We recently connected with Debra Woog and have shared our conversation below.

Debra, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

From my own experience, I know how difficult it can be to try to do it all. Sometimes life presents us with more challenges than we feel we can handle on our own. In the midst of all my activities as a leader, entrepreneur, homeowner, family member and friend, I have lived through diagnoses (of myself and loved ones), divorce, deaths, corporate downsizing, and disputes. My journey demonstrated to me the value of my skills as a researcher, communications strategist and advisor, and a fiercely loving individual.

My intention has always been to use everything I experience and learn to make a positive difference for others. My heart sits in the balance between logic and empathy. As a Crisis Navigation Partner®, my mission is to partner with leaders to reduce their overwhelm and isolation as they mitigate, navigate, and prevent personal, professional, and organizational crises.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’m Debra A. Woog (pronounced like “Vogue” magazine) and I am a Crisis Navigation Partner® with 30+ years of experience as a leadership researcher, executive, and advisor. I provide highly competent women with expertise, structure, and empathy so that they can process difficult situations, connect with necessary resources, communicate effectively, and lead with a clear mind and a solid strategy.

Having experienced my own crises and crossroads, I realize the importance of an outside resource to provide perspective while navigating difficult circumstances, decisions, and conversations.

My career has included conducting primary research at Harvard Business School for an award-winning book, directing admissions and career development for the MIT dual-degree MBA program Leaders for Global Operations, and advising nine technology start-ups as Director of People Strategy for Cambridge Incubator. The Boston Globe profiled me for my outstanding abilities to select talented candidates, motivate and develop employees, and resolve conflicts between people as well as between organizations. My work has also been featured in Forbes, Inc., US News & World Report and more.

I earned my B.A. in Psychology and American Studies from Wellesley College and an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management. MIT Sloan recognized my leadership abilities and community contributions by awarding me with the Miriam Sherburne Scholarship. I am trained as a mediator and an ombudsman. Brené Brown has certified me as a trained Dare to Lead™ Professional.

My services include The Crisis Navigation Partner System®, How to Win-Win Any Difficult Conversation™, The Brilliance-Based Business Success System®, and the Half-Day Intensive Retreat.

Personally, I am a theater-lover and occasional intuitive painter, I delight in spending time with my son and daughter when they’re home from college. I am also a voracious reader and sometimes knitter.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

After 19 years in business, at a Polka Dot Powerhouse conference, I heard a speaker who left me wondering, “Where is my joy and ease these days?” I longed to go back to experiencing those.

Once I granted myself some much-needed rest, I took a few major steps toward reclaiming my joy and ease:

• Revisiting my own brilliance statement and unique definition of success (tools I use with my clients), updating them where needed
• Asking my fantastic virtual assistant to meet with me twice per week for debriefing and delegation. (She said yes! And it’s been super helpful, especially because it has reduced the amount of email between us.)
• Limiting myself to one hour of administrative time per workday. Anything else that needs to get done goes to my assistant.

From all of this, I felt prepared to re-envision how I would spend the next phase of my professional time. After more reflection, clarity struck!

During the first two decades of Connect2 Corporation, as my life and work progressed, my purpose evolved and deepened. The challenges I faced and the experiences I had in those last few years (many of which I described on my blog), felt especially important to reflect in a revamped, refocused mission. Having experienced many crises and crossroads, including some on my own, I understood the value of having an outside resource to provide perspective and recommendations while navigating difficult circumstances, decisions, and conversations.

In late June 2019, I announced a radical reinvention of my work ahead: I would accompany and advise clients as a Crisis Navigation Partner®. In this role, I provide expertise, structure, and empathy to leaders. We collaborate so they can more easily process difficult situations, connect with necessary resources, communicate effectively, and lead with a clear mind and solid strategy.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

Even if an opportunity arises that feels like a good fit, or sounds like fun, or will likely be lucrative, it’s ok to hold it aside. It’s ok to say, “No, thank you” or “Not right now”, and just wait. See what happens next! Another opportunity that works just as well, or better, may come around to yield a more optimal solution.

Backstory: I found myself spending a few weeks turning down appealing personal and professional opportunities, because my physical energy was unusually low. My friend Ken kept telling me to do only what is essential. So I tried to focus on that decision criteria before agreeing to anything.

During that time I played a lot of iPhone solitaire to zone out. It gave my brain just enough to do that my thoughts could safely wander without distracting me into productive action. I played one vexing hand over and over and kept getting stuck. One evening, in the midst of that tough hand, I realized that my app has an “Undo” button on it. If only life had one of those!

With the hindsight of Undo, I realized I would have done better not to move the 3 of Clubs onto the available 4 of Diamonds. So I used Undo to back my way to just before that point. When I started moving the hand forward again, I had to keep reminding myself not to move that 3 of Clubs, even though it seemed to fit perfectly, because I knew that path would lead me to a dead end.

Once I remembered to hold that one card to the side, I solved the puzzle right away. And that gave me an Aha! The secret to thriving may be *not* using every good opportunity that you have. It’s okay to opt out. It’s okay to rest. It’s okay to do only what’s essential! Since then I’ve been asking myself more often, “Do I really want to take this next opportunity? Or do I want to preserve the time for myself and my spaciousness?”

While listening to my favorite podcast Smartless with Jason Bateman, Will Arnett and Sean Hayes, one of them shared the best advice he ever received:

If you’re asked to do something that’s a few months in the future, before you say “Yes”, pretend for a moment that opportunity will happen this afternoon or tomorrow. Ask yourself “Do I want to go? Or do I wish I had said “No”?” If you’re not excited to do that far-off opportunity tomorrow, you’re not going to be excited to do it in a few months.

I thought that was such a valuable perspective, and it dovetailed perfectly with my solitaire lesson: it’s more than alright to say no and do less.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://connecttwo.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/connecttwo/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/connecttwo
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/connecttwo/