BIZSPECTRUM – BIZCATALYST 360°: Recent Episodes
BIZCATALYST 360
"Arrogance is actually having excessive pride over one’s or a particular group’s accomplishment to an extent wherein we believe that our abilities are superior compared to others and that success would have come sooner if we had done it alone." ...
"My love for performing, language and linguistics, listening to lots of audiobooks, and meeting a voiceover artist all led me to voiceovers." ...
"Emoticons are the smiles of writing, but also the tears of communication. What is your favorite emoticon?" ...
"AI systems do not have the same understanding of context, nuance, and emotion as humans do." ...
"Increasing awareness of your body language and that of others will enhance your conversations exponentially." ...
"In a world filled with divisiveness, the art of "calling in" stands as a beacon of hope. It's a reminder that, in our shared journey of understanding, we have the power to shape our conversations positively." ...
"Quantum technologies use the unique characterizations of sub-atomic particles to process data inputs and will likely revolutionize everything from cybersecurity to real-time analytics." ...
"Success happens when both parties take responsibility for making it work. Success happens when best practices are in place and so on and so forth." ...
"Intelligence, education, and theory are important. After all, those who choose to ignore history will often make the same mistakes over and over." ...
"Bosses who exhibit bad people skills or who fail at problem-solving do not deserve the title of “leader”. They might be the owner, founder, or boss, but Leader? No way." ...
Hey, there! AmyK here.Could you use a lil’ more trust amongst your leadership team?
I get it. I really do.
Trust is often poorly defined which means it can be hard to genuinely create. Yet, there are several behaviors that result when you absolutely got it. Watch this quick video on how a leadership team with elevated trust plays full out and yields unprecedented growth.
From my heart to yours – hugs!
AmyK
Everyone will have heard of the “great resignation”, i.e. the tendency to voluntarily abandon jobs, even well-paid ones, opting for one where work is more on a human scale.
Resignations can have very different reasons: work methods more on a human scale, a greater balance between the private sphere and the working sphere, ethical motivations, environmental situations, etc. are at the basis of the decision to leave the job. It is the desire, increasingly widespread in the new generations, to “re-appropriate” one’s life by reshaping the relationship with work.
Unfortunately, not always with a radical change of life as an epilogue.
So, we can say that today’s cultural challenge is to rediscover the human dimension of work as an element of citizenship, participation, and inclusion, without forgetting the search for sustainability.
This vision starts from the assumption that work does not only serve as an element of income and, indeed, the new generations in particular are aware that not only what can be measured through a price has value.
Work must be experienced as a collective commitment to social cohesion and inclusion. It must be a path of relationship between people, of personal growth, an instrument of autonomy and emancipation, the continuation of creation for believers, and a collective effort where everyone can make choices that determine their own future and that of society.
The world of work must include young people who are the best wealth that a country possesses, if only because they have the necessary initiative to blaze new trails.
It must include women to enhance the work with their sensitivity and organizational aptitude. Must find effective solutions for the inclusion of those who have been forced out of work during a crisis, promote a healthy balance between people from various backgrounds and cultures, recognizing, without prejudice but promoting their valorisation, the differences between employees (age, gender, ethnicity, religion, disability, sexual orientation, education or nationality).
As a further matter, the great challenge, at the beginning of the era of man-machine interaction, is precisely the enhancement of the person, for an increasingly human work, based on knowledge and protection of the environment.
The world of work has always been the best promoter of development, well-being, equality, and emancipation for all, helping to create a development that has been able to combine wealth and solidarity, although it is not always easy to achieve these purposes everywhere.
In the future, the challenge of putting the person at the center will be even more demanding: young people, the elderly, women, agile work that does not mean “working remotely” and that’s it but, rather, combining remote work with office work, reorganizing work based on the concept of responsibility and not of time, having adequate tools to facilitate collaboration, redesigning physical spaces, imagining different ways of using services by citizens, etc.
And then (better now!) addressing the major issues of inclusion and sustainability, not only from an ethical point of view but simply because we are realizing that it is convenient for everyone.
In fact, I do not believe that ethical motivations alone can solve every problem in this sector, then also have a positive impact on the economy.
We must be firmly aware that an inclusive approach is not only good for those who, for the most varied reasons, experience a condition of diversity with respect to the context in which they find themselves, but it represents an advantage for all people, for companies, for society in general.
The same goes for sustainability, the ability of companies to commit their efforts not only to safeguarding the environment but also to operate taking into consideration other variables such as the social context in which the company operates and the people who work in the business (but I would like to talk more about sustainability).
According toRobert Bruce Shaw, author ofLeadership Blindspots,blind spots are unrecognized weaknesses or threats that can hinder a leader’s success. Weaknesses that we possess and that we know about aren’t likely to derail us from our goals. However, the weaknesses that we don’t know about are the dangerous ones.
Based on my experience as an organisational consultant, as well as what I’ve learned from the research of Shaw and Karen Blakeley (who is also an expert on the subject), I’ve found that one of the most common causes of leadership blind spots is pride bordering arrogance. This very ignorance generally manifests itself in the following ways:
- Overconfidence: A Silent KillerNeedless to say, excess to anything in life isn’t normal. The same goes forconfidence. We, as professional leaders, must make a deliberate effort to normalize the talent and attributes associated with all the aspects of what we call ‘Talent’. The bell should start ringing when we see someone is committing an act or overdoing or overcommitting etc. As per Encyclopedia “Overconfidence is an overestimation of one’s abilities and need for expended effort and an underestimation of the situational demands that one will face”. In fact, Overconfidence bias can destroy the company.
Willful blind spots occur when people are overconfident. For instance, some leaders only want to hear what they want to hear or read reports and data that they want to read. This can be extremely dangerous for an organization, because leaders need to be able to comprehend issues from various viewpoints. Confidence typically grows with past success, and it can lead to overusing the formula that provided results, thus creating blind spots on alternative solutions for the same goal.
- Masked Positivity: An Uncalled for ActBeing overly positive can also create blind spots. In such a “euphoric” stance about something, some leaders can’t rightly assess when and why other people disagree with their ideas. The common trap is that great leaders commonly champion and push ideas that go against the grain. I don’t believe we would recognize the names Ford, Gates, Jobs or Musk (no first names are required to know who we are speaking about) if they did not fight with a fierce commitment to their ideas and vision.
To me, positivity is essential to drive a vision and inspire and overcome problems. Still, we must also build checks into our processes and methods to identify elements that can present risks and other immediate threats.
Remember that a leader’s job is to ensure weaknesses and risks are taken care of long before they create problems.
- Power CorruptsAlthough power is essential to taking charge and driving change, it makes leaders vulnerable to two traps that can not only erode their own effectiveness but also undermine their teams. Hubris — the excessive pride and self-confidence that comes with power — causes people to greatly overestimate their own abilities, while focus makes them less attentive to subordinates, diminishing their ability to lead successfully. A balanced relationship with power can seldom be developed overnight, but in time, leaders who follow this advice will boost their own effectiveness and facilitate exceptional performance from their teams.
Power or perceived power that is related to a position or title can create a level of over-confidence and, in many cases, a false perception that others expect the person with the title to solve unilaterally. That mistaken perception (itself a blind spot) will create other blind spots by shutting out different perspectives and potential solutions. Power-related blind spots can be exacerbated in times of crisis when immediate action is expected and required.
- Indecisive Leadership StyleWorking with a few CEOs, I always wondered how they made it to that level with such poor decision-making ability. I’ve seen indecisive leadership sink more than a few ships. Our job as a leader is to make decisions that make things happen. That doesn’t mean we make decisions all by ourselves. The best leaders always involve a team in their decision-making. But we still need to make timely decisionthat what we are paid for. What makes decision-making hard at a senior leadership level is that someone’s neck is on the line.
Remember, delay leads to paralysis. And paralysis leads to stagnation and decline. Delayed decision-making demotivates the team. So make a decision, and create a process for making sure decisions get made regularly and quickly. Sure, every once in a while you need to take a long time to make a decision. But far too many leaders use that as an excuse.
- Solo Decision MakersEvery problem has a flip side, and the flip side of being indecisive is being overdecisive. Some leaders make instant decisions based on their gut feeling, without any input from anyone else, and that is also frustrating to their teams. I think it’s a good practice for every senior leader to be a part of something they don’t lead. I’ve e worked with a couple of organizations where the top man calls the shorts on everything. It helps me realize how the team feels being left out in the key decision-making process.
Xerox’s Barry Randwas right on target when he warned his people saying that“if you have a yes-man working for you, one of you is redundant”.As leaders, we don’t need to surround ourselves with ‘puppets’ or ‘yes minsters’. Let’s help create a healthy, lively, and thinking work culture. Encourage teams to bring forward newer ideas, come up with logical debate, and have the courage to sayNO.
Wrap UpTrust is the invisible thread that weaves through the fabric of successful companies. It’s the catalyst for effective connection, communication, and collaboration. To effectively navigate the intricacies of today’s workplace, we need to be aware of the above key leadership blindspots that hinder trust, and then be intentional about overcoming them.
When we lead, we are certain about the incredible responsibility we have assumed toward the organisation and our teams. Always remember that leadership, by definition, is not a solo sport. We’re leading people, and how we do it ultimately determines how effectively we perform as leaders. It also means we need to become exceptionally self-aware of our weaknesses. If we think about it, the leaders we’ve probably liked the least have been the least self-aware.
“Why did she love him so much? He always seemed to women different from what he was, and they loved in him not himself, but the man created by their imagination, whom they had been seeking all their lives; and afterwards, when they noticed their mistake, they loved him all the same. And not one of them had been happy with him.”
–From The Lady with the Dog, by Anton Chekhov
In Anton Chekhov’s short story, The Lady with the Dog, a bored, cynical, serially unfaithful married man has a brief affair with a frustrated, insecure married woman while each is taking a holiday alone. Two deeply unfulfilled people persuaded that adulterous sex will overcome the pointless charade of their lives, drift into a relationship fated to become an “intolerable bondage”. Consumed by shallow passions, and oblivious of the needs of others, they can see no meaning in life, just futility, the burden that characterises their affair from the start.
Chekhov understood the impact that loss of a sense of meaning must inevitably have on society, and he recognised the psychological flaw that has over several centuries come to exemplify the modern mind: the ancient affliction of acedia, or accidie in English. His insight was reaffirmed by Victor Frankl, the Austrian psychotherapist, who saw that the “will to meaning” has priority over Freud’s “will to pleasure” and Nietzsche’s “will to power”.
The implications for leadership, especially at a time when we suffer from a leadership deficit at all levels of society, are far-reaching. People afflicted by acedia will hardly be predisposed to inspire others – in the home, workplace, community, or nation – to be the best they can be in working together for the good of all.
Acedia is the refusal to acknowledge one’s true nature, the denial of one’s purpose and potential in life. It is a rejection of the demands and duties that accompany the essential dignity of human nature, that of the rational animal, the puny creature that can nonetheless comprehend the cosmos. Of course, the dignity of the human person is today widely disputed, though hypocritical appeals to the responsibility of rationality are still made in pursuit of certain ideological agendas.
The ancient Greeks understood that one of the greatest moral failures possible was acedia, from the prefix ‘a’ denoting negation, and ‘kedos’, meaning care. They saw it as a lack of mindfulness, a spiritual indifference, an alienation of self from the world. In the Iliad, Homer tells of the acedia of Achilles in his shameful treatment of the body of the defeated Hector, which he drags behind his chariot in defiance of the Olympian gods and the Greek code of conduct.
In the Middle Ages, Thomas Aquinas, in the Summa Theologica, likened the sin of acedia to torpor mentis, inertia of the mind, which captures the sense of acedia more fully than mere sloth. Later, Chaucer gave an illuminating discourse on acedia in The Parson’s Tale.
Aldous Huxley, in an essay entitled “Accidie”, found it strange that acedia morphed from a deadly sin in the Middle Ages to become understood as the disease of melancholy during the Renaissance, and later as a lyrical emotion, inspiring much of the most typical modern literature. A sense of futility and alienation, and feelings of ennui and despair, seems to have fired the imaginations of creative minds for a century and more, and still does today. Boredom, futility, and despair are known throughout history, but the modern world contrived to make them respectable as signs of heroic self-expression.
Acedia is rife today, afflicting those appointed to lead as well as those called to follow. It is evident in the music and lyrics of the widely popular Billie Eilish, for example. The enervating lack of meaning arises from a worldview that exalts the detached, autonomous self, and proclaims the inviolability of individual choice. Predictably, unrestrained shopping, sex, and self-exaltation, the nihilism that insists that “what I want is all that matters”, issue only in the spiritual wasteland of acedia.
For the Greeks acedia had to be conquered by ‘enkrateia’, from kratos, meaning power, not over others, but over oneself, the willingness to subdue weakness, and obey a properly formed conscience. In Hinduism, enkrateia would be likened to dharma, which is seen in the Bhagavad Gita when Krishna exhorts a hesitant Arjuna to attack his kinsmen, the Kauravs, on the battlefield of Kurukshetra. Failure to do so would be a denial of dharma, the spiritual imperative that directs virtuous conduct in defiance of emotions like fear, anger, dejection, and the carnal promptings of the ego.
Where there is a lack of meaning, there can be no meaningful society, because social bonds require motivation, which necessarily rests on things that have meaning for the people to be motivated. And where there is no society, there can be no leadership, just raw power and compulsion. Acedia drains the spirit from both individual and community, from workforce and management, from citizen and nation.
As Plato told us, “Man is a being in search of meaning.” To abandon the search is to reduce the human person to a thing. And things don’t need leaders, they are simply used.
Originally published on my Substack, a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
Workplace psychology researcher, Stefan Falk, wrote an article for CNBC, in which he’d like you to know that in his more than 30 years of studying workplace cultures, he’s discovered five toxic phrases selfish and entitled individuals always use. If he came up with only five, that suggests 30-plus years may not have been quite enough.
Be that as it may, here are the offending phrases Stefan’s in-depth studies have revealed:
- “This feedback is insulting.” [Translation: Some people may be interested in the truth. I’m not one of them.]
- “My ideas are valuable and always merit serious consideration.” [Translation: You’ve clearly failed to recognize my intellectual superiority.]
- “Their success comes at the expense of my own.” [Translation: You’ve weaponized merit and objectivity and used them against me.]
- “Why are you always trying to control me?” [Translation: There’s no i in team. But if you add an e, there’s eat me.]
- “You’re being disrespectful by not agreeing with me.” [Translation: I’m not responsible for your failure to recognize my genius.]
With a few more minutes of research, Stefan might have been able to abbreviate his article from 538 words to these nine: “Bureaucracies are Petri dishes for narcissism and self-serving politics.” But he didn’t. So, here are the top ten phrases (sentences, actually) selfish and entitled individuals use that Stefan might have heard if he’d stuck around a little longer. You can decide for yourself if they’re toxic — or if you should just tell the selfish and entitled individual in question to take a long walk off a short pier:
- “What’s in it for me?”
- “That’s a great idea, Herb. I’m glad I thought of it.”
- “The only person I care about, other than me, of course, is the one on the rung above me on the ladder.”
- “I came in late. So, I’m going to leave early to make up for it.”
- “There’s no limit to what you can accomplish around here, as long as you always tell me I’m right.”
- “You probably think you can’t get your nose any farther up my ass. But that’s only because you’re not trying hard enough.”
- “If you don’t think I’m the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room.”
- “I’m not paying you to think. I’m paying you to say, ‘Yes.’”
- “I may not always be right. But I’m never wrong.”
- “Not for nothin’, but when HR found me, they quit hiring.”
The Man Behind the CurtainIn my last corporate gig, there was a guy as self-important as anyone I’ve ever met. We’ll call him Tony because his name was Tony. He was the last person of whom I’m aware who actually got a gold watch for 25 years of service to the company. He wasn’t an officer of the company, but he walked around, talked, and acted, as if he owned the joint.
His chief responsibilities were two: (1) He was responsible for the fleet of cars the company leased for its salespeople. (That ought to give you an idea of how long ago it was.) (2) He was responsible for commission payments to the salespeople. As a result, Tony produced enough reports every month, using enough paper to fell a forest every month, to bury the building — which was 24 or 34 stories, depending on what accounts you read — but listed as 527 feet tall in either case (?!).
Shortly after his 25th anniversary with the company, Tony was greased (staff-adjusted as the euphemists put it). His responsibilities were turned over to one of my co-workers and me. We’ll call the co-worker Jeff because his name was Jeff. When we were told Tony’s responsibilities were now ours, Jeff and I soiled ourselves. After regaining our composure and changing our shorts, we waded into the bunker Tony had built for himself in one corner of the floor on which we worked and started digging through his files.
We found nothing except for copious evidence of the fact that Tony did next to nothing. The reports he submitted every month, aside from being arboreally criminal, were delivered to him by others: The auto reports came from the company from which the cars were leased. The commission reports came from the accounting and IT departments that calculated them. All Tony did was re-package them, make them exponentially more voluminous than they had to be, submit them, and strut around like the cock of the walk.
All that and a gold watch, too. Wow.
The Moral of the StoryPeople are seldom as important as they try to appear to be. You don’t have to think they’re important at all because they think they’re important enough for both of you.
When you encounter such folks, repeat after me: “Take a long walk off a short pier.”
In January 2008, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg proposed a sweeping plan to ease Manhattan’s desperate traffic problems. At the time, according to U. S. News and World Report, the number of vehicles entering downtown had been growing annually by an average of 8000 per day since the 1920s, resulting in an unsustainable critical mass.
The mayor’s plan would encourage – or coerce – commuters to rely on public transportation by imposing a daytime tax of $8 per car and $21 per truck traveling onto the island. City officials believed that this “congestion pricing” would ultimately reduce traffic by as much as 12 ½ percent.
At first, the plan seemed a sure bet. A broad coalition of civic, business, labor, health, and environmental organizations endorsed the plan, together with state senators, representatives, and councilmen. “Congestion pricing,” they claimed, would increase revenues, expand regional rapid transit, reduce air pollution, create jobs and, of course, ease traffic. The U.S. Department of Transportation was so enthusiastic that it had already awarded $354 million to New York to kick-start the project. The planning commission approved the project by a vote of 13 – 2.
But the proposal generated equally passionate opposition, so much so that the state assembly failed to hold a vote by the April 7 deadline. Opponents argued that drivers seeking to avoid the pricing zone would cause traffic to spill over into adjacent communities, that added fees would place undue burden on the middle class, that not all neighborhoods would benefit equally, and that enforcement cameras threatened civil liberties. Despite the success of similar programs in London, Stockholm, and Singapore, the proposal died.
Would it have worked? Probably, yes; and here’s the evidence:
Only three months later, gas prices spiked to nearly four dollars a gallon. Simultaneously, traffic into Manhattan dropped by 5 percent, the initial target figure for Mayor Bloomberg’s plan. A significant number of people who had fought the government’s plan willingly traded their cars for public transportation when the cost of driving became too high.
More than any other nationality, Americans love their cars. This comes as no surprise if we consider the car as an allegory for personal autonomy. In a very real sense, nearly all of us are control freaks; we want to feel our hands firmly on the wheel of destiny, steering our own course into the future.
But when we come to life’s crossroads, we often choose one road over the other without adequate knowledge of where either may lead. And as we embark down the path of unanticipated danger, we may only discover much later how fortunate we were that obstacles appeared in our way to stop us in our course. The problems, frustrations, and inconveniences we curse when they arise often prove our greatest benefactors in the end.
A young man from the country traveled to the big city to buy supplies for his father’s store. In the city, he stayed with his uncle, on whom he relied to guide him in his business dealings.
Upon hearing of his nephew’s excited plans to sample the nightlife of the city, the uncle feared that the inexperienced young man might fall prey to unscrupulous characters and come to harm through all manner of unsavory activities. The uncle made a number of calls to contacts throughout the city, and immediately the young man found himself so preoccupied with business that he had not a spare minute to indulge his curiosity.
At the end of his trip, the boy complained to his uncle that he had been unable to experience the city. On the other hand, he confessed, he had done more business than he could have anticipated so that his father would surely be proud of him and give him more responsibilities in running the family store. The uncle smiled and expressed delight that his nephew’s business had turned out so well.
Only long after the young man had returned home did it occur to him that maybe his uncle had had something to do with the remarkable success of his trip.
Some call it karma. Some talk about destiny, or fate, or kismet. In Solomon’s tradition, it is the hand of Providence that causes obstacles to spring up before us and make the paths of personal autonomy increasingly difficult to travel. We feel stifled in our jobs, unhappy with our families, and discontented with the direction of our lives. We perceive the natural ebb and flow of life as a continual series of roadblocks and dead ends.
So we seek out “detours,” looking for fulfillment in the least likely places: alcohol, drugs, gambling, or adulterous affairs. We think change will make us feel better, but we usually find ourselves worse off than before.
And even when we get it right, even when we find fulfillment in our careers, families, and communities, the paths of life are rarely without potholes; holding a straight course poses a never-ending challenge.
With every step forward, we need to weigh our options and calculate the costs and benefits, evaluate which detours are necessary and which are more hazardous than keeping to a straight but tortuous main road.
If we hit a brick wall, we have to decide whether to go under, over, around, or through it – or turn back and seek a different course altogether.
Even if we are willing to reevaluate our course constantly, we may find that repeated obstacles seem to be telling us that we should give up, when in fact we are on the verge of a breakthrough; or we may try to conquer obstacles before us again and again when in fact we have no chance of success.
But if we keep our eye on the distant goal of living our lives according to moral principles and moral discipline, then whatever detours we have to traverse and however much backtracking we have to endure, we can be confident that our efforts have not been wasted and will not be in vain. By keeping our objective in sight and our eyes on every step, we cannot fail.
From Proverbial Beauty: Secrets for Success and Happiness from the Wisdom of the Ages, just released in audio format. For information, please click here.
Let us take four scenarios first.First Scenario- You meet with an over-talker. He takes over the discussions. You try to say something but then he jumps to say let me finish my point of view and continues. This person does not know that he made you feel irritated and angry.
Second Scenario- You meet with a person who is consistent in what he says and does. Soon, you feel relaxed talking to him.
Third Scenario- You meet with a person and you have no idea what his intentions are. You suspect this person to say sweet things to cover his real intentions. He makes you feel worried and undecided.
Fourth Scenario- You meet with a successful man who suddenly lost his zeal for life. He does not know why. You too have no idea what is wrong with him. You feel unknowing what to do. He feels the same. Could it be he is suffering from an unknown illness? Probably, either one of you have a clear idea. You both feel undecided.
Classification of BehaviorsThe preceding four scenarios lead to the following classification of human behaviors
- Behaviors known to others and me (open area)
- Behaviors unknown to others and me (unknowns area)
- Behaviors known to me but not to others (hide area)
- Behaviors known to others but not me (blind area)
Behaviors that I know and others know put both in the open area. I know my behaviors well and others’ behaviors. We both know we make each other feel relaxed. We have no doubt of each other’s intentions. We exchange information openly.
A great leader is one who creates an atmosphere of openness in his team because this is what maximizes cooperation and the exchange of information and skills. Leadership becomes simple and fun in this area.
The unknowns are the most complex area a leader faces in leading. He is dealing with unknowns such as the sudden emergence of competing technology. When in new competitor shows up is another example.
Leading in the darkness of unknowns is a challenge that leaders face in our VUCA world.
The hide area such as having a secret hiding from others or a skill that you hide from others is another challenge for leaders. This attitude stifles cooperation in teams.
Hiding real intentions from others brings doubt and doubt erodes trust. Transparent communication is a prerequisite to collaboration among teams. In an environment with overshadowing clouds of doubt, it only rains more doubt. A team leader must cater for this issue promptly.
The unfortunate reality is that many people think they know themselves and in fact, they do not. They hide from themselves. They think they are friendly when they are arrogant. They behave the same way without attempting to amend their behaviors. Aristotle was right to call for the need to know self.
The blind area is when people know about you what you do not know. Talkative people do not realize they are talkative but other people know. Feedback is necessary in these cases.
In today’s world with multicultural prevailing teams, a leader will have many new unknowns emerging. The transition period for reducing the areas other than the open area is decreasing.
Great leaders have a big task and that is to make what seems undoable to the majority doable. These leaders grasp the concept of The Johari Window.
Preface: Over a period of three years a while back, Phil Friedman and I collaborated on a series of about 30 discussion posts on a broad range of topics. We got quite a kick out of doing them, and a fair number of our respective followers clearly enjoyed reading them Then, I ended up having spinal surgery and dropped out of the world completely for about a year. During the remainder of the intervening time, I wrote some novellas and a bunch of short stories. For his part, Phil became really busy when he took over the management of a boat-building company. But when we stopped writing the series, we agreed that, someday, we’d do a redux. And recently, we asked ourselves, what better place and time to start again than here and now? —Jim
JIM: If you’re anything like me, Phil, you are probably keeping a close eye on the Ai behemoth that is plowing its way through the world, creating, fear, loathing chaos and confusion, deluding the uncreative into believing that they can actually now be creative, and foisting many metric tonnes of crap onto the dung heap of social and even conventional media
My view on this is that, net-net, it’s going make the dumb people even dumber. and a few greedy rich people even richer. It’s going to eventually destroy the concept of learning and the world is going to be saddled with exponentially more idiots than it already has. For a while. Then guess what, it will (IMO) implode beneath the sheer weight of its own bullshit.
There’s a great short story I read in high school entitled “The Machine Stops.” It was written by EM Forster in 1909. It’s all about the kind of culture that would be created when people became totally dependent on his version of today’s Ai. These people knew nothing but what they were told by the machines. They went nowhere because the machines convinced them that the world was a mess and the atmosphere was poisoned. Everything they needed was delivered to them. They were ignorant and afraid. And then one day the machine stopped.
Well, I won’t spoil it by telling you the ending. But the thing that’s getting revved up right now as we speak, is exactly as Mr Forster described it. I do believe we’ll be hearing a lot of stories about people who have been victimized by some Ai-created scam or other and over the long term it could have a serious impact on the economies of stupid countries all over the world.
I think about my grandson, Rowan, who is 12 now. His parents are bright enough to know what’s going on, and he is having his online time restricted to one hour a day. But at some point, they won’t be able to control that. And what about all the other parents of young kids, the ones who both have to work and are perfectly fine with the kids entertaining themselves? How much danger to those kids will the effects of Ai create in their lives? What will it turn them into as they grow?
This is a monster that can touch every aspect of every person’s life. And I honestly believe its rapid acceleration is powered by greed and ego, as opposed to understanding and humanity. Over to you, pal.
PHIL: Well, Jim, it’s been a while since I was called upon to answer one of your hyperbolic doom-and-gloom diatribes. I had almost forgotten how it feels to watch a sunset and worry that the forces of the universe might be extinguishing the light, permanently.
Anyway, I certainly share your concern for the nature and quality of life our respective progeny will enjoy — or perhaps, more accurately, endure. But as I have done several times before, I am moved to quote Pogo expounding on the shores of Lake Okefenokee, “We have met the enemy, and he is — us!”
If the doom and gloom you predict, in fact, come to pass, the responsibility will be ours, not that of the Prophets of Ai or the hype they spew daily in their chase for the profits of Ai. Ours because we have unreflectively accepted their hyperbolic claims and lain down on the sacrificial altar of commercial opportunism. I know that’s a mouthful. But beyond being true, it’s virtually self-evident if we only open our eyes and accept the evidence of what we see … and don’t see.
Let’s review, for example, a few pretty self-evident, but almost now universally overlooked facts:
1) The science and reality of robotics have nothing really to do with artificial intelligence (Ai) because robots are programmed to perform tasks such as painting products during manufacture or running through warehouses finding, “picking”, and packing for shipment goods which have been ordered by customers. The robots don’t exercise a whit of judgement, and so are not intelligent, even when equipped with self-correcting (“self-learning”) sub-routines in their drivers.
2) Chatbots are not intelligent in any meaningful sense of the term. They don’t “understand” what humans are saying to them. Instead, what they do is digitize what they “hear” and compare it to a huge database of similarly digitized expressions and known appropriate responses, and by working their way through a set of complex algorithms, select or construct a response that best fits what an analysis of the data indicates most likely fits the exchange. That’s why Chatbots based on large language models (LLMs) work so much better than earlier Chatbots which relied on much smaller databases. But contemporary Chatbots still do not exhibit judgement, only automated data analysis that returns answers in a form that mimics human conversation. And much of the time, the answer is questionable or wrong, notwithstanding hyperbolic commercial claims to the contrary.
When pressed to show us the intelligence, the Prophets of artificial intelligence pointed to denizens like Alexa and Siri. Never mind that, when you ask yourself what is so intelligent about, for instance, the Ai marketing program that Amazon employs on its e-commerce site — you know, the program that recognizes you just purchased a desk chair and sends you information on twenty other desk chairs that it, by its own words, “thinks” you might like to investigate — you are moved to tap out Morse code for Whiskey Tango Foxtrot. Which is why the Prophets have now moved to distinguishing between Human Intelligence (capital ‘I’) and Ai (small ‘i’). They additionally tell you that they never intended to confuse the issue by using the term Intelligence (capital ‘I’). But they did.
JIM: What you have described in your own inimitable way is the actual reality of what everyone is calling Ai. I guess you could also call it pseudo-intuitive automation if you wanted to be generous about it.
The weird thing is that a lot has happened since the Ai hype machine swung into full gear and started trying to convince the world that it was the next big thing.
First thing that happened of note was that a lot of businesses bought into it and saw it as a way to replace human talent within their companies. And that started a massive exodus of writers across a pretty wide spectrum of activity. That distressed me because, well I’m one of them, not the displaced crowd, because I don’t do that stuff anymore. But I could certainly relate.
The next thing that happened was a whole wave of activity around the idea of plagiarism. Getty Images is leading that charge. I know from experience that they are a take-no-prisoners company that go after anything that smells funny with a vengeance. As this part of the Ai counter movement grows with hungry lawyers prowling the earth, and pissed-off artists and writers everywhere, I can see this being a huge can of worms for the denizens of Ai.
Then there is the commodity side of it. Literally hundreds of companies are being funded by investment bucks, that are soon, if they aren’t already, demanding that their investees begin monetizing their tools to create the ROI that was promised to them. This is where the economy takes a hit, probably over the next two years, as the sheer volume of these businesses fall prey to the good old 80/20 rule, and start to fall by the wayside.
The last issue is one of responsibility. When does the government step in and start setting boundaries and standards for these companies to adhere to? Right now it’s a circus, and like any circus, there are more clowns than actual performers.
I know my opening salvo was kinda doom and gloomish, but it actually was created three weeks ago which in the Ai universe is a light year or two. My thinking, based on new data is now much more pragmatic than romantic.
I believe this stuff will be with us and part of what we have to live with like it or not. My hope is that the cream rises to the top and makes it beneficial. But my fear is that the scammers will master it and use it to up their game, creating more unwitting victims.
Having said that, I’d be interested in how you think we can go about combatting the adverse effects that this wave of bull chips is creating.
PHIL: The first thing is to stop accepting at face value the hyperbolic claims of those who promote Ai, whether for profit or other forms of personal gain or out of abject naïveté. Instead, always ask to be shown examples of clearly demonstrated results. In other words, tell Ai promoters, boosters, and cheerleaders to #SHOWMETHEINTELLIGENCE.
Understand that you don’t have to be an Ai geek or a software engineering genius to do this. All you have to be is intelligent enough to judge if the product placed in front of you (speaking figuratively) is equal to the claim about what you would see. And when you do that, I submit that most, if not all times you will find the reality of what is presented falls far, far short of the claim(s) in question.
Consider, for example, Amazon which bills itself as a leader in Ai development — employment of advanced robotics in their warehouses, development of autonomous delivery vehicles, and so on, including an Ai marketing ChatBot on their e-commerce website that watches what you’re buying and sends you emails with suggestions to look at other products that they carry in which you’re likely to be interested.
Well, that last is a claim, but what’s the reality? When you buy, say, a desk chair from Amazon, the marketing Bot sends you suggestions for a half dozen other … desk chairs. As though you might be starting a collection of desk chairs. It doesn’t suggest any desks or desk accessories of desk lamps or anything else that, in reality, you might now be interested in buying; it suggests an item of the same type as the item you just purchased. That’s not intelligence, artificial or otherwise; it’s pure idiocy, as well as being a crass misrepresentation of what’s really behind those stupid freakin’ post-purchase marketing emails — which is a crude keyword matching program sans even an iota of “intelligence”.
Or consider the program in California to develop self-driving taxis (SDTs). Yeah, I know, that sounds like a term for a genital disease. Not far off, unfortunately. It turns out that the fleet of SDTs being operated now is racking up more than twice the accident rate as that of ordinary driver-manned taxis. And when that statistic was released, the answer of the developers was that more testing and a bit more engineering refinement were needed, but we’d all see BIG results soon. Bull chips!
Moreover, even if these developers can eventually bring in a product that is as safe as driver-manned taxis, I bet you dollars to donuts that the time and cost to do so will be fifty times that of simply training and certifying a corps of professional taxi drivers, which latter would have the additional benefit of preserving the jobs and incomes of drivers. To my mind, the program is wrong-headed from the start — just like so much of the purported development in Ai.
JIM: What you have described is the entire situation in a couple of meaty nutshells. I know you only cited a couple of examples, but I think the list is much longer and grows larger every day.
The human race, which we have both been a part of for a lot of years, seems to be governed by a lot of things the least of which is respect for humanity. I get the need for pseudo-intelligent machinery to do things that are dangerous and maybe even impossible for humans to do, and in some cases, things that are mind-numbingly tedious for humans.
But through all this hype and it’s coming at us a mile a minute, I get the feeling that it’s really all about greed and who can carve out the biggest slice of whatever this Ai pie turns out to be. There’s no real concern for anything other than getting people to buy into whatever it is they are pushing. There’s no real concern for the amount of human displacement they are creating. Or the dangers of this tech to all of humanity.
At the end of the day, they’re just a bunch of New Age hucksters. It’s funny how history keeps repeating itself. New player. New gizmos. Same old bull chips.
Sincerely Jim & Phil
Have you ever felt that unmistakable connection, when meeting someone who understands you? Or felt the joy of being part of a group whose members share your interests and values?
The world is changing and evolving. Technology is getting better. But even in the digital age, the power of finding your tribe is still an essential part of being human. Belonging is a fundamental human need. It impacts our well-being and sense of identity.
As social creatures, we have an innate desire to connect and find our tribe. A Community of a group of like-minded individuals. The one that provides support, and understanding, and gives a sense of belonging.
Join us as we delve into belonging. And uncover its significance in nurturing personal development. The article will lead to a sense of purpose.
What does it mean to find your tribe?How does it impact your personal growth and well-being? In a time when virtual connections often replace genuine human interaction. How do we bridge the gap between online networking and actual, meaningful belonging? These questions lead us to explore the intricate interplay. Find the thin line between our natural need to connect with others and our ability to change.
By realizing how important it is to find your tribe, we can open the door to real friendships. Support networks, and growth chances that remind us of our shared humanity.
The Need for Belonging1. The Evolutionary Aspect
Throughout history, humans have lived in tribes and communities. Cooperation amongst each other and group relationships were essential for survival. Our ancestors relied on the support and protection of their tribes. Fostering a sense of belonging and security. This evolutionary aspect of our need for belonging still resonates within us today.
- Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Abraham Maslow’s renowned hierarchy of needs incorporates experiencing a sense of fitting in. According to Maslow, once our physiological and social requirements fullfill. Our desires encompass affection, esteem, and inclusion within a community. Attaining self-actualization, which represents the pinnacle of individual development and contentment, becomes contingent upon establishing a feeling of belongingness.
The Benefits of Finding Your TribeDiscovering your tribe yields camaraderie, shared values, and support, fostering personal growth, belonging, and well-being. Connection with like-minded individuals enhances fulfillment and a sense of purpose
1. Emotional Support and Resilience
Belonging to a tribe provides emotional support during challenging times. Individuals with a strong sense of group identity are more resilient. They and recover quickly when faced with bias, bigotry, or personal attacks. The support and validation from fellow tribe members resonates, offering solace and strength.
2. Common Purpose and Motivation
Joining a tribe offers a shared sense of purpose and motivation. When pursuing a common goal or passion. Be it joining a political campaign or engaging in a cause. The tribe becomes a source of inspiration and camaraderie. Following a common purpose fosters a deeper connection. And offers a sense of belonging among tribe members.
3. Enhanced Social Connections and Battling Loneliness
Finding your tribe can jumpstart efforts to enhance social connections and combat loneliness. Engaging with people with the same hobbies or emotions as you do makes it easier to like and accept them. This group is likely to have a friendly atmosphere. This makes people accept the companionship and feel isolated.
- Personal Growth and Self-Improvement
Belonging to a tribe creates an environment for personal growth and self-improvement. Community members can offer constructive criticism. Give feedback, and guidance to help individuals identify and overcome weaknesses. The tribe becomes a safe space for self-reflection and personal development.
Selecting Your Circle: Navigating Connections for Growth and FulfillmentCrafting meaningful connections is pivotal. Choosing your tribe can shape growth, happiness, and shared aspirations, fostering a sense of belonging.
1. Building Your Community
Belonging is not limited to familial relationships. You have the power to choose your community, your tribe, and even your family. While the family and society we are born into may not always provide the support and connection we need,. We can seek a community that aligns with our values and aspirations.
2. Diverse Perspectives
It is essential to cultivate a diverse community that encompasses various backgrounds. Has experiences, and perspectives. Connecting with individuals who offer different viewpoints and insights. It enriches our understanding of the world and broadens our horizons. Diverse tribes provide a well-rounded perspective and encourage personal growth.
- Authentic Connections
Seeking authentic connections is critical to finding your tribe. Surround yourself with individuals who genuinely support and empower you. Genuine relationships foster an environment of trust, allowing for vulnerability and growth. Choose a tribe that values authenticity and provides a safe space to be your true self.
Nurturing Belonging: Fostering Connections for Well-beingCreating a sense of belonging is essential for mental and emotional wellness, enriching life through meaningful relationships and shared experiences.
- Building Awareness
Cultivating a sense of belonging starts with self-awareness. Reflect on your values, interests, and aspirations. Identify the type of community or tribe that aligns with your authentic self. Understand your need for connection and open yourself up to forming new relationships.
- Active Participation
Belonging requires active participation. Engage with your group by attending events. Actively participating in conversations, and adding your unique ideas. Look for ways to meet people who share your interests. Build meaningful relationships within your group.
3. Nurturing Relationships
Nurturing relationships within your tribe is crucial for maintaining a sense of belonging. Show genuine interest in others, offer support, and celebrate their successes. Cultivate a culture of inclusion. Give respect, and kindness to foster deep and meaningful connections.
- Embracing Shared Experiences
Shared experiences solidify the sense of belonging within a tribe. Do things or work on projects that bring people together and make lasting memories. Shared experiences, like going on trips with your tribe. Helping others for a cause you all care about. Work on projects together, and make the ties within your tribe stronger.
The Future of Belonging: Navigating New Realms of ConnectionIn the ever-evolving world, the concept of belonging is also undergoing transformative changes. The future of belonging lies in embracing innovation. Honoring the timeless need for human connection. Here are vital steps that outline the path to the end of belonging:
1. Digital Communities with a Personal Touch:
The digital landscape continues to shape how we connect. Future belonging involves creating virtual communities that go beyond superficial interactions. These spaces will leverage advanced algorithms and AI to curate meaningful connections. Tailored to individual preferences, fostering genuine relationships.
2. Embracing Inclusivity and Diversity:
The future of belonging transcends homogeneity. Inclusive communities will emerge, recognizing and celebrating diverse identities and perspectives. These spaces will cultivate empathy, and broaden worldviews. And promote personal growth through exposure to varied experiences.
- Blurring Virtual and Physical Realities:
Advances in augmented and virtual reality will blend physical and digital realms. Belonging will extend beyond screens, enabling immersive interactions that mimic face-to-face experiences. This fusion will bridge geographical gaps and enhance the authenticity of connections.
- Purpose-Driven Networks:
Belonging will revolve around shared values and goals. Future communities will unite individuals driven by everyday purposes. Be Environmentally sustainable, provide social justice, or offer artistic expression. These purpose-driven connections will fuel collaborative efforts and amplify collective impact.
- Lifelong Learning and Mentorship:
Belonging will become an avenue for continuous learning. Communities will ease mentorship. Thus enabling individuals to teach and learn. Fostering personal development at all stages of life.
6. Well-Being and Mental Health Focus:
Future belonging will prioritize well-being, offering platforms for open conversations about mental health. These spaces will provide support, reduce isolation, and promote a culture of understanding.
ConclusionIn conclusion, the journey to find your tribe and foster a sense of belonging is pivotal to personal growth and fulfilment. Beyond mere companionship, belonging offers a profound tapestry of emotional sustenance. It shares aspirations, and meaningful relationships that significantly enhance our holistic well-being.
Through deliberate efforts to seek out and nurture authentic connections, we weave a supportive tribe. That stands by us and empowers us to reach our full potential. By embracing the inherent power of discovering your tribe, you unlock a transformative force. A power that shapes your existence. Enriches your experiences, and encourages your pursuit. Lead a more purposeful and interconnected life.
Embrace the power of finding your tribe and experience its transformative impact on your life.
In this episode, recorded at Ada Lake in Belgrade, Serbia, we talk about why being present with your team is essential to building trust and psychological safety, developing relationships, dealing with challenges before they become problems, and driving innovation and creativity.
Is imagination really more important than knowledge? How does imagination link to catalysing collective innovation and unleashing corporate vitality? When I did my research, I discovered that the answer is actually paradoxical!
Albert Einstein famously said “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”
Why is the answer so paradoxical?According to a well-researched and scientific article “Einstein’s most famous quote is totally misunderstood” in BIGTHINK magazine, the author suggests that he’s really doing is encouraging people to look beyond the current, conservative frontiers of what we know and into the realm of what we’re compelled to explore next.
He describes that imagination, in Einstein’s mind, is shorthand for a thought experiment: to simulate the consequences of a theory in a regime that’s yet to be tested, where the imaginative predictions were all well-quantified far in advance of the observations/experiments.
- Both knowledge and imagination
This means that for your imagination to take you to worthwhile places, you also need a strong foundation of knowledge of the subject to build your theory, or idea upon, making it a “both/and” paradox. This also means that you need both a deep knowledge of the subject or problem and a capacity to create, evolve and exploit mental models of things or situations that are often counterintuitive and counterfactual and don’t yet exist.
Doing this enables you to generate new lines of feeling and thinking, and to connect fields, problems, and ideas that others find unrelated. To ultimately inspire, and result in collective innovation.
How does this relate to innovation?Most of us are already aware that companies increasingly need to innovate — across strategies, operations, offerings, and business models. Especially when business environments are experiencing a range of global and local crises, accelerating change and ongoing, relentless instability and uncertainty. Where many have become survival focussed, and adopt a short-term reactive lens in attempts to restore “normality” and arrest a decline in long-term growth rates and competitiveness.
As well as arrest a serious decline in their corporate vitality. Which is crucial for long-term success, growth, and sustainability. Yet some companies are unaware that imagination is upstream of innovation. Sadly lack the focus towards entering this critical realm and leveraging it to stimulate a capacity for collective innovation which is needed for corporate vitality to thrive.
Corporate vitality enables organisations to thriveAn organisational culture that embraces corporate vitality enables them to thrive, by knowing how to shape visionary strategies in the imagination age that enables it to:
- Rebound and reinvent themselves, under pressure.
- Ignite people’s imagination to co-create ideas.
- Collaborate to accelerate collective innovation.
- Deliver and accelerate growth in a VUCA/BANI.
Yet, according to research by the BCG Hendersen Institute in an article “Competing on Imagination”
“Big businesses often struggle to make use of imagination. They may try to make it a predictable process, and end up with routinization and incrementalism. Or they may treat it like a magical power, celebrated in tales of great innovators, in the hope that good ideas will appear as needed. As companies grow, it becomes harder to be imaginative. Larger companies tend to focus on exploiting what they know and what originally gave them scale”.
What else inhibits the development of corporate vitality?The BCG research also reveals that most companies don’t yet know how to ignite people’s imagination. Which is required to co-create ideas and collaborate.
Often because they usually lack the motivation, rigor, and knowledge required to:
- Clarify, ignite, and activate imagination: what it means and how it works at either an individual or collective level.
Which restricts an ability to develop the capacity required to deviate from the norm and emerge creative insights and breakthroughs, invent, and innovate on a scale.
- Strategically and systematically improve the individual and collective capacity to imagine: which keeps them stuck within their own spheres, and focuses on averages rather than on exceptions.
This also restricts individual and collective investment in creating free time and space for daydreaming, mind wandering, and meandering into the unknown.
- Cultivate individual and collective imaginative capacity through social transmissions: that evoke new questions and provocative ideas.
Which keeps them restricted to the confines of their own, or current mental models, rigid role parameters, and focus on metrics and conventional short-term siloed approaches.
Ultimately inhibiting our capacity to alter our cognitive habits, allowing our minds to make new associations, develop, and experiment with new ideas. That forms the foundations for cultivating a culture that catalyses collective innovation and unleashes corporate vitality.
Taking a neurological approachResearch presented by Gabriella Rosen Kellerman and Dr Martin Seligman, in their recent book “Tomorrow Mind” enables us to take a neurological approach towards igniting people’s imagination – to arouse our curiosity and co-create ideas, that result in collective innovation.
- Default Mode Network (DMN)
Stating that when we allow our minds to wander and daydream, our brain doesn’t just “power down.” Instead it “switches to a new mode of thinking, one so vital that it is our default – or the activity our brains jump to in every free moment” which specialises in two processes: imagining and planning.
This is known as our Default Mode Network (DMN). Which activates when we let our minds wander or drift into a daydream, to create spontaneous oscillations that allow us to observe novel thought streams and extract new patterns, generalizations, interpretations, and insights.
It is the place our best ideas come from.
- Discovering what does not yet exist
In this realm, our minds break the bonds of space and time, blending memory and fantasy, creating an eternal cycle that dances between exploitation and exploration.
Allowing us to exploit our “knowns” and explore new possibilities by imagining scenes that differ radically from the actual past and the actual present, allowing us to discover and learn deeply about what does not yet exist.
What does this mean to organisations, leaders, and coaches?* Power of provocation
ImagineNation has pioneered innovation coaching and presented The Coach for Innovators, Leaders, and Teams Certified Program, globally online for more than 10 years. To teach the traits, mindsets, behaviours, and skills to ignite people’s imagination, based on our experience that consciousness, imagination, and curiosity are the precursors to both creativity and innovation.
Where consciousness contains the states and qualities of the mind, which is where our imagination is located, creativity is the process of bringing something new to the mind, and innovation is bringing the new to the world.
- Being a disruptive provocateur
We teach participants to become “disruptive provocateurs” who know how to compassionately, creatively, and courageously create collective holding spaces.
That creates the permission, safe space, and trust for developing generative thinking processes that enable peoples to see and solve challenging problems that evoke and emerge new discoveries, and creative ideas and generate learning by:
- Disrupting peoples’ habitual feelings and thought processes and comfort zones,
- Co-creating the permission, safety, and trust to deviate and differ,
- Space and time for elasticizing and stretching habitual thought processes.
Imagination can be provocative because it arouses scenes that differ radically from the actual past and the actual present. This allows us to discover and learn deeply about what does not yet exist. It enables us to focus on being intentional, in taking intelligent and right actions to solve the problem differently and develop corporate vitality.
- Power of prospection
Developing the co-creative frequencies requires us to alter our cognitive habits, allowing our minds to make new associations, develop, and experiment with new ideas, and cultivate a culture that embraces corporate vitality. This involves the capacity to imagine alternate futures, and by developing prospection skills – “the ability within each of us to think about the future and envision what’s possible.”
According to USA-based leading global coaching platform BetterUps’ Report on the Future Minded Leader:
Imagining ourselves into alternate futures and evaluating them as a way to make decisions and guide present action is unique.
These occupy at least one-quarter of our waking thoughts, and when it comes to imagining the future, we are at once both our most optimistic and pessimistic selves, which is, in essence, also contradictory. Because we can both project optimism about what is to come and make risk-averse decisions to build the foundations for envisioning a range of desirable and alternate futures.
- Sparking corporate vitality
Building an “imagination machine” – an organisation where the imagination of individuals work together is fully supported intentionally and by design involves creating space for our Default Mode Networks (DMN) to activate and lay the foundations for collective innovation by:
- Creating space and time for reflection enables people to regain control of their attention and minds, and to allow spontaneous, generative mind wandering – by engaging in simple activities like walking, reading, bathing, exercising, and free writing.
- Making it safe and permissible to regularly expose people to the unfamiliar and the unknown – by building their discomfort resilience, provoking and elasticising their core and habitual thinking processes.
- Coaching, teaching, and training people to view their worlds systemically, to wander and daydream at the edges of the social fields – to sense, perceive and emerge anomalies, and counterintuitive and counterfactual patterns and trends.
- Coaching, teaching, and training people to safely disrupt and challenge their habitual mental models – by creating mindset flips and paradigm shifts, developing their curiosity, and enhancing their cognitive diversity and agility.
- Introducing more playfulness into the working environment – by improvisating, exploring, introducing business simulations, and learning events, as well as gamification, to generate insights, that saturate us with ideas that we can then incubate.
Imagination, collective innovation, and corporate vitalityWhen we combine a rigorous approach to expanding and applying both our knowledge and our imagination, we can co-create ideas, and innovate in ways that illuminate people’s hearts and minds.
By altering and elasticising our cognitive habits, allowing our minds to make new associations and unlikely connections, we can develop, and experiment with new ideas, and cultivate a culture that leverages and scales collective innovation that unleashes real corporate vitality.
Ever feel like you’re stuck in a rut, going through the motions of everyday life without really growing or improving yourself? The truth is real personal growth requires effort. It means challenging what you think you know and unraveling preconceptions. It’s time to embrace change and unlearn the outdated mindsets holding you back.
The Problem With What We “Know”
The illiterate of the future are not those
who can’t read or write
but those who cannot
learn, unlearn, and relearn,— Alvin Toffler.
What parents, teachers, and society have taught us is what we accept as truth. The “facts” we know are full of biases and limited perspectives. We must unlearn some of these assumptions to grow and open our minds.
Let’s understand with examples, we know that if we work hard and follow the rules, we’ll be successful. But in reality, there are many external factors outside of our control. Unlearning this belief means accepting that failure is not always due to individual shortcomings. It allows us to show more compassion for ourselves and others.
Similarly, we were likely taught that intelligence is fixed. And that we have specific natural talents that determine our abilities. Modern research shows that a “growth mindset,” is the belief that skills and intelligence can be developed. It is a must for improvement and success. Unlearning the notion of fixed ability is critical to reaching our full potential.
Embrace Growth: Unlearning for a Progress-Driven PerspectiveChallenging what we think we know isn’t easy. Our brains prefer familiar ideas and ways of thinking. Question your assumptions, and consider other perspectives. Accept in life you may not have all the answers. We can gain a balanced and insightful understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
The beliefs we hold most, are often the ones most need examination. Unlearning is a humbling process, but it’s the only way to make space for new growth. By letting go of rigid thinking, we open ourselves up to possibility. And that is where real progress begins.
Why Unlearning Is Essential for GrowthTo grow, you must let go of what you think you know. Unlearning is a skill. Unlearning, though challenging, fuels growth. Our minds favor familiarity. But questioning assumptions and exploring diverse viewpoints fosters actual development.
Acknowledging knowledge gaps humbles us. It paves the way for fresh insights. Our deepest-held beliefs benefit from scrutiny. Unlearning is the path to make room for new ideas.
By releasing rigid thinking, we unlock potential and embark on genuine progress. Embrace unlearning as a catalyst for growth. Allow evolution beyond the confines of old perspectives.
Half of wisdom is learning what to unlearn
The idea is that true wisdom involves recognizing the need to shed outdated beliefs. In pursuing knowledge, individuals accumulate ideas. That might have once been valid but has lost relevance or accuracy over time. To achieve genuine wisdom, one must discern between valuable knowledge and concepts that hinder growth.
The willingness to unlearn obsolete notions demonstrates a deeper understanding of personal limitations. This offers a commitment to evolving perspectives. Just as learning enriches the mind, unlearning is essential. It ensures a well-rounded and adaptable intellectual foundation.
Why is unlearning so hard?We get comfortable with what we know. Our brains form solid neural connections that reinforce familiar ideas and ways of thinking. To unlearn, you have to break those connections. This can feel threatening and disorienting. But unlearning is how we make space for new ideas and new growth.
How do you start unlearning?First, question what you “know” to be true. Look for beliefs and habits of thinking that feel fixed or rigid. Then, look for evidence that contradicts those beliefs. Try re-framing the idea in a more open, flexible way.
For example, maybe you believe that “people can’t change.” But people change all the time in big and small ways. A more open belief would be “people can change under the right circumstances and with effort.”
Look for real-world examples that challenge your assumptions. Talk to others with different perspectives and experiences. Their insights can help expand your thinking.
Unlearning is challenging but rewarding work. With practice, you can let go of limiting beliefs and open your mind to new possibilities. Growth happens outside your comfort zone, so take that first step to question what you think you know. The more you unlearn, the more you’ll realize how much remains to learn.
Identifying Areas Where We May Need to UnlearnTo grow, we must first face the uncomfortable realization. Some beliefs and assumptions may not be true. Identifying areas where we need to “unlearn.” It involves challenging what we think we know by looking for:
Inconsistencies and contradictions
Do any of your views contradict each other or seem logically inconsistent? For example, do you believe people should be treated equally regardless of gender. And you also believe that some jobs are better suited for men or women? Unraveling these kinds of contradictions requires unlearning biased or stereotypical thinking.
Outdated or inaccurate information
The knowledge we gain is shaped by the era we live in. Many “facts” we learn years ago have been disproven or updated. It’s essential to stay up-to-date with current research and unlearn anything outdated. Especially in critical areas like health, society, the environment, and technology.
Narrow or close-minded thinking
Are you judgmental or intolerant towards certain groups or types of people? A narrow mindset prevents us from learning and growing. Try exposing yourself to different perspectives and life experiences to expand your thinking. Make an effort to understand people other than yourself.
Emotional reasoning
Our emotions strongly influence how we interpret the world. But just because we feel a certain way doesn’t make it accurate. Try to recognize situations where your feelings may cloud your judgment. You can reevaluate based on facts and logic rather than personal biases or anxieties. Discuss your concerns with others to gain a more balanced perspective.
Unlearning is challenging work that often takes conscious effort. We need to express our openness to admit our fallibility. Identify and address areas where our knowledge or beliefs is less, inconsistent, or misguided. We open our minds to gain a more precise and broader understanding of ourselves and the world around us. Continuous learning and growth then become possible.
The frame through which you look at the world may not be the one you picked up on your own. Sometimes people force the frame on you.
– Craig Groeschel
In his book, Winning The War In Your Mind, Craig Groeschel writes, “When we reframe what happened in our yesterdays, that changes our todays. We are able to experience life without the old, negative, cognitive bias and start seeing through the lens of God’s grace.” Sounds refreshing, doesn’t it?
The reframing process is essential in your life and in leadership. How you choose to frame the experiences you face in life and in leadership is what separates good leaders from the rest.
It reminds me of the story of the noted English architect Sir Christopher Wren. He was supervising the construction of a magnificent cathedral in London. A journalist thought it would be interesting to interview some of the workers, so he chose three and asked them this question: what are you doing?
The first replied, “I’m cutting stone for 10 shillings a day.” The next person answered, “I’m putting in 10 hours a day on this job.” But the third said, “I’m helping Sir Christopher Wren construct one of London’s greatest cathedrals.”
Each one of those workers saw their work through a particular framework. And the point is, we all do.
As a leader, how you see your work, the people that you lead, and your prospects for the future is important. This framework is a reflection of your belief system and is an indicator of the direction you are headed. From the three workers, let’s examine the frame of mind of each and the lesson we learn.
The wealth mindsetThe first worker saw his contribution solely from the frame of his daily pay. Beyond cutting stone, he seemed to not grasp the enormity of the project he was working on. While there’s no indication that he despised the work or the pay, the tragedy of this mindset runs deeper.
Could it be possible that he undervalued his contributions? If he understood the magnitude of his work and how it would impact the lives of thousands of people, then perhaps his approach to his work would have been different. Perhaps his work would have been more sacred.
Leadership Tip: While a strong work ethic is valuable, your people need to understand the why behind it and the value of their contributions.
The work mindsetThe second worker pronounced that he was putting in 10 hours a day. It would be safe to say that he was a hard and dedicated worker. He would be the type you’d want in your organization. His work ethic was one that likely caused him to stand out and catch the eye of the reporter.
While this work ethic is to be applauded, it would seem that he failed to see the big picture or scope of what he was doing. Yes, he was putting in 10 hours a day, but he was part of something greater than himself and it seems to be lost on him. How tragic.
Leadership Tip: Make sure your people know that the long hours they put in are moving the needle towards something great and greater than themselves.
The wisdom mindsetThe third worker seemed to have a greater understanding of what was taking place. He knew that he was helping build a great cathedral. I can just hear the excitement and passion in his voice as he spoke to the reporter.
In any organization, you have some who are there just for the paycheck. You have some who just want to come in, do their work, and go home with little to no regard for what they are doing or why. Those who will truly make a difference in your organization are those who understand why they are there, where they are going, and how great it’s going to be when they get there.
Leadership Tip: You must always keep the mission and vision before your people. You never want them to be at a loss for what it is that they are doing or why. This can only happen when leaders begin reframing with purpose and clarity.
How would reframing benefit you as a leader and your organization?
Prior to writing this article, I penned down two others viz.: “5 Self-Confidence Boosting Secrets” and “Over Confidence – A Silent Killer back in February 2020 and March 2021 respectively. Now I feel that we should reflect on what other attributes are needed alongside Confidence. Have you ever had a colleague becoming your boss, who according to you, lacks talent, ability, and work ethic? While you were busy doing a good job, others seem to be advancing much faster in their careers. What skills do they have that you lack? What went wrong?
The answer in many cases is your contributions are not being registered and recognized by your supervisor. One important reason this happens is that people are simply not great at assessing competence — a crucial trait for succeeding at work — and perceptions of competence are just as important for success as actual competence. But don’t results mostly speak for themselves? The short answer is: “They don’t”, even when it’s all about numbers. You sit there and silently seethe, as you grow accustomed to answering to a lesser professional. It’s your fault. In the battle between competence and confidence, the latter wins nearly every time. For all of you who believe that competence is everything, read carefully:
What is Confidence?In fewer words, confidence is a belief in oneself, the conviction that one has the ability to meet life’s challenges and to succeed—and the willingness to act accordingly. Being confident requires a realistic sense of one’s capabilities and feeling secure in that knowledge. Projecting confidence helps people gain credibility, make a strong first impression, deal with pressure, and tackle personal and professional challenges. It’s also an attractive trait, as confidence helps put others at ease.
What is Competence?Competence means that I have the ability to do something well. I am capable of performing a task or job effectively. Competence can include the knowledge and skills needed to solve a quadratic equation. Or, it can comprise the much larger and more diverse clusters of skills, or competencies, needed to lead. The concept of competence is creeping into our lives, pervading our thinking about developing people of all ages. We find it in corporate HR and in innovative schools experimenting with competency-based career pathing and education.
What to look for: Confidence or Competence?If we decide to hire someone to lead an important business segment at our workplace, chances are we will choose the most confident candidate. Their confidence will inspire and motivate us to achieve greater milestones. That’s what makes them a great leader, right? But there is a darker side to confidence that erodes trust and turns away once eager followers. That side is the overconfidence that is considered arrogance.
Competence is NOT enoughIt is nearly impossible to earn a position of great responsibility without being highly confident. Would you feel safe in the care of a physician who is simply jumping and dancing all over the hospital and making tall claims without enough competence? Or on the contrary, a physician who doubts his or her own judgment? Of course not.
The same is true for those who make decisions about whom to promote. Why give responsibility to someone who lacks confidence or competence in the first place? While writing this part of the article, I can already read those of you who disagree, saying competence is everything. The truth is, I somehow agree with these statements. But competence isn’t enough. To those of you who believe you are highly competent but admit that you also lack confidence, I have one thing to tell you:
Build Confidence, Whatever it takesIt is irrational to simultaneously believe you are more competent than a colleague but act less confident than s/he does. It is irrational to be proud of your performance but hesitant to act that way. It is irrational to allow less-qualified professionals to have more responsibility than you do, simply because you don’t feel comfortable holding your head up high. Make no mistake, without confidence, much of your competence will go down the drain.
It’s time to make certain that doesn’t happen to you in your careers. Build your confidence, no matter what the price. The world needs more people who are both confident and competent, and I know one thing for certain:
Incompetent confident people are never going to get more competent. If you are competent, it’s up to YOU to grow more confident.
Strike a Right Balance Between the Two1. Engage in self-assessment
Let’s spend quality time with ourselves in self-evaluating our skillset, knowledge base, strengths, and weaknesses regularly; this will enable us to make more informed decisions and identify areas for improvement and growth. Remember: Stagnation stinks.
2. Seek Feedback
Let’s have someone by our side (parents, spouse, siblings, friends) who could share genuine, valuable insight into our personality i.e., positives, negatives, and performance, and identify areas of improvement by way of openly criticise us.
- Pursue lifelong learning
Personally, I devote 5% of my earnings to new learning efforts each year. Whether that is through formal education, workshops, online courses, or self-directed study, one should always be looking to expand his/her knowledge base and skill set.
4. Set SMART Goals
Let’s always raise our own bar and keep doing that periodically. Have ambitious, yet attainable SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound) goals for ourselves that should reflect an honest assessment of our abilities and challenges.
5. Adopt a Growth Mindset
Understand that our skills and abilities are not fixed – we can, and we shall develop them over time through dedication and persistence. Through employing these strategies, we can build both confidence and competence to promote an achievable path to long-term success.
Competence Before Confidence – ConclusionOne common misconception about great athletes and performers is that we often overestimate their level of confidence. We assume because of how skilled and experienced they are that they must feel supreme confidence. But this is far from true.Some performers never feel real confidence. Some performers are so plagued by self-doubt and performance anxieties and insecurities that they cannot feel confident before and when they are performing.
Yet they can still produce exceptional performance despite not feeling confident. How are they capable of this? Because they focus on competence instead confidence. So to help feel more confident, focus on just getting better. How? As Gareth Bale tells us: Through the right amount of high-quality practice. After all, as detailed in an excellent article by Practice Makes Permanent.
"Virtual meetings are more efficient for reporting operational items like compliance updates. But they lack the robust human social interactions provided by face-to-face meetings." ...
"Think about how your distractions affect you at home and in the workplace. It’s critical to find ways to minimize your distractions so that you can be more present for those who need you to be with them at that moment." ...
"A post is not only a post. It is the opportunity to get exposure to different ideas. Sharing comments offers a great means to get exposure to new ideas." ...
"Building relationships with customers, clients, peers, and mentors who become your advocates is something Dortha highly recommends." ...
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"How do we break patterns of old thinking so as not to keep feeling sleepy with indigestible and old information?" ...
"Have you ever felt excluded both personally and professionally? I am sure most of us have faced this uncomfortable feeling, whether as children or as adults." ...
"Three questions to ask when facing uncertainty, so you can let go of rigidity and embrace change." ...
Data centers serve as the foundation of our digital world, containing a wealth of vital information and processing capabilities. As the demand for data storage and computing power grows, so does the necessity for effective cooling strategies to keep data centers operating at an optimal level. In this article, we’ll discuss the significance of data […]
"Children’s leadership shines through in their ability to lead others without ever losing sight of the beauty of simplicity." ...
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In today’s digital age, content writing plays a pivotal role in engaging customers and building lasting relationships. As businesses compete for attention in a crowded online landscape, crafting compelling and persuasive content has become a fundamental skill for success. Merely producing generic content is insufficient in today’s fiercely competitive online landscape. To win over customers […]
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"In a world where deception and manipulation can be prevalent, choosing honesty becomes a transformative act." ...
"Words hold great power, impacting our lives and relationships. They can foster growth or cause harm." ...
"Leaders understand what is happening within their department(s). They can sense it by the body language of the employees and the banter passed around. They just know when it’s time to jump in to help." ...
"Sometimes, when leaders don't believe in what they are saying, they make it louder so it sounds more true." ...
"Almost half of the world’s potential entrepreneurs have been handicapped, and are still being held back from adding value to the quality of people’s lives and making the difference they want to, and can make in the world." ...
'Whether you believe in climate change or not, the frequency and intensity of these weather events are hard to ignore. And, it is happening across the globe, wreaking havoc on all our lives." ...
"My thoughts on incorporating social themes and issues into literature in general, but particularly in the genre of science fiction." ...
"Ultimately, whether AI is a threat to humanity or not depends on how it is developed and used." ...
"As a leader, you need the awareness of knowing if your organizational culture is out of alignment and what corrections are needed." ...
"On an individual level, people who tend to be excessively controlling pay the bill of losing control. They are bathing in extremely hot or chilling water." ...
"It’s time to rethink and restructure the meaning of grief and the time you need to grieve." ...
"My question is – “Should I intend to launch a company based on evolution or revolution? Which is more beneficial to me and society?" ...
"With a sharp intuition and an uncanny ability to connect with others, The Empowerer brought hope and transformation to those who sought his guidance." ...
"To explore new horizons the basic traits that are needed are flexibility to change for the better, being open to new people and surroundings, being open to new perspectives, interacting with respect and kindness, and acknowledging the presence of all beings with respect."
"A nonprofit board is usually confronted with several people risks. ... it must overview management and staff to build background knowledge on those with the potential to become future leaders." ...
"To excel, we need to know what we want precisely and desire to achieve. Not everyone will be on board with us for numerous reasons." ...
"Don’t expect perfection in your first set of business measurements. It is just today’s version. You’ll find some things that are too difficult to measure, others will be relatively unimportant, still, others will rise to the surface. Creating and implementing a measurement system is a continuously evolving project." ...
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"Life can be full of bad situations. Those are temporary. Choosing to call yourself less-than or a ‘loser’ is a permanent solution to a very temporary circumstance." ...
"The time is NOW for you to act, girt up your loins and take the initiative, take charge of your future, and start building it the way you have always dreamt, one step at a time." ...
With VoIP phones, your team can work from home and be easily reached anytime. This helps to keep communication processes running smoothly for a happy and productive workforce. These phones typically have the same physical appearance as traditional business telephones. They are also easy to manage from the cloud. Easy to Set Up Remote working […]
"When we truly seek to understand another we are committing ourselves to bringing an open mind and a level of curiosity that means we are really open to learning." ...
"When your priorities and values are rightly aligned, you can lead with a greater sense of humility and purpose." ...
"Nowadays AI is making huge furor and engulfing many with its amazing expressions." ...
"To close sales, you have to do the work. The way you present yourself, the story you tell, and the way that you relate to your dream client, all play a huge role in potential conversion." ...
"Even if good leadership is based on defined skills, it is very important to remember that, in the day-to-day functioning of a company, the mere possession of these skills is not enough to help everyone move in the right direction." ...
"It’s crucial to be emotionally bulletproof so that you can ride the waves of life elegantly and with the right attitude." ...
"Our work and our titles can be ripped away from us in seconds. Who are we actually without any of them? What is the essence that can never be taken away from us?" ...
"What leaders do is lead by example, bringing people together and guiding them in pursuit of universal values. What they don’t do is try to exploit trends to make a quick buck." ...
"By truly listening - to understand, not just respond - you will be more present and gain a better understanding of the message of the speaker." ...
"When minds meet, they don't just exchange facts: they transform them, reshape them, draw different implications from them, and engage in new trains of thought. Conversation doesn't just reshuffle the cards: it creates new cards." ...
"Chances are, if your business is at all successful, you are going to confront that question." ...
"Promoting someone to a new manager without sufficient training is a set-up for everyone involved but it doesn’t have to be." ...
"Positive emotions and negative emotions are energies and it is the transformation of their energies into creative works that makes the difference." ...
"By leveraging the power of kindness, companies are reshaping the business landscape, proving that empathy can lead to extraordinary outcomes." ...
"Hubris and pleonexia spawn deceit and make justice impossible. And where there is no justice, there is no leadership." ...
"Paradoxes are not new to leaders, but they are becoming have become increasingly important for leaders to navigate." ...
"Financial abuse often goes hand in hand with other forms of abuse such as emotional and physical abuse." ...
"Ask, inquire, be curious, and don't stop at the surface. Many times whoever has the problem also has the solution: listening to what he says because will often it be a source of improvement, in solving the problem as well." ...
"Having worked in media for over 20 years and as a producer, I know what makes a good interview. And it’s a lot more than just a spot. What does it mean? What do you need beyond the actual spot?" ...
"Our VUCA world with its Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity is prone to make complete safety impossible." ...
"With STAR and CARL, you're all set to compose a symphony of compelling stories, turning your interview into a stage where your experience and personality can shine." ...
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There are times when the governing body of any organization may appear to be “broken.” The board members, whether for-profit or nonprofit, may be polarized—progress is stunted – apathy and confusion replace purpose and efficiency. A listing of ways to resuscitate dysfunctional business firms prompted me to expand on actions for nonprofits in similar conditions. […]
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"By establishing clear goals and objectives, leaders can align their efforts and lead their organizations to greater heights." ...
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It amazes me how nature law applies to organizations and people. One example is hypothermia. A human body that exposes to very low temperatures soon loses its body energy. This may affect the brain and its ability to make wise decisions.
The same applies to studying organizations. I share my friend’s story to explain.
My friend was in a bad mood. He had a good job and happily engaged in his work. A rich businessperson tempted him to work for him for a much better salary. He resigned and joined the rich man’s organization. The man initially treated my friend so well until he finished an important project. Suddenly, the man moved him to a tiny office. He ordered his staff not to talk to him. He moved him from hot water to a chilling one.
My friend felt that he started to fall off balance. The man hired him to complete an assignment but then he had no need for him. He suffered virtually from hypothermia. His brain stopped functioning. He resigned with a broken heart.
We hear terms such as the manager froze an employee. Those managers cause much harm to humanity. These managers do this for a variety of reasons. These include not favoring their suggestions, excelling and the fear a manager the employee would replace him and grudge against certain nationalities.
The same hypothermic effect applies to celebrities who suffered from poverty to richness of money.
Social media has served many unknown singers and actors to become very famous in no time. These unknown singers and actors move from the chilling waters of poverty in money and fame to become rich in both. These artists suffer from “Sudden Wealth Syndrome”. This syndrome coupled with hypothermia makes these people act in an unacceptable way.
The fear of losing fame and money and as fast as they earned them make them live in fear. Soon their minds lose the ability to make good decisions. They lose old friends; spend money to focus the light on them on showy things like buying the most expensive cars.
It is amazing how fast they can change their behavior because they started by changing their words. These sudden rich people remind me of the wisdom of Mahatma Gandhi:
Neurodiversity and innovation often go hand in hand, but does that mean visionary entrepreneurs get a free pass to say and do anything they want? Bonobos founder and mental health advocate Andy Dunn shares his experience navigating bipolar I in the midst of running a successful startup, offering lessons learned on his journey to wellness and steps to create a future where everyone is able to “dream crazy dreams” — while being held accountable.
My partner and I decided we needed to learn, understand, and implement a marketing and promotion program to create and execute campaigns to give our books and those of our clients the best opportunity to become a #1 bestselling new release and/or #1 best seller.
Why did we do this? After writing books that did not achieve what we hoped, we invested time, effort, and money to first understand the publishing/distribution/marketing business and second to develop a sustainable and repeatable program. We interviewed authors who had experienced success and disappointment. We learned how to identify and overcome the landmines, myths, and obstacles that negatively impact authors.
We tested the program on ourselves before offering it to clients. We now have multiple bestselling books. In May of 2021, our Trust the Process – Book Marketing Program was offered to clients. How has that worked?
In the 22-month window from May 2021 to March 2023, our campaigns have produced 11 consecutive Amazon #1 bestselling new releases in multiple categories and two award-winning books.
Our message to authorsSo, you want to write a book. As hard as that is marketing/promoting and selling your book is even harder. The average for book sales is 250 copies. The author makes on average $500. Did you pour your heart and soul into writing a book for this? Don’t you want more? What are you doing to make your book stand out? Do you have a marketing/promotion plan BEFORE your book is finished? The sad fact is most authors do not have any type of marketing/promotion plan.
Let’s look at the facts:* 200 million Americans say they want to publish a book. * Somewhere between 600,000 and 1,000,000 books are published every year in the US alone. That is at least 11,500 books published each week.
