Is Work Exciting?
How can you create an exciting work environment? OK…you might be reading this and thinking “You’ve GOT to be kidding!” No. I’m dead serious. If you’re in the middle of chaos and you don’t love the energy of what’s unfolding, rethink what you’re doing and where you’re doing it.
Yesterday I was interviewed by a newspaper reporter about the analogies between sports coaching and executive coaching and how I work with my clients to strengthen teams. She wanted to draw an analogy between coaching football and the risks coaches sometimes take and how similar it is in the corporate world. There are many similarities between sports coaching and executive coaching however one of the places where we draw the line is giving advice. We also draw the line at “convincing clients” to do anything. My clients don’t hire me to tell them what to think and how to do their work; they hire me to help them learn how to think differently, deeper, and more broadly.
So, how do you (as I call it) ‘dance in real time’? How do you remain pumped and energized?
Create a learning environment. If you’re always a learner and feel as if you’re evolving and growing, your energy will remain high.
Treat your team as thought partners. Create an environment within which the team you’re working with collaborates and percolates together so everyone owns a piece of the puzzle of where you’re all going. The term ‘better with’ vs. ‘better than’ comes to play where as a team or group of thought partners you all dance in real time. In this complex world it’s great to know you’re not in it alone. You don’t have to be in the role of organizational leader to have thought partners in crime. If you’re a solopreneur, figure out who are your go-to people to create and learn with and create your own R & D team. If you’re a part of an organization figure out who has the knowledge and experience in realms you don’t have and create a strong center of excellence.
Keep in mind that everyone around the table (or virtual table as in a conference call) with you knows something and has some experience you don’t have. That’s when the magic of an exciting environment starts happening.
I’ll leave you with this “If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put foundations under them.” - Henry David Thoreau
Best!
Donna Karlin
Founder and Principal
A Better Perspective
http://www.abetterperspective.com
ISSN 1913-6307
You Get What You Accept
There is a saying that goes “You get what you give”. I’m going to take it to another level and put on the table “You get what you accept. And then you get more of the same”.
{!firstname_fix}, how many times have you heard someone say they attract the same kind of person, whether in a personal relationship or at work? “I don’t know what’s wrong but I seem to attract all the whiners”, “Why am I always the one who gets the difficult staff? It doesn’t matter where I work it always seems to happen” or “I seem to attract friends or partners who are needy. What’s with that?”
We get what we accept and because we accept, we get more of the same.
So {!firstname_fix}, how do you deal with that? Stop accepting. Start challenging. Respecfully.
Don’t “pick and choose fights” eliminate the need for them. If you let things pass without handling them, acknowledging them or dealing with them in some manner you’d better believe you’ll get more of the same. As in the first saying “You get what you give” you can give respect but it doesn’t mean you’ll get it. You can give openness and acknowledgment and even show appreciation but it doesn’t mean you’ll get it back. If you give respect and get insult and leave it be “because it’s not worth the energy” just know you’ll be using up at least 10 times the energy dealing with what you’ll get next.
What will you no longer accept? What do you want to attract? Answering those two questions will get you started.
Best!
Donna Karlin
Founder and Principal
A Better Perspective
http://www.abetterperspective.com
ISSN 1913-6307
Too Hard to Say No?
Hard to say no to others or to yourself? You know…that voice inside you enticing you to dip your toe in to test the waters. Do you want that promotion? Or are others putting on the pressure and telling you to go after it? Will the new position bring you a lifestyle you’d like or quality of life you’d love?
I recently had a conversation with one of my clients who was struggling with being pressured to compete for a position in leadership. True, more often than not we talk about “How can I ace that job?” rather than “I’m being pressured to try for that position but I’m not sure I really want it and all it entails” conversation.
Not everyone wants to manage a huge staff and be accountable for them. Some are perfectly happy with producing great work and not having to lead, delegate and keep track of others. Those staffers are just as important as their leaders as all organizations need people to do great work, be happy at work and not be stressed to the nines when a management component is heaped on top of the rest. Choosing to not take that promotion shouldn’t impact your career path. Some organizations frown upon people who decide to stay in their current jobs because we live in an age when bouncing around from job to job is the norm, not the exception. You can still be a leader without having staff by leading by example, being known as a subject matter expert and recognizes as the ‘go-to’ person for expertise.
Leaders are found at every level and position. You know they’re leaders because you want to follow them “just because”, not because their role dictates it.
