Jul 6, 2018 | Coaching, collaboration, creativity, Diversity & Inclusion, transformation
I met a new culture and it was alien to me. So much so that I thought of the Pod People (also known as Body Snatchers, a species of plant-like aliens featured in the 1955 novel The Body Snatchers by Jack Finney and the 1956 movie Invasion of the Body Snatchers). It was one that I wanted to understand and quite frankly couldn’t ignore. Maybe you’ve felt this way too.
So how bring a new culture into your comfort zone from your discomfort zone? My thoughts…Take it on like a new course that you are studying – the beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors of the people of that culture and how they interact together. Approach it with the curiosity and intensity of a researcher. Ask questions. Watch and learn. Read. Listen and observe. Notice the way the people dress, talk and use words…their music, commitments, fears, challenges, use of technology and any other aspect that drives them. Your new cultural awareness could be about a generation, gender, race, industry, or corporation… If you are feeling those in that culture are alien to you, that they are using different meanings behind the same words – learn and appreciate their words and ways.
And as you learn more, do more, and sincerely question, you will be creating a bridge of empathy between you and “the others”. Your understanding makes you a truly unique person.
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Jul 2, 2018 | Coaches Corner, Coaching, feedback, Leadership
Giving feedback is an art and a science. Some distinctions between feedback, opinions, criticism, and passive aggressiveness. Under the guise of “feedback,” we might give any of them.
- Feedback: Behaviorally based information given for the betterment of another. It is an intention based on caring.
- Opinion: interpretation and subjective
- Criticism: Negative subjective judgment
- Passive aggressiveness: Something that you say is “feedback” pretending that it is well-intentioned but it isn’t. It is a sneaky slam on somebody.
The art of feedback begins with you, the giver of it. Your why what and how intention. It is an empathetic process and often a “crucial conversation”.
The science of feedback is that it is about what we say and do. It turns around a career, company, or marriage. Feedback leads to dialogs between the giver and the receiver of it, which can lead to mutual understanding, fulfillment, and success. We need feedback coaches to learn how what we say and do, sometimes unconsciously, leads to an impact which we may or may not want to create. Can you imagine a basketball player not looking at videos (feedback), or having a coach (feedback), or not wanting to learn at a hall of fame player’s camp (feedback)? We can improve, change, transform our thinking if we decide to use the feedback. It is up to us.
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