Emotional regulation for leaders

by Laura Weldy | Oct 25, 2021 | Uncategorized

If you’re a leader at work, it’s imperative that you practice emotional regulation. Emotional regulation is simply the ability to control your emotional response to people, circumstances or expectations. We’ve all had leaders or seen leaders who lack this trait – and it quickly leads to a lack of trust from their team, uncertainty about how to communicate with them, and a general hesitation to be honest for fear of their boss’ response.

Maintaining a poker face doesn’t mean you need to be a robot – rather, you need to ensure that your emotional responses are measured and appropriate. This helps everyone on the team feel safe and at ease and also models the value of adaptability. A few ways you can practice emotional regulation:

• Process and practice when you’re dealing with a sensitive issue. If you’ve been told that layoffs are imminent, don’t shoot off a quick text to your team about it. Instead, practice how you’ll communicate this in an even keeled way and think proactively about what your team can do to minimize the chance that layoffs occur on your team.

• Take yourself out of the equation. Put aside your feelings about a situation impacts you in order to facilitate the uncovering of new information. If you’re stressed because your team missed a deadline and you’re afraid it will reflect poorly on you, then you’re likely to snap at your team or withdraw. Instead, get curious about why the mistake happened and how you can fool proof the process for next time.

• Get external support. When you spend as much time as we do working, it’s normal to need a space to vent and unpack your workplace experience. This is why leadership coaching is so powerful – it offers you a private, confidential space to get clear on your own response to a situation, experience the emotional response in a setting without consequences and then strategize your next steps.

My name is Laura Weldy, and I’m a women’s leadership coach. I help women in the workplace become confident leaders by tackling their mindset head on so they can think like a leader before they have the job title. I do this through professional coaching, virtual coaching, small group masterminds and powerful courses. If you’re looking to become more successful and fulfilled at work, let’s talk! I’d love to help you build an action plan for success. Click here to apply for a free coaching consultation with me directly!

How to retain your top talent

by Laura Weldy | Oct 18, 2021 | Uncategorized

Retention of top talent might seem like a problem for HR departments only – until you lose a pivotal member of your team. Losing top talent impacts team morale, systems, and results, and creates frustration at the sudden gap in team knowledge. It can also be difficult when the talented individual you lose was one you were developing in order to move into a leadership position.

Of course, an individual leaving your team or company for another position isn’t always within your control as a leader. However, there are a few things you can do to lessen the likelihood of losing your top talent!

1. Have conversations with them about where they’re headed and how you can support them. Many employees end up leaving roles because of a lack of development or clarity around their potential future at the company. Regular conversations about their career path will allow them to feel valued, voice their vision and also be engaged in creative thinking around how to improve the team overall.

2. Don’t ask them to do more than they should. Respect their workload and ask them what a more doable timeline would be if they’re feeling overwhelmed. It’s normal for an employee’s capacity to fluctuate based on what’s happening in other parts of their lives, and piling on duties and projects (even if they’re temporary!) is a quick way to burn them out.

3. Treat everyone like top talent. Leaders shouldn’t play favorites – and treating someone who is underperforming with the same support you do top talent can cause them to rise to the occasion. Be curious with them rather than assuming ill intent, and offer them development opportunities as well.

My name is Laura Weldy, and I’m a women’s leadership coach. I help women in the workplace become confident leaders by tackling their mindset head on so they can think like a leader before they have the job title. I do this through professional coaching, virtual coaching, small group masterminds and powerful courses. If you’re looking to become more successful and fulfilled at work, let’s talk! I’d love to help you build an action plan for success. Click here to apply for a free coaching consultation with me directly!

3 ways to motivate others

by Laura Weldy | Oct 11, 2021 | Uncategorized

Burnout has become somewhat of a chronic condition in the workplace these days. While not healthy, it’s not something that we have to settle for as leaders or as employees. When you’re up against a major project or deadline and your team is lacking motivation, try these 3 neuroscience based hacks to stoke their fire.

1. Find a way to connect their current project to the bigger company vision, and then make sure that others know about it. Our values and the company values are things that matter to employees – but so is knowing that their menial tasks are part of the bigger picture. Ensure your team gets outside recognition for their efforts so they feel seen and appreciated.

2. Challenge them to the 10:1 exercise. Give the team a little extra time on the project and encourage them to prioritize innovation in the process rather than speed. Simply put, ask them to generate 10 ways that they could do this project better than they’ve done it in the past – and then to pick their top solution and present it to you. This encourages creative thinking, lets them think outside the box and also gives them a chance to practice their speaking and debate skills.

