Karl Edwards presents Working Matters

Author: Karl Edwards

  • Loving Monday: Taking Your Cue

    loving_mondayI remember when I first caught myself taking my cues from others.

    I‘d be about to pass by someone walking the other way, and I would keep an sly eye peeled for whether or not they would greet me.

    If they did greet me, I’d instantaneously gauge their mood and respond appropriately. If I received a warm greeting, I’d respond warmly. If they were grumpy or stressed I would either keep my distance with a curt reply or engage with a sympathetic “How ya doing?” Or if no acknowledgment at all was extended, I would keep my focus elsewhere and carry on.

    Then it hit me like a ton of bricks. I was taking my cue from others. I was playing the passive, responsive role in the relationship.

    “What’s the big deal?” you might ask.

    Well, it’s a big deal if I’m in a great mood, ready for a good day of engaging work, and I let someone else’s mood determine mine.

    It’s a big deal if I want to greet and be greeted in the morning, and I miss out because I waited for the other person to initiate.

    It’s a big deal because others might be operating out of a perspective of caution or fear or anger or bitterness in any given situation, for example. If I take my cue from those people, then I’ll be interpreting and responding to them instead of to the situation. Not taking my cue from others, I may very well have chosen to respond to that situation in a very different way.

    By taking my cue from others I turn my brain, intuition and social skills off too early. I grant more credibility to other people’s discernment than my own.

    And so I have stopped taking my cue from others, so to speak. If I want to greet someone, then I do. And I let them greet me in return. I have more say in my own day, because people are responding to the mood, tone and subjects that I am putting forth instead of the other way around.

    Who are you taking your cue from?

    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.

  • Quote to Consider: Law or Liberty?

    quote-to-consider“Never yet has law formed a great man; ’tis liberty that breeds giants and heroes.”

    Friedrich Schiller
    The Robbers

  • Karl Shares Six Words… #43


    Every boss denies the small print.

     

    Karl Edwards

  • Listen In -> The Hard Facts of Working with People #4: People Need to Connect and Belong

    While some people prefer to work alone than in a group, all people need to be a part of a working community of other people.

    The rare bird who is a true loner would most likely not work for a company, opting instead for some sort of independent structure.

    This week’s show is about the hard fact that people need to connect and belong.

    We need to belong to a community with a mission that is larger than ourselves. We need to be an integral part of making that mission succeed. (Remember the hard fact about making a difference?)

    There is simply no escaping the reality that this process includes working with others. But working with others runs deeper than the functional necessity of most tasks requiring more than one person to complete them.

    Working together involves a process of connecting and belonging that is core to being human.

    Keep roles and responsibilities anonymous and impersonal at your own risk. Want to know why?

    Listen in.

    Just now joining the conversation? Catch up on the entire series here.

  • Loving Monday: Detour to the Friendly Voice

    loving_mondayThere are a lot of voices around us.

    The boss voice telling us to get busy. The employee voice asking us to make a decision. The co-worker voice requesting assistance.

    We hear critical voices second-guessing our choices. We hear fearful voices resisting our initiatives. We hear angry voices attacking our motives.

    Each voice articulates something worth listening to and much more that needs to be ignored. We spend a lifetime learning to discern between what has substance and what is the speaker’s personal issues spilling out all over us.

    Getting our week off to a good start involves beginning with a friendly voice or two.

    Someone who believes in you. Someone who is already on your side. Someone who has demonstrated that they want good things for you.

    These people are a rich source of encouragement, affirmation, compliments, and confidence.

    Not that we are going to these people in search of the unsolicited pat-on-the-back. (Though that is certainly an idea worth exploring.) We are choosing, however, to begin our weeks with the truth about ourselves. A positive truth about ourselves that we can do something with.

    We are setting our perspective for the week in terms of our capabilities, our strengths and our potential. Beginning with a friendly voice in our ear, we are better situated to face the obstacles, the conflict, and the mistakes we encounter along the way.

    We cannot inoculate ourselves from the dark voices or the difficult events that arise in the course of a week. But we can be well-grounded in all that is solid and constructive in who we are.

    Why start the week with someone yelling at you or complaining to you, if you can take a small detour and find a friendly voice to enthusiastically greet you, affirm you, or appreciate you?!

    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.

  • Quote to Consider: The Problem with Power

    quote-to-consider“Power is always right, weakness always wrong. Power is always insolent and despotic.”

    Noah Webster

  • Listen In -> The Hard Facts of Working with People #3: People Need to Learn and Develop

    People change. Fact.

    People are maturing, changing, developing beings. How ironic that we fashion static job descriptions and rigid organizational charts for these dynamic, ever-becoming beings.

    This week’s “hard fact” to face about working with people is that people need to grow and develop in their jobs and their responsibilities.

    What is boredom at work but the need for something more challenging?

    What is criticism but the developing ability to see what’s not working and come up with alternatives?

    If positions could grow and develop as the person holding the position grows and develops, we would find ourselves with with more motivated, more invested and more loyal employees.

    What opportunities to learn and develop have you incorporated into your company? What opportunities to learn and develop can you find or create for yourself?

    Listen in.

    Just now joining the conversation? Catch up on the entire series here.

  • Karl Shares Six Words… #42


    Coping one donut at a time.

     

    Karl Edwards

  • Thought Leaders Unpacked -> The Answer to How is Yes #7: Claiming Full Citizenship

    thought-leadersThis is the chapter my soul has been waiting for.

    While the process of “growing up” didn’t sit well with Block, it describes my internal state incredibly well.

    I can feel the tension between complaining that positional leaders don’t see me on the one hand, and simply, freely, and boldly taking action on my values, convictions and ideas on the other.

    I can also feel the personal grief and internal resistance to Block’s assertion that growing up involves accepting “that living out our values and also winning the approval of those who have power over us, is an unfulfillable longing.”

    I don’t know where that “longing” comes from, but I can recognize it in myself.

    This is what I love about reading together. I get the opportunity to recognize in the vocabulary, experiences, and frames of reference of others what I have up until now not been seeing in myself.

    Block points to a different sort of maturity here. I would call is a form of poise. A centeredness. A peace about who I am and how different I am from most everyone around me.

    The significance of this poise is that suffices for taking bold action regardless of (more…)

  • Loving Monday: Inserting a Warm Word in a Cold World

    loving_mondayIt would probably catch everyone off guard.

    Out of the blue, or so it would seem, you blurt out, “You really know your stuff. Thank you for all you contribute.”

    Or when she’s not looking, you sneak up and announce, “I couldn’t do this without you.”

    Even more inexplicably, you confess, “This team is one of the things I love most about this job.”

    It can be a cold world. Tight deadlines. Tighter margins. Nasty vendors. Nastier clients. And a tough economy to boot.

    We are busy. We are stressed. We are juggling multiple responsibilities, and it’s taking our full focus not to drop anything.

    It’s into this cold world that a warm word can make the difference between surviving and thriving.

    To hear that one’s ideas are appreciated, that one’s contribution is recognized, or that one’s presence is valued can transform a stressed, weary, minimal effort into an energetic and passionate engagement.

    We get caught up in the busyness and stress of the job’s intensity ourselves. It is easy to forget that people run on more than a paycheck to keep their motivation and energy levels up.

    Yes, it would be nice if someone directed a warm word your way. In the mean time, though, take the initiative yourself and insert a warm word into someone else’s otherwise cold world.

    Looking for a simple structure to guide your words? Download a copy of our “Say Thank You and Mean It” tool. (click here)

    Let me know what happens!

    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.