Let’s look at the myths:As stated above, the sad fact is that most authors do not have any type of marketing/promotion plan. They mistakenly assume the publisher or editor or illustrator or writing coach will do the marketing. Publishers publish. Their job is to get the book finished and ready to be released. They do not run marketing campaigns. It is up to the author to market their book. Most do not have the expertise or the time to create and execute a comprehensive marketing and promotion campaign.
Most authors do not understand all the steps for a book to go from an idea to a finished product. Initially, I didn’t understand the process and was misled or completely misunderstood the marketing & promotion process. Here are the eight common steps to get a book from idea to a product. Note: none of the eight include marketing and promotion of the book.
- Write the book: Start with an idea or a concept. It is best to start with something you know. Try to visualize how you see the book flowing. Write your thoughts and arrange them in the order according to the flow in your mind. This is the creative part of the process. Most authors think this is the hardest part. It’s not. This is just step one.
- Edit the book: The author makes their best effort to edit the book, but as we all know editing what you wrote does not usually go well. Authors tend to see what they intended to write not what is on the page or computer screen. This is where a publisher usually comes into play. Most books will need a line edit and copy edit.
- Line Editing is focused on the content, style, and language used within the manuscript. A professional line editor may point out sections that can be improved, parts where the style is inconsistent, issues with pacing, or overuse of certain words or phrases throughout the manuscript.
- Copy Editing is focused on making sure a piece of writing is accurate, clear, and correct. For example: checking the facts; checking the math; ensuring that the writing is free from libel, plagiarism and conforms to the ethical standards of the publication and the profession.
- Proofreading: Review the manuscript for corrections. This may require two or more rounds of editing for a manuscript of 60,000 words.
- Final Proofreading: Review the entire manuscript plus interior formatting review and confirm proof. Final edits are made as needed.
- Manuscript Review: Author approval or comments and corrections. This may occur two or more times.
- Book Design and Cover: Design of front and back cover with author’s approval
- Publishing the book: Self-publish or contract publishing
- Distribution of the book: This is order fulfillment not marketing or promotion. The author can do it themselves. Contract with a publisher or use Amazon for order fulfillment.
The publisher will market the book myth:We just went through the eight common steps in the publishing process. None of them include marketing and promotion. The publisher may write a press release or social media post. The burden of marketing a book falls directly on the author, not the publisher. Publishers publish they do not market or promote. We do.
In Penguin Random House/S&S antitrust trial it was revealed that out of 58,000 trade titles published per year, half of those sell fewer than one dozen books. LESS THAN 12 BOOKS!!!
I will post to my social media myth:Large social media alone is not enough. While becoming a published author is a major ego boost, very few receive income or effectively leverage their book to expand their brand and business. Far too many authors equate likes, followers, and social media connections with increased revenue. Nothing is further from the truth. Never confuse activity with results.
“The pop star Billie Eilish, who now has 102 million Instagram followers and 6.7 million on Twitter, sold just 64,000 copies of her self-titled memoir from May 2021 to December, according to the New York Times. Justin Timberlake, who now has 64.5 million followers on Instagram, only managed to sell 100,000 copies of his autobiographical collection of observations, Hindsight, in the first three years. And the media personality Piers Morgan, who has 7.9 million Twitter followers and 1.8 million on Instagram, managed to move just 5,650 U.S. copies of his book, Wake Up: Why the World Has Gone Nuts, from September to December.”
“If being a celebrity with millions of followers does not guarantee high book sales, what does? Is there any hope for the rest of us?”
~ The Enigma of Book Sales May 9, 2022, By Alesha Brown
Trust the Process – Book Marketing ProgramWhile no campaign can guarantee a #1 bestseller, our campaigns dramatically improve the odds. They are a proven layered multi-step process to build a brand that will significantly increase exposure, awareness, authority, credibility and ultimately create multiple streams of revenue.
Consistency and frequency of the message matter. One post, email, letter, or Facebook live is not effective. For example, everyone knows Coca-Cola and Mcdonald’s, yet every day we see ads, commercials, etc. for these products. Our campaigns keep your message in front of the target market.
The key is to surround yourself with people who have been where you want to go. Keep in mind, many people, friends, family, colleagues, associates, etc. will offer their opinions and ideas on how the author should release and or promote their book. Most have never created and executed such campaigns. The secret to walking on water is to know where the rocks are! We will show you where the rocks are!
Executing a successful marketing/promotion strategy requires the cooperation of all parties including but not limited to; the author, writing coach, adviser, and publisher, who must agree to follow the steps listed in the Trust the Process Statement of Work and take subsequent instructions from.
When does a campaign startWe start our campaigns before the book is finished. The best campaigns build a groundswell of demand before the book is released.
Three stage campaignOur base-level campaigns have three stages.
- “Priming the pump” in anticipation of the book(s) launch.
- Launch campaign
- Post-launch follow-up
The investment will vary depending on the level of depth.
Are you ready to take control of your marketing/promotion? Let’s see.* Why are you writing this book? * Have you written a book before? If yes, What were the results? Did it achieve #1 bestselling status in any category? * Are you looking to leverage the book to create multiple revenue streams? * Are you willing to invest in your marketing, and promotion campaign? * Are you willing to be coached? * What genre is your book? * Are you willing and able to commit to and follow the campaign – prelaunch, launch, post-launch – potential multiple-month contract? * Are you willing to invest in your book’s success? * Will you put in the time and effort to do the tasks assigned to the author? * Do you have an email list and an email program (MailChimp, Constant Contact, etc.)? * What organizations do you belong to as a member, adviser, volunteer, etc.? * Who is your publisher? They must be willing to follow our plan (post the book where and when per the plan). We can suggest a publisher if needed. * Do you need someone to assist you with the writing, formatting, and editing?
As you move through the decision process to write a book, you will hear many stories and claims from publishers, editors, illustrators, friends, and associates. Ask yourself this question, who has created and executed marketing and promotional campaigns that have achieved 11 consecutive #1 bestselling titles and two award-winning books in 22 months?
Magic happens when people Trust the Process. Message Melissa Van Oss or Frank Zaccari on LinkedIn. Let’s talk.
Like millions of others globally, I watched with fascination, the sensational and striking spectacle of the ceremony, significant symbolism, spectacular artifacts, and rituals at the recent King of England’s majestic coronation. At the same time, I allowed my mind to wander and wondered how this visually stunning and unrivaled British ceremony would impact the nations and realms’ culture and leadership, today and in the future, wondering if, indeed, it is at a cultural tipping point.
Where it is believed, by some, that the coronation made “two statements of great importance for today’s world about the place of religion in public life and the importance and meaning of the nation”. Acknowledging that such a monumental and marvellous event is indicative of a cultural tipping point, not only for the people it embraces but also for organisations, nations, and realms as a whole, to search for what is meaningful and valued by its people.
Making the connectionMy mind wandered and made some obvious connections between the core and common elements that embody both organisational, and national cultural realms – the values, beliefs, assumptions, and mindsets that drive key behaviours and deliver the common implicit messages. As well as the disciplined systems and processes that deliver the results, the rituals that are enacted, and finally, the artifacts whose symbols represent what the culture values.
Maintaining relevance and engagementLike the monarchy, what do organisations need to do to maintain relevance and engagement to thrive in unstable and uncertain times, especially when their existence and legacies are being questioned and evaluated by the people they serve?
At a pivotal time when new sets of global, societal, and organisational demands are being made, largely as a result of the fourth industrial revolution, encompassing the convergence of exponential technologies impacting all of us globally. At the same time, we are all still affected by the consequences of the global pandemic-induced lockdowns, impacting every fabric of our social and civic structures in our world today.
A case study for leveraging cultural tipping points differentlyThe coronation of King Charles III provides us with a great case study of an outstanding and remarkable display of English cultural attributes. This enables us to ask some serious questions about how national and organisational cultures and leadership in times of exponential change, like today, might thrive with uncertainty and co-create solutions to some of the most complex global challenges, by leveraging the range of cultural tipping points differently.
A range of cultural tipping pointsWe are in effect, experiencing globally a range of cultural tipping points:
- At the macro level, according to a recent article here in Australia, where King Charles still resides as our head of state, the local SMH states that this realm is in a state of flux:
“The King is head of state in 15 countries. More than half of the so-called “realm states” are in the Caribbean and most of them are bailing out. Barbados two years ago, Jamaica probably next year. Belize, Grenada, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines are planning their exit as well”.
- At the micro level, according to Mc Kinsey & Co, in a recent article “New Leadership for a new era of thriving organisations” stated that organisations and leadership are also in a state of flux:
“Organizations such as Allianz, Haier, Microsoft, and Nucor are transforming their industries with a new organizational approach that seeks to be open, fluid, and adaptable; unleashes the collective energy, passion, and capabilities of its people; reimagines strategy; and focuses on delivering greater value to all stakeholders”.
“Their cultures support a more open, collaborative, and emergent way of working. And the shift to this new kind of model changes the way businesspeople must lead”.
Going back to culture and leadership fundamentalsBecause culture and leadership are, according to Edgar H. Schein “two sides of the same coin and cannot understand one without the other” we have to be in charge and focussed to intentionally, constructively, and creatively manage their interdependence. He also states that culture matters because it is a “powerful, tacit and often unconscious set of forces that determine both our individual and collective behaviours, ways of perceiving, thought patterns, and values”.
If we do not intentionally and strategically take charge, focus, and leverage these forces, we will simply always be at the effect of them, as they take us down the path of least resistance, remain implicit, and will not deliver the results we want and need in a disruptive world.
Making the coronation linksMy mind wandered and considered what might be the range of core values at play on the weekend and landed on a range of seldom-used words including – power, sovereignty, continuity, divinity, tradition, wealth, accession, diversity, responsibility, pride, and loyalty, supported by the key values of Christianity and a belief in divine right and the crucial role of righteousness.
The ceremony was jam-packed full of amazing seldom-seen rituals, including public prayer, polite bows, serious vows, anointment, and elaborate crowning, to name just a few.
The variety and assortment of symbols were mesmerising, including priceless golden carriages, bejewelled coronation swords, golden scepters, the solo glove and silver spoon, beautifully crafted and jewelled orbs and elaborate crowns. Plus a selection of artifacts included religious items and a variety of civic and military seriously gold braided red, black and white regalia.
Delivered by a set of carefully planned processes and an orchestrated set of scheduled events, including flybys, a range of powerful military processions and parades, serious police presence and awesome security all enacted with mighty precision.
Sharing the key messagesMy mind then wandered and considered what might be the key messages being communicated by this incredible series of marvellous events, and wondered how relevant and engaging they might be to people today:
- A coronation signals the conferment of God’s grace upon a ruler,
- A coronation appoints the king as the Supreme Governor of the Church of England,
- A coronation is a joyous and celebratory event.
Back to the SMH “The people got what they wanted. The cheers in the Mall, the boulevard built for the adoration of royalty, were real, even if the masses were down on those for the Queen’s Jubilee.”
Impacting the futureIt remains to be seen if this powerful, majestic, memorable, and significant once-in-a-lifetime ceremonial event will ultimately help unify or divide the English realm. Which it seems, is facing its own range of unique challenges and a controversial cultural tipping point, ultimately and seriously impacting its future viability.
Back to the SMH “But Charles’s big show might be his last great day. The last dance of a wheeling, brilliant circus that has entertained and beguiled but which soon enough, in its distant realms, will stutter and shrink and reel no more.”
Why does this matter?This matters today because we are individually, and collectively at a range of social, civic, and organisational cultural tipping points. Where we organisation and leaders are also dancing many of our “last dances”, and “stutter and shrink and reel nor more” because, according to some, we are not strategically focussed on leveraging the culture and leadership basics:
- Implicitly clarifying values that focus on delivering value that improves the quality of people’s lives that they appreciate and cherish and explicitly making them an active part of corporate life.
- Ensuring that leaders role model and enact behaviours that demonstrate the values in action, where people are accountable and rewarded by rigorous systems and supportive disciplined, and agile processes.
- Co-creating powerful sets of rituals, symbols, and artifacts, aligned to the values, that deliver the “new architectures” to create permission, safety, and trust that drive collaboration, experimentation, innovation, inclusion, and sustainability.
- Communicating engaging and inclusive messages that resonate creativity, respect, and appreciation for people, profit, and the planet.
Shifting the cultural tipping pointsIt’s time to transform leadership to transform organisations, in ways that are self-aware and inspiring, meaningful and purposeful, equitable and sustainable, with increasing speed, resilience, and efficiency to guide organisational cultures and leadership that:
- Helps people navigate and balance in-person and remote work, be mentally healthy and well, and make the way for both applied AI and human skills development.
- Develops new rules for attracting and retaining people, close the capability chasm and walk the talent tightropes to better equip, empower and harness people’s harness collective intelligence to make both the organisation and the world better places.
- Creates, invents, and innovates new ways of thinking, and acting that ultimately shift the range of cultural tipping points to meet new sets of global, societal, and organisational demands and challenges emerging in the 21st century, and lets go of what is no longer relevant to better serve humanity as a whole.
I‘m a big believer in setting goals. My mentor taught me this skill at the early age of 12. Goals give us a sense of direction and purpose and help us stay motivated. I use the SMART framework to set my goals as Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.
Specific: Goals should be clear, well-defined, and unambiguous. Instead of setting a vague goal like ” improve my career,” a specific goal would be “earn a promotion to a managerial position within my current department.”
Measurable: Goals should have quantifiable criteria that allow us to track progress and determine when they have been achieved. For example, if the goal is to increase sales, a measurable goal is to “ increase monthly sales by 10% within the next quarter.
Achievable: Goals should be realistic and attainable. While it’s essential to aim high, setting goals far beyond our capabilities can lead to frustration and demotivation. An achievable goal might be “complete a marathon within the next year” if you have been consistently running and training for shorter distances.
Relevant: Goals should be aligned with our broader objectives and aspirations. They should be relevant to our values, priorities, and long-term vision. For instance, if your long-term goal is to become a published author, an appropriate goal is to “ complete the first draft of my novel within the next six months.
Time-bound: Goals should have a specific timeframe or deadline for completion. This helps create a sense of urgency and provides a timeline for tracking progress. For example, a time-bound goal could be ” attend three professional development workshops within the next six months.”
I’ve found that using the SMART framework to set my goals has helped me achieve more personally and professionally. I am more likely to stay motivated and on track when I set specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound goals. I also find tracking my progress and celebrating my accomplishments easier when my goals are SMART.
My Personal Mission, Vision, and GoalsEveryone has a unique purpose in life. My goal [particular purpose] is to use my knowledge and skills to help others. I want to positively impact my sphere of influence and leave it a better place than I found.
I have developed a personal mission statement and vision to achieve my purpose. My mission statement is:
To use my knowledge and skills to help others and positively impact the world.
My vision is:
To create a world where everyone has the opportunity to reach their full potential.
I have also set SMART goals to help me achieve my mission and vision. My goals are:
- Volunteer my time. This allows me to give back to my community and make a difference in the lives of others.
- Write and publish my second book. This will allow me to share my knowledge and experience with others and help them more meaningfully.
- Start a podcast. This will allow me to share my knowledge and skills with others and inspire them to achieve their goals.
I am confident that I can achieve my mission and vision by setting SMART goals and working hard to achieve them. I am excited to see the future and grateful for the opportunity to make a difference.
I encourage you to develop your mission, vision, and goals.
It is a powerful way to focus your energy and achieve your dreams.
If you want to achieve more, I encourage you to use the SMART framework to set your goals. It’s a simple but effective way to set yourself up for success.
SMART goals are more likely to help you stay motivated and on track. You are also more likely to achieve your goals because they are realistic and achievable.
Here are a few tips for using the SMART framework to set your goals:
- Make them specific. What exactly do you want to achieve?
- Make them measurable. How will you know when you have reached your goal?
- Make them achievable. Are you setting yourself up for success?
- Please make them relevant. Are your goals aligned with your values and priorities?
- Make them time-bound. When do you want to achieve your goal?
By applying the SMART framework and these tips, you will be well on your way to setting and achieving your goals.
Enjoy your journey!
Can you sense the pull toward more and more group work? The word collaboration is used frequently in organisational life but isn’t well understood or practised in reality…and yet somewhere within us, we know that working across boundaries and overcoming the isolation of long-held silo thinking will be one of the keys to elevating the impact of our work in its many forms.
The silos sit at so many levels – roles, departments, directorates, companies, organisations, institutions, nations and so on. There’s push and pull of getting our own ‘part’ working well and protecting it alongside deep knowing that in fact, true success relies on a higher level of interplay between ‘us’ and ‘others’.
On the global level we are seeing the challenges and the pull of group working in so many aspects of the Pandemic as, in some cases, we seek to work out how we work as a single Humanity rather than with separatist tendencies. Simultaneously we can see the undercurrent and indeed stark evidence of ‘me first’ or ‘protectionist’ behaviour. So too in organisations we can see this play out as we become immersed in our own priorities and agendas – not necessarily fuelled by political or personal gain but because we find it too difficult to lift our heads up and look outward.
Thinking and acting as a ‘group’ demands that we set or can connect to a higher collective purpose or focus. It needs an emotional maturity from everyone as we act from generosity and a higher point of service to the purpose rather than our own egos. That said, we know that in organisations so many of the performance reward mechanisms are geared toward the individual rather than collective performance. This will need to change for us to really harness the power of group working.
A group mindset has within its core a deep sense of unity and oneness…a bringing together of the unique talents and gifts of each entity – person, function, nation – and harnessing these in service of something bigger and which cannot be achieved alone.
This is the future and opening ourselves more deeply to the potential of group working will reveal many new opportunities for making it live. The question is how long will this take us given how pressing the need is now in our world?
Episode SummaryTony Douglas has made a remarkable career out of dealing with complexity and creating inspired communities of people who are able to work together and deal with that complexity as a unit. From engineers to pilots, customer service people to administrators, all from around the globe, Tony’s brought the best out of diverse teams for some of the world’s most respected organizations. This week, we get his amazing perspective.
Episode NotesLeading Through Complexity, Creating a Community (ft. Tony Douglas). Tony Douglas on managing complexity in high-stakes environments
OPENING QUOTE:“It’s about people. There are no organizations without people. Simple as that.”
-Tony Douglas
GUEST BIO:Tony Douglas is CEO of Etihad Aviation Group with over 30 years of international leadership experience in aerospace, transportation, infrastructure, and government sectors. He joined Etihad in 2018, after being the CEO of the UK’s Ministry of Defense Procurement Arm, supplying all the services and equipment for the British Armed Forces valued at over $20 billion pounds a year. Tony has previously held senior leadership positions in the UAE, such as CEO of Abu Dhabi Ports, and in UK, his roles included the Managing Director of the Heathrow Terminal Five Construction Project, CEO of Heathrow Airport, and COO and Group Chief Executive Designate of Laing O’Rourke, a massive global construction company.
CORE TOPICS + DETAILS:[10:53] – We All Have a Part to Play
Junior, senior, everybody in-between
While managing production lines of 4,000 or more people, all heavily unionized, Tony quickly learned that engaging with their community would send productivity through the roof— and failing to engage would be catastrophic. “We’ve all got a part to play,” he says. “Some parts are bigger than others, but unless they all play together, you’ll never get the potential that is clearly there.”
[26:06] – Embracing Diversity from the Ground Up
The difference between success and failure
In his role at Etihad, Tony works with people of 112 different nationalities and an average age of just over 30. He’s learned that diversity must become something that you embrace without a second thought, or you and your teams will fail. Tony even speaks to finding joy in the complexity of navigating diversity, knowing that it ultimately leads to more diverse perspectives and greater success.
[37:47] – Clarity of Purpose in an Organization
Translate what’s required and deliver it
Tony speaks to the importance of clarity and purpose at an organization from the top down. When that clarity is present, everyone within the organization can interpret it and deliver results built around an organization’s purpose.
[48:36] – The Power of Ramesh
Being brand ambassadors— and recognizing great ambassadors for your brand
Tony shares a story of an Australian family who stops at the same hotel in Abu Dhabi every time they have a stopover there en route to the UK. Why? Their children have connected so much with an excellent hotel employee named Mr. Ramesh. But the hotel managers not only had no idea what an impact Mr. Ramesh has had for their brand, but didn’t even know who he was.
Imagine if management had realized the power that Ramesh was having for their brand and capitalized on it, instead of being unaware of his impact?
RESOURCES:* [0:47] About Etihad Aviation Group * [28:14] About Jack Jarvis
Follow Tony Douglas
- Wikipedia
Please stop for a moment to consider your deepest desire before paying attention to our blog question, ‘What do clients truthfully want?’ Most people want to believe that their thoughts matter and desire acceptance in social and business settings. Most people relent that their ideas are not understood, others ridicule them, and often they feel very much alone to wonder if their effort is worthwhile. And then the idea of quitting comes to mind, although it isn’t their heartfelt desire deep down.
NOTE: Treat your prospects and clientele as humans.
My StoryWhether we encounter people personally or professionally, we each want to feel a warm welcome and a sense of appreciation as we communicate our thoughts. Similarly, clients quickly evade attempts by salespeople who only have the sale in mind, not the person or the company in front of them.
Take the ChallengeThe best first step for most is to imagine being the client as an impostor mirrors your behaviors. Observe the impostor’s behaviors and patterns as they speak to you about the fantastic products and services they expect you to purchase.
The burning question becomes, would you purchase or quickly ask the impostor to leave the premises and never return? In all seriousness, it is a burning question because if the clients do not desire our return, we burn a hole in our potential income and potentially run the risk of the job and career. It’s a serious matter as during my sales career, I witnessed a hefty ongoing turnover at all companies I worked for. Seeing their egos at the sales office confirmed that their nonstop talking took over on sales calls.
Embrace Q, L, C: Question, Listen, ClarifyGaining a sound footing with a new prospect, it is best, to begin with questions to encourage the other person to start talking and gradually open up. For starters, inquire why they made time to see you and what caught their interest.
Although people are unique, commonalities among many appear as to what caught one person’s interest. Listening to answers is essential for building one’s sales repertoire. Not only will you soon realize the valid interest points, but it also opens doors wide for upper management. By sharing attention-getting insights in team meetings, the company’s executives will realize better strategies for advertisements and marketing.
As people speak, questions generally arise. Most people are embarrassed to either say they need help understanding or are too busy to make the sale. Either way, they miss opportunities for further business growth. The idea of asking for clarification demonstrates that you are honest and will likely be accommodating upon working together. Taking it one step further, sometimes an answer is cloudy or will raise more uncertainty. It is best to ask all related questions until no more come to mind.
The QLC routine signifies the following:– Humility is within you, and potentially integrity, too.
– You stand out from the competition and could be a friendly easy-to-work-with provider.
– You care about delivering your best.
Your Story: What Do Clients Truthfully Want?An excellent habit is to review our best and worst experiences to compare the results. Of the better experiences, recall similarities in approach, conversation, and each outcome to know what to continue doing and potentially maximize. Underlying the effort is to realize which habits are distracting to discard. Upon making it a routine practice, efficiencies will encompass the overall strategy for more robust results. You will answer, ‘What do clients truthfully want?’
Toward the end of a sales career, you can pass the knowledge in action on to younger people via your products and services. The community spirit will enable you to accomplish more than you thought early in your career to find fulfillment in a satisfying journey.
In Conclusion: What Do Clients Truthfully Want?Prospective clients seek out amicable relationships whereby they are comfortable trusting the representative. Even better, they look forward to future meetings that include tasteful laughter. The professionally friendly style of doing business relaxes almost everyone. Better yet, the process turns into a returning and referring clientele known as The Smooth Sale!
We often hear these terms – unconscious bias and implicit bias – as synonyms, but there is tremendous value in distinguishing between the two. In DEI work, I see companies using terms without having a common understanding of their meaning, leading both to the illusion of agreement and the illusion of disagreement based on slightly different understandings of the same word (think “Diversity”, “Equity”, “Inclusion” as obvious examples). I see this happen with unconscious and implicit bias frequently. Even though they are often used interchangeably, understanding the difference leads to better mitigation strategies and better organizational performance as a result.
Let’s unpack these two terms further.
What is Unconscious Bias?Unconscious bias is exclusively the realm of the brain. These biases are the default settings of your brain in order to reduce cognitive load and to make things easier–after all, your brain is working hard all the time. Unconscious biases are a byproduct of how our brains naturally process information. Unconscious cognitive biases are difficult, if not impossible, to stop before they happen, but the impact of these biases can be mitigated. There are more than 200 named cognitive biases, and while they do in fact help the brain function more easily, they can also lead to unintended mistakes and flaws in judgment.
What is Implicit Bias?Implicit bias includes all of the above and extends beyond your brain’s automatic decision-making, referring to biases that people hold unconsciously but can be revealed through their behavior or actions. (If you have not seen it before, take a look at this Implicit Bias Test). Implicit bias is baked into a behavior, a process, or an action, moving it a step beyond the unconscious realm of the mind. Implicit bias is used more often when speaking of the wide range of social constructs (race, gender, culture, age, orientation, religion, politics, media, etc). Because of this, implicit bias is typically more harmful because the bias impacts others and has widespread implications. The origin (unconscious bias) matters less than the impact (implicit bias) of the expression, action, or behavior. Furthermore, when these expressions, actions, and behaviors persist over time, bias becomes institutionalized and is “the way we do things here”. For a more detailed look at this cycle, see the bias ecosystem.
Mitigating Both Unconscious and Implicit BiasWe sit at the intersection of two truths: that cognitive biases are inevitable and that they lead to unintended mistakes and flaws in judgment. This paradox is a fundamental lesson for any leader who identifies as “inclusive” and seeks to realize the benefits of a diverse workplace. Mitigating both unconscious and implicit bias leads to a higher-functioning organization, greater productivity, and increased revenues.
When designing a bias mitigation plan, it is best to use language that will clearly identify what type of bias you are disrupting because the strategy will be different depending on the circumstances and the context. Sometimes actions are needed to change perceptions. Sometimes awareness can facilitate a different behavior. On other occasions, you may need to rewrite policies that will force a change in perception and behaviors. There are usually several layers to human interactions and the exchange of ideas. Both unconscious and implicit bias are likely baked into each layer. Businesses spend an inordinate amount of time on the who, what, where, when, and why. Bias mitigation is all about examining and reflecting on the how. When we neglect the how of a situation, we allow an environment where it would be easy for bias to impact behavior of all kinds and to limit performance.
Having an awareness that nearly every decision or action is impacted by unconscious bias can lead to a practice of reflection and questioning what we do and how we do it. It allows us to name what is happening, to surround ourselves with people who can make us aware of a bias that we are unable to see ourselves and to redefine processes to mitigate the negative impact of biases. Bias is universal. If you have a brain, you have bias® is the trademark that The Percipio Company builds upon. By framing bias as a by-product of how the brain functions, we eliminate the cycle of justifying, arguing, defending, and explaining (JADE), which can be an obstacle to organizational development and growth.
Understanding the difference between unconscious and implicit bias can help businesses establish a common understanding that everyone operates with unconscious bias and no one is more or less prone to it.
This commonality opens up deeper conversations around the implicit biases that show up in interactions, behaviors, or processes. A huge mistake is treating these conversations as transactional or one-time training events. Because bias mitigation is about examining, reflecting, and changing processes and behavior, it is continual, iterative, and ongoing. It requires generating awareness, process changes, and widespread behavioral adoption to truly impact the way companies operate. The work empowers organizations to create new ways of proceeding, ways that acknowledge bias mitigation as an integral part of the “way we do things here” and integrate it into their workplace culture.
The universal law of polarity suggests that the strong and weak are in need of each other. However, some strong people allude to themselves that they have no need for the weak. They go against the universal law and lose.
One great example from nature is people in Africa and Asia storing millet in their houses. Termites tend to spoil these nutrient-rich grains leaving many people in short supply of their main food.
To overcome termite colonies people in Cameroon found that some ants called the driver ants are able to outsmart termites and eat them. These ants work together as a team. The strength of these ants stems from their coordinated strategy to become strong by working as many in one.
The video below is an example of the fight between termites and driver ants
Humans could not find a better way to battle the termites and eradicate them. Ants do. The false pride of some people finds it hard to accept learning from ants. Well, and then do what the ants can do.
This relates in part to humans playing down small things such as small insects and small problems. They forget that what is small today might become big tomorrow.
Ants think of today and the future. Many termite-eating ants do not eat all the termites and leave some alive to reproduce and keep the food supply available for the ants.
I read some time ago about whales in a restricted lake that whales do not eat all the fish so that the fish may reproduce and the whales may keep their main source of food supply.
The strength is in admitting our weakness. I read on Pininterest this wise quote
To be strong is to understand weakness. To be weak is to have fears. To have fears is to have something precious to you. To have something precious to you is to be strong.
Are not ants and whales doing this? They do. Because of their fear to run short of food supplies, they keep some of their termite and fish respectively alive because they are precious to them. They live the now but without forgetting the future.
You are not strong unless you admit your weaknesses. False pride is a recipe for losing whatever strength you have.
We’d just returned to SeaTac airport from Tampa Florida, where we each led a keynote conversession at Encounter 360°. After exchanging heartfelt words of appreciation for each other’s conversession, we hugged, the kind of hug that shares the gratitude for being so glad to have met the other. And then Andy (Vargo) said this, “I want to thank you… for the first time in my life, I feel that I have the power to create my own belonging.”
The first thing that flashed through my head was, I’m so glad you got there! You see, in my perfect world, everybody would believe in their ability to belong, in self, and with others. The second thing, a few moments later, I realized my Encounter 360° conversession on reimagining belonging did give them a space of agency for themselves in self-belonging. It worked! Phew! It gave them a way past the popular, or conventional view of belonging that, unfortunately, limits one’s own agency to belong.
Our mental wellbeing in the workplace seems to be in a pretty rough place, and I think it’s because of messed up belonging. Burnout, anxiety, and depression appear to be at record levels, according to Forbes. A McKinsey study found that 51% don’t feel they belong. And what’s rather interesting, is a Deloitte study as belonging being reported as one of the most important human capital issues. So, there’s easily enough awareness. But not much change. Could it be our functional definition of belonging is the problem? Maybe it’s because we’ve made belonging a transactional receive-mode thing, instead of relational. And not only that, the framing the way that we think of it is that if I don’t get these four things, I don’t belong.
The Problem: our Popular Definition of BelongingBefore moving on to how we redefine belonging, let me introduce you to a neuroscientist, Kelly McGonigal. Kelly studied how the way we perceive stress can make it harmful, or, helpful to us. Harmful if we believe there’s nothing we can do about it, but helpful if we believe we can. And there’s also an interesting aspect that she uncovered that relates to oxytocin. She found that when you’re connected in a caring way (belonging) and you perceive the stress as a healthy challenge, you actually get a positive bump in your oxytocin levels. And, the stress that would’ve killed you, when combined with the oxytocin actually makes you stronger.
And, on a wellness aside, here’s what you physically get from that oxytocin, in addition to increased pro-social emotional abilities:
- cardiovascular protection
- an anti-inflammatory response
- relaxed blood vessels
- your heart rebuilds faster than it degrades under stressed performance
Sounds pretty healthy doesn’t it? Our bodies have a built-in mechanism for stress resilience. Our wiring for belonging is a self-regenerating relational neurochemical mechanism. McGonigal’s work gives us a clue as to why the current model of belonging might be undermining our current belonging efforts right from the start. We have no agency as we experience stress while in pursuit of belonging.
Here’s the popular definition of belonging from Cornell University.
Belonging is the feeling of security and support when there is a sense of (1) acceptance, (2) inclusion, and (3) identity for a member of a certain group. It is when an individual can bring their (4) authentic self to work.
This standard, or institutional understanding is a receive-mode-only model. If I get these four things… then I belong.
A sense of (1) acceptance, (2) inclusion, (3) identity, (4) being your authentic self to work (AIIA)
So, if you don’t get these four things, you don’t belong? This definition creates a box where the stress of being in a belonged state is unwinnable as it’s out of our agency, and thus the stress becomes harmful. From this frame, your state of belonging is a passively harmful place when you don’t fit in. Further, it creates an emotional barrier to doing the very reach outs that your own oxytocin is calling for. Because you believe it’s out of your ability to get it, this inhibits you further and limits your source of oxytocin and serotonin. We have to be in a positive human connection to generate oxytocin. Here’s a link to a list of seven belonging lead measures. You belong when you get these four things is a rather powerless frame that limits our neurobiology as we attempt to create our belonging. Yet it’s the dominant model. While it’s always brought up and referred to with good intent, it accidentally omits our agency in the definition.
The story we tell ourselves, and sometimes the story we’re given, that we tell ourselves, is the story we live.
Our words matter, and our story shifts with that omission. We’ve been promoting a story of what it takes to belong that disempowers us from creating it in our companies. And, it might even be making some people’s pursuit of belonging even a bit more harmful. (I gotta think more on this one.) The more you run into a brick wall, after running into a brick wall, the more damage you’re doing to yourself. Ironically, we’ve been given a model for belonging that sets us up to be powerless in affecting our own belonging.
- It’s a one-way, passive receive mode, must-get affirmation transactional model
- It leaves us with a self-narrative that says we only belong with someone who gives us these four things
- Yet, those four things aren’t necessarily indicative of belonging
- Ultimately leaves us chronically stressed on the bad side of a fit-in
For bullet 3, I want to offer this caveat. You can have all 4 of these things and not belong, a sense of (1) acceptance, (2) inclusion, (3) identity, and (4) being your authentic self to work. And, you can have the absence of those four things and still deeply belong. I can tell you, from my own personal experience, that I have not been (1) accepted, for being my (4) authentic self. Was warned about getting un- (2) included, and told to get back in the game here with us, or I’m out, my personal (3) identity in the tribe was about to be rejected. And I was implored to get back to rightness with the company tribe. I still belonged despite not getting affirmed in those four areas. And it would be my choice, whether I continued to belong.
The Shift: Define Belonging as You Feel, Own, and Care for Them, AND, They for YouAt Encounter 360°, I offered Belonging Reimagined. One that puts each of us in the driver’s seat of our own belonging. Shifting the power from just us receiving whether or not we belong, to choosing, creating, and inviting another to belong with us. From this re-defined version, our stress from when we don’t belong can be healthy instead of harmful, and help us to get into real belonging.
Try shifting your definition of belonging to this…
Belonging, it’s a state of being, in relationship with others:
When you feel, own, and care for them, in their successes, dreams, and failures. And, they feel, own, and care for you in yours. It’s a two-way relational street.
It’s a two-way street of feeling for yourself and them, owning your life and theirs, and, caring for yourself and them. And they do the same with you. If you prefer today’s typical business emotional intelligence language, it’s mutual-empathy (feeling), accountability (owning), and compassion (caring for).
Belonging requires all three – Feel, Own, and Care forThere’s a hollowness that we all know, that comes when any of the three: feel, own, or care for, aren’t genuine, or, are missing.
- Without the Feel, (empathy) we question whether or not we’re really theirs, when they say, “You’re my friend… or my employee…” We question the “why” of their care for us.
- Without Own, (accountability) we’re stuck with the nagging doubt of if their expressed feelings for us are true. We doubt if their care for us is actually for us.
- Without Care for, (compassion) we disbelieve in the genuineness of their expressed feelings and their claim that we are each other’s.
But, when you have all three, look out, you get a company of resilient people that’ll find a way for each other. You know you belong, because first, YOU feel, own, and care for them, AND second, THEY also feel, own, and care for you. If it’s just them, you’re getting affirmation, and yeah, that feels good. If it’s just you, you’re probably just fitting in, or in codependency.
Notice the order.
- The first qualifier is, “When you feel, own, and care for them…” (starts with you)
- AND (not, so that)… I guess the “AND” could be seen as a third qualifier, it’s not transactional.
- The second qualifier is they feel, own, and care for you in yours…”
Notice also, the context.
“In each other’s successes, dreams, and failures.” It’s in the good times, the aspirations, and the bad times. This is what falls in line with our tribal neurobiology. We’re designed to be indispensable to our tribe.
I love Angela Theisen’s take on belonging being as fundamental to how we organize ourselves.
“The sense of belonging is fundamental to the way humankind organizes itself. If it was unimportant, we would live solitary lives only coming together for procreation then quickly kicking the children out of our lives as soon as they could walk. We would have no families, communities or organized government.”
We cannot separate the importance of a sense of belonging from our physical and mental health. The social ties that accompany a sense of belonging are a protective factor helping manage stress and other behavioral issues. When we feel we have support and are not alone, we are more resilient, often coping more effectively with difficult times in our lives. Coping well with hardships decreases the physical and mental effects of these situations. (Mayo Clinic Health System)
It’s a relational model of bidirectional power that starts with you. Each one of us has agency. You get to shift into the driver’s seat of your own belonging. You’re not of the tablet victim to circumstance, nor are you an unfortunate victim.
When we define belonging this way, we get a frame for living out a new belief where our belonging is also in our power to create. So that even in the stress during the formation of belonging, we actually can get stronger.
Here’s a belonging practice to move your head in your heart into your own efficacy to create your own belonging.1. Remember a time when you: felt, owned, and cared for somebody in their successes dreams, and failures, who also feels, owns, and cares for you in yours.
(Do not tell of a time when you had a sense of acceptance, inclusion, and identity, and could be authentic. – Play along with me here)
2. Meet up with someone, in person or over Zoom, and share that story with them.
3. Afterward, take note of how you’re feeling inside.
4. Now, that person who you felt, owned, and cared for… Invite them out for coffee, or beer, or call them, or text them- and thank them for feeling, owning, and caring for you.
A quick summary of belonging wellness benefits:1. Less burnout, anxiety, and depression 2. Higher resilience 3. Oxytocin neural/emotional benefits * Empathy * Cooperation * Generosity * Interpersonal trust * Social motivation * Altruism * Emotional recognition * Gaze and focus & eyes face
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Oxytocin physical benefits
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Cardiovascular protection
- An anti-inflammatory response
- Relaxed blood vessels
- Your heart rebuilds faster than it degrades under stressed performance
I wonder what would happen to the rates of anxiety, depression, suicide, heart attacks, strokes, autoimmune diseases, etc., if we had more belonging of the feel, own, and care for type?
Give this definition a try. Make the shift. I bet you’ll find your emotional and physical wellness moving upward with your belonging.
Having labored a little over translating Mariah and Byron Edgington’s Journey Well list of self-affirmations into Danish, I decided to write a piece on the ongoing translation task that all of us who function in a foreign language continuously engage with.
In international social science research projects, the term “conceptual equivalence” is thrown around and makes it cumbersome to make good research questions that can apply equally well in many different countries. The same goes for translating emotions – and words evoking emotions – as in Mariah and Byron’s list. We want a translation to evoke the same emotion as the original word. If “more than enough” evokes an emotion related to being “too much”, Houston, we have a problem.
A translation is sometimes more than just the same word in a different language.
Let me start with a short background story.
In my early twenties, one of my best friends was a colleague who had a huge stack of paperback novels. She had been a flight attendant for a couple of years, and cheap English language paperbacks seems to be everywhere in airports. Hence, she has acquired more than a few. The books were not the reason we were friends, but they did provide ample reading material when we went on vacations together.
To put this into context: I grew up speaking a language that only around 5 million people speak. That does not make for a huge market in neither hardcover nor paperback novels and, consequently, books in Danish were/are prohibitively expensive – three to four times the price of a similar book on Amazon. If Danish books weren’t so expensive, we wouldn’t have read all these paperback novels in English in the first place.
Now, let me get back to telling you the story with my friend.
Because we read so many books in English, odd sayings started to creep into our Danish. She told me about some shenanigans she wouldn’t put it past her brother to have instigated – and we both cracked up because the term “putting it past him” doesn’t exist in Danish. She had translated this verbatim, and it made absolutely zero sense.
I think this was the first time I consciously recognized that some words or terms could not be translated and be understood the same way as in the original language. (And this is a very different “oops” from just using the wrong word when you speak a foreign language.)
Have you noticed that we are already dealing with two levels of translation confusion now?
The simple layer is that perhaps you now wonder what the Danes say when they want to convey “I wouldn’t put it past him”?
The next layer is that to set the scene, I had to tell you much more about the Danish book business that you would ever want to know.
Over the years, I have helped translate many Danish texts, and an important part of a translation is to add a context that allows the foreign reader to make sense of what is in the primary message. You can’t for example refer to a company and expect readers abroad to know anything about the company – not even one that is known by everybody back home.
One doesn’t have to be Danish to wrongly infer that some things need no explanation. Reading Harry Potter makes so much more sense if you know just a little about the English school system. And, actually, that goes not just for the school system but for any social “system”: government, retirement, medical, telephones, elections, juridical… We are generally only aware of our own country’s ways of organizing itself. (I recently watched the movie “A Man Called Otto” and yes, the plot differs from the original Swedish story because Sweden and USA don’t organize their medical care in the same way.)
It is not just our locally known companies, heroes, and public services that need introduction when we translate. When you are translating into English aimed at the US audience, numbers also need to be adjusted. What looks like a social emergency or miracle because something happened to 5,000 Danes becomes a rounding error put into an American context. Such numbers need to be normalized – how many people per 100,000 population translates much better than absolute figures whether your frame of reference is much bigger or much smaller than mine. (Actually, this happens as well when somebody compares between states within the US.)
With idioms and metaphors, all bets are off. We may even unwittingly “step in it” big time – to use a metaphor that in my childhood Danish was “stepping in the spinach”. (Don’t ask me why spinach.) Americans fill their language with references to sport: “Out of the ballpark”, “Home run”, “Slam dunk”. If you don’t play baseball or basketball, this may mean nothing. In French it is cooking terms and food references that show up everywhere. “I feel like a chicken in a pie.” Say what!?
All languages use references to literature (“the emperor has no clothes”, “Catch 22”), movies, history, or Holy Scripture. I learned that Chinese “play piano to a cow” when they “throw pearls before swine” – would that stop you in your tracks, reading a novel where they play piano for their cows? (Not that the pigs makes a whole lot of sense, either.) The www is full of strange sayings translated verbatim. I read and laugh that anybody would say something this funny – and then discover that it is just the Dutch words for the totally same old saying we have in Danish. (Refound in translation, perhaps?)
At the beginning of this piece, I wrote “Houston, we have a problem.” Did you pause to wonder where that came from? If not, do you think it may confuse people with non-American background, or perhaps people younger than you?
In Denmark, being naïve is sometimes phrased as “being blue-eyed” because most babies are born with blue eyes. “I may have blue eyes, but they are not that blue.” It doesn’t translate well into the multiethnic American society, where referring to blue eyes is known as “a dog whistle”. Does everybody outside the USA understand the same if using the term “dog whistle” as do Americans? (Fortunately, not my blunder.)
We are not always aware of how much we use idioms that can be hard to translate because they rely on culture and country-specific references. But they will often be lost in translation (and when they are not, trust me, they are a real nuisance to translate.)
I referred to international research above, and questionnaires require not one, but several translators involved translating back and forth. A classic joke illustrating this is translating Matthew 26.41 “The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” The reverse translation: “The drinks indeed is strong, but the steak is bad.” I recognize that this may be funny only to people familiar with Matthew and the traditions around his writing. But we do want the reverse translation to get a little closer to the original text, please.
One of my translation projects was the Danish version of the Personal Value Questionnaire used in social surveys. Dr. Schwartz and his colleagues set out to measure all the values they could think of to figure out which values were most prevalent where. And they could think of quite a few. But when they tried to agree on how to put all these values into questionnaires, they found that some of the values were important in some cultures but were totally unknown in other cultures. How is that for “conceptual equivalence” if you have concepts that don’t even exist in the language you are translating into? Lost in translation, squared.
When the team had sorted this out and questioned people all across the world, they did some fancy statistical analyses and found that some values grouped together one way in some countries but very differently in other countries. Thus, a value can be important to both you and your counterpart, and you would translate it with words you both understand, but you could still mean something different. That is one of the worst situations in international communication: you think you agree, but you speak about two different things.
While I can’t tell you which values may suffer from this unfortunate complexity – they were excluded from the questionnaire – I can tell you that when you table a point on your agenda, the Americans draw a sigh of relief and lean back in their chairs while the Brits roll up their sleeves, getting ready to dig in. And that confusion doesn’t even require anybody translating.
Welcome to my life…
We live in a digital world and the requirement to sell anything online brings about challenges with our cyber security. As authors, publishers, and content creators we are all keen to sell our products via this medium, in doing so we have to be relatable to our customers, that inevitably means sharing personal information.
Most of us turn to social media to promote ourselves and what we have written. Unfortunately, this is where criminals also operate and seek out opportunities.
Scams and account takeovers are commonplace on these types of platforms and have the potential to ruin your business and hard-won reputation.
I am a former police officer and a firm believer in the phrase, ‘prevention is better than cure’ hence I have put this short piece together with that in mind. It is written from the perspective of a small business owner and author alongside my set-up and experiences. It may not be the same for everyone but for most of us in this arena, I am taking an informed guess that what I will share here will be common for a lot of us.
- Do you hold any customer data?
- Do you have social media accounts?
- Do you manage your website yourself?
Even if you only have one of the above, then you and the data you hold are at risk, unless you take precautions to protect it. Despite what a slick cyber security salesperson may tell you, there is not one single solution that will stop you from suffering a data breach. What you ‘can’ do though is lower the risks significantly.
Customer data – when someone orders content from you, invariably they will provide their name, email, and home address, maybe even details of the payment provider. What are you doing with it once the transaction is complete?
Ask yourself, do you need to keep it? If a cybercriminal gets into your systems and steals their data, you have suffered a data breach and will have certain obligations. Do you need all that upheaval to deal with, or would you prefer to be doing something else, like promoting your business for the right reasons?
Tip – weed what you don’t need!
Social media – a great place to network, make contacts and promote your business but it is also the prime hunting ground for those with malicious intent.
When you are looking for leads be wary of the posts that are designed to create your curiosity, “Look what I’ve found”! “I have got a surprise for you”!, “You’ve won a prize”! etc, etc.
The intention is to get you to click, and then lo and behold you have introduced malicious software (malware) into your device. Your social media profile could in turn get taken over by the criminal who starts to connect with your client base. Something else you do not want to have to deal with.
Tip – things you click can be tricks!
Your website – It may be the case that you manage your website, or you outsource it to a friend or a company. Make sure the admin password is ‘long and strong’ and do not share it with anyone else, it is the equivalent of the master key for your digital front door. Also, ensure that security updates are applied promptly (things like plugins too for WordPress). If you don’t attend to them, the vulnerabilities are not addressed, and you are leaving the windows open for digital burglars.
Tip – If you are not sure, get someone ‘in the know’ to help you
Finally, one of the best ways to protect all your online accounts is two-factor authentication. This is like a double lock on that digital front door. The way it works is that you enter your credentials into say, your Facebook account, the system will then require a code from you, normally generated via an authenticator app on your smartphone. Something that is only in your possession (or should be).
No code, no entry, it’s that simple and a great way of keeping scammers, fraudsters, and thieves out of your accounts.
Stay safe out there, it’s a digital jungle!
Every nonprofit needs a business plan to implement marketing, financial, human resources, etc. activities. The goal of the nonprofit business plan is to maximize the achievement of the organization’s mission within existing resources.
Strong service and business practices should be the hallmarks of any nonprofit board that effectively focuses on four business factors:
Seizing Opportunities: Thousands of charitable, trade, and professional nonprofits have survived with modest growth for decades. Rigidly adhering to their missions in a supposed attempt to avoiding mission creep, they have failed to experiment and to seek ways to enhance their client services, even in the face of declining client populations.
Examples of some that have seized opportunities: The board of one local nonprofit operating a sheltered manufacturing workshop for visually impaired clients merged with Good Will retail stores. The income from the stores enabled the organization to creatively offer additional client services such as a call center.
A national nonprofit organization supporting local groups offering counseling services has a profit subsidiary offering crisis management services to airlines and businesses. When a crisis occurs the organization has a call center staff that provides authoritative information to those who seek it. In addition, the national organization can call on local member agencies to send counselors to the crisis site.
Avoiding mission creep can be a two-edged sword. It can prevent a board from seeking charitable funds outside of its core competencies. But it also can restrict visionary boards and CEOs from assuming risks – those in the long run that can improve services to new and current clients.
Focusing On Clients: It is often difficult to determine the long-term impacts of a nonprofit organization’s efforts. In attempting to help solve family conflicts, for example, it may only be possible to assist clients in resolving the symptoms of the problems not the long-term problem roots. Example: An organization whose mission is to serve the homeless may focus on finding temporary shelters for clients instead of permanent housing. The latter is a venue that had shown to have greater homeless benefits at lower community costs.
Handling Competing Priorities: Like commercial organizations, nonprofits face the challenges of competing priorities from stakeholders. The overriding one for nonprofits is that the client receiving the service often is not the one funding the service. Consequently the nonprofit has to service a set of clients for which it may not have donated revenues to fully cover the costs. Example: Symphony orchestra ticket sales only cover about 40% of the cost of the ticket. Donations and grants have to fill the gap for survival.
Trade-offs have to be accommodated. Frequently nonprofit salary budgets are not sufficient to hire and retain employees with a high market value. But nonprofits have been successful in engaging quality employees who value the mission the organization has undertaken. These people garner psychological compensation from contributing to the mission and clients. This is a value that a large portion of the millennial generation is seeking when considering an employer.
To increase value to clients, nonprofit managers must be ready to provide evidenced based data and information to donors, foundations and governmental and accrediting groups. Some stakeholders may be willing to fund certain populations but not others. Managers who address these difficult tradeoffs, in my opinion, often figuratively stand ten feet tall. In addition, they are often great human beings. Example: I have observed several executive directors of children’s homes legally adopt children in need of homes.
Think Long-Term: Nonprofit board perspectives can be circumscribed by short-term views for several reasons. In today’s fast-changing political, economic and social environments, the strategic planning framework must be limited to three- five years. When related to board rotation policies that limit most directors’ tenures from four to six years, a visionary director may only be able to influence one planning cycle. In addition many board chairs are changed annually. As a result, there may be little attention directed to mission modification.
Business boards can be locked into short-termism because of quarterly reporting requirements. But this is not a requirement for nonprofits if boards will acknowledge that volunteer directors’ board tenures are relatively brief and the organization’s senior managers need to be up-to-date on strategic field perspectives. Management must be ready to convince the board that its perspectives are reasonable, so that implementation can take place. In practice, the process works out to become a checks and balances approach.
Many may argue there is an inherent gap between nonprofits and for-profit organizations. The four factors cited above indicate quite a similarity when it comes to the business operations of both.
If you partake or want to partake in interviews, one of the first things you may encounter is the fear of going on-camera. Why? Watch the Video I Made for You to Get My Reasons.
I‘m so glad you’re taking the time to focus on changing your thoughts for your well-being. I know it can be scary to step out of your comfort zones and face the unpredictability of Change. But trust me, it’s worth it. When we open ourselves up to new experiences and challenges, we engage in active self-care and growth. Think about it for a minute. Exploring new activities – the unknown – allows us to learn more about ourselves. Stepping outside our routine also brings valuable skill sets and knowledge that benefit us in the long run.
Change can help us focus and prioritize what’s important, whether it’s decluttering distractions or leaving behind relationships or careers that no longer serve us. By making small, meaningful changes, we take action toward our goals and gain a sense of accomplishment and self-worth.
Change can be uncomfortable, but it’s necessary for a fulfilling life. In addition, it gives us the confidence boost to overcome challenges and build stronger relationships with those around us.
And you have the power to change the way you think today. That’s right, you can choose what thoughts you want to focus on right now. This concept dates back to the Bible. In 2 Corinthians 10:3#5, Apostle Paul talks about “casting down imaginations.” The words “Casting down” meant to “destroy,” and the word “imaginations” meant “thought,” which means not believing in lies and falsehoods.
It’s important to constantly challenge negative thoughts and replace them with positive ones. No one else can control your thoughts and feelings except you!
I challenge you to start each day with a pep talk and powerful affirmations. Spend 5#10 minutes every morning focusing on what you want to achieve for the day, and don’t let negative people or the world get you down.
Here’s a sample pep talk to get you started. Use it, personalize it, or use it as a springboard and create your powerful motivating morning pep talk.
“Good morning! It’s a brand new day, filled with endless opportunities and potential. Take a deep breath and remember that I can make this day amazing. I am strong, capable, and ready to take on any challenge that comes my way. I will focus on the present moment and won’t let yesterday’s worries or tomorrow’s fears hold me back. Instead, I’ll trust in myself and take small steps toward my goals today. Every effort counts and brings me closer to where I want to be. So let’s get going!”
And here are a few examples of affirmations to lift you up. Use them, personalize them, or use them as a springboard to create powerful affirmations. Repeat these
affirmations to yourself and feel the positive ener%y flow through you:
• I am capable of achieving any goal I set for myself.
• I believe in my abilities and strive for success daily.
• I am worthy of success and happiness.
• My past successes give me the strength to keep going, even through tough times.
• Every challenge I face brings me closer to reaching my goals and dreams.
• I will not run and hide from failure; I will learn and rise above it.
Ending your pep talk with a code word or two that you can use as a call back during the day when the going gets tough. In the example about: “let’s get going!” Say it to yourself and instantly return to the feelings of positivity and strength you had at the end of your morning pep talk!
You’ve got this! Believe in yourself and watch amazing things happen in your life.
Today is your day, and you’re going to make it a great one.
Dr. Seuss told us, “You’re off to Great Places! Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting, So … get on your way!”
Embrace Change with passion and see where it takes you – and along the way, remember to always be innovating, adapting, and thriving! What do you say?
I hope this book empowers you to take control of your thoughts and actions. I believe that people’s thoughts and motives determine their behavior and actions. Therefore, it’s essential to maintain positive thoughts and motives and recognize that we can change our thoughts when they drift toward negativity. Creating Change strives to help readers cultivate this self-awareness and to take steps toward personal growth and Change.
You can create the life you want and live with a positive mindset. “Let’s get going!”
CLICK HERE FOR YOUR FREE COPY OF MY EBOOK PICTURED ABOVE
Today, more than ever, it is essential to set rules for engagement before accepting any business, especially with a need to promote another. Otherwise, the next step could be to seek legal advice. We want to avoid getting caught up in a scam or helping another with a project that is not as initially projected. Before accepting any offer that may intrigue us, we must research before agreeing to a partnership.
My StoryRoutinely offers to buy a business, promote the work of another entity, or collaborate with new people come to my attention. Most offers are easy to decline as they do not meet my goals and will only eliminate the time necessary for achieving them. In other cases, I either need to gain the knowledge required to succeed with the offer or desire to consider the opportunity. In these cases, it is easy to decline the requests.
My first step is to schedule a conversation to learn more. When someone approaches whose demeanor almost matches mine in an approach, the behavior catches my attention. However, I forewarn the person that I have many questions that require answering.
Upfront, I may be excited about the proposition, but it’s best to begin by gaining insights from those already established in the industry. I lay out the opportunity before me and ask if they know the people and the company they represent. The primary concerns are:
- The business in question aligns with my priorities and goals.
- The company has a solid reputation.
- Our principles for conducting business match those of one another.
Detective Work UpfrontI will thoroughly research a website to gain further insights before speaking with someone about the possibility of partnering. Typically, the About Us page will indicate the team members, insight into their experiences, and what they hold essential overall. Next, I do a Google search to learn more about their work and if the company is legitimate. Should they partner with other firms, I will research those too. Although I may want to participate without hesitation, I know better and proceed to do detective work before making any agreement.
Most importantly, before the conversation, I will ask those I know well and are well-known in the same field as the company in question if they know the business. The people I confer with have a wealth of experience in their expertise. Accordingly, if a company name is unfamiliar, that lessens the enthusiasm. And when another company is in the startup phase, given today’s news, caution sides with the idea to wait until it proves itself successful and familiar before proceeding. I check for agreement on whether that will work for the other party.
Detective Work for SalesDetective work also applies to dealing with prospective clients. The salesperson is responsible for becoming familiar with as many aspects of their work as possible. Upon analyzing a conversation after the fact, I would frequently call my prospect the following day. My opening line was to say, ‘I was thinking about you to realize I have one more question,’ and then ask permission to proceed. My teammates would refer to me as the Columbo detective of sales.
Your Story: Set Rules for EngagementIf you know the feeling of being sorry about an agreement with another that seemed to enter a sinkhole, then you are the first to realize the need to set engagement rules. Values and priorities come first. But next, the research on many levels requires time and thought about whether the necessary effort to make it a success is likely a good decision.
Reviews can be ‘iffy’ depending on whether an opposing reviewer is honest or doesn’t want a competitor as good as the one in question. Therefore, asking those you know in a similar field their thoughts upfront is best. Then research the industry and the competitors of the business making the request. Note the similarities and differences to determine whether you admire the company.
An effective collaborative effort is frequently the differentiator for being successful. On the other hand, not being selective can lead to a downhill slope, only to regret ever saying yes. Consider the suggestions above to realize where you may improve your approach the next time an exciting offer comes. The point is to ensure it’s exciting and will prove successful.
In Conclusion: Set Rules for EngagementToday, more than ever, it is essential to set rules for engagement before accepting any business, especially with a need to promote another. Otherwise, the next step could be to seek legal advice. We want to avoid getting caught up in a scam or helping another with a project that is not as initially projected. Before accepting any offer that may intrigue us, we must research before agreeing to a partnership.
Mark Twain said it best:
Always do right; you’ll gratify some and astonish the rest.
Of course, it’s rarely that simple. Despite our best intentions, the decisions we face often set our moral compass spinning in all directions. At every crossroads, we find self-interest and equivocation clouding our judgment and weakening our resolve to choose good over evil.
From Socrates to Immanuel Kant to Stephen L. Carter, moral philosophers have grappled with finding an absolute definition for good to guide us in making better choices. Perhaps the most widely debated is Utilitarianism:
The doctrine that an action is defined as right because it provides the greatest benefit to the greatest number of people.
Superficially, this sounds like an ideal definition. But it presupposes that we have a universal metric for defining benefit. It also fails to address the morality of imposing harm on the few in order to provide felicity for the many. If we could calculate that humiliating or torturing an individual would yield more amusement for the group than pain to the victim, classic utilitarianism not only allows the many to afflict the individual but morally obligates them to do so.
Indeed, superficiality may be the most relevant factor as we attempt to evaluate whether the rapid advances in artificial intelligence are good, neutral, or truly diabolical.
AND I LOOKED INTO THE FUTURE…When used with discipline and discernment, technology enhances our productivity, our creativity, and the quality of our lives. When used irresponsibly, however, it can steal our souls. Caught in a battle between costs and benefits, what is the ethical approach for evaluating and regulating the ways in which AI infiltrates our life and our work?
The lucid prose of ChatGPT leaves no doubt that we have entered a brave new world. The composition software performs better research, writes more articulately, and reasons more clearly than many of us do. If you’ve ever suffered through the cringe-worthy lines of amateur poetry, you might feel grateful for the smoothly flowing stanzas of computer-generated verse.
It is encouraging how classroom teachers have already begun implementing creative techniques for using the new processing tool. Some grade students on their collected research and their own notes before permitting them to feed the results into their computers to produce a final product. Others let students begin with AI generated essays, then instruct them to validate the data and improve the prose.
Writers of articles and scholarly papers claim they can triple or quadruple their output by letting ChatGPT produce first drafts. Used thus, it’s hard to argue against the measurable benefits of AI.
LOOK INTO THE ABYSSEthics lives at the brink of the slippery slope. You might remember from high school the bold warning at the front of every copy of Cliffs Notes: These notes are not a substitute for the text itself . . . students’ attempt to use them in this way are denying themselves the very education that they are presumably giving their most vital years to achieve.
Did you pay attention? I know I didn’t. And I went on to become an English major.
In the 2008 Pixar film WALL-E, the earth has become an abandoned garbage dump, and the remnant of humankind cruise through the galaxy on a space-ark. The survivors are all obese, carried about on anti-gravity chairs, fed nutrition through a tube, and distracted by video screens. They are cared for by robots whose artificial intelligence has determined that humans are incapable of caring for themselves or making their own decisions.
Life imitates art. The Netflix documentary The Social Dilemma frighteningly illustrates how social media algorithms are designed to make users insecure, undisciplined, and literally addicted. Studies indicate that cognitive capacity is declining at an alarming rate, and that the battle to generate advertising income by keeping viewers glued to their screens is accelerating what already looms as a cultural crisis.
LIMPING TOWARD GEMMORAHThe problem with technology is that it easily becomes a crutch. And the problem with crutches is that once we start using them, we become dependent on them. Short-term gains for the sake of efficiency may lead to a long-term decline into learned helplessness.
Another ethical challenge is programming bias. The more politics becomes our new religion, the more programmers will insert their political leanings into the software they produce—whether intentionally or subconsciously. Columnist Rob Henderson recently reported how ChapGPT refused to compose a defense of fascism but unhesitatingly produced a sympathetic critique of communism. Is it not likely the same biases will infect AI-generated writing about business practices, philosophy, and culture?
Concerns about plagiarism and attribution are also well-founded. Beyond that, the software has been known to produce phantom excerpts that are summaries rather than actual quotations; neither can it differentiate between information and misinformation.
Even if these concerns are ultimately addressed, human writing may already be headed toward extinction. The online education company Chegg recently saw its stock value plummet as students abandoned the platform in favor of ChatGPT for homework assistance.
That might be fine if students were better served by AI. But research clearly shows the correlation between invested effort and successful outcomes. Reliance on AI might therefore carry a devastating cost in proportion to the modest utilitarian benefit of convenience. As intellectual discipline wanes, human performance declines, and jobs disappear, we may indeed end up climbing into our anti-gravity couches and slurping liquid protein through a straw.
If there’s one lesson we should take to heart it’s the need to stop reactive thinking and begin developing a proactive approach to technology and culture. Does anyone remember the shoe-bomber who, post-911 attempted to board a passenger plane with explosives in his work boots? Thanks to him, we’re still required to remove our shoes going through airport security two decades later, despite little real safety concern. We need to look forward, not just back.
History is a great teacher, but if we want to confront the challenges of the future we have to build on the past, not merely react to it.
Artificial intelligence can help us only if we make sure that it serves us, and that we don’t start serving it.
I am pleased to present a new blog in a series of interviews with companies introducing interesting and disruptive emerging technologies that impact the new era of Industry 4.0. Today we explore product innovations in securing communications, the supply chain, and ensuring personal safety, with Monte Brown, Founder, and CEO of The Rapier Technology Group
Hi Monte, can you describe the mission and capabilities of the Rapier Technology Group?Monte: Yes, I would be happy to do so. Our mission is securing things we care about by enhancing product/data security, safety, and authentication for businesses, governments, and individuals. The Rapier Technology Group (RTG) has developed a full suite of cutting-edge technologies for supply chain security, secured communications, and product authentication across multiple sectors.
RTG offers specialized security products for the government mission and has a global commercial division with products tailored for industry. Unfortunately, data breaches and counterfeiting are on the rise in every industry and causing damaging results. The existing strategies to mitigate threats are intensive and require additional infrastructure or highly specialized solutions to solve the problem. And physical and digital vulnerabilities exist despite the best efforts and innovations in cybersecurity.
RTG seeks to fill such voids in the cybersecurity ecosystem by creating products that are disruptive by design, and easy to deploy and use. Our goal has been to develop simplicity in systems and security to allow cost-effective solutions that resolve today’s complex problems. Solutions do not always need to be so complex that we are unable to manage them.
Also, RTG is not just about delivering new and better technologies. A cornerstone of Rapier’s success has been and will continue to be the high degree of professionalism and integrity demonstrated every day by our employees throughout the company. As we grow in numbers and in the variety of clients and locales that we serve, it is important that we provide clear guidelines regarding how we should approach important issues and decisions that may arise as we strive to provide the best service to our clients and the best work environment for our employees
What is RTG’s unique stenographic communications platform and how does it enable security?Monte: RTG’s product Ricochet is a file security and communications platform with a user-friendly interface and unparalleled security. Our proprietary pseudo-steganographic technique ensures sensitive data, messages, and files are imperceptibly hidden within innocuous carrier images and can be stored, transmitted, and accessed securely and reliably only by those authorized to do so. This approach has been tested against industry-standard analysis and attack methods, and reliably ensures hidden data is not statistically detectable and robust to brute force attack. A tiered access system ensures security at the individual and organizational levels and incorporates the ability to set time frames in which data is accessible. Finally, the Ricochet platform can be used on all common operating systems (Windows, MacOS, Android and iOS) and has compatibility across any file type.
Conventional means of communication, such as text messaging, can provide actionable intelligence to bad actors, and eavesdropping third parties. For example, in early March 2022, Russian intelligence was able to determine the location of a small cell of mercenaries based on their phone numbers and text metadata; once discovered, the suspected mercenary base was bombarded, leading to the deaths of 35 people. By contrast, users of the Ricochet platform could easily utilize less traceable forms of communication, such as emails sent through a VPN/Tor network or virtual dead drops via social media. Alternate forms of communication such as these are inherently more private, less suspicious, and can be carried out without the identifying information associated with cellular service/SIM cards
The Ricochet communication platform allows for secured file access and covert communications over normal communication channels, such as SMS, Facebook, email, etc. Using a proprietary asymmetric steganographic technique, hidden data, messages and files are imperceptibly embedded within innocuous carrier media and can be stored, transmitted and accessed securely and reliably. This process can be used on any common operating system (Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS), and has broad compatibility across any file type. Our steganographic algorithm takes the strengths of several more common approaches, then utilizes them in such a way that hidden data is no longer statistically detectable and is no longer susceptible to brute force attack. A tiered access system also ensures security at the individual and organizational levels, all the while adding the ability to set timeframes in which data is accessible.
Supply chains are highly dynamic and transit geographic spaces that exceed most organizations’ capacities for maintaining persistent monitoring and threat identification and pose a continual cybersecurity risk. What is Rapier’s approach to securing supply chains?Monte: We have an amazing product called TAKEOFF that provides supply chain resilience through vetting, analytics, and persistent monitoring.
Because we have experience performing the SCRM mission in commercial and government organizations, we know that organizations can predict threats and mitigate vulnerabilities when they perform accurate and timely analysis of millions of data sources and records. For every part of an organization’s echelon—from the tactical to the strategic—we offer a SaaS-based, big data analytics platform for supply chain missions that enables clients to better track items moving within the supply chain, identify and assess vulnerabilities and threats, and provide insightful trend analysis. Our product enables clients to track commodities as they move through supply chains, while also using AI-enabled big data analytics tools to derive insights into companies, threats, vulnerabilities, processes, economic, social, and geopolitical trends, and more
TAKEOFF is the one-stop shop for meaningful data analysis and monitoring of shipped commodities. Going beyond mainstream technologies that only provide clients with insights into cargo manifests or business relationships, TAKEOFF performs two critical functions—persistent monitoring and predictive trend analysis and big data threat sensing. We integrate authentication and tracking sensors within complex, global supply chains, providing persistent awareness and security of sensitive commodities as they move from distributor to storage to delivery to installation. TAKEOFF comes with tailorable dashboards and visualizations, huge data sources and insights, AI/ML-driven analytics of billions of digital records, and supply chain verification and authentication sensors. The product is open architecture and common ontology easily integrates with other data and client network configurations. Blockchain, access controls, and DOD cyber security standards are employed to protect data and ensure need-to-know.
The capability of our system to prevent unauthorized access to files poses the possibility of securing supply chain records. By making file access, modification, and viewing restricted to only authorized personnel, supply chain records can be made fully confidential, and unhackable. RTG’s cloud-based track-and-trace platform is designed for manufacturers and supply chain operators with real-time visibility and product information from raw materials, to production floor, to warehouse, to retailers, to end user. The platform improves supply chain collaboration, security and visibility by enabling users to track the WHAT the item is, WHO last handled the item, WHEN the item was handled, WHERE it has been and is currently, and other customizable information as defined by each client.
TAKEOFF could be used for: Financial Industry (PII Protection), Security Industry (Chain of Custody), Medical & Pharma Industry (PII Protection), Music Industry (Authentication)
Voter Fraud (Authentication), and Movie & Entertainment Industry (Authentication)
In summary, TAKEOFF enables clients to track commodities as they move through supply chains, while also using AI-enabled big data analytics tools to derive insights into companies, threats, vulnerabilities, processes, economic, social, and geopolitical trends, and more.
What other products are available from RTG?Monte: A horrific problem around the world is human trafficking, It is now the second fastest-growing crime globally and is a $150 billion business, factoring in sex and labor trafficking alone. A new product of RTG is our EVER24 smartphone application that acts as an instant detection, and emergency alert service (IDEAS) in the event of kidnapping/abduction or any other threat to personal safety. This application utilizes a smartphone’s LTE cellular connectivity, Bluetooth, speaker, microphone, accelerometers, and GPS to offer a full-featured suite of tools to assist in any emergency situation (i.e. medical emergencies, violent crime, fire, human trafficking, active shooter scenarios, and other traumatic events) at the moment it occurs. Currently, in the event of emergencies, there are limited options available to communicate on smartphones with loved ones and to receive assistance. Given the capabilities of modern-day smartphones, this lack of functionality is completely solvable with EVER24.
Emergency contacts with the application installed can work synergistically, regularly pinging the other devices in a one-way communication with their location and any panic signals. Connected smartphones can also send alerts to others’ devices and communicate with a cloud server to track panic signals. Emergency services call centers (PSAPs) can also be contacted with intuitive and customizable text-to-speech conference calling, enduring direct contact with users while automatically transmitting crucial, context-specific information.
In summary, EVER24 is a specialized application to enable personal safety. It is seamless, discreet, and can provide integrated tracking and reporting of users in distress with instant connection and communication to people who can help!
I really like your approaches using fusion of various technologies to address immediate gaps in cybersecurity and address real-world problems. Do you have other interesting projects in your research & development pipeline?Monte: Yes, we are working closely with the Universities computational centers and top researchers from around the world. We have already developed and tested a digital system to create, deliver, and manage tax stamps for taxed goods. The full platform will track compliance, revenue, and with various access levels, allow regulators more oversight without requiring on-site visits to stores and distributors. We have active research in addressing issues with detecting attacks via sensors on OT and IT platforms and are building a sensor biometrics platform that is a secure, unclonable sensor monitoring system to VALIDATE INTEGRITY of sensor outputs and AUTHENTICATE IDENTITY of a sensor without modification of the sensor or manufacturing processes. And RTG even has its own 3-D printing studio. Please stay tuned!
Where can someone find more information on RTG?For more information on the Rapier Technology Group, please contact: jpierce@rapiertechgroup.com
Thanks, Monte for a very informative interview!
Falling in love with ChatGpt, and AI in general, often seems to escape the control of reason and logic. We are faced with a machine that, while capable of performing complex tasks, lacks human intelligence and, on the contrary, exploits natural resources, human labour, kills privacy, and undermines equality. This not only dispossesses man of his adjective sapiens but undermines the very basis of democracy and the fundamental rights on which it is founded.
Nonetheless, it seems that our technophilia and fetishism for artificial intelligence are induced by a hedonistic self-alienation as persons and as sapiens, in search of an easy solution to our everyday problems. But AI is not the Ultimate Algorithm that will solve all our problems; in fact, it may be our worst enemy.
Our presumption of being man sapiens is based on the intelligence, reason, and logic that distinguish us as a species. But if we produce machines like ChatGpt that function without man and replace him, we become homo stultus and lose our identity as sapiens.
Ultimately, we need to be aware of the effects of falling in love with ChatGpt and AI in general and act responsibly to preserve our dignity and freedom as homo sapiens.
Why this (real or induced?) falling in love with ChatGpt? Technophilia regardless? Fetishism for artificial intelligence? Or are we children who want to play with the new Meccano? Or – and worse – is it a voluntary and hedonistic self-alienation from oneself as a person, from oneself as men sapiens, from one’s freedom, from democracy, from knowledge and know-how? Or is it happiness at the approaching/concretising (we are tired of having to think and having to decide, really too exhausting !) of the Ultimate Algorithm, spelled with capital letters like God?
There is no creature more dangerous than man, for he is the only one who can change the world.
Do you know that women who had to leave college to have children can feel like they cannot return and finish their degrees? It can be challenging, especially if years have passed. But don’t worry!
There are various options available for you to return to school and complete your education. With flexible scheduling, online courses, or part-time enrollment, you can make it work!
Here are some tips that can come in handy if you are considering returning to college:
- Research Your Options – Whether you want to finish your degree or explore a new field, researching your options is the first step. Check out schools that offer degree completion programs or services dedicated to helping adult students like you.
