Category Archives: Organization

Do YOU still SURPRISE yourself during the SPRING season?

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A few years ago, I wrote two blogs during the month of March.  The first was entitled, “How will you SURPRISE yourself this SPRING?” https://careermanagementcoaching.wordpress.com/2015/03/20/how-will-you-surprise-yourself-this-spring/? and the second was entitled, “What’s Your 2016 Spring Surprise?”   https://careermanagementcoaching.me/2016/03/20/whats-your-2016-spring-surprise/ An anagram for the words Spring Day was included in each Blog.      Today, I want to share with you another anagram for the words Spring Day as you  Choose Who YOU Want to be Known As.

S ervant Leadership
P erhaps is a phrase not used often in today’s jargon. Yet, 
R esolving to put your people first 
I n order to augment their contributions
N ecessary for their development and performance
G oes a long way for profitability and stability of a company.
D eciding to accept feedback from those you work with gives rise to 
A gility and accountability bubbling to the surface.
Y ou hone your strengths to be the best you want to be in your career journey. ©Jo Ann M. Radja 03/25/19
LIFE IS GOOD  “Jo Ann” M. Radja, Executive Coach
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October 17th is Global Ethics Day with Anagrams…

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This following is a Blog written by me yesterday at LinkedIn Pulse:  https://t.co/BydZhCrpyl

 

The ethics of wizards are very much like the ethics of people in our real-life world of work.  There is a spectrum of admirable, acceptable and unconscionable conduct to be seen.  TOM MORRIS*

Last week I attended a Conference sponsored by Convercent. It was called CONVERGE 2018 – Ethics in Action. The primary attendees were Ethics Officers in a multitude of industries, who enjoy life just as we do. No matter what profession you have, continuing to learn and being agile are necessary requirements for positions people hold today. Since October 17th is Global Ethics Day, I would like to share a few anagrams with you as follows:

E.arnestly listening, it became clear

T.hat the speaker told the truth.

H.e said what for many of us was not in our future.

I.t was necessary to pivot in order to

C.hange our path.  Be guided by integrity and who you are

S.o the judgments of others won’t keep you from your Purpose. ©Jo Ann M.         Radja

 

E.arly is better than later, he was

T.old.  Reading the proposal, questions

H.ad entered his mind.  An

I.nvestigation was necessary to

C.arefully uncover what the truth was.

S.o grateful for the advice to read the proposal early. ©Jo Ann M. Radja

 

E.arly Friday evening she heard,

T.hat’s her – and she was called a b___h.

H.e continued in bad form a few minutes later.

I.t’s always surprising how often you need to

C.ontrol your reaction.

S.o the situation is diffused and not reactive.  ©Jo Ann M. Radja

Ethics to YOU Too!™  as you enjoy this Wednesday at your chosen profession.

Here in Chicago, it is Ideas Week. During a presentation yesterday, at 600 South Michigan Avenue, the Leo Burnett Company sponsored an Event entitled, “Creativity: What Comes After the Spark.”   An artist from The Ink Factory created the following Poster© I hope you will enjoy it’s content:

Life is Good  – “Jo Ann” M. Radja, Executive Coach

 

  •  Morris, Tom. If HARRY POTTER Ran GENERAL ELECTRIC. Page 106.  A Currency Book Published by Doubleday (2006), 252 pages.

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Why change is not a one-way street…

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 Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world.  Today I am wise, so I a changing myself.  Rumi  13th Century Poet

The above quotation was also quoted by me in a blog published via LinkedIn Pulse https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-choice-did-you-make-today-jo-ann-m-radja/? This quotation speaks to us as we remind ourselves that we alone are responsible for our actions. We want to be held accountable for our actions.   In today’s climate of accountability within the #MeTooMovement, accountability applies both to women and men.

I borrowed today’s blog title from Marshall Goldsmith as I recently became a Marshall Goldsmith Global Leadership Assessment Certified Practitioner.  http://www.sccoaching.com/glof360/.   The complete quotation from Marshall Goldsmith reads:

Change is not a one-way street – it involves two parties, the person who is changing and the people who notice it.   

We seem to notice when someone has a haircut or wears  new clothes; yet, we may not give feedback to someone when we notice a behavior change – and we should do so – we grow when we accept feedback from another person.  It takes practice and practice and practice.

When you Choose Who You Want to be Known As, consider this quotation from Marshall Goldsmith:   

The only difference between us and the super-successful among us – the near great and the great – is that the great ones [listen] all the time. It’s automatic for them.  For them there’s no on and off switch for caring and empathy and showing respect.  It’s always on.  They don’t rank personal encounters as A, B or C in importance.  They treat everyone equally – and everyone eventually notices.

Enjoy your week!

“Jo Ann” M. Radja, Executive and Career Management Coach

Please excuse the different type face on this blog – there is a glitch somewhere in the software.  Thank you.

