The Conscious Professional Blog

Seeing People as People has been Integrated Work's way for more than 20 years!  See the article for more information about how to stay engaged, even in these intense times. Read more here! Jessica Hartung Jessica Hartung is a partner, coach, and guide for those...

This may be the perfect time to cultivate a hearth. As our travels are canceled, conferences postponed, and we are closed off from our regular routines, where can we turn?  Social distancing protocols to reduce the spread of the coronavirus create massive disruption,...

When a leader is promoted into a new role it constitutes a significant identity shift. Bob had spent his professional life concerned with a specific strata of organizational activities. Now, his role required a broader focus, looking at information through...

Families of any size can use leadership skillsets and mindsets to improve their home life and grow wonderful humans capable of collaborating from an early age. Why wouldn’t we apply the lessons learned from developing leaders at work in other areas of our...

Every day, our decisions shape our reality. According to a survey by Columbia University decision researcher, Sheena Iyengar, the average American makes approximately 70 conscious decisions every day. We decide our lives again and again, from the moment we...

“Listening within” is a term I use to describe what it’s like when we really check in with ourselves to discover our true intentions, and what really matters. It’s an important skill to learn because it’s hard to focus on work that matters when we,...

“So, when you teach management and leadership development, what do you teach?” the neighbor of a friend, Dan, asks me over beers in the backyard.This fellow was in software development at a big company, and has mentioned that he has been passed over for a promotion a...

In the struggle to manage our lives and accomplish our dreams—on schedule— time seems like the enemy. We fight the clock and try to “manage” time, as if we had any say in the way the minutes and hours pass. The sense of time pressure in my professional and...

In my twenties, I once asked an experienced CEO about going into a business partnership and how to set up it for success. He said, “Choose a partner with integrity. If you don’t, nothing else will matter.” At the time, admittedly, I was too young and...

When I first moved to Boulder, Colorado, I met a rabbi who shared this question that his daughter asked him when she was 8 years old: “Abba, when you are asleep, you can wake up, right? So when you are awake, can you wake up even more?”This idea of “waking...

How often do you take the time to reflect back on your day, on your work, or on a particular experience? Open-minded reflection is a valuable habit. One of Albert Einstein’s gifts was to think so clearly and precisely that it allowed him to make...

When I first began growing a company, it was because I had a vision. It popped into my head while I was driving. I was wondering what would be the ideal working environment for me in the future. I was in the middle of a transition, and trying to figure out...

Do you like the way your day begins? When you embrace the morning, you’ll be more positive, and able to show up powerfully and proactively for your purpose.. You’ll also find your stress levels decreasing, and that you have more time to dedicate the things...

When I was in high school, I was determined to go on a marching band trip with my friends, but I needed money. So I decided to sell Avon products by going door-to-door and calling on my neighbors. Pretty soon my basement was filled with perfumes, creams,...

Getting to the other side of fear feels good.Liberating. Accomplished. Like the warmth of the sun on your face when the clouds finally part after a storm.Eliminating fears isn't the goal, nor to be ashamed of them, or even to make them stop. It is...

Congratulations! You’ve finished your meeting. You should be proud of all the hard work you put into planning and facilitating an effective meeting. Most meetings don’t produce the value you have created. But the work isn’t over yet. Just a few more things to do and...

“Meetings are the linchpin of everything.” —Patrick Lencioni, author of The Five Dysfunctions of a Team and Death by Meeting Leading a meeting is no small task. Once you figure out what conversations really need to happen, plan for them, and set up for...

Meetings… love ’em or hate ’em, they’re not going away any time soon. Most of us long to get meaningful work done during meetings, but the distractions, disruptions, and lack of meeting management derails us. Leverage your frustration with poor meetings as...

Thank goodness you don’t actually have to believe in yourself to do things in the world. Frankly, I’d never get anything done if I had to believe in myself first. I believe in a lot of things. I believe in the power of our intention, and I believe in...

