The CEO of Self: Bridging Leadership from Work to Home

This is episode 256 of the Empowered Team Podcast. Welcome to the Empowered Team Podcast where we explore how to optimize your performance in career, sport and life. And now your host, executive coach and life strategist, Kari Schneider.

Welcome.

Welcome to the Empowered Team Podcast.

We're so excited to have you with us this month because as always, we have a brand new topic. So I think that many of us see a CEO, a chief executive officer as being the pinnacle of leadership and work, and really that is what we can bring to our home. However, we often don't. So this podcast is all about being the CEO of ourselves, bridging this leadership from work to home. A lot of us have the standard of professionalism, the standard of achievement, and then we don't necessarily bring it to ourselves or may not even bring it to our home. So that's what today's podcast is all about. I'm going to share with you a very, very exciting challenge we have coming up next week. And actually, at the time this is airing, this will be the day this challenge starts. So it won't be too late to get in. We will pop the link in the show notes so you could get into our Communicate Like a Queen challenge that will be coming up on as soon as the day that this podcast airs. So Monday and. And listen in. Keep listening to this because I'm going to give you three main skills that will help you bridge this professionalism that you've probably really crafted and earned and garnered in work and bring that to the home front so that you've got this skill set that really expands to give you the results you want across the board, across all the areas of your life. So let's get started. I think that we probably have a difference. If you're anything like me, you've got a difference between home and work. I know that sometimes I will have shown up for workshops, retreats, doing a presentation for a company, and then when I get home, I just want to go, ha. Do this big exhale and just kind of flop down and not be tuned in or turned on to all of what my family might be bringing me because I might have put so much out there at work that perhaps I wasn't reserving my energy or transitioning well to home. So we want to be able to be the CEO of your life and bring that level of consistency, that level of. Of showing up, if you will, across the board. So the. This has happened to me very recently as I just got home from being in Northern Ontario, Northwestern Ontario, for Almost four months. And I was working there remotely and working with my normal companies and clients during the day. And then also during the day I was overseeing a number of contractors and this meant that I would oversee the construction they were doing, the building they were doing, the demolition that was going on, the painting, the staining, all of these things on 12 different buildings in this camp that's 80 years old. As I'm restoring, restoring these logs and restoring these cabins back to life and up to a new standard. So I've got my CEO hat on. When I'm there. I have a vision, I'm being strategic, I'm planning, I'm executing actions. And these are all the roles of a CEO. A CEO is visionary. A CEO has strategy, a CEO has planning. A CEO is also the person who, who has the business results first and foremost, top of mind, realizing that there are humans that are getting those results to happen. So there's culture that has to be taken in mind into account. There are the human needs that have to be always taken care of. And the CEO has all of this going on with the vision, with the planning, with the strategy, with the actions and with the deliverables that make the result overall. That's what a CEO does. These are the people that I'm coaching and working with day in and day out. However, I transition to coming back home or being with my family and I come in and I'm treating the interactions not even close to, as professionally or close to as conscientiously as, as I would in the work environment that I've been in day to day or in that specific one for the last four months. And what happens then is a lack of connection and a lack of vision and a lack of follow through and actions that may not be the actions that we want in the home front. So I'm wearing my CEO hat on the workplace, but then when I'm coming home, it's not the CEO hat of my home. And what I'm going to invite you to do is really have the vision of what you want the leadership in your home to look like, have the result in mind of your home that you would want. So if somebody for a company has the vision of this company reaching 300,000 customers, or has the vision of producing this many million food products, or has the vision of producing these, if it's a, if it's a coaching environment for sport, producing these, this number of champions, or producing this many Olympians, whoever is CEOing, they have a vision of a result, what is your vision or Your result for, for your home life, what does it look like in your home for the day to day results, for the monthly results, for the weekly results, what does it actually look like? Because ultimately you and your partner, or maybe you alone, are the CEOs of this entity called your home. And if you want results to happen, what it what are they? Are they producing amazing humans that can function well in the world called raising your children? Are they having a home front that is welcoming and loving for all those who enter because you love to entertain? Is it having a loving, safe environment for all the family members to authentically connect in the kitchen? Perhaps. So whatever the vision is for your home, get really, really clear on it because you're the CEO of your home. If you don't have that clarity, then you're not going to be able to