Karl Edwards presents Working Matters

Tag: self-awareness

  • Intractable Problem? Where To Look First

    Problems by definition are messy, complex affairs not lending themselves to simple solutions.

    Time has gone by. Unhealthy patterns have developed. Perceptions have hardened. Inefficient practices have become policy. Power struggles have morphed into a hierarchical bureaucracy.

    The process of problem solving… that is, the unraveling, the sorting out, the rethinking, the insightful critiques, the fresh alternatives, and the bold decisions needed can neither be delayed nor rushed.

    One thing, though, is simple. Where to start. While there is no telling where the process will end up, we know right away where to begin. (more…)

  • 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.

  • If You Could Change One Thing About Yourself

    If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

    Given our focus here on Working Matters, let’s forego the things that are not related to work like our appearance; things that are beyond our scope like our personality; or things that our out of our control like our popularity.

    I know, I just eliminated the best categories. I’m sorry.

    I realize there are many good reasons to avoid change. I realize that muddling through with the status quo is often preferable to risking the unknowns that come with change.

    But, for the sake of argument, let me ask again… If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

    Is there a skill you want to learn? A capacity you would like to develop? An aspect of your working style that you would like to expand? An unhelpful (more…)

  • Complicit In My Own Diminishment?

    Bold Question MarkTo what extent might I be selling out my own dreams, ideals and unique capabilities in order to impress prospective employers?

    “Part of the price of becoming a transaction is that we allow our value to be defined by others: an organization, a boss, a recruiter, a partner, a lover.” Peter Block

  • Thought Leaders Unpacked -> The Answer to How is Yes by Peter Block

    thought-leadersWe start a new Thought Leaders Unpackedâ„¢ series this week with Peter Block’s The Answer to How is Yes: Acting On What Matters.

    As you are familiar by now, the chief criteria for book selection is that I have to be willing to learn, stretch and grow myself in the topic area.

    Block’s premise is that we end up asking the wrong questions when we believe that life, work, and/or relationships are things about which we simply need to master certain techniques and do the “right” way.

    He challenges the assumption that the answers to life and success are all out there somewhere outside of ourselves, and that we need to go discover them, acquire them, and apply them to ourselves.

    Life, though, is not something that one can learn to do “correctly”.

    He points out that we actually doubt our own abilities and unwisely invalidate our own unique giftedness by buying into the “how” questions.

    These themes resonate deeply with me.

    I am one of those people who inadvertently subject my dreams to the practical limitations imposed by those who pretend to know the answers. I also hesitate when the means to making a living are not readily apparent.

    I am looking forward to taking a more probing look at what is most core to who I am and what I want to be about.

    I hope you will join me on the journey and share your journeys as well. Get a copy of the book now and read along.

    The Answer to How is Yes: Acting On What Matters

    Part 1: The Question
    1. How is the Wrong Question
    2. Yes is the Right Answer
    3. Defenses Against Acting

    Part 2: Three Qualities
    4. Recapturing the Idealism of Youth
    5. Sustaining the Touch of Intimacy
    6. Enduring the Depth of Philosophy

    Part 3: The Requirements
    7. Claiming Full Citizenship
    8. Home School Yourself
    9. Your Boss Doesn’t Have What You Want
    10. Oh, by the Way… You Have to Give Up Your Ambition
    11. Care for the Whole (Whether It Deserves It or Not)

    Part 4: Social Architecture
    12. The Instrumental Imperative
    13. The Archetypes of Instrumentality and Desire
    14. The Role of the Social Architect
    15. It’s a Mystery to Me

    Each week I will post my reflections from one chapter of The Answer to How is Yes by Peter Block. My reflections are my own and are intended to generate conversation, catalyze additional thinking and encourage mutual learning.
    Welcome to the discussion!

  • Loving Monday: The Bigger Truth About You

    loving_mondayIt’s true, your boss should have noticed your initiative and responded with a promotion or a raise. It’s true.

    It’s true, your client should have noticed that your project came in on time and under budget and paid you promptly and given you promising referrals as well. It’s true.

    It’s true that your co-workers should have noticed how you help out and responded by returning the favor. It’s true that your spouse should have noticed your hard work and responded with more affirmation and confidence.

    It’s true.

    While it is true that others often get it wrong about you, it is not true that they need to get it right about you before you can move forward, find your way, or achieve success.

    The bigger truth about you is that you have to step to the plate again even if you aren’t being noticed, appreciated, rewarded or supported.

    The bigger truth about you is that no one can either be you or fully grasp what having you on the team means.

    Therefore, if in your discouragement you pull out of the team, withdraw from the game, or withhold what you have to contribute while everyone will miss out, only (more…)

  • Quote to Consider: Being Shown Up

    quote-to-consider“Fewer things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example.”

    Mark Twain

  • Quote to Consider: Fighting to be Yourself

    quote-to-consider“to be nobody but yourself – in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else – means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight, and never stop fighting.”

    e. e. cummings

  • Thought Leaders Unpacked -> Clutch #5: Fear and Desire

    thought-leadersThis chapter was a heart stopper for me. Fear and desire. Two ends of a spectrum that I have spent a lifetime trying to find the middle point. A mythical point that may not exist.

    Sullivan asserts that those with an articulate awareness of both what they want on the one hand and what they don’t want on the other possess a twin motivation that is more than the sum of the parts.

    I for my part instead of holding those twin motivations in steady tension with each other have probably been avoiding them.

    Standing in the middle is different than holding both extremes in tension. In the middle I have neither much I am working to avoid or much I am working to achieve. At the extremes I am working very hard to avoid certain fearful possibilities and to achieve certain very attractive dreams.

    My personal challenge out of this chapter is to adjust my strategy away from striving for the mythical middle point and toward the clear identification of where those powerful twin motivators of fear and desire find their expression in my story.

    Such reflection is going to require both courage and reflection. Self-awareness is a skill most of us spend a lifetime avoiding. And yet, even as I have advocated over the years for the unsurpassable value of self-awareness as a life and leadership core competency, I can feel the stakes go up when it comes to identifying what I fear and what I desire.

    Fear and desire can paralyze as easily as they can motivate. The status quo can feel safer than actively working against a negative line of outcomes or possibly failing at one’s efforts to achieve the positive line of outcomes.

    Can you articulate what you want? What you fear? Can you articulate them in such a way that they both become positive motivators for you to work toward?

    What was your main take-away from this chapter?

    On your side,

    – Karl Edwards

    Each week I post my reflections from one chapter of Clutch: Why Some People Excel Under Pressure and Others Don’t by Paul Sullivan. My reflections are my own and are intended to generate conversation, catalyze additional thinking and encourage mutual learning.
    If you are just joining the discussion now, welcome! Catch up on the entire series here.

  • Question of the Week #25

    What difficult conversation have you been avoiding?

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