Super.Mega.Boss

Let's have a real chat about artificial intelligence (AI) 🤪

Let's have a real chat about artificial intelligence (AI) 🤪 Hi there! It’s Amy again and we are in the full swing of 2024. It feels like a good time to check in with how you and your teams are adopting AI as a new technology to make work better. Is it making work better? Have you missed the boat on AI and is there something else (no, not yet, but technolog...

Thank you for a great year 🤩 -

Thank you for a great year 🤩 Hi! It’s Amy, your weird and wild leadership pro bringing you the monthly latest in leading effectively, plus helping you deal with professional highs and lows.

You spin me right 'round -

You spin me right 'round Hi! It’s Amy, your weird and wild leadership pro bringing you the monthly latest in leading effectively, plus helping you deal with professional highs and lows.

We need to talk... -

We need to talk... Hi! It’s Amy, your weird and wild leadership pro bringing you the monthly latest in leading effectively, plus helping you deal with professional highs and lows.

Are you ready for some feedback? -

Are you ready for some feedback? Hi! It’s Amy, your weird and wild leadership pro bringing you the monthly latest in leading effectively, plus helping you deal with professional highs and lows.

How are you fine-tuning your storytelling? -

How are you fine-tuning your storytelling? Hi! It’s Amy, your weird and wild leadership pro bringing you the monthly latest in leading effectively, plus dealing with professional highs and lows.

How have you connected with your team lately? -

How have you connected with your team lately? Hi! It’s Amy, your weird and wild leadership pro bringing you the monthly latest in leading effectively, plus dealing with professional highs and lows.

When is the last time you told a really great story? This month's focus at SUPER*MEGA*BOSS: storytelling! -

When is the last time you told a really great story? This month's focus at SUPER*MEGA*BOSS: storytelling! Hi! It’s Amy, your weird and wild leadership pro bringing you the monthly latest in leading effectively, plus dealing with professional highs and lows.

Support Wellness at Work as a SUPER*MEGA*BOSS -

Support Wellness at Work as a SUPER*MEGA*BOSS Hi! It’s Amy, your weird and wild leadership pro bringing you the monthly latest in leading effectively, plus dealing with professional highs and lows.

Cultivate Trust as a SUPER*MEGA*BOSS -

Cultivate Trust as a SUPER*MEGA*BOSS Hi! It’s Amy, your weird and wild leadership pro bringing you the monthly latest in leading effectively, plus dealing with professional highs and lows.

Even Megabosses experience grief -

Even Megabosses experience grief Hi! It’s Amy, your weird and wild leadership pro bringing you the latest in leading effectively, plus dealing with professional highs and lows.

Join me TODAY March 2nd on live stream to learn more about building in tough times.

Feel your feels, and still kick A$$ -

Feel your feels, and still kick A$$ Hi! It’s Amy, your weird and wild leadership pro bringing you the latest in leading effectively, plus dealing with professional highs and lows.

New year, same Mega Bo$$ -

New year, same Mega Bo$$ Hi! It’s Amy, your weird and wild leadership pro bringing you the latest in leading effectively, plus dealing with professional highs and lows. Happy New Year to all of you.

Is work an emotional rollercoaster? How to ride it and survive. -

Is work an emotional rollercoaster? How to ride it and survive. Hi! It’s Amy! Your weird and wild leadership pro bringing you the latest in leading effectively, plus dealing with professional highs and lows.

Freaking amazing work rapport + a special interview feature! 🤝 -

Freaking amazing work rapport + a special interview feature! 🤝 Hey! Amy here, your weird, wild, and effective leadership pro bringing you the latest in neuroscience-based tools and tips to help you lead way better.

Moving into October with KICK A$$ MEETINGS! 🤓 -

Moving into October with KICK A$$ MEETINGS! 🤓 Hi again! Amy here, your neuroscience leadership tips and tools pro, bringing you the latest in weird, wild, and effective professional focus and development.

Hi again! It’s Amy, your neuroscience leadership tips and tools pro, bringing you the latest in weird, wild, and better soft-skill development.

Before diving into this month’s newsletter I’d like to share that WE WON ANOTHER AWARD! We won a Brandon Hall Bronze Award for Best Advance in Competencies and Skill Development in partnership with the VMware engineering team for our storytelling program: Pitch-a-Thon.

Link in bio to our full newsletter! 🔗

Recap of our mini articles collection and...we won! 👋 - https://mailchi.mp/08a248049892/work-manage-and-use-resources-with-less-stress-14159023

Recap of our mini articles collection and...we won! 👋 Hi again! It’s Amy, your neuroscience leadership tips and tools pro, bringing you the latest in weird, wild, and better soft-skill development.

Have you ever looked around and felt like an alien as boss? Like, your employees and clients are “playing it safe” for the professional world and you just want them to let their weird flag fly?

