Karl Edwards presents Working Matters

Tag: intention

  • Loving Monday: Too Cheesy?

    loving_mondayLoving Monday has been the title of this column for several years now. Today it sounds a little cheesy to me.

    Sometimes when work is particularly difficult, diminishing or distressing, words of encouragement can ring hollow. So much rah rah cheerleading for the team suffering a lop-sided and humiliating loss. The sentiment is nice, but it’s not going to affect the outcome of the game.

    Go ahead and get it off your chest: “It’s easy for you to say, ‘Choose a can-do attitude!’ (Can you hear the exclamation point in the inspirational speaker’s voice?!), but I am the one having to live with the boss from hell who just cut my budget for the third time this year.”

    I hear you. I have long been an advocate for a constitutional amendment banning cheese in consultant speeches and supervisor pep talks. Offering nice sentiments that won’t affect the outcome are worse than useless.

    On the other hand… (You didn’t really think I was going to leave it there, did you?)

    On the other hand, the by-line at the bottom of this column reads, “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.”

    In this column we are talking about intention and choices. I am encouraging us to intend good for our work efforts and to be specific about that intention. I am encouraging us to match that clear intention with choices that will turn that intention into action.

    Far from being cheesy, we are reminding each other that how we show up at work affects our work just as much as (if not more than) the crazy things that are happening around us. We are checking in with how authentically we show up and how fully we engage.

    Whether we are going into well-ordered and effective workplaces or crazy-making and soul-crushing ones, we can love Mondays because we becoming people who know how to connect our intention with our choices and bring our full selves to the task at hand.

    Now that’s something to cheer about!

    On your side,

    – Karl Edwards

    If you would like to discuss your situation with Karl, click here for a free 30-minute consultation.
    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: Holiday Hangover

    loving_mondayBack at it after a long holiday weekend.

    Remind me where my desk is, please. What was I working on? And you are…?

    It’s so nice to have a four-day weekend. (I hope you got one!)

    Getting back into the swing of things can be a challenge. The key is to bring the benefits of any rest and relaxation you experienced over the holiday back to the office.

    When we leave the good feelings at home, we end up resenting the return to work.

    In other words we want a holiday hangover.

    But only if the break is a blessing that propels us forward and not an escape whose inevitable end depresses us.

    There’s another break coming up this week. If the Christmas break didn’t work well for you, is there something different you can do to make the New Year’s holiday different?

    What are three benefits you want to experience from the time off this week? Maybe reconnect with an old friend. Get some time to yourself. Read a book. Throw a party. Reflect on the lessons learned this last year.

    Next give yourself permission to pursue those three outcomes. Be intentional. Pick up the phone today. Make them happen. If an initial idea doesn’t pan out, then adjust it and try a modification.

    Finally, go back to work next week with a holiday hangover! Bring the blessings of the break back to work with you. Let the rest, reflections, and relationships spill over into the energy and enthusiasm that makes work rich and meaningful.

    Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

  • Loving Monday: Renewable Energy Source… a Vacation

    loving_mondayIt doesn’t seem fair to write about loving Mondays while on vacation.

    On the other hand, it is because of these occasional breaks that I come back to Monday refreshed and renewed enough to keep making a contribution.

    Vacation is not merely is not merely an act of getting away. It is a movement toward.

    Yes, it can seem enough to get away from work. Away from the pressure, the complaining co-workers, the blaming boss, the tight schedules, the scarce resources, etc. Our step feels lighter and unconsciously we’re doing a fist pump on the way out of the building.

    But an additional and important gift we can give ourselves on vacation is to take a step toward something that renews us.

    The key is intention. Being intentional about knowing what refreshes us and taking action to get ourselves into that place.

    Some vacations are more work than rest. Our bodies may cry out for quiet, rest, or no agenda; and instead we might choose to race between tourist attractions. We got away from work, but we didn’t go toward what would renew.

    Task one is to take a regular vacation and get away from work. Task two is to make that vacation something that will replenish and renew our energies.

    Toward what renewable energy source will you be heading on this year’s vacation?

  • Question of the Week

    What specifically are you intending to accomplish over the next thirty days?

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

  • The Gift of Work -> Chapter 2: Kingdom Living

    thought-leadersTraining for kings.

    From the outside in… practicing habits of healthy living until proficient. From the inside out… becoming increasingly open to the involvement of God in the training process.

    Such are the spiritual disciplines: twin and simultaneous trajectories toward becoming the kind of person you were meant to be.

    gift-of-work1Reflecting on the workplace, it is my stewardship of the life God has given me that determines the character of my presence and contribution there. Hence the power of Heatley’s now obvious, but usually overlooked, linkage between our stewardship within God’s kingdom with the role of kings.

    How I show up matters.

    Whether or not I choose to engage fully—authentically, energetically and creatively—matters.

    The choices I make at work improve, restore, and (more…)

  • Are You a Cheap Prostitute at Work?

    It’s one thing to interact authentically. It’s another to feel that you have to prove your genuineness. (We have just started a new podcast series discussing “Faking Authenticity.”)

    This awkward feeling often rears its head when someone makes an unprovoked accusation about your “true” intentions or hints at possibly “mixed” motives. “Are you trying to undermine my authority?” “Look who’s going home early.” “You’re not doing anything, are you?”

    In response we rush to do something that will prove that the accusation has no merit.

    I suggest that this unsolicited extra effort on our part is the act of a cheap prostitute.

    A public confession of sorts that your value is open to negotiation and requires continual substantiation. “If I just show a little more flesh, they’ll choose me.”

    Accusations about the inner workings of your heart and mind are forms of baiting the “prostitute” in you. The part of you that might believe that the accusations could have merit and need to be disproved. The result is your own voluntary offering of “flesh.” Like the prostitute, no one is forcing you to do anything. You actually take it upon yourself to give away what is yours. You give away your power on the cheap by legitimating their original suggestion with your unsolicited “proof.”

    Are you sabotaging your own efforts by giving yourself away for cheap? Are you kept off balance by the felt need to make “flesh” offerings to those who don’t deserve them? When you work extra hard, do you end up feeling more valuable or less?

    If you’ve been feeling cheap, we need to talk. There are alternatives to the desperate tactics of the cheap prostitute.

  • Loving Monday. A New Weekly Feature.

    Getting out of bed on Mondays, is your dominate feeling one of anticipation or dread?

    Do you feel like you’re being drawn into the new week or being dragged into it?

    Today we begin a new weekly series entitled, Loving Monday. Let’s start the week off together with a brief encouragement to step into our weeks with an intention to show up authentically, engage fully, and make it a good week for ourselves.

    Whatever our circumstances, we have choices for how and whether we will engage. By accepting ownership of those choices, we can experience a rich sense of accomplishment in the midst of our complex, if not difficult, lives.

    Let’s encourage each other to step into each Monday determined to greet the week with anticipation, resolve and a good sense of humor.

    Together, I am confident we will look forward to loving Monday!

    On your side,

    – Karl