Karl Edwards presents Working Matters

Tag: attitude

  • Even Olympians Respond To Pressure Differently

    The Olympics is a fascinating study in performing under pressure.

    Here we have the most highly trained athletes in the world doing in one moment of time what they have done thousands of time before.

    No problem, right?!

    But the Olympic moment is a different sort of moment.

    The entire world is watching. The performance will be meticulously judged and graded. Their only chance for a medal depends on this one, single performance.

    Pressure.

    Even highly trained Olympians vary in how they respond to pressure.

    Some experience the pressure negatively.

    They have to calm their nerves. They need to intentionally focus. They can become uptight, self-conscious, and over-think their performance. And they can make mistakes as a result.

    Some athletes experience the pressure positively.

    Their energy level rises. They rise to the moment as if it were a great adventure. All the attention, all the eyes watching are gifts of encouragement. And they often perform better than ever before.

    Aly Raisman (pictured) was a key example in her gold medal floor exercise. While almost every other gymnast who preceded her had one error lead to another as their spirits deflated, Aly chose to lead out with the most complicated series she knew. A run that she had been eliminating up until that moment due to a disastrous landing in practice.

    But when her gold medal opportunity was on the line, she embraced it, went for it, put everything into it, and performed it flawlessly.

    What about you? Do you experience pressure negatively or positively? Is pressure a gift or a curse?

    If you experience pressure negatively, what positive interpretations can you come up with that would be equally (if not more) valid than your current negative ones?

    How might the pressure be a gift? How might the pressure be an opportunity? How might the pressure be a tool?

    Watch the athletes closely as the games come to their conclusion. Compare their responses to the pressure. Compare their abilities to perform. See if you observe any correlation.

    On your side,

    – Karl Edwards

  • Loving Monday: Create Your Own Fresh Start

    loving_mondaySometimes you just need a fresh start.

    Where’s the reboot button for that problematic project? Who’s hiding the eraser for that series of unfortunate mistakes?

    This Monday, why don’t you and I create our own fresh starts?

    No, the problems on the project aren’t going to disappear. No, there aren’t any erasers to make mistakes go away.

    But it is always possible to start over. To begin again. Begin anew.

    Begin anew on a small scale. Approach this week with a different attitude or from a different perspective. Shift your approach or your responses.

    Begin anew on a large scale. Admit to the team that you were wrong. Let go of a cherished strategy. Go back to the drawing board.

    A fresh start doesn’t ignore the problems and stumbles to date, but learns from them. The difference I’m suggesting lies in making a perspective shift.

    As the new week begins, do you perceive yourself going back into the fog, the mire, the problems and difficulties? Or do you perceive yourself choosing to create a new beginning in spite of the fog, mire, problems and difficulties?

    The shift in perspective will shift how you choose to deal with all that bedevils you.

    When life gets extra complicated, messy, and/or difficult, one strategy worth considering is to create a fresh start for yourself.

    Let me know if you’d like some help.

    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.

  • Loving Monday: Mustering Energy When The Tanks Feel Empty

    loving_mondayWe all have Mondays—even seasons of Mondays—when we aren’t sure whether we can muster the energy to face a new week.

    (I’m not in a position to speak to the darkest seasons of depression or chronic anxiety. The best gift you can give yourself if such pervasive darkness or fear handicaps your life is to seek a professional counselor or therapist.)

    Here are a few suggestions that I find helpful when I struggle to stay in the game.

    Build in some personal achievement benefits to your job. Learn a new skill. You might learn a bit of html so that you can communicate better with your IT department. You might learn how to read a financial statement so that you can better understand how your performance affects the bottom line.

    Set a secret objective. In addition to reaching your sales goals, increase the caliber of client you’re seeking. Besides solving the disgruntled customer’s problem, try sending them away thrilled and thanking you like you’re a hero.

    Do something refreshingly kind. Treat everyone to ice cream or  a bottle of specialty soda. Offer to complete an unpleasant chore for a struggling co-worker.

