Blossom Into Something Beautiful
By: Christy Uffelman
I woke up today to see this beautiful rose outside my room here in sunny California. It reminded me of my years on the board at Strong Women, Strong Girls (SWSG).
I’m in San Diego this week launching a new cohort of all male leaders for a pretty amazing construction company. A company so committed to the development of their people that they invested in my cohort model as a train-the-trainer. (Which means that starting next year, they will be running these coaching peer groups without me!) 🙌
And because of that- nearly 800 of their people will get to #FindTheirEDGE over the next 5 years.
Back to the Rose. 🌹
We had a consistent opening activity centered around roses at SWSG and I believe that seeing this gorgeous one today was no accident. It reminded me how grateful I am that the leadership team at SWSG recruited me and gave me all the trust in the world to build those programs. It also inspired immense gratitude for the SWSG cohorts of professional women I built 10 years ago who would, in turn, mentor the college ladies to support our chapters in Pittsburgh, Boston and Miami. 🙏
I facilitated these groups of amazing women in the “spare time” between my FT job and a 5-year-old, and my husband thought I was nuts. We actually argued – more often than I’d like to admit- about the crazy amount of personal time I invested in my nonprofit work. And while I couldn’t explain it, there was something about the work itself that kept bringing me back.
I’m not saying there weren’t (many) times that I wanted to give up, when the weighty egos of people frustrated me 😬, when I was burning the candle at both ends, losing sleep, and sacrificing friendships.
But I did it anyway.
There was NO way I could’ve known it at the time, but those initial coaching cohorts became the inspiration for my peer group work and the foundation of the East Coast office of Align.
And here’s the invitation I want to share today: notice how you spend YOUR spare time. It just may be your calling! 🙌 #ManifestingBeginsSimplyWithWork #SpendYourTimeWisely #YesYouCan
Want to find out how you can experience one of our PEER Technology(R) cohorts – all women, all men, or coed? We offer them both inside companies and open-enrollment across the Pittsburgh region. Find out more here: