Will Bowen's Blog, page 100
September 12, 2012
Complaining at Work — The “Wall Street Journal”
It’s official, complaining at work drags down not only your own productivity but the productivity of those around you as well. The Wall Street Journal reports that being in a nest of complainers makes it harder to get your work done and lowers a company’s ability to succeed.
Rampant Complaining lowers moral, increases strife and lowers productivity.
Read the article here.
July 3, 2012
Increase Productivity through Compassionate Detachment
The mortality rate for newborns in East Africa is staggering because there are very few facilities where pregnant women can safely deliver. A few summers back, I lead a group of volunteers to Mwanza, Tanzania to help build a birthing center at a local hospital.
During the two weeks we were there helping with construction, we toiled for long hours alongside dedicated Tanzanians. When we ran into snags in the building process such as power outages and a lack of tools and supplies, the locals would smile at our frustrations and simply say, “pole sana.”
Sana means “very.” However, pole (POE-lee) cannot be directly translated into English. There is no single word in our language that fully captures its meaning.
Pole roughly means, “I see you are going through a difficult experience and I honor your ability to resolve it.”
More than ever, modern business is based on compassion and pole is the essence of true compassion–compassionate detachment.
In our culture, we confuse compassion with regret. Americans will typically say, “I’m sorry” when someone is having a problem. Conversely, Tanzanians understand that within each problem is an opportunity to grow and to discover new and wondrous opportunities so they would never express sorrow that a person is going through a difficult time. Rather, they affirm the person’s capacity to move through the issue.
Imagine how your work and personal life would transform if you simply acknowledged other people’s challenges and affirmed their ability to successfully resolve them.
Compassionate Detachment offers the opportunity to stand firmly in strength and to call forth the strength of others.
Although the word pole is not part of our language, you can practice its meaning thereby empowering yourself and others, “I see you are going through a difficult experience and I honor your ability to resolve it.”
June 16, 2012
The crucial (and most often overlooked) step to success
There is a Zen saying, “To know and not to do is not yet to know.”
There is one thing that nearly every executive, every salesperson, every employee of every stripe knows but very, very few will take the time to do. It is the single most important, dare I say, “critical” step to success and yet it is so obvious and so elementary that most people simply ignore it and then wonder why they struggle with little success to show for their efforts.
This crucial, well-known but often overlooked step is to set a clear and detailed intention for what you want.
“Yeah, yeah; blah, blah, blah” you’re probably thinking. But imagine this: You open your Internet browser to an online store that offers thousands of various products. You look at the vast array of offerings for a moment and, when you are ready to purchase, you place a blindfold over your eyes that completely obscures your vision.
Finding your mouse by touch you begin clicking wildly and randomly placing one arbitrary item after another into your shopping cart. After a few moments, you hit the “enter” key confirming your order.
Days later, when the UPS driver shows up with a hodge-podge of goods, some useful and many not, you are bewildered that you did not fully receive what you wanted.
You would never shop like this but it’s amazing how many people do this every day in their businesses and their lives.
I have used the power of setting a clear intention and it is almost frightening how well it works. Here are a few person examples:
Setting clear and detailed intentions works every time—EVERY time.
1. A few years ago, a friend of mine was moving from Phoenix, AZ to Orlando. She called and asked if I would fly down to Orlando and help her hunt for a new home.
“No,” I said, “I won’t help you hunt for a new home; but I’ll help you FIND your new home.”
She laughed nervously and then asked what I meant. I responded, “I really want to help you but I’m too busy to waste several days driving all over Orlando as you compare homes trying to decide what type of house you want, at what price, with what amenities and in what type of neighborhood. If, however, you will make a detailed list of everything you want in your new home, I’ll come down and help you celebrate finding it.”
I then told her that as soon as she emailed me the detailed list I would book my flight to Orlando.
She sent me the list and we both read it over once each day until the day. Our first morning in Orlando, we had an appointment scheduled with a real estate agent to view several homes. However, right before we left to meet the realtor, my friend felt a sudden and unexplained inspiration to pick up a newspaper and read the real estate offerings.
Reading one of the ads the gasped. It was as if the seller had read my friends list of intentions in a new home. That was the first home we looked at and she and her family are still living there happily.
