Debra Kasowski

3 Ways to Get People to Open Up to You and Share Their Ideas

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Whether you are in the boardroom or having a one on one conversation, building trust and rapport is key in getting someone to open up to you and share their ideas and opinions. People will not disclose anything to you if they do not feel safe. Sharing their ideas and opinions makes them vulnerable and open to judgment. Why would someone want to put themselves out there knowing that they would not be listened to or criticized?

You want to be able to create an atmosphere where people feel safe brainstorming, sharing ideas, and exploring opportunities. When you can do this, you can have deeper more meaningful conversations. You can establish buy-in in the direction you are heading. You can mitigate risks than you may not have seen coming. You will welcome more engagement and participation in strategic planning and meetings. Now, how do you do it?

Pay Attention to How You Say Things   

The way you communicate speaks volumes, particularly in your body language. Body language accounts for 55 percent of your communication, followed by 38 percent tone of voice, and 7 percent words. When someone shares an idea or offers an opinion you do not agree with or have reservations about, do you catch yourself rolling your eyes? Cross your arms or legs? Eye rolling discounts what the other person is saying. Basically saying, “Whatever, like that’s going to work?” Crossing your arms or legs creates a barrier and can be a sign of defensiveness. Keep your eyes engaged with the person sharing ideas. Be observant. Look at their body language as they share and listen to their tone of voice. If you want people to open up to you, you need to be open. Lean in, maintain eye contact (not a stare down), and truly listen.

Put the Agenda Aside and Ask Open Ended Questions

Asking open ended questions to gather a person’s point of view can make person feel important and what they have to say matters – because it does. When you come in with an agenda, people can sense that whatever they say will be disregarded. They know if you have a hidden agenda. Face it we all have agendas. If you want to build trust and openness, you need to put the agenda aside and be open – even if you may not like the answers. You may get feedback that can change your approach to a situation. Put people in the driver’s seat and ask questions like: “If you owned this company and it was your money, what action would you take to get the greatest return on investment?” Or, “I would really like your input on something, what do you think…”.

Be Willing to Be Teachable and Coachable

As a leader, people may suspect you know all the answers. You know you cannot have all the answers; however, you do know how to build a team and gather resources to find the answers. If you do not know the answer say so, do not fake knowing the answer. Humbly admit it and be willing to learn. Ask individuals tell you more about how something works or their next steps. You can gain an understanding of what they are thinking and the actions they are planning to take. You can ask thoughtful questions that offer a different point of view, challenge assumptions, and affirm the direction a person is heading. Admitting to not know everything and being willing to learn or be coached builds trust. This admission makes you relatable and on an equal playing field.

Make a commitment to yourself that you are going to carve out time in your busy schedule to walk around and learn about the people you work in partnership with. Productivity increases when people are doing work that they feel makes a difference. Why not show them that they matter by communicating openly, asking thought-provoking questions, and being open to hearing the responses and engaging meaningful conversation. People will begin to open up and share when they feel when you do not come with a hidden agenda and they feel safe and free from judgment and criticism.

Debra Kasowski, the charismatic host of the thought-provoking podcast, The Millionaire Woman Show, is committed to enriching the leadership potential of her countless clients, essentially guiding them to go within to capitalize on their true personal power, so they can achieve the measurable success they desire in business, and in life. After graduating with distinction, having earned a Bachelor of Science in Nursing, this award winning, three-time bestselling author, speaker and Certified Executive Coach spent many years as a clinical manager exceling in leadership development, before founding Debra Kasowski International, a world-class training and consulting venture focused on helping aspiring business owners and solopreneurs develop the winning “success habits” that transform human potential into sustainable profits.
Clearly, if you’re motivated to move beyond the mediocre, inspired to forge on to the forefront with a proven plan of action, there’s no doubt that the indomitable Debra Kasowski is your solution.www.debrakasowski.com

How to Create a Winning Strategy for the Best Year Ever

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Are you sitting back in your office chair scrolling through social media reading everyone’s highlight reels of the past year? Are you feeling envious of the travel, the food, the promotions, and family time? Have you started asking yourself, “Why not me?” Why not YOU?

Business people meeting at office and use post it notes to share idea. Brainstorming concept. Sticky note on glass wall.

You have every opportunity to create a life or environment that supports those same dreams. However, you may be overzealous in your approach and overwhelm yourself with an “I want it all” mentality. You can work toward many goals. It is best to start with one or two goals you want to accomplish to avoid overwhelm otherwise you put yourself into a split focus situation.

