Because of the outbreak of the Coronavirus, many schools have switched to an online learning program. For many parents, that means they are now more hands-on in their kids' learning. I have always said that leadership is not one size fits all, and in spending more time with my kids, I am reminded of the power of that statement. My kids, Audrey and Blaine, have different learning styles.

Check out the video below to see how we are navigating the transition from the classroom to online schooling and how they each require different leadership styles. ​

Recently I hiked the Camino de Santiago, or The Way of Saint James, which is an ancient pilgrimage route dating back to the 9th century to Santiago, Spain. It is believed that St. James is buried in the Cathedral of Santiago. You can start walking in France, Portugal, or Spain and the total route is over 800 km. It was an enriching cultural and spiritual experience to travel to the countryside on foot, but it is extremely tiring. On average, we walked around 12-15 miles a day.

One day, we were scheduled to walk 20 miles. Although it was a strenuous task, I had already made up my mind that I would make it through the day. When I reached the 20-mile mark, I realized we had 3 miles left to get to our destination for the night. My feet were aching, and I knew something was wrong with them. I kept thinking, I only accounted for 20 miles, how am I going to do 3 more miles?

I was in pain and wanted to stop, but I looked inward for a solution and used my 3P method (pause to pivot to the positive). I knew I had to keep going, and negativity simply wasn’t going to help me get to my destination. “If walking hurts, why not run?” I thought to myself. So, I ran the last 3 miles.

When I passed other people on the trail, they called me a champion and asked me why I was running. Bolstered by their cheers, I felt like Rocky as I ran up the last hill into town. When I took off my shoes, I realized the pain was being caused by a really bad heat rash and two blisters. While these battle scars took a month to fully heal, I was left with a victory that still stays with me: it’s all perspective, I realized. I was in pain, but I only had three more miles to go. I knew I could make it and so I did.

When I returned home, I read the book The Happiness Advantage, written by Shawn Achor. It ended up driving the message home even more: the book explains that mindset is the difference between success and failure. Positive brains actually have a biological advantage over brains that are neutral or negative. Being positive in the present means we are less likely to burnout and more likely to be productive and resilient… and finish the last three miles of the Camino.

This week, I ask you this: What is your Camino? How can changing your mindset help you to finish your last three miles?

Here is the video I shared with my team while I was running my last 3 miles. ​

This year, my adventure vacation is walking the Camino in Spain. To prepare myself physically and mentally I had to find creative ways to fit more walking into my already busy life. Walking the Camino requires stamina and I wanted to be prepared to walk 12 miles a day for a week.

Turns out, it was easier than I thought. Movement has many benefits to include boosting creativity and clarity, bringing more oxygen to your brain, activating endorphins, and increasing productivity. While increasing my daily walks from 6 miles to 8-10 a day, I found myself solving problems with less effort. I started to crave additional walks and would turn to a walk more often to solve a problem rather than calling someone to talk it through.

Often, we are challenged with fitting moving or walking into our workdays, but there are many ways to get your steps in.

I add steps by walking or moving during situations or events that are traditionally done sitting or standing in one place. Here are my best tips:

• Walk around sporting events. Instead of standing on the sidelines to watch my children play sports, I walk around the field. Not only does this help me to get my steps in, but I get to see the game from different perspectives. 

• Schedule walk and talk meetings. I schedule "walk and talks" with co-workers, friends, and family. If no one is available to actually walk with me, and I am talking with a team member that will not mind, I will still do the walk and talk. This helps me to eliminate unnecessary sitting time, add steps, and clear my mind. 

• Move each hour. Every hour, I take a 5-minute moving break whether I am working or writing. I add high knees or do jumping jacks for extra oomph. All of those 5-minute breaks add up!

• Take the stairs. I resist the urge to take the elevator or escalator and use the stairs whenever possible.

• Rock star parking. Well, not really…. I choose a parking spot further away from my destination to get some extra steps in.

• Airport downtime. Instead of sitting and waiting to board the plane, I use the time to take a brisk walk through the terminal.

• Screen time. I watch most of my shows on Netflix, therefore my screen time was used on the treadmill while watching one of my favorite cooking shows on my phone via the Netflix app.       

It has been said that walking is the antidote to many physical and emotional ailments. Walking can clear the air and release strong emotions like anger. Walking meditations are stress-reducing, mood-elevating, and stimulate creative ideas.

These are just a few reasons why we encourage all of our employees to add walking to their day.  Fun, competitive wellness challenges get our team moving with points awarded for exercise and triple points for trying something new. Creating awareness and point motivation is all that is needed to take the first step. One team member walked up and down a pier gangplank during low tide for extra points and another used their airport waiting time to get their walk-in for the day.

If you would like to walk the talk and get yourself or your team moving in a forward direction, I would love to schedule a walk and talk with you. ​

Can you remember when you kept trying to resolve a problem and continued hitting roadblocks, and the problem persisted?

Last year at Actualize Consulting, our UK expansion increased project responsibilities tasking individuals to work on multiple projects, making our staffing decisions more complicated.

We decided to bring on another person internally to support our growth rate. When that person suddenly quit, we immediately hired another person ignoring the signs. Losing this person was a red flag that made us realize that Instead of looking at adding people we needed to shift our focus to our operational efficiencies. We paused and pivoted our energies to address the firm’s needs for an updated process to report on key metrics.

When our Manager of Finance and Accounting went out of the country for vacation and the second hire did not work out, I found myself accountable for the key items to keep the business running smoothly which specifically was payroll and setting up new projects as we won work.

At that moment, I had a moment of panic. I had to instill my Culture Infusion teachings of pausing to pivot to a positive and utilize self-talk as I told myself, “I got this.”

Through the storm of having to tangle through the weeds of our operations, I realized we did not need another person. We needed to automate and bring our internal systems to a new level. Just as we assess and recommend systems improvements and overhauls to our clients, we needed to look at our internal systems with the same eye.

I started my career at Accenture and worked at other consulting firms before moving into operations at Actualize in business process redesign, vendor evaluation, and system implementations. I even have my MBA in Information Systems. As you can imagine, I was beating myself up for not seeing the answer sooner. Yes, I am human and was caught in the tangle of weeds. I had an “aha” moment and had to laugh at myself as I also needed a reminder of the importance of reviewing your processes, procedures, and systems on a regular basis. Geez, we do this all the time for our clients, so I put on my consulting hat and dug in.
We are currently evaluating new systems to support our internal operations using the same Actualize developed vendor selection process we use with our clients.

When was the last time you reviewed your processes, procedures, and systems to create and maintain efficiencies to support your firm’s growth?
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I know it can be a daunting thought to review all, so I suggest starting with asking yourself the following questions to determine where you can start.
1.      Are there manual processes that are hindering operational efficiencies? For example, our manual process of tracking resources was not meeting our needs, so automation of data is necessary.
2.      Can you identify a person or team that is overworked? In our case, our entire internal team was overburdened with manual processes, again a sign to automate.
3.      Is there data you need but do not have easy access to run your business? We see this all the time with our clients of needing more access to their Treasury or Mortgage data. Internally, the manual spreadsheets were not robust.
Bottom line, with ever-changing technology and innovation it is imperative that you take the time to review your processes, procedures, and systems regularly.
At Actualize, we use this methodology with our clients and utilize internally as well. We stay on the forefront of the industry innovations.