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Browse every published article connected to Kristin Robertson, with exact attribution and full-archive search.
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Browse every published article connected to Kristin Robertson, or search within this exact expert archive.
The scene was a late Friday night at O'Hare airport in Chicago. The flight was delayed and all the passengers were crabby. As they entered the aircraft, passengers were greeted by the first class flight attendant, who had a personality that filled the aircraft! "Welcome aboard, and how are you doing tonight?" he would ask each person as they boarded.
Forgiveness is like eating chicken soup for whatever ails you – it helps you feel better all over. You forgive others to help yourself – not to help the other person. Surprised? In my definition of forgiveness, the goal is to attain a feeling of peace toward a person who has harmed you. Forgiveness is like letting yourself out of jail – you release the hateful, vengeful thoughts that imprison you and make you feel bad every time you remember the hurtful incident. So if forgiveness is like chicken soup, what are the results of enjoying a steaming, savory bowl of the stuff?
Who is the inspirational leader in your organization? A company needs just one focal person to bear the flag, as a Civil War flag bearer would ride in front of a cavalry unit, showing the way into battle with a symbol of pride. Employees long to work for organizations in which there is a purpose bigger than just a paycheck, where employees are appreciated, and where managers care about them as people. They need an inspirational leader.
When you walk down the street, where do you look? If you are like most people, you are looking at your feet, to make sure you don't trip, to see where you are going in the next step. In everyday life, we all tend to notice only those things that are at eye level or below. Our natural inclination is to look down. It takes intention and practice to look up and notice what is above our accustomed field of vision.
Are you ready to sit down and lay out your goals... be they for the New Year, for a project or just to get a fresh start on your life? I'd like to share my thoughts and experiences about goal setting that might provide you with some new perspectives on this important ritual.
We don’t often think about forgiveness in a business context. It’s usually not in our vocabulary at work. But it needs to be. Forgiveness at work creates a healthier work climate or environment and creates many other real benefits. It is not a touchy-feely, hold-hands-and-sing-Kumbaya gimmick. Forgiveness in the workplace is good business. It is important to define forgiveness at work. Forgiveness is giving people the benefit of the doubt and a second (or third) chance after making a mistake.
Does this sound like you? You rush from one meeting to another, deal with demanding customers, handle employees' conce s, put out the latest "fire" at the office or at home, return phone calls and wade through a knee-deep pile of emails. With a day like that, it can be so easy to get caught up in the busy-ness of the day -- the din of a hectic schedule drowns out the calm of your true heart. The good news is your quiet heart center is always available and it is just waiting for you to tap in, however briefly, to its calm.
Forgiveness and the workplace -- seems like an odd juxtaposition, doesn't it? We do not often think of forgiveness as having anything to do with the workplace, but surprisingly, forgiveness is an essential practice of a highly effective work team. Thanks to recent psychological and medical research, we know that the act of forgiveness has many benefits to the individual. "People who are taught to forgive become less angry, more hopeful, less depressed, less anxious, less stressed, more confident, and they learn to like themselves more." (Dr.
The scene: a hip and fashionable downtown restaurant. A high-ranking manager of a technology company and several of his team members are enjoying lunch together to celebrate the team's recent achievement. As the conversation veers off onto casual topics, one of the employees excitedly explains about a new start-up company to which her cousin was named president, ending with, "Wouldn't you just love to be in her shoes?" The boss turns to her and says, "You wouldn't love that - you'd hate it.
Not long ago, I saw an online video of a woman who described the wondrous things that manifested in her life once she forgave the man who killed her daughter. She said she worked hard to forgive - it took her several days. I start screaming at the screen, "Several days! Honey, you think that's bad? It's taken me years to forgive several people in my life, and months to forgive others! And none of these people killed anyone!
The country of Bhutan thinks differently. This country values happiness over productivity, as evidenced by their measurement of the Gross Domesic Happiness index. Recently, the Prime Minister of Bhutan, Jigme Thinley, pointed to the cause of the current economic crisis. His answer: "Greed, insatiable human greed." What a contrast between values such as the pursuit of happiness (a value first espoused in the United States' Declaration of Independence) and greed!