Get Clear on Your Priorities

Do you have a clear sense of what is most important for you to accomplish in the upcoming year? What will you be most proud of? What will have the greatest return on your investment of time, money, resources, or energy? I know you are an achiever because you are reading this. Achievers continuously look for ways to refine their strategies to become more productive, more efficient, and more effective.

In Gary Keller’s book, The One Thing, he asserts that “Achievers operate differently. They have an eye for essential. They pause long enough to decide what matters to drive their day. Achievers do sooner what others plan to do later and defer, perhaps indefinitely, what others do sooner…Achievers always work from a clear sense of priority.”

Write out your top priorities. When you get your goals out of your head and onto paper, you start thinking about the ways to accomplish those goals. If you are not sure, start writing out different ideas that come to you. Some people refer to this as a “brain dump”. After you write everything out you can then go through everything and circle or highlight what resonates with you the most, you can start identifying what is most important to you right now. Another suggestion would be to write down all the questions you have about your priorities. Your brain will be stimulated to start searching for answers – do not get stuck on the “how”. When we write things out it gives us clues as to what we want.

Create a Plan and Be Great

You need to create a plan to achieve your goals. You do not get a LEGO set already built. You have a step by step instruction booklet guiding you of each step along the way. Reverse engineer your plans starting with your end in mind and working backwards and forward writing out each step you need to take to become successful. Many people have the end in mind, but they fail to thoughtfully write out a plan of what actions they need to take.

In the 12 Week Year, Brain Moran states there are three principles that form the foundation of personal and professional success: accountability, commitment, and greatness in the moment. By writing out a plan, you are holding yourself accountable. Create milestone check ins to assess where you are at and if any adjustments need to be made. Why wait until very end to get disappointed if a change needed to make and you did not make it. When you make a decision, you put a stake in the ground committing to do something. Finally, greatness in the moment “is not achieved when the result is reached, but long before that, when an individual makes a choice to do what is necessary to become great.”

Eat Your Frog in 5-4-3-2-1

Now that you have identified your priorities, you may be a tad nervous. You know what you want, what you want may stretch you out of your comfort zone. This is where you need to follow Brian Tracy’s Advice from his book, Eat that Frog – “Start with the biggest, hardest, and most important task first…Resist the temptation to start with the easier task. He says, “you must develop the routine of “eating your frog” before you do anything else and without taking too much time to think about it.” This concept works well with the work of Mel Robbins in her 5-Second Rule book. She says you should launch into action before giving yourself too much time to analyze or talk yourself out of what you know you need to do.

When you are clear on where you are going, have a plan, beat out procrastination, you can accelerate you career, business, and organizational growth, you will be more intentional with your time and choices, and you will take back control of your day. A winning strategy will help you reach your goals in record time.

Debra Kasowski, the charismatic host of the thought-provoking
podcast, The Millionaire Woman Show, is committed to
enriching the leadership potential of her countless clients,
essentially guiding them to go within to capitalize on their true
personal power, so they can achieve the measurable success
they desire in business, and in life.
After graduating with distinction, having earned a Bachelor of
Science in Nursing, this award winning, three-time international
bestselling author, speaker and Certified Executive Coach spent
many years as a clinical manager exceling in leadership
development, before founding Debra Kasowski International, a
world-class training and consulting venture focused on helping
aspiring business owners and solopreneurs develop the winning
“success habits” that transform human potential into sustainable
profits.
Clearly, if you’re motivated to move beyond the mediocre,
inspired to forge on to the forefront with a proven plan of action,
there’s no doubt that the indomitable Debra Kasowski is your solution.www.debrakasowski.com

5 REASONS NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS FAIL

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As the clock ticks, getting ready to bring in the New Year, you may be reflecting and thinking about who you want to be, what you what to do, or what you want to have in the new year.

New Year. New Goals. New You.

You may have identified habits that are not serving you. You may have decided you want to do more travelling or enter a race. Perhaps you decided you want to clear off the debt hanging over your head. Many resolutions people make are related to changing something. Change can be uncomfortable. You may feel like you are losing something or sacrificing something you really enjoy. You may have looked back at the past year and thought it was amazing. You may have kicked yourself thinking the resolutions you made did not get past the third week of January like most people who proclaim resolutions.

There are many reasons you may not have been successful in the past and what you can do about moving forward:

Lack Clarity for What You Want

You know you want something to change but you have not pinpointed what that change is exactly. You may feel paralyzed or confused not knowing what your next step should be. A confused mind cannot make a decision. What do you want and why do you want it? Ask yourself questions to gain clarity.

What do I want to feel most proud of at the end of the year?

What are the specific areas of my life I would like to enhance or change?

