Karl Edwards presents Working Matters

Category: Working Matters

  • Listen In -> Influencing Others #2: Clarity and Buy-in to the Mission

    The key to effective accountability is not threats or sanctions, but a clear vision of the future.

    Who you are, why you exist, where you are going and how you intend to get there as an organization.

    Of course, having a clear organizational mission is helpful only to the extent you have buy-in from the rest of the team. We need our teams to pour their hearts and souls into the effort, not merely rent us their hands and feet.

    In this week’s podcast conversation, Claudia and I discuss the power and importance of these two crucial aspects of your organization’s mission: clarity and buy-in.

    Listen in.

    powered by ODEO

  • Toxic at the Extremes

    Operating at any extreme rarely works well.

    Empowerment and accountability as extremes are toxic. As partners they are generative.

    Authority and resources for making an individual contribution along with expectations for achieving specific results.

    Empowerment alone is a recipe for chaos, diluted focus, and the tyranny of individual entitlement agendas. Accountability alone is a recipe for abusive manipulation, unrealistic and unfair standards, and begrudged work efforts.

    But get ready for an explosion of energy, engagement and results when you hold empowerment and accountability in creative tension with each other.

    Claudia and I are discussing this right now in our current podcast series on Influencing Others. Be sure to click on the player in the right column and listen in.

    How do you combine the extension of authority and resources to empower individual contribution along with the expectations and accountability to achieve specific results?

  • Listen In -> Influencing Others #1: Empowerment and Accountability

    The solution is a tension. When it comes to influencing others, there are no shortcuts.

    If you were hoping for tips on how to manipulate people into doing much more for much less and then thanking you for the privilege, you’ll probably be disappointed with our current podcast series on Influencing Others.

    Join us as we discuss a powerful and inseparable relationship between empowerment and accountability. A total commitment to results and achieving the mission of the organization on the one hand, and a total commitment to trust and creating a place where people engage fully and bring everything they have to the table on the other.

    Over the next four weeks, we will be discussing:

    1. Empowerment and Accountability
    2. Clarity and Buy-in to the Mission
    3. Clarity and Commitment to the Team
    4. Organizing for Trust and Results

    Listen in.

    powered by ODEO

  • What Happened to Monday?

    Happy FaceI always feel a day behind after a three-day weekend.

    It’s Tuesday, and while I thoroughly enjoyed Monday with my family, part of me wants Monday back.

    I can’t do Monday planning on Tuesday! I need to have a certain amount of momentum by now. And to top it all off, I lost my procrastination wiggle-room.

    I’ll survive, of course. But for all the flexibility and willingness to adjust that I recommend for the poised leader, I’m feeling remarkably out of my routine today.

    How do you get back into the groove after being away?

  • Freedom Is The Key To Engaging Responsibility

    ResponsibilityResponsibility is a reflection of freedom, not control.

    Any obliging of oneself is responsible to the extent that it is an act of freedom. If coerced, forced or manipulated, the responsibility shifts to the controlling party.

    Leaders mistakenly believe that they can delegate responsibility without granting the freedom to choose. “Do this and do it in this way.”

    Some even wonder why their assignment is not greeted with more enthusiasm and appreciation. Bewildered by the ingratitude and (more…)

  • The Besetting Sins of Leaders… Who Me?!

    Insightful Link“You will hear no excuses from me!” is our watch word here at Bold Enterprises. My coaching clients know with what passion I insist that the key to changing your leadership results lies in changing yourself.

    Every once in a while, we catch ourselves sabotaging our own efforts: not following through, side-stepping difficult issues, under-selling ourselves, and so the list goes on.

    Unwilling to blame others or make excuses, we need tools to help us examine what we are doing that is not serving us well.

    Check out this post over at Slow Leadership, On Besetting Sins and Accepting Fake Success. An insightful analysis of “missing the target” as a leader. Whether dealing with a single misstep to correct or a developing character flaw that is undermining your effectiveness, make the series of questions at the end of the post your own.

    You can change the world if you are willing to begin with yourself.

    On your side,

    – Karl

  • Listen In -> Strategic Planning #5: A Matter of Perspective

    When finding one’s way through the forest, it can help to get to higher ground for a vantage point from which to get some perspective.

    The final segment of our podcast series on strategic planning has to do with perspective. Perspective and multiple perspectives at that.

    The more angles from which you can view a plan, project or issue, the more options you give yourself. Stepping back for the big picture. Zooming in on the particulars. Walking alongside an emerging and unfolding scenario.

    Listen in.

    powered by ODEO

  • Blind Without New Perspectives

    PerspectiveLeaders often assert that they are “big picture” people and can’t be bothered with details.

    But perspective does not work that way.

    Beside the fact that any time a leader says he or she can’t be bothered with something, it is a significant clue that they are out of their element and making an excuse.

    We are learning that there are more perspectives than merely the traditional forest versus the trees, or whether I’m standing in my shoes or yours.

    What about the perspective of an unfolding future? Whether standing still or in motion ourselves, life, relationships, technology, laws, personal health, our competitors, the economy are all changing around us. As the future unfolds, how and where do our choices fit in and become part of what takes form?

    How, as a leader, do you pay attention to an unfolding future and consider its implications to your business?

    What about the perspective of human development and maturity? However sound our organizational charts and however well-defined our job descriptions, the individuals who embody those lists are continually developing, learning and expanding their capacities.

    How, as a leader, do these individual developmental trajectories inform your planning, business development, and/or strategic thinking?

    What other perspectives should we be considering?

  • Sorting Through the Voices

    What distracts and overwhelms me when I try to focus are all the voices.

    The projects that shout for attention. The connections that whine about their perceived neglect. The calls still unanswered, the thank-you notes yet to be written, and the mail lying unopened, all cry out for my time and energy.

    And while all that is urgent make their incessant demands, the dreams quietly begin to fade before I have a chance to capture the essence of their initial power and vitality.

    Hence the attraction of being freed to focus on the present. But focus can’t happen in a vacuum. There are too many voices with too many persuasive arguments clamoring like email spam or celebrity paparazzi. I need the perspective of the past and the future to inform the present. To help me sort through the voices. To find my own voice in the tumult and then to speak up and declare what I choose for today.

    Catch up on the entire Strategic Planning series here.

  • Listen In -> Strategic Planning #4: Focusing On The Present

    Yesterday and tomorrow help us choose a better today.

    In this week’s podcast conversation, Claudia and I discuss how we have freed ourselves to focus on the present. Reflectively learning from the past and actively designing the future frees me up to laser focus on the present.

    Instead of being buffeted from all sides by the demands of the moment, my perspective provides criteria for making choices. Criteria enable us to rank priorities. Priorities enable us to schedule tasks.

    Become a more strategic planner today. Listen in.

    powered by ODEO