Blog & News
Insights Into Leadership + Communication
Leadership coach, communication expert, and author Beth Wonson shares her insights and experience with dozens of industries for changing leadership and workplace culture using her framework for candid communication. Learn from the successes and challenges of Beth and her clients, and get actionable strategies for applying these lessons to your own situations. With a 59% open rate, my subscribers trust Beth to deliver value on leadership, communication, and building healthy culture.
What Workarounds Have You Created?
Have you created a workaround to accommodate a performance problem with an employee or team member? If you have, you’re costing your organization time and money, and you’ve probably planted the seeds for office drama and morale issues.
Workarounds create more problems than they solve, so why do we invent and implement them?
Listen in or read on to learn why we create these workarounds, how they affect everyone involved, and how your organization’s or team’s leadership holds the keys to a productive solution.
Calming the Anger Hot Spot
Anger is a topic that doesn’t get a lot of attention, but it seems to be bubbling up in lots of places.
Listen in or read on to learn about how you might be trying to deal with your anger (and what is happening instead), what would happen if the target of your anger went away (hint: your anger doesn’t go with them), and 4 steps for taking care of your anger – and yourself. Be sure to download the free worksheet and delve a little deeper into your self-development!
Sticky Money
Is your organization doing well but struggling to find money to invest back in? I’d bet you’ve looked under every rock, cut every expense, and maybe held back on raises, bonuses, and new staff – and yet you still don’t have any Sticky Money.
Well, I’ll tell you: It’s in your labor and benefits line item BUT not in the way you may be thinking.
Listen in to learn about Sticky Money, the surprising way you’re wasting resources, and how we can help you plug those leaks and capture money to reinvest.
5 Tips to Transform Your Leadership Burden
How many management or leadership classes have you participated in? If you are like most of the people I work with, your answer is more than six. And, like them, you may be wondering why managing and leading people still feels burdensome even after time spent in all those trainings.
Having worked with so many leaders and managers who want to make their work more easeful and rewarding, I have ideas and insights on lessening your leadership load. Listen in for five tips from my 20 years of experience and learning.
10 Ways to Feel More Connected
I often hear from people that they have coworkers, friends, and even family members who they no longer feel the same level of connection with because of disagreements, differences of opinion, different worldviews, or conflict.
So, today, we’ll explore 10 simple ways to experience a deeper sense of connection and a deeper sense of peace, plus where to start looking for peace, joy, love, abundance, appreciation, and connection. (Hint: it’s one place you’ll always find them!)
Missing Facts: What Everyone Else Knows That You Don’t
Sometimes emotions can run a little high during a team development workshop, with some emotional hotspots getting triggered. Luckily, Beth and her training team develop their skills and experience so they can hold a safe emotional space for just those moments.
But anyone can be caught by surprise! Listen in to hear about the time there was something going on that everyone else in the room knew about that Beth didn’t, and she made an assumption that had her completely off base.
Leadership Presence: How to Get There from Here
If you desire a seat at the leadership table, yet your energy and body language contradict what you see in your role models, it’s time to get your body used to a new carriage and emote a presence they recognize as leadership.
This is not a fake-it-until-you-make-it or dress-for-the-part activity. This is a subtle preparation to shift into your authentic leadership presence.
Listen in for an experiment to try and stories from some of my leadership coaching clients – and see if you recognize yourself.
Is Your First Fact Flawed or False?
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve taken off in a direction based on a first fact that is flawed. Sometimes I find out quickly, but sometimes the roadblocks, barriers, and failures aren’t eager to reveal themselves, and so it takes a lot longer. Sometimes, I’ve invested a lot of time and energy before realizing that I was headed in the wrong direction from the start.
Listen in for stories with what this looks like, plus three simple tips that will point your efforts in the right direction.
Let Go of the Rock, Revisited
When we clutch and cling to what we treasure, our tightly closed fist prevents us from accepting anything more, and it can also prevent our moving forward with ease and freedom.
Listen in (or read on) for a short, sweet story about a child who learned to open her fist, which, in turn, opened my eyes – and also a list of nine rocks that many of us hold onto.
Four Practical Ways to Outsmart the Power Paradox
Research and experience show that the more power we achieve, the less we take a nuanced approach to reading and understanding the people around us. Instead, the more power we have, the quicker we are to stereotype instead of taking time to build relationships.
Why? Well, as we now command resources that we once had to build relationships to acquire, the building relationships part isn’t quite as critical. Listen in for four practical steps you can take to avoid or fix this Power Paradox.
"Honey, You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet!"
In Tosha Silver’s book Outrageous Openness: Letting the Divine Take the Lead, she offers this idea: “When you say to the Universe, ‘Oh, this is terrible!’ the Universe responds with, ‘You ain’t seen nothing yet.’ But when you say to the Universe, ‘Oh, this is so wonderful!’ the Universe responds with, ‘You ain’t seen nothing yet!’”
I’d been literally walking around with anger and resentment, and this was a light bulb of insight that I needed for my own shift. Listen in or read on to catch the whole story.
10 Strategies for Feeling More Connection
I often hear from people that there are friends, coworkers, and even family members who they no longer feel the same level of connection with because of disagreements, differences of opinion, different worldviews, or conflict.
So, today, I want to focus on some simple strategies that will help you experience a deeper sense of connection and a deeper sense of peace. So, here we go with 10 strategies for feeling more connected...
Would You Like Joy and Abundance Right Now?
My life experience says joy and abundance aren’t in the achievement of perfected bliss but in the awareness that when life’s disappointments, confusion, hard choices, and grief-filled moments appear, I can come back to center.
Rather than try to fix, change, avoid, or fight it, I can be like the caterpillar – I can sink in, allow myself to be, take a deep rest, and trust that the way will again become clear.
Listen in for the lessons in caterpillar goop and human soup, along with the warm wisdom of horses.
8 Ways to Be a Little More Badass
I’ve been listening to You Are a Badass at Making Money by Jen Sincero because it was recommended by people I respect, although the title feels a bit slimy to me.
Well, her audiobook is fast-paced and funny with a smart, dry wit. While listening to Jen talk about how our words, energy, and beliefs inform what’s possible for us, I began seeing connections – both to myself and to many of the blocks my clients face.
Listen in or read on for more from the book, plus 8 lessons on badassery that I’m putting into practice.
Let Go of the Rock, Revisited
When we clutch and cling to what we treasure, our tightly closed fist prevents us from accepting anything more, and it can also prevent our moving forward with ease and freedom.
Listen in (or read on) for a short, sweet story about a child who learned to open her fist, which, in turn, opened my eyes – and also a list of nine rocks that many of us hold onto.
Let Go of the Rock, Baby...
What precious "rocks" do I hold onto that no longer serve me, hold me captive or keep me from moving forward? I thought of my coaching clients...one in particular...who is struggling to move forward because she is still clutching old behaviors.