Tag: fear

Hours

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Should employees work 30, 34, 36, 37.5, 40 or more hours a week?

It is a good thing that governments discuss this (and it is not a new discussion they are having). But companies honestly should not care. Sure, there are still some jobs for which output is correlated to the amount of hours people put in. For the vast majority of the workforce though, this kind of reasoning is outdated and demotivating.

Mainly for two reasons.

First, personal and professional are nowadays as blurry as they can be. Do you get great ideas as you take your kids to daycare? Or have you ever read an email and fell into a train of work-related thoughts just before your free evening started? How do you account for that time?

Second, most jobs are about challenges and problems (or at least, they should be). Thinking that by investing on them – on paper – 2 or 3 hours more per week actually does have an impact is silly.

It probably is the case that your organisation being involved in preserving a longer working week is just an easier way to hide inefficiency and fear of change.

Nothing wrong

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I did nothing wrong.

Defensiveness is often the go-to strategy when we are put on the spot. In all honesty, though, we would be more accurate saying I did mean nothing wrong, or even better My intentions were in the right place.

When somebody negatively reacts to something we did or said, something clicks in our mind that forces us to preserve our reputation. It is a natural mechanism, nothing easily preventable, but if you think about it, that “something” is assuming that: 1. we are infallible; 2. if we fail, we fail deeply, as a person, as a human being.

Both are false, of course. And so, next time you feel the urge to say I did nothing wrong, stop for a moment and try instead asking How did what I said felt?, or What can I do better next time?, or even How can I make this right?

It is only by avoiding to take things personally and by expressing a real interest in what the others feel and perceive that we can build strong relationships.

And become, little by little, an improved version of a human being.

It does not matter

FabrizioLeave a comment

There are always countless reasons to drop a practice.

A bad day. The shouting with your partner the night before. Laziness. Your boss just drops trivial tasks on your desk. Friends never call. That asshole just cut me off. Nobody is ever interested in what I do. It is always raining and the weather is crap. After all, why should it matter?

And so on.

I have dropped more practices than I care to admit myself. Until I realised, few years ago, that practices are not about perfection, good weather, healthy relationships, and praises from strangers.

Practices are about habit.

Practices are about commitment.

Practices are about doing.

And if you do long enough, you still get all of the above (and some more) and it does not matter.

Envy

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When you stop looking at others as threats to your own success, they will automatically turn into a possibility to learn, into someone who can enable your next project, into people you can help in their own journey.

It is just a matter of perspective.

Agent of change

FabrizioLeave a comment

It is not so difficult to agree that change needs to happen. It is much more complex to agree on what change adds up to and act on it.

So, if you are an agent of change, there are two things to keep in mind.

First, small wins are wins nonetheless. You do not have to achieve everything at once, and even small changes in the right direction are something to be proud of. Building blocks that can support larger wins in the future.

Second, not giving up is part of the package. You might be tempted – you WILL be tempted – to give up once things do not look exactly how you had planned. That is precisely when you have to take a deep breath, buckle down, and reinforce the message around the need for change.

Keep going.