Popcorn aroma interrupts his pedantic diatribe.
Karl Edwards
Category: Working Matters
-
Loving Monday: Kids Pulling in Different Directions
Imagine that each of the tasks you need to complete today is a small child pulling at your arms. Not only pulling, but all pulling in different directions.Being small children they are not reasoning with you calmly or waiting patiently to take turns. They are screaming and begging and tugging for all they’re worth.
No matter which child (task) you choose to go with, all the others are going to scream and pull all the harder.You don’t stand a chance. You lose no matter what you choose.
And so some of us try to go in all directions at once. Give a little something to every child.
You can see what is going to happen. Pulled in every direction, you go nowhere at all.
We need to do one thing at a time. This involves making a choice.
We need to address the angry, screaming “kids” who have to wait. This involves a conversation.
When we are willing to choose and converse, we put ourselves in a position to make concrete progress on our to-do list.
Working on one thing at a time allows us to focus and follow through. No partial efforts. No incomplete processes. No hanging decisions.
Conversing with the other, unchosen priorities (whether people on the team or voices in our heads) allows us to assure them of their importance so that they don’t need to kick and scream in order to be noticed.
Next time you have a to-do list longer than Santa’s, imagine yourself in the center of a group of screaming children pulling you in all directions at once.
The fantasy of being able to actually move in every direction at once quickly explodes. (Hopefully in laughter.)
Make a choice and have a conversation.
You’ll be amazed at how much you get done 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.
-
Quote to Consider: Not Enough Time!
“There is time enough for everything in the course of the day if you do but one thing at once; but there is not time enough in the year if you will do two things at a time.”Lord Chesterfield
-
Karl Shares Six Words… #48
Copies in file, laptop, server, cloud.
Karl Edwards
-
Loving Monday: Who’s Got Your Back?
Who’s got your back?It’s a challenge to stay fully engaged and keep working hard when we feel we’re on our own.
We need friends. We need fans. We need allies. We need cohorts. We need cheerleaders. We need partners. We need loyalists.
We need to know that someone is on our side.Who is that person for you?
Who’s got your back when you’ve made a mistake and need an advocate?
Who’s got your back when you need a leg up, an encouraging word, or some cover from criticism?
Whose name comes to mind for you? Anyone?
If no one comes to mind, then consider building a couple closer relationships. It doesn’t have to be anything major or intimate.
What you want is to begin building rapport, comfort in conversation, and trust in communication.
You will be surprised at how much trust expressing interest is what someone else is doing will earn you.
Going it alone is going the hard way.
Who can you show some support to 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.
-
Quote to Consider: Summing Up Commuting
“Commuter – One who spends his life in riding to and from his wife; a man who shaves and takes a train, and then rides back to shave again.”E. B. White
-
Karl Shares Six Words… #47
Creativity punished as insubordination yet again.
Karl Edwards
-
Movie Review: Finding Joe
I saw a wonderful movie recently and I want to use it as an excuse to send you over to my new personal blog… both because it’s been a number of years since I’ve published a moreÂ
personal set of reflections and because the movie is as pertinent here on Working Matters as it is there.
The movie is Finding Joe, and I recommend it highly. Click here to read my review.
The blog is called, Karl on Life, and is me thinking out loud about the rest of life… which also matters as much as—if not more than—Working Matters.
– Karl Edwards
-
Loving Monday: When Showing Up Involves Taking a Risk
Most all of us will show up bodily at work today.But will we be there in spirit?
With business leaders being as embarrassingly insecure as they are, there can be enormous risk in fully showing up at work.
To enthusiastically contribute one’s skills, talents, gifts and passions in many workplaces is to inadvertently remind one’s supervisor that they do not possess those same attributes.A few—might I add, smart—leaders celebrate having team members whose skills complement their own.
Most, though, seem distressingly threatened.
Hence the tragic risk of showing up fully.
I have a friend whose initiative, creativity, and hard work ethic is being interpreted as aggression, arrogance, and an effort to make others look bad.
Go figure. Is it his job to make his boss feel more secure? Of course not.
But can he ignore the reality that someone with more positional power than him keeps misreading his style and contributions? Absolutely not.
Some of us end up laying low, if not hiding, in order not to ruffle feathers or be misunderstood.
Everyone loses when this happens.
How can you  be both true to yourself and take into account the perception challenges insecure leadership poses to your efforts?
How can you both muster the courage to show up fully at work and also participate in the shaping of how those efforts are perceived?
Such are the risks of choosing to show up in spirit as well as in body.
The risk may not pay off. Such is the unpredictable nature of other peoples’ insecurities.
On the other hand, the risk may both earn you the respect of your supervisor and set a healthier tone for an entirely new way of working together.
You’ll never know until you try. You already know that waiting for your supervisor to change is futile.
We need to you to show up today. Do yourself and the rest of us the favor of taking that risk.
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: Earth-shaking Sensitivity
“Keep the other person’s well-being in mind when you feel an attack of soul-purging truth coming on.”Betty White