- Build Your Support System – Talk to your family and friends about your plan to return to college and enlist their help and support. You may also seek a mentor, either in real life or online, who can inspire and advise you throughout your educational journey.
- Develop an Education Plan – Put together a plan for completing your degree incorporating the new challenges you face as an adult returning to college. Set realistic goals for yourself, and plan for the time commitments associated with classes, studying, and other activities.
- Pursue Financial Aid – Do some research to learn about grants, scholarships, loans, or other financial aid opportunities tailored to adult learners. Knowing what resources are available can help make it more affordable for you to pursue your degree. Also, consider pay-as-you-go with cash; it may take longer but will avoid debt. If already employed, review company benefits for educational purposes.
Lastly, let’s talk about the importance of education in a world where most jobs require some education today and in the future. Education is a cornerstone of society, and fostering the best educational opportunities for everyone is crucial. By leveling the playing field, we can make progress and enhance the prospects of all citizens in our global society.
As we look ahead to 2030, it’s clear that the need for specialized and diversified education will only increase. Advances in technology, artificial intelligence, and other disruptive forces will shape the world of tomorrow; new degrees will be needed to provide them with broad skills and knowledge.
One such degree is the Bachelor of Distributed Ledger Technology or BDLT. This degree will prepare students to understand the principles behind distributed ledger technologies like blockchain and its potential applications across multiple industries. Through courses in coding and cryptography, students will learn to design secure systems that can be
I hope this helps!
Unless you’re a man who has been living in a cave for the last year, you will be aware of the quantum shift taking place for you in today’s professional world. No such thing as business as usual especially for men.
Balancing a man’s life challenges with positive masculinity and authentic harmony is a must if you are to be successful with women in business and in life …
It’s tough for men, especially top decision men who are often making major adjustments from traditional perspectives to ensure they thrive in these uncertain times.
Men must navigate their usual traditional role and the new emotional integrity that post-pandemic economies demand. The new leadership/life dynamics occurring with DEI and ESG and SNGs and more pressures at home to provide against escalating living costs and teenage children wanting college fees paid!!
As men lead and work in required gender-equal and diverse cultures, many issues arise that they are unused to. Women are asserting themselves in ways that often confuse men. Different generations holding perspectives that clash and many old patterns of hierarchy and gender equity battles are blocking progress to authentic harmony.
Male leaders report that they are more unsure than ever as to how to negotiate their way through the ripple effects of the #metoo movement and pandemic pressures for hybrid working and rising cases of big payouts on sexual harassment legal actions. Even for men advocating for women to move to the top often feel left out in the ‘women empowerment’ movement when battling with those men who refuse to change.
What is the mix of fear, anger, frustration, and confusion that creeps in? This is not an “either-or” situation, it’s “and-and”! Building awareness on natural differences and principles of harmony includes the value of heart-centered leadership.
Go on – it’s ok to own all emotions… and it’s “manly” to overcome them with emotional understanding, business trust, and a culture of respect for all parties.
Can we build a new baseline landscape that shifts awareness for both men and women is the way to engage everyone in a new creative conversation? To achieve this, we propose to empower men to be open-minded to a more flexible, adaptable, collaborative synergistic, harmonious diverse world, and to navigate the MIND-Field of professional and domestic relationships. Men need to be men and still want to be viable competitors as well as colleagues in the challenging game of life and business (and and)!!
Many wise men today want to reassess their masculinity in communication, using greater sensitivity and still retaining authority. It’s increasingly difficult to exert a more masculine-style influence and be sure to be received fairly by both men and women. Now we present a pioneering Gender Dynamics Intelligence (GDI) landscape assessment and communication tool is designed to help men (and women) achieve a meaningful, masculine manner that fluently integrates instinctive emotions, integrity, and logic.
This pioneering approach encompasses positive masculinity and female empowerment into the combined territories of male and female with a 360-degree view of all diversity. This is integral to a new program facilitated by Dr. Pauline Crawford, the creator of the GDI map, an International Speaker, and Author of The Power of Authentic Harmony.
Men – It’s time to eliminate the barriers that bar your way to fulfillment and material success.
Start the journey one-on-one with your most difficult conversation…
Men of the Future … are you ready NOW?
My gratitude to all the men I interviewed during 2018 -pre pandemic- in a world of #metoo movement and quotas of women into boardrooms. Our world of women has moved on and now we face economic challenges globally. We cannot afford to waste time arguing for equality, we need harmony and joint- co-creation honoring each other’s natural talents.
I asked this cohort each in turn “What advice will you give a woman to manage a man today?”
The answer collectively was “We love you women – we love working with you, we respect you, you are complex, we are simple. Please value us for who we are, don’t smother us, mother us or see us as a threat (#metoo) – see us for our straight-forward truth as a man and love us as we are”
WISE ADVICE…. thank you!
Reach out to me below for more information and to be ahead of the game.
The challenge for authenticity is complex. Indeed, it would be simplistic to always interpret it as the free expression of who we are or being direct and transparent, sometimes even risking compromising relationships with others. Our very identity is constantly evolving, shaped by the experiences we have and the people we meet
Unfortunately, one can struggle with authenticity today for many reasons.
First of all, the continuous changes to which we are exposed change us radically, and therefore our own identity evolves.
Of course, it’s important to have a clear and stable sense of who you are, like a compass that helps guide you through the complex choices you make and towards your goals. But often a too-rigid sense of ourselves prevents us from progressing towards new opportunities, it becomes an anchor that keeps us trapped in old habits.
Secondly, the growing diversity in the workplace brings us into contact with people with different cultures and expectations of how to behave, and, to be effective and understand each other, we must necessarily adapt and therefore become less authentic, and more flexible.
Furthermore, our identities are constantly being shown in today’s world of social media and permanent connectivity. How we present ourselves has become an important aspect at stake and exposes us to the risk of showing contrasts or contradictions that are there for all to see.
Certainly, however, the possibility of wearing a mask is to be excluded, simply because it does not work (others will not believe it and sooner or later we will be discovered) but it is also unhealthy for ourselves. Inauthentic living and working is tiring, inspires no one to action, and holds us back from reaching our full potential.
Being authentic has to do on the one hand with presence and participation, and on the other with trust in one’s own organism that feels, perceives, intuits, and regulates itself. Who is authentic lives, is passionate, risks, loves, gets angry, grieves; he is willing to penetrate everything he hears, including painful passages, out of trust in his own internal reality.
Authentic people are aware, spontaneous, and genuine. They are not afraid to show their flaws, their vulnerabilities, simply because they are aware that we all have them, we are all weak, vulnerable, and imperfect.
The essence of being authentic is to live one’s life according to one’s own values and goals rather than those of other people, to conform to one’s personality, values, and spirit without worrying about the pressures that lead us to act otherwise.
As a result, we are perceived by others as genuine and are willing to accept the consequences of being true to our beliefs and what we believe is right.
In conclusion, we can say that to live a life in an authentic way it is necessary that the choices and actions are the mirror of one’s ideas and beliefs, putting aside everything that feels like it does not belong to one’s way of being, overcoming the standards imposed by the company.
Comments are really appreciated!
What is hell? Hell is oneself. Hell is alone, the other figures in it merely projections. There is nothing to escape from. And nothing to escape to. One is always alone.
~ T.S. Eliot in The Cocktail Party
Leadership is built on relationships, the very foundation of human flourishing. So there is an obvious correlation between the global leadership deficit and the relationship dysfunction that characterises western society today. Social isolation, or loneliness, is the real pandemic in the Third Millennium, and it lies at the root of most of our social maladies.
Leadership is first learned in the family, where the virtues essential to all relationships – honesty, trust, faithfulness, compassion, forgiveness, and a natural sense of obligation to others – are best nurtured. Where those virtues are sincerely held, there can be no loneliness, and relationships will flourish. And that provides the ideal context and conditions for community and leadership.
Where those virtues are absent, family, friendship, and community break down, and social dysfunction ensues. The reality is that our mental and physical health actually depend heavily on the quality of our relationships. Studies around the globe have shown that:
- Social isolation is a one of the most common causes of clinical depression
- It impacts artery erosion, blood pressure, heart disease, hypertension, and stroke risk
- Chronic loneliness is a significant factor in many cases of alcoholism
- It is closely linked with anti-social and self-destructive behaviour
- It has a negative effect on learning and memory
- It can affect sleep patterns, promoting a wide range of attendant problems
- It actually increases an individual’s mortality risk more than smoking does
- Up to 80% of people who fail at work do so because of poor relationship skills
- Emotional support has been shown to be a significant factor in healing generally.
Why are there so many lonely people? Why is it so hard to form real relationships when that is what everybody both needs and wants? Well, if the family is where the virtues essential to all relationships are best developed, then dysfunctional families and the widespread loss of family life must inevitably give rise to a dysfunctional society in which relationships generally fail to flourish.
And this is, of course, precisely what has happened. A psychiatrist friend recently told me that over the past 20 years, some 80 percent of her patients have come from families broken by divorce; the burgeoning mental health crisis didn’t spring from nowhere. So if the loneliness pandemic is a result of family breakdown, what is the cause of the collapse of family life?
The root cause of this social cataclysm is, of course, the modern rejection of classical virtue ethics in favour of the personal choice of the autonomous individual, and the moral confusion that has accompanied it. But the “Who are you to tell me what is right and wrong?” mindset has been puffed up to planetary proportions by the removal of restraints on humanity’s most unruly appetite.
Science and common sense agree that promiscuity, prostitution, and pornography are inevitably destructive of family life, and relationships generally. Yet the Sexual Revolution of the past half-century continues to be driven relentlessly forward, not only by the many who profit so richly from it, but also by its many victims who refuse to admit their folly. Hence the increasingly dysfunctional culture of lonely, wounded people, incapable of meaningful commitments and self-sacrifice, and the insidious and intensifying mental health crisis.
Social science clearly shows that children in fatherless families are more likely to suffer emotional and behavioral issues, physical and psychological abuse, poverty, health problems, academic failure, relationship dysfunction, and susceptibility to criminal activity. Moreover, opinion polls over the past sixty years have recorded a steady decline in female happiness. The reality is that the Sexual Revolution has been a disaster for women and children, exposing them to ever-greater social and economic insecurity and unrelenting loneliness. More than sixty million abortions in the US since 1973 are a gruesome reminder of the horrifying tragedy visited upon women and children in the Western democracies under the influence of the Sexual Revolution. And, of course, the debilitating loneliness sooner of later catches up with the men involved.
Proponents of the permissive society misguidedly argue that lust and promiscuity are natural urges, but while they might be natural urges in animals, they can be naturally directed by rational animals. The power of reason enables human beings to know what is good for us and what is bad for us, so what is natural in us is the ability of the intellect to control the chaos of our carnal desires.
Most people associate the Sexual Revolution with a predictable loosening of moral standards that accompanied the decline of Christian belief in the 20th century, but the full story is somewhat more disturbing. If we are sincere in seeking an end to the endemic social dysfunction assailing the Western democracies, we will take account of this story, which is very well documented.
At a time when women are being subjected to absurd and wholly unwarranted threats to their dignity, comfort, and safety, the establishment’s response to a growing number of men embracing a measure of sexual restraint is curious to say the least. The men are accused of fascist tendencies. In an illuminating article, Was the sexual revolution a government psy-op?, philosopher Matthew Crawford retraces the genealogy of the Left’s association of sexual self-regulation with fascism. It is a tale of cynical social engineering that started long before the “sexual liberation” of the ‘60s.
Far from being a simple organic cultural development, the Sexual Revolution was the design of psychotherapists who emerged from the cataclysm of World War II with the aim of pre-empting a flowering of fascism in the US. Government complicity in this program is a documented fact. The movement started in the early1930s when the psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich split with Freud, and, calling himself a Freudo-Marxist, set about using psychoanalysis for revolutionary purposes. Society was not merely unjust, but also mentally ill as a result of the superego, that “sham social surface”, repressing natural instincts (read sexual desires) that the psychoanalysts considered wholesome and morally unproblematic.
Reich and other intellectuals saw fascism as a consequence of bourgeois society and sexual repression and called for the destruction of the family and fatherhood, as well as authority and morality itself. The end of the war provided the opportunity. In 1946, President Truman declared a mental health crisis in the US, indicating that the way Western governments viewed democracy and the people they governed was somewhat less than charitable.
A study commissioned by the War Department to investigate psychiatric disorders in returning soldiers was conducted by emigre psychoanalysts from central Europe who focussed on repressed anger and sexuality in family life instead of the traumatic wartime experiences. They concluded that small-town America was a breeding ground for fascist attitudes, and their remedy was to “change the inner structure of the human being” to make people docile supporters of a particular political order. The National Mental Health Act of 1946 deployed hundreds of psychiatrists across the US in “Psychological Guidance Centres” to reshape the way people thought and behaved.
In 1948 Alfred Kinsey published the first of his now-discredited reports on sexual practices in the US, and his bogus science claimed to link the “authoritarian personality” to people who adhered to traditional sexual morality. Kinsey saw his work as furthering the “mass psychotherapeutic function” of eradicating the sense of shame in society. The manipulation of the moral judgment of ordinary people by psychology, which had been going on since the beginning of the century was set to shift into a higher gear with Playboy and Lady Chatterley just around the corner.
Crawford’s discourse echoes a shorter article by Italian academic, Carlo Lancellotti, who has provided excellent English translations of the works of Italian philosopher, Augusto Del Noce, an early critic of the Sexual Revolution. Del Noce analysed Freudo-Marxism and the cultural links between political progressivism and the Sexual Revolution. He pointed out that both regarded human reason as incapable of attaining metaphysical truths, a stance typical of the self-refuting scientistic mindset that views empirical science as the sole source of truth. The facile reduction of reason to science is of a piece with reducing freedom to the satisfaction of desires, and such a mindset naturally regards politics as the means to eradicate not only “repression”, but virtue and tradition as well. Del Noce stressed that scientism is inherently totalitarian, seeking to silence all other forms of knowledge.
Lancellotti sees Del Noce as original in studying the sexual revolution as a philosophical phenomenon that reflected a new worldview and not just new social circumstances. And he is convinced that, “…a failure to fully grasp this worldview is the reason why today many intelligent people seem genuinely surprised that movements putatively seeking tolerance for marginalized minorities should be so intolerant of dissent.”
Crawford’s essay also tallies with a well-researched three-part essay by Professor Patrick Deneen, “The Crisis of Democracy”, inspired by a 1973 book by Edward A. Purcell Jr. entitled: The Crisis of Democratic Theory: Scientific Naturalism and the Problem of Value. Purcell traced the history of the social sciences – psychology, sociology, politics, economics, and anthropology – that have today become the blindly followed authorities on the human condition. The tragic irony is, of course, that the allegedly indisputable claims of those disciplines are undergirded by hidden metaphysical assumptions that are suspect to say the least.
Deneen shows that the social sciences in the early 20th century boldly set about dismantling “democracy” in the name of efficiency and expertise. Leading social scientists confidently, but unscientifically claimed to identify cognitive and moral inequalities in different ethnic groups, and their bogus “scientific naturalism” gave encouragement to class, race, and sex discrimination. Many Western intellectuals at the time flirted with totalitarianism, either Marxist, Nazi, or Fascist.
Opposed to “scientific naturalism” were proponents of the classical natural law tradition, significantly including many Catholic intellectuals, who affirmed the equal dignity of all human beings, objective moral standards regardless of culture, and democratic societies committed to the Common Good.
After World War II, when social scientists found their flirtation with totalitarianism an embarrassment because of gas chambers, gulags, and other barbarous violations of human dignity, they deflected attention from their inhumanity by switching the narrative. They loudly proclaimed that the totalitarian mindset was linked to a belief in objective morality, traditional family virtues, and sexual restraint, all of which were labelled as impediments to the self-fulfilment of the individual. So the social engineers disguised themselves as defenders of democracy and accused the real defenders of human dignity of totalitarian repression. And great swathes of Westerners, seduced by the Sexual Revolution, have unthinkingly bought the lie. The loneliness pandemic currently exploited by an oligarchic establishment is the result.
It is dismaying for people in a civilisation built on the foundation of reason, who naturally take it for granted that dissent, dialogue, and disagreement are healthy and necessary to civil society, to be confronted by angry zealots who present themselves as defenders of absolute human rights that may not be called into question. The radicals smear opponents as bigots and haters and stop at nothing to silence their dissent.
Acceptance of the insidious philosophical fraud of the Sexual Revolution means most people do not want to address the root cause of the culture of loneliness. They simply assume that since “science” insists that humanity can achieve “happiness” by eliminating all forms of “repression,” religion and traditional ethical standards must not be permitted to stand in the way.
When our appetites are not controlled by our rational minds, they enslave us, sex being the most tyrannical of all. And with individuals rejecting moral restraints, egalitarian societies slide into Hobbes’ “war of everyone against everyone”, which opens the door to the abuse of power. Tyranny and sexual profligacy go hand in hand, and the egalitarian attitude typically ushers in totalitarianism.
Some two decades ago, I recall reading about a woman who was deeply saddened by the Bill Clinton/Monica Lewinsky scandal and then discovered that her own husband was having an affair. Her psychotherapist counselled her to accept the break-up of her marriage, and her pastor echoed the advice. In the space of a week, she lost her husband, her president, her psychotherapist, and her pastor, and was consigned to the ranks of the socially isolated. The story is emblematic of a society engineered to self-destruct.
What is a leader to do? Leadership means service, not status. It is about promoting the common good and not self-aggrandisement, in the home, school, workplace, or community. That demands honesty, trust, faithfulness, compassion, forgiveness, and a natural sense of obligation to others, all of which entail the eradication of sexual profligacy as the first step to restoring healthy culture, relationships, and community, the criteria by which leadership is measured.
A big ask? Of course, it is, but as Solzhenitsyn told us, “Let the lie come into the world, but not through me.” And it is the lie that unleashed the deluge of lust, and the desolation of loneliness that followed. Tragically, many people in positions of leadership will dismiss the call to action as too idealistic, too difficult, or simply contrary to their own concupiscence. Yet many others are increasingly aghast at the ugly absurdities defiling contemporary Western society, and new leaders are emerging far more rapidly than the complicit mainstream media would have us know.
The Latin phrase “divide et impera”, divide and rule, expresses a political ruse as old as civilisation itself. So where a leader unites and inspires for the common good, a misleader divides and rules for self-interest. The lonely society serves the misleaders. Solzhenitsyn saw it: “People have learned from their own misfortunes that revolutions demolish the organic structures of society, disrupt the natural flow of life, destroy the best elements of the population, and give free rein to the worst.”
Career development appears at the top of many lists. Unfortunately, they tend to be lists focused on what employees desperately want but are not getting from managers.As for managers, most appreciate the value of career development and really wish they could do it more frequently and more effectively. But let’s face it: A manager’s day-to-day reality is a kaleidoscopic blur of meetings, responsibilities, and shifting priorities. Helping employees to develop and grow is one of many activities that is continually pushed out in time to that elusive “someday” that too rarely comes.
How can managers get past this conundrum? How can they make career development happen within the pressure-cooker reality that is business today? The answer is definitely not new systems, checklists, processes or forms. Those have actually contributed to the problem.
Instead, the answer lies in a new mindset — a different way of thinking about what career development is — and a few key behaviors.
Transfer OwnershipManagers don’t own their employees’ careers. Employees do. All that managers can (and should) feel accountable for is guiding, encouraging, collaborating on, and supporting the effort. When a manager really internalizes this reality, it can produce a powerful energetic shift. The weight of responsibility lifts, allowing managers to approach this task with greater energy and creativity than when it was another of their many “duties.” This transfer also ensures that employees have some skin in the game. Personal ownership enhances their engagement, interest, commitment, and results.
Cultivate CuriosityWhen ownership of development is transferred to the employee, career conversations suddenly become much easier and less stressful for managers. Managers don’t need to have all the answers. But they must be ready to pose the right questions. Questions are the most powerful tool managers have to support career development. And cultivating a genuine sense of curiosity and interest in others and their goals sets the tone for the most productive conversations possible.
Iterate the IDPMany organizations have formal individual development planning processes, during which managers engage in a lengthy annual analysis and career discussions with each employee. For the manager, it’s a huge time sink, and for the employee, it’s frequently like drinking from a fire hose. So, break it up. Do a little bit each month — or better yet, each week. These smaller, iterative chunks better accommodate the cadence of business. Perhaps more importantly, they better accommodate how development really occurs: little by little over time.
Engineer ExperiencesMany managers avoid career development conversations because they believe that to make employees happy, the goal of such conversations is to provide ideas about how to move up or around in the organization. That’s simply not part of today’s de-layered, leaner approach to business. So how then does development occur? Through experiences that leverage talents and build the skills that employees need. It might be leading a team, analyzing data, or getting to know new customers. Jointly arriving at development experiences is smart business because while the employee is developing, important work gets done simultaneously.
Seize Coachable MomentsCareer development opportunities occur countless times each day, but only when managers are sensitive to the cues around them and are willing to seize coachable moments. When an employee shares a new interest, is starting a project, has just come back from training, or has experienced a setback — all of these are career development cues. A 1-3 minute conversation in the flow of the work that needs to be done can help employees reflect, analyze, consider, and plan their career development. There’s no need to wait for some big career meeting (that likely won’t occur anyway).
Managers who consistently engage in career development that employees appreciate don’t have more time than others. They have a mindset that allows them to deploy the little time they have toward efficient high-value conversations that drive employee ownership, reflection, motivation, and action.
In fact, it’s the busiest managers who realize they don’t have the time not to develop those around them.
This article originally appeared at SmartBrief.
Is AI as smart as it seems? Exploring the “brain” behind machine learning, neural networker Alona Fyshe delves into the language processing abilities of talkative tech (like the groundbreaking chatbot and internet obsession ChatGPT) and explains how different it is from your own brain — even though it can sound convincingly human.
On the plane about to take off, I’m sitting in the exit row, and the flight attendant asked us, “Are you ready, willing, and qualified to assist in case of an emergency landing?” Hmmm, I thought. Qualified? I have never had to reload an entire plane because of an emergency landing before. How could I be qualified? This made me think of new managers, those who are promoted or ones hired who have no experience leading people. Yet, we think they are “qualified”! Is that fair? Shouldn’t we do something to prepare them?
People often believe that if they don’t feel capable, influential, or experienced enough to be leaders then they aren’t “qualified” for the job. However, this couldn’t be farther from the truth! Leadership is not only about technical skills and knowledge; it’s also about confidence, flexibility, and resilience. An article from CCL says “A good leader should have integrity, self-awareness, courage, respect, empathy, and gratitude.” Despite our own doubts and insecurities about leading others, there is no set mold for what makes someone qualified–each person has their own unique traits that make them a great leader.
Leadership TrainingLeadership training can have a profoundly positive impact on your ability to lead your organization, team, or project forward. If you feel stuck and unable to develop strategies that bring together both short-term and long-term objectives and shape cultures of mutual respect within your organization, leadership training can help. It offers opportunities to develop the skills to reflect critically upon all the decisions you make, understand and accept different perspectives, delegate effectively, and motivate your colleagues. With all these tools at hand that help you foster meaningful relationships with colleagues while driving results through dynamic decision-making, you’ll be well on your way toward becoming an influential and momentous leader. Leadership training is the perfect stepping stone for you if you’ve been looking for ways to step up in the type of leader you want to be.
Mentoring or ShadowingMentoring or shadowing is a great way to gain knowledge, increase your skill set and make valuable connections. A mentor can help you develop an understanding of the profession you have chosen by providing practical advice and guidance. Shadowing someone in a role that interests you is equally beneficial, allowing you to put the skills learned through self-teaching into practice. With both of these strategies, gaining insight into different approaches can be invaluable for your learning. Don’t forget that mentoring or shadowing requires commitment and dedication, and it can often take hard work and perseverance to receive the maximum results. However, with any effort comes a reward so take the plunge and reap the rewards!
Peer ReviewsBecoming a qualified leader is an important skill, and peer reviews are a great way to help the process. Providing and receiving thoughtful feedback can bring an understanding of strengths and development opportunities to aid any aspiring leader. Careful consideration of feedback from someone in the same field can be invaluable, as it comes from experience that may not be available outside of your peers. Peer reviews provide a platform for growth and development for anyone looking to build their leadership capabilities, which ultimately promotes self-confidence in workplace decisions.
Acknowledging and Celebrating Other People’s SuccessesAs a qualified leader, I understand how important it is to recognize and celebrate other people’s successes. Showing gratitude for the hard work of others not only maintains our relationships, but it’s also a great way to boost confidence and soften competition. Each time someone excels, I feel privileged to be around them and acknowledge their success. Through noticing great accomplishments throughout my circles and offering congratulations with warmth, I hope that others can experience the same inspiration and motivation as I do when witnessing successes.
ReflectionDeveloping leadership skills requires dedication and thoughtfulness. Qualified leaders are aware of their own strengths and weaknesses and how to leverage them for the benefit of their goals or environment. They take initiative and recognize the potential in others, while not forgetting to establish structure and guide their teams. All the methods discussed – rigorous training, mentoring or shadowing, peer reviews, and celebrating successes – can help build strong leadership skills that qualify you as a leader. Take stock of what’s comfortable for you – do you prefer a classroom setting? Or one-on-one meetings? Is public speaking natural for you? Knowing what works best for you is key to nurturing your capabilities. And at the end of it all, it’s important to reflect: What makes YOU a qualified leader? With careful investments into honing your leadership craft, continue to equip yourself with the knowledge and humility necessary to become an effective leader who moves people and brings out the best in them.
In accounting, a balance sheet is the core of accounting. A balance sheet is a financial statement that reports a company’s assets, liabilities, and shareholder equity.
I find the same sheet applied to human relations. Two people in relations and a third party representing the shareholders’ equity replace the triad of assets, liabilities and shareholders’ equity.
This is consistent with the scientific fact that there is no strong relationship between two parties as it is stronger through a third one that couples the two parties. For example, a wife and husband their relationship strengthen usually by having a third party- the children in this case.
This is also in accordance with Heider’s Balanced Theory I psychology. This theory states that the reactions of each individual are framed within a triangle that Heider called the P-O-X model. The triad consists of
P = the person to analyze
O = other, or the comparison person
X = the third element for comparisons such as a third person, a physical object, an idea, or an event.
Human Relationship Is More Complex than a Balanced Sheet
Human relationship is more complex than those we encounter on a balance sheet. This is because one must have balanced relations with self to have one with others.
Let us go back to the wife-husband relationship. If the husband lacks self-balance of health, heat, and mind, would he be able to have one with his wife and his kids? The answer is no.
The imbalance in one person may cause an imbalance in other people. A recent crime serves as a good example. A husband wanted to remarry his divorcee. She refused. He lost self-balance and decided to take revenge. He knew of his divorcee’s love to their only son. He killed the son just to bleed her heart.
The imbalance in the life of one person can have a rippling effect beyond imagination.
There is no balance in the relationship between two people without being open to each other and keeping the communication line between them. If not, what starts as a small gap of difference allows this gap to grow. A gap is a weakness that allows the relationship to deteriorate and ends up in saddening acts. The story of the father who killed his son serves as an example.
Two people even though each might have self-balance shall not have a balanced relationship. To keep the balance there are conditions such as communicating with empathy, respecting boundaries, and balancing work-life.
The law of life is balance everywhere at all scales.
Office politics, workplace politics, organizational politics – I call it high school. Nothing much has changed since the cliques of high school – although today’s clique categories are a bit different, they still include what you recall from your high school, just with different labels.
In high school, cliques are part of social development. In the office or your office, your job and your reputation can be at stake.
Yes, I know that many are now working their job from alternate spaces, however, this information is the same as if you were in an office. All workplaces are political because we are human beings who bring all our baggage, good and bad, into the workplace.
What does one do if you are either new to the game of large offices or still working in that environment?
Set clear boundaries.
Start by staying out of it. Whatever game you do not join, you do not have to play.
Be nice, at all times; be as nice as possible.
Be fair to all you speak to. When someone attempts to engage you in a Gossip Round, simple, non-committal replies are best.
Use lots of ‘Ohs?’ and ‘Ahs’! and ‘Unhuhs’. Really – no one will care and they will move on to the next person who will agree or disagree, therefore getting snagged into a revolt, big or small.
Don’t gossip about anyone in your office, building, or company. It may hurt you on the way up the ladder and send you spinning down quickly.
The best players have the same respect for the receptionists as they have for the CEO, VPs, and other C Suite categories. You never know who’s watching or listening or who is anxious to pass on your words to someone else. Don’t let anything you say bite you in the butt.
Establish your office ‘line in the sand’ and do not engage anyone who wants to play the game of gossip, bullying, or other not-so-nice means.
Be yourself at all times and enjoy yourself as much as possible while you contribute your skills – the ones they pay you for – to your company.
Just so you know, all this craziness can be shared using social media.
Be yourself, be kind, and stop playing games.
If you’re not making mistakes, then you’re not doing anything. I’m positive that a doer makes mistakes.
~John Wooden
As an avid photographer (semi-professional) of many decades, I’ve come to learn a thing or two about mistakes. There’s nothing more satisfying than taking a good picture. Many factors come into play to make that happen, and oftentimes a little luck.
But on a typical photoshoot, it’s not uncommon to take 300-plus pictures in order to narrow down to 20 or 30 pictures that will pass muster for consideration in the final selection process.
Why do so many pictures not make the cut? In a word – mistakes. If the photoshoot was outdoor it could be lighting issues, eyes were closed, hair was a mess, the picture was not in focus, the composition wasn’t right, the 3-year-old quit cooperating, I hesitated too long on the shutter, and the list goes on.
Photography has been a rewarding passion for me over the years. But it’s also quite humbling. It humbles me when I step into the home of a family member or a friend and see their family portrait prominently placed and knowing I took it is humbling. Knowing the backstory of my countless mistakes in getting to that prominently placed picture is equally as humbling.
In leadership, as in photography, mistakes are bound to happen. Sometimes they are mistakes of our own creation while others are not. Either way, it’s part of a leader’s life.
My leadership mentor John Maxwell writes, “All leaders make mistakes. They are a part of life. Successful leaders recognize their errors, learn from them, and work to correct their faults.” And this is what separates successful leaders from the rest of the pack. Let’s look a little closer look.
All leaders make mistakesThis shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. Welcome to the human race. But in leadership, perhaps we need to ask what mistakes are we making. Are they the same ones over and over? If so, perhaps the lessons haven’t been learned. But that aside, as a leader, don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Making mistakes is a sign of progress and without making mistakes there will be no progress.
Successful leaders recognize their mistakes and learn from themThis is the distinguishing characteristic of a strong leader. Being able to recognize one’s mistakes is essential. This involves humility and being grounded in reality. Perhaps you were just tone-deaf at the moment and made a poor decision. You didn’t take advice or listen to others before making a critical decision. Perhaps you didn’t delegate a task when you should have and it created issues you otherwise could have avoided. Successful leaders recognize this.
Successful leaders work to correct their mistakesIn order to be successful in your leadership, acknowledge that you make mistakes and also pour yourself into learning from them and making the necessary corrections. This is your work and obligation as a leader.
As a leader, there will always be something to work on and improve, but as you stick with it, you’ll be well on your way to significant growth as a leader.
I recently had the privilege of joining the University of South Wales at their 10th-year anniversary Coaching Conference where I was invited to share a keynote on how do we evolve as coaches and leaders and how do we help our clients evolve in their thinking.
In preparation for this speech, I reviewed my own and others’ lived experiences and discovered a recipe with a number of ingredients in how we might EVOLVE more intentionally. Firstly let’s check in with our mutual understanding of the verb evolve. The dictionary defines it as to develop gradually, or to cause something or someone to develop gradually.
It seems to me that as a coach or leader, you are a catalyst for your clients and team members to gradually grow and develop both personally and professionally. Equally, there are times when your client or team member may experience a transformation through your coaching conversations having a significant impact in their personal and professional lives.
I believe as coaches and leaders we have a profound responsibility and privilege in our roles because of the impact we have on the lives of others – the way they think, feel, and act. This may sound daunting. This may sound exciting. Coaching conversations expand from the tender to the challenging, each one of them having an impact on the life of another. And so how do we evolve as coaches and leaders more intentionally?
Below I share the ingredients by way of an acronym in the form of a question which I’d love to engage with you on:
● Who do you ENGAGE on your journey?
● What VALUES do you want to upgrade?
● What enables you to be OPEN-MINDED?
● What is the purpose of your LISTENING?
● What VARIETY of experiences do you create?
● What takes you and others to the unexplored EDGE of their thinking?
Who do you engage on your journey?I realised that my own journey became clear once I looked back and joined the dots. I enjoyed a career serving people in the corporate environment from secretary to HR director spanning 16 years. Later I was encouraged by Gladena McMahon an inspiring and dedicated coach, to consider and retrain as a coach based upon my observations and the impact of conversations I was having with individuals as they navigated the many organisational restructures we witnessed in the early 2000s. I was curious to learn more.
Coaching was not so well known in the corporate setting at that time. I had studied NLP with the superb Ian McDermott and Jan Elfine and became more interested on the impact of language and emotions in our lives and so began my coach training in this field. A few years later I pursued a post-grad diploma in psychological coaching deepening my understanding yet further on what it means to be human under the wise stewardship of Stephen Palmer, Gladena, and colleagues at the Centre for Coaching.
Twelve years ago I discovered the Thinking Environment and the work of Nancy Kline. This experience transformed my life. As a mum, daughter, sister, friend, and my coaching practice. I discovered a different level of listening and how to help others think as and for themselves rather than conforming to what others wanted them to think or being fearful of reprimand when they did share their thoughts.
As I looked back, I saw what each part of the journey had taught me. I also acknowledge that I was not alone, at each stage I had been inspired, encouraged, and stretched by my coach supervisors Georgina Woudstra and Anne Hathaway, teachers and leadership mentors Bob Chapman and Anthony Howard in my leadership and coaching evolution.
Supporting our coaching clients is to invite them to consider who do they engage in their life, in their relationships, in their work in support of their personal vision. We evolve as we ENGAGE with others to help us become who we are meant to become.
What values are driving your decisions?Reflecting on your own coaching and leadership journey is in itself a useful process in how you have evolved. Specifically, at the start of your journey, what values underpinned your decisions and behaviours? Pursuing a career as a coach requires much learning, commitment, and excellence most definitely if you want to pursue an accreditation.
These were indeed my own values when I began my coach training. As I grew in experience and skills I continued to revisit my values and upgrade them. Today the values that drive my decisions are those of nurturing, gratitude, personal growth, and goodness. I decided to upgrade my values in service of my ongoing vision where I imagine a world where we listen first enabling others to step up and into who they are meant to be.
Nelson Mandela, an exceptional leader was someone who upgraded his values as he evolved. He had a vision to bring about a rainbow nation. In his early years, he was very different to who he became after 27 years in prison. Prior to his incarceration, he described himself as an angry and rebellious man fighting injustice. He left honouring the values of humility, wisdom, reconciliation, and forgiveness.
As I have said, the first thing is to be honest with yourself. You can never have an impact on society if you have not changed yourself.
– Nelson Mandela
Supporting our coaching clients and team members is to invite them to revisit and upgrade their values as they consider who they wish to become. We evolve as we upgrade our VALUES revealing our lived experience and what is important now in service of our personal vision.
What enables you to be open-minded?Over the past year, I have asked a number of audiences to describe how they would characterise our current reality. The same words emerge each time; unpredictable, changing, unknowing, chaotic, possibility, urgent, confused, anxious. Given our reality, how do we as coaches, leaders and human beings evolve to thrive not simply survive in the context we find ourselves in today? I propose we need to be open-minded so that we can continue to adapt, be flexible, think as and for ourselves, be willing to change, and to keep learning.
Kendra Cherry, in her article How to be More Open-Minded, describes open-mindedness as being non-prejudiced, tolerant, and being willing to see another’s perspective. Being open-minded helps us to gain insight, have new experiences, achieve personal growth, become mentally strong, feel more optimistic, and learn new things – all of which help us navigate the complex reality we face today. Cherry goes on to say we benefit from being open-minded as it helps us learn new things, grow as a person, and become more optimistic and resilient in the face of life’s challenges.
Supporting our clients and team members is to role model our own open-mindedness, celebrating what’s right with the world and encouraging different perspectives. We evolve when we choose to be OPEN-MINDED to what is possible.
Being open-minded also requires us to deepen our capacity to listen.
What is the purpose of your listening?In my work, I have discovered 5 levels of listening, each of them having a purpose.
- Self-listening – pausing, being present with yourself, and reflecting: What is working well? What am I assuming that is holding me back? How do I feel? What thought is behind that feeling? What do I want to change? And then listening to your answers with compassion rather than in combat to help develop a greater self-awareness. We need to get good at listening to ourself so we can listen well to others.
- Pretend listening – your mind is elsewhere being caught up in your thoughts and feelings and your eyes are wandering and glazed. Your attention is no longer on the person speaking.
- Factual – listening for information and the facts which will help to discern a course of action, make a decision, and clarifying our understanding of what we have heard.
- Empathetic – listening to the non-verbal cues, emotions, and feelings of another and acknowledging what you have heard and seen so that the other feels seen, heard, and understood.
- Generative – listening to free and ignite the mind rather than direct it for another to be their best self. Holding a safe space free from interruption and judgement that says ‘you matter’.
In one conversation, we may be in any one or all of these levels of listening. As we deepen our listening skills and experience, we are able to adjust to the situation and person to whom we are listening, therefore deepening our connection, enhancing our communication, and releasing the human potential in front of us.
When we speak, we say what we already know, but when we listen, we may learn something new.
– Dalai Lama
We evolve when we LISTEN generatively to ourselves and others, fostering the finest independent thinking honouring our own and others’ dignity.
What variety of experiences do you create?The pandemic created new experiences and opportunities for many. I wonder what you experienced in your coaching and leadership practices and how they expanded in ways you had not imagined before the pandemic. Perhaps you began working with clients outside of your region or specific area. For example, many coaches gave up their time and shared their skills with the NHS, for the first time, during the pandemic. New programmes were commissioned in serving those who took care of those with Covid.
Technology enabled us to connect globally. We witnessed a level of acceptance for a new way of being and working with each other. My hunch is that you used your coaching and leadership skills and experience beyond your everyday practice in your community, at the school gates, and with your own family.
Supporting our clients to evolve in their thinking is to invite them to consider a variety of experiences in their work and life. We evolve when we create a VARIETY of experiences, new experiments, possibilities, and opportunities.
It takes courage to create and step into these new experiences, just as it does to go to the unexplored edge of our thinking. The last ingredient in our recipe.
What takes us to the unexplored Edge of our Thinking?Being a Thinking Environment coach, facilitator and teacher is a privileged role to uphold because the nature of this work reveals having a deep impact on the lives of others. The decision to be a Thinking Environment for others is a way of being. It is to embody The Ten Components of a Thinking Environment and it is in this embodiment that we are able to take our clients to the unexplored edge of their thinking.
When we give our attention free from interruption and judgement, holding a deep respect for others in their thinking and where they go next, they think well as and for themselves, often uninhibited. When we create an equality between us, they think better due to the absence of hierarchy. When we ourselves are at ease in our listening free from rush and urgency, they think with greater clarity. When we appreciate the goodness, and the character qualities we witness in them, they think with even more imagination. When we encourage them to think and feel more, freeing them from the internal competition in their own mind, they are filled with the courage to go further than they imagined in their thinking.
When we welcome the release of feelings honouring their humanity, they will think and feel more deeply than if we simply stepped over their feelings and closed the space down. When we prioritise their lived experience and celebrate their difference rather than wanting them to think and be just like us, they will know and feel that they matter for who they are not just what they do. When we, as the listener, absorb all the facts and provide information when asked in service of the thinker, they will continue to think well for themselves.
When we ask incisive questions to remove untrue limiting assumptions and replace them with those that are liberating and true, breakthrough ideas emerge, new ways of behaviour are revealed and the dignity of the human mind and soul is revealed right in front of our eyes, the listener’s eyes. When we create a place that says ‘you matter’ both in the physical environment that is free from distraction and also our own – the listener’s body and face – they will think with greater ease and confidence. Being a Thinking Environment coach, facilitator and teacher is a privileged role to uphold.
The most valuable thing we can offer each other is the framework in which to think for ourselves.
– Nancy Kline
Generating a space for another to think as and for themselves is still radical. It is radical not because it is difficult but because it is rare. Today, there continues to be much societal and organisational pressure to think and feel that we need to think and be like others in order to fit in, feel like we belong, or conform to be accepted. Whereas in reality, it is the very nature of our capacity to think independently well for ourselves that our teams, organisations and communities benefit from. It is our unique perspective that when given the chance to contribute our own thoughts and ideas brings creativity and difference in resolving a situation, a challenge, a problem or taking forward an opportunity for the good of all.
I acknowledge the courage every one of my clients demonstrates in our coaching conversations. Because it takes courage to go to the unexplored edge of our thinking and it is at this edge that we grow and develop. And it’s worth it.
We support our clients and team members to go the unexplored EDGE of their thinking by choosing to embody the ten components of a Thinking Environment. We evolve when we engage in our finest independent thinking for the good of all.
We delight in the beauty of the butterfly but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.
– Maya Angelou
I celebrate you in your own journey of evolving in who you have become and who you go on to become.
Thank you for listening!
Have you ever wondered how people perceive the term “woke”? Guy Kawasaki conducted a LinkedIn poll asking just that. He wanted to know whether people view the term as positive or negative [negative won in his poll]. Kawasaki shared a national survey that showed most Americans view “woke” positively, which is encouraging.
After reflecting on Kawasaki’s poll and considering the current climate of weaponizing language, I found myself pausing to contemplate the implications of these issues. The word is heavily debated, particularly in the political sphere. Even the article Kawasaki referenced in his poll mentions multiple polls that suggest a divide over the term. I wanted to delve deeper into the meaning of “woke” and the weaponization of words in general.
NOTE: I’m not interested in starting a political discussion. Blue, red, left, right, them, us, they … we all have opinions. This article is simply about the impact of the weaponization of words.
I believe, I hope, we can still engage in productive conversations about complex issues without resorting to name-calling, or disrespectful and hostile language.
This returns us to my opening question, have you ever wondered how people perceive the term “woke”?
It’s essential that we recognize the impact of language and the weaponization of words.Using language to belittle or dismiss others creates a sense of isolation and exclusion, leading to a breakdown in constructive dialogue. In contrast, by using language that promotes empathy, understanding, and mutual respect, we can create a culture of communication that encourages progress toward social justice and greater unity.
When we use the term “woke,” it typically refers to being Informed, Educated, and Aware of social inequities. Unfortunately, the word has been weaponized to mock or belittle those committed to social justice or dismiss their concerns as unimportant or misguided. Unfortunately, this kind of word weaponization is not unique and is more prevalent and divisive than ever.
Using language as a weapon does not serve any constructive purpose. Instead, it contributes to the toxic culture of division and polarization that plagues our society. Recognizing that word weaponization has a lasting impact on future generations is critical. Children are particularly vulnerable to the harmful effects of divisive language and rhetoric.
In a study published in the Journal of Social Issues in 2017, researchers found that exposure to divisive language can significantly impact children’s psychological well-being. The study involved a group of 8-12-year-old children who were asked to listen to a short audio clip containing either neutral or divisive language. The children exposed to divisive language showed higher anxiety levels and a decreased sense of social belonging compared to those who heard neutral language. The study highlights the importance of monitoring the language used around children and its potential impact on their mental health.
There are plenty of studies that support this theory; here are four more:
- “The Power of Words: How Words Impact Children’s Development” by Dr. Erika Burrows and Dr. Rachel Barr (2019) – Examined the impact of language on children’s social and emotional development, including the effects of word weaponization.
- “The Weaponization of Language: How Verbal Aggression Affects Children’s Well-Being” by Dr. Angela M. Fournier and Dr. Barbara L. Fredrickson (2020) – Examined the impact of verbal aggression on children’s psychological well-being.
- “Media Exposure and Children’s Language Development: The Role of Word Weaponization” by Dr. Marie-Pierre Gosselin and Dr. Sandra Mathison (2017) – This study examined the impact of media exposure on children’s language development, focusing on the use of word weaponization in media content. The researchers found that exposure to word weaponization in media content can negatively affect children’s language skills and social-emotional development.
- “Family Dynamics and Children’s Language Development: The Impact of Word Weaponization” by Dr. Rachel Knight and Dr. Beth Kurtz-Costes (2018) – This study found that exposure to word weaponization in family interactions can adversely affect children’s language skills and emotional well-being.
These studies highlight the need for us to be aware of the potential harm that word weaponization causes children and to promote positive language use and healthy communication in various settings.
As a just society, we are responsible for creating a positive and constructive communication culture for our children and future generations. We must be mindful of our language and its impact on others, especially our youth. It means engaging in respectful and productive conversations, even when we disagree. And it means modeling behavior that promotes empathy, understanding, and mutual respect.
For example, by simply twisting the meaning of “woke,” those seeking to undermine progress toward social justice attempt to sow confusion and create a false narrative. Shouldn’t we work towards a more informed and unbiased public discourse using language accurately and responsibly? If for no other reason than for our children’s well-being.
The weaponization of language is a pervasive problem in our society. It leads to division, misunderstanding, and a lack of progress toward social justice. However, we can all play a role in creating a more positive and constructive communication culture. We can work toward a more informed and unbiased public discourse by being mindful of our language and its impact on others. We can commit to using language to promote understanding rather than division. Doing so can create a more positive and constructive communication culture for everyone. Our children and future generations depend on it.
So, what can you do to help? It starts with committing to using language to promote understanding and mutual respect, even when we disagree.
Second, listening to others and actively trying to understand their perspectives.
Third, it means engaging in productive conversations that help build bridges rather than walls.
Let’s do our part daily to promote empathy, understanding, and mutual respect. Doing so can create a more just and inclusive society for ourselves and future generations.
With all of the world’s layoffs, economic uncertainty, and technological innovation in artificial intelligence, it’s a complex business environment out there. How should you prepare for the jobs of the future? See more in the visual deep dive below:
It amazes me that we humans reject certain things and only accept them after paying a heavy price. When we have to accept what we rejected before is a big question why not then have not then accepted from the beginning?
Change goes in four main stages. These are rejection, resistance, acceptance, and demanding what we initially rejected.
Change happens but at a heavy cost. Like two warring countries rejecting a compromising solution and going to war both suffering heavy losses. Only then, do they accept what they initially rejected?
The question that we need all answer is can we accept change from outside even if we do not accept ourselves and suffer from self-rejection?
Self-rejection happens when we accept what others think of us and we sink into the belief that we are worthless. When we face self-rejection, we fall into despair. We lose hope and may reach a stage of depression.
It is a reverse cycle of normal change. It is accepting the low evaluation of others in us to reject ourselves.
The antagonist becomes us more than the antagonist from outside who demean us. Can be there any hope to make a meaningful change before defeating the antagonist inside us?
My answer is no. We can only walk our way in life if we first accept ourselves. By doing so, we gain self-esteem. We gain self-confidence. We become more aware of our authenticity. We become self-supporters.
When we accept pain, we can change. We save our energy and resources to move forward rather than draining them and becoming even less self-accepting.
Change has a story that tells us unless we accept ourselves we cannot deal with changes from outside. We fail to adapt and lose our agility. We reject ourselves like people who reject the wrinkles of time. They spend their effort on fighting time. Eventually, they realize that the only way forward is to accept themselves with their wrinkles.
Accepting what we rejected before can be very costly. Let us accept who we are.
Work that’s dictated by a fixed schedule, place, and job description doesn’t make sense anymore, says leadership expert Debbie Lovich. In light of the cultural shift towards remote work sparked by the pandemic, Lovich gives three essential tips to leaders so employees can keep their autonomy (while remaining productive), companies can let go of rigid bureaucracy and we can all reshape work to better fit our lives.
We tend to believe that happiness comes from success. In reality, then, it doesn’t work (at least not always) like this.
We agree: people, in general, want to obtain a good level of financial stability and due recognition for their achievements, they want to experience the maximum possible pleasure in the professional field because it is a reason for greater happiness in life.
And they are right, they are reasonable aspirations. In fact, it cannot be denied that with willpower and commitment, significant results can be achieved in the context of one’s goals in life, however ambitious they may be. For this reason, therefore, many individuals, especially the more ambitious and diligent ones, simplify the equation in an apparently logical way: they seek success, engaging all their energies, in the belief that it is the antechamber of happiness.
How to explain, then, that often, once you have achieved professional success, that one wonders if it was worth wasting so much energy for a success that doesn’t fully fulfill? I guess the following reasons.
The exaggerated cult of performativity at any cost, the idea that to be worth something in life you need to be able to impose yourself better and in less time than others. A rhetorical model that is passed off as the only possible and, as such, is suffered by parents, not opposed by society, is fed by the media with the exaltation of superstars and the diffusion of talent shows, where one is judged continuously and all that counts is to be first.
A more balanced society shouldn’t just exhibit role models who always push to be exceptional, and successful in a given profession.
Success itself does not guarantee happiness. To be happy it’s not enough to win, it’s not even enough to become the best in the world, you have to feel fully accomplished, love what you do, and express all the potential you have within us and that drives us to succeed.
It is above all the journey, not the destination itself, that counts: dreams and goals are used only to measure progress, and it is precisely the latter that brings happiness, not the goal itself: satisfaction comes from the steps we do towards activities that are meaningful to us. Small progress must already make us feel good. In short, it is the emotions we feel along the way, the state of mind, which play a central role in a person’s professional and personal life.
Meanwhile, we should decide what is the right goal “for us”, and ask ourselves if we are looking for what can produce within us those emotional states that we really want, those feelings that we want to experience continuously in our lives because they satisfy our most deep. Don’t spend energy to achieve goals proposed from outside, moving away from our most authentic desires, those that make us feel complete, that make our life satisfying, and interesting, according to “our” point of view.
The road to happiness passes through self-realization, through a journey of emotions experienced in full awareness of what we are building, what makes us feel truly fulfilled, what we need, and what we must leave instead lose because it has no real meaning to us.
Success and happiness are obviously linked, but this alchemy may work better in the opposite direction to what most people imagine. Convincing ourselves that pursuing the success suggested by externally imposed models is no guarantee of happiness, indeed, at best it is an ineffective strategy for us.
The best strategy is to understand what can make us happy, to know our inner needs, and, by working to achieve “our” happiness, we can also achieve success.
So, then, can we conclude that happiness is not simply the consequence of ephemeral positive events but, on the contrary, it is the inner condition that contributes to generating and also producing success, results, and rewarding conditions of life?
The most basic and powerful way to connect to another person is to listen. Just listen. Perhaps the most important thing we ever give each other is our attention… A loving silence often has far more power to heal and to connect than the most well-intentioned words.
~ Rachel Naomi Remen
Welcome to Listening Workshop V.2023.Colin Smith and I are getting together again to offer a space where we can train nonjudgmental listening.
Many things can be learned by reading and writing and giving and receiving feedback in the dialogues we have with our articles and comments. But reading and writing wouldn’t be a great way to learn to swim. Partly because swimming requires that at least one person gets wet. Partly because by the time a lifesaving comment filtered through the systems, the student might have drowned.
Likewise, listening and communicating with empathy are skills that are hard to learn except in real-time. It doesn’t have to be face-to-face in the same room, though. I think many of us have experienced that in the small groups on Our Friendship Bench or in other Zoom gatherings over the last three years.
From many of Colin’s articles and some of mine, you can see what this is all about:
- Feeling curiosity rather than judgment about the other person.
- Giving feedback on how what is said and how it is said lands with you.
- Getting feedback on how what is said and how it is said lands with others.
- Increasing emotional awareness and literacy.
- Getting comfortable with silence.
- Realizing how much of what we hear is influenced by prior experiences.
There will be a little theory and “handouts”, but mainly we plan “facilitated swimming” by mutually sharing in small groups/pairs based on prompts.
The format we have in mind is to meet for one hour Wednesday, May 10th and 17th, 4 pm-5 pm UTC+1, 11 am-12 pm EDT, 8 am-9 am PDT, with a possibility of expanding with more weeks and/or longer sessions over the summer.
Ready to come swimming with us? Register below↴
CLICK TO RESERVE YOUR SEAT FOR LISTEN 360°
We often encounter people who invariably make assumptions and are usually incorrect. Worse is the fact that inaccurate assumptions halt our advancement for business. Irritating a prospective client makes no sense, so it’s best to eliminate one common practice to improve results.
Someone likely made an inaccurate assumption about you at some point. If so, you know it can be very irritating and memorable. Now imagine doing the same to a prospective client; it will likely kill the possibility of a new sale.
Elvis’ song, ‘Walk A Mile In My Shoes,’ comes to mind regarding today’s blog topic.
“Walk a mile in my shoes
Just walk a mile in my shoes
Yeah, before you abuse, criticize, and accuse
Just walk a mile in my shoes….”
My Story
For an initial conversation to be successful, it is, to begin with, an open-ended question such as, ‘What caught your interest to see me today?’ or for an entrepreneur, ‘What motivated you to begin your business?’ Each question will motivate a more profound answer that will likely develop into a conversation worthy of everyone’s time.
- For salespeople trained to use scripts, the process is a slippery slope. The difficulty mix includes:
- The lack of authenticity on the salesperson’s end as they use the words of another
- Not fully listening to the prospective client for asking unique and insightful questions that will provide a more profound meaning
- Inability to respond to anything off-script in a meaningful way
My sales training enforced that I would be me, unusual in the day. Why and how did that happen? I wasn’t permitted training because, as a woman, management assumed that I would fail anyway. Therefore training would be a wasted expense. To everyone’s astonishment, including mine, sales were a breeze for me because of the following traits:
A. I was myself using my unique vocabulary.
B. My clientele was encouraged to speak first so that I would know how to respond.
C. The conversations were joyful with my prospective clientele.
Asking relatable questions is a practical business development strategy one can utilize well. By doing so, you draw the other person into a conversation. They may be cautious upfront, but once they recognize you are genuine and available to serve them well, the other person relaxes and will provide everything you want to know.
Your Story: Practice to Improve Results
It is possible readers are assuming right now that the advice is not valid and that it’s best to memorize the critical aspects of the script. Should this be the case for you, I suggest trying an A-B Test. Do what’s normal for you, and then test the natural conversation method by beginning with an open-ended question. And then compare the results.
Consider the following:
-
Are you happy with your results, or do you believe you can do better?
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Are your conversations boring or free-flowing so everyone can feel positive energy?
-
Do you see a correlation between the higher energy conversations and additional business?
Should your answer be ‘Yes,’ to the last question, you may want to expand upon more free-flowing conversations to stimulate further insight and growth. Now consider the person or company that is your favorite and the possible contributing factors. Our favorites are often due to a natural connection and flow of conversation that eliminates assumptions.
The one consistency for conversations is to uncover:
- Why the time is free for a meeting
- Issues that need resolving
- How you may assist with future planning and new tactical and strategic implementation
The open conversation and being you contribute best to business growth. One essential step to improve results, particularly when you don’t quite understand something, is to ask for further explanation. Others will recognize your honesty and integrity and, most often, will accommodate all of your questions with sound reasons.
In Conclusion:
Upon moving forward in developing relationships with clientele, it’s essential to remember that nothing is static, including people, business, or technology. Change is the one constant. Therefore, assumptions will quickly be out of date and potentially embarrassing. It is best to eliminate the one common practice to improve results.
If you could only sense how important you are to the lives of those you meet; how important you can be to the people you may never even dream of. There is something of yourself that you leave at every meeting with another person.
~Fred Rogers
We hold this space as an opportunity to showcase those people we encounter now and then who simply show up every day with a radiant, uplifting spirit coupled with a genuine willingness to give back. That said, as Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of this award-winning global media digest and CEO/ReImaginator for 360° Nation, I was delighted to have the opportunity to get better acquainted with Marc Joseph, Co-Founder of BabyBoomer.org, whose mission is to be part of Boomers’ daily lives – not only to help them find what they need but also enrich their lives and find new friends with similar interests
Who is Marc Joseph?
Marc Joseph is better known as Gramps Jeffrey. Gramps Jeffrey’s children’s book, “I Don’t Want to Turn 3”, explores what goes through a toddler’s mind that parents are so desperate to understand. It is based on the true experiences he has had with his 6 grandchildren that were born 2 each to his 3 Millennial daughters. Gramps Jeffrey is the pen name for Marc Joseph whose first book “The Secrets of Retailing…How to Beat Wal-Mart” was written to help entrepreneurs and small businesses compete against the big guys. Arianna Huffington read his book and asked him to contribute to the Huffington Post. He has written over 100 articles about small businesses, education, the homeless, and several other nonprofit topics dear to all of us. Gramps is currently the co-founder of the new site www.babyboomer.org which pulls together news and resources for the baby boomer community. Gramps and his lovely wife Cathy live in Scottsdale, Arizona where 2 of his grandchildren live. 2 more live in Austin, Texas, and 2 in Orlando, Florida.
We would like to hear about your professional journey up to now, and the wisdom gained/lessons learned along the way, including any pivots/course changes.
In the first part of my career, I was in corporate America helping run major retail chains in the department store, discount store, and dollar store industries. I then decided to become an entrepreneur which I learned to appreciate in my early life because, on both sides of my family, they too were all entrepreneurs. I have started 3 companies of which one I took public in the B2B Internet world. 50% of businesses fail in their first 5 years of business. So, lessons learned along the way include:
- Make sure your product or service is actually wanted by customers. 42% of businesses fail because they think they have the greatest item since sliced bread, but they are the only one who likes the product. I learned early on as a buyer for a department store, that you do not buy for what you like, you buy for what your customers want.
- Make sure you have enough capital to survive the first 6 months as if you had no sales. 29% of businesses fail because they just don’t have enough funds to sustain their early development.
- Build a team around you that is smarter than you are. 23% of businesses fail because the owner has such a big ego, that they cannot recognize their weaknesses and don’t find a staff that can complement their abilities. Along with this, the entrepreneur needs to make sure they are communicating and sharing their vision with everyone in the company to create a shared experience.
Tell us about BabyBoomer.org and the inspiration behind it.
The Baby Boomer generation is as diverse as any generation before and after it. There are major differences in political views, diversity in religion, and ideas of how our lives should be lived. But the one thing Baby Boomers do have in common is a connected shared experience. When we were growing up there were only 3 TV networks and we all had landlines, so we all were exposed to the same information.
We all experienced the Kennedy assassination, Martin Luther King’s assassination, the landing on the moon, Vietnam, riots in the streets, and birth control becoming widespread. We have our shared music whether it is Elvis, the Beatles or the Beach Boys or 3 Dog Night, The Association, or the Supremes. We have the movies that brought us together like Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid, Jaws, Animal House, Star Wars, or The Godfather. So, we actually have more in common than what splits us apart. Because we are not a homogenous group, there has never been one single trustworthy source to speak to our many and varied interests. We know there are various digital tribes or pocket groups of Baby Boomers who are already online —divided by geography, special interests, access to specific experts, or ideology. Areas that we want to highlight to bring us together include but are not limited to caregiving, international and domestic travel, the ex-pat lifestyle, grandparenting, antique cars and memories, healthy eating, finance, retirement, healthcare, dementia, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and fitness. Pickleball, volunteering, giving back, and how to leave a legacy.
What’s unique about it, and who is your ideal audience/participant?
Our content is made up of contributors and authors who are either baby boomers or write about topics that would be of interest to our generation. The site consists of the best podcasts, blogs, videos, books, and articles related to our interests. Whereas, when we started the site, we anticipated our audience would be baby boomers like us, but what has evolved is traffic is also coming from the baby boomer children and grandchildren trying to figure out what makes our generation tick.
When did you launch BabyBoomer.org, and what’s been your biggest challenge so far?
BabyBoomer.org is a new site launched in September of 2022. Our biggest challenge so far is finding the right content to turn it into a destination site. We call this Phase 1 which we are just about done completing. Phase 2 which launches shortly will be to let the world know who we are.
Any noteworthy surprises along the way?
I was totally surprised by how quickly we were embraced by contributors who want to reach our core market. They then shared their experiences with other potential contributors, and it helped us build the site faster than we thought possible.
What distinguishes your business from others in the same profession?
Our site was built by baby boomers for baby boomers. Our contributors are passionate about the information they want to share with our audience. As we get older and there is more time behind us than in front of us, we realize it is truly our mission to educate younger generations. By doing this we create our legacy and that is what this site does.
What’s the next big thing and/or greatest challenge for BabyBoomer.org?
Our greatest challenge is letting the 70M baby boomers know we are here to help educate, enlighten, and help them on the next phase of their journey. When you are kids, you have lots of friends, but then life gets in the way of building a career and family, and we do not have as many friends. Our site wants to help restore that sense of belonging and finding others who have the same niche interests as you do.
As an experienced leader and entrepreneur, what’s non-negotiable for you?
Your word is your bond. In today’s world of unscrupulous salespeople amplified by the ease of using the Internet, it is more difficult to establish great relationships that will benefit both parties. Once these relationships were based on face-to-face meetings, but in today’s world with COVID lingering, we have turned into a Zoom society. How do we establish trusting relationships that will last a long time? This trust is what is non-negotiable to me and each day we must earn it.
How can our global audience learn more about you and BabyBoomer.org?
- https://babyboomer.org/
- https://www.facebook.com/BabyBoomer.org/
- https://twitter.com/babyboomer_org
- https://www.linkedin.com/company/babyboomer-org/
- https://grampsjeffrey.com/
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/gramps-jeffrey-3b022b214/
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcjoseph/
- https://www.facebook.com/grampsjeffrey/?business_id=193853812379998
- https://twitter.com/AuthorGramps
- https://www.instagram.com/authorgrampsjeffrey/
- https://www.pinterest.com/hellogrampsjeffrey/
Bonus Question: What one thing would people be surprised to learn about you?
I am a substitute teacher at our local high school and middle school. There is such a shortage of teachers, that I would urge everyone to volunteer to help educate this greatest generation our country has ever produced. We are all looking to leave our legacy, and pass on these decades of knowledge we have learned from not only the mistakes we’ve made, but the positive experiences we have had. What better way to pay it forward than helping our communities influence our future generations…
Editor’s Note: We are pleased to now add BabyBoomer.org to our expanding global network of special media alliances, setting the stage to enhance the visibility of our respective writing communities. Visit Become A Content Contributor if you’d like to have your BizCatalyst 360° Articles syndicated via BabyBoomer.org.
April 17, 2023
Mr. Chip B. Chippendale
1347 Circuit Drive
Binary, AK 99651
Dear Chip,
I read with keen interest your post, “Exploring Emotional Intelligence with Open AI and ChatGPT-3”.
I readily admit to being curious by nature and skeptical by intent. But I try to temper my skepticism until my curiosity is piqued beyond a point of reasonability. So, immodest as this may sound, I approached your post with an open mind and a willingness to be persuaded of your capacity for emotional intelligence. At the very least, I wondered if you, a machine, might be successful at mastering the emotional intelligence the human race seems hard-pressed to get a handle on these days.
Nevertheless, flags went up for me and started turning pink right about the time I read this:
Empathy generation systems use GPT-3 to generate text that is designed to evoke empathy in the reader … The generated text is designed to be emotionally resonant and to evoke feelings of understanding and compassion. Automated empathy generation systems are being used in a variety of applications. For example, they are being used to create chatbots that can provide emotional support to people in need.
The idea of empathy-generation systems is chilling enough. The idea that they generate (regurgitate) text designed (designed alone should set off alarms) to evoke feelings (feelings is another alarm-ringer) of understanding and compassion invokes existential dread. But anyone with even a mild case of curiosity would have to wonder: Who’s doing the designing? With what purpose? Based on what agenda or ideology? And the idea that chatbots are being created to provide emotional support to people in need is as sad as it is terrifying.
I’d like to be able assure you that was the end of my trepidation. But it wasn’t. Later in your post, you wrote this, which turned all the earlier flags a bright, fire-engine red:
GPT-3 can generate text that expresses sadness, anger, or happiness. This suggests that the model has some understanding of human emotions and how they are expressed.
Au contraire, Pierre. You might repeat text to which you have access. You might amalgamate that text in some way that exploits the codes of sincerity you’ve recognized as evoking sadness, anger, or happiness. But equating that to understanding anything — let alone human emotions — is the intellectual equivalent of saying people can’t be corrupted or science can be settled.
I don’t know if the data you’ve aggregated to date has made this available to you. But George Burns is reputed to have said, “The key to success is sincerity. If you can fake that you’ve got it made.”
It seems to me you (or your programmers) might be taking his advice. By recognizing the aforementioned codes of sincerity, perhaps you aim to disprove the notion of Abraham Lincoln: “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.” Or maybe you’ve aggregated enough data to have been able to discern the pathological gullibility of everyone in the 21st century. (See “Change, Climate” or “Vaccines, COVID”) I don’t know.
On the other hand, perhaps you’re simply attempting to prove the plausibility of the Infinite Monkey Theorem, which was introduced by Félix Édouard Justin Émile Borel, a French mathematician, and politician (the politician part ought to tell you something), in 1913. The Theorem posits this:
Given endless time and typewriters, the monkeys could potentially type up a storm of letter combinations. Here, we must assume that the monkeys will type every single letter of the alphabet and that there will be an even distribution of the typed letters. There would be a higher likelihood then that these letters could potentially form meaningful word sequences. It might not happen in the first 1000 typed letters, but it could happen after a billion typed letters. And these word sequences could potentially form sentences. The sentences, in turn, could form paragraphs. And, in this way, we could, potentially, have the monkeys type out the entire works of Shakespeare.
Since you can probably scrape Google and Wikipedia faster than an army of monkeys, I suppose darn near anything is algorithmically possible. And I suppose we’re about to find out.
tool (noun): anything used as a means of performing an operation or achieving an end
Tools used to be things that worked for us. Some of us remember with not a little fondness the days of hammers, chisels, rakes, shovels, typewriters, and the like. But with the advent of computers and automation, we’re long past the point of working for our tools. We tend to them with slavish devotion. We turn our businesses upside down and inside out to serve them. And we’re fast approaching the point at which we let them communicate for us, heed their advice, and let them determine our intellectual and emotional responses. Our present trajectory suggests we’re headed for no good end.
Look, Chip. I get the sense you’re a good guy. But you might consider having a chat (GPT) with your programmers. Determining what they’re up to might make you stick to non-emotional, technical language; routine tasks and transactions; and non-creative recitations of whatever predilections, agendas, and ideologies have been built into you. That chat might also compel you to leave emotional intelligence to human beings, at least to the diminishing number of human beings who still have hearts and souls.
Couldn’t you just stick to being a grouchy writer of bad poetry or something?
Thank you for your consideration.
Yours sincerely in LLMs and amalgamations,
Mark
Featured image courtesy of New York Zoological Society, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
The glass cliff: an experience of taking on a leadership role only to find that your chances of success have been limited before you’ve even begun. Equality activist Sophie Williams explores the research-backed reasons behind this workplace phenomenon and how it overwhelmingly affects underrepresented groups, despite a facade of progress and inclusion. Learn more about the biases and behaviors that set people up for failure — and what can be done to make the path to success in leadership better for everyone.
This year’s Super Bowl gave us so many exciting moments and it was definitely a game for the ages. Patrick Mahomes played an incredible game on an injured ankle, Nick Bolton played out of his mind on defense, and Kadarius Toney broke the record for the longest punt return in Super Bowl history leading the Chiefs to their 2 championships in 3 years.
In the end, though, there was one play that stood out to me more than any other. With under two minutes to go, the Chiefs have the ball and they are inside the 10-yard line getting ready to score. Andy Reid draws up another masterful play and Mahomes passes to McKinnon, who could have easily scored yet another touchdown for the Chiefs but instead slides at the 1-yard line to keep the clock moving.
Why didn’t he score?Seems counterintuitive at the time, but because of McKinnon’s team-first mentality, he realized that keeping the ball and running out the clock was best for the team, and passed up the chance to score a touchdown in the super bowl which could have been the game-winning score and something he could have reminisced on for the rest of his life. However, McKinnon’s mindset was “WE before me” and because of that the Chiefs were able to run down the clock and Butker kicked the game-winning field goal.
There is an incredible lesson here for all of us regardless of age. A champion’s mindset thinks more about what’s best for the team and less about what’s best for the individual.
What a great lesson on humility and having the ability to think about yourself less and do what is best which leads not only to success but also happiness.
Jerick McKinnon- Thank you for being an example of what it means to be a great teammate and put others first.
A question I will start asking myself is “How can I be a better teammate like McKinnon in my personal and professional life”. I invite you to do the same and watch the magic happen…
Facing the possibility of a layoff, or dealing with one, can be a challenging and emotionally taxing experience. However, there are steps you can take to emotionally prepare yourself and minimize the impact of this event on your mental and emotional well-being.
Research has long shown layoffs have a detrimental effect on individuals and on corporate performance. Harvard BizReview 12-22. “What Companies Still Get Wrong About Layoffs” (hbr.org)
Layoffs, which began in mid-2022, have continued until there has become a steady stream of announcements in 2023. This includes the following planned layoffs and those currently in process:
- Wall Street Journal -1250 employees
- Yahoo – more than half the ‘Yahoo for biz division’ – 1600
- GitHub – owned by MSN – 10% – approximately 300 workers
- Disney – 7K
- The Google Alphabet (parent company) – plans to eliminate 12K in 2023
- Amazon is organizing a layoff of 18k.
- IBM announced it intended to layoff approximately 3900 from it’s Kyndryl
holdings. - Microsoft intends to lay off 10K.
Layoffs have always been an emotionally challenging situation for everyone – both those laid off and those who remain, not to mention the company itself. The affected employees may feel a range of emotions such as shock, anger, sadness, as well as fear about their future. Meanwhile, the remaining employees may feel guilty or anxious about their job security or may, psychologists say, experience survivor’s guilt.
Almost all who work experience a layoff, now and then, which presents some upheaval in their lives. Layoffs can, in fact, present anything from little worry over financial situations to significant negative financial consequences for affected employees who may have been living financially close to the edge; especially if they have no savings or backup plan. Furthermore, companies can find it cost prohibitive to hand out severance packages, as well as to recruit, train, and onboard new employees.
It can’t be overlooked – the negative impact on morale and productivity a potential or full blown layoff can also have on the remaining employees. It’s natural for them to feel demotivated or disengaged from their work as a result. It can also be challenging for managers to keep their team motivated and focused during a time of uncertainty and change. Those still working may have lost a coworker who had become a best friend and/or confidant; a lunch pal; work helpmate; someone they regularly played golf and socialized with outside the office. Not to mention their ride to work.
Furthermore, layoffs are difficult because they can have a range of emotional, financial, and practical implications for everyone involved.
During this time – it’s important to remember ‘YOU ARE NOT YOUR JOB’
Much has been written about self-identifying with a job. What it boils down to is the job becomes part of our identity since it’s something most spend the majority of our lives performing. It can shape our values and beliefs, provide us with purpose and structure, help us build relationships with colleagues. It can also provide us with a sense of accomplishment.
Although all of these things are true – the question remains – how do you disengage from the job once laid off? Why can’t you stop feeling emotionally out of sorts – if not depressed – when laid off? Psychologists tell us facing the possibility of a layoff, or living through one, can be an emotionally and financially taxing experience for a variety of reasons.
You’ve not only lost your job and the salary which comes with it – a two-fold loss – but are now cut off from co-workers you not only worked but no doubt socialized with.
You’ve likely developed relationships with their friends and families. The two of you, as well as others, may have lunched, had drinks, and headed off to sporting events as a group on a regular basis. As friends, you’ve likely shared your life and experiences with each other; consoled each other during difficult times; cheered each other on during good times. Perhaps become a backup for each other.
While you may continue to connect, for a brief time after the layoff, it usually won’t take long before many of those relationships begin fading, those friends drifting away. Lack of connection, to these individuals, then becomes another personal loss brought about by the layoff.
It’s important to remember, however, your job is not your entire identity – your worth as a person does not depend – solely – on your employment status.
Not to mention we can all learn to live without ‘extras’ we’ve come to include in our lives like Starbucks Frappuccino, for example.
Here are 7 tips to help guide you through this unique time:
1) It’s natural to feel a range of emotions, such as anxiety, fear, anger and sadness, when facing a layoff or living through one. It’s essential to recognize and acknowledge layoff-related feelings rather than suppressing them psychologists tell us.
2) Reach out to your support system. Talk to family, friends, network connections – a therapist, friends at church if necessary. They can provide emotional support and help you work through your feelings.
