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Ideas for Impact

Where Empowerment Fails

September 28, 2023 By Nagesh Belludi Leave a Comment

Empowerment—giving employees greater autonomy—boosts engagement and creativity. It builds job satisfaction and improves retention. However, the success of empowerment initiatives depends on the personality traits of the managers implementing them down in the trenches.

Middle managers who value behaviors like team orientation, collaboration, and respectful interactions are more likely to enable their teams to set their own goals and entrust them to complete tasks in their way. But many managers in hierarchical structures embrace a certain command-and-control reflex that gets triggered in positions of power. Empowerment means transferring power to someone else, something they loathe. The alpha dimension to the personalities of these managers ends up micromanaging and impeding the autonomy of those in their team.

Idea for Impact: Relinquishing control over others and trusting employees not to abuse that responsibility isn’t easy for most managers; it takes someone very self-confident and secure to discharge empowerment.

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Filed Under: Leading Teams, Managing People Tagged With: Employee Development, Likeability, Mentoring, Motivation, Performance Management, Winning on the Job

Why You Should Make a Daily Appointment with Your Worries

September 25, 2023 By Nagesh Belludi Leave a Comment

Set aside specific 15- to 30-minute appointments on your calendar for focused “Worry Time.”

Make them regular if possible, as in “I’ll worry from 4:00 to 4:30 p.m. every evening.”

If a worry emerges before or after your Worry Time, jot it down and tackle it later.

For the span of your set Worry Time, agonize over whatever is bothering you. Chew on your problems or write them down. Then commit yourself to get back to your routine.

Don’t do this right before bed or first thing in the morning, especially if you tend to wake up with a sense of anxiety over everything that needs to be done.

Ruminating about the past and worrying about the future makes staying in the present moment impossible. It’s mentally and emotionally draining. It interferes with moving forward. Therefore, by using this focused time for worrying, you can get your worries out of the way. Put off any emergent worries until your next scheduled worry session, just as you should ‘do’ emails at set points during the day instead of letting them disrupt your flow.

Limiting your time to worry can also make your Worry Time productive. By having a clear limit to how much time you can spend thinking about an issue, you can push yourself to seek a solution instead of ruminating endlessly.

With some practice, you’ll learn not to let those inevitable anxieties flood your thoughts throughout your day.

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  5. Think Your Way Out of a Negative Thought

Filed Under: Living the Good Life, Mental Models, Sharpening Your Skills Tagged With: Anxiety, Introspection, Mindfulness, Task Management, Worry

Inspirational Quotations #1016

September 24, 2023 By Nagesh Belludi

A great writer is the friend and benefactor of his readers.
—Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay (English Writer, Politician)

The magic formula that successful businesses have discovered is to treat customers like guests and employees like people.
—Tom Peters (American Management Consultant)

The chief cause of failure and unhappiness is trading what you want most for what you want right now.
—Zig Ziglar (American Author)

When your own life is threatened, your sense of empathy is blunted by a terrible, selfish hunger for survival.
—Yann Martel (Canadian Novelist)

Successful careers are those that realize in the man the dreams of the child.
—Wallace Stevens (American Poet)

Because it is dangerous to ignore the existence of the irrational. The more cultivated a person is, the more intelligent, the more repressed, then the more he needs some method of channeling the primitive impulses he’s worked so hard to subdue. Otherwise those powerful old forces will mass and strengthen until they are violent enough to break free, more violent for the delay, often strong enough to sweep the will away entirely.
—Donna Tartt (American Novelist)

We are alone, absolutely alone on this chance planet; and amid all the forms of life that surround us, not one, excepting the dog has made an alliance with us.
—Max De Pree (American Businessman)

Trifles make perfection, and perfection is no trifle.
—Michelangelo (Italian Painter)

Pain was their body’s way of telling them that they’d pushed themselves to their limits—which was exactly where they were supposed to be.
—Richard Marcinko (American Navy Officer)

Ignorance is not merely a deficiency of knowledge but, in addition, it positively apprehends reality in a distinctive way. And being a distorted mode of conception, it creates a view of the world that is in opposition to, and in conflict with, the actual way the world is.
—Stephen Batchelor (British Buddhist Author, Teacher)

A man’s doubts and fears are his worst enemies.
—William Wrigley, Jr. (American Businessman)

Filed Under: Inspirational Quotations

Hate is Self-Defeating

September 23, 2023 By Nagesh Belludi Leave a Comment

Hatred and anger are emotions that are ultimately futile and self-defeating. The Buddha taught that negative and destructive emotions toward others only harm the person who holds them. He said, “In this world, hate never dispelled hate. Only love dispels hate. This is the law, ancient and inexhaustible. You too shall pass away. Knowing this, how can you quarrel?”

