by Jane Perdue | Be your best you
We’d been beach combing for an hour. Now it was time to survey each other’s treasures.
We poured three glasses of wine and settled in our beach chairs to savor the sunset view, compare our finds, and share some easy conversation between old friends.
We spread our respective bounty across the sea grass mat. Our haul was small – each one of us had returned with a carefully chosen selection of perfect unbroken shells.
Just what one would expect from three over-achieving, results-oriented business women.
But we missed the point, didn’t we?
We overlooked all those perfect pieces of shells, not unlike our lives.
Is anyone’s life one perfect piece?
Aren’t our lives really a collection of pieces of perfect with lots of learning lessons tucked in-between?
Now when we gather sea treasures, our collections are much more eclectic: unusually-shaped and/or colored fragments, bits of sea glass, and broken segments of sand dollars.
Findings much more representative of the tossings and turnings of the ocean…and our lives.
What’s in your sea treasure collection?
Thoughts on being perfect
Good enough is good enough. Perfect will make you a big fat mess every time. ~Rebecca Wells
At its root, perfectionism isn’t really about a deep love of being meticulous. It’s about fear. Fear of making a mistake. Fear of disappointing others. Fear of failure. Fear of success. ~Michael Law
Perfectionism measures our beginner’s work against the finished work of masters. Perfectionism thrives on comparison and competition. It doesn’t know how to say, “Good try,” or “Job well done.” The critic does not believe in creative glee–or any glee at all, for that matter. No, perfectionism is a serious matter. ~Julia Cameron
Perfectionism is not a prerequisite for anything but pain. ~Danna Faulds
90 percent perfect and shared with the world always changes more lives than 100 percent perfect and stuck in your head. ~Jon Acuff
Image source before quote: morgueFile.com
by Jane Perdue | Leadership
The committee chair’s presentation was spectacular—a succinct yet thoughtful description of the committee’s vision, what the company needed to accomplish over the next two years, why such results were needed, what other groups with a similar mission were doing, along with a handful of very high-level actions (some innovative and some not) that were required to produce the company’s desired outcomes.
Wow, went my brain, she totally nailed the strategic direction. She described the broad view and coupled it with just the right amount of high-level specifics.
I’m nodding my head in agreement.
A gentleman sitting at the same table obviously reached a totally different conclusion. He quietly muttered to no one in particular, “What I want to know is where did they find this tactical bozo.”
“Why do you say that?” I whispered in his direction.
“If you have to ask, then you don’t understand strategic planning either,” came the dismissive reply. The gentleman shook his head at me, stood up, and walked away from the table. He took a seat across the room.
Holy smokes, that was a fascinating reaction. One that made me wonder if I didn’t know as much about strategy as I thought I did.
Not wanting to spend too long in the “bozo corner” but interested in challenging my own reasoning and reactions to the woman’s presentation, I did research when I returned to the office.
I found fascinating information about the differences, similarities and outcomes of strategy work:
Strategy
- Wikipedia: “a word of military origin, refers to a plan of action designed to achieve a particular goal.”
- Exploring Corporate Strategy by Gerry Johnson: “…is the direction and scope of an organization over the long-term: which achieves advantage for the organization through its configuration of resources within a challenging environment, to meet the needs of markets and to fulfill stakeholder expectations”.
Strategic Planning
- Wikipedia: “an organization’s process of defining its strategy, or direction, and making decisions on allocating its resources to pursue this strategy, including its capital and people.”
- Henry Mintzberg, Professor of Management, McGill University: “…at it has been practiced, has really been strategic programming, the articulation and elaboration of strategies or visions, that already exist.”
Strategic Thinking
- Rich Horwath, Professor of Strategy, Lake Forest Graduate School of Business: the “generation and application of business insights on a continual basis to achieve competitive advantage.”
- Henry Mintzberg: “…is about synthesis. It involves intuition and creativity. The outcome of strategic thinking is an integrated perspective of the enterprise, a not-too-precisely articulated vision of direction.”
Strategic Management
- Wikipedia: the “conduct of drafting, implementing and evaluating cross-functional decisions that will enable an organization to achieve its long-term objectives.”
Strategy in general
A concept that resonated for me came from Fiona Graetz in which she distinguished strategic planning from thinking using divergent and convergent processes:
…a capacity for innovative, divergent strategic thinking rather than conservative, convergent strategic planning is seen as central to creating and sustaining competitive advantage
With all that to noodle, I settle on this take-away on strategy:
we have to help leaders create flexible structure and process so strategic action plans can be operationalized, and while all this happening, it’s important to also maintain openness of thought and creativity so the strategic plan can shift with changes as they occur or flex before changes occur.
