6 Must-Haves for Your Corporate Success in the New Year!

I am so excited to kick off a new year. I absolutely love the transition of being able to kind of look at what's been done in the past and really consider, okay, how can I amp it up even more? So are you ready? Are you ready to come into this new year with positivity, optimism, with confidence and certainty and a really clear idea of what it is you want to focus on and achieve in the new year. So today we're going to be talking about and giving you 6 key things that you really want to ensure that you have. And we're going to look at it mainly from your work perspective. If you want corporate success, These are 6 things that you should absolutely ensure that you have laid out, thought about, are intentional about, and are working toward, um, putting into place. And if you already have into place, then making sure that you're acting on it consistently each and every day throughout the year so you can achieve the goals and the dreams that you have for yourself. All right, so stay Stay with us. Welcome, welcome, welcome to Shading the Corporate Bitch, the podcast that transforms female corporate executives into powerhouse leaders by showing them how to shed the challenges and overwhelm, along with any fear, insecurity, self-doubt, and negativity holding them back. I'm your host, Bernadette Boas of Follow Fire Coaching, bringing you powerhouse discussions each week to share tips, advice, and sometimes tough love so you create the riches in your work and life you deserve. Let's do this! I want to make a toast. I want to make a toast to every one of you out in our Shedding the Bitch community for making this past year the most transformative, growth-oriented, uh, fun, exciting, challenging, um, inquisitive, curious, and just overall a fabulous, fabulous year. And I'm So looking forward continuing our growth and our relationship and our bonding in the coming weeks and months of the new year. I hope you are too. And that's why I really wanted to arm you with 6 must-haves that will really help to ensure that you have the corporate success, the success at work that you're looking for. All right. So we're going to walk through, uh, these 6 must-haves with some tips along the way. Make note of them, all right? And then I would love to connect with you. You can go out to LinkedIn and join me there, uh, to leave your comments or questions, or if you're having any, you know, challenges of your own, really kind of working your way into the new year with a lot of clarity and a lot of confidence and energy and determination, persistence and consistency, uh, then, you know, feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn with any of your comments or your questions. All right, but let's get into the 6 must-haves for your corporate success. The first one, as anyone can imagine, is goals. It is a new year. Uh, we're not talking resolutions, although, you know, there's— it's a slippery slope. Um, but we're talking about goals, and there's, you know, different views on goals, whether or not you need them or not, whether or not they're valuable, whether or not they really help you achieve anything. I will only share with you within myself and within my community, both professionally, uh, with my clients, as well as within my Shedding the Bitch community. Goals are very important. Goals give us our compass. Goals give us our direction, our purpose. We know what we're getting out of bed each and every day for and working our tails off, not working necessarily hard, but smart, and really kind of staying focused on that direction that we've set for ourselves. That's why I find goals to be very important. Now, as you can imagine, there is a whole slew of experts out there sharing how they define, how they help individuals define their goals. And one of the primary methods that, that is out there is the SMART goal methodology. And I have to say, I haven't found much beyond the SMART goal methodology. And you know, why recreate something that's already out there than the SMART methodology? But I have put my Bernadette spin on it, and I call them SMARTie goals. So I will share with you exactly what that looks like, go into it just a little bit, what the methodology overall is. But then you can always go back to January 3rd, so the first episode of last year, and, um, take a look or listen at that full episode that goes into the SMARTie goal methodology. Um, but let me give it to you, um, simplistically. So the SMART goal methodology is an acronym, uh, of specific, measurable, actionable, um, relevance, and time-bound. And it looks like pretty much S being specific— be as specific as possible about what it is that you want to achieve, what, what it is that you want to obtain. Feel it, uh, smell it, touch it, visualize it, uh, you know, just go through all the senses and make it as realistic in the present as possible. That's your specific, that's your S. M is measurable. You have to know what it is, what that goal, what that measurement is against that goal, uh, what is that, of what it is that you're trying to come up with measurements that support that very, very, very specific goal that you have. Look at— when you look at specifics, I'll