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“Creating Successful Leaders”

Tag Archives: Margaret Smith

November 21, 2011 Have You Stopped Learning?

By Margaret Smith, Speaker, Career Coach, and Certified Insights Discovery Practitioner

In a recent newsletter a friend of mine posed the following question:
How often are you consciously and intentionally being a learner?

His subject prompted me to think about all of the different places in my life where I learn, and I wondered at whether or not I was learning intentionally and consciously, instead of just out of necessity.

I have always encouraged those I work with to be lifelong learners, and I strive to be one myself. Because of this, I’ve decided to revisit this amazing habit.

Why YOU Should Be a Lifelong Learner:

  • Learning boosts your self-esteem
  • Learning keeps your mind fresh
  • Learning gives you a personal and inner source of fulfillment
  • Learning can make you money because you may advance your professional skills and learn new skills
  • Learning makes you more valuable at home, work, and in your community
  • Learning makes you a more interesting person because you can converse with a variety of people about a variety of topics

Tips for Keeping up the Habit of Learning:

  • Read books: No matter your pace of reading, keep a book with you to fill your unanticipated open time.
  • Engage others interested in learning: Spending time with other learners benefits you because you share knowledge and encourage one another.
  • Look for opportunities to apply your knowledge: Have you studied a second language, but haven’t used it in years? Join a conversation group or sign up for community education!
  • Be more open-minded: try things that you may have previously eschewed. After all, how do you know until you’ve tried it?!
  • Finally begin that project: You know the one, the project you’ve been meaning to get to for the last year that requires you to try something new and possibly develop a new skill.
  • Accept feedback from others: Listen to the advice and observations of those you trust and be willing to change.

Do you have a story about your own lifelong learning? What are some habits you’ve formed to make learning a part of your life today?

Interested in learning more about listening or working one-on-one with a professional career coach to gain a competitive edge? CONTACT MARGARET TODAY to learn about career coaching and UXL’s public workshops!

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November 18, 2011 Congrats to My St. Catherine University Sales Students

I am so proud of my sales students for their stellar performance at this year’s “Can’t Beat the Experience” national team sales competition at Indiana University:
From the Center for Sales Innovation: National Sales Competition Offered Real-Life Lessons

Four Healthcare Sales seniors competed as a team at a recent national team sales competition at Indiana University. Left to right are Ali Marson, Haley Kelliher, Amanda Braun, Kelsey Kromminga, who say that the competition’s case was similar to cases presented in St. Kate’s business classes.

A team of Healthcare Sales seniors placed in the top 10 out of 21 participating universities in the recent “Can’t Beat the Experience” National Team Sales Competition. Hosted by Indiana University, the event showcased presentations made in support of a private-label, organic popcorn sold into a fictional store. The students were judged based on their product packaging, sampling and social media solutions.”We had a morning appointment with one of the buyers/managers of this fictitious store to ask questions and dig for problems so that we could present solutions,” according to Kelsey Kromminga. “This allowed us to apply our classroom learning — role-playing around questioning, asking open-ended questions and building rapport — and ideas from the bookBeyond Selling Value.”

Alison Marson said that learning to take critical feedback is an important take-away from this competition. She said, “The judging processes helped us to understand the meaning of ‘no’ from a customer. Sometimes you need to dig deeper and ask more questions to gain information to solve the customer’s problem. That’s where our classroom skills in overcoming objections came into play as we centered around a solution fit for the customer.”

“Prepare, prepare, prepare,” said Haley Kelliher, who thinks that everyone should have the opportunity to compete like this during their college experience. “It provides the best learning and real-life experience.”

All students expressed that they had overthought some of their ideas and, looking back, wished they had stuck with their intuition because some of the original ideas offered better benefits. They also learned the importance of time management and working as a team.

Thanks for all of your hard work, SCU Sales students!

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November 14, 2011 Get a Life

By Margaret Smith
Speaker | Career Coach | Certified Insights Discovery Practitioner

Making your voice heard, being noticed, overcoming your inner saboteur, improving interactions with others: These are many of the topics I discuss with my coaching clients. These are also many of the topics that the writer Julie Morgenstern addresses in her article, “Five Ways to Get a Life” published in O Magazine. Read on for a bunch of useful and fun advice about taking back your life!

Morgenstern’s Advice:

  1. Shorten your work day by 30 minutes: This may seem counter-intuitive, but I promise that you’ll get more work done because committing to leave earlier gives you a deadline and forces you to eliminate the little time wasters (silly interruptions, procrastination, perfectionism) that typically eat up your day.
  2. Avoid multi-tasking: Recent studies show that it can take the brain twice as long to process each task when you switch back and forth between activities. By learning to focus your full attention on one project at a time, you can regain the extra hour or two you crave.
  3. Break the habit of total self-reliance: Insisting on doing everything yourself burdens you and prevents others from feeling valuable and needed. Delegate more at home and free up your time for things you love and excel at doing.
  4. Capture all your to do’s in one place: People who haphazardly write lists on stray notepads, post-it notes, and backs of envelopes waste time wondering what to do next and worrying that they’re forgetting something. Choose only one tool to track everything you need to do and prioritize from the top down.
  5. Schedule one purely joyful activity each week: Think of an activity (dancing, reading, playing an instrument) that you haven’t done for a long time that brings you instant happiness. Put it in your datebook as nonnegotiable and watch the quality of your life improve.

Also try to start each morning with the most important item, not the many small and easy tasks. Remember that you can always squeeze the little things into the gaps.

Your Challenge: Give one of these life-improving ideas a try, and let me know how it transforms your day!

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