You can’t be too detailed or too clear
2. Recently, we were looking to move to new office space and made a list of 38 things we wanted in our new building. Some of the requirements were practical, others were extravagant and some were downright silly. I handed the list out and invited everyone to read the list daily.
At one point it seemed like we would have to settle for a place that was “close”—it had about 90% of what we wanted; but I insisted we hold the intention that we’d get everything.
We did.
Everything from the practical to the extravagant and even the silly—it all showed up at the price we had said we would pay, in the area of the city where we wanted to locate.
Know that other people are going to tell you it won’t work!
3. A few months ago, I needed to hire someone to fill a very unique and skilled position. “You’ll never find anyone to do the job,” many people told me.
When I heard this, rather than narrow my list of criteria so as to increase the odds of getting “someone,” I expanded my list believing that I would find and hire “the right one!” I wrote out an entire single-spaced page of professional and attitudinal qualities my new employee would have. I read the list every morning.
“Someone this perfect doesn’t exist.” A friend told me.
Well, she does exist and she now works for me.
It’s interesting to note that the person who told me I’d never be able to find such an ideal employee is now looking to hire someone himself. I explained that all he needs to do is right out a clear and detailed intention for the person he wants to hire and read it daily.
For some reason, he has time to complain that he “can’t find the right person” but he can’t seem to find the time to write out clearly and in detail what attributes the ideal person would possess.
He’s shopping blindfolded.
Do you need a certain type of employee, supplier, situation, or solution? Then write it out in detail—the more the better. Then read it, daily. Put it on your desk, your bathroom mirror, in your car, anywhere you will see it.
Then, trust the process.
You can go through the drama of taking whatever comes your way and dealing with the result; or, you can be very clear and detailed and enjoy reduced stress and greater success.
Oddly enough, only a very few people will take the latter approach. They are the ones who seem to magnetically and effortlessly attract what they desire time after time.
I’ve always got such a list in front me because there is something I’m always wanting.
How about you?
May 2, 2012
The first step to leadership
I am currently taking lessons to become a private pilot. Monday, my instructor Charlie gave me an important piece of advice with regards to flying that holds true for leadership as well. He said a pilot must always do things in this order:
Aviate (Optimal altitude)
Navigate (Set the course)
Communicate (Inform others)
Before anything else, a leader must aviate. When it comes to leadership, this means we make sure our attitude is as high as possible before we navigate or communicate. If we’re feeling down, demoralized or stressed and we attempt to navigate we will probably not set the best course. If we try to communicate when our attitude is not optimal, we may confuse or even upset others and make difficult situations worse.
So, how do we aviate? How can leaders raise their altitude to the highest setting so that they
properly set their course and communicate it to others?
First, set an intention to have a better attitude. This seems self-evident but a pilot who plans to merely “go up” is neither as safe nor as likely to reach the proper cruising altitude as a pilot who decides upon the ideal altitude and checks the altimeter along the way.
So, if your attitude is a little low, set an intention to go higher. Ask yourself, “On a scale of 1 – 10, how upbeat am I feeling right now?” If you’re struggling (and everyone does from time to time) reframe from navigating or communicating as much as possible.
Second, trust that whatever challenge you’re experiencing, like every challenge before it, will ultimately resolve in your favor.
Third, make a list of the resources available both within yourself and from others to move you through this situation.
Once a leader has raised his or her emotional state the highest level, it is then possible to optimally navigate and to effectively communicate to others so that they will follow.
Most leaders spend a great deal of time on navigation (strategy) and communication without first addressing the most important aspect of leadership: aviation. Make a commitment to be as legitimately upbeat as you can and those in your charge will follow you willingly and enthusiastically.
April 28, 2012
Why Decision-Making is Difficult
What are you going to have for lunch?
‘Easy decision.
Unless, you are being treated to a very expensive restaurant in a city you are unlikely to revisit. Then, the decision takes on greater significance and is much harder to make.
This is because of what psychologists call “Behavioral Economics.” Behavioral Economics states that
human beings experience loss at a higher level than they do gain.
Consider that you have a meter in your mind that measures satisfaction. Right now the meter is pointing straight up at “0″ (zero). If you find $20 on the ground, your satisfaction meter may swing to the right and measure a positive 10.
