Wow!

We’re still recovering from the awesomeness that was AICPA ENGAGE 2019!! Last week was a whirlwind week, full of learning, connection and fun in Las Vegas!

We do our best to help accountants celebrate more, so we’d love to share some of our ENGAGE celebrations with you!

I2L ENGAGE 2019 HIGHLIGHTS:

  • Sarah, Lindsay and many other I2L clients and friends were recognized among the 25 Most Powerful Women in Accounting by AICPA and CPA Practice Advisor!
  • We had a blast celebrating four years of coaching accountants to access the Dimension of Possible at our cocktail reception with all of the awesome people in the profession who are making a difference! We also toasted to co-host, Viaggio Partners, who is celebrating one year of connecting awesome accountants to flexible work opportunities!

  • We got to see our leadership hero, Simon Sinek, keynote with his whiteboard! Simon shared about the importance of humanity and empathy in leadership and said, “The best way to help people is through coaching.” YES!! We couldn’t have said it better ourselves!
  • Lindsay got to meet and interview Simon Sinek on Facebook Live!! We love referring clients to Simon’s TED talk about the power of starting with Why (one of the most popular TED talks of all time).

We were even able to squeeze in some “work†amongst all the celebrating! Four of us got to share some leadership nuggets about love in leadership, fear and self-trust, naked organizations, and how to unleash your peak performance potential as part of the EDGE conference. Thankfully, our “work†felt more like play, as we got to connect with a lot of energetic accountants who are committed to their personal and leadership development! In case you couldn’t make it for the fun, we’re sharing some of the highlights from our EDGE sessions below.

It was another incredible year!! We can’t wait to see what AICPA ENGAGE 2020: Evolve Yourself has in store!!

Naked Organizations

Once again, Brian rocked the stage as he shared the idea of Naked Organizations as a keynote for the EDGE conference!

Brian shared what naked leadership truly is and why we need it now, more than ever.

Naked leadership is about taking risks to move others forward. A naked leader creates psychological safety for others, which allows them to connect with one another on a personal level, take risks and speak freely.

Brian also shared some specific practices that participants could bring back to their organizations to create a more naked workplace where connection, collaboration and innovation thrive.

Curious about Naked Leadership? Dive deeper by reading this blog post and checking out this free webinar Brian did for CPAacademy last December!

Unleash Your Peak Performance Potential

Burnout is one of the biggest challenges individuals in the accounting profession struggle with. Many of us suffer from it, and we don’t even realize it! Somehow, we think it’s normal.

After shedding some light on what burn-out is and how to identify it, Sarah shared some “secrets†about how you can prevent burnout and increase your capacity to bring energy and full engagement to the things you value most.

Using a real-time demonstration, Sarah showed the audience how they could tap into the power of emotion to optimize performance. She also encouraged participants to explore how they can better manage their energy (a renewable, expansive resource), instead of just focusing on managing their time (a finite resource).

Participants left this session with their own personal peak performance plan and committed to taking care of themselves so they can lead others by example! (Click here for a downloadable PDF with instructions to create your own personal peak performance plan and a copy of the personal peak performance pledge.)

Curious about how to unleash your peak performance potential? You could create a powerful morning routine or increase your positivity ratio!

Leadership: What’s Love Got to Do with It?!

During this enlightening session, Donna demonstrated that love is not only a core leadership competency…leadership is love! At I2L, we define love as 100% acceptance of who we are and a deep appreciation for who we are becoming.

Leading with love is so important right now because people are seeking more of what really matters and what makes us human. We’re seeking purpose. We want to be inspired. We desire true connection. We want these things in our entire life, including the workplace.

Donna helped participants explore what leadership looks like when love is present. It shows up in the form of encouragement, authenticity, acceptance, patience, support, empathy, appreciation and trust. When love is absent, jealousy, criticism, skepticism, blame, limitations and apathy can creep in.

Donna wrapped up her session by sharing some specific ways that participants can show more love in their leadership style, and she challenged them to integrate more love into leadership!

Lovin’ You: The Raw Truth about Fear and Self-Trust

Speaking of love…it’s not just something we can show to others. To be a strong leader, it’s critical that you know how to love yourself, too.

In this introspective session, Lindsay shared the ways that fear shapes many of our day-to-day belief patterns, decisions and actions…and we don’t even know it! Fear can certainly be healthy, when it’s protecting us from harm. But in many cases, it holds us back from achieving our highest potential.

Leveraging Brene Brown’s ground-breaking research, Lindsay helped participants explore the elements of trust and how to trust the most important person in your life – you!! She even provided the group with a Self-Trust Assessment to help them identify where certain elements of trust may be damaged and create intentional strategies to repair them.

Curious about Fear and Self-Trust? Dig deeper by checking out Lindsay’s blog post, her Go Beyond podcast interview, or this podcast interview she gave last week on how to keep fear from short-circuiting your career.

Uncovering Unconscious Bias

Lindsay and Rebekah Brown of MACPA led a healthy discussion about unconscious bias – how it works and how it affects us in our day-to-day lives.

Each of us brings a lifetime of experiences and cultural influences that create our unique mental programming. These become unconscious expectations, or stereotypes, that affect the judgments we make of ourselves and others. This mental programming can be helpful because it helps us process information efficiently. But unfortunately, that efficient processing can be very inaccurate!

When you rely solely on your mental programming, this could lead to judgments, actions and decisions that you’re not aware of. You could even make decisions that conflict with your conscious attitudes or ideals.

Lindsay and Rebekah challenged the group to recognize the biases that creep into their thoughts and actions unintentionally. They even took it a step further by inviting attendees to WAKE UP:

  • Work on identifying biases
  • Address most prevalent ones
  • Keep challenging assumptions and judgments
  • Examine your network
  • Use different perspectives and
  • Proactively uncover biases