San Francisco – California – USA (by Carl Nenzén Lovén)
Every spring, the cherry blossoms at the National Mall in Washington, D.C. explode into a gorgeous display of white and pink. Blooming into flowering clouds that hover over the Tidal Basin, it’s an incredible natural event in the middle of an urban area. With peak bloom expected March 19-22, the National Park Service is getting ready to welcome over 1.5 million people to this annual festival. Photo from a previous year by Jesse Collins (http://ift.tt/18oFfjl).
💙 Colores de Urederra on 500px by Pruden Barquin, Bilbao,… http://ift.tt/2e0BWu0
You’re reading Why Being a Lazy Manager Is a Good Thing, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’re enjoying this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.
“Lazy” typically isn’t a word you’d like people to use when describing you, especially in the workplace. But guess what? Being lazy is a good thing!
As a manager, you want to help your employees. And that’s great — until it isn’t. When an employee comes to you with a problem, your tendency may be to jump in and offer advice. While your intentions are noble, you may end up helping where it isn’t needed or taking over the conversation altogether.
You go into rescuer mode, it’s understandable. You’re trying to add value and help out wherever you can. But at the end of the day, you’re exhausted because you’ve taken on more than you should have, and your team member is disheartened because responsibilities were taken away from them. You thought you were helping as best you could, but instead you limited their opportunities for growth and created a scenario of victim versus rescuer.
The easiest way to avoid this scenario is to, well, be lazy. Instead of swooping in with all the answers, ask questions. And especially, ask the laziest coaching question of them all: “How can I help?”
This is the laziest way to find out what your employee needs from you. By asking something like this, you force the person to decide what they need exactly — they might not even know yet themselves. (Often employees come to a manager with a problem, but the real issue is something completely different, which the employee realizes only after being asked what it is they want.) Alternatively, they know what they need and will tell you, in the hope that you’ll agree with whatever it is. Either way, asking the lazy question creates a win-win situation, as it results in a clear and direct request that will lead to the solution your employee is looking for.
By asking this lazy question, you avoid jumping in to help in the way you initially think is needed — no more rescuer mode! Asking questions is a self-management tool because it keeps you lazy and yet shows your curiosity.
Be lazy and also be blunt (which is ultimately the best way to be lazy). Just go for it. Ask your employee, “What do you want from me?” Of course, be mindful of how you say this, because not everyone will like this blunt version, but you catch my drift. Ask your employee, really, truly, “What can I do to help?”
It sounds easy, but it can be hard to resist the temptation to jump in and help someone, or to offer advice. However, in the end, you’ll find that asking the lazy question makes you more useful to those you manage, and it will help you work less hard and have more impact. I bet that after trying this out, you’ll agree that being lazy is a good thing after all.
For useful tips and tools for improving the way you lead, check out the Box of Crayons blog. We often share blogs like these:
7 Coaching Questions to Master
The Art of Being a Lazy Coach: The Debrief
Michael Bungay Stanier is Senior Partner of Box of Crayons, a company that helps organizations do less Good Work and more Great Work. It is best known for its coaching programs, which give busy managers practical tools to coach in 10 minutes or less.
Download free chapters of Michael’s latest book, The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More & Change the Way You Lead Forever, here.
You’ve read Why Being a Lazy Manager Is a Good Thing, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’ve enjoyed this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.
You’re reading Why Being a Lazy Manager Is a Good Thing, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’re enjoying this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.
“Lazy” typically isn’t a word you’d like people to use when describing you, especially in the workplace. But guess what? Being lazy is a good thing!
As a manager, you want to help your employees. And that’s great — until it isn’t. When an employee comes to you with a problem, your tendency may be to jump in and offer advice. While your intentions are noble, you may end up helping where it isn’t needed or taking over the conversation altogether.
You go into rescuer mode, it’s understandable. You’re trying to add value and help out wherever you can. But at the end of the day, you’re exhausted because you’ve taken on more than you should have, and your team member is disheartened because responsibilities were taken away from them. You thought you were helping as best you could, but instead you limited their opportunities for growth and created a scenario of victim versus rescuer.
