Work blog

The steps for cultivating competence seem really obvious and simple but as you pick apart the specifics for each step its easy to see why it isn't for everyone.

Being competent requires effort.

You have to:

• Make the conscious choice to "show up" every single day, in mind, body AND soul.
• Encourage your own thirst for knowledge by asking "why" and mean it.
• Follow through on your quest for excellence, its easy to quit when you're busy or tired.
• Go above and beyond for yourself and for the people around you every day. Anything worth doing is worth doing well.
• Bring people with you. Strive to inspire and motivate others to strive to inspire and motivate.

"Every time you speak to people, five them something to feel, something to remember, and something to do. If you're successful in doing that, your ability to lead others will go to a new level." - John C. Maxwell

 In chapter 4 Maxwell talks about the keys to communicating successfully. 

• Keep it simple
• Understand your audience
  
• Believe in what you say
• Give them something to feel, remember and to do

I must confess, as much as I love to talk, I'm not sure I'm the best communicator. I do feel confident in my ability to understand the audience that I am speaking to and to speak in a language that they'll understand. 

What I'm committing to do after reading this chapter is to hone my ability to simplify my message and to inspire those to act upon it.

I've been in the audience where the presenter has effectively anticipated questions, been mindful of time in order to allow for questions and ended with a evoking call to action. This type of presentation is what I strive for and use as a model for my own communication.

Like most people I have always thought of charisma as something that you are born with and have struggled to really define what it means, let alone how to develop it. Charisma, for me, was one of the most exciting qualities discussed in the book "21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader" and to be honest, one of the most important. Not because having charisma makes you a better person, but because it makes everyone around you feel like a better person.
The book outlines four ways that you can develop this quality, two of which deal with how you live your life and other two are all about what you give others.
People who posses this quality truly do love life, they don't fake it. Challenges are just that..challenges, nothing that can't be overcome and learned from as a result. They are passionate about life, they celebrate life, they enjoy life. The reason this makes them charismatic is because they want to share their passion, laughter, celebrations and wisdom with those around them.
With each chapter in this book, my favorite has been the "Bringing it Home" section. This is the area where the author talks about real steps one could take to further develop a particular quality.

To improve charisma there were three suggestions:

1. To take a moment during conversations with others to reflect on how often you talk about yourself and make it a point to focus on what others are saying instead
2. Whenever you meet someone new do everything you can to make a great impression, but mean it. Learn their name, what their interests are and be friendly towards them.
   
3. Share with others. Share yourself, your resources, your experiences and your journey. 

Charisma is the ability to draw people to you, and while their there, make them feel good. I think that is pretty darn cool.

I recently attended a workshop that was based on the book "21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader" by John Maxwell. I was intrigued by the title of this workshop because we all talk about leadership those that posses the qualities of a leader, but I've never actually seen the qualities spelled out.

In the book Maxwell lists the 21 qualities as Character, Charisma Commitment, Communication, Competence, Courage, Discernment, Focus, Generosity, Initiative, Listening, Passion, Positive Attitude, Problem Solving, Relationships, Responsibility, Security, Self-Discipline, Servanthood, Teachability and Vision.

I spent some time during this workshop to reflect on what these qualities actually were, how many I possessed and which of them I should work on strengthening. The cool thing about the book is that John was able to break down the terms into real executable items. It was at that point I made the decision to spend one week really looking at each quality, specifically in the context of my day-to-day interactions.
 
This being my first week, I began with Character. Maxwell stated that character is created each time we make a choice and can be developed over time unlike other innate abilities such as talent, intellect, and creativity. This is also true of the other 20 qualities he lists in the book.

Character is also described as the quality that allows people to trust you and to believe that you will follow-through. On the flip side of this, character is also defined by how you identify past imperfections (because we ALL have them), face up to them and begin to rebuild your path going in the right direction.
 
This weekly blog commitment takes on a whole new meaning after thinking so hard about what character is and what I can do to strengthen my own. Whether or not anyone will read this post (or any hereafter) my choice to continue to write each week will be a testament to my ability to follow-through.

For several years we've worked with artistic and creative students from ART110S to create some pretty amazing stop-motion animation featuring everything from flowers to food. A typical project is created by stringing upwards of 500 photos taken by the student in chronological order.
One of my favorites was by Melanie Bowdish back in 2008:




On a few occasions the relevance of this project has been called into question with students asking "How often do people get hired because they know how to animate food?"