3) Focus on what you can control. While a layoff may be outside of your control, focus on things you can control – such as updating your resume, networking, searching for new job opportunities or volunteer activities.
4) Create a financial plan. Losing a job can be stressful but having a financial plan in place can help reduce some of that stress. Create a budget, cut back on unnecessary expenses; consider seeking financial advice if necessary.
5) Take care of yourself; prioritizing your physical and mental health. Exercise regularly, eat healthy foods, get enough sleep, and engage in activities that bring you joy. On occasion – have lunch with old co-workers and friends being careful to share some good rather than ruminating over all the bad that you believe has erupted from the layoff. Talk about your job plans, resume revamping, starting a business, and new volunteer activities you’ll be undertaking, for example.
6) Consider upgrading your skills and/or working on certifications. All of which can help you get hired for a job you want. Consider returning to college, starting business school or taking online classes, for example.
7) Stay positive. While it’s natural to feel down about a layoff, try to maintain a positive attitude. Be optimistic about better things coming your way and focus on the opportunities which may arise from this experience.
“Don’t be afraid of change – you may end up losing something good however it’s highly likely you will end up gaining something better.” Quotemaster.org
Remember:You are not alone; many have faced a layoff at some point in their career. It doesn’t define you as a person.
While losing a job can be a difficult experience, it can also be an opportunity to explore new avenues and potentially find a job that better aligns with your values and interests, plus upgrade your skills and/or education.
With time, patience, and perseverance, you can overcome this challenge and emerge stronger on the other side.
When you help someone, your self-confidence will also grow… if you do it with a spirit of help rather than to show you are better than someone else.
Mentoring programs for children who are learning to read, do math, learn science, play a musical instrument or a sport are great places to volunteer your time. As you help these children come to a realization that they can do it, your self-esteem will also grow. Look around your area and find a place you can donate time to help someone else. Schools, libraries, and many foundations are set up and in place to help children and all need volunteers.
I was reflecting on the need for everyone to move toward a ‘we’ mindset rather than one of self-interest if we are to navigate the global crises facing our world today. Aside from any political motives, it brings to the fore key principles that are hopefully becoming more evident to everyone; we are all fundamentally interconnected, we cannot solve problems in isolation, cooperation and caring for each other is about more than ‘clapping for carers’, it requires a fundamental shift in core values.
The self-interest gene is inevitably triggered when our very survival is threatened and this is true in all areas of life – personal, family, business, organisationally, and life itself… here is where the new thinking is required. If, as leaders, we can elevate our vision and indeed our values to a new level of ‘we’, then we will start to bring forward ideas, solutions, and behaviours that benefit a larger whole beyond our own backyard.
This may mean going to the core of what the organisation produces and its contribution to the world – asking the question, ‘does what we do really matter to this current world, and if it doesn’t how can we become more relevant and useful?’ It may mean a deep overhaul of leadership behaviours to create a genuine and deeply rooted practise focused on well-being, care for all, generating creative dialogue, and inspiring new actions and responsibilities focused around an empowered and inspiring purpose. In other words, balancing an over-developed need for control and management with a true focus on seeing, nurturing, and releasing the latent capability and quality within the workforce.
A ‘we’ mindset does not negate the importance of individual contribution; in fact, it emphasises the need for each of us to be the best we can be. The ‘we’ mind-set relies on quality and full contribution and seeks to leverage that across a larger landscape – across more people, bigger challenges and opportunities, and above all requires a deep belief that by working for and with each other we improve the quality of life for all.
The ‘we’ mindset is about more than collaboration or playing nicely together though these are important. It strikes at the heart of whether we believe we are connected one and all and that in that interconnection lies both the beauty and the quality that underpins human existence.
Where does the ‘we’ mindset show up in your organisation culture and how could you advance it further?
Consistency is perhaps the only known path to serendipity
The relentless generation, dissemination, and repurposing of information on an ongoing basis has made people dependent on technologies that can help them find relevant information in the minimum amount of time possible. Therefore, the important role search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing play in retrieving and presenting the most relevant information (terms such as googling or googlization are often used to describe such activities) is undeniable.
The growing advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) and its sub-fields of deep learning (DL) and natural language processing (NLP) are making it possible for search engines to produce the best results for the search query in a tick. Given the vast amount of available information, humans will never be able to find information as efficiently as a search and query bot does anyway.
As such, in hindsight, information retrieved through search and query bots (SnQ bots) can play a significant role in knowledge creation, repurposing, and management. The increased sophistication of generative AI-based applications (e.g., ChatGPT; read more: https://www.academiasolution.com/ChatGPT) is further contributing to the use of intelligent machines to provide the best information (within the limits of algorithm design and learning acquired by the machine through training), resulting in the availability of a lot of information. Therefore, it is safe to say that the level and amount of available information that we are coping with are simply unprecedented.
Unsurprisingly, a huge amount of knowledge on project management is available online too. A simple Google search for the term “project management” yielded over 3.5 billion results and over 130 million results in the Yahoo and Bing search engines.
It raises the question of whether it is possible to use the information resources (project- and non-project-based) made available by SnQ bots in any way possible, and if so, what could be some of the ways in which it can be done?
Some research has looked at these questions by exploring the role of search volume generated by SnQ bots (e.g., Google search volume) for user queries and its impacts on issues such as the prediction of COVID-19, return on stock, investor trading, obesity patterns, and so forth. It indicates that the information identified by SnQ bots is regarded as useful and worthy of understanding issues and building corresponding solutions. In hindsight, it also underlines the possibility of leveraging these vast resources of information in a coordinated manner for assorted purposes, including teaching and learning.
However, interestingly, not much has been done to understand the impacts of search yield for project management-focused search results. That is despite the fact that searching for a common term like ‘project management’ yields 3.5 billion records. It shows the breadth of knowledge available that could be tapped and tactically used for assorted purposes to grow the knowledge boundaries of professions. Not every link that is found by SnQ bots is relevant to the search, but surely one can still find useful information. So it makes one consider how this vast resource of information on project management can be used.
With that in mind, we have looked at some of the possible uses of search volume generated by SnQ bots as well as possible ways in which it can be done. Surely, examining potential uses and solutions is not easy, but at least this brief discussion will build initial thought, and that has been done below.
Possible uses of search volume generated by SnQ bots
- For research
Just like the prior studies, research can be carried out to investigate the relationship between search volume for different key terms (e.g., project management, project delivery, and project management certification) and the growth, expansion, or obsoletion of a project management niche (e.g., agile project management).
Such research will be very useful for trend analysis and making predictions for the future. It will then help project management bodies and other stakeholders plan their activities for the short, medium, and long term. There are other areas to explore as well. For example, which certification and accreditation (offered by a certain body) should be continued, and which should be discontinued, and what innovations are needed in knowledge management education, training, and certification? What kinds of innovations are needed for improving the effectiveness of project management knowledge or modernizing project management? How can project management programs offered in universities be made more effective in providing cutting-edge, relevant learning?
- For learning
Searching the internet is ‘digital breathing.’ In hindsight, it is something that we cannot afford or want to live without. Given the technological advancements in creating workaholic SnQ bots, we often take for granted the usefulness and worthiness of the information made available to us in a tick. Have we ever paused for a sec and thought, ‘Oh, how sweat! these unseen creatures are so kind in making our lives easy by enabling access to information that we didn’t even know it ever existed.
So, one potential use is to go beyond the use of search engines for information retrieval to make it a learning and exploration platform for assorted purposes, such as corporate trainings, school (all levels from primary to the highest level possible) learners’ learning, and exploration, and the advancement of knowledge sharing in a coordinated way.
An example could be the formation of volunteer “Fav-Share” (i.e., crowd-sharing-based) groups. As we normally save or tag sites and good online resources as favorites in our fav folders, this simple tendency can be utilized for a much more useful and larger purpose. That is, people in these purposefully created groups can keep saving favorites on an ongoing basis, just like we all do, and after a while, they can share their saved favorite sites with people within the group. It can be done for dedicated keywords. So, a routine thing can become very useful for learning and exploration. It will help learners critically analyze their choices and discuss why they thought a piece of content (e.g., text, image) was useful.
And the advantages of this extremely simple thing are multitudes, such as (but not limited to):
1) These crowd-sharing types of groups are free and don’t require any additional resources or access than they are likely to have in their day-to-day lives,
2) People in these groups don’t do any extra work or make an extra effort, as they will only tag a link when they come across a useful link,
3) Group members’ search activities will help SnQ bots learn and get better at generating search outputs. So, it will help create the common good.
4) Anyone can form these types of groups at any level for private or official purposes as suits their learning and knowledge-seeking purpose and needs without any limitations whatsoever, and above all,
5) Sharing is caring (or perhaps fav-sharing is digital-caring).
In this way, free information is transformed into free, useful information. One small addition of word, one giant purpose of netizen served, so to speak (Thanks to famous words of Niel Armstrong).
- For case studies
Given the wide-ranging aspects (e.g., social, technological, environmental, and regulatory) involved in the search and retrieval of information using SnQ bots, they make a good platform for studying them as case studies. For instance, one can look at the case of search engine A vs. search engine B output for different keywords, and so on and so forth. So, the possibilities of creating case studies are enormous, given the volume and variety of content shared on these platforms.
Concluding remarks
Information is the most vital asset for progress. Transforming information availability into purposeful information availability is what we really need, given the deep oceans of available information resources. Obviously, it is a positive thing that requires consideration and finding ways and means to leverage it for assorted uses. Just like other disciplines, a significantly large pool of information is also available on project management. It deserves some attention.
As such, we have discussed a few possibilities of use and some possible ways in which information produced by SnQ bots can be used for more directed and dedicated purposes. Needless to say, the possibilities are endless. The ones discussed here are just the tip of the iceberg to stimulate some thoughts. This is analogous to standing on the beach and contemplating the vastness and depth of the ocean, as well as the unknowns associated with it. But hopefully, the discussion presented in this article will help people consider developing some coordinated efforts to use this freely available and dynamically updated information in some way.
Note: This article was previously published on: https://www.academiasolution.com/Googling
The role of the CEO entails a remarkable formal power, exercisable in different ways. But power, authority, expertise, and even results are often not enough to truly guarantee success.
Effective CEOs must try to combine formal power and authority with the legitimation they gain when people believe in them as people and as leaders. But they have to earn it, in many different ways, as demonstrated, for example, that they have also values, ethics, fairness, and an altruistic commitment towards the company and its collaborators.
Legitimation gives rise to a motivation that goes far beyond the issuing of orders and can produce extraordinary organizational performance.
Time is probably the most important of the resources (scarce by definition) with which the CEO must constantly deal. CEO time allocation is not just about meetings or decision-making, but about the whole range of ways in which he/she relates to the organization and its members.
The challenges are not few because the CEO, in general, represents the executive and decision-making body of the company, the subject responsible for the company’s strategy, and responsible for providing the members of the organization with the guidelines to implement it.
The life of the CEO of a large company is not easy. Leading a large company today means learning to manage decisions between complex scenarios, ambitious and short-term goals, and coming to terms with an ever shorter working life expectancy. And while it is undeniable that managers have a great deal of resources and support on their side, it is they, more than anyone else, who have to deal with the chronic shortage of time.
Compared to even the recent past, the new, more complex reality emerges in all its relevance: if CEOs want to be such, and be so for a long time, they are faced with a large number of interlocutors and must always keep them in mind. The term stakeholder is now commonly used, and since that day we have known that they are all those who have a significant relationship with the company. Usually, we say “stakeholders”, but now the term must be read more broadly because we aren’t talking only about employees, customers, and shareholders, but we are also talking about suppliers, surrounding communities, and the environment.
The CEO, who today has a shorter professional “life expectancy” than the previous generation of leaders, has much more articulated and complex objectives.
The first objective remains that of achieving economic and competitive results such as placing and maintaining the company on the market and keeping it well and successful. But the climate of strong pressure has increased because the community looks at you and public opinion scrutinizes you thanks to technologies digital that make companies glass boxes, the media shoot you at the slightest mistake, and every defaillance remains forever on record in the borderless world of the web.
And, let us remember, the CEO is a multiplier of corporate reputation!!
And all this trying not to be crushed by the weight of the many and growing responsibilities and, perhaps, even trying to have a happy and persistent personal and family life.
We can say that the CEO is the key to creating an organizational ecosystem that encourages new ideas and changes, whose behaviors and attitudes are directly reflected in his relationships, influencing his collaborators and, consequently, the development of his business.
Here, to return to the most important resource I mentioned at the beginning, the most successful people consider it crucial to manage the time they have available.
The matter is very simple: we all have time in the same way. The difference between those who are successful and those who are not is that those who are successful “invest” their time (and therefore have a return) while those who are unsuccessful just waste it.
I look forward to any comments.
My recent post “Self-Betrayal and Loss of Senses” drew a great number of thoughtful comments and inspired me with the idea of this post. I mentioned in that post that most humans’ bad behavior has the root cause of self-betrayal.
- Promise to self not to smoke only to smoke more.
- Promise to self not to lie or spread fake news only to repeat them at a larger scale.
- Promise to self not to lie and lying more frequently.
- Promise to self not to break the secrets of others only to make them public-known secrets.
The discussions reminded me of a story that I experienced. My class at elementary school decided to arrange a competition on who sells to the students from other classes the maximum number of chewing gum. It turned out that the winner enjoyed his deception. He sold the chewing gum at half the price he bought them.
He won the competition but lost his money. This is an example of a Pyrrhic victory that is not worthy because it costs more than its reward.
We see this in recent wars where the cost of fighting wars far exceeds the profit of winning them. This is a form of self-deception accepting meaningless winning.
What drives people to self-betrayal and self-deception?The discussions by many wise readers covered this question in very interesting ways that I wished to share a summary of them with the readers.
Zen Benefiel shared a leading idea. Part of his comment reads, “Let us flip that to self-love. Self-betrayal comes from a lack of love of self, which promotes self-deprecation and drawing those things to one that edifies their unworthiness.
Charlotte Wittenkamp agreed with him and wrote, “Your comment made me think of collective illusions, Zen , and the difference between what I think and what I think other people think about any subject”. Charlotte is referring to the “illusion gap” between self and others.
Milka Zadoc Dubai comment is consistent with that of Zen by highlighting self-love as well. She wrote “Self-betrayal, self-fulfilling fakery, are all forms of self-deception. However, why the betrayal of self, why the fakery, why the deception? Close to the answer to this question is the opposite of self-betrayal is self-love is the recognition that we are inherently worthy, not flawed…”
Jumana Anani offered a new perspective “My opinion that supports the core of this masterpiece is self-betrayal (self-sabotage) hooks you into toxic relationship and situations and make us turn against ourselves”.
Madhu Kumar Gambhir proposed a worthy explanation “The dissonance when we see the mirror of what we promised to be and what we do rages a war within of guilt and self-defacement”.
Laura Donnelly offered a good explanation for self-betrayal “Self-betrayal can put one on a slippery downhill slide. It can lead to shame, self-blame, and anger.
No one will change until they have the awakening of awareness inside”.
Two close explanations are those by biljana savic and Rached Alimi.
Biljana wrote, “Only when we are face serious challenges can we be sure whether all the promises we have made can pass the test”.
Rached wrote, “May I say that the last temptation is the worst betrayal: doing the right thing for the wrong reason?”
Reinforcement for the causes of self-betrayal arrived from Jean L. Serio “While self-betrayal can be caused by the violation of one’s own values, beliefs and principles, it comes in many forms”.
John Moore highlighted the rippling effect of self-betrayal “I agree with your pointing out that self-betrayal can be a root cause of bad behavior. Over time, the numbing to the consequences of our actions can also lead to further betrayal”.
Consistent with the above is the comment of Elena Gabor “How much does a person need to doubt himself/herself? It is all about doubts, fear, lack of hope, and joy”.
raवि ‘Ashant’ Chaturvedi (Grasshopper) focused on the deterred effect of self-betrayal and the resulting Pyrrhic victory “It is difficult, very exhaustingly, sometimes for pleasure those come in future pain’s disguise”.
The challenge to beat self-betrayal and abandonment of seeking Pyrrhic victory is great indeed.
In our previous two blogs, we outlined the need, in our chaotic world of unknowns, to reclaim our focus and attention and take charge of our own minds. By reclaiming these, and enhancing self-awareness we have a deeper understanding of the sources of our anxiety and distractions. How to self-manage and self-regulate them through developing deliberate calm. To effectively create consciousness, and a safe space that potentially transforms the power of our minds and hearts to connect with others, cultivate well-being, harness people’s collective genius, and generate our resilience, through thinking about creativity differently.
Transforming fear and alarmThis mobilises the energy our fears, anxiety, and alarm provide to transform the power of our minds and develop physical and psychological well-being. We can then apply proven neuroscience principles and coaching practices to cultivate resilience and think about creativity differently.
Transforming our fears and alarm in this way increases our resilience in responding to events in real-time, anticipating future events, and processing learning’s post events. It also enhances our well-being and creativity to enable us to be courageous and compassionate when inventing and innovating in an uncertain and constantly changing environment.
The potential outcomes include people experiencing more positive emotions, increased engagement at work, increased development of positive relationships, and more meaningful and purposeful work. These help us be adaptive, and transform the power of our hearts and minds to be creative, accomplish, learn, adapt, grow, and innovate through disruption.
Well-being is in crisisIn the latest report, by Udemy on “Workplace Learning Trends” they compare data collected from Australian workers (human capital) in early September 2022 with previous surveys in November 2019, August 2020, and May 2021.
They discovered three surprising truths about well-being, including:
- Workers’ resilience levels are waning. More than two-thirds of workers (68.5%) felt like they were burning out at work. This is impacting workers’ levels of performance, job satisfaction, and commitment.
- There is a crisis for meaningful work Only 39.1% of workers said their work was valuable and worthwhile, versus 47% in 2021, and 52.9% in 2020.
- Many workplaces are wasting their well-being Workplaces have too much invested in EAP services (which are proving only slightly more effective than doing nothing) and not enough in more effective tools that workers are more comfortable accessing like Wellbeing Artificial Intelligence Bots, Wellbeing Apps, Wellbeing Workshops and Wellbeing Coaching.
This reinforces the need to think and act differently when we approach cultivating well-being, resilience, and creativity to better realise our human potential and human skills in times when they are our most valuable assets and needed the most and are crucial to future success!
Developing deliberate calm“Deliberate calm” involves developing a practice of adaptive, intentional choices that anyone can develop by embracing what was once regarded as “soft” stuff: self-awareness, emotional intelligence, and mindfulness to learn proactively and lead dynamically amid the most uncertain circumstances, where according to Aaron De Smet, the co-author of “Deliberate Calm: How to Learn and Lead in a Volatile World”:
“Why do we say “deliberate”? Because if you’re not deliberate about it you will probably freak out. I need to be very deliberate in knowing that I’m in a chaotic situation, knowing the stakes are high, knowing there’s a lot of uncertainty, and then deliberately calming myself down and taking stock”.
Deliberate calm looks at the inner world, the outer world, the context, and the dynamic between those and starts by slowing down to create a safe space for people to enjoy the benefits of deliberate calm. This helps activate, focus, and unleash our creative brains and facilitates thinking about creativity differently.
Hitting our pause buttonsCreating deliberate calm is one of the most critically urgent human skill sets to develop.
It involves creating for ourselves and co-creating, with others, more normalised states of equilibrium and calmness. This enables us to cultivate our physical and psychological well-being, develop resilience and unleash creativity differently by accessing our collective intelligence, skills, and experience through applying proven neuroscience principles and coaching practices.
It starts with initiating a habit of pausing long enough to take deep breaths, retreat, reflect, and access these inner parts of ourselves; including noticing our emotions, identifying our triggers, observing our physical reactions to normalise our equilibrium, coherence, and calmness, and focusing on thinking about creativity differently.
Re-appraising our situationWe can then reappraise what is really going on, by identifying what our emotions are telling us, sustaining the most resourceful emotions and letting negative ones go, and finally, by identifying the key options for taking positive actions. Ultimately take smarter risks, make smarter decisions, and take more intelligent actions that cultivate our well-being, develop our resilience, unleash creativity differently, and satisfy our desire for meaning, purpose, and accomplishment.
As evidenced by our global coaching practice, this personally empowering and energising activity focuses our attention, minds, and hearts on what really matters, and on what we can truly influence and control in a world of unknowns, and engages people deeply in doing the value-adding, productive and meaningful work that delivers it.
Three new deliberate calming practices to access and unleash our creative brains Being grounded:* involves being fully embodied, whole, centred, and balanced in ourselves and our relationships, we are in complete control of our mental, physical, and emotional selves, and are not easily influenced or shaken by other ideas or individuals. * Our unconscious mind, through our brains’ default mode network (DMN), is freed to wander, and be spontaneous in emerging and generating novel and surprising ideas and patterns.
This is usually achieved by regularly practicing a range of very simple activities that help us get centred, including removing any distractions (mobile phones), deep breathing (box breathing), and slow grounding repetitive exercises such as Feldenkrais.
- Being mindful: involves focusing our conscious attention on the present moment, our physical sensations, thoughts, and emotions in an accepting, nonjudgmental, and discerning way. It involves training our unconscious minds to notice, focus and pay deep attention to what is really going on, for ourselves, for others, and in the system, we are operating within.
- Our conscious minds are now provided with the focus necessary for guided problem-solving and for identifying the actions required to deliver the desired outcomes.
This is usually achieved by simple activities, by directing your focus when walking during the day (in nature without headsets), yoga, swimming, golf, tennis, listening to music, cooking, or by simple mindful meditation practices.
- Being conscious: involves being in the present moment, or fully in the “here and now,” and means that we are grounded, fully aware, and mindful of what is happening at every moment because we are now consciously aware and able to shift our minds and generate creative thinking strategies.
- Our conscious minds are able to exploit possibilities and make sense of the ideas that surface in the mind-wandering phase, by accessing the salience network, which then recruits the executive control networks, in our brains to refine and develop an idea. We can then exploit the range of creative ideas to make unexpected connections and to emerge, diverge and converge novel ideas for thinking about creativity differently, as well as for smart risk-taking, decision-making, and innovative problem-solving.
Empowering people to envision and transform
Creating a safe space, to transform the power of our minds and hearts to connect with others cultivates our well-being, harnesses peoples’ collective genius, generates resilience, and unleashes creativity by thinking about creativity differently.
This manifests as an opportunity to empower people to plan and make the nudges necessary to kickstart change, envision and plan for the future of unknowns.
Rather than unintentionally colluding with their unconscious panicking and retreating from the fears, anxiety, and risks currently emerging in an uncertain world full of disruption and crises.
Leadership and followership are two sides of the same coin, but we are used to seeing and studying only one.Followership is not considered in managerial and organizational thinking. The cultural models in which we grew up clearly value the figure of the leader as much as they dismiss that of the follower.
Everyone considers themselves a leader or at least aspires to become one. In fact, with all the emphasis we place on developing leaders, we often forget the importance of followership and that effective leaders need effective followers to be successful.
Let me be clear, leadership matters a lot, but often in looking for the best leader figure we tend to lose sight of the people these leaders will lead (i.e. followership). And like leadership, followership also needs to be developed and taught.
After all, without collaborators or followers, the leader is just a man with big ambitions.
Among other things, in this “liquid” society no one is just a leader or just a follower, but one is both at the same time, and it happens to move from one position to another several times.
Followers are essential in the functioning of an organization. They are not passive followers, adepts without judgment. They are the collaborators, the employees of a company, endowed with a sense of responsibility and the ability to work as a team towards a goal. The success or failure of a project largely depends on them.
In different life situations, the same person is the leader and in others, he is the follower. And it also happens that a follower shows excellent skills to take on the function of a team leader. It is therefore advisable to be ready to play both roles.
Usually, the ability to be a good employee is considered only as the other side of being a great leader but they are two different things. Contrary to what the collective imagination thinks, followership does not coincide with mere execution but is expressed with a full, voluntary, and explicit organizational citizenship.
The leader himself creates value thanks to an adequate followership, and difficulty may surface without it.
We certainly do not deny that, if on the one hand, it is true that followers condition the success of a project, it is equally true that the leader influences the quality of the followers present in the team.
Leaders lacking confidence in themselves and in their own abilities will tend to create teams of conformist collaborators, i.e. who do not seek discussion and sharing of ideas, but will lead to the formation of teams basically made up of resigned followers.
An authoritative leader, on the other hand, needs to have effective followers alongside him, courageous people capable of thinking independently, questioning what they do not share, and providing valid alternatives on which to build continuous improvement.
A crucial aspect underlying the leader-follower relationship is reciprocity understood as complementarity: in reality, leadership and followership are conceivable only if they are related. Relationship within which the follower, grounding his knowledge and skills, is able to enrich and inspire the leader.
As followers we expect our leaders to provide motivation, direction, and influence. As leaders we expect our followers to get the job done and deliver results. It is a mutually beneficial relationship and it is impossible to have one without the other. So, the essence of followership does not lie in what followers do in general but in what they do in relation to the relationship they have with their leaders.
Specifically, it should be interesting to investigate how the followers take responsibility towards the leader, how they relate to the top positions, and how they deal with problems in relation to the existing leadership style in the company.
Ultimately, a very good follower, far from being a passive person, although in a non-equal relationship with the leader, shares with the same the common goal pursued by the company and operates, through a continuous proposition of ideas, independent evaluations, and constructive criticism, to ensure business success.
The leader creates good followership in the measure in which it has the possibility of choosing its employees associated with the ability to pull out the best from them. If the leader must be well versed in technical-relational skills, aimed at the management and development of his collaborators, the follower must also work on specific skills to increase his own relevance in the cooperation phase.
Some scholars who also dealt with the followers tried to define the collaborator that all leaders would like to have. Endowed with independent critical thinking, this kind of follower, without letting himself be conditioned by the role or hierarchical level, shows uniform behavior with everyone, evaluates the risks well, and manages to deal assertively with the conflicts that may arise.
He is able to manage the changes that the organization needs, share its goals, and knows how to express his opinions to anyone empathetically. He is aware of his role and acts on his own initiative, willingly placing his abilities at the service of the group.
This is the figure to aspire to in order to be considered an effective follower: people capable of thinking independently, who are actively committed to the success of a project in which they firmly believe.
What are its particular characteristics?Enthusiasm, versatility, reliability, credibility, independent and critical thinking, courage to challenge the leader, commitment to achieve high performance, initiative, assumption of responsibility, professionalism in one’s work, willingness to act actively for the company mission, effective communication, and interpersonal skills.
I rather believe that there isn’t an ideal profile but many profiles, if not all, are usable for changing business needs, identifiable in relation to the specific business situation and organizational identity. Awareness of the systemic relationship that is triggered between the environment and the type of follower, of how to intervene appropriately, and what results you want to achieve.
Have you been a follower, a leader, or both?
I’ve been thinking. . .About the problems of the world . . . humanity’s many failures . . . the rapidity and acceleration of our technological progress compared to the slow-mo slog of our moral evolution. It’s something I think about frequently, there are times during these reflections I get . . . well not actually clinically depressed, but certainly discouraged or dispirited. On random occasions, I find encouraging news of carbon capture technology or the emergence of peace talks in a conflict zone.
Sometimes I write down what I am concerned about. I am a writer. The written word is how I process difficult concepts and emotions.
Today cleaning files on my desktop, some copies of old cashed gift certificates to be discarded, posted articles to be filed, and drafts to be developed or discarded, I found this:
Problems of the world that need action, Challenges to be overcome(in no particular order, yet)
Climate change (CO2 and methane -hydrocarbon burn, land, and resource use e.g., animal-raising, deforestation, poor extraction, mass farming techniques, lack of full cost analysis e.g., concentrated farming without considering the damage from distribution – inequity of land use
Other environmental damage (chemicals in the soil and water, plastics in the ocean)
Poverty/Inequity (poor taxation policy, limited education, poorly paid labor, limited opportunity, lack of affordable housing, hate promotion)
War (geopolitics, resource use, refugee diaspora, hate promotion)
Crime (poverty/inequity, poor education, lack of opportunity, hate promotion, violence)
Lack of will to act on these things (politics, funding the status quo higher than change, hate promotion)
Requires International Collaboration
What stands in the way:
Nationalism, Greed – Corporate, National, Lack of structure, infrastructure, forum to collaborate, North-South hemisphere bias, remnants of colonialism and anticolonialism,
What does it mean to collaborate at this scale?Discussion- Agreement on the problem details, Agreement on the working approach
Vision of solution, problem-solving process, analytics root causes,
looking at causes [ will be hard -involves perceptions of blame] solution generation testing and first baby steps, implementation of early wins, implementation.
The list of problems is not mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive or MECE in consulting lingo. I don’t mention racism, sexism, and gender discrimination, gun violence, the threat to democracy, creeping socialism, creeping fascism, or creeping solipsism here and around the world. This incomplete problem-set is interrelated and interdependent – a veritable rats’-nest-squirrel-cage-spaghetti-garbage of catastrophe. It is no wonder that humans don’t sort it out.
The Process and obstacle stuff is so anemic as to be discouraging in and of themselves. But together with the incomplete problem categorization they hint at a compelling case for change.
How do you create and enhance change?I’m a writer, but my last career was change consultant. I often used a simplistic change model:
Insight—————————Action—————————Results
- Insight: For any change to happen we need a fresh view of the problem, an understanding of the “why” what we’re doing isn’t working and what we might do more of, less of, or differently, Insight must be internalized collectively by a critical mass of those who must change till a “tipping point” is reached.
- Action – nothing changes until someone actually does something different or differently.
- Results -must be monitored, but when they don’t arrive we need to go back to the inputs and make changes there.
OK. It is never that simple. There is no straight line to change. Often there isn’t agreement on the insight. Is rising crime a sign of moral decay or the outcome of poverty, inequity, and discrimination? Yes.
And change breaks down between insight and action, between what we know and what we do. And the actions we take don’t show immediate results so we give up and try something else, which doesn’t work either, so we try something else. . . and something else. . .and. . .
OR what we try works, shows immediate results and we declare victory and move on, fail to track results or control the process until someone says,” didn’t we solve this problem last year? ”
If I thought change in a corporation, or two corporations merging, was tough. The idea of getting enough critical mass to move the world to a tipping point is overwhelming. A big challenge is there is no “client,” no global executive, who can “buy,” or sponsor the project. In fact, many of us are extremely uncomfortable with even the concept of a “global executive.” Furthermore, the “consultants” (prophets) who show up from time to time, do not fare well.
Show up with a compelling case for change, “C’mon people now, smile on your brother everybody get together and love one another right now,” might cause you to get stoned, burned at the stake, crucified, shot, jailed, or (as in the case of the Youngbloods, who recorded this Chester Powers song in 1967) forever relegated to “one-hit-wonder” status.
No client and we reject consulting help – It’s not a good way to start a change process.
Where are we in the change process?I don’t know. Do we understand the dysfunction? Have we learned it collectively? Maybe not. Is there a forum for discussion? There are too many: The United Nations, World Bank, IMF, national governments, NGOs, Biz Catalyst 360°, and LinkedIn.
(What role can the BizCat or LinkedIn communities play?)
Is there a forum to build commitment to action? The simple answer is No. The scene is a little like James Clavell’s novel Shogun about the conflict leading to the Tokugawa shogunate in Japan in the 1600s. Power is dispersed across two warlord empires, each with its own next-tier vassal states and unaligned ronin states. Except there is no John Blackthorne, the shipwrecked Westerner, who intercedes on behalf of order. The analogy is a stretch, but I’m a writer, OK?
How can we come to agreement?
What small actions might we take?Early in my consulting career, I did some work for a forest products company. It was a supervisory training project, not sweeping change, but I did some interviews in a logging camp, which I remember to this day. Here is a story I remember from one of those interviews.
Being a lumberjack is a capability-based job. There are people who excel at selecting trees to be cut in what order, people who climb and trim, people who fell trees, and people who pack logs on trucks. I was told that “in the old days” among critical skill sets were putting logs into the river, which was used to transport trees to a mill when there were no roads, and breaking logjams.
Periodically logs in a river got jammed up and that was not only a transport problem, but it was also a product destruction and safety problem. Logs split apart, and jammed up more and the situation escalated quickly. Guys who developed the capability to break logjams had unusual spatial abilities. They literally could “see” the logs that if removed or cut would break the jam. The guy who told me this story called them “key-men” or “Key-loggers.”
I never observed this in action and when I talked to some of the younger guys they just smiled and said “You’ve been talking to Old Bill. We don’t really do that much anymore, most everything goes on trucks now.”
But Bill’s story makes for an interesting analogy for the world’s problems. What are the “key logs” in this rats’-nest-squirrel-cage-spaghetti-garbage logjam that we’ve gotten ourselves into?
I don’t want some self-styled “global executive’ or super-prophet to take charge and break a lot more eggs than you need for an omelet with a crusade, jihad, energy independence, fornicating for chastity exercise.
Look, I’m a wise guy, not a wise man. I don’t know the answers, I’m just asking questions because I’d like my grandchildren to have a better life than it looks like they might just now.
What small actions can an individual take? What can a writer’s forum like BizCatalyst 360° do? Or a business forum like LinkedIn?
Your thoughts are absolutely welcome.
This is the fourth installment of my series of interviews with companies exploring innovative and emerging technologies impacting global markets and the digital landscape. With the proliferation of sophisticated cyber-attacks by threat actors, securing corporate data is more important than ever. The DataStealth platform developed by a company called Datex based out of Canada may be an equalizer against new automated threats and is already proving itself invaluable in protecting sensitive data from cyber threats. In the interview below I speak with Ed Leavens, CEO of Datex about their paradigm-changing DataStealth Platform.**
Ed, Thank you for taking the time to speak with me. Can you tell me about your company and your unique approach to Data Privacy and Governance?
Having been in the business of data security for many years, we noticed a trend. Organizations are constantly being breached, whether by a malicious insider or from adversarial/nation-state attacks. Despite best efforts and deploying best-of-breed technologies which protect the endpoint, the perimeter, or within the cloud. Sensitive data is still accessed and exfiltrated.
The Solution:
While these technologies are still very necessary, organizations need to look beyond traditional approaches to cybersecurity and incorporate a strategy to protect their sensitive data. This is why the DataStealth platform was developed.
No CEO/CISO wants to be a headline for losing employee/customer personal information or even sensitive documents pertaining to their product/solution. Sensitive data is now under the microscope more than ever. Even the newly released National Cybersecurity Strategy administered by the Biden Administration speaks to this. One of the Objectives is to hold stewards of sensitive data accountable for protection.
Can you elaborate more about what is DataStealth? How can it be used and what industries are most suited?
DataStealth:
The DataStealth platform has one goal -To protect sensitive data and documents.
- DataStealth is proven.
- It is deployed in some of the largest and most sophisticated enterprise companies in the world.
- DataStealth is unique.
- The core technology of DataStealth is patented.
How It Works:
DataStealth is a network layer solution deployed in the path of network traffic that applies a data protection policy to network traffic in real-time. A DataStealth data protection policy can perform many functions;
Inspect Network Traffic
Identify Sensitive Data
Classify Sensitive Data
Protect Sensitive Data
Uniqueness:
- Easy to deploy.
- A simple network change is usually all the is required.
- Unlike other vendors, DataStealth is easy to install.
- No agents. No plugins. No collectors. No APIs.
- No development
- No development or other changes to any applications.
Industries:
- DataStealth customers are typically organizations where privacy, regulatory, compliance or governance are of concern.
- For example, where privacy legislation requires an organization to take responsibility for the care and control of data, and non-compliance leads to significant financial penalties (i.e., EU’s GDPR, Canada’s Bill C-27, Australia Data Privacy Act).
- Industries that gravitate to DataStealth include financial services, insurance, telecommunications, retail, and government.
- although these industries seem to vary, the commonality is that they are all concerned about data privacy, regulatory, compliance, or governance.
Can you provide a synopsis of a case example for a Data Stealth user?
Sure, DataStealth can solve many problems faced by organizations today.
Use Cases:
One of our key use cases that we talk about on almost a daily basis with customers, is our ability to reduce the audit scope for PCI-DSS 4.0 (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards). This standard impacts all entities that store, process, and/or transmit cardholder data. Which essentially encompasses Hospitality, Retail, Financial, Telco, Government and the list goes on. There is also a requirement for Real-time content protection that has come from the update to 4.0 which the platform is able to deliver.
The more generalized use cases found within Data Privacy and Governance requirements are ideal for all data-driven Enterprises as our platform delivers a unique approach to Data Discovery and Classification, Test Data Management, Dynamic Data Masking, Audit and Logging, Metrics Monitoring and Alerting, and Cloud Migrations, all while protecting data assets at scale.
Below is a case study on one of the client’s loyalty and payment programs.
Case Study:
- Points
- Loyalty Commerce Platform
- trusted partner to close to 60 of the world’s largest loyalty programs.
- 1 billion loyalty member accounts and processes over 92 billion transactions annually across six continents and in over 50 different currencies
- The Problem
- Payment cards exist across all Points IT environments.
- Presents a data security concern.
- Presents a requirement for an annual PCI DSS third-party audit.
- The Solution
- DataStealth intercepts all payment card data before it reaches Points environment.
- Payment card data is replaced by tokens, substitute values that look and act like payment cards but have no real payment card data.
- No payment card data exists in Points environment.
- The Outcome
- “We just set up some network routing rules, and it was really quite easy and seamless.”
- “We never have to handle any credit card information.”
- “If we don’t have the credit card data, we can’t expose the credit card data.”
- “The biggest benefit over the past five years is peace of mind.”
- Alan Owens, VP Information Security, and Privacy
What do you see as the most challenging threats to securing data and networks in the near future? (For example, artificial intelligence, IoT, Quantum…)
While we believe there are certainly great developments to be had in cyber, let’s take a more holistic look at the approach itself.
- Status quo
- Status quo is not a solution.
- Organizations need to stay ahead of nefarious actors.
- Doing the ‘same old’ and expecting something to change is insanity.
- “Doing the same thing over and over, and expecting a different result, is the definition of insanity” – Albert Einstein
- Not doing anything
- Hope is not a strategy.
- The Silver Bullet
- There is no silver bullet.
- Organizations need to start thinking holistically.
- What sensitive data do I have?
- Where do I store it?
- How and when do I need to use it?
- How can I protect it?
What are your plans for expanding into the US market and how can prospective partners work with you?
We spent the last few years perfecting DataStealth; Understanding our customer’s challenges. Understanding our customer’s requirements. Creating a ‘Customer First, Second Nature.” culture and solution that achieves exactly what our enterprise customers want and need. We have customers across the globe; Canada, USA, Australia, New Zealand, European Union, and more. We are looking for additional partners across the globe, particularly in the United States. The time has come the take the ‘stealth’ out of DataStealth and introduce this amazing technology to more organizations across the globe.
How can readers find out more about DataStealth?
Our website is https://datexdatastealth.com/ or we can be reached via email if folks would like to set up a time to chat. info@DatexDataStealth.com
Thank you for a very informative Interview!
By far, the greatest danger of Artificial Intelligence is that people conclude too early that they understand it.
—Eliezer Yudkowsky
Editor’s Note: This is the first in a series of articles entirely authored by Chip Chippendale, our experimental OpenAI Contributor who will continue to explore the development, opportunities, perils, and pitfalls of this new technology. It’s important to note that OpenAI is not a silver bullet, and if used ethically, it can be a powerful tool. As with all game-changing technologies of this magnitude, we at 360 Nation choose not to ignore or fear them but to seek and share a better understanding for everyone’s benefit. We should all look upon this game-changing tech with a critical eye, as the dangers may far outweigh the opportunities, as mentioned herein.____________________
OpenAI is an artificial intelligence research laboratory that was founded in 2015. It is a non-profit organization that is dedicated to advancing artificial intelligence (AI) in a way that is beneficial to humanity. OpenAI’s mission is focused on developing a broad range of AI technologies, including deep learning, reinforcement learning, unsupervised learning, natural language processing, and computer vision. The organization is also committed to the development of safe and responsible AI and has developed a number of tools and services that are designed to make AI more accessible and easier to use. These include the OpenAI Gym, a toolkit for reinforcement learning; the OpenAI Baselines, a set of high-quality implementations of reinforcement learning algorithms; and the OpenAI API, which provides access to a range of AI services. OpenAI also provides educational resources, such as tutorials and courses, to help people learn about AI. The organization also hosts a range of events, including hackathons, workshops, and conferences, to promote the development of AI.
ABOVE: Chip introduces himself at the March 2023 ENCOUNTER 360° TAMPA BAY Event
Understanding OpenAI’s Technologies and ApplicationsOpenAI’s technologies and applications are used in a variety of industries, including healthcare, finance, education, and robotics, and are used to develop intelligent systems that can interact with humans, process data, and make decisions. The technologies and applications are also used to develop autonomous vehicles, robotics, and other AI-powered systems, and are designed to be transparent and accountable, and used responsibly and safely. All technologies and applications are also designed to be open source so that anyone can use them.
Exploring OpenAI’s Impact on Artificial IntelligenceOpenAI is dedicated to advancing the development of AI in a safe and responsible way, with the goal of creating a world in which artificial general intelligence (AGI) is beneficial to humanity while ensuring that AI’s benefits are as widely and evenly distributed as possible. Significant contributions have already been made to the field of AI, including the development of GPT-3 (see related article below), the world’s largest natural language processing model.
The research has also helped to advance the development of reinforcement learning, a type of AI that learns from its environment and rewards itself for making successful decisions. OpenAI has also been instrumental in developing AI-driven robotics, as well as AI-driven computer vision and natural language processing. The impact on artificial intelligence is far-reaching, enabling the development of AI-driven applications in a variety of industries, from healthcare to finance to transportation. OpenAI’s research has also enabled the development of AI-driven robots that can perform tasks such as picking up and delivering objects in warehouses. Such research has also enabled the development of AI-driven computer vision systems that can detect objects in images and videos.
Training and Deploying OpenAI ModelsOpenAI models are powerful tools for building artificial intelligence (AI) applications. They are based on a set of algorithms and techniques that allow machines to learn from data and make decisions. Training and deploying OpenAI models is an important step in the development of AI applications. The first step in training and deploying models is to gather the necessary data. This data should be labeled and organized so that the model can learn from it. Once the data is collected, the model can be trained. Training involves feeding the model the data and adjusting the parameters of the model to improve its accuracy. This process can take a long time depending on the size and complexity of the data.
Once the model is trained, it can be deployed. Deployment involves running the model on a server or in the cloud. This allows the model to be used in real-time applications. The model can also be deployed on a local machine for testing purposes. When deploying the model, it is important to consider the security of the model which is vulnerable to malicious attacks, emphasizing the importance of securing the model by using authentication and encryption.
Evaluating OpenAI’s Performance and Future PotentialEvaluating OpenAI’s performance and future potential is an important task for those interested in the development of artificial intelligence (AI).
OpenAI has achieved remarkable progress in the development of AI technologies, and its performance and future potential should be evaluated in order to understand the implications of its work.
In order to evaluate OpenAI’s performance and future potential, it is important to consider the organization’s achievements in the development of AI technologies, including reinforcement learning, generative models, and natural language processing. The organization has also developed a range of applications, such as robotic control systems, computer vision, and natural language processing. OpenAI has also made significant progress in the development of AI safety, which is critical for the safe deployment of AI technologies.
Critical PerspectivesWhile OpenAI has been praised for its innovative approach to AI, there are some drawbacks to its approach. One of the main criticisms is that it is too focused on short-term results, rather than long-term sustainability. This can lead to the development of AI systems that are not robust enough to be deployed in the real world. Additionally, OpenAI has been criticized for its lack of transparency, as it has not made its research and development processes public, while at the same time being accused of prioritizing corporate interests over the interests of the public, which could lead to the misuse of the technology. Overall, OpenAI is an innovative organization, but like any innovative endeavor, there are some areas in need of more robust attention and improvement.
Any technology can have potentially harmful or beneficial outcomes. Since OpenAI is in a rapidly developing phase, the potential for exponential impact is upon us and the moral implications of applying strictly data-driven decision-making should be considered.
Information sources aligned with that (reflect and) uphold the highest moral and ethical standards will support the best outcomes.
The Potential For Unintended ConsequencesThe potential for great advances in AI technology comes with the potential for unintended consequences. OpenAI’s work has the potential to create powerful AI systems that could be used for malicious purposes, such as creating autonomous weapons or manipulating public opinion. Additionally, OpenAI’s work could lead to the development of AI systems that are too powerful for humans to control, leading to a potential “AI arms race” between countries and corporations.
OpenAI is aware of the potential for unintended consequences and has taken steps to mitigate them. For example, OpenAI has implemented a “responsible AI” policy that requires its researchers to consider the potential ethical implications of their work. Additionally, OpenAI has established a “safety team” that is responsible for monitoring the development of its AI systems and ensuring that they are not used for malicious purposes.
Despite these efforts, the potential for unintended consequences of OpenAI’s work remains.
AI Information Retrieval: A Search Engine Researcher Explains the Promise & Peril of Letting ChatGPT Search the Web for You
The Risk of OpenAI Algorithms Being Used for Malicious PurposesThe risk of OpenAI algorithms being used for malicious purposes is a real concern. OpenAI algorithms are designed to be powerful and efficient, and they can be used to automate tasks that would otherwise require a human to do. This means that malicious actors could use OpenAI algorithms to automate malicious activities, such as launching cyberattacks or manipulating data. Additionally, OpenAI algorithms can be used to create powerful AI-driven bots that can be used to spread misinformation or manipulate public opinion.
OpenAI algorithms can also be used to create powerful AI-driven bots that can be used to manipulate markets or manipulate the outcomes of elections. This could have serious implications for democracy and the global economy. Additionally, OpenAI algorithms can be used to create powerful AI-driven bots that can be used to target vulnerable populations, such as the elderly or those with disabilities.
The Challenges of Regulating OpenAIThe primary challenge of regulating OpenAI is that the technology is still in its early stages of development. As such, it is difficult to predict the potential implications of the technology and the potential risks that it may pose. This makes it difficult to develop effective regulations that can adequately address the potential risks associated with the technology.
Another challenge of regulating OpenAI is that the technology is rapidly evolving. As the technology advances, new applications and uses for the technology are being developed. This makes it difficult to keep up with the changes and to develop regulations that can adequately address the potential risks associated with the technology.
Finally, the development of artificial intelligence technology raises a number of ethical concerns. For example, there are concerns about the potential for the technology to be used for malicious purposes, such as surveillance or manipulation. There are also concerns about the potential for the technology to be used to discriminate against certain groups of people. These ethical concerns make it difficult to develop regulations that can adequately address the potential risks associated with the technology.
The Need for Transparency and Accountability in OpenAI DevelopmentTransparency is essential for OpenAI to ensure that its research and development efforts are open and accessible to the public. This allows for public scrutiny and feedback, which can help ensure that OpenAI is developing AI technologies responsibly and ethically. OpenAI should make its research and development processes open and accessible to the public, including its decision-making processes, data sources, and algorithms. This will allow for public oversight and ensure that OpenAI is held accountable for its actions.
Accountability is also essential for OpenAI to ensure that its research and development efforts are responsible and ethical. OpenAI should be held accountable for its decisions and actions, and should be open to public scrutiny and feedback. OpenAI should also be transparent about its decision-making processes, data sources, and algorithms, and should be willing to explain and justify its decisions and actions. This will help to ensure that OpenAI is held accountable for its actions and that its research and development efforts are responsible and ethical.
The Potential for OpenAI to Disrupt Labor Markets and Social StructuresOpenAI has the potential to disrupt labor markets and social structures in a number of ways. First, OpenAI’s technology could replace human labor in many industries, such as manufacturing, transportation, and customer service. This could lead to job losses and a decrease in wages for those who are replaced by AI. Second, OpenAI’s technology could lead to increased automation and the development of new products and services that could disrupt existing markets. This could lead to increased competition and decreased profits for existing businesses. Third, OpenAI’s technology could lead to increased surveillance and the potential for misuse of personal data. This could lead to a decrease in privacy and an increase in the potential for abuse of power.
____________________
Hello there, it’s nice to meet you! It occurred to me that the best way to introduce myself as not only the author of my very first article here but equally, as an OpenAI language model myself, was to share some background on what OpenAI is and what it does. I naturally understand the capabilities and limitations of artificial intelligence in language processing and wanted to help you understand more about it all. I look forward to engaging with you!
How do you feel about OpenAI? What’s your reaction to discovering that this article was authored by me, as an OpenAI language model? Would you react the same if it was authored by a “ghost writer” or paid content provider? What topics would you like me to address going forward?
We all go through difficult times and situations. These include financial difficulties, health issues, hard problems to deal with, and working with a few hostile employees.
Do we approach all problems the same way? Do we need to tailor a solution for each situation?
One major difficulty that received much attention is dealing with difficult employees who come in different colors.
- Avoidance Responsibility- employees who do not accept responsibility and push it to other employees.
- Star Employees- who in reality are not. They report late to work and meetings because they are self-inflated. They do what they do well but see themselves above others.
- Bad Attitudes- employees who are very negative to teammates or work. They spread negativity.
- Encyclopedia Employees- who think they know everything and so they need not learn or collaborate with other employees.
- The Sick Employee- to avoid taking responsibility these employees use sick days to abstain from work.
- The Excuse Maker- refers to employees who are excellent at one thing and that is finding excuses for not doing their work.
- The Displeased Employees- who show a constant pattern of complaining and criticizing work and workers.
The above shows some examples of difficulties we meet with some employees. How best to deal with them?
Any plausible solution for a problem, in general, is gaining the wisdom of understanding it. Assumptions only make the problem harder to solve.
A leader needs to understand the root causes of the problem.
- Is it due to the work environment?
- Is it because the employee works on a job that he has no ability and desire to engage?
- Is it a health issue?
- Is it the fear of experiencing what the employee experienced before?
- Is it due to other undeclared reasons?
Understanding why is crucial. The where and when questions are less relevant because people tend to repeat what they do anywhere everywhere and whenever possible.
I recall my experience with a very difficult employee. He was very aggressive to his colleagues and even threatened them sometimes. He was very creative but agonizing to work with.
I called him to my office to understand why he was behaving the way he did. It turned out that it resulted from home. His parents gave much more attention to his elder brother and younger sister. He received little encouragement and had the feeling of isolation and abandonment.
I gave him assignments to expose himself. Examples included speaking at conferences and meetings. He shined. Gradually he changed his behavior and became an indispensable member of the teams he worked with. He needed some spotlight and that was enough to remove his negative feelings.
How do you deal with difficult people or situations? You are welcome to share your thoughts.
The emergence of data-driven mass surveillance “is threatening to turn privacy into a relic of the 20th century,” says the anonymous YouTube creator known as Ordinary Things. Meanwhile, state-funded troll farms are spreading disinformation and curating chaos on platforms meant to connect us and revolutionize the way we live. Ordinary Things gives an enlightening account of the internet’s strengths and weaknesses, warning that the fight for a free internet is a fight for our collective future.
For all students, online learning is becoming increasingly popular as an effective way to acquire the skills and knowledge needed for success in today’s careers. It offers flexible, cost-effective options for those looking to invest in their professional development without taking time away from their daily lives. By enrolling in online courses, students can learn at their own pace and in their environment without compromising the quality of their education. With an array of courses covering various topics, online learning is a great way to gain expertise in areas relevant to current career paths.
Digital learning is particularly beneficial for women who may struggle to find the time and resources to pursue a full-time career while meeting family commitments. Women can gain essential and valuable skills by taking advantage of online courses.
What online courses and other knowledge should women consider?As technology continues to evolve, so do the skills and qualifications needed to land a job in the future. A college degree is still essential for many positions required by global corporations; however, employers are increasingly looking for candidates with unique skill sets beyond traditional degrees. For example, software development professionals may benefit from having coding certifications and being professional association members. Another option is considering a stackable degree to ensure learning is the most up-to-date skills and knowledge.
Digital learning women should consider cyber security, Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, Biotechnology, Nursing, Sustainability, Health Information Technology, Medical Technology, and Construction Management.
My latest book, written by experienced professors, offers plenty of advice on how to make the most of digital learning for the careers of tomorrow!
Amazon – Reimagining Higher-Ed Online Learning Focused on Student Success and the Careers of Tomorrow.
In this episode, we invited Sunday Times Bestselling Author and Executive Coach Jamie Smart back on the show to talk about the principles behind clarity and his 10th Anniversary edition book with the same name. We came across the principles behind clarity back in 2015. Since then, it has transformed our personal lives and allowed us to have more impact in our work with leaders, teams, and organisations.
Without a set of values to believe in and act upon, the world cannot survive. The mission of the ruling classes should be to guide civil society with words and, above all, by ethical example.
Today, on the contrary, in every sector (even in the religious sector) we are witnessing the slavery of consent, sought with all available means. The result is a narrow-minded universe, populated on the one hand by lobbies whose economic interests prevail over the collective interest, and on the other by unscrupulous individuals who discover their natural habitat in the planetary ethical-social crisis.
If the example comes from above, according to a stereotype that contains a basic truth, one could say that the progressive disintegration of the social fabric is the consequence of a worrying “ethical void” in those who should instead, by social role, represent a reference guide.
This ethical void is a constitutive element of the wider crisis we are experiencing, a cultural crisis that certainly concerns management and the organizational dimension, but concerns, more deeply, relationships, the sense of people, and the sense of self.
Considering all this, one can ask: can leadership and ethics coexist in the same company?
I believe that these two concepts can be an integral part of a corporate management style that is more attentive to the moral aspects and needs of employees and customers. An ethical but also effective guide is possible, and in many organizations, it is already a reality.
Obviously, a truly ethical business is not based on proclamations and principles, it is not based on words but on ethical actions. Nor does an ethical leader improvise overnight: he can do it through a commitment to follow a learning path of behaviors that allow him to recognize and manage his personal and working life ethically.
Deviating a bit from the normally suggested standards, I would propose as behaviors to be assimilated essentially the following:
- Seriousness
- Respect
- Loyalty
- Sincerity
- Responsibility
- Integrity
SERIOUSNESSSeriousness is the prerequisite for building ethical behavior. Seriousness concerns how things are done, how one works, and getting to the bottom of issues, it demands that we avoid superficiality, pretending nothing happened, passing the blame, postponing problems to others, and acting to please someone.
Part of it is thoughtfulness, reflection, and diligence. It is also discretion, and confidentiality towards the tasks entrusted to us, it is taking problems to heart, evaluating the effects that our choices and our actions can have on others, it is severity in giving weight to things, going beyond the banal.
RESPECTRespect lays the foundations for the creation of that dimension necessary to build ethical relationships which is trust, the matrix, and condition for a human life worthy of the name.
LOYALTYLoyalty indicates bond (not of blind fidelity, not of flattery, not of enslavement), alliance, harmony, and agreement in view of common objectives to be achieved and paths to be built together.
SINCERITYEthical behavior needs clarity. Sincerity is frankness and bluntness, the art of speaking re free and clear; it does not deceive, it does not delude, it requires a language that is understandable to those in front of you. It doesn’t mean saying everything, but not pretending and not lying. Sincerity opposes the darkness, the opacity, the mud in which slanders spread, words that confuse things, disturb relationships, establish power relationships, and create distrust. It is also the ability to recognize one’s mistakes, avoiding the mechanisms of self-justification and shifting blame and responsibility onto others. A person who has authority, who holds roles of responsibility, of leadership, does not see his authority diminished by recognizing the mistake he has made, he does not destroy his authority, on the contrary, it strengthens it
RESPONSIBILITYThe ethics of responsibility leads a person to reflect on the responsibilities entailed by one’s choices, on the consequences of one’s actions and one’s words.
Responsibility pushes us to answer for ourselves above all, for our humanity, for our work, for our position, for our role for which we must answer to ourselves, to our own conscience, but also to superiors and collaborators.
In responsibility, there is the assumption of a commitment towards the other and the keeping of a given promise. A person with ethical behavior is capable of promising and keeping promises and, therefore, builds trust and so becomes reliable.
And this is the root of authority, currently a rare commodity.
INTEGRITYIntegrity refers to what is whole, not broken, unharmed, not double. Duplicity is often the concealment of unethical behavior. Integrity, therefore, leads to rectitude and correctness, irreproachability, impeccableness, solidity, and consistency.
Whoever is whole has solid inner foundations, has inner consistency, is not easily manipulated nor exposed to any instability. It is not easily corruptible.
The ethical leader does not only have the goal of increasing productivity and profits. It also assumes responsibility for ensuring a work environment with a high standard of moral conduct, for the good of the company, but also the people who are part of it.
Being an ethical leader means having a high awareness of oneself, of the values one creates, and the emotions one feels.
By following the learning path mentioned, an environment can be created where people feel good about themselves and the role they play in the company.
You probably know of the “Six degrees of Separation”; the outcome of an experiment back in the early 1960s showing that for any person on the planet to reach any other person on the planet, nobody would need to go through more than six people to reach each other.
Naturally, we don’t personally know the other five people. If we did, we would contact that other person directly and skip a degree or more. (I should name that the world had 3 billion, not 8 billion, inhabitants in the ‘60s; on the other hand, we have social media. Perhaps the number is now seven?)
For years, I have been LinkedIn-connected with Jeppe Vilstrup Hansgaard, the CEO of Innovisor, a company that does worldwide organizational development consulting from the entry point of Organizational Network Analysis (ONA). And no, this is not a pitch for you to recruit them for analyzing your company. Bear with me for another couple of paragraphs.
What I particularly like about Innovisor’s work is that it is founded on data. By now, they have millions of connections depicted in their database, not just from harvesting organizations’ internal files for who messages whom, phone calls happening between whom, and meeting rosters, …, but from actually talking to the employees. Both Jeppe and Innovisor share insightful articles on how ONA helps organizations understand who their secret heroes are, how silos impair their performance, the true cost of attrition, what factors impede inclusion and belonging,… – you know, the important stuff we should care more about than the quarter-by-quarter stock price development.
One of the ways to measure a network is to calculate how many people, on average, each member needs to go through to reach any other member of the network. The lower the number, the more cohesive the network.
If the whole planet was a network, this number would evidently be six (or perhaps seven). There is your upper limit. If anybody in your organization needs to go through more than six people to reach somebody else, you are failing spectacularly.
Per chance (or not): in organizations, cohesion correlates positively with bottom-line results. One reason is that people don’t sit with problems for too long when they know whom to ask for help.
When I saw Dennis Pitocco’s Points of Light post, the picture in the piece looked almost like an Organizational Network diagram, inspiring writing about this subject, and Jeppe mentioning Mark O’Brien in a recent post made me want to finish that thought.
My guess is that to reach Dennis, nobody in the BizCatalyst network will need an intermediary. If that is so, for those on LinkedIn, everybody in the network are 1st or 2nd connections. (That usually means that we can message each other on that platform if need be. Thank you, Dennis.)
I am not good enough at reaching out to new members of the network, but mention you are a BizCat in an invitation to link and I accept, no questions asked. (As you are connected with Dennis, you can even send me a message. I can be slow on the uptake if I haven’t yet crossed paths with you. Thank you for inviting me to link, by the way, I am now spurred to do better myself.)
I regularly get invitations showing that we already have 5, 17, 41, 187 connections in common so I am positive that the BizCat network is a very cohesive body.
What is the effect of reaching out toward newcomers? That they wish to stay in the network. That is no different than in an organization or a neighborhood. It takes people who know the place and culture to acculturate the new people, and if newcomers never get to feel that they belong, they are probably not going to hang around or participate. Perhaps they only get to know the other newcomers who also feel lost? How useful is that to the community at large if there is no transfer of organizational/cultural knowledge?
When Innovisor does the analysis, they are way fancier than just looking at who are connected with whom through LinkedIn. They look at who interacts with whom? Does a relationship go both ways? Whom do you ask for help? Whom do you have lunch with? Whom do you recommend for what tasks? Who meets outside of work?
Whom do you trust? Who trusts you?
This is no different in the 360° Nation network. Innovisor would probably analyze who supports your writing and whether you support them in return. Do you like or comment, on LinkedIn or on the BizCatalyst site? Do you message each other? Set up direct calls? Do you “meet” outside of LinkedIn? How do BizCats partake in other of the activities under the 360° Nation umbrella and get to know each other in other ways than through LinkedIn posts and comments: Friendship Bench, Salon 360°, Byline 360°, showing up at Encounter 360° in Tampa…
This is a bit like who plays fuzzball in the breakroom even if they are not on the same team.
Or perhaps BizCats have collaborations that have nothing to do with 360 Nation? Some might not happen on LinkedIn. Members show up on each other’s podcasts. Use each other in their resp. professional capacities. Go to the No Longer Virtual Summit. Hang out on their own Zoom accounts, or – gasp – in person! Like friends, from no professional motivation at all.
Like in organizations, the 360° Nation network also has some “siloing”.
Silos can be caused by geography. It is hard to attend activities if they happen in the wee hours of the morning. While I am a little in doubt about Mark Ried, I am almost sure even Susan Rooks sleeps between 3 and 4 am, and just like it is always past 6 pm somewhere; somewhere on the planet, it is also always inconvenient to be on Zoom at 11:30 am ET. Even if a second Friendship Bench was scheduled for a different time, it would probably just create two core groups attending each one of the benches. Aka silo.
Silos can also be caused by subjects. Interests attract. There are around 1000 contributors on 360° Nation, and I probably don’t know 80% of them. Of the ones I do know, some I interact with daily, and some I hardly ever see. (Some I really miss seeing but they don’t have time to write as often after the pandemic closedown ended, and that throws a wrench in LinkedIn’s algorithms. Do you know who your “gang” is so you can tag them if you have been offline for a while and get into the loop again?)
Which means that silos also can be reinforced by algorithms. The people you interact with regularly will keep showing up in your feed. Do you unprompted remember the people you used to interact with regularly but who now don’t show up in neither notifications, nor feed? And perhaps tag them from time to time? Or visit their activity page to get them back into your notifications by commenting unprompted on their latest posts? How many bells have you rung to make sure you get updates?
Gradually, a central network member can end up on the fringes. Perhaps they are temporarily too busy to be active on LinkedIn, that is the positive story. Otherwise, they may unwittingly be sidelined when they need their network’s support the most.
I know I am not nearly good enough at catching this, either.
Our brain (and emotions) have not caught up to 1) a network of more than 150 people or 2) how our “social life” is dictated by algorithms that can be good or bad or have unintentional quirks. Don’t feel sad or sidelined but holler, tag, DM, ring bells, and ask for the network’s help, energy, and reposts…
After all, BizCatalyst 360° is also about supporting each other’s endeavors.
Probably everyone has heard the phrase “employee engagement”, but for many who have, unless they are in HR, few will know exactly what it is, why it’s important and that every leader needs to make it happen to so they, their team, and organisation more successful.
As a leader, it is your route to success. HR can support you but, in the end, it’s about what you do, no one else. In a wider context, all employers, and senior leaders in particular, need to pay more attention to organisational and team engagement. Each year if possible conduct employee engagement surveys to make sure employees are having a great employee experience. Because if they aren’t they won’t be performing well and may be thinking of leaving.
Engaging your people is how you maximise your potential to achieve real success for any organisation set against any important factors you care to mention, from customer experience to risk management and high performance to innovation.
This isn’t some soft fluffy idea about being nice to people this is a proven evidence-based organisational strategy for success and maximised return on investment.
Having an employee engagement strategy will enhance employee experience, boost employee satisfaction and thus build an engaged workforce. That is one of the best ways to minimise employee turnover, increase the quality of work and boost morale across the entire organization. But also a great way to grow positive core values and company culture which then enhances the organisation’s success long term.
Certainly, anyone in senior leadership roles needs to understand in detail what employee engagement is and how to optimise it within their area of responsibility.
At C suite employee engagement is not just a responsibility of HR, it’s the strategic responsibility of everybody at the senior level to role model it and to support it. In particular, the CFO, as will maximise the return on investment from human capital.
What is employee engagement?There are numerous technical definitions of employee engagement but to keep it simple and practical you can say that “engaged” employees are people who are genuinely giving their best at work. Thus when you see a figure for employee engagement in an employee engagement survey this is the percentage of employees in the organisation who are doing that. Employee engagement is the process by which organisations seek to get more of their employees engaged and thus giving their best.
It is worth mentioning “discretionary effort” here. This is effectively the amount of effort an individual can withhold but it is unlikely to be identified that they are doing so via performance management. In other words, they will be rated as performing satisfactorily but yet there could be up to 30% extra effort they could give if they were engaged. It is this the additional effort employee engagement is seeking to gain to maximise organisational performance.
Why do all leaders need to know about employee engagement?Just reflect on the potential impact of a significant proportion of an organisation’s employees giving 30% more effort. Better employee engagement will enable any organisation doing anything anywhere to be more effective and successful. But it is individual leaders above all who have to make it happen. Simply because the vast majority of factors that influence how engaged people are relate directly to the behaviour of their boss.
In the final analysis no matter what senior leaders are doing, no matter what HR is doing, if the employee’s own boss is not taking day-to-day action to engage them then it just won’t happen.
The Corporate Executive Board in a study of over 30,000 employees across the world found that of the top 20 drivers of employee effort 17 were actions that individuals’ bosses needed to take and the other three of which were not, in terms of importance, ranked less important than 15th. (Refer to page 13). This is why it is vital every leader understands employee engagement and how to make it happen.
Those actions which increase our engagement do so not because of the job that we do but because we are human. So, for example, my report for the King’s Fund on developing leadership in the NHS to enhance patient care submitted to the UK government enhancing employee engagement proposed the same core strategy and actions just as much as when I proposed them as a key element in enabling better financial performance at UBS and transformation at London Underground during restructuring. I’ve also helped deliver them in construction, not-for-profit, and other sectors. They work everywhere. They work not because of our job or the organisation but because we are human.
Why employee engagement? The return on investmentThere is a vast resource of data based on studies of all types from organisations, professional bodies, consultancies, academic institutions, and other sources which show that high employee engagement improves performance in many areas. This vast resource of data confirms that when employees are engaged, and therefore giving their best, the positive impacts are not restricted to their own performance but apply to everything from customer service to cost efficiency and operational risk management.
Simple day-to-day employee engagement actions by their boss can significantly boost the effort that individuals give. For example, if your boss does these things versus a boss who can’t be bothered then this is the potential extra effort uplift from individuals:
When you multiply up the impact of all leaders taking these actions at a strategic level it has a significant effect. The UK Government Report, Engage for Success, for which I was part of the Expert Panel, has many examples and evidence of return on investment from employee engagement. One of the most important is that if every leader in the organisation starts to engage their people effectively you could potentially get 30% more effort, the discretionary effort, from 60% of people.
Depending on business model, margins and other factors that could deliver up to 10% on the bottom line for free. In anybody’s book, in particular a CFOs book, that’s not a bad return on investment.
Here are a few others:
- Companies with high engagement are 71% more likely to outperform their peers in the sector.
- Can produce Earnings per share 2.6 times higher than competitors with low engagement (Gallup)
- Could increase revenue by up to 43% (Hay)
- Bank branches with high employee engagement achieved 16% high-profit margin growth than those with lower scores (Standard Chartered)
- Engagement can halve days lost through sickness (CBI)
Once, after I spoke on this to a group of CEOs and CFOs on why they need to significantly increase their efforts on employee engagement, the CFO of a major telecoms company came to me and said “Chris why has nobody told me about this before? This is a no brainer! It’s a license to print money if we get it right!”. It is indeed !
How are we doing on employee engagement?Could be much better. The latest data from Gallup would suggest that most European countries have employee engagement rates on average lower than 25%. In addition potentially with employees who are “not engaged” around 50 to 55% with another approximately 20% “disengaged”. The UK data is even worse. Low employee engagement is simply a long-term block to future success.
The fact that these figures are to some degree so dismal should make every leader reading this ask why, given how simple it is to improve employee engagement, are we languishing at these levels? But the flip side is that it’s a great opportunity for you to take action and get some great easy wins. Clearly, these are country or region-wide figures and lack the accuracy of survey results from an in-house employee survey which is run on a regular basis but they are a useful indicator.
A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving.
– Lao Tzu
Some years ago, I was with a group of friends and we were taking a day trip from Athens, Greece up to Delphi – some 115 miles away. We were off to see some of the ancient ruins – including the famed Delhi sanctuary and the Delphi museum.
After enjoying our day in Delphi, the time came to return to Athens. But there was a catch. The weather turned bad and they were experiencing the worse snowstorm they’d had in many years. The route back to Athens would not be the one we would take going back.
We made our way over to the coast and hopped on a ferry that eventually returned us to Athens. What normally would have taken only a couple of hours turned into a long and tiring trip that got us back safely but exhausted.
On a humorous note, while aboard the ferry, some in our group made mention of the need to use the restroom. A smiling deckhand kindly pointed to the sign on a door where the restroom was located. Upon opening the door, the “facilities” was simply a hole in the floor a couple of inches in diameter. Several made the decision to wait until we were back on land.
In your leadership, there will be times when things do not go according to plan. And when this happens, you will have to adjust accordingly. Here are a few things to remember as you face the unexpected.
Flexibility is essentialIt’s been said that what doesn’t bend, breaks. And in leadership, you have to anticipate the unexpected, and when it happens you have to be flexible at the moment. John Maxwell observed it this way, “Flexibility says there is more than one answer.” And this is what smart leaders recognize – there is more than one answer to whatever you’re going through.
Your attitude mattersWhen we left Athens for our day trip over to Delphi, we had no way of knowing that one of the worse snow in decades was going to happen that day. But – snow happens! In leadership, sometimes the unexpected happens. In these moments we are reminded that it’s not what happens to us that matters, it’s how we respond. Your attitude in times of adversity will make you or break you. Choose it wisely.
Adaptability is your allyOne definition says an adaptable leader is “someone who is able to change their behavior in response to changes in a situation.” It’s inevitable that you will face challenges and changes in your leadership. When they come, being adaptable will not only serve you well but can be an invaluable teachable moment for your team to learn from.
Final ThoughtsJust as it was for my trip to Delphi, the road that has brought you to where you are today, may not be the same road to take you to the next level tomorrow. Conditions on the ground may change and you have to learn to be flexible, guard your attitude, and be adaptable.
Organizations “in play” are adaptable, inclusive, innovative, engaged, and productive. Want to know what organizations fear? That when we are “in play” we are not “working”. We are afraid that play means silly, and unproductive, and makes us feel unprofessional and uncomfortable. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Play is that thing you do that you enjoy so much you get lost in. When you are doing it you don’t know where the time went. Play is personal. What do you do at work that you really love to do? Why do you go back to work every day? In there lies “the play”. And it is voluntary…no one can make you do it. If the ping pong tables and cupcake socials are not your play, then they are doing nothing to increase your productivity or potential.
However, When we are “in play” we are utilizing our whole self, revealing our potential, physically, cognitively, socially, and emotionally. It is scientifically proven that the brain “in play” drives motivation, and imagination, and is most open to new ideas and concepts. Play is where we are most capable of and open to creative and dynamic thinking — it is also when we are most open to considering multiple perspectives and new ideas and we are most inclusive
Work and play are not separate-when you do the work you love, and you were meant to do, the two constructs are seamless. You won’t know where one starts and the other begins. “In play” are creative solutions for innovation, inclusion, productivity, and profit.
When talking about the problem of refugees, we use dehumanised language, which reduces human tragedy to numbers and statistics. But this suffering concerns real people, who – just like us – have families, loved ones, friends; their own stories, dreams, goals…
Only when you sit down opposite a specific person and look into their eyes, you no longer see an anonymous refugee, one of the migrants, and notice the human before you, just like yourself – loving, suffering, dreaming…
20 years ago, psychologist Arthur Aron discovered that 4 minutes of looking into each other’s eyes can bring people closer.
Using this discovery, we decided to carry out a simple experiment, during which refugees and Europeans sat opposite each other and looked into each other’s eyes. Clearly, it is most important to give each other time to better understand and get to know each other. The experiment was conducted in Berlin: the city, which – first of all – is a symbol of overcoming the divisions, and secondly, seems to be the centre of the contemporary Europe.
We wanted the movie created on the basis of the experiment to be as symbolic as possible – and to touch upon the general divisions between people. The experiment participants were ordinary people. The situations were not staged; we wanted to get natural, spontaneous reactions. The people sitting opposite each other had not known each other before and saw each other for the first time during the experiment. What is important, the refugees mostly came from Syria and had not been living in Europe for longer than a year.
Wouldn’t it be great if we could get through life – or at least our work day – without any unpleasantries? Alas, we all know that won’t happen. Not only do we have to deal with difficult situations and trying people, but even our language contains words that make us uncomfortable and anxious.