The easiest way to avoid this scenario is to, well, be lazy. Instead of swooping in with all the answers, ask questions. And especially, ask the laziest coaching question of them all: “How can I help?”
This is the laziest way to find out what your employee needs from you. By asking something like this, you force the person to decide what they need exactly — they might not even know yet themselves. (Often employees come to a manager with a problem, but the real issue is something completely different, which the employee realizes only after being asked what it is they want.) Alternatively, they know what they need and will tell you, in the hope that you’ll agree with whatever it is. Either way, asking the lazy question creates a win-win situation, as it results in a clear and direct request that will lead to the solution your employee is looking for.
By asking this lazy question, you avoid jumping in to help in the way you initially think is needed — no more rescuer mode! Asking questions is a self-management tool because it keeps you lazy and yet shows your curiosity.
Be lazy and also be blunt (which is ultimately the best way to be lazy). Just go for it. Ask your employee, “What do you want from me?” Of course, be mindful of how you say this, because not everyone will like this blunt version, but you catch my drift. Ask your employee, really, truly, “What can I do to help?”
It sounds easy, but it can be hard to resist the temptation to jump in and help someone, or to offer advice. However, in the end, you’ll find that asking the lazy question makes you more useful to those you manage, and it will help you work less hard and have more impact. I bet that after trying this out, you’ll agree that being lazy is a good thing after all.
For useful tips and tools for improving the way you lead, check out the Box of Crayons blog. We often share blogs like these:
7 Coaching Questions to Master
The Art of Being a Lazy Coach: The Debrief
Michael Bungay Stanier is Senior Partner of Box of Crayons, a company that helps organizations do less Good Work and more Great Work. It is best known for its coaching programs, which give busy managers practical tools to coach in 10 minutes or less.
Download free chapters of Michael’s latest book, The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More & Change the Way You Lead Forever, here.
You’ve read Why Being a Lazy Manager Is a Good Thing, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’ve enjoyed this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.
Many visitors to Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve are mystified: Why is there a Sahara-like dunefield below alpine peaks that reach over 13,000 feet in Colorado? The answer is complex, but the two essential elements are here: Avast, arid, closed basin that lakes once covered and a mountain barrier with a low curve to funnel winds into this natural pocket. Learn more at https://on.doi.gov/2lU4nyW. Photo by Patrick Myers, National Park Service.
There are definitely projects and ideas that hook us and fascinate us from the start… this is one of them. With a building area of only 68 m2, this house designed by Studio Granda, and located in Reykjavik, Iceland, has the capacity to amaze us. The home is a contemporary interpretation of the traditional Icelandic turf house, encrusted between piles of grass-covered earth, perfectly insulated by nature. The home itself..
The post Studio Granda Creates a Contemporary Turf House in Reyjkavik, Iceland appeared first on HomeDSGN.
A lot of people struggle with starting a workout regimen. A lot of them lay out several excuses in order to postpone their training sessions.
This is where motivation kicks in.
Depending on the type of your personality, you have to find one specific motivation to get you up and running for your workout program. One of the best and most interesting motivators you can find is technology.
No matter if you are an amateur or a professional, you can take advantage of the latest technologies in order to track your progress. If you love the old ways of tracking workouts, you can always choose to do so as well. The most important thing is that you organize and track your progress.
When you start a workout regimen, the exercise selection is fairly small and you can easily remember the number of reps per workout you can make.
However, as you get in better shape, the more routines and variations you can make. It now becomes impossible to keep all the information in your head.
This is one good reason why tracking your activity is a necessary step.
Additionally, writing down everything that you do during every workout is going to show how fast you are progressing. It’s a good way to get a clearer idea of what changes and adjustments you need to make. By doing this, you can create a more efficient regimen that is going to bring you better results.
It’s quite simple to accurately track your progress. First of all, it all depends on your personality. You can focus on a few important details or keep track of all workout-related information.
