July 3rd, 2009
Right off the bat we encounter a make-or-break chapter.
“Please don’t make me face the fact that all those production resources out there walking around are distinct human persons.” “You can’t possibly expect me to take into account everyone’s feelings when making complex business decisions.”
I have long suspected that many leaders secretly resent the fact that they can’t do everything themselves and have to rely on others to make things happen.
But the reality these leaders must face is that their teams are, in fact, made up of human persons who function out of inner motivations, personal desires, and their own subjective perceptions. My term for this reality is, “The hard facts of working with people.” People are not the soft side of business in any way, shape, or form!
Here is my key take-away from this chapter: There is a measurable and substantial difference between getting people’s compliance and winning their hearts.
What sort of results are you hoping to obtain? We’re not talking about being liked. We’re talking about getting results. Making a difference. Making things happen. Meeting goals. Achieving great things.
Is learning empathy on your leadership development curriculum? One of your personal goals?
If we cannot relationally or emotionally connect with our team members, we cannot build the trust that sustained, focused, and passionate work efforts require. We undermine our own effectiveness. We sabotage our own results.
What was your main take-away from this chapter? What is your learning edge when it comes to building trust with others?
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July 1st, 2009
Shouldn’t I be focused on pleasing my boss if I want my career to advance?
Not at the expense of your own well-being!
Self care is neither arrogant entitlement nor antagonistic self-protection. Self-care is realizing that you’re the one who has to show up and perform every day, and you can’t do that well if you’re overwhelmed, overstressed, bored or afraid of losing your job.
Claudia and I have started a new series discussing self care.
Self Care. A Smart Career Move
Week #1: Thriving Instead of Merely Surviving
Week #2: Staying Inspired and Motivated
Week #3: Learning and Developing Yourself
Week #4: Challenging Yourself to Achieve
Week #5: Keeping Yourself Centered and Attentive
Listen in and join the conversation.
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June 29th, 2009
Melodramatic? Maybe.
What do you do when you aren’t getting the results you want?
The results of your leadership style. The results from your sales strategy. The results from your planning efforts. The results of your tireless efforts.
Some goals are so important that you can’t, won’t and shouldn’t give up on them. But to continue proceeding toward those goals in a way that is not working is as counter-productive as giving up altogether.
The space in between giving up altogether and doggedly pushing ahead is where there is room for adjusting.
We have to try new things. Do things differently. Redescribe the outcomes. Reframe the issues. Rethink our approach.
We have to be willing to adjust.
Adjusting is a project-saving, if not a life-saving, form of flexibility. The ability to adjust injects learning right into the bloodstream of our organizations. Learning on the job, on the fly, in the moment, when it counts, when learning can make a difference.
The alternative is analogous to Sisyphus pushing the boulder up the hill only to have it roll back down every time. Frustrating, exhausting, futile.
If you’re not seeing any alternative to either giving up or pushing the next boulder up the hill, give a call. Let’s take a look at what you’re doing and unearth the possibilities that you’re not seeing from your current vantage point.
It’s probably time to make an adjustment.
On your side,
- Karl
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June 28th, 2009
When do you find time to pause and reflect on the effectiveness of your leadership style?
The Question of the Week is offered to increase awareness of one’s personal leadership practices and encourage experimentation with creative alternatives.
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June 22nd, 2009
I do a chin-up every Friday.
Okay, maybe not a championship exercise routine, but, in an unexpected way, I actually am getting a tiny bit more exercise than I was previously.
My daughter and I go out for breakfast just the two of us once a week. After eating we take a walk and pass a set of chin-up bars at the local park. Hence my unplanned but now regular pause for a chin-up.
What’s interesting is not that I’ve arrived at any great discipline here, but that I’ve chanced upon a small but real change to which I now look forward. While running the entire exercise course at the park feels out of reach, painful, and would necessitate what seems like a gargantuan adjustment in my schedule to incorporate, I’m actually doing my small, playful weekly chin-up.
What if we started each week at work by trying one small change? One tiny little stretch outside our comfort zone.
Remove the pressure of having to take on wholesale, gigantic, systematic change. Go for something attractive, fun, simple, at hand.
One small adjustment. One tiny experiment.
Offer a compliment to the first person you see. Before taking your seat, throw one item away. Call one contact you haven’t spoken to in over a year just to say hi.
Only on Mondays. Only once. Don’t push to expand. Just enjoy watching what happens when you stretch a tiny little bit.
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June 20th, 2009
Whose positive feedback provides you with the greatest sense of validation? Why do you think these opinions hold greater weight for you?
The Question of the Week is offered to increase awareness of one’s personal leadership practices and encourage experimentation with creative alternatives.
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June 19th, 2009
Running on all cylinders.
What a great image. Fully engaged. Functioning as intended. No component sitting idle or causing problems.
So many of our images of success are lifeless, driven, stressed, remote models of the meta-competent hero who is somehow better at everything than everyone else.
Running on all cylinders is attractive, alive, and energetic. It is not necessarily connected with being in charge, on top, winning over others, or achieving celebrity status
What would it be like to be playing at the top of my game? What if that involved being more comfortable in my own skin? Instead of putting on the professional persona of what “everyone” thinks the successful leader looks like, I simply function out of a healthier, sounder, more fully developed, balanced and grounded sense of who I genuinely am myself.
Very attractive.
My primary take-away from this chapter is having my own desire to improve and learn aroused. Instead of feeling that character and integrity are lofty ideals that are out of my reach, I come away drawn to change and intrigued by the potential for effective performance emerging from a deeper, sounder place within myself.
The challenge with any professional development process is to feel encouraged and energized by the potential for improvement instead of discouraged or defeated by the distance yet to travel.
Where are you on the spectrum from feeling motivated and encouraged to improve yourself at one end to defeated and discouraged at the other end? What was your main take-away from this chapter?
- Karl
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