How To Identify And Conquer Your Evil Nemesis

Think you don’t have an evil nemesis? Or have one and not know how to handle them?
 
It’s a common fallacy that a nemesis is one person, it could be a group of people or a habit or set of behaviors you just can’t shake. 
 
Here are some recent examples:

• One executive has had her four biggest executive supporters leave the company simultaneously, now the voice of one executive has the potential to cause her to quit or severely hamper her promotion prospects.

• Another executive has just joined a new company and the technical division is at odds with his creative team causing endless spin cycles of distraction and confusion.

• An executive who decided to focus inwardly on his company and delivering incredible products for the last three years has now realized his network is dehydrated and out of date just at the very point when an acquisition means his executive role no longer exists.

• Another executive has been so swamped delivering, he hasn’t been able to focus his attention on upgrading and hiring the senior team needed to grow the business for the long term, his nose is barely above the waterline of activity and reactive projects

Unlike the movie Beetle Juice, naming your nemesis three times won’t make it appear or be resolved, but it will bring an awareness to something you likely need to spend more time and attention on.
 
What or who is your evil nemesis?
 
Is your concern based on observable behavior and evidence or stories you have made up in your head?
 
Who can help you tackle your evil nemesis? Do you have an issue to resolve, facts to clarify, relationships to build, or something else?
 
For the first ten people to reply, tell me your evil nemesis and I’ll give you some fast ways you can tackle it once and for all.

Dedicated to growing your business,

Val

P.S. I hope you enjoyed this week's VAL-uable Insights, sign up here to get them in your inbox each Monday morning: http://valwrightconsulting.com/newsletter-sign-up/

How To Get The Fuel You Need For Peak Performance

This is going to be the shortest piece of advice you will ever read on nutrition:
 
Find out what works for you and stick to it. The end.
 
Okay, a little explanation: I have found talking about nutrition to be more controversial than religion, so I am not giving any advice on it other than my one nutrition rule above. Whether you are vegan, paleo, carb-loading, carb-loving, carb-hating, plant loving, juicing or protein shakes, I really do not care. What I do care about is that you are paying attention to your nutrition as one of the three critical components of boosting and maintaining your energy, the other two being sleep and exercise. I’ll never forget what I heard at a CrossFit seminar on nutrition the 1:23 rule: it doesn’t matter if you exercise diligently for an hour every day, if you don’t pay attention to what you eat in the other 23 hours, you are wasting your time.
 
Microsoft used to offer an incredible free benefit to its employees: Free nutrition coaching and guidance with their free local gym. You would see employees transformed over a period of several months as they changed what they ate. The plan was irrelevant; the priceless part was the accountability. The program that had a $4,000 value was free if you hit your target goals. That level of commitment meant nobody signed up unless they genuinely believed they could stick with it and hit their goals. 
 
If you need to change what you eat, consider how you can be held accountable to change and stick with it.

To your continued success,

Val

Why This Is The Real Ten Year Challenge You Need

Rather than a ten year challenge focusing on how you look today compared to how you looked ten years ago. How about one focusing on what your body can do?

If you have glanced at any social media channel lately you will have seen the latest craze where people share their photo today and compare it to one ten years ago. Now apart from a theory that Facebook are mining a new dearth of data for facial recognition technology, there is a much more useful and productive challenge you can take.

Let's focus on your achievements rather than your looks.

Where were you ten years ago? - what job, what scope, what role, what achievements? 

What have you achieved in the last 3,650+ days in your work life and whole life? - moved cities, taken care of relatives, become parents, battled health challenges, ran marathon/triathlon/ironman races?

What have been your major work achievements? - launched products, created new revenue streams, completed acquisitions, hired brilliant people, dealt with mismatched people, become known externally for your expertise?

Many people don’t like talking about their achievements, it seems like you are bragging, you discount the impact of them in your head, or you minimize the true contribution you had. I am not suggesting that you exaggerate or that you take credit where it is not due, but simply note, acknowledge and talk about where you have been brilliant.

Ten years ago I only had one daughter, I was working for Amazon on their Fashion Leadership team, still in my corporate life in Seattle. As I reflect on my last ten years not only has my deadlift jumped from 25 Lb to 245 Lb, I launched my own consulting business, moved to Los Angeles, wrote my first book Thoughtfully Ruthless, and have helped dozens of executives grow their businesses which you can read about here.

In my keynote to CIOs in Boston last year, I had this message about how to become brilliant at demonstrating your brilliance, it applies equally to every executive regardless of your expertise.

Dedicated to growing your business,

Val

P.S. I hope you enjoyed this week's VAL-uable Insights, sign up here to get them in your inbox each Monday morning: http://valwrightconsulting.com/newsletter-sign-up/