Karl Edwards presents Working Matters

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  • Thought Leaders Unpacked -> Integrity #4: Building Trust Through Connection

    thought-leadersRight off the bat we encounter a make-or-break chapter.

    “Please don’t make me face the fact that all those production resources out there walking around are distinct human persons.” “You can’t possibly expect me to take into account everyone’s feelings when making complex business decisions.”

    Integrity, by Henry CloudI have long suspected that many leaders secretly resent the fact that they can’t do everything themselves and have to rely on others to make things happen.

    But the reality these leaders must face is that their teams are, in fact, made up of human persons who function out of inner motivations, personal desires, and their own subjective perceptions. My term for this reality is, “The hard facts of working with people.” People are not the soft side of business in any way, shape, or form!

    Here is my key take-away from this chapter: There is a measurable and substantial difference between getting people’s compliance and winning their hearts.

    What sort of results are you hoping to obtain? We’re not talking about being liked. We’re talking about getting results. Making a difference. Making things happen. Meeting goals. Achieving great things.

    Is learning empathy on your leadership development curriculum? One of your personal goals?

    If we cannot relationally or emotionally connect with our team members, we cannot build the trust that sustained, focused, and passionate work efforts require. We undermine our own effectiveness. We sabotage our own results.

    What was your main take-away from this chapter? What is your learning edge when it comes to building trust with others?

    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.

  • Listen In -> Self-Care. A Smart Career Move #1: Thriving Instead of Merely Surviving

    Shouldn’t I be focused on pleasing my boss if I want my career to advance?

    Not at the expense of your own well-being!

    Self care is neither arrogant entitlement nor antagonistic self-protection. Self-care is realizing that you’re the one who has to show up and perform every day, and you can’t do that well if you’re overwhelmed, overstressed, bored or afraid of losing your job.

    Claudia and I have started a new series discussing self care.

    Self Care. A Smart Career Move
    Week #1: Thriving Instead of Merely Surviving
    Week #2: Staying Inspired and Motivated
    Week #3: Learning and Developing Yourself
    Week #4: Challenging Yourself to Achieve
    Week #5: Keeping Yourself Centered and Attentive

    Listen in and join the conversation.

  • 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

  • Question of the Week

    When do you find time to pause and reflect on the effectiveness of your leadership style?

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

  • 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.)

  • Question of the Week

    Whose positive feedback provides you with the greatest sense of validation? Why do you think these opinions hold greater weight for you?

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

  • 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.

  • Question of the Week

    How much does avoiding embarrassment influence how you handle your mistakes?

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