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Season’s Greetings 2017

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“I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet
The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!”
― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow*

 

Enjoy your Holiday this Season as you Choose Who You Want to be Known As. . .

“Jo Ann” M. Radja,. Executive and Career Management Coach

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Labor Day 2019

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Happy Labor Day to All!  We continue  to wish for safety in our communities as we did two years ago.


L essons we learned
A lways come to mind when we are called to
B e our best when adversity strikes.
O ur humanity shows as we
R each out to give back to our community.

D ependability, selflessness and care
A re the cultural values we witness from
Y ou, our Southern Americans this 2017 Labor Day.©
Best wishes on this 2019 Labor Day as you Choose Who You Want to be Known As.

“Jo Ann” M. Radja, Certified Practitioner Marshall Goldsmith Global Leadership Assessment, Certificates for Team
and Coach Stakeholder Centered Coaching

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More Questions to Consider. . .

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In order for an organization to stay healthy, its members must have a clear sense of who they are and what they can accomplish…in terms of a product they make or… in terms of a service they perform.  Members must feel they have a share in it.   Fred Pearson

Earlier today, I published a post entitled, “What’s YOUR Question Today?” at LinkedIn Pulse  https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/whats-your-question-today-jo-ann-m-radja    The subject matter was innovation, feedback from the world’s largest architectural firm founder, Arthur Gensler and  a change management Design Group Study Guide from the University of Chicago.   A number of questions were posted from the Design Group Study Guide.  I would like to share with you additional questions because they acknowledge how you may be able to work through different perspectives in a group or team.  Here they are:

What expectations do the leaders have for the group/team?  Is there a match with the expectations of the team?  Are the expectations in line with the agreed goal of the project?  If not, is it time for the group/team to agree an expectation has a place to be articulated in the group and may be unrealistic.

“How do your attitudes compare with the team members?  Are your observational skills improving?  Are your skills at listening to others, and asking effective questions, getting better?   How were you influenced by others, for the better,  in the group/team?”

“What skills do Group Leaders need to get the job accomplished?  What skills do group members need to work together?  How has your participation in the group/team increased your understanding of your company and your place within the company?”

Personal growth will only be realized when you recognize what was difficult for you, your lack of understanding of an issue, or dealing with another person, or making a tough decision.  No one ever said self-development was easy and that’s why we love to do better by stretching ourselves in our careers!  Have a great week.

“Jo Ann” M. Radja, Executive &  Career Management Coach

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Is it an Escher Artwork or A Natural Event?

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Math is where the answer is right and everything is nice – you can look out the window and see the blue sky – or the answer is wrong and you have to start all over again and see how it comes out this time.

Carl Sandburg

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Earlier this evening, LinkedIn Pulse published my Blog entitled, “Why We Sometimes Don’t Make a Choice” https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-we-sometimes-dont-make-choice-jo-ann-m-radja by @Coach_Jo_Ann on @LinkedIn.  I used a few photos to explain Choice and how the Philosopher Tom V Morris, offered insights into that subject.  

I shot the photo, above-left, yesterday morning.  It is frost on a window.  As I was putting away my flash drive, I remembered the graphic artist and mathematician, M.C. Escher.  He was well-known for intersecting images, similar in concept to nature’s frost pattern.  An example of Escher’s artwork is shown above-right.     As we are almost at year’s end, we often think about what went well for us and what we want to improve in our careers.  While we are not all artists, artwork in all forms within social media, offer a space away from our careers to relax and enjoy life for what it is.   Relaxation  brings clarity to our thoughts so we welcome each day for its own sake.

As You Choose Who You Want to be Known As during the new year of 2017, may your choices bring peace, happiness and contentment in your chosen career.  Happy New Year!

“Jo Ann” M. Radja, Executive and Career Management Coach

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What’s Your Philosophy – On Mature Expectations?

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The best part of our lives we pass in counting on what is to come.  William Hazlitt

We smile as we read text describing the difference between the use of “a” and “the.” It happened to me as I read a four-page paper by Luciano Floridi, Professor of Philosophy and Ethics of Information at the University of Oxford, entitled, “Mature Information Societies – A Matter of Expectations.”   Mature_Information_Societies_a_Matter_of

Floridi’s premise is that “a” is more appropriate when discussing the digital information society because it refers to groups as opposed to “the,” that references one. Digital bandwidth itself, all over the world doesn’t provide a basis to judge the benefit of information to society. Rather, it is the expectation of information that drives education, understanding and innovation for each country’s philosophy of life. Expectations are viewed as mature when balanced by an acknowledgement that all people in the society may not be able to share your specific expectations. In other words, the right to expect more is coupled with knowing everyone may not equally be able to share in the output of digital information.

