Karl Edwards presents Working Matters

Tag: future

  • Loving Monday: The Future Cannot be Postponed

    loving_mondayAspirations are fuel to the soul.

    Aspirations reframe our current circumstances into terms that tap into our dreams and hopes for the future.

    Aspirations, though, have to touch ground somewhere.

    That somewhere is Monday morning.

    That somewhere is in the choices I make today.

    Aspirations may be fulfilled in the future, but they always require engagement in the present.

    My point in this post is just this: The future cannot be postponed.

    All futures, if they are ever to take form, involve taking action today. Action postponed is future postponed.

    When it comes to our aspirations, though, we are dealing with matters of the spirit and heart. We are dealing with deep desires and ambitious hopes.

    We are dealing with all that makes us come alive and willing to work day after day and year after year in order to realize.

    Hence the urgency to live some portion of that dream today. To choose to take one step—however small or however far away from the goal it may feel—today.

    Maybe it’s a telephone call to make. Maybe it’s a essay to write. Maybe it’s a skill to learn. Maybe it’s a character trait to adjust. Maybe it’s a desktop to clear. Maybe it’s a problem to confront. Maybe it’s a mistake to correct. Maybe it’s a helping hand to extend.

    Just as long as it happens today. Something, one thing, anything, today.

    The future cannot be postponed. It will be here before you know it.

    What about your aspirations? Let’s make sure by taking a practical step today.

    On your side,

    – Karl Edwards

    Loving Monday is a weekly column designed to encourage us to step into our weeks with an intention to show up authentically, engage fully, and choose to make it a good week for ourselves. Explore past columns here.

  • Karl’s Library: Building The Bridge As You Walk On It by Robert Quinn

    The perfect metaphor for describing the task of leadership today.

    With constant and rapid change being a decision-making reality, leaders no longer have the luxury of planning for futures that are either predictable or stable for any period of time.

    Robert Quinn was one of the first to address this issue in Building The Bridge As You Walk On It.

    Both visionary and practical Quinn helps us see how we can actively participate in building the future even as it emerges in many ways beyond our control.

    Eight practices characterize the leader who functions in what Quinn indentifies as the “Fundamental State of Leadership”:

    1. Reflective Action
    2. Authentic Engagement
    3. Appreciative Inquiry
    4. Grounded Vision
    5. Adaptive Confidence
    6. Detached Interdependence
    7. Responsible Freedom
    8. Tough Love 

    Each noun and its complementary adjective in the list are carefully chosen and combined.

    I use this book in my “No Excuses WORKout” coaching cohorts, and cannot say enough good things about it.

    Order your copy today.

    Karl’s Library is a weekly column highlighting my favorites from my professional development library. “Always learning” is one of the pillars of my personal mission statement. Explore past columns here.

     

    If you’re a Kindle fan like I am, it is available for the Kindle.

    Don’t have a Kindle? Get one! You’ll love it.

  • Quote to Consider: More Than Logical

    quote-to-consider“If we were logical, the future would be bleak indeed. But we are more than logical. We are human beings, and we have faith, and we have hope.”

    Jacques Cousteau

  • Quote to Consider: Best Not to Over-Think It

    quote-to-consider“Up ahead they’s a thousan’ lives we might live, but when it comes, it’ll on’y be one.”

    Ma in John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath

  • When To Play Your Weaker Players: The Leader’s Conundrum

    weaklingDoes anyone really play their weaker players when serious about winning the game?

    It’s a nice sentiment. But if victory is at stake, rare (probably non-existent) is the coach who decides to extend an opportunity for challenge to anyone other than their best.

    But how do your weaker players become stronger players when they get no game time?

    Experience is a vital and irreplaceable form of training.

    So do you risk the game on building a stronger future? Do you even have a future if you don’t build your weaker players?

    But will you have a future if you don’t play to win now? What if the game ends early because you bet on the future and lost in the present?

    I don’t know that there’s a definitive answer to these questions.

    And that’s the point. The conundrum. The choice every leader faces. The risk every leader must take. Does take. Takes whether he or she knows it or not.

    What are you doing to develop your weaker players? Is it worth it? How do you decide how much of the present game to risk on the future game?

    How do you deal with this leader’s conundrum?

    On your side,

    – Karl

  • Does My Contribution Really Matter?

    A shaper of the future. Wow.

    Not me, surely. The forces and players around me are too big and too many and too complex for my contribution to make much of a difference.

    If you hear yourself in those words, then consider this: It is precisely because so much is going on all the time by so many that your contribution not only can make a difference, but is absolutely crucial.

    The future that emerges from the myriad of choices being made is not set in stone. Every tile added to the mosaic influences what sort of image ultimately emerges. We each need to believe that showing up fully and contributing whole-heartedly is like adding a tile to the mosaic.

    If you don’t contribute your tile, who will?

  • Listen In -> Strategic Planning #2: Shaping the Future

    In these fast changing times, is planning worth the effort? Won’t the world be completely different before we get very far along toward our long range goals?

    In this week’s podcast conversation, Claudia and I look at strategic planning as a tension between control and change. No we don’t have the control leaders used to enjoy when the pace of change was slower. But neither are we at the whim of the forces around us.

    We’re excited because the opportunity to show up and make a difference is huge. Are you excited about your planning efforts?

    Listen in.

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