All posts filed under: Gratitude

Preparation – Be there before you arrive 

Published by Colin Nanka

My running coach in high school 20+ years ago said if you invest time visualizing your race, you will have a much better chance of success than if you don’t.  I didn’t get it. Now I do.  I would show up to each race and experience a few obstacles for the first time, trying to handle them in high-stress moments in races lasting 60 to 120 seconds where 1-2 seconds were the difference between success and failure.  I finished 4th a lot! Would visualizing have made the difference between 4th (you’ll get them next year!) and a medal?  100 Percent How does that apply to presenting in a meeting? 1.  Drilling your content like going to practice every day is table stakes.  2. Testing yourself against different competitors will give you different feedback. Test your talk track and concepts through multiple people.  3. Visualize the process. From when you arrive at the event, to the warm-up to the race (or meeting) to how you want to feel during and after.  4. Define what success looks …

I’ve traveled around the world to come home 

Published by Colin Nanka

Sometimes you can go all the way around the world, just to come home to find what you are looking for. I’ve spent 23 years selling and leading teams. I’ve traveled to every continent adventuring, including two of my favorites, the Atacama desert in Chile and Antarctica. Those terms have been my identity. My greatest accomplishment I hope to be raising my daughter with confidence and courage. I’ve certainly learned skills on the path less traveled that will help in this new adventure. Whatever your journey has been and the obstacles you have overcome, if you are a parent, you don’t have to travel the globe to be a big influence in your child’s life. The greatest gift can be raising a child to have confidence, meet them where they are at (in my case on the ground) and invest time. Defeating Average. Colin

I am busy and I am anxious

Published by Colin Nanka

Part 4   “I don’t actually have serious work problems but I am anxious about that.” I can recall through my career, my feelings Sunday when the weekend glow would start to end and the realization I had to go back to work the next week would start to set in.  Like the glow starting to dim after the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Eve. Two things I am going to address here:  I am busy and I am anxious. Even if we like our job, we are often really busy, treading water trying to keep up. I noticed about a year ago, that when I asked people “how it’s going?” they would say “busy”.   It didn’t give me any information about what they were working on or how they were feeling, except that they may be overwhelmed.   It had me question, when I used that term (which I was often) how people left interactions with me?? I decided to do two things: 1. Be ready for the question I share 2-3 …

I don’t like my job

Published by Colin Nanka

Part 3 In her NY Times article and a part-time gig as work friend, Megan Greenwell writes about “How Your Job Will Never Love You Back.” Here are four buckets Megan puts most work anxiety into: My boss annoys me. My co-workers (usually millennials) annoy me. I am dissatisfied with the type of work I do and/or don’t know what to do next. I don’t actually have serious work problems but I am anxious about that. I remember sitting down with one of my early mentors in sales, Rick after a sales call. He was a big burly guy with force and a kind heart. We talked about what I did well and where I could improve. One of the things he picked up for me, that even when I made some mistakes in the sales process, I was intently focused on listening and getting back on track.  It may have been a winding road, but I achieved the objective. Fast forward eight years and in the first couple sessions with my coach I hired, …

Life is Like a NYC Marathon

Published by Colin Nanka

In the spirit of all those runners who braved the course to run the NYC Marathon yesterday, this one is for you.   A Marathon is 26 miles.   Here is what I learned from the one I ran:   Don’t ride too high or too low. The less you mentally travel, the more energy you actually have for your legs. When you hit a wall, small or big…and you will…get curious. Ask, what is possible right now? What is the learning opportunity? What can I focus on in the next 5 minutes? Visualize the race ahead of time, and like a good narrative, beginning, middle, and end. I only remember four things from the NYC Marathon I ran in 2003: Beginning: Running across the Verrazano Bridge with 30K+ other runners and how it felt like it was moving Middle: Being ahead of target time half way through End: Hitting the wall with a mile to go and really grinding it out Celebration: Enjoying dinner with other runners toasting the moment If you think about …

