Planners’ Picks
A collection of resources from CSN planning committee members worth mentioning
We’re less than 100 days until the end of the year — are you making progress toward your annual goals and January resolutions? This week’s PP is an extra-special issue, with additional articles and resources to keep you moving in the right direction with your personal leadership journey as well as helping those in your care thrive in the workplace.
:: Image of the Week
If you’re not growing, you’re dying. We are continuously learning, unlearning and changing our paths based on the worlds we experience. With that in mind, it’s okay to outgrow things that no longer serve your current needs. Keep that in mind as you move forward into this last quarter of the year!
“Learning requires the humility to realize one has something to learn.” – Elizabeth Krumrei-Mancuso
:: Resources on Self-Leadership Development
How to Stop Worrying About What Other People Think of You
If you want to be your best and perform at a high level, fear of people’s opinions may be holding you back.
Our fear of other people’s opinions, or FOPO, has become an irrational and unproductive obsession in the modern world, and its negative effects reach far beyond performance. If you start paying less and less attention to what makes you you—your talents, beliefs, and values—and start conforming to what others may or may not think, you’ll harm your potential.
If you really want to conquer FOPO, you’ll need to cultivate more self-awareness. Most of us go through life with a general sense of who we are, and, in a lot of circumstances, that’s enough. We get by. But if you want to be your best while being less fearful of people’s opinions, you need to develop a stronger and deeper sense of who you are.
You can start by developing a personal philosophy—a word or phrase that expresses your basic beliefs and values. This philosophy isn’t a platitude or slogan; rather, it’s a compass, guiding your actions, thoughts, and decisions.
https://hbr.org/2019/05/how-to-stop-worrying-about-what-other-people-think-of-you
“You wouldn’t worry so much about what others think of you if you realized how seldom they do.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
The Secret To Becoming A Caring Leader
“Listening isn’t doing nothing; it’s doing something — and it’s something very active and specific — in service to others. It is a human skill that that is critically needed in all aspects of leadership. And in our experience at Barry-Wehmiller, it is the one skill that has truly changed the lives of the people within our span of care.” CEO Bob Chapman writes about how you can become a caring leader in a new editorial in the International Business Times (IBT Media).
https://www.ibtimes.com/secret-becoming-caring-leader-3599764
How to Find Joy in Your Work
Few things are as entertaining as watching a child enjoy a summer day. Kids love summer for good reason: They get a break from school, lots of sunshine, time with friends, and a chance to play. For many children, summer is the definition of joy.
Unlike kids, most adults don’t have the luxury of free summers. In today’s fast-paced and increasingly connected world, there is always work to be done—regardless of the season. Since we spend the majority of our time engaged in work, it is essential that our jobs be both meaningful and joyful.
Too often, leaders spend their time solely focused on tasks, and they lose sight of the potential for fun. It doesn’t have to be this way. Ask yourself: Do you find joy in your job? And do you help others to do the same?
https://conantleadership.com/how-to-find-joy-in-your-work/
:: Resources on Work Culture & Team Development
Nothing’s Perfect
Perfection is a myth. Yeah, I said what I said, and here’s why: There’s no such thing as perfect. Even if you arrive at a point where you think things are perfect, there’s always room for improvement. More on this topic from Amy Blaschka on her weekly blog.
https://amyblaschka.substack.com/p/nothings-perfect
“Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it. I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.” – Michelangelo
How To Engage Employees Through Strengths
Grace Laconte joins the Lead Through Strengths podcast to help you lead through your strengths at work. You’ll find this episode especially useful if you manage a team or if you’re struggling to relate to colleagues. She also gives excellent insight into employee engagement.
https://leadthroughstrengths.com/engage-employees-through-strengths/
5 Power Phrases that can Change Company Culture
Effective communication is an important skill for all of us, but it’s a crucial competency for leaders. Literally, the words a leader uses have a powerful influence over his or her team members’ motivation, productivity, mindset, and overall employee experience. Dr. Melissa Hughes tells us five power phrases that we likely learned in kindergarten that can literally change company culture.
https://www.melissahughes.rocks/post/5-power-phrases-that-can-change-company-culture
“Leaders become great, not because of their power, but because of their ability to empower others.” – John Maxwell
:: Resources on Change Management
Managing Transitions – Making The Most of Change
This from Hayley Lewis on Linkedin:
“One of my most well-thumbed books I use, both as a practitioner and as a teacher, is Managing Transitions, by William Bridges. It’s the one I recommend most often to leaders and HR folk wanting to understand more about change in their organizations or teams. Here’s a sketchnote summary I drew a few years ago. It summarizes the three phases of change, along with the threats to look out for and the opportunities to make the most of. Have you used this framework?”