“Leadership is action, not position.” - Donald H. McGannon
So how are you going to be leader for yourself? Strange question I know. Many of us are so hell bent on being great leaders to those we work with, our kids and colleagues that we forget to look at whether or not we stand for what we believe in and help ourselves grow into our level of excellence. What aren’t you paying attention to that you would be wise to consider in creating your own future?
Best!
Donna Karlin
Founder and Principal
A Better Perspective
http://www.abetterperspective.com
ISSN 1913-6307
Intentions Equal Results
It’s that time of year again…time to reflect on everything that’s happened in the past year, not to live in the past but to acknowledge everything you’ve done, everything you’ve lived, learned, and everything you wished you had done but never got around to it.
New Year’s Resolutions feel powerful when you make them. Most of the time they’re things you challenge yourself to do. Intentions are different in as such they are what you choose as a way of being to change your life, your focus and how you want to live. That’s what’s powerful! They all start off with “I intend to…” It’s a self-commitment. Here are a few examples I’ve started trying out which you’re welcome to adopt if you wish …
I intend to become incredibly selfish, not self-centered. I intend to take care of myself and no longer put up with what isn’t acceptable in my life.
I intend to eliminate delay in all its forms, to not throw away my time which is very precious to me. I intend to become a quick responder (not reactor) so I won’t be bogged down with stuff… shoulds …have-tos.
I intend to surround myself with great people, those who care about me in some way, personally and professionally and I intend to tell my critics to take a hike.
I intend to pay attention to the world around me…to remember there are ramifications upon ramifications upon ramifications to everything I do. My impact could go way beyond my knowing. I intend to make it count.
I intend to create an environement that nourishes me.That means physical space, mental, network, learning…the works. If the saying “You are a product of your environment” is true, and by all accounts it’s on target then I intend to craft an environment that is great!
I intend to see everything as perfect even when it clearly isn’t.
I intend to approach the new year with the perspective of having to eliminate what is no longer working by choice and replacing it with what will work for the future.
I intend to give from choice not obligation, to open myself up to possibilities, to learn something new every day and to have a great life.
Embrace your dreams for your future instead of what was in the past.
May 2010 be great!
Best..
Donna Karlin
Founder and Principal
A Better Perspective
http://www.abetterperspective.com
ISSN 1913-6307
The Power to Decide
”Our ultimate freedom is the right and power to decide how anybody or anything outside ourselves will affect us.” - Steven Covey
“Sorry to push you around” was a comment made recently by someone asking me to change my schedule to accommodate another’s. I thought about that for a long time. Do I let people push me around? Rarely. Is it because I have to be in total control of everything? No. Being in total control means being inflexible. I’m very flexible within reason. If that request was made more often than not, I would have made a different choice.
What amazed me the most about that comment was how it didn’t push any buttons. That really made me smile. I can’t count how many times I hear how people turn themselves into proverbial pretzels to please someone else. They cancel last minute, do anything to “make the sale” charge rates so below their worth because they want to get the client. They twist themselves, turn themselves inside out to accommodate anyone and everyone else in the world other than themselves and when things fall apart they can’t for the lives of themselves figure out why.
We can’t as coaches teach freedom of tolerations and being ‘problem-free’ if we don’t live that freedom. We can’t ask anyone if they’re living their lives in congruence with their personal values and ethics if we don’t seem to have them. It’s all about setting personal boundaries. Have you set yours?
If I cancel one client and shuffle my schedule to please another, then I’m minimizing the importance of the first client. And if I keep canceling things in my private life to fit one more person in, I’m of no value to anyone…the client or myself, for what I am teaching by personal example?
How often do you push aside your core values to fit in? …. to make a few extra dollars, get that one new client? What would that say about you?
To take it to a more personal level, how many times have you cancelled a date, lunch, get-together of some sort with a friend, family member, someone close to you because something better came along or someone else made demands of your time? What message does that give to the person you’ve asked for a rain-cheque with? And before I get a slew of emails giving me all the exceptions to what I just said such as emergencies an unscheduled work trips etc., that’s not what I’m talking about.
Think about it for a moment.
As a human being it’s telling one person they have more value in my eyes than another. As a professional, it’s telling one existing client or colleague they’re not as important as another potential new client. In that case I am not worthy of either of them. And as a person I would have few personal ethics if I would minimize anyone for the sake of another.
“Our ultimate freedom is the right and power to decide how anybody or anything outside ourselves will affect us.” (Covey) And our ultimate responsibility is to realise how we affect everyone else around us because of our choices.May your choices be great!
