Evergreen Leadership Blog

Change

Why Your Zone of Discomfort is the Perfect Place to Be

Ahhhh… how comfy our comfort zones are. We know these places so well. We can be on autopilot. We don’t have to expend emotional or physical energy. It’s easy. It’s like riding a bike downhill – all the time.

Ultimately, however, our comfort zones can be our undoing. Too much time there are we become stale, unchallenged, and stagnant. And that is a dangerous place to be in a world in which maintaining the status quo becomes obsolete in the blink of an eye.

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Accountability

Let it Soak

I’m an expert at doing dishes – thanks to growing up in a family that ate three square meals a day (home cooked of course), that thought the kitchen work belonged to women, and who did not own a dishwasher until long after I had left home. And so, doing the dishes was my chore. Lots and lots of them.

My approach to the dishes is not much different to the challenging work we face as adults. There are many times we do need to let things soak. To give them a bit more time, more reflection, and to avoid doing something rash or premature. And when we do that, we often find that, just like with the pots, that time in the right environment, has performed magic. What would have taken much effort can now be done quickly and easily.

There are other times that “letting it soak” is a mere excuse for avoiding something, for deferring the work that must be done. Getting to “it” in a day or two turns into weeks, then months and sometimes a lifetime. Waiting for the additional data or money or courage or information stalls us unnecessarily and becomes our rationalized excuse for not taking action.

So how do you discern if “letting it soak” is a good strategy or merely an avoidance mechanism? You might ask yourself these two questions…

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Dynamics

Learned Incompetence

How many times are good intentions for support and help internalized by the recipient as proof of personal inability? How often is it easier to rely on someone else for something well within our grasp? How can we enable rather than disable those we seek to help? Where in my life am I relying on someone else’s help rather than stretching and becoming independent?

I don’t have many answers – but am struck that these are questions our schools, government and social services organizations would be well served to study and master. I’m interested – what do you think?

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Challenges

Planting in the Fall

Yesterday my granddaughter and I planted bulbs. Lots of them. 229 to be exact. Tulips and daffodils and hardy little purple crocuses. Today it strikes me that planting bulbs in the fall is perhaps one of the greatest acts of faith that a gardener takes. It causes me to wonder how often, when things appear to be in decline, do we continue to plant in what seems like hard ground?

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Dynamics

Do Emotions Have a Place at Work?

I had a recent conversation with a leader in a large company who made the statement, “It would all be better if only people would just come to work and do their work, and leave their emotions at the door.”

It’s not the first time I’ve heard that sentiment – but this time it really caused me to pause and wonder. Would it really be a better place? Here’s what I think about emotions and work.

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Just Ask

This week I was reminded of the power in asking for something you need or want. On Monday, Abby, a summer intern, started to work with me. And it’s a great example of taking a risk to ask.

To hear Abby’s story and to explore why we hesitate to ask bold questions, read on.

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Leadership

Being First

There are many life and leadership lessons to be learned in nature – both in actuality and in metaphor. One occurred in my yard this week.

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Leadership

Are you Suffering from the Imposter Syndrome?

In my last post, I explored the idea of success and how it is defined. But I recognize that there is something at work that may rob you of the sweet joy of success, no matter how successful you are. It is called the Imposter Syndrome. There are a number of coping strategies we imposters employ. I have all of them in my repertoire – and am an expert at a few of them!

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