Darcy Luoma Coaching and Consulting

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Two Questions to Add to Your Conversations

“Here’s …. need …. I saved a file in …. take a look and …. It’s important.”

I was so frustrated. It was my daily huddle call with my colleague Jill, and I was barely catching every other word she was saying. I didn’t know if it was my cell phone or hers, but something in our connection was not working.

Jill. You cut out again. Can you repeat that?

Let me move… Can you hear me now?

Yes! Ok. What did you say?

Take… page 5 needs….

UGH!

I stopped her again. I moved. She moved. After a few more “How about now? Can you hear me now?” we finally decided to stop and try again later.

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Stop Tolerating your People Problems!

Do you have people problems? Maybe the better question is… What are your people problems?

People problems are inevitable. Whenever people come together, there are going to be different styles and priorities. That creates problems! And that takes away focus from what teams actually come together to do and what they do best. Yet teams don’t always want to talk about the people problems that are present or don’t talk about them in a productive way.

Take a look at this video where I discuss the people problems I am seeing most often right now and what you can do to talk about them.

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Time for a Team Check-Up

You might remember that my girls talked me into getting a dog shortly after safer-at-home policies began. I agreed, but on the condition that it was a foster dog. We designed our family dog alliance and spent almost four fun-filled (and slobber-filled) months with our two-year-old, 90-pound foster dog, Sirius.

It was about ten minutes after we dropped off Sirius with his forever family (after the tears were dried up) that the girls asked, “Can we get another foster dog?”

About ten days later, I agreed. Again.

Enter Samson: a two-month-old, 9-pound puppy.

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Difficult Conversations Don’t Need to be so Difficult

balance your courage compassion and curiosity shoes walking on stick jeans shoes green grass

Have you ever been part of a conversation where everyone is talking, but it doesn’t feel like anyone is listening?

There’s a reason that there are thousands of books, articles, and podcasts on communication. It’s a universal people problem, and it’s one we see all the time when we’re working with teams.

Communication skills are something that you need regardless of what industry you work in. Even if you work in a cube on a computer all day and never have to talk to clients or customers, you still have to communicate with your colleagues, or at the very least your boss.

In order to be successful, you have to find the BALANCE of three C’s to communicate effectively: courage, compassion, and curiosity. You need all three in order to have a conversation that balances what you want or needs with what the other person wants or needs. If you’re missing any of these three… well that’s when conversations get difficult.

Let’s take a closer look at all three C’s.

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How Strong Is Your Core?

I’ve been a coach for almost twenty years and have thousands of hours coaching leaders and teams in 48 different industries for hundreds of organizations.

I started noticing that there are some common problems that get in the way of – and sometimes prevent – leaders and teams from focusing on their work and accomplishing the mission of their organization. Regardless of industry, every team had people problems.  

So after extensive research, I developed my leadership model, Thoughtfully Fit, to help clear the hurdles caused by those people problems.

When you’re physically fit, all movements are easier. Whether it’s going for a walk or putting your own suitcase in the overhead bin. When you’re physically fit, you’re less likely to get injured, and you’re more prepared to take on any physical challenge that might pop up in your day. 

In the same way, being Thoughtfully Fit makes life easier, and you’re less likely to do things that you might regret later on. You handle your people problems thoughtfully, so you can get back to doing what you do best. 

What is key to being Thoughtfully Fit? You have to engage your core.

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