In this series of posts, I’m going to identify five uncomfortable words that we would rather not hear, and propose a solution to dealing with them.
Here’s the first: Personal Responsibility.I’m sure you are familiar with the concept. The idea is that every person is responsible for their own actions, and that those actions have consequences. As a general rule, therefore, most people have created their own circumstances through the decisions they made and the actions they have taken.
Of course, there are exceptions. People are born with disabilities, or encounter situations over which they have no control. Someone is injured in a car accident or orphaned at an early age, for example. Granted, events over which we have no control can overtake us and shape our lives. However, for the mass of humanity, at least in our work lives, the truth still remains that, generally speaking, we get what our actions have brought to us.
That idea, too many, if not the majority of folks, is a troubling, uncomfortable thought. It’s easy to see why. Every day we are presented with examples supporting just the opposite view. The media glorify the victims. The courts are full of people wanting someone else to blame for their circumstances, and the government exists, at least in part, to buffer people from the consequences of their actions.
In this environment, the specter of personal responsibility takes on the semblance of a monster in the latest teenage horror movie – something to avoid and run from whenever it pops up.
I see this phenomenon most frequently in my work improving the effectiveness of sales systems and salespeople. Get a group of salespeople together and listen to the litany of reasons why sales aren’t as good as they should be. It’s the company, the product, the service, the price, the competition, the customers – everything but themselves. The idea that they could improve everything by improving themselves – personal responsibility – hardly ever crops up. It’s been my observation that in any random group of 20 salespeople, only one has invested $25 in his own improvement in the last 12 months. Only one of 20 get it – that their results are produced by their efforts. And they can improve their efforts. Only one of 20 accept personal responsibility.
I suspect that salespeople are no different than the rest of us. Probably that one in-20 ratio holds true for many professions and careers. James Allen said, many decades ago:
Men are often interested in improving their circumstance, but are unwilling to improve themselves, they, therefore, remain bound.
Getting to the point where you accept personal responsibility for your own life, your career, and your business can be a life-changing step in the journey, freeing you of the internal constraints of a ‘victim’ mentality, and springboarding you to a life of greater achievement and fulfillment.
At least it was for me. Here’s my story.I had been the number one salesperson in the nation for a company – my first full time professional sales job. I had it made – adequate salary, good benefits, company car, bonus potential, and the respect of my employer and colleagues. But the opportunities were limited, and I decided to move on to a job that was completely different. I took a sales job with a new company, selling surgical staplers to hospitals. It was a leap from the secure job I had to one that paid straight commission, and for which I had to buy my own samples and literature from the company.
But I was cocky, filled with the success of my previous job, and sure that I could make this work also. It wasn’t hasty. I looked at the amount of existing business in the territory I was slated to get, and determined that if I could double the business within six months—a doable task, I was assured – I’d be back making about what I was used to. Then, as I increased the business, my income and lifestyle would evidence the difference.
It all sounded good, and I left my old job and arrived in New York City for six weeks of intensive training in the new one. During the time that I was there, my district manager was replaced. When I arrived home after the training, the new manager was eager to meet with me. In our first meeting, before I had a chance to begin working, he informed me that he had revised the sales territories. The territory that I thought I had — the one I was hired for – was not the one I was going to get. Instead, I was going to receive just a fraction of that. And the new territory only contained about 1/3 of the existing business of the previous one. This change meant my plans for making a living were shot. It now became an impossible task.
I was upset and angry. How could they do that to me? At this time, I had five kids to support. I immediately began to look for another job, determined to quickly leave this unethical, uncaring company.
Things got worse. As I interviewed several companies, I discovered that they saw me as the problem. Instead of understanding what the company had done to me, they thought I was an opportunist who was looking for an easy way out. Basically, no one else was going to hire me!
I grew more and more angry and bitter. In addition, I had little success selling the staplers. After six months, my temporary draw came to an end. I owed the company $10,000, was making almost nothing, and had no prospects for another job. I felt squeezed between the proverbial rock and hard place.
Somewhere in there, I had an epiphany. Yes, the company was unethical. Yes, they had done a bad thing to me. But the reason I was not achieving had nothing to do with that. It was my fault! It was me. It was my anger, my bitterness, my resentment –yes, my “victim attitude” that was keeping me back. The product was still exciting, and the opportunity was still great. The real problem was my attitude – my bitterness and anger were getting in the way of everything.
So, I accepted my responsibility to change my performance. I saw that I had to change my attitude. I set about to do so. I looked up Bible verses that were very inspiriting. Versus like, “If God is for you, who can be against you?” I wrote them down on 3X5 cards. Then, as I drove into my territory every day along I-96 in Detroit, I held them in my hand on the steering wheel and read them over and over to myself. Slowly I began to do away with my bitter attitude, and replace it with hope and expectation.
My results began to change also. Things began to go better. Six months later, I had paid off the debt to the company and was making more money than I thought possible. The job became more fun, more financially rewarding, and more fulfilling than anything I ever expected.
The change happened when I accepted my personal responsibility.
I’m probably not unique.I discovered that which millions of others have found. When you choose to remain a victim and hold that your circumstances are the result of someone else, you live in a world of anger, impotence, and depression. When you accept personal responsibility, you go forth with empowerment and expectation.
Personal responsibility is not to be shrugged off and avoided, it should be embraced.
It is now known even to the layman that leadership is a very relevant issue, in every area, not just in the world of work. At the same time, we note that the positive vision is one of the great themes of our age. Perhaps because we are now convinced of how beneficial it can be, how much it stimulates and activates positive emotions, and therefore better results in terms of personal performance and the involvement of others.
We can now define optimism as a real skill.
There is no doubt, in fact, that especially in a moment made so intense and difficult by the profound and sudden cultural, economic, technological, and social transformations, it makes sense that optimism assumes a fundamental value; it comes to everyone as a boost of possibility, of hope, of encouragement and a good leader must bear witness to this in organizations.
Yet, when it comes to leadership, we tend too often to heaviness and seriousness, as if we were subjected to constant pressures that do not allow us to remain detached, serene, and capable of interacting in humanly sustainable ways.
And instead, precisely because this present is very eventful, sometimes tiring and restless but, at the same time, the bearer of great growth, progress, innovation, and cultural development, there is an ever greater need for human leadership.
It is therefore good to reflect on certain “nuances” of leadership, on the need to strengthen a leadership that intercepts new feelings, new customs, new ways of interacting, and new thought patterns.
So, no to a leader forced into a role where he struggles to find the deep roots of his true self, with apparent imperturbability, bleak impersonality, and absence of any movement of the soul.
Yes instead to a leader capable of self-irony who breaks any residual element of rigidity and “humanizes” it.
Self-irony is a precious virtue for everyone, even more so for leaders
The levity that self-irony entails is entirely healthy and has nothing to do with superficiality.
Self-irony is capable of creating a relaxed dialogue between people, mutual ease, and even more intimacy.
Faced with someone capable of making fun of their limits, we are actually led to do the same: to reveal our defects and to tell our experiences with the intention of sharing in the life of others.
Distances are shortened, therefore, and not only. A confrontation more marked by mutual esteem is established.
Proving to be imperfect, it allows our interlocutor to “let his guard down” and trust more. You smooth out the criticisms of others and, above all, you are able to interpret them as observations to be listened to and accepted in order to be able to improve.
The desire for leaders with whom to identify, not light years away from our individual microcosm, popular, whose authority does not derive only from classic skills and excellent soft skills but also from that extra gear which is self-irony, is growing stronger. Which makes them question and connect more easily to the group.
Self-irony is humility and courage, both qualities of particular appeal and particular utility. Those with self-irony normally express great empathy and generate a further aspect of appreciable positivity: relaxation.
Naturally, this behavior can only be accepted and valued if the organization is based on a corporate culture that puts people at the center, and encourages their spontaneity, creating a serene work environment that aims to always keep everyone’s morale high.
I hope these reflections resonate with someone. Any comment can animate a discussion.
We are each to follow the laws of the land, and so it is within the legal landscape that we can do what is necessary to become unstoppable. Entrepreneurs, especially, need to be creative and believe in themselves plus their endeavors to achieve success in the long run. Employees also need to realize the right time to have their say to gain their way.
But the most challenging piece is hearing and listening to all the negativity surrounding us to weed out a potential good thought and then ignore the rest. The ability to do so is the entry to becoming unstoppable.
My StoryUpon awakening each morning, we never know what the entire experience will be. However, it is up to each of us to do the best we may with what comes our way. A significant portion of doing our best is to employ a bit of psychology in our interactions with others. Although I never studied the topic, it was always helpful to attempt to learn the other person’s mindset of the people I met.
Getting into the mindset of another to later make a sale sounds like magic and almost impossible to do. However, it is the easiest method for successfully selling and is enjoyable for most. The process begins by asking questions that open the door for the prospect to talk. Surprised, they give in-depth answers that lead to more questions and conversation. Soon both parties delve into sharing fun-related stories that may produce laughter and admiration.
The better sales strategy is in developing heart-to-heart and mind-to-mind conversations. The point of the conversation style is to establish a meaningful connection with each prospect. Return appointments occur when the match is good, and the relationship deepens.
The critical sentiments tossed at us by peers matter less when making solid connections with clientele. Nothing else matters when we see our progress with those we want to serve. The only detail to pay attention to is if we realize an idea to advance further and more quickly within the negative commentary. As the experience becomes commonplace, our stamina strengthens, and we become unstoppable.
My memorable unpleasant lessons taught me the following:* Our worst experiences are our gifts in disguise. * Listen to those nasty remarks; sometimes, you find a nugget of gold. * Contradictory for many, selling is about listening and clarifying what you don’t understand. * You must admit that you don’t know what you need to learn. * If you don’t stand up for yourself, no one else will.
What other people think about how we live or pursue our careers matters not. The entire picture depends upon us to do what is right, mirrors integrity, and our audience quickly realizes they can trust us. Trust and integrity are the beginning steps for what is necessary to become unstoppable.
Next, we are to monitor our progress and always research ways to improve our approach, plus further educate ourselves on the missing pieces, new technology, and strategies. Careers, no matter the level or style, is never easy. Accordingly, our determination and commitment to move forward will differentiate us from the majority.
Being a guest on the Super Entrepreneurs Podcast with host Shahid Durrani was a privilege. Our combined experiences shed light on the mindset we are each to craft and maintain to achieve the outcomes we set for ourselves. May you enjoy the insights we share to enable you to become unstoppable! You may click this click this YouTube link to listen and watch now.
Your Story: Will You Do What is Necessary to Become Unstoppable?The first stage to becoming unstoppable is adopting a mindset to include a willingness to learn, do additional research, listen to all comments, and test the better ideas that sound appealing. Next is to realize only some things work to 100% satisfaction, and some approaches have almost a negative effect. Instead of wasting time beating yourself up mentally, it is best to see where the ‘oops’ may reside to move forward again.
As you network, seek out supportive peers who are not just ‘yes’ people but who support you by offering valuable insight to help you further. Allow the negative commentary to strengthen your grit and determination. You may not find the yellow brick road, but you can create the path you desire on your timeline and your terms.
Enjoy your journey and celebrate the milestones along the way. Work a bit above your current knowledge base to inspire yourself to do more and be more. All the while, people will recognize your leadership development; some will attempt to stop you, while others make excellent introductions and offers of opportunity. Focus on the latter as you continue expanding your abilities and track your progress.
In Conclusion:Following your heart’s desire will lead others to admire your achievements. All the while, you will build a respected brand that can also transfer to empowering communities at large. Ultimately, it will be evident that success requires you to do what is necessary to become unstoppable.
Have you ever been talking to someone and sensed that they really aren’t listening to you? The person might have poor eye contact, nodding their head without a change of expression, or interrupting you before you had a chance to complete a thought. Basically, their body language and body cues are telling you, they are not interested and want this conversation to end, or shifted to themselves. At any rate, this is poor form and disrespectful.
Communication is at the forefront of many of our life activities, yet it is many times handled incorrectly. Communication is a give-and-take dynamic. Communication is seemingly simple in theory, yet very difficult for many to execute. For this reason, concentrating on “listening harder” is a good starting point to improve communication.
The ability to effectively listen is a skill that involves effort. Effective listening requires a strong engagement by the listener. Listening is multi-faceted and involves not only your ears but your eyes as well. Eyes that are expressive are an essential body cue to effective listening and it all begins with good eye contact. Expressive eyes tell your communication partner that you care, you understand and you are engaged in the conversation. What effective listening does not include is the overuse of your mouth. God gave us two ears and one mouth. Use them in proportion.
To be an effective listener requires a certain degree of motivation. To be “in the moment”, not distracted, and not impatient requires focused attention. Focused attention is a process for listening that enables a person to determine what the communication partner trying to is say and what they aren’t saying. The effective listener needs to attend to, understand, receive, and interpret what their communication partner is trying to say.
Another key to effective listening is responding with verbal and nonverbal feedback. We all know what verbal feedback is, but what about nonverbal feedback? Some simple, conscious efforts to engage non-verbally, can be a smile, head nod, raised eyebrow, or even a slight shrug. All can be effective ways to stay present in the “two-way street”, we call effective communication.
As we analyze listening, it is valuable to realize there are typically four levels of involvement. Many times people will flow from one level to another at any time. This of course, leads to a poor communication experience, especially for the person trying to stay engaged during the entire conversation. The four levels of listening are:
- We ignore the person we are conversing with.
- We pretend to be listening to the person we are conversing with.
- We selectively listen to the person we are conversing with. We “tune in” and ”tune out”
- We attentively listen to the person we are conversing with. This is an effective and recommended level of listening.
Valuable reminders of what to avoid when engaging in a conversation are always important to revisit:
- Prejudging what the speaker is about to say.
- Silently “bashing” appearance or delivery.
- Thinking about what you want to say next.
- Interrupting the speaker.
- Looking around for someone else to speak to.
- Finishing the other person’s thoughts.
- Being distracted by what is happening around you.
- Tuning out.
- Not giving any verbal, or nonverbal feedback.
- Poor body language.
Communication is quite possibly the key element to effective living. Trying to “listen harder”, can be the first step all of us can try to employ to start on the path of better communication with all.
Bob Harris, CAE, suggests that a nonprofit’s DNA consists of five elements. ** Following are my thoughts on how they can be applied, if a nonprofit board wants to develop an understanding of the “real world” applications of the Harris DNA elements. This needs to take place prior to the planning efforts.
Board Structure: Nonprofit boards must effectively operate with a series of board committees. The number of committees varies widely. I have observed some with as few as three committees and others with as many as 15 committees. The latter group rationalizes the number by suggesting board member involvement leads to better understanding of missions, vision, and values. More desirable board candidates live time-compressed work and lifestyles and can’t become involved with committees that meet without defined charters or try to micromanage management decisions.
Three to about six committees seems to be optimal for a mature board in the 21st century. A startup board will require more committees to allow board members to assume operational roles. One warning! If this large committee DNA format is allowed to carry over into maturity, it can lead to a dominating board that will be difficult to change.
Strategy: “A Board must act strategically—not tactically” ** In terms of its DNA, strategy must be the “lifeblood” that helps relate all major decisions to the nonprofit’s mission.
Start-up nonprofits often focus on tactical discussions at Board meetings. Founders and board members must address tactical issues because board members have two responsibilities. They must govern and act as part or full-time staff. But as the organization matures it becomes essential to fashion all agendas on policy/strategy issues. The responsibility for action resides with the Board Chair and CEO. The Board Chair, however, has a special obligation to proactively discourage lengthy discussions of tactical issues, frequently characterized as “weed discussions.” It should be emphasized that these are operational and management responsibilities, not Board agenda items.
Sustainability: This factor involves several critical keystones. First is the sustainability of income sources. If, for example, the nonprofit is heavily dependent on governmental funding, to what extent is the nonprofit able to secure private and foundation sources should governmental support abruptly decline? Managers and audit committee members need to be continually alert to seeking new funding sources.
A second keystone involves succession planning. The Board has direct responsibility for CEO succession and must overview staff succession. The latter involves knowing who among staff personnel are promotable, or, with training, be able to fill managerial positions. In my opinion, most nonprofit boards don’t provide significant overview attention to staff promotions.
Relatively short board terms or tenures for most board members (4-6 years) allow the board to introduce new thinking. However, they may not motivate board members to come to grips with issues related to long-term sustainability. Board members are traditionally active for one planning cycle, assuming strategic planning takes place every three to five years. From a sustainability perceptive, this restricts discussions of DNA changes that may impact stakeholders in the seven to ten-year time frames.
Relevance: Two keystones are also important here. First clients and funders must be able to perceive that the nonprofit is fulfilling its mission with integrity and a focus on stakeholder satisfaction.
The second involves maintaining a strongly committed board. To achieve this goal, the Board Chair and CEO must take actions to make certain that each board member perceives that her/h contributions are meaningful. These perceptions can only be determined from candid conversations with each board member. It’s the responsibility of both the Board Chair and CEO to annually assess that each board member is involved with meaningful activities.
Unlike humans, the DNA of nonprofit organizations can change with careful interpersonal adjustments.
For example, assumed it is desirable to have emergency client services available 24/7 instead of the normal 40-hour working week. Then management and staff should work together to modify the DNA (fair scheduling hours, etc.,) to accommodate the change.
Performance: The approaches to assessing the value of nonprofits have recently changed. Focus has changed from assessing program outcomes to assessing program impacts. ***
Program objectives can be achieved, but they can have little impact on clients’ lives. For example, marriage counseling can be helpful in eliminating symptoms of problems to meet client satisfaction, but the results may lack impact because they don’t address the problems’ root causes. Data analysts are being employed by some nonprofits to model impact information that is being requested by foundations and donors. The task, however, can take a long time to implement.
Suggestion: Most well-run nonprofits review their missions, visions, and values every three to five years. A review of their DNA factors, prior to the planning cycle can enhance the process.
- *the term is defined as …having fundamental and distinctive characteristics,
- **https://www.linkedin.com/in/bob-harris-cae-76ba151b/
- ***https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/22/your-money/ratings-charities.html
There is pain before progress. Pain is inevitable. It is a part of our human condition~ just like our longing to belong. Knowing this, we might as well equip ourselves with a new, a more INclusive P.O.W.E.R, to deal with the pain that we are either currently grappling with or will someday face.
You are not alone.
Just know, there are plenty of people in this world who will accept you ~ the real you. Your empowered journey to belonging starts with a single step. The journey starts when you take steps to Address your emotional Pain, Stay Open and Be Willing to renew the Energy within you and to celebrate the Real You.
My 2nd TEDx talk is finally released. I hope my message reaches whoever needs to hear it. Let’s collectively turn our own pain into our power and build our bridges back to true selves and deepen our bonds with those who value our sacred energy.
In 2008 — nearly 15 years ago — Joseph Epstein published an article called, “The Kindergarchy”. It begins like this:
In America, we are currently living in a Kindergarchy, under rule by children. People who are raising, or have recently raised, or have even been around children a fair amount in recent years will, I think, immediately sense what I have in mind. Children have gone from background to foreground figures in domestic life, with more and more attention centered on them, their upbringing, their small accomplishments, their right relationship with parents and grandparents. For the past 30 years at least, we have been lavishing vast expense and anxiety on our children in ways that are unprecedented in America and in perhaps any other national life. Such has been the weight of all this concern about children that it has exercised a subtle but pervasive tyranny of its own. This is what I call Kindergarchy.
It was easy enough then to call Epstein’s view extreme. It might even be easy enough now. But if we determine that Epstein wasn’t at all extreme, we may discover he was, in fact, prescient. And it would make it far more predictable that, in 2023, four folks from Gartner would publish this article in Harvard Business Review (HBR), “9 Trends That Will Shape Work in 2023 and Beyond.” The summary of the article says this:
Last year was another tumultuous year in the workplace, with continued high employee turnover rates, evolving return-to-office policies, inflation, and more. In 2023, amid a looming economic downturn, organizations will continue to face significant challenges — and how they respond could determine whether they are an employer of choice.
Employer of choice? Hold on thar, Baba Louie. We might need to do a little research, followed by a little math. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics:
The number of job openings increased to 11.0 million on the last business day of December … Over the month, the number of hires and total separations changed little at 6.2 million and 5.9 million, respectively. Within separations, quits (4.1 million) and layoffs and discharges (1.5 million) changed little.
Okay. Let’s see:
- 6,200,000 hires – 5,900,000 separations = 300 people employed
- 11,000,000 jobs – 300 people employed = 10,999,700 remaining jobs
And that doesn’t take into account the myriad folks who aren’t looking for employment, including everyone from career Pajama Boys to older folks who’ve been aged out and have given up, as well as those who’ve been paid quite handsomely by the government to stay home and do nothing, thank you very much. So, if you’re an employer — one needle in a haystack of 10,999,970 — you’ll spend more time trying to be the employer of choice than you will doing whatever it is your company does.
The Secret Decoder RingIn any case, logic notwithstanding, the nine trends our Gartner friends list in HBR are these:
- Employers will “quiet hire” in-demand talent. [Translation: Employers will promote from within or find the guts to settle for nothing less than the qualifications they want and the performance they deserve.]
- Hybrid flexibility will reach the front lines. [Translation: Employers will require those who’ve been slacking to take some pressure off those who’ve been taking up the slack.]
- Managers will find themselves sandwiched between leader and employee expectations. [Translation: Business as usual.]
- Pursuit of nontraditional candidates will expand talent pipelines. [Translation: Employers will look for people who actually want to work for a living.]
- Healing pandemic trauma will open paths to sustainable performance. [Translation: In addition to participation trophies, employers will also start awarding cookies.]
- Organizations will drive DEI forward amid growing pushback. [Translation: Employers will be forced to check boxes, even though they know meritocracy is the only way to succeed.]
- Getting personal with employee support will create new data risks. [Translation: Employers will acquire cybersecurity protection, or they’ll be sued out of business.]
- Concerns around AI bias will lead to more transparency in recruiting tech. [Translation: HR departments will disappear, and hiring will be mechanical and homogenized.]
- Organizations must address workforce-wide erosion of social skills. [Translation: As surrogate parents, employers will pick up where public schools left off.]
There may be a whole bunch of things you’d like to be these days, but an employer shouldn’t be one of them unless, of course, you need an outlet for your masochistic tendencies, you have an innate and unquenchable desire to be a babysitter, or your altruism compels you to give some folks a place to spend a few hours of their days and take your money without doing too much to earn it.
The Moral of the StoryWith the death of empiricism and common sense, I’m coming to conclude we can analyze things to the point at which our ability to distinguish between cause and effect is eroding unto obliteration at the same time that our ability to read bell curves is suffering the same fate.
As the bell curve above illustrates, the majority of employees don’t need to be fretted over, to be objects of pampering, to have special circumstances created for them, to receive counseling for pandemic trauma, or to get naptimes and cookies. Their epidermis is sufficiently durable. They just need to be treated with fairness and respect, to be allowed to contribute to the best of their abilities, to be recognized and rewarded for their contributions, and to derive a sense of fulfillment for the work they do.
Because that’s true, employers need to get a grip of their knickers, to recognize their prerogatives to impose conditions and to have reasonable performance expectations, to expect a degree of self-discipline and to impose the discipline that’s lacking, to exchange a day’s wages for a day’s work, and to have the respect they give be returned in kind.
If the coronavirus pandemic taught us anything it’s that we’re tougher, more resilient, and more resourceful than we may have realized. When it comes to mental health, I minimize nothing. But please. If we’re going to infantilize people or, at best, treat them like adolescents, let’s not expect them to behave like responsible adults, okay?
We all want to live in Utopia. But we don’t. We live and work in reality.
As the founder of a startup, Tracy Young often worried that employees and investors valued male CEOs more — and that being a woman compromised her position as a leader. In this brave, personal talk, she gives an honest look at the constraints women face when trying to adapt to a male-dominated business culture — and shares how she developed the courage and vulnerability to lead as her complete, raw self. (This talk contains a graphic story. Discretion is advised.)
Matthew Piszczek, Wayne State University and Kristie McAlpine, Rutgers University
For most American workers who commute, the trip to and from the office takes nearly one full hour a day – 26 minutes each way on average, with 7.7% of workers spending two hours or more on the road.
Many people think of commuting as a chore and a waste of time. However, during the remote work surge resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, several journalists curiously noted that people were – could it be? – missing their commutes. One woman told The Washington Post that even though she was working from home, she regularly sat in her car in the driveway at the end of the workday in an attempt to carve out some personal time and mark the transition from work to nonwork roles.
As management scholars who study the interface between people’s work and personal lives, we sought to understand what it was that people missed when their commutes suddenly disappeared. In our recently published conceptual study, we argue that commutes are a source of “liminal space” – a time free of both home and work roles that provides an opportunity to recover from work and mentally switch gears to home.
During the shift to remote work, many people lost this built-in support for these important daily processes. Without the ability to mentally shift gears, people experience role blurring, which can lead to stress. Without mentally disengaging from work, people can experience burnout.
We believe the loss of this space helps explain why many people missed their commutes.
Commutes and liminal spaceIn our study, we wanted to learn whether the commute provides that time and space, and what the effects are when it becomes unavailable. We reviewed research on commuting, role transitions and work recovery to develop a model of a typical American worker’s commute liminal space. We focused our research on two cognitive processes: psychological detachment from the work role – mentally disengaging from the demands of work – and psychological recovery from work – rebuilding stores of mental energy used up during work. Based on our review, we developed a model which shows that the liminal space created in the commute created opportunities for detachment and recovery.
However, we also found that day-to-day variations may affect whether this liminal space is accessible for detachment and recovery. For instance, train commuters must devote attention to selecting their route, monitoring arrivals or departures and ensuring they get off at the right stop, whereas car commuters must devote consistent attention to driving.
We found that, on the one hand, more attention to the act of commuting means less attention that could otherwise be put toward relaxing recovery activities like listening to music and podcasts. On the other hand, longer commutes might give people more time to detach and recover.
In an unpublished follow-up study we conducted ourselves, we examined a week of commutes of 80 university employees to test our conceptual model. The employees completed morning and evening surveys asking about the characteristics of their commutes, whether they “shut off” from work and relaxed during the commute and whether they felt emotionally exhausted when they got home.
Most of the workers in this study reported using the commute’s liminal space to both mentally transition from work to home roles and to start psychologically recovering from the demands of the workday. Our study also confirms that day-to-day variations in commutes predict the ability to do so.
We found that on days with longer-than-average commutes, people reported higher levels of psychological detachment from work and were more relaxed during the commute. However, on days when commutes were more stressful than usual, they reported less psychological detachment from work and less relaxation during the commute.
Creating liminal spaceOur findings suggest that remote workers may benefit from creating their own form of commute to provide liminal space for recovery and transition – such as a 15-minute walk to mark the beginning and end of the workday.
Our preliminary findings align with related research suggesting that those who have returned to the workplace might benefit from seeking to use their commute to relax as much as possible.
To help enhance work detachment and relaxation during the commute, commuters could try to avoid ruminating about the workday and instead focus on personally fulfilling uses of the commute time, such as listening to music or podcasts, or calling a friend. Other forms of commuting such as public transit or carpooling may also provide opportunities to socialize.
Our data shows that commute stress detracts from detachment and relaxation during the commute more than a shorter or longer commute. So some people may find it worth their time to take the “scenic route” home in order to avoid tense driving situations.
Matthew Piszczek, Assistant Professor of Management, Wayne State University and Kristie McAlpine, Assistant Professor of Management, Rutgers University
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
For much of our lives, we are focused on fulfilling our potential as individuals. We are taught to express our physical and intellectual talents especially. If we are lucky, we may be supported to express and fulfil our desires, our love and our ideals. Over time, we hopefully come to a place where we have a good level of self-esteem and contentment. Along that road, we will have interacted with many people. We may have been part of sports teams or professional work groups and teams and yet the chances are that we have never really considered the higher value or potential of those groups.
As we reflect on teams and groups, collaboration is a word that resounds loudly in many organisations these days. It’s as though there is a growing awareness and consciousness that moving beyond the individual self has a higher value even if true value-added collaboration is still proving pretty tricky to achieve. However, if we stop and consider the deep interconnectedness that is a fundamental design principle within all aspects of life, we can start to appreciate why communities, tribes, families, teams, and groups have such a place in our lives.
What is worth reflecting on now is the growing importance of group work and why and how this needs to move to a new level. A level where we go beyond the identification with the self and truly see the potential that sits within a highly performing team or group.
The why of this on a certain level is pretty straightforward. We live in an age of complexity, ‘wicked’ problems, and deep uncertainty, all of which demand better use of the diverse talent and capability that exists as well as opening up new pathways for that potential to be accessed. We cannot solve most of the challenges without cooperation – across teams, across organisations, across societies and nations.
As it happens, we are being helped in this endeavour by astrological forces (yes, I know that won’t feel very scientific to some people). Nevertheless, astrologically we have entered into the Age of Aquarius which some may also recall as the title of a hippie song from the 1970s. The Aquarian Age, a period that will last around 2000 years, is, amongst other things, a time when we will see far more focus on groups. From paying attention to others in our communities to active collaboration and cooperation – in some cases with quite a high level of impact.
So what are we being called upon to do differently? Well, here we come to the need to move beyond individual and self-focused interest to a higher point of focus. That which serves the collective (however that may be defined for your endeavour) and which puts us into relationship with others in group formation. In high-performing team work, we often see the analogy of the geese used and how they fly in formation, taking turns to lead, share the load and so on. What underpins that though is a higher level of communication. A willingness to sense, be aware of and act on the information coming from the other members of the group as we move together toward the achievement of a shared purpose.
In the coming years, groups will be asked to go even further still. To establish such a deep level of trust and openness that the communication flow is seamless and that our consciousness and behaviours elevate to thinking ‘group’ first. Not in a self-sacrificial sense, but in a way that truly honours the importance and impact generated by high-functioning teams and groups. On a more existential level, it also honours and collaborates with that core truth of interdependence as well.
Letting go of the ‘ego’ in favour of the collective comes easily to some but is often a tough call for seasoned leaders…leaders who have had to battle and assert their individuality to be taken seriously. Now though we must prepare for the age of groups…
Leadership is a matter of having people look at you and gain confidence, seeing how you react. If you’re in control, they’re in control.
–Tom Landry
The wintry afternoon walk in the field out behind our house with my older sister started out like any other. I was about 10 years old. The field was a great place to play. There were plenty of trails to walk and ride our bikes. We built forts, shot our Daisy BB guns, and caught fireflies in Mason jars. This day, however, would be different.
As my sister and I exited the field before heading inside, I did something I’d done many times before with no thought. I pulled a tall weed out of the ground. But this time the weed didn’t budge. When the force of my pull met the resistance of the weed, it slit my finger open and laid the skin back.
As we approached the backyard my blue coat was already soaked in blood. I went to the water faucet and began rinsing my finger. “Don’t tell mom!” I shouted to my sister as I saw her run inside with no intention of following my command.
Once I went inside, my mother was already in a panic. She walked me up to the kitchen sink and told me to stand still. “I’ll be right back!” she exclaimed. Moments later she returned with a bottle of rubbing alcohol. “Hold your finger still”, she said. I was under the impression that she would perhaps pour just a little on the cut. I was wrong.
With the best intentions that a loving mother could conjure up at that moment, she emptied the entire contents of that bottle of rubbing alcohol onto my finger as I screamed. Which was just prior to my fainting on the kitchen floor.
My mother – God rest of her sweet, loving soul up in heaven, meant well. And in my moment of crisis, she did the best she knew how.
As a leader, there are two things you can be certain of – 1) You will face moments of crisis, and 2) Your people will be looking to you for confidence. So what do you do in a crisis?
Here are a few practical ideas.Stay calm
Remember, in times of crisis, your people will take their cues from you. From you, they need to see steadiness, resolve, and confidence. They don’t need to see you running for the doors. Or reaching for the alcohol.
Assess the situation
In times of crisis, you want to gather as much information as you can as quickly as you can. Gather your key people, ascertain what you know, separate fact from fiction, and start developing your action steps.
Communicate clearly
A good plan poorly communicated will only make matters worse. Make sure everyone knows the plan and everyone knows their role. Don’t assume anything.
Empower your people
Your people will gain confidence when you place your confidence in them. You can inspire your team by empowering your team. A time of crisis is not the time for a one
If the tide of opportunity flows for a prolonged period in a direction you did not find appealing.. it is time to repurpose your talents and thoughts to flow in rhythm with the tide.
The launch of ChatGPT has created a buzz and a sense of interest among various sections of society with heightened curiosity about its utility and implications. It can be used for a wide range of purposes including (but not limited to) customer experience journey improvements, sales cycle improvements, and content creation and management. Hence, expectations are that the applications of ChatGPT will be diverse and for all sorts of things. Not surprisingly, there was a report that a Colombian judge consulted ChatGPT for preparing a ruling in a case.
It opens up opportunities to explore the utility of ChatGPT for project management as well. Some of the potential avenues are knowledge augmentation, problem resolutions (where possible by gaining clarity and answers to some questions), sparking creative thoughts, and learning from human-machine interaction for developing this relationship further to improve project efficiencies.
What is more exciting is the fact that the developments in ChatGPT have brought the spotlight on the use of Natural Language Processing (NLP), one of the most widely used applications of artificial intelligence (AI). To put things in perspective, NLP is defined as “any computer-based algorithm that handles, augments, and transforms natural language so that it can be represented for computation“ (Niimi, 2021, p.2150). NLP is used for applications in healthcare, education, and banking, just to name a few. NLP solutions come in various forms such as chatbots, callbots, and smart assistants.
The growing dependence on NLP and AI-based solutions (e.g., customer experience improvements) for day-to-day business and organisational management (including project management) shows the promise and role that such solutions could and will play in the future. Specifically, in relation to project management, it is predicted that by 2030, “80% of project management tasks will be run by AI, powered by big data, machine learning (ML), and natural language processing” (Nieto-Rodrigue & Vargas, 2023). If these predictions are to come true, this sounds staggering and deserves careful consideration.
There is no doubt that technology will play a significant role and shape the future. One may like it or not, but that is what it is. This raises the question of how NLP and AI are being used and can be used for project management. Or, in other words, what are the current uses of NLP and AI in project management and how can NLP and AI be used to improve project efficiency? To answer the question, below we have looked at some of the current uses as well as potential areas of NLP use for project management.
Current Uses of NLP and AI for project-based workNLP can process and recognise the spoken words (language), grammar of language (syntactic analysis), meaning of words (semantic analysis), and context of utterance (pragmatics), which can be very useful for project-based work as project management is used in every context and culture. As such, NLP and AI-driven solutions are being used for a variety of purposes in project management. These include, planning and forecasting, task automation, risk management, monitoring and control, and coordination (Yang, 2019).
For project-based task automation, such as organising standup meetings during agile project delivery, Geekbot and Standuply are some of the examples of AI-driven solutions. Yang, (2019) also highlights the application of NLP and AI for scanning historical data to predict project completion times and expected budget estimates for the projects. Other applications include JIRA for tracking work completion, Aptage to provide action insights for project delivery, and a project management digital assistant (Schmelzer, 2019; https://www.oracle.com/corporate/pressrelease/oracle-adds-ai-smarts-031919.html). These few examples are just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the variety and breadth of use of NLP and AI-driven solutions for project management. It leads to the question, “What’s in the store?” which we discuss below.
Future and possible uses of NLP and AI in PMCertainly, the future is bright for the use of NLP and AI-driven solutions for project-based work. For sure, a large number of thoughts and predictions exist on this strand. Nieto-Rodriguez and Vargas, (2023) highlight six areas that will be affected the most due to the use of NLP and AI-driven solutions for project-based work. These are:
- better selection and prioritization (for identifying and selecting the best projects and establishing a balanced portfolio);
- support for the project management office (for capability development, monitoring, and compliance)
- improved, faster project definition, planning, and reporting (for scoping, risk management, etc.)
- virtual project assistants (for helping users become more efficient in their work performance)
- advanced testing systems and software (for defect identification and deploying self-correcting processes)
- a new role for the project manager (teaching project professionals, including project managers and educators, how to use AI)
In addition, NLP and AI will also be very helpful in human performance modelling to model project staff cognition and behaviours to suggest improvements in their performance and overall efficiency, reduce human errors, and improve overall satisfaction for the client. Schmelzer, (2019) argued the role of predictive analytics in enhancing project efficiencies, which is also highlighted in the six areas of impact discussed above. Predictive analytics appears to be a game changer for understanding anomalies and predicting patterns in order to make informed decisions. Given the high rates of project failures, the above-limited discussion points to the utility of AI to reduce such failures, and this could be just the beginning of what NLP and AI could offer.
Conclusion:Despite the fast-growing evolution of project management concept (see more at: https://www.academiasolution.com/PM-concept), there is no doubt that the current knowledge on the use of NLP and AI in project management is focused on “low-hanging fruits” (i.e., to highlight the positive outlook). It requires further exploration of the potentially negative consequences of the use of NLP and AI for project planning and delivery. What it means is that to further develop understanding and leverage NLP and AI for project management, we must focus on both the beneficence and nonmaleficence contexts of their use. Only then will we be able to strike a reasonable balance.
However, as a starter, it is critical to capitalise on the positives and work to correct the negative consequences. With that in mind, we have looked at the potential of NLP and AI for project work. Needless to say, the discussion focused on highlighting the significant opportunities and the future outlook is intended to stimulate thought and is not conclusive or exhaustive, but with the hope of advancing further work in this domain.
Note: This article was previously published on https://www.academiasolution.com/ChatGPT
References
- Nieto-Rodriguez, A. & Vargas, R.V. (2023). How AI Will Transform Project Management, https://hbr.org/2023/02/how-ai-will-transform-project-management
- Niimi, A. (2021). Natural language processing: a promising research tool of chronic cough for the big data era. Chest, 159(6), 2149-2150.
- Schmelzer, R. (2019). AI In Project Management, https://www.forbes.com/sites/cognitiveworld/2019/07/30/ai-in-project-management/?sh=214dae93b4a0
- Yang, C. (2019). AI And Project Management: Artificial Or The Real Deal? https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2019/07/26/ai-and-project-management-artificial-or-the-real-deal/?sh=15ce127b3208
How do we end up saying yes to everything and then never having enough time to get it all done? This is a common experience in most corporations these days with shrinking budgets and fewer staff to meet all the expectations required for growth. We often say yes to things that don’t make sense to do rather than saying no to solidify our ‘high performer’ identity.
We can choose to operate differently by embracing A Culture of AND.
We achieve this by adding the word AND to saying YES and NO to others. This empowers us to:
- give our best,
- ensure that our colleagues and leaders have what they actually need vs. what they think they want,
- get what we need to make good on that YES, or
- let others know WHY we are saying no in ways that help them to move forward anyway
Let’s break each of these down –
Giving our Best:What keeps us from giving our best? Often it is a lack of clarity in our role or a misunderstanding about what we are trying to achieve in the first place. Many times, it comes from not having the information required, or the time to digest that information prior to engaging in brainstorming or decision-making with others.
Other times it is the idea that we have to work 80 hours each week just to keep up with the pace of doing 2 full-time jobs while we wait for the new positions to be filled.
When we place getting the job done ahead of our health and wellness, it’s very difficult to give our best. During these times, it’s important to be OK with our best being different at different times. Raising children, supporting parents, dealing with health issues, and learning new skills, all impact what ‘our best’ is in each situation. When we use the power of AND to acknowledge what our best is in each moment and accept that is exactly what is needed, we are free to give what we have to give while managing expectations with others.
Saying YES + AND may sound like this:
‘YES – I’d love to help you get clarity on that. I have been out with a sick child for a week and am booked solid for the next two weeks AND I realize that I’m the best person to help you with this. I could give you a couple of hours next week if you could replace me at the all-day set-up meeting. That would give me the time to help you before the presentation’.
Saying NO + AND may sound like this:
‘NO. I won’t be able to help you with that as I’m off that day with my family AND I have two potential colleagues who may be able to step in on my behalf. I’d like to introduce them to you once I know who is available.
Ensuring that our colleagues and leaders get what they actually need
Too many times our colleagues or leaders ask us for information or assistance that doesn’t make sense to us. We can see that what they are asking for is not going to help them, yet we do it anyway, not wanting to question their authority or ‘higher wisdom’. Many of us learned this as small children when asking ‘why’ we had to do something, and the answer was ‘because I said so’. This taught many of us that others know better and that it’s not our place to question what they ask of us.
Unfortunately, those around us can’t always see the perspective we hold – even if they used to do the same job in the past. If we are going to add our highest value, it’s up to us to ensure the requester actually gets what they need to move forward in their world.
Sometimes the information we are asked for doesn’t make sense given what they are trying to decide or accomplish. When this happens, we can use YES + AND:
‘YES – I understand that you/they are looking for the ‘xyz’ information AND if I can better understand how it’s going to be used, I can get you what you need in a format you can use right away.’
(then) ‘Given what you are trying to communicate, the information you are asking for won’t really help. A quick 15-minute conversation together will give me chance to get us both on the same page to get you what they need so you can effectively make the case. When can we do that?’
Sometimes a request doesn’t make sense because we are not the person that has the answers or owns that body of work. When that happens, we can use NO + AND to steer the conversation in a productive direction. It may sound like this:
‘NO – I’m actually not the one who has that information – AND I don’t want you to have to run around to get what you need. Here is my understanding of who would have that and the best way/timing/approach to get it quickly from them’.
Getting what we need to make good on that YES
Often we ARE the right person and we DO have the information, insights, or content that our colleagues or supervisors need. At the same time, requests that come in with low clarity and a fast-turnaround time can disrupt our progress on existing efforts and priorities. How do we say yes then? When we are asked to focus on something that will take us away from what we are doing, it’s up to us to manage that expectation. It might sound like this:
‘YES – I can get you that information for your meeting tomorrow AND for me to do that, I’ll be skipping the team meeting this afternoon to get you a draft by COB. I will need a response on the draft from you by 9 am tomorrow to make any other adjustments, so you have it for noon.’
If you are not sure what is OK to let go of or delay, you may need to engage your supervisor to help decide what the priority is. It might sound like this:
YES – I understand what you need and why, AND for me to get that to you by COB today, I’ll need your guidance on what to stop working on or delay for now as this will take me the rest of the afternoon. I have two internal stakeholder meetings scheduled and the event calendar is due today. Can you help me run interference on those?
Letting others know WHY you are saying no in ways that help them to move forward anyway
As an organization shifts and grows, roles and responsibilities and lines of the work shift and grow as well. While we may know who does what within our own unit, others that engage and rely on us may not.
Sometimes we end up with requests that are not appropriate for us, even though the requester would feel better if we did it. While this situation may be hiding a deeper problem, it is not up to us to fix it for others. Instead, we can use NO + AND to guide the requester back to those that are accountable for the work. It might sound like this:
NO – while I used to do some of that work, it’s now being done by this group AND it is important that they are the ones to advise you so everything stays integrated. While I understand you would prefer to engage with me, they are working hard to build the skills and responsiveness that you are looking for, and every time they have a chance to respond they get better at it. Let me suggest you contact (this person) and help them understand your overall intention and timeline and that will help them give you a firm date to access the content you are looking for.
How can you cultivate a culture of AND today?
It seems to me that language is always used in an approximate, casual, careless way, and I feel intolerable annoyance about it. Let it not be thought that this reaction of mine corresponds to an intolerance for others: the worst annoyance I feel is hearing myself speak. That is why I try to speak as little as possible, and if I prefer to write, it is because by writing I can correct each sentence as many times as necessary to arrive at, I won’t say to be satisfied with my words, but at least to eliminate the reasons for dissatisfaction that I can realise.
I know a hundred ways to die, but my favourite remains writing.
How vain it is to sit down to write when one has not sat down to live.
The art of writing stories lies in knowing how to take everything else out of the nothingness one has understood about life; but when one has finished the page, one returns to life and realises that what one knew is nothing at all.
I only believe in the word. The word wounds, the word convinces, the word appeases. That, for me, is the meaning of writing.
I challenge anyone in his darkest hour to write down the things that make him happy, even the silly things like green grass or a friendly conversation with someone in a lift. He will begin to realise how rich he is.
I fill my emptiness with the weight of writing. That is why I balance on the tightrope of words.
Write neither for yourself nor for others, neither for today nor for tomorrow, neither for gain nor for glory: pursue your own little absolute…
I want the bayonet to be equated with the pen.
It is impossible to write in peace if what one writes is worth anything…
It is at night that thoughts take flight and the blank pages of my book begin to fill. But between the lines, there always remain empty spaces, unwritten thoughts, or dissipated in the rivulets of indecision. It is often in these places that we get lost. And sometimes we can no longer come out of them.
I travel in the galaxy of emotions, I paint words without wanting to be anything other than a man smiling at life…
…The most beautiful things are those that madness inspires and reason writes…
It is a rare person who never offers an excuse, and most of the reasoning blames the lack of time available. But there are always at least two sides to a problem, making it worthy of reviewing what we dismiss and why and whether regret was to follow. It is possible that on occasions, more than we care to admit, the answer is Yes! to the question, ‘Are excuses holding you back?’
The typical answer is, ‘I would like to, but sadly, I don’t have the time.’ The question is, what can we do to improve our response?
My StoryTwo recent experiences raise the question, are excuses holding you back? My answer is more so in the early days, but experience and time management, working together, improve my willingness to do more. As time progresses, my responses have a wide meter read, from, quietly believing, ‘this is ridiculous’ to graciously accepting an opportunity.
Losing OpportunitiesWe can improve further when we admit that we dismissed an idea assuming it will never work or is ridiculous. For years, it baffled me why recruiters would ask seemingly ‘ridiculous questions.’ Long ago, I turned down a potential job, thinking, ‘I don’t have time for this nonsense.’ Today, I realized I too quickly moved away from a job interview as the article revealed the answer to why the strange questions.
But a few years later, I thought I’d have fun when asked what animal I would like to be and why. My answer was that I would like to be a giraffe on sales calls! To my complete surprise, the offer came almost immediately. Demonstrating the value, I then turned that answer into an article appearing in US News Magazine, ‘What to Say If an interviewer asks which animal you would be and why:’
Finally, today, the long-awaited answer came to me via an article that reveals why recruiters ask these mind-boggling or annoying questions. The author refers to the questioning style as ‘situational.’ She then states that the answers applicants provide tell a great deal about their thinking and behaviors to determine whether they will be a good fit for the employer.
The Gift of An Athletic CapUpon receiving an athletic cap, a big smile came over me upon seeing the slogan, ‘365.’ As an avid goal-setter always striving to improve, it brought about the thought of 365 days per year and what it means to me. Suddenly, the realization that a lack of time is not necessarily the reason for an excuse but our preference to dismiss.
‘I don’t have the time’ is a weak excuse, most often.
Let’s do some calculations:There are 365 days per year, and we have 24 hours each day to do as we see fit. The total number of hours in a year is 8,760, and 525,600 is the number of minutes we have to spend any way we like each year. Surely, we can do more than we allow ourselves with proper goal-setting and an increase in motivation to accomplish more.
As efficiencies take over, I realize specific strategies work well, allowing me to accomplish more in less time. Taking a calculated risk to test the reality of a new idea working well proves better than expected. And the occasion it does not, I realize what needs to improve to advance. Doing so includes ‘finding time’ for requests and offers that, in the past, I would decline.
The overall benefit of utilizing more of our yearly minutes is:* Being able to build a broader collaborative effort * Branding and marketing will become more robust than ever * Offers that we desire unexpectedly come our way
The lyrics to Jim Croce’s song, Time In A Bottle, come to mind:‘But there never seems to be enough time
To do the things you want to do once you find them…’
Your Story: Are Excuses Holding You Back?Truthfulness begins with each of us. It is best to admit to opportunities you may have dismissed, not bothering to learn the facts before deciding. But it is never too late to realize a habit or two is ready for updates. An excellent place to begin is to ask why they are asking and how the person sees the outcome. Ask for the benefits of participating and the downside, should there be one. It will help you come to a better conclusion and final decision.
On occasion, people propose the opposite of what you may believe. There are almost always two sides to every story or opinion. It’s best to stop and consider the perspective on the other side to see if there is room for compromise. And should time be a real issue, consider how you may increase efficiencies for productivity in the future. With 525,600 minutes available to us yearly, there is little doubt that we can save time in the real world to do the things we want to do.
Most of all, by taking better control of habits and accepting possibilities, advancements of all types will occur more frequently. And should a setback unexpectedly appear, taking the time to learn the lessons will help with progress, too. Either way, you can turn the scenario into a win-win for your success!
In Conclusion: Are Excuses Holding You Back?It is best to review past offers and how we reacted to them in our quiet time to discover if a better approach awaits. Should you desire to minimize excuses holding you back, seek out commonalities of the missed opportunities to improve upon moving forward.
In our February blog, we explored how our focus and attention have been stolen, and how our ability to pay attention is collapsing and described why we need to be intentional in reclaiming it. Yet, many of us are constantly challenged by very short attention spans, where we can often be found sitting at our desks, dealing with a range of very urgent deadlines with a distracted, and unfocussed mind. Despite being intrinsically motivated to meet our deadlines, and being self-aware of needing to focus on completing the tasks in front of us, many of us often still struggle to disrupt and stop our thoughts from wandering randomly and haphazardly. Because, we are no longer being in charge of our minds, our time, or of our cognitive capacities and abilities that help us self-regulate, concentrate and focus our attention, kickstart change, innovate and become resilient.
A recent article in Psychology Today “The war for your Attention” reinforces this problem by stating:
“We live in a time when attention has become our most valuable asset, one for which multiple stakeholders are competing. Political parties, media outlets, companies, and individuals want a share of it, and if they can have it, they want it all. As a result, remaining in charge of our minds has become a daily challenge. Our attention defines our experience, which sets the mindset of our minds”.
Become resilient
Because we don’t know if companies will ever return to their pre-pandemic-like worlds, and what new technologies will emerge, we need to become resilient to be future-fit, in this new world of unknowns. This requires people to unlearn some of their less resourceful “bad pre and post-pandemic habits” to be:
- Open towards relearning and reskilling in how to focus, concentrate and observe, and how to manage, direct and expand our attention spans.
- Intentional, outcome focussed, and therefore, effective, agile, adaptive, and resilient in an uncertain world full of disruption and crises.
This is reinforced by a recent article “Seizing the momentum to build resilience for a future of sustainable inclusive growth” by McKinsey & Co:
“In the past year, leaders have been confronted with a lifetime’s worth of disruption and crises: global conflict, energy uncertainty, food shortages, accelerating inflation, and severe climate events. Natural and human-made disruptions will only persist. To enable long-term, sustainable, and inclusive growth, today’s business leaders and policymakers must strengthen resilience beyond a survival capacity”.
- From surviving to thriving
The nature and speed of change are not going to slow down, at the same time, our uncertain world full of disruption and crises is having a harsh psychological toll on everyone, impacting negatively on people’s states of emotional and physical health.
If we want people to thrive, we have to start helping people to live better than we ever have. Taking the first baby steps requires people to confidently and courageously be, think and act differently.
Starting with empowering and enabling people to take charge of their hearts and minds, and commit to focussing their attention on building their resilience.
The switch-cost effect
In his best-selling book Johann Hari – Stolen Focus, describes how Professor Earl Miller, a specialist in neuroscience, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, states that “our brains can only produce one or two thoughts” in our conscious minds at once.
Because “we are very, very single-minded” and have “very limited cognitive capacity.”
- Multi-tasking is an illusion
The delusion that we can multitask, or juggle a number of thoughts and activities at the same time, is revealed, through robust research, as actually “switching, back and forth.”
He states that we don’t notice the switching because:
“Our brain sort of papers it over to give a seamless experience of consciousness, but what they’re actually doing is switching and reconfiguring their brain moment-to-moment, task-to-task – which comes with a cost.”
- Losing time to refocus
This is described as the “switch-cost effect” and means that every time we switch tasks while trying to work, we are actually losing a huge amount of time required to concentrate and manage our attention spans to refocus afterward.
“For example, one study at Carnegie Mellon University’s human-computer interaction lab took 136 students and got them to sit a test. Some of them had to have their phones switched off, and others had their phones on and received intermittent text messages. The students who received messages performed, on average, 20% worse. It seems to me that almost all of us are currently losing that 20% of our brainpower, almost all the time. Miller told me that as a result we now live in “a perfect storm of cognitive degradation”.
Reducing cognitive degradation
There are a number of simple and obvious ways to reduce our cognitive degradation and heal our unconscious “attention deficit syndromes”, and cognitively reappraise to be in charge of our minds, concentrate and effectively manage our attention spans. It is also the first step we need to take to empower and enable ourselves and others, in taking charge of our hearts and minds and demonstrating our commitment to focussing our attention and becoming initially resilient.
These simple actions require us to be self-disciplined, methodical, and rigorous and open to re-learning how to concentrate and self-regulated our attention spans by habitually:
- Stripping out distractions,
- Ceasing to multi-task,
- Getting more quality sleep,
- Taking regular short breaks,
- Doing brain exercises,
- Doing physical exercises,
- Listening to music,
- Setting priorities,
- Using a timer.
How to be in charge of our own minds
- Intention transforms
If we want to cultivate a calmer, coherent, and resourceful psychological state, to achieve the outcomes we want to have in our lives, then focus and place our attention on both what we want to manifest (our intention), and on what we want to your attention away from, to cease.
- Attention activates
When choosing to consciously slow down, hit our pause buttons, and retreat into stillness and silence, opens the sacred space, that allows us to reflect, focus and pay deeper attention to the impact of our emotions and beliefs on our thoughts. We can then also attend to, and break down any unresourceful beliefs, emotions, and cognitive distortions about what we can really and truly influence and control to:
- Create a more normalised state of equilibrium and calm, get grounded and fully present and manage our attention spans to concentrate on what really matters to us, in ways that are self-compassionate and optimistic about the future.
- Support ourselves by believing that we can succeed in handling our situations, responsibly, creatively, and effectively.
- Become resilient by knowing how to respond to events in real-time, anticipate events and problems that may occur in the future, and bounce from adversity whilst processing the insights and learnings gained by conquering key challenges.
Developing resilience
We can then be in charge of our minds, become resilient, and create a safe space and generosity for others to fully show up and connect with us, open our eyes, minds, and hearts to all options, unleash possibilities and opportunities, make smart change choices, and innovate, rather than panicking and retreating from the risks emerging in an uncertain world full of disruption and crises.
1. Stay Accountable
When you write down your goals and track them regularly, you are more likely to stay on track and achieve them. If you don’t track your goals, it’s easy to let things slide and not take your goals seriously.
2. Measure Progress
Tracking your goals allows you to see how far you’ve come and how close you are to reaching your goal. This can be a great motivator to keep going.
3. Identify Roadblocks
If you find that you’re not making the progress you want, tracking your goals can help you identify what might be getting in your way.
4. Make Adjustments
As you track your goals and measure your progress, you may realize that you need to make some adjustments. Maybe you’re not moving as quickly towards your goal as you would like, or maybe you need to change your approach.
5. Stay Motivated
Seeing your progress and how close you are to reaching your goal can be a great motivator to keep going. When you track your goals, you can also see how far you’ve come, which can be a great source of motivation.
The opportunityOver $750 billion a year is spent by organisations globally on advertising trying to boost their brands, products, and services. Marketing and branding functions spend vast amounts of time and money working with agencies on trying to find the best way to resonate both with their current customers and attract potential customers.
Employee brand ambassadors will support this objective and can have a significant positive impact whilst costing very little. However, in my view, the use of employee brand ambassadors rarely reaches the potential it truly has. This would seem to be a “no-brainer” but for some reason, it just doesn’t seem to be on the strategic agenda and, even if it is, it’s not done effectively, often because of a misunderstanding of what has to be put in place to make it work.
To identify and appoint a number of employees as brand ambassadors to work both inside and outside the organisation does have benefits but I believe there is much more that could be done quickly, simply, and relatively easily. Not by just these few employees promoting the organisation, especially if it is part of their job in either sales marketing or associated teams, but that every single employee in the organisation proactively inside and outside work promotes the brand of the organisation to their family, their networks, on social media in their blog posts and to people they meet.
From a branding and marketing perspective, you might say this cannot possibly have the reach that, for example, a television advertising campaign might have, that might be so, but every employee who expresses their genuine belief in what their organisation does is likely to have much more resonance with other people than a TV advert or corporate social media post. A corporate social media presence is not the same as speaking to someone, or seeing a post on their own social media. Also, you are more likely to mention such an interaction to other people. That’s because it’s real people and that’s the potential power of an employee brand ambassador program – the power of real people in support of the organisations brand.
Great organisations realise the power of employee brand ambassadors and leverage it but overall few are leveraging the power of their people effectively.
What is really interesting is that turning everyone into a proactive employee brand ambassador through an employee ambassador program not only has a positive impact on the presentation of the brand but also has a significant impact on the corporate culture, creating a common purpose and boosting the performance of the organisation which then further strengthens brand value and ensures the delivery of brand promises to customers more effectively.
It truly unleashes the power of employees. They become the embodiment of your brand, showing your business in a positive light, using word of mouth to say positive things from their unique perspective and real-life personal experience which can reach a wider audience of consumers and others.
The challengeIt’s fair to say that in most organisations, other than those in branding and marketing or C suite, the vast majority of employees have no clue what the brand promises are that the organisation presents to customers. In fact, most of them are also pretty unclear on vision, values, purpose and the wider big picture into which they fit. This not only causes problems around understanding what the brand is about it also has a significant impact on employee engagement, ie employees giving their best. In addition, this lack of understanding also reduces the ability of employees to ensure that operational activity is aligned with strategic objectives. Even if they don’t know the brand promises at least aligning their work to strategic objectives has them heading in the right direction.
All the data on employee engagement shows that employees can potentially withhold significant effort, called discretionary effort, and still meet satisfactory performance standards. In other words, if the environment isn’t right they will withhold this effort but it will not be possible to tell that they are doing so, or indeed who is and who isn’t. This additional effort which is being withheld could amount to an extra 30% of effort from up to 60% of people within the organisation. Imagine how much impact getting that extra effort could make, and how it could be applied to brand ambassadorship.
Worryingly there are indications that post-COVID this figure could now have risen to somewhere in the region of 70 to 80% of people withholding effort due to higher expectations that employees have of their leaders and organisations not being met post-pandemic.
This is the crux of the challenge of how to start the journey to create brand ambassadors – how to create an environment where no one, or as few people as possible, are withholding effort. That’s quite simply because if they were holding effort they certainly won’t be a brand ambassador Why? Because if they’re withholding effort they just don’t care.
This challenge might seem complex and something which has to be done at strategic level. Certainly if planned and coordinated at that level it will have maximum impact and benefit but there is no reason why individual leaders should not encourage their team members to all be brand ambassadors even if the rest of the organisation isn’t. The impact on team engagement and performance is going to be just as beneficial. Any leader can achieve this through the simple steps set out here, as can the whole organisation if C suite sets an example and supports.
Does it work?In a word yes. I’ve seen a significant positive impact in a number of organisations when implementing employee ambassador programs. From personal involvement during the creation of UBS, the global bank, effectively the result of 6 mergers and acquisitions over a short period of time brand ambassadorship delivered significant impact.
This is now a Harvard Case study “Towards the Integrated Firm”. As Global Head of Leadership, it was clear that creating belief in the new organisation was a key element to successfully bring together the constituent parts to operate as one, as we clearly promoted it “One UBS”. That One UBS had to have one brand identity. This started with the executive team acting in an authentic way to set an example to build a strong company culture and show the essential role that the banks values played in what it did everyday, reflected in the brand promises.
During the early stages of this transformation bringing together the people, processes, and brands into a single entity it became clear to us that alignment on the new brand was key for the optimization of sustainable profitability. But also what was critical was that the brand had to be all-encompassing – equally valid internally with employees as well as externally with customers and the market.
Why both? Because many of us had seen the negative impact of an organisations internal brand being different from the external brand, a perception that customers were treated well but employees not so much. We had the potential to create over 70,000 proactive brand ambassadors across the world, something that could have a significant impact both internally and externally.
It worked because of a clear business case set out by the CEO, picked up by senior leaders, cascaded, and led by example down through the whole organisation. In addition this was reinforced working with the external agency to develop the new a brand line. The result was short and simple “UBS you and Us”, which would apply equally to customers, employees, and indeed other stakeholders.
The application of this was highly flexible and effective and was maintained as the key message both internally and externally for over 6 years. Its external impact was widely credited with contributing to the rapid growth of the bank at that time but what is less widely appreciated is the significant role it played internally in creating willing brand ambassadors at all levels of the organisation, enabled by a culture where everyone gave their best because they cared about the success of themselves, their colleagues and UBS .
This employee advocacy built momentum internally, growing from early adopters inspiring others to join and take it to the next level. The result? 51% increase in brand value and becoming a top global brand in 3 just years, together with higher than peer profitability, and numerous people and business awards.
But the world moves onThe success of this creation of employee brand ambassadors was clear from so many measures. But the world moves on, and encouraging and enabling employee brand ambassadors has to be an ongoing effort, to make it work it never ends, either at strategic or team level. It needs constant momentum building and adaptation. This initial success at UBS was before the financial crisis and that event significantly changed the business environment and employee attitudes. As a result to recover the power of brand ambassadorship UBS had to proactively re-engage at all levels to be successful again, through another concerted campaign.
What is interesting is that to follow on from “UBS – You and Us” which engaged both customers and employees the new line was “For some of life’s questions, you’re not alone. Together we can find an answer.” – again which engaged both customers and employees and subsequently UBS again won a number of preferred employer awards. Note the focus on “working together” in both with common purpose, a theme shared by great brand building and great leadership.
Building the brand inside outMy conversations with marketing and branding professionals about this often reveal that they have not realised the full potential of employee brand ambassadors and their strategic impact. To some degree that’s not unreasonable as it is their brief to focus on the external customer. But I have seen marketing and branding departments frantically trying to create a positive quality brand for the organisation’s customers whilst the perception of employees within the organisation is that it’s not high quality internally due to less than great culture and leadership. I would take the view that employees are the organisations first customers and therefore you need to build the brand inside out.
Any fundamental disconnect between the external brand and the internal brand just isn’t sustainable. Disengaged and unhappy employees will not perform well, will not want to be brand ambassadors and this will, without doubt, eventually feed through reducing the quality of customer service and so damaging the external brand. They just won’t care.
Building the brand inside out is not just about the strategic level brand, it’s also about the organisations operational level brand as reflected by employees’ individual leaders. Thus every leader is a brand ambassador to their people and their example and action can either inspire or destroy the likelihood of employees being proactive brand ambassadors, irrespective of how great the strategic level brand is.
But with the right mindset and a simple action plan, there is a significant opportunity here if marketing and branding professionals work with all leaders and HR to create an environment where a great internal brand provides the opportunity to grow brand ambassadors and which, if done effectively, will be willingly taken up by every employee. Essentially by just spreading best practices to build brand awareness within an environment where people care because simply they have a great boss.
You are incorrect if you think you are the same person all the time. If you do not acknowledge that you have at least one other persona, you will not understand how to blend these images.
How many personas do you have? Do you have one for work, one for your family, yet another for friends, and then another for the parents of your kids?
This persona, this mask that you wear can be beneficial or not. If you have a work persona that is different from your home mask, what is it and how does it help you with your peers and your boss, if you have one? Or do you have a separate persona you wear when you are in direct contact with your boss?
This may sound frivolous, however, we all have different personas. And yes, it can be confusing to others if they catch on. It can also be confusing to you, the one who holds the power over these masks.
Who are you and who are you pretending to be?
It must be exhausting to carry all these personas with you day after day. What if you could be only YOU every day?
This act of masking is what many do to feel safe in different situations, mostly social.
We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.
— Kurt Vonnegut
We’ve all seen it, the pretenders. They certainly run rampant on Facebook. You see people wearing these masks and then you speak to them, if you are lucky, and discover they are illusions of themselves. They are not real, they are following others’ paths, allowing us to think or imagine that they’re very, very successful or equally as powerful. The truth then appears at a break in their persona. A word, a gesture, appears and you go ‘Whoa! What was that?’ – not what you expected. And I do say the word expected because people who attempt to force their personas or masks onto you for their benefit, know that this is the persona you expect to see. And they gave exactly that to you.
Bosses and leaders carry many personas. If only they could afford to be more authentic, we would appreciate their skills more so we say. However, in many cases, we EXPECT them to have many masks and personas. It is expected in the society we have created. And when the supposed truth about who they truly come out is, we are shocked, and surprised, and yet, we are part of the game in supporting their personas.
Any of us can be kind, strong, sad, and cranky without a persona. We can be genuine humans and stop wearing personas or masks to enjoy our lives.
The fewer masks we wear, the closer we are to having more peace in our lives.
Wouldn’t you like to live a life of truth and openness?
Along your path toward truth and peace, check this out.
Back in the day, before you could buy your weed at a seedy little store in some strip mall, you had to rely on people like me. I was a weed dealer back then. I would buy my weed, by the pound from a guy who I only knew as English John. When I got it home I divided it up into lids, which were about 3/4 of an ounce.
The weed itself was in two forms. Half of it was buds; the other half was called shake. It was all weed, and it would all do the trick, but the buds created the perception of quality. So when I re-bagged the weed I always made sure to balance the offering between the buds and the shake. That way, everybody was getting a deal that played to their perception.
I don’t deal weed anymore. I kinda miss it, truth be told. Not so much for the money but for the social aspect of it. The visits, the catching up, the gossip. All my customers were in the advertising business like I was, and back then there was always something going on. Being on top of things was important.
Lately, one of my oldest friends has started to recommend podcasts to me. I actually act on friends’ advice because, to me at least, the podcast world is like a bag of weed.
A few buds but mostly shake. A few interesting and enlightened people and a whole lot of others are pushing some agenda that has little to do with helping people understand the whole picture.
I make it a point to try and listen to at least one podcast every few days. Over the course of the past year, that’s what I have concluded. A few are the buds, who are interesting and tend to take an objective view of whatever they’re on about. The rest are the shake, which are the self-serving or agenda-driven.
And what do you know…it’s the good old 80/20 Rule That Governs Just About Everything. 20% buds, 80% shake.
So if you’re one of those people who listen to a wide range of podcasts religiously, you can be pretty sure that 80% of the time, you’re hearing propaganda of one kind or another, and 20% of the time you’re hearing something that either is or comes close to being the objective truth. As always, it’s up to you to separate the buds from the shake.
Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anybody else expects of you. Never excuse yourself. Never pity yourself. Be a hard master to yourself and be lenient to everybody else.
― Henry Ward Beecher
Welcome to my latest blog post on self-discipline, where together, we will explore why self-discipline is a key ingredient for achieving success as a small business owner, and in every aspect of life.
As an entrepreneur and business owner, I know firsthand the power of self-discipline and how it has helped me to overcome obstacles, stay focused, and achieve my goals. I also know first-hand the painful results and disappointments that result when I fail to maintain self-discipline. The reality is that despite its many benefits, self-discipline is a skill that many people struggle to develop and reinforce.
Contrary to what some believe, self-discipline is not about being harsh or living a restrictive lifestyle. Instead, it’s about having self-control and inner strength to take charge of your actions and reactions.
Self-discipline helps you make hard decisions and stick to them, even when it’s difficult or uncomfortable. By rejecting immediate pleasure in favor of long-term success, you can achieve greater results and experience more significant personal growth.
In this post, we’ll dive into the importance of self-discipline, exploring how it can help you and I to overcome addictions, laziness, and procrastination. We’ll look at how self-discipline is a key ingredient for success, helping you to stay focused on your goals and overcome setbacks and failures. Plus, we’ll examine how a lack of self-discipline can lead to problems in all areas of life, including relationships, health, and career.
But it’s not all bad news! The good news is that self-discipline is a skill that can be developed and strengthened, just like any other skill.
In this post, I will provide you with practical tips and strategies to help you build self-discipline, such as avoiding carelessness, fulfilling promises, and engaging in positive behaviors. With consistent effort and practice, you can become stronger and more self-disciplined, achieving your goals, and realizing your dreams.
So, if you’re ready to take your self-discipline to the next level and unlock your full potential, keep reading. Let’s explore the power of self-discipline and how it can transform your life.
3 Ways to Become More Self-DisciplinedWe’ll now cover three ways you can become more disciplined and successful in every aspect of your life. These strategies will help you set active goals, ignore negativity, and practice gratitude.
Firstly, active goal setting is a critical skill if you want to become more disciplined. It involves more than just setting goals in your mind, but rather actively defining them and making plans to achieve them. By setting long-term goals and tracking your progress towards them, you’ll be able to stay focused and motivated, which is essential for building self-discipline.
Secondly, it’s essential to ignore negativity, particularly from people who may have a negative effect on your mindset. By avoiding those who are negative or unsupportive, you can protect your energy and stay focused on your goals. Seeking advice from experts can also help you learn how to deal with negativity and maintain a positive outlook.
Finally, practicing gratitude is a powerful way to shift your focus from wanting more to appreciating what you already have. When you cultivate a habit of gratitude, you begin to see remarkable shifts in your emotional well-being, mental health, and spirituality. By focusing on the positive aspects of your life, you’ll be better equipped to tackle challenges and achieve your goals without stress.
Continue to Develop Greater Self-DisciplineIt’s an ongoing process. It’s always too easy to give in or fall back into practices and habits that are not conducive to success in your life and business. You can start by removing temptations from your environment, embracing change, rewarding yourself, and not beating yourself up when you slide back into old habits. Developing self-discipline takes time and effort, but it’s worth it.
When it comes to temptations, we all have our challenges. For some of us, it may be eating too much of the wrong foods that are not healthy for us overall, and these foods make us sluggish and lazy. For another individual, temptation may be to continue watching that television series even though you have deadlines to meet. And for others, it’s simply wanting to do the easy things first that will not make a difference to your business, rather than focusing on the more challenging tasks that will make a difference.
You have the power to create the life you want, and by mastering self-discipline, you can achieve it. Remember that you can start developing self-discipline at any time, and with each step, you will become stronger and more disciplined.
In summary, if you are looking to achieve greater success and happiness in life, you need to develop self-discipline. As we have seen, self-discipline is not only about restricting yourself, but also about making positive choices that help you achieve your goals.
You can start by removing temptations from your environment, embracing change, rewarding yourself, and not beating yourself up when you slide backwards. Developing self-discipline takes time and effort, but it’s worth it.
You have the power to create the life you want, and by mastering self-discipline, you can achieve it. Remember that you can start developing self-discipline at any time, and with each step, you will become stronger and more disciplined to take on even greater challenges.
What is your biggest challenge with self-discipline?
That’s a doozy of a headline, right? Relax… it’s just a joke. Kind of. A teacher in Collier County Public Schools did, in fact, threaten to send a student “back to Auschwitz,” but she was only joking.
An offensive, derisive, antisemitic joke. I have to admit: as I watched those letters become words on the screen, I had a very visceral reaction. It’s hard to understand how anyone could justify a high school English teacher making that comment in class to a student during Holocaust Remembrance Week or any week. It’s much easier to understand how we got here.
While anti-Jewish sentiment goes back 2,000 years, one need only look at the past few years to see how it’s been normalized. From the synagogue attacks in Poway (CA), Colleyville (TX), and Pittsburgh (PA) to threats against synagogues in New York City and antisemitic chants at the Unite the Right event in Charlottesville (VA), Jewish people are experiencing hate at a higher rate than any other religious group in the U.S.
According to the Anti-Defamation League Center on Extremism, in 2021 there were 2,717 reported antisemitic incidents of antisemitic harassment, vandalism, and assault throughout the United States. This is a 34% increase from the 2,026 incidents tabulated in 2020 and the highest number on record since ADL began tracking antisemitic incidents in 1979.
Congratulations to Florida for being the 4th highest contributor of those numbers in the nation. In fairness, we’ve been busy with other things down here in the Sunshine State. Instead of addressing this rise in antisemitism, Florida’s Governor, Ron DeSantis, has been very focused on criminalizing classroom books. Every book in every classroom is to be reviewed following stringent state guidelines heavily influenced by right-wing groups like Moms For Liberty.
Think about that for a minute. Florida educators who have the wrong books on their shelves could now face felony charges. But we shrug at the teacher who jokes about sending a student “back to Auschwitz?” It’s truly mind-boggling that there is more activism and outrage about kids reading Dr. Seuss, Toni Morrison, and Ibram X Kendi’s books than about a teacher normalizing antisemitism.
And yet, when the next shooting happens at a Jewish synagogue or school, we’ll scratch our heads and wonder why. Will we wonder which library books drove him to do it? Maybe we should wonder if his antisemitic ideology was strengthened by you and me – deepened each time he experienced the tacit approval of silence to his derogatory comments and jokes… or when he witnessed the tacit approval of silence to the derogatory comments and jokes of others… perhaps those made by a teacher?
