How good does it feel when you go to your favourite restaurant or special coffee place and you are greeted warmly and addressed by your name – you feel connected and remembered.
As human beings, we crave communication and connection that is focused without distraction. Individual connections bring us closer together, it invites others into our world and together we build trust and meaningful relationships. In the workplace, strong connections make us better employees, better co-workers and motivating leaders.
Today there is so much disruption impacting virtually every industry and every aspect of our personal and professional lives. The way we are working is constantly changing and we are being asked to do more, be more, and know more.
We’re experts in reading other people’s actions, and other people certainly know how to read ours – But how well can we read our own actions? Our actions say so much about who we are, yet we spend very little time observing them. If you want to be remembered for your actions or your behaviour, they must be aligned with your intentions
our actions undermine or underline who we are.
The only thing that you can control is how you show up in this world. You have the freedom of how you want to be remembered, how you respond to others. You can choose to be reactive – driven by feelings, circumstances and your environment, or proactive – driven by your values, carefully thought about, selected values – YOU choose.
If you’re not certain how you are being perceived or remembered or how you would like to be? – do the exercise below, be honest and open with your responses.
Intention + Connection = Impact
Ask yourself these questions and note your answers:
I – Identity – who am I
M – Mind-set – What are my thoughts
P – Purpose – Why do I do what I do
A – Action – How do I behave
C – Communication – What are the stories I tell
T – Trust – How do I build trust
Screenwriter Leo Rosten pulled everything together when he said
“I cannot believe that the purpose of life is to be happy. I think the purpose of life is to be useful, to be responsible and compassionate. It is, above all, to matter, to count, to stand for something, to have made a difference that you lived at all”
Live with purpose, Live by Priority, and Live for Productivity