The Dance Between Cozy Warmth and Burnout at Your Job

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StrategyDriven Practices for Professionals ArticleI have been spending the last few days in my Canyon Hideaway at the Four Corners. My main heat source in this small house tugged against the Red Rocks is a wood stove. Every time I get here, I’m having problems starting the fire and keeping it going. For me it is always a threshold to cross to a slower pace living.

Clearly I’m lacking patience the first few days. I have thrown too much wood on a fire that just started. I’ve been frequently standing out on the porch to let some fresh air in my smoke filled home. I’m making the same mistake that I help people avoid in my work as business coach & consultant.

After realizing this, I have to laugh at myself. What a great reminder and a powerful metaphor.

What is a simple heat source for me, had a much deeper meaning when people in this area lived in Tepees. The fire was the center of their living space and had to be tended to constantly. During the winter month it was vital for survival. It also marked the center of their circular living space. A reflection of their core belief that everything moves in a natural cycle.

It was said that one who jumps the fire and ignores the circular way and its seasons gets burned. How true that is for our fast paced world. If only they had known that our modern world even found a fancy word for it: Burnout.

This term is widely used for individuals being utterly exhausted. From what I have seen in my work I believe burnout can happen to companies, too. I have seen people of fast growing companies completely drained, which can paralyze a complete organization.

How does one tend to a companies fire?

A spark is not enough – We need to lovingly tend to what we ignite. Be it a company, a new product, a team or a relationship.

Practice patience. A fire needs time to build up, just like trust. It needs a little time before it can bare the weight of a larger log without going up in smoke.

Everything in moderation. How much heat can a team or an organization take? Does all the change have to happen at once? Size new projects realistically. Don’t let your people go up in flames.

Focus on community. A fire was used to gather and share stories. Your company is only as strong as the ties between people. Tend to them constantly, not just once a year during a team event.

Go circular. Respect the natural cycles of planting seeds, growing, harvesting and rejuvenating. We are jumping the fire all too many times by not honoring times to rest and rejuvenate.

Your company is your living space, just like a Tepee. Make sure the fire that is vital for survival is tended to constantly. Make your living space inviting and cozy for those who come to visit.

About the Author

Barbara Wittmann is an IT consultant, leadership coach and a passionate entrepreneur. Her quest for healthy concepts of leadership and growth brought her into the wilderness, where she explored the ancient wisdom of Native American cultures. She integrates their values and rituals, which are still relevant and livable today, into her everyday business life with great success. She lives in Munich, Germany, and frequently travels to wild and untouched places in the US.

For more information visit www.barbarawittmann.com.

Strategic Resolutions for 2016

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The global economic turmoil that began in 2008 has taught numerous lessons—the most important one: When leaders make good decisions, little else matters. When they refuse to make decisions or show a pattern of making bad ones, nothing else matters. Corporate leaders should hear this as a clarion call that awakened us all to the fact that we can no longer afford the short-sighted luxury of considering decision-making a passive, pristine process. It’s not. It’s messy. Facing harsh realities is the first step, resolving to do better in the new year the second. Here are ideas for making that happen:

1. Don’t pay underperforming employees handsomely to leave your organization. Use the funds to attract top talent to replace them.

At some point, senior leaders developed the misguided notion that they have to pay to terminate employees. Laws vary on termination, but one thing seems clear: most companies have gone too far in their efforts to avoid lawsuits. In addition to costing dearly, these practices send the message that bad performance will be rewarded. If research and development or technology drive your organization, you’ll be at risk for this phenomenon than other kinds of organizations.

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About the Author

Dr. Linda Henman, the catalyst for virtuoso organizations, is the author of Landing in the Executive Chair, among other works. She is an expert on setting strategy, planning succession, and developing talent. For more than 30 years she has helped executives and boards in Fortune 500 Companies and privately-held organizations dramatically grow their businesses. She was one of eight succession planning experts who worked directly with John Tyson after his company’s acquisition of International Beef Products. Some of her other clients include Emerson Electric, Avon, Kraft Foods, Edward Jones, and Boeing. She can be reached in St. Louis at www.henmanperformancegroup.com.

What they don’t teach in business school, but should…

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As Founding Partner of the executive search and leadership consulting firm Borderless, I was recently invited to the international meeting of the Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs to offer a “real-world perspective” of how business school education is perceived and provide guidance to more than 100 educators from around the world – from the US and Switzerland to Qatar and China.

