July 2008 - Vol. V, Issue 3

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On a Personal Note: Success in Harmony 2.0
by Sara Hurd, CFCC

Hello, loyal readers. I recently simplified my list by making the subscription an email subscription to my blog feed. If that’s all Greek to you, it’s not really important. I sent out an email requesting that my subscribers resubscribe, and you did. Thank you for reconfirming your subscription! We are fewer in number now, but I figure you’re the readers who really feel that I have something to say. Thank you for that!

My original goal with Success in Harmony was to publish a monthly newsletter around the middle of the month. I started in 2004, and I’ve enjoyed writing and sharing my thoughts (you can view all my articles at keywaystrategies.com–recently redesigned!). It’s become more difficult as my family has grown to publish three articles in each issue each month. As I’ve considered what to do with what I’ve started, I’ve kept the original look and feel, but Success in Harmony may morph as I continue to simplify my life.

I will not promise a monthly newsletter. Because it’s become a blog, posts may be more or less frequent as I feel I have something to share. Periodically, I’ll still publish a series of three articles in short succession, “On a Personal Note,” “Feature Article,” and “Recommended Resource,” but I may also share other things in a more informal way.

The blog also invites and accepts comments on each article, so I’d love to have you participate in the discussion. In that way, I’ll be able to still “talk” to you to provide you with helpful tips for life, but you’ll also be able to “talk” back. I look forward to it!

Sara Hurd and Keyway Strategies, LLC specialize in helping executives and small business owners have healthy relationships with themselves, others, AND their businesses. Read more about our coaching services.

The purpose of Success in Harmony is to provide practical and inspiring tips for balancing success in all areas of life.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Feel free to use this article anywhere, as long as the resource box below is included.

Resource Box:

Sara Hurd, BSW, Certified Franklin Covey Coach (CFCC) and graduate of Legacy Learning Coach Training, has been a coach for Franklin Covey Company beginning in 1998. She has used her skills in product development and training to develop and deliver coaching and coach training programs for Professional Education Institute. In 2003, Sara founded Keyway Strategies LLC, a coaching company specializing in helping small business owners grow their businesses, navigate a sea of technological tools, and create healthy relationships with themselves, others and their businesses. Sign up for her free email newsletter at http://www.keywaystrategies.com.

___
Keyway Strategies, LLC
keywaystrategies.com
4487 W 2575 N
Ogden, UT 84404
801-732-0932
sara@keywaystrategies.com

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July 2008 - Vol. V, Issue 3

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Feature Article: Who is Happy Guy?
by Sara Hurd, CFCC

Every once in a while, you come across a genuinely fantastic human interest story. Such is the story of “Happy Guy,” a random stranger whose wide grin graced a photo in a trash bin, and Nate Sturdy, a guy down on his luck who found the photo and experienced a reawakening.

Seven years ago, Nate Sturdy had lost his job, his girlfriend, his apartment, and had been to the hospital twice–all in the course of one month! He was, naturally, feeling a bit blue. When cleaning at a hotel in Banff, Canada, he came across a photo that had been tossed into the trash. The smile that stared out at him made him stare back. He was drawn in by the huge smile, and felt like the “Happy Guy” was telling him it would all be okay. He posted the photo on the fridge as a reminder that there is plenty to smile about, and kept it for seven years. In the meantime, his family back in Australia would tell anyone who would listen the story of Happy Guy, and his brother decided to post a group on Facebook and a webpage, whoishappyguy.com. What began then was a worldwide search for the real Happy Guy, which recently had a very happy ending.

Paul Daggett had been snapped in a candid photo by a good friend. Thinking his smile was a bit goofy, he threw it in the trash in his hotel room. Seven years later, the daughters of a good friend called to tell the family that he was now an internet phenomenon. He emailed Nate and his brother last October, and in June of this year, they traveled from Australia to meet Paul at Banff National Park and return the photo.

Along the way, Nate and Paul have inspired countless of internet visitors to look for the good in life. Will you be inspired, too?

Note: There is lots of information about the story on the Facebook group, but you can also view part of the story at YouTube.

Sara Hurd and Keyway Strategies, LLC specialize in helping executives and small business owners have healthy relationships with themselves, others, AND their businesses. Read more about our coaching services.

The purpose of Success in Harmony is to provide practical and inspiring tips for balancing success in all areas of life.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Feel free to use this article anywhere, as long as the resource box below is included.

Resource Box:

Sara Hurd, BSW, Certified Franklin Covey Coach (CFCC) and graduate of Legacy Learning Coach Training, has been a coach for Franklin Covey Company beginning in 1998. She has used her skills in product development and training to develop and deliver coaching and coach training programs for Professional Education Institute. In 2003, Sara founded Keyway Strategies LLC, a coaching company specializing in helping small business owners grow their businesses, navigate a sea of technological tools, and create healthy relationships with themselves, others and their businesses. Sign up for her free email newsletter at http://www.keywaystrategies.com.

