What? Why? What?

We all know we are flawed and make mistakes. We know we don’t have it all figured out. And we know there's work to do. But part of finding clarity is discovering the joy in work rather than the seemingly unattainable finish line.

Clutter makes us nervous and stressed. It can derail us from our goals. Clarity can help us find our baseline and silence some of that unnecessary noise.

To gain clarity, there are four questions you can ask yourself and your team.

1. What do you stand for?
2. What will you not do?
3. Why do you do what you do?
4. What won't you do?
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Leader List

Here's a post I found while looking through old notes. This was way before the pandemic so let's see if this is still relevant. 

• Stop hiding behind email
• Don’t avoid difficult conversations and have them with respect and compassion
• Keep meetings to 30 minutes and on topic
• Allow all voices to be heard
• Be clear on expectations
• Don’t play favorites
• Be of service to your team/department/company; not the other way around
• Allow creativity to flourish
• Don’t evade conflict
• Remember every person on the team is just as important as any person
• Hold yourself and others accountable
• Show up when things get difficult
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Count to Four

We all know we are flawed and make mistakes. We know we don’t have it all figured out. And we know there's work to do. But part of finding clarity is discovering the joy in work rather than the seemingly unattainable finish line.

Clutter makes us nervous and stressed. It can derail us from our goals. Clarity can help us find our baseline and silence some of that unnecessary noise.

To gain clarity, there are four questions you can ask yourself and your team.

1. What do you stand for?
2. What will you not do?
3. Why do you do what you do?
4. What won't you do?
__________________________________________________________________

The Big What

We all know we are flawed and make mistakes. We know we don’t have it all figured out. And we know there's work to do. But part of finding clarity is discovering the joy in work rather than the seemingly unattainable finish line.

Clutter makes us nervous and stressed. It can derail us from our goals. Clarity can help us find our baseline and silence some of that unnecessary noise.

To gain clarity, there are four questions you can ask yourself and your team.

1. What do you stand for?
2. What will you not do?
3. Why do you do what you do?
4. What won't you do?
__________________________________________________________________

Four Questions

We all know we are flawed and make mistakes. We know we don’t have it all figured out. And we know there's work to do. But part of finding clarity is discovering the joy in work rather than the seemingly unattainable finish line.

Clutter makes us nervous and stressed. It can derail us from our goals. Clarity can help us find our baseline and silence some of that unnecessary noise.

To gain clarity, there are four questions you can ask yourself and your team.

1. What do you stand for?
2. What will you not do?
3. Why do you do what you do?
4. What won't you do?
__________________________________________________________________

Unnecessary Noise

We all know we are flawed and make mistakes. We know we don’t have it all figured out. And we know there's work to do. But part of finding clarity is discovering the joy in work rather than the seemingly unattainable finish line.

Clutter makes us nervous and stressed. It can derail us from our goals. Clarity can help us find our baseline. To gain clarity, there are three questions you can ask yourself;

1. What do you stand for?
2. What will you not do?
3. Why do you do what you do?
__________________________________________________________________

Ask and Clarify

To gain clarity, there are three questions you can ask yourself, your team members or anyone with whom you collaborate...

1. What do you stand for?
2. What will you not do?
3. Why do you do what you do?

This quick but powerful exercise can work for someone new to the workforce or a highly paid barrister. It can unearth the deep rooted needs of a member of the leadership team and the guy who runs the local garage. It's industry and job level agnostic.

Clutter makes us nervous and stressed. It can derail us from our goals. Clarity will help you find your baseline and silence some of that unnecessary noise. And what you stand for, what you will not do and why you do what you do, will remain.

Ask yourself the three questions and get clear.
__________________________________________________________________

Three Questions

We all know we are flawed and make mistakes. We know we don’t have it all figured out. And we know there's work to do. But part of finding clarity is discovering the joy in work rather than the seemingly unattainable finish line.

Clutter makes us nervous and stressed. It can derail us from our goals. Clarity can help us find our baseline and silence some of that unnecessary noise.

To gain clarity, there are three questions you can ask yourself

1. What do you stand for?
2. What will you not do?
3. Why do you do what you do?
__________________________________________________________________

Getting Clear

We all know we are flawed and make mistakes. We know we don’t have it all figured out. And we know there's work to do. But part of finding clarity is discovering the joy in work rather than the seemingly unattainable finish line. Purpose can often be more important than making quota or hitting numbers. And how long does the satisfaction from a "sale" last versus following your passion?

