Prodigal Magazine

What is your focus?

Monday, April 6, 2009

The old adage is "your energy goes where your focus is." Like a laser beam, focused energy can be very powerful. Powerfully focused energy can be constructive or destructive. Energy that is disrupted or dissipated is just energy with potential. It can be stored for later use, sometimes moved or transferred from one place to another but, unused it accomplishes nothing and when any power source is disrupted it is, for a time at least , unused! Agreed? Okay, so what's the point? It is critically important to be aware of the direction and employment of our energy. It is our "personal power" as author and motivator extraordinaire Anthony Hopkins would term it. If we permit our energy to be disrupted we run the risk of at best, not achieving our goals and at worst - the proverbial burnout! So, what is your focus? Where is your energy? Is it being used or disrupted? Is it focused and powerful or is it weak or being transferred, stored, or in the worst case scenario, depleted? For many of us, regardless of our circumstances, the stresses of daily living (or surviving as may be the case for an ever increasing number of us today) drain our physical, mental and emotional batteries with each new event, depleting or exhausting our energy resources. Even with advances in technology and medicine many people today, at every age level, are losing their precious "personal power" one distraction at a time. None of us intends to have more day left at the end of our oomph but, it happens, and usually without us even knowing how!

5 Tips for having Hard Conversations at Work

Thursday, November 6, 2008

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5 Tips for having Hard Conversations at Work

By no means am I now a pro at this. Undoing 27 years of avoidance doesn’t happen overnight. Having corrective conversations with people is still a skill in my leadership repertoire that needs some development. No matter how many times I do it, when I know I’m going to sit an employee down and deliver a hard message, the fear monster from my past arises within me and tries to dissuade me from taking action. He works overtime, trying to persuade me to ignore the problem and avoid a confrontation. But following through on these situations is essential. It helps me develop the disciplinary edge that all great leaders have in some form and it holds employees accountable – all of which contributes to strong leadership and great results for the company. I consider myself on a leadership journey. If you are on a manager on leadership journey of your own, here are 5 tips for having those hard conversations with your employees.