Hate may seem successful when it binds perpetrators and victims in a cycle of mutual retaliation and destruction, but this is only a fleeting success. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. taught that hate often leads to more hate. He said, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness.”

Idea for Impact: Choosing love over hate is the only way to defeat hate. You can deny hate even this fleeting success by modeling love in your speech, attitude, and actions. Look past people’s shortcomings and choose to accept, tolerate, forgive, and love. This is the wiser choice.

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  5. Think of a Customer’s Complaint as a Gift

Filed Under: Effective Communication, Managing People Tagged With: Anger, Conflict, Conversations, Emotions, Getting Along, Mindfulness

The Dark Side of Selfies

September 22, 2023 By Nagesh Belludi Leave a Comment

Selfies are generally acceptable to a certain extent. They provide a means to chronicle oneself and curate the highlights of one’s life, and as humans, we have an innate need to feel acknowledged and seen.

Selfies can be a tool for self-love and expression, allowing individuals to communicate something about themselves and present themselves in a certain way. When taken intentionally, a selfie can give the illusion of control over one’s fleeting identities, which is a natural desire. It’s perfectly fine to create a persona and seek others’ approval, as a healthy self-identity depends on it.

However, when taken too far, the desire to be liked and accepted can quickly become a constant need for validation and status. Self-objectification can cause one to forget that self-identity is primarily based on subjective, biased perceptions of others. Using selfies as the ultimate self-expression can lead to overinflated self-importance and shameless self-promotion.

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  1. Could Limiting Social Media Reduce Your Anxiety About Work?
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Filed Under: Health and Well-being, Living the Good Life, Sharpening Your Skills Tagged With: Attitudes, Confidence, Conflict, Simple Living, Social Dynamics, Wisdom

Stop Getting Caught in Other People’s Drama

September 21, 2023 By Nagesh Belludi Leave a Comment

If you’re drawn to a drama that has nothing to do with you, it’s okay to make yourself available briefly to help others fix their issues. However, beyond the seeming entertainment value of tuning in without any strings or consequences, odds are it’s actively interfering with your responsibilities.

Is getting consumed with other people’s drama just a form of escapism, allowing you to push attention away from stressful or unwelcome events in your own life for a brief amount of time?

To break the pattern of involvement in others’ dramas, shift your perspective and pay attention to what you’ll gain by not getting involved. Getting wrapped up in other people’s drama should never come at the expense of your own well-being.

Idea for Impact: Examine if you’re becoming interested in other people’s dramas because you’re evading your own reality. Set boundaries to preserve your own energy. Face your own life.

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Filed Under: Effective Communication, Living the Good Life, Managing People Tagged With: Conflict, Conversations, Discipline, Etiquette, Getting Along, Social Life

Separate the Job of Creating and Improving

September 20, 2023 By Nagesh Belludi Leave a Comment

You can’t write and edit, engrave and buff, or create and analyze simultaneously. If you try to do so, the editor will hinder the creator’s progress.

Don’t let the evaluator’s biases and entrenched behaviors get in the way of the maker’s creative process. Keep the niggling editor from creeping up during the initial draft.

Idea for Impact: In the early stages, the creator’s mind should be free from any judgment. Revising your way into a cut above is far more effective than trying to conjure brilliance out of thin air.

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Filed Under: Mental Models, Sharpening Your Skills Tagged With: Discipline, Getting Things Done, Lifehacks, Motivation, Perfectionism, Procrastination

Why Hiring Self-Leaders is the Best Strategy

September 19, 2023 By Nagesh Belludi Leave a Comment

The best leaders understand the power of self-leadership. When you have a team of self-leaders, you can step back and let them do what they do best—lead themselves.

To build a team of self-leaders, look for naturally curious, driven, and goal-oriented individuals. Seek out people who can work independently and collaborate with others when needed. These folks only need a little hand-holding, are self-motivated, and take the initiative without being told what to do.

