Posted on September 29, 2019
By Nan Russell
Seated at the table next to me at a fast food restaurant, I couldn’t help hearing the lack of conversation between a young woman and a younger uniformed man, clearly employees of the establishment. “You need to take pride in your work,” she told him. There was no response.
“I told you last week, to start taking more pride in your work, but I don’t see any improvement,” she stated. This one way conversation went down hill from there. He kept glancing at her with a confused look as she repeated her unvaried message. Finally, the high school employee muttered something under his breath about “trying harder” and the conversation ended.
I understand his confusion. What does it mean to “take pride in your work?” What does “pride” behavior look like? How will he know if he’s taken enough pride to satisfy his shift leader? Since pride is not an action, the input she gave wasn’t something he could apply to improve his performance.
I expect their conversations won’t get any better as respective frustrations grow. Yet, conversations like these are typical in many workplace relationships. A team leader or supervisor tries to provide feedback or coach a staff member toward better performance. She thinks she’s providing direction, when in fact, she’s offering what a former boss of mine used to call “round” words. They’re pumped up and nice sounding, but they don’t communicate much.
Let’s say you inform your child that he needs to “study more” after a disappointing report card. You’re thinking “more” means an hour a day and he’s thinking another ten minutes. Even if you settle on the time allotment, “more” is one of those round words. It doesn’t (continue reading →)
Posted in: Winning at Working |
Tagged: behavior, coaching, helpful feedback, Nan Russell, performance, round words, seeable actions, success, what does it look like, Winning at Working, workplace, WorkStuff |
Posted on June 14, 2019
By Nan Russell
I once had a boss who informed me there was no such thing as company politics. At the time, I decided that depended on whether you were the person wielding power or influenced by it.
I’d categorize self-serving antics, sabotaging behaviors, information hoarding, and artful manipulation under the heading of organizational politics. I’d throw in veiled threats, perpetuated mistruths, finger-pointing, and coercion. There’s a long list of behaviors I’ve personally experienced or witnessed in the workplace under the politics label. And I’m sure you can add more.
These negative work cultures are fraught with fear and distrust. Fear you’ll step on a career grenade, lose your job, be labeled a trouble-maker, or relegated to a non-promotable category. Fear you’ll say the wrong thing, fall into project quicksand, find no support, or be kept out of the loop. These soul-depleting cultures trample self-esteem, negate initiative, encourage survival behavior, and diminish motivation.
But I learned in 20 plus years in management something else about company politics. It doesn’t (continue reading →)
Posted in: The Titleless Leader, Trust Inc, Winning at Working |
Tagged: company politics, culture at work, intention, motive, Nan Russell, Nan S. Russell, organizational politics, politics at work, trust, Winning at Working, WorkStuff |
Posted on March 18, 2019
By Nan Russell
“I don’t know,” a young acquaintance mused. “I’m thinking about grad school, but it’s more work than I thought to prepare for the GREs. Then, if I do all that and don’t get into the program I want, it’s a waste of time. Plus, did you know it could cost more than $40,000 to get a masters degree? I don’t want that kind of debt, plus I’ll likely never make it up in a starting salary.”
By the end of answering my question about his post gap-year plans, this young man described several options he was pondering for his future. Woven into the threads of indecision and idealism were limiting beliefs:. It’s “too hard.” It’ll take “too long.” It costs “too much.” He had yet to discover who he was doing the work for.
He’s right. Getting the work you want, creating your future, developing your skills can be hard, take time, and cost money. But it isn’t a generational issue; it’s a life-potential issue. No matter our age, we can hold similar self-limiting beliefs.
When we think we work for other people instead of working for ourselves, we’re less likely to (continue reading →)
Posted in: Winning at Working |
Tagged: boss, career, create your future, development, Nan Russell, personal growth, success, victim thinking, who do you work for; limiting belief, who you work for, Winning at Working |
Posted on November 14, 2018
By Nan Russell
When young children misbehave, parents, teachers, and caregivers frequently insist on a time-out. Think how much better your workplace would be if you initiated the same approach. No, it’s not for your boss or coworkers, it’s for you.
