When You Must Herd Cats
No matter how good of a leader you are, you will eventually have to herd cats (and sometimes they have claws). Here’s how you can navigate without a scratch.
No matter how good of a leader you are, you will eventually have to herd cats (and sometimes they have claws). Here’s how you can navigate without a scratch.
Despite our best efforts, sometimes we succumb to our human tendency to respond emotionally when our team responds to our guidance with frustration, doubt and discontent. However, in the interest of building teams, here is some food for thought.
Duality creates binary problems in a world whose outer edges extend well beyond the boundaries that duality offers. We can’t find solutions with our dualistic thinking. We can only create more problems. That’s why we need a third path.
The Secret Lives of Public Servants is a three-episode documentary web series that explores the creative hobbies of public service workers outside the 9-5. Each episode profiles a different public servant and looks at what they do for their day jobs and then what they do in their “secret life”.
The public sector will never have the “no strings attached” freedom of a genius grant. But finding solutions to increasingly complex challenges demands that we foster conditions for dynamic, creative approaches to today’s problems.
In my last post, we explored the idea that tapping into one’s creative mind can become easier with practice. Practicing something is straightforward- if one knows what to do. But what if we aren’t in touch with our inner selves, and we don’t know what it means to be creative?
Some things never get easier. The first moment of getting into a cold swimming pool. Resisting the box of donuts lurking in the office break room on a Friday morning. Dealing with difficult people. But some things do, and zoning into your creative mind is one of them. So next time you feel like there’s… Read more »
Good working relationships are motivated by empathy. Boost creativity and enhance success at negotiating by becoming more “you-conscious.”
We need new criteria in government job circles. We must look for and reward innovative thinkers and realize that performance is not a zero-sum game. We must look for ways to engage in continual learning on the job, recognizing that this is a key component of innovation and creativity.
Want to innovate like a true professional leader at your agency? You might have to act like you’re 6 years old again.
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