Have you ever left a meeting with a headache? Did it feel something like beating your head up against a brick wall? And that brick wall was the person across the table from you? ‘What happened?’ You mumble as you leave the room and shake your head as if shaking your head would make the pain fly out and away. You prepared for the meeting, carefully listed your main points. Prepared an impressive presentation complete with research data supporting your position. You walked into the meeting with with confidence. Then, about 5 minutes into the conversation (if you were lucky) you felt as if you were talking to a brick wall. And you might as well have been! Chances are the person on the other side of the table tuned out after your first detailed slide. When you made your decision that this proposal was the correct approach, you spent hours reviewing the research data. You verified and validated the assumptions. You know this is the right thing to do! Guess what? The person on the other side of the table didn’t care about the research data. They wanted to know the bottom line. They wanted to know what the next action would be. Do you know what your problem is? Same as many people. Often we take the golden rule literally. I’m not arguing against the golden rule. I’m here to tell you that your interpretation of the rule needs to be updated. Don’t do unto others as you would have them do unto you. I challenge you to consider to do unto others keeping their preferences in mind. With communication that means learning their language. How to Break Down the Brick Wall….
Continue reading...Inspiring action with purpose - toward the mastery of remote work and a happy life.
Goals Have No Magic
Sorry to burst your bubble, but writing down a goal does not make it a reality. There is no magical force that will manifest your thoughts into reality just by writing down the goal. Goals take action to become reality. The magic is you! Writing your goals down on a piece of paper or in a list does not guarentee that you will achieve them. How many years have you written the same new years resolution? We are led to believe that writing your goal down is the most important step. Have you heard that those who write down their goal achieve them 90% of the time and those who do not write them down rarely succeed? Motivational speakers and authors lead us average achievers to believe that all we need to do is write down the goal. It seems like magic! If you think about it, write it down, the universe will provide it for you. B*llsh*t.
Continue reading...3 Key Skills to Avoid Isolation as an Anywhere Worker
One of the most common obstacles the Anywhere Worker faces is what I like to call OOSOOM. It stands for out-of-sight-out-of-mind. We have all felt the impact of this condition at one time or another. Whether you work in an office and your boss works in another town (or country); in your home office; or at cafes and community WIFI locations; you have experienced the OOSOOM effect. OOSOOM includes: being left out of an impromptu meeting at the ‘office;’ not being considered or thought of for a project just because you were not the first person the boss saw at the office; not getting the latest draft of the presentation your team is delivering next week to the governance group; and many other omissions from the location influenced communication habits of your organization.
So what does an Anywhere Worker due to overcome this type of isolation? There are 3 (three) areas to address:
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