go back to for a second— look at who, what, where, when, why, how, you know, when it comes to really getting into all those specifics. And then make sure the measurements support those specifics. And then of course you have to have actions, a plan of action against those goals, those specifics, of which you have those measurements. So you want to ensure that you lay out in the finest detail all the actions, all the steps you need to take to achieve those goals, measurements that you've defined. And then there's the R. Now, in, you know, a lot of cases, R as being relevant. I define R as realistic. Is it realistic for for an individual to have set these very, you know, specific goals with these measurements. Are those realistic? Is it realistic that they can and will take all of these actions? So you really want to look at the entirety of your goals and ask yourself, is this going to be realistic? Because you don't want to set yourself up for failure at the very beginning. You know, is it realistic that I'm going to be able to achieve what I want to achieve? Taking the actions I'm going to take, hitting those measurements, hitting those targets, whatever, you know, those are, let alone the frequency of, you know, those milestones you might define within your goals. And lastly, from the SMART methodology perspective, there's a T, which means time-bound. Of course, there is no such thing as a goal if there's no time limit, time constraint of when you want to achieve that goal. Without the T, without the time limit, you're just looking at a dream or a wish or a hope. You need to have that time. I'm going to achieve this goal, or even milestones before that big goal, by X date. Okay, then my spin on it, because with— without this last letter, this last part of the process, you really don't have anything, and that is your why. That is Y being you, not why being the word W-H-Y, but Y being you. You have to be all in. You— once you define this SMART, SMARTY goal framework for yourself, you have to then make a commitment, almost like you sign a piece of paper saying, yes, I sign off on these specifics, measurements, actions The fact that it's realistic and these time limits, and therefore now you've turned them into SMARTIE goals, of which you're all in on them. All right. So again, if you want even further breakdown with a lot of examples and, you know, walking through all those steps, go back to our, um, early January of last year's episode, which is called SMARTIE Goals, and you'll get a full breakdown of that methodology. All right? So that's the first must-have as you walk into this new year. Now the second one, find your why spot. Why are you going to work your tail off pursuing all those actions, achieving those measurements within the time limit that you've set for those specific goals that you wanna achieve? Why? What is it about those goals that is important to you. Dig deep. Your why spot is deep. It's not just, well, I want to lose a lot of weight. Why? Well, because I want, you know, the scale to read, you know, a lower number. I want to fit into a pair of jeans. I want to, you know, I want to wear this, you know, bathing suit come summer. Those are all great reasons for— and if it gets you motivated and gets you taking action, in, in towards your goals, that's fabulous. But there's a deeper reason for that why. It could even be things like, I want to, I want to prove to myself that I can. I want to create a legacy. I want to have meaning and purpose in my life. I want to serve others. I want to see the change and the transformation. On people's faces and, and see them experiencing their aha moment in life. Because that brings me such joy. That's mine, by the way. I love— there is nothing better than watching other people achieve their goals, other people being successful, other people doing things that they don't expect or they never thought they would, or taking that risk that they were so afraid to take and they've avoided and ignored for so long. There is nothing, nothing better. And that is my why. So really spend time asking yourself questions around your goals as far as why are these goals so important? Why will I make these sacrifices, compromises, uh, and do this work? Why am I going to X, Y, and Z? What are my passions? What is driving me? What is emotionally coming up for me when it comes to looking at this goal and these action plans and measurements that I've defined? Why? Why am I on this earth? What is the meaning and the purpose of me being here? Why am I here? That is the why you wanna get to. All right. And of course, at any time, that you have any questions or comments or you need some help around this, then, you know, you could do one of two things. Reach out to me on LinkedIn, simple, @BernadetteBoas, and leave me a comment, leave me a question, reach out on a DM, ask for some help, ask for, you know, to, to talk for a bit, uh, if you're at all— whether it's defining your goals or even understanding and digging deep and really getting down to your core why, then don't hesitate to do that. And of course, you can always schedule some time with me. You can just go to coachmebernadette.com/discoverycall, and let's have a conversation about