How Change Happens by Seth Godin
For people who aren’t paying attention or actively involved, it can seem like cultural change is sudden. One big shift after another. In fact, cultural change always happens relatively slowly. Person by person, conversation by conversation. Expectations are established, roles are defined, systems are built. Who on your team is establishing expectations and defining roles? Are they the right people?
https://seths.blog/2022/05/how-change-happens/
“There is almost always more than one way to accomplish something. Often the alternative options are easier, quicker, cheaper, or just better.” – Chris Guillebeau
Elements of Change
Technology transformation is not just pushing boundaries of what technology but also changing fundamentals of doing business. Organization and people change management is very critical for the success of any such modernization of technology transformation initiatives adopted to keep them relevant to changing times.
In this article you will discover how to lead your team successfully through change. There are various change-model tool from different school of thoughts and I have tried to summarize these models to help you learn how to diagnose your teams readiness for change and adopt best framework to help your people move forward with big changes.
https://kshitijarya.wordpress.com/2018/12/10/elements-of-change/
:: Resources on Burnout
Help Your Team Do More Without Burning Out
Earlier in our careers, speed and energy are important components. But there comes a point where you actually can’t speed up any more. You need to rely less on what you can personally achieve (your “ego-drive”) and more on what you can achieve with others (your “co-drive”). Instead of being energetic, you need to become energizing. Instead of setting the pace, you need to teach others to self-propel. Instead of delegating, you need to allow people to congregate. As you shift from proving yourself to helping others perform, your key question is not “How can I push harder?” but “Where can I let go?”
https://hbr.org/2018/10/help-your-team-do-more-without-burning-out
How leaders at any level can better address employee burnout
It’s been almost two years since the pandemic changed the way we work, and at this point many of us are physically and emotionally exhausted.
The response from some employers has included giving employees extra business-wide vacation days, introducing “no meeting Fridays,” and offering stipends to build more comfortable working spaces at home. While these perks can offer relief in the short term, employees want to see burnout addressed by longer term solutions—without sacrificing their career growth. A new survey (pdf) of US workers conducted by Glint found that only 1 in 5 believes they can meet their career goals where they currently work. A similar portion reports having support from their manager and organization to even pursue these goals.
https://qz.com/work/2104286/how-managers-can-help-address-employee-burnout/
:: Resources on Building Trust
5 leadership tactics that build trust
You never master the art of leadership. This is something that seems to be missing from the public conversation around how to be an effective leader. In the workplace, in the world at large, and even at home with family and friends. Leadership isn’t a destination, it is a process: a never-ending practice that takes years to develop, and at any moment can feel like a massive fail. We all, at some point or another, forget how to be great leaders.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned about leadership over the course of my career, it’s that the soft skills are what matter most. It’s really not about being seen as the person in charge, or dressing a certain way, or reminding the people around you that you’re the final decision-maker. It’s about learning how to communicate in a way that other people trust.
Here are five small ways you can start doing that right now.
https://www.fastcompany.com/90582812/5-leadership-tactics-that-build-trust
“Treat employees like they make a difference and they will.” – Jim Goodnight
Psychological Safety and Fearless Organizations
Amy Edmondson is a Professor of Leadership and Management at the Harvard Business School, studying human interactions that lead to the creation of successful companies for the betterment of society. She’s been recognized by the Thinker’s 50 Global ranking of management thinkers since 2011, and has received numerous top rankings and awards. She studies psychological safety and organizational learning. Listen to her latest podcast presentation on psychological safety, transformational change, and making a better workplace.
https://corporateunplugged.com/amy-edmondson/
:: Resources on Communication
What Good Feedback Really Looks Like
Feedback — both positive and negative — is essential to helping managers enhance their best qualities and address their worst so they can excel at leading. Strengths-based development can, unfortunately, lull people into believing there are no areas in which they need to improve. So instead of encouraging people to avoid negative feedback, we should focus on how to deliver it in ways that minimize the fight-or-flight response. One approach is called Situation-Behavior-Impact (SBI). Feedback providers first note the time and place in which a behavior occurred. Then they describe the behavior — what they saw and heard. The final step is to describe the impact the behavior had in terms of the feedback providers’ thoughts, feelings or actions.
https://hbr.org/2019/05/what-good-feedback-really-looks-like
:: Upcoming Events
Getting Along: How To Work With Anyone (Even Difficult People)
Friday, September 30
10:00 a.m. Online
We all have to deal with difficult people from time to time, and it can really hit our motivation and performance. The good news is that there are proven ways to deal gracefully with tricky relationships, and I’m delighted to host this conversation with a wise and wonderful expert on the topic – Amy Gallo, author of ‘Getting Along: How To Work With Anyone (Even Difficult People).’ We’ll discuss her research-based, practical advice on how to work with people who push your buttons, and how to build your interpersonal resilience so that you can have more great days.
https://www.linkedin.com/video/event/urn:li:ugcPost:6966725324361342976/