MaXIMIze - Business Karma

Events at work over the last few weeks reminded me that, sometimes, not everyone is looking out for the mission first.

One of our mottos, if you will, is People First, Mission Always. And so it should be in any organization. The organization was created to propel a certain mission forward, and if it has the right people in the right positions, it will succeed in doing so.

A good or great organization is capable of not only ensuring the mission gets done within whatever parameters have been set for it, but also the organization grows the people working on said mission.

That being said, the people have the biggest impact to the success or failure of the organization.

I have been blessed to work in a part of our organization that has a very strong sense of purpose. We have a project - a large project - to complete by a certain date and within a certain scope and budget. Our supervisors have the savvy to be able to balance ensuring our people are growing in their jobs and ensuring our project moves along and is completed within the parameters set for it.

Because we are all focused on this goal, we are in alignment and our course is, while not perfect, at least smoother than it appears in other areas of our overall organization.

In other areas of our organization there has been a lot of change recently, and that has shown the sordid underbelly of some of our organization's issues.

People don't like change. That's a given. However, change happens, and you can either help drive the change or let the change drive you, or drag you along kicking and screaming with it - your choice.

One message that came through loud and clear recently is that how our higher ups in the organization - our leaders, nominal and actual - communicate about something or someone very much affects the organization.

Our goal is the mission. Yes, taking care of people is another one of our mottos or slogans, however, the goal is the mission. People First, Mission Always. And how we perceive and react to our environment and the changes therein affects the capability to complete the mission.

Counteracting the poison of negativity and negative energy can be very difficult, particularly when dealing with adult children that other people raised.

Couple that with me-ism - what's in it for ME, how can I benefit, where do I want to go - and it is a very toxic combination/situation.

There is no I in team - and at work, we are a team focused on a goal. So, when our personal mission and goals are not aligned with the organization's mission and goals, perhaps it is time to find a new organization to work for - or to really examine why you are where you are and how, within the framework of supporting the organization's mission and goals, you can get where it is you want to be.

If you focus on the we, you will take care of the me.

So, before you complain about something or someone, think through the possible repercussions to the organization and to yourself. Are you really helping the situation and the organization in a positive manner, or are you just adding unnecessary venom to the situation?

Think about the good of the whole, not just yourself or your small piece of the organization.

And remember, your perception is just that - your perception - it is not necessarily the Reality of the situation.

Until next time, Namaste!
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Questions? Comments? Feel free to post them here, or e-mail me at the address below.
Beth Henderson, MaXIMIzer
maximize.beth@gmail.com

MaXIMIze - Career - Find Your Next Mountain

Wow! I look over my posts from last year on the topic of careers and I don't know how I can top those!

Sort of fits the theme of this post - Find Your Next Mountain.

I think we've all been there (and if you haven't, you will)…that time and space where you feel you've hit the pinnacle of the job you're currently in. For me, that was in the months following my last performance appraisal, when I got the highest rating we can get in our appraisal system - a 1 - out of a scale of 5, with 3 being fully successful. When we did our mid-year reviews a month or so ago, I realized that I had hit a pinnacle and the saying followed soon after that - Find Your Next Mountain.

I spoke with a co-worker in the the elevator this morning - he hasn't got to the summit of his mountain yet. How could I tell? Because his job hasn't settled into a flow yet. Yes, when you hit that Zen flow in your current position, where everything just comes together and feels easy or right, it's time to find your next mountain.

At least, that is one time - one good time - to find your next mountain.

A not-so-good time is when you are going through the opposite - trying to support something you feel you truly cannot support anymore. When the other players are just too frustrating, and management may or may not be waking up to this not being a good thing, and/or it just compromises your value system to the breaking point - and, burn out is setting in.

This is a time to do two things - take a serious sabbatical and find your next mountain.

It's easier to find your next mountain when your job has become flow.

It is much harder when you feel like you are continually fighting the current and get to a point where you wonder if it's anything really worth fighting for anymore.

When you are exhausted from fighting the current in this way, you really need to find a way to pull back and reconnect with what makes you feel alive again. You need to find your passion, your purpose in life again.

Our careers take so much of our lives and are our physical - monetarily - support for our lives, and we need to be fulfilled in them, otherwise we live a half-life instead of a full one.

The best job is the one that doesn't feel like work. It feels like purpose. It feels like focus. It feels like, well, passion. And it gives us bliss.

If our jobs, our careers aren't doing that, it's time to find a new one.

Question to ponder for the week - if you could do any job in the world, what would you do and why?

Until next time, Namaste!