it. All right, you're not alone, and we're going to make this coming year even more successful and more exciting and more fun and transformative than the years in the before. All right. So that was your why spot. Number 3 is accountability. Of course, you can lay out this great plan with these beautifully defined, you know, goals and measurements and action plans and say it's realistic and time-bound. And you know your why, you know, it is just firmly, deeply embedded in everything that you do. Well, then you start acting and you start waning and you start getting discouraged and other people are discouraging you or trying to sabotage you. And then you're questioning yourself and doubting yourself, and all of a sudden you're falling, you know, off your, your goal, off your plan. You could even go back to your wine. You're starting to question, was that— is that really realistic? Talk about your R, you know. Am I, you know, am I too big for my britches? Am I thinking that this goal that I have is just, you know, beyond my capability. And so you just start getting discouraged. Well, you need to ensure that you have some sort of tool or individual or process to keep you accountable, to ensure that if you said that you were going to be taking these actions, you're going to be due— it was— it's going to be due by this date. Then, as opposed to just not, you know, not owning up to it, not taking responsibility, you start making excuses. It's probably why 97% of individuals who make New Year's resolutions kind of throw them aside with it before the end of the month, before the first month of the year even, you know, closes out, because they lack accountability. They lack either a process or a structure or an individual to be— to hold them accountable. So you also, as you're working on your goals and you're really digging deep into your why, you need to to ask yourself and find what is it that is going to keep me accountable? How can I keep myself accountable? What is going to happen if all of a sudden I'm not holding myself accountable? I'm making excuses, you know, I'm ignoring, avoiding, deleting, whatever the case might be. What is my accountability, uh, process to making sure that I stay on track? Because my why You know, if it's that deeply seated, your, you know, your why should bring you back even though you might get off track and it's natural, but your why should pull you back on track and into your accountability place. I mean, I'll never forget when I first started my business. It was first called the Boas Group. And I laugh at it because it was just so ridiculous to me. I had this idea when I left corporate that it would be this like, you know, mega conglomerate consulting business, you know, compete with IBM and be as big as IBM and whatnot. So I structured it around the very formal, polished, rigid experience that I had throughout my corporate career. And I called it the Boas Group because I wanted it to be big. And if it brought in family members to be part of it, That would be fabulous. Um, and yet for the first year and a half, 18 months, I just never could sell it. Not sell it to the point where I was getting clients— that was the end result, that I wasn't getting clients— but I couldn't sell it to myself. It was— it wasn't congruent and in alignment with who I was. It wasn't my why. It didn't feed my why. It fed a lot of other things like my ego and my greed and whatnot at the time, but it really didn't feed my deep city. Why? Because I didn't understand it. I didn't know it at first. And so I would kind of, you know, find myself sitting on my couch, you know, not prospecting, not networking, not engaging, not, you know, positioning or presenting, uh, what I was, you know, servicing and what I was putting out there as part of the Boas Group. And I didn't have anything, not even a process at the time, of holding myself accountable. So it was kind of like, well, no one's like looking over my shoulder, or no one's questioning me. I no longer work, you know, in corporate, so I no longer have a boss. I'm the boss. And so it was really easy to lose, um, uh, focus and accountability. Because it was just me to answer to at the time. So I first got an expert, you know, an accountability partner to help me. And then with the tools and the practices and the processes that she helped me with for, you know, a couple of years, I then was able to hold myself accountable as I moved forward. But that didn't stop me from then ensuring that I always had a pseudo-accountability partner, you know, in my corner. Which brings me to number 4: a mentor or a coach. Um, having someone in your corner working with you directly, one-on-one— you could be in a group environment, but one-on-one, uh, really also helps to ensure that accountability. Now, what's the difference between a mentor a coach, uh, because they could be different things. Either one of them could be, uh, personal relationships that you have, so someone that you're not hiring professionally. But there's also professional mentors, there's also professional coaches out there. I'm a professional coach, uh, that you can engage, that you can hire, uh, to support you. A mentor is going to be somebody that Um, you already— I