Skip to main content

Cause

I thought it was best to start off the week with cause or causality (acknowledging that you probably are the source of what happens to you )- check out wikipedia  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cause. 

This is a very powerful word especially in times of distress and downturns when we would like to look for the cause of what happened and why it happened.    

I have seen so many individuals in my coaching sessions and in my feedback sessions resorting to the easy way out - what I mean is - attributing failure to perform to the boss's approach, attributing things that dont go well on others on the team or on the weather ;=) or pretty much on anybody except themselves. 

I have always believed that we are like mirrors - what we get is what we show in most cases. We need to make sure that we look at the cause from a holistic perspective - if my boss behaves odd with me , what have I done in return ? Have I been able to showcase committed and concerned behavioral traits OR have I been behaving oddly as well. 

I had a conversation over the weekend with a good friend and she was telling me that they could not stand the boss talking in the meetings since he was talking about himself all the time - my thoughts go back to the cause all the time - have we been in any aspect instrumental in shaping the behaviors of the boss ?, have we provided him/her feedback on the same ? Have we shown interest in what is the message he/she is trying to convey ?

Lets make sure that we look at the "true" cause in terms of what we do and where we stand this week by acknowledging our contributions to the events that unfold in front of us.

Check out the book What got you here cannot get you there by marshall goldsmith - he covers some of this as well ... url : www. whatgotyouhere.com

have a good week ahead folks !!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Need Solutions Not Problems - Your Mantra For 2010

Happy new year 2010. The thought for today's blog came from my experience standing in a queue of a fairly respected retail chain. The queues were long and the number of check out counters were minimal as usual ;=) ( I think a lesson in queuing theory is warranted for all retail chain outlets I think ;=) ), anyways, the line moves on and suddenly stops .. I enquire and they say that there is a system problem, I nod my head and wait on, after some time its my turn at the check out counter and the sales clerk gets a phone call ( presumably from a friend as she was smiling and talking) while I the customer was waiting ... finally I got my good paid for and went up and met the store manager who was standing there and indicated as to why he did not open more counters ... he started moaning about the workers he had and about his manager and that nobody pays attention etc etc etc and I quickly exited from the store. That got me thinking how many of us encourage our teams to come to us with
2 comments
Read more

Trust

Trust is a beautiful word, it has a positive spin to it and also a negative spin to it. It is in a sense like beauty, which is in the eye of the beholder. All of us examine the trustworthiness of our surroundings at work and at home. At home, we evaluate the trustworthiness of people who are with us all the time while at work, as a manager, we evalute trust of our employees, and employees scrutinize the trustworthiness of managers and organizational practices and organizations. Robin sharma the great man of wisdom says the deeper your relationship with others, the more effective your leadership. People will not follow you if they do not trust you, and before someone will lend you a hand, you must first touch their heart. Trust can be viewed as interpersonal trustworthiness generated or evidenced in organizational policies, practices and top leaders and managers “walking their talk.” The focus on top management has become more acute as the failures of Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, Lehman
Post a Comment
Read more

Leadership By Doing - Setting An Example

Do do you lead by example? There was a colleague of mine who used to tell everyone on his team to stay late, and then leave promptly at 5:30 p.m. There is also the typical manager who criticizes everyone for spending time on the Internet, but is discovered shopping online during working hours. We also may have come across finance teams who advise austerity but then splurge on something else Do you know any of these people? One of the worst aspects for sagging company morale are leaders who practice the "I dont walk the talk" approach. When this happens, you can almost see the loss of enthusiasm and goodwill among the teams and being replaced by cynicism No matter what the situation is, double standards - witnessing people say one thing, and then doing another - always are big let downs. If this ever happened to you, you can probably remember that sense of disappointment and letdown. If you're in a leadership position, then you know that you have a responsibility to your t
1 comment
Read more