Old Habits Die Hard

If they’re no longer working and continue to not work, replace them. What am I talking about? Old habits. Why in the world would you want to hang onto something that doesn't work for you when you have a choice?

Not only do individuals get buried in the past but when organizational culture enables this, the organization as a whole buries itself in the past and struggles to rise past it.

To combat this we need leaders who will look at human capital, not only financial bottom line, so people evolve and are well managed. It’s not only about the mechanics of how an organization works and leading them through an organizational change; it’s all about the people who run and work within it.

There are so many maverick thinkers in this world and if they’re not well managed and given a framework within which they can thrive and grow (in an organizational context), they will end up doing things their own way and pushing the buttons of everyone around them.

Leaders might manage process, as that’s how an organization’s nuts and bolts work, but they also have to lead their people within that framework. That way their amazing talents can be harnessed and benefit everyone concerned.

There is way too much energy spent on the bottom line, or cutting organizational overhead costs, support systems and human based components. Where a great deal of energy has to be spent so an organization can evolve and grow is in growing its people; paying attention to their uniqueness. Maverick thinkers or not, once you harness their passion and energy and show them the way forward, and that frameworks aren't something to fear but in fact a vehicle to success, they can leave the old habits by the wayside and create new ones that fit a future of their own design, not one of habit.

I’m not sure why old habits are hard to change (I don’t much like the ‘break’ term) especially when those habits no longer serve them. What I do know is there’s something very enticing to holding onto history, forgetting all the stuff that didn’t work and remembering only what did i.e. selective memory.

"Habits...the only reason they persist is that they are offering some satisfaction...You allow them to persist by not seeking any other, better form of satisfying the same needs. Every habit, good or bad, is acquired and learned in the same way - by finding that it is a means of satisfaction." - Juliene Berk

Toss those old habits and design those you want to adopt for the future and you’ll see a shift beyond anything you ever imagined.

Best!
Donna Karlin

Leadership in Context

I was going to write a long post about leadership within various contexts, however I thought I'd start a dialogue to hear what you have to say about this.

One can't remove leaders from their worlds and expect to measure their leadership style and effectiveness in any way. It's all about the context of their world, their surroundings, people, challenges, stability and sustainability of the organization.

From the other perspective often context creates leaders based on what unfolds in their realms. Take a third perspective and many a time context defines what style of leadership is needed. So do you put the cart before the horse? Horse before the cart or is it a give and take relationship?
Who seeks out a leader who hasn't proven great leadership? And yet, circumstances might dictate who a great leader is in one context while being a poor leader in another.

This is very intricate, has many facets and goes directly to defining sustainability and mastery in leadership. What are the common threads? How do you see it?

Best..
Donna Karlin

Engaging in Conversation: Generative or Dialogue of the Deaf?

Every time I walk into a new class to teach, I'm always blown away at the depth of conversation that evolves over the two day period. No matter what the makeup of the people in the room, the dialogue is always amazing! The level of trust, engagement and respect for each other is always off the charts. I believe it's because they know they will all evolve through dialogue.

One of the topics I cover in my training is assumptions. When we assume someone is coming from a certain place and work with them based on that context, everything that unfolds after that assumption is based on air, not fact. We have to ask the fundamental relevant questions in order to build something strong and of substance.

How often does that happen even in organizations? When we engage in conversation with someone it’s for many reasons such as fact finding, validation, direction, and perspective. When we speak to someone only to validate our current knowledge and perspective, it’s not a two way conversation; it’s a dialogue of the deaf.

As Coaches, we are usually called in to work with people to help them evolve to their level of excellence. If all we did was validate what they already knew without exploring the rest, they’d pretty much stay exactly where they were. Our roles are to help people move forward. Isn’t that the role of leadership? If the powers that be don’t engage in generative dialogue, they are eliminating the fact finding, direction and perspective they might need to move the entire organization forward.

Nic Askew recently shared “ ‘Inner-vision' comes from within the organization, from deep inside an individual or group of individuals. 'Purpose' is often a construct of the words & ideas of others, disguised as an original idea.” In order to do that we not only have to hear, we have to listen to all the players not just the upper echelon. It’s a way to capture the intangibles, the soul of an organization and let it emerge in a powerful way. It’s not taking words that sound good and try to force an organization to fit them.

