Tag Archives: Courage

Monday Musing – 16 days into November 2015

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no_barriersBINGsearchforcontinuityimaes111615 Continuity in everything is unpleasant.  Cold is agreeable, that we may get warm.  Pascal

 

New words that describe continuity, words we might want to use and one word with 12 meanings are the subject matters of the following three recently posted articles on different aspects of continuity in today’s workplace.

 

http://www.inc.com/minda-zetlin/38-convincing-words-and-phrases-to-adopt-immediately-.html

 

http://www.inc.com/geoffrey-james/12-reasons-to-hire-employees-who-make-mistakes.html

Have a great week in your careers!

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

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4th Day of Ethics and Compliance Week 2015

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Even when there is no law, there is conscience. Publilius Syrus It’s Ethics and Compliance Week and I would like to share with you two anagrams for you to consider. Have a great week! E nvy crept into the conversation … Continue reading →

Impossible fun . . . with curiosity

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th6NJHG7XZMickeyMouseclipartBING092515It’s kind of fun to do the impossible.   Curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.  Walt Disney

Earlier today I published a post on LinkedIn Pulse with the Title of The Three R’s.  http://www.linkedin.com/pulse/article/three-rs-jo-ann-m-radja.  Here is a modified version of that post.

A man in a creative job had been working on a new project. He submits it to the client and a discussion ensues. Even though the project was deemed unacceptable for the marketplace, he believed the discussion was fair. It was such a shock and a setback to subsequently learn his staff was hired away from him (except one man) by the company who deemed his work was out-of-fashion. This story occurred sometime during the 1920’s.  Whether it is a myth or a restatement of history, unfortunately, this story rings true for many people.
The terms of reinvent, re-engineered, retooled or right-sized were not spoken in this creative man’s era; his story has universality for us today, some 90 years later.  What Walt Disney did with his one employee was to collaborate and re-work his original drawings. Mickey Mouse was then born and introduced to the community. Many of the action terms we use today – customer driven, vision and focus, brain-storming new ideas and visualizing real-world activities for the new character – took place in the development and implementation of the Mickey Mouse character.

How quickly do you rebound from a serious let-down? What did you tell yourself to regroup and continue on? Did you re-frame the situation or just recognized perhaps the timing was all wrong? Stating these questions another way: What feedback did you receive that continued the spark in you to recognize, relate and resolve your actions to the next step? How frequently do you rely on YOUR three R’s As You Choose Who You Want to be Known As?

During the month of October, I hope your three R’s work to your best advantage as you recognize, relate and resolve.

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

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When the Journey, begins anew…

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“Feel the fear.  Do it anyways.”  Anonymous

I just finished reading Kimberly Weisul’s article in Inc. Magazine about Ms.Carey Lohrenz, a recently promoted Navy Tomcat fighter jet Pilot. http://www.inc.com/kimberly-weisul/high-performance-high-stress-advice-from-a-fighter-pilot.html    Ms. Weisul, an Editor-at-Large at Inc. Magazine teaches us how to interview.  I say this because her article surprisingly has many realistic stories about Pilot Carey Lohrenz’ career path on how she felt the fear and kept on going.

We love quotations because the words ring true for us and leave lasting perceptions and images in our minds.  Pilot Lohrenz’ words of wisdom on performance and leadership are:

“The number one way to reduce anxiety in a volatile environment is to write down your top three priorities and focus on those.”

“Almost all the pilots I worked with wrote notes on their hands – what went wrong and how to fix it” pretty quickly.

“It’s notoriously difficult to be an Officer.”          How she made it was taking on the fear and working through the experience to find a way for herself  to make it work – again, again, and again.  After each successful experience, Pilot Carey began a new journey to test herself against the next issue she was asked to handle.

As you work through your career this week, Choose Who You Want to be Known As, when you are pushing to make it through the day, the project or the week.  Enjoy your week!

Executive & Career Management Coach

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How will you SURPRISE yourself this SPRING?

