February | 2015 | Thinking about Agile

the agile leader?

Posted on February 24, 2015 by coachwithheart

“Doing the right thing is more important than doing the thing right.” Peter Drucker

Hmm, doing the right thing is more important that doing the thing right. Is that the kind of thing you experience in your line of work? Do the right thing? In some organizations it is about doing and getting things done and it’s not always the right thing to do. There are things that could be left undone that would be of benefit.

What does a leader who is versed in agile thinking do? Is the leader in search of doing the right thing most of the time? The right thing done at the right time is part of doing iterative work.

Leadership is about the ability to ADAPT to the future.

A – Awareness of yourself, the environment and others.

D – Desire to serve others

A – Ability, leadership ability, emotional maturity

P – Promotion, having a clear vision

T – Transfer your knowledge to build other leaders and people

The job of a leader is to grow new leaders. The agile leader is preparing for change and looking to the edge for the emerging future.

What is your leadership model?

think about staying positive

Posted on February 16, 2015 by coachwithheart

“When you are joyful, when you say yes to life and have fun and project positivity all around you, you become a sun in the center of every constellation, and people want to be near you.”
― Shannon L. Alder

Working in a high demand environment can get tiring, it can get to the point where motivation starts seeping out of the soul. Negative feelings creep in when the pressure is always on, the pressure to perform and do it well start impacting your thinking and our ability to contribute your best work.

To help reduce the negative noise take a break every hour and for four or five minutes just find a comfortable position to be in, release the tension and breathe in slowly to the count of six and then pause before exhaling fully. As you are breathing focus on counting, in on six, pause for two and exhale on a count of six. Breathe and relax, breathe and relax.

As work pressure increases the ability to think clearly decreases for most people. The blood flow to the rational thinking part of your brain starts to diminish as more of that blood goes to fear response part of the brain. You can see that when people react in anger and say things that they regret. The brain is reacting to what it believes is a threat and is preparing take action. In that moment the brain isn’t figuring out if the threat is real or not, it doesn’t want to spend the time evaluating a threat, it just wants to take action.

When the situation is getting tense try to notice what is causing the tension. What words are being said? What actions are being described? Notice your own feelings and try to figure out what values are being threatened. If you can quickly understand what you think might be a threat you can mentally step back and adjust the emotional ramp up.

When you think positive or move from threat to peace you activate different parts of your nervous system. Positive thinking activates the parasympathetic nervous system where there is more peace and contentment in your body. Activating the sympathetic nervous system happens when there is a perceived threat. The goal, to stay in balance, in control of your emotions so that you able to effectively manage your emotions and so that you can help providing a calming force in tense situations.

To learn how to activate the parasympathetic try:

1. Writing a gratitude journal. Keep track of the good things in life. Reflect back on those.

2. Deep breathing – calms the nervous system.

3. Pay attention to positive experiences

4. Reframe the experience, what can you do to shift your emotional perspective.

5. Spend time cultivating positive experiences (reduce time watching TV – or reading the News).

Find things that have positive outcomes, bring greater joy, greater happiness and more calm to your life. The more you develop skills that help you stay positive in negative situations the better you will be able to manage the outcomes.

thinking about doing

Posted on February 2, 2015 by coachwithheart

“You can’t just turn on creativity like a faucet. You have to be in the right mood.
What mood is that?
Last-minute panic.”
― Bill Watterson

Getting things done is hard for some people. Procrastination that waiting until things are at a crisis before any action is taken and then there is a feeling of guilt and shame for not getting the work done earlier. Maybe that has happened to you. It’s not a good feeling is it? It may have worked in school where the report was furiously worked on just hours before it was due. You made it before the deadline. That last-minute rush of activity doesn’t always produce the right results though.

Getting started on a task is often interrupted by some other idea, thought or distraction and before you know it a big chunk of time has passed and there are other things that need to get done and panic or overwhelm sets in. When there are too many things needing attention at the same time something is going to get missed and not get done. That starts the cycle of thought, “that I must not be …”. Have you had those thoughts, “I should have …”?

Let’s look at those places you might be procrastinating about.

What areas of your life do you find yourself procrastinating?

– Getting things done at home.

– Getting bills paid.

– Getting work done at work.

– Getting work done at school.

– Maintaining social relationships.

– Taking good care of self.

Just note which areas tend to be the most challenging for you.

What is your procrastination technique? This is the activity you take instead of the one you know needs your attention.

– Personal reward ( a break, a snack, …)

– Watching TV

– Surfing the Net

– Reading email – Facebook – social media

– I need to know more

– It can wait

Which excuse do you use? How strong is your excuse?

Nothing changes until you understand the size of the problem. Start with writing down when you make a personal excuse to do something else instead of what is important. Now, if you don’t know what is important then that might be where it all starts.

Have a written plan, with the time you want to start a task. Use that as a guide to see how you are doing on just getting started.

Steps to take:

1. Create a written daily plan.
2. Notice when you don’t follow the plan.
3. Reflect on what happened when you didn’t follow the plan.
4. What can you do differently?

It is easy to think about doing and much harder to do when something else seems more interesting.