Grow Beyond The Natural Confines Of Your Box!

Grow Beyond The Natural Confines Of Your Box!

You can grow beyond the confines of your box. Because sometimes in business, you operate within a box. In my line of work there are two familiar expressions: “Think outside the box.” “Don’t put me in a box.”  

I’d like to suggest we encourage people to grow beyond the natural confines of their boxes rather than seeking to abandon them or deny they exist.

Growing Beyond The Confines Of Your Box Begins With Recognizing You’re In A Box 

“Think outside the box.” I hate this phrase. My clients hire people to work inside well-defined boxes or roles. These boxes aren’t randomly constructed or poorly designed. Those doing the hiring aren’t really looking for people to think outside that box, despite what they might say during a brainstorming session. They want people who think creatively inside the box. Unfortunately, “Think creatively inside your box” doesn’t have the same ring or crowd-pleasing support of autonomy.

“Don’t put me in a box.” I assure those who have completed a personality assessment that the box identified by the assessment is quite large, with plenty of room for many pursuits.

If it’s Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, then there are 16 boxes for 7+ billion people. If DiSC, then either 4 or 12 boxes depending upon how you slice the results. Enneagram offers 9 possible outcomes with variants of each. So, perhaps an assessment places you in a box, but you’ll never suffocate within it and I’ll never know your favorite flavor of ice cream because I know the letter(s) or number(s) associated with your box.  

What interests me most, however, is growing beyond the natural confines of my box. Using DiSC as an example, I encourage each respondent to “own their dot” on the DiSC globe rather than spending life trying to move to another part of the globe they think would be better. Ds (Dominance on DiSC) need to be healthy mature Ds and not look to become Ss (Steadiness on DiSC).

Growing Beyond The Confines Of Your Box Includes An Expansion

I do encourage people to “enlarge their territories.” A strong D needs to own her dot but expand her territory, learning to pick up characteristics and behaviors associated with the other three quadrants (Influence, Steadiness, Conscientiousness).  

Here’s a simple example of how I’ve grown beyond the natural confines of my box. As a parent, it was always easier for me to say “no.” I wanted to limit options, avoid complications, and minimize commitments. Blame this on my Myers-Briggs “J-ness” (Judging preference rather than Perceiving).  

One year I told my wife Judy that on our family vacation I was going to say “yes” whenever possible. Thankfully my kids didn’t know about this experiment because they would have taken full advantage. What I found was that I had a wonderful time on vacation and enjoyed saying “yes” as often as I could. I’m sure my children thought another person was inhabiting my body or that a doppelganger with a different personality had made the trip.

Growing Beyond Your Box Includes Personal Development

I get it. I really do. You want to be free to think outside the box and would prefer to not be placed within a box at all. The way I see the world is that we all inhabit boxes – personalities, roles, expectations, relational commitments – but that these boxes need not keep us from becoming healthy mature versions of ourselves. We need to “own our dots” while “enlarging our territories.”  

Embrace who you are and seek to maximize your strengths, while recognizing that we are all on a journey to greater health, deeper maturity. On that journey, choose to grow beyond the natural confines of your box without denying that it exists or believing that life would be better without it. Encourage others to do the same.  

[Final Note: Of course, my appreciation for my box as the home base from which I venture and to which I return, is consistent with my personality. While for some, the rejection and outright denial of boxes is reflective of the boxes they inhabit.

About Julian Consulting

Dr. Stephen Julian is President of Julian Consulting, a firm specializing in team health, effective communication, and leadership development. He has worked with leaders and their teams for nearly 30 years in a variety of settings – including Africa, South and Central America.

https://www.julianconsulting.org

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FOR BUSINESS SUCCESS, FIND AND FOLLOW YOUR COMPANY CAPTAIN

FOR BUSINESS SUCCESS, FIND AND FOLLOW YOUR COMPANY CAPTAIN

Boat sailor find and follow your company captain

For business success, find and follow your company captain.

The year 2020 demonstrated yet again how little we control the world around us. So, be cautious about spending 2021 reading or listening to every good idea to protect your team against the next unknown.  

There are too many good ideas and not enough time, energy, and personnel to implement them all. Worse, some good ideas press against others. So if you commit to a decentralized, remote workforce, then management by walking around must be redefined for effectiveness. Likely there’s a better metaphor for the type of management you’ll need than walking around.  

Find And Follow Your Company Captain Who Demonstrates Convictions

Leaders need convictions – a commitment to certain core principles that inform values and guide decision-making. This is not an unwillingness to ever change course or a refusal to admit they are wrong, but it is a presumption in favor of these principles. For example, Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, DISC, Enneagram – each is a great personality assessment.