like to think, I like to have my clients focus on a mentor that they already know. They know of their accomplishments, they know of their achievements, they may even know of their ups and downs that the individual has had. They respect them, they hold them in high regard, they have confidence in them that if they were to share with them some very personal, confidential type of information, they're going to hold that trust., between them, and therefore they engage this individual in a mentoring relationship, of which is around guidance, advice, and counsel. Um, and the mentoree, which would be you, for instance, the mentoree would be in, in what I'll call in the lead of that relationship. So they would ensure that they have a really good understanding of why they want to mentor, what the objective is, what it is they want to accomplish from that relationship, how they want that relationship to operate, meaning, you know, we're going to meet once a quarter, once, you know, once every couple months for an hour, for a half hour, on a phone call, in person, at lunch, whatever the case might be. The mentoree ensures the structure and the objective of the relationship and then shares it with that individual and then ensures that their mentoring sessions and mentoring relationship is initiated, executed, however you might want to refer to it, and accomplished. So a mentor provides advice, counsel, guidance. Say you have an opportunity to advance and you want their advice around it. Say you want to learn how to work with certain individuals or certain types of individuals, personalities, styles. You could— you would ask this individual, this mentor, for advice and ideas around— if you are struggling with something, you might ask them for their counsel as to how to handle it. That's a mentor. A coach— a coach is someone who really invests in your goals. They invest in you establishing a goal, those measurements, everything we talked about in the goals piece, and work at you working toward them to achieve them. So they almost are invested in you achieving your goals, and in some cases, you not achieving them. Because what a coach isn't going to do is they're not going to do the work for you. They're not going to necessarily tell you what to do. Coaches often should be asking you a lot of questions for you to come up with the answers and to come up with what it is that you need to be doing next. Now, sometimes— and I'm a coach/consultant— sometimes, you know, they will interject, you know, ideas, or they may lead you to the question or the answer or the next step or the action that needs to be taken. They're never— not necessarily going to prescribe it out for you. They're going to want you to kind of formulate your own responses, so to speak. So, but a coach is also going to, you know, understand what that goal is, understand what those measurements and action plans and time limits are. So then you're working toward them, they're holding you accountable. So there's an element of how you can incorporate accountability and then, you know, they're, they're targeting that end, end timeline and goal with you as a partner. Okay, but having one or even both, but having one of those two in your, in your network as you go into and advance through your career is just really vital because it provides you that, that individual that, you know, you can fall back on. You, you're not going to fall back on them to where then they're gonna like, you know, kind of, um, uh, solve the problem for you or get you to that next level. But they are there to, again, advise, counsel, guide you, uh, so you make the decisions, you take the actions, you take responsibility and accountability for your progress. Um, so it's just key. And it— and you find that those, especially those with more coaches than mentors, because again, mentors are there to advise, guide, and counsel. Add to it the fact that a coach is invested in those short-term goals, or even long-term in some instances, and you taking the steps and the actions and the accountability to get yourself there. Um, and so you can imagine that your accelerated success as a result. All right, now it feeds right into our number 5 must-have, and that would be having your posse or your tribe, a network around you. You might often hear that the 5 people closest to you in your circle, uh, pretty much determines your degree of success and your achievement, because we attract who we are, right? We, we kind of bond with people that are very much like us. And therefore, a simple example would be, therefore, if you're always hanging out with, you know, with people at your same level, if you're hanging out with the people that, you know, are in the same economic level that you are, or the same, uh, career level that you are, and you don't have anyone in your network, in your close bonded tribe, that is where you want to go and where do you want to eventually land up, well then you're oftentimes going to be persuaded and influenced and pressured to stay right where you are. That often happens a personal life perspective, as far as, uh, say, say you're surrounded by individuals that aren't necessarily fit and focused on their health and fitness and, um, activity