The Me-Suite

Donna Peters interviews Dr. Suzy Green, Clinical Psychologist, Founder and CEO of The Positivity Institute and author of The Positivity Prescription: A 6-Week Wellbeing Program Based on the Science of Positive Psychology.
We are living in VUCA times: volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous. Dr. Green challenges us to ask, "Am I my usual self?" And if not, why not, what can I do about it?
Positive Psychology is the science of us us at our best fulfilling our human potential. Dr. Green discusses the six, science-based, foundations of flourishing:

• Mindfulness
• Mindset
• Mood
• Motivation
• Might
• Meaning

Dr. Green's Core Values: Wisdom, Humility, Energy
Thank you for joining us in The Me-Suite: a source of power for the life-minded. Subscribe to the podcast. Visit our blog and career coaching services. Everyone needs a coach, especially at times like these.

www.the-me-suite.com
FB: @mesuite
LinkedIn: The Me-Suite

Check out other episodes such as:
What True Leaders Do
Perseverance: Embracing the Cards You're Dealt
Don't Mistake Kindness for Weakness
Managing Your Personal Fear
Embrace the Hard Things
Servant Leadership
The Innovation Ninja Shares His Powers
Storytelling with a C-Suite Leader
Think Like a CFO: Dollar Scholar Shines a Lights at a Dark Time
Improv Can Improve Your Work and Play
How to Have a Growth Mindset
Do You Know Your Core Values?
Build Your Personal Board of Directors
A CEO Gets Real About Real Life
Creating the Culture You Want to Live In
Shape the Future You Want
Options Are Power

Donna Peters interviews strategist, Reza Firouzbacht, on the concept of the extremely timely topic, managing FEAR. Uncertainty has shaken our sense of health, community, security and livelihood. Many of us feel we lack control. Reza encourages us to view fear as a signal, rather than as a negative emotion. Fear is a primal instinct and an important signal that needs our attention. It's a lighthouse on whether or not we have accounted for both the data and our gut instinct to take the right actions. Fear is a signal that says, "Caution. Pay attention." We then must ask "what is in our control and what is out of our control in the situation?" For what's in our control, "what are we going to do about it?"
To manage fear, Reza pulls upon his varied experiences as a:

• young boy growing up during the revolution and bombing raids in Iran
• student of biology and neuroscience
• scenario planning expert
• champion of meditation to calm the mind

The right mindset is critical to acknowledging, processing and addressing our fears in a rational way. With a rational mind, we can process the fear: Is it False Evidence Appearing Real? Is it an overstated fear? Is it an understated fear?

Reza recommends meditation as the first best step to calming the nervous system so that we can think rationally through what we can and cannot control. And then take action on what we can control by naming that which we cannot control. Reza recommends Tara Brach's Facing Pandemic Fears with an Open Heart.

Check out other episodes such as:
Embrace the Hard Things
Servant Leadership
The Innovation Ninja Shares His Powers
Storytelling with a C-Suite Leader
Think Like a CFO: Dollar Scholar Shines a Lights at a Dark Time
Improv Can Improve Your Work and Play
A Listener Shares Her Me-Suite Morsels
How to Have a Growth Mindset
Do You Know Your Core Values?
Build Your Personal Board of Directors
A CEO Gets Real About Real Life
Creating the Culture You Want to Live In
Shape the Future You Want
Options Are Power
Thank you for joining us in The Me-Suite: a source of power for the life-minded. Subscribe to the podcast. Visit our blog and executive life coaching services. Everyone needs a coach, especially at times like these.

www.the-me-suite.com
FB: @mesuite
LinkedIn: The Me-Suite

Donna Peters interviews CEO, Inventor and Mom, Shawn Walker. Shawn and her horse, Alick, are top-tier champions in the sport of dressage. Shawn discusses her lifelong passion for horses, training and competing. She shares wisdom for all of us on keeping our interests, our passions, alive. She challenges us to think how the opposite is actually true--our interests and passions keep us alive.

