 |
 How do you say "thank you" to employees who go above and beyond their job description? How do you appreciate loyalty, commitment and caring? How do you help your employees maintain balance in today's fast paced world? Our new DAY AWAYTM program is the perfect solution. What we offer is a relaxing environment at The Country Place Retreat and Conference Center, an easy drive from Philadelphia or Manhattan. We provide a nutritious meal, either lunch or dinner, a variety of massage options, hiking on one of many nature trails, contemplation while walking the beautiful new labyrinth, an opportunity to experience stress reduction in the meditation health room and a gift of the chef's special homemade organic dessert of the day. Your valued employees will long remember the special day you set aside for them to take care of themselves so they can return to work renewed and invigorated. This gift can be an appreciation for a birthday, retirement, employee of the month award or for a special job well done. DAY AWAYTM retreats are scheduled for July 15th & August 12th, 2005. For more information please contact MaryJane@retreatpa.com or call (570) 636-3858 Share your favorite story about getting an award, giving an award and the importance of rewards and recognition at work on our chat room.
|
  | Never Enough Did you ever wonder about the M.D., Ph.D. on his way to law school? Or, the executive mom of 5 off to conquer Mt. Everest? Or, the executive who owns two successful companies, each demanding constant attention who is hell bent on starting a third? At what point is a super achiever locked into an addiction of never enough? Our culture values achievement. Yet, have you ever stopped to consider the source of that need to be the best, often at the cost of relationships or health? The Buddhist philosophy has a name for this continued striving. It is called "feeding the hungry ghost". Are you someone who requires the word "super" in your name? Is there a "hungry ghost" demanding to be fed living in your psyche? Do you ever wonder who you are really pleasing? And, more importantly, why? Helen is the CEO of a large apparel company. Her name is synonymous with excellence. Her income puts her in rarefied air. She sits with a small percentage of CEO's on the Fortune 500 list. Her skills and talents are obvious. She deserves what she has earned. Yet, as a boss, she is seen as overly demanding. In street talk, she is known as a bitch. No one trusts her with their ideas. She is known to take all the credit for innovations and she's a me, me, me kind of person.
So, when did the hungry ghost make its presence known? When did a little girl growing into a woman become a striving, overachieving, obsessive person putting success into overdrive? Her pattern of overachieving began way before her birth in Eastern Europe. Her family, proud of their Jewish heritage, were educated, seekers of knowledge. There were doctors and lawyers and business people. Her father owned a major retail store in Berlin. Her great grandmother and mother were privileged and pampered. Until the Jews were seen as "the reason" for all the problems in the world. Her family was one of the lucky ones. They got out. They left in the dead of night, over the border, in silence. Her mother, a child of four at the time, was given brandy to make sure she would sleep through the ordeal and not cry out. Her family had the money and the foresight to leave. They realized that it was not just a brief ill wind blowing across the land, but an epidemic of evil. The borders closed. The others in the family, aunts, uncles, cousins, were caught in the maelstrom. Those who survived the concentration camps were the professionals, especially the physicians. So, as Helen grew up, she was aware of only two career choices. Be a doctor and be needed for your special skill, or be so rich you can get out before they get you. She chose the latter. Read more... |
| “Patterns In Play” is a new column devoted to bringing you a case study of a specific pattern in play at work. We invite you to visit our Chat Room at www.ceoptions.com to share your comments and your own personal challenges. Patterns are “repetitive reactions that can keep us stuck in the world of ‘always’ and ‘never’ and influenced by family, culture and crisis. Leaders who can learn to read and redesign patterns can help create a work environment that limits the game called office politics. |
|
  Staff Recognition and Appreciation: Karen Ambrogi Karen began her business career as a technical sale representative. Her understanding about the complex equipment she sold helped her see how things are connected and how one part of a machine affects the entire machine. A natural born searcher, she took her knowledge of machines and began to explore the concept of connectedness in relationships, especially in groups. This led her to a new career taking groups to Peru to study the indigenous culture of the Incas and how the teachings of the long gone past impact us now. Karen rented our Country Place Retreat and Conference Center for a pre-Peru trip. She was, as she tells it, fascinated by the leadership quotes in the great room. She decided to experience the Total Leadership Connections program as part of her personal learning. Well, this led her to a new career, once again, as a TLC facilitator. She has come full circle and will be selling, as well as facilitating, our newest half-day and one-day corporate program, "Ouch! What To Do With Conflict At Work" and "Get The But Out Of Your Yes". She is working with highly technical, complex equipment — human beings in their work environment. Thank you, Karen, for your tenacity and vision. |
|
Be careful how you say it! Communication can impact the health and well being of your employees. That was the theme of Dr. Sylvia Lafair's message at the Executive Women's International dinner meeting on May 5th. Showing the power of framing sentences for clarity and power, she agrees with Yoda in the second Star Wars film where he told Luke Skywalker "Do, or do not. There is no try." The word try makes your statements weaker since there is not total commitment. "Yes but" stops the flow and puts up walls of judgment. As Denise Sancali, President of J&J Limo said, "I learned the impact simple words have on us and others and I am thinking about what I say before I say it. Dr. Lafair's presentation was an equal amount of information and fun". For more information about our presentations, contact Jane at (570) 636-3858 or email jane@ceoptions.com. |
 | In Praise of Praise Q: | "I have direct reports who are well motivated and help make our team very successful. Once a quarter, we have a lunch meeting to reward and acknowledge excellence. There is one man in the group however who seems to need more recognition than the others. When he doesn't get an award (usually a certificate for dinner at an upscale local restaurant or tickets for a sporting event) he sulks and deflates the positive energy of the meeting. The purpose is to share in the successes. If he were a female I'd call him a prima donna, so I guess he could be dubbed a prima don! Any suggestions?" | A: | One of the most difficult questions for a leader or a parent, for that matter, is to answer when is enough enough? We know that too much of anything, including oxygen or food, can become toxic. So, is there such a thing as too much praise, too many rewards or recognition? Just like food or oxygen, we need to be appreciated. Just like food or oxygen, too much acknowledgment can become toxic, an addiction. When we begin to work for praise rather than accomplishment the quality of our work suffers, as do our relationships. As a leader you need to take this man aside and begin a dialogue about his hopes and dreams. What does success look like for him? How was he rewarded throughout his school years and in his family? What are the differences he feels when he is personally rewarded or when one of his colleagues is rewarded? Your task, as his boss, is not to analyze him; it is to lead him to a place where he can get an observation of his own behavior. And then, as he becomes self aware of the extreme quality of his competitive nature, of the demand for center stage and the negative impact that has on the rest of the team you can praise him, praise him, praise him! Every step towards self awareness is a cause for celebration and while you are patting him on the back, give yourself a gift of your own choosing knowing you are helping him and your entire team continues to grow. |
|
|  Sylvia Lafair, Ph.D. is the President and Co-Founder of Creative Energy Options, Inc. Her long-standing success has come from helping individuals, teams and organizations uncover the habits and patterns that have been the underlying drivers of behavior. She is currently writing a book about patterns in the workplace. If you would like Sylvia to answer your question, e-mail it to info@ceoptions.com |
|
PEPtalk is a free monthly eNews from Creative Energy Options, Inc. (CEO)—a global consulting, coaching and leadership development company on the cutting-edge of business transformation. We hope it provides the solutions you need to apply the Pattern Aware Leadership (PAL) System to your daily work and home life. It is published every month and filled with leadership news and views, success stories, special events and valuable tips to energize your leadership.
We don't spam - you have to subscribe to the "PEPtalk eNews." If you have received this you are considered subscribed. To unsubscribe, simply click HERE. Thank You. |
|