How to confront someone at work is one of the biggest challenges I am asked about. But it doesn’t have to be a problem! In fact, the positive results of thoughtful candor can change work lives in wonderful ways. Conflict isn’t good or bad. It just happens...

The success of a meeting doesn’t just rely on the person organizing it. You can help to make the next meeting you attend more effective, even if you are not in charge of it. How? It’s pretty simple. Here are four ways that you can create a better meeting...

We make thousands of decisions every day… what to wear… which email to read first… what to say… how many cups of coffee to drink… Usually, those are simple and easy choices that we make without even thinking. But sometimes, we have much bigger decisions to...

Mentors, lessons, and opportunities are all around us. Not just at the workplace, but also within our families. If you start to shift your perspective about the value of personal growth, you can start to see how family members can help you develop the...

Do you ever feel like you’re moving throughout your day on autopilot? Doing the same things, dealing with the same situations, without realizing you have a choice to respond in a different way? There’s a problem with the phrase “think outside the box.”...

My career journey was by no means simple and straightforward. I went from training to be a high school teacher to working with computers, to entrepreneurship, to working as a business consultant …and now a leadership coach. Career transition goes...

If you’re looking to expand your knowledge and effectiveness, you may be thinking of traditional methods such as going back to school, taking a course, or pursuing a certification. The problem with those approaches is not many actually do it. So if you do,...

The easiest way to stop being “not ready” is to simply be ready. But I’m going to let you in on a little secret… You’re probably never going to be 100% ready. There will always be a little bit of fear, some feelings of doubt, maybe discomfort… but that...

Throughout life, we are changed, molded, and shaped by the things we do, the things that happen to us, the people around us…We are deeply influenced by the different jobs we held, the leaders we encountered, the communities we lived in, journeys we went on, and relationships we formed.

The best mentors are hiding all around us. Everywhere you look, there’s an adviser… someone you can teach you something, whether it’s how to do your job more effectively, or simply how to treat the people around you.

Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you’re struggling to get improvements made in your workplace? Do you find that senior staff can be dismissive of your new ideas or concerns because they’re too comfortable doing things they way they’ve always been?

Everyone’s talking about workplace wellness these days, but too often, workplace wellness doesn’t extend to the food we see at meetings, coffee breaks and conferences. So many employees strive to eat nutritiously to keep their bodies functioning well and...

How we choose to see our current and past challenges drives the impact they have on our evolving capability and identity. As we develop ourselves over time to build the skills we need to support the causes we care about, it changes our beliefs about who we...

In the modern workplace, co-workers arrive at your organization from all types of prior workplaces, some of which could be more analogous to a den of wolves than a conscious company. Recent high-profile cases in the news reveal that some aggressive startup...

Leaders at every level need candid feedback about their performance to improve. Feedback can illuminate blind spots about behavior that we just can’t see without input from others. However, providing feedback to senior leaders can be intimidating. If the...

It takes skillful guidance to help employees ride the wave of growth without putting them in situations that are simply too challenging for their current level or too risky for the enterprise. When we are “surfing the developmental edge,” as I like to call...

If you’re sponsoring or developing a peer learning program, you know that professional communities of practice are a cost-effective way to leverage the collective wisdom and experience of a group of leaders with similar roles, challenges or interest areas....

How do you turn the searing pain of flubbing up in social entrepreneurship into something useful so you can innovate and accelerate?In the social entrepreneurship world, everyone talks about the benefits of failing fast so you can innovate and accelerate....

It's easy for mission-driven professionals to push themselves so hard they're exhausted. Here's how to recognize the signs of burnout — and keep it at bay.We’ve all been there: That feeling you get when you’re so overwhelmed, all you want to do is…...

Whether you work with a great manager or a difficult one, this Boss’ Day take some time to consider how to make the most of the relationship.  Even a terrible boss can create lots of opportunities for learning, developing new skills and professional...