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

Popular posts from this blog

Is Being Creative a Problem ? ....The watchout

There is a great possibility that ideas could be destroying your organization. Puzzled? Join the gang as I was too until I read the article creativity in not enough. Ideas for the sake of ideas without rigorous implementation models and follow up lead to organizational chaos.  Typically successful ideation models have proven to be successful when the organization insider, the apparent conformist has driven an idea through evaluation, implementation and follow up.  This Harvard Business Review article is a thought provoking article on this topic ... Here is the synopis of the article ....

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...

Acceptance

I have been wanting to pen my thoughts for a long time, more around sharing some perspective I have but more around sharing what I have learnt. Acceptance is key for success in life and also in corporate life. I have seen so many individuals fighting againts accepting what has been laid down and often causing harm to themselves mentally and physically. I am not saying lie down and accept what is being handed out but know when the cause you are fighting for is a lost cause or you are fighting against odds which have been stacked against you.  why not just embrace what is offered to you if you see that as a fair deal and let live ? Examples of acceptance at the workplace could be : your manager behaves in a rude manner and does not give you the respect you feel you deserve, just accept the fact that he/she is that way and make peace with yourself and look at the choices and options you have around this.  you could choose to move out if you plan that but if you do stay, do not grumble and...