What is being open-minded?

We say to be open is a pleasant trait. Therefore, we all strive to be an open-minded person.

What is exactly being open-minded?

Being open is an altitude. It’s an altitude towards work and life. Being open provides you more opportunity to see things in many angles, with more possibilities and options. It also provides you more opportunities to connect with people, to get closer to the truth of a matter, to get more accuracy to do things.

Does open-minded mean you have to listen to others all the time? Most of the time? Or some of the time?

It really depends…

Being a leader, you may need to be more open in order to get fuller evaluation of a situation. Therefore, you will get better judgement and reduce the chance for potential risk. You can make decisions quickly for smaller things, but with open discussion and debate for bigger (fewer) decisions.

Jeff Bezos said “People who are right a lot listen a lot, and they change their mind a lot.”

He believes that if you do not change your mind frequently, you are going to be wrong a lot.

Therefore, being open means you need to be ready to change your minds, to face tough situations, to embrace the pain to grow stronger.

Being open-minded is not a show. It gets to be from the bottom of your heart. Only then, you can learn, grow, and get better for what you do.

Live truly for yourself with a growth-mind, ie, an open-mind.

Work with purpose

We all want to have the drive for a good work.

However,

Some days we are not clear what we do will deliver our expected results or not. Some days we are frustrated by many meticulous things in life and at work. Some days we are distracted… or tired…

we are human.

To have a good day of work is to know your purpose every day. Every time you feel not clear about what you do. You will need to take a break and dig deep to think your purpose of work.

Because every moment is unique. Once it passes, it’s gone forever. To make our work enjoyable, we need have a purposeful doing. This will make us feel meaningful, energize us and have a good day.

You could have a few times a day, say five moments, to pause, reflect, meditate, looking for bigger picture, appreciate… realign your work with your purpose.

Each moment could last a few minutes, or even some seconds. It can make a big difference to your quality of work.

Work with purpose.

Live your best now

When we have something good, we easily want to save it for later. Sometimes, later never arrives.

Actually this is a perfect signal that we need to use this good stuff – it may be a good idea, a good read, a good conversation… whatever it is, you need to act on it.

Only then you are doing your best, you are living your best life freely. You do not hold back from anything. You are stretching, growing and making a difference.

You do not need reservation. If you have anything good, use it, live it.

Live your best life now.

Job security depends on what?

I have a friend, who moved to a new and an executive position of a medium company. She was excited with this opportunity and worked very hard for the first a few months to learn and adapt to the new environment.

Nine months into her position, she was screwed by a senior colleague. And the fears from the new colleagues regarding the changes brought by her did not help. She suddenly had to face a challenge that most of her middle management members wanted her out by signing a petition letter.

She was mad at the surprise – not knowing what’s going on, where went so wrong…

Many meetings and tough conversations later, it turned out that the senior colleague played a crucial role to stir the pot which he had been adding explosive ingredients. Long story short, most of the colleagues eventually realized that my friend is a reliable, kind, trustworthy, wise person. They have accepted her after all.

This is lucky for her, you may say.

I was curious about her feeling during the tough period.

“Did you feel unsafe about your job?” I asked.

“No.” She said.

“Why?”

“Because I was true to my self for everything I did. I did not feel I need apologize for anything or anyone for what happened, What frustrated me was why did it happen? Why I was so blinded?…” She explained.

Later I learned that she had fears, fearing that she could not do her best, fearing she could not accept by her teams… of course, she makes mistakes has this imposter syndrome as well. However, she never had the concern about her job security.

I know her well enough to understand her security about herself. Because she is the kind of indispensable person I know of. She does things with her heart and soul with generosity. She is the kind of person I would call Linchpin, as Seth Godin stated in his book. She has vitality and longevity for what she does. She does not have much time or room to worry about her job, because she has too much fun and curiosity towards life and work.

Job security comes with dedication, devotion and love towards to what you do.

Job security comes with initiatives and creation.

Job security comes with clarity about what you do.

When you are indispensable, job security is not in your way.

Love yourself first and foremost

I was educated to serve others first from very young by the environment I grew up. If I served myself first, I was criticized as selfish. Therefore, I had been tried hard to think for others, serve others first.

Until…I began my second job, I realized that I was not happy always put others first. When I was not myself, I could not treat others fairly, I could not make others happy even though I tried really hard.