I have definitely felt like an alien more than once in my life.

One place I feel like getting a little weird helps is when you're talking about those human skills at work. As humans, we're honestly kind of weird. I've seen more than one workplace embrace that natural weirdness and go with it. One office I spent time in had different props and toys attached to the walls in all of their conference rooms, all of which were painted bright colors. It sparked a lot of fun whenever people gathered together. In conversation with other people who create training experiences, we've all talked about bringing toys, markers, games and even costumes to foster an environment of creativity and fun during the learning process.

Bringing in novel props or offbeat appearance aspects are yet another way we can embrace weirdness and cultivate bonds in the workplace! Professional environments don’t have to be painted in hues of grey, beige and cream. Sometimes, the wackier the environment, the more potential for learning and growth. Here’s how:

1. Unusual items and sights stand out, spark our interest and are much more likely to stay in our memories.

2. A unique appearance sparks an emotional reaction (often a happy one), and this opens up an environment for team bonding and deeper comfortability with one another.

3. Weird props have greater potential to spark laughter and joy. If we are engaged with laughter and joy, we are more likely to enjoy our work and want to succeed.

Embracing weird appearances and props is also immensely helpful in any kind of impromptu dance competition.

If you want to find out just how many different ways you can get weird in the workplace? I got you. So much more weirdness to be found over at supermegaboss.com.

You know when you start on a project with crystal clear purpose and objectives, start working on it and then get super overwhelmed with the workload and other distractions that along the way you realize you’ve forgotten it’s true core values?

Me too! It’s happened to all of us.

When you forget the "why" of the work, you end up not having a great way to structure decision making (when to say "no") and can lose motivation. Often, leaders will share the purpose and objectives once and then move on with the work. But we don't always remember these key elements and they need to be repeated and reinforced or else they get forgotten. Gut check--can you clearly explain the purpose and objectives for all the work you're currently doing? If so, great. If not, time to get back to the foundations and really think about the "why."

Cores values are the backbone of every company; what drive us as individuals to strive for greatness in our careers! Without reinforcement and clarity of these values, it’s easy for us to get sidelined and for intentions to get into muddy territory. Here are some ways we can keep values at the forefront of our professional environment:

1. Before anything else, make sure that you’ve taken ample time to create values and write them down! Make sure you take time to frequently re-visit these values to ensure that they are still relevant to your company, career and self.

2. Make these values an everyday part of conversation with your team members and clients. Hear them out loud and live them with confidence!

3. Find ways to celebrate these values with your team and really notice if your leadership style reflects these values successfully.

Returning to core values are equally important in your personal spaces! Re-visit them in your plans, intentions and relationships. For every project I take on, whether that's in my work life or a personal project, I think about my values and remind myself that I need to reinforce them in all aspects of my life.

There’s so much more to discover and put into practice in understanding and enforcing core values. Check out all the info at supermegaboss.com.

Have you ever wished your corporate brainstorming sessions had a little more of the vibrance of say - a broadway musical? Me too. I sort of tried it one time and…

It worked.

I try to bring a little extra fun when I'm facilitating a meeting or brainstorm. If you want people to think bigger, you have to get them in a more open-minded state. And that gets done through fostering positive emotions. One of my first sessions for SUPER*MEGA*BOSS involved a pretty senior group of 12 tech executives and a team brainstorming session to tackle the challenges of the following fiscal year. I had worked with enough tech execs to know their meetings aren't necessarily "fun," so I created an environment to build some fun and change to their usual session. I didn't bring my pinapple suit (too much) but I did cover the room in life sized cardboard cut outs of some SUPER*MEGA*BOSS mascots (pinapple guy in a track suit, a pair of lips dressed in business attire, weird stuff) and brought markers, posters, stickers and other creative wares to get the team thinking differently. I certainly got a lot of side eye before the meeting started, but once I shared some of the science behind the change in environment, the group went along (except for one guy, there's always one...) and had a great session of creative thinking and problem solving.

Unique experiences cultivate a more solid sense of community, and achieve greater success rate for new company initiatives. Here are some ways unique experiences can be transformative:

1. By allowing employees to curate a different kind of experience at work, you are creating a positive work environment.

2. Learning! Bringing fun things into the workplace like props, costumes, music, art, storytelling and games is opening up space for new learning methods.

3. By taking your guard down, and showing others that it is okay to do the same, you are encouraging trust and cultivating greater potential for others to take on leadership.

Feeling stumped? Can’t think outside of the box quite yet after years of “professional” stagnation? I’ve got some great ideas on supermegaboss.com to get you started.

When you were younger did you ever get chosen last for a team sport and felt like an outcast? Then you made a GLORIOUS COMEBACK AND BECAME THE BOSS!!!

You sure did! It’s way cooler to nurture the importance of every individual in your team.

