SigmaU Blog

Your values will determine what you chase, what you release and who you invest your time with.

Life is complicated to say the least and our core values ground us. What are our core values? They are the fundamental beliefs we have about life, about ourselves and about the things that matter most.  They whisper to us when we do something that feels “off” or nudges us when someone doesn’t feel aligned with us.

Each one of us has values that drive our daily decisions, major life choices and relationships. When we’re living in congruence with those values, life feels a little easier and focused.  When we get off course, life can feel clunky or, worse, we have a deep sense of anxiety, shame, or regret.

For many, they’re unsure what their core values are. They know what their family unit values were, what their company values are but what about their own personal values?

How do we determine our core values? We could start by asking questions...

A quick search on Google turned up the definition of sassy is someone or something that is lively, bold and a little feisty.

I like it! We should all have a little SASS in our lives to keep things interesting! Here are some ways that some of my favourite coaching clients add a little SASS to their worlds…

Self Confidence

Coaching provides the perfect playground for clients to build their self-confidence. Often clients don’t necessarily seek coaching to build confidence, but it happens as a by-product. During coaching, they will stretch their goals and perhaps their mindset through new ways of thinking and take bold action by having courageous conversations or making big moves.  One thing that I reinforce with clients is the importance of building self-confidence by investing in yourself.  When you communicate to yourself that you’re worth it, your confidence soars!  You do that when you keep the promises you make to yourself. If you say...

Having congruency with your intentions creates a strong sense of self confidence, peace, and a greater sense of purpose. We know that high performers are deliberate with their actions. They set intentions each day and likely before transitioning to each new activity.

High performers map out what their top priorities for the day are, what their focus needs to be on and how they would show up as their best selves.

When I coach with clients, one of the very first things I have them do is to select 3 words that would describe their best self. These words may not necessarily reflect who they are today, but rather who they are becoming as they work towards growing and transforming into a high achiever. Some clients can come up with the 3 works quickly, they are sure about who they are and what they would want others to describe them as. For others, this is an introspective process that takes time.

What’s most important is making sure that future actions align with those 3 words. I...

I didn’t realize just how vehemently I am committed to personal growth and development until I was challenged and told that it was selfish. I stopped dead in my tracks and couldn’t believe what I was hearing. This individual said “ya but have you considered the flipside of personal development. It’s actually selfish.”

Well, no! I must admit that I’d never considered investing in myself to be selfish and it got me wondering if people hold back from growing because they have bought in to this myth as well.

Here are a few reasons why I believe that personal development is not selfish.

1. You’re human which means you have an inherent need to grow.

See, most people stop living well before they’re dead. I look at some of my own family members who consume hours and hours of news and television and stopped growing years ago because they learned “all that they needed to know.” For me, that’s a sad existence.

I believe that...

If you’re a growth-oriented and innovative company then courage should definitely be a part of your culture. It takes guts to be different, to challenge the status quo and to set BHAGs (Big Hairy Audacious Goals) for your company!

To execute and navigate through unknown territory takes courage and it’s not enough for the leader to be courageous. Courage needs to be woven through the organization.

Show Courage as a Leader

Like most things, courage will require you as a leader setting an example for your team. My old coach Lindsay used to always say “Leaders get the behaviours they display or tolerate.” So how can you be an example of courage? Courage as a leader isn’t necessarily about control or leading the charge. In fact, courage as a leader shows up when you push yourself outside of your comfort zone. When you’re vulnerable by putting yourself out there on social media for example. It’s being courageous enough to admit to the team when...

“Many of my successes have come on the back of pain”! I heard this on a podcast this morning and I thought about the season that we’re in right now. Many people were hopeful that with the turning of the clock and an official new year that our pandemic-adjusted lives would be drastically different. By now, the reality has most likely hit, and we realize that life is pretty similar to what it was a few months or a few weeks ago. There is, however, the same gift available to each of us during this season and that is the gift of GROWTH!

G – Gratitude

Despite what is happening all around us, there is so much for each of us to be grateful for. We can either use this time to see the bad around us, fill our minds with so much negative news that our heads are spinning, get caught up in the discourse and drama of politics or we can focus on what we can control: our mindset. Having an attitude that is focused on all of life’s blessings, despite our current...

My mentor Bob told me, “Hire slowly and fire quickly Nikki”. While I’d love to stand here and tell you that I took his advice and acted accordingly every single time, I didn’t! There were times that I waited WAY too long to pull the trigger. Perhaps you can relate.  Few leaders have ever thought to themselves after firing someone, “Man, I wish I kept him/her around longer.” When we know, we know.

The role of values in your hiring process

What brings an extra level of clarity to the decision is when you base the decision on culture and core values.  They become your compass and North Star and there’s total clarity which happens very quickly when you’re basing decisions on this type of alignment.

We recently did a “Core Values in Action” workshop for a small team. They have never sprinkled core value questions into their interview process. We mapped out exactly how core values would show up in how people would...