Tell Us a Story

Stories give our lives perspective. They offer context to concepts we share. If we present a new idea that resonates with the audience, it holds more credibility. If I share an idea with you, you don’t just digest what I'm saying; your beliefs, perceptions, and point of view come into play. Your experience and bias is always part of the equation.

The same happens with team culture. If you work in an environment that encourages sales at all costs but you prefer building relationships first, your time will be challenged. Those who measure success solely by financial gain may tell you to just make more calls because their perspective is relationships are a numbers game. 

That's not how we do it here 

If your leadership style is to give a good portion of your time to help the development of your people to in turn grow the bottom line; someone who tells you the best way to motivate people is through fear, will be a recipe for conflict. 

The stories we tell ourselves are powerful. They feed our narrative, perspective, and beliefs. They can become our truth regardless of reality or facts. It gets trickier when you have culture comprised of different demographics, psychographics, or points of view. 

What's your opinion?   

This is not to suggest teams succeed when everyone thinks the same way - just the opposite - but if we become rigid, we can close ourselves off from even better ideas. 

If you have a belief embedded deep inside you, it will require enormous energy for me to first convince you another stance and then share my view. Multiple that dynamic by hundreds or even thousands in an organization and you can quickly see how the power of story can morph into complication. The dangerous part is this bias can hide inside what some may mistake as company culture. 

Someone else's view might give us needed perspective. 

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The Stories We Tell Ourselves

That won't work. It's a dumb idea. You're too sensitive. You can't do that. Don't dream so big. You aren't mean for great things. Don't be ridiculous. Lower your expectations. 

The stories we tell ourselves are often influenced by the stories others tell us about us. Bill isn't good with math; Sally tends to talk too much; Byron has issues with authority; Janet has no success with relationships; Kyle doesn't socialize well.

Mean What You Mean

Our friends, family, parents, and even our colleagues may mean well but they shape how we feel about ourselves whether their assessments are accurate or not. It's easy to say "don't listen to them" but it takes a lot of energy and fortitude to do that, especially if some of this imprinting has been going on for years.

Far too often, we put others and ourselves in a box. I'm too old, I don't have the money, I couldn't do that, it won't work, it's too late. Easier said than done, but let's accept the past has passed, and take the shot. We could just resign ourselves to letting others build our narrative. After all, they know best, right?

Or perhaps we may enjoy making some new stories.

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TikTok Now

One of my colleagues sent me a post from TikTok by Mel Robbins. In it, she outlines her key tenets to life. I told my friend that I had seen Mel's TEDTalk and posted it here a couple of times. In fact, the first time I posted this video was a decade ago. 

 Her message has never been more relevant that it is right now.

 
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Balancing Act

We’ve heard it for decades – we need a healthy balance between work and life. Family, sports, hobbies, down time, relaxing, all the stuff we enjoy doing outside of work are some of the reasons we go to work so we can afford such luxuries. Nigel Marsh shares some ideas of how we can tackle this critical issue.


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Passion is not Ordinary

Synonyms include enthusiasm or obsession, zeal or excitement, fervor or infatuation but it can be crushed like a bug on a windshield in seconds. I see it in the enterprise, with clients, colleagues, friends and family. The work day is simply a “means to an end” which is a horrific way to spend a third of our life. Ideas are pushed down toward the lowest common denominator while good enough becomes the gold standard.

Leadership is crucial when passion is present because it must be mined and carefully protected. Passion is the reason a woman born of poverty in a shack in Kosciusko, Mississippi became one of the most successful television personalities of all time.

Airplanes and Light Bulbs

Obsession is what fuelled a man to try thousands of ideas until he found a way to harness light. Infatuation was the genesis of an idea by a man with dyslexia to create a global brand which features an airline, a media company and a private island.

It took zeal for the returning founder of a computer company to use innovation rather than budget cuts to help his creation realize the largest profits in its history.

