Bait, Tackle, Ice, Advice and Beer Blog » Emma Good

How do you keep moving forward?

Emma Good — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 08:30:49 +0000

If I was to ask how do you keep moving forward? Would you focus on your relationship, your family or on your friends? Do you think of your community, consider your connections, or your work environment?

I asked this question to a group of individuals that did not know one another but were about to embark on a year-long journey together. I asked them to answer the question by creating an entertaining learning experience after giving them a specific topic to base their dialogue on. What occurred to me during the activity was the role I was to play as facilitator. I had to encourage dialogue vs. debate, for the group to use facts vs. opinions and to place less emphasis on dogmatic beliefs vs. trying new ideas.

The dialogue from the group focused participants on exploration, understanding, listening, with a commitment to be open and honest and to have a collaborative attitude. The result was exactly what I had hoped for, four VERY entertaining performances that highlighted the rich arts & culture in our community, the talented people who live here, the entrepreneurial spirit that is alive and well and the hopes that one day Tallahassee might become a Top 10 travel destination.

The question still remained: how could the groups dialogue in the coming months have momentum? The group decided for this to happen they would assign a facilitator for every meeting, end every meeting with a commitment from each person for each decision made and through their experiences based upon their performances they would set group goals to keep them moving forward.

><(("> Emma Good

Emma is a ><(("> Team member at Catch Your Limit, a management firm with offices in Tallahassee, FL and Richmond, VA. To learn more, visit www.catchyourlimit.com.

Can conflict strengthen relationships?

Emma Good — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 08:30:43 +0000

I am still thinking about the idea of being a change agent. One insight came from my last blog; it was the idea of taking the risk of being misunderstood to ensure that the overall goal or result is visible. That lead me to think about conflict.

Conflict is rampant in our lives, causing hurt, anger and bitterness. Unresolved issues and unfulfilled expectations leave people, emotions, and relationships torn. Mediation offers one alternative; however settlements and agreements often cannot restore trust or rebuild broken bonds. So how can conflict strengthen relationships? and how can we find ways to learn and grow through conflict to rebuild trust.

One key tool that we use at Catch Your Limit is Patrick Lencioni’s 5 Dysfunctions of a Team. I was thrilled this past week when witnessing the power of teamwork. The basis of Lencioni’s book are 5 criteria; Trust, Conflict, Commitment, Accountability and Results. During a team presentation on conflict the fear of being misunderstood, ostracized and/or labeled was a feeling most of the team had felt. Like Lencioni, I strongly believe that people can engage in positive conflict. Yes conflict in any form can be uncomfortable, especially if you are trying to avoid personal conflict. I reminded the team that if you take the approach that we mean no harm when engaging in conflict, and we have trust as a foundation of our teamwork, conflict is a worthwhile tool for all of us to understand. Conflict can strengthen relationships because it creates lively discussion, extracts ideas, minimizes side-bar conversations and hopefully results in solving issues quickly.

How do you engage in positive conflict? Establish ground rules and/or rules of conflict engagement. Take away the potential for personal conflict. In teams you can have written guidelines or ground rules, in my role as a change agent I established personal ground rules to guide myself through the challenge of conflict:

I will continue to have a positive attitude and be respectful listening to others.
I will try to make it easier for the other person to want to stay in conversation with me by creating opportunity for resolution.
I will value initiative and encourage ideas.
I will remember that my overall goal is to awaken hearts and minds of others.
I will manage my conflict triggers and identify and understand threats.

So I will continue to take the risk of being misunderstood and sometimes engage in positive conflict and continue my journey. As Albert Einstein said ’in the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.’

><(("> Emma Good

Emma is a ><(("> Team member at Catch Your Limit, a management firm with offices in Tallahassee, FL and Richmond, VA. To learn more, visit www.catchyourlimit.com.

Can we all act as change agents?

Emma Good — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 08:00:34 +0000

Recently I heard a great friend and a mentor describe herself as a change agent. For her its a double edge sword as her perspective challenges others and people are often conflicted by what she says. I think she’s brilliant and I too would like to call myself a change agent but I questioned whether I really understand what one is.

By definition a change agent is a ’ person whose presence or thought processes cause a change from the traditional way of handling or thinking about a problem; altering organizational systems and human capacity.’ I like this already. The question now becomes how can I ensure that when speaking up my thoughts I don’t become problematic, that I don’t assume a role as the devils advocate or come across as aggressive or argumentative.

How can I act as a change agent? I have to take the risk of being misunderstood and misappreciated and remind others of the overall goal or result. I have to remind myself that the result of acting as a change agent may enable others to do more, to gain a new perspective on life. I was reminded of this as I found myself smiling reading a card from a former student employee. After she had left our company and was about to travel around Europe for the summer she sent me a thank you card and wrote ‘you give off an energy that inspires me to look at things a new way and for that I am most thankful.’ Then just today a post card arrived from Amsterdam from the same student who simply wrote ‘thank you again for everything, I am having the time of my life.’ I thought back to moments that had taken place between the two of us and I remembered sending her an email that said always remember: the journey is all. The destination is beside the point with a quote;

‘A good traveller has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.’ ~Lao Tzu

So back to the question at hand can we all act as change agents? I believe that the answer is yes but not by definition or rules, planning or pre-determined journeys. We can choose to take action;

we can improve and heal our environment
we can create healing on a personal level at home and at work
we can become an engaged citizen in our community, in our society and on a global level

That’s quite a list. So where can we begin? Find your passion, act upon it and inspire others. Become self-motivated and determined, change is about people so get involved. We have the power to heal others and our communities.

