Month: April 2019

Rebel: The Power of Being Different

Rebel: The world is full of successful people who conform to the norm. However, a rebel can blow past the norm and change the world.

I have never known a rebel who was boring. ~ www.jaywren.com

Companies have guidelines and rules.  But what do you do when the guidelines block you from achieving your goals? Do you have enough of the rebel in you to change your life and, perhaps, even the lives of people around you?

Rebel: Is Conforming to the System Killing Your Career?

Following policies and procedures works great for many people.  They go to work on time and do what the company asks. To the best of their ability, they try to get along with everyone.

But what if you are frustrated with squeezing your way into the norm?  What if you want to break out of the mold in a bold and dynamic way? The way of the rebel may be the answer.

Every Pathway Involves Risks.

There are people who have great careers.  They work at a company for twenty or thirty years.  Some of these people are fortunate enough to move on to another great job.  Others have the good fortune of being able to retire early.

On the other hand, for other people, the life of the conformist moves along fine until they discover that their company no longer needs them.  Even worse, they learn that their skills are obsolete long after it is too late to develop new skills.

In fact, most people find that the security of a large company disappears long before they reach financial independence.

Rebels Find Success Through Their Authenticity.

The most successful rebels are authentic to themselves. They easily sustain and succeed as rebels, because what they are doing feels authentic.

The simple writing style of Ernest Hemingway, the descriptive writing style of F. Scott Fitzgerald, the complex writing style of William Faulkner, and the clever, honest writing style of J.D. Salinger are all different. What these different styles have in common is that they are consistent in the work of these different writers.

Furthermore, their styles are not only different from the style of each other.  Their styles were different from the styles of any other writers.  All four adhered to their idea of authenticity in their writing.

Moreover, don’t force yourself to be different. Simply, let your authenticity shine through your performance.

Rebel: Examples of Success

Cultural icons like Gorgeous George, Elvis Presley, The Beatles, Muhammad Ali, Madonna, Nirvana, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and hundreds of others risked controversy to create success their way.

Innovative icons of technology: Nikola Tesla to Steve Jobs to Elon Musk have never let conformity to restrict their ability to fulfill their visions.

Iconic rebels of art: Van Gogh, Picasso, Jason Pollock, Joan Mitchell, and countless other great artists. A commitment to be innovative, sometimes shocking, and consistently authentic empowers great artist to change the way we view art.

In every field of endeavor, there are rebels who step out to create new pathways for others to follow.

Bad Bosses: How to Excel In Spite of Them

Bad bosses can destroy your career as they make your life miserable before you get away from them. Here are ways you can protect yourself and your career.

If you are working for a bad boss, you have my understanding and empathy.  I have had a couple of bad bosses.  One had no interest in his job and was a roadblock to my career.  The other one was verbally abusive.  In the first case, I left the company for a better opportunity.  In the second case, I adjusted to my supervisor’s difficult behavior.  He promoted me before he went to another job.

The Mental and Physical Risks of Working for Bad Bosses

Working for long periods of under the stress of a bad boss damages your health and your life.  Common experiences include:

  • Fatigue
  • Impaired mental ability
  • Depression and anxiety
  • Mental and physical damage that may continue for years after leaving the bad situation

Bad Bosses

How can You Protect Yourself and Your Career?

There are things you can do to reduce the stress and to work more effectively with bad bosses. Here are some of them.

Keep a Journal

Writing about your experience helps you in several ways.  The process helps you clarify your thoughts and find solutions.  Additionally, writing help you process the emotions and reduce the sting of dealing with your boss.

Keeping a journal with the details of your experience can help you to protect yourself.

List the details:

  • Include documents, including emails, text, and memos.
  • Track the details with dates and times.
  • List what happened and how you responded

Respond with Emotional Intelligence

Discuss your situation with your mentor or other people you can trust to keep the information private.  Through these discussions, you can find comfort and solutions to handle the situation and reduce the stress of working for your boss.

Do not retaliate.  If your boss criticizes you, criticizing your boss in turn will create greater tension.  If your boss yells at you, yelling back will only heighten the confrontation.  Reply to your boss in a normal tone.  Listen to the criticism and say that you will make the changes your boss is telling you to make.

Develop skills to work with your boss.  Learn the way that your boss wants things done.  For example, your boss may like options or choices before making a decision. Make recommendations with choices of action or material.

Seek New Ideas for Dealing with Bad Bosses

Going over your boss’s head is not always a good idea.  At some companies, bosses will fire you for going to their supervisor or other people in the company.  The ill will alone can cost you support for pay raises and promotions.  However, building relationships and learning how other people are working with your boss can help you. Don’t talk with everyone about your issues with your boss. However, chances are that you are not alone.  Some of the other people in your company, people who are your peers, may have found ways to work more successfully with your boss.  You can learn from these people.

Showing Support for Your Boss May Reduce the Pressure.

