Listen to your Gut

This is a platform to share the radical pivots, risks and self evaluations and reflections of people I admire. We dig into the moments that led the people in their lives to go, “She Did What?!” and ultimately, to their personal or professional metamorphosis.

After more than 25 years of experience at the highest levels of business, politics, public policy and communications, Laura made a radical pivot when she exited the corporate space to start her own media company focused on elevating women’s political engagement, leadership and empowerment.?

On how she leaned into her intuition make major professional pivots throughout her career she says:

Learning to listen to your own gut can be a difficult thing to do, especially when our gut and our head seem to be in different places. Trusting ourselves, and really listening is critical. But developing that trust can take some practice. It also requires some time in really knowing yourself and assessing your skills, strengths and weaknesses, and experiences.?

This was certainly true for me when I started to realize it was time to do something rather unorthodox (at least for me) with my career. Big leaps and crazy pivots up to that point had been for other people. I had taken career risks -- a few big ones, but they weren’t major departures.?

As a corporate lobbyist and executive at one of the largest global audit and professional services firms, I had invested almost 12 years in the firm as a partner and sat on the firm’s executive management committee. As the intensity of the original challenge I was hired to address subsided, so did my enthusiasm for the day-to-day. I wanted to have greater freedom to create something that would help address a growing need that I saw.?

Around the same time,? a good friend of mine, Sheryl Sandberg, wrote a book that reignited a robust conversation about women and work. She asked me to serve on a launch committee for her new foundation and to join other women in writing our own “Lean In” stories. As I sat down to write, I was struck that my career, while filled with risks, had been largely linear risks. Like bricks in a solid foundation. They were all strategic, and designed to get me to the next level in my career, but with very little in the way of major departures. I realized that this was precisely the type of major shift I needed to get the freedom to really push myself and grow in a new way that created additional challenges for me and that would help me create opportunities for others. After much deliberation (and coming to terms with the fact that it would be difficult for many to understand an unusual career shift like this), I made the decision to leave armed with little more than a portfolio of ideas that I intended to pursue, and --most importantly -- a strong desire to contribute to the debate about women and leadership and to create content that was positive, proactive and designed to address a number of challenges I had become familiar with.?

It was one of the most transformative decisions I've ever made.?

I like what Laura says here about not just listening, but trusting your gut. That takes a lot of courage and practice especially when facing big pivots like the one Laura made. I also appreciate how Laura reflects on how others in her network helped inspire her to make a change. The act of sitting down to write her own “Lean In” story helped clarify her thinking around what a truly transformational pivot would look like.??

Laura went on to create She Said/She Said media and podcast to fill an important gap in the conversations around women’s leadership. Each week she tackles a topic or sits down with an inspiring women whose journey holds important insight and perspective into life and career. She Said/She Said now has almost 100K downloads- an incredible accomplishment! On staying true to herself along this journey Laura shares some key takeaways:

Know Yourself:? Develop a practice for evaluating yourself against your values, as well as against specific benchmarks you set for yourself. First identify your values and write them down. Most people have some sense of their personal values, but few take the time to actually write them down and prioritize them. This step is critical. It’s what helps you stay on track, and — perhaps even more importantly — to get back on track more quickly when overtaken by events. It happens!?

In addition, three key considerations are also present for me: 1) be true to myself; 2) do my best; 3) let the work speak and be open to it especially when I’m struggling with the answer; and 4) always find ways of challenging myself to be open to new ideas, opinions and ways of seeing the world.?

With all of this information in hand, I look for projects and opportunities based on where I can bring what I’ve learned and the experiences I’ve had and hopefully use that to make a difference for others. That aligns with my core values and I think of it as my North Star. When I feel like I’m not adding value or not adding as much value as I think I could, that can be a sign that a) I’m not challenging myself enough and need to dig deeper; b) the project is not aligned with my values; c) both! The best way to sort through it is to revisit and review my core values.?

Having a set of guiding principles or north star is so important when making big changes in your life. I really appreciate how Laura has one overarching principle (making a difference for others) but then has other guiding principles to analyze and determine whether or not she is really adding value to a space she is currently in. Having a multi-pronged approach is a great way to make sure you are staying focused on the necessary self reflection required for pivots. Laura also shared with me some key takeaways from our journey about self evaluation, failure and mindset

I have a two-part process for self evaluation. The first part is called ‘My Personal Year In Review”; the second is “My Plan of Action.” I reflect on the year’s accomplishments -- big ones and small ones, as well as areas where I fell short. I reflect on: What am I most proud of? What needs to be prioritized higher next year? I think about what I learned. I also think about the things I took on that scared me and what I learned from those experiences. I take a couple of days to do this in mid-to-late December and it forms the basis for my goals and “My Plan of Action” for the coming year. I also do a mid-year evaluation -- to reflect on how I'm doing at the midpoint and to recalibrate as needed. I don’t over complicate it, but rather just brain dump into a google doc, along with buckets for specific areas that are important to me: my family/kids; personal growth; professional growth. And then some sub buckets under each.?

Failure and mindset

How we show up in the world and the mindset we have when we face challenges and setbacks is perhaps the single greatest indicator of whether a person will be successful. I positively hate the word “failure.” It’s always struck me as an oxymoron. How can something we learn so much from be considered a failure? The trick is to look at every setback as an opportunity to learn and to use that experience to move forward.?

I’ve had more setbacks than I can possibly count, but every single one provided an opportunity to improve and grow. I was also blessed with supportive colleagues and bosses who believed in me and who gave me the safety to fix mistakes and return to the arena. So while I believe one’s mindset is the most important thing, the second most important thing is finding colleagues and work that will allow you the space to make mistakes and learn from them. Innovation and real problem solving rarely comes from getting it right the first time, or even the second. You have to try things, take risks, and know that the world isn’t going to end even when you don’t get it right. I recently interviewed Sukhinder Singh Cassidy on She Said/She Said Podcast. I loved her advice: “Plan for your failure,” or how you’ll move forward when your idea or project falls flat. It gives you a road map for moving forward, not to mention a confidence boost to go ahead and take that risk.?

Prioritizing a healthy and balanced mindset is a key theme that we see throughout this series. It is so important to have mental strength and clarify when tackling a new challenge. As a thought leader in the women’s leadership space, I was curious to hear Laura’s thoughts around burnout and how to stay motivated to evolve and grow.?

I’ve been obsessed with personal improvement for as long as I can remember, and self-help books are my favorites. It’s like breathing for me. I’m constantly working to be just a little bit better every day. I’m human and have lots of flaws, but I see real value and get a big lift from efforts aimed at personal improvement. One of my podcast guests once boiled down her single piece of advice to always aim for 1% improvement every single day, day after day. I loved that and try to apply that to my own life everyday!

If you’ve been following me for a while you also know I am a huge fan of books focused on self improvement. My all time favorite is Robin Sharma’s The 5am Club. If you haven’t read it yet I would challenge you to pick it up today- it will change your morning routine which will elevate all parts of your life. How do you stay motivated? Tell us in the comments below!

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Have any feedback or ideas for what you'd like to see included? Reach out to me on LinkedIn.

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