From a business prospective, companies work daily  through expectations they have for their customers, their employees and stakeholders. Mature societal expectations point to three avenues, according to Floridi, as follows:

a)  Education – Creates awareness of your own assumptions and expectations; Allows for justification, reasonableness and historical determination of your expectations.

b)  Understanding – When society implements a particular right of use it recognizes deficiencies associated with the right of use.

c)  Innovation – Mature expectations assist in creating informative actions, ordinary vs. extraordinary, normal vs. abnormal.

The philosophy of digital information results in mature expectations for the common good. Haven’t we all asked one or more of the following questions: How will this benefit the customer? Why are we moving foward on this project when the risk evaluations are not yet completed?

It’s time to recognize we all have a philosophy for the common good developed on the back of digital infrastructure. As you Choose who YOU want to be Known As in whatever societies you participate in, consider your Expectations for what you give, what the other person gets  and what benefit is provided. Enjoy the upcoming weekend!

“Jo Ann” M. Radja, Executive and Career Management Coach

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balancing-rock-1273567_960_720Pixabay072916The resolution:  A change.  Progress.  A transformaation.   Michael Port

Earlier today LinkedIn Pulse published a Post for me entitled:  “What’s Your Takeaway?” https://lnkd.in/dSPzdHZ by @Coach_Jo_Ann on @LinkedIn.

It’s a challenge for many of us to quickly embrace a new pattern, a new procedure, workplace situations we may not initially want.  It is especially so after when we have committed ourselves to a project, put in the time and energy only to learn the project was “pulled.”  It is our resilience that keeps us going and will do so during the balance of this year.

As You Choose Who You Want to be Known As, all the best to you in your career as you welcome the month of August, next week!

“Jo Ann” M. Radja, Executive and Career Management Coach

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Do YOU have an Elephant in the Room?

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beautiful-woman-carrying-elephant-young-outdoor-47141699Dreamstimedotcomfreestockimage 051116

 

When the light around you lessens / And your thoughts darken /. . . Search yourself and see / That it is your own thinking / that darkens your world.   John O’Donohue

Earlier this afternoon, the following post was published under the title, “What’s YOUR Elephant in the Room?” https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/whats-your-elephant-room-jo-ann-m-radja    Here’s a copy for your reading:

“I just finished reading another LinkedIn Post about the paradox of innovation; namely, termination due to computer innovation. It took courage for an innovation expert who advises companies about innovation to share his personal story of how and why it came to be that his company fired staff. Yet, that ELEPHANT in the room idiom, had to be handled in a manner considering the employee’s best interest.

When we think about the idiom phrase of handling “the ELEPHANT in the room,” it usually refers to a subject matter that no one wants to discuss. Our brain perceives the conflict greater than it may be, represented by a large insurmountable figure.

Business Leaders accept the fact that the challenge of an ELEPHANT in the room must be dealt with. It is a conflict. Sometimes all that needs to be done is to have a conversation and the ELEPHANT is no longer in the room. Neuroscience, however, has offered a remarkable perspective, using an analogy of a Rider and an Elephant. The perspective is given by a Massachusetts Institute of Technology Neuroscientist, Mr. Emile Bruneau.

Bruneau explains the analogy as an example of how the brain handles conflict by stating – all the Rider can do is to train the Elephant because the Elephant is more powerful that the Rider. The Rider cannot control or fully understand the Elephant. While this story is recited in a Post by the United States Institute of Peace in an effort to teach people how to deal with conflict. I believe it speaks volumes for the business actions we are involved with. A tool is introduced to deal with conflict, “universal empathy.” http://www.usip.org/olivebranch/2016/05/05/dalai-lama-offers-hope-youth-leaders-and-vice-versa?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=event&utm_campaign=events_weekly

We know we cannot control another individual. Since we do not understand the perspective of the individual, represented by the Elephant idiom, we need to ask open-ended questions so that a two-sided conversation takes place. The How of this neuroscience perspective is to approach an Elephant in the room, with universal empathy. Questions such as, “How would you describe. . .” “What did you think would happen if . . .? “What did you expect would happen. . .”

What’s remarkable is that neuroscience now helps to explain the issue of how the ELEPHANT in the room, comes to be – in the first place. The ELEPHANT is an idiom character representing conflict, triggered by an unconscious bias. The tool — new phrase of “universal empathy” becomes a positive application to use with the conflict idiom.

The term “universal empathy” may become mainstream because it is an inclusive term. We want and do take the first step in handling a conflict. As we begin to practice the use of universal empathy – when we access our own Pause button – perhaps we can alleviate the ELEPHANT idiom character showing up. It’s another way of handling ourselves and Choosing Who We Want to be Known As in our chosen career. Have a great week!

“Jo Ann” M. Radja, Executive and Career Management Coach”

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