Life happens through every experience, interaction and conversation. We have to pay attention to what that means and to what the ramifications might be when we don’t. Awareness is curative….and generative. Generative dialogue creates newfound awareness. Then we can build careers, people, and organizations. If leaders hide their heads in the sand, breakdown will happen at all levels. It's imperative people listen to the truth of a situation, so they act on what is. Building on assumptions is like a house of cards that will fall down at their feet.

Best...
Donna Karlin

*Note: Welcome new subscribers from Samoa, Algeria and Tunisia. 126 countries and territories and counting!

Conversations with Masters

I’m back from the second annual CAM (Conversation with Masters) conference. Last year, the inaugural CAM was amazing as for the first time Master Coaches came together from all over the world in dialogue. As much as I thought it couldn’t get better than that…it did. This year was even better and continues to blow me away, even post CAM.

One conversation flowed into the next, ideas percolating as I shared them with colleagues and friends. I made a point of meeting and having in depth conversations with 5 new people a day, which I honoured. No matter how exhausted we were at the end of a long day, the conversations continued as we were loathe to bring them to an end. Time was short so we had to make the most of it. These conversations went beyond our profession into other professions and the impact we have globally. It was looking at ways to ‘play’ in our field and help others and ourselves grow into our levels of excellence.

Two presenters stood out among the rest; Dr. Martha Beck and David Zach. Martha, a contributor to O, the Oprah Magazine, has appeared on The Oprah Show, Good Morning America as well as many regional news programs. She is a coach extraordinaire and engaged the audience in such a way that we ended up having mini-conversations as the morning progressed. David Zach, is “one of the few professionally trained futurists on this planet”, started conversations about the future of technology, economics, business, education, demographics and society. Stay tuned as I’ll write more about him over time. He really got me thinking about bringing the past, present and future together to create something amazing.

One of the questions I’m left with is, what if we had conversations like these on a regular basis? What stops us from reaching out and seeing how others can enhance our worlds? We’re all busy, all up to our eyeballs in work and life’s responsibilities but how much better could it be if we paid attention to the wealth of ideas and keen minds of all those around us?

Now that I’m back from CAM I will continue to make a point of speaking to new people every day. I won’t say five necessarily, but at least one a day so I learn and grow and see what the future might hold.

What if we all did?

Best…
Donna Karlin

Wisdom vs. Knowledge

I was recently at a conference where one of the speakers said “Learning is more than gathering information”. That statement had a profound effect on me for many reasons. We looked at the difference between knowledge and wisdom and were asked “How many people have you met who have an immense amount of knowledge, are like walking encyclopedias but aren’t very wise? And how many people are very simple and don’t have a wealth of knowledge or information but are very, very wise?”

Take that question and add one of mine. Which person, the knowledgeable or the wise, leaves the biggest impact on you, so you remember the conversation, the context and take those words of wisdom and apply them to your life? My answer is the wise one.

In the days of vast amount of knowledge available at the tip of our fingertips, the world is fast become an even playing field when it comes to gathering knowledge. A great deal of it, through open source is available for no cost. Wisdom however is something that is priceless.

If we listen to all the knowledge that we’re bombarded with, we will close down and start ignoring it. There is way too much information to remember coming at us at the speed of light (thanks to technology). We can’t possibly retain it all. We can however look for guidance from those who have a wealth of wisdom because they see context, relevance and how it impacts us.

Do you consider yourself wise or knowledgeable? Regardless, which would you rather be?

I know many people with post graduate degrees coming out of their ears who can’t find a job. Why? Because they’re scholastically overqualified but don’t have the savvy, the perception and perspectives needed in a fast paced, competitive world. They get lost in their knowledge and get stuck on research but don’t integrate it and use it as needed to move themselves and organizations forward.

When choosing my development team I didn’t look at their degrees as much as experience, impact, awareness factor and openness to grow, learn and create. Knowledge can hold you back in the realm of what was already studied and documented. My team looks at possibility. How they live their lives, their work ethic and open-mindedness got them chosen for my team. I'm seeing the same trends more and more in the corporate world. Who do you think would serve your organization better? Perhaps it’s time to look at a culture change?

