Karl Edwards presents Working Matters

Tag: perspective

  • Loving Monday: Lighten Things Up

    loving_monday Yes, work is difficult more often than it is fun. Yes, difficult work can be meaningful and rewarding in many ways even if it is not fun.

    This week, though, I want to focus on making work fun.

    Or at least inserting a bit of fun into an otherwise serious and focused environment every once in a while.

    While I couldn’t resist the image of a full-on practical joke, I’m not suggesting that practical jokes are the best way to bring a bit of lightness into the workplace. (Though I do love the occasional clever stunt.)

    I‘m thinking more of maintaining a good sense of humor. Of being able to poke fun at the ridiculous side of some of your policies and procedures. Of sharing funny stories from home about the antics of your kids or relatives.

    I’m thinking about making ice-cream runs in the afternoon. Of refilling coffee cups just to be nice. Of all standing up and stretching legs at the same time.

    Transform envelope-stuffing into a party. Turn a dreaded deadline into a race.

    Work too easily morphs into pressure and stress instead of meaning and reward. We need to intervene and help everyone keep a sense of perspective.

    Humor is one such tool for maintaining perspective. Keeping things light. Injecting some fun. Enjoying the others on the team.

    How do you lighten things up in the serious world of work?

    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.

  • Loving Monday: Who’s It For?

    loving_mondayNothing like a brief vacation with the family to raise deeper questions.

    Life on the blog has been quiet this past week because I am enjoying my family on a California road trip.

    Away from schedules and deadlines and expectations and demands, my heart and mind free up in refreshing ways.

    Present with the people who are most important to me, I am reminded that one of the reasons I work has to do with their well-being. One of the reasons I take a job that is a crazy mix of positives and negatives is their provision.

    Vacations are good for perspective resets.

    Do you need a perspective reset? Are you caught up in a whirlwind of activity and feel like you’re losing sight of what it’s all for?

    Try taking a break.

    Get away for a weekend. Go away for a week! Whether brief or extended, step away. Spend some focused time with the people who are most important to you.

    It will recharge and refocus your work. I’m certainly benefiting from mine!

    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.

  • Loving Monday: Fighting June Gloom

    loving_mondayJune gloom is what we here in Southern California call the coastal phenomenon of having our mornings blanketed in clouds and fog. They eventually burn off about midday to unleash the sun’s warm glory that we love so much.

    But until then it is chilly and grey.

    If it were winter, then we’d probably not give the cloud cover another thought.

    But at the beginning of summer?! Right on the heels of a beautiful spring?! It depressing. It shouldn’t be.

    Ever come to work ready to dive in and find an unexpected mess waiting for you? It’s depressing. It shouldn’t be.

    It’s also partially a matter of perspective.

    We expect it to be summer and the cloud cover becomes an unwelcome intruder.

    We expect things to run smoothly or pick up where (more…)

  • Quote to Consider: The Chief Requirement of Life

    quote-to-consider“We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us really happy is something to be enthusiastic about.”

    Charles Kingsley

  • Quote to Consider: Who’s Crazy Here?

    quote-to-consider“They deem me mad because I will not sell my days for gold; and I deem them mad because they think my days have a price.”

    Kahlil Gibran

  • Quote to Consider: Remembering to Plug Back In

    quote-to-consider“All wise people say the same thing; that you are deserving of love, and that it’s all here now, everything you need. When you pray, you are not starting the conversation from scratch, just remembering to plug back into a conversation that’s always in progress.”

    Anne Lamott

  • Loving Monday: Bring It

    loving_mondayFew things are more frustrating than the obvious oversights of those with whom we work. Even more frustrating is when those oversights, blind spots, or shortcomings are with those who have more power than us on the organizational chart.

    They create unworkable situations and then blame us for them not working out.

    We kick the wall, curse the gods, and accuse the incompetents around us of making our jobs impossible. Yes, we blame them right back.

    What if, though, you had eyes to see something that they were blind to? What if you had an ability or capacity that they did not have?

    What if they needed you to bring your eyes and ability to that problematic situation, and all you did was stand back and blame them for not being able to (more…)

  • Quote to Consider: Selfish or Unselfish?

    quote-to-consider“A woman means by unselfishness chiefly taking trouble for others; a man means not giving trouble to others. Thus each sex regards the other as basically selfish.”

    C.S. Lewis

  • Thought Leaders Unpacked -> The Soul of a Leader #5: Practicing Gratitude

    thought-leadersThe pressures of work and leadership are many. The tough economy merely compounds and complicates these concerns.

    I believe the leader is responsible for maintaining perspective in the midst of all these pressures. Keeping things in perspective for him or herself, and keeping things in perspective for the team.

    While a variety of means are available to the leader, Benefiel reminds us in this week’s chapter of the importance of gratitude as a perspective provider.

    The beauty and power of this insight lies in its integrity. Gratitude is good for the soul, good for bringing valuable perspective to a situation, and good for building of trust and collaboration into relationships. Gratitude is correcting, restorative, renewing, and generative.

    Of all the gifts a leader can bring to the team, gratitude belongs at the core. No other leadership function can endure without it. Not focus, not direction, not vision, not organization, not team building, not accountability, not confrontation, not planning, not communication… you get the idea.

    Being a workplace culture builder myself, I’m partial to Benefiel’s (more…)

  • Loving Monday: Working Gratitude

    loving_mondayThat we have jobs is not to be taken for granted in this economy. Many of our friends, neighbors and family members do not.

    There is one sense where gratitude is an appropriate response to good fortune. Whether you direct your gratitude to the personal God of your faith tradition or somewhere else, we understand deep within that thanks are fitting… even necessary.

    In another sense we have come to experience that giving thanks is good for us. Gratitude helps us keep much that is difficult about our jobs or annoying about our co-workers in perspective. We find that feelings of overwhelm, discouragement and resentment are tempered when revisited from the point of view of the gift recipient.

    To live in a time where many people do not have work can heighten our sense of personal gratitude.

    We say, “Thank you,” not out of moral obligation, but out of careful stewardship of the human spirit… our own spirit… which cannot operate without refreshment.

    Functioning as a gift recipient is an entirely different frame of reference than functioning as an overlooked employee, a taken for granted team member, or a faceless cog in the machinery.

    Gratitude is good for the soul and invigorating to the spirit.

    For what might you give thanks as you begin this week?!

    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.