Lynn Zettler, NAWBO-Indy Member of the Year

March 4, 2012 By Leave a Comment
NAWBO

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – Lynn Zettler always felt she had more to offer than what her corporate job allowed. After a full 20-year career with The Dow Chemical Company in intellectual property law, she applied her leadership and communication skills to her passion for professional and personal development and launched LifeAction Coaching.

Zettler started her company in 2006 while still gainfully employed and began coaching clients in the evenings. In 2010, she took the leap into business ownership and has never looked back.
As a Personal Executive and Business Coach, Zettler helps her clients accelerate growth in their business, their team and life. One of the key principles Zettler teaches is the importance of networking – something Zettler practices daily as she works to succeed as a business owner.

“One of the best networking decisions I made after creating LifeAction Coaching, Inc., was to join the National Association of Women Business Owners,” Zettler said. “Being a part of NAWBO truly means that no woman stands alone.”

In December, Zettler will receive the NAWBO member of the Year award during NAWBO’s annual awards luncheon. This recognition honors an outstanding NAWBO-Indy member who has worked to practice, innovate and effect change by supporting and establishing presence for NAWBO.

Zettler joined NAWBO nearly two years ago and currently serves as co-chair of the membership committee – playing an integral role in helping grow awareness of NAWBO along with encouraging active member involvement throughout Central Indiana. Zettler attended the NAWBO National Conference where she was able to connect with NAWBO chapter leaders from other cities, sharing and comparing ideas on membership and resources for the Indiana Chapter. She has become a vocal advocate for NAWBO, actively using her social media outlets to raise awareness and educate other women about NAWBO and continues to network the organization in her professional interactions through her company, LifeAction Coaching, Inc.

Through her participation in NAWBO, Zettler has aligned with not only the business community, but intelligent, caring, influential business women in Indiana.

“From networking to sharing best practices to educational opportunities, NAWBO delivers the key ingredients to empowering business women,” Zettler said. “There has not been a NAWBO event that I have left without feeling inspired. I only hope that I can do the same for my fellow members and the entire NAWBO organization.”

NAWBO’s Annual Awards Luncheon will take place Thursday, Dec. 15 at the JW Marriott, 10 S. West St. Exhibits and networking opportunities begin at 10 a.m., with the lunch and awards presentation to follow, from 11:30 to 1:30 p.m. For more information, or to register to attend, visit www.nawboindy.org.

About Lynn Zettler:
Lynn Zettler is a Personal Executive and Business Coach specializing in accelerating growth for clients who want more from their business, their team and their life. Lynn is an Associate Certified Coach through the International Coach Federation and an ACP graduate of Coach U. Lynn is also a certified Print® Coach who can help clients understand and value their motivators, drivers and shadow behaviors.

In addition to leadership coaching, workshops and tele-classes, Lynn is a motivational and educational speaker and author on topics such as Your Personal Brand, Attraction Marketing, Managing The Voice Within, Total Toleration Annihilation, Drawing Your Lines in the Sand, Creating Your Life, Lighten Up, Time Management, Your Big BUT, A Very Special Success and Getting MORE.

Filed Under: Feature Story, LifeAction Coaching

Be Weak!

March 4, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Stuart Miles

 

Stuart Miles

 

 

Strength is definitely an attribute that is highly valued in our society.  No argument there.

 

Just think about the things we associate with strong:

 

 

Body builder

Steel

Cup of coffee

Argument

Leader

Ties

Family

We all admire strength in those areas.

What about our personal internal muscle?  I think it’s that time again when I mention that we all have strengths and weaknesses, and that we should focus on making our strengths stronger instead of trying to change our weaknesses.  Our weaknesses will always be our weaknesses.  They will never be strengths.  That doesn’t mean we aren’t aware of them and ignore them.  However, it also doesn’t mean that we should set a multitude of goals for the year to change them!  In this article I refer to the best resource for discovering your strengths and making them even stronger—–Strengthsfinder 2.0!

 

So stay weak and surround yourself with others that have strengths in those areas!  Get stronger where you have strengths.  Work that muscle harder!

