Ann Tardy, Author at MentorLead - Page 6 of 17

All Posts by Ann Tardy


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The Best of Flash! in 2017 (Your 6 Favorite Articles)

The end of the year is the perfect time to reflect upon and celebrate what we’ve each created, discovered, initiated, and achieved over the past 12 months.

As I reflect upon the Flash! articles I created for you in 2017, I am celebrating your favorite ones by resending them…

Are You a Storyteller or a Storycatcher? (Ask Your Uber Driver)
https://www.anntardy.com/are-you-a-storyteller-or-a-storycatcher-ask-your-uber-driver/

When Are We Too Old to Be Remarkable? (Ask Grandma Moses)
https://www.anntardy.com/when-are-we-too-old-to-be-remarkable-ask-grandma-moses/

Zoom Out! (Advice for the Screen-Obsessed)
https://www.anntardy.com/zoom-out-advice-for-the-screen-obsessed/

Are You Shouting a Battle Cry Like my Hertz Driver?
https://www.anntardy.com/are-you-shouting-a-battle-cry-like-my-hertz-driver/

Don’t Boo the Band
https://www.anntardy.com/dont-boo-the-band/

Would You Cycle Vermont with Prosthetic Legs?
https://www.anntardy.com/would-you-cycle-vermont-with-prosthetic-legs/

Thank you for reading, responding, and engaging with me throughout the year! I look forward to continuing our quest together to become bigger, better, bolder versions of ourselves!

Wishing you a happy New Year and a smashingly successful 2018!


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Is It Time for a New Normal? (& announcing our Annual Gift)

When normal feels too normal, it might be time for a new normal.

As I wrote holiday cards to my family, friends, and colleagues, I was struck by how many people in my life have courageously created (or endured) a “new normal” this year.

Some announced new roles or retirements, others changed jobs or addresses, some had children, others sent children off to college, some decided to get married, while others decided to get unmarried.

It takes courage to make change happen. And its courage that fuels our resilience after change happens to us.

The reality is that we cannot be stuck and in action at the same time. A new normal forces us to get unstuck.

I’ve moved to the West coast and then to the East. I’ve changed jobs. I’ve changed careers. I’ve lost a parent. I got married. I embraced step-kids. I bought a house. I got a dog. And this year, I adopted another dog. Each experience forced me to get uncomfortable, alter the cadence of my life, move forward without knowing exactly how it would turn out. Soon, each experience became my new normal.

LifeMoxie Annual Gift
This year we have made generous donations to the ASCPA and Amazing Mutts Puppy Rescue – two wonderful organizations that rescued and rehomed hundreds of animals abandoned during this year’s hurricanes. One of those animals found his way into our home and my heart.

To read a copy of our holiday letter and learn more about these organizations (and see a picture of my new normal), go to: https://www.lifemoxie.com/articles/flash-mentoring/

As always, we applaud you for taking on new normals this year with grit and guts! Just imagine what you will create next year…

Stop Saying I’m So Busy! (and Reclaim Your Sanity)

We are constantly deluged with an unmanageable amount of information screaming for our attention.

Each day:

  • 269 billion email messages are sent
  • 8 trillion text messages are sent
  • 500 million tweets are tweeted

Astoundingly, 90% of the data in the world today was created in the past 2 years. (IBM Marketing Cloud 2016) It’s not surprising that we get overwhelmed and overpowered by information. Defensively, we utter the phrase, “I’m so busy” like a salutation, “Good morning! I’m so busy!” So what can we do to stop drowning?

  1. Identify our essentials
  2. Consume only the information that contributes to our essentials

Without vigilantly deploying these filters, any information can seem intriguing, interesting, or important. To identify essentials… “Essential” gets defined by our aspirations, our goals, our commitments, our vision, and our battle cry. We need to ask, “What are my aspirations [goals, commitments, vision, battle cry] for my career, my family, my heath, my finances, and my life?”

