Have you noticed how coffee and chocolate is becoming as pompous and snobby as wine tasting used to be?

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing; as most of us will have bad memories of huge catering tins of icky powdered instant coffee in our respective workplace tearooms and were glad to see even fast food joints like McDonald’s embrace fresh ground coffee and barista-trained staff.

Taking a coffee break means that it’s no longer a stroll past the cubicle farms and stationery cupboard into the kitchen. We now take orders from our workmates and leave the building to the decent café across the road that, like Cheers, now knows your name and exactly how you like your coffee. The place can also function as an impromptu meeting room for those times you want to discuss something away from the office, or as a little ‘treat’ to staff for a job well done. Read the full story

For many, change is unsettling, leading to feelings of insecurity, imbalance and instability.

“We cannot live the afternoon of life according to the program of life’s morning; for what in the morning was true will in evening become a lie.” — Carl Jung

We’ve all heard the expression “change is the one constant in life.” The truth is that every day we’re experiencing change in some way. Life evolves continually — at work, at home, at play and in relationships. Yet, if pain and suffering accompany change, they are less likely to come from the experience of change itself than from trying to hold on to the past and your familiar ways of thinking, being and doing. Underneath reactivity to change is fear of the unknown, fear of new ways of doing or thinking about things, fear about having to learn something new, and fear of letting go.

To tap the inherent growth and developmental opportunities within change requires you first to explore the question: “What am I afraid of?” This exploration allows you to understand what’s beneath your fear and what you can learn about it. Rather than talking a detour around it, suppressing it or trying to control it, you can come directly into contact with your fear and see what it wants to teach you about yourself.

You can only grow, personally and professionally, through change. You cannot change and grow while defending and holding on to the status quo — hanging on for dear life. Change is not a threat to growth but an integral part of it. Read the full story

Introducing a new ‘author’ for Slow leadership

Ever since we moved to Arizona, I have had a soft spot for coyotes. We see them fairly often around here, at all times of day. We hear their ‘concerts’ in the early evening, especially in Spring, when the high-pitched yips of the pups are added to the howling and yapping of their elders. Most look well fed and in good condition — though that doesn’t stop them from being a significant threat to people’s small pets.

Most of you will already know that Coyote is a major figure in much Native American folklore. He’s a trickster, a bit of a rogue, always trying new ways to avoid effort and often getting into problems as a result. But he’s also a significant part of the creation, often adding oddities and creating quirks and alterations in the Creator’s designs — more often than not to the benefit of mankind.

This ambivalence — part rogue and joker, part wise and creating spirit — was what drew me to the character of Coyote in the first place. It seemed particularly relevant to our world today, where few things are quite what they seem and even the best of intentions tend to run into the law of unexpected consequences. We certainly need wisdom, but not always of the all-too-serious, moralistic kind typically handed out by academic professionals and self-appointed gurus alike. We need something more earthy and practical — and hopefully more fun to hear about. Read the full story

Kath Lockett reflects on giving in to the shame of wearing the universal badge of a drone

Photo: LAGtheNoggin

Ever since I started work as a bright-eyed, bushy-tailed graduate trainee in 1989, every workplace has had some kind of security card access for entry into the building. This common sense approach to preventing robberies or lunatics entering the building (ones not on the payroll at least) is commendable and was not worthy of much introspection on my part.

What I always refused to do, however, was to encase the entry card in a plastic sleeve and then wear it around my neck on a lanyard.

For people with lives, a ‘lanyard’ is one of those ribbon string things that kids normally use to hang their tamagotchis from, and I sure as hell didn’t want to be seen wearing one for the greater part of my waking hours.

You see, they make the wearer look as though they are trying to be important: all they need is the white lab-coat to complete the picture of being able to gain top-secret access into the underground nuclear bunker that also houses Elvis, the Loch Ness Monster, Big Foot and the Tasmanian Tiger. Read the full story

Success often hinges on avoiding unforced errors. Here’s how to do it.

Photo: indi.ca

What’s the cause of unforced errors in life and work? Not stopping to think. Going so fast that you don’t see the looming pothole until you hit it. When asked why they did something stupid, the commonest thing people say is: “It seemed like such a good idea at the time.” It did — because all they saw were their dreams of success, and they didn’t slow down enough to notice the risks that went along with them.

Today’s leadership role models tend to be aggressive by nature. They prefer the spectacular win over any series of small gains, even if it comes with far more risk. They want to be known as ‘winners’, not people who play safe. And, like all who have the power to recruit others, they tend to choose people in their own image: people whose strengths and weaknesses are very like their own. You can think of this like the emphasis on successful stock-picking that flew around before the dot-com bust. The supposed masters of this art were widely imitated, even though all the evidence is that even the most dedicated and professional of them cannot beat the market over the long term.

The truth is far more prosaic: in nearly every human activity, success depends more on avoiding unforced errors than flashes of brilliance. The one who doesn’t mess up, wins. The brilliant risk-taker produces occasional miracles, but they’re often out-weighed by all the mistakes that come along with that approach. Look back on your own career for a moment. Some of the bad times certainly won’t have been your fault; chance plays a huge part in events, personal and organizational. But how many times did you make some mistake that you know was perfectly avoidable — if only you’d seen it in time? How many unforced errors have caused you embarrassment, loss of credibility, or even more serious career set-backs? Read the full story

Believe it or not, she makes a great case study on how to deal with a crisis.

