The workplace is a web of communications between individuals and teams.

When things don’t go well, we tend to blame the other person or group.

If you’re ever tried to change anyone, you probably realize how pointless that is.

Our highest salvation and sense of peace is to work on ourselves, rise above the commotion and lead the way from a place of groundedness and authenticity.

Maintaining presence of mind in the midst of chaos is the way to accomplish that.

So, how does one maintain that presence when the world seems to be caving in on you? It is possible but takes concerted effort.

Here are the 5 skills that are critical for maximizing your effectiveness:

1. The ability to discover the things you do that other people notice but that you don’t know you do
We all have habits, patterns of behavior that seem to run themselves. We also all have blind spots. Things we do but are unaware of. Rarely do we seek them out and even less frequently, do we do anything about them

If you’re striving for maximum effectiveness in the workplace, you MUST know the impact you’re having on people. It takes courage to uncover them, but shining a light on the areas of your blindness will help you become more likeable, respected and influential.

2. The ability to calm yourself when your reptilian brain has just thrust you into Fight or Flight
When tensions mount, our instinct is to protect ourselves or annihilate the threat. Before you commit that career limiting move, take a moment to get ‘present’. That means calming yourself briefly before you lash out or duck and cover. Put your attention on your your physical body. Take a few deep breaths. Notice the pressure of your butt on the chair or your feet on the floor. Taking these few precious seconds will give you a chance to collect your more grounded thoughts and respond from a more centered place.

3. The ability to notice and objectively address the process you or a group are enmeshed in
Communication is a process which includes not just the words that are said but the underlying subtext of the conversation as well as what’s NOT being said. In a group or family, people fall into ‘roles’ they play in that community. When those roles can be brought to light in a way that is nonjudgmental the grip of the role is loosened.

For example, when a group is led by a powerful and directive boss, they may be reluctant to speak up if they have a different opinion than the one that is not being proferred. This is what triggers water-cooler conversations).

As the boss, it’s critical that you get the feedback you need in order to accomplish your goals. Notice that your staff is hesitant to be forthright with you. tell them you need their input AND THEN LISTEN AND TAKE IT INTO ACCOUNT.

As the staff member, it’s critical that you voice your perspective, not in a combative way but as another point of information that is valuable and key to moving forward on the right path.

4. The ability to quiet our inner critic
To be human is to have a voice that tries to protect us from harm. Unfortunately, it usually stops us from taking ‘risks’ that would actually be helpful to our personal growth. Notice what your inner critic or judge usually says to you. Then when it pipes up (in your head) in various situations, notice it and say ‘Thank you for pointing that out’.

Then imagine that there is a miracle awaiting you on the other side of whatever fear it raised and take some action toward bringing that miracle into fruition.

5. The ability to cultivate the Sage within you
There is another voice within us that knows what’s possible on a grander scale than what our human persona normally perceives. It is the voice of intution, Spirit, knowingness, God (or whicheve deity enlightens your world).

It whispers to us to take action. It’s suggestions sometimes scare us and that’s almost always a signal that growth or transformation is right around the corner if we go there.

Cultivating the Sage means creating quiet time and space for it to speak to us during periods of restfulness,

meditation or prayer. It means listening to the voice and honoring it by taking action on its suggestions. It’s a discipline and practice, being quite and taking acion. Ant it is a practice, that if done consistenly, will pay off in really big ways.

So, be aware then be courageous. Release the judge that condemns yourself and others. Invite the Sage to take a larger role in your life and the power of this new presence will dramatically improve your personal effectiveness.

Let me know how it works out for you!

One of the biggest complaints I hear today is that people aren’t getting the recognition they deserve. Whether they are a corporate professional looking to move up the ranks in their career or a business owner looking to land more lucrative clients and contracts, they’re struggling to distinguish themselves in an authentic and profitable way.

Recently, I’ve honed in on what it takes to turn what I call “The Scorching Hot Sweet Spot™” in your career or business into cold, hard cash! Once you’ve mastered that process, you’ll attract better clients, gain more recognition in the office, feel way more confident, set yourself apart from the herd, stop worrying about the competition and earn more money.