Recognize times when you can show support for your boss. Give your boss credit when he or she deserves it.  The reason that a supervisor benefits from an employee doing a great job is that the results benefit the boss.

Additionally, you can show support for your boss by doing what they ask you to do without discussion. Making your boss justify their decision will only heighten tension.

Are Your Problems Temporary

Bosses come and go.  Do not ruin a career over a passing situation.  Try to see the bright side of things.  Your boss cannot eat you.  He or she may even promote you or give you a pay raise.  Eventually, your boss may just go away.

Find Another Opportunity

Explore your options to getting another job.  If there appears no end to the madness of dealing with a bad boss, look for opportunities to transfer within your own company or ways to get another job.

Leadership Qualities that Create Great Teams 

Leadership Qualities: Some teams have a manager but still suffer from a lack of leadership.  What qualities help leaders raise the team standards and increase team success?

Four Leadership Qualities that Create Great Teams

Leaders have many qualities that make them more effective.  For example, a leader with charisma easily draws people to them and creates focus on what these leaders do and say. Leaders who are more intelligent and have greater experience help the team make better decisions.

Here are leadership qualities that you can claim today.

Self-honesty

Not just honesty, but self-honesty.

Self-honesty is about you recognizing and correcting your mistakes.  It’s the honesty to recognize your weaknesses.

It is burying your ego so that you can accept the truths that stand between you and success.

To be successful takes more than overcoming lying, cheating, and stealing.  For that matter, there are successful liars, cheaters, and thieves.

But even successful thieves benefit from honesty about their mistakes and their weaknesses.  Otherwise, they will never become more effective, successful thieves.

Open-mindedness

A closed mind is the wall between ignorance and learning.  It is also a wall between the shared intelligence of the team and the mind of a boss.

Of all the leadership qualities, open-mindedness might be the most important quality for creative, responsive teams.

Emotional Intelligence

First, learn to understand ourselves. Then we can begin to understand others.

Emotional Intelligence (sometimes abbreviated “EI” or referred to as Emotional Quotient “EQ”) is the ability to understand our own emotions as well as the emotions of other people.

People who have emotional intelligence know how to read people.  They have an intuitive sense of why people do things and how to motivate people to do things. With a combined understanding of themselves as well as an understanding of others, these leaders can make decisions and take action with greater intelligence.

Ability to Grow

A final quality in this discussion is the ability to grow.

Leaders who continue to grow become a source of continuous growth for the team.  Developing knowledge and skills, these leaders bring greater value to teams and increase the value of these teams to the organization. Effective new as well as tried methods, when introduced to the team, create both a greater understanding as well as more efficient ways of using new methods.

Leaders who develop the quality of continued growth can clear the clutter of methods that reduce the effectiveness of a team. Just knowing to evaluate procedures as time passes makes for greater effectiveness.

Teams that grow make the leap from short-term survival to long-term success.

Wise Choices: Little Adjustments Can Change the Day

Wise choices: Success comes from making wise choices about how to feel and respond to the things that happen to us.  When I am having a bad day, I can strain to push myself through the day.  Ruminating, sulking, and whining are great ways to stay stuck in a bad day. On the other hand, I can restart my day anytime.

Making Little Adjustments Can Lead to Wise Choices

Start My Day over with a Little Grooming

Splashing a little water on my face is refreshing.  I can dampen my comb and start with a fresh part in my hair, just as I do when I am beginning the day.

If I wore makeup, I could restart my day with a mini-makeover:  lips, eyes, cheeks.

I can refresh the way I am dressed.  I can tuck in my shirt and adjust my tie just as I do when I first get dressed in the morning.

I not only feel refreshed. I empower myself with a stronger presence among the people at my workplace.

Practice Affirmations

Everyone is different.  However, I find that by focusing on the things that I have accomplished rather than the things I regret can increase my energy and my confidence. I affirm that am capable and accomplished.

I have a friend who is fun and interesting. He told me that every morning before he heads out the door, he looks in the mirror and says to himself, “You are fantastic.”

Whenever I am around him, I find that I feel better about my own life through his positive attitude.

Take breaks.

When I am hungry or tired, I may deal with situations poorly. I can relax with quiet meditation to calm my mind and reset my disposition. A 20-minute power nap has been part of my lifestyle for years.

Adjust my Schedule.

Sometimes I schedule too many things. On other days, too many new tasks arise.  I can restart my day with a new schedule.

If I am struggling with a task, I can break the task down into pieces.  I can look at the pieces or elements of the task and define my true goal for this task.  With this process, I better understand what I am doing and cut the number of false starts and revisions.

I can then schedule a completion date for that task.  I may find that I am dealing with a truly valuable task that will return greater rewards once I have stopped forcing my way through the task and have begun to work with a schedule of steps.

Take Walks

By exercising, I burn up that adrenaline that accumulates from the mental stresses of my workday. Rather than sit at my desk to eat my lunch, I can take a short walk or go through a series of stretches at my desk.