• Eliminate the myth that you don't have the time. You do have the time to pursue your passions
• Don't make excuses to delay "if I only had x, I could start." Start now. Take the first small step, make the first call. Get creative
• In addition to your career and family, you need a silo for yourself. Set boundaries

Shawn's Core Values: Continuous Improvement, Fairness, Awareness, Learning from Mistakes, Humor
Check out other episodes such as:
What True Leaders Do
Perseverance: Embracing the Cards You're Dealt
Don't Mistake Kindness for Weakness
Managing Your Personal Fear
Embrace the Hard Things
Servant Leadership
The Innovation Ninja Shares His Powers
Storytelling with a C-Suite Leader
Think Like a CFO: Dollar Scholar Shines a Lights at a Dark Time
Improv Can Improve Your Work and Play
How to Have a Growth Mindset
Do You Know Your Core Values?
Build Your Personal Board of Directors
A CEO Gets Real About Real Life
Creating the Culture You Want to Live In
Shape the Future You Want
Options Are Power
Thank you for joining us in The Me-Suite: a source of power for the life-minded. Subscribe to the podcast. Visit our blog and career coaching services. Everyone needs a coach, especially at times like these.

www.the-me-suite.com
FB: @mesuite
LinkedIn: The Me-Suite

The Me-Suite host, Donna Peters, talks about job interviewing--both as an interviewer and interviewee. The quality of your questions is the key.
"I have had the pleasure of interviewing hundreds, maybe even 1000s of people for jobs. I have filtered on education, work experience, perseverance, achievements, character I have probed for how interested is that candidate really in this job. I have administered the airport test to see if we would survive being trapped together at Newark Airport in a snowstorm for five hours. Some of my hires have been iconic success stories, and then there are the hires where I bang my head with the palm of my hand and marvel, Donna, what were you thinking.
So I started thinking deeply about what it really truly takes to identify the best candidate for the job. And I also wondered if the move to virtual screenings and video interviews was changing success factors for hiring. And after much debate with myself and a clustering exercise with sticky notes that made my office look a little bit like John Nash has shed from A Beautiful Mind. I've identified a single common denominator for hiring successm and it's so elegant in its simplicity and applies for in personal or virtual drumroll...
Does the candidate ask good questions?
So why are good questions so important? And that itself is a good question. A good question is so important because it demonstrates research and preparation. It reveals critical thinking and curiosity. It shows comfort with ambiguity and confidence in not knowing. And it challenges the status quo and sparks new ideas. Today, the typical interviewer asks all the questions leaving a smidgen of time at the end for the candidate to slip in a battle question like what has kept you at the company all this time? The future of interviewing is where the candidates are doing the asking to showcase their leadership experience and ideas.
In case you're wondering, there actually is such a thing as a dumb question. It's a question that wasn't informed by preparation that didn't demonstrate intellectual curiosity that wasn't backed by confidence that didn't push the thinking forward. Every job interview should begin with, "What questions do you have for me today?" Your resume is your past. The quality of your questions is your future promise."
www.the-me-suite.comFB: @mesuite
LinkedIn: Donna Peters
Twitter: @DonnaPetersCMeO
The Me-Suite podcast theme song by Moshun

We take a listener question in this Bonus episode.
Listener Question: I know I need to network, but I feel slimy doing it. What tips do you have for making networking a more positive experience?

Donna Peters: I love this question because networking is a common denominator. We all do it, whether you're in your current role and happy to be in that career, whether you're an employee or an employer, whether you are looking to jump into something new. We are always networking. So I love to have this conversation to make networking feel like a more positive experiencw. It is so critical to us in the workplace.

The first place I would start is with intention. What is your intention for the networking? If your intention is pure, and your intention is positive, that will naturally translate into a more positive interaction. So, for example:

· if your intention is to seek advice because you are having a particularly political situation at work, and you want some advice to help navigating it

· maybe there is another area in another industry, or in another type of work, that you're interested in exploring, and you want to network to learn more

· perhaps it's that you want to network to explore going back to school for a law degree, maybe an MBA, etc.

· maybe your intention is to request an introduction, because you know someone who knows someone that you wish you knew

If your intention is pure, and your intention is positive, it will naturally translate into helping with the slimy feeling you may get when it’s time to network.

The second piece of advice related to networking and feeling uncomfortable is just to remember that people want to help people. Think about a time someone called you and said, “Can I get your advice on something?” I'm pretty sure that that felt pretty good. We like it when people come and want our advice. So, keep that in mind when you're the one reaching out for advice from others.

The third piece is a little trick. It's a courtesy out of respect. At the end of that networking discussion, after you've gotten your intentions met, close with a very simple question: “Is there anything that I can do that can help you?”

So, three tips on helping with networking. Thank you for submitting the question.
For more information on The Me-Suite career and leadership coaching services, visit me at the-me-suite.com and follow me on LinkedIn and Twitter.
www.the-me-suite.comFB: @mesuite
LinkedIn: Donna Peters
Twitter: @DonnaPetersCMeO
The Me-Suite podcast theme song by Moshun