Go On a Listening Tour

Published by Colin Nanka

Part 2 In her NY Times article and a part-time gig as work friend, Megan Greenwell writes about “How Your Job Will Never Love You Back.“ Here are four buckets Megan puts most work anxiety into: My boss annoys me. My co-workers (usually millennials) annoy me. I am dissatisfied with the type of work I do and/or don’t know what to do next. I don’t actually have serious work problems but I am anxious about that. Here are my thoughts on her four buckets in part two of the blog series:   My co-workers annoy me It sounds like maybe you have not found your tribe. In his recent book, Trailblazer, Marc Benioff talks about how Salesforce is a value-centered organization. I have been here 14 years and I can tell you: Trust, Customer Success, Innovation and Growth have ebbed and flowed as our values year over year, with the recent addition of equality. I would ask you, have you done the work to define your own strengths and values and overlayed those against the current role or …

10 Tactics to Better Manage Your Energy and Time 

Published by Colin Nanka

On Monday I talked about better managing your energy.  Below are my top 10 Tactical Ways I manage Energy and Time.  “Einstein is reported to have said that if he only had one hour to solve a problem he would spend 55 minutes defining the problem and the remaining 5 minutes solving it routinely.” Each Saturday morning for an HOUR (it’s a time I tend to be freshest) I re-organize my calendar for the next weeks ahead and ask myself:  Does this meeting serve my top 5 priorities this month, my team (direct team, boss and partner teams)?  How many mentor meetings do I have in the calendar? Optimal 2 per week.  How many peer collaboration meetings that provide me inspiration? Optimal 2-3 per week  I write a “Focus for the week” email to my team outlining our top 4-5 priorities for the week. They tell me it helps keep them on track and is a check for me against my responsibilities as a team leader.  I put my own oxygen mask on first. Starting …

You are overwhelmed, anxious and can’t get everything done

Published by Colin Nanka

Problem: You are overwhelmed, anxious and can’t fathom how you are possibly going to get everything done in the week, including reading and returning all your emails! Many people ask me how I manage time effectively? Solution: Read this old gem I wrote on Managing your energy and not your time, and… Answer these four questions: When am I at my best? If I look back at my best days, what has been consistent in all of them? Who do I lean on for positivity when I get anxious or overwhelmed? What is the best way I recharge my soul? Stay tuned Wednesday for tactical answers on how to better manage your energy and your time. Defeating Average Colin

Even Broadway performers have the yips

Published by Colin Nanka

It’s not how you start, but its how you finish! As my wife Blake tells me, people are only going to remember 1-2 things from a talk or a performance. Perhaps the opening, a compelling story in the middle and a strong close. What happens if you have a slow start? We’ve all been there. Lock it in and crush those 1-2 moments that people are going to remember long after it’s done! We were at a cabaret performance on a cruise through the Greek Islands on holidays and we had some world class Broadway performers put on shows each night. Most of them perform scenes or songs in well-known shows and do it over and over again at the world-class level. We are talking Tony nominee and award winners. They are not as used to stringing a number of unconnected songs or routines together for a cabaret. As they got settled into the one-hour performance, a couple had slow starts. You could tell they were getting their grounding in the routine. I noticed something …

Thank You For Showing Up

Published by Colin Nanka

Your pursuit may be individual but how you get there always has roots in a team. In my 1st year at Salesforce, we had a bunch of like-minded sales guys and gals who did a lot together. Worked hard, sold software had fun and found time to give back to our community. One thing we also did together that summer was meet one to two times per week at 6 am in a local park for a workout. Our friend Paul played high-level basketball and he ran us through some paces he did in his camps. Push ups, sit ups, carry bricks up and down hills and line runs. We were exhausted every time! We were also building the blocks or bricks of accountability. Just making that mental decision to get out of bed after 5 am to make it on time built our mental muscle. Once we were there, we always had a blast…and grabbed breakfast together after with a lot of laughs. We had many reasons not get out of bed or show …