Tag Archives: Nashville Life Coach

What a Morning Walk in the Park Taught Me About Leadership in Action

Posted in Inspiration, Leadership, Motivation, Success by

What a Morning Walk in the Park Taught Me About

Leadership in Action

life coach, nashville life coach

           I recently ventured out to the park a little earlier than usual to jog. By the time I typically make it out to the park, there are already plenty of other walkers and joggers out there. This day, as the first jogger on site that morning, I got to decide which direction I wanted to start walking – clockwise or counter-clockwise around the trail.

               Most of the time I fall in line with the direction everyone else is going because I am essentially following the direction that was set by the first couple of walkers that day. This made me think about how LEADERSHIP requires us to show up ahead of the game and set the tone for our teams on a daily basis! Everyone who came to the park that day followed the direction I set earlier that morning. Leaders take action that sets the tone for how the team will function and the results they produce.

What direction will your LEADERSHIP  in action take you??

— Dr. April

Dr. Carmen April's Speaker Series

Dr. Carmen April’s Speaker Series

This post is part of a series on Leadership presented by Dr. Carmen April. She is a young entrepreneur and community leader recognized as a 2013 Nashville Business Journal Top 40 Under Forty Award Recipient and is currently a 2014 New Leaders Council Fellow – Nashville Chapter.  Dr. April is available for speaking engagements on Entrepreneurship for college students and young professionals.

True Leaders Create More Leaders

Posted in Inspiration, Leadership, Motivation, Success by

True Leaders Create More Leaders

               If you are successfully leading by direction and example, you should be creating an environment for others to lead as well. You should lead your team so well that they can stand in and cover for you in your absence!

life coach, nashville life coach

— Dr. April

Dr. Carmen April's Speaker Series

Dr. Carmen April’s Speaker Series

This post is part of a series on Leadership presented by Dr. Carmen April. She is a young entrepreneur and community leader recognized as a 2013 Nashville Business Journal Top 40 Under Forty Award Recipient and is currently a 2014 New Leaders Council Fellow – Nashville Chapter.  Dr. April is available for speaking engagements on Entrepreneurship for college students and young professionals.

Leadership Actions Speak Louder Than Words

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Leadership Actions Speak Louder Than Words

life coach, nashville life coach

          ” Being a leader is like being a lady. If you have to go around telling people you are one, you probably aren’t”

   I love this statement! Not only is it funny, (I love some great humor every now and then) but it is true! I was recently talking with a colleague about a leadership role he had been assigned to. He didn’t ask for the role or even volunteer for it. His team recognized that he was already doing a great job of taking initiative and leading the group in the right direction and appointed him the leader! (P.S. – I am on this team and was the one who nominated him for this role!)

                When you work diligently in your career, at work, in community organizations and ‘act’ as a leader should, you are essentially being a leader whether you have a title or not. LEADERSHIP is a verb, not a noun!! Again, LEADERSHIP is a verb, not a noun. It requires action! If your actions don’t signal LEADERSHIP, you may want to consider your effectiveness. Like my wise mother has always told me, “Actions Speak Louder than Words”. Quality LEADERSHIP speaks for itself!

Question of the day – Are you backing up your LEADERSHIP title with action??

Dr. Carmen April's Speaker Series

Dr. Carmen April’s Speaker Series

This post is part of a series on Leadership presented by Dr. Carmen April. She is a young entrepreneur and community leader recognized as a 2013 Nashville Business Journal Top 40 Under Forty Award Recipient and is currently a 2014 New Leaders Council Fellow – Nashville Chapter.  Dr. April is available for speaking engagements on Entrepreneurship for college students and young professionals.

The Power of Ideas

Posted in Failure, Inspiration, Leadership, Motivation, Success by

The Power of Ideas

ideas

               We all have ideas. Everyone can dream. However, the sign of an effective leader is being able to take those ideas and put them into action! Try. Experiment. Yes, you will fail every now and then and that’s fine. Failure is an opportunity to begin again with more insight and direction!

             In 1985, when Steve Jobs was just 30 years old, he was fired from the company he co-founded – Apple! He had revolutionized personal computing and had built the company into a billion dollar empire! Jobs didn’t let that set-back stop him. He came back from that defeat with ideas that have completely changed the way we use computers, smart phones, music devices and TV! The process of Steve Jobs taking a tiny idea and putting it into action has changed the way the world operates!

What ideas do you have today that should be acted upon to produce change?

