Welcome to WorkLife Book Of The Week. Every week Monday through Sunday I serialise a story from the School of WorkLife book series. I do this each day in under 280 characters, which I post across my social media channels. Then at the end of each week, I bring all 7 daily posts together here as 1 weekly blog post, which I also share on my podcast: WorkLife Book Wisdom.
This week’s WorkLife Book of The Week is: How To Overcome Self-Sabotage
This week’s WorkLife Story of The Week: Self-Sabotaging His Own Meetings
Donal’s Story: How he learnt to run productive meetings and to stop sabotaging himself
MONDAY
Donal’s reputation for running productive meetings was bad. He knew it, and everyone else did too. That didn’t help. Because people played on his lack of ability. Turning up if they felt like it, and when they did it was always late, and only if they had an agenda of their own.
TUESDAY
They knew how easy it would be to lead Donal into sabotaging the meeting, by losing control, at which point they’d loudly voice what they wanted, causing complete disruption, which they knew Donal would not be able to manage. And whether or not they got what they wanted, they at
WEDNESDAY
least got it across. Once it was presented once, it was easier to get it on the next agenda, simply because it would be referenced in the notes to be followed up on. It was a tough environment and people played tough, or actually they played dirty. Recognising Donal was out of
THURSDAY
his depth, his colleague and friend, Sarah suggested they take a walk to see if there was anything she could do to help out. Sarah had a reputation for running good meetings. But as with Donal, she too had struggled when she first ran them. Her manager, Abi, took her aside and
FRIDAY
worked with her to run good meetings. Sarah wanted to help Donal in the way she had been helped. She also wanted to help him from self-sabotaging. Something else that she recognised he was doing, and which she had done too. Sarah shared three steps to help overcome his challenges
SATURDAY
Step 1: Document Decisions: Say: This is the decision I believe we’ve made. Is my understanding accurate? Can someone else confirm the decision to ensure we have the same understanding, and for the record. Next steps then need to be assigned and communicated soon after the meeting.
SUNDAY
Step 2: Inviting People: Be firm with whoever asked you to run the meeting about who needs to be there. Step 3: Take Good Notes: To give clarity so people know the actions required from them. Sarah helped Donal in becoming confident with these steps to run good meetings.
That’s a wrap on this week’s WorkLife Story of The Week: Self-Sabotaging His Own Meetings, from the School Of WorkLife book: How To Overcome Self-Sabotage
If you enjoyed Donal’s story, you may also like to learn about his fuller WorkLife story and the exercises that helped him to run productive meetings and to stop self-sabotaging, along with the other stories and assignments in this week’s WorkLife Book of The Week: How To Overcome Self-Sabotage.
Click on the above image to see a preview of what’s inside, along with the main ideas and the meaning behind these.
Come back next Sunday for next week’s WorkLife Story of The Week: WorkLife Longevity Brings About a New WorkLife Chapter from the School Of WorkLife book: How To Start Something New In Difficult Times
Click on the above image to see a preview of what’s inside, along with the main ideas and the meaning behind these.
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The School of WorkLife book series are designed to help you manage your own WorkLife Learning.
Each book tells real WorkLife stories of the successes and challenges people encountered in their WorkLife. Each book also includes the exercises that helped navigate these situations, which are presented as assignments for you to work through.
The stories I share are based on real life WorkLife situations – case studies of the challenges and successes people experienced in navigating the chapters of their WorkLife Story.
I believe stories are a powerful mechanism for teaching, a powerful medium to learn through, and also a powerful way to communicate who you are and what you stand for.
I hope you enjoy the stories and find them helpful in navigating the chapters of your WorkLife story.
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