Idea for Impact: With a team of self-leaders, you can focus on the bigger picture and trust that the day-to-day tasks are handled with care. So, consider hiring a team of self-leaders to take your organization to new heights. They’ll get things done efficiently and effectively while freeing you up to focus on what matters most.

Wondering what to read next?

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Filed Under: Leading Teams, Managing People Tagged With: Coaching, Employee Development, Feedback, Great Manager, Hiring & Firing, Human Resources, Mentoring

The “Adjacent Possible” Mental Model

September 18, 2023 By Nagesh Belludi Leave a Comment

The “Adjacent Possible” consists of all those ideas that are one step away from what actually exists. One thing leads to another, and when you achieve an adjacent possibile, you may hit upon more adjacent possibles.

So exploring the edges can take you somewhere new that you can’t predefine. The adjacent possible is something that gets continuously shaped and reshaped by your actions and your choices.

Steven Johnson’s Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation (2010) urges, “The adjacent possible is a kind of shadow future, hovering on the edges of the present state of things, a map of all the ways in which the present can reinvent itself.”

Johnson borrowed the conception from biologist Stuart A. Kauffman’s The Origins of Order: Self-Organization and Selection in Evolution (1993.) This book examines a fundamental law of evolution: how everything has to evolve one step at a time within its realm of possibility, which sits directly adjacent to its current position. Novelty isn’t an abrupt, isolated happening, but rather stem from the voyaging of what is adjacent or related to what already exists.

Idea for Impact: Start at the edge of what works. Then, explore the adjacent possibile space. You may just get to those streams of opportunities that lead to the next big thing.

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Filed Under: Mental Models, Sharpening Your Skills Tagged With: Change Management, Discipline, Goals, Lifehacks, Problem Solving, Procrastination

Inspirational Quotations #1015

September 17, 2023 By Nagesh Belludi

There is nothing like a challenge to bring out the best in man.
—Sean Connery (Scottish Actor)

The hardest trial of the heart is, whether it can bear a rival’s failure without triumph.
—John Aikin (British Educator)

Base-minded they that lack intelligence; for God himself for wisdom most is praised, and men to God thereby are highest raised.
—Edmund Spenser (English Poet)

History is neither more nor less than biography on a large scale.
—Alphonse de Lamartine (French Poet, Politician, Historian)

There is no perfect fit when you’re looking for the next big thing to do. You have to take opportunities and make an opportunity fit for you, rather than the other way around. The ability to learn is the most important quality a leader can have.
—Sheryl Sandberg (American Executive, Author)

He never is alone that is accompanied with noble thoughts.
—John Fletcher (English Dramatist)

Whoever is happy will make others happy too.
—Anne Frank (German Holocaust Victim)

Most footprints on the sands of time were made with work shoes.
—Caroline Schoeder (American Aphorist)

The first time I read an excellent work, it is to me just as if I had gained a new friend; and when I read over a book I have perused before, it resembles the meeting with an old one.
—Oliver Goldsmith (Anglo-Irish Novelist, Poet)

Affectation hides three times as many virtues as charity does sins.
—Horace Mann (American Educator)

We usually meet all of our relatives only at funerals where somebody always observes: “Too bad we can’t get together more often.”
—Bernard Berenson (American Art Critic)

Carry on any enterprise as if all future success depended on it.
—Cardinal Richelieu (French Cardinal, Statemesan)

To be an ideal guest, stay at home.
—E. W. Howe (American Novelist)

A sage thing is timely silence, and better than any speech.
—Plutarch (Greek Biographer)

There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered.
—Nelson Mandela (South African Political leader)

Too many cousins ruin the shopkeeper.
—Jamaican Proverb

Filed Under: Inspirational Quotations

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About: Nagesh Belludi [hire] is a St. Petersburg, Florida-based freethinker, investor, and leadership coach. He specializes in helping executives and companies ensure that the overall quality of their decision-making benefits isn’t compromised by a lack of a big-picture understanding.

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Recently,

  • Where Empowerment Fails
  • Why You Should Make a Daily Appointment with Your Worries
  • Inspirational Quotations #1016
  • Hate is Self-Defeating
  • The Dark Side of Selfies
  • Stop Getting Caught in Other People’s Drama
  • Separate the Job of Creating and Improving

Unless otherwise stated in the individual document, the works above are © Nagesh Belludi under a Creative Commons BY-NC-ND license. You may quote, copy and share them freely, as long as you link back to RightAttitudes.com, don't make money with them, and don't modify the content. Enjoy!