The pace of Manhattan was thrilling and Michelle immersed herself in the culture taking a writing class and earning her keep with temp jobs, one of which turned into a full-time position. But Michelle knew she was not doing the kind of work she loved and felt like she was being swept along in the momentum of the city without a particular goal or focus. The problem was clarity of expectations. Michelle knew she wasn’t 100% happy but also didn’t know what she wanted career wise. Little did she know then that a natural talent, which also brought her joy, would turn into a viable business enterprise down the road!

How Sweet it Is!

After careful consideration, she ruled out graduate school, knowing it was not for her and continued to plug away at her job hoping for a break in the publishing world. A few years later she met her husband and in 1998 the happy couple moved to Fairfield, Connecticut to begin raising a family and establishing their home.

Michelle takes great pride in being the Chief Household Officer, a serious and full-time career that rarely gets the credit it deserves from those who work out of the home. Michelle believes that making a home is a career and an art. She cherishes her role as a mother and derives great satisfaction from raising her 3 boys who are now 8, 9, and 10.

She recalls her happy childhood, growing up in a hand-built cabin in Big Sur, California with its mountainous coastline and breathtaking views. Their rustic home had a wood-burning stove where Michelle’s mother baked fresh bread, cookies, and pies. I could almost smell these delectable treats as she relayed her fond memories to me by phone.

As a mother and wife, Michelle now continues the family tradition of being together and baking in her own kitchen with her kids. Her natural talent as a baker emerged and Michelle became well known in Fairfield for her delicious and beautiful cookies and cupcakes. A self proclaimed baking foodie, Michelle even loves to read about baking and authors a blog to connect with other baking types to share ideas, techniques, and inspiration.

Finding Your Sweet Spot

Two years ago things got serious for this baking maven. Michelle treated herself to a 6 month amateur baking class at the French Culinary Institute in New York as a special birthday present. For the first time, true clarity set in and Michelle owned her natural talent and realized how much joy it brought her to bake. She would eagerly anticipate each next class and baked up a storm in-between testing out new recipes and techniques from the course.

Her lucky friends were the recipients of these treasures and started to regularly suggest that she consider selling them. Michelle thought she could test drive her wares at the local Farmer’s Market but soon learned that she needed a Health Department permit and a commercial kitchen to sell her goods anywhere in Connecticut.

Where there’s a will there’s a way and Michelle’s entrepreneurial spirit emerged in full force. Her personal posse includes a friend who is a graphic artist and another whose kitchen co-op in Bridgeport offered space to food entrepreneurs where she did her baking early on.

Before you knew it – she had a logo: “Sweet & Simple: Baked with Love” and beautiful packaging to ensure that each treat looked like a special gift. Her signature daisy is a nod to her California hippie roots and the goodness and simplicity of family baking. And so, Sweet & Simple – a baker’s dream cottage business was born.

Baking Karma

Before long, Michelle grew out of the baking co-op and sought a larger space at Ambrosia Bakery in Milford, CT where she rents a large commercial walk-in oven. This full-time Mom now has a full-time baking business that keeps her busy 40 hours a week (at least) baking, delivering, and handling orders for her delicious treats. Not to mention cleaning up after baking large batches of her famous goodies.

Since Michelle jumped through all the appropriate small business hoops and acquired the permit, trademarked her logo, and bakes in a commercial kitchen, her wares are now featured in retail shops throughout the Connecticut region.

Not one for preservatives, her cookies only have a 2 week shelf life and feature real butter to achieve her signature moist and chewy consistency. It’s rare that her cookies last up to 2 weeks on any retail shelf since they are in high demand and sell fast.

Several stores in the area carry Sweet & Simple cookies and Michelle has plans to sell certain products online this fall. The e-commerce site will be limited to products that are shippable so this will take some business planning to select her most suitable creations and navigate the new shipping component. It may require hiring some help to assist Michelle with her one-woman operation.