Dr. Carmen April's Speaker Series

Dr. Carmen April’s Speaker Series

This post is part of a series on Leadership presented by Dr. Carmen April. She is a young entrepreneur and community leader recognized as a 2013 Nashville Business Journal Top 40 Under Forty Award Recipient and is currently a 2014 New Leaders Council Fellow – Nashville Chapter.  Dr. April is available for speaking engagements on Entrepreneurship for college students and young professionals.

More Than Average Leadership

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More Than Average Leadership

ideas

                 When I think of Oprah Winfrey I think of Leadership. When Oprah started the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa, she created something absolutely groundbreaking. Oprah emphatically believes that when you educate girls and women all across the world, immeasurable change happens! She says, “When you change a girl’s life, it’s not just that life. You start to affect a family, a community, a nation. I’m telling you, women are going to change the face of Africa!” Years ago, I remember watching the television special featuring Oprah interviewing the young African girls, mostly all of them from severely disadvantaged homes in South Africa, for acceptance into her school. I had tears in my eyes the entire time because I was so inspired by the courage and vision Oprah had to carry out such a great mission.

                  While watching this special, I remember thinking about how average actions lead to average results. but how extraordinary actions produce extraordinary results! We can’t expect extraordinary results in our lives and in Leadership when we do just enough to get by or by doing what everyone else does. Be bold, be daring, challenge the status quo and refuse to set limits on what’s possible!

                 Seek more, be more and do more than average!

Taking a look at THESE PICTURES from the opening day of the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy of Girls still makes me tear up……..

— Dr. April

Dr. Carmen April's Speaker Series

Dr. Carmen April’s Speaker Series

This post is part of a series on Leadership presented by Dr. Carmen April. She is a young entrepreneur and community leader recognized as a 2013 Nashville Business Journal Top 40 Under Forty Award Recipient and is currently a 2014 New Leaders Council Fellow – Nashville Chapter.  Dr. April is available for speaking engagements on Entrepreneurship for college students and young professionals.

Leave A Trail

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Leave A Trail

               The quote below by Ralph Waldo Emerson has always been one of my favorite motivational quotes! You can’t really be a great leader if you never have the courage to think outside the box and be a trailblazer. The position of Leadership suggests that you are ahead of the crowd and have the opportunity to forge a new course.

“Do not go where the path may lead. Go, instead, where there is no path and leave a trail.”

– Ralph Waldo Emerson

trail

                The first year I decided to create a philanthropic program for my medical practice, I pondered for weeks about exactly what to create. I decided to create a Back to School Sock Drive as a networking event at a local restaurant. Guests come out, enjoy good food at a local restaurant, network and bring new socks to donate for kids who go back to school every year without acceptable socks to wear. In the two years that I’ve held the Knock Your Socks Off Back to School Sock Drive, I’ve collected over 2,500 pair of socks for children in need in the Nashville Community! Since I began holding the annual event, I’ve had people ask me how to plan similar type events for organizations they are a part of.

             The sock drive started with a tiny idea in my head to give back to the community in a creative way. I didn’t want to repeat what someone else was already doing and decided to forge my own path. Visionary Leadership will require you to forge a new path every once in a while – lean into it!

Dr. Carmen April's Speaker Series

Dr. Carmen April’s Speaker Series

This post is part of a series on Leadership presented by Dr. Carmen April. She is a young entrepreneur and community leader recognized as a 2013 Nashville Business Journal Top 40 Under Forty Award Recipient and is currently a 2014 New Leaders Council Fellow – Nashville Chapter.  Dr. April is available for speaking engagements on Entrepreneurship for college students and young professionals.

Leaders Translate Vision into Reality

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Leaders Translate Vision into Reality

                    A VISION is nothing without action. We all dream. We all have ideas. We can all imagine what is possible. However, the sign of a great leader is the ability to clearly articulate a vision, create realistic and attainable action items needed to fulfill the vision, then set the standard for how that plan needs to be carried out.

Leaders translate vision into reality

vision

— Dr. Carmen April

Dr. Carmen April's Speaker Series

Dr. Carmen April’s Speaker Series

This post is part of a series on Leadership presented by Dr. Carmen April. She is a young entrepreneur and community leader recognized as a 2013 Nashville Business Journal Top 40 Under Forty Award Recipient and is currently a 2014 New Leaders Council Fellow – Nashville Chapter.  Dr. April is available for speaking engagements on Entrepreneurship for college students and young professionals.

