkedIn. Let me know you you listen to The Feminine Edge podcast. Ready to dive in and work with me? Let’s talk, apply here. Subscribe and join my community of brilliant women reimagining systems, improving health and changing the game in healthcare.  If you love the show, I’d love you to share it with a friend or colleague. Reviews on Apple Podcasts also help other women like you find the show.   

Julie Cole is a recovered lawyer, mom of six and co-founder of Mabel's Labels. She helped her company bring their product to a worldwide market, gain media recognition and win countless entrepreneur awards. Mabels Labels early beginnings were humble, starting as many women do bootstrapping and working late hours while the kids are asleep.  Julie shares what it takes to start, the messy middle and the learning that comes from growing a business with partners to reach a point to be able sell it. Even if you're not thinking of selling your business, the sage advice from Julie paints a picture of possibilities and will you accelerate your company's growth. Some of the  insights we cover are: Know your WHY and create a service or product to fill a gap. Develop and take care of your personal brand. Put yourself out there. Tap into your strengths and keep learning. Hire people and contractors to do the work that's not your unique gift or talent. Learn to leave your ego at the door. Julie's upcoming book, Like a Mother coming out in May 2022.  Follow Julie, subscribe to her blog and youtube channel and learn more about Mabels Labels: https://mabelslabels.ca/en_CA/ Youtube: https://youtu.be/8WSvFi2YdAg

So, what is your relationship with time like? Time and the perception of time are elements of just about every part of our day. It comes up in most of my coaching conversations, and most often, it's about a lack of time, urgency or feeling that time is running our day. Your days are full of service delivery, taking care of your team, clients and all the details of running a business. Finding the time to work on the strategic growth initiatives you know will add value to your clients, team, and business can feel elusive. We can get caught riding on hope for more time to suddenly appear or soothe ourselves in a story that “one-day” time will open up for the things we really want to work on. Rather than remaining caught in feeling powerless, I’m inviting you to reimagine your relationship with time and learn how to create the time we want for our wildly important projects and to take care of the things that matter to us.  

How do we learn to advance our businesses and leadership by leveraging our feminine strengths? Executive Coach and Promotion Strategist, Stacy Mayer, shares how she’s integrated her feminine strengths in growing her business and serving her clients. Stacy is passionate about bringing more diversity to senior leadership roles. Her mission is to double the number of women promoted to the c-suite each year worldwide. We discuss the significant internal and external barriers women encounter when advancing their careers. Stacy offers women several key tactics from her recent book Promotions Made Easy: A step by step guide to the Executive Suite, including 15-minute ally meetings, being intentional with our choice of words and owning our accomplishments  You can learn more great insights by checking out her podcast Maximize Your Career with Stacy Mayer. To purchase her book and learn more about her programs visit: https://www.stacymayer.com/ https://www.stacymayer.com/book/

A passion for elevating senior fitness and breaking down outdated ageism narratives prompted  Emily Johnson to make the leap and leave her corporate job to start her own business. Emily is the Founder and Creative Director of StrongerU Senior Fitness and on a mission to innovate and elevate senior fitness globally. Like many women entrepreneurs, Emily’s business started as a passion project while still working in her corporate job.  When the pandemic hit, watching declining well-being for so many seniors was prompt to decide to leave her job and launch her company. StrongerU Senior fitness is filling a gap by empowering recreation, fitness, wellness professionals, and senior-serving organizations to provide high-quality fitness experience unique virtual training models. Their unique fitness instructor programs provide the foundation for a holistic experience while changing the narrative about ageing and fitness.  Learning to run your own company is a steep learning curve. Emily shares her top learning insights and strategies for successfully turning your passion project into an impact-driven,  thriving global business. Learn more about StrongerU Senior Fitness: https://www.strongeruseniorfitness.com/  

In a world where 2 % of the venture capital flows to 51 % of the population (read that again), how do women and non-binary founders find success, impact and reach their dreams? Vicki Saunders and SheEO are reinventing the world, so it works for everyone. Vicki is the creator and founder of the hashtag radical generosity and SheEO, a radically generous community supporting women + non-binary people working on the World's To-Do List.  What I deeply admire about Vicki is when she didn't like the inequality she was witnessing and experiencing in business, she used her frustration to reimagine a new world and business model. SheEO is an intentionally designed ecosystem, business and economic model rooted in radical generosity, partnership, collaboration and the core belief there is enough for everyone.  In the SheEO world, ventures and activators have access to this incredible ecosystem designed to empower you to be successful. It's a model that challenges you to put aside your experience with outdated and broken systems. The SheEO experience invites you to suspend your disbelief and be embraced, celebrated and recognized for the greatness of all you do as an entrepreneur.  In our conversation, we explore power and Vicki's deep belief that you have power and your power can be used with others to make a difference in your community and the world. Vicki lets us in on what she's reading, the critical challenges present for entrepreneurs today and the importance of building our muscle for dreaming about what's possible. Learn More about SheEO: https://sheeo.world/ SheEO World Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/sheeo-world/id1474396602  

What if tuning in and listening to your instincts to “do something” to make a difference lead you to your next business opportunity? Trusting your instincts, care and taking bold action is precisely how most women start their business. Catherine McGuire (Cat) knew she had to jump into action to help support her local community at the pandemic's start. Previously an event planner, she knew how to take an idea and move quickly. Fuel the Superheroes was born with the help of her husband, Jake. The two of them jumped into action, providing nourishing lunches to local healthcare providers. Cat leveraged their efforts and impact by enrolling local businesses to help make the meals. It was a wildly successful project providing thousands of meals over a few weeks. The response told her she was onto something, and the success of Fuel the Superheroes became the catalyst for WholeHearted. WholeHearted is grounded in a unique business model that builds bridges between large corporations and local businesses to enhance employee engagement while doing an activity to serve the community. WholeHearted creates unique and fun experiences that engage employees while providing a mechanism to give back to the community and drive social impact. WholeHearted: https://givewholehearted.com/

Angela Johnson, the CEO of Priority Kids, is on a mission to eradicate childhood sexual abuse. Her company,  Priority Kids, works with youth-serving organizations to support the development and enrichment of child sexual abuse prevention strategies through education and partnerships to increase the skill and capacity of the broader community. The statistics on childhood sexual abuse are staggering. While having critical statistical information is essential, as Angela shares, simply knowing about childhood sexual abuse doesn't change the outcomes. One of the biggest challenges Angela faces, despite the alarming statistics, is overcoming the discomfort we have talking about childhood sexual abuse so we can have meaningful conversations. Priority Kids has created specific, best practice informed training programs to help us develop the skills to talk about and take informed action to protect children. Priority Kid's programs show people how to think strategically see abuse prevention through a new lens, empowering us to transform systems and environments to keep kids safe. Learn more about Priority Kids here: www.prioritykids.ca www.facebook.com/4PriorityKids www.linkedin.com/in/Angela4PriorityKids  

Defining what's ok and not ok for you and the boundaries you need and want to be at your best is essential. I shared Kelly's story identifying her boundaries with her team in part one. But, defining our boundaries is only the first step. Practicing holding our boundaries with a team member, client or family is can be a growth edge. Keeping a boundary can feel awkward or challenging. You want to hold your boundary and take care of your relationships. But how do you do both? In part two, we check in with Kelly, and I share six essential practices to managing boundaries.