Giving your analytic mind a break and allowing the other side of your brain a chance to express itself through a craft opens new ways of thinking about everything when you least expect it. Creating something using your senses shuts down the “should” mind and opens the “could” mind. Imagine the possibilities you could discover when you step away from a situation completely and take a new course of action. A fun one.
Do you know your proxemics? Yup, there’s a word for it – the amount of distance you are comfortable with between yourself and others. The personal space necessary for you to feel at ease. Depending on culture, personal history, where you live, and age you may have a different perspective. You may not have given any thought to this, yet, this is important in making a comfortable work environment for everybody.
Are you prepared for fire? You’re a business leader. So, some of your fires, in addition to actual flames with heat, could include threats of violence or harassment within or outside the business, cybersecurity breaches or product defects. These could possibly happen any time so while you may not 100% prepared, you can be ready. As you will read, like me, you can do this. Here are some tips.
When you hear or read, do you spend more energy on how to understand or how to label the content? One way of determining if you are a leader is whether you listen more to learn or to judge. When your mind is trying to understand, it is open to all kinds of possibilities. You are trying to make connections with the new information to the information you already hold in your brain. This allows for many new pathways for the information to go. It’s the route of knowledge. If you are labeling, you are making a decision, often quickly, to dismiss new information or hold onto it. You are not processing for further use. While one is an open-door approach, the other is a closed-door approach. Which would you rather be – a leader or a judge?
Actions that bring good things often become habits. For instance morning affirmations, meditation or physical stretching. Habits that aren’t bringing you the good stuff, you try to let go of because they get in the way of your work success, better health and more fulfillment. How about group habits? Have you thought about ways of working at your company that have become an ingrained group practice but are getting in the way of the good stuff? One of those habits may be superficial thinking. Here’s an explanation and example of superficial thinking, and what you can do about it at your organization.
Why talk about hiring tips when it seems the job seeker is doing all the choosing during the Great Reshuffle? Because hiring the wrong person, particularly in an executive role, is more expensive than not hiring at all. And if you find the right person, chances are higher they will stay longer. Here are five pitfalls I saw during my tenure in recruiting and coaching that you can learn from to keep everyone happy from operations, to sales, to finance. It all comes down to being clear in what you want so you can hire who you want.
Surprised when those you share so much with disagree with your point? People you work with may not always be on your same wavelength. If you can apply your curiosity skills, you can ask and listen to their views about why your vision or opinion is not shared. And if you discover, they’re uncertain, you can be comfortable with uncertainty which is a great outcome because it means they are not stuck in an opinion.
Discovering new things not only make us feel good, it allows us to grow and stretch from where we are today. Now that we are able to once again meet in person, take the chance to start that conversation with someone who is not in your circle of friends or colleagues already. Having that exchange, whatever the outcome, you both win. Denying yourself the opportunity to learn and grow from interactions with people different from ourselves, keeps you from experiencing a “yay” and what could follow it.
Would you like to work for a place that champions respect for everyone? That respect would include an everyday practice of good manners. Good manners? Are good manners relevant or even possible in today’s workplace? Yes, they are! Here’s some examples and why they matter more than ever in creating a healthy respectful culture for everyone. And, here’s how they can work for you.
Young professionals look for respect from their employers. From their boss, peers and company. Unlike prior generations, Millennials and Gen Z’s are vocal about asking for respect simply for being them, a unique individual who works at the same company. Respect having nothing to do with their seniority, experience or earning it. And, they will easily leave a position if they don’t see it being demonstrated, even if there is no job offer to escape to. Does that mean they show respect openly and easily to others they work with and their employer?