___
Keyway Strategies, LLC
keywaystrategies.com
4487 W 2575 N
Ogden, UT 84404
801-732-0932
sara@keywaystrategies.com

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July 2008 - Vol. V, Issue 3

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Recommended Resource: Connect Professionally via LinkedIn
by Sara Hurd, CFCC

This is pretty old news, but I realized that I hadn’t yet suggested LinkedIn (linkedin.com) to my readers. I also read a great book recently called I’m on LinkedIn–Now What??? by Jason Alba that refueled my interest in LinkedIn.

LinkedIn is a tool to expand your professional network. It helps you connect (or reconnect) with people within organizations so that you can network, stimulate conversations, and brand yourself. It’s also especially helpful if you are a job seeker or are actively managing your career. But only if you actively use it!

One of the newer features that makes networking and personal branding even more powerful is the “Answers” tool. You can ask a question to your network and their connections, answer questions that others have posed, and browse answers to get information. I also really appreciate the “Recommendations” section. It’s nice to receive good recommendations, but it’s even more fun to give them and to read recommendations for people I know.

If you haven’t checked out LinkedIn, you can see my profile and connect to me at http://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahurd.

Sara Hurd and Keyway Strategies, LLC specialize in helping executives and small business owners have healthy relationships with themselves, others, AND their businesses. Read more about our coaching services.

The purpose of Success in Harmony is to provide practical and inspiring tips for balancing success in all areas of life.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Feel free to use this article anywhere, as long as the resource box below is included.

Resource Box:

Sara Hurd, BSW, Certified Franklin Covey Coach (CFCC) and graduate of Legacy Learning Coach Training, has been a coach for Franklin Covey Company beginning in 1998. She has used her skills in product development and training to develop and deliver coaching and coach training programs for Professional Education Institute. In 2003, Sara founded Keyway Strategies LLC, a coaching company specializing in helping small business owners grow their businesses, navigate a sea of technological tools, and create healthy relationships with themselves, others and their businesses. Sign up for her free email newsletter at http://www.keywaystrategies.com.

___
Keyway Strategies, LLC
keywaystrategies.com
4487 W 2575 N
Ogden, UT 84404
801-732-0932
sara@keywaystrategies.com

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Have you discovered Twitter yet? If not, you may want to just head on over to see what all the fuss is about. What folks do on Twitter is considered “microblogging” - short posts of 140 characters or less. The question that Twitter asks when you set up an account and every time you visit is “What are you doing?” Far from simply being a navel-gazing status report (although some posts read that way), Twitter is quickly becoming a real-time conversation between colleagues, friends, and even strangers. The professionals who add value on Twitter succinctly point their “followers” to relevant and interesting information.

Although I enjoy the Tweets (the “official” term for Twitter updates) of several of the people whose feeds I follow (err… all 16 of them…), the person I follow that I think uses the platform the very best is Jeremiah Owyang (@jowyang). He uses a great mixture of providing helpful and relevant content, championing others, networking, asking questions to generate conversations, providing rundowns of events he’s attending, and laughing about life. I also want to point to Cyd Tetro (@cydtetro) as an example of someone who brilliantly showcases the business use of Twitter. Cydni and I went to High School together, but I only recently ran across her in cyberspace.

Warning: It takes some time to get the hang of Twitter, but once you’ve gotten your feet wet, you’re in danger of getting hooked.

As for my Twitter feed? Well, I can’t promise that I do anything brilliantly on Twitter, but I can tell you that if I want to share something I’ve come across, I’ll often not take the time to write up an article or blog post, but I will Tweet about it. To whoever is listening! @sarahurd

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February 2008 - Vol. V, Issue 2

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On a Personal Note: Prayers / Donations Needed

Once in a while, an opportunity comes along to truly help make the load lighter for someone. I’d like to ask you, as my readers, to consider helping with your prayers and/or donations.

This week, a dear friend of mine and her husband learned that the two beautiful children that they were adopting from Haiti were no longer theirs. Although the adoption was in process, the mother came back to the orphanage and demanded the children back. More than anything else, this little family could use your prayers. You can read more at countdowntohomecoming.blogspot.com.

One of my other dear friends from high school is receiving a wonderful gift from dear friends, if they can raise enough money. Steve has Multiple Sclerosis, and the disease has progressed to the point where he was confined to a wheelchair at age 30. Because their home is not currently wheelchair accessible, he often falls while trying to traverse the hallways. Friends of Steve and his wife, Teresa, submitted their story to Extreme Makeover - Home Edition, but did not hear anything back. Deciding to take the project on themselves, they began to reach out to the community to see if they could raise enough money to remodel the home themselves. Please read more at homemakeoveraf.com, and if you can donate (even a little bit!), please do. And, if you can pass the opportunity around to your own family and friends, every little bit helps!

