Michele Woodward

Powerful Coaching. Powerful Results.

making change

One Fact And One Idea

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HarperThe CEO said to me last week: “If people are so unhappy, why don’t they leave?”

I shrugged. Because I don’t know why people stay in jobs that are wrong for them. In work environments that are toxic. In places they don’t grow.

(For that matter, I don’t know why people stay in neighborhoods they hate married to people they loathe driving a car that makes them crazy, either.)

I am here to tell you – in general, people tolerate way too much.

And it’s weird.

Maybe we tolerate way too much every single damn day because down deep we think we’re not powerful enough to change things.

Or we’re not sure we’re really so unhappy. We worry that maybe we’re misinterpreting things. Or maybe we’re the whining and complaining crybabies our big brothers always said we were.

And then there’s “this economy”, which always seems to be spoken of in an anchorman’s voice, like some gigantic warning of looming danger.

But maybe it’s really because we’re terrified of change. What if we do go through all the trouble to do something different and… it’s worse!

These are the big fears people share with me.

I’d like to give you one fact and one idea to consider if there’s something you’re putting up with day after grueling day, and can’t seem to find the heart to do anything about.

Fact: The economy has changed. Where in 2009, US unemployment stood at a staggering ten percent, it’s even more amazing that right now in my home state it’s at 4.5%.

That means now is the best time in years to find a new job.

(It also means that now is the best time in years to ask for a raise because brass will have to pay more to retain the best talent.)

(If they haven’t gotten this message yet, they will as soon as they can’t fill a key position.)

(Just sayin’.)

Now for that idea I was telling you about.

Idea: Professional baseball players suit up for a game in the uniform of the team they play for. Whether they’re a National or a Diamondback or a Mariner, they wear the colors and play for the team – knowing full well that even in the middle of the game they can get a call saying they’ve been traded to another team.

And the next day, even though it might be hard, they suit up in an entirely new uniform and play for the new team.

For these professionals, it’s less about the team and more about the position they play. They know they can – and will – be a great first baseman for any team.

This is what you need to understand. 

Rather than consider your employment as a lifetime commitment you cannot break, think about it as a baseball team. As long as you play for them, you’re going to hustle and do a good job. But you can – and will – do an equally good job for any other team.

Because you are a very good first baseman.

When you need a change, make a change.

There is no need to tolerate a sick workplace. There is no need to fear something new.

There is only opportunity in the economy right now.

It’s time to get in the game.

 

Forget Persistence and Determination

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Don’t you believe that if you work hard enough and really put your mind to something, that you can do anything?

So does this guy I want to tell you about. He’s a techno-geek-engineer type and right now he’s a strong voice within his organization for a specific product approach. See, he’s championed this thing for years and by the sheer force of his personality he’s kept the idea on the table. Millions of dollars and thousands of work hours have been placed on this approach, mostly because he’s so forceful and tenacious.

But you know what? The guy’s wrong.

The technology he champions was once bleeding edge – but three years later it’s old, outdated and irrelevant. The market has passed it by.

[Think of it like insisting on playing football in leather helmets.]

So even though voices inside the company are beginning to ask: “Are we betting on the wrong horse?”, our guy continues to pound his desk to guaran-damn-tee that the tried-and-true is going to work.

He’s persistent.

He’s determined.

He wants to win.

In fact, maybe he wants to win more than he wants the company to succeed.

Yes, he’d rather put a product into the market and watch it fail (which he can always blame on marketing), than be seen as “wrong”.

And in his own mind he fought the good fight, was persistent and determined… and won. Against all odds.

We’ve all been taught that winners never quit, and quitters never win. We’ve watched countless movies where by sheer persistence and determination (and playing “In Your Eyes” on a boom box held over his head), the guy gets the once reluctant girl to fall in love with him. We love underdog stories told from the sidelines, or in hushed whispers during the uneven bars competition. Through sheer grit and focus, the kid got to the top.

Totally inspiring.

And I hear this theme nearly every day from the clients I work with: “I should be able to figure this out! I just need to work harder, I guess.”

Depends.

Depends on why you want what you want.

Because the truth is, I could love team sports and be as persistent and determined as all get-out and never suit up as a Washington Redskin. Or a National. A Cap. Or a United mid-fielder. Regardless of my effort, or intention, or willingness – none of that is never going to happen.

Smart winners know when to quit, and how to find something that gives them what they want in a different way.

