Toxic Positivity

An extremely article on the dangers of being too #positive i.e. #toxicpositivity

From the article: "Even if you don’t agree with someone, validating their feelings simply lets them know it’s okay to feel that way – not that you think they’re right."

Read the rest of the article here.

#strengthsdecoder #postivethinking #positivepsychology #strengthscoaching #emotionalintelligence #performancecoach #performancecoaching

Don’t bother working on weaknesses. Success lies in playing to strengths

This article is why I use Strengths in my work as a career transition coach and as a trainer / facilitator. 

Here's a line from that article:

"Encouraging a focus on knowing and building strengths is the route to a vibrant, happy workforce giving their best."

On a personal note:

Too often I have seen talented people stuck in roles that are not aligned with their strengths.  They are in their current career / job, because they were guided by someone who had their best interests and safety at hear. They are not at their most liveliest during the interview.  They seem to be going through the motions at work.  They're reluctant to make a transition to the career that is better aligned with their strengths, perhaps because of loans to pay, fear of the unknown, or fear of what people will say.

You might say - but we all have weaknesses, and we can't really say no if our work involves that.  

That's true.  What you can do is understand the weaknesses they have that matter in relation to the job in hand, and see how it can be complemented by a colleague's strengths - AND vice-versa.

Read the details in article here.

To know more how to leverage your strengths, please view my articles:

Strengths-based Career Conversations

Setting Your Goalsetting Conversation

9 Critical Aspects to consider when setting goals

How do I develop my Strengths?

And I am NOT! - How to leverage your strengths for Resilience?

Why 'Any Job' will not be appropriate for you?

Leadership expectations - 2022 and beyond

Here is another list of #expectations of #skills and capabilities that a #leader should have / develop. Read the article here.

I don't personally see anything new in this list (Read the book "How Did They Manage?" for more about leadership management). Here's what I know: The Strategically Smart leader knows that he cannot know and do it all, so he hires a team that complements his weaknesses with their #strengths and hires a Strengths coach to support them all.

Article: Moving from Powerlessness to Possibility

 If you’re feeling powerless and just a little helpless right now, join the crowd!  It’s a normal human response to a globally impacting, life-altering situation you have never before encountered.  Especially one that involves so much loss of life and so many unknowns.

The good news, however, is that just because you’re feeling powerless, it doesn’t mean you are.  You can shift from powerlessness to possibility.  Here is the simplest way to make such a monumental shift.

The Grand Canyon leap starts the moment you realize that focusing on what’s happening will only get you more frustrated and more stuck.  That’s because what you see creates your feelings, actions, and outcomes, including your way of being.  As you can see from the figure shown here, blaming your negativity on what’s happening means giving away the biggest power you have available to you: to choose the vantage point from which you will respond. 

Psychologists call this “framing.” It’s is a fancy way of saying that you can change the way you look at something.  After all, whatever you look for you will find.

Paul Dunn puts it another way.  He says:

“Only the view from where you sit will make you fear defeat –

Life is full of many aisles, why don’t you change your seat?”

His words are amusing, but you might appreciate a little help translating them to something a bit more concrete.  To this end, here are three possible frames you might consider as you search for a new “seat” from which to take in this COVID-19 crisis:

1. Gratitude frame.  Rather than being worried about what is happening, every day look for one or two things to be appreciative of: “I’m so inspired by the way people of all backgrounds are coming together to try to make a difference.”  Or, “What are the gifts that seem to be coming from this?”
2. Learning frame.  Instead of getting caught up with what isn’t happening, or what someone else should do, ask yourself: “What can I learn from what’s happening?”  Or, “How might this help me in the future?”
3. Service frame.  When you get wrapped up in yourself, you just get more uptight and anxious.  However, the moment you find someone else to serve, your feelings, actions and outcomes turn on a dime.  Start with: “Who can I encourage today?”  Or, “What needs am I aware of and can help with?”

When you shift your attention from what’s wrong to what’s possible you will turn powerlessness into possibility, and frustration into fulfillment.  Even when the situation hasn’t changed, you will have. 

This article has been written by DeAnna Murphy – the founder and CEO of People Acuity and principal author of Shift Up! Strengths Strategies for Optimal Living and Choose to See You – in collaboration with co-thought leaders, Lisa Gregory and Steve Jeffs. It includes information about Interdependent Leadership, which starts with helping leaders lead themselves more effectively.  DeAnna is a Top 100 Global Coaching Leader who has provided keynotes and leadership development experiences in 32 countries.  For more information about how you can lead yourself (and others) out of powerlessness and into proactive possibilities, click here.

For the more curious folk, DeAnna was the one who taught me about Strengths philosophy and CliftonStrengths

9 Critical Aspects to consider when Setting Goals in the Organization.

Goal Photo by Markus Winkler from pexels-markus-winkler-4052198

We're nearing the end of the calendar year. New Years Resolutions and new goals are going to be set.  These goals will hopefully make us happy and improve the quality of our life - conditions apply.

I have just finished reading the book 'Flow' by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, which is about how to achieve happiness (Is Happiness on your Goalsheet?). One of the essential requirements is to set goals for yourself that test and stretch your skills, strengths and talents (psst... not your weaknesses).  I am not benefiting from the book sales in any way, but please do read it, as it will give you really good insights.

You have to set goals to get ahead in life.  This is true enough, but really no one tells you how to do this.

Then you are also told to find your passion or purpose. Again, no one can really say exactly how this is to be done.

