Maximizing Your Team & Yourself: An Interview with Karen Smolarek Artwork

My Circus, My Monkeys

My Circus, My Monkeys supports supervisors on every level working in education or any field focused on growth and development. Discover how to manage the chaos by learning essential supervisor skills, increasing employee engagement, and using the CliftonStrengths framework to empower you and your team. We’ll dive into the latest research in fields like psychology, sociology, neuroscience, education, and beyond to help you maximize yourself and your team to make an even bigger impact on your students and clients lives. Just as importantly, you’ll improve your own sense of well being as you decrease the chaos and stress and increase the balance in your life.

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My Circus, My Monkeys

Maximizing Your Team & Yourself: An Interview with Karen Smolarek

September 04, 2024 • Anne Brackett • Season 1 • Episode 142

It can be challenging to give yourself permission and space to invest in yourself. But you cannot effectively supervise your team, if you don’t have what you need. In today’s episode of My Circus, My Monkeys, I interview Karen Smolarek, Director of TRIO Student Support Services at University of Wisconsin – River Falls and incoming President of the Educational Opportunity Association (EOA). Karen has gone through our Supervisor Strengths Institute, and we just recently did three training sessions for her team. I talked to Karen about how the Institute and those team trainings gave her the tools and support she needed to maximize her team and herself.

We're thrilled to announce our newest program, the Strengths Accelerator Academy! If you've wanted to dive deeper into your own Strengths or implement a Strengths-based culture with your team or organization, this Academy is for you.

Join us for the Spring 2026 Cohort starting Thursday, January 22nd!

We know it's early, but register NOW to take advantage of early bird pricing! It EXPIRES Friday, December 5th, so act now!

You'll get eight weeks of powerful online content, designed to help you better understand yourself, your talents, and how to better manage your team. This program combines online learning with weekly cohort calls to discuss the content. Plus, you get one individual coaching call to let you focus on the things that matter to you the most.

Get more information about the Academy and Register here -https://learn.strengthsuniversity.org/acceleratoracademy

Oh and we're also enrolling for the Spring Cohort of the Supervisor Strengths Institute. Get more information about the Institute and Register here - https://learn.strengthsuniversity.org/Institute

Have questions? Email Anne at anne@strengthsuniversity.org or set up a meeting with her HERE.

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