Carpenter Smith Consulting, llc

One of the things that can blow up the intent of leaving your current job with grace is if you’re caught off-guard by another person’s emotions, and then find yourself reacting defensively to them. PAUSING Pausing can help you decrease your reactivity and increase your ability to respond respectfully. To help you prepare, we’ve come up with some typical situations where you might need to PAUSE before responding. Before reading the scripting examples, we encourage you to think about your goal. What does “leaving well” look like for you? Once you have your goal in mind, using the PAUSE will be easier. SCRIPTING If people are angry or sad that you’re leaving, PAUSE, and think about your goal. Then, using your goal and one of the suggestions below, consider what your response might be. 🔴 “I know my departure is a disappointment for you, and I appreciate you understanding that it’s time for me to move on.” 🔴 “I’m sorry that my leaving is upsetting to you. I’ve enjoyed working with you, and it’s time for me to move on.” 🔴 “This was a difficult decision, and I will miss you (this place, this group of people, this team, etc.).” 🔴 “This was not an easy decision to make, and I will certainly miss working together. I appreciate your support and understanding.” 🔴 “I know that my departure may create extra strain on you/the team. I’m working out a plan for what my last weeks/days/months will look like and am happy to collaborate with you on it.” Navigating your emotions and the emotions of others can be tricky. PAUSE often. - Linda Carpenter PhD, Stephanie Smith, and Heather Stewart #LeavingYourJob #yourworkpriorities #leavingwell #emotionalagility #mondaymotivation #PauseAndReflect

We’ve been hearing from many of you that you’re ready to leave your current work. Some for retirement, others for new jobs, and a few of you are considering taking a leave of absence. No matter the reason for leaving, it’s important to consider what “leaving well” looks like for you. So today, we’re sharing with you an overview for how to do so in way that leaves you feeling satisfied and ready to tackle your next chapter. 🔴 YOUR TEAM: One of the things that can blow up the intent of leaving your current job with grace is if you’re caught off-guard by another person’s emotions. PAUSE and make some notes ahead of your announcement so that you’re prepared for others’ reactions. 🔴 YOUR PRIORITIES: It can be overwhelming to think about all that you need to accomplish before you leave. In order to think what would be possible, it’s important to PAUSE and reflect on your your big rocks, work that needs to be handed off, and/or work that no longer needs to happen. 🔴 YOUR HEALTH: Endings (even when positive) can bring about emotions or a sense of feeling unsettled. As you’re finishing up your time (and after you leave), it’s important to PAUSE and reflect regularly on your health and wellbeing. Stay tuned for a deeper dive into a focus on YOUR TEAM, next week. #leavingyourjob #yourpriorities #urgentvsimportant #careercoaching #retirementcoaching #burnoutrecovery

Some of you wrote to us saying that you’re feeling stuck. You know that something needs to change but you’re unsure what it might look like. We hear you and we’re sorry that you’re struggling. To support you, we’re providing you with some various frameworks that could get you thinking about your priorities, passions, and motivations. PART 1: 🟡 Life Priorities: What are the things that matter most to you in your life? 🟡 A Visual of You: Using the following areas, create a visual that represents who you are today. Head, Heart, Spirit, Instincts, Body, Work, Leisure, Past, and Future. 🟡 Future Aspirations: Using the same areas as above, write some notes about what a 10 (your highest aspiration) looks like, feels like, and lives like. PART 2: As you review your final life priorities, visual of you, and/or your future aspirations, you may find that they aren’t in sync with how you want to be living. If that’s the case, consider asking yourself questions like, "What’s going well? What’s been challenging? What would I like to do differently moving forward?" We hope you found these suggestions useful as you’re navigating these uncertain times. Click through for some additional details. Please keep us posted as you reflect on where you are today and where you envision going tomorrow! Linda Carpenter PhD, Stephanie Smith, and Heather Stewart #yourpriorities #lifestrategycoaching #careerstrategycoaching #retirementstrategycoaching