generate those results. So I came home from this amazing work and life and healing adventure of being up north for the last three and a half, four months. And when I came home, instead of having that conscientious communication that I know so well in, in my work and communicating to contractors, communicating to CEOs and business leaders, coaching them in communication, instead, when I got home after 20 hours of driving, I was exhausted. And what I really needed to do was communicate ahead of time, before I got home what my needs were. And I didn't do that. So when I got home and I'm exhausted and I'm seeing some things that don't work for me, my way of communicating wasn't as effective. It was just grumpy. It was, why is the fridge like this? I need food. I don't have the food I need. I thought we talked about food. It was a way that wasn't going to work for the results that I want for my home, which is a loving, connected, authentic environment. And if that's what I want as the result, then how I was showing up wasn't being the CEO of my home environment with my co CEO called my husband. And that's the difference. So what I want to bring to you today are three main skills so that you can really be the CEO of yourself, so you can really bridge your leadership. Not only have this leadership be amazing at work, but also have this leadership be incredible at home. That is the three main skills that we're going to cover. So number one is what I pointed to in your vision. You have to consciously craft your vision. Your, your vision isn't this kind of daydream that comes up every once in a while. Wouldn't it be Nice if I had a home like those people I see on tv, Wouldn't it be nice if I was like the neighbors? It's not that it's a conscious crafting of what lights you up. It's this clear, compelling vision and a plan, a strategic plan for your personal life. The exact same thing that what a CEO would do in a company. When you can define your life vision and then align it with your values, what really matters to you, that's when it's going to be really easy to go forward with that vision. Your vision is this beacon, it's this thing, it's this ideal that you know will lead you to this fulfillment filling and harmonized life. This life that may be out of balance occasionally because you're going for some goals, but a vision that compels you to go, yeah, that's what lights me up. That's what I want for my family. That's what I want for us to feel the way we really want to feel. Whether it's loving or connected or authentic or relaxed or fun or exciting or inviting. Whatever it is for you, get those feelings in place, have the vision in place. So you've got something that's visceral in your body. You know how you want to feel and it's compelling in its vision. You can see what this vision looks like. A CEO is a visionary. A CEO is the person who can see what the future looks like and bring everyone else to that vision in a way that excites them, them and is compelling. And everyone works towards that same vision. So if you're being the CEO of your life, then you're bringing your whole family, you're bringing your friends, you're bringing the people that interact with you along with your vision into your home. That vision inspires those around you to go towards that vision too. And you're bringing that for your personal life and you're bringing that for your home. So that is number one of the three skills is craft your vision, make it visceral, make it visible, make it clear for those around you. Craft your vision. Number two, we want to lead with love. And if you think of my example of coming home and being grumpy, I wasn't leading with love. If I'm going to be the CEO of my home front and be a true partner CEO with my spouse, then showing up with love is such a key factor. Lead with love. This is what empowers us and connects us with others. This enriches our relationships through this inspiring and empowering leadership. If I'M showing up as the grumpiest version of myself because I'm exhausted and haven't articulated my needs clearly ahead of time. That's on me. That's on no one else to but me. And so if I can CEO myself, then that's going to show up as leading with love in my home. And we want to make that bridge. We don't just have this professionalism at work and this leadership cap at work and then just be however we feel like being at home. We have a responsibility of managing ourselves, managing our own thoughts, managing our own emotions so that we can show up for those we love the most as a decent version of ourselves. Maybe we're not our best every single moment, but we know we can show up in a way that leads with love. And that is our skill numbers too. It will strengthen the bond, it will create a loving and supportive environment. And that's ultimately what we want in our family home. We want that. So we're going to practice our listening, we're going to be empathetic, and we're going to take care of our own needs ahead of time so that we're not susceptible to doing what I did, which we're all going to do. We're all going to make mistakes, but which is showing up grumpy, showing up exhausted because I didn't take care of myself ahead of time. Skill number three, this is good one, Embracing resilience. Any company, any business is going to see some real tough times. That's the nature of business. IT business exists to solve problems. And if you exist to solve problems in the world, then you know that you're going to be dealing with problems and there's going to need to be a level of resilience in that business. Well, same goes for the home front. Same goes for ourselves. If business exists to solve problems and we're putting on our CEO mindset, then guess what? On the home front, in leading our own personal lives, know