When We Make Up Labels,
We Also Start Looking for Scapegoats!
<<First Name>>, I don't know about you, but I'm already tired of 'Quiet Quitting'. Quiet Quitting is not new. It's a new label for an old pattern.
Just because we notice it more often now, doesn't mean it hasn't always been there.
It also triggers me to see the same old titles around 'quiet quitting is all about bad bosses'. No, it's not ALL about that!
I'm pretty frustrated with blaming it all on the bad bosses.
First of all, because there is no ONE definition of what a bad boss really is. And working with lawyers for more than 15 years, you learn that the first thing you need to do is DEFINE things BEFORE you start talking about them.
👀 what makes a boss bad in one place, makes them good in another.
👀 what makes a boss bad for someone, makes them good for someone else.
👀 what makes a boss bad has a lot to do with the environment they operate in.
👀 what makes a boss bad can also be a matter of perspectives.
👀 what makes a boss bad?
Second - and most importantly - I work with many team leaders to help them become dream bosses! And I see their struggle!
They are people who want to be great leaders, who are self aware, who want to do the work, who care about their people, who want to see their teams grow into dream teams! And it's these team managers and leaders themselves who struggle, a WHOLE LOT!
They find their hands are tied more often than not.
They find themselves stuck in (sometimes obsolete) processes.
They find that they are leading rather intuitively, because their promotion did not necessarily come with proper training or coaching on HOW to lead a team.
They worry about their team's motivation and engagement levels, they look for solutions and are not always supported by their direct managers or the HR processes, or the company culture.
I also think most of us had at least one of those colleagues, way before the pandemic, who were 'quietly quitting'.
People who were not going the extra mile either because they were hired for the wrong role, when they would have been a better fit for a different one, or because to them that job was just that - 'just a job', or because they felt this was all that they could do at that moment - for so many different reasons, from personal values and beliefs all the way to company culture.
All this to say - labels trigger me, blaming triggers me even more. 'Let's blame it on someone so we feel better about it' never helped anyone look for solutions.
Quiet quitting has been here for a long time.
And it has to do with accountability: in hiring, in training, in developing company culture, in creating career paths, in knowing what your professional growth and development looks like.
THAT accountability that starts with understanding ourselves, our power, our responsibility and our impact first, no matter the hierarchy!
To quote Forrest Gump, 'that's all I gotta say about that'. What's your take?
It's all personal, nothing is just business: a talk about the power of self and mind.
<<First Name>>, 'E.T.: The Extra-Terestrial' is one of my favourite movies ever! And I know I am probably not alone in this:).
But do you know the story of ET's becoming? How he ended up as the main character of one of the best Sci-Fi movies ever?
The character is based on an imaginary friend Spielberg created after his parents' divorce, when he was 15 years old. As he had a vivid imagination, he created this character that was ‘the brother he never had and father he didn’t feel he had anymore’.
It took some 20 years for 'E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial' to become a movie and be released in 1982. Considered one of the greatest films ever made, it was widely acclaimed by critics as a timeless story of friendship, and it ranks as the greatest science fiction film ever made in a Rotten Tomatoes survey. In 1994, it was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
I was fascinated by Steven Spielberg's story, as it truly sheds light on the power of our Self and Mind, and on how we can tap into our own superpowers!
In this talk, I make the case for why I keep saying 'it's All Personal, nothing is just business', and how we can help our own 'E.T.' shine its bright light.
Because if it wasn’t All Personal, I do believe E.T. would have remained the imaginary friend of a very imaginative teenager.
PS: I still have this T-shirt! and my hair wasn't blue, yet:)).
