Blogger Recommendation: Rosa Say

Back to work after a week of vacation and I think, I know, I could have done with another week and still not wanted to go back. Mostly that's because the weather is absolutely beautiful right now and I don't want to be inside because I know Old Man Winter is shuffling his way this direction.

If any of you manage anything/anybody I want to recommend a friend of mine, a super nice lady from Hawaii Rosa Say. As the economy does what it's doing and seems to steadily ignore what we want it to do Rosa's post are encouraging. (When I say nice in this context I mean that as a compliment. She's been encouraging and friendly to people all over the Internet and takes time from what I know is a busy schedule to encourage people whether she'll ever meet them or not. This is a hugely good character trait in my book.)

http://talkingstory.org/2011/10/3-job-options-of-merit/

I am in favor of encouragement in the face of adversity for a couple reasons.

1) If looking down the barrel of a bad situation being defeatist or negative won't help at all. Just the opposite, hope, optimism, and mutual encouragement can make the going smoother even if they don't address the problem at hand. Attitude is everything.
b) Sometimes weathering bad times isn't a function of anything we do at all... sometimes big giant things happen to us, hurricanes for example, that we can't really do anything about and we just have to wait for it to go away and there are times when being open to new ideas, optimistic, and encouraging foster and create an atmosphere where the community going through it all comes out the other side stronger because of the relationships or ideas formed during the hardship. It may be that sitting around a campfire in the devastation of a tornado brings up conversations that "When this is over we should..." and those things, those building blocks actually come to pass.
iii) Encouraging small behavioral changes, things we CAN do helps build things in areas we can change. I can't personally impact the nation's economy. What I can do is help my employees with savings and maybe with opportunities to increase their pay with sales incentives and bonus programs. I can't help everybody, but I can help those I can help and just because it doesn't stem the tide it does start a ripple that can add to other ripples and maybe that will be enough to change things... or at least moderate things a bit.

There are a lot of opportunities out there to tear people down for a variety of reasons. Sometimes it's just fun to be an ass. I've met people who sincerely believe that by bullying or threatening they can help a situation. Can all situations be dealt with by applying a healthy dose of Pollyanna-juice? Not all, not all the time. But I can't think of a situation where being a jerk was more helpful than being supportive or helpful or encouraging. Maybe it's time to start a random act of kindness campaign if nothing else.

Take a minute, go check out Rosa's blog and http://talkingstory.org/2011/10/3-job-options-of-merit/ think of what you can do to help the situation of yourself AND someone else.

Something in the air... and it ain't roses!

In a recent post I suggested "This American Life" the podcast to any of you out there looking for a good podcast. As it happens it's also a radio show that I can listen to on Iowa Public Radio. This week's show, entitled "Ruining It for the Rest of Us."about the whole "one bad apple spoils the whole bunch" concept. There was some scientific research done to determine the effect of a toxic co-worker on a group of employees and what the result was.


Unsurprisingly, it wound up being true that an annoying, negative, depressing, bad apple DID spoil the whole bunch. Something we all knew to be true backed by science.

Tonight I fire up my reader to catch up on the blogs I enjoy and found in Talking Story with Say Leadership Coaching, a question from a reader that Rosa addresses. "How do I stay positive working in a place where most of the employees are so deeply negative? ..." There was more, but that's the important bit.

But is the corollary true? Can one really positive, helpful, outgoing, cheerful person bring up the level of performance? I think it can. While I think it's easier to spoil something than it is to fix something, whether it's soup or a work environment, I also believe that it's possible for a person to be a catalyst for positive change. Wow... catalyst. That one jumped out at me.

There's a really important aspect of a catalyst though that MUST be taken into consideration if you decide you want to be the catalyst for change in your negative office or work-space. In a catalytic converter the platinum or palladium are used over and over again to catalyze a reaction but they aren't consumed in the process. They bring about the change, but they're not consumed by the change or the work they do in the change.

If you're killing yourself at work, burning the candle at both ends trying to be the one to keep the ship from going down in flames into a morass of psychic sludge -- don't do it. That's right. I said it. Don't. Do. It. You're not being a catalyst then and you're trying to do something, by yourself, that isn't working. I'm not saying give up and be a Negative Nelly like everybody around you, but admit that you need help, and ask for it from co-workers and higher-ups. If you're in management it may very well mean you have to fire quite competent people who are stinking up the joint with their cynicism and ugly attitude.

There's a lot of behavior that can be trained, modified, and worked with, but not all of it can. Someone who carries a cloud of doom around with them in their own heads is an incredibly unhappy person and there's a good chance they're perfectly happy being perfectly miserable and inflicting it on everybody else. Prune them like a dead branch as soon as you find out that's the problem. If they're a chronic crêpe hanger wish them the best in their future endeavors, but for crying out loud don't tie their anchor around your neck or the necks of your team. Their co-workers deserve better than that.