What is one thing I can do in the next 3 months that would set me up for the greatest success for the next 12 months?

When you know what you want, you can make choices that align with getting what you want. You will be intentional with your actions.

Not Ready to Change

You may be one of those people who blurt out the New Year’s Resolution thinking this is what other people want you to do so maybe that’s what you say you will do. Deep down you know you are not ready to change. You do not see your weight, your habits, your spending, or your time management as a problem. You enjoy food, the cigarette, the clutter, the gambling, retail therapy, or video games too much. It makes you feel good, there is a sense of comfort, so you do not see an issue. Perhaps the change requires too much effort and you tell yourself you are satisfied – but you are deciding to settle instead.

What do you enjoy most about _________________________?

No Tracking of Progress

Did you make a change this past year? Was it successful? Did you track your activity? Many people say that they made changes and took action. The action they took was random. They did not measure or have any milestone markers to see if their actions made a difference. Remember what gets measured gets managed. You can use simple tools like a blank calendar, a sticker chart, habit tracker, thermometer, or a colouring chart to create a visual tracking of your progress. You can identify gaps and areas for re-adjustment when you track progress.

Overwhelmed with What Needs to Get Done

The enthusiasm and excitement of the New Year may have led you to set too many goals and unrealistic time frames. It is great to be all in! You want to set yourself up for success. Choose 1-3 goals larger goals for the year and 1-3 smaller goals per quarter. You want your goals to be manageable. Break down the goal into smaller goals – one month, 2 weeks, and daily activities. You will not be overwhelmed when you focus on what you need to do in the present. All your actions will compound leading to achieving the big goal you set for yourself.

You Do Not Have a Plan

No goal is achieved without a plan. An end desire in mind.  It is great to cut out picture and design your vision board. A vision board is not meant to be a beautiful collage of picture on the wall. Your vision board is a visual of all you want to be, do, and have in your life. It is a tool that requires action. What qualities do you want to possess? What do you want to be doing? What experiences do you want to have? What do you want to own?

Now, to get what you want…

You must do what you may not have done in the past.

WARNING: You may stretch out of your comfort zone – and chances are you will like the results you get.

You want to start off by reverse engineering what it takes to make the plan a reality. Focus on the result. What actions are necessary to get you to the desired result? Start by blocking off the activity in your calendar. Be consistent. When you do one action every day toward your goals, you are much closer than if you took 5 random actions in a month. Make a plan. Work the plan.

Resolutions fail, goals prevail! Set goals. Ink out your SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely) goals. Make an action plan to achieve them. Next year when the clock strikes midnight, you will be celebrating a year well designed and a year well lived.

Debra Kasowski

Debra Kasowski, the charismatic host of the thought-provoking
podcast, The Millionaire Woman Show, is committed to
enriching the leadership potential of her countless clients,
essentially guiding them to go within to capitalize on their true
personal power, so they can achieve the measurable success
they desire in business, and in life.
After graduating with distinction, having earned a Bachelor of
Science in Nursing, this award winning, three-time international
bestselling author, speaker and Certified Executive Coach spent
many years as a clinical manager exceling in leadership
development, before founding Debra Kasowski International, a
world-class training and consulting venture focused on helping
aspiring business owners and solopreneurs develop the winning
“success habits” that transform human potential into sustainable
profits.
Clearly, if you’re motivated to move beyond the mediocre,
inspired to forge on to the forefront with a proven plan of action,
there’s no doubt that the indomitable Debra Kasowski is your solution.www.debrakasowski.com

3 Ways to Visionary Leaders Can Engage Their Teams in Their Vision

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Visionary leaders are creatives by nature. You’ll notice that if you are a visionary leader that your mind goes off with ideas like fireworks at the county fair. You can see the vision in your mind, you can feel the excitement of the vision coming together in your body, and you believe it is possible to make your vision a reality. However, not all visionary leaders can get their teams to buy-in to your vision. Have you ever had a leader that had trouble explaining their vision? They can tell you what the final outcome can be but they can’t always explain how to get the destination. Visionary leaders need to engage their teams to fulfill the vision.

Write Out Your Compelling Vision. Get it out of your head and onto paper. You have tons of ideas battling for your attention and focus at any one time. Ideas can be grand but also fleeting so it is important to capture those ideas onto paper as soon as possible. Inking the vision onto paper helps you think about the vision and not miss a detail. Writing out your vision and goals helps you clarify your ideas.