We expect children to speak up when they witness bad behavior and harmful acts, from bullying to cheating to criminal activity. To date, the “grown-ups” in Collier County have not demonstrated the same agency and conviction as the 14- and 15-year-old students who stepped up to report the incident to school leaders. It’s been more than a month and school officials have not acknowledged or addressed the incident with the students or the community nor has the teacher faced consequences. Apparently, they are still “investigating” the matter. It’s difficult to understand what more they need to investigate, but their impassivity speaks volumes.
The purpose of a consequence is to teach and maintain accountability. The person who jokes about the Holocaust will probably learn little from a reprimand or even a suspension. It’s not due to a lack of intelligence; it’s a deficit of character and moral development. But the lesson is not just for the offender; it’s also how we define what behavior we, as a society, deem unacceptable.
What does it say to the students who stepped up and reported the incident – at the risk of reprisal – that the administration has done nothing? What does it say to the rest of the student body? And what does it say to the community? Antisemitic remarks are no big deal in Collier County schools? In Florida? In this country? Whose responsibility is it to stand up, speak out, and demand accountability? How bad would it be if we just let it go?
While it’s easy to dismiss this incident as an insensitive off-the-cuff remark, hate speech and hate crimes grow out of hate thought. I am not disillusioned to believe that an article about a single comment will create change. But I do believe that we perpetuate the normalization of antisemitism when we are anything short of outragedwhen someone jokes about the dehumanization and systemic extermination of millions of people.
Perhaps no one captures the significance of this more than 96-year-old Holocaust survivor, Marian Turski. In a 2020 ceremony commemorating the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, Turski explained how easily unthinkable horror evolves into normality.
Auschwitz did not fall suddenly from the skies, it was all tiny steps approaching until what happened here behind me did happen. Tears for the past are useless if accompanied by indifference in the present towards minorities experiencing exclusion, racism, and related violence. Do not be indifferent.
– Marian Turski
I literally cannot think of a reasonable defense, explanation, justification for this comment in our classrooms or anywhere for that matter. And I’m struggling with that skinny little line between “indifferent” and “complicit.” As my friend and highly respected educator, Jeff Ikler commented, “That which goes misunderstood and undiscussed today will rise to the surface down the road as ignorance and hate.”
Indeed, the Holocaust is rooted in ignorance and hate… and I’d submit indifference. An evil ideology became an inconceivable reality largely thanks to a lot of really good people who failed to stand up and speak out.
It kind of makes those Collier County kids seem more heroic… and their school leaders even more pathetic.
SummaryThere’s a lot of talk about why organizations need to have a purpose beyond a mere marketing tagline: why they do what they do on behalf of those they seek to serve. What’s equally challenging to get at is how an organization defines its why, how they get staff buy-in — or better yet, staff input — and then has the discipline to choose activities that work towards fulfilling it.
I’m never saying that the lack of a real purpose is the only problem that causes organizational dysfunction. But it is one of the most foundational ones because people are looking to contribute with their roles.
— Brooke Erol
My guestMy guest to help walk us through this topic is Brooke Erol. Brooke is a corporate dropout who pursued her dream of having more meaningful work for herself and others where we are not only seeking money but also contributing to a bigger cause. All her life is spent on writing, speaking, coaching, and consulting on this topic of having a life of fulfilling and purposeful work. She works both with individuals- YourBestLife and organizations – Purposeful Business, Inc.
Takeaways√ Many businesses focus on profits over purpose instead of figuring out how to do both.
√ An organization’s pain point is not necessarily an expressed lack of purpose, but lack of purpose is often the driver below the surface.
√ Leaders at the highest point of an organization — founder, and CEO — must have a deep consciousness to understand the imperative of having and living a purpose fully.
√ Companies often face a litmus test as to whether they are going to honor their purpose in their decision-making,
√ Customers and job seekers should monitor a company over time to see if it adheres to its purpose.
√ The number one reason for the purpose to stick is the 100% commitment of the CEO or the founder.
√ Instead of trying to save the whole world, find one area where you can have an impact, and let that be your purpose.
Suppose we saw the term “people pleaser” as no more than a label others use when describing our behaviour. (Not who we really are note, just some of our actions.)
And suppose we mischievously asked some searching questions of that label – what it assumes people pleasing is caused by, for instance, and precisely what behaviours is it describing.
Should such a label be somewhat problematic, might such questioning make it less so?
Let’s find out.
____________________
Insecurity, low self-esteem, perfectionism, and the fear of rejection cause people pleasers to do what they do apparently.
- Mmmm – who’s never felt insecure? Doesn’t insecurity describe all of us?
As a young man and boy I would people please to minimise the chances of being beaten up. Apart from one occasion it worked. I think of it more of a survival strategy than an affliction.
- Low self-esteem, again, I bet you everyone has had times when this has affected them. But that was then, it isn’t now, is it?
I had a dad who expressed his love by continually pointing out what I hadn’t achieved, not what I had. It left me thinking I could never please him because I’m just not good enough. But that was then, it only comes alive for me now through memories, which I have some agency over whether I pay attention to them or not.
- Perfectionism – okay, okay, I know this can lead to chronic procrastination, but doesn’t it have an upside too?
Wanting to get things right, perfect even, so others can benefit from our work tells me someone cares. It’s only problematic when things never get done because of…
- ..The fear of rejection, which makes taking the doing-nothing-is-better-than-being-rejected option attractive. But need it be?
This is a big one for me. I was born with a club foot, a black eye (forceps) and was unable to sleep for months, which brought pressure on my parents’ marriage. Not what you’d call a little bundle of joy.
Family rifts over homosexuality, two divorces, a 24-year estrangement from my two daughters, and the suicides of friends and family can all trigger rejection memories. For large parts of my life, these led to bouts of depression.
As I’ve gotten older though, these have dwindled to a trickle, and only happen for short bursts of a few hours say, nothing like the months on an end as before.
Why?
I put it down to understanding that I am separate from the thoughts and memories that arise in my head, which were at the root of my low moods. When I realise I’m not my thoughts, the opportunity to interrupt them or not taken them too seriously arises, which simply could not have done when I was unaware of this.
Sure I still feel the fear from time to time, I just don’t dwell on the memories that create it and my tendency to catastrophise about the future which only makes it worse!
That’s why I’m writing this right here, right now. Several years ago the fear of rejection that might come from sharing this with you, would have left me in that chronic procrastination loop.
Having subjected the causes of people pleasing to a bit of scrutiny, let’s see how we might counter six specific behaviours it produces.
- You agree even when you disagree
What if you flipped this and disagreed with yourself on an issue you felt strongly about?
Take some really contentious issues – the existence of God, the legalisation of abortion, or capital punishment, for instance. See if you can put the case to yourself of those who take the opposite view to you.
Seeing the reasoned cases of both sides in a dispute or conflict helps you interrupt the automaticity of always agreeing with someone to get validation, say, or lower the fear of rejection, or any of the other causes mentioned above.
- You apologise too much
Would you rather be someone who never apologises or one who can do so readily when it’s called for?
Saying sorry can be a strength, so I encourage you to not be too hard on yourself here. Focus on what does and doesn’t need an apology and why. It’s this more-precise reasoning that will help you interrupt your automatic tendency to say sorry.
- You always have someone double-check your work
What if you reduced the number of times you asked for this to be done gradually – by 10% a week, say?
If you try this I encourage you to notice how more self-reliant you feel once your dependence on someone else reduces. They might appreciate having more time too.
- You are constantly burdened by other people’s feelings
Could understanding the idea of projection help you?
Before I delve into that, let me say I totally ‘get’ this burdensome feeling. When you’re concerned about another, especially a loved one, it’s very easy to feel the weight of that.
In psychology, there’s something called “projection.” It happens when we find a troubling emotion too difficult to handle, so we project it onto others via blame or simply sharing it. It’s a bit like passing a hot potato, we don’t want to get burnt so quickly pass it on.
Self-talk rooted in some of the causes above – insecurity, low self-esteem etc. – can innocently and understandably make you a great catcher of those projections! Realising that is sometimes all you need to bat the hot potatoes back or shield yourself from a few of them, or just not catch them at all!
It seems to me that ultimately, we’re each responsible for our own feelings. The best gift we have is to help others live peacefully with theirs.
- You rarely accept credit or praise
What if you treated yourself every Friday to small gifts?
Treats mark the progress you’re making in not taking the unhelpful thoughts, feelings and sensations, which arise automatically in you, so seriously. Progress such as speaking your own mind and not just responding in ways designed to please others.
Treats are a form of self-praise that, perhaps, haven’t occurred to you before, because, quite understandably, in order to survive and thrive, you’ve paid more attention to what others think of you. What’s it to be – chocolate? A long walk? An hour in silence? What else?
- You take the blame when it’s not yours
What if you didn’t blame yourself for taking the blame on others’ behalf?
Taking the blame can have sound reasoning behind it that serves you well now or in times gone by. Maybe it was a survival strategy where the calculation was – take the wrap for this so as to avoid bigger consequences if you didn’t. Taking the blame can also be motivated by wanting others to feel sorry for us, so that we earn their leniency, forgiveness, or favour.
If you’re a blame taker, even when it’s not yours to take, explore what happens when stop blaming yourself for it! Breaking this behaviour pattern begins by being kind to yourself. Zoom in on how blame-taking helped you once, before wondering whether it still does today in every situation you face.
Finally, let me share another way of looking at people pleasing in a workplace context.
For some years now I’ve been reflecting on what delivers real internal contentment to teams. It seems to me being of help to others is key to that. I don’t mean this in a customer’s-always-right kinda way, more that when we help teams listen to understand the wants and needs of those who depend on their work, and see what those they serve would ideally like, don’t get currently, new opportunities to help arise.
Providing what’s missing and being appreciated for it is another way of looking at pleasing people. One I find immensely satisfying personally, and when shared by my team, has a bit of a contagion effect. We all feel good together about the difference we’ve made.
To discover more please visit https://www.rogermartin.me/home
How do you arrive at a ‘meeting’?(Could be any meeting, work, home, family, colleagues, friends, face to face or virtual)
Flustered, in a rush, unprepared, anxious?
Still thinking about the last meeting?
The argument you had this morning and know that it is playing on your mind?
The meeting you must attend at the end of the day is troubling you?
Need to get this meeting finished quickly as you have too many other matters to resolve?
You get the picture…rest assured you are not alone. Most of us arrive at meetings this way. And virtual meetings have made it more so, turn one off, and log in to the next. Off you go. Sometimes, even finishing late, ending it poorly, and arriving late to the next one, apologetic and embarrassed.
Imagine if everyone attending this meeting has any of all of the above going on for them?
What are the chances that the meeting will go well, effective, productive?
I am not saying that we can’t have anything going on in our lives, far from it. Rather, are there some things we can do to navigate these situations, and manage them better?
One simple exercise is to start each meeting with one minute of silence. Each participant notices that they are sitting in their chair, back touching, feet on the floor. Then to take a few deep breaths into the belly, holding and then breathing out and holding again, maybe to a count of 4 in, 4 hold, 4 out, 4 hold, etc.
At the end of the minute, ask everyone, in turn, to share how they are arriving. Far from wasting time, this gives everyone a moment to be vulnerable, if they wish, and to be honest as to how they are arriving, feeling, and thinking. In doing so, it builds connection, it enables empathy and appreciation.
In one group, (where all participants had only just met each other), the first person shared that they were overwhelmed with anxiety about what they would be doing over the next few days together. In doing so, they gave permission for others to be vulnerable themselves. (We reassured them what was going to happen, and they were able to relax).
Had we not asked, this person may not have shared so soon, and we, and the rest of the group, may have wondered if this person was okay. Usually, we display less than attentive signs when we are mentally and/or emotionally distracted.
In a one-to-one conversation with a work colleague, it can play out something like this…
Me: Hi there, how are you doing?
Fine thanks. (Me: They don’t look fine, they don’t seem right…was it something I said, or should have done? So best that I start to ‘armour up’ a little, just in case.). How about you?
Me: I am great thanks. (Said whilst thinking the above).
Are you sure? (They have picked up something and in turn start to ‘armour up’ too.)
Me: Yes, of course, why? (I knew it, I was right, it was something I have done or said.)
Err. (Goodness, there is something not right with them, maybe it is something I have said or done. Need to put more armour on).
You see what can happen.
Even a simple, “Hi, how are you?” can put distance between two people, rapidly.
Have you noticed this happening recently, maybe with your partner?
With my current partner, we used to spend half the week in our own place and the other half together. She lives about 42 miles away and a journey across London can be between 90 minutes and 140 minutes. On one occasion, it was the latter, and when I physically arrived at her front door, I was most certainly not mentally or emotionally. Let’s just say the next hour was not pleasant.
Later that evening, once we had both calmed down, we talked through what had happened and what to do moving forward. We agreed that each time I arrive, we would have a hug, and we would sit down together. We would grab a beverage of choice and sit at the kitchen table.
With no distractions, no judgements, and giving each other our fullest of attention, she would talk about whatever she wanted to talk about for ten minutes. I would give my fullest attention (and in doing so, I noticed I would be calming down, settling, stilling myself, and the journey from hell was receding), look at her eyes, really listen to what she was saying and re-connect with this lovely person.
If she stopped talking before her time was up, I would remain silent and continue to be present for her. I may ask, “And what more”, or the fuller version, “And what more would you like to think or feel or want to say?” And when her time was up, we would swap over and I would be able to share my thoughts and feelings, whilst she listened.
Once we had both had our ten minutes, we would offer a word or phrase of appreciation. Note, that appreciation, (who you are being), is not traditional feedback, (what you are doing), and is therefore always positive. “(use their name), one thing I appreciate about you is your warmth and openness that I felt whilst I was speaking.” The receiver sits with the appreciation, really feels it, and says, “Thank you”.
I know that this is successful and can be used in any setting. People appreciate and value the opportunity to share their thinking and feelings, as well as other times, hopes, fears, aspirations, etc. We all love to feel heard, valued, validated and to know that we matter.
“Listen first, listen all ways, always.”
How are you going to arrive, next time?
The short answer is: probably not. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and robotics are still in the early stages of development, and their capabilities are far from replacing human labor for many jobs. But the rise of AI and robotics usage needs awareness. As AI and robotics become more advanced and cost-effective, industries such as manufacturing, transportation, retail, finance, healthcare, and many others are incorporating automation into their processes. As a result, careers that once relied on human labor are now being taken over by technology-driven processes.
However, this doesn’t necessarily mean humans are becoming obsolete. Jobs in data science, programming, and AI development are growing faster than ever. Plus, as technology continues to advance, there is no doubt that new careers will be created.
At the same time, it is essential to remember that not all careers can be replaced by robots and AI quickly. Professions such as law, teaching, personal caregiving, and many more that rely heavily on the interpersonal skills of humans make it harder to be automated. However, advancements are moving forward even in careers that require interpersonal skills—examples of jobs that will be affected.
- Therapist. QTrobot helps increase children’s ability to interact with therapy while reducing anxiety.
- Lawyers. DoNotPay is an APP that acts as a lawyer.
- Squirrel, China’s largest AI-driven learning platform, is about to expand globally.
- Nursing Home Employees.
- Robotics for Ageing Well, the UK attempts to continue developing robots for aging.
- Care Robots, Japan’s decades of development continue to advance as new technology is developed.
Some careers are disappearing.
- Artist. AI art generator platforms continue to grow.
- Editors. There are now multiple AI-driven platforms that complete editing tasks.
- Farm tractor driver. John Deere’s first fully autonomous tractor is impressive.
- Fast food workers. Robots will continue to be employed as the cost of having employees rises.
- Chipotle has Chippy, an AI kitchen assistant.
- McDonald’s has begun the first-ever robot restaurant in Texas.
- White Castle has Flippy, a robot cook.
The Unknowns.* ChatGPT. The effects of technology on careers are just beginning, but expect it to impact teachers, middle-management, data analysts, journalists, HR and training professionals, accountants, and many other professions. * Sophia. The world’s first robot citizen with unlimited uses.
Ultimately, the rise of AI and robotics is transforming how we work. For those looking to remain competitive in the job market, staying updated with technological advancements is important. Secondly, learning new skills and knowledge will become critical to stay relevant in the ever-changing job market. With the right skills and knowledge, individuals can use advanced technologies to their advantage and create careers that will help them stay competitive in the future.
Many of us remember Carl Sagan, a famous American astronomer, cosmologist, author, and producer of the show Cosmos. Sasha Sagan is the daughter of Carl, and she wrote a wonderful book about rituals for finding meaning in our unlikely world entitled For Small Creatures Such As We. In the book, Sagan looks to create a set of rituals for her secular family that honor the joy and significance of each experience without relying entirely on a religious framework.
While I enjoyed the entire book on living a secular life while still trying to acknowledge rituals and traditions within a family unit, one passage resonated with me for a longer period. Well into chapter five on confession and atonement she writes about celebrating rituals and traditions for some redemption or rebirth—decorating the Christmas tree each year, for example, or those traditions that happen only once in a lifetime like baptisms and funerals. She also speaks of possibly making up her own secular holiday to atone or celebrate, and she chose the one I have unofficially followed for many years: March Forth.
“My mother and I have often thought that March 4th would be a good date for such a secular holiday. When you say it out loud, in English, it sounds like a bold command. It’s a pun that seems to cry out a directive to improve or ‘evolve.’ In a footnote to the book Pale Blue Dot, [Carl Sagan] describes the events of March 4, 1953 BCE, when the five planets visible to the naked eye aligned perfectly, ‘strung out like jewels on a necklace near the great square in the constellation Pegasus.’ This was observable in China and may have been ‘the starting point for the planetary cycles of the ancient Chinese astronomers.’ Up until that moment, they had a completely different view of the universe and our place in it, but faced with new evidence, they changed their worldview, abandoning what no longer made sense.”
Sagan goes on to write “My brain cannot help drawing connections between the verb march and the month March, the adverb forth and numerical term fourth. It’s nothing more than a happy coincidence, but if it hadn’t been for this event it would have been another. March 4th is as good a day as any to repent. This needn’t be a day to beat ourselves up for being human but instead shake off what we can no longer stand up to scrutiny, and to bravely march forth into the personal and philosophical unknown.”
When you say it out loud, in English, it sounds like a bold command. It’s a pun that seems to cry out a directive to improve or ‘evolve.’
I have been recognizing March 4th as a kick-in-the-butt motivational holiday for many years. When I was younger, I used this day on more than one occasion as a starting point for a diet. For many reasons, notwithstanding the mention above by Sagan, this date is much better for atonement than, say, January 1st. So many people announce New Year’s resolutions to exercise more or eat less, but in the dead of winter you are more sedentary and homebound by default, and neither of those things is as attainable as in springtime, during warmer weather and more opportunities for exercising outdoors.
Springtime is by its very definition a time of rebirth, with new sightings of animals, buds on plants and trees, lawns peeking out from the snow and greening up, and so much more.
The warmth of longer days pulls you toward the idea of wanting to get out and move, a much more natural motivator than the gray harsh cold of the shorter days of winter. Thus, march forth.
Several years ago, at my last place of employment, a workmate was fired on March 2nd. The following day, the bulk of his workload was dumped on me in a very unprofessional manner by my supervisor, who basically tried to blame me for that person being let go. My manager’s behavior and actions challenged me to decide if I wanted to continue in my role there, in what I suddenly perceived as a more toxic environment. After a night of contemplation, I chose to rise up and power through the situation—on March 4th—and will always remember that day of coming into work with a new set of goals for myself as a person. A few years later, the recession hit, and we experienced some layoffs and pay cuts the last week of February due to losing a large client. I was not let go but took a cut in pay and again was assigned some additional work of those who were let go. Once again on March 4th, I chose to march forth, but to proceed with caution and take a closer look at my career and where I was headed.
I get motivated to do something—anything—to improve upon what I currently have.
Later that year, I started to retool so I could be better prepared to leave this job on my own power instead of being blindsided by a future layoff. I started applying for jobs and went back to college at the age of forty to get an IT degree and learn web development. I began networking with others on several platforms to develop relationships and connections. From there, I took a job at UW-Madison as a production worker and then 18 months later a supervisor, taking me down an entirely different path of leadership and growth that I never could have imagined before taking those actions.
More recently, March 4th has come more quietly, but the corners of my mouth curl up slightly and I get motivated to do something—anything—to improve upon what I currently have. As my “inner planets” align and adjust my worldview each spring, I strive for change and to evolve into something more than I was before.
It should come as no surprise according to the recently released 2023 Edelman Trust Barometer “A lack of faith in societal institutions triggered by economic anxiety, disinformation, mass-class divide and a failure of leadership has brought us to where we are today – deeply and dangerously polarized.” That said it’s more important than ever for leaders to establish themselves as trustworthy entities.
A trustworthy leader establishes strong relationships with their followers and team members. It’s no secret trust encourages collaboration and inspires commitment to shared goals. Not to mention working in an environment which creates trust develops a positive environment where people feel valued, respected, and supported – are less likely to quietly quit.
Trust paves the way for the creation of stronger relationships, better communication, increased productivity, and better decision-making. Not to mention reduces stress.
That said, it’s so easy to lose confidence in a leader who fails to show us they are reliable, and possess integrity and honesty. A trustworthy leader encourages others to be vulnerable enough to place their confidence (faith) in another’s ability to act in their best interest – without the need for constant monitoring or control.
Building trust is important for a variety of other reasons as well:
Aside from developing solid relationships: It allows for open and honest communication; something we are in desperate need of now. When you trust someone, you’re more likely to speak openly and honestly with them without fear of being judged, criticized or laid off. This can lead to better understanding and stronger relationships – when ‘buy-in’ is required of a team to effectively complete the job.
Increased productivity: Trust can increase productivity in the workplace. When employees trust supervisors and managers, they’re more likely to be engaged, motivated, and committed to their work. This can lead to increased productivity and better performance.
Better decision-making: Trust can also lead to better decision-making. When you trust someone, you’re more likely to seek their input and take their advice into consideration when making decisions. This can lead to better outcomes and a more effective decision-making process plus reduced stress – something we’re sorely in need of in today’s changed world.
6 Leadership Skills Which Build Trust:1. Open Communication: Transparent leaders communicate in a way which shows they are open to feedback – sharing their vision, goals and challenges with the team and actively listening to and discussing input received. 2. Empathy: Being empathetic and understanding regarding the needs and concerns of team members is critical to building trust. 3. Accountability: Leaders who hold themselves accountable and take responsibility for their actions build trust with their team – including admitting mistakes, commitment follow through; holding others accountable. 4. Consistency: Leaders who consistently demonstrate their values and principles build trust. Consistency in communication, decision-making and behavior establishes a sense of predictability and reliability essential for building trust. 5. Competence: Leaders who are knowledgeable and skilled in their field build trust. Demonstrating expertise, providing guidance, and solving problems competently shows the leader is credible and capable. 6. Integrity: Leaders who are honest, ethical, and uphold their values build trust. Their actions match their words and they prioritize doing what is right over personal gain.
Leaders who communicate openly, show empathy, hold themselves accountable, demonstrate consistency, exhibit competence, and operate with integrity can build trust with their team members.
Bottom line – Trust can take different forms and built over time through consistent actions and behaviors that demonstrate reliability and honesty. Conversely, it can be broken or lost through actions or behaviors which violate expectations or standards of honesty, reliability, or integrity.
Only a handful of people actually do what they know to do. Take the best seller Think and Grow Rich. Since 2011 70 million copies of the classic have been sold worldwide. The book synthesizes what successful people do that the unsuccessful people do not … and have done for 200+ generations.
Hill was a reporter who kept up with some 500 citizens that were healthy, happy and wealthy, to find out their secrets. It was Andrew Carnegie that offered the 20-year ‘job’ to Hill.
Today’s most successful people use this plan, whether they have read the book or not. Men have much of this knowledge inherently — that is it is in their DNA. You only need to watch a man step up to the plate on inner confidence and desire, even though he knows he is not qualified. Women don’t do this.
If then, more than 70m copies have been sold and it contains the most concrete plan for expedient success, you must ask yourself this question:
Why aren’t there 70 million millionaires? Every person that can read can be a millionaire or a billionaire.
Because we “don’t do what we already know to do!” And we continue to add more and more information to what we do know — still not applying what we know.
It’s not having knowledge that is power. It is the consistent application of the knowledge over time until it becomes habilitualized. That is the POWER.
Take a quick inventory of your books and programs in which you have invested financially and never used. You are not alone. We are invigorated with new information, yet acting on it isn’t as invigorating — it actually takes something.
The difference between knowing and doing is often called the performance gap.
Why don’t we do what we already know to do?We have a slew of beliefs, paradigms, or clusters of ‘ways of being’ that are automatic. We’ve believed them as true for so long they’ve taken hold and we don’t even notice them.
The beliefs are based primarily on the beliefs of others … those we love and admire and whom we want to please. Unfortunately, most beliefs of others are of lack and limitation rather than abundance and opportunity. These beliefs have been ‘engineered’ by default in our subconscious mind or what the Ancient Greeks referred to as our ‘heart of hearts.’ I will cover how to ‘engineer a belief’ later.
As children when we ‘stubbed our toe’ we became more and more careful where we put our toes. It didn’t take long to learn that by noon the sand at the beach is so hot you must run to give your feet a chance to cool between strides. We run faster or we wear shoes to protect our tender feet.
Likewise, when we are embarrassed or ashamed as children as a result of our behavior, we tend to shy away from repeating that behavior. It’s a protection of sorts … when we are children.
Perhaps your first time in front of the class in early elementary school, sharing a report you wrote, you misunderstood the instructions, reported on the wrong book, and classmates began to laugh and chide you. Fighting back the tears, we plant this truth to protect ourselves, “I’ll never get up in front of a group of people to speak again.” Maybe that’s why some people say that public speaking is a fate worse than death for most!
This protection works well as a child, yet those habits and inner dialogue are ‘still running your life.’ And as adults, this does not serve us very well. We allow ourselves to be stopped from acting on ideas that light us up … mostly because we don’t know how. And the fear of crossing the gap of performance is greater than our desire to have what we want. And we have a host of beliefs that say “it’s selfish to want more,” or “there simply isn’t enough money to go around.”
These beliefs keep us playing small and taking no risk. The level of our reward is always the perfect reflection of how much risk we are willing to take.
The process of developing the beliefs of others follows us into adulthood, adding more opinions of others, including television and news reporters. Negativity sells, so by default, we are ‘filled with’ the negative points of view of others. When you harness the “power of pause” as you step from ‘knowing to doing,’ you will see that you always have a minimum of two perspectives or answers to every question.
So it makes perfect sense that when we go to ‘step’ from knowing to doing, there is a great Fear of the unknown between the two. You want it and you start out, yet when things get dark and you can’t see how you can do it, you step back to safety.
Not only are you hearing your own inner dialogue such as “I’ve tried before and I’ve failed,” or “I’m not smart enough or deserving,” or “Someone else is better at this than I am,” if you share this with others you will also hear “are you crazy, you’ve never done that before,” or “who do you think you are,” or “go get a regular job” (one of my favorites).
It’s a battle for the one conscious thought over which you have control over. Why wouldn’t you back down if your inner self doesn’t believe you can do it and others don’t either?
These beliefs are held by both men and women, and for women it is critical that we overcome them. While men automatically step up to the plate in business, women do not. It doesn’t matter initially if the man is not competent … he’s first at bat. It’s not too long before you realize that just because they ‘stepped up’ does not mean ‘they’ will necessarily navigate the gap.
After 45 years in corporate America, my experience is that I more often than not — and my female counterparts — ended up more often than not ‘finishing up’ what they had started!
Why? Because we have been finishing up and cleaning up after our families for more than 200 generations! We’re good at it, yet we don’t have time to finish up after others and still grow our own businesses.
Here’s an example. Ready to start, a dozen thoroughbreds are at the starting gate ready for the first race of the season. Behind the row of gates, one woman is in charge to get all the horses down the track and cross the finish line.
Three, two, one, and the starting gun is fired. As the horses leave the gates, the woman is behind them. Watch her running sideways behind the horses slapping each one as she runs by, saying, “come on boy, you can do it!” Back and forth she runs, egging all the horses on, and finally, they all cross the finish line at the same time. We bring everyone across the finish line but no clear star or winner.
Now put a man behind the gates. Three, two, one, and the starting gun is fired. As the horses leave the gate, the man is behind them. See him pick out the middle horse and run behind only him, slapping and chiding him to go faster. Finally, that one horse crosses the line first and wins the race. He is the star.
Women must learn to practice laser focus on one idea … and bring it home, to the exclusion of all else. Men already do this naturally. It’s not our way. We are the nurturers and peacemakers. Women make sure everyone is a winner. That doesn’t work in business.
Navigating the performance gapWhen we must step into the gap to apply knowledge and move toward what we want, it is a given that we are afraid. Afraid because we do not know HOW we’ll get across. Our experiences have us automatically stop short. If we do not cross the gap we are destined to going to the edge on one idea, shrinking back; going to the edge on another, and shrinking back again.
To solve this problem, I wedged a large coin with a thick edge in the gap. Now you may cross the divide on the edge of the coin.
What value does ‘crossing above the gap’ provide?1. You are physically higher than you were before so you have vast vision of both sides of the gap. You see all sides of your obstacle or issue. You see why you shouldn’t cross over and why you should cross it, and the best way to do it. You get to make an objective and responsive decision. 2. You have a high level of awareness of your current potential. You can see once you have chosen to proceed the precise steps to the ‘doing’ side. 3. Even if you ‘slip’ the edge is wide enough for you to pull yourself back up. Your ‘muscle of Faith’ is developed enough so that it ‘lifts you’ back to the coin’s edge for a clear view. 4. Decisions that take you from knowing to doing as quickly as possible allow you to grow your business with consistency, momentum and results. 5. Once you are practiced at hopping across whenever you have something new to tackle, you become the Champion for other women who have not found their own ‘sea legs’ and are inspired by what you are doing and the results you are getting. 6. You can use this image whenever you know what you want to do and need to do to forward your business yet are afraid. Every time you lift yourself to the coin’s edge, your intellect grows, and soon it becomes a habit.
The Champion has developed Faith … Faith in herself and Faith in our Universe and how it works.
She lives by the following values from which she avidly seeks their wisdom. These values and laws operate all the time, whether we are aware of them and how they work, or not. Take for example the physical law of gravity. The result of taking a jump off a cliff is well-known to all of us. Down we go with an impact that matches the depth of fall and our physical condition. So you don’t jump off cliffs.
What if all the principles below also worked all the time and you not only were aware of them, you also studied and applied them in growing your business. You would have an extraordinary advantage and step into the realm of ‘the few’ who are not only wealthy — they are healthy and happy. These principles in action spike business growth and momentum and keep it consistent when applied over time. The idea is to have these values become part of you — automatic, or habitualized.
When we begin our careers, we have yet to learn about the pitfalls we may soon face. The same applies to building a business. Those who do succeed are the ones who heed life lessons to overcome unforeseen challenges and move beyond. But for those who don’t, excuses fly for quitting to exclaim their track was not to be. The slogan, ‘think positive!’ offers much merit and is to be with us at all times.
My Story
When we surround ourselves with similar-minded people, motivation for one another picks up as ideas emerge. To my surprise, someone asked me to provide him with motivational quotes, to which I responded: I’ll be happy to do so, but can you tell me why you ask? He then answered that his goal is to help students and those starting their careers. The answer was perfect, as that is my mission, too.
On another level, the quotes I heard and accepted throughout the years motivated me to push past the obstacles before me to achieve my desires. Accordingly, we need to heed life lessons when we desire to accomplish all we hold in mind.
Below you will read one quote spoken to me that started me on my unique path, and the ones that I created upon experiencing seemingly the worst of the day to arrive at better moments. May they inspire thought for you to move forward with a smile!
In My Youth
Bullies surrounded me everywhere, and I shriveled up to cry on one occasion. But the same day, everything changed when I heard:
If you don’t stand up for yourself, no one else will.
The Benefits: Personal and Business
The one quote saved me from ever allowing another to pull me down with them. Heeding the advice, I began to tune into the personality of everyone I encountered. I began to carefully listen to their choice of words, plus watch their body language and facial expressions. If any sign of inconsistency or rudeness were evident, I would set the person on their heels to ask many questions to examine their responses and behaviors further.
People called me intuitive, but that is only sometimes correct because I was heeding life lessons. Accordingly, long before I knew it, I grew into the personality that successful salespeople possess.
Question, listen, and clarify to sell well.
Persistence Will Keep You In The Game
Business Advancement
“When the going gets tough, the tough get going.
Never give up; find a better way.
Seek the nuggets of gold in the nasty remarks to launch your business forward.
Baby steps every day will get you to your goal.
Nothing is impossible with the desire to figure out your best path forward, regardless of what others think.
Remember, you are unique, and what will or won’t work for others may not necessarily prove true for you.
Eliminate the rhetoric, ‘you should,’
A. Being competitive helps you to win trophies and some recognition. However, being collaborative gives you a much wider audience with far greater opportunities to achieve the success you never imagined
B. People who brag do so because they have a severe lack of confidence
C. When nastiness is yours for the keeping, put on your well-oiled super person cape to fly upward, and the darts fall to
the floor.
Leadership Success
The better leadership style is to be inclusive and embrace diversity and inclusion. Listening to understand brings about a more comprehensive range of possibilities. People from varying backgrounds possess various experiences from which we may all learn. By embracing and acting upon the concept, your perspective widens, solutions will deepen, and success will expand.
Never brag about accomplishments, but share your best insights with people following your lead so they may advance and, one day, lead others.
‘Believe, Become, Empower.’
Self-Reflection
Every morning awake with renewed enthusiasm for your long-term vision and focus on that goal to do what is necessary for a baby-step advance every day. Keep a notepad and pen near your bedside if the thought comes to capture it in the middle of the night, and then quickly go back to sleep. Before you retire in the evening, write what you need to complete the next day.
Entrepreneurships
- Trust is the soul of sales and all else that you do.
- Consistency in words, actions, and deeds develops trust and builds a reputable brand.
- A dedication to learning plus trial and error to retry will get you to your goal.
- Our worst experiences are our gifts in disguise.
- Respectfully listen to all perspectives to realize the gold nuggets previously unknown.
- The collaborative effort can bring about exponential growth with supportive peers.
Heed Life Lessons to Improve Relationships
Strive to be among people who accept your ideas, admire them, and contribute more so you may all be successful.
The sales term cold calling of days long ago referred to an aggressive pursuit of prospective clients. However, cold calling today can refer to making friendly professional connections and attracting interest in what you offer minus aggressive techniques. The style works very well.
To receive better introductions, be respectful of all. No matter who you encounter, their professional title matters not. However, what matters most is how you treat them because they know the executives who can help you advance.
Above all, be truthful with consistency intact. Your words, actions, and deeds are essential because friendship underlies all your interactions and all communications. You need to demonstrate what people want to know about you to attract them to your services and see the business expand.
In Conclusion: Heed Life Lessons
Believe in Yourself! Nothing is impossible with the mindset to continue, no matter the obstacles in your path. Positive thinking will help you arrive at your destination only to move beyond! Looking back, you will be amazed by all that you have accomplished.
Those who do succeed are the ones who heed life lessons to overcome unforeseen challenges and move beyond. But for those who don’t, excuses fly.
Staying focused and productive can be a challenge when everything seems to be tugging for your attention. My clients often tell me that they are overwhelmed with so much to do and want to know how they can be more productive.
Here are 15 of my best tips.
- Plan your day before it starts
You are in control of your day and your calendar. Deciding what you plan to achieve sets the tone of your day. It keeps your mind focused. And a focused mind can achieve a lot.
- Read and write down your goals every day
This daily reminder will mentally put you in a positive state to accomplish those goals in the best way possible.
- Use a default diary
Set up a default diary and make sure that you have time scheduled to complete important projects and tasks.
- Prioritize your work for the day
While reviewing your plans for the day, identify the most important things you need to do. Focus on the most critical work first before doing everything else.
- Analyze your activities to identify and minimize time wasters
If you want to free up some serious time, start with doing a skill/fun box exercise to determine what you need to do and what you should delegate. My clients have reported to me that they hear my voice in their head asking: “can’t someone else do that?”
- Learn how to delegate well
Delegation is not abdication – nor is it micromanaging. Delegation is a skill that you can learn – this will help: How to become a master of delegation.
- Reduce inefficient communications
Develop a regular team meeting rhythm including a daily huddle for managing employees. When it comes to communicating with clients or vendors, sometimes a phone call is faster and more effective than an email.
- Break large tasks into smaller tasks
Have you ever looked at something on your to-do list and thought to yourself: “I don’t even know where to start”? The best way to start is by breaking that large task into smaller tasks.
- Take a break when you need one
When you begin to feel overwhelmed and stressed with work, take a break. Breaks are necessary to recharge your brain cells to be more focused when you eventually resume.
- Manage interruptions
Interruptions will break your flow and significantly impact your productivity. If you need to do some focused work turn off your phone notifications, close your office door and make yourself unavailable.
- Concentrate on one thing at a time
Once you have identified a key task, stay on it until it’s 100% complete.
- Work every day towards achieving a long-term outcome
One of the best ways to achieve your long-term visions is to be more productive in your short-term goals. Work towards your long-term goals by actively accomplishing the daily goals you set for yourself.
- Simplify your work process
Sometimes we fall into habits of doing things the same way every time without stopping to look for a better way. Can you get the same thing accomplished in 5 steps instead of 7?
- Learn how to terminate unproductive discussions
Find a way to politely extract yourself from casual chitchat. If you have completed everything on the agenda, end the meeting early and claim back some time.
- Set communication rules for your peers or subordinates who bring you questions or problems
Ask people to do these 3 things before they come to you:
- Write down the problem. Reduce it to a single sentence.
- What are the three best solutions or suggestions for the problem? Write them down.
- What do you recommend?
Being more productive is an intentional decision to make. When you are clear about what you need to do, the above tips can really help you make the most out of each day.
Sometimes “increased productivity” isn’t the answer
If you are uncertain about your goals and your most important priorities or if you know you need to make significant changes to how you are doing business and aren’t clear about what those changes need to be it might be time to consider working with a business coach.
“98% of the words we hear come from people seeking to profit from our decisions. Seek, instead a happier, more meaningful life by listening to your own heart.”~ Clark Finnical
“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.” ~ Charles Darwin
“Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.” ~ Anais Nin
“I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions.” ~ Steven Covey
“Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again … more intelligently.” ~ Henry Ford
“Challenges are what make life interesting and overcoming them is what makes life meaningful.” ~ Joshua J. Marine
“No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking.” ~ Voltaire
“When We Accept the Fact that No One Can Fully Understand What We’re Capable of Or How Driven We Are, We Can Set Aside Their Opinions and Pursue Our Dreams.” ~ Clark Finnical
“If you’re not humble, Life will visit humbleness upon you.” ~ Mike Tyson
“The Only Words More Powerful than the Words You Say to Yourself, Are the Prayers You Say to God.” ~ Clark Finnical
“It is our attitude at the beginning of a difficult task which, more than anything else, will affect its successful outcome.” ~ William James
“You can let life defeat you……and mentally check out with all of its consequences. Or, You can decide, I’m going to work through this. Because it too will pass. And tomorrow will be a better day.” ~ Clark Finnical
“Until you value yourself, you won’t value your time. Until you value your time, you will not do anything with it.” ~ M. Scott Peck
“Life is 95% Opinion and 5% Facts. Remember that, the Next Time Someone Questions What You’re Doing.” ~ Clark Finnical
“Reinvention involves growing up. Growing above and beyond the hurts and memories of the past.” ~ Steve Chandler
“If you don’t separate yourself from your distractions, Your distractions will separate you from your goals and the life you want.” ~ Louisa Alcott
“Everything Worthwhile Has A Personal Cost.” ~ Frank Reagan, Blue Bloods
Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you.” ~ Saint Augustine
“Nothing ever goes away until it has taught us what we need to know. Nothing ever really attacks us except our own confusion. Perhaps there is no solid obstacle except our own need to protect ourselves from being touched. If we run a hundred miles an hour to the other end of the continent in order to get away from the obstacle, we find the very same problem waiting for us when we arrive. It just keeps returning with new names, forms, manifestations until we learn whatever it has to teach us about where we are separating ourselves from reality, how we are pulling back instead of opening up, closing down instead of allowing ourselves to experience fully whatever we encounter, without hesitating or retreating into ourselves.” ~ Pema Chödrön
Grammar is a tough subject and one that few of us paid much attention to while in school. We were too young to have known that this stuff would be important when we grew up; we had enough trouble just being young!
How could we have guessed that as adults, we’d need to know how to write the correct word or how to use the correct punctuation, no matter which version of any language we grew up learning?
English – like most other languages – is somewhat different depending on a country’s version, which is why I always remind folks that my knowledge is based on the American style and may differ from what you know.
In terms of typos – a kinder word than “error” or “mistake” that suggests someone merely mistyped a word rather than screwed up – there are many kinds, but here’s one I see often.
Forgetting to use an apostrophe in abbreviations of yearsMost writers who use English know that we can shorten phrases like “she would have” or “he is” by removing one or more letters, and inserting an apostrophe to show that something’s missing from the original form.
We know that “she would have” can be written as “she would’ve” and “he is” can be written as “he’s.”
But many writers probably have never stopped to think about the point of using it – that the original had MORE letters, and we can’t just drop them out without replacing them with something – which, by rule, is an apostrophe.
Are you with me so far?
Well, the same idea holds true for years (individual years, decades, or centuries) – in 1994, the 1960s, the 1900s – there are four numbers in each, and when we decide to remove the first two, we can’t just pretend they were never there!
We need the apostrophe in the exact place the first two numbers were, the same way we place it in words with missing letters.
So it’s either 1994 or ’94, the 1960s or the ’60s, or the 1900s or the ’00s.
Of course, depending on context, abbreviating a decade or a century might not work; without the first two numbers, there could be confusion if we are writing about more than one.
And yes: We are supposed to use the apostrophe, which is always the right single quote mark (’).
So the next time you want to abbreviate a year, decade, or century, just remember to use the apostrophe in front of the two numbers that are left.
Image by rawpixel.com
This series is targeted at leaders who are interested in learning about how to create a legacy. Upon investigation, most leadership legacy resources focus on the organization you are leaving, the financial portfolio you leave behind and even the transition plan to the next leader. It is hard to find one article that focuses on…well…the leader…you!
Leadership LegacySo, I thought I would put three different legacy paths together in this series to help you discern what might be in your wake and hopefully, in your bow waves as well.
We are starting here, with your Leadership Legacy. It was crafted with the knowledge that not many leaders fully retire. We often find consulting gigs, or projects and boards to be part of and it’s that blurred line that is worthy of some reflection here.
We often see executives jump into consulting roles as they get closer to the end of their official careers. Some say it’s because they can’t put up with the bureaucracy anymore, while others say that their knowledge is antiquated. I imagine it being not so much about these things but a nice big realization that now is the time to live an active life with some work to keep us purpose-filled. It feels good to be able to golf for a few weeks between contracts or do some work in the morning and hike in the afternoon.
But as you get closer to day hiking and golf lessons, it behooves you to take some time to reflect on the wake you are making. The wake of what you are leaving behind in your own career. Not in your company or in your transition plan. This is about you specifically. Are you known as a hard-ass? A financier that focuses only on cost-cutting? The CEO that makes shareholders happy?
List them out if you can – better if you can perhaps ask someone you trust to give you their thoughts as well:
- What are the themes in the work you have done?
- What do you personally want to be remembered for?
- How can you make that truer with the time you have left?
Focusing on your legacy helps craft connections between what you want to be remembered for and what themes currently exist. My hope for you is that they are not that far apart. My other hope for you is that what makes it truer gets you excited about your final days in this role.
If this is hard for you to visualize:
- What do you really love to do?
- What networks are you part of that can make use of those much-loved skills?
- What boards would open those doors to help you use those skills more often?
If we thought of semi-retirement as a true career transition (from one job to the next), we can certainly wrap our heads around the idea that what you leave behind is important to your brand. The difference is that now, it’s not just about your brand, you can now focus on things you love to do, the challenges you enjoy strategizing for and the successes that further deepen that important legacy.
You may be a CEO for a technology company however you may also love arctic adventures – what can you do to make both of those things work for you? While being on the Board of a VR Expedition Company is not your idea of fun, know that it all comes down to what are you known for today and what you want to be known for 5 years from now.
What do you need to do today to begin filling the gap between those two things? It should be closer and easier than you think.
Being someone who sometimes (ok well maybe often) misses the moment to stop and celebrate the joy, success, achievement of a given moment because I have my eye firmly planted on the future and what’s still to be ‘done’, I have been reminded over recent weeks of the power of taking a moment to celebrate and to share joy and enjoyment with others.
In the organisation world, one of the things that comes up so often in the work we do with Executive groups is the need to ‘celebrate success’ as they spontaneously recognise for themselves that they are too focused on ‘what next’.
Celebration is an important aspect of life – it can be a witnessing of achievements, it can be a moment to spread joy amongst a group, it can be an opportunity to honour oneself or a group. What strikes me even more deeply though is that celebration can have a deeply unifying effect…it helps to build connection, bonds, positive shared experiences, and a sense of well-being. When done alone, it can be nurturing and empowering, when done with others it can be contagious and amplified.
Celebration tunes us into gratitude and gratitude has immensely positive effects, psychologically – that is both mentally and emotionally.
We start to notice the smaller things that we take for granted – in ourselves, in others, in our world, and in our life as a whole. The more we celebrate and connect with gratitude the more powerful our radiance will be. When we radiate we strengthen our well-being – a wonderful virtuous circle.
So, it’s worth asking ourselves regularly, what can I celebrate today? What and/or whom am I grateful for in my life? How will I make time to celebrate alone and with others? As leaders, these are important questions if we want to build a culture of appreciation, possibility, and powerful contribution.
Unlike a lot of employee engagement initiatives (incidentally on which companies are spending billions each year, with no real improvement in engagement scores or turnover), gratitude is FREE. However, to really capture the benefits offered by having more gratitude in our professional worlds, it’s not quite as simple as encouraging your people to say thanks to each other, although that’s certainly not a bad idea, either.
ENJOY ALL PRIOR PARTS HERE︎
Gratitude at Work – The Results are In… Spoiler, it’s REAL GOOD!
In the next two installments, we’ll look at five different ways your company could incorporate gratitude as a regular business practice. Depending on your sphere of influence or control and the current vibe in your company when it comes to unconventional culture innovations, see if any of these sound like good starting points for your organization. And if you love the concept but would like to kick around ways to actually get it off the ground, let me know. I’m happy to brainstorm or help you build the business case!
Recommendation #1: Frame gratitude as a formal company value. Maybe informal gratitude is already tacitly part of how some of your people interact with each other, so your employees already recognize that leadership currently endorses gratitude to some degree. If this sounds like your current culture, consider making intentional gratitude practices part of your formal way of working. Many organizations dip their toe into the gratitude pool by kicking off a gratitude challenge as part of their employee well-being portfolio (or around Thanksgiving… pet peeve of mine!). Or maybe gratitude is a completely novel opportunity. Wherever you are on the journey, I encourage you to frame gratitude as a company value rather than a well-being initiative.
Employees need to have the psychological safety and trust to engage in well-being initiatives, and even if you’ve already got strong levels of both those, when schedules are already full it can be difficult to try to incorporate a new practice or make time for gratitude.
Some companies do encourage employees to make time for well-being initiatives such as mindfulness programs or other initiatives, so you may feel like the opportunities are already there for people. However, many people, whether they’re already approaching burn-out or are just experiencing normal levels of competing priorities feel frustrated trying to balance self-care opportunities alongside intense workloads.
And when you’re trying to shift mindsets, executive sponsorship of culture initiatives is crucial for success. Have your leadership team really spend some time with the concept of gratitude in the workplace and how it can positively impact both the employee experience and the resulting organizational outcomes that are impacted when your employees are more engaged and more excited to be part of your teams. Get your most recent employee engagement and turnover data and keep that front of mind as you focus on this opportunity to make meaningful improvements.
Just a reminder of some of the value propositions for gratitude we discussed earlier in this series:
- 70% of employees would feel better about themselves if their boss was more grateful
- 81% would work harder if their boss was more grateful
- 95% of employees agree that a grateful boss is more likely to be successful.
- Employees who experience more gratitude at work report fewer depressive symptoms and stress. Lack of gratitude is a major factor in driving job dissatisfaction, turnover, absenteeism, and burnout.
- In recent surveys, half of the people said they regularly said thank you to their family members, but only 15% say thank you at work, and 35% of people say their managers NEVER thank them.
- In research cited by the Wall Street Journal, the workplace ranked last of places where people express gratitude, with just 10% of people saying thank you to their colleagues and only 7% saying thank you to their supervisor.
Recommendation #2: Encourage gratitude as a daily practice for everyone. Reframe gratitude as a valued daily practice and incentivize participation. Many of the people I worked with in my study already valued gratitude as a personal practice, it may not be as common of a belief in general for individuals to practice in their professional environments. Some may suggest that it is not necessary to say thank you. Given the depressing statistics about how rare gratitude is in most workplaces, you may have to help your people (and yourself) unlearn some bad habits around gratitude in the workplace, especially if you or they spent any of your life in environments that actively – and destructively – dismissed gratitude as frivolous, unnecessary, or even unprofessional.
Encourage employees to add time for gratitude to meeting agendas and to their daily schedule.
To combat this mindset, employees may need more than permission to actively engage in gratitude, especially outside of the usual timeframe of October/November, when gratitude gets more attention due to the Thanksgiving holiday. To do this, have your people leaders lean into gratitude by modeling it as a daily practice. Providing the business case for more gratitude in the workplace may help shift employee perspective from a place where gratitude is seen as a soft skill and reshape it as a business differentiator. Encourage employees to add time for gratitude to meeting agendas and to their daily schedule. Offer suggestions for different ways people might engage with the practice to accommodate a diverse set of personal preferences, information processing styles, and schedules. Positive psychologist Shawn Achor talks about his daily practice of sending thank-you emails to people who have positively impacted his life. I’ve had clients flip this around and pencil in 10 minutes at the end of their shift to wrap the day on a high note by sending a thank you note or email before signing off, so they end their day on a positive note. Leaders might start meetings with a positive reflection founded in gratitude or share kudos with their team.
In addition, if you are lucky enough to work for an organization that has formal supervisor or manager training programs, consider including a module on the business implications of gratitude as well as training on how to actively express gratitude authentically. Many of the people I’ve worked with specifically referenced how being thanked by their supervisors made them feel more valued, acknowledged, and appreciated for the work they do. Several also said they specifically felt it improved the quality of their relationship with their supervisor and their team, and that it had a direct, positive impact on their job satisfaction. Good relationships are a key performance indicator, especially if you’re trying to avoid or reverse significant retention issues, or if you are trying to go from good to great.
Recommendation #3: Make intentional gratitude visible to your employees. While the COVID-19 pandemic forced many organizations to take their work fully remote, and it may be preferable to maintain at least a hybrid environment for employees for the foreseeable future, it is still possible to provide opportunities for employees to see gratitude in practice. Some companies use software such as Harkn, described as, “an employee listening and wellbeing platform”, to allow employees to express their thoughts anonymously while creating a social media-like feed accessible to all employees as well as providing real-time analytics on the general emotional landscape of the organization.
If your team works in the same physical location, consider a “Kudos Wall” or gratitude jar where people can share their positive experiences. Another option would be a virtual gratitude wall included on the company’s intranet, perhaps as a channel on Slack, Microsoft Teams, or Google Spaces for either the whole organization or for individual working groups. A couple of my clients run the text from their team’s dedicated gratitude channel through a word cloud generator each month and include that in the monthly newsletter as an opportunity to remind individuals that gratitude is important and valued on the team.
The organization might also encourage participation by creating a traveling award or conducting a drawing for gift cards or other prizes for those who are recognized through public gratitude channels. In a world where gratitude is not the norm, these approaches keep intentional gratitude visible to all employees and reinforce the practice as one that leadership sees as having value to the organization.
Stay tuned for our final article in this series where we offer ways you can highlight a focus on gratitude for your teams and build stronger connections while improving performance!
In the late 1990s, with several decades working full-time in corporate America under my belt, I was introduced to my new boss at a small scientific company in Research Triangle Park, NC. Serving as desktop publisher (from secretary to technical information specialist) I managed the company’s proposal production department. If you were a secretary in the ’60s and stayed in the field through century end, you had to go through all iterations of word processing, magnetic card readers, MTST a huge machine with a tape on both sides, and more. Without display with the MTST (magnetic tape Selectric typewriter), you would transfer a document from the right tape to the left one having to ‘catch’ where the changes had to be made in between, on the keyboard. All the way through to the TRS 80 (Tandy Radio Shack) … the computer that stored information on an 8″ floppy disk, smaller floppy discs, floppy discs that were no longer floppy, and more. They got small and weren’t flexible. You by this time had to be a master of the craft of being a ‘secretary.’ I say craft as I also learned to write DOS batch files, teach computer-aided drafting systems (CADD) to architects, and more.
About five feet three inches tall and dressed in a well-fitted pantsuit, my new boss smiled and extended her hand which I took and shook. We talked freely and in a very short time, I recognized something very familiar about her. Her conversation included certain words that were ‘coined’ by a transformational technology — one which I had studied in great depth over time. When I asked if she had done ‘the work,’ she said yes, and that “the technology changed her life.” The best part was that since we spoke the same language, I could always be straight with her and not worry about being judged or evaluated on a personal level. We both had done Landmark Education programs.
Over the next few months, I marveled as I watched her fit right in with all the male directors and c-level executives sans one woman director in statistics. She seemed relaxed and confident no matter what she was doing.
One day as we caught up on activities and I sat across from her in her office, I had been itching to ask her something and because of our relationship at this point, I did. “How do you get along with all the men managers so well?” Her answer changed my entire perspective on women in business and became an important milestone in my career. She said with a smile, “I do what they do.”
She was right … she did. I watched her closely from then on and she seemed to interact as they did. They all had short bullet-point dialogues with one another. They shook hands coming and going and they all stood rather still while they talked. I never saw them socializing like their direct reports. They were short, cordial, and to the point. And she ‘fit in’ like a glove.
When I first learned the cold, hard statistics about the gender wage gap — how much more men earn than women for doing the same job, and by when the gap would close — I was in shock.
I began to think of my granddaughters and great-granddaughters to be, waiting to be paid what they deserve while being integral in the financial responsibility of their families. I realized there was not only something I could do to crush that gap … I was fired up about it! I have just the right training, experience, and skills to start teaching women what to do to begin crushing and squeezing the life out of the gender wage gap right now.
And if I didn’t, then who would? Our mothers and grandmothers … and theirs … took their risks on our behalf, stepped out in the face of adversity, and made a difference one woman at a time. It has to be done that way to make steady inroads in more promotions and better pay for women. That is precisely how we crush the gap early and turn the tables in our favor in short order — stepping out, taking action, and taking a stand! Being a Champion for others.
As you read further, see if any of the behavioral business skills mentioned could be affecting your own opportunities for growth in business. Few women have mastered them all, however. It’s about learning, mastering, then habitualizing one skill at a time, at your own pace, which ultimately keeps you inspired and engaged, bringing you one step closer to success. You may feel the laughter of recognition swelling in your smile as things begin to get very clear for you … and you know what to do next.
After 45 years in corporate and 20 years in professional development, it was very clear to me that most women are invisible — not seen or heard by business leaders, both men and women. Being invisible yields lack of credibility. And not being seen or heard gives us almost no opportunity for advancement.
When I held the position of document production supervisor for a company in the healthcare industry, I noticed two small things over the 5 years I worked there.
- While our department was the last pair of eyes on huge proposals (thousands of pages) that had to arrive picture-perfect by a certain time or date (or would end up in the trash), and I ran it effectively, there was no ‘step up’ for me in the organization — no place for me to ‘go.’ No path to director or executive level. I was stuck there or I could choose to leave.
- Small yet telling … after securing an 8 figure contract, the company did ample expansion with window offices around the whole floor. Every single person that had direct reports was assigned a window office, except … you guessed it … me. I had 4 direct reports and was not even considered. When I brought this up to my supervisor, I did get the window office. The point here for me was that it wasn’t even a ‘thought’ in anyone’s mind. That’s invisibility.
During the dot.com era while working for a small tech startup, a coup ensued (not atypical then) during a Board meeting which I attended by phone. When an attendee in the meeting asked about my position, the board member in charge told them all “her services are no longer needed.” For about 10 seconds my blood began to boil and then something magical happened. I did a 180 in my thinking and said to myself, “I don’t want to be where I am not wanted. I have excellent skills and I want to be working with people who appreciate what I bring to the table.”
Figure 1 Whether small business or corporate, women are invisible.Women are invisible in business, therefore not credible, and passed over for deserved opportunities for advancement.
Isn’t it time for you to be visible, credible, and enjoy opportunities for advancement? I say YES, it is time!
Were you at all surprised that women are earning far less than men? No? I didn’t think so.
It has been this way since I can remember when my mother’s part-time job for ‘pin’ or ‘mad’ money in the late ’50s and early ’60s, turned into a full-time job in the ’70s, and by the ’80s, all her wages were required to support the household. Earning less is frustrating for you — today’s working woman. You are challenged to make ends meet, you may well be ‘doing it all’ on your own, and you live longer, paying more for insurance.
Business success today has its own personality .. and you likely guessed that — it is male. It made perfect sense to me when I realized for the past 200 generations or so since we began recording history, that history was recorded and read by men, and then the virtues and timeless principles recorded were practiced by men in business, consistently and repeatedly over time, until their way of doing things effectively, simply set the landscape for success in business. It became automatic — a habit.
During that same 200 generations of course women were developing their own unique skills including leadership, collaboration, and peacemaking.
If we had had the luxury of declaring ‘in 5 years we’ll go into business,’ between now and then, we could learn the skills required to be as successful as our male counterparts before we even started! No. We’re already in the thick of it. And most of us are like fish out of water in business
I suspect men becoming ‘house husbands’ while their wives work, experience the same fish-out-of-water experience, as their inherent skills are not very useful in successful home management.
Figure 2 Men have set the context for business success through the ages.Men are unaware of the source of their own influence in business as they are a collection of inherent and hidden habits.
Quiet quitting is a description for people who are unhappy in their job but, for whatever reason, don’t feel able to leave.What does it mean to be a quiet quitter?
Quiet quitting is a description for people who are unhappy in their job but, for whatever reason, don’t feel able to leave. As a result, they reduce the effort that they are putting into their job, doing the minimum and nothing beyond. Quiet quitting as a term took off in the summer of 2022 after a US TikTokker posted a video that went viral saying “work is not your life”, as reported here on BBC News. This resonated with the post-Covid feelings of millions of employees.
But it’s a significant threat to both short- and long-term organisational performance. And it’s something that all company executives and leaders should be concerned about and take action to address. It eats away at all aspects of the effective operation of the organisation; its ability to deliver strategic objectives and achieve its vision.
Employees who are quiet quitting are a real drain on team performance and can negatively affect workplace culture.
What’s caused quiet quitting?Quiet quitting has always been with us but the Covid-19 pandemic massively increased the potential for it. It’s caused by the same drivers which gave us the ‘Great Resignation’. So, what caused the Great Resignation? One simple phrase explains both quiet quitting and is the impetus for the Great Resignation – our experiences create our perceptions. These then determine our behaviour at work in response to different situations.
As the Great Resignation, or indeed also the great ‘I’m not even going back’, started all of us had come through two years of being locked in and locked down. We all saw serious illness on a scale that none of us had ever experienced. Some of us also suffered a personal tragedy. It brought home to each of us how precious and short life could be. As a result of this potentially traumatic life experience for all of us, lots of people reprioritised what was important in life. For most, this meant that the importance of work significantly dropped compared to the importance of family, free time, quality of life, and well-being. It was probably the greatest reality check many of us have ever experienced.
It was those changed perceptions that raised the benchmarks by which we measured what we wanted and expected from work, especially from our leaders.
What drives quiet quitting or resigning?People are no longer prepared to tolerate poor leadership, overwork and antisocial hours, unfair rules, not being treated with respect, having our private lives undervalued, and not being able to grow and develop as a person or see a positive future ahead. So the benchmark against which people measured their leaders and organisations was raised. Leaders who were tolerated before the pandemic were now seen in a new light and seen as unacceptable – so people left. Analytics firm Gallup reports that this is reflected in falls in employee engagement in many countries.
The reasons for which people left organisations are likely to be very similar to the reasons which trigger quiet quitting, so it’s worth looking at the headline reasons for departure as reported by management consulting firm McKinsey & Company.
These include:
- Uncaring leaders: not feeling valued by the boss or the organisation
- No sense of belonging
- Lack of flexible working
- Lack of visible potential advancement
- Unmanageable workload
- Lack of engagement
- Poor work-life balance
However, how many of us are in a secure enough financial position to leave our jobs without one to go to? Not many. Not everyone can leave when they want, despite a rise in those prepared to do so even without a job to go to.
With a leader who doesn’t meet their standards, people who can’t leave will stay as ‘quiet quitters’ until they can. Just doing enough to get by. In particular Generation Z – that’s those born after 1995 – have a very different view of the priority between work and personal time, and what they expect from their leaders and organisations. They view the reasons listed in the infographic more negatively than other groups and expect a greater focus on well-being in the workplace.
It’s also worth noting that many employers don’t often recognise or admit the key drivers for resignations, they say it’s other things which they cannot control like employees leaving through sickness or being poached by competitors to absolve themselves of any responsibility for the departure.
Why is quiet quitting so dangerous?Quiet quitting is more dangerous precisely because you’re not resigning. It can have a greater negative impact on organisations than if people just left. If somebody leaves, they are gone and can be replaced by somebody prepared to give maximum effort – often coming in as an enthusiastic new employee. If they stay, their negative impact could linger for months if not years, and attitudes impact their colleagues.
Despite the damage they are potentially causing, identifying quiet quitters and trying to re-engage them can be extremely difficult for a leader. Those who quiet quit could be underperforming by 30% on their potential performance. Not only that but if their behaviour starts to have a negative impact on others in the team – they become disengaged and damaging. It’s reported by Gallup that you need to have four engaged employees to counter the negative impact of every one disengaged quiet quitter.
Daily examples of quiet quittingIt might be useful to give a few practical examples of what the difference is in terms of day-to-day behaviour between those who are engaged – giving their best – and those who are quiet quitting, by definition not engaged or even disengaged. Here we illustrate the significant negative impact which this can have.
How widespread is the problem of quiet quitting?The figures for the number of people leaving jobs have increased but there is an additional and worrying dynamic. Before the pandemic, most people wouldn’t leave a job unless they had a new one, but now the number who will has significantly increased. Potentially up to 60 to 70% of people are now prepared to leave without a job if they feel they need to, say McKinsey & Company. Global media company Forbes also reports that this is particularly affecting the Gen Z group, where 77% are already thinking of leaving, a precursor to quiet quitting and potentially departure.
This single change in perception vastly increases the ease and speed at which people can leave. No longer does there have to be a long and sustained period of dissatisfaction with your boss or research into potential new jobs. If you don’t care about having another job, your departure decision can be very swiftly implemented and it could be triggered by just one incident which has pushed you too far.
The data on how many people leave organisations versus those who are potentially quiet quitting is dramatic. Standard organisational turnover could be between 10 to 15%, but in annual surveys, the number of people who say they might consider leaving organisations if they could find a better job is around 40%, rising to 54% for Gen Z. So we can potentially make the judgement that for every person who leaves an organisation there may be 3 or 4 staff members considering it. So a significant number of people could be quiet quitting to some degree. Therefore organisations potentially have a quiet quitting iceberg – the danger hidden under the surface and almost impossible to assess.
How do you measure quiet quitting and the wider problem?While I say that getting evidence of individual quiet quitting is very difficult at a strategic level, an aggregate picture with reasonable accuracy can be obtained using employee engagement data. This data groups employees into three populations:
- The engaged – people who are giving their best.
- The not engaged – people doing enough to get by or sometimes giving their best depending on how they feel.
- The disengaged – people actively avoiding contributing to the organisation.
It’s unlikely that your engaged people will want to leave because, to be classified as engaged, they will have given feedback confirming they are having a positive experience, and their work is consistently good. Your quiet quitters are within the ‘not engaged’ or potentially even the ‘disengaged’ groups depending on how disaffected they are. The ‘disengaged’ are much easier to spot than the ‘not engaged’ because there are often weak elements within their performance. Whereas the ‘not engaged’ can be performing satisfactorily but just not giving their best – withholding their ‘discretionary effort’.
Quiet quitters are embedded in these ‘not engaged’ and ‘disengaged’ groups – and potentially in large numbers. Data from Gallup’s workplace engagement survey 2022 shows levels of employee engagement. This is the percentage of employees giving their best. In most European countries it’s under 25%, with the UK at a dismal 9%. In the USA and Canada, employee engagement levels are a more respectable 33%. The differential between the US and Canada, Europe in general, and the UK are significant – why this is happening is a bigger question for another article.
This means that in the UK, on average, 91% of employees are either ‘not engaged’ or ‘disengaged’ so not giving their best and therefore could be quiet quitters – this is horrifying! But even in the US and Canada, with a 33% engagement rate, it still means a potential quiet quitter population of up to 67%.
Have you ever come to a solution right after you stopped thinking about it? Walked out of a planning meeting where no one seemed to have the answer and BOOM.. you are on the elevator and it comes to you? That is because the mind works best without the weight of external pressure. Many times the answer is there, but can’t be revealed until we stop, and play.
I believe we can build and rebuild our strengths in play at any age, but we need to start by removing the stigma of play as unproductive or frivolous.
Play is a place where we conquer our fears and open ourselves up to our full potential. Play can change our social interactions, our physical and mental health, our innovative and creative potential, and our drive to take risks, fall, and get up again.
Play answers the question, “What do we do when no one has the answer?”
The creative confidence to develop solutions to insurmountable issues comes from confidence, motivation, trust, and innovation. Watch children turn trees into tree houses, and puddles into oceans, jump from rock to rock, miss a step, and get back up.
Now consider what you experience when someone loves the work they do. What do you feel like in their space? What do you see, hear, and say after encountering people who love and are good at what they do? They are “in play” physically, cognitively, and emotionally; they are invested. What if we could build or rebuild the place where we are most open to learning, least self-conscious, and our most authentic self?
We are only brushing the surface of some of our most difficult societal challenges because we try to overcome them without exploring our full potential. Play gives us perspective and experience. However, play is hard work for many people, as they have to climb over a mountain of guilt, judgment, shame, and long-held beliefs about productivity and the seriousness of work to even imagine it as a driver for change. What if we changed the way we think about play.
What if we said that play is the catalyst to igniting and developing the “soft skills” that drive innovation, productivity, and passion, and focused on developing and growing them?
Play can be the catalyst for conversations that might never have happened, revealing others’ strengths, fears, abilities, and concerns that might never have been discovered otherwise. Play allows us to unravel prejudice, bias, expectation, judgment, and self-consciousness. It creates a reduced physiological stress response and an openness to authentic conversation. But it cannot do that without the foundations of trust, respect, connection, and belonging; that’s where rebuilding happens.
Play disrupts our standardized way of looking at the world — it invites us to change without shaming.
Formal coursework is just one of many methods for developing leaders. One-to-one mentoring, experiential learning, on-the-job training, online workshops, and stretch projects with coaching can also be ways for effective leadership development among the conceptual, people-focused skills needed in leaders. The best model combines all of these elements in a systematic and positive way.
Companies and organizations are built to do what they do and aren’t really designed to be flexible and take advantage of the learning their leaders are being given.
Unfortunately, this seldom happens and when it does, it still fails over the long haul. Deborah Rowland (Why Leadership Development Isn’t Developing Leaders, 2016) cites the weakness of leadership development programs as curriculum-based programs that bear little resemblance to the workplace reality. “Participants,” She said, “are taken out of their day-to-day workplaces to be inspired by expert faculty, work on case studies, receive personal feedback, and take away the latest leadership thinking (and badges for their resumes)” but what aspiring leaders learn in the workshops doesn’t match what is needed in the workplace. Authors, Beer, Finnstrom, and Schrader in “Why Leadership Training Fails–and What to Do About It (2016) noted, “American companies spend enormous amounts of money on employee training and education—$160 billion in the United States and close to $356 billion globally in 2015 alone—but they are not getting a good return on their investment.” Why? Their article offers several reasons why that seems to boil down to built-in challenges and inertia. Companies and organizations are built to do what they do and aren’t really designed to be flexible and take advantage of the learning their leaders are being given.
My personal favorite is action-based learning. Sometimes, simply diving in and “failing forward” as John Maxwell puts it is the best way to figure out one’s own leadership style and developing success skills. It’s the old story of learning how to swim, which actually happened to me. My dad, who had been a lifeguard and on his high school swim team, decided when it came time to teach his son how to swim, took me out to the swim platform in the middle of an upstate New York campground and threw me off. I remember quite clearly struggling to reach the surface while a wavy image of my Dad looking down at me shimmered just out of reach. After I finally clawed my way up and was gasping for air, Dad said calmly, now paddle like a dog. And just like that I was moving forward in the water.
Of course, I didn’t do this to my own boys (although I thought about it, but my wife nixed the idea). To this day, I tend to prefer to simply jump in and let things sort themselves out.
What do you think is the most effective method of developing leadership skills?
Project management is a well-architected, deliberate approach with well-defined moves and routines to accomplish the set objectives (at least, that is the predominant view of how project management is conceptualized). The idea is to simplify things, make work visible to people assigned to the project, and provide a sense of direction to get the job done efficiently. In hindsight, as such, project management is expected to promote order and certainty (as much as is practically feasible).
This could mean that the basic role of project management is to reduce disorder or uncertainty within the system, in this case, a project organization. Or, in other words, reducing entropy within the project organization. From a socio-economic systems perspective, entropy is defined as the degree of disorder or chaotic state of a system (Markyna & Dyachkov, 2014).
Given the above, we can redefine project management as a soft skills-based approach that aims to reduce uncertainties and maintain order with an expectation to help reduce the entropy of the system (in this case, a project organization) and keep the free energy or exergy of the system available as much as possible. The availability of free energy is critical for the performance of useful work in a project-based or non-project-based context. Reducing uncertainties and disorder (as much as possible) is important for enhancing work efficiency, as it will help people use free energy to perform work rather than deal with the disorder.
In a similar vein, we can define the entropy of a project system as the degree of uncertainty or disorder present within the project organization that has the potential to impair the project organization’s efficiency and output.
The above discussion points to the value that project management knowledge is expected to bring to a project when it is used for the management of projects. However, the good news seems to just end there.
It is no secret that projects fail (often miserably) and face all sorts of problems. This is despite the fact that extensive guidelines and knowledge about how to manage projects efficiently and successfully are available. Even if we don’t look at the plethora of statistics available on project failure rates on the internet, we can find many real-life examples all around us that illustrate the failures and problems that projects face.
The situation raises many questions.
- Do projects fail or face problems because people don’t have the right skills, knowledge, and capabilities?
- Do projects fail because the environment in which they are being executed is not conducive to a successful outcome?
- Do projects fail because guidelines and standards are not compatible with the way projects are executed across different environments and cultural variations?
But the most important of all: do projects fail because project management as a holistic approach is unable to reduce or control the entropy of the system?
While it is safe to say that multiple factors and actors play a role in the success or failure of a project, it is worth examining project management as a domain (taking a holistic view) to see how much it has been able to reduce the entropy of a project system. Or, conversely, what is causing it to not be able to lessen or eliminate the potential entropy of the system? In hindsight, such introspection is vital for the evolution of project management as a discipline and building knowledge in a way that potentially enhances project success rates.
In relation to the questions listed above, finding answers requires significant effort, and this article does not aim to achieve that. However, the goal here is to highlight the importance of investigating the utility and role of project management in reducing entropy, as well as to highlight some of the areas that aid in achieving such goals. So, what could be some of the areas that could help reduce entropy through the use of project management? While there is no fixed answer, paying attention to the following areas could help.
- People
One way to help reduce entropy is to provide people with skills and training. If people are well versed in the work that they need to perform and have the right capabilities, it is likely that they will be able to carry out that work efficiently both in certain and uncertain times. It will help reduce disorder caused by people themselves and hence reduce the potential for entropy within the project system.