If, however, you LOSE $20, your satisfaction meter will swing to the left to, perhaps, a negative 20!
Gain of $20 moves your needle 10 points, whereas, loss of $20 moves your needle 20 points.
Human beings experience loss more than they do gain. That is why we fear making decisions, we are afraid of making a decision that will cause us grief. Truly successful people understand this fear and make decisions anyway. They know that very few choices are irrevocable and unchangeable. They know that life is a batting average and that sometimes they will swing and miss, perhaps even striking out. Other times, they’ll swing and make contact.
If you don’t swing, you’ll strike out anyway.
Trust your ability to make correct decisions.
More importantly, trust your ability to correct or even profit from incorrect decisions.
April 25, 2012
Don’t Be an Ouch Looking for a Hurt
Many people are an “ouch” looking for a hurt. That is, they are poised to complain and are unconsciously looking for something wrong to upset them.
Why is this?
Because many people are unknowingly addicted to pain.
When we get upset, our body squirts endorphins (endogenous morphine) into the bloodstream and we get a little high.
For the pain addict this endorphin bump is like caffeine to a coffee drinker.
When things are going too well, the lack of these endorphines creates a craving and the person seeks out anything that can cause them to be upset so as to get the rush.
If you’re one of these types, stop chasing the high. Get off the upset>endorphin>upset>endorphin train.
Consider alternatives to make you feel good and that also release endorphins: exercise, meditation, sex, write out a gratitude list, think of 10 people who love you, find a funny video on Youtube and laugh, etc.
An “ouch” looking for a hurt” will always find it. An “Ahh” looking for joy will always find it, as well.
April 16, 2012
Look for Evidence of Success
More than two decades ago, Mike Carmichael, a house painter living in Alexandria, Indiana took a standard, Major League baseball and covered it with a single coat of paint. Every day for the next 25 years, Carmichael applied additional coats of paint to the ball recording the date and color of each application in a notebook.
Each coat of paint added a slight increase to the size and weight of the ball. A single coat of paint is about the width of a human hair so the growth was nearly imperceptible. And yet, today after more than 20,000 coats of paint, Michael’s baseball measures more than 52 inches across and weighs an astounding 3,500 pounds!
When you set a goal, your progress may seem slow, almost imperceptible. It may be difficult to see that you are closing in on your intention. It may feel like you are putting forth effort and not seeing results. But each step you take is like a coat of paint. It may seem small but it is a necessary foundation for the next step.
To maintain your enthusiasm and focus, take a lesson from Michael Carmichael. Track your progress. Begin now to keep an Evidence Journal.
Once you have set a clear intention to accomplish something, get a journal, notebook, or you can even create a file on your computer or Smartphone and daily make note of any and all evidence that shows any progress toward your goal.
You will discover that this daily exercise takes only a couple of minutes but it will have a powerful impact. Not only does writing in your Evidence Journal keep your focus on your goal but it ramps up your enthusiasm to keep moving forward. Further, and most important, it keeps you accountable to yourself for taking those little steps that soon create the result you desire.
It’s easy to focus on the distance you have yet to travel toward an objective and become frustrated and demoralized. Instead, review the progress you have already made and, with renewed confidence and passion, move forward.
Right now, think of a major goal you wish to achieve or an intention you have set for yourself. Take a moment to note what you have done or what has come your way in support of this becoming a reality. The more you look for evidence that you are succeeding the more evidence you will find.
Calvin of Calvin and Hobbes fame, the great philosopher of the Sunday comics, once quipped, “Day after day nothing seems to happen and yet pretty soon everything is different.”
Keeping an Evidence Journal takes only a moment each day but it keeps you on track and keeps your spirits up especially when things get tough. When you feel stymied, review what has already transpired that is moving you toward your ideal and it will keep you going and renew your faith.
There are coats of paint being applied and gallons of paint showing up. Look for them, track them and succeed.
Read Mike’s story at http://ballofpaint.freehosting.net .
August 12, 2008
August 11, 2008
About Us
In July 2006 Will Bowen offered a simple idea for people to monitor their success at eradicating complaining from their lives. His idea exploded around the world and more than 10 million purple Complaint Free bracelets have been sent to people in over 106 countries. More > >
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