Ladders and Climbing Gear

Passion isn’t about owning things or having money. It isn’t about beating someone or market share. It's about running toward your purpose. Look at your team, the people around you, those you connect in business and through the social web along with your family and your friends. Embrace and cherish their passion.

Corporate governance, strategic policy and revenue generation are all part of work life. But without passion, we would never had heard of Winfrey, Franklin, Branson or Jobs.
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The Dreaded F-Word

You're not fine. You will never feel like doing it. Get off your ass and get going.
Wise words from Mel Robbins. Watch this.


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How Are You?

Good thanks and you? Fine, just fine, thanks for asking. We say it a hundred times a day and don't even break stride. We connect with each other like flat stones skimming the morning lake. Busy lives make for quick exchanges and we keep moving. Apparently I'm not fine and neither are you.

Mel Robbins explains why.


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Striking a Balance

We’ve heard it for decades – we need a healthy balance between work and life. Family, sports, hobbies, down time, relaxing, all the stuff we enjoy doing outside of work are some of the reasons we go to work so we can afford such luxuries.

As we struggle with the boundaries between work and life, Nigel Marsh shares some ideas of how we can tackle this critical issue.



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You're Never Gonna Feel Like it

We all have those moments, those things, those conversations, those fill in the blank, that we say we want to tackle but we often find plenty of brilliant excuses. It's not the right time; it's best we wait; I'll get to it soon; blah blah blah. I've posted this before on this site and it's worth another watch.

Mel Robbins demystifies the excuses and drops the f-bomb.


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Work Life Energy Balance

We’ve heard it for decades – we need a healthy balance between work and life. Family, sports, hobbies, down time, relaxing, all the stuff we enjoy doing outside of work are some of the reasons we go to work so we can afford the luxury of such activities.

We’re all going to die so there’s no sense immersing ourselves in a work-work imbalance. If you are working long hours at a job you hate, it’s time to look hard at alternatives. That is no way to live.

But as we struggle with the boundaries between work and our lives, Nigel Marsh shares some ideas of how we can tackle this critical issue.

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Kneale Mann | People + Priority = Progress

TED | Nigel Marsh

You Are Not Fine

I was chatting with a former colleague this week. We were catching up on each other’s lives since we last did a project together about a decade ago. She’s not doing well. She has some struggles. We discussed what she's up against and some of what I've been up to lately. We talked about the hard work it takes to keep at it.

A good friend of mine kicked my excuse laden backside two days ago. So I thought it was time to pay it forward and gave my colleague a challenge.

It reminded me of this wonderful talk from Mel Robbins.


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Kneale Mann | Leadership Strategist, consultant, writer, speaker, executive coach facilitating performance growth with leaders, management, and teams.

TED | Mel Robbins

Fueling the Passion

Synonyms include enthusiasm or obsession, zeal or excitement, fervor or infatuation but it can be crushed like a bug on a windshield in seconds. I see it in the enterprise, with clients, colleagues, friends and family. The work day is simply a “means to an end” which is a horrific way to spend a third of our life. Ideas are pushed down toward the lowest common denominator while good enough becomes the gold standard.

Leadership is crucial when passion is present because it must be mined and carefully protected. Passion is the reason a woman born of poverty in a shack in Kosciusko, Mississippi became one of the most successful television personalities of all time.

Airplanes and Light Bulbs

Obsession is what fuelled a man to try thousands of ideas until he found a way to harness light. Infatuation was the genesis of an idea by a man with dyslexia to create a global brand which features an airline, a media company and a private island.

It took zeal for the returning founder of a computer company to use innovation rather than budget cuts to help his creation realize the largest profits in its history.

Ladders and Climbing Gear

Passion isn’t about owning things or having money. It isn’t about beating someone or market share. It's about running toward your purpose. Look at your team, the people around you, those you connect in business and through the social web along with your family and your friends. Embrace and cherish their passion.