that it's normal to have problems. Living in the world is going to mean that there's going to be some things to solve for. There's going to be some problems, there's going to be some things that come up that we don't expect. So number three, this skill of really embracing resilience, when we can be resilient and go through the problems, what we're giving ourselves is this continual learning in our life. We're giving ourselves a gift of becoming who we saw in that vision. We're becoming our future selves. We're becoming the leader that we want to be on the home front by practicing and embracing resilience. So we have the ability to view these challenges as learning opportunities, as an ability to cultivate our own growth mindset. So if I look at my grumpiness and looking at the fridge when I got home and not having the food that I wanted and being exhausted from my traveling, coming home instead of making all that wrong, I can look at that and go, okay, what was missed here? Where, where did this go wrong? And how can I just go, okay, this is my opportunity to find the growth, find the growth opportunity for my leadership and my family, for myself and for the connection with my family. That's the opportunity right there. So ultimately, this resilience, this learning, these are the pillars of self mastery. When I can see that there's a problem in myself, a problem in my home front, a problem in my life, then that gives me the opportunity to go, okay, what could I do differently? What does this look like to grow in this circumstance? If I was grumpy, why, if I didn't have my food, why? What could I have done in this situation? And ultimately I asked for certain foods, but I really didn't get clear enough. And that's what I learned is I wasn't clear enough in what my needs were before I got home. And because I have a loving family, I have amazing people, amazing support around me who love me very much and I love them. But I wasn't clear in expressing I need these particular food items when I get home because I'm going to be exhausted and not going to be able to go and get them. I need to make sure there's order in certain areas and that will help my brain, with the brain fog I'll be experiencing from the exhaustion and from the graves illness that I've been dealing with. Travel is harder on me than it was before. And that kind of authentic, clear communication is leadership. It is facing what needs to happen by me being able to see where I drop the ball. I can embrace where I can grow. And that is amazing in any leader leader's life. Embracing where we can grow embraces a growth mindset. It looks at the problem as an opportunity for becoming who we really want to be. So those challenges are learning options, learning opportunities. So we've got, number one is crafting our vision, number two, leading with love, and number three, embracing resilience. These are the three main skill sets in really being able to be the CEO of your home, be the CEO of yourself on your personal level so that you bring that in all areas of your life, not just on the professional front, not just on your, your career or your professional goals. So what I would encourage you to do is reflect on how you can apply these skills. Where can you apply them in your life? Is it in the kitchen? To be really clear and specific, is it with the communication with the kids? Is it with planning and strategizing with your spouse so that the two of you are on the same page going forward into your week? There are so many different things that you can do with these three skills so that you can be the CEO of yourself and CEO of your life. And it starts with crafting a vision. It starts with leading with love, and it starts with embracing resilience. Those three things are going to take you in the steps forward on practicing being that CEO of your life and of yourself. And it will apply to all of the things. It'll apply to your fitness, your health, your parenting, your marriage. It will apply to all of the things that really matter to you. I am incredibly grateful for you as my listeners, as people who are up to big things in the world, who are empowered and you're empowering others. I appreciate you massively Share this podcast if you think it's going to help somebody else. And don't forget, we have a challenge that starts today, this Monday, today at noon Eastern, called Communicate Like a Queen. So if you are someone who really wants to master your authentic voice so it has impact and you can really lead those around you and listen with heart and connection, really communicate like the queen that you are, then join our challenge. Now, this one is only for women, however, or whoever identifies as feminine or queen. That's who this one is for. We're going to have another challenge coming up in November called Communicate Like a King and that one will be focused on men's communication specifically. Because if there's one thing that I have learned over years and years of working with top level leaders, it's that men and women communicate differently. And in order to bridge that gap, we have to be able to communicate in our most authentic selves, our most authentic way, and learn how to bridge that gap. So join us on our Communicate Like a Queen challenge and know that there is our Communicate Like a King challenge coming up in November. You can get on the wait list for that one. Have a wonderful rest of your Monday. Have an incredible week. Step into your best self, whether that looks like you embodying the CEO of your life, the queen of your life, the king of your life, whatever archetype resonates with you so you can be your most empowered self and keep showing up for those that you serve. Have a wonderful day everyone.

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