It’s a simple model. Think back to your high school algebra or logic class to the phrase “Venn Diagram”. The Scorching Hot Sweet Spot is at the intersection of 3 concepts:

1) Your expertise and passions
2) Your customers needs
3) Your offer, well-timed

Your expertise and passions
It’s critical you know what you’re really good at and it’s likely that you don’t. If you’re like most people, you undervalue what you know. When something somes naturally to you, it’s easy to assume that everyone is good at it too. Nothing could be stronger from the truth.

Take a trip down memory lane and ask yourself what you loved to do as a child or teenager. Recall the kinds of things people have asked your advice on over the years. When you’re clear about your expertise and focus your business or career around the expression of that expertise, you’ll be effective and experience less struggle. Work will feel graceful and full of ease. If you aren’t aware of and don’t effectively market the value of your skills, you’ll sound like everyone else when competing for clients or jobs. You’ll seem like a commodity and be easily replaced by someone with a lower bid.

When you focus on what you’re passionate about, you’ll also experience a feeling of fulfillment and joy. Time will fly by because you’re doing what you love.

Your customers’ needs
People will pay good money to someone who is perceived as being someone who can help them solve their most urgent issues. You have to know what keeps them awake at night and how your ‘magic’ will let them rest more peacefully. If you aren’t aware of their problems, your marketing messages to them will sound like that Charlie Brown teacher “Wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah”. They don’t care how cool your process is. They only care about their pain and getting rid of it.

Your offer, well-timed
You must have a specific methodology you use to help solve those problems. That’s your “offer”. Having a trademark system in place gives you more credibility and positions you as an expert. Even if you’re an employee, you probably have a certain way you go about solving problems. When you can describe and name your process, it’s value goes up. It’s one of the steps I take my clients through in my VIP “Monetize Your Niche” and “Be Dream Job Ready” private consulting days.

The second component of this is the ‘well-timed’ part. You could have the most compelling solution but if it fixes a problem they’re not having now, you likely won’t get the sale. You must learn to recognize the buying signals that foretell a prospect is ready to take action.

When you clarify these three concepts and implement new activities in your business, you’ll be on the way to pushing more cash in the bank!

Many times career professionals fail to achieve their goals. Even though they stay ‘busy as all get out’, they aren’t accomplishing the substantive things that will truly make a difference in their careers, lives and businesses.

Why is it that some people seem to have all the ‘luck’?

I have found over the years that some people just make more progress, have more ‘wins’ to show for their efforts, have more ‘toys’ to show off.  It’s not that life is really at all about the toys, but a few of them with personal significance to the owner help validate that something was working right.

So what is the key to having things go well? I say there are three. Read them and see if you agree. Leave a comment either way.

Cover of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

1. Have a plan

I hear all the time how busy everyone is. They are working on the ‘urgent’ things that Stephen Covey identified in Habit 3 of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. How much time are you spending putting out fires? How many of those fires could have been averted or prevented?

Being proactive and setting aside time to SET GOALS and ANTICIPATE BREAKDOWNS will keep those fires and breakdowns to a minimum. If you think you’re too busy to plan, think again. You, especially, need to devote some time to getting ahead of the curve.

2. Work your plan

It does little good to have a plan and never look at it or never work on it.

Some people who DO make plans, fall victim still to getting hung up in short-term emergencies. Their plans sit in a binder, on a shelf, in a drawer or their PC.

You must confront your plan – DAILY. Make sure you take at least one action on it each day. Do something that will make progress on your short term goals as well as a long term goal. If you have long term goals that you aren’t actively working on, they aren’t goals, they’re pipe dreams. You’re not really serious.

You’re just hopeful. But after a few months or years of inaction, you’ll be embarrassed and depressed. ACT TODAY on your dreams for the ‘morrow.

3. Assess your results against the plan

Things happen. Plans don’t go as expected. Unexpected things arise. You’ll learn more and become more effective when you look at what you said you would do, compare that with what you DID do and then evaluate how it all turned out.

What did you learn? What would you do if you could do it over? What would you NOT do? What resources did you need that you didn’t have? Whose help would you enlist?

Even though you may never have that particular goal again, you’ll still learn something about yourself, your environment and the process of ‘ACTION‘ that will be applicable to future endeavors.

Have a plan. Work your plan. Assess your results. Those are the keys to success.