Here are a few examples:
This is the most common way of tracking your workout activity. This type of tracking allows you to plan out the days on which you are going to perform your workouts. Thanks to modern smartphones, you can have a calendar with you at all times.
Electronic calendars can store more information about your workouts. Plus, there are reminders that you could set to notify you about your upcoming workout schedules.
If you prefer an old-school approach, you can hang a calendar on a wall and track your activities with a pen. This is the easiest way of tracking your workout progress. However, it does not a lot of space for details, except your schedule and the number of repetitions you are able to perform.
See Also: 5 Ways to Make a Workout Schedule that WORKS
There are lots of great online tools that can help you track your workout progress. One good example is bodybuilding.com. Apart from tracking, the website offers a big community of people who share the same interests as yours. This is a perfect way to acquire new information about different exercises and workout routines.
Another website that offers a lot of tracking details is thesquattingrack.com. In this site, you have to input a whole set of information about your current workout progress. From there, you can track your personal records, like weight lifting and squatting. You can even track your body measurements and nutrition plan.
Based on all this information, a graph is projected to give you an overview of your progress curve. Since all the data is straightforward, you can easily see what kinds of adjustments would make your workouts more efficient.
As consumer technology quickly developed in the past couple of years, an increasing number of people begun relying on various types of gadgets, too. These devices are groundbreaking, as they offer numerous detailed data about a person’s physical activity throughout the whole day.
There are a variety of trackers out there and it all comes down to your personal preference. These are some of the most popular fitness gadgets in the world that are used by millions of people:
● Fitbit Blaze is a great choice for people who want to wear a tracker that is also fashionable. This Fitbit product serves its purpose perfectly, just like the majority of their other gadgets.
● Garmin Vivosmart HR offers a variety of different notifications for you throughout the day. The optical technology behind this useful gadget is fit for precise measurements of your heart rate. It is a perfect device for those who want to stay in the target HR values to maximize calorie expenditure during the workout.
● Jawbone UP2 is a device with a greatly simplified design. It tracks all of your activity throughout the day and the software that it comes with is fairly easy to use. If you prefer having a screen on your tracker, however, this is probably not the best choice for you.
Keep in mind that this device is much cheaper than the competition, despite offering accurate information.
● Misfit Shine 2 is a beautifully designed tracker with an incredibly accurate data tracking feature. If you want a device that offers top notch data, this is probably the one you should go for.
These are only some of the trackers that are available on the market today. The thing with wearable technology is that it constantly monitors your body’s state even when you are asleep.
The goal of these devices is to improve your whole lifestyle by providing you with accurate details about your calorie expenditure and activities.
If you are someone who doesn’t like carrying a lot of different gadgets, you can turn your smartphone into a great activity tracker. These devices are equipped with various sensors that can be used to track your daily activity levels.
The more important part when it comes to using your smartphone as a fitness tracker is picking the right software for your device. If you do your research well, you’ll be able to find the best solutions on websites like CrowdReviews.com.
With the right application on your phone, you can get almost all of the details as the abovementioned trackers have to offer. You can track your heart rate during the workouts as well as the calories burned and distance covered. The majority of tracking apps can also show you graphs of your progress.
Most of the apps are free, but if you want advanced options unlocked, you may need to invest a little bit of money – roughly around $2-5.
If you are satisfied with basic information about your day, Google Fit is a great way to track your progress. Other big companies such as LG and Samsung offer their own fitness trackers that can be integrated with Google Fit.
With so many options, it really comes down to personal preference. No matter what method you choose, the most important thing is that you keep your tracker with you at all times.
Tracking workouts and progress can be quite motivating. It will just depend on how much time you are willing to dedicate to it. Once you get the hang of it, you can easily make plans for your next routine.
See Also: Finding your Fitness Passion
The post Tracking Your Workout Activity: Several Ways You Can Do It appeared first on Dumb Little Man.
Sig Nordal 