What's 'Good Enough' For You?

Written by Joe Bingham


"Your potential is only limited by your attitude. "

I have a certain set of relatives, on my wife's side, that will make a good example here. They often find cause to be jealous of what I have and therefore don't like me very much. It's obvious what their problem is, however, and there's not much I can do about it.

They have a lower standard of what is 'good enough' than my wife and I do. When my wife and I talk aboutrepparttar future, it contains plans for a larger log home, money forrepparttar 123729 kids for college or whatever they want to do, time spent traveling, camping, hunting and fishing, a new van, and being able to help others out that need it.

Now, we aren't where we want to be yet, but inrepparttar 123730 mean time we do have a good home, a good car, we do get in some traveling and camping, and we are working toward improving things forrepparttar 123731 future.

When visiting these relatives, however, I hear and seerepparttar 123732 same things over and over.

"Well, this house may not be much, but at least I own it and it's good enough." (It's a beat up old single wide trailer with an open 35 gallon trash can right inrepparttar 123733 middle ofrepparttar 123734 living room and a cattle trough for a bathtub.)

"I ain't getting rich with this job, but at least it paysrepparttar 123735 bills, and that's good enough." (He makes $7.50 an hour and gets laid off 3 months every winter)

"I don't have a real nice car, but I got 4 of them. That way if one breaks down I just use another until I get it fixed, or until it breaks down. That works out good enough." (His four cars are all at least 30 years old and do routinely take their turns at breaking down.)

SPEAK UP!

Written by Rhoberta Shaler


Ever been in a meeting with something important to say and remained silent? You may have feltrepparttar flush ofrepparttar 123728 good idea andrepparttar 123729 rising adrenalin. You may have moved torepparttar 123730 front of your seat and readied your body to speak...and then didn't. What stopped you?

Certainly there is wisdom in knowing when to speak and when not to. Knowingrepparttar 123731 politics of a situation orrepparttar 123732 time constraints, you may choose not to speak. Often, though, you may have a unique view, perspective, issue or concern that needs to be raised. That contribution would add a new dimension torepparttar 123733 discussion or changerepparttar 123734 decision about to be made.

You may feel strongly about a new policy and your silence allows folks to think you agree. Is thatrepparttar 123735 message you wish to send?

Recently I was involved inrepparttar 123736 creation of a new management team for a department of a public sector organization. This brought together four people who previously had felt that they were in a 'pecking order' and changed them into a cohesive decision-making team. Two ofrepparttar 123737 four have strong opinions and are very comfortable expressing them. Two are very quiet. In formingrepparttar 123738 team, we discussed this dynamic. How are we each going to best contribute torepparttar 123739 team? We talked aboutrepparttar 123740 possibility thatrepparttar 123741 talkative two could overpowerrepparttar 123742 silent two. In fact, they might even dorepparttar 123743 talking for them! Focusing onrepparttar 123744 fact that each person was hired because he or she is an expert in a distinct field, it was soon decided that each person's opinion was vital to good decision-making.

The two who are quiet are very competent as arerepparttar 123745 others. Increasing their level of comfort with adding their voices torepparttar 123746 group was important. Two things were agreed upon: every person would speak on every issue and each person would take responsibility for doing so. One ofrepparttar 123747 natural 'talkers' offered to askrepparttar 123748 quiet two for their opinions. This seems like a good idea onrepparttar 123749 surface, however, as a rule, it is a poor idea.

Why is it a poor idea? Simple. If one person takes responsibility forrepparttar 123750 contributions of others there are two new kinds of control being encouraged. The 'talker' has control over whenrepparttar 123751 others are asked for their opinions. The 'silent' could be waiting to be asked making their contributionrepparttar 123752 'talkers' responsibility. Neither of these options are optimal.

The important piece is that each person understands that he or she was hired to contribute his or her expertise and experience torepparttar 123753 team. It isrepparttar 123754 responsibility ofrepparttar 123755 individual to contribute. Forrepparttar 123756 talkers that is easy. In fact, it is enjoyable. Forrepparttar 123757 quiet folks, two things seemed to be true. One of them only felt it necessary to contribute if she disagreed withrepparttar 123758 direction ofrepparttar 123759 conversation. The other is very shy. What to do?

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