Made with Love

So how does the Chief Household Officer now manage a growing baking business in addition to her family? Michelle admits that work/life integration is a challenge. Her boys are all very excited about the business and in addition to being expert taste testers and home kitchen helpers – they enjoy seeing their mom gain recognition and achieve success with her business in their community.

Michelle’s husband is also supportive and eager to lend his business acumen as Sweet & Simple evolves. Since baking in the commercial kitchen first started during the non-traditional hours of 8pm to midnight – Michelle’s husband helped out with the kids and the house when needed. Happily, baking now happens during the day which has helped the Jaffee family keep a more regular schedule.

Before Sweet & Simple, Michelle admits to keeping a tighter, neater, less cluttered ship at home but she let go of that fantasy after the reality of her new life as an entrepreneur took wing. She has learned to relax if the laundry is not done as often as she would like but laments that she doesn’t get to play tennis or garden as much as she used to. A trained Master Gardener, Michelle created beautiful gardens for years before Sweet & Simple but now tends to her green spaces with benign neglect. But the trade-offs are worth it since she never imagined how exhilarating running her own business could be.

Sleep is something she is not getting enough of and as a one-woman operation; Michelle is now faced with the small business question of growth potential. Should she stay a boutique or grow the business to produce more volume? She is breaking even financially now and re-invests a lot of her money into Sweet & Simple to ramp up her marketing and promotional efforts.

Her cookies, cakes, and other desserts are delicious but Michelle was savvy enough to know that high quality photos were essential to showcase her baked creations. Melani Lust and Sandra Downie have styled and photographed Michelle’s baked goods so they are a visual work of art. This was a financial investment that has proven worthwhile since her delicious website will entice you to seek out a retailer that carries Sweet & Simple goods immediately.

Find Your Passion

Michelle has truly found her passion and is living it with Sweet & Simple. But she wants to keep the joy in her baking and keep the business manageable so she doesn’t turn into the “crazy lady” she knows could surface if things grow too fast. She appreciates the wisdom and counsel of friends and family who continue to offer sound business advice.

Her lifeline and support system has helped her through challenging times and Michelle believes in the power of mentorship and paying-it-forward to others in need. She wants other women looking to find their passion to seek out guidance and develop a personal resource team.

In addition to baking, delivering, filling orders, and running the administrative end of the business – Michelle understands the power of social media in making her business viable. Follow her on Twitter, Facebook, and check out her food blog on her website to pick up some great advice and recipes.

So whether you prefer cakes, cookies, cupcakes, granola, or specialty breads, Michelle Jaffee has got a treat in store for you that will always be baked with love. The publishing world in The Big Apple may not have unlocked her career passion, but Michelle came full circle from California to Connecticut to home-sweet-home to discover her true joy and a new career.

Michelle’s Advice and Action Steps:

• Take the time to listen to yourself so you can find your passion.
• Surround yourself with supportive people.
• Adopt a glass half full mindset. Positivity is crucial.
• Don’t get swept away in the momentum of life. Take control of your personal journey and own what you enjoy doing.

Quote:

“If you wake up and think – it’s going to be a great day – it will be!” Michelle Jaffee

Resources:

Sweet and Simple Website:  www.sweetandsimple.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sweet-Simple/246901931443

Twitter: @ Michelle_Jaffee

Melani Lust Photography: http://www.melanilustphotography.com/

Photo Styling by Sandra Downie Event Designs www.sandradownie.com

While her target audience is college aged women in sports, her message and strategies are applicable to us all. Check out Doc Robyn’s nine secrets to great teamwork for some priceless wisdom and stay tuned for her incredible personal career journey story.

