Change and uncertainty in our lives can cause a roller coaster of emotions: fear, anger and sadness, just to name a few. Viewing change as an opportunity can feel impossible when it seems like it’s coming at us from all directions. We can’t stop life’s ebbs and flows, but we can learn how to accept change and even view it as an opportunity. It’s all about how we frame it.

Small adjustments to your mindset and habits can help with resistance to change and dealing with the uncertainty that comes with it. Here are 3 suggestions to get started:

Write down your thoughts: When faced with change, it’s natural for your mind to be flooded with worry, conflicting emotions and ‘what-if; scenarios. Journaling can be a powerful way to understand your feelings, discover self-limiting beliefs and find clarity. Whether you want to write down your emotions, describe your doubts or jot down questions, it’s important to get it all out on paper. Once you’ve written it all down, you can look for patterns or mental blocks you want to work on.

Lean on your support network: Change can feel particularly scary when you feel like you’re going through it alone. Being a part of a supportive social network can reduce stress and improve well-being. Sharing your experiences with your community and listening to the experiences of others can help you feel less isolated and more encouraged to face what’s next.

Accept your fears and don’t be ashamed of them: For most people, fear doesn’t feel good. However, you can fight off many fears by fostering a positive mindset and practicing a few simple thought exercises such as: concentrating on the strengths and accomplishments that have brought you this far; thinking about all of the challenges you’ve overcome and how you worked through them; identifying the root cause of your fear to avoid creating a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Another exercise is to focus on what you can control. Adopting practices that help you connect with and regulate your emotional state (ie: a meditation routine) help develop a deeper sense of strength and resilience. When the next change happens, you’re more likely to see it as an opportunity for growth, learning and for trying something different.

Life has few guarantees, but one thing you can count on is change. Building resilience can be your secret weapon for success and helps you thrive in the face of adversity. With all the changes and uncertainty that 2025 has brought so far, Leah M Joppy and Associates is ready to help you enhance your resiliency skills and face change with confidence. Our course, Building Resilience In Times Of Uncertainty, includes a resilience assessment and provides feedback about resiliency levels in 3 key areas: Challenge, Control and Commitment. Participants learn how to better prepare and manage uncertainty in life. And in a professional world filled with change, it can mean the difference between surviving and thriving. Our second course, What’s Next? Purposeful Planning for Post Retirement, will assist you in developing a proactive plan for a meaningful post-retirement life, grounded in your values, strengths, and experiences.

To learn more, call us at 301-670-0051 or email us at leah@lmja.com.

“Change is the only constant in life.” You may not have known that this quote originated from Greek philosopher, Heraclitus, but we bet you’ve heard it a time or two! With the start of a New Year, a change in administration and so many other upcoming events, many of us are feeling the uncertainty  (and stress!) of change in our professional and personal life.

Change is always going to happen, but how we deal with it is crucial. It’s about our level of resilience, otherwise known as the ability to tolerate difficult or stressful situations while still remaining positive and productive. Some call it the ability to “bounce back.” According to the APA Dictionary of Psychology: ‘Resilience is the process and outcome of successfully adapting to difficult or challenging life experiences, especially through mental and behavioral flexibility and adjustment to both external and internal demands.’ It’s a crucial component for your physical and emotional wellbeing and can mean the difference between surviving and thriving.

Embrace the 7 C’s. Understanding and embodying the 7 C’s of resilience can transform how you approach both your professional and personal life. It enables you to navigate obstacles with strength and confidence. Although initially directed at childhood development, Dr. Kenneth Ginsberg’s 7 Cs of resilience are vital in today’s ever-changing workplace. Let’s break it down:

1. Competence: Develop the skills and knowledge to handle workplace situations effectively.
2. Confidence: Build the self-confidence to trust your abilities and judgment in challenging situations.
3. Connection: Foster strong relationships with team members to creative a supportive, collaborative environment.
4. Character: Cultivate your personal values and integrity to guide your behavior and decision-making process.
5. Contribution: Feeling that your contributions matter in order to build a sense of purpose and value.
6. Coping: Develop effective ways to manage stress and adversity. This includes building problem solving and emotional regulation skills.
7. Control: Focus on the parts of work you can control (i.e., your decisions and reactions) and let the rest go.

