Karl Edwards presents Working Matters

Author: Karl Edwards

  • Loving Monday: Who Brought The Donuts?

    loving_mondayOkay, maybe donuts aren’t the healthiest treat someone could bring into the office this morning. But talk about easy wins!

    If you’re looking for a low cost , low energy idea to give the team a simple morale boost, then donuts are the management secret you’ve been waiting for.

    It’s hard to explain why this one treat’s impact is so out of proportion with either the effort required to provide it or its nutritional value. But it’s hard to argue with the stampede to the lunch room when word gets out.

    Maybe the lesson donuts offer us is that showing appreciation, being kind, and/or changing things up at work is much simpler than we think. If you’re waiting until it’s time to award Christmas bonuses or until you can afford a knock-out company retreat, then you might be missing the myriad of simple, everyday expressions of acknowledgment, validation, attentiveness, interest, humor, sensitivity, and camaraderie that win hearts, build trust and renew spirits.

    While you’re at it, get a few extra glazed. They’re my favorite.

  • The Gift of Work -> Chapter 4: You Are Here. God As Our Reference Point

    thought-leadersIntegration. A whole person whose whole life flows out of and reflects a common core. A complex and beautiful tapestry, whose many and seemingly unrelated threads combine in a single yet endlessly creative and generative work of art.

    gift-of-work1Many of us who share a Christian spirituality struggle to relate our faith and our work. They seem to function in separate categories, and that’s just fine with us thank you very much. The links our religious leaders suggest (be ethical, strive for excellence, convert co-workers, etc.) feel like a reach and we intuit the deep disconnect.

    Bill Heatley suggests an insightful and helpful alternative. Instead of two separate compartments that need to be connected, he offers God as the reference point out of which and from which all of life flows.

    To the extent that we are familiar with, deeply connected to, and highly interactive with this one (more…)

  • Question of the Week

    How will postponing this decision—in order to gather more information—really improve the decision you end up making?

    The Question of the Week is offered to increase awareness of one’s personal leadership practices and encourage experimentation with creative alternatives.

  • Listen In -> Tangible Accountability #1: How Politicians and CEO’s Have It Backwards

    Accountability has gotten a bad reputation.

    It’s associated either with finding people to blame after a huge mess has been made, or used as an excuse to micromanage and second-guess along the way.

    Accountability is an important, positive, constructive component of healthy working cultures.

    But it is neither the public shaming that the President promises for any who misspend the economic stimulus funds, nor the power-grabbing oversight that so many executives and politicians want in order to countermand anything they disagree with.

    What then is “Tangible Accountability?” How does accountability become a positive, constructive force for accomplishing what a company intends?

    Over the next five weeks Claudia and I will be discussing:

    Tangible Accountability

    Week 1: How CEO’s and Politicians Have It Backwards

    Week 2: Structures That Build In Actual Results

    Week 3: Relationships That Build In Constructive Support

    Week 4: Motivators That Build In Lifelong Learning

    Week 5: Criteria That Builds In Meaningful Measurement

    Listen in.

  • When Crisis Presents Opportunity #2: ReConnecting With The People In Your Life

    people-connectIn our last newsletter I posed the question, what if the current financial crisis were to present an opportunity?

    We first looked at the opportunity that may lie in some creative re-visioning of ourselves and our professional contribution. (Read the previous article here.)

    We turn our attention secondly to what opportunity might lie in doing some relational research. We do not need to find our way through this financial morass alone. While not every acquaintance, friend or family member can be the source of your next job, these connections can be more valuable than you think.

    When we place too much pressure on relationships at time of need, networking can feel contrived and manipulative. Where have we been all this time?

    But if in the course of life we stay in touch with people on a casual, personal, yet (more…)

  • Loving Monday: Checking In With Others

    loving_mondayIf you’ve got a big workload staring you in the face this week, it can be wise to hide somewhere that you can focus and push without the distraction of others.

    While an excellent strategy in principle, first thing Monday morning might not be the best time to implement it in practice.

    To hide away before checking in with the others on the team leaves an unnecessary communication gap. Someone might need a decision from you before they can take their work forward. Someone else may need some information out of your office. A third might want to coordinate an upcoming event or meeting with your calendar.

    Checking in with others before you lock yourself away is a practical vehicle for communicating that you are a part of the team even while you have something to do alone.

