In these volatile times, evaluating your current cybersecurity measures should be a priority of every organization, no matter its size. My organization had some measures in place prior to the ransomware attack, but it still created a major crisis within our organization. I share our story and the lessons we learned from the cyberattack in hopes that it will create a sense of urgency among my fellow leaders take steps now to protect their organizations.

By Renee Jensen

Are all successful leaders competitive by nature? If pressed to name a leader who is not the least bit competitive, I don’t think I could. I can honestly say that I have never met a successful leader who isn’t always striving to be better, improve themselves, or at very least outperform a friendly competitor.

By Renee Jensen

In past articles, I have shared about my (fairly new) love for running. Truth be told, though, I am not sure I actually love running itself as much as the escape that running offers me. I love the pure physical exhaustion that lets my mind be free of everything and present in the moment. I love the feeling of accomplishment when I reach a new milestone, but not necessarily the act of running itself. For these reasons, I often say that I don’t consider myself a “real” runner. (Although, once a friend scolded me for saying that, reminding me: “You run; therefore, you are a real runner.”)

By Renee Jensen

Active listening is an essential skill for anyone who leads others. Ensuring others feel heard and understood is part of what builds strong teams, but I have found that when you’re having a conversation as a team or with an individual, listening to what they aren’t saying is just as important as listening to what they are saying. I’m not just talking about body language (though that speaks volumes), but rather the omission of information or opinions or what isn’t laid out on the table.

By Renee Jensen

There are many things that the COVID pandemic has taught us. For me, the experiences of the past year have reinforced something many of us already knew: your state of mind can be a very powerful influence on the outcome of your work, your day, and even your life.

By Renee Jensen

When was the last time you had time to ponder a curiosity or seemingly unimportant fact? Our lives are crazy busy with work, family, chores, and oh, not to mention the pandemic! It leaves little time for our minds to be free to explore new ideas, ponder existing dilemmas, or rehash a concept for which you still have not stumbled upon a reasonable solution. Taking time for yourself may seem unimportant given the current state of the world and our nation, but it is necessary for your sanity and personal growth.

If you don’t make time to allow your thoughts to run free and your creativity to go wild and uninhibited, how will you ever explore new concepts beyond your comfortable day-to-day world?

By Renee Jensen

Have you ever found yourself in a situation like this:

You’re in a meeting where everything is going along smoothly. You are feeling optimistic—you may get done early so you can get back to your office and have a few minutes back in your day! All of the sudden, someone in the room derails the conversation and direction of the meeting causing a flurry of discussion, debate and disagreement.

By Renee Jensen

If you are part of your hospital’s front-line staff, think about the last time a member of the executive team rounded in your department. Did the staff scatter, hide behind the computer, and hope to not be noticed, or pretend to be too busy to be interrupted? Did you take one for the team and entertain the executive until they finally left?

As a CEO performing my rounds, this is sure how it felt to me.

By Renee Jensen

When was the last time you evaluated your own risk tolerance? In life there are all kinds of risks to consider: financial investments, adventures, personal relationships, professional decisions; the list could go on and on.

I am known to be a “risk tolerant” person, and as such I am often asked about the subject of risk. Most commonly people want to know how I personally evaluate risk in my life and professionally. How do you know if a risk is worth taking? How do you know how much risk to take on? What process do I use to determine if the risk is worth the reward?

By Renee Jensen

The topic of career transition is something that strong, successful leaders rarely talk about, despite the fact that it is something that almost every professional will experience in some way, at some point in their career.

Transition isn’t something you are going to learn about in business school, and chances are you won’t even know you need to know about it until you find yourself in a situation where your career or life are undergoing a major change.