Liz Trocchio Smith
Certified Executive Business Coach
and Trusted Advisor
Get “Monday Morning Coffee with Liz”
direct to your in-box every Monday Morning with tips on what it takes to be a great leader
Monday, October 5, 2015 Good Morning, We all know the co-worker who talks endlessly in circles, struggling to explain his ideas. On the outside, we’re staring blankly ahead. On the inside, we’re screaming, “CUT TO THE CHASE, DUDE!” Chances are, we’ve stopped listening. The lesson here is delightfully summed up by Albert Einstein: “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” Many people face this same challenge….
Monday, September 28, 2015 Good morning, Our days are filled with a constant stream of decisions. Most are mundane, but some are so important that they can haunt you for the rest of your life. A recent study from Columbia University found that we’re bogged down by more than 70 decisions a day. The sheer number of decisions we have to make each day leads to a phenomenon called decision…
Monday, September 21, 2015 I came across this on Inc.com, by Bill Murphy Jr. and had to share……..this is great stuff! We all do it sometimes. We undermine ourselves by using less effective language, verbal tics, and other oral miscues. That means there’s always room for improvement to help your messages get through effectively. We can all also use a little reminder now and then, so here are a handful of the worst…
Monday, September 7, 2015 Good morning, My Labor Day post last year, only seems appropriate to rerun. Enjoy the post and enjoy your well deserved day off! Do you ever wonder when the first Labor Day was celebrated or who decided that we should even celebrate Labor Day, or do you just know that you get a long weekend the first Monday of every September and that’s really all that matters…
Monday, August 31, 2015 Good Morning, With everyone heading back to school, it’s always a great reminder to read “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten” by Robert Fulghum, to make life a little easier for all. Here is an excerpt from his book. Oh, and by the way, these aren’t just for the kids! Share everything. Play fair. Don’t hit people. Put things back where you found them. Clean…
Monday, August 3, 2015 Good morning, If today were the last day of your life, would you want to be doing what you’re doing? Every day of his working life, Steve Jobs looked in the mirror and asked himself that question, he told a Stanford graduating class in a justly famous speech. “Whenever the answer has been ‘No’ for too many days in a row, I know I need to…
Monday, July 27, 2015 Good Morning. Leaders need to always not only look the part, but act the part as well. Just because you have the big title, don’t forget these attributes to go with it. Confidence Confidence without the ability to back it up is useless, but if you’re truly competent, own it. Candor Clearly–don’t be dishonest. Beyond that however, truly professional people are forthright. They assess the situation,…
Monday, July 6, 2015 Good Morning, Let’s say you have a big audacious project you want to knock out of the park. You assemble a dream team of your company’s best designers, engineers, and marketers. You put them in a room, give them loose directions, and ask them to innovate. Surprisingly, this plan usually doesn’t result in success. According to a recent study of 95 teams within 25 top corporations, close to 75 percent…
Monday, June 22, 2015 Good morning, There are three stages of speaking to other people. In the first stage, you’re on task, relevant and concise. But then you unconsciously discover that the more you talk, the more you feel relief. Ahh, so wonderful and tension-relieving for you… but not so much fun for the receiver. This is the second stage – when it feels so good to talk, you don’t even notice…
Monday, June 1, 2015 Good morning, I came across these on the wall of a restaurant a few weeks ago and knew they would be worthy of MMC. Warren Buffett’s Ten Rules: No.1: Reinvest Your Profits When you first make money, you may be tempted to spend it. Don’t. Instead, reinvest the profits. Buffett learned this early on. In high school, he and a pal bought a pinball machine to…
Monday, May 18, 2015 Good morning, The month of May is college graduation month and this past weekend, the graduating students, now alumni, of Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas, Texas celebrated the 100 year graduation at the University. #43, President George W. Bush delivered the commencement speech. Texans love #43, and let’s face it, most Americans do as well, regardless of their political affiliation. President Bush’s wife, Laura is a graduate of…
Monday, May 11, 2015 Good morning, I have wanted to share this story for some months now, but have been waiting for the right time. With Mother’s Day yesterday, there is no better time than now. I have a friend named Liz (seriously, this story is not about me!) whose mother’s name was Carol. Ironically, my mother’s name is Carole as well, just spelled different. Liz and I share a friendship that goes back…