I came across this amazing music video for singer Kina Grannis and should stand as proof positive that sometimes seemingly irrelevant work is assigned to do more than just keep us busy.



This video has over 2600 individual frames completely made of jelly beans and featured the singer in almost all of them. The coolest thing about Kinas video is that they had made a "making of" video to go along with it!


 
I think I will contact the Art110S instructor and share this with her, as it may make for an interesting conversation starter when introducing the project to the class.

I was actually looking forward to the 6 hours worth of driving I had to do this weekend. I'm currently listening to Jane McGonigal's book "Reality is Broken" and I was excited at the prospect of getting to hear the next few chapters.

This book has affected me....why IS reality broken? Are we all so busy chasing the "American Dream" that we forget to build real emotional relationships? or forget to have some fun?

Jane argues that, as a society, we have gone so far out of whack that we really do need a way to add these pieces back into our lives. Games me us feel good. They make us feel stronger, smarter, and more capable. By strategically adding games into critical areas of our life we are able to create positive associations where there may have been none (or very little).

In Chapter 7 Jane highlights a few games that she uses to make even the most mundane tasks fun....and even a little more rewarding. One game that she mentions is Chore Wars, where people (characters) in a household (party) compete to do more chores (claim new adventures) and gain agreed upon rewards (controller of the remote, chooser of the driving playlist). My husband and I started playing last night and before I knew it we were racing to do laundry. Below is my Chore Wars game badge.


This is something I never thought I would see! It seems that making chores a game brings us closer because we are having fun together....experiencing more naches (joy and gratification).

Right now I am listening to chapter 8 of 14 and hoping to finish up the book during my evening run. Stay tuned for a full report when I'm done.

I've always been a fan of psychometric assessments like the Myers-Briggs and Keirsey tests, so I was looking forward to the Strengths Quest when preparing for the LTL conference last week.

What I found is that this test was totally different than any I had taken in the past. The goal of this assessment is to gain insight into the areas where I naturally excel and how to leverage them at work. Instead of being "personality" based, this assessment takes a positive approach, is skills based and SPOT ON accurate.

I immediately thought that it would be something others at ETS might really enjoy....Seriously! I learned so much about the skills secretly hiding in the ways that I naturally think, feel and behave as an individual. Not everyone has the exact same set of skills and I feel like this should be celebrated by understanding more fully what we love to do and have the most success....because who doesn't want to be successful?! 

What I like about Strength Finder is just how much information you get back. This is just some of what you get:

1. Strength Finder Certificate - A certificate of your Signature Themes.
2. Signature Theme Report - This report lists your Signature Themes and their full descriptions.
3. Signature Theme Report with Action Items - This report lists your Signature Themes; their full descriptions; and for each theme, specific actions you can take for strengths development.
4. Strengths Insight Report - This report presents a brief shared description and personalized Strengths Insights for each of your Signature Themes.
5. Strengths Insight and Action-Planning Guide - This guide presents your Signature Themes and (for each theme): a brief shared theme description, personalized Strengths Insights, examples of what the theme "sounds like," and 10 ideas for action. There are also questions you can answer to help you increase your awareness of your talents and how to apply them for achievement.
6. Strengths Insight Guide (Brief) - This guide presents a brief shared description and personalized Strengths Insights for each of your Signature Themes. There are also questions you can answer to help you increase your awareness of your talents.
7. Strengths Discovery and Development Guide - This strengths discovery and development guide lists your Signature Themes; their full descriptions; and for each theme, specific actions you can take for strengths development. It also includes strengths discovery questions, development actions, and suggestions for focusing on strengths.

Please leave a comment if you are interested in finding your own strengths!

It's official, I drank the Kool-aid and I'm more than a little excited about what is going on with gaming right now, more specifically gamification (using game-like elements to increase engagement).
 
On May 20th the New York Public Library launched Find the Future, an augmented reality game created to celebrate the library's 100th anniversary.

Find The Future at NYPL brings visitors to the Library together with players around the world to tap into the creative power of the Library's collections.

It is the first game in the world where winning the game means writing a collaborative book based on your personal stories about the future, and this volume will be added to the Library's collections.

To Play:

• Start a quest and activate your available artifacts

         (artifacts are unlocked by library visitors)

• Collect your artifact powers with each activation
  

• Write your artifact stories and collaborate with other players to create your own epic!

They even have a mobile app you can use while exploring the stacks!

You'll have to watch the trailer to understand just how awesome this project is: