Just thought I would post this presentation we do on creativity to our blog. Enjoy!
Break Free of the Box
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Work Life Balance
September 22, 2009 By Leave a Comment
We take a slight risk in posting this picture to our blog … after all we are in our bathing suits! So leadership is about risk and here we go …
But the picture is a literal and metaphorical example of work life balance, a challenge many of our high tech leadership coaching clients face. The obvious one is that work life balance does involve taking time out for fun and we recently came back from a vacation where we played on tubes in the water 🙂
The metaphorical one is how we rode this tube around the lazy river pool. It took us an amazing amount of time to get balanced on the tube and while we look balanced in this picture, in fact our journey around the river pool was all up and down and side to side than completely balanced floating lazily along the river.
A lot of our clients think that work life balance is having everything balanced at all times on a daily basis. We think a more powerful metaphor is to think of work life balance as a paradoxical polarity that must be managed, but cannot ever be solved or fixed. We draw on Barry Johnson’s polarity management to help ourselves (and our clients) manage the tension.
If you focus too much on your work life, you will start to experience a downside to that focus. It could look like too many hours at the office, increased stress, less enjoyment of work, complaints from your spouse, etc. Whatever it is, you need to put some focus on your personal life for a while. If you start to focus on your personal life too much, you will experience a downside to that. It could look like missed career opportunities, a disconnect with your colleagues, complaints from your boss. That’s your signal to return back to your work life. Ironically, the early warning signals we most need to pay attention to are the ones we do our best to dismiss (eg. think spousal complaints 😉
And so it goes … just as Dave and I bobbed up and down on our raft, so too must people swing back and forth between work life and personal life. The trick is to not tip over, which can only be accomplished if we’re aware and open enough to those early warning signals. Sometimes I was perilously close to being dumped in the water and Dave was flying high … but we managed to get back to centre before either of us got too wet!
Discipline or Inside Out Change?
August 26, 2009 By Leave a Comment
When we decided to launch our new website together with a blog, both Dave and I talked about the discipline we would need to ensure we kept blogging! I was full of bravado about how this would not be a problem … and here it is 2 weeks later and we have yet to do a second blog!
Well, I do have excuses … we did just move, we are still surrounded by boxes and still spend a lot of time wandering around the new place wondering where this or that is. But again … excuses. What is it about deciding to do something new that is challenging?
I’m reminded of the struggle of some of our leadership clients when they decide to take a good look at their leadership and make some changes. There are two ways that a new behavior can take root. You can work from the outside in (change your behavior … fake it til you make it) or from the inside out (change your thinking and watch the behavior follow).
One client of ours was working on how he contributed ideas, etc in meetings. He tended to express himself a lot and quite strongly. People tended to ignore him and so he was trying to adjust his behavior. We tried working with the wrist watch idea … put your wrist watch on your other hand and whenever you look at it, it reminds you to practice a certain behavior (in his case … listening more and contributing less!).
That worked … somewhat. But the real progress was made when we dug into his beliefs about his contributions. Turns out he really believed that if he didn’t speak up a lot, other people would come up with his ideas or he would fade into the background and people would forget about him. When he realized that it is often the person who contributes at key times (not all of the time!) and that supporting others in their ideas is what leadership is really about, that he shifted his mental model and really began to see an impact in his leadership.
I think blogging is the same for me. I have a few beliefs about it (it takes time, it’s hard, I don’t have ideas, etc) that are probably getting in the way. Shifting those to “I can’t wait to blog” will no doubt be far more effective than discipline.
For more on the idea of inside out change, check out our store where you can find a deck of cards full of ideas!
The Right Time
August 12, 2009 By Leave a Comment
This is probably the worst time to launch a new website and start blogging … it’s summer here in Victoria and I’d rather by outside playing. We’re also moving to new digs and I’m surrounded by boxes and chaos. I’m distracted by the number of “to do’s” on my list in order to ensure that our phone and internet connections do indeed get hooked up at our new place.
Having said the above, I hear myself asking a coaching question I ask of my leadership clients “So when will be the perfect time to do [fill in the blank]?” The answer is never, if you’re like most people. There are no good times to launch new ideas, move house, read that book that’s been on your shelf for the last 6 months, quit your job, start that business you’ve always wanted to, start that exercise program, become a better leader, blah, blah, blah.
It comes down to a couple of things really … do we REALLY want to do it? A lot of things on our “to do” list are shoulds, not wants… are you shoulding yourself into endless tasks that don’t really nurture your soul?
And then, how scared are we of the unknown and how big a risk are we willing to take to make something different happen in our lives? Many people are afraid to take risks because they over estimate what they currently have and under estimate what they might gain by taking that risk. This is especially true of our high tech clients who are developing their leadership … they are hesitant to embrace their new leadership skills for fear of losing their tech skills.
The next time you are faced with something that requires a risk, write down everything you have in one column and everything you might gain in a second column. What are you over and under estimating in those two columns?
Thanks for reading this first blog entry and visiting our new website! Please leave a “Hello”, check out the new site, sign up for our newsletter, and visit our store (where you can find more on risk taking in our CREATE cards).
Special thanks to Mark Smiciklas of Intersection Consulting for the inspiration and coaching to include graphics in the blog!
Tammy
