Karl Edwards presents Working Matters

Author: Karl Edwards

  • Loving Monday: Who’s Setting the Tone If You Aren’t?

    loving_mondayWho’s setting the tone at work today?

    Anyone?

    If someone isn’t setting the tone intentionally, then it is probably being set by the first three things that happen this morning.

    Should the first three things that happen be an unexpected deadline change, an angry client, and an assistant gone AWOL, you’re in for a rough day!

    What if, though, you set the tone for your day? What if you were to choose—before even arriving at work—what sort of attitude, perspective and demeanor with which you were going to approach your day?

    Instead of waiting to react to whatever might be going on at the office, you would be taking the initiative to be one of the actors that everyone else reacts to.

    You would be taking the initiative on your own behalf and also on the behalf of the entire office culture.

    In this scenario, when the unexpected deadline change gets announced, the angry client yells at you, or the assistant goes AWOL right when you needed their help, you will deal with these unfortunate and difficult experiences from the healthy, positive, and constructive frame of reference you chose earlier.

    It’s your choice either way you look at it.

    You can choose to let circumstances set the tone for you, or you can choose the tone from which you will set into the day’s circumstances.

    Which brings us back to the original question: Who’s setting the tone at work today if you aren’t?

    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.

  • Complicit In My Own Diminishment?

    Bold Question MarkTo what extent might I be selling out my own dreams, ideals and unique capabilities in order to impress prospective employers?

    “Part of the price of becoming a transaction is that we allow our value to be defined by others: an organization, a boss, a recruiter, a partner, a lover.” Peter Block

  • Karl Shares Six Words… #33


    Idealism and practicality conspire before dawn.

     

    Karl Edwards

  • Quote to Consider: The Clever and The Fools

    quote-to-consider“There are no accidents so unlucky from which clever people are not able to reap some advantage, and none so lucky that the foolish are not able to turn them to their own disadvantage.”

    Francois de La Rochefoucauld

  • Thought Leaders Unpacked -> The Answer to How is Yes #3: Defenses Against Acting

    thought-leadersFreedom is a funny thing. While a vocational aspiration for many of us, the implication that when free we bear full responsibility for our lives is often too much to bear.

    Hence chapter three. Chapter three is where we get the opportunity to check our spoken aspirations against our actual behavior.

    I often have myself convinced that I want one thing, and then find that I am acting in such a way that sabotages or contradicts my own desires.

    Block does a nice job of pulling out several of these behaviors that work against our dreams.

    When swimming around in my own head, it is easy for me to convince myself about the sincerity and passion of my desires.

    When confronted with a behavior, like seeking the approval of those in power or collecting “enough” data to make an informed decision, I have a tool for reconnecting myself to reality.

    I have a tool to help me shift my focus away from those things that are outside of my control back to my own choices which are in my control.

    I have a tool help me notice when I am giving away my power or shifting responsibility off of myself. I don’t need to beat myself up for doing so, as much I need to celebrate catching myself in the act, so to speak, earlier than later.

    The good news of chapter three is that I don’t have to stay blind to the subtle means I employ to avoid what I want. The sooner I can spot a fear, an escape, a defense, an excuse, or a weakness, the sooner I can address it.

    The sooner I address my “defenses against action” the sooner I’m back to taking action and on the way to being, living and making the unique contribution that I have to offer the world.

    Which of Block’s defenses against action do you relate most closely with? How can you reframe an excuse you’ve been making to avoid responsibility into an opportunity to embrace responsibility?

    What was your main take-away from this chapter?

    Each week I post my reflections from one chapter of The Answer to How is Yes by Peter Block. My reflections are my own and are intended to generate conversation, catalyze additional thinking and encourage mutual learning.
    If you are just joining the discussion now, welcome! Catch up on the entire series here.

  • Karl Shares Six Words… #32


    First agenda: twelve items, one completed.


    Karl Edwards

  • Listen In -> Fake Goals #5: Goals That Are Double Standards

    Probably the most subtly evil of the fake goals are the ones which are double standards.

    The goals that you hold everyone to account except yourself.

    As attractive as the option might be to those who think their position entitles them to certain flexibility as regards their own accountability, it is a credibility-destroyer.

    First, double standards undermine any positive motivation your team may have been able to derive out of having a set of ambitious goals.

    Once you remove yourself from the accountable team, the motivation shifts from achievement to measurement; and the focus shifts from working hard to avoiding judgment.

    Secondly, you just fired yourself from the team. You put yourself on a different team. Instead of you being accountable for ensuring the team’s success, you make the team accountable for your success.

    I promise you, they won’t embrace that responsibility enthusiastically. Instead of getting 110% from a highly motivated team, you will barely get 51% (or whatever you passing grade is).

    Listen in.

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

  • Karl Shares Six Words… #31


    Suppressing her joy guarding fragile egos.


    Karl Edwards

  • Quote to Consider: My Soul’s Deepest Cry

    quote-to-consider“I must create a system or be enslaved by another mans; I will not reason and compare: my business is to create.”

    William Blake