| Is something Wonderful emerging underneath the surface? |
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Greetings!
Last month, I bought some flowers and plants for my garden. I was EXCITED about the colours and the feeling of taking good care of my area of living.
Pretty soon however, the pink flowers started to SHRIVEL, despite of feeding and watering them. Whatever I did, it didn't seem to WORK. I was disappointed. I took some shriveled flowers out and hoped the rest would flourish. They didn't.
I THOUGHT: "Am I doing something wrong? Or did they sell me old flowers? Should I take them out and buy new flowers?" Meanwhile I kept WATERING them, what SEEMED to be the best thing to do during the hot summertime.
Last weekend, my husband started removing the shriveled flowers again, and guess what: 100% INTACT flowers emerged from underneath. What was dead, had covered up WONDERFUL new life.
It inspired me to the theme of this summer eZine. Enjoy your summer, the next eZine will come out in September.
Els |
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Is something Wonderful emerging underneath the surface?
Are you looking at what seem to be dead flowers?
When you're working on growing your business or achieving valuable change in your company, it can seem you are NOT MAKING PROGRESS. You keep exercising a lot of effort and different courses of action, still you don't see RESULT.
You're not alone. I hear quite some people experiencing this. It brings up questions like: "Am I doing something wrong? Is this ever going to work? Should I stop what I am doing?". It can be quite demotivating.
Achieving results is a strong motivator and confidence booster. What to do if you don't get your results and happiness the easy way?
1. Put more effort in
Think more, push more, do more, make more hours. This happens a lot in many organisations as well as among entrepreneurs. Unless your problem is laziness, this respons usually doesn't bring anything but stress and exhaustion, and doing more of the same. Preventing you from taking a fresh look at the situation and tapping into what really motivates you.
2. Do it all by yourself
We think we should hide our frustration, our stress, and work out everything by ourselves. We think we should know and we shouldn't ask for help. One can feel quite lonely in this state of mind.
When I was coaching a well respected female director of a dutch organisation, she admitted having thoughts like: "No one may know of my struggle. I should be strong and figure it out myself, otherwise people won't appreciate and love me." It wore her out completely.
3. Neglect or exaggerate the signals
Many of us neglect the signals we get. We ignore our body that signals fear or vague feelings of restlessness. We also neglect signals from other people. What is going on in or outside of your organisation that needs to be heard? Who needs to be seen? Who can help you?
Or... We exaggerate what appear to be signals. Each time we don't see results or get criticism, we start to doubt our goal, ourselves and our course of action. Making us weaker, getting distracted from our intention. My husband thinks I was writing this part just for him ;).
4. Oppose and complain
Sounds familiar? "My Management Team should cooperate. My boss should listen to me. I should have more clients, it should work". We are full of judgements and expectations, and it never works. It prevents us from seeing clearly what IS going on and what action we CAN take.
Quite a challenge, to exercise leadership!
What can you do to get clarity and choose your course of action?
1. Keep watering.
Even if you don't know what's coming out, take care of yourself and your intention. Do what nurtures you and your organisation. When you're silent, you seem to know what is the right thing to do.
2. Observing and presencing
Observe what is. Appreciate where you stand, what you have (achieved), who you are. Appreciate other people for what they are doing. Look at your judgements and beliefs, and how they might prevent you from seeing clearly. What is (not) working, and what needs to be addressed?
Stop your ongoing activity, break your patterns, do something new, playful or different. Be still, slow down, open up, explore, write.
What is calling you?
3. Act.
Once your focus is clear, take action. Don't wait untill you have it perfectly worked out to prevent mistakes. Take action and adjust along the way.
Summertime
Summer is a great time to stop your normal activity and explore new grounds, landscapes, people. Open up, be present, and you might be surprised, enjoy!
Wonderful at Work: Call for action
What turnover are you missing because of a fuzzy focus? What great ideas among your people don't come to the surface or are not being carried out? What is the cost for your organisation of closed mindedness and just putting more effort in?
If you want to create clear and energized focus to take your company to the next level, CONTACT me at 0031 (0)6 41389856 or info@wonderfulatwork.com. |
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