It’s hard to be amenable to reason or hear a contrary point of view when we’re stubbornly clinging to our position. It’s hard to hear a new idea when the change that’s being suggested will negatively impact us. And it’s hard to offer constructive input when we’re approaching the edge of unreasonableness, backed into a corner or seething with frustration.
When you feel like you’re teetering on the edge or spinning toward unproductive emotions, initiate a time-out. You don’t have to call it that, but take a walk around the building, shut your office door, get a cup of coffee, or suggest the group get back together later to continue the discussion.
People who are winning at working use this approach regularly. They (continue reading →)
Posted in: Winning at Working |
Tagged: anger at work, argue, better, clinging to point of view, conflict, losing perspective, Nan Russell, Nan S. Russell, need time, think about it, time out; time-out; resistance, Winning at Working |
Posted on September 23, 2018
By Nan Russell
Once upon a time, a prince and princess lived in stressful palace, surrounded by a stressful village, inside a stressful land. They knew it was stressful because everyone said it was. Their parents, the king and queen, worked from sunrise to sunset hearing issues from their kingdom, weighing the requests, and appropriating the collective harvest to the people of their land.
The people also worked from sunrise to sunset, doing their assigned tasks, completing their logs, filing their reports, and seeking an audience with the king and queen to request their needed resources. So it went, year after year after year. And the land became known as Stressland.
When the princess and prince grew up and took over the responsibility for the kingdom from their retiring parents, having watched and listened and learned the process for years, it was second nature for them to share responsibilities according to their talents.
But it happened that the young royals grew tired of their inherited routine and began to feel the stress they had only heard spoken of, but never experienced personally. “Enough of this,” said (continue reading →)
Posted in: Winning at Working |
Tagged: efficiency, ideas, Nan S. Russell, productivity, stress, thoughtful questions, time, what are we busy about, winning at working; too busy, workplace stress |
Posted on July 24, 2018
By Nan Russell
Maybe you read on Facebook that Dollar General Stores were celebrating their anniversary by giving out $150 shopping coupons to those who liked and shared their posts, or maybe you received an email seeking applicants as paid mystery shoppers in your area. Maybe you heard that theaters used subliminal advertising to increase sales of popcorn and soft drinks, or saw a “send old shoes, get a new one free” promotion that caught your attention. Or maybe you read about the discovery that disease can be cured by drinking four glasses of water every morning.
The fact that these are all false didn’t stop thousands of people from forwarding, liking, retweeting, repeating, or believing them. One even made it into the top 50 “hottest urban legends” on snopes.com.
Likewise, the fact that office grapevines are filled with false information, speculation, innuendo, and gossip doesn’t stop people from using rumor to fuel distrust, reinforce silo building, or enhance “us” versus “them” thinking, either. This workplace ladder fuel can devastate motivation and destroy work cultures as quickly as nature’s fuel of underbrush, branches, leaves, and vegetation can cause a ground fire to scale trees and devour forests.
A few years ago a forest fire came within a half-mile of our remote cabin, engulfing (continue reading →)
Posted in: Winning at Working |
Tagged: accountability, communication, fake news, false information, gossip, ladder fuel, mistrust, mistruths, Nan Russell, results, rumors, trust, Winning at Working, work relationships, workplace culture |
Posted on May 16, 2018
By Nan Russell
I once worked for a boss who was never wrong, never made a mistake or a bad decision. All you had to do was ask him. To his staff he was Teflon-man. Nothing stuck to him and everything came sliding toward us.
Accountability was not a concept he practiced unless things turned out well and then, he claimed the credit. But if they didn’t, he immediately embarked on endeavors to identify someone responsible. Being called to his office typically meant he was looking for information and trying to decide whom to blame.
Justify. Justify. Justify. Like a battle cry, he commissioned reports, graphs, charts and enhanced documentation whenever his boss questioned him. He found it easier to dig his heels into a position than admit he might have been wrong or change his mind. Working for someone I couldn’t respect eventually led me to transfer departments.
