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FranklinCovey Blog | Jennifer Colosimo
Saying “No” Effectively
Sometimes a request may come your way, but it doesn’t align with highest priorities. At work, it is a cubicle drive-by, an IM, or an e-mail:
“Lisa, could your team . . .”
And you think, “We could, but it doesn’t align with what is important to the organization right now or my team’s critical path.” Don’t say that, not unless you think you can get results without relationships (you can’t, not long-term anyway) OR as a last result.
At home, it is a phone call at 7:00 p.m.: “Hi Teresa, the Girl Scout cookie mom can’t do it again this year. Can I put you down for it?”
And your mind races: “But I already volunteered to chaperone the camping trip, and help with the school carnival, not to mention my work on the Food Bank fundraiser . . .but wouldn’t a good mother, a mother who didn’t work, wouldn’t she say yes?”
Let me be clear, Executive Mamas don’t say “yes” to everything. They sometimes say “no”—EFFECTIVELY, in a way that builds relationships and reputation, not in a way that destroys them.
Here’s some suggestions:
To a boss:
“I’d be happy to. I am currently working on x, y, and z. Could we re-visit the timing on those so I could complete this project?”
“Of course. This looks like about 3 days worth of work. Should I table x, y, and z and work on this for the next three days? Or is b an acceptable completion date?”
“Could you tell me a little bit more so I could see how this fits in with my other commitments?”
To a colleague:
“I’m not sure. Let’s talk about deadlines, scope, final product so I can tell you if I could help.”
“I can’t do it by x. Is y soon enough?”
“I have to tell you—I don’t know that I can. Maybe I can offer up some thoughts as to how you might accomplish that without me?”
To a child who wants to add another after school activity to their already packed schedule:
“No, no, a thousand times no! Don’t you see that this overlaps with basketball practice? How can you expect to add another drop off/pick up to your already Presidential schedule?” (OK, that one was a bit autobiographical and not very effective. But I strongly believe you should tell them the truth. I know a woman who refuses to accept that little Sally might miss one activity, one party, one experience. Sally is a horrible child because she believes the entire world revolves around her desires. )
Executive Mamas say no. With grace.
Author: Jennifer Colosimo, Chief Learning Officer at FranklinCovey
Follow Jennifer on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jencolosimo
Find Career Fulfillment in Tough Times with new iPhone App
With the national unemployment rate in double digits and talk about layoffs and the economic crisis dominating newscasts and dinner tables everywhere, it’s no secret that today’s employees and job-seekers are more stressed, discouraged, and drained than ever.
To help people find work and career fulfillment in these tough economic times, Stephen Covey, author of the best-seller, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, and Jennifer Colosimo, chief learning officer at FranklinCovey, have launched the Great Career iPhone application, which was developed in partnership by FranklinCovey and Signal Patterns based on their new book Great Work, Great Career.
Get the Great Career iPhone application at iTunes at: http://bit.ly/GreatCareer
The Great Career iPhone app can be used in conjunction with the content in Stephen Covey and Jennifer Colosimo’s book or independently. Its specific activities and functionality include:
- Know Your Strengths – Research-based assessments help users to discover personality, strengths and career interests
- Define Your Contribution – A contribution statement builder helps users specifically define how they can match their strengths, talents and passions to an opportunity that matters to an employer.
- Build Your Village – A unique network-building and -nurturing tool; enables users to take specific actions and track them to build and maintain their most important career relationships
- Find Resources – Helps users identify “hidden resources” that can assist them to overcome specific challenges, or take advantage of promising opportunities, in building their career
- Action Center – Tracks, prioritizes and accomplishes all the necessary tasks to build and maintain a great career
- Ask an Expert – Allows users to submit questions to Stephen Covey and Jennifer Colosimo as well as get answers to frequently asked career questions.
Get the Great Career iPhone application at iTunes http://bit.ly/GreatCareer
Click here to get the Great Work, Great Career book.
