Traditionally, we have thought of a good leader as the best problem solver and do-it-all-by- yourself kind of person. How do we become the best leader that we can be by not just relying on our sole capacity?
 
Learning to prioritize our communities of concern by looking through the lens of these three C’s: Compassion, Collaboration, and Cooperation opens leaders to the reality that the best solutions and answers are found not in doing it all alone but in reaching out to others.
 
Known as Dr Success®, Andrea Goeglein is a media personality, author, publisher, former hotel owner, event organizer, CEO adviser, and spiritual community activist. She has been a counselor and personal mentor to countless CEOs of privately held companies.
 
She is a Success Expert who puts the practice of Positive Psychology to work for you. She founded and trademarked the Don’t Die® inspirational book series. Her latest book is Don’t Die Waiting to Be Brave. She has a Ph.D. in Organizational Psychology from the California School of Professional Psychology.
 
In this episode, Andrea talks about how leaders, in all areas of concern ‘wait too long’ to reach out to others. For them, doing and handling everything by themselves is what makes a good leader. In fact, the way to find the best solutions is to make others a part of the solution-finding-process
 
 
What you will learn from this episode:
 
● Learn how to prioritize your communities of concern by looking through the lens of compassion, collaboration, and cooperation
● Find out why you need to reach out to others and not need to wait too long to do it
● Discover how reaching out to others and not doing it all alone offers the best solution
 
 
“Prioritizing is still the number one [challenge for executive leaders], but the view to which they look at it has changed very distinctly. And the most succinct way that I can give it to you is that they are looking through the lens of life and business priorities through the three C’s: Compassion, Collaboration, and Cooperation.”
– Andrea Goeglein
 
 
Valuable Free Resource:
 
Tired of setting goals and not achieving them? Get the strength you need to achieve your goals by learning your Top 5 Character Strengths. Click here: https://servingsuccess.com/character-strength-survey/
 
You can also learn your Top 5 Character Strengths by clicking here: https://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/
 
Get a copy of Andrea’s latest book entitled ‘Don’t Die Waiting to Be Brave’.
 
Topics Covered:
 
01:32 – What female executives have to contend with as they move up the corporate ranks: the challenge of prioritizing with the view to look at it through the three C’s of compassion, collaboration, and cooperation.
 
02:55 – Executive leaders facing the reality that it is never best to do it alone
 
04:35 – Clients making the mistakes of ‘waiting too long’
 
05:27 – The reality in executive leaders handling things by themselves and waiting too long to reach out, in all areas of life
 
06:02 – One free and actionable tip you can do to address the challenge in prioritizing: Focus on the awareness of your strengths and whether or not you are using them or not, will determine your resilience, whether or not you can flourish through difficult situations.
 
06:02 – One valuable free resource to find out what your top strengths are: https://servingsuccess.com/character-strength-survey/
 
08:02 – What if I believe that this moment in time was the greatest opportunity of a lifetime?
 
 
Key Takeaways:
 
“It is really a different moment in time, where we are moving away from. We have been forced to stop thinking, ‘We can do everything alone’. In fact, we are now facing the reality that it is never best to do it alone. But in fact, that compassion and collaboration and really cooperating with others will get to the best solutions.” – Andrea Goeglein
 
“We have this tendency of waiting till the pain is so great. Well, now, we are waiting as long. But we are definitely looking to others for advice, and seeing what’s working in their environments and their communities of concern.” – Andrea Goeglein
 
“The awareness of your strengths and whether or not you are using them or not will determine your resilience, whether or not you can flourish through difficult situations.” – Andrea Goeglein
 
“This is what I would ask our listeners to do today, at this moment in time take a real deep breath, and use the pause that we’ve been given whether we wanted it or not. To examine in all the communities of concern, what do I believe? What do I hope for the future? Who and what do I love? And then make those answers the thing that guides you day-to-day?” – Andrea Goeglein
 
 
 
Ways to Connect with Andrea Goeglein:
 
 
Ways to Connect with Sarah E. Brown
 
Full Episode Transcript:
 
Sarah E. Brown 00:55
 
My guest today is Dr. Andrea Goeglein. She altered the truth of her age and got a job at a Wall Street brokerage firm at age 14, and by 24, she opened her first operating business, a Haagen-Daz ice cream store in Reno, Nevada. Many businesses and a Ph.D. in Organizational Psychology later. She felt she had experienced enough stress and anxiety to be an expert. Today, she is a success catalyst and is known as Dr. Success. Andrea is the founder, curator, and author of the ‘Don’t Die’ self-development collection of books. Her latest book is ‘Don’t Die Waiting to Be Brave’. As an expert in Applied Positive Psychology, she is your success sherpa, guiding you as you climb the mountain of success. Welcome, Andrea. I’m delighted to have you.
 
Andrea Goeglein 02:02
 
Sarah, thank you so much. It’s a pleasure to be here.
 
Sarah E. Brown 02:05
 
So, as you know, this podcast is geared primarily towards senior executive females. So, what is the biggest challenge you help them face in business today? And what might be some symptoms of that problem?
 