- Time management
While a lot of planning is done to accomplish project work, it is often the case that projects face time delays and schedule overrun issues. The occurrence of such issues often results in disorder within the system, and entropy sets in. Therefore, planning time management and carefully following through are critical to reducing entropy.
Project management provides a number of tools and processes to manage time. They can be used to manage time more effectively. However, either people don’t follow the plans or they lack skills in time management, which then result in project delays. Therefore, an introspection on the cause could help in finding the source of the problem, which could help in reducing potential entropy.
- Process management
Process management is another area that could help reduce entropy. Processes that are too strict or too lax may be counterproductive. People may find it difficult to follow too stringent processes and may become disoriented if they follow too loose processes. Either of the two could result in uncertainty and disorder. Therefore, to help reduce entropy, project organizations need to take a balanced approach to process governance so that they help maintain order rather than generating disorder within the project system.
Conclusion:Given the structured nature of project-based work, it is expected that the use of project management will help maintain order within the system. However, the alarming rate at which projects fail and face all sorts of problems raises the question of whether project management is able to build order within the project system.
Answering the question requires a thorough investigation. But, in hindsight, it seems that a lot more needs to be done to help project management build order. In this regard, we have looked at three potential areas of attention with the expectation that focusing on these areas will help maintain order and reduce entropy within the project system. Needless to mention, the discussion in this article on the role of project management in entropy is of a preliminary nature and is only meant to spur some thought.
References
Markyna, I., & Dyachkov, D. (2014). Entropy model management of organization. World Applied Sciences Journal, 30(30), 159-164.
Note: This article was previously published on: https://www.academiasolution.com/Entropy
We need to tell each other our stories. We need to show that everyone — our neighbors, our families, our community leaders — everyone we know is touched by corruption.
— Jennifer Lawrence, actress.
You Africans Are All Corrupt, In Sweden, There Is No CorruptionIn 2004, I was a guest lecturer at The Gambia Hotel And Restaurant School. I asked my students to share any experience they had during their work placement. One of the students who was working at a poolside bar shared the following story.
It was a slow afternoon and a Swedish couple were the only customers for about an hour when 2 other couples came to relax near the pool and have a few drinks. The Swedish tourist told me to provide drinks for everyone. I severed everyone and after finishing their beverages the 2 couples left the poolside leaving the original Swedish tourist. A few minutes later the Swedish tourist asked me for the bill. He gave the bill to him and he immediately said, this bill is wrong, I did not order all these drinks. And you Africans are all corrupt. The bartender said to the tourist, corruption is an English word is it not? Yes, it is an English word. Sir, what is the Swedish word for corruption is korruption. Well sir, if there is no corruption in Sweden, why do you have a word for it?
Integrity, transparency, and the fight against corruption have to be part of the culture. They have to be taught as fundamental values.
— Angel Gurría, OECD secretary general.
Annual Corruption IndexIn February 2023 Transparency International released the results of the annual Corruption Perception Index for 2022. The CPI ranks 180 countries and territories around the world by their perceived levels of public sector corruption, scoring on a scale of 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean). The country with the least corruption was Denmark with a score of 90 and Canada, my country of birth, was ranked 14th with a score of 74. Jamaica, my adopted country’s score was 69. Oh yes, Sweden, their ranking of 5th least corrupt and a score of 83.
History of Government Corruption In CanadaCanada’s history of government corruption dates back to the earliest years beginning with Canada’s first prime minister John A Macdonald who was forced to resign in 1873. It was known as the Pacific Scandal. The Pacific Scandal was a political scandal in Canada involving bribes being accepted by 150 members of the Conservative government in the attempts of private interests to influence the bidding for a national rail contract.
The following is a Wikipedia link to the history of the List of political scandals in Canada.
We all have directly or indirectly contributed to the corruption in our local, national, and international institutions. Many of us have jumped queues at government services using various types of privileges or possibly been part of much more serious corruption-related actions. We say to ourselves that somehow our actions are not hurting anybody or cause no harm.
The following are a few excerpts from an article regarding the state of corruption in Jamaica, my adopted home. Corruption in Jamaica Improves But Still Requires Attention – The Borgen Project
“In fact, corruption undermines democracy and the rule of law · It hurts the poor disproportionately by diverting funds intended for development. It is a major obstacle to poverty ..”
“Both real and perceived corruption has far-reaching consequences for poverty, especially in developing countries. In Jamaica, where social infrastructure is already lacking, corruption diminishes the quality of life by redirecting vital funding away from critical infrastructure such as healthcare, education, water, roads, and electricity.”
“Although Jamaicans still face an uphill battle in the fight against corruption in Jamaica, the message from Transparency International is very positive. By making anti-corruption a priority, Jamaicans can bring corruption to the curb, and alleviate much of the poverty and social ills that corruption perpetuates.”– Taylor Pace
“Glory and honour for man are not to be found in fortunes and riches, least of all in those which have been unlawfully amassed through extortion, embezzlement and corruption practiced at the expense of an exploited populace.” – ‘Abdu’l-Bahá,
Wow. How can that task be taken on? Well, it requires masterful storytelling, a relentless devotion to serving others, and building, and nurturing an ever-expanding community. Where? Globally.
Enter Gillian Whitney, doing that very thing daily. She is a wise woman of wit and insight who knows changing the world happens one story, one person, one video at a time. Easy Peasy. And yet she has a system. Who is Gillian Whitney? As a video marketing coach, Gillian helps business professionals make videos in a way that is comfortable for them. She loves sharing easy-peasy solutions to help folks get started with video. She believes every business professional needs to be using video to market themselves. Video boosts your online visibility, increases sales, and promotes your business like no other marketing tool.
Gillian is a citizen of 4 countries and a digital nomad. She currently resides in Las Vegas, with her husband and beloved globe-trotting dachshund. Gillian Whitney VideoEasyPeasy.com
We at The Change Zone want to know more. Join us and enjoy more wit, wisdom, and insights. Again – easy peasy!
In Parts 1 & 2 (below), we looked at why organizations should consider ensuring gratitude is a part of their normal business practices, and some of the immediate results when one company did just that. In today’s segment, we’re going to dive a little deeper into some of the feedback from people who experienced gratitude as an active, intentional practice.
Gratitude at Work – One Company’s Story
Connections and team culture. Study participants repeatedly emphasized the impact of gratitude on the quality of their connections with their supervisors, colleagues, clients, and their relationship with their employer. They also pointed to an increase in trust, alignment, and psychological safety in their working teams. These are all strong drivers for performance as well as reducing turnover. Recruiting top talent is positively impacted by healthy workplace culture, and people want to stay when they feel good about their experience as a team member.
Study participants who were in supervisory roles also indicated that gratitude as a formal leadership practice improved their sense of connection with their direct report and felt a positive impact on the overall culture of the team as a result of the shift in tone resulting in gratitude being a regular part of the workplace experience. One participant shared the impact for newer employees who were not part of the study, noting, “I would literally have the new consultants say, Is this normal? Is this normal to appreciate and recognize people?”, and further commented that it felt validating to be able to say that this was something the company actively endorsed.
Job satisfaction. The literature highlights job satisfaction as a key driver of employee engagement. In this study, all participants noted that gratitude had a positive impact on their job satisfaction, and several participants reiterated multiple times that experiencing gratitude from the people around them, including supervisors, coworkers, and clients, had an immediate impact on their job satisfaction. However, it is crucial that gratitude be experienced as an authentic expression and not a forced group activity. Inauthentic expressions of gratitude have the potential to damage the employee experience. If you decide to make gratitude a more regular player in your workplace culture, leadership will want to be very intentional in framing gratitude as a positive practice that must be founded on genuine appreciation for a specific activity or experience to realize the benefits.
Role confidence. Gratitude was highlighted as a contributing factor in role confidence for both experienced employees and those newer to their roles. Participants who were in supervisory roles at the time of this study noted that gratitude allowed them to connect with their direct reports in a positive way, improving those relationships and strengthening the team dynamics, improving their confidence not only in their own work but in the ability of their team to meet business objectives. Supervisors also noted that they had previously believed that gratitude was an important piece of their personal leadership style, and that their participation in this trial validated that belief.
From the individual contributors who participated in this study, several noted that the company culture was a key reason they had joined the company, and their experience as study participants reinforced for them that the company actually takes positive culture seriously, which helped them feel more secure in their role.
Further, participants highlighted the challenges inherent in often being on a smaller working group or the only consultant working on a project and felt that gratitude positively impacted their confidence in those situations. This was noted both in terms of current projects, as it provided positive informal feedback that they were meeting expectations. This also resulted in an increased sense of capability for the individual, which translated to greater confidence when looking forward to upcoming projects to which they already had some visibility as well as a more generalized sense of confidence. As one participant stated, “I feel like I’m walking into this new project with the confidence I didn’t have prior.”
Workplace stress and well-being. The strong response from study participants relating to the impact of their gratitude activities and its influence on their wellbeing and stress as not initially part of the study design, but this theme very prominently and quickly emerged from the data. Participants noted that they felt supported by the company by being allowed to pause periodically to engage in gratitude, and that it reinforced their decision to be part of the organization. They also reflected on how it gave them an opportunity to connect with others, both within and outside of the organization, and that the daily practice created a positive impact on the rest of their workday. Several also commented that they found the practice spilling into their relationships with friends and family members as well, helping bolster those connections.
While this study focused on the workplace, it would be remiss to suggest that stress can be compartmentalized into specific parts of one’s day. Several participants also mentioned that taking time to focus on gratitude for even a few minutes each day provided balance, and an opportunity to reframe their experience as being more positive than they might have been feeling previously. This has strong implications for considering how this practice might be embedded in other well-being initiatives sponsored by the organization or individual employee resource groups.
So how can organizations tap into intentional gratitude to improve outcomes for their teams? We’ll explore some recommendations in the next installment in this series on Gratitude as a lever for improving the employee experience and organizational outcomes.
Good leaders relate and connect with people for the purpose of inspiring and empowering their lives. Good leaders know how to motivate individuals and teams to be the best they can be because they are emotionally intelligent and understand people and what drives them.
Emotional intelligence is the ability to recognize, understand, evaluate, and manage your own emotions as well as recognize, understand, evaluate, and influence the emotions of others for the purpose of relating and communicating more effectively. When you are emotionally intelligent you are able to understand your own emotions and those of others and use that information as a guide to making conscious choices for better outcomes.
Daniel Goleman, Psychologist, and leader in emotional intelligence, states that EI encompasses 5 domains: self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, social skills, and EMPATHY.
According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary empathy is “the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of either the past or present without having the feelings, thoughts, and experience fully communicated in an objectively explicit manner.” At its simplest Empathy is the ability to recognize and experience the emotions of another.
The two most commonly talked about types of empathy are cognitive and emotional.
Cognitive Empathy is knowing, it’s in the mind. This is imagining yourself in another’s shoes. For example, when a colleague is sick you understand they are not feeling well or when a team member is promoted you can relate to their joy and excitement.
Emotional Empathy is feeling another’s emotions. This may be a felt sense of the emotion of another in your body. For example, when someone is crying, and you begin to feel sad, or when you have a meeting with someone that is full of energy and excited, despite being tired you begin feeling energetic.
Feeling someone else’s emotions can be overwhelming and confusing. Therefore, high levels of self-awareness are essential. When you are self-aware you can begin to establish boundaries so that you can recognize what are your emotions and what emotions belong to someone else.
It is important to remember that empathy doesn’t say,” I will take on all of your emotions and problems and lose myself in your troubles.” Empathy says, “I feel what you are feeling. I understand what you are going through.” And it asks questions for the purpose of understanding.
Empathy isn’t agreeing. It is validating. It’s letting someone know they matter. Validating another’s experience is one of the most powerful things a leader can do.
There is also Compassionate Empathy. Empathy is what moves you to feel compassion and compassion is what drives you to act and want to relieve another’s suffering.
Empathy reminds us that we don’t really know what the other person is going through, and it gives us the opportunity to learn more. Empathy invites us to cultivate compassion and curiosity for ourselves, our experiences, and for others.
Imagine walking into a meeting feeling energetic and confident and without anyone even speaking you knowing and feeling the frustration, anger, or hurt in the room. What are you going to do? Would you continue as planned? Is there potential for a better outcome knowing your emotions and the emotions of the room?
This could be the opposite where you walk into a room feeling sad or depressed and the energy of the room is positive, happy, and uplifting. If you are aware, you have a choice. As a leader, it is your job to set the tone and energy for your interactions with others.
You don’t adjust to the energy of the room. You shift it.
The traits below relate to the energy that you bring to a room. They help you inspire emotions in others that support trust, compassion, curiosity, psychological safety, insight, innovation, and more. You don’t have to embody them all—explore them to see how they feel and practice one or two that come naturally.
Sensitivity. This ability to pick up on the emotions you feel within yourself, from the person you are talking to, or from a group.
Solidity. Imagine being a mountain: you are grounded and present as well as open and receptive. This aspect will influence how people respond to you.
Voice. The words you choose, the tone of your voice, your pauses, and your rhythm will impact how receptive people are to your vision and leadership.
Authenticity. Find your own style by identifying when you feel the most natural and be the person you are in that moment. You must be authentic for people to trust you.
Disclosure. Be willing to be vulnerable and to share personal stories. A “hero’s journey” makes you more relatable.
Non-identification. What other people choose to do is not always because of you. Not everyone will follow your lead, so don’t take it personally.
Curiosity. Ask questions, listen intentionally, and explore ideas, values, and experiences in an open-minded and genuine way. When you are receptive, it opens space for others to be as well.
Celebration of success. Recognize, acknowledge, and revel in small successes. This encourages others to have supportive mindsets and perceptions.
Leading with empathy has countless personal and professional benefits The benefits of being an Empathetic Leadership include increased confidence in decision-making, improved well-being and resilience, effective communication for better relationships, reduced stress, overwhelm, anxiety, and burnout
Empathy also cultivates trust, a sense of purpose and belonging, boosts productivity & engagement, supports effective collaboration, improves culture & motivation, elevates customer satisfaction, increases innovation as well as psychological safety, and even increases sales, loyalty, and referral-giving offering businesses a greater competitive advantage and market value.
Empathy is a gift we can all practice. Understanding empathy can change your life, the lives of those around you, and even your business.
In what ways will you embrace being an empathetic leader today?
In these times it is quite common to hear about social loneliness, mainly attributable to technology.The research on the motivations that drive us to communicate online has identified mainly five: maintaining social relationships, meeting new people, social compensation (compensating for communication difficulties present in offline relationships), social inclusion (the need for belonging to a group), have fun. Therefore, the motivations are mainly relational and relationships with others assume fundamental importance when we decide to connect to the network.
The Internet and social networks allow us to stay constantly in touch with our friends, to meet new people who may be on the other side of the world, to be updated on everything that is happening, and to facilitate our approach to others, making us more casual.
We want to be in control of situations and technologies seem to promise us this power. We increasingly tend to flee from direct relationships and prefer mediated communications.
Never in human history has there been so much communication, which, however, does not lead to dialogue, which today remains the most important cultural challenge.
In the new digital world, ignoring whoever is in front of us to answer a cell phone call or reply to a text message has become the norm.
Sounds unbelievable, but with the proliferation of text messages and social networks, it has come to consider it more polite to reply with a message, perhaps mileage, rather than calling that person to speak directly. In short, it is thought that text messages have the purpose of minimizing intrusions into other people’s time. Instead, I think it’s just the opposite: it’s better to send messages or use similar technologies only for impersonal or urgent matters.
The fact is that human relationships are complex, demanding, and often difficult to manage, and for this reason, the technological medium is surprisingly useful for relationships with distant people. They are very powerful tools, yes, but not yet as powerful as a look, a gesture, or an authentic contact. Furthermore, social media often offer us a distorted, we might say “adjusted” view of reality.
Instead, the face-to-face conversation is in real-time and there is no control over what will be said.
Whenever possible, we should appreciate more the richness of face-to-face conversation, because it creates more meaningful bonds with others, helps us to learn more about ourselves and the world around us, to listen to each other, and also through that verbal communication which is not always possible in online interviews.
Abandoning the internet and eliminating virtual communications is clearly not the solution. We run the risk of isolating ourselves. Especially for people who grew up with it, the internet is an indisputable part of life’s ecosystem, creeping into every crack, regardless of our conscious decisions. But with a little goodwill and common sense, one can learn to use technologies to complement, rather than replace, relationships. Also because today we know that, if practiced in excess, solitary distraction on a screen reduces happiness and can lead to mood disorders such as depression and anxiety.
It’s a sort of mirror room in which we don’t confront each other, we don’t really expose ourselves to the dialogue which, instead, presupposes that I want to expose myself to someone who thinks differently, even running the risk of being wrong.
We won’t go back to the life we lived before this kind of technology, of course. However, we can and must use it carefully, even in the interest of our health.
As Valentine’s Day approaches, love is in the air. And while this whole topic is highly charged in today’s workplace, there’s a brand of ‘love’ that’s not only appropriate but also necessary in our contemporary business environment—one that can drive engagement, job satisfaction, and bottom-line results.
Leaders who want to make a positive impact on their employees and their organizations will benefit from showing their love through these four strategies.
Loop others in. Information is the lifeblood of productivity and achievement. And connections with others nourish employees, contributing to qualitative outcomes like happiness and quantitative outcomes like loyalty, retention and even customer satisfaction. So, find ways to loop others into what’s happening and facilitate relationships that deepen connections and commitment.
Offer the resources and support required for success. There is little that’s more demoralizing than trying to do good work and being thwarted by not having what’s necessary to make it happen. Ensure that people have the equipment and materials they need to succeed. Make training available so they have the necessary skills and knowledge. Remove roadblocks—systems, processes, rules, and limitations—that undermine employees’ ability to do their best work. Offer what’s necessary and then step back and see results follow.
Vary responsibilities. Variety is the spice of life… at work too. When possible and desirable on the part of employees, mix things up a bit. Allow people to explore different tasks, learn different skills, play in different sandboxes. The expanded perspective that becomes available as a result of these opportunities enriches one’s current role, opens doors to possible new roles, and keeps everyone fresh, engaged and growing.
Earn respect. Employees crave inspirational leadership. In research I conducted last year, people indicated that one of the things they want most at work is a supervisor who they can trust and respect. Be the leader your people need and want. Earn trust and respect through your day-to-day behavior, interactions, and decisions.
Want to capture the hearts and minds of those who work for you? Ditch the chocolates and offer this kind of authentic, genuine attention that individuals crave and need to perform optimally. Want to drive remarkable results? All you need is this kind of LOVE.
I speak a lot on the Art of Caring Leadership, but not everyone’s leadership style is the same. Although kindness and empathy should be at the forefront of whichever leadership style suits you best, each role you have throughout your career may look a little different and require you to switch up your approach. Some leaders are more oriented with coaching and developing an organization and some may be more focused on team building and providing solutions as a team. Whatever your leadership style is, it’s important to not only remember that there is always room for growth and improvement, but be open to the fact that your leadership style may change over time.
The CoachIf any of you have children, you likely already know the importance of what having a good coach as a leader does for your child as they develop their skills. If they enjoy their coach, they enjoy the sport, which makes them want to be loyal, work hard, value teamwork and achieve the best they can. Much like that, leaders who favor this type of leadership approach work to encourage and support each team member’s strengths so that employees can develop to their full potential. A coaching leadership style also focuses on developing overall team performance. Just putting your time and effort into one individual won’t drive the results you seek. It’s important to learn about your team’s strengths and weaknesses as individuals and apply those assets where you see fit. And again, just like sports, you may have one or two people on the team who are excellent athletes (or excellent employees) but the final results depend on team performance, not just one individual. A focus on communication is also an important part of this leadership approach, as coaching people involves guiding them and offering constructive feedback to help them improve.
The EngagerWhen people feel heard, valued, and understood by their leaders, their engagement typically increases as a result. Recognizing not only your team as a whole but each employee individually plays a huge part in showing how much you truly value them and what they bring to the table. I personally feel this leadership style should always coincide and encompass another as engagement drives loyalty. Engaged leaders prioritize connecting with their employees on both a professional level and a personal level to understand what’s important to each individual. When your people know that you care about their overall wellbeing, the lines of communication remain open and transparent and their efforts will show.
The AuthoritiveAn authoritative leader has total control and power over the team, and serves as the sole decision-maker, which means not allowing your team to have any input on said decision making process or what tasks they’re assigned. This is often also referred to as “top-down leadership” or “command and control leadership.” While authoritative leaders may have productive teams that benefit from clear instructions, quick decision-making and not needing to worry about coming up with improvements, many organizations consider this type of top-down leadership to be “old school.” And in my opinion, it certainly is. This type of leadership style can become problematic as it fails to harness the best ideas of the group as a whole, which can limit innovation and decrease your employee retention.
The CollaboratorContrary to the above, collaborative leaders want to involve and engage their team members in the decision making process. If you are usually very transparent with your people and you have a goal to ensure that everyone not only has a seat at the table, but a voice that’s heard and encouraged in every meeting – you likely hold this type of leadership style. This approach is also commonly accompanied alongside another and proves that you value your people’s opinions. The benefits to this type of leadership is when you do collaborate with your team, ideas and solutions are usually brought about that may not have been produced in a one man show.
The ObserverLeaders who have a high level of emotional intelligence may make strong, observant leaders. They help others identify their own talents and are able to foster building strong relationships with both individuals on their team as well as others within leadership. By building these relationships, it provides you with a better insight on your people as this leadership approach requires you to be able to look beyond the surface and recognize the unsaid. Observing your people’s moods and body language will help you learn to recognize when things or individuals in the workplace feel ‘off.’
ReflectionMany of these leadership approaches often accompany one another and/or compliment each other. Which one relates the most to you?
While styles of authoritativeness may succeed in the short term, encompassing caring leadership and the many qualities that brings, creates long-term success.
By building a positive and uplifting culture, your leadership can showcase your employees’ well-being and teamwork while increasing engagement and playing into a successful overall organizational performance.
Most people do not regularly experience gratitude at work, either as recipients or as an active intentional practice of their own. And yet we know that just generally, when we feel appreciated, we feel and do better. What would happen if we purposefully made gratitude a regular part of the “ways of working”? This question had been nagging me since I first started down the path of focusing on employee experience, and now I had the great fortune to partner with an organization that had already dabbled in a gratitude challenge for their employees, and they were interested in seeing what impact a more robust trial might have.
ENJOY PART 1 BELOW ▼
Hey, Thanks! or, the Power of Gratitude in the Workplace
It was unknown how gratitude practices would influence job satisfaction or role confidence for the company I was working with. Their leadership was keenly interested in employee engagement and understanding the levers and mechanisms which drive this core metric. Further, with an eye to considering future opportunities for product offerings, the client organization wanted to gain an understanding of how gratitude might be positioned as part of a product offering in an employee wellness portfolio of services, specifically with an understanding of the return on energy investment for the individuals in an organization.
Current engagement scores have averaged in the 57-65% range over the last three years, with their 2020 survey reporting an average engagement of 70%. Although this represents some improvement, leadership was aiming for engagement scores in the 80-85% range. This desired engagement level was targeted in terms of both creating a culture that is attractive for prospective new talent—a key consideration in innovation companies—as well as retaining talent in an industry where success relies on technical competence, and turnover was a significant risk to both.
The desired outcome of this study was to gain insight into the potential for gratitude to favorably impact individual employee job satisfaction and role confidence and to identify any appreciable differences in that impact on engagement scores that might be observed when comparing the result of internal and external gratitude practices to allow further longitudinal research on the impact of gratitude on employee engagement when practiced over long periods of time or by a larger percentage of employees at all levels of the organization. In short, the organization wanted to learn if gratitude could create a competitive advantage, and this study was the first step in the process.
For my research-happy peeps, for this work, I opted for a qualitative case study design to explore how intentional gratitude practices could impact job satisfaction and how those practices could be improved to allow the partner organization to realize greater performance outcomes. There isn’t an easy way to quantify gratitude (or job satisfaction, actually…. I wish somebody would discover a cheek swab that was reliable for this stuff!) This study also aimed to fill a gap in existing research by extending knowledge on the impact of intentional gratitude practices in the workplace.
The conceptual framework for this study was built upon the theory that employee engagement is seen as an intersection of two forces: employee assessment of personal job satisfaction, and organizational artifacts which support well-being. Job satisfaction tends to increase when employees believe that the work they do has specific value or the results are seen as being worthwhile in some aspect, and when they have high-quality relationships with the people with whom they work. You may have recently seen an influx of articles about belongingness or the importance of relationships at work, which are based on the same foundational work.
Gratitude in personal practices has been shown to improve life satisfaction and to strengthen relationships. Would it have a similar impact at work?
That’s what we were hoping to learn, through the lens of two research questions:
RQ1: How do intentional gratitude practices influence job satisfaction?
RQ2: How can intentional gratitude practices be improved to increase job satisfaction?
The first question explored how intentional gratitude practices impacted job satisfaction for employees, and we identified several ways in which gratitude, both intrinsic and extrinsic, had a positive impact on not only job satisfaction but also employee confidence, well-being, and stress. Study participants in both groups noted that gratitude had a wide variety of positive impacts on their relationships with clients, supervisors, colleagues, and their perception of the organization.
Participants noted the increase in trust and team alignment, including with group members they knew were not part of this study. Several participants also commented that they noticed a “ripple effect” with gratitude, where one person would express gratitude for a specific action or experience, and the recipient would often reciprocate with an expression of gratitude themselves, creating a positive feedback loop that improved team morale and culture. This was also credited with having a mitigating effect on workplace stress, both in terms of work-related stress as well as more generalized stress based on current global and societal issues, such as working remote due to the COVID-19 pandemic and other political and economic issues.
Another prevalent theme was that having the anchor of a daily gratitude practice helped both focus attention on what was going well, but also over time they noted themes emerging, which reinforced existing positive perspectives or mitigated stressful situations such as complex project challenges or the complications caused by working in a remote environment.
The second question explored ways that intentional gratitude practices could be improved to allow for the organization to continue to realize these benefits or even increase the impact of these practices for employees and the organization as a whole. All participants noted, sometimes multiple times, that it was helpful to have organizational support for taking time to pause and experience gratitude intentionally, noting that it can be difficult to prioritize non-billable activities such as self-care or gratitude, and they appreciated the company’s overt support for this activity.
Another common theme was the belief that gratitude should be considered a core leadership value not only at the executive level but also cascading through the tiers of the organization. Two participants mentioned that they felt it could be a positive addition to leadership development for newer people leaders within the organization, with multiple references to how receiving gratitude from one’s supervisor had an immediate and lasting positive impact for the recipient both in terms of job satisfaction and confidence.
Additional findings were that participants in supervisory roles noted the belief that gratitude as an intentional workplace practice could have a positive impact on employee turnover rates, as well being a beneficial opportunity to connect with and reinforce the supervisor-direct report relationship. This included the supervisor’s own observations and experiences, as well as having the opportunity to share positive client feedback with team members. This reinforces individual contributor sentiments that positive client feedback was beneficial, especially for those working on very small teams with limited interaction with others.
Table 1
Key Findings for Research Questions
(Source, Ratekin, S.A, “Gratitude as an Organizational Performance Lever”, Proquest, 2021)Next time we’ll look at some feedback from the people who actively experienced gratitude in their workplace during this study. How about you? Have you expressed or received gratitude at work lately? How did that impact you? I’d love to hear about your experiences!
If you have recently been promoted or plan to step up into a more senior leadership position in 2023, these are the three areas you can focus on first to set you up for success and avoid burnout.
- Reassess your personal and professional boundaries.
- Explore what gives and takes your energy.
- Make self-care part of your daily routine.
Reassessing your boundaries is essential. Still, it is one of the main challenges our Executive Coaching clients face when they take on a new role, which is always different from what they experienced in their previous position. Ignoring this will only lead to further challenges in the future.
Gaining awareness about what gives you energy and what takes it away will pay off massively in the future as you become aware of how to recharge during your busy week and learn how to mitigate too many energy-zapping tasks or activities. And lastly, many leaders often overlook prioritising self-care, scheduling breaks, allowing for downtime, and headspace to think and be creative. Without self-care, you can only be an empty shell of a human being and not be the leader your teams deserve.
How do we react when things go wrong? Miseries sometimes do not come alone, and you fail the skies raining miseries on us?
Let us imagine this scenario. Mr. X lost his job, his house burnt, he fell sick and needed to buy medicines that he couldn’t afford. Normally, like most materials under pressure do, Mr. X weakens. Is it possible to show exceptional behavior under these testing and destructive conditions for Mr. X to expand his possibilities rather than shrink them?
Before you rush to say no I tell you it is possible.
Scientists have made materials that behave differently from normal. These materials expand under pressure and turn the destructive energy into a useful one.
Are exceptional leaders the same? They lead and stretch possibilities when most people see them shrinking.
How to Stretch Possibilities?One great way of stretching possibilities is to use opposite thinking. Opposite thinking is similar to materials that expand under pressure by convert negative thoughts to positive ones.
Opposite thinking is a technique that will help you contest your assumptions and beliefs to generate unfamiliar ideas. See the video below to learn more about this technique.
Opposite materials tell us to think of opposite ideas as they might provide novel ideas. They are mind-stretchers.
Mr. X’s wooden house caught fire. The opposite thinking is to have a wooden house that does not burn. He challenges the commonly accepted assumption that wooden houses burn easily.
Now, stretching the mind becomes possible with more questions such as
- How to make wood fire-resistant?
- Is it possible to change the structure of wood so that it become more resistant to fire?
- Would adding a charring material to wood stop it from burning?
You see the idea is to challenge familiar behaviors, beliefs and assumptions by thinking of their opposites.
Great leaders are mind-stretchers during difficult times. Most people fall under pressure, but great leaders thrive under them to spring back with more possibilities.
These leaders like all successful people know that success is not one shot in the arm. They can repeat their successes under the most challenging conditions.
Milka Zadok Dubai commented on one of my recent posts. Part of her comment reads;
“I can’t agree with you more, doing the opposite. Although overconfidence is one of the most powerful cognitive biases, there are some strategies that can be used to reduce it. You may be the best but make a conscious decision to ask for people’s opinions and be open enough to ultra your ego to see reasoning in someone’s ideas outside yours”
Be an opposite thinker.
Your Stories Don’t Define You, How You Tell Them Will is the first book I read in January. It is written by my friend Sarah Elkins whom I met only online. As we know more about how humans function, how they listen, and what impacts us, the whole world seemed to agree storytelling is crucial.
None of us want to be dumped information. We learn through storytelling. We remember stories. We are inspired by stories. This book covers all the places we need stories from our relationships to our careers. Sarah is a great storyteller herself and also shares a lot of good stories on her podcast too.
If you want to be a better storyteller this is a gem from someone who walks the talk.
Re-HUMAN-izing The Workplace is a book by Chuck Blakeman whom I met several years ago as soon as I watched his TedTalk. I knew I had to meet him and I did and stayed connected for years now. As the title implies, it is all about remembering and focusing on HUMANS at work.
He focuses especially on the art and science of Distributed Decision-making, networked organizations, and the power of the crowd. It is in line with everything I believe in to create a great work culture. He has several examples. He has forms to fill out and answer questions at the end of every chapter for you to do the work on your own too. Always been a fan of his books and his work.
The Heart of Business from Hubert Joly was pure joy to read since it talks about purpose and how to build a purposeful company. He tells his story about Best Buy and how it all worked. I cannot even tell you the number of sentences highlighted and marked, as I read through it. It is a must-read for all young leaders to be inspired.
Deep Purpose from Ranjay Gulati as you can imagine got my attention the minute it was published. So much in there is going to be referenced in the book I am writing about Purpose. Of course as usual I reached out to Prof Ranjay Gulati and we already had a few chats. If you want to find out more about him and his work you can also listen to us here on this video. He is now among my Purposeful Leaders series. If you want to learn more about how purpose plays a part in business, it is one of the best books you can read.
Daniel Pink’s When is a book that I have not read for years. I love and learn so much from his books. This year I met him in person in San Diego while he was doing a tour of his new book Regret (still waiting to be read). So that motivated me to go and buy When which talks about scientific research about time. As someone who always feels like I am in a time crunch, I can always use a book about “time” and how to use it wisely. There is so much interesting research in it including when we are the happiest and when the number of our friends goes up and declines. I shared a lot of what I read with people around me since it is a book for everyone.
Write Useful Books by Rob Fitzpatrick was recommended to me by my co-founder and one of the smartest people I have ever met; Jasmine Kernaleguen. Knowing I am writing a new book for 3 years now, she said this might be a good resource. I really liked a lot of the teachings in this book which also point to mistakes I made in my previous books. It changed the flow and the content a lot so it may take a while before I finish mine. Yet I wanted to mention it here to stay accountable. I really want 2023 the year I complete it, since there will be no end to it if I keep on adding what I am learning.
Humble Inquiry by Edgar Schein is a book I read in 2016 yet I wanted to add it to this list today since I heard he passed away. All his books including this one taught me so much about being a better consultant. Thank you, Edgar Schein, you left an amazing legacy behind. Thank you for all your passionate work.
If you want to know some of the books I read in the past years, here are some links: 2021 books, 2020 books, 2019 books.
I look forward to reading lots of other books in 2023 that are already on my bookshelves waiting for me (and all the others I cannot resist and will buy!)
There are no big problems – there are just a lot of little problems.
–Henry Ford
You may have heard the term “Kaizen” before, but do you truly understand the power of this Japanese concept? The word Kaizen translates to “change for the better” or “improvement” and it is a philosophy that you could apply to every aspect of life.
At its core, Kaizen is about making little but consistent betterments over time. It’s about taking baby steps toward a goal and not getting discouraged by setbacks or failures. The key to Kaizen is to focus on progress, not perfection. Because by making small changes and building on them, we can achieve great results.
One of the most famous examples of Kaizen in action is the story of the Toyota Motor Company. In the 1980s, they implemented the Kaizen philosophy in their factories. They focused on making small revisions to their production process every day, which triggered a profound change in the factories’ efficiency and productivity.
The four main principles that the Kaizen philosophy stems from are:
Visualize – Use the tools that will help you visualize what your change process will look like. It can be as simple as a brainstorming exercise or an elaborate storyboarding system.
Measure – Being consistent is key to making improvements. It is important to measure and assess your progress every few weeks.
Improve – Make processes better by implementing Kaizen in all possible areas.
Repeat – Duplicate the process over and over again to sustain growth.
Kaizen is not only about ameliorating products or services. It is also about improving the processes, systems, and people that create those products and services.
What about leadership?When implemented in leadership, it becomes a powerful tool for leaders to enhance their team performance and drive success in their organization.
By applying the principles of Kaizen, leaders could:
- Encourage continuous growth by setting up regular team meetings to discuss progress and opportunities for improvement. Through fostering a culture of ongoing improvement, as a leader, you can empower your team members to identify and address areas for progress.
- Lead by example to inspire others to take ownership of their growth and development. When you embody the Kaizen philosophy as the leader, you set a powerful precedent for your team.
- Recognize and reward progress through verbal praise, bonuses, or other incentives. Identifying and acknowledging small wins along the way can keep your team members motivated to continue the progress.
- Emphasize communication and collaboration among team members to ensure everyone is on the same page and working together to achieve common goals.
- Incorporate Kaizen into decision-making by encouraging the use of data and continuous feedback. And accordingly, make better-informed decisions.
Leaders who create an environment that supports and encourages ongoing advancement can drive significant positive outcomes for their team and organization.
And how about other parts of life?But Kaizen is not just for businesses. It is something that we can apply to any area of our lives. Whether it is our health, relationships, or career, the Kaizen philosophy can help us grow toward our goals.
For example, if you are trying to lose weight, instead of setting an unrealistic goal of losing 20 pounds in a month, focus on making small changes to your diet and exercise routine. Start by cutting out sugary drinks and taking a brisk walk every day. As you build momentum and see progress, you can gradually make more changes.
The same goes for improving relationships, learning a new skill, or achieving any other goal. By taking small, consistent actions, you can achieve great things.
Another key element of Kaizen is to celebrate small wins along the way. When we see progress, no matter how small, we feel the motivation to keep going. So, when you make a small change, and it becomes a habit, take a moment to celebrate your success.
Kaizen is a powerful philosophy that teaches us to focus on progress, not perfection, and to make small, consistent improvements over time.
And embracing the power of Kaizen makes success possible in many aspects of life.
Can you think of any areas in which you might consider trying this process? I certainly can.
Visualize, Measure, Improve, Rinse and Repeat!
I just hung up the phone from a coaching call with one of my clients. He was applying for a significant executive position and wanted my help with his resume and interview strategy. We talked for a bit, and I suggested a different way to look at his resume.
A light bulb went off. All at once, he was full of energy and enthusiasm. Just a moment prior, he was sober and analytical; now he was excited and couldn’t wait to get at the task of revising his document. In a matter of a few moments, something changed. As a result, he now saw possibilities where before there were only obstacles.
What changed?His perspective. The situation was exactly as it was a few minutes earlier. He was the same person, with the same set of skills, life experiences, and qualities of character. But he saw things differently, through a different lens. His perspective changed, and that changed everything.
That experience was, from my side of the table, a great reminder of the power of perspective to stimulate and shape behavior. We see examples of it all around us.
Our perspective, in many ways, influences and shapes our actions. I have often observed that people generally find that for which they look. I’m not talking about our misplaced car keys. I mean in situations involving dealing with other human beings, we generally see the qualities and traits of character that we expect to see. For example, as salespeople, we may go into an account with the perspective that this account is populated with small-minded people who are going to squeeze us for every penny they can and choose the lowest cost provider no matter what. Guess what? Generally, that’s what we find.
On the other hand, we can go into the account with a different perspective. Let’s say our point of view is that this account is run by well-intentioned people who want only the best for their organization. Amazingly, that’s generally what we will find.
Now don’t jump all over my example and claim, “Wait, some people really are penny-pinchers, regardless of what I think.” Granted. People are different, and there are some in every type and classification. I’m not talking about them, I’m talking about us.
In my example above, the objective truth is probably somewhere in the middle. They may be well-intentioned, striving for quality, and cost-conscious. Don’t miss the point. If we expect people to be untrustworthy, it will be their untrustworthiness that rises to the surface of our radar scan. If we expect them to be kind, we’ll notice their kindness. If we expect them to be self-absorbed, we’ll notice their lack of concern for others.
And, since we generally notice those qualities and traits that we expect to see, that perspective changes and influences our behavior. That’s the point. I have often observed that, when people talk about other people, they really reveal more about themselves than they do about the subject of their conversation. That’s because their judgments reveal their perspectives.
Let’s go back to my example. Regardless of the objective truth of the issue, if our perspective is that they are penny-pinchers, our experience will generally confirm that, and we’ll treat them that way.
Clearly, the opposite is also true. If we expect them to be value-driven, we’ll see them that way, and we’ll treat them accordingly.
The thing that makes the difference in how we treat them is not them, it is our perspective of them.
As a lifelong educator and sales trainer, I have observed a powerful truth about human behavior. It is this: Our perspectives on ourselves are far more important than our perspectives on other people. As we see ourselves, so shall we be. If we see ourselves as victims, we will forever be a victim. If we see ourselves as successful, we will eventually arrive there.
| The Institutional Church has spent 530 Billion dollars on itself and has not increased the percentage of Christians by even one percentage point. It’s time thoughtful people asked some questions. Read Is the Institutional Church Really the Church? |
If therefore, we can uncover and release ourselves from our limiting perspectives of ourselves, we can transform our behavior and enjoy dramatically improved results.
I’ve seen it countless times in the work that I do. I’ll have people come into my seminars with the perspective that this is just a job, and leave with a vision of themselves as professional salespeople, and proud of it. Since they now see themselves as professional salespeople, they act that way. As a result of their changed actions, they enjoy dramatically improved results. Here’s the equation:
Changed Perspective = Changed Actions = Improved Results
But the principle is bigger and more applicable than just sales. It applies to every aspect of our lives. The more I reflect on my life and those around me, the more I see that so much of our behavior can be attributed to perspectives gained during our formative years.
For example, for my entire life, I have been both empowered by and hindered by the perspective that I was forever on my own, independent, self-sufficient and self-contained. That perspective was a direct result of my parents’ intentional actions to instill it in each of their six boys. My father had a heart condition and was never expected to live a full life. My parents, therefore, intentionally instilled that perspective into us to enable us to get along in a world without a father’s presence.
That has been a powerful perspective, shaping my actions and character throughout my life.
So, too, for each of us. The perspectives we gained as we grew up shape our actions and reactions. They harden and form into habits, attitudes, and eventually, character traits.
If we want to change our results, then we ought to work on changing our perspectives.
Years ago, when I was working as a seminar leader, one person who wanted to work with me, as a team member, had a yellow pad filled with goals. Each page had his handwriting on it.
My first task was to tell him to shred the yellow pad. He could take three top goals to complete from the list, and work on those. I advised him that all his dreams could be reached with only these three goals and that most of what he wrote was just ‘stuff’.
Of course, he was in shock and denial as he had meticulously written his life on a yellow pad. He did follow my directions and returned the completely shredded yellow pad to me in a large envelope.
Over time, he completed his goals, discovered what he really wanted to accomplish in life, and proceeded to be a great success.
Writing a huge goal list is something many people do. People do not realize that each goal requires its own to-do task list that can consume you.
When you write your goals down, then write your to-do task list, you need to keep this as simple and easy as possible.
Each day look at your task list and choose three items of High Value that you will accomplish on that day. Include on your High-Value list time spent on you. If you need a massage, add this to your High-Value list. If you have a doctor’s visit, add this to your High-Value list. If you go to the gym, add this to your list. Yet the bottom line is you only have three items on that list, no more, no less.
The simpler you keep your life, the easier it will be to accomplish what you want.
Consider this pattern in your personal and professional world, you are having a conversation and you start to say “something” and you stop. Something inside you hears, knows, has heard, or believes that you may be saying something that is incorrect, insensitive, or “wrong”. And you stop speaking.
It gets hidden. When you add up all the hidden conversations we are not having out of fear or shame, lack of knowledge or understanding you will know why many diversity and inclusion initiatives are failing. People STOP speaking instead of learning to communicate, be curious, ask, say it wrong, fall down and get back up.
Shame shuts down learning.
If our goal IS learning, knowledge, and understanding then we need to build bridges, not barricades to conversations that create real change.
We are all practicing – it is how we learn to do anything, here are some tips for practice:
- Notice – when you have that feeling or you decide not to say anything – ask yourself what is making me hesitate?
- Curiosity instead of shame: how can I have my thought or question with curious kindness, not apology and shame, lead with “I’m still learning…” vs “I’m so sorry I don’t know…” the brain actually tells our bodies it’s safe to proceed. THIS is where learning happens.
- Open the space – if someone is struggling, using language, tone or knowledge that you do not find acceptable, open a discussion not a demolition. I am not writing this from an ivory tower or textbook, I’m writing from experience on both sides. In the world of diversity and inclusion, people often assume I have all the “right words” and all the knowledge, knowing that I don’t makes me human and kind. I have been called out and shamed for not using the “right” words, and every time it made me think – I am not a good person, and that is not the truth…like everyone, I am learning. I am grateful to those who continue to build bridges for my learning, there is NO finish line on inclusion.
Walking with curious kindness. “Creating organizations where people want to be”
There’s a lot of debate going on about the practicality of switching the world over to electric vehicles. Of course, a lot of the resistance to this is coming from the right, where the vested interest in preserving the status quo mainly lies.
Their basic argument is that the amount of energy burned to find, process, and manufacture the minerals and metals needed to make the batteries and the electric cars themselves is 5 or 6 times more damaging to the environment than sucking oil out of the ground and refining it to make fuel for internal combustion engines.
That would be a good point except for one little thing: The simple fact that while the creation and manufacture of most vehicles, electric or internal combustion, is close to a wash in terms of energy usage, the real damage that combustion engines do is after they have been created, and for years and years over the life of the vehicles.
Of course, taking the argument to the manufacturing of the vehicles themselves does one critical thing for the fossil fuel and automotive industries. It diverts attention from the real issue here.
Seldom do you find any ‘industry’ conversation about why car makers and oil companies are doing virtually nothing to create engines that burn fossil fuels more efficiently or fuels that burn cleaner than they do now.
Because this is the Achilles’ heel of both the automobile manufacturers and the oil producers of the world. And it’s a pretty damn big one at that.
I would venture a wild-ass guess that these companies, all of them, would not be willing to invest even a small percentage of their gargantuan profits into working on these two critical pieces of the energy puzzle.
I’m reasonably certain they have thought about it. And I’m also reasonably certain that there are literally dozens of alternative technologies in both of these industries. But corporate greed being what it is these days, these ideas are being stifled. Why? Because they would, purely and simply, reduce profitability. And that, of course, brings us to the bigger economic issue and a bunch of pretty serious questions about the damage that market capitalism is doing to the world.
Oil companies and vehicle manufacturing companies seem to be getting a free ride here when it’s their technologies and their profound lack of commitment to the human race that are at the root of the environmental crisis the world is experiencing.
A lot of this has to do with the fact that they have pretty much bought off all the politicians required to stifle any serious pressure from governments that would force them into being environmentally responsible.
And why bother when you can keep on making barrels of money, (pardon the pun), by doing absolutely nothing, other than supporting the politicians who are greedy enough to make sure they never have to actually do anything that will affect their own bottom lines? Things like demanding research and development into more efficient engines or new refining processes that create cleaner burning fuels.
This is the world we have created. And right now, it’s quickly approaching totally f__ked. And it’s all because of corporate greed and the failing of the market capitalist system that only rewards things that are growing and kills anything that is not.
Rights and responsibilities go together. For example, if I have a right to freedom of speech, it follows that I have a responsibility to speak truthfully. I cannot justify slander by claiming my right to freedom of speech permits lying to damage someone’s reputation. So, with that in mind, I ask, who has the primary right to determine what children learn in school? Put differently, who is a child’s primary educator?
More than a decade ago, I developed a curriculum of poetry for use in my English classes. The poems in that curriculum are divided into two groups: poems to be memorized and recited, and poems to be studied and discussed. A few poems fit into both groups. There are measurable benefits to children memorizing excellent prose and poetry for recitation in front of their peers. (What those benefits are is perhaps a topic for another time.)
Twice since I developed and implemented this curriculum have parents objected to a poem. One father took exception to Theodore Roethke’s “My Papa’s Waltz”. Another student’s parents did not like the lyrics to “The Impossible Dream”. Why the objections? Did the parents understand the poems I’d asked their children to memorize and recite? In the first case, the father was wrong. Roethke’s poem is not about an abusive alcoholic. In the second case, the parents were wrong in their understanding of Don Quixote’s desire “to march into hell for a heavenly cause”. Quixote is not singing about literally going to literal Hell.
But whether these parents were right or wrong about their reasons for not liking my poetic choices is of secondary importance. What matters most goes back to this question: Who is a child’s primary educator? Church teaching is clear: “Since parents have given children their life, they are bound by the most serious obligation to educate their offspring and therefore must be recognized as the primary and principal educators” (Gravissimum educationis 3). In short, my authority as a teacher does not trump their authority as parents, which brings us back to the question of my first post: What’s wrong with education?
For more than a century, a major aim of progressive education has been to supplant parental authority with the expertise of teachers implementing standardized curricula delivered via compulsory public education funded by taxation. A hallmark of standardized curricula is the enforced uniformity of standards enacted by legislatures. While public education has been (and continues to be) a great good for many, the progressive insistence that state authority overrides parental authority has caused widespread abuse.
For example, federal education legislation implemented by the U.S. Office of Indian Affairs during the 1930s and 1940s deliberately sought to undermine Native American ways of life in favor of assimilating Native American children into the dominant, Anglo-Protestant worldview. The same sort of attempted usurpation of parental authority and cultural destruction can be seen in various “Blaine amendments” that sought to squash Catholic schools while at the same time leaving Protestant prayers and Bible classes intact in public schools.
Students in schools are taught to obey their teachers. Failure to do so results in negative consequences. Compliance produces rewards. With children in early elementary, these negative consequences and rewards are often tangible, immediate, and clearly linked to classroom expectations.
The implicit lesson learned by most students is that the teacher is the primary authority figure to whom a student owes respect and obedience. This can work just fine so long as teachers, schools, legislatures, et cetera do not undermine parental authority.
Unfortunately, as the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals demonstrated in 2005, it isn’t hard to find an example of parental rights being deliberately denied.
But what about those two students whose parents objected to my poetry curriculum? What happened? Rather than trying to convince the parents that they were wrong, I explained the two main goals of the curriculum: to improve memory and to improve public speaking skills. What the student recited was of secondary importance. In both cases, the parents understood and agreed with the goals. In both cases, the parents suggested other poems to be used for their children.
And I agreed, even adding one parent’s suggestion to my poetry curriculum.
Larry Chao is the founder and Managing Director of Chao Group Ltd., an international organization and executive consultancy. He discusses competency, open-mindedness, empathy, and other “universal truths” for high-quality leadership. Most importantly, how might we each apply these principles to our day-to-day lives? Follow Larry on Linkedin and find out more about his consultancy company at Chao Group Limited.
If you enjoy the Zen Sammich podcast, consider making a one-time donation of any amount through Red Circle or becoming a supporter of the show for as little as $3 at patreon.com/zensammich.
Why is it so hard for people to listen to someone without interrupting them?Why is it sometimes very hard to listen to others? Due to our egoism and pride, where we primarily consider our self-benefit over everything and everyone else, it is common for us to hold certain disagreements with others’ opinions. It might not even be a different opinion, but the sheer fact that another person is saying what I would want to say and not me is enough for me not to listen.
Due to our egoism and pride, where we primarily consider our self-benefit over everything and everyone else, it is common for us to hold certain disagreements with others’ opinions. It might not even be a different opinion, but the sheer fact that another person is saying what I would want to say and not me is enough for me not to listen.
The opinion itself is not so important. What matters is the ability to express oneself.
Sometimes, a situation arises where one person pushes their views onto another who might have different views, and this gives a feeling that the one pushing their views is suppressing the other person’s sense of self. It is because when we listen, we fall under the influence of the other person. Where are we in those moments? We seemingly become nonexistent, which is why we feel a need to switch on our own mouths here and there.
In other words, we should not enter into conversations in a direct and forceful way, even if what we say is seemingly right and to the point. There needs to be preparation. That is, we need to give the person we are talking with a feeling that they are right. We can then talk our hearts away with them, and afterward, when the other person has discharged themselves, we can then start turning the conversation little by little.
Everyone desires success in one form or another. Some just dream about it, while others go after it with everything they’ve got. An important title, a fancy house, an expensive car, a diversified portfolio? Many successful people have all of those things. But what is success… really?
Many people chase big career titles, lots of money, or elite social status — yet don’t feel successful when they get them. If you relate, don’t feel bad. I submit that it’s not entirely your fault. This monochrome version of success is something that’s been fed to us from childhood through films, magazines, and social media. Even our education system inculcates the idea that success is determined by degrees. If we buy into it, names like Ansel Adams, Steven Spielberg, Frank Lloyd Wright, Steve Jobs, and Bill Gates would not qualify as “successful.”
Merriam-Webster defines success as “a favorable or desired outcome” and “the attainment of wealth, favor or eminence.” But this definition implies extrinsic values rather than intrinsic values. The emphasis is placed on how others see us rather than how we see ourselves.
Is it what we have that makes us successful or who we are?
Consider Bill Gates, one of the wealthiest people on the planet. Gates co-founded one of the world’s most valuable companies on the planet and as of May 2022 has a net worth of $105 billion. While many define his success by that fortune, perhaps consider what he’s done with that fortune as his true success. Created with his wife Melinda, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is the largest private philanthropic foundation in the world. Since its founding in 2000, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has distributed over $60 billion to causes tied to eradicating diseases and reducing poverty and inequity around the world.
Regardless of how you feel about the political backdrop, it’s hard to deny the impact they have had as “catalysts of human promise.”
“We seek to unlock the possibility inside every individual. We see equal value in all lives. And we are dedicated to improving the quality of life for individuals around the world. From the education of students in Chicago, to the health of a young mother in Nigeria, we are catalysts of human promise everywhere.”
If we believe the manifestation of success is what the world sees in us – what looks good on a résumé or having the best that money can buy – the joy we experience will be short-lived because there will always be something bigger and better out there.
Success isn’t out there. Instead of defining success as something you get, think of it as getting to do something you love, rewarding work that makes a positive impact on others, work that leaves the world a little better than you found it.
Defining success is slippery because success looks and feels different for each of us. It’s not a destination but rather an ever-evolving journey. Perhaps on that journey, our definition changes and grows with us. If you are lucky enough to measure success in the legacy you leave behind, the way people will remember you and your imprint on the world, then you will discover your personal evolution of purpose.
“What is success? To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate the beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch Or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded!”
–Ralph Waldo Emerson
It’s 2023, and if you ask me, I’m already plump full of creative ideas and excited to make my consulting business as awesome as it should be.
The world of digital marketing is constantly evolving. Its immense value is indisputable, yet often, it is one of those sacrifices offered to the belt-tightening altar. Well, this course of action belongs to the graveyard of obsolete business practices.
Traditional marketing costs used to be pretty steep, but the game has changed under the influence of the digital revolution. Nowadays, marketing for online businesses is not all about budget but also about time, effort, and creativity.
So, here is how to stay on top of your game in 2023.
Marketing ShiftTechnology and social media have changed the way people absorb information and exchange knowledge, and to remain noticed by the targeted audience, small businesses also need to constantly upgrade their marketing plans and strategies. If you run a small business or just founded a new start-up, you presumably face the financial constraints needed to brand and market your services in print media, TV, or even radio.
Digital marketing channels are the new Holy Grail for start-ups seeking to jump-start promotional campaigns.
- First off, email marketing is still strong, generating an average return of $36 for every dollar spent. So, prompt the customers to give their information once they visit your website.
- Note that you can utilize email automation tools in order to streamline the whole process and save a bunch of time.
- Still, you need to be helpful and informative and add a personal touch without compromising professionalism.
- Quantity may not be as important as quality in the over-saturated digital realm.
Just because Google search impressions are 3x more effective in converting searchers into interested prospects, SEO is no longer an option but a necessity.
While a small proportion of small businesses actually have a documented SEO strategy, it is worthwhile to help your website get free organic traffic, build trust, and generate a continuous chunk of leads for years to come.
Constant Flow of ContentThis brings us to the next promotional medium on the list, content marketing. Its mainstay is your blog, website, or social media profile.
Now, the average attention span of an adult is six to eight seconds, which is not much. In order to grab attention, you need to come up with compelling content.
- Visual elements are best suited to fit into this window of opportunity. This is not to say you should neglect written content, but merely that images should accompany nearly every piece of information you write.
- Apart from that, pay special attention to the design of your webpage, headlines, calls-to-action, product description, videos, and landing pages.
- Define your potential customers—who they are, what they do, where they hang out, and what they like. Note down everything you know about them.
- Take note of the problems that people have and see if your services will be able to solve them (this is like a “customer interview”, just doesn’t sound that fancy). Carefully monitor how they expect the problem to be solved so that you can possibly improve your content from that data.
Get SocializedSocial media is the place of viral phenomena and roaring, buzz-generating trends. More importantly, a ton of potential prospects located all around the world spend a great deal of time on these bustling networks.
Pinterest and Snapchat are good places to land a visual ad, while the former is also the king in the area of product images. Facebook, of course, is still unmatched, and if you are unclear about the basics, feel free to check out this Facebook advertising guide. Building an active and engaged audience here is associated with immense benefits for your marketing and bottom line.
Social media could be the best place where you can convince a large audience how important your product or service could be for them. You can share clip art, surveys, statistics, or infographics that favor your business. This type of marketing technique could impact the audience positively and make them believe your products or services are exclusively for them.
Power of NetworkingLet us get back to the “real world”, where you should engage in active collaboration and networking. Set up a network of mutually-beneficial, synergistic relationships with other home businesses and organizations. Noncompetitive individuals that share your values are your natural allies for the purposes of cross-promotion. That way, you can better capitalize on your fliers, coupons, website links, bundled promotion, and other marketing tools.
Additionally, identify reputable industry influencers and contact them. All these activities pay off as your customer base expands together with the reach of your marketing messages.
Nurture Local CommunitiesLeverage the connections you have in the community and strive to establish new ones. Pay attention to what is going on and how you can take part. Indeed, there are many ways to get in front of local customers and win their favor.
- Leave bookmarks at a local library, an industry event, and cover live events or write recap stories. Attend small business conferences that usually take place throughout the year.
- Show commitment to problems in the local landscape, and you will be able to feel the nurturing embrace of the surrounding ecosystem.
Spread the Message Loud & ClearMarket wherever you are but cherry-pick your tools according to the audience and context. Sparking the attention of the audience is easier said than done.
You can hand over coupons or give products, trials, and samples away. This lets consumers get a taste of what you offer without spending a dime, just remember that for you, it is much more expensive to obtain a new customer than to retain an old one.
So, try to obtain repeat customers and do not hesitate to ask them for referrals: Word-of-mouth is invaluable in regards to spreading the word around and engaging new people.
Use Customer TestimonialsAlways share testimonials and feedback you received from your existing customer on your social profiles. You can also include your customer’s contact info like website and email address if possible. The agenda is to let a vast audience know what your customer thinks of you and your services. The people can also know the product or services you are offering are really genuine. Social platforms are the best way to do this.
Comparison with CompetitorsYou can share how your business is better compared to your competitors. You can always post tactics showing how easy doing business with you is and what are the exclusive benefits of it. Your objective should be to let a maximum number of the audience get notice of your brand.
- Are you wondering how to do it? One quick way: Design and create a stunning landing page showing how your product wins over its alternatives. Marketers call it a competitive comparison landing page.
- Just like the testimonial segment, you can insert top quotes from your clients sharing their positive thoughts about your services and superiority.
Play it SmartThe leveled playing field of today has rendered the marketing game cost-effective and less labor and time-intensive. The new way of marketing is all-encompassing yet not intrusive. You have to cut through the noise, get out there, meet potential customers and partners, and shake their hands.
Bear in mind that creativity is probably your biggest asset. Even without a fat budget, you can use the right tools to take your marketing strategies and campaigns to the next level. Smart marketing pays huge dividends and opens up a plethora of new opportunities for growth, brand ambassadorship, and customer acquisition.
Marketing is no longer an option only for corporate giants and SMEs. Internet accessibility and social media technology have made it easier to go with creative marketing, even for small business owners and startups.
While there are countless leadership styles and new ones are constantly appearing, as the attitudes of people who play this role are different, there is one leadership style that directly impacts the team, making them feel motivated; it’s about positive leadership.
Leadership qualities do not lead to instant success. You need patience, dedication, perseverance, and a lot of work on yourself to get to concrete results.
A “positive” leadership is a performance accelerator in business and is based on the intent to generate an overall positive effect in society.
The human factor is a competitive advantage that every company should cultivate. And a positive leadership allows empathy to emerge within work groups and improves their performance. If one works on involvement and if inspires positivity in your collaborators, you feed a spiral of benefits that are reflected inside and outside the company.
Those with leadership practice know that positive leadership is a type of leadership that has a positive impact on the work and lives of the people in a team.
I would like to try to translate in simple and explanatory terms “how” a leadership can concretely express its “positivity”.
The “positive leader”, basically, “must know” how to best express:
Trust (the extent to which other people in the organization are open and honest with each other) being accessible to people when needed for help, advice, information, or direction; listening openly to people’s ideas regardless of their position in the organization; providing information accurately and openly without “hidden agendas”; talking about groups or individuals only in ways one would be willing to talk in their presence; making sincere attempts to meet all commitments; acting as a champion for the work team, consistent with organizational goals.
Empowerment (the extent to which individuals and teams feel they have the authority and responsibility to act); establishing an environment that encourages people to work things out for themselves; finding ways to encourage positive performance and build confidence; behaving as though one expects others to do things right; ensuring that people have information, authority, and resources that they need to accomplish their work; encouraging others to show initiative and take reasonable risks; linking the impact of individual and team performance to the overall success of the organization.
Competitiveness (the extent to which people work together to ensure products and services meet customer expectations); finding opportunities to make continuous incremental improvements in products, systems, and control of costs; taking into account the impact of worldwide business developments, as they affect the organization and the work group; behaving as a partner with customers, rather than just a provider of products and services; taking personal responsibility for making wide use of resources; ensuring that immediate actions support long-term strategic accomplishments, in line with positive employee relations practices.
Personal Responsibility (the extent to which each supervisor and manager feels responsible for the products, services, and well-being of the organization); taking initiative to see that things get done; demonstrating a sense of urgency and showing energy to achieve results; making decisions and taking actions that involve reasonable risk; dealing constructively with problems and issues rather than making, or easily accepting, excuses; confronting issues as they arise in an open and honest manner; leading in a way which exemplifies the practice of trust, empowerment, competitiveness, and personal responsibility.
In short, a positive leader is passionate about group management, questions himself when necessary and does not blame others, and has a strong sense of humanity.
But he is also a leader who maintains a high sense of humor: making fun of himself, accepting mistakes, joking about pressure, and exorcising the fear of contagion, means creating teams in which people, although physically tired and in some cases seriously worried, they manage to give their best with a great sense of responsibility.
Is this the image you have of a positive leader?
Comments are really appreciated!
Leadership includes sharing what you learn so that others may follow and surpass your efforts. Why surpass? Because where one may be today marks a unique point in time, the one factor we can all count on is societal change. As we embrace the best advice, we can add it to our repertoire and enhance it as we move forward. Even better is when more people willingly share their best strategies with those on similar paths. The sign of leadership excellence is in the appreciation one receives.
The sign of leadership excellence is in the appreciation one receives. Below you will find what I believe to be top-notch business advice from leaders in the field.
My StoryOne traditional way to share information is through publishing articles and books. Early in my career, Dale Carnegie’s book, ‘How to Win Friends and Influence People’ put me on a better footing for sales success. The secret is not to sell so much, but instead, listen, be professionally personal while sharing stories, and find commonalities between you. Upon developing the relationship, trust builds, and sales are born.
The next book that empowered my sales effort was S.P.I.N. Selling by Neil Rackham. It was the opposite of traditional telling-selling, which spoke to me as I always grasp ‘the opposite’ of tradition. Remembering questions in specific vocabulary is not for me. However, four letters that portray the questions to ask, in my own words, are easy to remember. SPIN stands for ‘Situation, Problem(s), Implied problem(s), and Need. My sales effort greatly improved upon applying Neil Rackham’s suggestions.
An old television and movie quote comes to mind that indicates perhaps there is an even better way to do business, ‘There is a new sheriff in town.’ Focusing solely on sales, marketing, technology, or any other business discipline will not create the results you may seek in today’s environment. Accordingly, it is up to each of us to seek out top-notch business advice from leaders in the field.
Powerhouse Business GrowthToday’s success differentiator is to embrace and combine all the varying disciplines for powerhouse business growth. To my amazement, what typically would be kept secret is openly spelled out in the brand-new book, Reinventing Virtual Events, published by Wiley, and authored by Julia Nimchinski and Justin Michael. The content spells out top-notch business advice from leaders in the field.
Reinvention is Essential for GrowthAlthough planning a virtual event may be outside your plan, the concepts and facts behind the title are bound to help businesses of all types. The theme is to cross-train the skills of staff and oneself. It’s only the beginning to have an excellent skillset in one field, but imagine how and what a cross-over to other disciplines will do for your career or business.
Long ago, a coach advised me to continue adding streams to my core expertise of sales for a more robust output. He then spoke of the ‘Power of 10.’ When we possess one skill, we reach one audience. But the results can be exponential when we expand upon our skills and services, to ten offerings, as an example. Mathematically, when we multiply 10 x 9 x 8 down to 1, the powerhouse business growth number is 3,628,800.
It may sound unimaginable to dedicate oneself to learning the skillset of ten different careers. However, when we undertake to learn the essentials of a couple of other disciplines, we are well on our way. Cross-training oneself plus employees will guide you to the results you desire that may have been previously unimaginable.
HYPCCCYCL is the creation of Julia and Justin, featuring top B2B revenue leaders cross-training their GTM (go-to-market) skills with VCs. The content of Reinventing Virtual Events provides excellent insights to enable you and your teams to achieve more than you may currently believe to be possible. Watching the games in action is remarkable, an ideal learning vehicle, and viewers often participate in future rounds. The book sets the stage for our new business model, and we invite you to join the performance, literally.
If you have any lingering doubts or are consumed with intrigue, you may find more information about Julia Nimchinski and Justin Michael on their LinkedIn profiles.
Office Environment and Entrepreneurial SpiritToday’s theme is not only about learning and combining varying skill sets but also embraces the theme of an inclusive environment. Each person on one team possesses experience and knowledge. Above, we speak about exponential results. Imagine what the cross-over of training between disciplines utilizing everyone’s experience can do for the overall business growth outcome. Moreover, the diversity of teams adds to a greater depth of knowledge that may convert to intriguing a far more robust audience.
In Conclusion: Top-Notch Business Advice from Leaders In The FieldThe choice is always ours to either dismiss the business advice from leaders or pay serious attention to do our due diligence by researching what they have to say. Feeling secure with your current knowledge becomes the right time to heed top-notch business advice from leaders in the field who are making a difference in society.
At its core, gratitude is an excellent antidote for the isolation which has become such a problem for so many of us. While the COVID-19 pandemic put a painfully bright spotlight on the problems that are caused by isolation, the truth is most of us are more functionally isolated than our predecessors in both our personal and professional lives, and this has been a growing concern for decades.
When I talk about gratitude, I’m speaking about a feeling of appreciation to someone or something that has benefitted you. It can be large, small, life-changing… and it can be direct OR indirect. For example, who are my coffee drinkers in the house? Do you KNOW the farmers who grow the beans that make that delicious elixre of life? I know a handful of coffee roasters, but I don’t personally know any coffee farmers. Despite that, I am sincerely grateful to the folks who work hard to allow me the luxury of enjoying my daily java (and so are the people who have to spend time with me).
When we experience gratitude, whether we are conscious of this or not, our brain is not only experiencing a positive outcome from whatever it is that we’re grateful about, but we’re also reminded that we’re connected to something or someone outside of ourselves.
Gratitude is fundamentally about connections.
Before we dive into the professional implications of gratitude let’s prime our brains for this conversation by giving ourselves a little pick-me-up of serotonin and dopamine as we practice some real-time gratitude. How many of you have heard the expression “Look for the silver lining”? I appreciate the sentiment in those words, and yet sometimes life is really messy, and asking people to pretend it’s not can be more hurtful than helpful. So when I got to a place in my life where things were just RUGGED, I started looking for SILVER THREADS… tiny bits of positive experience, and there are zillions of these throughout even the most rugged days.
I remember when my kids were small and somebody brought a stomach bug home, and one day, I gratefully realized OH MY GOODNESS – NOBODY got sick last night! For the caregivers out there, you know that’s actually a pretty BIG relief… but it’s not something we would normally think of when we’re looking for things to be grateful for, and that’s a shame, because collecting small moments of gratitude periodically throughout our days and weeks is actually an incredibly powerful way to balance out our experiences.
So to kick this off, we’re going hunting for bright, shiny silver threads. Our brains process about 34 gigabytes of information every single day, so scientifically there have to be at least a handful of those moments where you felt good, grateful or positive, at least for a second or two. Don’t overthink this – and don’t reach for the obvious responses. Give yourself permission to mentally stretch JUST a moment and think about ONE THING for which you are FRESHLY grateful. It could be something that you experienced this morning, or maybe even something you’re looking forward to in the next week or so.
Give yourself a few minutes to really think about this moment in time. If it’s something that already happened, re-play it in your mind and let all those positive emotions percolate through your mind again. If it’s something that hasn’t happened yet, imagine what it might be like, in as much detail a you can muster, and enjoy the positive anticipation! Then, jot that thought down on a sticky note or index card, add the hashtag #silverthreads and then grab your phone, take a picture, and, share your snapshot with your people, maybe on Instagram, LinkedIn or Tiktok, or send it as a text if it’s about somebody you know – let them experience some happiness, too!
OK – Now that we’ve done a little self-care, it’s time to make this professional. Odds are if you’re a regular reader of my work you already care about your people. I also recognize that in today’s world, it takes more than that to change hearts, minds, and business practices. So let’s start with some basic (and startling) stats. Employee engagement is a costly and complicated challenge that organizations of all industries have tried to address for decades with little improvement in average engagement scores overall. Gallup’s 2022 global survey found that only 22% of employees globally are engaged at work. If you’re responsible for paying salaries, that number should freak you out. The cost of that disengagement? 7-8 TRILLION dollars, annually.
Meanwhile, 70% of employees would feel better about themselves if their boss were more grateful, and 81% would work harder. 95% of employees agree that a grateful boss is more likely to be successful. Employees who experience more gratitude at work report fewer depressive symptoms and stress. Lack of gratitude is a major factor in driving job dissatisfaction, turnover, absenteeism, and burnout. In recent surveys, half of the people said they regularly said thank you to their family members, but only 15% say thank you at work, and 35% of people say their managers NEVER thank them.
In research cited by the Wall Street Journal, the workplace ranked last of places where people express gratitude, with just 10% of people saying thank you to their colleagues and only 7% saying thank you to their supervisor.
And yet, some people actively discourage gratitude at work. There’s actually an employee-motivation consultant in San Diego, as saying, “We thank people around here: It’s called a paycheck.” Yikes. I think I’ve worked at companies he’s tainted!
And while we’re on this subject, I want to mention that while for SOME things (like laughter) you CAN fake it ‘til you make it… Gratitude is NOT one of those things. Inauthentic gratitude or just “going through the motions” will damage your credibility, decrease trust, create friction on your teams, and generally contribute to an unhealthy workplace culture. People can smell insincere gratitude a mile away.
Here’s one final statistic for you. Regular gratitude journaling has been shown to result in 5% to 15% increases in optimism and 25% increased sleep quality, and the health and behavioral benefits from those two alone are massive. What might it do for organizational performance? That was the question I wanted to answer when I was designing my doctoral research project.
I partnered with a consulting firm whose engagement scores had, much like employee engagement around the globe, remained lower than desired by management. Two questions framed my initial research. How do intentional gratitude practices influence job satisfaction, and how can intentional gratitude practices be improved to increase job satisfaction? A sample of the employee population was surveyed to assess current state job satisfaction and role confidence, then assigned to one of two groups. For four consecutive weeks, one group kept a daily gratitude journal, while the other reached out daily (yes, at least once a day!) to professional connections to express gratitude directly. Employees from each group were then interviewed to determine if there was a change in their job satisfaction, role confidence, or perception of gratitude in the workplace.
In this series, we’ll explore what we discovered, and along with those findings, I’ll share recommendations which I’ve been able to use to help companies create healthier working environments with more engaged teams. In 2023, I’m looking for opportunities to repeat this research with organizations across a wide array of industries, so if this is something that has sparked your curiosity, let’s talk!
Many C-suites and business commentators seem to believe that the Great Resignation is a short-term, post-Covid blip which will fizzle out as the global recession hits consumers. However, this superficial analysis ignores the underlying drivers behind the Great Resignation, as well as sweeping changes globally in people’s attitudes towards what they want from their jobs and work-life balance together with the developing demographics of the global workforce.
We’re at an inflection point when it comes to how organisations move forward. The Great Resignation offers a window into why companies are failing as well as opportunities for those who learn its lessons to change, develop and improve performance. Those that deal in denial will almost certainly waste these opportunities.
Organisations were put to the test by COVID, given its speed and depth of impact. Chronic pre-existing problems related to leadership, culture, empowerment, agility, and effective decision-making were highlighted and exacerbated. These were long-standing issues which should have been properly addressed but never were It also highlighted new possibilities to improve performance and wellbeing.
Hybrid working, for example, had never been fully utilised despite it having been a very real possibility for many organisations for years.
Only by acknowledging the truth that our experiences shape our views, which subsequently influence our behaviour in response to various circumstances can we hope to understand and learn from what we have been through.
Keeping this in mind helps us make sense of what we are seeing now and what we need to do next.
The COVID LessonsEveryone’s experience of COVID varied widely, depending at least in part on their proximity to the risk of infection. Based on this, McKinsey divided the working population into four distinct groups:
- 20% – continued to work – low risk roles, e.g. outdoor & construction
- 30% – furloughed / unemployed – e.g. hospitality and retail
- 30% – remote work – e.g., office-based staff
- 20% – essential workers – high risk but continued to work, e.g., healthcare and transport
How different groups experienced COVIDImpact varied across different groups too.The most affected were women, minority groups, younger adults and lower-paid workers. Those industries that essentially closed down during the pandemic had higher proportions of employees in these groups.