To determine what information is important… Pause to evaluate: “Does this information [email, text, tweet, data, Yahoo story, LinkedIn announcement, Facebook update, YouTube cat video] I’m about to consume contribute to or contaminate one of my aspirations?” (“Contaminate” is any distraction, derailment, or sabotage.)

If the information does not help us move toward that which is important to us (our aspirations!), we need to: resist it, trash it, return it, or ignore it.

The only way to survive the deluge is by taking back our power over the information.

When we don’t use filters, we don’t have control. And then we helplessly grouse, “I’m so busy!”

We can do better than that…

Listen to their Listening (or Just Stop Speaking)

In an old episode of the television comedy Will & Grace, narcissistic Karen is at a cocktail party talking with her friends while scanning the room. Suddenly she exclaims, “Better people! Gotta go!”

While we could blame the Karens of the world for being incredibly rude, we are always responsible for our own communications. Part of our responsibility is listening to people’s listening. When we listen to people, we listen for their words. When we listen to people’s listening, we are listening for what they are not saying, such as:

  • I am distracted or bored
  • I am unsure or confused
  • I am stressed or overwhelmed
  • I am upset or don’t agree

When we speak, we are focused on our words. When we listen to people’s listening, we are focused on their experience of our words. Notice the following when speaking with anyone:

  • Eye contact: where are they looking?
  • Focus: are their eyes glazed, clearly thinking about other things?
  • Face: are they smiling, frowning, furrowing their brows, or pursing their lips?
  • Body Language: are their arms crossed or open, are their shoulders square or seeking an exit?
  • Responses: do their comments or answers match the conversation or questions?
  • Distractions: can you hear them typing on a keyboard or see them glued to a screen?

And when our listening reveals that they are not listening, we can:

  1. Stop talking: silence can be very loud
  2. Ask a question: “what’s your perspective? what do you think?”
  3. Acknowledge the distraction: “do you need to take that call/text?”
  4. Reschedule the conversation: “this doesn’t seem to be a good time; shall we reschedule?”

If we want to be better bosses, colleagues, mentors, parents, and friends, we need to shift the spotlight from our stage to theirs by intentionally listening to their listening.

You’re Perfect and You Could Improve

Soto Zen Buddhist monk Shunryu Suzuki said…
“You are perfect just as you are, and you could use a little improvement.”

There’s nothing wrong with us!

Yet our world constantly reminds us that we are broken and need fixing:

  • Report cards: here’s your grade and where you fell short
  • Commercials: here’s what’s wrong with you and how our product will fix it
  • Feedback: here’s my “constructive criticism” to change you

But if we start with the notion that we are perfect as we are, we could springboard from our strengths, instead of flail from our flaws.

With “perfect as we are” as our anchor, we can enthusiastically seek suggestions, feedback, ideas, and input from others by asking, “How can I improve from here?”

Without a need to defensively protect our ego, we can welcome suggestions and ideas, not as judgments or criticisms, but as contributions and building blocks. Each block helping us to become bigger, better, bolder versions of ourselves – to be even more perfect.

So how do we get a little improvement? By seeking advice, perspectives, and ideas from others through:

  • mentoring and being mentored
  • coaching and being coached
  • attending classes and trainings
  • reading voraciously
  • joining mastermind groups

Now consider using this mindset to lead others: our people are perfect as they are, and they could use a little improvement. From here our job is to add the building blocks that contribute to our people being bigger, better, bolder versions of themselves. That’s the secret to becoming the boss people want to work for!

All by starting with perfect and improving from there

Add Some Gusto to that Gratitude!

Woo-hoo! The annual holiday to be more grateful has arrived!

And every year, experts apprise us of all the benefits we could reap personally by being more grateful: lower blood pressure, less stress, better sleep, stronger mental clarity, happiness…

But what about the influence that being grateful can have on others?

There are two behavioral theories that get triggered when we acknowledge and appreciate others:

1. Self-Delusion Bias

2. Spotlight Effect

Self-Delusion Bias People who feel good about themselves tend to perform better. When we express gratitude by acknowledging someone, we fuel their self-esteem and boost their confidence. And with boosted confidence, people exert even more effort in hopes of obtaining more self-esteem fuel.