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Earlier this morning, I posted a Blog, that was published by LinkedIn Plus at https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/whats-your-spring-surprise-jo-ann-m-radja.  The text now follows below:

“Life is full of surprises – you just have to look for them. It’s no surprise to many of us that when we work towards a goal and we reach it, we still have much work to do. We can’t bask in a victory for too long because that victory now is in the past and is placed into our experience. The question that faces us is, “What are you going to do now?”

No matter what the victory may be, the surprise lies in how we handle ourselves and learn from the experience. We keep taking steps that we hope will turn into a benefit, for ourselves and the people we work with.   Of course, we become disappointed, yet more resilient in our choice to move ahead.

What are you going to do now with the victories that you had this past Winter Season? Have you patted yourself on the back because you found the resilience to “keep going at it,” when your tired body, said “enough already.” Of course you did – quietly to yourself.   How will you carry forward all your resilience and apply it to your Spring Season at your Career this year?

I hope you surprise yourself, as you Choose Who You Want to be Known As in your career! Have a great Spring Season.

So, I

Persevered.

Resilience paid off.

It’s the first day of Spring and

Not too late to

Give back to those who were kind to me.

Doubts tried to creep into my mind for a while

this past Winter.

And were swept away.

Yearnings will come true as you focus on

what’s important to you.  Copyright Jo Ann M. Radja

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

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Valentines Day 2015

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Here’s a Valentine’s Day Business Anagram from     From Chicago to you, Happy Valentine’s Day! I hope you enjoy the anagram below:

Very often

After something happens, we wish we

Listened more carefully.

Events, such as

Now – Valentine’s Day – provide

The opportunity to make amends.

It’s your turn to speak.

Nothing can take away what was said.

Early is better than later —

So happy you took the chance.

Do what is in the best interests of your Team.

Accept you are a Servant Leader ‘cause

You are very good at it.

Authored by Jo Ann M. Radja, Career Management Coach 02/13/14

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5th Day of Christmas 2014

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northwest-christmas-wreath-800x800BING122914It’s the 5th Day of Christmas and additional links and thoughts now follow:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/sylviavorhausersmith/2014/12/29/your-brain-on-games/

Nature is full of genius, full of divinity; so that not a snowflake escapes it’s fashioning hand. Henry David Thoreau

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We have only a few days left for December, 2014.  As you Choose Who You Want to be Known As, I hope you end this year in whatever way is best for you in your career.  Happy New Year in 2015!

“Jo Ann” M. Radja, Career Management Coaching & Change Agent

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We Winced…

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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 Culture Works Against a Customer

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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.

Time, Timed and Timely

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The only reason for time is so that everything doesn’t happen at once.

Albert Einstein

It’s the first day of the Autumn Season and I hope you feel the energy of this day, i.e., a new beginning. Here in the Midwest, a few trees and low shrubbery are beginning to show their Fall colors of gold, orange and red. So I wonder, do you have time for yourself, have your timed out of a deadline or are you timely in submitting your project update. Whatever today’s timetable/calendar holds for you to accomplish, I’d like to share a news article with you.

Early this morning, I read an article about Albert Einstein and his prediction, known as the “Time Dilation.” (While there are a few definitions of the word Dilation, it is often referred to as the swelling of your iris, during an eye-exam.) The article is entitled, “Einstein’s ‘Time Dilation’ Prediction Verified.” Scientists have conclusively verified, “That time moves slower for a moving clock than a stationary one.” In other words, motion speed slows down our aging process if we travel in a speed rocket.

Since many of us will not have the opportunity to travel via a speed rocket, we are able to consider how often we recognize, when we are busy, time flies by.  If we become stationary, we have a different sense of how we manage our time. Rushing to finish a task at work doesn’t necessarily mean it will be done well. Yet we may actually feel time moving much more quickly because we are in motion. Perhaps Einstein’s Theory also helps us understand why we feel it takes less time to come home from an event than it took to reach the event.

I must govern the clock, not be governed

by it.  Golda Meir

As you Choose Who You Want to be Known as this week, I hope you manage your time, are timely and won’t be timed out of a deadline. Have a great week!

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

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Note: “Einstein’s ‘Time Dilation’ Prediction Verified at http://www.scientific american.com/article/einsteins-time-dilation-prediction-verified/   This article was published on 09/22/14.