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janhoistad@drjanhoistad.com

About Dr. Jan Hoistad

Whether it’s for your career or your business, Dr. Jan Hoistad is a career development and transition coach, and a business development coach and strategist. Her uniqueness is her “Big Picture” perspective. Assisting business owners and experienced career professionals, Dr. Jan partners with you as you transition through choice points in your career and business life. Her focus is on helping you clarify what you want, identify what’s in the way, and strategize a step-by-step plan so you achieve your goals. Dr. Jan brings her expertise in human development, system dynamics, entrepreneurship, business growth, partnering, communication and creativity, her clients to her clients who become catalysts for change in their businesses, careers, and personal lives. Her Big Picture approach helps you to accomplish so much more of what you desire. Working with Jan you go further, faster. Her work guides you to accelerate, while also integrating your professional and personal goals at each choice point across your life. Dr. Jan has helped numerous professionals, business owners, and teams achieve ambitious career and business goals, joyful relationships, and a greater quality of life. “When an experienced professional adds ChoicePoint Solutions, you can almost feel their body relax. They become excited again. More hopeful, they remember what they love about their work as, together, we turn burdens into doable strategies that achieve their future goals.” — Dr. Jan
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Learn How to Face Demands of Responding to Life & Business Stages Together

All businesses and all individuals grow through natural stages of development over the course of a lifetime. Or they stagnate. They cease to grow. Growth spurts and developmental transitions naturally occur approximately every 7–10 years for individuals. Businesses also go through transitions and developmental stages when they grow from start-up through expansion. In business these stages are often marked by additional products, enlarged customer reach, and of course  increased revenues.Having a smooth functioning culture with happy employees who have the support they require to do their job and the resources for their personal and professional development all begins at the top—it starts with the leadership. For business owners and business partners, having a long-view toward future transition out of the company or sale of the business puts markers for growth into perspective.Business Partners Need to Learn How to Face Demands of Responding to Life & Business Stages TogetherWhen business partners are aware of these long-term objectives—and their partnering relationship is solid—communicating through growth stages and transitions, providing access to resources for individual development, and other cultural values, naturally go hand-in-hand with productivity expectations and profit markers.Even though it's a necessary and natural part of growth, transitioning into the next stage always provokes some discomfort, and even anxiety about the changes to come. Some owners are more sensitive to changes on the horizon, expect and anticipate them, and plan ahead. Others are heads-down focused on the day-to-day demands. These heads-down types are often blindsided by the new and unexpected needs that arise. [...]

Relationship Reset: Learn to Grow Stronger Together by Standing Still

You don't have to be loudest in the room. You don't have to be the most visible. Sometimes, you can be strong for you both in a more simple way. In this video, Dr. Jan shares that one SIMPLE STEP - one that can provide a HUGE POSITIVE IMPACT on your relationship and change negative communication patterns between you. She calls it "Standing Still." ⠀ SHARE THIS YOUTUBE VIDEO with a couple you care about today. 🎥 https://loom.ly/HshT-N8 🎬 ⠀ ⠀ Standing Still is a bit paradoxical! It's STOPPING any old behaviors that have not been working. Yet this is not passive. Here's the key - If you're not getting the positive results you want - and the same thing happens time and time again when you try to address it the same old way, then stop. By stopping you can focus on what you are feeling when this happens between you. You can focus on what you really want. You want to be effective, right? Of course, you do.⠀ You want a good relationship - and owning your part in the kerfuffles or battles or disengagements is the FIRST STEP. So, stand still and reflect. Learn a new way - a better way.  ⠀ 👉 Reach out for a Complimentary Conversation or sign up to be notified when our online courses become available. ⠀ 👉 You can also download a FREE Relationship Communication Style Assessment for you and your partner to review together.

11 Ways to Cope with Transitions & Change You Don’t Choose—In Your Business, Career or Life

A Perspective on These Times Life is not going back to "the ways it was." It's never going to be the same. It's a hard truth and as much as you may wish to return to the former, more comfortable ways, everything is shifting. And the shifting continues. Today, the demand is to be flexible and resilient as you navigate through these shifts--toward what will eventually become our "new normal." Because these shifts are both internal and external, because these shifts are massive, global, and happening at such great speed, it's important that you ground and care for yourself. You have things you want to accomplish, experiences you want to experience, and contributions you want to make in this lifetime. So there's "bigger work" to do--to steady yourself, to connect you to yourself and others, to help you stay open to possibilities often unexpected. And unexpected options and change can feel terribly disruptive. Right now you and others you know may be resisting, balking, or fighting the change--trying to push through and control the "final" outcomes, Often behaving impulsively. Others may respond by "giving up" on their dreams. Often retreating in a way that is depression, addiction, or other escapism. What's important to know is that "You Can Do This Work" is demanded of all of us. That's right. We're all still in this together. It wasn't just the pandemic we were all in together, Going through these shifts requires all of us. Coaching support can help you through the [...]