I learned then that only when I am myself, I can treat others better. When I feel happy, I am happily doing my work, talking to others and living happily.

Me comes first is not a selfish act. It is actually a responsible act. It is first and foremost important rule in life.

Michelle Obama said the lesson she learned first year at White House is to love herself first. Only then she can love the President Obama, her daughters, her job and what she does…

Oprah said the similar thing, love yourself first before you could love anyone else truly.

Love yourself first and foremost, then you can love the world more, give more, and create more.

Ask for help…

Asking for help is not a easy thing to do. It does not come naturally to many people.

When we ask for help, we expose our weakness to others. We put ourselves at a vulnerable position, in case we get a refusal, an unfair judgement, or even a destained comments or looks…

However, asking for help also provides opportunity for us to learn, to make connection, to help others clarifying things… And the most important one is that this helps us grew stronger, more connected with others and the world we live.

Asking for help is to build our community, to form our team, to grow our leadership.

About alignments…

Very often I hear that many companies, departments, working groups seek for alignments before a decision is made. We all know that this is a typical culture for many Japanese companies. Consensus decision making is working in Japan.

Obviously there are advantages for aligned decision making approach. Such as, it can reduce the potential risks, it makes everyone throughly understood the approach therefore everyone has a clear goal in mind, it may get the best outcome with many round’s of discussion… this works better in a context of seeking stead growth.

And the disadvantages are also evident. It takes too much time, less flexible, not agile, and may kill productivity… this slows down a company’s development in a fast paced context.

Currently, we are in an environment more or less like the second scenario. We need to respond the demands from marketplace quickly with agility. Therefore, quick decision is needed more and more.

Decisions related to housekeeping matters are more suitable for aligned approaches, while those decisions related to company’s growth and development are required quicker responses, may not need to be aligned from time to time.

Starting to take lead and responsibilities to make decision is not a easy thing. It calls for courages, determination and wisdom.

Go with the flow

A close friend who has a typical type A personality, came back from a trip to Bali. She told me that the trip has big impact on her. The biggest one is to remember or remind herself from time to time to go with the flow.

“Why is that?” I asked her.

“Because I feel going with the flow relaxed me. I feel myself again, peace, happy and also become more energetic…”

She is right.

Flow is a energy. Going with flow is to go to the direction of energy. You give the way to the energy, not block the way of the energy. Of course you will feel better, because you are riding with the energy!

These are the moments when you are absorbed into doing your work, realizing your dream and making a difference with sweats.

What is being professional?

It does not matter what you do for living, you often hear the term – being professional.

What is exactly being professional? How does the person being professional look like?

She may be wearing suits, or dressing semi-formal. She speaks with knowledge and pleasant manner. She respects others. She delivers her results. She is herself: disciplined, works hard, emotional mature…

What else?

Is she a leader or a follower or both?

Will these roles change her behaviors as a professional?

One thing for sue is that as a professional, you create and produce values for what you do. Therefore, from time to time you will face situations where you will need break a structure, a system, a rule, or you face challenges to yield, bend your principles, even give up…

what will you do?

Do you need spiritual support, psychic power to beef it up?

Being professional calls for ethics, principles. This is the essence being a professional.

With your values, ethics and principles in mind, they empower you being professional.

Tough love

If use the tough love to link a scene, make a sentence, or tell a story, the first one comes to my mind is that we need to give the tough love to our children to let them grow stronger.

Then on a second thought, I realize that tough love can apply to many other areas of our life.

For examples: When we provide constructive suggestions or opinions to others honestly, we are presenting our tough love. When we expose our own vulnerability, we are giving ourselves a tough love.

It is not easy to give someone a tough love. This act calls for wisdom and courage.

Therefore, when someone presents you with their feedbacks and comments, please welcome and savor them. They give these to you, because they care about you. You are remarkable, therefore they make a remark to you.

When you show your vulnerability, you experience weakness, pain. You feel the wound. However, you grow new tissues and new muscles from there, and you become stronger.

On the other hand, it is also not easy for people to accept the tough love, because it needs labor – the physical labor and emotional labor, to be able to accept and receive the tough love.

It is like the pain for a new birth, receiving tough love needs the labor pain. However, this pain let’s us renew, makes us stronger.

Let’s embrace tough love.