Look Around – Look Closer

Who do you see where you look around your work place?  A best friend, your teammates, a person that you think wants your job, your boss, that new guy who just started last week?  Imagine that each of them plays a dual role – the one that matches their job title AND a role on TEAM YOU! Imagine that each person is your champion, gives you heads up on key news, keeps you inspired, humble, real, shares insights into your Blind Spots (the ones you need to fix AS WELL AS the Blind Spots that cause you to undervalue your most special gifts). Imagine how you can turn this imaginary scene into reality in a way that helps you build your self-awareness, confidence, productivity AND opportunity for career advancement. What is the secret? It’s simple.  Focus on being really present. Be purposeful and aware; seek ways to help others move forward and seek ways that others may help you. Ditch small talk and replace it with meaningful exchanges with those with whom you spend the majority of your waking hours. When you really look closer, you will make magic will happen for you, for the work you do with others, and for others.

Step One: Notice others and give each person a verbal gift every day

Step Two: Ask questions that you want to know the answers to. Find out what others are thinking…and dreaming

Step Three: Listen to what others want to tell you. Really hear them and ask questions to make sure. Encourage frank and honest feedback

Step Four: Connect people and resources – use your network to move everyone’s agendas forward

Step Four: Follow up – show that you really are interested

Step Five: Ask for support and assistance for your work agenda and for your professional agenda

Doing More with Less, Part 3

As I am facilitating workshops in government agencies and private companies, the same challenge quickly comes to the surface almost every time: Frustration with insufficient human resources to handle expectations.  Here are a few tips

• Communicate for results

Add explanations to your directions, delegations. Anticipate stumbling points and provide suggestions or work-arounds. Give feedback that conveys what “good” looks like. Inform your supervisor of what you and your team need to be more productive. Provide heads up on changes in workflow so your staff can prepare and adjust.

• Measure what counts

Partner with colleagues where there are friction points in productivity. Make a pact to move projects through without hang-ups. Measure and celebrate smooth flow, improved processing or delivery times; reduced revisions; increased quality.

• Improve the flow

Challenge the status quo: “We’ve always done it that way.” Streamline steps; use technology such as document sharing. Do it right the first time; Be more thorough – instead of advancing one step – push through to completion.

•  Work to your strengths

Find your personal most productive time of day and protect that precious time. Avoid meetings. Close your door (with a note requesting no disturbance for an hour or so. Ask friends and family to avoid contacting during your peak performance times. Focus your attention on your top priorities for the day

•  Maintain your own accountability

Set productivity goals for yourself and rate your performance as the end of the day.  Look for ways to improve your self-rating over time.  Track for a month and reward yourself for improved performance.  If others are holding you back, develop ways to enable them to be more productive also.

Harvesting Pearls

On the Chesapeake Bay, the winter months bring oyster-harvesting season.  We love oysters nearly all ways, and especially raw on the half-shell – such an incredible and unique treat!  The fascinating thing about oysters is that they are generally open and relaxed in their natural environment, and clamp shut only when threatened or out of the water. When opening raw oysters, the key is to find that small point at the hinge of the shell that a sharp knife can penetrate and release the oyster’s grip.  In that instant, the oyster goes from impenetrable to easily opened – and offers its rich bounty inside.

Skip Case shucking Chesapeake Bay oysters

While watching my husband open (shuck) oysters last evening, I saw a parallel to the challenge of finding a way to connect and understand people who hold their thoughts very close.  As managers and leaders, many of us have encountered someone who has very strong defenses; who fends off our attempts to connect and open a meaningful dialogue. Sometimes they may feel threatened – or just out of their preferred environment. Perhaps, we ourselves have chosen to avoid letting others know us and what we have to offer.

Is the solution a sharp knife?  Ouch – NO!

What is the magic technique that enables a person (rather than an oyster) to release that tight grip? First, remember that each of us has an environment in which we are relaxed and open – doing our thing with grace and effectiveness.  If you become the threat or environment in which another person shuts tight, approach with an honest desire to understand.  No preconceptions and judgments. Be present in the moment. Provide space for context and back-story. Ask questions like: “What is most important to you in this situation?”  “What do you think we are overlooking?”  “If you were in charge, what would you do differently?”  Find a question that becomes the point of entry that breaks the grip and brings out the brilliance that the other person has to offer. AND when you find the oyster (or the pearl) inside, be sure to celebrate its value.

Tags: Oysters, Pearls, Shucking, Skip Case

Fear Not Your Blind Spot

Ouch!!  When we hear “blind spot,” we immediately imagine some personal deficit, irritable habit, lack of emotional intelligence that others see in us and to which we are blind.  As each of us always has “room to grow,” you may indeed have one or more blind spots of a negative nature. That’s a conversation for another day!

What I want to talk about today, is a different kind of blind spot that is even more valuable for you to uncover. It is the blind spot of a natural gift that you have not yet fully developed.

One of the ironies of life is that the things that come the most naturally to you are the qualities and skills that you may value the least.  If something comes easily for us, we may think that it must not be really valuable to others.  If something is difficult for us to master or do consistently, then it must be worthwhile to pursue and therefore, valuable to others and to the world.

Good news! – such thinking may create your blind spot.  We are always searching for our strengths and the most valuable contribution that we can make.  We strive, study, practice, focus, drive ourselves – mainly to do those things that do not come so naturally.  What about those things that you can do “with your eyes closed,” “like breathing,” and that energize you as you are doing them?  Those are your strengths – and often your blind spots.

