Giving someone the benefit of your full attention is a true gift and, unfortunately, it is becoming a rare occurrence. If you think about the level of demand and pace faced by people today, it is amazing that any of us are able to pay attention to others at all. When interacting with others, most of us are quick to make decisions and to judge things as right or wrong, and once that occurs, it’s nearly impossible to pay attention…
We were recently contacted by a client of ours who was shaken to have heard that there were rumors about what he was doing within his organization that had no basis in reality. Last year, another client of ours (an introvert who must get time alone to refuel and to think clearly) came to us to talk about the feedback that she’d gotten that she was being described as arrogant and unwilling to work collaboratively within her organization. And, one…
Humans like to win. Most of us experience a sense of joy or even elation when we feel we are winning (or when we are part of a winning team) and a sense of grief and sorrow when we lose (just ask those of us who are Seahawks fans). The research shows that when we are winning, we feel better about our lives in general. Winners are able to overcome obstacles easier and are less likely to give up when…
We’ve been talking about Personal Agility and at Carpenter Smith Consulting, we define personal agility as: the ability to respond quickly and nimbly to the disappointment or obstacle you face by pausing to stay emotionally present (to yourself and others) and then taking action on your own behalf or on behalf of those you care about. Confidence is at the center of agility because you have to believe that you have the power and the ability to respond to the…
A couple of weeks ago we wrote a post on Personal Agility and a lot of you wrote back with specific questions about how to develop your personal agility in various situations. Last Monday, we wrote about how to handle critical feedback or a vote of no confidence from your team. This week we want to address what you can do when someone with authority asks you to take on something outside of your skill set. For some people, being…
Since our last post, we have heard from a number of you that you loved the post on Personal Agility and have been struggling to become more agile in your life and work. Over the next few weeks, we are going to address some of the areas you identified as challenging. Personal agility requires the ability to learn and to lead – to influence your world and be influenced by your world. For many of you, a central part of…
One of the ways we support people is to help them see just how capable they are—even when the chips are down. You see, none of us lives a charmed a life. That is the stuff of fairy tales. Real life means having to frequently navigate obstacles: some related to our inner messages and beliefs, some related to health, some related to work, some related to family, and some related to world issues. Personal agility is required to respond effectively…
CREATIVITY, like life, IS EMERGENT. — AHA! (aha-writers.com) A few weeks ago we encouraged you to shift from an attitude of certainty to an attitude of curiosity in order to increase your creativity and innovation. You responded with some wonderful insights about the ways that small shift in perspective had opened your eyes. And then, when we were at the offices of AHA!*, an amazing creative agency that we have worked with for the past couple of years, Betsy Henning,…
While we know that January 1st is simply the day after December 31st, we love that so many people pause around this time of year to reflect on where they have been this past year and where they want to go in the next. For some people, this is a celebratory time of vision and excitement, for some it’s facing upcoming grief or loss, and as we saw last week, for many it’s a time to start anew and create a…
This week, we have asked a dear client, friend, and colleague to share her experience and her strategies for finding her way back to herself after a layoff. We know that life offers us many opportunities to find ways back to ourselves and she has much to teach: Moving Forward After a Layoff by Heather Stewart For the past 5 years, I worked for an incredible little company that makes creative products for creative people. I first joined the company…
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