• Set expectations – You cannot expect someone to meet your needs or the needs of the team if you never tell them what those needs are.
• Hold each other accountable – If someone isn’t pulling their weight ask them what you can do to help them step-up to the responsibilities.
• Support each other (Check-in) – Know what each of your teammates looks like when she is stressed and how she likes to be supported. If you are not getting what you need from your teammates – ASK!
• Care enough to give the tough feedback. Trust each other enough to apply it.
• You cannot observe how someone is feeling. Only the external symptoms of feelings can be observed. Your interpretations of those symptoms might be wrong.
• It is impossible to observe why – You can see what someone does and how they do it, but never why. To know why they have to tell you. Never just make up why.
• Play brave not afraid – trying and failing is better than doing nothing.
• Never evaluate during competition – Adjust and move on. Stay in the moment. Perform when you are performing and save evaluation for after the game when you can do something about it.
• Celebrate and remember successes. Learn from and move past disappointments.

Generosity – the base from which all other behaviors arise. A commitment to mutual support that begins with a willingness to show up and creatively share your deepest insights and the promise to help another succeed. Generosity creates a trusting environment and a safe place that is essential.

Vulnerability – means letting your guard down so mutual understanding can occur. You can cross the threshold into a safe space after intimacy and trust have pushed the door wide open. This involves a place of fearlessness where risks are taken and invitations are offered to others.

Candor – is the freedom to be totally honest with those you confide in. Candor allows you to begin to constructively interpret, respond to, and grapple with this information.

Accountability – refers to the action of following through on the promises you make to others. It’s about giving and receiving the feet-to-the-fire tough love through which real change is sustained.

So, take the first step and ask for help. Cultivate a tribe that will help you move forward and consider these core mind-sets as you develop your team.

I just finished reading Keith Ferrazzi’s book: Who’s Got Your Back which illustrates a similar philosophy of lifeline relationships and why they are essential. As you consider people for your personal Board, check out why Ferrazzi believes that these lifeline relationships will benefit you.

1. To help us identify what success truly means for us, including our long-term career plans.
2. To help us figure out the most robust plan possible to get there, through short-term goals and strategies that would tie us into knots if we tried to go it alone.
3. To help us identify what we need to stop doing to move forward in our lives. (Referring to the things we all do that hold us back from achieving the success we deserve.)
4. To have people around us committed to ensuring that we sustain change so that we can transform our lives from good to great.

Ferrazzi goes on to say that a lifeline relationship can be between equals, peers, intellectual sparring partners, and confidants. You must choose who will serve you the best. And remember to pay-it-forward and serve on someone else’s Board – it may give you some valuable perspective.

I recently tapped one of my lifeline resources on my personal Board of Directors for advice and counsel about a career question of my own.  She helped clarify my situation and asked compelling questions I needed to address in order to move forward with my situation.  After our discussion, I can say with conviction that I am fortunate to know that she has my back!

Asking for the help of others isn’t about changing who you are but enlisting others to help you become who you can be. Keith Ferrazzi’s book is a great read – I highly recommend it. This is a resource you will highlight and refer to for years to come.

Nikos says that it’s all about the right mix and describes 4 archetypes of people in organizations: magicians, warriors, sovereigns, and lovers. You may see some similarities with these in the Jungian personality types. See if you can pick out who you are as well as others on your team.

Magicians: Rational yet imaginative souls in your organization. They think a new idea or insight is the only thing that can move the world – they are obsessed by ideas. These people think a mere argument over an idea equals action.

Lovers: Everything comes down to human relations. They are pragmatic but emotional and focus on building the winning coalition. They are obsessed by feelings not ideas and they consider agreement an action.

Sovereigns: Emotional and imaginative types who focus on the big picture and judge everything on whether it leads to where they want to go. They redefine what people consider is possible. Obsessed by beliefs, they consider direction a form of action.

Warriors: Rational and pragmatic, they are focused on the next battle and can only see clearly what is directly in front of them. They hold people accountable to systems and fairness and are obsessed by facts. Action is finding the critical factor to get something immediately accomplished.

The most effective teams maintain a balance by having a healthy variety of these types in key roles, according to Mourkogiannis. When one type dominates, friction, conflict, and the fall-off of creativity can occur. The best leaders surround themselves with types other than their own who complement their strengths and off-set their weaknesses.

