It’s the 3rd Day of Christmas and I hope you enjoy one or more of the following links: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/12/pictures/141220-reindeer-animals-christmas-science-cultures-herders/
Enjoy!
“Jo Ann” M. Radja, Career Management Coach & Change Agent
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Chicago Children’s Choir 2014 from FoxChicago
It’s the 2nd day of Christmas and I wanted to share with you a few links you might enjoy. Greetings from the Midwest!
http://www.forbes.com/sites/augustturak/2014/12/24/a-christmas-parable-on-leadership/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/trulia/2014/12/17/13-holiday-party-hacks
“Jo Ann” M. Radja, Career Management Coach & Change Agent
I hope you enjoy a Blog I wrote today. The Social Media platform of LinkedIn published it early this afternoon at: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/grab-bag-reach-%22jo-ann%22-m.-radja. Here it is for you to read:
“Is a Grab Bag a REACH?
We’ve all experienced being a member of a holiday grab bag at the office. Often times we opened a package and received what we wanted; othertimes, we did not. Personally, I like to be surprised because the grab bag is really a sharing event:
* Price is limited –
* Ingenuity comes into play –
* Shopping time to research where to find the item –
* We allow someone else into our lives to learn about us –
* We learn a bit about the other person –
* Our unconscious bias tugs at us if we are disappointed how our request was interpreted –
* We may have lost sight about what the grab bag was really all about; and
* The culture of your team or department may also strongly influence whether grab bags are even permitted at the office.
Engagement and appreciation is what everyone strives for in an office. This time of year offers options and opportunities for creativity if your office grab bag has lost its luster or meaning. Even if grab bags don’t happen at your place of work, there is a cultural office tradition during this holiday season. Since every employee benefits by at least one day off for during this holiday season we share equally in the culture of the holiday.
What can you do to reach out to someone to include them in your office culture tradition? How open are you to understand why it may be important for another employee not to participate in the office tradition? What form of engagement or appreciation are you expecting during this holiday season?
As You Choose Who You Want to be Known As during this holiday season, consider reaching out to understand – to engage – to appreciate someone else at the office and it will come back to you, when you least expect it.
Have a great career week!
‘Jo Ann’ M. Radja, Career Management Coach and Change Agent”
Happy Saint Nicholas Day! From the Third Century up to today, this day is celebrated throughout the world. A wonderful explanation of St. Nick is provided under the heading beginning with Albania at this Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Nicholas_Day
St. Nick’s kindness was extended to children, sailors and voyagers, during his lifetime. Everyone of us is enveloped by that sense of kindness. Be kind to someone during this holiday season to feel the goodness it brings back to you.
Enjoy. “Jo Ann” M. Radja, Career Management Coach
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I’ve hear it say that “People have a short memory.” Democrats would hope that is true as well as the Chicago Bears. The Democrats felt it last week when the election results turned sour for many. Watching the Chicago Bears yesterday, you felt it as well. We winced, we can’t seem to watch it, any more than that moment, a minute or the next few hours.
We have great empathy for well-known groups of people who are having a really bad time of it when they stop competing as a group. We may take it for granted that unquantifiable circumstances led to a poor showing of their performance. We wince with pain during our lives and following a public blow to our ego. Yet, failure breeds a new determination to try again. Like a Phoenix – life anew rises above the ashes.
If we were in the shoes of a public faux pax – we would be grateful for a mindful perspective. It would – to be observant, to be descriptive, to act, to be non-judgmental and to take it on the chin. Yes, we winced in defeat but it’s not over yet. Guy Kawasaki’s wisdom may come into play – “A good idea is 10% implementation and hard work and 90% luck.”
As you Choose Who You Want to be Known As this week, consider how you dealt with a career move that you wished didn’t happen. How did you turn it around? Have a great week!
“Jo Ann” M. Radja, Career Management Coach and Change Agent
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When I was growing up, I often heard the phrase, “What does your gut tell you?” or, “I’ve got a sick feeling in my stomach about this.” The phrase of listening to your gut has come into vogue again because neuroscience has recognized the gut communicates to the brain faster than your heart. Why is this important to know as we just finished the Halloween and Election events? Perhaps it is because trust is still an illusion. We want it, we rely on it and when it is not present in our lives, it causes disharmony that we learn to live with or just accept it because “that’s the way it is.”
While we trust our guts to assist us as we get ready for the early Winter weather in the month of November, we can learn to trust our guts in other situations. As you Choose Who You Want to be Known As this week, what positive value do you want people to know about you? Have a great week.
Yesterday I published a Post on the social media platform of LinkedIn and I am sharing it with you below. (https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/article/20141105210316-32215190–illusion-of-trust-as-an-ethical-value?trk=prof-post)
“Illusion of Trust” as an Ethical Value Nov 5 2014
While browsing for information online, I saw a link from The Good Men Project. I clicked to a Blog Post from the Executive Editor, Thomas G. Fiffer. I was intrigued by Thomas Fiffer’s choice of language and the above quotation is a phrase directly from his Blog of October 28, 2014. The Title of Thomas Fiffer’s Blog is, “3 Ways to Deal with Toxic Relationships.” http://www.goodmenproject.com/ethics-values/3-ways-spot-toxic-partner/
The first way is: If you’re familiar with the 80/20 rule – speaking only 20% of the time in a relationship indicates it is dysfunctional. In other words, you give your own power of self-worth to another person.