How Do We Keep Our Relationship Healthy and Strong?

Couples coaching to clarify your goals and give you the relationship tools and skills gives you confidence you be able to achieve your dreams together! The pandemic and massive cultural shifts these past few years have brought out the best, the ho-hum, and the most challenging in couples' relationships. The data is mixed. Some sources note that 34% of married men and women ages 18 - 55 years report impacts of stress on their relationships. Some report dramatic increases in divorce filings between 2020 and the previous year. Yet other indications show increased resiliency, strength, even appreciation between mates. Work from home, flexible hours and greater income for many has opened options like never before. Everyone is embracing the need for greater mental health care and time with your family and loved ones is high priority we are all learning to integrate into our lives. With all these tectonic shifts impacting you, it's a great time to assess, retool and revisit what's most important in your relationships.   It's a Wrap—Or Is It? So, as we turn a page on this year, I encourage you to not just slam the book shut. Take this opportunity to assess your relationship and how you'd like it to be. You already know that when your relationship is new and it's easy to show your "best self," enjoy one another's company and imagine a bright future together. As you blend your lives and daily responsibilities, other parts of ourselves, needs and demands [...]

5 Ways to Improve Feedback So You Energize and Retain Your Valuable Business Team Members

A Growth Mindset approach to feedback will grow your team. Focus employees on how their contributions meet desired outcomes. It brings purpose to their work and energizes everyone to share creativity, be more efficient. Change occurs more quickly with clearly stated expectations and mentoring from you as a leader.   The media often presents a contradictory picture of young people, focusing on their almost constant need for praise and feedback. While the desire for a little praise and feedback is true of all generations and some personalities, too much praise—without problem-solving encouragement—has been found to be detrimental for individual growth from early childhood on. It can affect personal and professional growth. A few years back, the concern about over-praising and feedback was focused on Millennials. In my experience coaching professionals at all stages, it is more common among that generation. For those who are older, I notice a maturing of this need as they are guided to develop their talents. However there are others who rely on their out-going personal style and exhibit a people-pleasing drive. Everyone in the work world has experienced this aspect of the millennial charm. They’re the first to describe themselves as energetic can-doers — fast, smart, eager, and exuding self-confidence. They’re often great in an interview and show up to take on many tasks. Plus, they’re usually fun to be around. For this group and any generation, Professor of Psychology and researcher at Stanford, Dr. Carol Dweck, explores how doling out praise and [...]

How Career Coaching Continues to Change Lives

There are many Benefits of Career Coaching—for your work path as well as for your personal life satisfaction. As we come through 2020 and 2021 and move into 2022, people are embracing greater sense of autonomy and choice. They want a lifestyle that includes work, but is not bound to work. That includes flexibility, personal growth and wellness right up there with income.   You've heard about it.... (no I'm not talking Omicrom this time.) It's "The Great Resignation." It's the highest numbers of people leaving their jobs in the past 6 months. It's a restlessness, Maybe an awakening, causing a mass exit from many jobs, industries and sectors of the economy. The past few years have created a list of factors making many workers ready, wanting and maybe now able to reach for something different. More desirable? More flexible? If you fall in the ranks of those "looking," maybe these are some things you’re questioning: At this stage of your career are you ready for the next level of leadership, challenge, or responsibility but aren’t sure of the steps to achieve this? Is relocation part of your company development plan and you‘d like to know if it’s right for you? Have you been passed over one too many times and you’re having difficulty communicating or seeing eye-to-eye with your boss? Have you considered taking your chances and just quitting or starting your own business, but assessing the risks and rewards is complicated? You want more family and [...]