Best..
Donna Karlin

Missing The Boat

“What if a sense of 'wonder' about your life and the world around you already existed but somehow you had just managed to miss it amongst all the drama?” - Nic Askew

How many get so caught up in the superficial things in life, they don’t pay attention to what’s right there, right now?

I'd love to hear your answer to that question.

So often I hear "Today I will…." or "This week I will…."

Will you? Best laid intentions…

How many brainstorm about changes that have to be made to move an organization forward, arrange endless meetings and retreats and perhaps actually dialogue about what those changes should look like, only to park it all and live with the status quo or get so caught up in the drama, they don't see what's right in front of them? This isn't only about work; it's about life as well.

It happens more often than you think. What stops a leader from jumping in with both feet to make it happen? There’s a chemistry that happens in an organization and if your enthusiasm for the results that change might bring isn’t contagious, it won’t be sustainable. So how do you make sure it is? How does everyone have to ‘get it’ according to them so there’s buy in? If the leader hesitates, that in itself sends a message and the ripple effect could make the difference between engagement and having a fight on their hands.

We look at successful leaders as people who move organizations forward and take them on the road to continued success. Some organizations continue to fly and others might succeed for a short while but that success is not sustained. Why do you think that is? Are leaders measured by organizational success or by their style and staff engagement? Is it possible to separate the two? Or can a leader be successful for one organization but bomb in another? A group of us were in conversation about that just last week. Some say successful leaders are measured by who they are, not but the success of the organization they’re working in, yet how in the world can one be separated from the other? If you lead people to failure, yes, you might be great at leading but that gets into good leadership and bad leadership and everything in-between.

Leaders need more than necessary skills sets and a wealth of knowledge to lead an organization into the future. It’s a combination of chemistry, people connectedness and vision. Articulating that vision in such a way where the staff really gets it, owns it and wants to make it happen is the key, so when they say “This week I will _______” or “This year I want to make _____happen” they’ll have the power with people to make it so.

However just because they’re able to do with one group, doesn’t necessarily mean that leader will be embraced by the next. What does a leader have to do give him/her a fighting chance?

Best
Donna Karlin

*Note: Welcome new subscriber from Guyana. 123 countries and territories and counting! Make yourself welcome.

We Are Our Own Magic Wands

The other day I asked myself this question....is there magic in the world? Usually I debate questions like that...look at them from all perspectives to come up with an answer....at least my truth in the answer. This time debate wasn't necessary. The answer immediately came to me. This world IS magic. How could there be so many incredibly beautiful things surrounding us and extraordinary people in our lives if there wasn't?

But true enough, it all depends on how you look at the world. If you're one to look at your life as wanting or, to use a common analogy the glass being half empty, the world will always be wanting. And if you're one to look at it as always being half full, then you too will look at the world as a magical place. Bottom line....you'll look at the world and participate in living life fully, not just existing in it.

I know some will immediately point out their challenges....an illness or disappointment. And maybe for some it will be near impossible to look at their life as anything close to magical if they're concerned about losing a loved one to that illness. But every day we have that person in our lives is a gift.....and something to treasure. Knowing we've had that person touch us in some way IS magic. And, when they're no longer here...their spirit lives on. That too is magic...something we can hold onto....share with others and let them be a part of what or who has touched your life.

And then this morning as I looked out into my back snowy wilderness....because there's nothing garden-like about it, it’s covered in feet over feet of snow.....I watched as a cardinal flew to the tree right by my window....turn and watch me watch him back. I don't know how long he sat there watching me. I know if I had moved he would have flown away. He was exquisitely beautiful. And then a letter from someone who always gives me a smile...just by being, both strengthened my belief that if there is such beauty around us...nature...people...life in all forms.....how could I ever have thought of debating this question in the first place?

This week I told a client of mine I have no magic wand….but that we are all our own magic wands. If we don’t make our world magical for us, why in the world would we expect others to do it for us?

For some it’s not believing they deserve a magical life, that it’s for other people who do ‘special things’. For others, it’s not looking at their lives as special even though they are. And for many, when I ask them to look at their lives through new eyes and ask them what they see, a whole new world reveals itself. Have you done that lately?

Best..
Donna Karlin