and, uh, wellness, and you, you want to be— you want to, you know, your new goal is you're going to run a marathon, or you're going to go into a, you know, weightlifting competition, or you're going to take on losing a whole slew of pounds while getting, getting fit, maybe doing triathlons, whatever the case might be. If you're surrounded by individuals that have nothing in common with that, you're gonna— you may struggle. I won't say you won't, you won't achieve. You may struggle because they're not going to be able to relate to you anymore, okay? They're going to have a hard time supporting something that they don't get, understand, or believe that they can do themselves. So what you want to be doing as you're working on even defining a goal and then working on that goal is, is to start surrounding yourself with other athletes, with other, you know, competitors, with other, um, individuals that have lost a lot of weight. And you want to be asking for their advice and guidance and support and mentoring. And therefore, you know, you're, you're now attracting, you know, those individuals of where you want to be, not just who you are. All right, so you really want to work on building a network around you when it comes to your corporate success of building your tribe or network. It's really not only that mentor or coach, but it's also building relationships with those individuals that are at a position or positions up the ladder that you want to eventually obtain. So you're seeking kind of what their challenges have been, what their best practices have been. You're watching them for setting examples, how to lead, how to communicate, how to engage, how to deal with conflict. You're using them and not using them. You're leveraging them in such a way that it's helping you grow and it's helping you expand. And so you really want to, you know, build a network around you of those that support you, advocate you, sponsor you, uh, will mentor you, will motivate you, will give you that kind of that carrot, um, out there, uh, that says that you can do it because they did it too, and you can do it because you are capable of doing it, and you can do it because you are talented and skilled and have all these things working for you. Um, so you want a network that is both, what, you know, up-level than from yourself, but also has the attitude and the energy and the confidence and the certainty, you know, that you're looking for, and has the example such as being a leader, that you're seeking to have for yourself. Find that tribe of individuals, personally and professionally actually, that will support you, motivate you, sponsor you, and take you to, to your goals and objectives. All right, so that's number 5. But number 6 will influence everything we just talked about, about you having goals, understanding your why spot, being accountable, having a mentor or coach and building your network. It's got— whether you have one or not is going to determine whether or not all those first 5 must-haves will be accomplished. And that is your mindset, a positive, confident, energizing, collaborative, engaging, serving mindset. Because without really focusing on your mindset on a day-in, day-out basis, again, you could build all these wonderful things— goals and knowing your why spot and being accountable and having a network and having a mentor or coach in your corner— and yet if your mindset is skewed in a negative, pessimistic, you know, low self-worth type of way, then none of that will matter. So if that is the current state in any way, shape, or form, and to any degree, if that is a state of mind of yours right now, then all you need to do is to find the practices, find the resources, find the tools, find the individuals or even professionals that will help you kind of transform or shift your mindset. To a place that is going to attract to you, uh, everything that you want, as opposed to repel. Um, I'll never— I'll never, uh, want to live through it again, but I'll never forget when I realized that for the first, I would say, 6 or 7 years, maybe even 8 years of my business, I was more so pushing business away, or pushing opportunities— I'll call it opportunities— personally and professionally away than I was attracting them. And actually, I probably did that from even a relationship perspective. Um, I was pushing them away for many, many, many years because of my mindset, because I didn't feel like I was worthy, that I was capable. I didn't believe in myself as to the degree that my outward appearance made it appear that I did. Um, you know, I was definitely seen as someone very confident, someone very strong, knows what, what she wants. And in the meantime, I was like a little baby crying, you know, inside. Uh, so you never know what someone or who someone really is unless you get under the covers. Um, but assuming you're not going to do that, you don't need to worry about that. You just need to get under the covers of your own skin. And really understand where your mindset is at regarding the goals that you're looking to achieve, the actions you need to take to achieve them by the timeline that you've defined, and being and really living your why, understanding your purpose and your reason