If want to be a part of sports, I can get that plenty of ways. For instance, I can’t bat third for the Nats, but I can get a season ticket to the games. I can also volunteer to coach a baseball or softball team, or get training to be an umpire for kids’ games. I could join an adult softball league. I can keep score for the girls varsity this spring. I could plan a trip to every Major League ballpark in North America in one single season. All of these are winning, and very possible, scenarios.

Win. Win. Win.

And it’s good I know that. Shooting for the truly unobtainable drains a lot of energy from a soul, and we end up feeling depleted, down and blue.  Like the techno-geek-engineer fears, we feel like failures because we didn’t get what we said we wanted. But what we said we wanted wasn’t what we really wanted, anyway. It was just an idea of one way to get there.

How does this figure in with the Power of Positive Thinking? With the Law of Attraction? With The Secret?

Well, I am for all of those ways of marshaling one’s energy. I know that my thoughts create my reality, and I certainly can bring some pretty amazing things into my life when I focus. However, you have to know why you want what you want. If you want things or opportunities because your ego needs some feeding – not gonna happen. If you want things or opportunities because they’ll be joyful, fun and help others – you’ll get them. Simple as that.

And that’s the happy turnaround, my friends. With persistence and determination sometimes comes stuck and unhappy. And that derives from staying too long in one place, and ignoring the facts. By introducing the idea “perhaps I’m persisting in a direction that’s never going to pay off“- well, that allows you to be agile and shift toward something that’s… possible. Good. Fulfilling. Smart.

If your persistence and determination doesn’t seem to be paying off, take a minute. Ask yourself this: what do I really want here?

And if it’s to “win”, perhaps there’s another, easier win waiting for you, right under your nose.

 

Small Green Shoots of Faith

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On a cool October day, I knelt with my knees in the dirt to plant tulip bulbs. I used a special bulb planting tool that I’ve owned so long that I’ve forgotten where it came from. Dig the hole, drop in the bulb flat side down/tip up, fill the hole, scooch over, dig another hole. Water the whole lot in.

I love the rhythm of bulb-planting.

And the very best part?

Every bulb planted reminds me of  how important it is to have faith. And to be able to wait.

Because when you plant a tulip bulb in October, then all you can do is… wait.

Wait through the snows, the torrential rains, the short, dark days, the gloom of January…. you patiently wait.

And if you got all worried and anxious about the bulbs – were they okay? would they come up? – and you went out on a frosty February Saturday to dig them up just to check, you’d kill ’em.

So tulip growers must wait, and have faith.

Faith that you dug the hole deep enough.

Faith that nature will take its course (which, naturally means you plan that 25% of what you plant will feed the neighborhood squirrels).

Faith that on one March morning you’ll see tiny green shoots pushing up through the earth.

Tiny, mighty green shoots.

That’s the magic moment for me, the moment when my faith pays off.

Pays off every time I see those small green shoots of possibility.

You see, I plant mixed tulip bulbs and never know what color will come up where, which makes that small green shoot a promise of the surprise to come. Doubling my delight.

All because I had the faith to plant them that October morning and resisted the urge to dig them up just to check.

Oh, plenty of us are too cautious to plant the bulb in the first place – we’ve been told for far too long not to get our hopes up. Why make the effort? We’d probably plant the bulbs upside down, or they’d rot, or the squirrels would have a family reunion feast in our front yard, leaving us with nothing.

And some of us need constant reassurance that we did the right thing by taking the time to plant bulbs. Are other people planting? Did I do it right? Do you think it’s working? How can I know for sure it’ll work?

Then there are those of us who are in-between and wonder why to plant anything at all when we’re just going to be moving on before anything happens.

Fear, insecurity, hopelessness set in and the opportunity to create something truly beautiful escapes us.

You know this is a metaphor, right?

Planting = your best work.

Waiting = faith that consistently doing what’s right is the most fulfilling part of the journey.

Green shoots of possibility = proof that you did the right thing most of the time.

Fully grown tulips = your beautiful, precious reward.

You, my friend, are the master gardener of your life and your career.

Every single day, with your choices, you are planting seeds and bulbs, trees and shrubs – in the ways you talk to others, the ways you show appreciation, the ways you collaborate, the ways you encourage, the ways you take responsibility.

Every single day, you have the choice to plant your seeds in your own rhythm, with the faith that – someday – you’ll see those small green shoots break through the earth with the promise of something quite spectacular on the way.

It’s all up to you to create your fabulous garden of a life. What will you plant today?