What’s your take?
Image source: morgueFile.com
by Jane Perdue | Creativity
“It’s always funny when Cora and Walter sit side-by-side in meetings. You can count on Cora to point out everything that’s wrong and Walter to focus on what’s right.”
“They’re the perfect glass half-empty, half-full pair.”
Between them, Cora and Walter represent one-third of the thinking styles in Dr. Edward de Bono’s Six Thinking Hats.™ Using de Bono’s six hats method frees us from falling victim to several thinking styles (such as either/or or right/wrong) that can get us into trouble.
Bono’s six hat thinking method gives a whole new meaning to putting on one’s thinking cap (couldn’t resist!).
6 ways our brains think
Dr. de Bono based his method on the premise the human brain thinks in six different ways. He assigned a definition and a color to each of the six thinking styles:
- Judgment and caution: black
- Objective: white
- Creative: green
- Emotional: red
- Logical: yellow
- Thinking about thinking: blue
Keep in mind the colors/hats are directions/ways of thinking, not categories of people.
I’ve been in work teams where we used this approach to level the brain-storming playing field amongst introverts, those who are dominant and domineering, and confirmed right- or left-brain thinkers. When implemented effectively into meeting protocols, I’ve seen six hat thinking increase creativity, productivity, personal development, and teamwork.
6 hat thinking is a safe way to both modify behavior without attacking it and to encourage innovative thinking. Aha moments happen when our perception changes, so using a different style of thinking can help facilitate those moments of insight. Another reason why I like this approach is the nonthreatening way it allows for both logic (head) and emotion (heart) to be introduced.
Emotions are an essential part of our thinking ability and not just something extra that mucks up our thinking. ~Dr. Edward de Bono
6 hats for all the thinking angles
Ready to gather around and try on different hats of thinking?
Black hat. When wearing the black hat, you have total and complete permission to be as pessimistic as you can be. Consider the logical negative, i.e. why something won’t work. Focus on potential errors, problems, risks and obstacles. Ferret out how “a suggestion does not fit the facts, the available experience, the system in use, or the policy that is being followed.” Identify dead ends and blind spots.
White hat. Think objectively – do not consider hunches, intuition, impressions or opinions. Be neutral. Use just the known facts, information, statistics and numbers. Ask impartially: what we do, don’t, and/or need to know. Identify confirmed facts as well as those facts believed to be true.
Green hat. Be totally creative. Put all ideas, perceptions and concepts on the table. Seek as many alternatives as possible. Be intellectually provocative. Explore the new, the untried and even the outlandish. Bend the rules. Be imaginative. Focus on producing ideas, not editing or evaluating them.
Red hat. Think with your heart. Put forward all emotions, perceptions, judgments, and intuitions associated with the topic under discussion. Neither a basis in logic nor justification are required. Put concerns about consistency aside. Tap into what your gut says and how it makes you feel.
Yellow hat. Look for the best case scenario, the most logical positive outcome. Present reasons why something will work and the benefits it will produce. Consider opportunities, advantages and future vision. Ponder why something is worth doing, and how and who it will help.
Blue hat. Controlled thinking about thinking is the aim. This hat looks “not at the subject itself but at the ‘thinking’ about the subject.” Watch for organization. Be focused. The meeting facilitator typically “wears” the blue hat to manage the overall process to work toward a conclusion.
Using Dr. de Bono’s method introduces a common language, e.g., “We need some green hat thinking on this one” which facilitates using a well-rounded view for problem-solving, whether incremental or ground-breaking innovation is the desired outcome.
by Jane Perdue | Be your best you
On a recent flight, my middle seat companion railed against crowded airplanes (totally understandable), his company, his boss, his wife, his kids, his colleagues, American Idol, the oil company conspiracy, how baseball has lost its soul, the government, how social media is ruining our ability to talk to one another, and how restaurant cooking will be the death of us all.
Had our flight been longer, I suspect his rant list would have been longer, too.
The lack of audience participation didn’t diminish his ardor. Both the aisle seat and the window seat [me!] realized somewhere over Atlanta that dialogue wasn’t necessary, needed or even wanted. He was enjoying his downward spiral ride.
