A few weeks back, I was at a presentation of Janyne Peek Emsick, and she reminded us of a great quote from Karl Lewin:
To know,
and not do,
is to not yet know.
Have you ever explained how to tie your shoes? Better yet, was there ever a time that you tried tying shoes simply based on a verbal description of the process? You had to DO it to get it, right? That’s what Lewin is getting at.
A few weeks ago, I shared an unusual incident involving an appliance installer, and the Facebook discussion after I shared it online.
After the post, there was a bit more discussion, and I also finally offered my thoughts on the issue. This week, I’ll share that “coda.” Some of asked how it turned out – “whatever ended up happening to that guy?” I don’t know, and I’m not investigating it; it’s none of my business. Is it?
Sometimes people feel disconnected from us, because we come off as “too busy.”
Good news – there are three words that can reverse this dysfunction.
A piece of equipment went missing, and I wasn’t told about it. I found out accidentally a few weeks later, that this $75 piece of equipment had been lost or stolen. I knew Nicole must have known about it, so I asked her why she didn’t let me know.
An earlier post discussed the perils of the use of the word “don’t”.
“Don’t” is negative, and can also be dismissive. It is direct (that’s good) and easy (that’s why it’s frequently used). There’s a nice alternative, though, that can quickly lay out both the non-desirable behavior, and the preferred:
Hannah was a young person volunteering at a community dinner. She sure seemed like she didn’t want to be there. She was listening to her iPod and had earbuds in both ears as she served peas to the public. She was surrounded by about twenty adult volunteers.
At one point, Harold, one of the adult volunteers, finally said something. He scowled, and
When I was young teacher, I often found myself in the middle of student disputes. My response was always something along the lines of, “You need to learn how to solve your own problems.”
I was thinking I was doing them a service by empowering them grow up and solve problems on their own. In reality, I was avoiding drama myself, and being selfish. Leaders of organizations need to clean up spats between people.
When I read the (rightly) popular Good to Great, I found myself agreeing with nearly everything in principle, but thought that some concepts were a little too idealistic for a small- to mid-sized organization. Massive businesses, like his examples, have more luxury to move people around, for example.
That’s why I had a touch of a problem with
If you are a leader, it is your job to keep your people motivated, and stave off any demoralization.
But what if YOU lose your mojo due to some cranky folks in your organization? It’s so easy to be derailed by those one or two “downers” who complain, or scowl, or cross their arms at you all the time.
“Hey, Tom, if you could get some of those account reviews done by Thursday, that’d be great.”
Sometimes to sound “nice”, we make requests like the one above.
It’s casual (good), general (bad), with a deadline (good), but without a specific request (bad) or a way to measure (very bad).
The result can descend into
Everyone has moments, or even periods, of insecurity.
Situation One:
Once, about 15 years ago, I was struggling to