    Checking in with others doesn’t need to be time consuming. You will want to communicate three simple things:

    1. Greet with sincere words of interest in how they’re doing and what their week ahead looks like.
    2. Inform that you plan to work alone until 3:00 p.m. or so in order to “focus and push” on a project, and that their understanding and support would be appreciated.
    3. Ask if there’s anything they need from you before you “disappear” for a while.

    Loving Monday is easier for everyone when we make the effort to acknowledge that others’ work is as important as our own.

  • The Gift of Work -> Chapter 3: Redefining Success

    thought-leadersMy head spins with all the different definitions of success out there. Even if I can think myself through their various fallacies, the measures of success in this culture still haunt and lure and accuse.

    gift-of-work1What I need, though, is not another critique of the culture’s twists and perversions of the truth. Nor, on the other hand, do I need another vague, conceptual affirmation of the eternal biblical principles by which my work should find its purpose, motivations and methods.

    So I especially enjoyed Heatley using four work-based categories, (success, competition, loyalty and service) to think through the shortcomings in most workplaces and the alternatives a faith-based perspective would contribute.

    While I agree that “love” holds the key to unlocking the creative juices that will eventually result in a plethora of practical alternatives emerging in workplaces around the world, I’m anxious to get on to brainstorming what these practical alternatives might be.

    For example, let’s take a variety of workplace processes: hiring, training, firing, planning, meetings, compensation, performance reviews, approval processes, budgeting, adopting new technologies, etc., and having teams work through what those need to look like if we’re to achieve, “market strength, employee focus and customer value.” In other words, put some feet on love in the context of work.

    How do you find ways to give practical form to your faith-based values at work, in the context of work’s issues, processes and structures, and within a culture where work is a daily reality on which our survival depends?

    Each Friday I post my reflections from one chapter of The Gift of Work by Bill Heatley. If you are just joining the discussion now, welcome! Catch up on the entire series here.

  • Question of the Week

    How might your receptionist serve as a key source of information about how clients experience your firm?

    The Question of the Week is offered to increase awareness of one’s personal leadership practices and encourage experimentation with creative alternatives.

  • What’s Wrong When You’re Always Right?

    insightful-linkHave you ever been in a meeting with a leader who is always right?

    Any new idea is dismissed or destroyed before it’s barely uttered. The logic of these leaders is irrefutable. Their conclusions obvious. The discussion is over before it even started.

    It isn’t long before the group stops generating new ideas altogether.

    Could you be one of these leaders?

    Have you stopped hearing ideas different from your own? Have opposing points of view disappeared from your meetings? Are your initiatives met with silent, listless compliance?

    Check out this article by Ellen Weber, “Hear Voices on the Other Side?” She asserts that, “human brains default back to ruts.” You may be inadvertently cutting yourself off from voices different than your own.

    I think you’ll appreciate her insights on how your brain works… for you or against you.

    On your side,

    – Karl

  • American Idol Savvy: From Zero to Hero

    IdolThere’s something to say for sheer determination.

    Determination to stay in the game. Determination to play at the top of one’s game.

    How close to being eliminated has Anoop Desai come over the last several weeks? He didn’t get the votes to make the top 9 chosen by the viewers. He was the last wild card contestant announced and surprise 13th overall. His first performance was panned by the judges, and the producers chose to him to stand with Jorge as the next most likely to be voted off.

    Enough to shake the confidence of the best of us. Not Anoop.

    He worked even harder. His energy and determination levels grew. He pulled together everything he had to violate one of the judges’ most sacred rules, “Don’t take on a haloed classic.” And he pulled it off to their astonished admiration.

    There’s something to say for sticking with something we love. Something we want. Something we’ve worked hard for. That others are doing better, getting more attention, experiencing more success cannot be the criteria by which we measure our own success.

    Until Anoop is voted off the show, he is very much still on the show and in the running… no matter what the odds… no matter how well the other contestants are singing… no matters what the pundits think. (Who would have believed Taylor Hicks had a chance?)

    Going from zero to hero involves not giving up on yourself. Are you pulling out of the game when you need to be adjusting your strategy and pushing harder? Are you disqualifying yourself by letting discouragement, long odds, or criticism from the sidelines drag you down?

    You know you’re good. You know you have a lot to offer.

    What do you do to up your game, bolster your confidence, or push from a different direction? What do you need to go from zero to hero?

    On your side,

    – Karl