Andrea Goeglein 02:20
 
It’s very interesting, because the word today is what stuck out in that sentence for me because this moment in time has given us the most unique perspective of what is really important. So, had we had this conversation eight or nine months ago, I would have very easily said prioritizing. Female executives have been challenged throughout the last 10, 20, 30, 40 years as we’ve continued to move up the corporate ranks and more opportunities have opened up with how do I prioritize the various communities of concern in my life: my family, my personal health, my employees? How do I do that? Today, I will say that that is on steroids. That, prioritizing is still the number one, but the view to which they look at it has changed very distinctly. And the most succinct way that I can give it to you is that they are looking through the lens of life and business priorities through the three C’s, compassion, collaboration, and cooperation.
 
Sarah E. Brown 03:34
 
Very interesting. And how do you see that manifesting?
 
Andrea Goeglein 03:40
 
Well, as people who raise and want to be successful, and honestly, in my work, it goes across male, female, it really doesn’t matter. What we have traditionally done and what our traditional system had taught us to do was, in fact, be the best problem solver on the face of the earth. And we internalize that as meaning I have to know the answers, I have to formulate the solutions by myself so that I look like the leader. And through the 80s and 90s, we began to put cracks in that myth. I want you to know right now we’ve been given just dynamite. It has blown up that we realize that the problems were so great, how do you handle a medical emergency, a global pandemic, when in fact, you’ve got your own family to worry about and the business that you’re running or the organizations that you’re involved in at all different levels. It is really a different moment in time, where we are moving away from. We have been forced to stop thinking, ‘We can do everything alone’. In fact, we are now facing the reality that it is never best to do it alone. But in fact that compassion and collaboration and really cooperating with others will get to the best solutions.
 
Sarah E. Brown 05:11
 
Does that feed into my next question about the biggest mistakes your clients make before working with you?
 
Andrea Goeglein 05:17
 
Well, I’ll give it to you in a short way. They wait too long. We have this tendency of waiting till the pain is so great. And there is a spiritual advisor who uses a term that I love that ‘Pain pushes until the vision pulls’. Well, now, we are waiting as long. And that doesn’t mean that we’re reaching out for the type of help that I do with my clients necessarily, because we have so many immediate concerns. But we are definitely looking to others for advice, and seeing what’s working in their environments and their communities of concern.
 
Sarah E. Brown 06:02
 
So, is it, in essence, trying to handle it yourself and not reaching out? Is that correct?
 
Andrea Goeglein 06:07
 
And again, it’s built in that category as you raise up the ranks of leadership, no matter what area of your life. If you’re the parent of the family, all of a sudden, you think you’re supposed to know what’s going to happen? Well, at every level of our life, we wait a bit too long.
 
Sarah E. Brown 06:27
 
Got it. Yeah. So, what’s the number one free and actionable tip you can give my audience today to begin to, if not to address the challenge to at least recognize that.
 
Andrea Goeglein 06:41
 
You know, and I don’t mean to make this sound as though there’s only a solution to something, but I will tell you that the glory of positive psychology and it was the greatest gift, I mean, I already had, quote, unquote, finished my education when I did my training with Martin Seligman in Positive Psychology and Authentic Happiness Coaching. What that gave me was the knowledge that a continual focus on your top five strengths, which anyone can go to my site and go to the VIA tab and find out what their top strengths are. You can go to the University of Penn site, I can give you a whole list of places where for free, you can get your top five strengths, and using them throughout the day, being aware, which is the thing I always focus on in the newest research is really, sitting that awareness is the cheap thing we should be focusing on. The awareness of your strengths and whether or not you are using them or not will determine your resilience, whether or not you can flourish through difficult situations. They are miraculous.
 
Sarah E. Brown 07:55
 
So, I’m sure this is the valuable free resource that I would ask you about and that so tell my readers where they can find that.
 
Andrea Goeglein 08:01
 
Okay, so I will give you the link at the servingsuccess.com, as my site, you just go under the coaching, and it’s the VIA survey. Another resource is the University of Penn Authentic Happiness. I use the VIA Institute, which is associated with the University of Pennsylvania. So that’s the free resource, you can get it on my website, and it becomes the goal.
 
Sarah E. Brown 08:27
 
Great. So, Andrea, what is one question that I should have asked you that will help our audience take action to address this challenge? And then would you please answer the question?
 
Andrea Goeglein 08:38
 
Sure. Thanks. When I read your question, I was really intrigued with that, you know, the one of anything is not really what I work in, but then it sat. And what came to me was, what if I believe that this moment in time was the greatest opportunity of a lifetime? To transform how we think, how we participate in the careers we develop the businesses, what if that was what I believe at this moment? And I will tell you that you gave me the gift in that question. Like, you know, what did I want to be asked? And what I came away with was examining, and this is what I would ask our listeners to do today, at this moment in time take a real deep breath, and use the pause that we’ve been given whether we wanted it or not. To examine in all the communities of concern, what do I believe? What do I hope for the future? Who and what do I love? And then make those answers the thing that guides you day-to-day?
 
Sarah E. Brown 09:55
 
What great questions.
 
Andrea Goeglein
 
Thank you.
 
Sarah E. Brown 09:59
 
What great questions to ponder and we do have them. This is the perfect time to do it. Yes, Andrea, thank you so much for spending time with us today.
 
Andrea Goeglein 10:08
 
Thank you for inviting me. It’s always a pleasure. It gives me as much… because it makes me do the internal work that I hope everyone will do.
Sarah Brown
Sarah Brown

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