I started a mindfulness group at work after doing some meditation practice for myself for a few months. Meditation has helped me in stressful situations and I wanted to share that with others.
Mindfulness practice is well aligned with our company leadership culture which has been significantly influenced by the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People over the years. See my earlier post about the connection of the 7 Habits and Mindfulness.
It's been a great start. We got a good number of people from all different roles in the organization: sales people, developers, team leads, project management, and QA.
We're early on in the group but, the turnout has remained strong through a couple of weeks.
We're using Headspace for guided meditation, which is very helpful. It's usually followed by 10 - 15 minutes of discussion on what went well or didn't go well for individuals.
There is a definite sense of vulnerability in beginning this new activity at work. The great news is that attendance has been good and, whether everyone has completely overcome that initial trepidation or not, they've continued to attend.
I'm very thankful for everyone who comes, I'm thankful for the opportunity to share, and I'm thankful for finding Headspace, which is a good app.
Ever wish you could resurrect a word? Here is one I found recently.
Acies: noun, pronounced A-KEY-US, The keen attention of the eye, ear, etc. when fully directed towards any object.
It comes from Latin, and in Latin it meant edge or point (think of a sword). From there it developed a broad range of meanings including some related to military formations and battle lines.
But there were also poetic meanings in Latin. These were much like the English definition above.
First the meaning was extended metaphorically from edge or point to mean the sharpness of vision, and from there it came to refer to the eye itself or pupil (see this latin definition, at least partly in English).
It arrived in English a few hundred years ago as a poetic borrowing and had a short life here. That's probably that's to be expected. It's a little too cute or intellectual to be adopted in a broader way.
But that doesn't stop it from being an awesome concept.
While it lasted, it's use for us English speakers was limited to that poetic realm - 'keen attention of the senses when fully directed at an object'.
Can you give your full attention of your senses to something today? Can you give the acies of your eye or ear or breath to something today? What will it be?
A few other definitions and sources worth looking at:
I've been working on this blog for the last year and I'm changing my tag line. The old tag line was:
Technology, Work, Writing
That was fine. It covers a lot of ground and since the blog was largely about work and my tech-related interests it worked.
The new line is:
Technology, Leadership, Influence
This will be my new focus for the coming year. It's a bit more specific and it feels right for this blog.
Leadership is really what my work is about, outside of technology.
Influence is the purpose of writing. You can, and I often do, write for autotelic reasons, but that is not what this is about.
I hope that people read this and it has some impact. I like that more than just writing. I'll probably continue to write about writing, but with more on a focus on how to make an impression.
Happy early 2017. It should be an interesting year.
Your business moves at the speed of your decisions. Can you make decisions quickly and enact change quickly?
What do you do that empowers decision making? Do your team members trust you to be level-headed and listen? Do they bring you information in the hopes of seeing decisions made?
When you push back do you do so fairly and with an explanation?
Or do your team members hide things? Do they fear bringing you information because of your reactions?
Does this negatively impact your business?
Who are your team members? Where does your team end and where does it begin?
What stops you from offering a word of praise to those you think did a good job?
I think that it is important to recognize those you work with - those below, along-side, and above you in the org. chart. That means everyone.
I occasionally have conversations with people because they feel like the thing I am recognizing is too small to warrant recognition. I disagree that wins and recognition should only be called out on big items, for the following reasons:
You need to exercise your recognition muscles and get in the habit of recognizing people. If you wait for the one big thing then you are likely to be out of the habit and practice, and you may not follow through on recognizing the win.
Recognizing individuals for small things that you value is important because there are plenty of things that need to get done this world that aren't glamorous. Recognizing people for these things is not wrong, when it matters. Very often this is about how it was done, not what the thing was. Did someone do it cheerfully? Easily? Did it make your day better? Did it make the whole machine work a little better? If the answer to one of those is 'Yes', then it mattered and is deserving of recognition.
Praising small things that are important isn't lowering your standards. Well, it isn't lowering my high standards anyway. I know what my standards are. I just outlined them above. What are yours? Is anything going to meet your standards?
The last item might sound a bit harsh. It probably is. The most important question I think you should ask yourself if you are out of the habit of recognizing others: Is it your standards or something else that is getting in the way?
Jonathan Fries on .