Stephanie Backstrom of Bee Ready Leadership and Training Development

Stephanie Backstrom of Bee Ready Leadership Training and Development has been my coach for the last few months. She’s amazing at pinpointing trouble spots and working through them. I’ve invited Stephanie to share some information about who she is and what Bee Ready is all about.

1. What motivated you to start your business?
I have wanted to start my own business about three years after working for corporate America full-time. Now, almost 10 years later, I can say I finally reached my goal. During those 10 years the business idea changed several times. However, the birth of my daughter and the tragic events of September 11th made me take a long look at my life and what I wanted my future to look like. By December 2001 Black Executive Entrepreneurs (BEE) Ready was born. I chose  to become a  life coach  because I wanted to help others move forward in their life and career. I have been very blessed to move up the corporate ladder quickly and it’s a skill I wanted to pass on to increase the number of successful African Americans in corporate America and that’s how it all started.

2. What have been the biggest fears clients may have had and how did you help alleviate them?
Most of my clients come to me with goals that they fear they can not accomplish alone such as: weight loss, time management, career and other life dilemmas. To alleviate the fear, we explore various options and I provide tools to help them manage the obstacles.

3. How can someone with procrastination issues use your tips to set goals?
As a coach my deliverable is to help a person understand what drives them. If a person is motivated, they don’t have time to procrastinate. There are times when a person’s priorities may shift, which is why during a goal setting session there is much discussion around making sure the goal is:

S.M.A.R.T.
Specific (not broad)
Measurable
Attainable
Realistic
Time bound (date driven)

4. What tips do you have for getting ahead and staying ahead?
Four words: Bee Ready! Be Beautiful!!
Set goals, have faith, create a balanced life and be happy. I find that most people have to eliminate fear and negativity to move forward. Staying ahead means to “Stay FOCUSED!”
Keep your eyes on the prize. The plan may change but the goal/your dreams will always be there. Always be open to change. Enjoy life and don’t stress over it.

If you’d like to reach Stephanie to set up a consultation, contact her at
Stephanie Backstrom
1-877-894-8501
Stephanie@beeready.com
www.BeeReady.com
Leadership Training & Development

Get a Life Why Don’t Ya?!

By Simone Kelly-Brown

It’s okay to take your job seriously, to be a stickler for professionalism and sure it’s wonderful to take your responsibilities seriously. However, you have to be a bit careful when you allow your job to become your LIFE.

Give your work your best effort, stand up for your beliefs, but be careful that you don’t become a one-dimensional robot that just has his or her tape programmed to talk about how much work he has to do. If you notice people by the water cooler scatter when you come by, I’m afraid to break the news to you. They know it… they don’t want you to pass that energy on to them. They see that you have no life.

Yikes…maybe I’m being a little harsh but I’ve been there, so I know. While working at HBO as a Director, I worked long hours. My office became my second home. There was a leopard rug (don’t laugh), candles, incense, soft jazz and dim lights. My co-workers would always joke around about it being like a lounge and that I should serve martinis during meetings. LOL! But I realized I made it so comfortable because that’s where I spent most of my waking moments. It’s pathetic when I think about it now. Sure, I was getting a great salary and yeah I loved what I did, however what was seriously lacking was some ‘me time’. Other parts in my life weren’t fulfilled because of this ‘love’ for my job.

Now, being a ‘self-bosser’ for five years, I cringe when I see others with this obsession, especially, if it’s not their own company. I see it sucking the spirit right out of them. I was inspired to write about this topic by a long time friend of mine, because he’s going through a rough period in his career where work is all he knows. Although he’s extremely successful, he’s not the same person because work is all he talks about and being at the top is all he lives for. The end result is that he barely has enough time for hobbies, family or friends. He’s only 28 and stressed out beyond belief. You can look at him and tell he has tightness in the back of his neck as his brain tinkers away thinking about “work, work, work.” That tightness in the back of my neck is a feeling that I don’t miss. But even though I do get stressed out sometimes…knowing how to strive for balance and a healthy life has prevented it from occurring. Now the question for you is: Has your JOB become your LIFE? Have you changed as a person and let your spirit fade? Take this simple quiz and see if you are showing symptoms of a workaholic.

Answer yes or no to each question.

1. Do I have a ‘me day’? One day out of the week that I use to focus on me and me alone? (This means no business calls, meetings, or business reading.)