Leaders Motivate

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Leaders Motivate

motivate

                   In the book Think and Grow Rich, author Napoleon Hill lists “A Pleasing Personality” as one of the major attributes of a good leader. He states that Leadership calls for respect and says no one will respect a leader who doesn’t grade high on the factors of a pleasing personality. I suggest that being able to relate to others is a component of a ‘pleasing personality’.

                 A leader should be visionary in their approach to leading their team. He or she should conduct proper research that allows them to better direct the team in executing the tasks at hand. Once a leader has set an expectation based on study and research, they can more clearly communicate that with their followers. A Leader is not effective if they don’t posses the proper perspective to motivate their team in a shared vision.

Dr. Carmen April's Speaker Series

Dr. Carmen April’s Speaker Series

This post is part of a series on Leadership presented by Dr. Carmen April. She is a young entrepreneur and community leader recognized as a 2013 Nashville Business Journal Top 40 Under Forty Award Recipient and is currently a 2014 New Leaders Council Fellow – Nashville Chapter.  Dr. April is available for speaking engagements on Entrepreneurship for college students and young professionals.

Leaders Demonstrate What is Possible

Posted in Inspiration, Leadership by

Leaders Demonstrate What is Possible

                    In this series on Leadership, we will take a daily look into what leadership really means. We will explore how you can create leadership opportunities for yourself. You are not required to hold a position with a fancy title to be a leader. There are opportunities surrounding you everyday that will allow you to lead others in a shared vision! Leaders demonstrate what is possible!

power

Dr. Carmen April's Speaker Series

Dr. Carmen April’s Speaker Series

This post is part of a series on Leadership presented by Dr. Carmen April. She is a young entrepreneur and community leader recognized as a 2013 Nashville Business Journal Top 40 Under Forty Award Recipient and is currently a 2014 New Leaders Council Fellow – Nashville Chapter.  Dr. April is available for speaking engagements on Entrepreneurship for college students and young professionals.

15 Ways to Cheer Yourself Up from a Day that Sucks

Posted in Inspiration, Motivation, Uncategorized by

15 Ways to Cheer Yourself Up from a Day That Sucks

 happy

             Just admit it. No matter how “together” we try to run our daily lives, there are days that just plain suck! I had one of those days last week . I woke up with the best intentions for my day going great. I prayed to God for a good day before my feet even hit the floor that morning. I had a delicious breakfast and even snuck in a couple swigs of Mountain Dew (it’s my equivalent of coffee) before I left home for my office. So how in the world did I feel totally defeated by the time the clock struck 5pm???

            I have several ways of dealing with this type of day and I’m sharing some of those with you below. Some are things I’ve actually done, some are things that I’m mustering up the courage to do the next time a bad day rolls around and some are things little birdies have stopped by to tell me they’ve done (LOL). I’ll leave it up to you to decipher which is which 🙂 Here it goes:

1.) Find the best 90’s R&B Satellite Radio Station, turn it up, stand in the middle of a room that echos – hairbrush in hand as a microphone, and sing like you’re one of the last 3 contestants standing on American Idol!

2.) Buy the largest container of Vanilla and Salted Caramel Gelato in the grocery store freezer section and eat half of it before you even leave the grocery store parking lot

3.) Flip to the On-Demand station of Comcast and watch the past 3 episodes of  your favorite TV show, the same ones you’ve seen twice already

4.) Head to the nail shop to get your toenails painted, even in the dead of winter. Sit in the massage chair for a full 30 minutes after your nails have been polished. Don’t judge. Those massage chairs are awesome!

5.) Drink a glass, or two of a great white wine…….in the extra-large Olivia Pope style wine glasses!

6.) Retail Therapy – Set a budget though. Retail therapy while you are feeling ‘some kinda way’ can have horrible consequences

7. )Put on your best pair of running shoes and hit the pavement with no set destination in mind. Just run for exercise until you get tired…..

8.) Call it a night around 6pm. Lights out………………………………

9.) Have a glass of wine, imagine yourself as a character in a romantic novel………then call it a night around 7pm. Lights out……………………………….

10.) Read a really good book from cover to cover

11.) Go for a ride in a really wealthy neighborhood and imagine what it would be like to live there. If you already live in one of these neighborhoods……never mind.

12.) Cook a huge pot of pasta, preferably Fettuccine Alfredo! Throw in some chicken and Broccoli. It’s a great comfort food.

13.) Have a really good cry about the day that sucked 😦

14.) Pack a bag or two, book a flight, and leave for the Bahamas to enjoy some sun for a day or two

15.) Blog about 15 ways to cheer yourself up from a day that sucks!

Tell me, what do you do to turn a horrible day around??

— Dr. April