 

www.lifeaction-coaching.com

Filed Under: action, business, coach, Coaches Play of the Day, coaching, indianapolis, indy, life, life coach, LifeAction Coaching, strengthsfinder, success

Yes, it really is all about you

March 1, 2012 By 2 Comments
Salvatore Vuono

 

Salvatore Vuono

I recently talked to a local Girl Scout leadership team about The Myth of Work Life Balance and values. Everyone wants to know the magic formula for creating the work life balance that they need to have a happy life. The truth is there is no foo-foo dust, magic wand, or crystal ball that can tell you what your perfect solution might be. So instead of talking about work life balance, I think it’s much more productive to give people useful tools to make decisions when they feel overwhelmed and out of balance.

 

Suzie Welch describes a great model in her book 10-10-10. She explains that when she has a tough decision between a family and work event, she’ll look at what the impact will be on both sides in 10 min., in 10 months, and in 10 years. Depending on the particular situation, this method can really help make those tough choices. However she is also quick to point out that these choices are driven by your core values.

 

I believe, that if organizations spent less time creating more rules and bureaucracy, and spend more time developing the organization’s core values as a benchmark of fit and performance for their employees, productivity and results would go through the roof. Read The Speed of Trust, by Stephen WR Covey (speedoftrust.com).

 

So yes, it really is all about you and what you value in your life.  If you haven’t done a values exercise, you need to.  You can find lots on the net like:

 

http://www.how-to-change-careers.com/core-values-exercises.html.

 

http://humanresources.about.com/cs/strategicplanning1/a/strategicplan_3.htm

 

http://www.triballeadership.net/core-values/click-down

 

 

Defining your core values is well worth your time.  Once you define and prioritize them, ask yourself why each of them is important to you (click down exercise above).  You can usually tell when something is really core because your answer will be –because that’s all there is, or that’s what life is all about.

 

Now you have a tool to make life decisions.  You get to decide where work fits.

www.lifeaction-coaching.com

Filed Under: action, balance, business, challenge, change, coach, Coaches Play of the Day, coaching, indianapolis, indy, life, life coach, LifeAction Coaching Tagged With: , ,

Ice Cream Coaching

February 29, 2012 By 2 Comments
Stuart Miles

 

Stuart Miles

So it’s 70 degrees in Indiana on February 29th.  What a perfect time to bring up the topic of ice cream.  I’m salivating just thinking about some mint chocolate chip…….

Ice cream is not a necessity (some of you may argue that point with me).  It’s a treat full of flavors, textures and colors that brings pleasure to our taste buds and fond memories to our mind.  Once served, it needs to be eaten within a certain period of time, or it all turns to a runny mess, right?

Additionally, there are a plethora of flavors from plain vanilla to venice mocha crunch.

So what does this have to do with coaching?

Sometimes I have potential clients who say—can we just talk once a month?  To which I say, ‘that’s like taking a lick of your ice cream cone once very hour—-you’ll still get some benefits, but you’ll be frustrated in the end.’

Real progress in behavioral change takes consistent focus and action.  Some issues are pretty easy (vanilla), while others are full of competing elements (rocky road).  No matter what, in order to get the full benefits,  you need focused and consistent action.  That’s where I come in.

 

www.lifeaction-coaching.com

Filed Under: action, business, coach, Coaches Play of the Day, coaching, indianapolis, indy, life, life coach, LifeAction Coaching Tagged With:

Under the Influence

February 22, 2012 By Leave a Comment
by David Castillo Dominici

 

by David Castillo Dominici

 

Look familiar?  Ever feel like you are trying to lead a team this way?

 

I’ve worked with many clients at different levels of the leadership cycle, from CEO’s to new leaders.  A common theme amongst them all is the challenge of leading by influence rather than through power.  Whether it’s a CEO working with an advisory board, or a new leader working with a cross-functional team, leading through influence is a whole different animal than straight leadership of those reporting to you.  Although it takes a lot of focus and energy, it can be obtained by:

 

1.  Building relationships, establishing credibility-there’s nothing better than one on one meetings with individuals that you need to work with, but who don’t report directly to you.  Give them a taste of how you work, what your strengths are and your expectations, then ask them about theirs.

2.  Making sure everyone is heard and engaged-if you notice some members of the team who haven’t had an opportunity to give any input, make sure you ask them.  When suggestions and ideas are presented, make sure they are acknowledged and considered.

