What you check at the door
I've been following Colin Morley's blog, Empowerment Illustrated, for a while now. I have little love for mucking around with the tools of blogging - it's the writing practice that keeps me at it - but Colin's blog was the impetus for putting aside this distaste and equipping this page with a blogroll, so he could be on it. (There are others just as deserving, who'll be appearing on the list as time goes by.) This entry of Colin's made my day earlier this week. I want you to go read it now, and while you're at it check out the rest of Colin's blog, before you come back here.Many people are uneasy with the word "soul" enters into a conversation. I'm one of these people. Don't be distracted by the word, and consider instead the question of whether you come into work as a whole person, or whether you check at the door any part of who you are: your feelings, your ethics, your passions, your vulnerabilities, your ambitions.
If you do, you are not as powerful a person as you might be - at least in your workplace.
This is a key lesson from practice and from my readings over the previous three or four years, from Jerry Weinberg to Peter Block through Tom DeMarco, Barry Oshry or even Michael Bosworth or Jacques Werth. Bring the person you are, entire, to the work you do.
three comments:
I remember an interview for a HR girl when I was applying for a job in my early days. (10 years agos?...) She did the kind of sorcery those girls do by analysing of your handwriting, physical behavior and so on…
She told me: “the environment you work in matter to you.”
In those early days, I told her “of course, I dont like noisy offices”.
I recently I understood she was right and I began to look for companies not only providing interessant jobs, but also considering you as a human with a creative power that bring an essential value to the organisation.
Believe me, those companies are not numerous.
Bernard Notarianni () - 18 03 04 - 15:52
And by the way, Laurent, stop giving us so many links to the books you read: my bank account is going to crash on Amazon! ;)
Bernard Notarianni () - 18 03 04 - 15:59
Why should I put my “soul” at risk at work? It is just something I do to pay the bills. If I fully invested myself in work, it would use up more internal resources than I want to devote to it. I’d rather devote those resources to personal projects, friends, family, etc.
Brian C Robinson () - 22 03 04 - 22:12
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