Kit Prendergast, PCC
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Tag Archives: Leadership
The Power of Money
I finally got my daughter’s old IPod to work and I’ve been using it while pounding along on the trend mill at the gym these past few mornings. Just by chance, I uploaded the keynote address of author Lynne Twist, The Soul of Money from the International Coach Federation (ICF) conference in St. Louis, MN 2006.
I closed my eyes and remembered what an incredible presence Twist was on that stage in front of 1,400 coaches from around the world. And she was talking about this funny subject of money. It’s a subject near and dear to the hearts of all us entrepreneur coaches but Twist put a whole different perspective to it.
Money Was Invented
Money doesn’t grow in our natural world. It is an human invention and was originally created to facilitate the sharing of goods and services. But somewhere along the way we started to give immense power to money – even over human life. People will go to the extreme all in the name of money – damaging personal relationships; destroying natural resources and always their own soul, values, time, energy and spirit.
Now, rather than relating to money as simply a tool that was invented to make life easier we have come to assume that money is everything – it has control over our lives and happiness. Interesting . . .
A Coach’s Perspective
Recently, I met an accomplished young woman executive that was looking to fast track her career into an area that really didn’t interest her. “Why?” I asked. “To make more money”. She gave many reasons around having more material possessions but more happiness? This conversation was a powerful confirmation of what Twist was talking about. The power we give money . . . do we really want to give away our heart and soul?
“Resiliency” at Friday’s Beer Club
It’s Friday night at our regular beer club gathering and we’re having a lively conversation about a recent workshop I had given on “employee fatigue”. Several people were weighing in on the complexities of today’s work world and the resulting stress of trying to keep up in order to keep one’s job. Lots of ideas were being tossed out along with the rounds of beer.
I introduced the idea of teaching ourselves resiliency. One of our colleagues, who had had a tough day at work, questioned what resiliency really was – did it even exist? I assured him that yes, it does and what a gift it is for those that have it.
What is “Resiliency” Anyway?
Emotional resiliency is simply the ability to successfully respond and adapt to difficult life situations. Resiliency is a subtle, quiet quality that one might not notice or appreciate unless they are looking for it. Resilient people often don’t even know they possess that quality – it’s just the way they’ve learned to see and cope with life. Resiliency is actually a learned skill that improves with age, practice and experience.
Learning How to be Resilient
The best way to learn how to develop your own resiliency is to watch others. In my workshops, I ask people how they learned to be resilient. Almost always they say it came from watching someone close to themselves – maybe a parent, grandparent or someone in a mentor role. .They may have also learned by going through multiple tough times themselves. Additionally, they do these five things:
- Acknowledge the Reality & Move On
- Expect Change & Be Ready to Adapt
- Stay Connected with Others Everyday
- Learn From Past Experiences
- Find a Bigger Meaning & Purpose in Life
It sounds like alot. How does one do this? it takes self-awareness and the willingness to practice seeing and living life from a different perspective. And a key component is emotional optimism. A resilient person is an optimist person. See my next blog for my favorite tips on how to self-coach yourself to be more optimistic and therefore, more resilient over the long run.
Break the Habit of “Scrambling”
As January picks up speed, I’m committed to consciously use my time and energy even more carefully this coming year. As an extrovert, it’s easy for me to get involved in lots of activities and projects. But as I get older and a bit wiser, I realize that “less is more” when it comes to managing my time on a daily basis.
Leaders, managers and worker bees all do it . . . scrambling about to get multiple tasks done at work and even at home. It easily can become a habit – a behavior that we expect of ourselves and as a result, others expect from us as well. But the consequence is that nothing really gets done well. We make silly mistakes and waste precious energy redoing tasks because we weren’t paying enough attention or we “didn’t have time” to do it right the first time. Sound familiar?
“Scramble” Less to Get More Done
So here’s something to experiment with . . . simply slow down both your thinking and your actions. Catch yourself when you start to scramble and coach yourself to do or think of only one thing at a time. Concentrate. That’s often a big challenge because of all the noise in our lives. But when you do you will be pleasantly surprised by how much more effective you are. You actually get more done. And there is a ripple effect of feeling more in control, relaxed and focused. It’s a great feeling – try it!
Rocks, Sand & Your Time
I’m delighted that Les Murray from the New England Chocolate Company, Salisbury, MA sent me the following time management tip this week. Les is a regular reader of my blog “Conversations with Kit” and along with his wife, Jayne Murray, are chocolate extraordinaire entrepreneurs at www.newenglandchocolatecompany.com.
I’ve used this time management visual in my past training classes and totally agree with Les that this is a wonderful way to think about prioritizing your time and energy. You may have even seen it done in a time management class – it’s been around for awhile. I like visuals like this because we remember them better over the years and this truly is one of the best.
Here’s how it goes . . . the class instructor starts with asking you to think about what “Big Roles” you fulfill at this time in your personal and professional life. These may be as a mother/father; spouse; son/daughter; business owner; employee; student; community volunteer etc. Next, list for yourself several smaller things that also fill up your daily life but are not considered “big”. Examples may be time you spend paying bills, doing household chores, doing errands, sorting paper clips etc.
The class instructor then takes out a big jar, some sand and some rocks. He explains that the small things are represented by the sand and he then pours the sand in the jar. It fills up quickly. Now he asks the class participants to assign their big roles to each one of the rocks. After that is done, he tries to put the rocks in the jar. But there is no room – the sand has taken up all the space. What to do? The class discusses this and quickly decides to take the sand out and then put the rocks in to the now empty jar. The rocks go in first – the big roles that each class participant identified that they most cared about. Now the instructor pours in the sand and you guessed it, the sand fits quite easily around the rocks.
And in Les’ words . . . “the moral to the story is that each one of us only has 24 hours/day, 7 days per week. We sleep 8, we work 8 and there are 8 hours that we have for ourselves. If we allow the “sand” to fill our lives then we never have any time for our larger roles, those that we care most about.” Les goes on to remind us again to plan our time and energy carefully so that we are doing what is really important to us in this chapter of our lives – like eating wonderful Belgium chocolates from the New England Chocolate Company!
Accelerating Out of the Great Recession
Accelerating Out of the Great Recession: How to Win in a Slow-Growth Economy, 2010, by David Rhodes and Daniel Stelter, The Boston Consulting Group
This is an excellent book for all of us that want to understand what has happened in our global economy and what we, as small business owners, can do to ensure that our businesses grow in the new year.
It’s not a quick read but rather one that requires your full attention. I enjoyed the historical perspective, particularly learning why certain companies thrived in the Great Depression. The authors go on to provide a clear assessment of what our new economic realities are and what this means for business overall.
There is a great section on “Leadership During a Crisis” with six very practical, concrete actions leaders, managers, business owners etc. should take each day during this turbulent time to ensure that the company and the employees are thriving in our new work world.