While we may be fascinated by Britney Spears and her professional and personal downfall for voyeuristic reasons, there are real-life lessons that we can benefit from. On a personal note, I enjoy reading the tabloids and reading about celebrities and their trials (sometimes literally their court trials) and tribulations. For me, however, it is not about watching a car wreck for the purpose of seeing a car wreck; rather, it is about learning how these folks, with all sorts of professionals to help them, deal with the situations they encounter. Selfishly, I like to learn from the mistakes of others so that perhaps I can avoid them all together — or at least know better how to handle them should they, or similar situations, occur in my life.

Consider for a moment:

• What management techniques can be employed to manage a crisis such as Britney’s?
• What communications strategy should be followed?
• How do you turn around a bad situation?

So, back to Britney. I think it’s fair to say that most of us, if not all of us, can agree that she has not done a bang up job with “crisis management.” I certainly think that with all of her resources, advisors, handlers, etc., that she could have done a better job managing the media during her personal and family problems. Now, in fairness, the media hound Britney like a swarm of bees do a honey-filled hive. which is clearly more than most people could bear. But, regardless, it is equally clear that her handling of the situation leaves a lot to be desired. Read the full story

Finding work/life balance is as important for many men as it is for working women

 
In my interviews conducted for my book ‘Work/Life Balance for Dummies’, I came across a lot of inspiring stories from real blokes. That’s right — if you’re a bloke Down Under, it no longer means that you can open a bottle of beer with your eye-socket whilst keeping your eyes on the cricket on TV. These days, young guys straight out of university, fathers and childless blokes are doing much more to get their full share of work/life balance.

Radiation scientist Kent ran into the brick wall of an existing workplace culture when he started a new position in the health industry. “Officially, we had access to flexible starting and finishing times and days off as time in lieu, but when I asked a colleague about arranging a flex day off, he nearly fell off his chair. He told me that ‘No-one actually takes a day off here.’ My eight-hour day sounded fine in theory, but in practice I was required to be at work by 8am and rarely left before 7pm.”

After several months of long workdays, unwieldy workloads and very little time spent seeing his children awake on week-nights, Kent decided to take a stand. “My stand was really just to ask for what was already my right, an existing workplace condition. I started keeping a timesheet and asked for a day off every now and then.”

His workmates now do the same. “We’ve still got a long way to go in terms of the work-hours expectations, but at least the hours are now being recorded. Having a day off — even if I feel as though I do three extra days’ work for that one day — is a step in the right direction.” Read the full story

Questions to ask yourself about how you communicate upwards

 
‘Boss-ology,’ is the process of giving your boss what he or she wants and needs in a way that suits you best and makes you look as good as well. Much of the skill involved comes from using communication effectively: choosing your time, choosing the context, choosing the approach and choosing the words. It’s also very much about listening. You don’t need to be eloquent or cunning or a good salesperson. You need to listen to the boss, so you can adjust your approach to make it register as important and useful.

It’s a truism of communication generally, not just communication upwards, that you must start by listening. Many people with good ideas fail to get their boss to listen to them because they don’t listen themselves. They jump in with the details of what they want to say — only it’s the wrong time, the wrong context, the wrong approach and the wrong words. The boss either ignores them, sends them away, or even gets angry at being interrupted with what seems to him or her to be some irrelevant chatter from an over-eager subordinate.

There isn’t some magic approach that is going to work every time — bosses are too varied for that — but there are some principles that can make a big difference to getting all the elements of communication right more often than not. Like all useful principles, they come as questions. It’s up to you to think about them and find the answers in your own situation, Read the full story

Part 3 of a series on simple ways of de-stressing your life

 
This is part 3 of my short series of ideas and suggestions for taking some of the stress out of your life and bringing back a better sense of balance and enjoyment.

De-stressing Idea Number 6: Eat quality food, not junk

This is such a tough one. When the work/life balance gets tough, the tough end up reaching for the chocolate. With a bit more organisation however, it isn’t an impossible task to have healthier foods to eat.

Dietary reductions you can make to help your body cope with stress include reducing or eliminating your caffeine intake — including the caffeine found in sodas, cola, energy drinks and chocolate. Caffeine is a stimulant that can make your body as tense as it would be if under stress and elevate your heart rate and blood pressure. Over-indulging in alcohol will make you feel relaxed at the time, but eventually produce the opposite effect. It can also affect any medications you are taking. High fat and high sugar foods — typical in ‘comfort eating’ — contribute little to your body’s nutritional requirements, so it’s vital that you are aware of what you eat, how much you eat, and when you eat it. Read the full story

Why you need to become a ‘boss-whisperer’ — and where to start

‘Boss-ology,’ you’ll recall, is the process of giving your boss what he or she wants and needs in the way that suits you best and makes your actions look as good as possible. And a ‘boss-whisperer’ is like a horse-whisperer for bosses: someone who can get the boss to do what he or she wants without any fuss, dishonesty or dirty tricks.

Why bother? Why take the time and effort to manage your boss? He or she is paid more than you are and is supposed to be leading you, right? Let the boss make the decisions and face the consequences if they’re wrong. You were just following orders.

This is a short-sighted view. “I was only following orders” is a defense that rarely works and always makes you look like an incompetent idiot. Assuming that the boss knows best — and will unfailing choose the right course for you both — is naïve to the point of foolishness. The boss needs your help and you need help in return if you are both to make successful careers. You’re a team, like it or not. You know things the boss doesn’t and vice versa. Only by pooling that knowledge can you find the right way forward. Read the full story