*****

On a completely unrelated note: I am going to be changing web hosting–again! I will try to minimize site downtime, but if you click a link and it doesn’t take you where you want to go, try again a few days later.

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February 2008 - Vol. V, Issue 2

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Feature Article: Executive Coaching is Perceived as High Value

The Sherpa Executive Coaching Survey, 2008 Edition, shows that nine out of ten coaching clients and human resource professionals see the value of coaching as “high” or “somewhat high.” Coaching as a leadership development tool is becoming more and more mainstream. For further reading, see the full results of the Sherpa study.

The Executive Coaching Survey closed on December 15, 2007, and within 72 hours, preliminary results were published in the mainstream press:

The Cincinatti Enquirer, Business section
December 18, 2007

Poll: Executive coaches asked to develop leaders
by John Eckberg, jeckberg@enquirer.com

Companies that pay for coaching for senior executives expect results to focus on leadership development, according to the third annual international survey from Sherpa Coaching of West Chester Township.

The company, which teaches coaching as a profession to students at three universities, surveyed executive coaches from 35 countries, but centered on the U.S.

This year’s survey was co-sponsored by the Tandy Center for Executive Leadership at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth. The survey, which has grown from 550 respondents in 2005 to about 1,300 in 2007, has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Sherpa offered university-level executive coaching programs at TCU, Penn State University and the University of Georgia.

“The industry is placing more and more importance on certification and more and more coaches are getting certified,” said Karl Corbett, managing partner at Sherpa, founded in 2004.

“We’re finding less and less ‘as-needed’ coaching. People are going to regular meetings. People also want a more limited scope - six months or less.”

The survey found:

• Nine of 10 human resources professionals and clients see the value of coaching as “very high” or “somewhat high.” The number of business people who rate the credibility of coaching as “very high” or “somewhat high” was 74 percent, up 7 percentage points from last year.
• The number of people in the discipline who report employers paying for services increased from 71 percent in 2006 to 78 percent in 2007.
• More than half of practicing executive coaches believe that a standardized approach to coaching - similar to the standards created for the accounting and financial planning professions - is essential if the discipline is to grow in importance.

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February 2008 - Vol. V, Issue 2

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Recommended Resource: JibberJobber, career toolset

This year, the United States seems to be in an economic slump. Employees feel that they have even less job security than before, if they ever really had any. It’s time to begin contingency planning, networking, and promoting your personal brand in the marketplace.

Luckily, there is an online toolset that can help you manage the complexity of activities that surround networking, career management and job searching. JibberJobber is a powerful tool that lets you manage your career, from job search to relationship management to target company management (and much more). JibberJobber is free for life with an optional upgrade. JibberJobber is a fantastic tool–it even allows coaching to link their accounts with their clients’ and monitor job search / networking activities. But one of the best features is the blog, which includes helpful tips from someone who has been there: Jason Alba, who designed the toolset during his own job search in 2006. It is quickly becoming the most important tool for career management.

From the About Us page:

If you want to learn more about JibberJobber you can:

• Listen to a podcast interview (about 40 minutes) with Jason, by Peter Clayton. Peter is the leader in podcast interviews in the employment space.
• Read a rather comprehensive blog post by Dave Mendoza, expert recruiter and consultant.
• Read (and subscribe to) Jason’s blog, found at http://www.JibberJobber.com/blog

Sign up for a free account and consider upgrading to get extra conveniences when you really need them. To see what others are saying about JibberJobber click on the testimonials link.

On a related note, Jason is also the author of I’m on LinkedIn, Now What??? and I’m on Facebook, Now What??? Gotta love the three question marks; it seems to really capture the frustration that we feel when we’re told we should get a profile up but don’t really know what to do with it.

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I’m evaluating a multi-media course on blogging from the folks at Simpleology. For a while, they’re letting you snag it for free if you post about it on your blog.

It covers:

• The best blogging techniques.
• How to get traffic to your blog.
• How to turn your blog into money.

I’ll let you know what I think once I’ve had a chance to check it out. Meanwhile, go grab yours while it’s still free.

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January 2008 - Vol. V, Issue 1

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On a Personal Note: Goals for the Year

One of my recent networking contacts, Jason Alba of JibberJobber.com, is a great example of “living out loud” by sharing his goals on his various blogs. He finds that the more he shares, it becomes more and more likely that people come forward with unexpected and wonderful offers to help.