Some people do lose sight of anything positive, and fail to recognize it. If they aren’t interested in help or feedback to turn the spiral around, just be there for them when they hit bottom.
In the meantime, make sure you aren’t hopping on the downward ride with them.
Avoid the downward blame spiral
»»» Keep your focus on making things better, not assigning blame. Investigate to determine where things went wrong, then use the lessons as a teachable moment. Blaming can stop people in their tracks; teaching helps them grow.
»»» Bashing—in the right place at the right time with the right people—can help you let off some steam, heading off a complete melt-down. Pick wisely.
»»» Letting off steam can be a healthy release—as long as it’s part of a process that includes both acknowledging a problem and proposing a solution for it. (In a past life as part of a cultural renewal initiative following a merger, we created a team norm of “don’t throw any dead cats.” Finger-pointing was the new team sport: which company had made the most mistakes, who had the best practices and policies, whose leaders were superior, etc. No one won and everyone lost at that game. The new team norm helped immensely in getting off the downward bashing spiral.)
»»» Stick to the issues, don’t make it a personal attack. That rarely solves the problem.
The majority see the obstacles; the few see the objectives; history records the successes of the latter, while oblivion is the reward of the former. ~Alfred Armand Montapert
What say you?
Image source: Gratisography
by Jane Perdue | Workplace tips
INBOX EMAIL MESSAGE:
Hi, let me introduce myself since we haven’t met or connected before. I’m Frank Doe, and I just wrote a great book, Leadership Strategies for Connected Success.
I saw your website and know you’re the perfect person to read my book. I want you to write a review about it on your blog and on Amazon, too. You seem to know about leadership so your help will be important to me.
I’d also like for you to tweet about it, too, since I see you tweet a lot. Thanks for helping me out.
Have you ever received a request like the one above?
You know, a message from someone you don’t know and have never met, but who thinks you’re perfect for doing something for them.
A message similar to this one arrived not so long ago in my inbox. Giving the message writer the benefit of the doubt, perhaps they thought they were complimenting me. But, try as I might, I couldn’t see their request as something favorable.
Am I wrong to feel that way???
I love to read new books, help people, and make a positive difference. However, this style of asking felt like an order a demanding boss would give rather than the first steps in establishing a relationship.
I’m of the school of thought that the purpose of business networking is developing a mutually advantageous relationship with other business people. There’s both an art and a science to getting it right.
What effective networking is
Effective networking is two-way, so both parties engage, share and assist each other. As you work to build your network, start out by giving – share information that may be of value, send a note of praise and/or congratulations or comment on someone’s blog post.
I like to define networking as cultivating mutually beneficial, give-and-take, win-win relationships. ~Bob Burg, co-author The Go Giver
Effective networking is…Building connection
Maybe I’m old-fashioned or out of touch in wanting a connection. Especially so when someone is asking you to read a 300-page book. Connection is about reciprocity, and this request felt totally one-sided.
Effective networking is…Listening intently and authentically
Rapport starts when you ask someone what they do or what they think, and then couple that inquiry with eye contact and active listening to the response. I dislike it when I’m at a business function speaking to a new acquaintance and see their eyes continuing to scan the room for someone else who might be a better contact. Annoying!
Effective networking is…Maintaining the connection.
Exchanging business cards or that first online ‘hello’ is just the beginning of the networking process. Regular outreach is important for nurturing the connection. Call, write or send emails periodically to stay in touch.
Effective networking is…Extending the breadth and depth of your network, appropriately so
Outreach possibilities for forging an effective business network are endless.
-
- Research professional associations related to your current industry or prospective ones.
- Attend and actively participate in meetings, gatherings, conferences, etc. where you can meet a wide variety of people. You never know who can provide your next referral, lead or job prospect.
- Share your expertise and insights by joining an online discussion group or by participating in social media. It’s a great way to meet people, refine your online communication skills and answer people’s inquiries to showcase how you can bring value to them.
- Volunteering is an excellent venue to both “do good” and to meet people.
Effective networking is…Being strategic in building your network
To ensure that you are getting the right mix of relationships and exposure, include:
-
- Family and friends – a given!
- People with a large network of their own and who are willing to introduce you to their contacts
- People will who join you in endeavors or spreading your message
- Folks who believe in, and will endorse, you and what you do
- Subject matter authorities in your field whose opinion is widely respected
The way of the world is meeting people through other people. ~Robert Kerrigan
What say you?
What’s the best way to build a thoughtful network that works for everyone involved?
Image source: morgueFile.com
