Interviews and Chats: A more graceful aging in Voice and Conversation.

A more graceful aging: Voice

One thing I’ve always wished I could do was sing, but alas, the voice of a songbird was not to be one of my gifts. In fact, just talking was struggle enough. Growing up I hated the sound of my voice. It was too high, too young, too everything else but what I wanted it to portray about me.

Over the years I’ve gotten to be okay with my voice. Still not loving it, but okay with it, okay being an epic improvement in this case. I think my voice has finally changed somewhat, but those who’ve known me longest say no, it’s just my imagination, and that I’m the one who finally changed in coming to grips with something that wasn’t all that bad as I think in the first place. Friends say nice things.

My mom says she thinks it’s changed too, but I’ll admit I believe her because I want to, not because she’s right. After all, moms are so wonderful about telling you exactly what you want to hear, at times feeling that the “plain, straight, hard truth” is not always all it’s cracked up to be, at least not for their kids. Bless them.

Where I’m leading to with this ramble, is that thanks to Bren, our beloved Slacker@Work, I’ve had this getting-vintage voice of mine finally captured in a podcast. Have you noticed how much stuff Bren manages to get me into?

So if you’ve been reading  Managing with Aloha, and have wondered what I sound like in person, here’s your chance to find out. Well, half of the chance. We’ll still work on the “in person” part. Hey Bren, any ideas on that?

Find the podcast at The Cranky Middle Manager, hosted by Wayne Turmel. Mahalo nui Wayne for making it so easy for me.

Focus Like a Laser Beam with me and Lisa Haneberg

Lisa Haneberg, author, fellow management coach, and my friend, has posted the Fireside Chat we recorded about her new book, Focus Like A Laser Beam. It’s the second time I’ve done a podcast (my first one was with Wayne Turmel) and again, it amazed me how easy it is to do over the telephone with someone —although I must say that Lisa Haneberg is not just anyone, she is an amazing coach, and someone I am tickled pink to call my friend. When you listen to our chat, you’ll hear how quickly I forget about being recorded and just talk story.

Easy thing to do about Focus Like A Laser Beam, for Lisa has written a fabulous book, one that is immediately useful for managers. It is practical and it is real: As you read through it, you find yourself nodding your head continually, grateful that here is an author who gets it; no pie in the sky guru this one! How did she know? Lisa seems to have this uncanny way of understanding and empathizing with exactly what you go through with your work. Yet Lisa challenges you: There are no excuses for your self-improvement slip-ups when she’s offered you options for proactively correcting them.

You already know what a book fanatic I am. Books are my gift of choice for just about everyone, and for every occasion —and I’ll even write coaching notes in the front pages so they can’t be returned! Then, there are books that are so good for managers in particular, they are part of my coaching arsenal, destined to help me in my mission to bring more integrity, dignity, nobility, and aloha to management as a profession. I include them in my curriculum, and I give assignments to my clients using them. Focus Like a Laser Beam has become one of those books for me and for my company, Say Leadership Coaching.

So when you can spare 29 minutes, do have a listen to my Fireside Chat with Lisa. As part of the series she has put together, we actually only talk about Chapter 10 of her book, which coaches us to “Let Go” in order to focus. With a half-hour chat on a chapter all of only 9 pages, you can imagine what a great buy and self-coaching goldmine her entire book is.

Here are the links:
My Fireside Chat with Lisa. This is what Lisa wrote as an intro:

Are you relying too much on management fad? - Chat with Rosa Say

Today's podcast is with fellow management author, leadership coach, and blogger, Rosa Say.  We talk about an important and challenging topic - making better choices about how we spend time, how to give up doing good stuff (to make way for great stuff), and the importance of being a role model for focus and good judgment. Since both Rosa and I coach leaders, you can hear our thoughts about the advice we most give clients and the coaching we occasionally have to remind ourselves of, too.

Improve your leadership reputation and solidify your legacy. Listen to this podcast!

Buy Focus Like a Laser Beam from Amazon.com. Read some of the book reviews there too.

The full and current index to all of Lisa’s Podcasts and Webcasts: Great conversations with some very dynamic people!

Ho‘omāka‘ika‘i with your community

Great day for me today! To ho‘omāka‘ika‘i is to visit, and today I have two stops that are promising to make it a truly wonderful day.

First, I’m talking story with someone in our Ho‘ohana Community who has become a dear friend of mine, K.Todd Storch. You can join in our talk story at Business Thoughts.

Ho‘omāka‘ika‘i: please visit us there today too: People You Need to Meet: Rosa Say.

Mahalo nui loa Todd, for your gracious hospitality!