Karl Edwards presents Working Matters

Tag: self-awareness

  • Listen In -> Avoiding Success. Four Fears That Hold Us Back #2: Fear of Failure

    Even if the promotion is long overdue. No matter how qualified we believed we were before receiving the promotion, after we get the promotion the first ordinary fear that we have trouble owning is the possibility that we may not be able to perform.

    I identify the fear as “ordinary” precisely because it is so difficult to name in our culture of pseudo-alpha confidence. We feel we shouldn’t experience fear of failure if we’re ready for the professional challenge of advancement.

    The problem is not experiencing the fear of failure. The real problem is not being able to be honest with oneself about the fact that one is, in fact, feeling fear.

    As a result we sabotage our own success by putting on a false bravado and confidence. We use this superior knowledge of ours to talk ourselves out of accepting the promotion for other reasons. Not enough pay. Not enough budget. A booby trap. A bad boss.

    In this week’s show, Claudia and I look at this ordinary fear and find that we destroy its power by acknowledging its presence. Instead of making up excuses for refusing a challenging promotion, you can step into the challenge and succeed even if a bit nervous.

    Listen in.

    Just now joining the conversation? Catch up on the entire series here.

  • Question of the Week #17

    How do you affirm and encourage risk-taking without reducing your demand for results?

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

  • Question of the Week #16

    How will postponing the decision you are trying to make really improve the decision you end up making?

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

  • Question of the Week #15

    How well does your team know what your priorities for them are?

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

  • Keeping it Real: It’s Easier to be Yourself

    I am the world’s foremost expert on being me.

    I am a novice at being someone else. Anyone else. Even someone else from whom I might have a lot to learn.

    Yet so many consultants, coaches and career counselors are advising us that we need to be someone other than ourselves.

    “If you want the job.” “If you’re serious about the promotion.” “If you want to negotiate well.”

    I find myself over-thinking interview and sales situations. I am managing both a conversation with the person I am with as well as a conversation with myself about how I am going about the conversation with the other person.

    How can I possible be fully present with someone when I am preoccupied with talking to myself?

    I’m not! is the answer I pretty consistently receive from those willing to tell me.

    Key for me has been realizing that I am an incredible expert on being myself. The task doesn’t require any more thinking. I can give my full attention to the issue on the table and the people I am with.

    When I let go of the need to impress, to appear unrealistically competent, or to artificially mirror the qualifications of an attractive job description, I am free to come alive in the skin within which I am most comfortable—my own.

    I make a very attractive “me.” Even if I’m not a fit or match for every client, job or interview, I will come across infinitely better as myself than any image of competence I might be tempted to put on.

    It’s simply much easier to be oneself.

    On your side,

    – Karl Edwards

    Keeping It Real is the column where I share what I myself am learning. Beware of the leader who is not always learning themselves!

  • Question of the Week #14

    What important issue are you tip-toeing around?

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

  • Question of the Week #13

    What is the difference between having a distinct working style and not being a team player?

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

  • Question of the Week #12

    How do you use your intuition as a tool in decision-making?

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

  • Question of the Week #11

    What might you be doing that almost invites others to treat you the way they do?

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

  • Listen In -> Good Leaders in Bad Times #5: Creating a Culture That Get Results

    One of our recent Questions of the Week was, “What disincentives to taking the initiative would a visitor observe in our company?” (Watch it here.)

    As we conclude our audio series on Good Leaders in Bad Times, we take a look at the workplace as a cultural system. (Our passion, I know. It might be risky to listen this week.)

    We are all familiar with the workaholic workplace culture. We know the fear-driven cultures, the cultures of panic, and the cultures of boredom. We know the workplaces where everyone wears masks of competence and works in splendid isolation as a result.

    We know the cultures of finger-pointing and blame-shifting. We know the workplaces that are always running at 100 mph, the ones who are always a day late and a dollar short, and those which have so many rules no one can use their judgment in making a decision.

    But what about a culture of results? What if, in the very fabric of how you went about your days, how you communicated with each other, and how you approached complex and difficult issues, you created a culture of getting results?

    What if?

    Listen in.