The second way is: “Attraction creates the illusion of trust.” Fiffer recommends you listen to your gut when your judgment is being put aside for the other. When it comes down to it – why are you not paying attention to the feeling of, “something is not right here.”
Finally the third way appears to be derived from a social science or neuroscience perspective. Fiffer explains that when you are ruled by fear, you don’t act rationally and are unable to accept rational explanations. This appears to be so because the fear reaction, once triggered, will not stop until it is soothed.
As you manage your career, how often do you trust your gut in contract to your personal experience with an issue? How often has your gut enabled the right decision for you (or at least the best possible)? Do you keep an open mind first and then trust your gut, or the reverse? Interesting questions to consider during this first week in November.
I’m grateful I followed the linked and learned about The Good Men Project and hope to read Thomas G. Fiffer again. As you Choose Who You Want to be Known As, consider how often you trust and rely on your gut instincts to make informed decisions. Enjoy your month of November in your career.
“Jo Ann” M. Radja, Career Management Coach and Change Agent”
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Although it’s not Spring, our Building Management has asked us to consider disposing of unnecessary paper during a semi-annual shredding event. I was surprised to uncover some Notes I kept from my position in Legal Management when I attended … Continue reading
There is a very humorous story of an employee who not only misplaced his cell phone once, but twice within the same day. True to form, he was able to continue his business trip.* His story relates how he had the courage to recognize – because of his own actions – his buttons were pushed and what he was capable of – it may be called:
Unresolved anger, rushing without focus, lack of self-management or a learning experience to depend on someone who is much younger than you are.
Yesterday on my way home, I stopped at the grocery store and found myself in a somewhat similar situation – a reversal of the above-story. The small electronic scanner, at the check-out counter failed. After scanning my card, the screen did not link to the next page. The moment I pressed the screen, it reverted to the welcome screen. After at least five attempts, the Check-out Clerk announced, “She doesn’t know what she’s doing, call a Supervisor.” She refused to hear how I explained the screen was malfunctioning.
The Supervisor arrived, attempted a fix, but the electronic scanner continued to fail. The Supervisor worked earnestly, while the Check-out Clerk mumbled for all to hear, “She still doesn’t know what she’s doing.” Finally, I asked if there was an ATM machine in the store. I was told there was and had no trouble getting cash to pay for my groceries – which is what I attempted to do at the exit counter. When I arrived back at the exit counter, both the Supervisor and the Bagger had their heads down in apology, while the Check-out Clerk, did not. She only displayed an indignant face.
One definition of Culture in a workplace is, “It’s how we do things around here.” I will probably visit this store again because there were other employees who had a friendly service attitude. Outbursts do occur, for a variety of reasons. It’s How You Choose Who You Want to be Known As in the situation that matters to those around you and what you learned about yourself. Have a great week in your career!
“Jo Ann” M. Radja, Career Management Coach and Change Agent
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* http://fortune.com/tag/stanley-bing . “A Tale of Terror in which my true status in the universe is revealed to me.” September 22, 2014 print edition of Fortune Magazine.
Early this morning, I published a Post on the LinkedIn Platform. Here’s the link: https://t.co/n26H2VhXM7 Here is a copy of the text as it was published: “Generates Generated Generation September 25, 2014 Last week I attended a two-day conference sponsored … Continue reading
Here’s a Post which was published by LinkedIn.com within the past half-hour.:
“Have you ever been told, “That’s not what you are supposed to do. That responsibility belongs to someone else.” While you may have a Title for your position, it doesn’t necessarily explain what you actually do. A Form usually relates to one thing and a Function relates to the activity of a specific Form.
The answer may lie in what binds the Function to the Form, whether by a job description, perceptions, testimonials or accomplishments. As we begin to think about our upcoming Labor Day – how would you describe what you do – is it Form over Function or Function over Form?
What do your customers expect from you. . . Function or Form? How often has it happened to you that you visit a retail store and what you wanted to buy is not sold by the Form name of the retail store? Perhaps you contacted an Accounting firm, only to learn that the specialty service you want to hire is not found within the firm’s members? Form over function sounds simple, but it isn’t.
Another way of looking at form over function and function over form is to consider the word “feedback”. Is feedback just a comment or response, or your understanding of what was said, or advice, or an opinion or a demonstration of your listening skills? While you may have merely given encouragement to someone’s decision, it was received as advice, which was not your intention. Perhaps this topic is another puzzle for us to work out in our careers because we live in a fluid, every-changing world.
Consider as you Choose How You Want to be Known As, what is your answer to the Form or Function question. Have a great day!”
“Jo Ann” M. Radja, Career Management Coach and Change Agent
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