Karl Edwards presents Working Matters

Category: Working Matters

  • Loving Monday: Adjust or Die

    loving_mondayMelodramatic? Maybe.

    What do you do when you aren’t getting the results you want?

    The results of your leadership style. The results from your sales strategy. The results from your planning efforts. The results of your tireless efforts.

    Some goals are so important that you can’t, won’t and shouldn’t give up on them. But to continue proceeding toward those goals in a way that is not working is as counter-productive as giving up altogether.

    The space in between giving up altogether and doggedly pushing ahead is where there is room for adjusting.

    We have to try new things. Do things differently. Redescribe the outcomes. Reframe the issues. Rethink our approach.

    We have to be willing to adjust.

    Adjusting is a project-saving, if not a life-saving, form of flexibility. The ability to adjust injects learning right into the bloodstream of our organizations. Learning on the job, on the fly, in the moment, when it counts, when learning can make a difference.

    The alternative is analogous to Sisyphus pushing the boulder up the hill only to have it roll back down every time. Frustrating, exhausting, futile.

    If you’re not seeing any alternative to either giving up or pushing the next boulder up the hill, give a call. Let’s take a look at what you’re doing and unearth the possibilities that you’re not seeing from your current vantage point.

    It’s probably time to make an adjustment.

    On your side,

    – Karl

  • Loving Monday: Stretching… Just a Tiny Little Bit

    loving_mondayI do a chin-up every Friday.

    Okay, maybe not a championship exercise routine, but, in an unexpected way, I actually am getting a tiny bit more exercise than I was previously.

    My daughter and I go out for breakfast just the two of us once a week. After eating we take a walk and pass a set of chin-up bars at the local park. Hence my unplanned but now regular pause for a chin-up.

    What’s interesting is not that I’ve arrived at any great discipline here, but that I’ve chanced upon a small but real change to which I now look forward. While running the entire exercise course at the park feels out of reach, painful, and would necessitate what seems like a gargantuan adjustment in my schedule to incorporate, I’m actually doing my small, playful weekly chin-up.

    What if we started each week at work by trying one small change? One tiny little stretch outside our comfort zone.

    Remove the pressure of having to take on wholesale, gigantic, systematic change. Go for something attractive, fun, simple, at hand.

    One small adjustment. One tiny experiment.

    Offer a compliment to the first person you see. Before taking your seat, throw one item away. Call one contact you haven’t spoken to in over a year just to say hi.

    Only on Mondays. Only once. Don’t push to expand. Just enjoy watching what happens when you stretch a tiny little bit.

    (Check out this related post, Try Something New.)

  • Thought Leaders Unpacked -> Integrity #3: Integrity Itself

    thought-leadersRunning on all cylinders.

    What a great image. Fully engaged. Functioning as intended. No component sitting idle or causing problems.

    So many of our images of success are lifeless, driven, stressed, remote models of the meta-competent hero who is somehow better at everything than everyone else.

    Running on all cylinders is attractive, alive, and energetic. It is not necessarily connected with being in charge, on top, winning over others, or achieving celebrity status

    Integrity, by Henry CloudWhat would it be like to be playing at the top of my game? What if that involved being more comfortable in my own skin? Instead of putting on the professional persona of what “everyone” thinks the successful leader looks like, I simply function out of a healthier, sounder, more fully developed, balanced and grounded sense of who I genuinely am myself.

    Very attractive.

    My primary take-away from this chapter is having my own desire to improve and learn aroused. Instead of feeling that character and integrity are lofty ideals that are out of my reach, I come away drawn to change and intrigued by the potential for effective performance emerging from a deeper, sounder place within myself.

    The challenge with any professional development process is to feel encouraged and energized by the potential for improvement instead of discouraged or defeated by the distance yet to travel.

    Where are you on the spectrum from feeling motivated and encouraged to improve yourself at one end to defeated and discouraged at the other end? What was your main take-away from this chapter?

    – Karl

    Each Friday I post my reflections from one chapter of Integrity: The Courage to Meet the Demands of Reality by Henry Cloud. If you are just joining the discussion now, welcome! Catch up on the entire series here.

  • Coffee with Karl… A Win-Win For This Summer

    coffeeI’m doing research for a book I’m writing on a new approach to career development. Many of you have already benefited from this approach in our coaching together.

    In order to get my creative juices flowing and test whether my methods are effective, I’m inviting anyone who’d like to stop by for some free advice.

    This summer I’ll be at the 18th Street Coffee House in Santa Monica every Wednesday morning from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. (See map.)

    You’ll get to help me with my project, and I’ll get to help you with a pressing issue in your job or career.

    Stop by and let’s enjoy some coffee together. Bring a question, an issue, or just your good company.

    I hope to see you on Wednesday!

  • Loving Monday: Comic Book Superhero?

    loving_mondayIt’s the last week of school for the kids. Nothing is normal.

    My high school senior needs to be at school at a different time for a different purpose every day this week. My middle school senior—yes two graduations this year—still needs to be dropped off at the crack of dawn.

    Am I supposed to be effective at work with all this stopping and starting, coming and going, switching between contexts and roles like a comic book super hero?

    We all wear a variety of hats and assume a range of identities for the many roles we play at work, home, in our faith communities, and in our various social networks. But the willingness, agility and poise to make these sudden shifts are not always as simple as they seem to be for the comic book superheroes.

    But is the real life superhero, the one for whom their instant, often sacrificial choices saved the day in the end? Or is the real life hero the person simply willing to make an instant, often sacrificial choice?