Spotlight Effect People who feel their actions are noticed (“spotlighted”) by someone tend to operate more effectively just to impress the person watching.  When we express gratitude by appreciating someone’s actions, we spotlight that action.

Just by noticing, we spark that person’s desire to perform that action even better in hopes that we continue to notice and spotlight that action again.

The secret, however, is in the specificity. Running around yelling “Thanks, Bob!” “Thanks, Mary!” is ineffective because it feels contrived and insincere. How? We need to put some gusto in our gratitude!

  • Thank you for the way you always make us healthy dinners.
  • I appreciate the difference you make on the team with your solutions.
  • I am grateful for your perseverance in getting us the right answer.
  • I am in awe of your constant kindness toward strangers.

If we want our gratitude to be significant and ripple with impact beyond the holidays, we need to add a little gusto to our gratitude!

What If We Were Evaluated Only On Our Passion?

One of my favorite movie lines can be heard at the end of the romantic comedy, Serendipity: “The Greeks didn’t write obituaries. They only asked one question after a man died: ‘Did he have passion?’”

* (This is partially true and partially Hollywood. The founders of Cyrenaic (435-356 BC) held this philosophy and they were Greek. But this practice was not true of all Greeks.)

What if we were evaluated only by our passion?

  • Would we spend our time differently at home and at the office?
  • How would we have to act and behave if passion was a requirement of our job?
  • Would we still prioritize our emails and altercations, or our impact and contributions?
  • Would we focus more on the output we deliver or the outcome we influence?


If passion were revered and valued at work
, would we add it as a leadership competency and evaluate it during the annual performance review: “So Bob, how should we rate your passion this year?” … and perhaps reinvent the exit interview: “So Bob, did you have passion while you worked at our company?”

But what is passion? Intense enthusiasm, energy, and tenacity for something that excites us. Typically it manifests as:

  • unquenchable desire and devotion
  • an internal drive regardless of circumstances
  • dogged determination to make a difference
  • intrepid risk-taking in spite of doubters, naysayers, critics, and judges
  • obsession with improving: self, others, processes, products, profits
  • courage to challenge mediocrity, complacency, and the status quo


So what should do we do if we would fail the Greek’s obituary-test today?

Start creating passion… in moments. Soon enough, the moments will add up to define a passionate life. And even the Greeks won’t need to write an obituary about us!


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Lose (and Lead) with Class Like Penn State Coach

After a 7-0 winning streak this season, Penn State’s football team suffered two back-to-back losses, most recently against Michigan State University. When the game ended in defeat, a few devastated Penn State players retreated toward the locker room without shaking hands with the MSU players. Incensed, Penn State Coach James Franklin ran after them and made his players return to the field to acknowledge the winners. In his post-game press conference, Franklin proclaimed, “We win with class. We lose with class. And we are going to shake people’s hands and give them credit because they deserved it.” Coach Franklin invoked two powerful influences:

  1. Social Cognitive Theory
  2. Labeling Theory

Social Cognitive Theory People observe the actions and behaviors of their role models to mold their own actions and behaviors. Children watch their parents. Employees watch their boss. Football players watch their coach. Through his action immediately after the game and his behavior during the press conference, Coach Franklin demonstrated for his players the importance of acknowledging the winning team’s performance. And he articulated his intolerance for disrespecting others. Labeling Theory People who are labeled (especially by role models) tend to mold their actions and behaviors to fit that label.   Coach Franklin labeled his team “classy” and “respectful,” likely emboldening concordant actions from his players. We all have the power to influence others with our own actions and behaviors. By…

  • exuding passion
  • acting with integrity and consistency
  • respecting and standing up for others
  • recognizing and appreciating efforts
  • using empowering labels intentionally

Inadvertently, Coach Franklin demonstrated for the rest of us what it means to lead with class.

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