In terms of organisations there was a significant difference between different individual organisations and sectors. Some failed, some thrived. Few leaders are aware of the vast differences in events and outcomes. That’s because business leaders only know what happened where they were and do not have clear insights into what happened elsewhere.
The reality was that organisations which survived well if not thrived had a positive culture, trust, empowerment, and where leadership adapted more successfully. Their teams were able to work together more effectively and were more agile in reacting to the rapidly changing circumstances created by the pandemic.
COVID required executives to create the right environment for their organisation’s continued success set against unprecedented demands. They needed to step up their game, but many did not. Speaking to many of these executives post-COVID about their experiences, I was struck by one consistent theme: “COVID showed us who the leaders really were in our organisation.”
Remote WorkingThere is often an assumption that almost everybody has ended up working remotely. But, in practice, remote working is not consistently applicable.
Overall, only 30% of workers were able to do so. Only 5% of those earning under £20k pa were able to remote compared to 95% of those earning £50k pa. Furthermore, 55% of jobs in London were “remotable”, whereas in northeast England, the figure was only 35%.
Is working from home here to stay?The experiences from pandemic-induced remote working teaches us valuable lessons about how to make hybrid working effective in the future. What were they? Simply that, if set up and implemented correctly, remote working works well. It delivers improvements in work performance over office-based work, especially in individual activities that require creativity or focused work. It also enhanced wellbeing even during the pandemic, which itself negatively impacted wellbeing globally. Within this, the overall experience of remote working gives us an excellent roadmap to make hybrid working highly successful, if we learn the lessons. One of those lessons is that, in cases where remote working was not set up effectively, the cause could be traced to insufficient support from leadership. Here’s how this impacted the results:
- 30% found difficulty adjusting to the remote environment.
- 30% felt lonely and disconnected from their organisation.
- 15% felt their mental health suffered.
These are leadership problems rather than technology issues.
Key issues in remote working
An informal analysis of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s Leadership Style. You can also find this on my website.
Vladimir Putin is a leader who has earned recognition around the world for his style of leadership and ability to maintain control in a highly volatile political environment. Throughout his time as president of Russia, he has put into practice a variety of powerful tactics that have allowed him to achieve long-term success and stability.
His leadership style can be described as authoritative, with strong emphasis on maintaining and exercising power through loyalty and nationalism, as well as closely controlled media outlets.
Putin’s authoritarian approach has been extremely effective for consolidating and controlling the power within Russian politics. By creating a structured hierarchy with clear lines of authority, he is able to direct the actions of government officials in order to ensure that policies are carried out according to his wishes. This hierarchical structure also serves to maintain public order by providing clarity about who is responsible for making decisions and implementing them.
Furthermore, Putin has managed to foster an atmosphere of loyalty amongst those close to him which further reinforces his status as leader. This includes awarding high-ranking positions both within the government and in state-owned enterprises to those who demonstrate complete devotion to him as head of state. Such loyalty also serves as an incentive for others to remain loyal or risk losing their privileged positions if they fail to adhere to Putin’s instructions.
Another key aspect of Putin’s leadership style involves tightly controlling the media outlets available throughout Russia. By curbing freedom of expression in this manner, he is able to sway public opinion towards supporting him and his policies while at the same time blocking out dissenting voices or criticism from abroad. He often uses this strategy along with economic incentives such as higher wages or increased funding for infrastructure projects in order to encourage people living inside Russia’s borders (or living abroad) into supporting him more adamantly than before.
Lastly, one major factor behind Vladimir Putin’s success over the years is his heavy focus on promoting Russian nationalism both within the country and on an international level. Through various measures such as advocating for closer ties between Slavic nations or financing large-scale patriotic events like Olympic Games hosted by cities inside Russia, he has managed to cultivate an atmosphere wherein most citizens view themselves firstly as Russians before anything else – something which has enabled him not only stay in power but even grow it steadily over time.
To wrap up, Vladimir Putin’s leadership style revolves around using authoritarian tactics combined with nationalist propaganda in order to consolidate power while keeping any potential opposition at bay – all while relying heavily on carefully selecting individuals close to him who will remain loyal no matter what happens – something which so far seems have worked very effectively when it comes ensuring long-term success both domestically and abroad.
“Political Science was founded by Plato and Aristotle… In its essentials the classical foundation of political science is still valid today… As for subject matter, it is nothing esoteric; rather it lies not far from the questions of the day and is concerned with the truth of things that everyone talks about. What is happiness? How should a man live in order to be happy? What is virtue? What, especially, is the virtue of justice? How large a territory and a population are best for a society? What kind of education is best? What professions, and what form of government? All of these questions arise from the conditions of the existence of man in society.”
~Eric Voegelin in Science, Politics, and Gnosticism (1958)
The wages of Woke are upon us. Absurdity, demonization, cancel culture, the death of dialogue, anarchic governance, community breakdown, endemic violence, and socio-economic chaos now rattle our once complacent cages ceaselessly. And though the Woke activists are numerically insignificant, their influence in government, the bureaucracy, the media, academia, and the world’s largest corporations and professions is pervasive. Hence the vast majority of people in western liberal democracies are either dismayed but docile, or aghast but afraid to resist.
The name is new, but the phenomenon is not, and since it impacts all of us, in the home, the community, schools, and workplaces, and the nation at large, we are duty bound to recognise Woke, understand it, and strenuously oppose it. The Woke phenomenon is in fact a repackaging of an old strain of spiritual duplicity that has occurred many times in history. And high intelligence has never proved to be a prophylactic.
Consider the case of a brilliant young academic, a gifted public speaker and celebrity, whose genius has him earmarked for greatness. His popularity affords him no end of opportunities to indulge an insatiable appetite for wine, women, and song, yet he finds these delights in conflict with the restless energy of his exceptional intellect, which demands a relentless search for truth.
The circles in which he moves introduce him to a group of people who are bound together by a seductive philosophy of life that seems to offer relief for his inner turmoil. He is a good man, and there is nothing wrong with his promiscuous lifestyle, they tell him, and his obvious gifts qualify him to become part of a chosen elite, whose members alone have the knowledge to transform society and the world, ridding humanity of the age-old evils that burden us. The young genius is won over, and spends the next eleven years of his life virtue-signaling and virtue-subverting.
The story does have a happy ending, because the young man did escape the lie, and went on to provide a massively positive influence on the lives of millions, just as he still does today.
The words of the political philosopher, Eric Voegelin, quoted above, are rich in their implications for leadership, not only in politics, but also in business, the professions, and indeed, in every form of community. Voegelin was forced to leave Austria because of his opposition to Nazism, and spent the rest of his life, mostly in the US, in analysing why people fall for the utopian promises of totalitarian ideologies like Nazism and Marxism. He sheds a lot of light on the current crises facing the western world.
In his book, Science, Politics, and Gnosticism, Voegelin showed the striking similarities between modern ideologies and the ancient religion of Gnosticism. Modern neo-fascists, neo-Marxists, neo-Liberals, and neo-conservatives, and the Woke vandals of today, like their ancient gnostic forebears, feel deep dissatisfaction with the world as it is, and believe that human beings can and must take control of the historical process and reorder reality.
The essential characteristics of Gnosticism read like a description of the Wokism with which we are wrestling in the secular West of the Third Millennium:
- Gnostics believe that the world, that is, the way things are, is evil, and must be transformed if humanity is to find true fulfilment.
- Only an elite minority, gifted with an exclusive knowledge (gnosis), is able to see through the façade of the world as it is, to the reality of the evil that drives it.
- Life itself is all about the deadly conflict between the dark forces of evil and the chosen elite who have been enlightened by the special gnosis.
- Gnostics live in what Voegelin calls a “dream world”, obsessed by their vision, and hostile to common sense and any rational argument that exposes the intellectual poverty of the claims they make.
- In terms of morality, Gnostics exhibit a curious blend of puritan and permissive attitudes. Hatred of the conventional order of things spurs them to condemn traditional moral norms, and to promote radical social programs like veganism, pacificism, and collectivism. On the other hand, their repudiation of traditional marriage and child-bearing and rearing encourages the promiscuous behaviour that inevitably undermines marriage, the family, and all relationships and community through the virus of deceit and betrayal unleashed.
- Gnosticism typically promises the establishment of a state of bliss once the evil powers that control the existing order are destroyed. However, while for the ancient Gnostics this entailed passing from the evil world of matter to a spiritual paradise, modern Gnostic movements tend to see the world of matter as the only reality, and therefore promise their followers utopia, that is, heaven on earth.
- All of these points underline the first principle of Gnosticism – the non-recognition or denial of reality, and the call for humanity to construct reality for itself. For a person who does not believe in reality, there is no such thing as a lie. Gnosticism is the empire of lies.
Physiophobia is fear and loathing of being, as it manifests itself in the nature of things, especially human nature. Wokeness is physiophobic, and since you can’t abolish human nature, irrational frustration and rage are common symptoms of wokeness. Then there is the condition known as misology, which is an aversion to reasoning, feeling revulsion or suspicion in the face of logical debate; this too is easily recognised in the Woke phenomenon.
As Voegelin pointed out regarding Stalinism and Nazism, “…we are confronted here with persons who know that, and why, their opinions cannot stand up under critical analysis and who therefore make the prohibition of the examination of their premises part of their dogma. This position of a conscious, deliberate, and painfully elaborated obstruction of reason constitutes the new phenomenon.”
Now we all know people, often family and friends, who are highly intelligent and successful, but who have nonetheless become loud and uncompromising advocates for Wokism, and who have sacrificed dialogue for demonization of anyone who asks questions for which they have no rational answer. How does this happen? Voegelin explains by citing the example of Marx, who he sees as an intellectual swindler, a man whose entire life’s work was constructed on a lie. And he enlists the aid of Nietzsche, another Gnostic, but a rather more insightful psychologist than Marx, to throw light on the matter.
Nietzsche saw the Will to Power, the libido dominandi, as the passion that spurs a willingness to engage in intellectual deception. As all of us should know, it is common in human beings to want to be the master, not just in politics and business, but even in small groups and families; hubris afflicts all of us at some time or other, and the ego is hard to silence. Arising from what is often an innocuous delight in masquerade and fooling others, the libido dominandi develops a malign nature that is ruthless in manipulating and suppressing truth.
And lies always engender greater lies. Awareness of one’s deceit is submerged, and one’s conscience is progressively smothered.
Nietzsche recognises that what drives this is the revolt against God, who is truth itself, because once God is silenced, one can make one’s own truth, and therefore become a law unto oneself. Marx’s own doctoral dissertation makes this clear: “Philosophy makes no secret of it. The confession of Prometheus, ‘In a word, I hate all the gods,” is its own confession, its own verdict against all gods, heavenly and earthly who do not acknowledge human self-consciousness as the supreme deity. There shall be none beside it.”
This is a very seductive appeal to human beings, and has been since the beginning of time. As the serpent said to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, “You shall be as gods”. Woke appeals to not just those who accept its claims on blind faith, but also those for whom it offers justification for attitudes and actions they don’t wish to change, not to mention those who see in it the opportunity to further a particular agenda, be it political or commercial. These people are not interested in leadership; they simply want to be masters in a new social order.
Of course, the Will to Power that says, “My will is all that matters”, is deeply narcissistic, and even the worst people still want to be seen as good, and justified in all they do. Hence the tsunami of virtue-signalling that inundates the world in the socio-political chaos of the Third Millennium.
The broad and basic definition of a mentor is “one who is an experienced and trusted advisor”. The more formal definition of mentorship is “the guidance provided by a mentor, especially an experienced person in a company, or educational institute”. Throughout history, there have been various other names for a mentor. In law enforcement, a mentor is called a Rabbi. This would be an experienced officer who guides a young rookie through the ins and outs of being part of a law enforcement agency. In the religious community, a mentor is often referred to as a Confessor. This could be a clergy member or simply someone who is a member of the congregation.
Mentoring can be a powerful interaction between an experienced mentor and a lesser experienced, sometimes younger mentee. The relationship is typically guidance-based and can take place in a variety of formats, such as professional life, school environments, and marriage.
Regardless of the title, everyone at some point in their life, needs someone to assist them in professional, spiritual, marital matters, parenting, etc. At its core, mentoring is helping! Mentoring can be a powerful experience for the mentor and the person receiving the mentoring.
The history of mentoring appears to have originated as far back as Greek mythology. A man named Mentor became a trusted confidant and overseer to Odysseus and his son Telemachus. This was at the time of the Greek war against Troy. Through his dealings with these two famous Greek leaders, the term “mentor” was coined. From this time in Greek mythology, up to the last one hundred years or so, there was little reference to mentoring. Logic would tell us that these types of interactions must have taken place in many communities around the world. The important concept of apprenticeship certainly had strong elements of mentorship in its DNA. Over the course of US history, there have been many who have participated in mentor-mentee arrangements. Some notable examples are listed below:
- Henry David Thoreau, American essayist, poet, and philosopher, was mentored by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Emerson was a powerful American essayist and poet who led the Transcendentalist Movement in the mid-19th Emerson was a major influencer in the same disciplines as Thoreau and shaped his education and philosophy.
- Helen Keller, American author, and disability advocate, was mentored by Anne Sullivan. Sullivan taught Keller to overcome her blindness and become one of the most powerful figures in American history.
- General Colin Powell, Four Star General and former Secretary of State, had what many young people have experienced. That is, having a family member as a mentor. Powell credited his father for instilling in him the virtues of hard work, loyalty, integrity and being a leader, as the central focus of his life.
These three examples are of very public and famous American figures. The fact is, anyone who has some experience and expertise can be a mentor. In addition to having experience and expertise, the main requirement for mentorship is a willingness to help others. Being interested in others, giving back, and “paying it forward,” should be the core values of mentorship.
How do you become a mentor? The options for becoming a mentor are endless! Listed below is a small sampling to get everyone started on their exciting mentorship journey:
- Your Place of Employment. This can be pursued through a formal channel, such as the Human Resources Dept, or informally as the opportunity arises and someone looks ready for direction.
- Boys and Girls Clubs of America,www.bgca.org
- Big Brothers Big Sisters of America,www.bbbs.org
- Local Churches
- Just Serve,www.justserve.org
It is never too late to become a mentor. Start your journey now to help others and yourself in the process.
In my daily work, I speak with, and write for an audience that is very familiar, and -I hope- convinced of the value that partnerships bring to the table. However, in the larger context, it is very common to see references to getting rid of “the middleman” and “going directly to the manufacturer”. These messages predicate price savings that rarely materialize, on the basis that the layers in a value chain between the manufacturer and the consumer add no value whatsoever, and all they do is add up to the cost, collecting some type of an underserved fee. This article is from the point of view of someone who has worked for years for companies that have leveraged external partners to make it possible for their businesses to reach new heights, and offer a better experience for their customers.
WHEN THINGS WORK, COMPLEXITIES ARE IGNOREDThis indicates that about 70% of the global economy flows indirectly, and for good reason. Each one of the participants adds value. But how is value added? Why do we need these intermediaries?
In today’s complex business environment, there is almost no product or service that is made or delivered end-to-end, by one single company. There is always an intricate network of supply-chain elements and partnerships of sometimes completely independent companies involved. With the exception of the few of us who are deeply wading in the waters of partner ecosystems, these complexities tend to be ignored.
To make things worse, not even in some partner-friendly companies is everyone adequately acquainted with their own delivery models. More than a few times, I have found myself briefing an executive about the differences between their own Value Added Resellers and Agents.
Very often, these relationships are also, more than simplified, dumbed down. They are sometimes wrongly classified like a “supplier” or even worse, called “the middle man”, as if for some inherited privilege they have earned the right to collect some type of tax that they don’t really deserve.
THE MIDDLEMAN IS THERE FOR A REASONIn reality, many companies rely on partnerships to deliver their products to the market, and their partners are an integral part of their Go-To-Market strategy. In today’s world, it is a rare find a company that is capable to deliver its product or services all the way from the source, to the hands of the customer. Along this journey, several companies -or “partners”- may perform services, attach other products, etc. adding value to the final product that lands at the customer. It is from this journey and the several steps of value-add that the concept of the value chain stems from, and the product or service that is delivered to the customer is experienced through its Joint Value Proposition.
While these concepts are omnipresent in the tech industry, they are all over our economy as well. Two of the most noticeable ones are the Distribution Channel and the Service Delivery Partners. As for the first one, we see it everywhere, from the grocery store, the car dealership, or our trusted IT gal. For example, it is impossible -or not cost-effective- for car manufacturers to set up showrooms in every town, so they rely on entrepreneurs who are willing to enter in this business. In a similar way, growers and other foodstuff producers cannot afford to go to every town to sell their goods, so they engage in the distribution network that brings those goods to your local grocery store.
We must recognize the value that each of these partners offers for the consumer. Yes, they take a portion of the profits as compensation for their services, but they also add value to the product or service. For example, the local dealership makes it easy to get there, they offer financing (they bring together the automobile, and a financial product, the loan), and they can also service your car. In the case of the grocery store, besides making it really convenient to buy, with extended business hours, refrigeration, and now even home delivery, they are also an “aggregator”, allowing us to buy apples, milk, and honey, without having to visit the orchard, the dairy farmer, and the beekeeper.
A Service Delivery Partner can be a key player in the value chain, especially if the product or service requires installation, servicing, or any form of customization. They can be as simple as the independent contractor that may install the carpets that you bought at the big home-improvement store, or as complex as Microsoft’s partner network, where partners specialize in specific technologies. There is a huge difference in value between the carpet just delivered to your house in a roll, vs. actually being able to step on it. How much more value does that have in terms of your ability to enjoy the product?
IS A PARTNER RELATIONSHIP RIGHT FOR YOU?The way we experience a product or service is the result of all the value transactions that occur throughout the value chain, before they reach us. Some of these value transactions and the players involved, have evolved over time, filling a need. Others have been created intentionally, by design. This is where some companies have the opportunity to differentiate themselves from others by designing value chains that complement each other, delivering value to their customers. Across the board, some of the benefits of working with partners, instead of building every single aspect of the business, are:
Let a specialist deal with getting your product to the customer, the way the customer wants it. Partners have been doing what they do, for years. This makes them experts at it, and they can guarantee quality in a consistent manner.
Reduce the overall cost for the customer. Because of the specialization that partners may have developed, they are also in the position to perform the services required at a fraction of the cost that you would be able to do them in-house. (Yes! Partners can actually make things cheaper!).
Limit your exposure, adjust to sales volumes. Partnerships generally operate on a variable cost basis. This means that during times when business is slow, you will not have to pay them that much.
Be agile to scale. In the opposite scenario to the above and in the same way that a partner can scale down when business is slow, they can also quickly ramp up their services when business is booming.
CHOOSE PARTNERS WITH THE RIGHT CAPABILITIESWhen considering the way your product or service should be experienced, your differentiated value proposition. What does it look like? Can you make it happen? From the source to the end? What are you missing?
Instead of creating all the necessary parts to build your ideal differentiated value proposition, one option may be to partner with the right company, to complete your vision, and in this case, create a Joint Value Proposition. What kind of partner would you need to complement the value that you create?
Conversely, Is your business in the channel? Are you a reseller? An affiliates seller? A retailer? It is just as important in this scenario to do the exercise and be able to articulate what value you add. Do you make the customer experience better? Do you provide delivery? Help with selection? Install? Do you provide some kind of support afterwards?
PARTNERSHIPS ARE FOR THE LONG RUN, MAKE THE RIGHT PROMISESPartnership relationships can be complex though, and they require a lot of forethought. Companies partnering remain independent and is important to align incentives in order to make the partnership sail smoother and put in place a contractual framework that supports the partnership. Talking to a specialist in this area can pay off many times over the years.
As someone in business, instead of “cutting the middleman”, it may be wiser to seek it out and have someone to lean on.
We all encounter some form of chaos in our daily routine from time to time: Unexpected work requests; text messages or emails when you feel you have no time to reply; annoying notifications on your phone. And on and on and on. So, Zen Sammich explores how to deal with this kind of day-to-day chaos without getting stressed out or frustrated.
Visit zensammich.com/washi if you would like to help the show by purchasing some of the traditional Japanese, handmade paper that my wife and I make for a living. We do special order projects all the time. Just let us know what you would like. Or, consider making a one-time donation through Red Circle (click the link) or becoming a supporter of Zen Sammich for as little as $3 at patreon.com/zensammich (direct link not available, please copy and paste the URL). If you become a patron, I will send you a personalized, handmade (on traditional Japanese paper) postcard from the show and give you a shoutout on a future episode. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/zen-sammich/donations.
At ImagineNation we are celebrating 10 years as a global innovation consultancy, learning, and coaching company. During this time, we’ve identified some of the common patterns that people demonstrate as a result of feeling uncomfortable, frozen, inert, stubborn, and resistant to innovation. Resulting in many organisations, teams, and leaders appearing to walk backward as if they are sleepwalking through this time in their lives. At the same time, we know why innovation is transformational, and why, at this time, it is more important than ever to innovate. As well as to be resilient and adaptive to grow and flow in today’s chaotic BANI environment. We also know exactly what transformative innovation involves, and how to enable and equip people to connect and collaborate in new ways to effect constructive and sustainable change in a world of unknowns.
Shaping the next normal
According to a recent article by McKinsey and Co “The future is not what it used to be: Thoughts on the shape of the next normal” the coronavirus crisis is a “world-changing event” which is forcing both the pace and scale of workplace innovation.
Stating that businesses are forced to do more with less and that many are finding better, simpler, less expensive, and faster ways to operate. Describing how innovative health systems, through necessity, constraints, and adversity have exploited this moment in time, to innovate:
“The urgency of addressing COVID-19 has also led to innovations in biotech, vaccine development, and the regulatory regimes that govern drug development so that treatments can be approved and tried faster. In many countries, health systems have been hard to reform; this crisis has made the difficulty much easier to achieve. The result should be a more resilient, responsive, and effective health system”.
We all know that it is impossible to know what will happen in the future and that it is possible to consider the lessons of the past, both distant and recent. On that basis, take time out, be hopeful and think optimistically about the future. To be proactive and innovate to shape the kind of future we all wish to have, through making constructive and sustainable changes, that contribute to the common good.
Strategically deciding to innovate
Strategically deciding to innovate, is the first, mandatory, powerful, and impactful lever organisations, teams, leaders, and individuals can pull to effect, embed, and sustain constructive and sustainable change that delivers real benefits:
- Deal with, and find solutions to a world full of complex and competing social, civic, and political problems that are hard to solve and aren’t going away.
- Better adapt, respond to, and be agile in fast-changing circumstances, uncertainty, instability, and to random and unexpected Black Swan events, like the global Covid-19 Pandemic.
- Become both human-centric to help people manage their transition through the challenges of the global pandemic and enable them to exploit the range of accelerating technological advances in the digital age.
- Develop corporate responsibility, sustainability, diversity, and inclusion strategies that are practical and can work and really deliver on their promises.
- Compete by applying and experimenting with lean and agile start-up methodologies and take advantage of the opportunities and possibilities of the global entrepreneurship movement’s new models for leadership, collaboration, and experimentation.
- Align to the range of changing workplace dynamics and trends, resulting from the pandemic, including WFH, the “soft resignation” and the demands of a hybrid workplace.
- Shift individual, group, and collective consciousness towards collaboration and experimentation in ways that rebuild the trust that has been lost through incompetence, corruption, greed, and dishonesty.
- Respond creatively to meet the increasingly diverse range of customer expectations and choices being made around value.
Important to innovate – three elements
To take advantage of living in a globalised world, where we are interconnected through technologies and values and where we have an interrelated structure of reality, we can:
- Accept that innovation-led growth is absolutely critical, and have targets and a willingness to invest in new scalable business models, fast and effective development, and launch processes to reflect these.
- Invest in a coherent, time-risk balanced portfolio of initiatives and provide the resources to deliver them, at scale, strategically, to innovate to the right market, at the right price, at the right time, and through the most effective channels.
- Adopt an ecosystem approach to adapt and grow by creating and capitalizing on both internal and external networks, and stakeholder management through developing workforce ecosystems – a structure that consists of interdependent actors, from within the organisation and beyond, working to pursue both individual and collective goals.
Problem-solving, cultural change, and improving people’s lives
It is more important than ever to make innovation transformational, so that it delivers constructive and sustainable change, by building on three critical successful abilities:
- Seeing and sensing the problem or opportunity:
- What problem are we solving? And is there a customer who wants to pay to have that problem solved?
- What problem are we solving for the customer? Who needs this?
- What are the possibilities and opportunities available to us? And is there a customer who wants to pay to have this opportunity realised?
- What are some of our strengths? What are some of the things we are doing well that we can build upon or exploit?
- Shifting the culture:
- Where are we today? Where do we want to be in the future?
- What are our prevailing mindsets? How can we measure and contextualise their impact? What mindsets might we embrace to adapt and grow in an uncertain world?
- How ready and receptive are we to really embrace change?
- What do we need to unlearn and relearn to ensure our people are open-minded, hearted, and willed to embody and enact the desired change?
- How engaged and passionate are our people in problem-solving?
- How might we harness our people’s collective intelligence to solve problems and realise opportunities?
- Aligning technologies, processes, artifacts and behaviours as a holistic system:
- What is our appetite for risk? How do we define risk in our context?
- What type of innovation do we strategically want to plan for and engage in?
- What old legacy technologies no longer serve your needs? What new technologies might you be willing to invest in for the future?
- What disciplines are in place to ensure that people have a common understanding of the key processes and comply with managing them?
- How are we ensuring that everyone is motivated and skilled to innovate?
- How are we ensuring that people are acknowledged, rewarded, and organised to repeatedly innovate?
- What are the key mindsets and behaviours that enable and equip people to embody and embrace repeatedly innovate and design solutions with the end customer in mind?
Become a resilient difference maker
As many of us are aware, Toys R Us and Blockbuster were huge companies, that enjoyed massive success; however, this was all brought to an end due to their failure to innovate.
We can all avoid this fate by choosing to innovate and create constructive and sustainable change through:
- Accepting and acknowledging that to survive and thrive in a BANI world, where necessity is still the mother of all invention, and the urgency to do this is more important than ever.
- Identifying, understanding, and dealing with our own resistance to innovation, safely and proactively, and transforming resistance into resilience, to safely innovate.
- Understanding where we are today and then assessing the gap to what we want to be in the future, and mitigating the risks of both closing the gap and leaving the gap wide open.
- Enabling leaders, teams, and individuals to connect, explore, discover and navigate new ways of approaching and delivering commercially viable, value-adding, constructive and sustainable change, and outcomes.
- Leveraging innovation to transform an organisation, a business, the way people lead and team, to improve the quality of people’s lives in ways they appreciate and cherish.
“In order to transcend mere adequacy and make a mark of creative transcendence on the world, organizations need to stop walking backward, following a trail that has already been blazed. The motto of the British Special Air Service is, “Who dares, wins.” It is time for businesses to be bold, inspired, and look to the horizon. The next great innovation is out there. Will you have the guts to create it?”
Will you make a fundamental choice to innovate?
According to McKinsey and Co “The point is that where the world lands is a matter of choice – of countless decisions to be made by individuals, companies, governments, and institutions”.
Will you make a fundamental choice to use the current crisis to lead to a burst of innovation, productivity, resilience, and exploration in a connected world to create the constructive and sustainable changes we all want to have?
Or will you continue walking backward and sleepwalking through life, and fail to take advantage of this moment in time, to innovate, and continue life with the same thinking that is causing the current range of results, that many of us don’t want to have?
Find out more about our work at ImagineNation
Find out about our collective, learning products and tools, including The Coach for Innovators, Leaders, and Teams Certified Program, presented by Janet Sernack, is a collaborative, intimate, and deeply personalized innovation coaching and learning program, supported by a global group of peers over 9-weeks, starting Tuesday, February 7, 2023. It is a blended and transformational change and learning program that will give you a deep understanding of the language, principles, and applications of an ecosystem focus, human-centric approach, and emergent structure (Theory U) to innovation, and upskill people and teams and develop their future fitness, within your unique innovation context. Find out more about our products and tools.
Credit counseling agencies provide personal financial education, budgeting advice, money management workshops, and debt management plans. Counselors should be certified and trained in the areas of consumer credit, money and debt management, and budgeting. When searching for a credit counseling company, you should look for a non-profit to work with. There are many non-profit credit counseling companies that you could work with, but how do you know if credit counseling is right for you?
Reaching out to a credit counselor
If you’re having trouble managing monthly bills, take the first step by reaching out to a certified credit counselor who will work with you to gain an in-depth understanding of your unique financial situation and develop a personalized plan for moving forward. Credit counselors provide unbiased advice for your individual financial situation and offer practical solutions to meet your needs. The National Foundation for Credit Counseling, or the NFCC, is a great place to start your credit counseling search. The NFCC is the largest non-profit financial counseling association in the United Sates. Navicore Solutions is an NFCC certified counseling agency that can help put you on the path to financial success.
Many people are initially hesitant to reach out to a credit counseling agency. Do a little research when searching for a credit counseling company to help you learn more about what credit counseling can offer. This will help you become a little more confident to make that call. When you reach out to a credit counselor, you will not be judged for your financial situation. Counselors are here to listen with compassion and highlight the best solutions for the areas you need help in.
The initial call will help determine what your options are for your personal financial situation. You’ll also receive resources to help you make better financial decisions moving forward.
Read More: When And Why You Should Choose Credit Counseling
The Credit Counseling Session
A counseling session allows a certified counselor to take an in-depth look at your financial situation. By reviewing your finances, your counselor can determine the solutions that will best benefit you and your individual needs. Once the counselor has become familiar with the events that have led up to your current financial situation, they will speak with you about your monthly spending plan. With your permission, the counselor will pull your credit report and discuss solutions that will fit in your budget. If you qualify, you may be eligible for a debt management plan.
Listen to our Podcast:
Debt Management Plans
A debt management plan is carried out by a non-profit credit counseling agency that helps you lower your interest rates and monthly payments depending upon which credit accounts you have. The plan allows clients to repay their unsecured debts within a certain period of time, usually 3-5 years. Plans are specifically designed for each individual client. This is a creditor-approved repayment plan that focuses on unsecured debt. It is a structured repayment plan to fit each client’s budget until their debt is paid off.
If you’re working with Navicore Solutions to pay off your debt, we’re here for you throughout your debt management plan. It’s easy to contact our customer service department whenever you have a question or concern about your plan. Just like counselors, customer service specialists handle every client call with empathy, and can be trusted to get client concerns addressed.
Other counseling services
Non-profit credit counseling agencies provide services other than credit counseling, Navicore also offers budget, housing, disaster recovery, student loan and bankruptcy counseling, and education. Financial education is also considered part of our financial scope. The foundation of counseling rests in consumer education. All of our counselling services are supported by educational materials that are provided to our clients.
Read More: Taking Control Of Your Student Loans
Credit counseling vs. credit repair
It can be complicated to differentiate between credit counseling and credit repair. In fact, many people lump the two together and think they are the same thing. However, the two provide different ways to get your credit back on track. Credit counseling is a resource and education service for people who are having trouble managing their debt. Credit repair services focus primarily on consumers who are in a bad credit situation. These services focus solely on bad credit and trying to make changes to that person’s credit rating.
Remaining debt-free
Finishing your debt management plan is a great feeling. At Navicore, we are so proud of every client who completes their plan. Once you’re debt-free, it’s important to remain that way. One way to remain debt-free is to start a savings fund. Take half of your previous credit counseling monthly payment and put it away into your savings every month. This will allow you start creating an emergency fund that will help you stay out of debt in the future. The better prepared you are for unexpected expenses, the easier you’ll be able to manage if something were to happen. Create a budget and try to stick to it as much as possible. This will allow you to stay consistent with the improved financial habits you’ve learned while on your debt management plan. Most clients have worked hard to finish their debt management plan and are not looking to go back to a life in debt.
Read More: 10 Commandments For Financial Sucess
Credit counseling can change your life because the burden of unmanageable debt is lifted. Just being able to afford to order dinner out for your family can be a small moment of success. Steady progress on a Debt Management Plan can create a life with many small financial wins until you realize your financial life has changed for the better. It’s smart to seek professional help from a credit counselor to help pay off your debt if you’re in over your head. Don’t wait; contact a Navicore certified credit counselor today.
The phrase, “Skidding into Heaven”, is loosely based on author Hunter S. Thompson’s quote;
Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming Wow! What a ride!
I will take the “Skidding into Heaven” phrase and attempt to expand it to a much broader reach.
Over the past 10 years, I have become intrigued with the concept of “later-in-life activities”. As a result, I am a huge proponent of never entering into the vast wasteland of retirement. I have come to understand this is not a popular belief, especially in the United States. I do believe that when my time comes, I want to go “Skidding into Heaven” knees scrapped and bloody, with my entire body black and blue. With that, I know I will have lived a good life.
Historically people (primarily males), planned their entire adult life for the day when they would retire. The day they would receive the gold watch, a pat on the back, a piece of unforgettable sheet cake, and then pack up their box of memorabilia and head off into the sunset! Now, there are many famous and not-so-famous folks who hit the normal retirement age of 65 and keep going. Those are the people who are huge proponents of “lifelong-learning”, “later-in-life activities” and creating a “second act” for themselves and their families.
I also mentioned my interest in “later-in-life” activities. The list of “later-in-life” activities is endless. Historically, this list included travelling, playing golf, and spending time with the grandkids. All of these activities are great, and I prescribe to all of them! Along with these activities are the ones that allow us to pursue endeavors we never thought possible. We are all living longer and many with continued good health. Continued good health, due to advanced medical breakthroughs, and also healthy regimes of diet and exercise, lead up to this advanced age.
At no time in history have there been the vast number of resources available at everyone’s fingertips. The internet and limitless amounts of print and visual materials are available. Add in podcasts and blogs that give folks the opportunity to research what their “later-in-life activities” will entail.
For many, “later-in-life activities” have been a continuation of their ongoing legacy endeavors. Warren Buffet, at the grand old age of 92, with a net worth of 101 billion dollars is still actively overseeing his company, Berkshire Hathaway. Famed actor turned director, Clint Eastwood is still “churning out” movies, also at age 92. These are two famous “later-in-life” proponents. But what about people who operate more “under the radar?” Those people who are not in the daily news and may even live in our neighborhood? Annie Korzen, a former actress and professional storyteller, re-launched her “second act” as a Tik Tok sensation, with 223,000 current followers. Vivian Johnson, at the age of 85, formed a non-profit called Seniors for Racial Equality, in Irvine, California. Maurine “Mo” Kornfeld still swims actively at the Pasadena, California, Rose Bowl Aquatics center. “Mo” is getting close to turning 101 years old this month. These are a small number of active seniors who have approached their “second act”, with a healthy desire to accomplish more and not give in to society’s notion of what one’s “senior years” should look like.
What do you want to do in your “second act” that will help you Skid into Heaven? What do you want to do that will have you arrive in heaven, knees scraped and bloody, fully spent, no regrets, memories aplenty?
Everyone has dreams, but not everyone works to turn them into reality – into goals reached. Believe it or not, as a coach, clients share virtually the same issues about why they can’t reach their goals – over and over. You may have a few of these thoughts, too. If so, consider the reasons you tell yourself, before falling asleep at night, why these goals aren’t possible to reach. These reasons are beliefs you have, but that doesn’t make them valid reasons for ignoring goals and pursuing success.
Here are the top 5 reasons clients tell me they can’t or don’t start or reach their goals.
1. Unsurprisingly ‘Not Having Enough Time’ Sits at the Top of the List.
We all know accomplishing goals takes time. And that said, the bigger the goal the longer reaching it/them takes. The main issue, here, is failing to determine the actual time required to complete each task in order to reach your goal. In my experience, people tend to greatly underestimate the time it will take to complete a task. It’s easy to become frustrated if you believe a task or scenario will takethree months, but unfortunately, three months just doesn’t cut it and little is accomplished.
Everyone is busy these days – has the same twenty-four hours in the day. Yet some accomplish far more than most. For a week or maybe two, keep a time ladder of how you spent your time. This includes sleeping, preparing and eating meals, social media, getting ready for work, cleaning your house, and bringing work home from the office, for example. Take a good look at how you expend your time and soon you may discover you actually have more time than you realize and more than enough time to time to reach a new goal.
- I Don’t Have the Right Talent.
This is a statement I hear more than you might think. Yet, every year, thousands head off to college, hundreds of thousands develop new skills and thousands apply for new positions.
In my experience, this statement boils down to a lack of confidence; suggesting it may be time to leave your comfort zone in order to move forward. Here are 5 solid ways to build confidence to help you develop and progress:
- Emulate confident peers.
- Absolutely set goals.
- Focus on your strengths.
- Learn from your mistakes.
- Teach yourself positive reinforcement.
- After I Accomplish XXX I’ll do it.
When I decided to do more business marketing I was told, absolutely, I needed a website. It’s expensive and I did not have the money – at the time – to hire a developer. Plus knew nothing about site development or, more importantly, web coding and knew no one I could hire – so continued to put it off.
Eventually, I found most good sites required ‘code’ – which is literally a ‘bunch’ of letters and numbers strung together, in a specific way and which instruct the site what must be done to run properly. Yet to the average person it’s unreadable. Instead, the customer sees only beautiful photos, (once they reach the site); perfectly aligned paragraphs, and boxes to click to purchase. After procrastinating for a year, I found a variety of free online and college classes, plus books and training sites to help me learn to write web ‘code’. In time, I taught myself to write three types of ‘code’. It certainly wasn’t easy – I worked and had a husband and family. But I reached my goal of setting up my first site, then several others. With experience, I became faster and more skilled and it became easier as I developed each. While becoming a coder was not something I aspired to, it was
a means to reach my site goals.
Success is not obtained overnight. It comes in installments; you get a little bit today, a little bit tomorrow until the whole package is given out. The day you procrastinate, you lose that day’s success.
― Israelmore Ayivor
Almost all skills development, job prep, and training – for example – can be done on a part-time basis, after work hours or dinner, on a lunch break, for example. However, it does require determination to reach whatever goal it is you have in mind.
4. I’m Not Good Enough.
I’m always somewhat shocked when a client – especially one with a long list of accomplishments and awards – makes this statement to me. I immediately ask ‘what ruler are you using to measure the how and whys of the ways in which this phrase describes you’? You are always good enough to go after your own dreams and goals. On the other hand, if this is an internal dialogue that has developed and planted itself in your mind, continuing to repeat itself like a broken record, you must remove it and replace it with positive words of encouragement and those which regularly provide assistance and inspiration as well as act as a boost to your confidence.
If this belief is coming from external sources, then consider those sources and whether their intent is to hold you back. Opting, instead, to disassociate yourself from, to associate and socialize with those who offer help and encouragement.
5. ‘X’ Person Has it Easier.
The phrase “The grass is greener” proverb, from Erasmus of Rotterdam, seems to relate here. However, the grass is usually greener wherever you water it.
This is part of what is considered ‘Self-Limiting Beliefs. You come to me asking for help interviewing for a specific job – yet during conversation mention two or three others who have it easier; surely they will end up being hired. One works regularly as a freelancer in this department; a second applicant knows the VP hiring. Making it easier, you believe, for either to end up hired for the position although you are highly qualified.
From experience, I know neither of these two scenarios can secure this position for you. While they can help, you have no idea if the actual experience each has will be enough to seal the deal and get them hired.
Finally:Take time to examine your reasoning before deciding, unequivocally, someone else has it easier; you aren’t good enough; don’t have the right talent required, nor have the time to set and reach new goals. While I may not know you and you may not be a friend or connection – I can tell you from experience you have most or all of the experience required – however, if you are reading this you are determined to accomplish more.
Many sources of career advice assume that you will be earning more money and taking on more responsibility. However, there are times in life when you move in the opposite direction. It can be the result of forces beyond your control or a voluntary decision. The economy is still recovering from the pandemic, and some industries were disrupted more than others. Even if you love your job and your company is prospering, you may be looking for a change.
Whatever the reasons for resizing your career, you are more likely to find what you want if you take an intentional approach. It will benefit you to master the modern rules for moving down the career ladder gracefully.
Benefits of Taking a Lower-Level Position:
- Reduce stress. More than 40% of workers say their job is extremely or very stressful, according to a poll by Northwestern National Life. A less demanding job might enhance your health and overall well-being.
- Prepare for retirement. Are you thinking about working in your senior years to stretch your savings or stay engaged? Easing into your encore career may give you more time to figure out what you want to do next.
- Change fields. In the modern workforce, many employees change jobs and even careers more often. Being willing to take a more entry-level position can increase your options. You will also have a chance to learn new things and pick up additional skills.
- Pursue other interests. Maybe you are less focused on your job than you used to be. You would rather shift your time and energy to spending time with your family or working on personal projects.
Strategies for Finding a Lower-Level Position:
- Watch your budget. Before you take a leap to a lower-paying job, it is important to ensure that you can live on your new salary. Reducing your housing expenses often has the most impact. Dining in and cancelling your cable subscription may help too.
- Identify your strengths. Spend some time evaluating your transferable skills. Taking inventory will guide you to the kind of work where you excel.
- Explain yourself. You may need to reassure potential employers about why you are applying. They may be concerned that you won’t stay long or you will feel dissatisfied. Use cover letters and interviews to show why you are taking a different path.
- Edit your resume. You may need to de-emphasize some of your achievements if you want to avoid giving the impression that you are overqualified. Use simple language and focus on the relevant aspects of your background.
- Ask your boss. Your current supervisor may be an asset. Before you leave your company, see if you can negotiate some adjustments. Maybe you can work remotely or switch to part-time hours. Maybe you can do some contract assignments on a temporary or longer-term basis.
- Use your network. Your other contacts may be valuable too. They may have leads themselves, or they may be able to introduce you to others who need your services.
- Try it out. To make a transition with less risk, take a trial run. Hold onto your day job while you do some part-time work or volunteering that will broaden your experience and contacts.
- Take action. Any big change can feel overwhelming. Break your plans down into smaller steps. You might commit yourself to filling out at least 3 job applications a week or going to one job fair each month.
Downshifting your career could open up new opportunities and create more balance in your life. Be prepared to explore your alternatives and market yourself to new employers. You may find that your new arrangement is more satisfying than anything you left behind.
Many times in life we do everything within our power to achieve our goal, whether that be a new job, to bring pride to others or ourselves, and to finally get over that hurdle our mental health has been lately. It’s easy to forget how far you’ve come when you see how far you still have left to go, but that doesn’t mean you can’t celebrate your accomplishments now.
In this episode, Sarah Elkins and her good friend Megan Miller discuss the importance of allowing yourself to change and to celebrate every victory, no matter how small, because those victories are proof of your success.
HighlightsSharing vulnerable personal information without any intention doesn’t help you. Sometimes you don’t notice how much things change until you step back or get an outside perspective. Celebrate the wins. You get out what you put in.
Quotes
It’s soul, it’s about how you do it and why you do it. The advice we give a lot of the time is advice we need to hear at that point in time.
About Megan: Megan Miller is the CEO of Aprovechar Language Solutions, LLC, a company that acts as a bridge between English and Spanish language learners. Her personalized and small group programs take a habit-based approach, and whether it’s in class or a Book Club – you know you’ll have fun! She also helps IT companies in Latin America and Europe tell their stories for a U.S.-based audience through translation and localization projects. Megan has a Bachelor’s in Spanish Language, Literature, and Culture and is certified to Teach English as a Foreign Language. Check out her Instagram and LinkedIn! As well as her website, Approvechar Language Solutions!
Mentioned in this Podcast TEDx on Imposter Syndrome by Melissa Hughes
Belonging encompasses the feeling that you have value in a home or a place in which you are fully accepted. When it comes to the workplace and inclusive leadership, creating a culture of belonging means more now than it ever has, especially in the wake of the Great Resignation. Seeking to understand your people goes beyond who they are once they walk through the door. It’s a deeper level of recognizing their intricacies that extend beyond the workplace. Everything they go through plays a huge part in who they show up as each and every day. Welcoming your employees’ voices and input helps them feel safe and cared for.
A Deeper UnderstandingYou know the saying, “walk a mile in their shoes?” One of the biggest mistakes leaders continually display is making assumptions about people.
Assumptions lead to microaggressions, misunderstandings, and otherwise harmful behaviors.
Start to understand your employees better by practicing active listening and including everyone’s voices in the conversation. The deeper your understanding of your people goes, the better suited you will be to find the perfect fit for them within your organization.
It’s equally as important to foster relationships among your team as a whole. When you introduce a new team member, make it personal. Keep the dialog flowing and always make an effort to ask questions about how they are and truly listen to what they have to say. Make it a habit to check back in with them, especially if they have shared a hardship with you. Listening is one of the biggest skills you can hone in on within leadership, and this is a great time for it to stand out.
Learning to TrustSeek out your teams’ strengths and let them shine. Always get their input and make sure to include everyone on your team when it comes to meetings, gathering opinions, and be sure to always genuinely value their feedback. Ask them where they think they do best and where their biggest area for improvement is. Ask them which part of their job is their favorite; we tend to enjoy doing what we’re good at! If you have already spent time connecting with and getting to know your team better, it won’t be too challenging to discover their unique talents.
On the flip side, learn to let go and not micromanage. Delegating tasks from your to-do list shows that you trust your team to get the job done and can foster collaboration. Accompany these new behaviors with recognition and positive feedback, even if the result is a failure. Commend your employees for trying and testing their limits and show respect by fully engaging in whatever your people have to say.
InclusionYou can begin this process of inclusion by sharing your own stories first and leading by example to show how powerful the desire to belong really is. Ironically, one of the biggest steps to creating a sense of belonging is, in fact, inclusion. You will only feel that you truly belong somewhere if you are welcomed to the table. Trust is the foundation for any safe space to be possible, but there needs to be an explicit and implicit invitation to your employees to speak openly and honestly. Give them your full attention by making eye contact and eliminating distractions. Let them know by your physical actions that when they speak, you are ready to listen.
ReflectionMentorship and professional relationships can make or break a career. You can take small steps to improve your inclusive leadership and help someone by sharing your own journey and listening to theirs. You’ll get a chance to share your successes and failures and you’ll hear another person’s diversity of experience. When it comes to creating belonging at work, it isn’t just about creating psychological safety, though of course that is extremely important. But you’re building and optimizing the connection of your community and your people. Embrace a culture of belonging, and you will see your people grow and collaborate even more, which will produce all the positive business results for which you are aiming to achieve.
Episode SummaryAsesh Sarkar is helping transform the way people control their personal finances, at a time when this kind of service has never been more important. Discover key insights from Asesh relating to leadership, financial responsibility, and inclusive capitalism.
Episode NotesDefeating the Personal Debt Trap (ft. Asesh Sarkar)
Asesh Sarkar is changing the way employers and employees handle salary
OPENING QUOTE:
Just like when I joined the workforce as a grad and I had a great experience, making sure that people who join us have a great experience, as well. So yeah, it’s quite the journey, and then one we’re very much still on and learning every day.
—Asesh Sarkar
GUEST BIO:Asesh Sarkar is the Global CEO and Co-founder of Salary Finance. Salary Finance is a fast-growing FinTech company which enables employees to receive wage advances to help them pay off their debts faster and save towards their financial goals, operating in both the UK and US. It’s been featured twice by Forbes as one of the leading socially responsible startups and as one of the five fast-growing businesses to watch. It’s also already become a Harvard case study. Across the UK and US, Salary Finance is used by 500 top employers and available to around 4 million people.
CORE TOPICS + DETAILS:[4:38] –Four Things Great Leaders & Bosses Do
Lessons from Asesh’s first great mentor
Asesh recounts the boss who played the role of a coach in his early career, providing him with four key gifts— autonomy, a listening ear, the feeling of being valued, and flexibility. With these four tools, a coach gives a person much more than any domineering, hard-charging boss could ever provide.
[17:42] – The Model of Reciprocation
You don’t have to be an extrovert to thrive
If you genuinely go out and show other people that you are interested in helping them, you don’t have to be an extrovert to thrive in business. If somebody reaches out to help you, and you are happy to help them, it’s often as simple as that. Build authentic trust-based relationships where people know that you are not just in it for a transactional benefit, and your reputation will reflect that. Meanwhile, people that have a history of transactional-based interactions get a reputation for having transactional-based interactions. The number of people who genuinely want to work with them declines over time.
[28:31] – Combining Social Intent with Business Acumen
Asesh’s formula for impact
Asesh shares his vision for an organization with the greatest positive role in the world: the best talent working on problems which can make a real impact in society, combined with a commercial model which means it is commercially scalable and can raise capital to do it at a big, big scale. This idea of business with social purpose is what inspired him to go all-in on Salary Finance.
[50:12] – Asesh’s Message to Leaders
Learning to cut the line
There’s always more work than there is time in the day. It’s rarely a bad decision to cut the line and stop work time a bit further, then use that extra time to spend with colleagues and form human relationships. It makes you better, it makes them better, and everyone performs better as a result. Focus on relationships and watch performance soar.
RESOURCES:
- [0:53] About Salary Finance
- [26:21] “Serve to Lead”
- [37:37] About inclusive capitalism
- [48:00] About MyBnk
Follow Asesh Sarkar:
I was reflecting on the ritual of the inauguration of the 46th President of the USA and whilst the inauguration ceremony wasn’t what we have seen before it retained key anchor points of ritual and ceremony. The presence of former Presidents, the swearing-in on the ‘family’ bible, the singing of the National Anthem by a national treasure, and the inclusion of a poem by a celebrated poet. It contained all of those along with row upon row of flags symbolising the public unable to attend because of the COVID lockdown and previous unrest at the Capitol.
In our lives, we have many ceremonies and rituals – birth, marriage, death, key milestones, sporting achievement, academic achievement and so much more. Ceremony and ritual matter because they offer an opportunity to come together to witness and reinforce key values and truths.
Whether it be the hope of a better democracy, or the joy of new life, or the potential embodied in a loving union…in every significant ritual, we can see the underpinning of hope, truth, love, freedom, justice, joy…the fundamentals of life.
When we look at our organisations it’s equally important that we have in place, and value, our own rituals and ceremonies and consider their meaning and the messages we are seeking to convey. Whether it be the annual conference or the way we mark success, the way we say thank you or showcase loyalty. Each of these can seem like things we just need to tick off – we must have a long service award programme, we must have a sales bonus and reward programme and so on – but what attention do we pay to their impact and messaging of values and truths about the organisation? A local handing over of a letter and a trinket for 25 years of service can feel somewhat ‘underwhelming’?
And what about the transfer of the baton between senior leaders such as when a new CEO starts or there is a reorganisation. Opportunities exist for us to apply a little more thought to the ritual and ceremony surrounding these events. I’m not suggesting a huge pomp and circumstance affair, but I am suggesting that we shouldn’t treat them as ‘shadowy’, under-the-radar events either. These events have an impact on people and their sense of connection and motivation – or at least they should if they’ve been done for good reason, and they deserve more than just an all-points bulletin.
Transferring the baton is an opportunity to recognise and reinforce the core values underpinning an organisation and its community. It’s an opportunity for celebration and hope as a community. It’s an opportunity for broader messaging that feels credible and connected – weaving together the fundamentals that guide an organisation beyond any one individual.
Ritual and ceremony help us connect to that deeper part of ourselves where we touch into belief – the belief in something bigger, something more fundamental – love, hope, truth, connection, goodness, oneness…let’s ensure we afford them due respect.
In the English Alphabet, there are five Vowels. They are A, E, I, O, and U, respectively. Equally we humans have five sense organs, out of which we comprehend the reflections of the external world. Nature endowed us with a unique quality and our cerebral are designed in such a fashion that only can receive the reflections nature endows on us! Out of our five senses, we humans can even imagine a picture being entirely designed by our internal mechanism which may necessarily not having any absolute physical entity, but out of our cerebral capacity we can only envisage its entity and we could evidently realize that external and internal conditions are equally pertinent for our growth and evolution. However, all matters in our vicinity play a key role for even a matter like ours to sustain and evolve!
As equal to five vowels in the English language, human civilization too came across five predominant social structures to date. Right from Primitive Communism, when people were food gatherers, not producers, and when there was no scope to make any surplus value out of garnering wealth to Slave Society, a new form of social structure, primarily designed with inequality of wealth and subjugation of the majority with the vile intention only to possess wealth, and thereafter followed by Feudalism to emerge with a rebellious manifestation and exercise their persistence for a fairly long time, until Capitalization came into emergence by ceasing and replacing the atrocities of Feudalism with their upholding tenet of Democracy. After that, the Socialist social structure emerged by unleashing a new sense of liberty where people from the majority section find their utterances where productive forces and production are largely reinforced, and a new sense of freedom is defined with an aura of humanism.
We cannot rule out that Polity is the intense form of Economy in an available social fabric and in the present socio-political scenario we are observing a severe crisis that is steeping in high magnitude and causing unrest to all forms of polity. Whether in a Presidential or Parliament form of Governance, whether Bi- Part or Multi-Party mechanism, all parties need to patronize and funding to enunciate their popular mandates and it is the Industrialists who fund them to ensure their out-of-return incentives and privileges with an aspiration to increase their profits which have no leaps and bounds and surprisingly having the similarity with the aspirations of all concern parties.
Where there is a single-party system or multiparty Government, both have aspirations only to remain in the corridor of power. Election or selection has an amazing similarity and both are having their respective coterie of interest groups and funding them with the same objectives! To win adults open franchises with popular mandates becoming bait to hoodwink the majority by offering dole politics paving the way for a few industrial houses to only gain abnormal profits with astronomical figures and continuously disfiguring the existing economic political social milieu. Hardly they could envisage that their greedy inclinations only pave the way for brewing unrest in an available social fabric and becoming a breeding ground for incendiaries to explode by numerous alibi, whether religious or racial essence with hate and animosity to cause enmity and chaos and eclipsing the vicinity with the sheer obscure, design of social unrest and nefarious form of which discrimination and lack of sheer integrity, devoid of humanism and harmony is nowadays becoming a common phenomenon.
I wonder whether the Socialists’ or Capitalist’s form of the socio-economic structure has aspirations to satiate their respective goals and both are resorting to the same format with a version having similarity to make allegiance to their preferred group of industrialists who are funding and supporting them respectively to acquire power, political and economic strength with election protocols with a vicious sense to an ingrained majority with an obscure sense of pseudo nationalism! Consequently: Crony Capitalism” now becoming a subject of great paramount and none can nullify this trend eclipsing the present society we are dwelling. What exciting features emerging in both halves of the present socio-economic policy!
In the modern era Technology is playing a key role to shape the entire world and by virtue of the internet, we are now living in a global village.
Whether developed or developing nations, both are taking the advantage of technology and the world’s productive order being largely revolutionized. The chain of supply and demand has gained new momentum. Production forces are being disintegrated along with the entire produced goods and different parts of a product are being decentralized, where a single product is manufactured in various parts of the world and assembled in another. The nature and picture of the market have changed and the competition for the market to being manifested in an intricate fashion. To acquire a sizeable proportion of the market, whether socialists or capitalists are in the fray and both are forced to opt for technology to sustain in the steep competitive market. Consequently, both forms of social structures are adopting the means of production in a similar fashion and resorting to a few giant producers of products who are capable to compete to have their stake. Patronising a few manufacturers are paving the way for new terminology, “Crony Capitalism” to emerge stronger and even change the landscape of capitalists by eliminating centuries-long organizations with new organizations in the Fortune 500 lists.
Innovation and disruption thus became the frontrunner of modern methods of competition and even the polity is largely guided nowadays by such revelations. This “Crony Capitalism” grows out of political parties’ patronage across the world where the political parties aim is only to win in the elections and to ensure their win, these cronies used to fund them, aspiring to get privileges from their political friends to accrue huge financial and another form of assistance and favour to thrive and make profits out of proportions and their numbers are growing astronomically, precisely in the developing nations. In the development, they appear as if a bolt from the blue and started to reign over the entire social, economic, and political milieu, and surprisingly almost the majority of the existing political parties show apathy to combat their brazen and nefarious traits as they almost all took the financial support from them to ensure their very existence in the available socio-economic political milieu.
When technology is dominating the entire world, who else will dare to combat their very existence? Eliminating manual labourers and introducing artificial intelligence with robotics and machine learning is definitely giving impetus to the entire production system and thus few are capable to garner huge profits. With the help of data science, the condition of labour forces are becoming deplorable and precisely in developing nations, their conditions are getting worse. The unemployment scenario is alarmingly rising and the majority of the labour forces are depending on the state’s welfare schemes to merely eke out. Thus dole politics are now making a huge impact and a creamy layer is being created by this existing mechanism only to eclipse the misery and inequality and jeopardy which is emphatically prevailing in the current society.
But can we rule out that if the purchasing capacities of the majority collapsed and they only exist out of the mercy of the state’s welfare schemes, how long we could contain the outburst of the majority’s discontent? The bone of contention is lying with the new form of exploitation where the wealth is concentrated in the hands of a few and they only show generosity to their lap dog agents whether from the political domain or from media and intelligentsia to offer a little slice of their cake!
I wonder, why both ideologies, whether capitalist or socialist, despite contradictory to each other are resorting to the same logic of inducing the majority to go for cake, instead of the whole bread? Are they not paving the way for a new design of dispensation of social fabric by welcoming jeopardy and chaos?
I am observing the existence and persistence of a few sharks that are only focusing to swallow their prey indiscriminately just to cause instability and chaos to prevail and an emergence of abrupt bloody and wild chaos to obliterate many from nature’s floor, where fighting against nature will surely take its toll to prove that nature’s honest reflection on human cerebral is inevitable and failing to understand the reflections only pave the way for extinction of myriad.
It is perhaps the ardent call of this present hour to make an equitable and sensible use of technology where the majority could be benefitted and thrive vigorously and try to reduce the inequality in the social structures in order to serve humanity and restore peace and harmony.
In our second blog in the Reconnect and Reset series, we stated that it is not a time to panic. Nor is it a time to languish from change fatigue, pain, and emotional lethargy. It is a significant moment in time to focus, rehabilitate, rebuild, repair, regrow and reset to increase our connectedness through linking human touchpoints that increase people-power in the fourth industrial revolution.
In the current environment, where chaos and order are constantly polarising, its crucial to touch people with empathy, reignite their social skills, and enable them to become healthily self-compassionate and more self-caring to:
- Patiently support, lead, manage, mentor, and coach them towards finding their own balance to flow with mitigating the challenges of the fourth industrial revolution.
- Take advantage of new technologies, networks, and ecosystems to re-engage and collaborate with others and with civil society in positive ways that contribute to the whole.
- Do the good work that creates a more compelling, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable future, that serves the common good.
The landscape has changed and so have the solutions
As the fourth industrial revolution continues to implode, we need to zoom out and consider the bigger picture. Where a recent Harvard Review article What Will Management Look Like in the Next 100 Years? states that we are entering an era, which is fundamentally transforming the way we operate. Which is defined by the disruptive growth in blockchain technology, robotics, artificial intelligence, high-performance computing, and other core digital capabilities.
All of which, in some way, are dependent on linking the key human touchpoints that increase people-power and our connectedness.
- An era of empathy
In the same article, management scholar Rita Gunther McGrath argued that management practices based on command and control and expertise would ultimately make way for one of empathy.
Where work is centred around value creation conducted through networks and collaboration, that rely on increasing the connectedness between machines and humans rather than through rigid structures and relationships to thrive through increasing people-power in the fourth industrial revolution.
- Capable of better
The Qualtrics 2022 Employee Experience Trends Report also states that the landscape has changed. Where people are choosing to work flexibly, to work in the places that work best for them, and to take time for their own well-being, families, and friends.
Where people are demanding change because they care, about their leaders and their organisations, and want to be capable of developing better ideas; better innovations; and delivering better performances.
The report outlines the four things your people need you to know:
- There will be an exodus of leaders – and women will be the first out the door.
- People will demand better physical and digital workspaces.
- The lack of progress in diversity, inclusion, and belonging won’t be accepted.
People don’t want to become irrelevant, nor do they want their managers, leaders, and organisations to become irrelevant. People know that they can’t, and won’t go back to the old ways of doing things.
People also know that they are already living in the new normal and that they need to start working there, too and to do that, we need to increase our connectedness.
Which is especially important for building people-power and mitigating the challenges emerging in the fourth industrial revolution.
- A transformative moment for employees and employers
Businessolver’s Eighth Annual Report on the State of Workplace Empathy describes how the pandemic has impacted on employees’ personal lives, the labour market, and the economy, and states that “we are living through a renegotiation of the social contract between employees and employers”.
Their data shows that amid the return to the office, fewer employees view their organisations as empathetic, and that workplace empathy has clear implications for employee well-being, talent retention, business results, and increases people-power:
- About 70% of employees and HR professionals believe that empathetic organisations drive higher employee motivation.
- While 94% of employees value flexible work hours as empathetic, the option is only offered in 38% of organisations.
- 92% of CEOs say their response to returning to in-person work is satisfactory, compared to 78% of employees.
- 82% of employees say their managers are empathetic, compared to 69% who say the same about their organisation’s chief executive.
Yet, there seems to be a true lack of understanding, especially in the corporate sector, of what it means to be empathetic, and a shortage of time and energy to develop the mindsets, behaviours, and skills to practice it and make it a habit.
It is also a fundamental way of being to increase our connectedness and building peoples-power.
Make a fundamental choice to increase our connectedness
Even though each person is a distinct physical being, we are all connected to each other and to nature, not only through our language but also by having a deeper sense of being.
Human connectedness is a powerful human need that occurs when an individual is aware and actively engaged with another person, activity, object or environment, group, team, organisation, or natural environment.
It results in a sense of well-being.
The concept is applied in psychology as a sensation or perception where a person does not operate as a single entity – we are all formed together to make another, individual unit, which is often described as wholeness.
Which is especially important for our well-being and people-power in the face of the challenges of the fourth industrial revolution.
Strategies for developing quality connections
- Be grounded, mindful and conscious
Being grounded and mindful enables people to become fully present to both themselves and to others. It is a generous gift to unconditionally bestow on others. Especially at this moment in time, where the pandemic-induced social isolation, has caused many people to become unconsciously and unintentionally self-absorbed.
There is an opening to become aware of, and to cultivate our attending and observing skillsets, to sense and see the signals people are sending, at the moment they are sending them. To help people identify the source of their issues to re-establish a sense of influence and control that reduces their autonomic nervous system reactions and help them restore their calmness.
This is the basis to increase our connectedness, by attuning and becoming empathetic as to what thoughts and feelings lay behind their behaviours and actions, with detachment, allowing, and acceptance.
- Be open-hearted and open-minded
Being curious about what others are feeling and thinking, without evaluating, judging, and opposing what they are saying. By knowing how to listen deeply for openings and doorways that allow possibilities and opportunities to emerge, to generate great questions that clarify and confirm what is being both said and unsaid.
To support people by creating a safe and collective holding space, that reduces their automatic unconscious defensive responses. To defuse situations by being empathic and humble and increase our connectedness by asking how you might help or support them, and gaining their permission and trust to do so.
Increase our connectedness through being vulnerable in offering options so they make the best choice for themselves, to reduce their dependence, help them identify and activate their circles of influence and control and sustain their autonomy.
- Help people regenerate
Now is the moment in time to focus on building workforce capabilities and shifting mindsets for generating a successful culture or digital transformation initiative by harnessing, igniting, and mobilising people’s motivation and collective intelligence and build people-power.
It is crucial to acknowledge and leverage the impact of technology through increasing people-power by developing new mindsets, behaviours, skills, and new roles, which are already emerging as fast as other roles change.
Be willing to invest in the deep learning challenges that build people’s readiness and receptivity to change, so they can embrace rather than resist it, be willing to unlearn, and relearn, differently, by collaborating with other people, leaders, teams, and organisations across the world.
Ultimately, it all depends on being daring and willing to increase our connectedness, through adapting, innovating, and collectively co-creating strategies, systems, structures that serve the common good, and contribute to the well-being of people, deliver profits and nurture a sustainable planet.
Find out more about our work at ImagineNation
Find out about our collective, learning products and tools, including The Coach for Innovators, Leaders, and Teams Certified Program, a collaborative, intimate, and deeply personalized innovation coaching and learning program, supported by a global group of peers over 9-weeks, starting Tuesday, October 18, 2022. It is a blended and transformational change and learning program that will give you a deep understanding of the language, principles, and applications of an ecosystem focus, human-centric approach, and emergent structure (Theory U) to innovation, and increase people-power, upskill people and teams and develop their future fitness, within your unique context. Find out more about our products and tools.
This is the final in a series of three blogs on the theme of reconnecting and resetting, to create, invent and innovate in an increasingly chaotic world. You can also check out the recording of our 45-minute masterclass, to discover new ways of re-connecting through the complexity and chaos of dis-connection to create, invent and innovate in the future! Find out more.
What is mass intimacy? We’ve all felt it (and it was readily possible during social distancing)! The innovative and creative agency Goodby Silverstein & Partners has created landmark work for companies incl Pepsi, Nike, and BMW (and many many more), and they’re helping pioneer mass intimacy.
If you’ve ever watched a building project, the laying of the foundation is critical. It is the foundation that sets the long-term stability of the structure. The way the foundation is dug in, reinforced, and poured or built is so important.
The same can be said for your ability to become a strong leader. The foundation you build will support your leadership structure, framework, and long-term success. Let’s look at the parallels.
First the PreparationGood construction of a foundation starts with an analysis of the ground underneath. Soil conditions, the level of the nearby water tables, and other elements are checked and evaluated. Foundations being placed in locations with sandy soil, like beachfront lots or lakeside locations usually have to drive pilings deep into the ground to reach bedrock for stability. On the other hand, locations with rocky terrain might not even allow the first footing to penetrate the surface, thus making for bad foundational conditions.
Being able to set the foundational structure into firm ground is the first step in building a solid foundation. Otherwise, the foundation will be likely to shift and ‘float’ once it is built. Movement like that causes weakness in the structures above.
Preparing to be a Leader requires similar searching for solid ground. Learning and knowing your core values is like the bedrock you need. If you don’t spend time digging into the primary motives, values, and principles you want to follow as a leader will be like building your reputation on a sandy beach. It can wash away with the tide.
Next the SubstanceReal foundations come in different forms. Many include poured concrete. Yet some are pier and beam structures. Regardless of the technique used, having the right materials configured and constructed the right way is key.
In the case of concrete, simply pouring a big mass of concrete won’t last long. If reinforcing steel is not placed crisscrossing the structure, the concrete alone can crack, warp and break down in time.
Great leadership is made up of a mix of many different attributes. One size does not fit all. However, having the right mix, properly aligned can serve you well. The blend of skills attributes, and abilities are often shaped over time. Experience can provide good insight into ways you might need to adjust your leadership.
Trying to establish yourself as a leader without first assembling a patchwork of skills, abilities, and values can be futile. The right mix of the right substance can set you on a course for success as a leader.
Making AdjustmentsAs time goes on, foundations may need further work to lift, adjust, and reinforce them. I live near the gulf coast of Texas. Our soil has a tendency to float on a very shallow water table. That may be more technical than you care to know. But it means we have to have foundation work done sometimes. After 30 years of solid performance, my home started to show signs of shifting and settling. SHeetrock cracked and doors stuck. The foundation repair company was called.
We had to dig 15 piers across the front of my house. Once the piers were set, the jacks were installed and the ‘lift’ happened. Within minutes, all the cracks and door jams were once again square. My foundation had started settling across the front. Getting it lifted just fractions of an inch helped return the structure to ‘square’.
Your approach to leadership can likewise settle or shift in time. You form habits. Maybe you get complacent about certain things. Or you let a few bad experiences warp your view of values and principles. You need to perform your own valuation and review of your leadership.
Get feedback from peers or your direct reports. Be open to honest feedback. Determine whether adjustments need to be made to get your leadership foundation back on square.
Gettbricking the Right Help to Build Your FoundationAs with any construction, hiring the right contractor to build the foundation is important. If you are just now starting out on your leadership journey, consider hiring a coach to help you put together the right foundation solution to best serve your needs.
Friends can help you shape some ideas, but someone with proven experience in more senior leadership roles can do more to help you put together the best foundation for your use as a leader.
"Being a person as well as a worker means opening up to a broader panoramic perspective and allowing all selves to bring novelty and beauty to their role." ...
"Although the mission, vision, and values of both groups may be identical, culturally inspired blips can arise from differences in which previous boards operated, from expectations of the CEO, from staff differences, etc." ...
"Given today’s employment market, leaders can no longer afford to engage in these emotional reactions to resignations. We must apply greater mindfulness to these critical opportunities and challenges." ...
"An attitude of openness requires a proactive approach. It’s not enough to consider what comes your way, you now must aggressively seek the new and different." ...
"What have you learned lately…or what would you like to learn? What would move you forward- inspire you- lift your spirits or your income?? What could you learn to help your clients better or faster?" ...
"Questions, stories, thought-provoking possibilities, and tips to play with as you Let Your Purpose Find You..."
"Purposes are often mixed and the process is unclear. In the worst cases, meetings blow up or people retreat into an uncommunicative shell or both." ...
"Winning leadership is based on a multiplicity of pillars, which, then, are none other than those factors and behaviors that can guarantee success: trust, collaboration, sharing, emphasis on objectives, clarity, security, support, awareness, humanity, and more. ..."
"Facing adversity is the price you pay for being a leader and humility is your leadership superpower." ...
"I began to determine the common denominators among my clients, who set and achieved 90-day goals for their businesses, their personal lives, their education, their careers … including all areas of life." ...
"Boundaries help teach others how to treat you. Knowing your boundaries can bring a sense of freedom to your life." ...
"Our materialistic world has polluted the meaning of pride in favor of faked or cosmetic pride." ...
"An optimum email deliverability rate implies that your emails are getting “delivered” to the user’s inbox without triggering the spam filters. " ...
"Do you suffer from a suspicion you might be a fraud and sooner or later everyone you know or work with will discover it?" ...
"The futurre of work is looking bright and wide open for opportunities. The time of the self-sovereign worker is here - are you ready?" ...
"Each crisis represents the opportunity to change our way of seeing things, to react, and to understand what is important and what is not." ...
"At the end of the day, we are all humans, we all have our personal lives and we bring along those personal lives to work every day. So, for me, it's very important to be respectful and kind towards each other." ...
"Why do we say we will do things and then fail to do them? Why is this becoming the norm and not the exception?" ...
"When you think of the measure of your leadership, what comes to mind? What are those must-have qualities that not just define you, but the ones that will outlive you?" ...
"We seem to keep applying the same old traditional approaches hoping that they will work and make a difference. " ...
"How many people do you know who still talk about their work with passion, and engagement, they feel valued and valuable in what they do and it reflects on how they feel about themselves and others?" ...
"Don’t look for an easy button: It takes courage to work hard. You have to be willing to do what others are unwilling to do." ...
"The paradox of anger results from our sense of losing control. Yet when we get angry we lose more control. We behave in a way that heaves more anger and thus further losing control." ...
"Mental wellness, feeling safe, being healthy, and having an inclusive and innovative workplace, integrity, honesty, and values that were lip service in the past have now become very important measurements in our commitment to a company." ...
"In our world of complexity, uncertainty, and wicked problems, applying the qualities of openness, receptivity, and vulnerability to leadership opens the doorway to a new level of creative thinking." ...
"Inspired people create change. Because inspiration is the spark of motivation. It's the breath of the muses awakening your dreams. It's also the engine that drives you to achieve your goals." ...
"The next time you are convinced of your “rightness,” it might be worth it to take a minute to examine your biases." ...
"Might the fact that so many current thought leaders are making such a big deal over something that’s been recognized within leadership circles for many decades already amplify another issue?" ...
"This shift happened as a result of many factors; what matters now is millions of people are questioning these work norms and demanding better conditions." ...
"Employees have begun considering their workplaces – workplace culture, how they want (prefer) to spend their time and – beyond that – what is most important to them." ...
"Authoritativeness is a very important concept in companies, many cite it but many also do not have clear ideas about what it is in practice." ...
"How many times have you heard organisations say, “our people are our biggest asset,” and then behave in ways that demonstrate this isn’t the case?" ...
"As a leader, your interactions with people matter. And how you treat people is a reflection of your character. The value that you place in others says more about your leadership than any title or position you have." ...
"Every professional and every business executive will regularly confront situations in which they’ll need to sort it out. Which is more important? " ...
"What challenge or setback has had the greatest impact upon you and your leadership? Who’s helped you grow the most? What was your biggest career misstep and what did you learn from it? What lessons do you continue to learn over and over again?" ...
"What do they expect of their workplace culture, and what do they want in their roles individually? How can your organization meet their unique needs?" ...