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Dear Colleague,
Since our last newsletter, my friend Kenny Moore and I held two webinars on change and its impact on you professionally, personally and spiritually. Both were well attended and we received some great questions and comments from the participants who came from all over the world. I'd like to share one of the themes that came out of the webinar that you might find useful in your business and in your personal life. |
One of the themes was around the importance of staying focused and centered when so much around you is changing. That's when applying the concept of mindfulness can make an observable difference in your attitude and in your life. Mindfulness involves the practice of being in the moment and not allowing the past or the future to take over your brain. Like the old saying goes, the past is gone, the future isn't here yet, and all we have is right now. Mindfulness is an Eastern principle that deals with a heightened awareness of how we interact with our environment.
If we learn to discipline ourselves to stay in the present, we usually stay calm and focused, and we tend to appreciate whatever is going on at that moment in time. In a mindful state, we typically are more open to new information, others' views and creating new ways of doing things. In his book, Sacred Hoops, basketball coach Phil Jackson describes how he trained the Chicago Bulls to stay mindful on the court so that each play became a new response to the last one. When they're mindful, the players don't think about the past shot or what the score might be at the end of the quarter; rather, they learn how to stay relaxed and how to play the game in the present moment.
Staying mindful as a leader can be a daunting challenge. With competing demands and doing more with less in the fast-paced, multitasking culture we live in, even thinking about being mindful is difficult. Yet, when I've conducted organizational assessments and interviewed hundreds of employees about who are the best leaders and why, consistently they single out certain supervisors as excellent leaders because they "make the time," "listen to what I'm saying - really listen," and "they make me feel like at that moment, what I have to say is the most important thing to them." If you'd like some practical tips on how to stay mindful, please click here. Click here to Get Tips on Staying Mindful in Your Work and Life.
Mary's Upcoming Talk in Tampa on June 24:
Making Your Business "Full Proof" in a Challenging Economy
In times of crises, uncertainty and change, companies can make key breakthroughs or they can flounder and, worse yet, go out of business. What's different in times of market and economic tension is that indecisiveness is not an option. Leading in lean times requires a different focus and strategy. Organizational performance expert, author and executive coach to CEOs, Dr. Mary Key, will discuss what works and what doesn't in tough times. You will get new ideas and tools on how to improve your company's performance, benefit from uncertainty and position yourself for growth. For more information, please contact Janet@keyassociatesinc.com.
My colleague Alice Graves is this month's contributing writer; her topic is an important one since so many messages get sent when we write to one another and it's the unintended ones that can come back to haunt us:
3 Tips for Effective Professional Writing by Alice Graves
I always tell people that your writing makes a first impression. Before a prospective employer or client ever meets you in person, they meet you in writing. You would never go to an important meeting unshaven, carelessly attired or looking messy. Similarly, you should never appear disheveled on paper. Your writing should reflect your professionalism and expertise.
Here are a few simple tips that will help you improve your writing:
Hint Number 1: An apostrophe is used to show possession, not plurality.
I once worked for a company whose VP was an assertive, dynamic individual, but his e-mails showed that he had never paid attention in his middle school language arts classes. His weekly e-mails always started with the sentence, "Here are the prospect's for this week." This glaring misuse of the apostrophe greatly diminished my respect for him.
Correct: Here are the prospects for this week. (No apostrophe: shows plurality)
Correct: The boys in the band wear chartreuse shoes. (No apostrophe: shows plurality)
Correct: The prospect's shoes were scuffed and dirty. (Shows possession: the shoes of the prospect)
Correct: The shoes' laces did not match the shoes. (Shows possession: the laces of the shoes)
Correct: The boy's prospects for a promotion are slim indeed. (Shows possession: the prospects of the boy)
Hint Number 2: Use the active rather than the passive voice.
The active voice is more direct, forceful and immediate than the passive voice. Look at these two sentences.
Passive: My first visit to Paris will always be remembered by me.
Active: I'll always remember my first visit to Paris.
The second sentence engages the reader more and puts the reader in the moment with the writer, making her want to know what comes next. And notice that there are fewer words in the second, adding to its clarity. Too many words, like cooks, muddy up the work product.
Hint Number 3: Less is more. Be concise.
In the early days when novels were serialized in newspapers, writers used to get paid by the word, so naturally they'd want to write as much as possible. You, however, do not get paid by the word. (If you do, stop reading this and go write!)
Ornate, purple prose may be fun to write, but it isn't fun to read and will lose your reader in the labyrinth of unnecessary words. Writing is most effective when it is free of extra, unnecessary, nonessential, surplus, obscuring wordy words.
Self-editing is the best way to tighten up your writing so that you can communicate in a clear, uncluttered, reader-friendly style. After all, a reader is a terrible thing to lose.
Alice Graves, J.D., M.Ed., M.F.A. is a freelance business and technical writer and a writing coach. You may reach her at alicegraves@gmail.com.
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We had the best turnout ever at the No More Homeless Pets (NMHP) Adoptathon held at the Florida State Fairgrounds on April 30 - 408 cats and dogs were adopted! Below are some of the pictures of the event, including a special visitor from Animal Planet. Mary co-founded NMHP five years ago and donated 120 copies of her book, What Animals Teach Us, to the first 120 adopting families. For more information, please visit: www.tampapets.org.
Sherry Silk, head of the Humane Society of Tampa Bay
Annemarie Lucas from Animal Planet's Animal Precinct
Mary Key, President of No More Homeless Pets of Hillsborough County
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