Get Moving!

Have you ever tripped, stumbled, or worse – hit the ground?  During the past three weeks I witnessed three different people in three completely different places – hit the ground. There was a little bit of pain, a little bit of embarrassment, but all three immediately were on their way again. Seeing these three separate events seemed very odd to me, but it made me think of an analogy that we may encounter in our lives or careers.

Things don’t always go as we may expect, but if we stumble, if we trip, if we fall we should get back up and continue our pursuit. Many people are dreaming of their success, and while success is different for everyone, we have at least one thing in common – the pursuit. During our pursuit we need to remain focused. When something unexpected happens we need to quickly check for damage, get up, brush off the dirt, and start moving again.

Have you stumbled? Get moving again!

- DEG

Worth It

“I ordered the buffet at the restaurant yesterday and it was worth it.”

“I stayed at the more expensive hotel and it was worth it.”

“I went to the gym and worked out even though I didn’t feel like it and it was worth it.”


Do you see a pattern to this way of thinking? I do – and I would like to make the suggestion that everyone in every circumstance has value, they have worth.

If you are pursuing a pay raise or a job promotion, don’t settle for less because you are worth it. If you are facing challenging decisions in your personal life, don’t settle for less because you are worth it. If are working on your dream job, or your dream career, don’t change your game plan or make poor choices, because you are worth it.

Make your life a success story. YOU - are worth it!

- DEG

Take a Position

Sometimes people believe that taking a position is a dangerous idea. While evaluating the risk of taking a particular position and considering the pros and cons they conclude that the cons outweigh the pros. There may be some circumstances and situations where this perceived risk is real and there may be situations where it is merely a negative fantasy. Despite the potential consequences there may be some benefits to taking a position.

Taking a position may establish new friendships, give you more respect, and result in previously unknown opportunities. Some of this depends on how you evaluate or analyze risk and popular wisdom suggests that there are “two sides” to every story.

Many people take a position on the environment, on politics, and on guns. Taking a position is not necessarily bad. Your position may differ from others or even from “popular” opinion, but taking a position shows you are real and not “playing games” with others ideas or values. Knowing exactly where someone “stands” promotes trust, even if that position differs from your own.

Keep it real – take a position!

- DEG

Leadership Perception and Self-Deception

Perception
Few people would argue that confidence is a necessary leadership competency. When does confidence go too far and start to limit, or even worse damage good leadership and decision making skills? Leaders are sometimes labeled as having narcissistic personality traits; traits that could be doing more damage to organization growth and stability than they realize. Most leaders believe that they are in their role to make good decisions and often make them quickly, seemingly knowing the precise next move to take the organization forward or to solve a critical workplace challenge. How much of this decision making ability is based on experience? How much of that experience is based on the perception of the situation?

Self-Deception
What about self-deception? Self-deception by definition would indicate that leaders sometimes deceive themselves as they face workplace challenges. Often in the workplace employees complain about the repetitive nature of problems. The same or similar problems continue to happen over and over again. While there may be many reasons that this occurs one sometimes unforeseen reason is that the leadership continues to implement changes that are not addressing the root cause. Instead they are addressing issues that the leadership views as problems, based on their perception. Convinced that they are implementing practical, intelligent, and appropriate resolutions the leaders are suffering from self-deception. Being so fixated on a problem they fail to see other problems that are happening right before their eyes. So confident of the answers to the problems they face, they fail to realize that it is their own solution to the problems that are causing them.

Training Solutions
A recently published training program will address leadership skills and competencies in the areas of perception and self-deception. Details of this program can be found in the book The 2010 Pfeiffer Annual: Training and is available at amazon.com or pfeiffer.com.




This program can also be delivered on site at your location with expert facilitation provided by the program author.

Contact: Dennis E. Gilbert – a human performance improvement consultant and President of Appreciative Strategies, LLC may be reached at (570) 433-8286 or by email: dennis@appreciativestrategies.com.