My personal conviction is that Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is the best assessment to use in the context of family, DISC in the context of employment, and Enneagram in the context of young adults looking to understand themselves. That could change, but I am not searching each day for a new assessment to use. I use these until I am persuaded that there is a better one for the purpose I am pursuing.

Find And Follow Your Company Captain Who Is Service Focused

Rather than sell products I focus on serving actual customer needs. I don’t care if we follow the precise guidelines of a framework (Supernova, EOS/Traction, Good to Great, StrengthFinders 2.0); I care that we adapt the framework to their needs. We don’t serve the frameworks, the frameworks provide support to us.  

How do you begin?

Start by writing down your core principles, your convictions, and consider how they inform your values and guide your decision-making. If the results are ill-defined, chaotic, or contradictory, then you will need to refine your convictions. Once you establish your principles, then focus on living them out more fully and effectively until you recognize a need to add to or adapt them further.  

Life is too short to be a research project.

You need to live. Start with the materials you have. Tap into the wise counsel of others.

Begin using the good ideas you find compelling and fit them to your organization without worrying that there’s another good, possibly better, idea that you’re missing. Think of convictions as the captain of your ship. As long as you train sailors, you can spend time searching for those capable of being captain. And, while port is safe, ships are meant for open water.

Once you set sail, your captain must be in place. This will be someone selected from among many good candidates and you can never be sure that your selection is best. But when storms burst upon you and threaten your intended course, you will have a capable leader. You won’t be scrambling to identify and select a leader when you are least able to focus – in the midst of the storm. Keep training your captain while at sea. (Refine your convictions while on your journey.)

Don’t attempt to perfect them before you’re willing to set sail. Instead of focusing on keeping your team safe from life’s unknowns, prepare them to meet and manage through those challenges while continuing to your destination.

Find And Follow Your Company Captain Who Stays On Course

The leaders whose teams continued on course despite all that 2020 hurled at them, began the year with clear convictions, with a company captain in place. Others recognized, too late, that they lacked a captain or were still searching for the best candidate from among an endless supply of possibilities. We don’t know what 2021 will bring, but we can be prepared if we find and follow our captain!  

About Julian Consulting

Dr. Stephen Julian is President of Julian Consulting, a firm specializing in team health, effective communication, and leadership development. He has worked with leaders and their teams for nearly 30 years in a variety of settings – including Africa, South and Central America.

https://www.julianconsulting.org

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When Business Is A Rat Race Don’t Outpace Yourself At Work

When Business Is A Rat Race Don’t Outpace Yourself At Work

Crowd of runners outpace yourself at work

Business can seem like a rat race. But don’t outpace yourself at work.

Instead, think of your life and leadership like a pace car. So you can ramp up to race speed quickly and safely, but regroup when faced with danger.

Some of us race ahead believing that victory comes to the swiftest, but forgetting that undisciplined speed kills.   Here are three helpful hints for leaders who want to pace themselves appropriately.

Don’t Outpace Yourself At Work By Assuming You’re The Smartest Person In the Room

You may, in fact, be the smartest person in the room. But for many leaders, especially young leaders, their IQ outpaces their EQ.   Effective leadership is not founded on brilliance alone. Leadership combines skills and character qualities that attract others to follow. Effective leaders often are not the smartest person in the room and the wisest ones are not only aware of this, but celebrate this fact. Ross Perot built a reputation and a fortune by surrounding himself with people who loved to win, many of whom knew more about the technical aspects of his business than he did. (If you want to read several interesting and inspiring quotes from Perot, click here.)

Relax. It’s great to be smart. It’s wiser to surround yourself with people who are inspired by your commitment to your mission, your love for your colleagues, and your drive to serve your customers. Develop your EQ. Combine a growing EQ with your inborn IQ and your influence will grow.  

Don’t Outpace Yourself At Work By Worrying About Trust

To the midlevel leader caught in the midst of warring superiors – “It’s not about you.” It feels like it’s about you, but it isn’t.

I’ve fallen for this more than once. When superiors give conflicting guidance and set inconsistent expectations. It feels like they don’t trust me. It feels like I’m the issue and I want to ask them directly, “What do I need to do to be allowed to operate as though I’m trusted?”  

The problem is that these leaders are fighting amongst themselves and I’m the pawn in their game. It’s not about me. Focus instead on providing a solution to these leaders. Lay out a path that allows each to share concerns while agreeing to a process enabling you to act. Focus on solving the log jam, not how it makes you feel. Slow down. It’s not about you.

Don’t Outpace Yourself At Work By Getting Carried Away By Enthusiasm

Some of us become enthusiastic when conversing with others. We get excited by ideas and opportunities and, if we are not careful, can express commitments in the moment that we are either unable or unwilling to fulfill.  

I suggest two solutions to this challenge.

