Before I retired from IBM, I seemed to blog more regularly. Now that I am supposedly in the green pasture, I ought to have more time. It has not worked out so far.
But this being the last day of the year, it's really a good time to finish off the year with a reflective entry about LPG.
We had a great LPG year in 2008. We completed another round of discussions and practicing of the 7 Habits of Highly Effective people. On the 7 habits, our discussions were led by various members at different times including Roger, Taylor and Jin-Dong and me. Donna did a vision alignment session for us. And Abbey led an insightful couple of sessions on Emotional Intelligence for us.
Our LPG distribution list has expanded to include non-IBM members and we do have the potential to link to a larger community.
So, it has been a remarkable year. I would like to thank everyone for making it a success.
As to next year, there are interests to go deeper into Emotional Intelligence started already by Abbey. Hoa had volunteered to lead the discussions at least for the first two sessions.
Sandra has suggested to have our meeting go for an hour and a half. Here is our suggestion, we will block off the calendar for 1.5 hour. The first one hour is formal meeting and those who can and would like to can stay for the additional 1/2 hour to continual the discussions informally.
Happy New Year!
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Monday, December 8, 2008
Encouragement
Last week's IBM Toastmaster meeting theme was "Encouragement".
Someone once said that worthwhile causes fail only when participants begin to give up. In other worlds, team members became so discouraged to the point they no longer contribute to the cause.
Nothing else has changed--the need for the project is still there--whether it is raising awareness for global warming, helping children in needs, etc.
There are many reasons for people to get discouraged. I won't get into that.
Here I would like to share the lessons I learned to handle discouragement. It's straight out of Covey's Habit 1-Be Proactive. I call it the Rule of Five. For every discouragement I encounter, I treat it as an opportunity to offer encouragement to myself and too others. If I received one negative feedback or encountered one difficult obstacle, I would make a point to do 5 things to encourage others or to myself.
I have found that helps me not to give up and restore my energy and commitment to go on.
For example, last week, I went to a meeting and no one else showed up. I was the only one there. Out of that discouragement, I have started to do five things to encourage myself and others.
Perhaps, a thank you note to friends that I have made, or for new and interesting things that I have learned.
And you guess it. writing this blog and reminding people of the next LPG meeting on Emotional Intelligence is also one of those 5 things.
PS: For more information about Friday's LPG meeting: here is the link http://middlewaygroup.com/partners/leadership-practice-group-lpg/copy_of_emotional-intelligence-session-1
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My website: http://sites.google.com/site/allnodeavatar/
Someone once said that worthwhile causes fail only when participants begin to give up. In other worlds, team members became so discouraged to the point they no longer contribute to the cause.
Nothing else has changed--the need for the project is still there--whether it is raising awareness for global warming, helping children in needs, etc.
There are many reasons for people to get discouraged. I won't get into that.
Here I would like to share the lessons I learned to handle discouragement. It's straight out of Covey's Habit 1-Be Proactive. I call it the Rule of Five. For every discouragement I encounter, I treat it as an opportunity to offer encouragement to myself and too others. If I received one negative feedback or encountered one difficult obstacle, I would make a point to do 5 things to encourage others or to myself.
I have found that helps me not to give up and restore my energy and commitment to go on.
For example, last week, I went to a meeting and no one else showed up. I was the only one there. Out of that discouragement, I have started to do five things to encourage myself and others.
Perhaps, a thank you note to friends that I have made, or for new and interesting things that I have learned.
And you guess it. writing this blog and reminding people of the next LPG meeting on Emotional Intelligence is also one of those 5 things.
PS: For more information about Friday's LPG meeting: here is the link http://middlewaygroup.com/partners/leadership-practice-group-lpg/copy_of_emotional-intelligence-session-1
--
My website: http://sites.google.com/site/allnodeavatar/
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