for being here and the reasons you're really going after and working your ass off for those goals. And then, you know, ensuring that you're being accountable, not making excuses, not deflecting, not deferring, not you know, um, delaying or deleting, not ignoring, uh, you know, making sure that you're being accountable. And if you happen to be blessed and happen to have done the work to find a mentor or a coach and have the network that will help you kind of not only get there but maintain it and then enhance it and enrich it and grow your mindset, uh, then you're definitely going to struggle. And I don't want that happening to you because there's no need for you to struggle. So each and every day, you need to find those practices, those resources, and those people that will help you really dig deep, understand who you are, what it is you truly want, um, what you're willing to do to, to achieve it, and then work on chipping away and shedding, as we say here, shedding all of those fears, insecurities, doubts, and negativities that could be causing any type of resistance to you, you attracting what you want. But I know when I took a look at why I don't have a relationship, why I am not getting the clients that I want, um, not, you know, having the bank account that I want, not being able to do the work that I want to do to, you know, kind of transform people's lives. When I really started being honest with myself as far as why those things were not happening for me, things started transforming, things started changing. All of a sudden, things were— I was like a magnet. For the past several years, um, I have been like a magnet when it comes to areas of my life. Not all of them, not all of them, um, but areas of my life that I, you know, you know, had certain goals around. And all of a sudden I became a magnet because I, I tapped into my mindset, into exactly what was holding me back, what was really causing me angst or negativity or self-doubt, and then being courageous enough to start shedding and doing the work to totally transform my state of being, my mindset, into, into a mindset that was definitely going to attract others. And the most simplistic way I can illustrate this is if you've ever had been— if you've ever had a bad day and you've gone out into the world, uh, with a, with kind of like a scowl on your face, you know, and, you know, maybe you're not smiling, maybe your eyebrows and your forehead's all kind of clenched, you know, tight, uh, and you really pay attention to how other people respond to you in that state, in that mindset, you're probably going to find people responding to you in the same exact way you're putting out to them. They're going to be scowling, they're going to have clenched, they're, you know, maybe not even looking at you or paying attention to you or they might get snippy with you. Whereas even if you're in a bad mood and yet you put a smile on your face, you put a smile on your face and all of a sudden you're immediately smiling inside. It's almost like you can't avoid it. And so then you put it— you have the smile on your face and you go out in the world, and the next thing you know, you realize people are smiling back at you. People are saying hi. People are, you know, kind of engaging you versus avoiding you. Try it. Whether you're in a good mood or a bad mood one day and you're conscious of this discussion, try it and see what happens. I can guarantee you, you smile, you're going to get a smile back. You scowl, you're going to get a scowl back. So what you put out, you're going to attract. So if you're getting in your life— or not getting in your life, what you don't want, then you're gonna need to shift it. And so you want to find that mindset that's more attractive than deflective. Okay, so your 6 must-haves for your corporate success: goals, your why spot, accountability, having that mentor and coach, building that network of people that are going to lift you up, and then having that mindset that ensures that all those other 5 things come easily. Not that it's going to be without challenge or struggle or discouragement on a day or two, but at the same time, you have a mindset that will help you get over it quickly. Okay. All right. So as you go into the new year, and if you're questioning how to go about any of this or all of this, uh, they sound simple but they're very hard to implement, you might be saying to yourself, or they just sound too much and you need to cull it down, whatever the case might be, then reach out and schedule some time and let's talk. Just go to Discover— or I'm sorry, just go to coachmebernadette.com/discoverycall and let's have a conversation about it. Let's ensure that you're walking into a new week, a new month, a new year with exactly what is going to allow you to be successful, happy, fulfilled, with purpose and meaning that will give you such joy. And then obviously you have joy and everything and everyone around you will have joy as well. All right, I'm excited. I'm so excited for this this, uh, new year, this new chapter that we're all walking into, and let's write an unbelievable story behind it. And I'll look forward to having you for our next episode of Shedding the Corporate Bitch. Bye!