Michelle LaBrosse Blogs

Michelle LaBrosse, CCPM, PMP, PMI-ACP, RYT

What are the signs someone is going to be a good employee, a good leader, or a good project team member?

I’ve had interesting discussions with other business owners over the past several days about the results of increased bigotry in their companies.  Some have even gone as far to say as they won’t hire someone who voted for Donald Trump because it shows they are at worst a bigot and at best make poor decisions.  This seems a pretty bold statement to express, is not required, and even can amplify what is most feared. People show up as who they are, especially when given adequate chance to display this.  This is the reason for trial periods, several stages of interviewing, a process of seeing who someone really is and what they can do, BEFORE giving them more responsibilities in the business, or on a project.  It’s easy to put on a good show for an interview, the first several weeks on the job, that initial project – much more difficult to consistently show up as a stand up person other people want to be around if you harbor disdain towards others (whatever the disdain is – Trump, a Trump supporter, the “establishment,” some race, orientation, gender, political preference, etc).

Here are the signs a person will make a solid project team member or employee who will bring out the best of others rather than the worst (no need to find out their political leanings):

1. Inclusiveness – how well does this person include others in their day to day world?
2. Resiliency – how well does someone bounce back when things have not gone their way?  It’s easy to be nice when things are going your way, quite another when things don’t work out how you’d like.
3. Equanimity – how well does someone roll with the punches and accept the good with the bad?
4. Listening – what type of questions do they ask?  How well can the get the gist of another’s concerns?
5. Deliberation – how quickly do they make important decisions?  Do they take time to find out all sides of an issue before taking any action?
6. Alignment – how do they walk their talk with the values they express?  If they claim to value family – how do they spend time with their family?  If they claim to value freedom of expression, how well do they value ideas counter to their own that others express?
7. Kindness – how do they treat people who they don’t need to be nice to for any reason?
8. Empathy – do they understand how their words and actions impact other people and take actions appropriate to consider other people’s feelings? (this is not the same as sympathy).
9. Encouraging – do they find the good in others and in situations even when the prevailing sentiment is “this is difficult?”
10. Respectful – how do they acknowledge others, especially those who have different opinions?

In the online Cheetah Certified Project Manager Program – students learn how to use the strengths of their innate personalities to bring out the best in themselves and others through the projects they lead.  To become the type of person, people want to work for, and look up to – become a Cheetah Certified Project Manager.

Michelle LaBrosse, CCPM, PMP, PMI-ACP, RYT

Conversational Akido can help counter hatred and aggression to create more kind and loving connections.

It is darn near impossible to make good decisions when hatred is triggered and your limbic ( “fight or flight”) brain is engaged.  The ancillary feelings of disdain, disgust, and disappointment also activate the limbiic brain. In the Happiness Project class, Cheetah students learn how to temper what triggers them so they can take more time to deliberate on decisions with their executive functioning brain rather than reacting from their more impulsive limbic brain. This helps improve the way we can process information coming in and discern the appropriate level of attention required.

When you get triggered into a sense of hatred, your body responds with a flood of stress hormones that over time increases anxiety and can activate a chemical depression. Hatred hurts the one doing the hating most. Learning how to shift into a more empowered state is critical for overall well being – and to improve the ability to discern the impact of our choices.

Stimulated by my own increasing complaints a month or so ago regarding the election, I made a commitment to limit complaints to less than 12 per day – 3 for the election, 3 relating to my relationships; 3 regarding my business, and 3 relating to a house project.  For any complaint I required myself to develop three possible solutions. My complaints went way down and I found myself being less and less triggered by information relating to the election.

What though to do about someone else’s hatred – especially when something you have done or shared, or even who you are, triggers another’s ire?  Other people’s triggers have nothing to do with you.  Some people call this “pushing their buttons.”  But the reality is you were most probably not around when those buttons got installed. For example, I grew up with three older brothers so I have some strong triggers around any behavior I perceive as bullying. The person who is exhibiting behaviors I perceive as bullying has absolutely nothing to do with my triggers. The key to handling another’s anger is to keep yourself calm, and centered – not owning or excusing their behavior  and avoiding responding in kind.  By all means get yourself to a safe place if you feel their hatred may turn violent.  But do yourself a favor and with hold any need for an immediate response.  Think about it – why would you want to disable your brain by going to where they are?

