Last Installment of the Series
Differences Make Us Better. There are nearly eight billion different people in the world. And we are all like an iceberg. Everyone can only see ten percent of who we are, and that ten percent isn’t easy to determine either. It shouldn’t be. What matters most though, is that hidden ninety percent that reflects our core values and the strengths in our wheel of life priorities.
When I was promoted from a director to a vice president, it proved to be an incredible lesson about differences. One candidate for my former position had many of my same traits so it was easy to picture that individual succeeding in my old role, and the other differed in many ways. The first candidate was male, and the second candidate was female. There were many differences between the two and I felt more likely to recommend the man who had similar traits that I believed suited the role. It’s easy to reflect on this now and see that I was afraid to hire someone different than me. Luckily after much positive discussion with my CEO I ended up making the right call and hiring Dora, a strong, vibrant Hispanic woman. Our differences and complementary strengths drove us toward greater success.
Comfort Zone. What keeps us in the comfort zone bubble is fear. Fear is where we lack self-confidence. We often find excuses. We are too easily affected by others’ opinions. The learning zone is where we begin to stretch ourselves and the comfort zone. When we finally decide to bust through the fear zone, we deal with challenges and problems face-to-face. We acquire new skills and clearly extend our comfort zone. We find our purpose, live dreams, set new goals, and conquer objectives.
My comfort zone was challenged to do a comedy bit on Facebook Live. At that point in my social media life, a Live was a first and a huge challenge.
I hit the Live button on Facebook and off I went. My hands got into the act once-in-a-while as I told the story of shopping with my now 93-year-old Mom. I caught the cord at one point with my left hand, which caused the laptop to slip and twist. Then I noticed people typing comments in the lower left-hand corner of my computer screen that they couldn’t hear me. I didn’t know you could type while I was talking.
Now what do I do?!?! I decided I would just plow through and continue and then post in the comments what essentially was the punchline to the story. I was both mortified and ecstatic.
I did finish the Live, though, and now I do my best to do a Facebook Live daily. It was a great learning opportunity.
TLC. The last step in the road map is TLC, which is team leadership culture. The tool to assess that is DISC, which is a behavioral and personality assessment tool. With it being the fifth and final step, your journey is now focused on the “out” part of inside out. DISC offers you ways to communicate and build culture in the workplace and engage with others. When used correctly, DISC builds individuals, teams, departments, and organizations. It is all about a culture shift. Quality communication leads to trust.
This is my mission to revolutionize company culture and leadership. Reach out to me to learn more!