Dr. Cara Miller: Developmental Coach

It’s a big day, 1. Back in a conference room with scratchy napkins and mediocre coffee AND learning from the legendary, Ken Blanchard alongside fellow Board Members, is rather epic. 2. First podcast dropped after a long hiatus (Spoiler: I talk about my quiet with .rankin.coach). Hope you have an opportunity to mark a few small milestones on your leader journey today. Podcast link in bio 🎧

Facilitate the deep work all day, play at puzzles and team dynamics at night! My client system took 3 days away as a senior team to make major internal and external directional commitments on behalf of the legacy institution they lead. Was a steampunk circus escape room evening part of the imperative? You betcha. Did they draw on dynamics, approaches, and jokes from their play later on when the discussions got difficult and the stakes got higher? They did. Play, memory, puzzling, humor are all imprinting activities, don’t forget their value as resources for difficult problem solving and commitment to the task. Thank you for the honor of facilitating your work together!

This couldn’t be more timely for now, as many believe that becoming more convinced of your own ideas is a strength. What we know: suspending your opinions to allow them to be refined does require risk to your integrity (your integrated thinking), but the expansion or did-integration of that thinking makes it possible to re-confirm with more conviction or revise with humility those opinions. Suspending for the purpose of reintegration and refining of your opinions as a practice, is a highly desirable leader trait and sturdy approach to building a compelling, living set of convictions that will interact with rather than recoil from differences (perceived as that threat to integrity). Having an open mind is for a purpose, reconformation or revision. Both are essential.

Today wasn’t poised to be amazing, but it started looking like everything was matching up. THEN a client of mine had a massive breakthrough connected to the developmental work they’ve been doing and crushed a high-stakes conversation they’d been dreading. And so, once again, a miracle breaks through and ALL is right with the world at work, I’m firmly in my calling, and I experience the confirmation *somehow* every day. Even Fridays. This week’s Friday-overcoming was in partnership with , , Boba MilkTea Miller, , , and of course, the . Go get the weekend! ♥️🌀👖👞🐕☕️🍪

One of my marvelous long-time mentors has been at work with me (and in my home visiting during the break) - I’m bursting on all fronts ♥️ Shoes off, coffees drained, markers left uncapped so as not to waste a moment jumping to the next topic, sharing a zoom window on a group call in my office, and talking art, trading books, going to the zoo, and building gingerbread houses with my hubs and children in my home. Mentorship, friendship, may you cultivate if from you and for you! Have a mentor, be a mentor, get encouraging!!! GO!

You’re not just the narrator and sense-maker of your experiences, but also the author and meaning-maker. How much agency are you willing to animate?

Your creative inspiration is coming. Your deeper motivation is welling up. Your call is about to be reaffirmed. Mine came completely unannounced yesterday and was born out of extraordinary timing I still don’t understand. Two beautiful humans who created and sent an artistic rendering of me in a sober, steady pose (metaphors of reflection and real presence abound), who fashioned the packaging into signed artwork (creativity is quintessentially contagious), and included a book about radical, raw hope, with the handwritten message, “…the work you do….This s**t matters.” Please KEEP GOING. Keep reflecting, keep creating, keep radical, real hope, and keep working the deep places in this world of shadow and light. Yesterday was a difficult, shadowy one for me personally, and the mail from these two spurred me on and was nothing short of serendipitous reaffirmation. Do not be resigned to to the default, designated work and life my deep, developmental compatriots. Lift yourself from inquiry and reflection and charge head on the s**t that matters. We’re with you. {{Thank you is not quite right for what you divinely disrupted in me .mp and }}

Inquiry Partners’ first golf tournament sponsorship is on the books! Benefiting ’ athletics for my client . So proud to have hosted my Dad and the Commandant of Cadets, , as we played a scramble at a PGA-prepped course: . Headlines: the President, Admiral Tom Cropper wore a Sailing shirt and shorts, we met the Keelhauler Pirate, it was a gorgeous course, weather was warm, company was A-1, and my Dad came through as our faithful ringer (we were 3 under for the day), and the Commandant even got my parents onto the Golden Bear training ship. I couldn’t be prouder of the courageous leaders and leadership development being unleashed there. My endorsement in wholehearted, we’ve become true Partners in Inquiry (and reverse that). Cheers to the 2021-2022 school year CSUMA! 💛🏴‍☠️💙

What’s more fun than a presenting on a webinar with 461 accounting professionals? Presenting on a webinar with 461 accounting professionals who are asking the hard questions about taking radical responsibility for their own career and leader development. CPA and Master Coach introduced the psychology of Adult Development as a framework for understanding why waiting for annual review cycles and depending on managing partner creativity is not the most effective or timely way to express your desire to grow and progress in your career. Take back your dependency from annual feedback and snail’s pace performance management, to drive your vision, define the requirements, draft your requests, and demonstrate the benefits to your org. Summon your inner Danica Patrick and open-wheel your trajectory. {{Thank you for the invitation to support your solid, industry-disrupting work!}} Also: this is not just for CPAs, this is YOU.