📧 PivotList: Win as you or lose as “who?”
Jenny Wood's new book Wild Courage reclaims nine traits from negative shackles + Strengthscope series continued: Is Decisiveness an energizer or a drainer for you?
Hi Friends,
What if the traits you need to get ahead are the exact opposite of what you have been told? My friend Jenny Wood suggests embracing traits we might otherwise think of as negative for an extra dash of courage in the face of fear.
As a former Google leader and top career coach who chased an attractive stranger off the subway and later married him, Jenny knows her way around bold moves. In her new book, Wild Courage, she gives you permission to chase after what you want, unapologetically, even when you don’t feel ready.
Throughout the book, Jenny reclaims nine traits from their negative shackles, teaching you how to be:
Weird: Win as you or lose as “who?”
Selfish: Be your own champion
Shameless: Kick impostor syndrome to the curb and self-promote with ease
Obsessed: Push, persist, and perform at your highest level
Nosy: Get curious to network confidently and learn from others
Manipulative: Build influence with empathy and manage up like a pro
Brutal: Draw lines and stick to them. Embrace the power of no
Reckless: Err on the side of action and take healthy risks
Bossy: Steer others to success, even if you’re not in charge yet
Get your copy of Wild Courage (out today!), and check out our earlier Pivot podcast conversation on Stealing Wi-Fi as a Career Strategy:
Speaking of key traits, it’s time for the next installment in our ongoing Strengthscope series . . .
💪 Strengthscope Deep Dive: Decisiveness
Is decisiveness an energizer or a drainer for you?
Scenario: You are the lead on a project where context and details are scarce, and you have to make rapid-fire choices throughout. How do you feel about this? Is being the key decision-maker exhausting or exciting?
🔋 If decisiveness energizes you, you enjoy making quick, confident and clear decisions, even when faced with limited information.
Who annoys you: People who have a habit of deferring decisions, even when all the relevant information is available. They appear unable or unwilling to reach definite conclusions about issues, and take longer than you think is necessary.
Who is annoyed by you: People who are more cautious and systematic in the way they make decisions might regard you as overly hasty or rash in your approach. They are likely to be uncomfortable with the little time that you appear to spend considering various options, particularly when decisions haven’t worked out well in the past.
🥵 When in overdrive: You can be overly hasty or rash in your decision-making, spending too little time considering alternatives or possible outcomes.
Self-check by asking: My Decisiveness energizer makes me want to make a decision immediately, even if we don’t have all the information. Can we move forward, or are we missing key data?
🪫 If decisiveness is a drainer for you: You may put off making decisions or defer to others, even when all the necessary information is available to you.
Reframe it by reflecting: Which energizers help me make decisions more quickly, while still considering all the necessary data?
📊 Get to Know Your Significant Seven Energy-Strengths
If you want to dive deeper into the 24 energy-strengths, including an assessment that will show your biggest energizers and drainers:
Individuals: Purchase the Strengthscope report here and get instant access to your results and a 45-minute Upgrade Your Energy pre-recorded workshop to better understand your unique profile, with tips to find more flow at work.
Or book a 45-minute 1:1 with me that comes with a Strengthscope report; together we’ll talk through your results and develop a customized strategy based on your Significant Seven energy-strengths.
Teams: If you work within an organization and have the budget to run this as an in-person half-day team-building workshop, we are now booking for next quarter. Learn more and inquire here »
That’s it for now . . . thank you for reading!
❤️ With Love,
Just the subtitle and bullet points of this book make me feel exhausted. The higher in frequency my consciousness becomes, the less I want to use willpower and ambition to realize goals; and even goals seem to have changed their texture and substance. We are not alone in creating what we think of as "success"; we are cocreating without force. There is another book with the same title (Wild Courage) with the subtitle "A Journey of Transformation for You and Your Business" by Elle Harrison. I wonder how the two books differ!