Sometimes, goals get confused with purpose.  Here's a superbly lucid distinction I found by Prof. David Clutterbuck, who said

"The difference between Purpose and Goals is as follows: 

    Purpose  = envisaging the world we want to live in and our role in bringing it about.
    Goals      = the actions and decisions that will help to create that world."

So effectively, there are three challenges about setting goals:

1. How to define and set goals.
2. How to ensure that your goals serve (align with) your purpose.
3. How to ensure that working on your goals will give you satisfaction and joy.

This is a bigger problem if you happen to be a manager or leader and have to set goals for others.  When it comes to setting goals for others, especially in the corporate world, goals are handed down because you hold a particular position that is based on your  job description.  There is little, if any, discussion about the 'how' of the goal.

Here are my thoughts about setting goals (whether setting them for yourself or your team / organization):

	Question	Why this matters?
1)	What is the "why" for the goal to exist?	You are committing scarce and expensive resources to an activity that is expected to bring some benefit to the organization.
2)	How exactly is the goal being defined?	Will the goal be understood in the same clarity and context as when it was set?
3)	How is the goal being measured?  How will we all know when or if the goal is achieved?  Where and what do we have to look at in order to know this?	These are critical for course correction during our journey to the goal, otherwise there is a strong chance that we will miss our goal. We don't really want to be like Christopher Columbus.
4)	What are the various steps required to accomplish the goal?  How much control does the employee have on these steps?	Goals are comprised of complex tasks and sub-tasks.  To execute each task successfully and within deadlines means supporting the employee a great deal, especially in the areas where they don’t have control on outcomes.   An awareness of this helps us understand whether the goal being assigned is realistic (particularly under stringent timelines) or not.
5)	Are these steps / sub-tasks of the goals aligned with the employee's strengths?	Let’s take an example – if an employee is assigned a customer interfacing role, but has great skills in analytics and doesn't enjoy people interactions very much, that employee is doomed to both failure and frustration on the job.  Because of this, the manager will also fail in achieving his goals, along with a host of other complications, not to mention possible loss of customers.   When the tasks are aligned to the employee’s strengths, there is research showing that there will be superlative performance and the employee will be more engaged at work.
6)	How much impact / influence is expected from external factors (current and future), including business & political environment, on the accomplishment of these goals?	This is about awareness of market sensitivities and their possible impact on your customers (current and potential) or suppliers / vendors or both. If we can anticipate these correctly, how flexible are we / can we be to take advantage and ride these waves towards meeting our goals?
7)	Does the employee have any control on        these factors?  If so, to what degree can they influence or impact these factors to get an effective outcome?	Here's another example: If the employees requires some software upgrades or some approvals which would improve their productivity, then the longer they are without it, the longer it will take them work effectively to reach their goals. When you make an employee responsible for achieving goals where they have no control on the factors affecting the goals, then you end up creating frustrated employees. These employees will either leave the organization, which is not a good situation, or will stay and turn toxic, which is terrible for the other employees.
8)	What support can the immediate manager and the leadership team provide to the employee to achieve these zero-target goals?  How will they ensure that they will provide     the support sufficiently in time?	This follows from the above question especially since it is unlikely that all employees have control on their budgets. As a leader / manager, your success is tied to your teams successes and the same applies to failures - yours and theirs.  It would be strange to get a high rating for yourself as the HOD and rate people in the team as low.  This is your best opportunity to build trust with your team.
9)	Will this support be included in the         immediate manager and leadership teams' goalsheets? What will be the criteria for measuring this goal here?	This tends to get missed out in many leaders and managers.  If asked, you can be told that it is implied and doesn't need to be explicitly stated.  Also, just stating it without saying how it will be evaluated is ineffective.  This needs to jointly brainstormed for clear articulation.  I think articulation of this will help to develop a robust organization and department, else why make that person manage a team?

As you can see, these questions can be used to analyze and review any types of goals, including zero-target goals.

You might say "aside from the time involved, I'm not fully sure how to go about doing this". Here's the thing - to really do this well, we're going to need other skills like 

• Research, 
• Analysis, 
• Teamworking,
• Articulation, 
• Influencing.  

You may also need a coach or a consultant along with some of your colleagues to help you walk this journey.

The bad news - you may not have all these skills up to the required ability within yourself.  

The good news - you may find them within your team members.  

This is how you get your weaknesses to complement your colleague's strengths.  

When you use your strengths to support someone who has a weakness where you have a strength; and they do the same for you, then you are collaborating effectively while engaging as a well-knit team.

By the way, I'm sure you realize that these skills are required on the personal front, whether you are buying a house, making weekend plans, vacation, hosting a party, and so on.  I'll be happy to assist you in setting your goals and making 2022 your year to shine. Write to me on ryanbbarretto@hotmail.com to set up a meeting or call me +91-9820155778 for an appointment.

I wish you all the best in making 2022 a productive and goal completion year.

Using Clifton Strengths as a Filter / Lens to see the world

Here's an excellent article that will help you gain more clarity about your strengths.  This is also a part of what I learnt during my Strengths Strategy Coach Certification.  My teacher and strengths mentor, DeAnna Murphy, and her team at Strengths Strategy (People Acuity) had created a Strengths Lens tool, among many other tools to help coaches like me work with our clients.

Just another reminder for me about why I chose to become a Strengths Strategy Coach.

Read the article here

Want to understand your unique lens of viewing the world? Contact me here or at +919820155778 for an appointment.