Karl Edwards presents Working Matters

Tag: power

  • Free or Trapped?

    Ever think about how you ended up in the job or career path you are in?

    You might be participating in a family business. Maybe a friend recruited you. You needed a paycheck and grabbed something that pays the bills. You wanted the prestige that goes with your profession. You chose to climb the corporate ladder to get the responsibilities, pay, and status that goes with doing so. You are trying to finance a certain lifestyle. Someone once told you that you would be good at this sort of work.

    What is your story?

    In particular, and the focus of this morning’s reflection, how much choice did you have in the matter?

    Was it the only job that was available? Would any other choice have felt demeaning or less prestigious? Were you responding to family expectations? Were you competing with peers? Were you desperate for any paying work? Were you protecting your job security?

    Whether we feel free or trapped is a huge factor in shaping how we deal with situations at work. Especially all that is complicated and unpleasant in our jobs!

    If we feel free (i.e. we chose our situation and feel we have a choice about whether or not we will stay in our situation), we are much more likely to be able (more…)

  • Loving Monday: The Power is All Yours

    loving_mondayBad bosses. Stultifying office cultures. Boring job descriptions. Suffocating bureaucracies. Ambiguous career paths. Petty co-workers.

    There are plenty of triggers for a bad day at work. There are plenty of perfectly understandable justifications for a bad attitude.

    Plenty of reasons but no excuses.

    What?!

    That’s right… no excuses. There are no excuses for the attitude we choose to wear each day.

    Lots of impacting factors… yes. But excuses… no.

    The point is not to be harsh, but realistic. I am not trying to lay blame, but embrace responsibility.

    When circumstances align themselves against us, we always have a choice as to how we will respond.

    No one can take that choice away from us.

    Here’s the key take-away: there is enormous power in being able to choose one’s attitude. That’s a good thing.

    The realization that I have the power to choose in spite of all that might be happening around me, is hugely uplifting, empowering and renewing.

    Think about it.

    At the very moment when we might be feeling powerless, picked on, or buffeted, we still are the only ones who can choose with what attitude we will proceed.

    What attitude have you chosen to wear today?

    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.

  • Quote to Consider: Fear Corrupts the Powerful

    quote-to-consider“It is not power that corrupts but fear. The fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it, and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it.”

    Aung San Suu Kyi

  • If The Future Hung on a Word

    self-talkWhat feelings does this picture stir?

    Reflect for a moment before reading on.

    Words matter.

    Even words to ourselves.

    Especially words to ourselves.

    We tend to underestimate the power of words. We casually throw out phrases like, “I’m a klutz” or “I’m bad with names” or “I’m just an average Joe or a plain Jane.” We aren’t totally serious in one sense, but in another we are expressing some inner dis-ease we are feeling.

    Before going into how such talk might not be serving us well, I want to affirm that the feelings, experiences, and beliefs about ourselves that underlie much of our negative self-talk are very real. I do not want to minimize or invalidate the reality of those feelings, experiences or beliefs in the least.

    We do ourselves two disservices, though, when we are not gracious with our self-talk. We buy into a lie, and we let ourselves off the hook.

    First, we buy into a lie—a false frame of reference that is (more…)

  • Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations

    Clay Shirky, The Penguin Press, New York, 2008.

    By now you are well aware of my penchant for writers who affirm, confirm and otherwise provide research to back up my own assertions.

    As we at Bold Enterprises help you empower all people in your company, regardless of power, titles or places on the organizational chart, Clay Shirky examines the impact of the social dynamics taking place on the web on power and getting things done. With interesting results.

    Interesting because it is not merely people who are already in a working relationship who are experiencing new effectiveness with the power of the web behind them. That’s old news.

    But people who would never have had opportunity to meet much less collaborate are finding each other and making a difference in matters that are important to them.

    Who’s choosing these matters of importance? No longer the bosses and others with positional power. They don’t even figure into the equation, except maybe as a source of resistance.

    You and I are choosing these issues of personal and corporate importance and connecting with those who can help us and whom we can help as well.

    You need to check out Here Comes Everybody and get acquainted with our world of change, chaos, unlimited relationships, and the strange and wonderful forms of effectiveness that are being created moment by moment.

  • New Line Cinema: How Greedy Can You Get? Writers Take Heed!

    So the big news today is the lawsuit being filed by the estate of JRR Tolkien against New Line Cinema and its parent company, Time Warner. Of an agreed 7.5% of the gross earnings of the Lord of the Rings triology they are due, the estate has been paid… you guessed it… nothing!

    How greedy can you be? Not only have the movies and ancillary products earned over $6 billion, the lost interest/earnings related to the delay alone are worth a mounting fortune.

    How greedy can you be? The entertainment industry seems to glory in its shame. I’m sure they’re all patting themselves on the back for being able to postpone payment for as long as they have.

    Ironically enough, the writers are on strike for a share of the earnings related to what their works are earning on the internet. The studios may as well go ahead and promise whatever percent they like. The writers will never see it. They’ll never be able to audit or gain access to audits of the studio’s earnings. Who are the fools here? Seriously.

    I‘m sure New Line Cinema is preparing an articulate set of words (read excuses) to sooth, reinterpret reality, and extend the entire process.

    Whatever the legality, it’s an abuse of power. That’s my take. What’s yours?