In the Cheetah Mastermind class, Cheetah students learn a technique we call “conversational aikido.”  Cheetah students learn how to counter other people’s toxic triggered responses.  They learn how to connect with kindness and compassion rather than correcting with their own triggered hateful response. Learning how to disarm hostility – especially when it is directed at you, can make your life significantly more peaceful.  Practicing this technique in day to day exchanges can improve your brain, reduce being triggered, and improve discernment to make consistently better choices – especially regarding with whom you choose to associate.

Michelle LaBrosse, CCPM, PMP, PMI-ACP, RYT

Even in the toughest life challenges, hope lives in those who are capable, self-sufficient, resilient and resourceful.

In reflecting on the divisiveness of this current election cycle,  I realized the projects I work on give me hope.  Hope helps discern where the opportunities are in the challenging times. For the past eight years I’ve been on a path to develop the capabilities to  become energy and food self – sufficient. Doing so, brings me hope that I can create a secure future for my family and my community regardless of the chaotic changes in our economic, climatic, and geo political landscape.

While I was disappointed we have the same old standard white guy who won the election over the more progressive female candidate – the work I’ve done over the past several years to maintain an even keel of equanimity prevailed (we teach how to get to this level of peace in the course we call “the Happiness Project“).  I also realized no matter who is in office, or what type of economic upheavel is happening, or the games the oil producers are playing with our oil supplies,  I now have the capabilities to produce my own food and power.  Plus I also teach others how to develop the same capabilities – from the online course Project Energy Indepdence to our newest course that teaches people how to grow their own food year round – Project Micro Green.

I have never allowed the status quo to define the altitude to which I am capable of rising – it seems so self – defeating to give some one or some event that level of power over me. Pursuing those projects that bring me hope helps me quickly discern what is truly mine to handle vs. what is the present mass consciousness over an unfolding event.  You too can get to a level of  life enhancing discernment from a base of ineffable peace.  You can do this by expanding your capabilities through these three online courses – The Happiness Project, Project Energy Independence, and Project Micro Green.

Michelle LaBrosse, CCPM, PMP, PMI-ACP, RYT

It takes a solid core to maintain balance – in every situation.

When things feel out of balance, life seems to send you what you need to bring it back into balance. I learned this lesson in my early 20’s when I burned the candle at both ends working hard and playing hard. To make the time to rest, I’d be forced into it with a nasty sore throat. Once I realized the message in this sore throat – I found ways to get more rest so I would not have to suffer from the sore throat mandatory rest requirement.  My sore throats became a thing of the past as I brought my life into balance.

I see the same things playing out in numerous other ways running this business.  When things get out of balance, just as I’m starting to discern things need to shift to bring things back into balance, some external event happens that forces the business back into balance. Balance means many things in this business:

1. Staff is contributing in ways that are bringing value balanced with the rewards they are receiving.
2. New efforts are generating sufficient rewards to continue their pursuit.
3. The energy to sustain a process is commensuarte with the value received from the process (like the accounting processes).
4. Strategic associations bring value aligned with the level of effort to sustain them.

Developing deeper discernment happens over time with running the business – it happens in part with the measurements put in place to judge the performance of our efforts, but it also comes from the experiences developed with running the business.   Experience can be another word for “mistakes.” Learning from the mistakes is crucial to improve discernment of what is required to keep the business in balance.

The biggest challenges I see organizations face with staying in balance is when they replace senior staff with lower cost junior staff not realizing the level of discernment and balance the senior staffer’s perspective brings to their operation.  They essentially weaken their core.  While I’d like to promote some level of a Cheetah Learning course that can improve the discernment of lower cost junior staff member, it’s really about learning the ins and outs of running a business – which well, comes from running a business. Yes it is important to earn the requisite credentials of your craft – the the CCPM and PMP certifications for project managers.  AND put in the  actual time to develop the experience on the ground that makes the difference in developing the discernment required to keep an operation balanced and performing.  One of the ways to tell this with respect to project managers is to see for how long they have maintained their credential – a project manager who as maintained their PMP credential for several decades has far more discernment in running effective projects than someone early in their career who just earns their PMP credential.

