Tag: leadership

S6E11: Help Others Grow First with Lauren Schieffer

From the desk of Peter Margaritis

“As a leader, you cannot respect others if you do not respect yourself.” Lauren Schieffer

Our guest today is Lauren Schieffer, whose passion is helping organizations that want to build their next generation of leaders. Whether it’s training, keynotes, or longer-term consulting partnerships, she uses her Nine Essentials of Significant Leadership to help transform the way managers think, makes decisions & act toward the people they lead. In her varied career, Lauren has navigated almost every aspect of corporate America – from trucking to achieving top-tier Sales Director status for a global cosmetics firm to managing a non-profit foundation.

Today she is here to speak about her Nine Essentials of Significant Leadership and her perspective on how a leader needs to be accommodative of each person’s differences. Lessons that the pandemic taught us and what we need to know from that.

In leadership, the difference between significance and success is that success is about inward accomplishments that you have done. It’s all about you. Significance is about outward focus, how many lives you touch, and how you change the community. Lauren is focused on growing others first.

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S6E6: More Business Stories with Roxanne Kaufman

From the desk of Peter Margaritis

“During travel, I never vent my frustrations on another human being. It isn’t their problem. It’s mine,” Roxanne Kaufman.

Our guest today is Roxanne Kaufman, a certified Virtual presenter and member of the National; Speakers Association and also credentialed by eSpeakers. She leads RoxTalks, which is a division of ProLaureate Ltd. She is comfortable on a massive stage as I speak virtually to a small group.

In her busy life, Roxanne had moved 22 times before she graduated high school. She speaks today about the world of travel and how these experiences have impacted her life. Traveling sometimes may be stressful, but changing your view of the whole experience can make your trips feel exciting and less stressful.

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S6E3: Dealing with Disruption by Using Improv with Jay Sukow

From the desk of Peter Margaritis

“Your mind sometimes hijacks your emotions to think the worst-case scenario in order to protect yourself. You need to reclaim your mind in order to be in control.” Jay Sukow

Jay began teaching for Second City in 2010 and teaches in both the Improv and Conservatory programs. He is also a facilitator with Second City Works, teaching improv to business professionals to drive behavior change. Previously, he was on faculty at The Second City Chicago, iO Chicago, and ComedySportz Chicago. He is the co-host of “Improvcast with Jay and Landon” and currently performs around town with the group Zer0 H0ur with Bill Chott and Jay Sukow, as well as the monthly show Improv Famous. He has over 25 years of experience as a leader.

As an Improv leader and coach, Jay speaks about the dynamics of living the future and having a standard that we can never live up to instead of living in the moment and the “now.” A difference in how we look at the world shifts our focus from our failures into the zone of learning and growing.

We will always have stressors in our lives, and instead of avoiding them, we need to learn how to deal with them because we all have seasons and ups and downs; just because it happens now doesn’t mean that it will be the same forever. However, always having a positive mindset in all situations will lead you to a happy and more content life, both personally and professionally.

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S6E1: Milk Carton Musings and Leadership with Nick Lozano

From the desk of Peter Margaritis

“As much as we need technical skills in the business world, soft skills are even more important.” Nick Lozano

Today’s guest is Nick Lozano who is a technology professional who has a love for digital media. He co-hosts a podcast called >Lead.exe, which is for anyone who wants to level up their leadership skills and enhance their careers. ​ As someone in Tech, you need soft skills because you will have to sell yourself and the business to your clients and potential prospects. So much as we need technical skills in the business world, softer skills are even more critical.

During the initial talks about Tech, Nick brings about the analogy of building a house; you can make it as high as you need to go, as big as you want, or it can be a simple one-room house and still be great. The complex sides of technology can be a headache, especially for someone outside the industry. Nick’s soft skills make it easier to understand the technical side of technology in a fun way.

The audience you present to will determine how you will do your presentation for your message to go through. This is even more so when you have a paid sponsorship and must make the audience get the news across. Sometimes being simple and precise works better than using jargon.

Making mistakes is part of the process, and I know there is room for failure, but the lowest point is if you fail once, learn from it; this is how you gain experience. The downside is that if you are making mistakes and you aren’t learning from them, you are wasting your time and energy. Be prepared for how you will receive feedback, which will broaden your perspective on issues. All feedback is there to build you; the good and the bad appreciate everyone who will give it to you.

Nick humorously shares his story and experiences making this a unique and fantastic interview to begin the year.

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S5E51: Take a Load Off: Stress Relievers for Overwrought Leaders (Part 2)

From the desk of Peter Margaritis

“Yes…but, Yes…and, the first disrupts the thoughts flowing while the latter connects an idea already forming.” Peter Margaritis

In today’s episode, Peter Margaritis continues his series on: Take a Load Off: Stress relievers for overwrought leaders. Peter shows how Business Improv is a tool that all leaders need to master to learn how to overcome pressures that come from business.

Awareness is one way that can help you develop confidence and help you overcome stress. Being aware of your environment can help you control your involvement in any situation, enabling you to manage and control your reactions to different triggers.

Being prepared in any circumstance adds a layer of confidence. You may not be able to foresee the unexpected, but you can be ready for the curves that may come your way. Without being prepared, in most cases, you are more concerned about anxieties and the stress of not binge prepared.

As Peter shares with us the rest of the tools he believes can help manage stress for leaders, he gives fantastic examples of different stages that help drive the points home.