Unfortunately, despite the best of planning, and envisioning our success, we know that sh!t happens that can pull us off track! So today, we’re sharing some of our best thinking to further support you to live in alignment with your vision. Consider one or more of these to help you stay on track: 🎯 Identify a word or phrase that sums up your vision for the year. Put this somewhere you’ll see it often, as a way to quickly remind you of your intentions. 🎯 Speak to yourself with grace and kindness on those days when you find that you haven’t focused on your priorities. 🎯 Leave inspirational notes around your house, office, or car, to let yourself know, “I’ve got this!” 🎯 Schedule a check-in with yourself every 1-3 months to celebrate successes and to try new small steps if needed. 🎯 Create a tracking board or document (a wall calendar works great too) where you can regularly record how you’re doing. 🎯 Make a new note to yourself each day, week, or month with your 1-3 top priorities that you want to focus on. 🎯 Find an accountability colleague, friend, or coach to help keep you on track. 🎯 Schedule reminders on your phone or calendar. Let us know what works for you! Linda Carpenter PhD, Stephanie Smith, and Heather Stewart #mappingyoursuccess #leadershipdevelopmentcoaching #realisticidealism #goalstrategies #yourlifepriorities

We've recently been talking about transitions in your career or into retirement. We know that these posts certainly don't cover all of the transitions you may be going through. So, today, we’re walking you through some foundational steps to help you with a more personal change of focus. Some of you have said that you want to pivot away from burnout and focus more on your health and wellness. Others have said that you want to focus more on volunteering in your community or with your child’s school. And others have said that you want to make family your number one focus. No matter the pivot you’re trying to make, it can be difficult without some intentional thought and planning. As you read through the suggestions below, reflect on what steps you could take to ensure your success. 🔵 Life Priorities: What are the things that matter most to you in your life? 🔵 Assessment: Take a look at your top 3-5 life priorities and consider answering these questions for each of them: What’s going well? What’s been challenging? What would you like to do differently moving forward? 🔵 Success: In 6-12 months, if you’re feeling successful and satisfied in this next phase, what would that live like, look like, and feel like? Consider sights, sounds, smells, tastes, feelings, people, etc. 🔵 Obstacles: As you’re pivoting your focus in life, what are the 1-3 obstacles that are most likely to get in your way? 🔵 Small Steps: What are the initial 1-3 small steps you can take today (this week, this month), to get you around your obstacles and closer to your new vision of success? Repeat this step on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. Change can be difficult, but remember, small steps taken consistently over time, can lead to big success! Let us know what's working for you. Linda Carpenter PhD, Stephanie Smith, and Heather Stewart #lifetransitions #yourlifepriorities #leadershipcoaching #lifestrategyadvice

There are limitless options for what retirement can look like, so it’s important to be intentional about your vision of satisfaction and fulfillment. If you’re thinking about what retirement could look like for you, we encourage you to take a look through questions: 🔵 TIME FRAME: Do you have a date or approximation of when you’d like to retire? 🔵 LIFE PRIORITIES: What are the things that matter most to you in your life? 🔵 CORE CRITERIA: What are the various core criteria that you want to keep in mind in your retirement? Consider things like: paid or unpaid work, health and wellness, learning, fun, relationships, travel, location, etc. 🔵 SUCCESS: If you’re feeling successful and satisfied in this next phase, what will that live like, look like, and feel like? Consider sights, sounds, smells, tastes, feelings, people, etc. 🔵 PLANNING: What are the big rocks/goals that you want to accomplish, both personally and professionally, in order for you to make a successful transition? 🔵 OBSTACLES: What are the 1-3 obstacles that are most likely to get in your way as you work toward your retirement? 🔵 SMALL STEPS: What are the initial 1-3 small steps you can take today (this week, this month), to get you around your obstacles and closer to your successful retirement? Repeat this step on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. As you review the steps above, think about the whole of you. What does a successful retirement look like for you? If you'd like support to plan for your retirement, contact us about our coaching options. Linda Carpenter PhD, Stephanie Smith, and Heather Stewart #retirementplanning #RetirementGoals #retirementcoach #retirementstrategy #retirementtips #yourlifepriorities

Today, we’re focusing on your career approach. To help you think about this, we’ve put together some key framework questions. Whether you're looking for work, making a pivot, or working toward a promotion, consider how you'd answer these questions. 🔵 LIFE PRIORITIES: What are the things that matter most to you in your life? 🔵 TOP SKILLS: What are the things you’re doing when you’re at your best? 🔵 WORKING CONDITIONS: What are the working conditions where you’re most likely to thrive? 🔵 YOUR CONNECTIONS: Who can you connect with to learn more about work or companies that interest you (or who could help you think about opportunities within your existing company)? 🔵 YOUR STORIES: What are some stories that describe you at your best, and how might you tell them in an engaging way? Think about the whole of you as you look through the questions above. What pieces are you missing as you consider the type of work and environment that could be next for you? What's the right fit for you? Linda Carpenter PhD, Stephanie Smith, and Heather Stewart #careerstrategy #CareerOpportunities #careercoach #workpromotion #coachingtips #CareerPivot

