This month marks the seventh Anniversary of Athena Executive Services. Happy birthday to us!
The Athena Leadership Team recently came together to reflect on where we’ve been, the state of things currently, and where the company is headed in the next five years. Athena CEO Gina Cotner offered advice for emerging entrepreneurs, including some lessons learned along the way. It’s always a fun and informative when these three get together.
As a leader, if you are consistent over time in how you hire, develop and train your people, your investment will pay off in the heat of battle when your teams are tested!
Create a culture that runs on its values and mission.
Don’t make your mission statement something that you print and hang on a back wall that nobody ever sees. Craft a mission statement and/or set of organizational values that you and your people commit to.
Lead from your mission and values, and invest in your team. Be the example and consistently elevate their performance with coaching and training.
Recently, the Athena team was put to the test when an unexpected problem came up over the holidays. One of the visions for our clients is that they experience ‘freedom and peace of mind’. This goes for any issues that come up internally as well!
Hear the story about what happened and how things were resolved:
What does wellness mean to you? To the Leadership Team at Athena Executive Services, Wellness is more than one’s physical fitness or simply not being sick. WELLNESS is a core value of our company, with a laser focus on both health and personal happiness.
Recently, our CEO and Managers came together to discuss the value of WELLNESS and how prioritizing the quickest path to being 100% well is critical to high performance.
Athena CEO Gina Cotner does a household purge pretty regularly, going through closets and adding things to the giveaway pile. Recently she noticed that a lot of what she was sorting through represented who she was five years ago. Some of this had to do with the pandemic, but she is also evolving as a person. The Pickleball clothing and gear has definitely grown substantially, and now needs more space!
This process of going through, getting rid of, and refreshing your space is not only therapeutic but also enlivening. While there were times that she felt like she was giving away memories as she was purging, she also could see the freedom and power that came with creating space. Perhaps space for something new and for growth. It’s nice to have a lot of options for outfits or several Pickleball skirts, but being able to easily find just what you need and what you enjoy wearing is an even better feeling.
This purging process can also be stressful. So, Gina turned to someone who is an expert in the field of organization to give this exercise some structure. Enter, Shantaeize Your Space!
Shantae’s philosophy is, “Illuminate light into your space and life”, and she certainly is good at just that. Receiving quality help from an expert in their field or delegating a project to someone equipped to handle it is empowering!
We will always take the opportunity to sing the praises of our high-caliber Executive Assistants. The role of an EA is so much more complex than many people realize!
This article gives some great examples of the types of things an EA actually does – and the perception vs. reality problem many EAs face in today’s workplace.
“In today’s global world, EAs who work for C-suite executives are referred to as the right arms to leaders, the backbone to companies, and the face of the company culture.”
Read the entire article at Harvard Business Review.
You have to be willing to screw up.
Whether you are a virtual assistant or an executive, a business owner or entrepreneur, the fastest road to success is being willing to bounce over failures. Not “bounce” like . . . Forget about them . . . or discount them . . . or say three positive affirmations in the mirror to yourself to make yourself feel better about them.
No, not any of that. But rather, can you stand in the heat of knowing that failure is all part of the process of growth and expansion and success? Can you include it as part of the journey? Can you bounce back quickly and carry-on with your mission?
What finally had me put in my notice at corporate America after seven good foundational years at IBM (very grateful for those years in my late 20s and early 30s) was a paragraph in a book. The book was Cash Flow Quadrant by Robert Kiosaki. In Chapter 16. Page 232. He said this:
“Whenever I meet people who are afraid to ’try’ something new, in most cases the reason lies in their fear of being disappointed. They are afraid they might make a mistake or get rejected. If you are prepared to embark on your journey to find your own financial fast track, I would like to offer you the same words of advice and encouragement my rich dad offered me when I was learning something new:
“Be prepared to be disappointed.”
“He meant this in a positive sense, not a negative sense. His reasoning was that if you’re prepared for disappointment, have a chance of turning a disappointment into an asset. Most people turn disappointment into a liability – a long-term one. And you know it’s long-term when you hear a person say, ‘I’ll never do that again.’ Or: ‘I should’ve known I would fail.’”
So once I got that disappointment was going to be part of the journey and I settled with myself that I could handle that, I ventured out to be an entrepreneur. And I’m still taking my licks to this day. Every issue, every problem, every breakdown, every failure is simply illuminating what needs to be re-worked, re-jiggered, tweaked, thrown out, reconsidered.
What I have accomplished is simply not getting as twisted up about it all. I don’t have to lament about it as long. I don’t make myself wrong, no flogging of myself. It’s simply part of the journey.
So stop beating yourself up and keep moving forward. Next time something like that problem arises again, you will be bigger, better, brighter and bolder in the face in it.
“I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” ~Michael Jordan