We can help. It sounds like a lot, especially when you feel like you’re just trying to stay afloat and manage your day-to-day tasks. But you don’t have to go it alone. Our new course, Building Resilience In Times Of Uncertainty, focuses on how to manage the stress, anxiety and uncertainty of “what’s next.” This course includes a resilience assessment and provides feedback about resiliency levels in 3 key areas: Challenge, Control and Commitment. Participants learn how to increase their resiliency and better prepare and manage uncertainty in their career and personal life. And who doesn’t want that, especially in today’s world?

Call us at 301-670-0051 or email us at leah@lmja.com for more information.

Kindness hasn’t always been high on the list when it comes leadership. For some, leadership is about being tough and having people do what you say. For others, kindness is seen as a weakness or just the latest fad in leadership. But what if I told you that kindness may be the number one superpower of a strong leaders? Let’s take a closer look at what it means to be a kind, compassionate leader and some ways to put it into action within your organization.

Developed by Roffey Park, the ‘Compassion Workplace Model’ outlines five aspects of compassionate leadership and management:

• Being aware of the needs of others.
• Being non-judgmental to the viewpoints of others.
• Being resilient and tolerant toward personal distress.
• Feeling and showing empathy at all levels of a professional life.
• Being accountable and responsible for all good and bad outcomes of the team.

So, what does that look like day-to-day in the workplace? What are some ‘real life’ ways that leaders can practice kindness and build a positive workplace culture? Here are a few examples:

• Offer genuine compliments: Recognizing your teams’ hard work, achievement or skills can make them feel appreciated and motivated. Remember to be sincere and specific when complimenting them about their work or the impact of their actions.
• Organize team-building activities: Plan activities that promote bonding, collaboration and fun among team members. Ideas include a group lunch, team games or volunteering together.
• Practice active listening: Sounds simple, but when a team member is speaking, give them your full attention and listen carefully without interrupting. It goes a long way towards making them feel heard and valued.
• Celebrate successes and milestones: Recognize the accomplishments of your team members by celebrating their successes, work anniversaries and other milestones.
• Offer constructive feedback: When providing feedback, focus on being helpful and specific. Offer suggestions for improvement and make sure to highlight positive contributions.
• Express your gratitude: Make it a habit to show thanks for the support and assistance you receive from team members. A simple “thank you” can go a long way in creating a positive atmosphere.
• Show empathy during difficult times: Be supportive and understanding when team members are dealing with personal or professional challenges. Offering help, listening or a simple kind gesture shows that you care.
• Be mindful of workload: Avoid setting unrealistic expectations and communicate clearly about deadlines and priorities.

Challenge yourself and your team to complete a few random acts of kindness today. Track the outcome, record how it made you and your team feel and how it brought people together. Then, watch how it creates a positive ripple effect.

A kind leader is a strong leader. How can you lead with more compassion and empathy? And what impact might it have on your team members and their productivity? Leah M Joppy and Associates can help your organization create a culture of kindness and start reaping the benefits of this powerful tool! Call us at 301-670-0051 or email us at leah@lmja.com to learn more.

Have you ever worked in an environment where team members were chronically late for meetings and when they did show up, interrupted the flow and needed to be caught up? How about trying to work with people who blamed others for their mistakes or made excuses for not finishing a task or hitting a goal? These are just a few examples of workplaces with a lack of accountability. What starts as small issues can quickly snowball when no one takes ownership of making decisions, addressing challenges and solving problems. And it makes it impossible to create a high performing team.

What does accountability look like in the workplace? A culture of accountability means that team members take responsibility for their performance and project outcomes. They don’t play the “blame game” when something goes wrong, but take ownership of mistakes and try to learn from them. Accountable employees work to find solutions. As a result, an organization thrives and doesn’t have as many issues with productivity and engagement.

