Karl Edwards presents Working Matters

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  • Engage Fully: You Owe It To Yourself

    insightful-linkJust because your boss doesn’t remember your name, doesn’t mean that your name shouldn’t still represent the best that is within you.

    Just because your employer will lay you off the very moment their cash flow slows, doesn’t mean that you don’t give your best right up to that moment.

    You do this not because you owe anything to your employer, but because you owe it to yourself.

    I came across a great article this morning, A Year-End Commitment: Engage Yourself wherein Susan Cramm at the Harvard Business Review makes a great case for showing up fully engaged at work simply because that is what kind of person you are.

    Check it out.

  • Quote to Consider: On Speaking Up

    quote-to-consider“Half the world is composed of people who have something to say and can’t and the other half who have nothing to say and keep on saying it.”

    Robert Frost

  • Meeting Planner Announcement!

    meeting_plannerThe Meeting Planner is here!

    We’re proud to announce a new tool from Bold Enterprises!

    The Meeting Planner is the practical workbook you’ve been looking for. Designed especially for leaders who want to focus discussions, increase team buy-in, and get things done.

    Transform your experience of meetings

    • Are meetings keeping you and your team OrderNowfrom your work without any discernible benefit?
    • Do your meetings go on and on without accomplishing much?
    • Are your meetings dominated by a talkative individual, high-jacked by a peripheral issue, or wasted by weak planning?

    The Meeting Planner provides a simple process and a helpful work space to:

    Before the meeting: Brainstorm and prioritize agenda items.
    During: Facilitate discussion that moves toward accomplishing outcomes and stays on schedule.
    Afterwards: Follow up on decisions made, tasks assigned and deadlines agreed upon.

    Not too late for Christmas!

    Still looking for a practical stocking stuffer for:

    • your boss
    • a co-worker
    • a valued client?

    Get yours today

    Get your Meeting Planner for only $14.95
    (sales tax and shipping added where applicable.)

    OrderNow

    If you’re local and want to avoid the shipping charge by picking up your copy, then feel free to email or phone your order!

    Bonus!

    Daily Focus PadThe first 25 orders will receive a free copy of our Daily Focus Pad.

    Please don’t hesitate to contact me directly with any questions you have.

    I think you’ll be very pleased with this new tool.

    On your side,

    – Karl


  • Listen In -> The Career Journey #2: Thinking in Terms of a Journey Instead of a Destination

    When one stands at the beginning of a trail, one does not expect to be able to see the end.

    In fact, on a trail new to us, we don’t even know what to expect along the way.

    Such is the nature of our career journeys as well.

    This week Claudia and I discuss the value of the journey metaphor as a tool for better career planning.

    Listen in.

  • Loving Monday: Holiday Madness

    loving_mondayThere’s still another week or so before we get some time off for the holidays.

    BUT…

    But it’s in the air. The spirit. The anticipation. The preparations. The madness.

    And you and I are supposed to remain productive at work! That’s funny.

    We need to change our definition of “productive” during the holiday season. I’m convinced it’s a losing battle to police productivity levels according to ordinary standards. There’s just too much going on. The wise leader recognizes the seasonal dynamic and adjusts.

    Both you and your team have people coming to town to visit or are planning to travel away. There is shopping to do and preparations to make. Some of us decorate. Some of us host parties. All of us are affected by the holiday madness.

    Having said that it is unrealistic to demand ordinary productivity during the holidays, neither do we have to throw out any expectations of job effectiveness altogether.

    Once we recognize that people are distracted by the holidays, we can adjust in ways that make room for the accompanying realities of these distractions. Providing some space during the day to take care of holiday business frees people to focus back on their jobs sooner and in higher spirits.

    Allowing longer lunch breaks, permitting some online shopping during work hours, relaxing about personal calls, and/or allowing people to use one of their sick days for personal use—are all ways to make room for the realities of the holiday season.

    Not only would you be building goodwill with your team, but with the holiday chores and accompanying stresses removed from the situation, everyone will be back to work with one less distraction.

    Choose the holiday spirit you want in your office! Holiday joy or holiday madness.

  • Quote to Consider: Make-Work is Fake-Work

    quote-to-consider“The pitcher cries for water to carry and a person for work that is real.”

    Marge Piercy

  • Thought Leaders Unpacked -> What the Dog Saw #3: Blowing Up

    thought-leadersChapter 3, entitled “Blowing Up,” was worth the price of the book. After lukewarmly enjoying the first two chapters, (and who really enjoys anything lukewarm?), I find myself in self-reflection heaven.

    What if a common cultural assumption were wrong?

    What-the-Dog-Saw

    What if you’d been evaluating your own ideas, actions, successes and/or failures against this fallacious standard?

    “We associate the willingness to risk great failure—and the ability to climb back from catastrophe—with courage.” (p. 75)

    What if, in fact, though…

    “There is more courage and heroism in defying the human impulse, in taking the purposeful and painful steps to prepare for the unimaginable.” (p. 75)

    Ouch. And then, after recovering from the unexpected punch below the belt, the relief of being released from a very restrictive prison system. (more…)

  • Listen In -> The Career Journey #1: Why the Traditional Categories Don’t Work Anymore

    Are you tired of people asking what you’re going to be when you grow up? I sure am.

    When considering career options if you feel things like, “I don’t fit any of the categories,” “I haven’t had enough experiences to know what I do and do not like,” or “There are too many rules, hoops to jump through, and games to play,” then this is the series for you!

    We start a new series this week entitled, “The Career Journey.” Join us as we discuss this new and helpful metaphor for a meaningful and rewarding lifelong professional journey.

    The Career Journey
    Week #1: Why the Traditional Categories Don’t Work Anymore
    Week #2: Thinking in Terms of a Journey Instead of a Destination
    Week #3: What If You Were the Most Important Clue?
    Week #4: Engaging Fully With Your Own Career Journey

    Listen in.

  • Loving Monday: I Want To Work Hard

    loving_mondayI want to work. I want to work hard.

    I want my work to be meaningful and rewarding. I want my work to charge me with as much energy as it requires from me.

    I want to make a difference. I want to make a contribution. I want to play at the top of my game. I want to be fully engaged… and then some.

    Why then am I ignored? Why then am I taken for granted? Why am I considered nothing more than the generic job description whose rote list of chores I am tasked to complete?

    Why am I treated like the enemy? Why are wage increases treated like a form of extortion instead of a simple exchange of value? Why are promotions considered crass grabs for power instead of appropriate placement in order to maximize potential?

    Why am I considered an expense to be minimized instead of an asset to be maximized?

    Something is backwards. Something is upside-down.

    Does anyone else see it? Is anyone else interested in change?

    It is time for a new wisdom in the workplace. A new attitude toward the energetic and productive interplay between people and profit. Fresh perspectives on the structuring of power, the measurement of success, and the unfathomable potential of the human spirit in its pursuit of life, liberty and work that we can love.

    It is time. It is past time. There is an urgency in the air. The unemployment lines lengthen as the powerful dither. The numbers of those who hate either their job or their boss multiply. Can the accumulating stress across an entire nation be sustained for yet another business cycle before something gives?

    I want to work hard. I want to engage fully.

    What about you? What are you experiencing? Where do you see need for change? More significantly, where do you see opportunity for change?

  • Question of the Week #4

    How might the magnitude of your investment in one solution be making it difficult to recognize that it might be time for a different solution?

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