    Contribute to building a healthier office culture. Write an article for the company newsletter. (Or start a company newsletter!) Publicly and personally thank co-workers for a job well done. Communicate and coordinate work flow changes more quickly and more often.

    The main characteristic of all these tips is that they get your mind off of your foul mood and onto your interests, aspirations, co-workers and office culture. In each of these small actions you experience that you are worthwhile, have something valuable to offer, and that your choices make a difference.

    If you had a hard time getting going today, try one new thing tomorrow. Experiment. Discover what helps shift your focus, fosters a different attitude, or offers a fresh perspective to you. 

    Instead of waiting for a massive mood change, try making a small action change.

    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.

  • Loving Monday: Embattled or Embittered

    loving_mondayOffice politics sucks.

    One would think reasonably mature adults could work through most problems, misunderstandings, and challenges.

    But we are not all as mature as we’d like to think we are.

    We see very clearly where others lack maturity, but are less clear-sighted about our own shortcomings.

    We have lots of ideas how everyone else needs to change, but seldom see any need to explore viable alternatives for ourselves.

    Our only point of control, though, lies with what we can change about ourselves. We cannot change other people.

    We can accuse them. We can report them. We can instruct them. We can pray for them.

    But we cannot change them.

    If we are going to experience change, it will have to begin with us.

    The choice is ours… To continue embattled, to become embittered, or to take a good hard look at “how we might be a part of the problem that won’t go away.”

    What will you choose?

    Call me if you’d like to discuss the details of your particular situation.

    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.

  • Loving Monday: Happy New Year! Are You Kidding?!

    loving_mondayToday is the first working Monday of the new year. All the schools are back in session. The morning commute here in Los Angeles is packed again. The neighbors are all back from their holiday family trips.

    Happy New Year! Or is it?

    For many this is a tough year to celebrate the ringing in of a new year.

    The economy is still limping along. Unemployment is still a painful reality, either for themselves or someone they know personally.

    Job security feels fragile when one can be so easily replaced.

    Bosses are afraid of making mistakes, which is resulting in a depressing risk-averse conservatism in decision-making.

    The advent of a new calendar year does present an opportunity, though.

    Even if the optimism isn’t built in this year, we can choose to use the calendar to our advantage. Even if (especially if?) our spirits and energies are low, we can use the tool of the new year to choose an attitude shift within ourselves.

    Even if circumstances are difficult and the outlook is bleak, we can choose to face and confront this reality rather than complain about it or wish it were otherwise. 

    Yes, for many people it would be dishonest to exult “Happy New Year!” That things are difficult doesn’t mean, though, that it has to be a bad year.

    So choose yourself a “Meaningful New Year!”. Give yourself a “Proactive New Year!”

    There is no power in the world that can stop you from choosing to have an empowered, responsible, determined, creative, persevering, generous, and life-enhancing new year.

    To those for whom this is a particularly difficult season, I pray we find our way together to making it a deeply worthwhile season.

    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.

  • Loving Monday: Coping with Rain

    loving_mondaySome days it rains.

    Born and raised in Southern California, I am not a natural fan of the rain. While I understand its nourishing, generative, and cleansing attributes, I generally consider it an intruder, a nuisance and an unfortunate complication.

    Some days, though, it rains.

    There is no escaping it. There is no wishing it were otherwise. There is no pretending it has no impact.

    What do you do when it rains?

    Stay inside and suspend your plans? Bundle up and trudge on through?

    I am learning a third way… to welcome the rain.

    While certainly not my preference, rain is occasionally my reality. I can face my reality and make the most of it, or I can bemoan my reality and painfully endure it.

    I can choose to transform the situation into an opportunity, or I can choose to blame the situation for holding me back and ruining my plans. The choice is mine.

    How will you respond if it’s raining when you arrive at work? The choice is yours.

    Some days it rains.

    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.

  • Loving Monday: Begin With an Ally

    loving_mondayReality can be harsh. Reality includes angry bosses, frustrated clients, and co-workers who don’t carry their weight.

    You, of course, will face all these realities with poise and grace, because you are a secure leader who is comfortable with the whole spectrum of work realities.

    Having said that, though, you don’t need to begin your week with your worst problem.