Great Work, Great Career
This week I have a book coming out called Great Work, Great Career about finding and great work building, over time, a great career. It focuses on how you contribute, what you contribute, and tactical elements like interviewing, writing resumes, and focusing on what you can influence, not on what you can’t. You can see some blog posts regarding the book (some of them mine) in the Great Work, Great Career blog page. You can also follow me on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jencolosimo.
Of course, Executive Mamas build Great Careers. How is yours going?
Author: Jennifer Colosimo, Chief Learning Officer at FranklinCovey
![jennifer_colosimo[1]](http://www.franklincovey.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/jennifer_colosimo12-189x200.jpg "jennifer_colosimo[1]")
How to reach the mountain top.
Some of the really interesting questions that keep popping up regarding Great Work, Great Career are related to challenges: unemployment; socioeconomic challenges including poverty and education levels, race, gender, age; you name it, I’ve been asked about how GWGC addresses challenges. There is a great quote that says, “When you see a man on top of a mountain, you can be sure he wasn’t dropped there.” And, in effect, people who ask the “challenges” questions are saying, “Right, but some people were helicoptered to the ledge just below the top and some started out in the swamp 100 miles west of the base of the mountain. Some people have an easier hike.”
I agree. › Continue reading
New Book: Great Work, Great Career
I totally have an unfair advantage and read all the FranklinCovey new book titles well before you do. And I try not to hold that over you but I got to tell you about a great new book I just read today: Great Work, Great Career by Stephen Covey and Jennifer Colosimo.
This book re-inspired me and reignited my passion for what I do. I tell people I love my job but after reading this and going through the exercises I have come to realize that I really do LOVE my job. I have my dream job working and plus I work best people in the world. Well of course you do, you might say. You work at FranklinCovey where the people are highly effective, right? › Continue reading
Building Trust
I was in a meeting earlier this week with 20 people from around the world and the strangest feeling came over me. I trusted everyone in the room—their intent, their integrity, and their ability to deliver.
Maybe this happens to you all the time. Maybe if I were quicker to extend trust it would happen more often to me. But as it currently stands, sometimes I feel like I don’t know enough about a person—their character and competence—to trust. Sometimes a person has behaved in ways that have broken trust. Regardless, it is rare for me to trust an entire room full of people. And it felt great! You’ll laugh, but I felt tears spring to my eyes when I thought about it. It didn’t mean I agreed with them on everything or that the meeting was easy, but things were easier to achieve because I assumed good intent.
I had worked with everyone in that room for at least three years and with some for over a decade. I trusted them because they had kept commitments, they had talked to me straight, and they all delivered results. Does this happen to you often? Or never? What else builds trust for Executive Mamas?
Author: Jennifer Colosimo, Chief Learning Officer at FranklinCovey
Great Work Great Career – Complimentary Webcast
When we say that a person has had a great career, what do we mean? That he or she made a lot of money? Moved spectacularly up the corporate ladder? Became famous or renowned in their profession?
And what about you? Are you looking forward to a great career? Would you describe your current career as “great”?
How do you create a great career for yourself? Can you have a great career and still have a great life at the same time, keeping the things you love – family, friends, work, and play – all in balance?
The answer is, “It depends.” It depends on how you want to contribute and how you define balance.
Based on content featured in the soon to be released book Great Work, Great Career, by Dr. Stephen R. Covey and Jennifer Colosimo, in this webcast Jennifer will share critical, insightful principles and practices to help you discover your great career by discovering what your contribution will be and how you will make it.
Specifically in this free webcast you will learn:
- How to begin identify your strengths, as summed up by your talents, passion, and conscience.
- Tips on how to craft a Contribution Statement.
- How to use your resourcefulness and initiative to get the job you want and overcome obstacles to making your contribution.
- How to create a network of supporters, both co-workers and clients—who can help you achieve your career goals.
When: Friday, November 20, 2009
Time: 1:00 p.m. ET/12:00 p.m. CT/11:00 a.m. MT/10:00 a.m. PT
Cost: Complimentary
Register at: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/198135273
Source Code: GCCB
Please join us, we would love to have you attend.
