Author to sign books July 1 in Bethany Beach

Bethany Beach Books will host author Gina M. Wilson to sign copies of her book “Skills That Build: The Hard Science of Soft Skills for Work and Life” at 7 p.m., Thursday, July 1.

A holistic executive coach, Wilson works with organizations and aspiring leaders to empower personal and professional growth through evidence-based practices. In “Skills That Build,” cognitive psychology, business and well-being intersect to offer readers an accessible means to coach themselves on success-generating behaviors in four critical areas. Wilson’s book explains how demand for leadership coaching has skyrocketed worldwide in the last five years, but few people can afford a professional coach, and even fewer receive coaching for career development and personal growth through their employer.

For more information, go to ginamwilson.com and bethanybeachbooks.com.

How to succeed as your own leader

Today’s emerging workers and mid-career professionals teeter precariously between personal and career aspirations, often with scales tipped to one side or the other. It is possible to become more successful in both areas through learned behaviors, thereby first leading yourself and becoming a better leader for others.

Here are five tips for cultivating success at work and home:

1. Cultivate opportunities to experience positive emotion. Devise ways to elicit interest, awe, inspiration, pride, and hope – some of the less obvious but readily available sources of positive emotion which accrue over time to create a groundswell of well-being. Science has shown their physiological and psychological benefits which are within our control.

2. Recognize what you are good at and start doing whatever that is more frequently. In exercising competency, we renew our sense of self and meet a basic psychological need. Whether in a job or with a hobby, using your skills regularly brings out feelings of mastery and confidence which spill over to other areas of life.

3. Connect more meaningfully with others. Learn to listen empathically, speak less and aim for communications with understanding. After months of limited opportunities for interaction, emerge with a concerted effort to listen for understanding.

4. Re-evaluate your priorities and focus on your values. Establish your own litmus test for tasks worthy of your time and attention, and determine those that are not. Let this be your guide to create a purposeful day, work week or decade.

5. Buffer yourself from inevitable setbacks, challenges, and hardship. Prepare now by learning and practicing behaviors that will serve to restore and replenish you when your reserves are low.

These tactics are as personal and unique as each one of us. By developing our own strategies for well-being, we can increase both satisfaction and efficacy in the workplace and elsewhere. Learning and practicing specific behaviors enables us to collect our own tools for success. These skills build us.