I had the opportunity to share insights based on our experience at Borderless working with a range of senior executives, as well as my ‘earlier life’ experience as a Dow executive. Moreover, I shared views on executive education from the survey conducted recently by my firm, which highlighted clear areas of strength and improvement for business schools and provided the core of our discussion.

These were my top 3 recommendations:

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About the Author

Andrew KrisAndrew Kris is a Founding Partner of Borderless. He pioneered the Borderless approach to executive search in 1997; a global business focus and a service-oriented approach that appeals to clients and candidates. Since then, he has found leaders for corporations in chemicals and life sciences, served as an advisor to clients in industry and continues to maintain an extensive personal network globally. As a commentator and author on shared services and business process outsourcing, he co-authored Shared Services – Shared Insights, Shared Services: mining for corporate gold and Shared Services and BPO: an executive briefing and several other volumes.

What Is Beyond Control? New Ways For Benevolent Leaders To Innovate.

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StrategyDriven Management and Leadership ArticleMillennials and younger generations don’t respond to control and a non-stop focus on productivity. To get the best out of them you need to be a benevolent leader. What is different about being a benevolent leader? You are always in the question of what you are creating and how it can contribute to everyone, not just your bottom line. Benevolent leadership is innovation on steroids. By its very nature, innovation goes beyond control.

If innovation is a core strategy for your business, you need to lead from the space of asking questions that create new possibilities and new choices. You can’t control the outcomes. You can control the questions you ask. Traditional management schools teach you to ask the questions you know the answers to. Benevolent leaders know this won’t create innovation and expansion. To be continually thriving rather than just surviving you have to ask the questions that don’t have an obvious ‘right’ answer!

What do these questions look like? Let’s start with what they don’t look like! If you are hearing things like this come out of your mouth or your meetings, you are limiting what you can create in your business:

  • “How do we make people work harder?”
  • “How can we control our projects more closely?”
  • “Why isn’t this working?”

Let’s consider some different possibilities.

Instead of asking how you can make people work harder, ask, “What can our people contribute that we have not yet considered?” and then ask them what they would like to contribute. Have you ever noticed how much more people will do when it is their choice?

Instead of asking how to control your projects better, ask, “What possibilities are available here that we have not yet considered?” Most projects are created in a linear and logical way. What if there is a faster, easier, more joyful way? Would you be willing to have that instead? If you ask your team, “What strategies can create the greatest results for the least effort?” you invite the elegance of creation, rather than the insanity of complicated solutions and non-stop stress. Deadlines can be met in half the time if you ask the questions that will create new possibilities!

Instead of asking why something isn’t working, ask, “What else can we create or generate that would out-create this situation?” Out-creation invites new possibilities and choices. Fixing problems invites more problems. This is the question to ask if you find you have a new problem to solve every time you turn around. What if your value as a benevolent leader is in what you create, rather than what you fix or control?

Are you willing to be the leader that people turn to, not because you have the right answers, but because the questions you ask always create greater possibilities?

What if you could be rewarded for your awareness of possibilities, rather than your ability to limit what is possible? That is the choice that you make as a benevolent leader. Are you willing to invite more possibilities than other people and businesses do? You have the choice. Ask the questions that take you out of the limitations of control and into the non-stop creation of innovation. That is how you create a sustainable future – for you, your organization and the world.

About the Author
Gary DouglasBusiness innovator, investor, author, antique storeowner and breeder of Costa Rican horses, Gary Douglas lives life to the fullest. He is the founder of Access Consciousness®, a personal development modality that has helped thousands worldwide by giving them tools to create change in all aspects of life – from addiction, recovery, weight loss, business, money, health, relationships and creativity. The Access tools are now offered in 173 countries. In 2010 his book The Place became a Barnes and Nobles #1 Bestseller. Gary is regularly featured in the international media as a thought leader in business. Find Gary at GaryMDouglas.com and Access Consciousness at AccessConsciousness.com.

Anatomy of a Great Leader

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What makes a great leader? While there is no cookie-cutter answer, there are certain characteristics that great leaders commonly exhibit. Not only do you need to be technically qualified, but you must be able to manage time, energy and staff efficiently. A great leader harnesses mind, body and soul, because leadership isn’t what you do, it’s who you are. Read more in the infographic, The Anatomy of a Great Leader, below.
Anatomy of a Great Leader

About the Author

BookPal is an Irvine-based e-commerce company that sells books in bulk to corporations, school districts, non-profits and government agencies.