The Burnout Complexity
By Andrea Chilcote How are you feeling right now? Energized or drained? Lively or bored? Engaged or burned out? I am blessed to do work that I love. Yet there are times when I’m feeling tired, rundown, and in need of…something.
Becoming Who We Are
By Andrea Chilcote
As we grow through life, do we change “who we are” or do we become ourselves? I remember being asked by a potential client, “What do you do, really, as a coach?” He seemed earnest, so I answered sincerely. “I help people become themselves,” I replied.
So, You Have an Executive Coach…Now What?
By Andrea Chilcote
This article was born from my latest podcast episode in which I interviewed two clients about their experience with executive coaching. David Clapp of CarterBaldwin Executive Search and Virginia Neiswender of Cox Enterprises kindly spent time with me to help other leaders understand the benefits of coaching and share some of the best practices for maximizing its impact.
Now is the Time to Engage
By Andrea Chilcote
Have you recently heard (or spoken) the phrase, “There’s a lot of fear out there”? I have heard it a lot, though I’m in the unique position in which people often confide in me the conversations they have only with themselves in the middle of the night.
What We Carry – The Journey of Self Compassion
By Andrea Chilcote
Calling all worriers. You know who you are.
There was a time, many years ago, when I believed worrying was one of the means to success in my growing business. I believed that my continual creation of what-ifs and contingency plans B, C, D, and on through the alphabet, were what kept me from disaster. Thankfully, I learned that this behavior was simply a mind trap of sorts, a condition of allowing my mind to summon imaginary impending doom, then conceive of a host of solutions until satisfaction (or mental exhaustion) was reached.
What We Carry – The Journey of Self Compassion
By Andrea Chilcote
Perfectionism. It’s a label thrown around often, sometimes carelessly. It can be used in a pejorative way yet can be worn as a badge of honor. Perfectionism is not a mental health disorder—it’s a personality trait. And like any personality trait, taken to an extreme, it can be debilitating.
In this series, I seek to help readers lighten the load of the burdens we all carry, often unconsciously, that cause us to be less than compassionate, kind, and loving toward ourselves.
What We Carry – The Journey of Self Compassion
By Andrea Chilcote
Do you genuinely care about the people in the team or organization that you lead? One of the messages readers have found most affirming in my new book, What Leaders Need Now, is the idea that compassion is a legitimate and essential leadership quality in a world in which the majority of employees are “quiet quitting” (not engaged), according to Gallup’s 2023 Global Workplace report. One client put it simply: “Times have changed, and people need people who actually care.”
The Way I Carry Things
By Andrea Chilcote
A moment of truth is defined as a critical or decisive time on which much depends – a moment when a person or thing is put to the test. I was put to the test in January 2014, caught in Atlanta’s epic snow storm that paralyzed the city and left thousands of people stranded overnight in cars, grocery stores, and hotel lobbies.
Raveling
By Andrea Chilcote
It was early evening on a Friday night. I replied to an email from a client, stating that I had been traveling all week and would get her what she was requesting on Monday. Shortly after hitting send, I glanced at the preview pane and noticed a typo. I had told her I had been “raveling” all week.
Attention Please
By Andrea Chilcote
I’ve noticed something lately – no one seems to be listening.
During an intense bout of post-holiday travel, I encountered many customer service personnel attending to the business of planes, trains and automobiles. Despite a fair amount of cheeriness given large crowds and weather-related delays, few appeared to pay attention to the matter at hand. Many seemed lost in their thoughts as they asked me questions I had already answered.