One of the reasons Cheetah Learning continues to be the rock solid business that it is  – we run the company in a way that we have very little turn over (with both employees and clients).  We help our Cheetah students who have earned their PMP’s maintain their credential by offering valuable follow on training that can help them master additional skills, at cheetah speed.  We test out new people in the periphery of the business on a new initiative to see how they perform in a myriad of situations before  bringing them into the main team.  We make sure our core with which we maintain balance is strong and wide so not much tilts us one way or the other. The leadership group that runs the business works on the business as well as works in the business so they have the discernment required to know when things need a slight modification here or there to keep things running at peak performance.  This has helped us weather a wide variety of external threats and enables us to stay the market leader in the Project Management training space world wide.

Michelle LaBrosse, CCPM, PMP, PMI-ACP, RYT

The quality of achieving excellence permeates every part of a person’s life. When choosing an education provider, find out how well their course developers did in school.

While I’m a big believer in turning your ship around, second chances, and infinite redemption, I’ve found time and time again, most people show up consistently as who they truly are. The people who were A students, are generally A employees, and so on.  Another attribute, is  the best are usually fairly humble about it – often self deprecating to put others at ease. Yet they have a track record of achieving exceptional results and leave a trail of very satisfied customers and clients. Whereas the charlatans, those that attempted to get by on their “good looks and personality, without doing the work, may be able to  spin a good yarn, but more often than not deliver little more than disappointment.

When discerning a quality education provider, from one that has great marketing material, but little else, look at their track record.  What are the qualifications of their course developers, their instructors?  It literally pays to hire the right people and can cost you dearly when you hire the wrong people – especially with something as important as your education and the development of your capabilities. Think brain surgery here – would you prefer to have the neurosurgeon who aced school and their boards or the one who barely squeaked by but can share great stories in the office?

To find the best, ask about the qualifications of the people who developed the curriculum – ask how well they did in school. Ask about their credentials and their commitment to their own continued learning.  Do they have one year of experience repeated thirty times, or do they have increasing levels of curriculum development experience and a strong track record of success?

The reason Cheetah Learning is the continuing gold standard in Project Management education is because the Chief Cheetah, who leads the course development team, was top of the class in a challenging major at a competitive university. Cheetah’s continue to take continuing education, and keep their saw sharp by learning new ways of teaching and connecting with their students. And not because anyone makes them do so. They pursue learning and excellence for its own reward. Every trainer who teaches for Cheetah Learning passes a rigorous certification process to make sure they deliver the programs in the way that Cheetah students can achieve fantastic results at Cheetah speed.

It’s a commitment to excellence at every level of the business that insures when you register to take a Cheetah Learning course, you will achieve amazing results, at Cheetah speed.  It’s why we confidently offer a 100% learning guarantee on every single one of our courses – it’s pretty simple really.  If after completing the course, you did not achieve what you set out to achieve, we refund your money.  This is what quality means to us – that you achieve quality results.

Michelle LaBrosse, CCPM, PMP, PMI-ACP, RYT

We can create the culture in which we choose to swim in – create wisely.

Culture by it’s very nature is the long standing norms of behavior that guide people’s interactions. I define cutural bias as the cultural attributes we prefer.  A couple days ago, I wrote a blog post on my guiding values – the leader of an organization sets the tone and tenor of the culture of their organization. If the leader feels it’s okay to objectify others, satisfy their impulsive base needs at their whim with those they find attractive, then this is going to become the prevailing culture – as abhorent as this sounds.  If this is not the cultural bias you prefer, there are ways to change it.

In the US supposedly we get to “choose” our leaders. We can argue if this is in fact true, because more often than not it seems whoever can create the largest war chest whatever way they can, can get themselves into a position to be elected as the leader, whether they are qualified to be the leader or not. Leaders, from my perspective, are not those who buy their way into power – but those who can attract intelligent, qualified, and capable people willing to help them implement their vision. The real leaders set the culture of the organizations they lead. Buying your way into power won’t necessarily make you the leader, especially if your style is counter to the majority’s cultural bias.

