Tag Archives: purpose

Feed your team

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I am a card-carrying member of ASDT (Adult Survivors of a Dysfunctional Team). I am sure that it is just a coincidence (or the fact that I have been working for many, many years), but I’ve served on a few teams that were not productive.

Dysfunctional teams do tend to get attention, even if the intervention doesn’t always work. The teams that get short shrift are the okay, average and good ones. As long as the team isn’t hopeless or causing too many problems for others, it’s not likely to rise to the top of the boss’ priority list.

Too bad. Great teams are the drivers of amazing results, as reinforced by Harvard Business Review blogger, Judith A. Ross, in Make Your Good Team Great. Research shows that the qualities that drive top team performance can be described as group Emotional Intelligence. In other words, these teams know how to recognize and manage the emotions of their members.

Ms. Ross recommends making time for the team to connect both inter-personally and around their strengths. This will help them appreciate each others’ contributions and tap each person’s strengths. She also emphasizes the importance of teams recognizing and managing the emotions that are sure to arise – the conflicts and the joys.

Kim Kanaga and Henry Browning authored the Center for Creative Leadership’s Keeping Watch: How to Monitor and Maintain a Team. They recommend that leaders regularly monitor a team’s status in six dimensions of team performance:

Clear purpose

Empowering team structure

Strong organizational support

Positive internal relationships

Well-tended external relationships

Efficient information management

The authors suggest ways to evaluate each of these six dimensions, and also expand upon four key indicators, which they liken to the gauges on a car’s dashboard.

Effort – Extent to which members devote time and effort to the task

Knowledge and skills – Degree to which the team possesses the right competencies

Tactics – Using rational, logical and direct approaches to accomplish goals

Group dynamics – Extent to which the team works without undue friction or waste

People who lead teams must regularly “take the pulse” of the team and help them adapt to changing circumstances. Teams need a leader who can smooth the way, ensuring that the team has the information, resources, autonomy and management support that will ensure success. What can you do today to make the life of your team better?

Need help leading your team? Contact Humanergy.

Photo from iStockphoto


In times of scarcity, give more

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Adopting an abundance mentality has been a popular topic lately, purported to cure procrastination and ensure personal growth, among other benefits.

Recognizing abundance means that you view the world as full of opportunities, second chances and plenty of “stuff” to go around. People with an abundance mentality don’t ignore their own needs. They recognize that we’re all in this together, and that success depends upon care for self and others in this interconnected world.

Those with the opposite view – a scarcity mentality – believe that there are few resources and opportunities, and that if you’re lucky, you get only one shot at success. In times of scarcity, they take care of number one and act in ways to protect what they have.

An abundance mentality isn’t something you can just decide to adopt. It needs to be part of your emotional DNA and practiced regularly. Otherwise, when life hands you lemons, you will revert back to your old patterns of thinking short-term and putting your own needs first.

It’s easy to be generous in times of plenty. It often goes against the grain to give more in times of scarcity. How do you make abundance an enduring part of your world view?

Look around. When you’re tempted to indulge in a pity party, check out others’ realities. You will be far less likely to fall into self-pity and stinginess when you recognize how fortunate you are. Simple joys exist, if we stop to recognize them.

Make abundance a habit. Just like other healthy habits, an abundance mentality can be developed. Start or end each day with a quick reflection on what’s going well. You may want to pick a word, phrase or picture that sums up “abundance.” Post that prominently and make it a habit to count the many ways in which your cup runneth over. When you recognize your own abundance, make a daily choice to spread it around with generosity, kindness and positive action.

Recognize that stuff isn’t enough. A new car or promotion at work won’t give you lasting happiness. True abundance lies in relationships with others and fulfilling your life’s purpose. Don’t fall into the consumer trap of acquiring to fill the emotional gap. “Not what we have, but what we enjoy, constitutes our abundance” (Epicurus).

Overcome fear. Scarcity creates fear. When money is tight and opportunities seem to shrink, the default reaction for us is to retrench and take care of ourselves. The way to banish fear is to choose the greater good over your own self-interest. Yes, your needs matter. They’re just not the ONLY things that matter.

Take the long view. Most setbacks are temporary. Focus not on today’s struggles, but on the future you will create. Then take satisfaction as you implement concrete steps to get there.

Pick an abundance partner. This can be someone who embodies abundance – or a person who, like you, needs a reminder that the glass is half full. Create a plan that will help you both maintain your new perspective.

An abundance mentality doesn’t ensure that you will get everything you want. It does mean that hopefulness and contentment will be in greater supply.

 


The real reason you’re not achieving your goals

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Advice abounds when it comes to setting goals. You’ve probably been told a million times to make your goals SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Result-driven and Time-bound). Yet year after year, you either don’t bother setting goals or you lose track of your resolutions by about February. What are some of the barriers that might be keeping you from goal attainment?