A shocked silence hung over the conference room. Barry (not his real name), usually a compassionate and even-tempered vice president, had just loudly berated one of his managers during a staff meeting. The accused manager was looking down at his hands with a reddened face and the other managers’ jaws had dropped at this unusual display of emotional mismanagement. Barry quickly ended the meeting and hurried to his office. Later, he told me about the situation. “I was at the end of my rope, Kristin.
There are only two basic human emotions, love and fear. All other emotions are variations on these two archetypal themes. Of the two, which emotion have we seen at work in our economy over the past several months? Of course, the answer is fear. When I worked in the securities industry years ago, we had a saying that markets are driven by fear and greed. Greed is the operative that fuels run-ups in the markets as investors try to make a buck (or a euro, in this global economy).
Are you challenged to live authentically and in alignment with your spiritual values on a daily basis? Many of us are so busy every day that it's hard to even remember what spiritual values are when we are on the go from morning to night. We have children to raise, jobs to commute to, work to do, meetings to attend, emails and phone calls to return, soccer practices and music lessons to chauffeur kids to. It's exhausting to think of the obligations we have in our lives.
Forgiving doesn't mean that you have to be best friends with - or married to - the person who hurt you. It simply means that you have reached a feeling of peace about the person or situation and have discharged your anger or resentment. The decision to take action after someone has hurt you is always a better one if you can wait until you have forgiven, at least in part. This is because your heart and mind are clear of dark emotions that dim your decision-making ability. So, you've gone through the process to forgive and have released much of your lingering anger and resentment.
Are you afraid of forgiveness? Do you believe that it will empower the other person to continue to hurt you and/or other people? Do you fear that forgiveness will make you give up your role as victim and lose the sympathy you get from others? Are you under the impression that forgiving will make you vulnerable to experiencing hurts similar to those you've experienced in the past? These fears are flat out false. Several of my coaching clients have declared something like this, "I can't forgive my ex-husband because I'm afraid he's going to do horrible things to me and the kids.
Gossiping can suck the zest out of your spirit. Gossip is mean-spirited and little-minded; its goal is to make the gossipers feel superior to the gossiped-about. It is seductive, addictive and a way of bonding with other gossipers, all while pulling you down to the lowest spiritual common denominator. Gently observe your interactions with others, and catch yourself if you feel you are getting sucked into gossip. What Is Gossip? Let's define what gossip is and is not. Gossip is judgmental chit-chat about another person or group.
"Timing is everything, and this is not the time," a colleague once said to me when I offered her a job that would require a move to another state. Her family situation didn't allow her to move at that time, but she left open the possibility that the timing could be right in a difference circumstance. I think this was a wise statement -- not just about jobs but about most decisions in life. The timing has to be right. The same can be said about choosing to forgive.
Did you know that forgiveness is good for you? The process of forgiveness has been shown to have both psychological and physical benefits to the person who is doing the forgiving. Shocking, isn't it? You may have heard the old axiom, "Holding a grudge is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die."
Today, leaders must deal with complexity, ambiguity and constant change. If leaders are to be successful, they must possess not only mental maturity, but also maturity of heart, mind and the human spirit. Tall order for us mere mortals, huh? The good news is that transformational leaders, those who truly make a difference, are developed, not born. How can you become a transformational leader?
Are you grateful? Now, more than ever, is the best time to practice gratitude. Although, it may seem like an odd time to discuss being thankful -- economic times are tough and public confidence in both corporate and governmental leaders is low. Why should you be grateful when it seems like things are at their worst? Consider this: According to recent research, the practice of gratitude and appreciation can make you happier -- and who doesn't want to be happier? There are several reasons that gratitude makes you cheerier.
Can you think of a colleague, co-worker or acquaintance who really annoys you, but is probably a pretty agreeable person unde eath their irritating qualities? Stated another way, are there people who make you bristle because of a certain aspect of their personality, but if you consider them with an open heart, you could find quite a few redeeming qualities? I can say yes to both of these questions, so I assume that you can, too. Psychologists tell us that the qualities in others that most irritate us are the qualities that we fear in ourselves.
Being an authentic leader is a cornerstone of building a spiritually intelligent workplace. To be authentic is to be real, to be genuine. If we consider that the opposite of authentic is phony or fake, then most people would vote for authenticity. It's like a counterfeit coin, which doesn't buy us anything once it is discovered, whereas an authentic coin is highly valuable. Personal authenticity breeds trust, commitment and loyalty in a work group.