The Positive Energy Workplace

How's your New Year coming along so far? Day 5 and I've been super aware, perhaps more now than ever, of how much power we have to support ourselves and set the tone of our lives by "getting in front of it" with energy leadership.

Today I hosted a group of business owners, at my office in Rocklin, for my Biz 2012 Intention Event. A whole morning of reflecting on 2011, looking into 2012, and setting intentions for what we'll be celebrating and discussing NEXT year at this time. (After all, if you set INTENTIONS for what you want - and act of course, you're more likely to be celebrating those same things later.)

Some of the key themes that showed up for the day (in no particular order of importance) included:
1) leadership happens from the inside out; it's got to BE true to you and authentic (get that, and all the "doing" stuff gets easier),
2) the power of allies and leverage (after all, no one will do it for you - but you can't do it alone),
3) appreciation and learning for "failures/I-want-a-do-over-moments" of 2011,
4) best practices mined from the wins of 2011,
5) the power of energy leadership in creating business success (who knew pantries and clothes' closets could impact business leadership so significantly? Seriously. Or that the vibe you bring to the table can make or break a business?),
6) we're all our own best guru - we generally know what we need to do and intuitively what is "right" for us - sometimes we just need the "thoughtful space"/time/support/education/accountability/leverage to make the plan happen,
7) the power of a really good and clear "why" (and how that impacts marketing),
8 ) relationships that need mending/healing/nurturing/expanding in order to have personal and business peace,
9) the essential art of self care eating a good breakfast (no kidding), and,
10) the importance of visioning, strategic planning, belief, intention, and...ya...execution.

It's an active state...the act of becoming. Stepping further and further into yourself, becoming more and more of the person/spirit/sage/parent/leader/writer/friend/salsa dancer you want to be. It is an active act. And if done intentionally, a really powerful one.

"Adding value". A commonly used term used by people in business. You hear about it from vendors, organizations, products and services, and in employee performance conversations and sales pitch meetings. Adding value: the value added benefit this person/thing brings to the table. If you look up the definition, you'll get a bunch of finessed words, which to me all point to one simple thing - how do you make the "thing" that your contributing to...better? How do you make it shine? How do you make an extra special difference?

I believe that people generally come from a place of positive intention. If there is a disconnect, it often happens in their impact and the stories that get made up about their intentions. The impact of this? Resistance, mistrust, broken relationships, unintended influence, and at a minimum, lost opportunities for creativity, collaboration, and doing their best work.

Assuming "bad" creates a negative and constrictive energy - no good. Assuming good creates expansive, safe and creative energy - very good. An easy and obvious choice, yet intention and choice are easier said than action and consistency. Why?

Three common reasons: 1) lack of awareness - they don't even realize they're doing it, 2) habit - defaults can be tricky to shake, 3) busy-ness - for whatever reason, it seems easier and quicker to go to the dark side. (This of course is a lie - assuming good takes a lot less energy and has greater returns.)

Of course if there was a #4 reason, it might be that there are some who get a lot of mileage out of assuming bad (yes, they do exist), but in my experience, that's not the majority. (And I'm assuming that the people reading this want to assume good and lead well.)

It's easy to default to "defense mode" and to assume "bad" or to just not be aware of intention at all. Assuming good, or even being aware of someone's true intention, takes awareness and curiosity to do this - and this is where we'll often fail to "get it right." When you move fast, when you have 4,368 things to do (by 6 tonight), and when you have so many competing priorities; awareness, curiosity, and "assuming good" are easily put on the back burner. The solution to this? Awareness, intention, commitment, and active engagement with assuming good: 70% of it is awareness, the other 30% is what you do with it.

So how do you do it?