The Positive Energy Workplace

I have a client I absolutely adore. She has a heart of gold. Intentions to the moon and back. A desire to make people feel valued and cared about. A commitment to transparency and open communication. And a hunger to lead well.

Random things surprise me in the most random of places. This morning it was the power of a 4 minute conversation and some vulnerability with a perfect stranger...

A couple of weeks ago I shared a word cloud that represented responses from a group of senior and executive leaders in one of my LinkedIn groups - "The Design & Innovation Leaders Network: A Private Community Building Creative & Authentic Cultures". The actual query was "What do you consider to be the #1 most important quality in leadership?"

What do you consider to be the number 1, most important quality in leadership? If you could have only one quality, take only one quality "with you", what would it be? No right or wrong answers here, just curiosity. Whatever is true for you is what makes you...you.

Stifling or thriving?

Does your environment set you up for success?

On a call with a client last week we worked to "unpack" some issues that were "stalling" her energy, impacting her influence with her team, and hindering their results. This "problem" honoring the rule of "ripple effects of a CEO's energy", was in fact creating ripple effects beyond her immediate team. Shift was in order, for sure. But...what shift?

At first glance, we figured it'd be a big complex problem that would need all sorts of strategy, wisdom, and tricks to fix. I put on my best thinking cap to address leadership and team dynamics. It wasn't necessary. The problem, as it so often is for so many of us, was actually...her. Hallelujah! (After all, much easier to "shift" outcomes when we "shift" ourselves first.) What a relief!

After going through several issues we found that she had 3 immediately leverage-able actions - all starting with her:

1. Clean out her closet & pantry. (Yes, her home closet and home pantry.)
2. Organize and re-boundary her calendar - creating a new system to help her "get in front of" the priorities of the week and the team.
3. Prioritize priorities using the "4D's" for every thing on her "to do" list. (Decide. Ditch. Do. Delegate.)

Doing these three things would actually give her back her "grounding", her energetic presence and awareness, a solid place to stand from to create clearer decisions, and a more powerful and authentic voice to craft clearer and more impactful communication. No need for a big overhaul. Just a "reboot". Her energy was kiddywampus, she was not "in front of things", she was constantly running to "catch up". No matter how GOOD she was at everything she did, if the energy underneath the action was not right, if she was not aligned, and if she didn't feel good, impact would be "off".

From the energy of "kiddy-wampus"; clarity, presence, and power...suffer. Her team, and their results were reflecting this back to her.

Numbers 2 and 3 maybe fairly self-explanatory...but number 1, which was actually her NEXT step, is the one I thought I'd put in your bonnet.

Why would a CEO of an organization need to spend time on her closet and her pantry? Two words: Energy = Impact.