abundance | Lorne Rubis

THE CHARACTER TRIANGLE COMPANION: A 30-DAY KICKSTART TO BUILD AN EVEN BETTER YOU

20132 Feb
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Posted inCharacter Triangle

For the past few weeks my blogs have addressed some key ways to set your 2013 on the right path – from exploring the notion of Eudaimonia to avoiding burnout at work. Much like the one-off, annual strategic planning of yesteryear, I appreciate that New Year’s Resolutions have evolved into a more dynamic and on-going process.

Sure, January is always an excellent time to focus on our health and wellbeing, especially if the holiday season involved some overindulging. Naturally, the beginning of the year is a great time to think about personal and professional goals for the months ahead. Unfortunately, if you are like 25 percent of the population, you may have given up already. Check out this nifty infographic from via Mediabistro.

The good news is that if you’ve faltered a bit over the past few weeks, you’re certainly not alone. And don’t be discouraged because personal growth opportunities don’t end in Jan. In fact, now is the time to revisit what you want to accomplish. Take a moment to check in and identify what is going well and what isn’t. Would you welcome an approach to a personal development system that is sustainable? Read on.

One of the biggest reasons people fail on the resolution front is that they haven’t established a foundation for success. Studies show that long lasting changes occur when we shift our habits. You may recall that I wrote about the importance of building keystone habits a few months ago. Making a resolution alone isn’t enough to achieve results; you must turn those goals into positive new habits. When you understand that an effective resolution is a behavior change and a process, you can see how this, along with benchmarks and measurements along the way, become crucial. So this year, I want to give you a reliable method to drive continuous, sustainable, personal improvement.

I am pleased to announce the launch of my new eBook, The Character Triangle Companion: A 30-Day Character Kick Start to an Even Better You. It is designed to help you focus on one of the key principles (Accountability, Respect or Abundance) for 30 days, providing you with the framework to refresh your outlook, improve your relationships and get things done. The best part about it is that you can apply it continuously.

Even better and exclusively on Amazon, it is FREE to you, friends and family BUT ONLY until Feb. 6. After that it will be widely available and retail for $8.99. Click here to download the FREE eBook and get started today.

If you choose to accept this challenge, best of luck to you! Enjoy your 30 days and if you can make the time, let me know how it’s going by emailing me, lorne@lornerubis.com, Tweet @LorneRubis, and/or post to my Facebook page. Here’s to making 2013 a year of sustainable personal character development for an even better you.

Resolution Evolution in the Triangle,

Lorne

Would You Win in an Attribute Contest?

201220 Nov
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Posted inCharacter Triangle

Key Point: Attribute talent wins! One of the common questions I get from people at all levels in organizations is, “When will all the chaos stop? When will we get past all the change going on?” My response is, “NEVER.” Some days or months may be less or more hectic than others but the whirlwind will not stop or slow down. I actually believe that turbulence will increase. The reasons? We will experience even more of the following: Intense global competition, constant technology revolution, rapid innovation, and unpredictable geopolitical turbulence. A business model or revenue stream… Even an organization… Can disappear in a breathtaking few months. No value – no money – no work. Literally nothing is certain, except “death and taxes” as the old saying goes.

So here is an assumption about people and work I deeply believe in: The competition for top talent will become more ATTRIBUTE intense than ever. I do expect to hire very smart people who are exceptionally proficient in performing certain skills. But a great formal education is table stakes to just get in the talent competition pool. However if I can hire a hungry, self-accountable, respectful, abundant thinking individual who is capable of connecting, translating, collaborating and creating… WE THRIVE and SUCCEED in a sustainable way! Why? People with these attributes realize THEY are the key to defining and contributing to success. They are mega collaborators. They do not depend on somebody leading “change” because improvement, growth, and personal change management is built into their mindset. This type of talent is happy to be engaged AND engaged to be happy! They expect to navigate through tough challenges and even seek out that kind of environment. Agility helps define who they are. They are content and yet realize good is the enemy of great. And the better lead the organization, the greater leverage and value results from this attribute talent.

Character Move:

When you think about how much you’re improving, think about describing it in terms of attributes along with numeric results. The good news is that the distinguishing variables to find these desired attributes are not necessarily resident in any particular age, gender, IQ, size, shape, GPA, University, country, or region. They are evident through results and behavior.
Self-evaluate and build a development plan on the following attributes: A. Self-accountability, B. Respect, C. Abundance, D. Hunger, E. Connector, F. Creator, G, Translator, H. Catalyst, I. Collaborator. These are not necessarily ALL of the right attributes but they are a great list to work from.
If you were asked to provide a story as evidence of how you have displayed each of these attributes and achieved results that have had an impact and inspired others, how would you do? If you haven’t been asked to do so, expect that you might in the very near future.

Attributes in the Triangle,

Lorne

Lessons from 50,000 Years of Experience

201220 Apr
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Posted inBe Accountable

Key point: What if you had a chance to sit down with your grandparents and have a rich, personal conversation about the lessons they wanted to share with you regarding their careers? And what if your grandparents magically had the combined wisdom of 50,000 years of working? What would you do with that wisdom? Would you act differently? Well if you read Karl Pillemer’s 30 Lessons for Living: Tried and True Advice from the Wisest Americans, it may not be as intimate as that visit with your grandparents, but it is a very compelling substitute.

