In my first post for the year, I started sharing the top 9 life & business skills to build on, for this current new decade of challenges and unprecedented opportunities.
The first set of 3 skills reviewed were Community-based thinking, Daring Greatly and Resilience, each with its corresponding suggestions for how it proved to be a key asset in 2020 and how it can help us in this rising new decade.
Today we continue with the next 3: Lean-ness (in your career & business), Empathy and Self Leadership. For each I have a few tips on how you can consciously cultivate and invite them in your life and organization:
1. Lean-ness, in building your career and business
Having an as simple-as-possible, minimum-investment, lean approach to building your career and business has never been more important. It will keep you savvy and increase your creativity.
There are many systems built around the lean approach (for e.g. lean six sigma) and there are extensive online resources on the “lean” method. I would say, as usual, to personalize it to you and your situation.
Tips on staying lean:
When career searching, what is the most cost-friendly way in which you can leverage the power of online and tools like LinkedIn to refine your search, post about your search, promote your skills and also reach out to potential employers
When building a business, what are the resources you can easily access online, based on your skills (e.g. easy website building platforms, podcasts, business teachers), in order to boost your business visibility?
For recruiting, how can you make the best use of your current network of peers, professionals and friends to advertise for the position you have available?
For scaling: how can you scale at minimum cost, again making the most out of your existing network of peers and friends world wide?
2. Empathy
As the world we once knew is rapidly changing, bear in mind that everyone, absolutely everyone you meet on your way is going through some sort of challenge (at various levels in their life, business and overall energy). That means people in the workplace and collaborators, suppliers, clients might be more on their edge/reactive at times. They can have various stressor motifs, such as businesses being affected by the pandemic lockdowns, or having to manage children and family at home, or simply stress about the unknown, uncertainty.
Having empathy means being able to understand and show care. It also means responding rather than reacting: having yourself and your inner state, first and foremost in check. And taking a breather time to re-center and rebalance yourself when you notice your own ground is getting shaky.
Have empathy for people you meet that are in a reactive place, but do not fall prey to them (lowering your own energetic level), nor to the reactivity trap that can get you into heated attacks and debates.
Tips for cultivating empathy:
Cultivating a state of presence and non-judgment (this is key) with yourself, by taking 2 simple moments during your day (either in the beginning and mid-day or: mid-day and end of day) to ask yourself the following 2 questions: 1. How am I feeling right now? 2. What is one healthy and loving thing that would help me feel more grounded and connected right now?
Introducing new practices among your habits this year, like mindfulness and meditation (which have been scientifically proven to lower stress and increase our level of connectedness to ourselves and others) helps a great deal.
Community service (volunteering with your local organizations or charities or for global causes) has also been proven to considerably expand our capacity for empathy and connected-ness.
3. Autonomy & Self Leadership
You don’t need to be in a managerial position to apply these attitudes. With the change of the workplace to a more working-from-home type of workplace, everyone is required to cultivate these attitudes and become self accountable. Being able to manage yourself autonomously is a guaranteed career skill that all employers will be looking at in the near future but also a skill that will help you Thrive, no matter what you choose to invest yourself in.
Tips for building autonomy & self leadership:
Allocate clear time slots in your daily calendar for un-interrupted work on your deliverables
Choose a colleague or peer that you trust, with whom to partner remotely and hold each other accountable for your goals and deliverables and regularly check in on each other
Stay tuned for the last part of this series, coming out in March.
In joy & elevated impact,
ACB
P.S. First article in the series can be found here: https://growthhives.com/news/2021-2030-the-decade-of-conscious-evolution