The Positive Energy Workplace

Years ago when I wrote CONTAGIOUS CULTURE (McGraw-Hill, 2015), people were surprised to find that when I talked about “creating a healthy culture,” I pointed them to first look at their own leadership health, and how they showed up, to actually create that culture. This was both confronting and liberating for many, after all, I can’t control my culture or the people around me, however, I can absolutely control ME; how I take care of myself, how I show up, the energy I bring to the table, and how I ultimately contribute to being the culture I want (or don’t want). This means I have tremendous power, this also means there may be big work to do.  

My stance on culture created a lot of positive results as well as many questions for people, so I wrote my next book. In CONTAGIOUS YOU (McGraw-Hill, 2019), I dug deeper into the IEP Method® body of work and took people further into how to be their most positively and usefully contagious self (energetically, emotionally, behaviorally, and attitudinally) and how to strengthen their leadership in order to create the impact and culture they wanted. Again, confronting — however even more liberating if you did the work (at 384 pages, with an executive coaching program pretty much built into it, as one reader emailed me, "It’s not exactly a light read, Anese, but it is a game changer.").

I recently had a conversation with an executive team who wanted to work on ways to make their culture feel better right now. People are tired, they're trying to connect remotely and do their jobs while walking their dogs and managing their kids' Zoom rooms, workload is high, connection is low, and presence is extra tricky right now. This organization was particularly interested in exploring ways to build resiliency and create a healthy culture now in this new business environment.

Years ago when my ex-husband and I completed our marriage, to keep things extra clean and as emotionally easy as possible, we worked with a mediator. Heading into that first mediation session we both knew what we knew. Our intentions were clear, our energy was clean, and we were present to the situation at hand and how we wanted to be with each other and for our kids. We went into the first mediation session, each of us with a Post-It detailing what we wanted our division of assets and agreements to look like. Four months (and a lot of cash) later, we walked out with almost exactly what was on those Post-Its. Having the mediator helped us with the paperwork and navigating some of CA's divorce laws, AND, we knew what we knew going in.

Experiencing our collective entry into 2021 and immersed in news about this week's events – plus the intensity on almost every front of 2020 – it's felt harder to read "motivational" posts, books, or articles lately – or to write them (which is tricky when you’re in the business of leadership and growth and your livelihood is dependent on your ability to hold your space, hold space for others, stay clean vibe, and serve). However, I also know that as a coach, advisor, teacher, and human, my job is not to motivate or fake my state, it’s to hold space and offer inquiries for people to think about things honestly and in ways that may support their growth, leadership, congruency, and peace.

Almost every year I write a big broadcast for our subscribers with special queries and exercises to close out the year and bring on the next. (You can also search this blog for end of year posts and questions to support you as well.) Since 2020 has proven to be so... deliciously demandingly different... I'm shifting gears. Here's the invite. Get subscribed (if you're not already), read my stuff and do the work and exercises I offer in my broadcasts and in my blogs (at no charge), ask yourself these SEVEN questions (below) as you leave 2020 and lean into the 11 "Anese-isms" as you enter 2021, take an assessment (or four) on our new assessments page*, and enroll in any of my self-paced programs as they resonate for you, and/or in my live virtual programs coming in 2021 (there are TWO: Learning Labs and Impact Cohorts). [A special note about this site, any page with the "wave" as shown above, is a new page with new resources or offerings for 2021. Have fun and please join!!]