Posts

An increasing amount of research explains some patterns that I’ve observed for many years as a team facilitator. Specifically, the teams that generate the most valuable insights in defining their challenges and the best solutions to their problems are observably different in their interactions from teams that spin their wheels or are mediocre on performance and outcomes. Specifically, on the strong teams, ideas flow more freely from all members and more ideas are put on the table as input to any challenge.

The new year is the season for setting ambitious goals. Declaring aspirations about new skills and new achievements may serve you well. But there’s another approach that may be more accessible and more valuable to you professionally: Pick a couple of things you already know how to do well and that your organization values, and simply aim to do them well more consistently. That increased consistency may be about frequency, about style, about rigor, about listening, about emotions… or anything else that influences your impact on others.

He didn’t need CPR. But my client felt like the wind was knocked out of him by a senior executive’s dismissive behavior. I’ve recently watched several coaching clients who are great contributors get discouraged because they were on the receiving end of a seemingly unfair, unexplained judgment. It’s an exhausting distraction.

Appreciating and leveraging our natural talents and accumulated strengths is an important element of a successful career.  Yet when those same valuable attributes are leaned on TOO heavily, they crowd out complementary behaviors. Heavy-handed reliance on our strengths creates a false sense of security and enables narrow, rigid thinking and can even drive away colleagues.

Our main sources of stress seem to come from outside ourselves, they happen to us… leaders overcommit, clients get angry, colleagues drop the ball, bosses change their minds. But what if you could influence the amount of organizational anxiety those stressors generate? … You can!

Many of us put extra pressure on ourselves around the new year — in the form of exuberant goal-setting, self-critical reflections on the year just completed, or a general restlessness around our sense of purpose.  Join me in loosening your grip on all of the above.  The following excerpt (unknown source) was read to me years ago on a rafting trip in Colorado. Rivers are great teachers!