Every organization requires a unique recipe for the right team mix. Too many warriors will experience difficulty with change and will consequently miss opportunities competitors may exploit. Too many sovereigns will pull an organization in too many directions at once, or will radically change direction often. Sovereign-dominated teams appear fragmented, with poor communication, and often struggle with strategy and direction.

Too many lovers and you have another set of problems. These employees value consensus to the detriment of results. They hold far too many meetings and do too much talking and not enough acting, lacking both competitiveness and edge. Too many magicians and your team will be pondering opportunities all the time, but will lack decisive action, even though the thinking will be excellent. Magicians are more concerned with having it done “right,” rather than having it done. A group of them in a room will look more like a debating society than a high performance team.

So, get to know the players on your team and adjust for balance to make for a more efficient group. Perhaps discussing the four types will be an empowering exercise to help individuals understand the valuable role they play and the need for the counter balance of other players for a stronger team.

These women have extensive experience strategizing, creating, and executing multimedia campaigns for a myriad of clients in a variety of industries. But, their entrepreneurial spirit blossomed after both women experienced ongoing morning sickness during their respective pregnancies. In fact, at Carla’s baby shower the two were commiserating about the drab gray acupressure wrist bands that were helping Carla keep her morning sickness at bay. She was no longer nauseous but the dull wristbands did nothing to enhance her adorable maternity outfit!

With 20+ years of collective marketing experience, Romy and Carla hit the mother-load of ideas and conceived the plan for a more fashionable and functional acupressure wrist band. Two years later Psi Bands (pronounced “sigh”) were born.

Ancient Wisdom Meets FDA Standards

Psi Bands use acupressure, an ancient healing art, supported by scientific studies to relieve nausea when placed at the Nei-kuan acupressure points on the wrists. These drug free wrist bands help relieve nausea in a natural way. In addition to pregnant mothers, Psi Bands have been used successfully to help those suffering from motion sickness, post surgical anesthesia nausea, and Chemotherapy induced nausea. Wrist acupressure is widely used for the relief of nausea because it is noninvasive, easy to self-administer and affordable. These FDA-cleared bands are now available in major retail stores nationwide and internationally.

Romy and Carla are on a mission to provide high quality, fashionable, comfortable and affordable products that make a positive difference in the lives of people suffering from nausea. If that weren’t impressive enough, Psi Bands donates a percentage of its profits to Fertile Hope, a LIVESTRONG initiative dedicated to providing reproductive information, support and hope to cancer patients and survivors whose medical treatments present the risk of infertility.

Back of a Napkin Idea to Sustainable Business

These women have a wealth of marketing and advertising experience between them but how did they actually get this product off the ground? Romy told me that the initial product sketches were drafted on the back of a napkin! Friend and colleague, Peter Schouten joined the women in the business and his expertise in product design and development was the perfect complement to the PR and marketing expertise of Carla and Romy.

Romy and Carla knew from the get-go that they were onto something when they conceived the idea for Psi Bands. After extensive research, the two women decided that they had a solid business model and quit their day jobs. They admit it was a scary leap of faith but a necessity to make it a sustainable business. Since they love what they do and love that they are helping people in the process, Romy and Carla know they made the right choice.

Work/family balance is their largest challenge, but they love what they do and would not have it any other way. Romy reported: “We try to stay “in” the moment – whether it is with our children or working on the business.” With 20/20 hindsight, the women know now that some of their hiring choices would have been different if they had to do it over again They would start with a focus on ensuring that their team members share the company’s goals and vision.

Future goals for Psi Bands include continuing to build brand awareness, landing some additional large retailers nationally, and growing the international expansion. At the end of the day, Romy and Carla both believe you must love what you do. These mothers of invention are thriving!