Corporate governance, strategic policy and revenue generation are all part of work life. But without passion, we would never had heard of Winfrey, Franklin, Branson or Jobs.

There's nothing ordinary about passion!
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Kneale Mann | Leadership and Culture strategist, writer, speaker, executive coach engaging leaders, collaborative teams, and strong business results.

debwhite

Passion Is No Ordinary Word

The title is borrowed from a musician named Graham Parker who released a song of the same name on an album entitled Squeezing Out Sparks in 1979.

Passion is not easily measured and often misread. Since I was a kid, I was always called hyper and only when I met someone who became a key mentor in my career did I find a better explanation and it was passion for the work and the people around me.

Defining Your Passion

Synonyms include enthusiasm or obsession, zeal or excitement, fervor or infatuation but it can be crushed like a bug on a windshield in seconds. I see it in the enterprise, with clients, colleagues, friends and family. The work day is simply a “means to an end” which is a horrific way to spend a third of our life. Ideas are pushed down toward the lowest common dominator while good enough becomes the gold standard.

Leadership is crucial when passion is present because it must be mined and carefully protected. Passion is the reason a woman born of poverty in a shack in Kosciusko, Mississippi became one of the most successful television personalities of all time.

Airplanes and Light Bulbs

Obsession is what fuelled a man to try thousands of ideas until he found a way to harness light. Infatuation was the genesis of an idea by a man with dyslexia to create a global brand which features an airline, a media company and a private island.

It took zeal for the returning founder of a computer company to use innovation rather than budget cuts to help his creation realize the largest profits in its history.

Ladders and Climbing Gear

Passion isn’t about owning things or having money. It isn’t about beating someone or market share. It's about running toward your purpose. Look at your team, the people around you, those you connect in business and through the social web along with your family and your friends. Embrace and cherish their passion.

Corporate governance, strategic policy and revenue generation are all part of work life. But without passion, we would never had heard of Winfrey, Franklin, Branson or Jobs.

There's nothing ordinary about passion!

Kneale Mann

image credit: caerberu

Dropping The F-Bomb

According to the news, no one has any money, everyone is unemployed and we’re all unhappy. It's not fun right now for a lot of people, that's true. We have a lot of work to do. But we spend far too much of our limited time focused on the wrong stuff or stuck in routine behavior. Shoulda would coulda is now.

Give Mel Robbins 22 minutes of your time then let's get going.


Kneale Mann

visual credit: TED

Is Your Business Earthy?

Befriending the Environment.

Today is Earth Day as you know. It’s the one day where it seems almost everyone is a bit more environmentally conscious.

I could recycle everything and live in a mud house and still not do all that some of my friends do for our planet.

How Green Are You?

A couple of decades ago, it was a daunting task to become more planet friendly but there are more recycling options, greener products available, it’s cool, it’s cheaper. But how green are we, really?

There is progress every day with those little things we can do – like turning off the laptop every night and refusing to eat take-out from any place that uses Styrofoam! We could all drive smart cars and eat organically grown food but will we do it?

We still have wars over oil and an unrelenting desire for stuff.

How Green Is Your Business?

There seems to be a story every few months about someone protesting big business or government about their waste of energy as they keep a full office tower of fluorescent lights on at night where there isn’t a soul in the place. And often the spokesperson coughs up some lame reason tied to security for why thirty floors need to be lit up like it’s noon at 3am.

I consult on marketing, social media and overall business strategy. Often managers or owners have items in their budget listed as an “expense” rather than money better spent on marketing or staff or training or other useful things. Those expenses can also be paper and pens and waste.

What Can We Do?

So as we all get warm and fuzzy about the Earth today, look at your budget and see where you can cut costs. Take a look at the wasted items that do nothing to advance your business strategy.

You may even save a few trees and lessen your carbon footprint while you’re at it. Do you think you can do it?

@knealemann
strategy. marketing. social media.

photo credit: nasa