Leadership Types: Success and Failure

Leadership Types: Leadership is a trait that can start from any place in an organization, but usually starts at the top, and runs throughout the entire organization.

Great leaders create great organizations through picking and developing winning teams.  Bad leaders can create failure in any organization.

Leadership Study from Literature

“The Caine Mutiny” is a novel about a commanding officer, Lieutenant Commander Philip Francis Queeg, whose tyrannical command creates such desperation among the officers that they commit mutiny.  Herman Wouk, the author of the “The Caine Mutiny,” drew upon his knowledge from World War II experiences aboard a similar vessel, the USS Zane.

The book dramatically portrays leadership failure.  The mistakes and dishonesty of Captain Queeg result in mistakes among the officers and crew and create dangerous and embarrassing situations for the ship under his command.

My Navy Experience with Leadership Types

I was a bridge officer aboard an aircraft carrier. I worked around great leaders, and I studied great leaders.

As I said in an earlier post, there is a saying in the United States Navy, “So Goes the Captain, So Goes the Wardroom, So Goes the Ship.”  The wardroom is the officers’ eating area aboard ship. The point of this statement is simple.  Great commanding officers raise the performance of their officers and in turn their crew.

During World War II, Fleet Admiral Chester William Nimitz was the Commander-in-Chief, United States Pacific Fleet (CinCPac) and Commander-in-Chief, Pacific Ocean Areas (CinCPOA), for U.S. and Allied air, land, and sea forces. Here are two quotes from Admiral Nimitz that show his view of leadership.

“Leadership consists of picking good men and helping them do their best.”

“Some of the best advice I’ve had comes from junior officers and enlisted men.”

My Experience with a Great Leader

The greatest leader I ever worked for is Admiral Sylvester R. Foley, who was Commander, United States Pacific Fleet. Earlier in his career, he was my commanding officer aboard the aircraft carrier, the USS Midway.  He would say things to encourage and to simplify the job for the people under his command.

His first week after taking command, he called all of us bridge officer into his cabin. He explained that, in his absence, we bridge officers had ultimate authority over the safe navigation of the ship. As an example, he said that at sea, even in middle of the night and everyone is asleep, we had the authority wake the entire ship to go to battle stations.  In doing so, everyone would lock down the watertight doors and hatches to protect against flooding in the event of a collision at sea.

He went on to explain that, if we made a mistake, he would take responsibility for our actions.  Furthermore, he said that it is better to awaken the entire ship for safety than risk lives by failing to act.

Leadership Types

Great leaders like Admiral Nimitz and Admiral Foley influence lives. For me, these two are leadership types I try to follow.

Confidence Development: Clearing the Mental Clutter of Job Stress

Confidence Development: Stress loves mental clutter.  As the pile of clutter grows in a person’s mind, stress becomes more powerful.

The clutter creates confusion and undermines our ability for confidence development. Instead of planning for upcoming events, we worry about upcoming events. The growing stress robs our energy.  Lower energy leads to inaction, procrastination.  Inaction creates greater mental clutter.

Mental Clutter>>Confusion>>Doubt>>Stress>>Fatigue>>Less Action>>Greater Mental Clutter>>Greater Confusion>>Greater Doubt>>Higher Stress>>Greater Fatigue>>More Procrastination>>Mental Clutter. So goes the cycle.

Writing Can Open Our Mind to Greater Confidence Development

When I suffer from worry, I often write about it. When I am feeling stressed about something, writing takes the power from my anxiety.  Sometimes, just putting something on my calendar helps clear my mind.  I name the problem and create a to-do list for the solution.

For example, I might write, “I am afraid that I will miss my flight.” Then I can write a solution.  “I will make my flight, because I will go to the airport early and relax until my flight begins boarding.”

Case Study

A more complex example is how one of my friends prepares lectures he gives to large audiences. Public speaking is stressful for nearly everyone. My friend is an expert in his field. The first time he gave one of his lectures, just thinking about the presentation made him nervous.  As he spent more time thinking about speaking to an audience, he became more nervous. Confidence development was lost.

The Solution

As he prepared for his speech, he found that writing about his feelings had powerful results. He wrote, “I am nervous about giving this presentation to this group.”

Then he outlined what he wanted to say.  It occurred to him that he was not the subject of the presentation. His knowledge was the subject. He began to see his audience as people who needed the information that he could give them. Additionally, he saw how his presentation could help his audience become more successful in their professions through learning what he had to say.

He focused on writing out the details that would benefit his audience the most.  As he wrote, he gained confidence.  He saw the value in his knowledge.

He has given the lectures for over a decade.  As new developments occur in his field, he updates his presentations.  His ideas are current, relevant.  New audiences need his knowledge as much as the first audiences did.  He keeps his mind clear by sweeping out the clutter by naming his fear and focusing on the solutions he is giving his audience. He has learned the tools of confidence development.

error: Content is protected !!