When I was learning how to be a manager on one of my consulting projects, I definitely experienced "imposter syndrome," or that feeling like I wasn't good enough to be in the role. My training was pretty lacking, so I spent time observing other managers and what they chose to do to build teams. I noticed that they didn't really spend enough time connecting people and giving them the time and space to be human. I know I felt like I wanted to get to know people and understand who they were and what they wanted to achieve. Despite working in a pretty competitive and hectic environment, I made sure we took some time in our team meetings for recognition and for some fun. We were stressed and needed a few minutes of this meeting each week to decompress and be human as a group. At one particularly stressful point in the project, we took the day off and went to an amusement park together (and told the client we had an important offsite session to work on our team). Sometimes, you have to go ride the roller coasters when you feel like you're on one at work.

Here are some ways that you can cultivate that strong team energy:

1. Conduct regular check-ins with your colleagues to check and see if anyone is in need of any extra support. Include them in decision making emails, and ask their opinions more often than not. It’s better to fall on the side of communicating too much!

2. Encourage activities that cultivate team-building. Catch up on video chats! Plan a fun outing or some kind of virtual activity that everyone can get engaged with. The more fun employees have together, the more willing they will be to support each other in the workplace.

3. Be clear, transparent, and truthful at all times.

You want to find out more about how cool it is to build a great team environment in the workplace? It never fails! Find out at supermegaboss.com.

Have you ever received feedback from your boss and taken it a little too personally? Then possibly ended up at home that night crying into a bowl of lasagna in your bathtub…

First of all feel free to comment which dinner dish you did cry into because it's pretty obvious we've all dined in our bathtubs due to work stress.

More than once, I've actually laughed off or ignored feedback if it was from a source I didn't trust or it was delivered in the usual $h*t sandwich format. I thought I could see right through it and I would dismiss some things that were probably pretty important for my personal growth at the time. Looking back, I was kind of a jerk about it. And then when I had to give some tough feedback for the first time, the lightbulb went off--it's actually really hard to do it well if you want people to listen. It's about getting someone else to realize things they can work on.

The truth is, constructive and well-delivered feedback is the crux of successful personal growth. Even though sometimes we have to learn this the hard way, it’s key to remind ourselves that even negative feedback can lead us to positive shifts. Here are some reasons why feedback is important in the workplace:

1. Feedback allows us to gain a new perspective and notice things that we may have been overlooking. It is meant to help us improve! It is hardly ever an attack on your character or you as a human. It's about growth.

2. Receiving and giving feedback creates bonds! Feedback is an indication that you want your team members to succeed, and that you care about the longevity of not only the company, but their career as well

3. Feedback creates a more trustworthy atmosphere in your workplace. Once colleagues are transparent with one another, communication flows more freely, and collaborations come to the forefront!

Feedback has also immensely helped me improve my tight-rope walking skills over canyons and jungles! Don’t worry, bungee cord always involved ;)

Learn more about giving and receiving constructive feedback on supermegaboss.com. And/or you can always just email me directly: [email protected].

Have you ever encouraged someone to harness their most offbeat ideas into a professional project?

I have. Frequently, in fact.

Sometimes we don't give people the benefit of the doubt that they are human. We're so focused on looking and acting the part of "the professional." I get it. You want to be taken seriously. I have done some experiments in the past few years to blend in a bit more of the offbeat when sharing information or creating training videos. It turns out that getting a little weird means people take notice--and if you're content is good, they actually _enjoy_ it more if it's fun, funny, lighthearted. We've had a few years of some pretty serious things happening in our world (and honestly, there's more to come). I've tried to infuse some fun in our video content and it turns out it was a welcome break. It does sometimes take some convincing for my customers to take the plunge, but I try to make it safe. "Hey, let's just do a small pilot to test it, and if it doesn't resonate, no harm, no foul." is a sentence I use regularly to get people to dip their toes into being a little weird.

When we learn to turn off our personal editor and stop filtering our brains, we often produce some of our greatest ideas and solutions. Here’s how:

1. Training and development that acknowledges the humanity in doing weird things is awesome! When people aren’t afraid to hit the brakes on their ideas, we often foster more creative “aha” moments.

2. Once we let our guard down, a funny thing happens: we start to tackle bigger and more uncomfortable challenges. Once we get into this space of discomfort and unfamiliarity, the learning is starting to work. In this space, we start to see outside the box and encounter new revelations.

3. We start to create intimacy and connection with those that we are working and learning with. Once we let our guard down we start to foster memory and application. Real innovation comes once people can safely reveal their idiosyncrasies and humanity.

You think humanity and innovation is cool? Yes, it IS so cool to have them in your workplace, and I can help you foster that! Check it out at supermegaboss.com.

Have you ever sat in an important work meeting, watching your employee share brilliantly for 3 straight minutes, but then when asked what points you support your answer was, "sorry, what?" because you were too busy thinking about lunch?