Related articles

• Nine Things Successful People Do Differently (talktomylawyer.wordpress.com)
• Be a Better You in 365 Days Challenge – Day 20 Making Action Speak louder than Words Day (becomeabetteryouin365days.com)

Today’s effective leader must demonstrate both a sense of independence from traditional thinking as well as an interdependence with her or his community in order to cause change.

We’re just celebrated Independence Day in the States. In addition to the picnics, barbeques and fireworks, it’s a holiday that honors our forefathers for breaking away from Great Britain.

Here are some critical reasons why as a leader, you need to exhibit independence AND interdependence.

The case for independence…

1. Leaders must be ahead of the pack in order to lead. This requires courage and the willingness to stand out.

2. Leaders aren’t content with the status quo. They must be willing to buck conventional wisdom and act with independence.

3. Leaders must make tough decisions. Sometimes their decisions will be unpopular, but if they are the right decisions, the leaders must stand by them.

4. Leaders set high standards. They don’t succumb to mediocrity nor people’s excuses for ‘why it can’t be done’. They raise the bar on performance levels for all around them including their own.

The case for interdependence
1. No leader, no matter how capable, can bring about their big vision all by themselves. They need the support and commitment of others to make their ‘dream’ come true.

2. Leaders instill loyalty by caring for other people and demonstrating concern for their welfare. As John Maxwell said, ‘People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care‘.

3. Leaders create community, bonding people together for a cause greater than their personal and individual wants and needs. In community, people can accomplish miracles that otherwise would not be possible.

4. By definition, leaders need other people. One can’t ‘lead’ if there is no one TO lead.

Therefore, leaders are dependent on the presence of others to make possible and real their leadership role. It’s not approval they’re seeking but without other beings, there is no possibility to express leadership. Therefore, they are dependent on others to experience their Self-as-Leader and Leader does not exist.

Leaders must be competent functioning in both domains, courageously independent bucking the trend while at the same time operating interdependently with others to make magic happen.

One of my favorite quotes is from Studs Terkel, author of “Working”.  He said, “Most people are in jobs that are too small for their souls.  They don’t want to work for a company, they want to work for a cause that transcends the dullness of their everyday lives.”

Back in the 1980s when he wrote that, life was much simpler. I believe that fewer people today would say their lives are dull.  I DO believe that many may confess they are searching for more meaningful days or the opportunity to pursue the dreams they’ve kept on the back burner for far too long.

So if you’re one of them or live or work with people who’ve complained of that void, be proactive in helping to raise the (emotional) tide in your neighborhood.

When you make an effort to improve the quality of your life or the lives of those around you, the world becomes a much brighter, happier place. Don’t be an uninterested bystander. You can make a difference.  You do make a difference. Go make one.

Here are some things you can implement right away to help them (or you) bring more meaning and joy into their lives.

1. Identify (or revisit) your core values
When you take the time to articulate what is truly important to you, it brings them to consciousness. Your brain will then start looking for opportunities to make them more present in your life.

2. Talk to the people around you about what’s important to you and what matters most to them.
People are sometimes hesitant to talk about what’s in their heart, feeling it’s too personal to reveal. Yet, its in the revelation of those important matters that creates bonds with others and allows us to feel we’re part of a community.  Even if the people around you value something quite different from you, you will gain insight into their behavior and motivations and perhaps even appreciate them more.

3. Take a class on a topic you’ve been interested in
This might be on a topic that will benefit you personally or professionally.  I believe it’s important for our hearts and minds to be at work on issues that stimulate and inspire us.

The cells in our body are designed to grow and multiply.  Our ideas should as well.

4.  Hire a mentor or coach
If you look at the most successful athletes, they all have a coach. Our own talents can take us so far. And let’s face it, sometimes our human need for the safety of homeostasis, keeps us from making the progress we should. Sometimes you need an outside perspective to see your career or business in a new light.  Sometimes you need a swift kick in the pants from someone who is committed more to your success than your comfort.

5. See the best in others and shine a light on it
Everyone has dark days at times. Some people wallow in them. When you make an effort to see the people around you as more capable than they see themselves, their performance will rise to meet your expectations. When you see and encourage the light in others, the world becomes a brighter place.

Take this 5 actions to heart.  Practice them regularly and let a brighter future unfold.