Energy tagged posts

Change belongs not to the catalyst but the community December 15, 2021 Affective Leadership, Emotional Intelligence, Peer Powered Performance, Positive Deviance

“There are none so blind as those who will not see.”

Contrary to popular belief this phrase popularized by Mathew Henry in his commentary on the Whole Bible (1708) is not a quote from the bible. This kind of misattribution, as I am learning from winner of the 2002 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, Daniel Kahneman in Thinking Fast and Slow, is not at all uncommon. We are all thoroughly convinced of many, many connections that are not true.

One such misbelief that is shared by most p...

Poetic Service December 15, 2021 Emotional Intelligence 2 comments

Adding to my recent Zapp-Omazing post. I sent a thank you and link to Zappos for their remarkable service and received this rhythmic response. Sing along or read out loud for the full effect and imagine this coming from one of your team members. If not why not? If not now, When?

Seasons Greetings, Randy!

Thank you for contacting the Zappos.com Customer Loyalty team...

How do you energize your change strategies? December 15, 2021 Affective Leadership, Emotional Intelligence, Positive Deviance No comments

peer-powered-prodding

Take a tip from OPOWER and use peer power to energize change. Most of us “know” the changes we need to make, but if knowing were enough the average person wouldn’t make the same New Year’s resolution ten separate times without success.[i]

We need not only to know the changes we want to make, but believe we can. One of the best ways to increase our expectations of success is to see the accomplishments of our peers...

Routines Reinforce Resolve December 15, 2021 Affective Leadership, Emotional Intelligence

The HBR Guide to Managing Stress at Work seems to confirm many of the lessons we learned from Tony Schwartz in The Way We Are Working Isn’t Working and Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking Fast and Slow.

We have a limited amount of decision making energy.

Our System Two thinking is lazy and sticking to a routine can free up our mental energy to focus on more productive tasks.

My previous boss and owner of the Coeur d’Alene Resort stuck to the same routine of exercising at 4 AM every day, he bought e...

Insulted by Incivility January 28, 2013 Affective Leadership, Emotional Intelligence, Positive Deviance No comments

According to the 2012 U.S. Agency For International Development Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey Results more than 70% of federal employees feel that under-performers are not being managed effectively. When asked to respond to the statement “in my work unit, steps are taken to deal with a poor performer who cannot or will not improve” only 27.9% responded positively.

Underachievers in any system can be a challenge, and even more so in highly regulated and unionized environments...