3.  Being respectful of everyone’s time-show up on time, start meetings on time with agendas, end meetings on time, you know the drill.

4.  Being responsive-don’t disappear.  You need to be visible and approachable with consistent communication.  Nothing kills influence faster than non-responsiveness.  It sends a message that others aren’t important to you.

5.  Underpromising and Overdelivering-need I say more?


www.lifeaction-coaching.com

Filed Under: action, business, coach, coaching, executive, indianapolis, indy, leaders, leadership, life, life coach, LifeAction Coaching, management, motivation, success Tagged With:

It’s OK to Quit

February 20, 2012 By Leave a Comment

 

It’s OK to quit.

 

In fact sometimes it’s better if you quit.  Quitting has gotten a really bad rap.  I can remember back in my Girl Scout days, promising “I will always finish what I begin”.  And some of you may be thinking that quitting doesn’t align with reaching your potential or being the best you can be.  Or does it?

 

What if quitting just means that you now have more information about something and it’s not really fulfilling the purpose that you intended when you began?  There’s a difference between quitting because you’re getting lazy or scared, and you just don’t want to do the work anymore; and quitting because it’s no longer the right thing to do.

 

I had a client who enrolled her family in a church program every week, thinking that this would be a great family activity and they would all get a lot out of it.  After a few weeks, it became apparent that the program wasn’t all that she thought it would be and her family didn’t enjoy it and avoided going.  When I asked her why she felt compelled to make her family attend, she said because there was a waiting list of other families that had tried to sign up and she had  paid for it, so she felt obligated to continue.  However, the overall goal of this activity was to spend quality family time together.  Now, with further information about the program, the overall goal was not being achieved.  Is there a better way to achieve the goal?  Is quitting a bad thing in this case?

 

Don’t we also adjust our goals at work?  Once you get more information about needs, requirements, markets and resources, you may quit one direction and head for another.  It’s called course correction.

 

It’s your life.  Turns out, you never really quit anything.  You learn and course correct as needed instead.

 

 www.lifeaction-coaching.com

 

Filed Under: LifeAction Coaching

Sheryl Sandberg’s Luck

February 13, 2012 By Leave a Comment
picture by jscreationzs

 

What’s Luck Got To Do With It?

picture by jscreationzs

 

I find it interesting that many times when we look at others’ successes, we make quick judgments that they were lucky. Take Sheryl Sandberg, now being called the $1.6 billion woman in the New York Times. The woman has had enormous success, but she has also worked incredibly hard to get to where she is today. She wasn’t the daughter of someone famous, she didn’t make a sex tape that went viral, and she didn’t join a reality show to get her 15 min. of fame. No, this woman actually had to prove herself over and over and over again in the business world. Where does luck come in?

 

What’s even more interesting is that those questioning her accomplishments are also women. In a world where women feel that they have to work harder to get the same recognition as a man for doing the same job, you would think that we as women would do a better job of supporting each other in our success.

So here’s my part in highlighting the great things that Sheryl has done, and I applaud her and thank her for taking us to the next level.  Thanks for:

  • Reminding us to take responsibility for our careers and not to blame men for holding us back.
  • Inspiring us to “keep our foot on the gas pedal”.
  • Being a role model for aiming high and taking your seat at the table.
  • Walking the talk.
  • Taking a risk by choosing Facebook over an executive position at The Washington Post, when it had no business model.
  • Stepping full on into your FB COO role to drive profits of $1Billion.
  • Supporting women employees in their quest to have both a family and a career.

Do we call it luck when a man has such accomplishments?  Was Zuckerberg lucky?

This is exactly the kind of role model we need for the next generation of great women leaders!

http://www.lifeaction-coaching.com

Filed Under: action, business, coach, Coaches Play of the Day, coaching, facebook, indianapolis, indy, leaders, leadership, life, life coach, LifeAction Coaching, professional, social media, success Tagged With: , ,

Whine or Wine?

February 6, 2012 By 2 Comments
by akeeris

 

by akeeris

One of the best management rules to adopt for your direct reports is:  You get 5 minutes to whine, but you may not whine unless you also come with solutions.  This keeps the whining to a minimum and the solution thinking maximized.

Seth Godin’s take on whining was outlined in his blog  Two Problems with Whining:  It doesn’t work and it’s a reverse placebo.  The more you whine, the more you see of what you are whining about.  Who wants that?