Are you thinking about furthering your education, making a career pivot, working on a promotion, or planning for retirement? Or maybe considering what it could look like to change your focus to family, health and wellness, or volunteering in your community? No matter the change, we know that the idea of considering “What’s possible?” can sometimes be overwhelming. So today, we’re sharing the basics of our approach to navigating transitions. 🔵 Life Priorities: What are the things that matter most to you in your life? Sometimes, this exercise is enough to support people in moving forward. 🔵 Passions: What are the causes, topics, companies, and skills that you’re most passionate about? What would it look like to do more of that in your life? 🔵 Success: If you’re feeling successful and satisfied in this next phase, what will life live like, look like, and feel like? 🔵 Obstacles: What are the obstacles that are most likely to get in your way? 🔵 Small Steps: What is the first small step you can take to get you around your obstacles and closer to the success you envisioned? Second step? Third? The clearer you are about what you’re looking for, the more likely you’ll find yourself focusing on more of the things in life that bring you a sense of success and satisfaction. Let us know if we can support you. - Linda Carpenter PhD, Stephanie Smith, and Heather Stewart #lifetransitions #lifepriorities #RetirementPlanning #careerstrategy #leadershipcoaching

The beginning of September can often conjure up a mix of feelings for people. While summer may have meant time away with the family and a spaciousness that’s hard to describe, autumn brings hearty stews and snuggly time in front of the fire. All at once, we may feel excitement for a new school year starting or the chill of autumn in the air, and at the same time, sorrow that the long sunny days are ending, or the bounties from the garden are over. A hello and a goodbye. Whether we’re grieving the loss of summer or welcoming the change of seasons, we’ve found that September can still signify new beginnings. New possibilities. Today, as you’re saying goodbye to the summer months, we encourage you to take a breath and think about what new possibilities could look like for you. Maybe you’ll: 🟡 take a meditation or mindfulness class 🟡 offer to mentor a new staff member so they get off to a great start 🟡 write postcards to remind people to vote 🟡 learn how to play piano 🟡 start a DEI initiative in your company 🟡 make time to take a walk for 30 minutes/day 🟡 set up monthly video chats with loved ones 🟡 identify the work you’d love to do and seek out opportunities to make that switch 💛 Breathe deep into the possibilities. 💛 We'd love to know what would give you that feeling that your future isn’t scripted with what has been, but instead has the opportunity for something new to come into your life. Linda Carpenter PhD, Stephanie Smith, and Heather Stewart #newpossibilities #executivecoachingadvice #leadershipdevelopmentcoaching #lifepriorities

Today, we’d like to focus on YOU. Specifically, your health and wellbeing and some ways you can take care of yourself. We know that it’s difficult to show up at your best if you haven’t also tended to your own self. If you’ve been neglecting your health and wellbeing, are feeling overwhelmed, stressed, or burned out, what can you do? We suggest taking a moment each day to check in with yourself to ask something like, ❤️ “What do I need today? Connection to myself, connection to others, or some combination of both?” ❤️ Here are some of our top suggestions: CONNECTION TO SELF: ⚪️ Reflect on your life priorities. ⚪️ Spend time: in nature, moving, listening to music, reading, or laughing. ⚪️ Spend a few moments savoring and/or writing down gratitudes. ⚪️ Practice 1-5 minutes of mindful breathing. ⚪️ Celebrate your gifts and accomplishments – big and small! CONNECTION TO OTHERS: ⚪️ Let a friend know that you appreciate them. ⚪️ Share a laugh, creation, walk, coffee, or other experience. ⚪️ Host a “beating burnout” challenge with colleagues. ⚪️ Practice random acts of kindness. ⚪️ Ask for support from loved ones, colleagues, health professional, or coach. Remember, it’s important to start small, so we suggest finding one “go to” thing from each list and try them out. We'd love to know what's working for you! Linda Carpenter PhD, Stephanie Smith, and Heather Stewart #burnoutrecovery #yourhealthmatters #wellbeingtips #wellbeingcoach #burnoutprevention #LeadershipDevelopmentCoaching #executivecoaching