Off With the Old and On With the New
For some reason this is the time of year when people take a good hard look at their lives and make some fundamental changes. I’m not sure if it’s because it’s Spring which signifies a new beginning or what but historically this has happened in all the years I’ve been coaching. It’s an “Off with the old and on with the new”.
To quote Warren Bennis, “People who cannot invent and reinvent themselves must be content with borrowed postures, secondhand ideas, fitting in instead of standing out.”
Once people figure out what they want to change in their lives they can’t wait to make it happen. People are impatient. They want things yesterday, especially if they think it will help them realize their dreams.
When is the last time you’ve taken stock of your life? What you’re living, what you no longer want to be living, what you want to be doing, who you want to be hanging out with, learning and growing with and who is holding you back? It’s a powerful exercise.
So how to begin? Figure out what you’re tolerating that’s taking the fun out of life. Why are you holding on to it or to them? Time to redefine.
Let go of what’s no longer serving you energizing you and making you happy. Yes, we have choices. After all the best way to predict your future is to invent it.
Celebrate your uniqueness even what with which you’re not as comfortable and choose a life that embraces that part of yourself rather than force it back into some shadowy existence. As long as you don’t accept all of who you are, you’ll be at war within. Once you start accepting all of who you are, you’ll celebrate your weaknesses as well as your strengths and let them live in harmony with each other. You don’t have to be all to everyone just someone special to those you choose to have in your life and you in theirs.
“Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The trouble-makers. The round heads in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules, and they have no respect for the status-quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify, or vilify them. But the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.”- Jack Kerouac
Here’s to reinvention or shall I say re-acceptance?
With deepest respect,
Donna Karlin
Founder and Principal
A Better Perspective
http://www.abetterperspective.com
ISSN 1913-6307
Should Leaders Have Friends at Work?
Recently, a colleague asked me the question “Should Leaders have friends at work?” He went on to say “Relationships are essential, the core of the commercial world yet it’s not uncommon for executives to avoid ‘friendships’ with co-workers. They often fear that having personal relationships in the workplace might compromise their ability to make tough decisions. So should Leaders have friends at work?”
As a few of my clients are currently living the ramifications of befriending someone at work in one case and bringing in a friend to work in her department in another, which has caused a meltdown through the ranks, I thought it not only relevant but important to start a discussion on this topic.
In all my experiences working with leaders, having friends at work does not serve them or the people who they befriend. For a point of clarification the leaders I work with are political leaders (federal), government leaders, corporate leaders and business leaders. Each area has different dynamics and chemistry so to speak. Whenever a leader befriends someone in the organization, it impacts the other individual especially in areas of trust both from their colleagues and the staff. It also identifies that person as “leader’s pet’ which brings up a whole new set of issues.
So what’s the answer?
Be friendly. Don’t befriend. And if you work for the organization’s leader, again be friendly but do not become friends with the boss.
Staff wants leadership, direction, empowerment and growth from their leader. They do not want a best friend, at least those who want to evolve for the right reasons.
“Leadership is not magnetic personality–that can just as well be a glib tongue. It is not “making friends and influencing people”–that is flattery. Leadership is lifting a person’s vision to higher sights, the raising of a person’s performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations.” - Peter F. Drucker
Nowhere in there, nor in any other words of wisdom does it ever state that leadership is being staff’s best friend.
Last but not least…
As always this newsletter will be archived on http://www.PerspectivesInBrief.com, though pricing specials and program launches will only be available through this newsletter subscription.
With deepest respect,
Donna Karlin
Founder and Principal
A Better Perspective
http://www.abetterperspective.com
ISSN 1913-6307