3. Gamify the process. Can you find a way to make the project competitive, or incentivize its completion? Offer the afternoon free if they can reach the deadline early. Find a genuine way this project connects to their larger career roadmap and point that out clearly to them – encouraging them to create results that they can add to their professional resume and use when they’re ready to transition. The attention to their path means just as much as the fun of the gamification.

Would you try something unconventional like one of the above ideas to motivate your team? Creative solutions are a key responsibility for leaders and modelling an open minded approach to motivation will create strong leaders on your team as well.

My name is Laura Weldy, and I’m a women’s leadership coach. I help women in the workplace become confident leaders by tackling their mindset head on so they can think like a leader before they have the job title. I do this through professional coaching, virtual coaching, small group masterminds and powerful courses. If you’re looking to become more successful and fulfilled at work, let’s talk! I’d love to help you build an action plan for success. Click here to apply for a free coaching consultation with me directly!

Why you must have a personal brand in corporate America

by Laura Weldy | Oct 4, 2021 | Uncategorized

If you work in corporate America it should come as no surprise to you when I say that the business world is still very traditional. Many fortune 500 companies continue to operate at a snail’s pace, following outdated conventions and expectations and with very little flexibility to support their employees in innovative or quick ways.

This is unfortunate for a workforce that increasingly values and seeks out flexibility. 

Luckily – although your raises may feel tied to an impersonal scale and your promotions may need to go through seventeen layers of approval, there is a loophole of sorts that allows employees to have more control over their corporate experience.

The loophole is called personal branding, and simply put: it’s the process of intentionally designing your career path and your reputation as an employee so that you become easier for the big corporate machine to understand.

The more clear your personal brand = more opportunities for recognition and more chances to be the exception to the bureaucratic systems. And there’s a bit of manifesting type magic at play here too: because people are inherently lazy, they’re very likely to associate you with the story you tell. You have to back it up with actions and results, of course – but people are often willing to take your word for it when it comes to how they think of you. If you’re not telling a story at all, then  they’re the narrator and the story will default to their most recent interaction with you – even if that’s not indicative of your best work.

The moral of the story is that you have to take control of your career by defining your personal brand before someone else does it on your behalf. Try answering the following questions to get started:

1. What do I want to be known as the expert in?

2. What 3 words would I like others to use to describe me?

3. What are my professional values and how can I communicate those clearly?

If this process feels like a major project, it is! Women often struggle with personal branding because we are taught from a young age to think collectively rather than to highlight our own contributions. There is a way to do it that is simple, clear and inspiring – and thats the Personal Power Code! This is the first exercise we tackle in my VIP coaching days for new and veteran women leaders. Book a call to learn more about how a Powerhouse day can help you use your personal brand to create more respect, more money and more opportunities at work.

My name is Laura Weldy, and I’m a women’s leadership coach. I help women in the workplace become confident leaders by tackling their mindset head on so they can think like a leader before they have the job title. I do this through professional coaching, virtual coaching, small group masterminds and powerful courses. If you’re looking to become more successful and fulfilled at work, let’s talk! I’d love to help you build an action plan for success. Click here to apply for a free coaching consultation with me directly!

How to identify your professional values

by Laura Weldy | Jul 26, 2021 | Uncategorized

Typically when I ask a new leader what their professional values are, I get either a blank stare or a sheepish shrug. We’re used to thinking about our beliefs and values in our personal lives, but in the workplace? That’s not something we often have the time or space to be intentional about.

That’s why one of my favorite exercises during our in person coaching days is when we create a personal and professional values web to help you make decisions and prioritize tasks more quickly. This exercise is also a favorite of students in my program for new women managers, Confident Leader Collective—so I wanted to share it with you! 

If you’re new to the idea of professional values, think about the leaders you’ve worked with in the past. 

• What did you admire about their approach? 

• When did you feel most valued and empowered?

• How would you describe their approach and their reputation?

Then, start to think critically about your own work journey.

• What is a no-go for you in the workplace?

• What might cause you to leave a job or pursue a new opportunity?

• What are the essential elements to an effective team, in  your opinion?

• What’s the most important thing for you to focus on daily?

Once you have a reference list of values, start to consider how those overlap with or are in contradiction with your personal value system. Here’s where you may start to see inconsistencies that point toward opportunities for growth!

Getting stuck on your values and how to utilize them for more efficiency and alignment as a leader? Book a call to discuss your values web with me directly —and what opportunities you have for more aligned leadership in the year ahead!

My name is Laura Weldy, and I’m a women’s leadership coach. I help women in the workplace become confident leaders by tackling their mindset head on so they can think like a leader before they have the job title. I do this through professional coaching, virtual coaching, small group masterminds and powerful courses. If you’re looking to become more successful and fulfilled at work, let’s talk! I’d love to help you build an action plan for success. Click here to apply for a free coaching consultation with me directly!