Needing to speak up at work? Here are some tips:

1. Start with your commitment to the person, the department, and to the outcome of the conversation, with an intention to forward the action.

2. State the facts of the situation. Separate the facts from your interpretation. 

3. Share the impact the situation or their behavior has had on you. Frame what you have to say from your own perspective and point-of-view.  

4. Be authentic and believe it or not, you can’t lose if you speak straight from the heart. It helps them to listen generously, especially if they have had an unintended impact on you. 

5. Leave the conversation with a resolution. It may not be fully resolved, just start somewhere and go from there. You may have to make a request or two and possibly negotiate some new promises between each other.  Focus on finding a solution, not who is at fault.

In the world of business... profit, advancement, proving oneself, etc., can often blind us to bringing decency into the equation.  It is our intention to demonstrate such thinking is short-sighted! 

You start with learning how to listen. The first step is to understand that we are typically listening to the conversation we are having in our head about what the other person is saying.

Curiosity is one of my core values and I enjoy practicing it, through:

1. Proactive reading, listening, questioning and conversing

2. Thoughtful sifting, consideration, and discussion of new information

3. Planning as to appropriate applications

Organizations that choose to build their success on the sound principles of economics and the practices of decency can lead the way to return our society to a more collaborative and harmonious character.   

It’s hard to catch your own errors. This can be something as trivial as transposing the letters in “the” to “hte,” or something as significant as omitting the core explanation of your article.

Our brain generalizes words & letters as we re-read our work in favor of creating sentences and meaning, and this is where a partner is crucial to double check your work

We all have opinions, desires, and ideas. We will unconsciously look for similar beliefs and common preferences in every conversation and interaction we have with others. If we don’t have that alignment, it’s automatic to form some judgment about what the person is saying.

When we know we have a good clean-up tool at our fingertips we are free to communicate openly. Walking on eggshells in any relationship can restrict creativity, productivity, vitality, love and a host of other things we hold dear. 

When you commit to doing something or being somewhere, you hold yourself accountable for doing it accurately and in the time promised. 

Ask yourself, “Where am I playing small?  Where am I not letting my own light shine?” Take a look at your own judgments and limitations that get in the way of generously listening to the people you interact with the most every day. Become aware of your impact. Take accountability for how you perceive. Be the example of what you want to see.

Hidden within our blind spots are our “limiting factors.” What you see in the mirror is created by your beliefs, some are self-defeating, limiting. Finding them takes dedicated work, the rewards are exponential to the work.One final lesson from the Gospels of Thomas said, “never desist, find the light.”

Acknowledgment and appreciation are free and effective. Let people know they are on track consistently and you will find an increase in productivity and response. Acknowledge them for the job you hired them to do and let them know what you appreciate about the value and qualities they possess.

At times, fixing problems at the source may sound like a clear and easy set of steps to follow, but it may require more self-awareness and responsibility than complex thinking.

A basic tenet of our coaching practice at Momentum Consulting is accountability, an essential component of executive leadership training, both with individuals and teams. Those of you familiar with us have surely heard one of us say “…there’s no blame in accountability, and no accountability in blame”.

There are growing movements seen in tech, with designers, and leadership that are making consciousness a welcome “buzzword”. We are in an upswing where people are mindfully using technology, mindfulness practices, meditation, and experiences to not only expand their mind and well-being, but to also nurture their business.

We tend to measure a person’s character through their integrity and intention. We can measure a person’s competence through their capabilities and results produced. This gives us a formula for how we look for trust in others.It includes both subjective and objective considerations. If we identify that one or more of these Cores of Credibility are missing, we have specific information that helps us know where to start restoring trust with that person.

Our general success at running our lives on autopilot gives us the false impression that we are present and operating successfully. Truly sustaining high performance takes recognizing that the conversation steadily running through your mind, aka the “Narrator”, is not a kind of thinking.

Can you think of a time when you’ve tolerated unclear expectations? And did that muddy the process of producing results?

it is the responsibility of leaders to choose goals that matter. Only then does the necessary system of waterfalling those goals through the organization with key OKRs (objectives and key results) work effectively.

Find a way to take personal responsibility, to be innovative, assertive, and take initiative in creating the culture that you actually want