Communicate Your Vision to Your Team. Be descriptive as possible. Remember you can see the vision clearly in your mind. People are not mind readers. Your team all learn in different ways. Some people need to see the vision. Using diagram, images, or models can help describe the vision. Others are auditory so explaining your vision in vivid detail with help them create the picture in their mind. Sensory learners learn by touch and kinesthetic learn by action to reinforce the learning. Most people have a combination of all four. Clearly communicating your vision reveals a roadmap as to where you are heading. It can act as a filter to ensure your team is “paddling” in the same direction versus chasing ideas that are not in aligned with your vision.

“Vision is the art of what is invisible to others.” Jonathan Swift

Engage Your Team by Asking Open-Ended Questions. Discover who the planners and implementers are on your team. These individuals are the ones who can see the vision and know how to make the vision a reality. What do they think about the vision? What would it take to make this vision a reality? What opportunities exist that can be leveraged? Your team members want to be engaged in meaningful and engaging work. What does making this vision a reality do for others? Allow them to be part of your vision and they will be your champions. Ensure that you check in at milestones to celebrate with them and see your vision unfold.

We need visionaries to inspire creative ideas and solutions. Visionaries can struggle from time to time in making the vision become a reality because the can see it in their minds but they have trouble articulating it to others. By writing out the vision, communicating the vision, and engaging your team in the vision, you will gain clarity, new ideas, and buy-in from your team. If any member of your team is paddling in a different direction, you will face resistance and may even head in a different direction should any other team members join them.

Share your compelling vision regularly. Ask questions regularly. Engage the right team members. Ensure they are paddling in the same direction. Lead them to your vision.

DEBRA KASOWSKI, BScN CEC is an award-winning best-selling author, transformational speaker, blogger, and Certified Executive Coach. She has a heart of a teacher and is certified in Appreciative Inquiry and Emotional Intelligence. Her writing has been published in a variety of print and online magazines. Debra Kasowski International helps executives, entrepreneurs, and organizations boost their productivity, performance, and profits. It all starts with people and passion. Sign up the Success Secrets Newsletter and get your free e-book download today! www.debrakasowski.com

Journal Your Way to Success

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Remember looking for a place to hide your diary as a teen…the place where you wrote down your inner most feelings – your hope, dreams, crushes, and fears. It was the one place you could share your thoughts without being judged by others for the way you think or see the world.

Writing in a diary has been brought to the forefront as journalling. Journaling is a way to capture your thoughts, feelings, and fears in writing so that you can see it in ink and analyze your thoughts and challenge your assumptions. What you write down is up to you. It is usually what is going on in your world in a certain time frame.

“Journal writing is a voyage to the interior.” 
― Christina Baldwin

What I have learned from journalling is, when you write things down and get them out of your head, you can allow yourself to be somewhat be removed from the situation to think things through. You can develop clarity around what you want and do not want happening in your world. You can get a clear picture of what needs to change and continue doing. I encourage my coaching clients to journal everyday to reflect and develop self-awareness around their interactions, actions they take, and the results they are getting. Most importantly, what they are thinking.

Negative thoughts lead to negative feelings and actions and choices that will not support you in achieving your goals. You can recognize when you react to life circumstances or respond to them. You can take note of what triggered you and explore how you want to react in the future.

Keep your journaling process simple! It can be as short as one paragraph to pages and they may vary in content from day to day. Buy yourself a journal and get yourself a pen. You may want to set the mood with music and light a candle or you may like to journal in silence – set the tone!

Write down whatever thoughts come to mind and get them down on paper. Get it out of your head. Don’t analyze everything as it can paralyze you. Don’t edit your sentences it will only slow your thoughts. Let everything flow out of your mind and onto the paper. The more you write, the more clarity you can achieve, the more ideas you may capture, and the more solutions you may uncover. Ask yourself questions about the challenges you are facing.

Capture your wins and successes! By doing this, you will be creating momentum and it will keep you motivated in moving forward and taking the necessary actions. Don’t forget to reflect on what you are grateful for. Gratitude makes us feel good and see the world around us in a positive light. Gratitude can make the ordinary – extraordinary and everyday a form of Thanksgiving. Grab your pen and journal and get writing! Enjoy the process!

What will you journal?

DEBRA KASOWSKI, BScN CEC is an award-winning best-selling author, transformational speaker, blogger, and Certified Executive Coach. She has a heart of a teacher and is certified in Appreciative Inquiry and Emotional Intelligence. Her writing has been published in a variety of print and online magazines. Debra Kasowski International helps executives, entrepreneurs, and organizations boost their productivity, performance, and profits. It all starts with people and passion. Sign up the Success Secrets Newsletter and get your free e-book download today! www.debrakasowski.com