That doesn’t mean that holding team members accountable is easy. We often resist doing it because it makes us uncomfortable, we simply forget or maybe we don’t even know how to go about it. Here’s a look at 4 things managers can do to foster an accountable team environment:

• Lead by example: You can’t hold others accountable until you begin with yourself. As a manager, you set the tone, performance and culture for your team. If you’re continuously showing up to meetings late, pushing deadlines and not owning up to your mistakes, people will follow your lead.
• Set clear, measurable goals: When you clarify expectations and goals, you help your team understand what their focus should be. Explain what should be done, why it matters and what the final outcome should look like. Most people want to meet their goals and help the team, especially when they truly understand what’s at stake.
• Work on your feedback skills: Giving tough feedback is never easy, but it’s a necessary management skill and one of the most important to develop. However, it’s also important to provide consistent positive feedback. If all your employees hear about is what they’re doing wrong, that’s hardly motivating. It’s all about clear and respectful communication, something we’ll cover more in our next article.
• Reward accountability: When managers see accountability being practiced, they should celebrate it and recognize team members that are doing it. Ideas include: making accountability a criteria when considering employees for promotions, publicly thanking team members for taking accountability and solving problems and offering professional development opportunities when team members take accountability in areas they need to learn.

Fostering a culture of accountability on your team will not only improve employee morale, but it’ll also give your team the sense of ownership they need to thrive. If you feel accountability is lacking within your organization, working with a coach, like Leah M Joppy and Associates can help. We can work with you to identify any accountability issues on your team, assist managers with how to deal with them and help build a culture of trust and transparency. The result is more engaged, focused and happy employees!

Ready to learn more? Call us at 301-670-0051 or email us at leah@lmja.com.

For many organizations, collaboration is a key element. But just because teams are collaborating more than ever doesn’t mean they’re doing it effectively – and the main culprit is usually communication. In an era where we’re balancing in-person, hybrid and remote workers, effective communication is more important than ever. But it takes work and it often means being candid.

When people hear the words “candid conversation,” it can often be accompanied with feelings of anxiety and a pit in their stomach. But being “candid” doesn’t have to be synonymous with being disrespectful or unkind. In fact, candid communication used in the right way is kind – it builds greater trust, transparency and opens the door to more constructive conversations about tough issues.

So often, managers (particularly new ones) and team members are focused on being “nice” and they’re afraid to speak up when problems arise. Or they sugar coat communication so much that it loses any effectiveness. There are ways to be both candid and respectful. Here are a few tips to keep in mind:

• Learn how to provide feedback: We touched on this briefly in our last article, but learning how to give constructive feedback is so vital. When challenges arise, leaders can use both kindness and candor at the same time. The key is self-awareness and training. It’s important to understand your own feelings about having difficult conversations, especially if you’ve had experiences when feedback was given in a hurtful way or if you’re uncomfortable with conflict.
• Build trust through communication: When you build relationships that include mutual trust, you and your team will be more comfortable bringing up issues and being yourselves. How do you build that kind of relationship? Actually, the first step is being more candid! A leader who provides honest and transparent communication is more likely to gain the trust of their team than someone with a facade of “niceness”.
• Make sure you lead by example: Again, it all comes from the top. Show that you’re open to feedback (ask for it!) and others will do the same. Provide opportunities for team members to bring up issues without having to be afraid of repercussions and reward those who do it respectfully. Not every candid remark will be helpful, but nurturing a culture of candor and kindness has more benefits than downsides.

Remember that approaching difficult conversations with kindness allows you to be both objective and empathetic – and these are the basic requirements for candidness.

Effective communication is the backbone of any organization, yet many leaders struggle when it comes to having honest, candid conversations with team members. Working with a coach, like Leah M Joppy and Associations, can help managers at any stage in their career take a closer look at their communication style, areas for improvement and tactics to provide feedback and solve problems in a direct and respectful way. Your employees will thank you for it!

Call us at 301-670-0051 or email us at leah@lmja.com to learn more.