You don’t want to be accountable. You may set nonspecific goals (or none at all) if you fear being held accountable. You think that you can stay beneath the radar and won’t be held to task. Sorry. The days of just going through the motions are long gone, and every person needs to know where they’re going and how they’ll get there. Otherwise, why pay you? There will be someone else just waiting to step into your shoes.

You set goals too high. Challenging goals are necessary to activate our motivation for achievement. It’s been said that you should aim for the stars. However, if you find that you lose momentum quickly or never achieve your milestones, you may need to become a more realistic goal-setter. Dream big, but do not set the bar so high that you cannot be successful. If you consistently set unrealistically high goals, face the fact that you are not setting goals at all. You’re really aiming at nothing, so there’s no hitting it.

You set goals too low. Maybe you’re setting low, attainable goals because you fear the consequences of failure. Even if your boss demands 100% goal success, you can always set a separate set of personal goals that don’t get reported in your annual review. To boost success, share them with a trusted person, who can be your sounding board, cheerleader and guide. When you succeed, take pride in and celebrate your achievements, knowing that you stretched yourself past your comfort zone. If possible, report these achievements to your boss,

Your goals don’t align with a worthwhile purpose. If your objectives and targets don’t motivate you, it may be that your work doesn’t fit with what is really important to you. Your goals should help you get out of bed in the morning and fuel you through the challenges that inevitably come. If your goals don’t fire you up, consider a move to a different type of position – one that gets your juices flowing and lines up with what really matters.

It takes time to develop goals that matter and give your life meaning and motivation. Don’t shortchange the thinking part of the process. Devote some time to journaling about what you want out of life, personally and professionally. You’ll then be in a stronger position to establish goals that you will accomplish.

(Stay tuned to our next blog for more ways to overcome barriers to goal attainment – just in time for those New Year’s resolutions!)

 

Need some goals guidance? Contact Humanergy!

Photo courtesy of stock.xchng.

 


Your leadership dreams

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Leadership is more than dreaming, but the power of imaginative thinking is sometimes underestimated. What can leaders gain from straying away from facts and reality to connect with new aspirations and potential?

You can remove constraints. You may be narrowing your vision of personal and professional success. Sometimes we operate on autopilot and do what others expect us to do. Or we quickly dismiss a new course of action because it is unfamiliar and unsafe. Structured dreaming allows you to mentally test drive the road not taken.

You will be more open to opportunities. You may never know how many potentially life-changing turning points you have missed because you were not open to them. Having a vision for your future primes you to recognize opportunities that would otherwise have been invisible.

You will be better able to enable others’ dreams. Being in touch with your own aspirations will help you encourage others to reach their own. You will understand the power of a life purpose and work to connect people with what they were meant to do.

You will be more directed. With your picture of future success as a guide, you will structure your time better. Distractions like aimless web surfing will be less attractive, as you spend your available time on advancing your dream. Even if your dream won’t be realized right away, you will take the necessary small steps to advance your future.

You can connect with a higher purpose. Some people dream of professional or financial success. Consider what else you want to achieve that cannot be bought or is less tangible? What difference do you want to make in the world?

“You see things; and you say, ‘Why?’ But I dream things that never were; and I say, ‘Why not?’” George Bernard Shaw

 


“People who enjoy meetings…

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meetings…should not be in charge of anything.” Or so said Thomas Sowell. A quick perusal of on-line quotation sites gives you a gauge of how people feel about meetings. Quotations on the subject are universally negative. This one’s by Dave Barry: “If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential, that word would be “meetings.”

There are times when I agree with Dave. Take a recent meeting of a group I’ll refer to as ABC Committee. (The name has been changed to protect the not-so-innocent.) ABC Committee had an agenda that was kinda sorta followed. Participants felt the need (and permission) to interject seemingly humorous and unrelated comments at any time. The meeting droned on 30 extra minutes. When it finished, I would defy anyone who’d attended to state even one concrete outcome. It was a total waste of everyone’s time.

Even Wikipedia has the definition of meetings wrong. (Another reason not to trust Wikipedia!) They refer to meetings essentially as “discussing stuff.” Way wrong. Meetings are about accomplishing your desired outcomes, which can be to:

  • Make a decision
  • Ensure understanding and coordination
  • Engage creativity
  • Team development

Isn’t it fun how that spells MEET?

The next time you’re planning a meeting, do everyone a favor and figure out what you’re going to achieve. It can be one or more of the above. If you can’t pinpoint one of these four reasons, don’t meet. (Oh, joy!) And when you finish the meeting, evaluate how well you achieved your objectives. You’ll learn a lot about how to improve in the future.

Knowing what your meeting will deliver is the foundation of a great meeting. Fewer meetings is the foundation of happiness (or darn close to it).

Have a question or want some input from Humanergy about this topic? Contact us and we’ll get right back to you!