A Business Case for Women
Ernst & Young (E&Y) presented a white paper at Davos that shows that companies with more women executives make more money than their less female-populated competitors as measured by EBITDA, return on invested capital, and net profits. Very cool! However, I’m not thinking that just any woman in the role makes a difference. Obviously, the woman needs character and competence and leadership capability and a whole host of things we can explore on later posts. For today, here are some questions related to the E&Y study to consider if you are a woman that aspires to an executive role:
- 1. Do you know how EBITDA is measured? Or even what the acronym stand for?
- 2. What about return on invested capital or net profits?
- 3. How does your company currently stand in terms of cash flow, revenues, profits?
- 4. Any idea what Davos is?
My point is this: One of the main responsibilities of an executive is fiduciary responsibility. › Continue reading
Great Mama Part II—Community, Social, Political Mamas
Maggie is a single 28 year-old woman who works full time for a recreation organization. She grew up in a town that provided numerous leadership opportunities for boys while, for girls, the emphasis was on being “nice” and above all, “pretty.” In her early 20s, she found that while there was nothing wrong with being nice, an authentic life also required some flexing of the courage muscle, and that physical beauty wasn’t enough to guarantee a meaningful life. Around the same time, Maggie read the book Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community by Dr. Robert Putnam. Dr. Putnam’s thesis is that civic disengagement is impoverishing our communities and our lives. We sign fewer petitions, belong to fewer organizations that meet, know our neighbors less-we’re even bowling alone as opposed to league bowling. And civic disengagement leads to personal disengagement, crime, and a whole host of social problems.
Maggie decided that her contribution to future women, her community, and to herself would be through the Girl Scout organization, the preeminent leadership development organization for girls with 3.6 million members worldwide. According to www.girlscouts.org, Girl Scouts are the leading authority on girls’ healthy development, and builds girls of courage, confidence and character, who make the world a better place. After two years as a troop leader for girls ages 13-15, they wrote her a thank you note that said, “Ms. Maggie, you have taught us to make good decisions and that we can make a difference. We’re going to be healthy eaters who can manage conflict. We promise to be great leaders that recognize the potential in others like you have in us.”
There is a lot to do to revive our communities. Be informed, vote, choose your civic/global contribution, and do it. Executive Mamas live by the Girl Scout Law!
What will your contribution be? Check out video titled Contribution featured in FranklinCovey’s 7 Habits for Managers workshop.
Author: Jennifer Colosimo, Vice President of Sales and Delivery Effectiveness at FranklinCovey
No Whining
Women who aspire to public influence, in any organization, face barriers to success. Research shows that aspiring women coming from an economically disadvantaged background and/or women of color have an additional layer of barriers to overcome.
I’ve been lucky in that I’ve had great female and male mentors and it seems my skill set and capabilities have been, to this point anyway, valued. So I’ve got luck. I also believe, “Luck favors the prepared.” And the prepared don’t whine. Given the historical, societal, environmental challenge and opportunities you uniquely face, you have immense choice regarding what to say and how to behave right now. According to Victor Frankl, a Nazi war camp survivor highlighted in the Signature course The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, the greatest human freedom is the ability to choose our reaction in the face of any circumstances. Imagine that instead of Susan B. Anthony saying, “Suffrage is the pivotal right,” and working her entire life to obtain voting rights for women in the United States, she had simply invested her time in complaining to the women in her knitting circle! Executive Mamas focus on what they can do, not on what they cannot.
Blame or finger-pointing and lack of personal responsibility
Keep the gloomy game going.
They keep stealing your hidden genius and potential wealth-
Giving them to a dimwit on the sidelines with
No leadership, heart, or financial skills.
Dear one,
Wise Up.
- Hafiz, fourteenth-century Sufi poet
Author: Jennifer Colosimo, Vice President of Sales and Delivery Effectiveness at FranklinCovey