For five years, Cornell professor Karl Pillemer interviewed the savviest seniors he could find, more than 1,000 of them, and from this material distilled 30 powerful life lessons. (And since I now qualify as a senior, I think this is a brilliant exercise). The book includes a distinct chapter on career advice based on the wisdom generated from his subjects’ 50,000 years of work experience. The following are what Pillemer calls the “refrigerator list” of the five lessons siphoned from all that experience.

Choose a career for the intrinsic rewards, not the financial ones.
Don’t give up on looking for a job that makes you happy.
Make the most of a bad job.
Emotional intelligence trumps every other kind.
Everyone needs autonomy.

Character move:

All of the above are complimented by leading research on motivation, leadership, happiness, etc. that I have referred to in many previous blogs. It is reassuring that sage advice and science intersect in a mutually supportive way. The following are key actions that correspond to and reinforce the refrigerator list.

Focus on contribution and value; compensation follows along in a way that usually works. Remember the benefit of intersecting what you are good at, like to do, and the value an organization needs. You are accountable to connect all three areas.
Happiness at work most often is related to being valued by others and doing a job (even lousy ones) exceptionally well. Excellence has its rewards. Expect to find happiness at work related to a growth mind set along with the 3-way intersection defined in No. 1 above.
All of us will at one time or another have jobs (or tasks within jobs) that just plain suck. The only way out is to add defined value to the job. Often when you give your best, the “exit” from a lousy job finds you. Sometimes that bad job is the reference you need to fully appreciate the great ones.
Remember that emotional intelligence (EI) balances judgment, self-awareness and empathy. When you realize EI trumps every other intelligence it is the great career leveler. Organizations are filled with high IQ people that find it difficult to connect with others. They are smart but just struggle to leverage their brain into relationship effectiveness. Developing a high Emotional Quotient (EQ) is as accessible to you as anyone. Go work on it! By the way, applying The Character Triangle reinforces EQ development!
The one thing that is a must for all of us, is to be able to make decisions and have a level of control over what we do. The way we generate happiness and value at work, is through the learning we acquire from taking action and participating in the consequences. The dumbest thing people in management do is suck away autonomy. It is the “choke hold” so often needlessly applied by managers who think everything must go through their personal ring of fire. Fight for autonomy but be humble and keep your ego in check in the process. Bring value and autonomy often emerges.

Listening to the wisest in The Triangle,

Lorne

Be Grateful and Tweet a Beer

201213 Mar
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Posted inBe Abundant

Key point: Gratitude is directly connected to the value of abundance. In FACT, expressing and feeling a sense of gratitude is good for us. Dr. Robert Emmons and his team at UC Davis have conducted important research to determine the relationship between having a sense of gratitude and our sense of well being. On the other hand, referencing the work of Oxford’s Matt Ridley, the authors, Peter H. Diamandis and Steven Kotler, in their book Abundance, note that we have a propensity to embrace pessimism. The concept called “loss aversion,” which is a bias towards putting more emphasis on our losses versus wins, can put us into a “sour puss” rut. Practicing gratitude is a great antidote!

The following summarizes Emmons’ (August 2011) findings regarding the benefits to people who score high on the gratitude scale:

Well-Being: Grateful people report higher levels of positive emotions, life satisfaction, vitality, optimism and lower levels of depression and stress. The disposition toward gratitude appears to enhance pleasant feelings more than it diminishes unpleasant emotions. Grateful people do not deny or ignore the negative aspects of life.
Prosociality: People with a strong disposition toward gratitude have the capacity to be empathetic and to take the perspective of others. They are rated as more generous and more helpful by people in their social networks.
Spirituality: Grateful people are more likely to acknowledge a belief in the interconnectedness of all life and a commitment and responsibility to others. Gratitude does not require religious faith, but faith enhances the ability to be grateful.
Materialism: Grateful individuals place less importance on material goods. They are less likely to judge their own and others success in terms of possessions accumulated. They are less envious of others and are more likely to share their possessions.

Character move:

Practice being grateful by consciously identifying what and who we are grateful for.
Get into the habit of writing down what and who we are grateful for on a daily basis. If daily feels like too much, try it once a week.
Be careful of the negative outcome of having a loss aversion bias. Let’s put wins and losses in perspective. If you focus on loss and lack, that’s what you’re likely to experience.
Have fun being grateful. e.g. When grateful for what someone might do for you, tweet them a beer ….See Tweet-A-Beer.
Read Abundance by Peter H. Diamandis and Steven Kotler. It makes us more hopeful for the future!

Gratitude in the Triangle ,

Lorne

Character Triangle

Our character is exclusively ours. We define it by how we think and what we do. I believe that acting with Character is driven by what I call the Character Triangle.

What, exactly, is the Character Triangle (CT)?

The CT describes and emphasizes three distinct but interdependent values:

Be Accountable: first person action to make things better, avoiding blame.
Be Respectful: being present, listening, looking again, focusing on the process.
Be Abundant: generous in spirit, moving forward, minimizing the lack of.