Showing posts with label business coaching. Show all posts
Showing posts with label business coaching. Show all posts
Monday, August 25, 2008
QBQ Rant
NEWS:
www.UPositive.com is up and running! YAY! Come on by and visit---you can connect to the goal attainment and creativity challenge videos, the eBook (see below), the relaxation CD, merchandise in the shop, and all sorts of information from UPositive Creativity and Life Coaching as well as Passion-for-Life Psychotherapy (and the difference). Thanks for your patience!
The UPositive Guide to Goal Attainment for Creative People is now up and available in eBook format!!! It’s fully copyrighted, with an ISBN number all its own and registered at the Library of Congress! Even better, it’s illustrated by Shirley Geier, and some of the merchandise matches up with some of the information in the eBook!
The second eBook in the series, The UPositive Guide to Time Management for Creative People is due out in September.
The UPositive Relaxation and Visualization Technique audio CD is available from the website at http://www.upositive.com/. Great background music by Tom Roady helps you follow the gentle instructions to relax and see your dreams!
Mark Friday evening, September 19, from 6 to 9 pm in your calendars for the official opening celebration of UPositive Creativity and Life Coaching! More information is coming here and through the first newsletter, which should be going out sometime next week. (If you’d like an evite and the info, or to be on the mailing list in general, please email me at Batya@UPositive.com or UPositive55@aol.com).
The first 9 sayings from UPositive’s Batya Sez… shop are now available for purchase through http://www.cafepress.com/UPositive. The next nine are in the works---I’ll let you know through this blog and the newsletter when they’re ready! It’s never too early to shop for Christmas and Hanukah and Kwanzaa, and it’s never the wrong day to buy yourself a gift!
The Passion-for-Life Psychotherapy practice has a few openings for new clients in Nashville; please email UPositive55@aol.com for more information. We can talk about depression, anxiety, mood swings, ADD, and family and relationship issues.
UPositive’s Creativity and Life Coaching practice is available locally, but also through telephone and Internet-based services. Please visit the website http://www.upositive.com/ or contact me Batya@UPositive.com for more information.
QBQ Rant
My friend and one of my business mentors, Tim Cummings, mentioned the best-selling book, QBQ, The question behind the question to me last week. Like a good mentoree, I rushed out to get it. And read it in one sitting. It’s a great book.
But I wonder---why do we even need this book? It’s all about the “right” and “wrong” questions people ask in business and other life situations. The “wrong” questions are those that place blame on others, that look outside the self for cause and excuses.
The “right” questions are those that take personal responsibility for problems and mishaps in our lives. The questions that lead us to personal accountability, especially in businesses, organizations, and families.
Here’s my rant: This is about as much “news” as “The Secret” is a secret.
Hasn’t life and personal growth always been about personal responsibility? Of course, we don’t create the world around us. We’re not responsible for every starving child or raped elder on the planet. But if these things bother us, we are responsible to do something about it---even if that’s as simple as donating a few dollars to a related cause.
We’re here to participate in life. To learn and grow. And to reach the best potential of our own selves.
We can’t do that if we’re constantly looking to others for the “whys” and the “how comes” and the “who did thats”: we can only grow and fulfill our personal potential by participating in the world around us with “how can I help” and “how can I change things for the better” and “what can I do?”
This is a wonderful little book for a reminder of this more positive attitude.
And at UPositive, we’re all about positive attitude! And about people reaching their own potential! And about participating to the best extent we can in the present moment. And helping others to do the same, without judgment, without blame; with love and care and concern and inspiration.
Read the book! It’ll fill your heart with determination and energy! QBQ: The Question Behind the Question, by John G. Miller.
As always, I invite your comments, questions, thoughts on this or other topics!
--Batya
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Welcome to the Age of the Right Brain
As I sifted through a pile of months-old New York Times papers, I came across an interesting article in the Business Section of April 6th. It caught my eye with the title: “Let Computers Compute. It’s the Age of the Right Brain.” Yes!
The article, in a nutshell, emphasizes not only the importance but also the need for creativity in the business setting. This certainly isn’t a new thought, but it has taken a number of decades for it to gain some weight in the business community.