We all get to choose which cultures we wish to swim in – whether it be where we live, where we work, with whom we associate.  When you run a business, you do in fact get to choose your customers based on how you market, the values you promote about your business, how you organize it, who you hire to work in the business, the way you set up your business processes,etc.  You get to set up the culture of your entire operation.  I realized this over twenty years ago. It came from reading George Land’s book “Break Point and Beyond.”  In this he discusses the nature of “autopiotic” systems. That means systems are self-organized around a core value.

When you become conscious of your own cultural bias – that means the culture in which you would prefer to exist,  you can then start to consciously create it. Taking a page from George Land’s playbook, you start by defining your core value.  When I started Cheetah Learning in 1999, I set the core value as “your success is my success.”  It helped me define how I set up every single element of this business. To date we have attracted over 70,000 students who also live by the guiding mantra – your success is my success. It’s a very uplifting and inspiring world to inhabit – being a “Cheetah.” It is because of this core value that is at the cornerstone of everything we do. And the best thing about this – we do not attract those who feel elsewise – those who need to win at the expense of someone else losing, those who need to build themselves up by putting someone else down, those who need to bully their way into getting their way.  These types, they are just naturally not attracted to the Cheetah culture. Believe me this makes everyone happier (including those who love us).

Choose your own cultural bias wisely as it does decide your day to day existence. Every single Cheetah Learning course is designed to help you master the skills you need to become more successful, cheetah fast.  Wherever you plug into Cheetah, you will uplift your life in ways you cannot yet even imagine. Connect with one of our inspiring Career Counselors to see how you can expand your own success story (or to just share a great laugh – they are really fun on the phone) – 888-659-2013.

Michelle LaBrosse, CCPM, PMP, PMI-ACP, RYT

Being able to discern real from imaginary threats in business requires over riding your limbic brain and activating your executive functioning brain.

Whether you’re running a business or leading a project, there are times when you can be shaken to your core. The challenge is to discern the relevant threats from imagined threats.  Usually the imagination of what could go wrong is far worse than what could actually happen.

I developed a tool I call the “worry o-meter” to help me calibrate my senses on perceived threats. Being an empath, sometimes I pick up on another’s anxiety. I needed a system to be able to discern if what I was sensing required elevated action.  The worry-o-meter is pretty simple. I stop the internal chatter with ten deep breaths, a couple arm circles, toe touches and a quick run up and down the stairs. Then I assess the risk that concerns me. I evaluate the probability the risk would occur and then I look at the impact if it did occur.

I got to use this the other day. We had to terminate an employee for something fairly egregious related to a company computer and pornography. He was very angry, lashing out to everyone around him and engaging his family in his ire. One of the employees whom he was lashing out at, thought he saw his car pass by the office several times (it was dark out – it did not look like his car to me). But I felt myself getting anxious as well. While this terminated employee was angry, I did not feel that he was a threat. But  we do often see stories in the media about disgruntled terminated employees coming back to the office with automatic weapons and killing everyone in site so I could understand the anxiety. I evaluated the probability of this happening – it seemed very low – for a number of reasons – access to a weapon, level of emotional stability, location of the office and our ability to see people entering our space, and the existing security in place around the office. The impact – well of course the impact would be horrific.

Several months ago, I had a guy over repairing my refrigerator who over heard a conversation I was having with a family member about concerns for my father’s well being. After I got off the phone, he put a gentle hand on my shoulder and said – turn it over to Jesus.  After I had done the risk assessment, and realized, well the probability of this imagined threat happening was very low, and we had mitigated the chances of it happening anyhow, maybe the best course of action was to take the refrigerator repairman’s advice.

Discernment happens best with a clear head. The worry – o – meter helps with creating the space to assess what is really happening when your physiology is sending you into the fight or flight mode – and you are operating out of your limbic brain.  Learning how to make decisions with your higher level executive functioning brain rather than your limbic brain is what discernment is all about.

Moving from your limbic to executive functioning brain is also a very important skill to have when taking difficult tests – which is one of the skills Cheetah Learning students master that enables them to pass the PMP exam after only four days of prep in Cheetah’s Accelerated Exam Prep program.  You can learn more about how to do this by downloading the free Cheetah Smart Start Guide for the PMP.

Michelle LaBrosse, CCPM, PMP, PMI-ACP, RYT

Discernment comes from knowing yourself and aligning with your core values.

