Hey, it's Rachel Cook, your modern mentor. I'm the founder of Lead Above Noise. We help

companies craft amazing employee experiences and run leadership development programs that activate change.

You know, as much as I love formal leadership development, I think we all have the opportunity

to be learning every day, like in the regular rhythms of doing our work.

Check out my episode on Lifelong Learning from a few weeks ago to hear my love letter to continuous learning and how you can rock it.

I'll drop a link in the show notes.

You know, it's funny because my clients bring me in for my expertise to equip and empower them to lead their teams more

effectively. But I've noticed something kind of quirky. With each passing year of running my

business, I've become a little more expert, but also a little bit more student. My clients

teach me lessons that I don't always recognize at such in the moment, but I really do leave

every engagement just a little bit smarter in one way or another. Today, I want to share a few of

my favorite lessons that I've learned over the years from clients, what they've taught me

and how I think you might be able to put these pearls into action for yourself. Okay, wise bit number one is plan tight, hang loose.

This one comes courtesy of Elaine, and it's had a huge influence on my approach to facilitating

a meeting or a workshop or a coaching session, you name it. I am a planner by nature, and in the early

days of lead above noise, I was smart and prepared,

but easily frazzled. I would plan any meeting down to the minute. I'd script, I'd rehearse,

and I would know my stuff inside and out. But friend, if something, and I mean anything,

threw me off course, it was not a cute moment.

But my client, Elaine's approach to preparing for basically anything, was plan tight, hang loose.

And it meant, yeah, have a plan.

Know what you want to say and what outcomes you want to achieve, what questions you want to answer,

...