As January comes to a close, many of us are saddled with the potential reality that our new years resolutions, many of them fitness and health related, are falling by the wayside.

Susan Ozier, a Health and Fitness Coach, knows how many of us feel when it comes to this reality and is using her personal experience to fuel passion and productivity to give back to others in a way that helps them achieve their goals.  

I’ve always been a list maker. I love to make a list at the end of each work day, so I can draw a red line through item after time the following work day. And, by the way, I don’t just do this for work. I do it for everything: grocery list, kid’s activities for the week, Christmas shopping list, cleaning for the week and the list goes on and on. I’m the queen of lists. 

I want to round out the goal setting discussion by focusing on the importance of feedback.  To illustrate, feedback has played a critical role in a current client business coaching engagement.  To begin the coaching process this past summer, we employed a 360° feedback mechanism to help set priorities for the client's development.  Feedback was first necessary to set goals and priorities.

A career as an athlete is something many dream about, but only a small percentage of those who dream of playing a sport actually make that dream come true.

After your “glory days” or maybe after you begin a family, you may consider a career change. Regardless of whether you have an injury that forces you to consider a new career or if you are just ready to get out of the game, where do you begin? What’s your next move?

In my last post, I talked about the importance of goal commitment when setting goals for yourself and/or those you lead.

Today, I want to discuss the law of diminishing returns and how it relates to goal setting.  I have honestly thought about a dozen different things that I want to focus on for the New Year, have you?The law of diminishing returns tells us that the more goals we set, the less likely we are to achieve them.  One goal distracts from another, leaving us less likely to accomplish anything.

Research has shown that goal setting, if done correctly, is one of the most supported motivational techniques (Jex & Britt 2008). Setting goals can help you maximize success for yourself and/or the people that you lead.

Hopefully you’ve gotten your 2015 new years resolutions down on paper and have a way to track attainment towards them.

Once you’ve done this, I’d encourage you to forget about the goal(s) for 2015 and instead focus on the process that leads to achieving the goals.  Why?  Focusing on the long-term often leads to paralyses in the short term.   For example, if your goal is to lose 100 pounds, this could easily become overwhelming.  If you instead focus on a sub-objective towards that goal of limiting your calorie intake to say, 2000 a day and exercising for 30 minutes 5 days a week, these sub-objectives are much easier to measure on a daily basis and much easier to achieve from day-to-day. 

Do you love kids? Are you a good communicator who has a passion for coaching and developing others? Is organization one of your strengths? If so, then a career as a High School Teacher may be perfect for you.

It’s a new year. Have you set your resolutions or goals?  Most of us do, but then give up on them by the end of January.

One key reason I see people fail at goal setting in the leadership and career coaching we do (and for myself as well) is because we put the cart before the horse.  We set a goal and don’t have any method put in place for measuring progress towards it or achievement of it.

As I walk into Micor to talk with their Vice President, Dave Ponegalek, about how they demonstrate passion + productivity = give back in the work that they do, there are signs on every door in the building that say “Thank you Ms. Lydia for your 5 years of service.”   When I arrived, I saw “Ms. Lydia” as most affectionately call her, walking over from the other building with a huge cake in her hand.  Her anniversary cake.  Everyone in the company has been over at the building celebrating her five years of contribution to the company.

But, I have read some good ones this year and want to recommend my top picks organized for those hard to shop for people in which you may still be searching for the right gift. 

For even the most confident job applicant, a job interview can be one of the most stressful experiences. Because it is not something we do often, interviews put us out of our comfort zone.  

What’s impacting performance in the workplace more than anything else these days?  Many people would say it is stress, which is pushing some to the point of full-blown mental health issues.

Do you enjoy biology? Do you also like chemistry and mathematics? Do you think working in a lab conducting experiments and doing research is fun?

So what do we do when “e” of expectation seems to be in direct conflict with the “e” of empathy?