As the NYT article states, we have entered a “Creative Economy” and the “Conceptual Age.” It points out the somewhat obvious: that computers and cheap labor in Asia are now doing much of the left-brain work of the previous American workforce. The left-brain work of creating and using computers, which can now handle many of the sequential skills of that hemisphere, has made much of its own work obsolete.
The left brain is outsourcing and automating itself. For instance, can you remember the last time a live person answered a business phone? Or when customer service for a product didn’t start out (and for the most part complete) your problems by computer?
Business Coaches may well be at the forefront of encouraging creative thinking in corporate America. They use brainstorming (a right-brain activity), drawing, journaling, and other right-brain activities to teach problem-solving from new angles. Thinking outside the box is now encouraged in many major corporations, at least on the management level.
That’s great news!
I think, however, that it’s going to take a while for it to trickle down to the mid-size company, and certainly longer to trickle down to below management level, if it ever does. Is that a hint of cynicism? Yes. I’d love to hear experiences that prove me wrong about it, though.
It’s a good sign, anyway. Certainly, the fact that creativity in the business setting is addressed by the New York Times Business Section, means that the topic is up for conversation. Entering the awareness of the general populace, creativity just might have a positive effect in places we can only imagine (yup, with our right brains!).
It’s my firm belief that the more we use our right brain in all areas of our lives, as individuals, as groups, as communities, as businesses, as a country…the better off we’ll be. The right brain sees the whole picture---it sees humanity as one thing, for instance---rather than categorizing. Certainly, there are more than enough prejudiced artists, writers, singers, et cetera in the creative community, but taking an educated guess I imagine the percentage is lower than in the general population. The right brain tends to be inclusive and sees similarities; it puts things together in patterns the left brain is too busy categorizing to notice.
And anything that encourages creative productivity in any form is on the plus side of my ledger-of-life.
So I’m on board to welcome the “Conceptual Age”---bring it on! My right brain is ready: is yours?
--Batya
The article, in a nutshell, emphasizes not only the importance but also the need for creativity in the business setting. This certainly isn’t a new thought, but it has taken a number of decades for it to gain some weight in the business community.
As the NYT article states, we have entered a “Creative Economy” and the “Conceptual Age.” It points out the somewhat obvious: that computers and cheap labor in Asia are now doing much of the left-brain work of the previous American workforce. The left-brain work of creating and using computers, which can now handle many of the sequential skills of that hemisphere, has made much of its own work obsolete.
The left brain is outsourcing and automating itself. For instance, can you remember the last time a live person answered a business phone? Or when customer service for a product didn’t start out (and for the most part complete) your problems by computer?
Business Coaches may well be at the forefront of encouraging creative thinking in corporate America. They use brainstorming (a right-brain activity), drawing, journaling, and other right-brain activities to teach problem-solving from new angles. Thinking outside the box is now encouraged in many major corporations, at least on the management level.
That’s great news!
I think, however, that it’s going to take a while for it to trickle down to the mid-size company, and certainly longer to trickle down to below management level, if it ever does. Is that a hint of cynicism? Yes. I’d love to hear experiences that prove me wrong about it, though.
It’s a good sign, anyway. Certainly, the fact that creativity in the business setting is addressed by the New York Times Business Section, means that the topic is up for conversation. Entering the awareness of the general populace, creativity just might have a positive effect in places we can only imagine (yup, with our right brains!).
It’s my firm belief that the more we use our right brain in all areas of our lives, as individuals, as groups, as communities, as businesses, as a country…the better off we’ll be. The right brain sees the whole picture---it sees humanity as one thing, for instance---rather than categorizing. Certainly, there are more than enough prejudiced artists, writers, singers, et cetera in the creative community, but taking an educated guess I imagine the percentage is lower than in the general population. The right brain tends to be inclusive and sees similarities; it puts things together in patterns the left brain is too busy categorizing to notice.
And anything that encourages creative productivity in any form is on the plus side of my ledger-of-life.
So I’m on board to welcome the “Conceptual Age”---bring it on! My right brain is ready: is yours?
--Batya
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