Living in Alaska I am lucky to observe whales as they travel north to their summer feeding grounds. They have an internal compass that guides them to the best locations to sustain their life. Reflecting on this. I created a mind map of my guiding values that calibrates my internal compass. This helps me stay on the life path that best sustains me.

This months theme is on the role of discernment in creating a high performing business. Discernment comes from knowing yourself. Taking some time to reflect on your guiding values is a recurrent theme in many of our Cheetah Learning courses – especially the one we call “The Happiness Project.”  For me, when I live in alignment with my core values, I’m more at peace and happier – the formula is that simple.  Clarifying core values and then developing the internal fortitude to live in alignment with them is the prize for Cheetah students who complete the 30 hour online Happiness Project course.

Michelle LaBrosse, CCPM, PMP, PMI-ACP, RYT

Tricks or treats – sometimes it’s hard to tell.

When people engage with you or your business do they feel tricked or treated?  You can tell almost immediately the integrity of leadership by the strategies employed to inspire your patronage and grow the business.

On the trick end of the spectrum, are you lured into engaging with captivating headlines, lengthy teasers, to be tricked into acquiring goods or services you were not even considering but that play on more base level emotions of survival?  This is a strategy of emotional hijacking – where more limbic orientied fight or flight decision making happens. Expensive ad campaigns that promise incredible results are the norm for this strategy. This approach may initially capture clients but it’s expensive and not sustainable

In the treat end of the spectrum – the strategy is to under promise and over deliver where the business is built through word of mouth referrals. When asked how people heard of Cheetah Learning, nine times out of ten, it is from a co-worker or family member.  The treat approach requires enabling clients to consistently achieve excellent outcomes because of patronizing your business – at every level of engagement with your business.  Treat oriented strategies generate sustaninable rewards and when based on processes proven over time to deliver excellent value, are the most cost effective to implement long term.

The treat strategies also attract best in class people to work in the business as well.  There are no discontinuities in life – when people leave feeling spoiled, and well cared for, the business at every level can thrive.  In the Cheetah Negotiations classes, Cheetah students learn how to negotiate in a way where every one feels they were treated well.  They learn how to spot the tactics others may use to trick them into a course of action not in everyone’s best and highest good.  Trick or treat – it’s ultimately your choice in how you wish to engage with others.

Michelle LaBrosse, CCPM, PMP, PMI-ACP, RYT

Taking action, regardless of the direction, opens you to many more possibilities then if you sit around and do nothing.

Being a life long entrepreneur, I know certain things about uncertainty. What I know is that when nothing is certain, anything is possible.  What creates the possibilities though is taking action, seeing what happens and then modifying accordingly.  I get to practice this just about every day in my entreprenurial adventures.

We’ve been creating operations at our home base in Carson City for expanding our Cheetah Micro Greens effort. Like every viable strategic initiative, we have multiple projects happening – from designing micro green growing systems of various sizes, to developing our micro green farm, to getting two vehicles ready for our promotional tour, to teaching others how to set up their own micro green systems in our Project Micro Green program.

We started our community out reach efforts yesterday – our first round of micro greens were ready for show and tell.  We have a fantastic lead generator on our team who was tasked with getting us four appointments at local restaurants.  We met some encouraging people who are very excited about what we are doing and also connected us to others who might be interested as well.  I got more insight into how to best present the micro greens and which ones to grow for our next out reach effort.  I also got some better ideas on what is going to be required for our micro green farm and how to better organize our efforts.  This led to a whole bunch of excitement today and more energy in the team.

Taking action, especially when you have no idea of the outcome, is a crucial step on the path to success for every new initiative.   One of the guys working with us to get our promotional vehicles ready for our micro green tour asked me – “Do you get nervous going out and meeting people?”  I said – “well yes, but I do it anyhow. It helps me discover what is possible with this idea.”   This isn’t just an innate talent though – while some people think I’m a natural at the meet and greet, it’s not something that came to me naturally – I had to learn how to do this and continue to practice at it.  I’m more comfortable in course development and teaching classes.  You too can learn the skills that help you become comfortable with exploring all your possibilities in Cheetah’s Project Breakthrough course.