Romy and Carla’s Advice and Action Steps:

• Be sure your partners and employees/consultants have the same goal and vision for the company.
• Seek out the advice and expertise of others when you don’t have the experience to make an informed decision.
• Join women entrepreneur groups to network, find inspiration, and share ideas.
• Follow your dreams, do what you love, and believe in yourself!
• Listen to your gut, do your research, and believe in your product/service 100%. Your passion will need to carry you through the inevitable business challenges that you will face.

Quotes:  “There will be bumps. Savor the journey.”

Resources:

Psi Bands www.psibands.com

Make Mine a Million $ Business www.makemineamillion.org

National Association of Women’s Business Owners (NAWBO)  www.nawbo.org

Savor the Success  www.savorthesuccess.com

The Mom Entrepreneur Support Group www.themomentrepreneur.com

Ladies Who Launch – www.ladieswholaunch.com

One need not be certified in MBTI to encourage better communication at work. You do need a basic understanding that not all people communicate or process information the same. Sharing ideas, for example is not comfortable for everyone at work. An extrovert might be very eager to share their new ideas aloud while an introvert may need to process the information and voice their idea when the circumstances benefit them the most, and perhaps even in writing.

If your workplace does not foster ideas and innovation, new ideas may never see the light of day and great suggestions may go untapped. It’s important to cultivate an environment where creativity and out of the box thinking will be heard and considered. Some of the best and most innovative ideas come from within the organization and lead to tremendous bottom line gains. Encourage staff members at all levels to share their ideas whether verbally or in writing to give people communication options.

Sharing ideas within a team setting engenders trust and also validates the person who made the suggestion. This person will be sought after in the future as a go-to person and earn them greater respect in the organization.

Giving your team an opportunity to share feedback about an idea or proposal is another significant way to build trust. Not all ideas are great but having the team vet the proposal with constructive criticism gives them buy-in and helps build the team’s effectiveness and efficiency. The opportunity to share in the feedback process can give a team a renewed sense of purpose.

The most effective teams produce and debate new ideas and then suggest innovations for management. A team that is empowered to share their input is likely to have less turn over and higher rates of employee satisfaction. Building trust in your work environment takes effort but the results are long lasting and can revolutionize productivity.

In a buyer’s market, competition is fierce and you must distinguish yourself in the interview to stand out from the pack. Here are some key concepts that recruiters and Human Resources professionals want to hear from their candidates during job interviews according to Erin Coe who writes for Portfolio Media.

1. I’m a self starter.

In any business, organizations are looking to hire employees who have a positive effect on the bottom line. In the non-profit arena, candidates should showcase how they can move the mission of the organization forward. In both cases, job seekers need to demonstrate that they are self-motivated and have a drive to succeed. Employers want you to be able to hit the ground running and be able to contribute immediately on the job. A learning curve is expected but self-starting initiative is priceless.

2. I work well on a team.

In most organizations some team work is inevitable. Candidates need to demonstrate their ability to work with others and this can be illustrated through jobs, sports, and other activity examples. It all comes down to playing well in the company sandbox. Employers are looking for team oriented personalities and good colleagues who can communicate effectively on their team.

3. I can make your life easier.

Not all interviewers ask compelling questions that automatically prompt you to showcase your strengths. Take the driver’s seat and focus on how you can make the interviewer’s life (and the organization at large) easier by becoming a valued employee. Illustrate your specific skills with examples and highlight major responsibilities or projects that are transferable and desirable for the new position.

4. I have some questions about your organization.

Take the time to do your homework on the organization for which you are interviewing. Employers can tell how much effort you have put into your research based on the questions you ask. Pursuing informational interviews with other employees before your interview is encouraged and shows you really want to know what’s happening on the inside.

5. Let me tell you why I want this job and why I will be a valuable asset.

Your closing argument in the interview is the ideal opportunity to give your final pitch. Summarize your strengths and stick with the Rule of Three since people can retain three points or less in a short time span. Practice humble confidence but don’t be shy about strutting your professional stuff. It’s a jungle out there and you need to become your own best marketer knowing that you are the product.