My goals for the year are as follows:

• find a good method to begin home schooling my oldest daughter. Get a routine in place so schooling is happening without a struggle. Create a good mix of work on our own and activities with other families.
• find a good team of independent business owners to join me in my SendOutCards business. Initially, I’m looking for three good people who are interested in generating some residual income through a home-based business. Alternately, I can always use customers who want to use the fantastic service that SendOutCards provides!
• find a few ways to extend coaching past the one-on-one session model–perhaps using group coaching, self-coaching through a step-by-step program, or informal teleseminars. Continue to provide coaching one-on-one to a few select clients.
• keep myself, my kids and husband healthy and happy!

Let me know if there is any way in which you can help me, and I’d also love to hear about your goals for the year in the comments. Maybe there is some way that I can help you!

. . .

Last Sunday evening, a man I admire and respect greatly passed away. He was a great example of love, vision and good humor. Glenn Beck paid a great tribute to this man on CNN, and said, “We could learn a lot just by watching good examples from time to time.” You can read more on my personal blog, The Hurd Herd, and also see news items here.

. . .

On another note, I want to thank an anonymous reader who sent a baby gift to our newest through Overstock.com. The gift message was blank, so either you intended to remain anonymous, or Overstock messed up! Thank you so much for your kindness! I want to also thank all of you who sent gifts or congratulations to us. The baby is growing and smiling, so we’re doing well!

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January 2008 - Vol. V, Issue 1

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Feature Article: Face Your Personal Energy Crisis

Short on energy recently? Not only are we facing an energy crisis in North America because of the increasing price of fossil fuels, individuals in our society are facing a kind of personal energy crisis. The tendency is to run nonstop during the day, fueling the pace by adrenaline, sugar and caffeine. In the evening, because energy levels have crashed, the tendency is to vegetate in front of one screen or another until we eventually lie down in bed for a less than restful night’s sleep.

Maybe you’re not as bad off as the bleak picture we just considered. Good for you! Take a look at how you can use your energy to get the best possible return.

For the rest of you, it’s time to take some measured steps so that you’re experiencing a more natural energy flow and using your energy in the most effective way.

The first step is to begin to fuel your body with clean-burning fuels. Decrease the highly processed foods, like refined sugar and flour, that give you a temporary high and then leave you crashing after they’ve quickly burned away. Break from the addiction of caffeine. Eat a well-balanced diet of fruits and vegetables, whole grains, lean proteins and good fats. In other words, a high-octane, clean-burning fuel will keep your engine running at peak performance.

Then, take a look at how you’re spending your time during the day. Do you feel “busy” all the time, but at the end of the day have difficulty identifying what you produced? If so, chances are you are running on adrenaline and jumping on all of the proximate, pressing matters that Stephen Covey calls “Quadrant III.” These are the things that are urgent, but not important. You are spinning your wheels! Begin to make time for Quadrant II activities (important, but not urgent). You know what these are; they are the activities you want to get to day after day, but just don’t. There are so many benefits to spending time in Quadrant II, but one great benefit is that you are preventing urgent and important Quadrant I activities and eliminating as many Quadrant III activities as possible.

Take time during your day for small snatches of self-renewal. Take a break by closing your eyes, relaxing your shoulders, rotating your ankles, stretching up to the ceiling, or whatever else will get your blood flowing. Take a walk around the building. I wrote about mini self-renewal breaks way back in 2004. Feel free to refresh your memory.

Take stock of energy patterns. As you cut out artificial fuels, you will have a more natural ebb and flow of energy throughout your day. There will naturally be times during the day when you feel more energetic than others. Pay attention to patterns–what are your high-energy times? When do you find it easiest to concentrate on mental tasks? When do you feel at your best physically?

Match your energy to activities to get the biggest return. If you noticed that you feel great physically in the morning, that’s a great time for exercise. If your mind quiets down and can easily focus on mental tasks at 11:00 a.m., that’s a great time to preserve for key projects. If you find yourself dragging a bit in the early afternoon, that’s a great time for a break, a snack, or another activity that regenerates your energy. Also, pay attention to whether you are an introvert or an extrovert. If being with other people drains you, you’re an introvert and a solo activity will refuel your energy. If being with other people energizes you, you’re an extrovert and connection recharges your batteries! Extroverts may find that picking up the phone to make networking calls in a low-energy time will be just what the doctor ordered.

So, remember these simple questions:

1. What fuels your body?
2. What is your natural energy flow?
3. Are you using high-energy times for high-value activities?
4. What are you doing during lower-energy times to recharge?

Break those habits that are causing your personal energy crisis, and start making your days crisp and refreshing rather than muddling through them in a haze. Your body and mind, not to mention your personal productivity, will thank you!

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