Clutter makes us nervous and stressed. It can derail us from our goals. Clarity will help you find your baseline and silence some of that unnecessary noise.

To gain clarity, there are three questions you can ask yourself

1. What do you stand for?
2. What will you not do?
3. Why do you do what you do?

Kneale Mann

2012 Top 10 - May 2012 | istock

The 3 Questions of Clarity

One way I help clients is to gain clarity on finding better ways to grow their people, leadership talent and their business. The old cliché that we are far too close to our own stuff to see it with any objectivity is often true.

We all know deep down that we are flawed and make mistakes. We know we don’t have it all figured out. And we know there's work to do. But part of finding clarity is discovering the joy in the work rather than the seemingly unattainable finish line. Purpose can often be more important than making quota or hitting numbers. And how long does the satisfaction from a "sale" last versus following your passion?

To gain clarity, there are three questions you can ask yourself, your team members or anyone with whom you collaborate...

1. What do you stand for?
2. What will you not do?
3. Why do you do what you do?

This quick but powerful exercise can work for someone new to the workforce or a highly paid barrister. It can unearth the deep rooted needs of a member of the leadership team and the guy who runs the local garage. It's industry and job level agnostic.

Clutter makes us nervous and stressed. It can derail us from our goals. Clarity will help you find your baseline and silence some of that unnecessary noise. And what you stand for, what you will not do and why you do what you do, will remain.

Ask yourself the three questions and get clear.

Kneale Mann

istock

Clichés and Experts

I’ve been thinking more about an excellent presentation at SobCon hosted by Amber Naslund.

Many thought we should stop leaning on certain terms.

The challenge is to know when sayings become cliché and when cliché becomes a crutch.


The session featured a room full of heavy online users, marketers, consultants and media makers. The common thread, we were all business people.

Two-way Conversation

If you are in the financial industry, you may talk about the facilitation of standing orders. If you work in insurance, annuity considerations may be mentioned. Hockey players discuss the trap and pinch. Mechanics concern themselves with final drive ratio. And doctors know the difference between fungal and viral.

After the discussion spilled in to the next break, it was clear that some felt these and many other social media sayings are overused by people who can’t back them up or define them.

No matter your industry; you have ways of explaining things which may be exclusive to your discipline.

The challenge to all of us, whether we are consulting our doctor about that thing on our arm or a mechanic who is examining that strange clang in the back quarter panel, is to ensure those tossing fancy terms around can back them up with meaning and experience.

Relationship Economy

I doubt you would let an unlicensed financial, medical or mechanical individual near your money, body or vehicle. So it is doubtful you would do the same with someone who has memorized a few phrases and has a couple of thousand tweets to help you build your business.

Right?

@knealemann
Helping you integrate all you do with all you do.

photo credit: istock

Business and Buzzwords

None of us is immune.

We have all used the odd cliché or buzzword. I was at a presentation a few months ago and one of the speakers ended most sentences with “ok?” or “do you know what I mean?”

I spend the rest of the time counting his crutches.

If you own a white Honda, you see them all over the road. If you listen for buzz phrases, you will quickly find them everywhere too. Phrases that could perhaps be retired include "moving forward", “in this day and age” and “at the end of the day”. A bad one for me is "take it to the next level" - gotta stop usin' that one.

Gotta Give It 110%

Athletes are trained to string clichés and buzz phrases together while they sweat on the microphone and field a few soft balls from the TV guy between periods. How much of your meetings are filled with butt covering non committal doublespeak?

At SobCon this year, part of the presentation by Amber Naslund was on the buzzwords and phrases we seem to latch on to in social media - sustained engagement, relationship economy, two-way conversation, listen more sell less, etc. Her point was that we need to eliminate those crutches and focus on the real work. My point is that we can use them if we can define them and back them up.

Have you tried the "no buzz phrase" meeting, boss included?

It can be weird and uncomfortable at first but the results may surprise you. Toss in a game of buzzword bingo and magic may happen. The rules are simple, if anyone thinks someone else used an empty buzzword or phrase, they can stop the meeting and insist the person defines it.

We work 1800-2000 hours a year. Let's try and hide behind less empty sayings and have more meaningful collaboration.

Are you for it? What are up your favorites?

@knealemann
Helping you integrate all you do with all you do.

photo credit: studentactivities.bard.edu