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Finding the Time to Live a Balanced Life with Gina Cotner

Oct 20, 2021 | About Athena, Accountability, Business, Delegation, Podcast Appearance, Productivity, Remote Work, Uncategorized

Athena Executive Services CEO Gina Cotner was recently a guest on Robyn Crane’s podcast, “Growing Your Financial Business…The Woman’s Way”.

Outsourcing work or expanding your team can be scary, especially if you’ve always handled it on your own. But if you follow Gina’s advice (and relinquish a little control), then you just mind discover the balanced life you always dreamed of.

Gina and Robyn discuss:

> Freeing yourself up for the work that matters
> Time management and the pain of overbooking
> Setting boundaries with an assistant
> The dos and don’ts of delegating work

Check out the full episode here!

“This was such a treat to get to be with Robyn Crane and talk about my favorite topics! Delegation and gracefully giving away those tasks and projects that are NOT the highest and best use of you and your unique talents!”

~Gina Cotner, CEO

 

 

 

 

The Red Hot Chili Peppers, delegating thinking and fuzzy sweaters!

Sep 8, 2021 | About Athena, Accountability, Business, Delegation, Podcast Appearance, Productivity, Remote Work

Athena CEO Gina Cotner recently had a fantastic conversation with Erin Keam on her podcast, “Erin Keam’s Conversations about Closets with my Closest 1000 friends”.

The two talk delegation, breaking free to get back to the things you are truly passionate about, and so much more!

Check the podcast episode here.

 

Partnership: The Key to Growth

Aug 24, 2021 | About Athena, Business, Delegation, Mental Health, Productivity

You need partners to be able to grow, and I’ve been incredibly fortunate in this world. Meet my great friend, Dorian. Here we are five years after I founded this firm, Athena Executive Services. She no longer works for me, but we are still very close. She’s now married, has had her first baby, and is the Chief of Staff for a great company that was previously our client. She was a key player in the building of this firm for the first four years.

I would brainstorm with Dorian. I thought things through with her. She was my sounding board and my cheerleader. She was also the first person that I turned over some of the operations of the company to. After a couple of years, I turned over to her our vetting, screening, and development process that all team members go through before joining our team. She continued to serve our clients, but soon she was managing this important part of the business that was critical to our success.

She honed and improved our vetting process along the way. We have yet to post a job opening anywhere. The right people find their way to us and apply, and the right people make it through the screening process. In my great fortune to get to work with Dorian I learned how to delegate not just tasks and projects, but a whole system that is a key part of our business and has been a critical to our success.

This month I got to see her in person at a coffee shop briefly. It was the first time in 18 months getting to see her in person. I was two states away from home. She drove 90 minutes from one side of LA to the other, just to see me. It was such a treat to see her, and I’m forever grateful for all of the obstacles she went through with me in the building of the company.

Approximately half of all businesses close in the first five years. Proud to have made it past that threshold! Partnership was the Key!

 

 

Moving from Delegating Tasks to Delegating Thinking

Aug 10, 2021 | Accountability, Business, Delegation, Getting Started with an EA, Productivity

I’ve been expanding my knowledge and abilities around delegating in this last year. I consider myself an expert delegator in many ways, but there is always more to master and new things to discover. I’ve been moving myself from simply delegating well-defined tasks and projects to a world of Delegating Thinking.

I got off a call today that I had to force myself to cut short. I said to this person, “I need you to do the critical thinking on this and then send me what you’ve got.” We were working on an agenda for a meeting. I gave him some areas and ideas to think from and I noticed he kept asking me questions. I was pulled to want to stay on the line and keep answering his questions. He would have happily and expertly executed my thoughts and put them on paper in a way that I wanted. But what I really wanted was his thinking mixed with mine. I realized in the moment that the more questions I answered for him, the less of his thinking I would get.

There is more to be found about this in this article, plus other valuable ideas for how to get more out of delegating.

 

Harvard Business Review article, “You’re Delegating. It’s Not Working. Here’s Why.” 

 

The Joy Of Not Being Accountable

Jul 21, 2021 | About Athena, Accountability, Delegation, Productivity

A few weeks ago I wrote this blog on how I was preparing to completely relax and recharge on my upcoming vacation. Well… I did it! I did the real work and it paid off. The Operations Manager at Athena, Jennifer Tracy, was a Rockstar. It wasn’t all smooth sailing while I was gone, and she did really well with the challenges that came at her. She didn’t shy away from them, or say, “We’ll wait until Gina returns from vacation and sort that out.” She kept moving all things forward.

I read NO email while on vacation for 10 days. None. I pushed my email app off of my home screen, so that I’d have to be a real culprit and go digging for it if I wanted to read my email. I managed to not be a culprit.

When I returned from vacation, Jennifer and I debriefed. This is when you learn the real strength of your people. I said to her, “Ok, start with the worst stuff first.” She did and it turns out he “worst” wasn’t that bad, partly because she knows better than to let issues fester. She swoops in, rolls up her sleeves and takes action to get things resolved quickly. Hallelujah!

Why am I so adamant about turning everything over so thoroughly when I go on vacation? Why not just check my phone a little bit each day? What I have discovered is that the most rejuvenating and re-fueling and nurturing part of time off or vacation, is not the location you’re going to, or what you do or don’t do while on vacation, but rather that you have the opportunity to not be accountable for your usual work and projects, for a period of days. That is what allows me to mentally, physically and emotionally recharge – the lack of accountability, more so than the pina colada on the pool deck (and that’s cool too!).

The more you “give” in life and the more you provide for others, the more you need to recharge, and knowing how to recharge is critical.

Would you like to know my specific tips and ideas for crafting your own time away from the office with intention? I share this and more in our latest newsletter. I personally write our newsletter on topics such as Life Balance, Working Values, Delegation, Remote Teams, Effectiveness and the latest on what’s happening at Athena.

Subscribe Today!   

~Gina Cotner, CEO

 

Time Management Tips

Jul 12, 2021 | Business, Delegation, Productivity, Remote Work

Why do some people seem to get so much more done with their time than others? What is the secret to managing your time effectively? There are many answers that are unique to everyone on this topic, but we did find a handy guide about this all-important productivity skill.

Check out this Ultimate Guide on Time Management, via AsianEfficiency.com. There are some great tips!

Do you have a particular method of getting things done efficiently that is working well for you? Please share!