First, recognize and acknowledge momentary enthusiasms. “Derek, this is incredibly exciting and I am drawn to what you’re describing. Before I commit, however, I need to take some time to think about how this fits within my current priorities. Let’s talk again next week and I’ll be in a better position to let you know my answer.”  

Second, don’t live in fear that you’re going to promise what you can’t deliver, but don’t promise when you don’t need to. In other words, don’t curb your enthusiasm to the point that you lose one of your attractive and influential qualities.

Take It Easy. What’s The Rush?

At the same time, don’t get ahead of yourself. Or give more than the situation asks for. Promise only when you are ready for your “yes” to be “yes.”  Broaden the base of your appeal by growing your EQ. Recognize the difference between situations that feel like they are about you and those that really are. Choose to give yourself space to make wise decisions. Find the pace that works for you. Not only will you avoid hitting the wall, but you will enjoy the journey that is your race.  

About Julian Consulting

Dr. Stephen Julian is President of Julian Consulting, a firm specializing in team health, effective communication, and leadership development. He has worked with leaders and their teams for nearly 30 years in a variety of settings – including Africa, South and Central America.

https://www.julianconsulting.org

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A Lesson From The AFL To Improve Your Business

A Lesson From The AFL To Improve Your Business

Athletes competing in a lesson from the AFL

I’ve learned a valuable lesson from the AFL. Well, actually four of them that will help improve your business.

You see, I’ve fallen in love with the Australian Football League (AFL). “Aussie rules” isn’t rugby and it isn’t new (the first game was in 1858). Here’s my truth – when you first watch Australian rules football it looks silly. The opening bounce, the short shorts and sleeveless tops, the waving of flags following a score, and the sideline throw-ins. They all create a sense it’s more spectacle than sport. But when you understand the objectives and strategies, you realize these are superb athletes suited to this particular contest. Players run between seven and 12 miles per game. Miles. A half-marathon while 18 opponents seek to tackle or otherwise harass them.

A lesson from the AFL is that your business makes sense to you because you are immersed in it every day.

New team members need to understand the objective and strategies of your business. Understand why its silliness has significant historical or cultural roots. Don’t assume it makes sense to the casual observer or your first-year intern. Like any sport, players in the AFL are slotted into particular roles based on different factors – kicking or handballing ability, speed, and size.

Mason Cox is an anomaly. A marginal D1 basketball player, he is an AFL star. His size and acumen for the game have made the Texan a celebrity in his adopted country. Even so, there are far more Australians in American football than Americans in the AFL.

A lesson from the AFL is that you should look for talent without succumbing to presumptions about personality types, education, or previous experience.

Each may contribute to a team member’s success, but shouldn’t be determinative when hiring. After onboarding, develop strategies for slotting talent into the right seats. And evaluate whether this was done successfully. The team member you think is the wrong person may just be in the wrong seat.  

When a player in the AFL scores a goal, team members run to rub the scorer’s head, hug him, high-five, or express another form of affirmation. Older players encourage young players and teams celebrate professional debuts (“day-boos”).

I don’t know if it is cultural, but I’ve never seen Americans quite as expressive in their support of one another. Certainly not at the professional level where the emphasis is often on individual performance and compensation. Despite well-rehearsed answers written by PR experts about the importance of team.  

Athletes competing in a lesson from the AFL

A lesson from the AFL is that you should develop HR-approved ways of expressing affirmation

People have different preferences for receiving praise that should be honored. But don’t miss the opportunity to celebrate as a team. Encourage seasoned team members to mentor newer team members. And recognize the excitement of a professional “day-boo.”  

The AFL is evolving. I’ve seen rule changes the brief time I’ve watched it and COVID impacted the 2020 season in significant ways. This year the “man on the mark rule” was changed, which enraged purists. Just Google “change to the man on the mark rule in Australian Rules Football.” And you’ll see many were not happy. But when the season began, most commentators agreed the game was faster and the scoring higher. Two keys to growing the sport’s audience.

A lesson is to remember that change is never-ceasing

Try to anticipate consequences from proposed changes (laws usually suffer from unintended consequences). And train team members on the why’s and how’s of new processes. Don’t refuse to evolve. And never lose sight of your customer or let purists prevent you from thriving as your industry changes. I don’t know that you’ll love “footy” like I do. But I hope you’ll gain insight from the lesson from the AFL that I’ve learned by watching it.

About Julian Consulting

Dr. Stephen Julian is President of Julian Consulting, a firm specializing in team health, effective communication, and leadership development. He has worked with leaders and their teams for nearly 30 years in a variety of settings – including Africa, South and Central America.

https://www.julianconsulting.org

Join My E-mail List

And I’ll send you my article: Exaggerate to Make Your Presentations Funny. You’ll learn how to punch up your presentations with humor.