    You don’t need to have the first thing you hear to be insults, complaining, or criticism.

    Try starting the week spending time with an ally.

    Go for some coffee together. Take a walk around the premises. Meet for breakfast before coming into the office.

    Choose to make the first thing you hear be compliments, encouragement, acceptance, respect, and expressions of support.

    Reinforce in your soul that you are a gift with the input of someone who is on your side.

    It can be a good friend, a trusted co-worker, an admiring fan, a supportive supervisor, or an adoring significant other.

    The point is to begin the week with the positive, excellent truth about yourself.

    From this solid foundation, you will be better equipped to face your mistakes, confront unexpected problems, and sort through the myriad of mixed messages that one encounters in a messy and complex workplace.

    Pause and put a call into an ally right now. Begin the week with the truth.

    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.

  • Loving Monday: Staying in the Game

    loving_mondayThere are times when simply getting the job done isn’t enough.

    There are times when how the work was completed overshadows that the work was completed.

    We all get weary. We all experience boredom, stress, and fatigue among other difficulties at work.

    Very few of us can simply override these feelings by sheer force of will, working with as much vigor, enthusiasm and effort as we would in the best of times.

    We need a way to stay in the game when work and life pressures are weighing heavily on our spirits.

    Who would you give the promotion to? The person who is engaged or the person who is distracted? The person who is taking the initiative or the person who is doing the bare minimum?

    Who would you give the job to? The person who believes in their ability to make a meaningful contribution or the person who is trying to get away from a bad supervisor? The person who is eager to jump in with both feet, or the person who wants to know how much overtime is expected?

    We need a way to hold ourselves with poise and a comfortable confidence. We need a way to stay interested and engaged. We need a way to restore (more…)

  • Loving Monday: Detour to the Friendly Voice

    loving_mondayThere are a lot of voices around us.

    The boss voice telling us to get busy. The employee voice asking us to make a decision. The co-worker voice requesting assistance.

    We hear critical voices second-guessing our choices. We hear fearful voices resisting our initiatives. We hear angry voices attacking our motives.

    Each voice articulates something worth listening to and much more that needs to be ignored. We spend a lifetime learning to discern between what has substance and what is the speaker’s personal issues spilling out all over us.

    Getting our week off to a good start involves beginning with a friendly voice or two.

    Someone who believes in you. Someone who is already on your side. Someone who has demonstrated that they want good things for you.

    These people are a rich source of encouragement, affirmation, compliments, and confidence.

    Not that we are going to these people in search of the unsolicited pat-on-the-back. (Though that is certainly an idea worth exploring.) We are choosing, however, to begin our weeks with the truth about ourselves. A positive truth about ourselves that we can do something with.

    We are setting our perspective for the week in terms of our capabilities, our strengths and our potential. Beginning with a friendly voice in our ear, we are better situated to face the obstacles, the conflict, and the mistakes we encounter along the way.

    We cannot inoculate ourselves from the dark voices or the difficult events that arise in the course of a week. But we can be well-grounded in all that is solid and constructive in who we are.

    Why start the week with someone yelling at you or complaining to you, if you can take a small detour and find a friendly voice to enthusiastically greet you, affirm you, or appreciate you?!

    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.

  • Loving Monday: Facing Hateful Duties With Grit and Grace

    loving_mondaySome tasks feel like we’re being tortured and mocked at the same time. Some of the things we have to do are truly hateful, and we wonder whether we’d rather walk barefoot across hot coals or lie unprotected on a bed of nails.

    Postponing these life-sucking responsibilities does little more than prolong the anticipated pain without eliminating the impending eventuality.

    What is one to do?

    I wish I could make a case for procrastination. I am certainly an expert.

    I wish I could make a case for blaming management. They certainly excel at mandating waste.

    I wish I could make a case for a positive attitude. It would be so simple if we could change reality by mere force of will.

    The fact is that our jobs, all jobs, have nasty components to them.

    How to face those nasty components with grit and grace becomes the issue.

    One tact might be to turn them into a personal challenge or contest. Create a (more…)