2. Can I spend time away from work and not think about business issues?

3. Do I talk to my spouse, friends and family about topics OTHER than business or my day at work?

4. Am I spending quality time with my family?

5. Do I have a hobby?

6. Do I still have friends? (outside of the office)

7. Do I laugh and smile as much as I used to?

If you answered NO to three or more of these questions I’d like you to take a seat, light a candle, close your eyes, and repeat this chant. “I must get a life. I must get a life. I must get a life.” I’m just teasing ya but seriously folks, here are some real pointers to help you recapture your true self and not get lost in WORK.

Find Balance and Reduce Stress

1. Get a physical: Get an accurate assessment of your health. What’s your cholesterol count? Your blood pressure? How much do you weigh (and should you lose any to better your health)? If you are currently experiencing symptoms of stress, your physician will assess their significance and prescribe a treatment.

2. Tap into yourself EVERY DAY: Meditate, pay, chant or say an affirmation…whatever works for you spiritually can serve as a great relaxation technique.

3. Eat healthy and begin a journey towards a healthier lifestyle: Health is a buffer against stress. Increasing your physical stamina through diet, exercise and rest will help you combat the stressors in your life.

4. Improve your time management: Take a course or purchase a book to learn the best ways to manage your time AND your energy.

5. Take energizing breaks:

– If time or money doesn’t permit you to take a full-fledged vacation, then escape to a location close to home for a weekend retreat. Make sure people call you only for an emergency!

– Treat yourself to a day-spa for some pampering. A massage or facial will always do the trick!

– You can also do something as simple as going to your public library or book store. Browse the travel section, photography books or fiction. Peruse anything that lets your mind go on a mini-vacation.

– Take a walk in the park and bring a book and just relax. (Non-work related reading only guys!)

6. Day Dream!: “When you think about pleasurable things like sex or food, PET scans show different patterns lighting up in your brain than when you think about work or something unpleasant,” says Mehmet Oz, MD, Director of the Cardiovascular Institute at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center, in O Magazine.

Realize you aren’t perfect, you aren’t a machine. Humans are incapable of perfection so stop beating yourself. Free yourself to ignore some of the social pressures that have been holding you back from your hopes and dreams. Your ambitious nature may get you to the top, but you might just be waving down at everyone you let fade out of your life. You’ll have no one to share your successes with. Remember that friends and loved ones suffer those weekends and late nights you are home answering e-mail or constantly checking your office voicemail.

Don’t turn your focus away from what is truly important. Instead, learn to measure your success by the balance and happiness you achieve in your life on a whole. I wish you luck in achieving that life that you want and need!

Technology Goal Setting:
Choosing Appropriate Milestones for Your IT Strategy
Written by Lena L. West

When setting any kind of goal, the first order of business – after assessing the validity of the goal – is setting milestones.
A milestone is simply a significant point in the development or implementation of a project. Or, more simply, a way of telling how close or, how far, you are from completion. If you can’t measure your progress, how do you know where you are or where you’re going?

So, ok, you’re sold on the concept of milestones. But what, you say, does this have to do with technology? If you’ve read any of my other columns, you know how important a technology strategy is to your business. If you haven’t read my other columns then shame on ya’.

Once your other components are in place, the addition of milestones will complete your technology strategy. And, as I always say, a to-do without a deadline doesn’t get done! Of course, your question now is: what should your technology strategy milestones be? I would say it’s not what it’s when.

While the types of your milestones will change with each project, regularly scheduled check-up intervals won’t.

To better illustrate this concept, let’s take a sample project and add milestones. Let’s say your technology strategy will take 4 months (16 weeks) to implement (not at all abnormal for tech projects). Milestones should be set at weeks 2, 3, 4, 8, 12, 14 and 16.

You will notice that there are more check-ups set at the outset of the project as compared to the end of the project. Why? Because technology projects are different. For far too many reasons than I have space to delve into here, it is way easier and cheaper to re-route a technology project at the beginning, than at the end – or even mid-stream. So, a rule of thumb is to micro-manage technology projects at the beginning and macro-manage toward completion.

Now, if you feel better attaching where-you-should-be-by-this-time addendums to each of your milestones, please do so – it can only serve to help you. But, this article is written more as a means of expressing the sheer significance of including regularly scheduled milestones in your technology planning than not.

Lena L. West is the Founder & CEO of xynoMedia Technology, a technology consulting firm that specializes in helping business owners who feel like hostages to technology. Download your free copy of The Technology Planning & Strategy Workbook at http://www.xynomedia.com © 2004 Lena L. West. All rights reserved.