Management Leadership

Does Your Personal Investment Inspire You?

| Brian E. Dick, MBA, MA, LPC

“If it (whatever it may be) isn’t inspiring you, what is the purpose of your investment in it?”

This is the question that we should all ask ourselves on a regular basis. It is very easy to fall into the trap of what we think we should do compared to what we would prefer to do.

Reasons Why We Fail to Look at What Inspires Us
1. A change appears to require too much effort.
2. We are worried about what people might think
3. Avoidance
4. The gravity pull is too great.
5. We are in survival mode.

Too often, do we not settle for what we have rather than evaluating whether we are really happy? The “co-dependence distortion” can tell us that any change may not matter or we fear that a change to something more inspiring is not something we deserve or can even consider.

Evaluate Whether You are Inspired
Here’s three questions you can use to evaluate whether what you are doing is inspiring and meaningful:

– do you feel excited about it everyday, does it captivate you?

– do you feel your activity enhances your enjoyment of other critical relationships?

– Are you lagging or contributing?

You’re the one that has to live with the experience. Why not make it something that inspires you. (Photo by Brian Dick)

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Don’t Stand In Your Organization’s Way

| Brian E. Dick, MBA, MA, LPC

In many environments and roles, leadership or otherwise, maintaining healthy boundaries with others is an important method to manage others. Setting good boundaries, protects an organization’s resources, maintains priorities and organizational direction, and prevents the wrong decisions from being made.

There is a fine line between keeping good boundaries and becoming a barrier to others, their growth, or development toward a goal. The ways boundaries can hurt are the following:

1. Stifles thinking, and problem solving

2. Enables the wrong behaviors in an organization

3. Keeps people from stepping up to meet challenges

4. Becomes an “unspoken” no – that prevents progress

5. Keeps others from solving their own problems – maintains dependency

6. Restricts opportunity for customers and our response

Boundaries can be a barrier where it artificially creates control, where it is not needed. This is for the benefit of the leader who needs control, or there are insecurities in the organization. It can stifle creative thinking, and emotionally create obstacles for workers or even worse yet, dependence on the leader. Examples of “boundaries” that may be unproductive in an organization:

– Complex rules, routines, procedures
– Rigid hierarchy and reporting structures
– Not fostering self-sufficiency or independent ideas in the workplace
– preventing access to services by prospective customers
– disrespectful interpersonal interactions

Rules and boundaries are needed to be sure, but when it starts to stifle progress toward the vision and goal, the above problems points should be considered. So much of what we believe is good for organizations, may be getting in the way and preventing the organization from going to a new level.

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