Showing posts with label decisions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label decisions. Show all posts

Saturday, November 10, 2007

OnGrowing Weekly Challenge


Colleague and dear friend Donna Steinhorn and I have decided to create an OnGrowing Weekly Challenge to hear how people deal, cope, thrive and grow in their lives.

I maintain that the gap between where you are and where you want to be is filled by what you choose to do in the time available to you; every conversation, thought, choice and decision.

We can either blame someone else for our shortfallings, our level of success, our happiness or anything else you can think of but bottom line is, when we give the power of our destiny in whatever realm to someone else, we are choosing to give up control of our lives.

I truly believe that.

My challenge to you is, who are you giving your personal power away to and how are you going to take it back?” Tag 5 people to join us in this challenge. We can either choose our future or let someone else do it for us. Which would you prefer?

I realized that by trying to fix the world, dive in and help a gazillion people and organizations I wasn't picking and choosing how I could have the biggest impact. By doing that, I was so worried by everything and everyone else that I was sacrificing myself for other causes. A friend and colleague of mine shared that to sacrifice something, (or ourselves) was to make something sacred. When she told me that I realized that I was making things sacred that just weren't and compromising my practice, my business and my health by doing it. Now I'm making choices that are in alignment with my goals and purpose. It feels great to be able to say that!

I believe in order to be leaders in our fields we have to make choices about how to use our time, what work to do and how we do it in the best possible way that is in alignment with who we are and what we envision in our worlds. Far too often we are talked into doing things that take our focus away from our life long goals or purpose. For us to be strong leaders we need to learn how to make those choices. It's not always easy but the rewards are extraordinary.

Here are 5 people I'm tagging to join me in this:

Susan Meyer
Paul Markle
Phillip Clark
Lorraine Cohen
Michelle Randall

...however I open this up to all who reads this and invite you to play with us!

Looking forward…
Donna Karlin

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

You Know What You Know....

...but do you know what you don't know or take the time to discover it?

One of the first conversations I have with clients is "You know what you know. What don't you know that you need to know in order to do your job and succeed?" That in combination with "If you're making decisions based on assumptions then those assumptions just might become truth and is that where you ultimately want to be?" That's where incorporating data or evidence gives them the foundation they need with which to make informed decisions.

It's like trying to forecast the future by only looking at the past which might assume that conditions remain constant. They don't. Situations change moment to moment. It's like driving a car by looking in the rearview mirror. Eventually you crash.

We can learn from from the past, decide to repeat how we did something because it worked for us, or to absolutely never go there again because it didn’t. One of my major roles is to look at a situation or snapshot in time that created something extraordinary for my client, and rather than him looking at what transpired as a stroke of luck or a fluke, I put words around it so he can repeat it again if he so chooses.Alternatively often I share with my client something that happened that didn’t work for him, and help him become so aware of the intricacies of that situation that he will make sure he doesn’t react in quite the same way again.However the purpose of what I do is not to keep my clients in the past but to give them the vehicle with which to create their future right now as each moment unfolds. The future is built on what we do in the present. They’re building blocks, yes, but not independent segments of life. They all need to fit into some sort of puzzle we put together to invent what we want to evolve into. If we constantly live in the past, whether in our own problems or successes, or using pure data, there would be no growth.

Conditions never stay constant. As we grow, learn, experience through life we start this moment in time from a new wrung on the ladder. Forcing ourselves to go back to what was is like starting the climb all over again. Why in the world would we ever want to do that?

I learned not to fight the intuitive thoughts as they come, or to talk myself out of them with logic or pure fact, it's to incorporate them into the whole picture and work with them to succeed.One of my clients recently told me I look right through him. When I asked him what he meant he said I see past the obvious. One of the benefits of them working with a Shadow Coach™ is they know their Coach will be aware of what they were too busy to pick up. I'm not treating my clients as transparent or one dimensional. It's taking into account all the intricacies of a personality and how that person changes with every personal interaction, situation and experience they have and seeing what isn't there as well as what is. Add the foundation of data to the mix and that leader will fly, taking the rest of the organization with him. One is not exclusive of the other. Together they're extraordinarily powerful.

Best!
Donna Karlin

* Note: Welcome 104th subscriber from Cote D'ivoire!

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Yes...No....Maybe?

How many work for leaders who can’t make a decision come love or money? Unfortunately that seems to be a state of affairs way too often, especially in smaller businesses. In the corporate world, a leader who can’t make a decision won’t last long enough to waffle, but in smaller businesses, where leaders second guess where they should be and where they need to go, the staff flounder and eventually (sooner than later) leave.

Many wait for direction, for the markets, professional trends and the trades to give them some sense of what’s to come in their marketplace however in these days of constant change, that’s not necessarily a wise move. Stop looking for direction and just get on a path. You have to start something to finish something and paralyzing yourself without choosing direction isn’t any way to go. It’s more like stop! Either you’re going to create your vision for the future or circumstances will dictate what it will look like. As a leader which do you want?

Take that first step. See it as if it’s tangible and ask yourself "What will it look like"? The moment you can answer that question watch the energy and momentum increase. Those that follow you, will be jumping right in.

Best..
Donna Karlin