How Successful Leaders Help Others Navigate Change

Learn how successful leaders help others navigate through changes to their business especially when there is staffing turnover, policy or restructuring involved. https://youtu.be/P8bf16wdwT4   Managing Responses to Stressful Situations—In Yourself and Your Employees can be achieved when three simple and steadfast rules are applied and few pieces of key information are committed to memory. Even in the most self-aware professional, the stresses of our world’s increasing change cannot help but trigger a range of emotional responses that you can learn to manage in yourself and others. All change is a form of stress. This stress is not necessarily bad. The change may ultimately bring about a very positive, even exciting, outcome. However it may not be perceived that way initially and it is stressful none-the-less. Every individual’s response to stress is varied and shaped by many factors—many of which are seemingly out of control because they are physiologically and hormonally based. They are the body’s natural response to a perceived threat or danger. It started as a survival response when we had to escape being eaten alive. While our current lifestyle may be much less survival driven, the reactions to change—of any minor to major level—remain hardwired into our body’s “fight, flight or freeze” responses. As a business owner or executive team member, you lead or manage a lot of people in your work and home life, so it’s important to become aware that, when under stress, the higher brain systems in anyone can be hijacked by the body’s response [...]

Stop Being “Nice.” A Guide for Straight-Talk Guidance that Grows Your People

At the gym the other day, stretching before a workout class, two men were sparring nearby. Mid-30’s, and mid-40’s, with humor but focused. Glove-less jabs and shoe-less rapid-fire kicks flew, interspersed with the ding-ding-ding of a timer set to note the end of each short round. Between each round, straight-talk, rapid-fire feedback was given, received and incorporated into the next practice round. These two were totally focused on increasing skills and achieving better performance. One man more advanced giving feedback to grow the other’s competence at something they both care about. Sports leaders are hired for their ability to grow individuals and a team. They are quickly fired when the skills do not improve, when the team does not go on to succeed. Measurements of growth and success are clear. Everyone is there to improve skills. For team success. They are there to get better. It made me think of the difference between the sports-world and the business-world. We expect and seek out straight-talk coaching in the world of sports. We hire trainers to kick butt - to lose weight, get stronger, avoid injury or achieve whatever our physical goals. We hire them for straight-talk, tough-love. So we get better. The Stakes Are High There’s far less consistency in giving, receiving and incorporating straight-talk input clearly aimed at growing the skills necessary to achieve individual and company success. Many people in positions of authority (here I include leaders, managers, even parents of emerging adults) avoid opportunities to grow their people. [...]

How to Run a Successful Business Together as Business Partners

As in all close interpersonal relationships, when business professionals are unaware of different relationship styles—without a compatible mindset, and set of tools, and skills they can use together—each partner individually reverts to what they know best. What they know best is typically unconscious, old, less functional, patterns. This article will tackle these three points of context and answer the following questions... What are the pitfalls of co-owning or operating a business with your partner Understanding the choices and consequences of relationship styles What are the four keys to a successful business partnership Like everyone else, put two business owners together and you’ll find some random combination of approaches to relating which can get them in trouble when faced with conflict and their styles are different. Married couples in business together can be doubly susceptible since they live and work together. I always say when partnerships (personal or professional) are going well, they are wonderful. It's when faced with conflict or disagreements that relationship style differences bring on a challenge to change. What originally feels like a positive connection becomes confusing. Responses that used to work no longer work. Without new information, people do not know how to work themselves out of this sticky situation on their own. They can push it under the rug, but typically it does not go away without being addressed. That's why many couples work with therapists or life coaches. In the world of work, business, and careers, having a business coach or business transformation consultant [...]

Facing the Challenges of Taking on a Business Partner

When a solo-owner or entrepreneur knows that partnering is the next best business decision—be it for start-up, expansion, for future transition, or sale—paving the way with a well discussed, communicated, thought-out relating style is essential to avoid future conflicts. Consciously facing the need to come together with one or more business partners and pairing that with one's own strengths and weaknesses around communication and expectations demands clarity and choices about where change will be necessary—and just where it "ain't going to happen." Choosing the right business partner That's where an expert in both relationships and business comes in to guide you to help you clarify what you want in your business and how a business partner relationship fits your end goal. A business partner coach can then help you assess the candidates and coach you in discussions to ferret out that fit so you stay on track with your ultimate desired outcomes. Challenges of Communication in Business Partnerships The personality characteristics and strengths of the entrepreneur or business owner often run counter to, or do not co-exist well with, the needs of a mutual on-going working business partner relationship, let alone a binding partnership. It's a well-known fact that many (but not all) founder, owner, entrepreneurs are visionaries who follow their own drumbeat. They do not necessarily "play well with others." It's not that they don't care about others, it's that they tend to be self-focused on the business they develop. They want to be in control of [...]

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