How to shoot yourself in the foot.

Another chance coincidence has prompted this post.  A couple of days ago, two colleagues, independently told me of their experiences of being turned down for a job and the feedback they had received from the recruiter to justify their decision.  I'm paraphrasing a bit to protect confidentiality, but one was told her 'personality' might become wearing after a few days.  Strange comment as a) personality was not one of the recruitment criteria and b) this was an internal vacancy and the applicant had been working very successfully for the company (with her personality) for many years. The other applicant (for a completely different company) was told, ' We wanted to offer you the job but we didn't think you would say 'Yes'... so we didn't make you and offer'.  This is up there with the kind of thinking that Marvin the Paranoid Android in The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy.  

So it got me thinking, what's the worst feedback you have had when being turned down for a role?

Find us on Twitter @enthiostraining and post up your own experiences #badjobfeedback

Resilience

I make no claim to this, but a friend of mine drew my attention to this post and I liked it!

'Five things resilient people do'

http://kripalu.org/blog/thrive/2014/01/22/five-things-resilient-people-do/?utm_source=Thrive&utm_medium=post&utm_content=012715CtRL&utm_campaign=CtRL_2015

More on distraction

Two thought-provoking quotes from Damon Young's book, 'Distraction' (2008, Acumen)

'To be diverted isn’t simply to have too many stimuli but to be confused about what to attend to and why.  Distraction is the very opposite of emancipation:  failing to see what is worthwhile in life, and lacking the wherewithal to seek it.'

'This is often called an ‘information economy’, but the market is supposed to run on scarcity, not surplus.  In reality it’s an ‘attention economy’ – what is in short supply are the mental and physical resources for actually taking notice of anything and for trying to make sense of it’.

Interruptions and multitasking

One of those happy coincidences this week, where two pieces of information come together at the same time.  Like a lot of companies in our field of work, we are doing quite a bit of work around resilience, mindfulness and emotional intelligence.  If you work in any organisation today, it is more than likely that you are being asked to do more with less, pick up the slack or even 'man up'!  People are feeling under a great deal of pressure at the moment, hence the interest in the previously mentioned topics.  (Although it still remains to be seen whether this interest is driven by a concern for the welfare employees or a way of squeezing a bit more juice from the lemon!  We were given a phrase yesterday by Robert Joyce, (see previous blog post) - he talked about 'McMindfulness', the pursuit of peace and harmony, but do it QUICKLY!)

The two sources of information were a podcast,  BBC World Service, The Forum: A world of ideas (13/1/15) and an article in The Observer (18/1/15).

The podcast was actually about interruptions.  Although sometimes, we welcome an interruption (and can signal to the other person that it is their turn to speak, by, for example, repeating ourselves) and sometimes an interruption can act as a distraction from a less enjoyable task, you won't be surprised to hear that most of the time, we find interruptions rude and consequently make some judgements about the person doing the interrupting.  However, it turns out that there are cultural, psychological and gender differences in the way we talk, pause and listen.  We also have different tolerances for being interrupted.  (Are you happy working in an open-plan office?)

One of the interesting contributions to the debate was from Claudia Roda, Professor of Computer Science and Global Communication at the American University in Paris.  Her argument is that modern technology, email, social media etc violates the normal rules of conversation and that as a society, we are being too interrupted by technology.  (You may have experienced this if you have ever left your Twitter/email/Facebook link open as you work.  For how long can you ignore an incoming message?).  Roda argues for the development of 'polite machines'.  These are machines that have to 'learn' the rules of interaction (based on the individual user) and adapt to their preferences.

The Observer article, 'Why the modern world is bad for your brain' was by the eminent neuroscientist, Daniel Levitin (18/1/15 and online,

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/jan/18/modern-world-bad-for-brain-daniel-j-levitin-organized-mind-information-overload) 

was full of interesting facts about using technology. 

What both the podcast and the article had in common is evidence that multitasking is not that effective.  We may think that we are being efficient, but actually our effectiveness is being diminished.  IQ is reduced and our ability to concentrate is affected by a greater amount than if we had been smoking marijuana!  There are effects on health too and we suffer from 'cognitive overload' due to the increased number of decisions that we have to take.

Is the development of more/better technology the answer or do we need to re-think how we want our employees to work?

Another little promotion for a small business

Today, we had the opportunity to re-acquaint ourselves with Tai Chi, courtesy of Robert Joyce.  Resilience, mindfulness and mental toughness are all hot topics at the moment and we were attending one of Robert's workshops, as part of the development of a leadership programme in the private sector.

Robert has an easy style, and aims to de-mystify Tai Chi.  He explains things in a simple way and gives the rationale for the benefits of Tai Chi, using both Eastern and Western philosophies.  Before teaching Tai Chi full time, he worked as a Project Manager in engineering, so he's well-used to explaining things to busy managers.  As he introduces the movements,  each is built up gradually (we actually started learning the exercises while sitting).

The two hour workshop proved to be quite a workout!

Robert is based in Poole, Dorset (UK) and you can find him at:

www.elemental-taichi.co.uk

In praise of silence

A nice quote from John Francis, (from the TED radio podcast, 'Quiet', 21/11/14).  John simultaneously decided to give up using motorised transport and talking.  He remained silent for 17 years, and walked the world.  Talking about his motives, he realised that he regularly questioned his commitment to remaining silent, but never questioned himself about his choice to give up motorised transport.  This is what he said next:

'I didn't know who I would be, if I changed.  And I know that a lot of times we find ourselves in this wonderful place where we've gotten to, but there's another place for us to go and we kind of have to leave behind the security of who we've become and go to the place [of] who we are becoming'.

Laughter is good for the soul

We have just returned from 3 days in Germany, attending the Strategic Leadership Trainers' Summit. (Nuremberg is such a beautiful city.)  SL, run by Thor Olafsson is a fascinating company with some very impressive tools for developing leadership.  Most notably, the Integrated Leadership Development programme and their Inner Compass model seem to be able to create big changes in individuals and organisations.  It was the first time that we had met the rest of team of trainers, who are spread across the world.  A very impressive bunch of people.  You can find out more about Strategic Leadership at:

http://strategicleaders.de/

As part of the conference, we were treated to a presentation by Edda Bjorgvins.  Edda is a very well-known actress from Iceland, and has starred in an Icelandic comedy, 'Stella', which over the last 20 years, has become a national institution.  She's also a comedian, a psychologist and a motivational speaker.

http://www.eddabjorgvins.com/

Edda gave us a highly entertaining and informative lecture on the power of humour for well-being and for creating a productive working atmosphere.  When I say, 'lecture', it was rather unconventional and began with a few minutes of dancing, laughter and general good-natured banter.  There was a serious point to all this, though, as Edda soon backed up all the Tomfoolery with some of the research on humour and health.  We liked Edda.  She has a warm heart and she models what she talks about.  She's not afraid to be the butt of the joke and she can find humour in anything, while also knowing what type of humour is appropriate in a particular setting.  You can catch a bit of Edda on You Tube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nBfqVkGJKs