SO –  fear not your Blind Spot. Ask for feedback from your friends, family and colleagues. Ask what is it that you do better than anyone else they know….and listen.   Open your eyes and ears.  Then, seek to do more of those things where you excel –  where you feel like you are just being and realize that amazing things are coming from inside you. Look for opportunities to be in those zones and make the difference…naturally!

Tags: Doug Savage, Savage Chickens

A Question of Strengths

Marcus Buckingham has iterated yet once again.  One of his recent books, Live Your Strong Life, is written primarily for women and re-casts the 34 strengths from Now, Discover Your Strengths into nine Strong Life Roles. The online version of the assessment is FREE at www.stronglifetest.com. It’s fine if you want to pause here and click through to take the assessment.  I’ll see you back at the blog in about 12 minutes. Oh – and pay particular attention to the Question associated with the Roles identified for you in the online report that you see on completing the assessment. Jot those down along with the name of the Roles.

Okay – welcome back. What is your on-screen report of your Leading Role and Your Supporting Role – the two key roles that you have identified through the situational choices you selected?  Hmmm. Does that resonate with you?

The concept is that when you know your two key Roles, you can look for opportunities to do more of those Roles and less of the Roles that you do not find to be as strong for you. I really found this assessment intriguing and I also read the book which has a LOT more exercise and opportunities for more in-depth self reflection.

Here are the main takeaways for me:

TAKE-AWAY 1: We get energized by asking certain questions.  When we ask those questions, we engage immediately in the quest for the answer, then become consumed in delivering that answer.  As if we launch ourselves into situations though the lens of a particular question (or, as a result of the assessment, a blend of two questions) For instance, I have two profiles (of course because I am also a MBTI Perceiver who likes to maintain multiple options). Creator and Advisor.  Also, Advisor and Influencer. Each pair are really good descriptors of me on various days. Some days I blog to share an interesting thought with you and some days to inspire you to DO something.  This matches up exactly with my questions:  “What do I understand?”  and “How can I get you to act?”

TAKE-AWAY TWO: The questions we naturally ask are not always the most important ones in different situations, and yet all the questions together help keep energy flowing and people engaged in positive ways.

TAKE-AWAY THREE: We do well when we pair with others whose Roles (and associated questions) complement our own… such as Caretaker, “Is everyone okay?” or Motivator, “How can I raise the energy?” or Pioneer, “What’s new?”

In today’s business world, when roles and responsibilities are often changing, or when we want to come together to support each other, we sometimes don’t know how. I find good guidance in playing the Role that comes from a natural strength.  Ask the question that you are most interested in and engage through that lens.  If it’s not the most important question in that moment or situation, hopefully, one of your colleagues will offer up another question from another lens that will be the question that is the burning one to answer.  Be ready to play your Role and be receptive when someone else’s Role is a better fit.

Tags: Marcus Buckingham, Strong Life test

Oh Pioneers!

Early in the New Year, we often look for inspirations to energize ourselves to tackle new challenges. Just a few weeks ago, I had the privilege of experiencing firsthand, up-close the historic settlements in Apache Pass in southeast Arizona.  What a rugged country! Stony meadows, mostly dry land, hills and mountains at 5,000 feet.  It was actually snowing as we hiked in to see the remains of the Overland Mail Company’s depot from 1865 and the remains of Fort Bowie, 1869-1890. What a story! I celebrated the determination of John Butterfield who won this lucrative contract of $600,000 per year in 1857 and spent the next year and $1 million setting up the route. His company rounded up over 200 coaches, almost 2000 horses and mules, and 1200 employees, from superintendents, drivers and conductors to harness makers and blacksmiths, to service the line. Employees were sent out along the route, building 200 stations and helping build bridges or ensure roads were passable. The mail and passengers went twice a week along the route and by contract Butterfield’s stage coaches covered the  2,800 miles in 25 days – through all kinds of weather, confrontations, sickness, mud, raging rivers, etcetera. Yesterday I stood in the Apache Pass station, looking around 360^o at the desolately beautiful countryside. I could easily imagine the early pioneers who settled the station, their interactions with Cochise’s and his Apache tribe, cougars, mountain lions, rattlesnakes, oppressive heat, and more. I imagined the rickety stage coaches jolting over the rocky road, the hope of the passengers for a new life at the other end, the poignant messages in the letters and packages.  That’s American spirit! I found a wagonload of inspiration to tackle tough challenges in 2012 with the confidence that we still carry the DNA from our ancestors whose pluck and persistence has made America!

Life Mat-ters

I have the most wonderful yoga instructor, Olga Campora.  She has taught me yoga from the inside out. From five kinds of breathing…to visualizing and moving my body in continually more challenging paths, I have learned lessons on my yoga mat that I take with me when I step off the mat.  Here are a few:

1. Stay in the present moment and focus on your breathing
2. Create a solid foundation to build your strength
3. Balance is a continual process of adjusting to your environment
4. Relax and go slow to become strong
5. Relax your eyes and relax your face to eliminate tension and convey peace

All these principles of yoga practice apply to real life. It has been my aspiration to move gracefully through life. …to take things in stride and find opportunities for blessings in all situations.

Olga always reminds me that what you learn about yourself on the yoga mat, are great lessons to take with you when you step off the mat into the world.