Tag Archives: Creativity

What it’s Like to Work in a Successful Non-Profit Organization

Contributed article in our career series. Enjoy! – Kimberly

Receiving an MPA online or Master of Public Administration is a rewarding achievement that can lead to a career of tremendous public service. Many of us were taught to go to college to work for a business solely for the purpose of making money. While there is nothing wrong with the desire to make money, MPA’s, on the other hand, are pressed for the desire to make a difference in the community and the world. There are many myths and taboos around the idea of working for a successful Non-Profit Organization that we will cover in this article.

Yes, you get paid to work!

A common misconception is the belief that people show up to work every day, out of the joy of their hearts, but don’t make any actual money when working with a Non-Profit. Everyone needs to pay their bills and feed their families, which is a reality of life, and this is simply not the case. Continue reading→

How to Start a Home Design Business

Contributed article in our entrepreneurial series. Enjoy! – Kimberly

When you want to start a home design business, especially when setting up by yourself with very little cash, you have to become a bit more creative about sourcing your new customers. One very clever way of finding potential new customers locally is to look around for properties who are having double glazing windows installed.

When people are replacing windows and doors, they are usually in the process of sprucing up their homes, but many homeowners lack the time to do their own decorating. This is where you can spot an opportunity for your services to be in demand.Continue reading→

The Critical Ingredient of Values in Executive Coaching

Contributed article in our professional development series. Enjoy! – Kimberly

If you could only take ten of your most important Values with you to a desert island, what would they be? That powerful question was prompted during an exercise in a class I was attending at the Coaches Training Institute, one of the lead coach training programs in the world. The entire exercise proved to be my “road to Damascus” moment with regards to my career coaching practice I was building. I realized that a happy, fulfilled and successful career is almost always going to be built around the cornerstone of honoring your most important values.

“Values” is an inherently loaded term, one that can often infer societally-defined morality. It’s not. Values are qualities that define a fulfilled life. When we honor our values in our life, we are fulfilling our internal sense of purpose. When I went through the exercise, I was asked to name all of the values that are important to me in my life. One way to coach on this topic is to ask a client to remember the best day of their life, and start naming all of the words that come to mind when describing that day. For me, it was my wedding. Values like “family,” “friendship,” “creativity” and even “Portola Valley” came out from that session. I then had to rank my top ten values based on the question of “which ones would you bring to a desert island,” which forced me to think about what I really can’t live without in my life. And then, the part that was simultaneously gratifying and personally painful: ranking each of the top ten values in terms of how well I am honoring these values in my life, right now. Continue reading→

Creativity in Business – It’s Going to Get Weird! by Kimberly Wiefling (Wiefling Consulting)

Creativity-in-Business-Book

(Originally published on ProjectConnections.com in Nov. 2011 and published on SVProjectmanagement.com in Feb, 2012.)

Lately I’ve been fascinated by a book, Creativity in Business, based on the famous course in the Stanford University MBA program by that name. In fact, I’ve been carrying it with me non-stop for the past couple of months and practicing the numerous creativity exercises recommended at every opportunity. Continue reading→