But it still baffles me. People do make mistakes, they do trip up sometimes and they do, on occasion, speak or act in error. And while there’s nothing that says we should be happy about it when we do it ourselves, trying to act (continue reading →)
Posted in: Winning at Working |
Tagged: accountable, blame game, finger pointing, fix it, initiative, lack of accountability, mistakes, Nan S. Russell, ownership, success, Winning at Working |
Posted on March 20, 2018
By Nan Russell
It was a dimly lit restaurant. Still she was dressed in pink, and while I admit it’s hard to tell the gender of babies, clothing color is a reliable clue. So, it surprised me when the waitress began playing with my granddaughter, asking “How old is he?”
Twenty minutes later, that same waitress served our dinners into my daughter-in-law’s lap, spilling the contents of her tray as she approached the table. We made light of the occurrence, assisting her with basic cleanup, but the interaction got me thinking.
In today’s world, too many people are “at work” but not “present.” Preoccupied. Disengaged. Daydreaming. Bored. Text Messaging. Socializing. Whatever. Their bodies are somewhere their mind isn’t. They’re easy to spot as they go about their tasks in a robotic dance of just enough-to-get-by-ness.
These disengaged people seem unaware their present actions carve their future opportunities. They’re surprised when (continue reading →)
Posted in: Tips, Winning at Working |
Tagged: being present, best of self, engagement, getting results, Nan Russell, passing time, passion, Winning at Working |
Posted on January 23, 2018
By Nan Russell
After the completion of Walt Disney World, the story goes that someone went up to Mike Vance, Creative Director for Walt Disney Studios and said, “Isn’t it too bad Walt Disney didn’t live to see this?” Without pausing, he replied, “But he did see it, that’s why it’s here.”
If any outside figure influenced my life early on, it was Walt Disney. Maybe it was because when I was five, my favorite uncle took me to a wondrous new place called Disneyland; or because I grew up in Southern California, visiting it every year or two, watching a man’s vision come to life and grow; or because I believed that “when you wish upon a star, it makes no difference who you are.”
Growing up on the Wonderful World of Disney, I learned how to dream. But as I got older I realized it wasn’t just the dreaming and wishing that made the dreams possible; it was the doing.
Wishing and hoping are poor strategies for making dreams come true, yet that’s (continue reading →)
Posted in: It's Not About Time, Winning at Working |
Tagged: acting and doing, determination, focus, hard work, It's Not About Time, life dreams, making dreams reality, Nan Russell, passion, persistence, time, Winning at Working, wishing and hoping |
Posted on November 15, 2017
By Nan Russell
The man in front of me in the breakfast order line at the food court, in one of the busiest airports in the country, wanted a “full” cup of coffee. He kept raising his voice, yelling at the woman to “fill his cup to the top.” His words peppered with angry comments about her not giving him his “money’s worth.”
His voice was loud; his attitude hostile; his words caustic. Despite how rude he was, she remained calm, professional, and polite throughout the challenging encounter. Even from my close vantage point, I didn’t detect a hint of irritation in her demeanor.
People trekking to their gates paused to see what the commotion was. The upheaval, as it appeared to me, was about a person angry over something other than coffee, and taking whatever it was out on a stranger attempting to fulfill his request.
Maybe he couldn’t control what was happening in his life, but he could control how much coffee he got. Who knows? After the fourth time he shouted at her about not satisfying his request for a “full cup of coffee” and accusing her of “stealing his money” by not giving him what he paid for, she glanced my way. Shooting her an encouraging look, her eyes smiled in return.
I’m sure that in that busy airport, this woman gets her share of “crazy people.” But (continue reading →)
Posted in: Tips, Winning at Working |
Tagged: choice, Compassion, crazy people, grace under pressure, holiday stress, Nan Russell, Nan S. Russell, Winning at Working |
Seated at the table next to me at a fast food restaurant, I couldn’t help hearing the lack of conversation between a young woman and a younger uniformed man, clearly employees of the establishment. “You need to take pride in your work,” she told him. There was no response.