I have come to believe that while some leaders are born, most are developed and our current professional marketplace does not place enough emphasis on training effective leaders. This leads to discontent amongst the troops and ultimately low morale and low productivity. There are some enlightened organizations that train from within but I wish it was part of every organization’s professional development curriculum.

Liz Wiseman, worked at Oracle for 17+ years and considers herself a genius watcher. She was the VP responsible for the company’s global talent development strategy and ran the Oracle Corporate University. Her book: Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter teaches valuable lessons for current and aspiring leaders.

During Wiseman’s 17+ year leadership watching and developing experience at Oracle, she discovered that some leaders drain intelligence and the capabilities of the people around them. Their focus on their own intelligence and their narcissistic need to be the smartest person in the room had a diminishing effect on everyone else around them. For them to look smart other people had to look dumb or incompetent and in turn, the Diminishers created a vacuum suck of all the creative energy in a room. Meeting times were doubled and other people’s ideas suffocated and died in their presence. From these so called leaders, intelligence only flowed one way – from them to others.

The Multipliers, on the other hand used their leadership intelligence in a much different way. They used their intelligence to amplify the capabilities of others on their team. People got smarter and better in their presence and ideas flowed freely and challenges were overcome. When these leaders walked into a room the energy level went up on the team and difficult problems were solved because every team member had a say and was involved.

So why do some leaders boost the mental IQ in a room and others suck the mental life out of their employees? The Multipliers bring out the intelligence in others by building collective and viral genius in an organization.

Wiseman identified 5 disciplines of Multipliers:

1. The Talent Magnet: Attract and optimize talent
2. The Liberator: Require people’s best thinking
3. The Challenger: Extend challenges
4. The Debate Maker: Debate decisions
5. The Investor: Instill accountability

By extracting people’s full capability, Multipliers get twice the resources from people than do the Diminishers. Wiseman shared a success story about Bill Campbell, former CEO of Intuit who fully admits that he is a recovered Diminisher. A courageous team member called him on his micro managing, intelligence draining leadership style and pleaded for him to give the team space to create ideas and solve problems. It was a hard lesson for Campbell to learn but in the long run it gave him the insight he needed to become a more effective leader.

He now subscribes to the philosophy of creating brilliance in others on his team by empowering them to succeed. This is a difficult lesson for many of today’s unsuccessful leaders who don’t have the professional development resources to learn to become Multipliers. Others don’t have courageous team members to call them out on being ineffective leaders so they continue to diminish and dysfunctional teams plod along.

If confronting your diminishing leader is not within your comfort zone, or you fear job security, perhaps a mysterious copy of Liz Wiseman’s great book in an office mailbox will plant the seed anonymously. Are you a Multiplier or a Diminisher?

I learned that relinquishing work was not only a way for me to focus on my strengths and do what I do best, it was a way for me to empower others on my various teams to get more involved. When I delegated a task, I gave someone else a significant assignment that gave them ownership and buy-in for the project and the organization at large. The act of delegation was helping others take on more responsibility and play to their strengths.

Delegation liberated me to focus on opportunities to move forward with my career goals and gave others a chance to step up and gain new experiences. My colleagues were motivated to show what they were capable of and enjoyed the opportunity to pursue new projects. We created a check-in system so I would not micro-manage their efforts and communication became stronger in the end.

By keeping all of the work to myself I was sending a message that I did not trust my colleagues. While this was not my intention, I realized that delegation engendered trust and helped me prove my confidence in the team. Ultimately, it motivated others to go above and beyond and our productivity level increased dramatically.

With delegation, I saw new leaders emerge and a renewed sense of enthusiasm in my colleagues. New ideas surfaced and I discovered talents in team members that I never knew existed. Delegation is a beautiful thing that helps people play to their strengths. It also gave me more time to advance my goals by maximizing my support. Try delegating – I think you will be surprised by the positive results for all.