My weekly emails are for you if you want a transformational SHOT OF POSITIVITY that makes you think, gets you laughing, and sparks a positive change. Start each week inspired.
Do you know your killer?
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Reader if I'm new to your inbox, thanks for the welcome. If I've been here for a while, thanks for always welcoming me. Jan joins the Zoom call with HQ from her office two time zones away.
During the recent state medicaid symposium, she identified several company procedures and metrics that required alteration for her state.
She sent her boss and the VP of Operations a summary containing all of the local updates and requested changes and scheduled the Zoom meeting.
The immediate response catches Jan off guard.
The VP insists that the company procedures are best practice and should be followed by everyone, without exception.
He infers that Jan's team has been struggling to meet specific repayment metrics because of their inability to do the work properly.
Jan attempts to explain that in her state, the standard processing time by Medicaid for payment is 90 days instead of 60 days.
She is immediately shutdown and the facts she shares are ignored.
At no time is she asked to explain her needs.
Every attempt to request a change is received as complaining and being difficult, rather than a legitimate business need.
After the VP of Operations exits the Zoom, Jan's boss ends the call expressing his disappointment in her poor attitude and unwillingness to be a good team player.
Jan leaves the Zoom dumbfounded and defeated, feeling caught between the need to be in compliance with her state medicaid requirements and the conflicting expectations of the company.
She's learned a clear lesson about staying silent and keeping her head down.
Reader last week I shared Peter Block's words on the invaluable process of inviting disagreement. The above story is based upon a real client experience. Whether intentional or subconscious, the leaders in this story are reinforcing a culture of silence over disagreement. And as the story highlights, it is to their detriment. Morale and performance plummeted in the above situation as follows:
This is the real price of silence. And if you are thinking, "No, Rita. This is the price or arogance and egoism," you are right and it is the same thing. Arogance and egoism shut others down, silencing their voices. Reader, I want you to imagine how different this would be with this one simple change—listening to learn and understand instead of assuming. Had Jan's leaders chosen to meet her "disagreement" with the regular procedures with an openness to understand and align, instead of shutting her down, much of the destroyed morale and performance were avoidable. And this is why shifting from Silence to Disagreement is the first tenet of my Star Treatment system for building healthy, high-performance organizations. If you are ready to level up your leadership, assume good intention and invite people to challenge the status quo. PS - Be sure to come back next week to talk about choosing Uniqueness over Uniformity The BEST Review of Show Up Positive Ever
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Catch Up on 'the story i'm telling myself' podcastGive us a 5-star review and share an episode with a friend: Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, YouTube Music Episode 1 with Karen Laos: Are You Enough? Finding your inner powerEpisode 2 with Gail Kraft: Is Your Fear of Abandonment Running the Show?Episode 3 with Sandra Adeyeye Bello: Am I Worth It? A question too many are afraid to answerEpisode 4 with Leslie Minchin: Are You Busy or Just Avoiding Your Life?Episode 5 with Srivatsan Aravamudan: Broken, Dirty, Not Enough? The journey to self-acceptanceEpisode 6 with Vivian Blade: How Do I Say "I Lost My Job?"Episode 7 with Angie Redmon: Who Am I Letting Down? The hidden costEpisode 8 with Debbie Potts: I Refuse to Settle: Rewriting my story after a life-changing diagnosisEpisode 9 with Tandra Price: Can I Do That? Unleashing your inner powerEpisode 10 with Ronda Berns: Am I the Prey? Overcoming fear and mastering salesEpisode 11 with Carmen Alvarez: Can Joy and Grief Really Co-exist?Episode 12 with Melissa Robinson Hussain: Who Do You Want to Be? Coaching Yourself to Radical TransformationEpisode 13 with Tiersa Hall: Is This Risk Too Big—Or Just the One You Need to Take?Episode 14 with Gary Spencer: Why You Should Pause Before Your Next Big Move (A Million-Dollar Lesson)Episode 15 with Susan LePLae Miller: Did I Abandon Myself Again?Episode 16 with Sharon Summerfield: I'm being undermined, now what? Episode 17 with Misha Safran: Am I Just a Wilting Flower? Episode 18 with Elisa Juarez: If Not Me, Who? Episode 19 with Leanne Elliott: What's Really Stopping You From Asking For Help? Episode 20 with Susan Collins: Will I Be As Good? Episode 21 with Tracy Borreson: From Leavable To Limitless Episode 22 with Kelly Charles-Collins: What If You Stopped Leaving Yourself Behind? Episode 23 with Karen Taylor: Am I to Blame? Episode 24 with Sabrina Victoria: Go Big or Go Bigger? Episode 25 with Olivia Fitchett: From Anxiety to the White House Episode 26 with Andrea Bjorkman: Too Old to Start Over?
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Real-life stories of courage and resilience: Gain inspiration from everyday people who overcame their negative self-talk to live a life of purpose and fulfillment. Listen to the podcast on Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, YouTube Music. |
Rita Ernst, Positivity Influencer
My weekly emails are for you if you want a transformational SHOT OF POSITIVITY that makes you think, gets you laughing, and sparks a positive change. Start each week inspired.
Reader I BLEW it! Has this ever happened to you?? It's time to turn off the light and go to bed. I pop open the calendar on my phone to see what my day holds. Oh good, nothing until my massage at Noon so I can go to pickleball. Fastforward to 10:45 the next morning. I grab my phone to see if there's enough time to play one more game and I notice the missed call. I pop open the call log and see it is from my client. I do the mental head slap. "Oh, $h!t. Was my meeting with her today???" I...
Reader if I'm new to your inbox, thanks for the welcome. If I've been here for a while, thanks for always welcoming me. This week I want to talk to you about the dangers of the conformity trap, a destructive organizational dynamic that prioritizes harmony and avoidance over truth and effectiveness. Here is a deeper dive into the concept, its mechanics, and why it’s so detrimental to business health: The Conformity Trap: The High Price of “Getting Along” The conformity trap is the state where...
Reader if things are feeling a bit toxic right now, this is for you. One of the most influential people in shaping my practice as an Organizational Development expert is Peter Block and this week I want to share his words on one of the most transformative choices you can make—inviting dissent. In a compliance-driven, empire, and colonial culture, saying no is considered a problem to be solved. Here are Peter's words on why it should be considered a superpower. It was a radical thought for me...