The truth is, that whining allows us to keep complaining without focusing on what we have control over.  So the next time you catch yourself whining, do the following:

  • Ask yourself what you have control over in the situation
  • Ask yourself what role you play in the situation
  • Determine if there is behavior you can change in yourself that will affect the situation
  • Find a way to get creative in your thinking and poke the box to come up with a solution

I once had a boss who called meetings in the late afternoon at one of the local bars.  We chose to focus on solution space over a glass of wine for two reasons.  It got us out of the office and into a different place, which is useful for creative thinking, and we enjoyed the right kind of wine.

by FreeDigitalPhotos.net

www.lifeaction-coaching.com

Filed Under: action, business, coach, Coaches Play of the Day, coaching, indianapolis, indy, life, life coach, LifeAction Coaching Tagged With: ,

The Ponzi Scheme of Networking

February 1, 2012 By Leave a Comment
by jscreationzs

by jscreationzs

 

If you believe there is a get rich quick scheme or a magic process that gives immediate results, then don’t bother reading any further because if I had such an answer for you, I would be incredibly rich and way too busy to write this post.

When I first started my business, I joined every network that I thought would fit with my business plan. I quickly found out which ones worked for me and which ones didn’t. The key was to focus my time as quickly as possible on what was working and release the ones that weren’t. Then, I went all in.

When I say I went all in, that’s exactly what I mean. That meant that I did the following:

  •  attended every meeting possible
  • never sat next to someone that I knew
  • joined a committee and attended every committee meeting
  • volunteered to take action items
  • promoted the organization in social media
  • invited other business owners to attend and join
  • gave testimonials for the organization
  • attended their national conference
  • offered free coaching sessions to members
  • provided a free 2 hour workshop
  • attended a 4 day social outing
  • purchased advertising on their website
  • set up one-on-one meetings with people I met to connect further
  • looked for opportunities to refer business or meaningful connections
  • built relationships based on things other than business

I could go on, but you get the idea. There’s a difference between a Ponzi scheme built on getting a huge network underneath you and the long-term investment strategy where you make meaningful relationships with the people within your sphere of influence. You know it works in the financial realm, and it works in the business world as well. So don’t expect to get increased business by attending one or two networking lunches. It doesn’t work that way. You may make a few good contacts, but for long-term success you need to go all in and as Chuck Hawkins says Hustle Harder!

 

www.lifeaction-coaching.com

 

Filed Under: action, barriers, brand, business, coach, Coaches Play of the Day, coaching, indianapolis, indy, life, life coach, LifeAction Coaching, networking, professional, social media, success

Eat your own dogfood

January 28, 2012 By 2 Comments
by Grant Cochrane

 

by Grant Cochrane

It’s Saturday night and I’m kicking back after a day downtown at the  Superbowl festivities in Indianapolis.  The city looks great, the transportation and customer service was impeccable and the zipline was amazing to watch (didn’t want to wait in line for my turn and would prefer a zipline over a rainforest in the Caribbean rather than a concrete jungle in the Midwest). Back tomorrow for the NFL Experience!

As I was surfing for articles to use in my social media, I ran across this one from Dave Logan about Tribal Leadership and Scrum (yes I believe that is the sports analogy).  This is what stood out to me:

“…we should eat our own dog food. We need a venue, identification of community values, selection of a noble cause, commitment to Scrum (not “Scrum But”) and Tribal Leadership (not Tribal Leadership “But”).”

Of course you know I love this because of his referral to the Big BUT.  Also because I love his analogy to dog food.

How many times do we put boundaries in place, put systems in place for success, and we’re the first to turn our nose up at our own dogfood?  We have no problem making it, but we don’t really want to eat it.  Either we need to make some better tasting dogfood, or we need to accept it with an ice cream scoop and gladly welcome it as our feast.

By the way, I think the people who are running all the activities at the Super Bowl in downtown Indy are doing a great job of eating their dog food!

 

www.lifeaction-coaching.com

Filed Under: action, business, challenge, change, coach, Coaches Play of the Day, coaching, customer service, indianapolis, indy, leaders, leadership, life, life coach, LifeAction Coaching, management Tagged With: , ,
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