    What validates the decisions we make in the midst of our complicated schedules, competing priorities, and unexpected demands, is not that the complicated becomes straightforward or the competing become ordered or the unexpected becomes regular. What validates our decisions is that we step to the plate and make them.

    We don’t get to know ahead of time the outcome of all we choose. But such uncertainty doesn’t release us from still having to make the choice. Choose and choose again. And as soon as we see a choice not working out as we intended, adjust and choose again.

    And so my schedule is undergoing its biannual massive shift around the school schedule. Life might be easier and my work might be more effective if such were not my situation. But my reality involves change, so I must face the change and adjust accordingly. Maybe not with the agility of a comic book superhero, but to the extent that I face the facts and deal with them… a hero nonetheless.

  • Thought Leaders Unpacked -> Integrity #2: Character, Integrity and Reality

    thought-leadersImages don’t get any better than this. The wake a boat leaves as it plows through the water.

    We also leave a wake as we plow through our day at work. It’s an interesting fact to consider.

    Integrity, by Henry CloudWith this simple analogy Cloud equips us with a non-judgmental tool for thinking about our impact on others. I don’t know about you, but when I sense the “blame game” in the vicinity, my defenses go up and I shift out of learning mode and into self-protection mode.

    But that I leave a wake is just a fact. It raises the question that Cloud asks us to consider, which is “What sort of wake to I leave?” A question I am free to consider and learn from. Any learning or adjusting I do as a result of my reflection is my own. With this simple question I am empowered to coach myself.

    My second main take-away from this chapter is that the demands of reality determine the requirements of the design. By defining character as my ability to meet the demands of reality, Cloud switches up the motivational equation for me.

    I already want to be able to meet the demands of reality. No one has to convince me. There are no moral constructs someone else is asking me to adopt. I am by my own desire to fully engage with my own life predisposed to what might help prepare me for the journey ahead.

    When I hear that the depth, breadth, and substance of my character are key to meeting the demands of reality, I want to invest in the development, strengthening and exercise of my character.

    The pressures of a private consulting practice, a family experiencing a variety of transitions and a desire to develop a plethora of ideas for transforming the workplace in America, often leave me dizzy from spinning in so many directions. I want to engage of each of these fronts. I want to make the next set of choices required by each, and then the next set and the next.

    The quality and effectiveness of engagement will arise from within… from what sort of character I have… or don’t. Yet.

    What was your main take-away from Chapter 2?

    Each Friday I post my reflections from one chapter of Integrity: The Courage to Meet the Demands of Reality by Henry Cloud. If you are just joining the discussion now, welcome! Catch up on the entire series here.

  • Loving Monday: The Summer Season

    loving_mondayJust two more weeks of school for my kids. Some of your kids are finished already.

    The summer season requires a number of adjustments in our schedules, approaches and attitudes. The kids are off school. The vacations start picking up in earnest. The traffic patterns themselves change.

    Everyone is affected. Even if you don’t have kids or already went on vacation, the fact that so many others around you do and are will have its impact on you.

    If we have a seasonal approach to the working year, summer adjustments are experienced as an expected acquaintance rather than an abrupt intruder. It’s a matter of perspective. It’s a decision about attitude. Keeping the seasons in mind is a form of preparation.

    You know what to expect when summer arrives and are ready. You have methods for adjusting schedules to accommodate vacations. You know who is away dropping kids off at day camp. You are not thrown off guard by the afternoon telephone calls arbitrating sibling warfare or helping someone deal with their boredom.

    Seasons. Rhythms. They are our reality. The sooner we accept them and work alongside instead of against their flow, the sooner we can find our own productivity rhythm .

    Two more weeks and everything changes. I’m getting ready. Are you?

  • Listen In -> Job Hunting in a Difficult Market #4: Your Job Hunting Strategy

    You’ve made a decision.

    You are not going to let the climate of fear in the economy discourage your job hunt.

    When our ideal dream job is not available, what are our alternatives? Disappointment or devastation are not very helpful ways forward, even if they describe how we feel at the moment.

    This week Claudia and I discuss how to decide what to do “in the mean time.” Not just waiting out the recession in a lousy job, but using our transferable skills as building blocks on the way to a better position.

    What about an imperfect position where you can learn new skills? What about a less than ideal role where you can establish helpful connections?

    Listen in.

  • Stop By and Say Hi

    This week we’re asking those of you listening to our podcast to stop by and say hi.

    Many of you are listening via an iTunes subscription or a feed reader, and we haven’t had a chance to meet.

    Leave a comment on this post letting us know who you are and where you’re located.

    We’d love to acknowledge you and greet you in return. We appreciate your participation in the Working Matters community.

    On your side,

    The Working Matters podcast team

    – Karl, Claudia and Jorge

  • Thought Leaders Unpacked -> Integrity #1: The Three Essentials

    thought-leadersCompetence. Alliances. Character. The “three essentials.”

    While affirming the crucial importance of the first two characteristics of successful people, Henry Cloud introduces his book, Integrity: The Courage to Meet the Demands of Reality, with the spotlight on character.

    Integrity, by Henry CloudThe significance of this insight to these times of economic turmoil is huge. I would suggest that it was competent, well-connected professionals who lacked the third essential, character, who got us into this mess. People who could carry out their functions and leverage the systems with spectacular agility, but who did not know for what or for whom (other than themselves) or to what end they worked so hard.

    The timing for such a book as this could not be more significant. The value of such a discussion (more…)