It's okay: I've often forgotten to listen too...and mostly because I think lunch is amazing.

With the move to remote and now hybrid work, I feel like it's even harder to listen and focus. Our brains struggle to multitask and yet our environment requires it of us. I cannot begin to count how many times I've been on a Zoom and had people private chatting with me looking for answers - when I'm the one talking or actively listening to others! And then I feel like I miss the boat on both...I haven't listened to the person talking and I haven't responded to the person who clearly needs me on chat. Or while running a meeting that's hybrid - making sure I'm including and listening to the people dialing in while staying present in the room. I wish I had another set of ears!

The workday can be extra long and it’s easy to let your mind wander about things like lunch and uncharted adventures. But there are ways that you can get yourself engaged in active listening, and actually enjoy it at the same time!

1. Take an interest and curiosity in non-verbal cues.

2. Ask Questions! Keep yourself genuinely engaged in what they are saying.

3. Take the time to gain awareness of your own body language. Have you been looking down frequently? Make a conscious effort to make a decent amount of eye contact, and keep your posture open and inviting so they don’t feel that you’re closed off.

Active listening is also of the utmost importance when you are getting ready to tandem paraglide and looking and listening for when to launch. I am most certainly glad I stay focus and listen closely when I go flying!

So, LISTEN UP! At at supermegaboss.com I’ve got lots of other great tips about active listening as a core soft skill.

Have you ever been giving a talk, went off script, and then just blurted something super weird into the mic? Me? Never (;

Honestly if I could, I’d do it every day. A backstory:

Back in the day, I was pretty quiet about sharing stories about myself. I worked in a conservative environment and I knew oversharing wasn't the way to get ahead (it's like that sometimes, right?). Slowly but surely, I started to learn that telling stories about my experiences in a way that showed I wanted to learn from the situations I had been in or that I had seen others in actually helped people feel more connected. Sharing stories allowed me to let people see the human side of who I was at work and in turn, allowed them to realize that work is often about the human side. It felt pretty awkward at first, and honestly, it still does sometimes, but I know people often relate to those weird stories that we have and share.

1. Weirdness (and being authentic) leads to a deeper sharing of ideas which, in turn, leads to a deeper connection built through sharing weird stories and experiences! Weirdness aids in learning and empowering others to lead by creative example.

2. People are looking for more authentic leaders. A little bit of oddball behavior and quirkiness inspires like a warm, fuzzy welcome sign. Once employees feel psychologically safe in their workspace, they are more likely to share their perspectives and ideas.

3. Allowing yourself to feel and express weirdness can fuel your own innovative side too! This in turn allows you to lead and communicate from a more present place as you’re not worrying so much about what people think of you and your ideas.

Weirdness is also truly handy when you are river rafting down a treacherous river with a bunch of people you’ve never met and you save the day by yelling “oh my frog!!!” at the biggest waterfall because guess what? You’re all now going down it together - laughing.

What’s that you say? You’re interested in getting more work-weird? Awesome. I can definitely help you out with that at supermegaboss.com!

One time I learned the hard way that soft skills are way more important than they sound...

Okay I admit it! Several times:

Once, when I was part of a large consulting project, I realized my ability to empathize and coach a leader was really the reason I was chosen to be a part of the project. It wasn't, as I thought, my really great excel and powerpoint skills. Being able to help this leader navigate conflict, communicate clearly, and understand the "people" side of our project didn't "save the day," but it made them easier to work with for the whole team. Recently, someone on the team asked me back to help after a decade! Those soft skills make an impact.

I know this scenario may sound like many of you. We are taught as leaders to “go hard” on our technical skills but sometimes that's not what's needed for long term success. How to hold that soft skill space when $h*t hits the fan?

1. Soft skills prepare us to navigate situations with our head on our shoulders. Being mindful even in chaotic professional scenarios is literally better for us/our health.

2. Work is often wildly more about human relationships than about the product or service itself. In a nutshell? Soft skills help humans navigate other humans.

3. Soft skills better both individuals, teams, and entire companies which is great because real innovation and productivity is a GROUP effort.

Soft skills also help you be more empathetic to yourself and others when you're climbing that proverbial (or actual!) mountain. Nothing like a good mountain adventure to generate some good ideas and innovation. When's the last time you took a hike and got into nature?

What’s a soft skill you know you need to cultivate, like, right now? Maybe it's coaching or emotional intelligence? Oh and funny you should ask - yes I can totally help you develop acutely better soft skills at supermegaboss.com!

THRIVING THROUGH CHANGE: THE NEUROSCIENCE OF LEADING YOURSELF THROUGH CHANGE 👋

P.S. Can you tell it went amazingly? ☺️

this is SOOOO helpful 👏👏👏👏👏