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Part one of this two part series on honing your power skills focused on empowering you to navigate your stressors and practice self-regulation. Now, we’re ready to dive into power skills, focusing on three of the most effective. You may find that doing this solo might not be as impactful as you wish it to be. A leadership coach can help. Often, it helps to have another party who can help hold accountability for the learnings and for the challenges that come up while we’re trying to learn something new and help accelerate your learnings.

The levels of VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity) in our workplaces, personal spaces and the world continue to rise. Fortunately, there are ways you can tame the stressors of a VUCA world and harness your power skills to become a more effective leader. This is part one of a two part series. This part focuses on activities that can help us navigate our stressors and regulate ourselves in preparation to access our “power skills”.

We’ve been conditioned into thinking that if we just get that one tool, that one tactic, it will fix what’s going on. But here’s the thing – hacks and tactics are typically quick fixes focused on addressing only one element of a larger issue. We tackle a symptom, but we neglect exploring the foundation (aka the heart of the problem), and ultimately, our solution is short-lived. So how do you make a built-to-last repair? The answer is simple, but not easy.

Around this time of year there is a good chance that stress levels are rising, fueled by the inner critic who lives in your head, twisting thoughts and feelings about relationships, obligations and judgments into a negative narrative spiral. If the holiday season is a tough time for you, you are not alone. And if you feel like you could benefit from a new way of looking at things, try reframing stress and your inner critic as signals that something is out of alignment.

When companies sponsor coaching support as part of their professional development, I find coachees often arrive with a belief they have to keep their sessions limited to professional topics. As much as we may try to compartmentalize our “work” and our “life”, our personal and professional personas are interconnected. Here’s why we need to normalize discussing personal topics in our professional coaching sessions:

Some leaders and managers are missing out on the benefits of having a coach because they’re holding out for what they believe is the perfect moment to start. Waiting until you’re not so busy, busier, well rested, or starting a new role can easily mean you end up not starting at all. While there’s no such things as the perfect time to start leadership coaching, here are some of the near perfect times to get going.