The best part of my day is knowing that the role of a Management Consultant is in alignment with being a change agent. Our credo states that ‘Catch Your Limit is about people paying attention to people… about the power of good ideas that passionate, motivated, fully energized people can generate.’ Perhaps then I can start to call myself a change agent, can you?

><(("> Emma Good

Emma is a ><(("> Team member at Catch Your Limit, a management firm with offices in Tallahassee, FL and Richmond, VA. To learn more, visit www.catchyourlimit.com.

A little secret to business and life practices

Emma Good — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 08:00:53 +0000

The challenge to understand the world around us as impermanent vs permanent, balanced vs unbalanced is evident to most of us on a daily basis. If we focus on the permanent aspects of life, how do you feel when the unexpected happens? Then surely leaning towards impermanence, often is interrupted as flaky and living irresponsibly.

So what are the little secrets to a successful balance for our work and life path?

Understand that little is actually in our control, what we can choose is to live and act responsbily.
Our path must be traveled with integrity, defined goals, and with an enlightened life purpose.
Preparation that change will happen and a new direction will unfold.

The purpose of knowing these little secrets is to develop an open, flexible mind. It is only then that we can understand that our world is both solid and impermanent.

The team at Catch Your Limit have used our Boxed-To-Go Series on the topics of Flexibility, Transparency and Planning to help you prepare, plan and understand these secrets just a little more.

><(("> Emma Good

Emma is a ><(("> Team member at Catch Your Limit, a management firm with offices in Tallahassee, FL and Richmond, VA. To learn more, visit www.catchyourlimit.com.

Reframing our lives

Emma Good — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 08:00:47 +0000

The past year for most has been about treading water. Decisions that did have to be made were often difficult and painful both at work and in our personal lives and most have had to reevaluate our life journey. So once again my thoughts lead to how to balance my life and rediscover my path.

Recently I have been reading insights on how to integrate Zen practices into daily business practices and our personal lives. Interestingly I came across a statement that made me stop and think for a minute; it stated that there is no such thing as work separate from your life, that work is not something you do to earn money, or make a living. Your work is your path.

The question that I currently find myself focusing on is how to reframe my life and follow my path? I believe I must start with recognizing where I am and what I have. Those difficult and painful decisions we might have had to make this past year, lead me to question if I made the right decision to sell my house, to downsize and simplify my life? and then recently my father passed away.

During this time my family gathered, mourned and then I was left with a clear vision of exactly where I am and what I have. A loving and supportive family, a network of empathic friends and community that I could turn to for help. It allowed me to recognize that I had made the right decisions.

It’s now time to focus on my path, my work. What this past year has taught us all is that transparency, honesty and trust have been often overlooked and even lost but those attributes are at the very heart of where we need to be. So for now that is what I have. I have honesty and trust in the work that I do. I have an understanding that it is not about what I can add, what is new but simply by having less, being less ‘busy’ and by peeling away a few layers; I can offer transparency.

It is about paying attention to people. I am excited to think about reframing my life. Understanding where I am and what I have was just the first step.

><(("> Emma Good

Emma is a ><(("> Team member at Catch Your Limit, a management firm with offices in Tallahassee, FL and Richmond, VA. To learn more, visit www.catchyourlimit.com.

What keeps you up at night?

Emma Good — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 13:33:00 +0000

What kept me up last night was thinking about how to engage my current employee’s. We have asked alot of our employees this past year, and maybe as a leader our efforts had to be focused elsewhere but now the question is what do they need from me and how do I keep them engaged?

One factor of success that everyone agrees with is having the right people in the right seats, as Jim Collins refers to it. Now is the time more then ever to ensure that effort and focus is spent developing our key talent in an organization, identifying our future leaders, engaging employees in their positions and holding onto them.

As we start to see movement within the economy, our employees have also been patiently waiting to see what could be next for them. Now is the time to develop your talented individuals to ultimately sustain your team and create a competitive advantage. But how do you know your key talent is really on board? The following questions, findings from a Watson Wyatt Worldwide study, are a good place to start:

Would employees recommend your organization to others?
Are they satisfied with advancement opportunities?
Do your employees believe management has the ability to grow the business?

Now is the time and responsibility as a leader to refocus our efforts from just ‘staying the course’ to keeping talented people and ensuring that when new opportunities arise, employees want to keep their seat on your bus.

The reality for most of us is that the employees have developed strength and resilience they did not have before and before you waste valuable time and costs on the recruitment process after they leave, why not renew, motivate and engage your current talented employees.

Your goal as a leader is to ensure employees continue to be passionate about their work, value their contribution, create growth opportunities and share your vision with meaning, purpose and honesty.

What will not keep me up tonight is knowing if my employees are engaged because today I take the challenge and make the choice to lead my team by asking questions, actively listening to the answers, strengthening commitment, renewing pride in performance and recognizing the incredible talent I know I have around me.

><(("> Emma Good

Emma is a ><(("> Team member at Catch Your Limit, a management firm with offices in Tallahassee, FL and Richmond, VA. To learn more, visit www.catchyourlimit.com.

How do you approach the immensity of the sea?

Emma Good — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:47:00 +0000

“If you want to build a ship, don’t herd people together to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.” - Antoine de Saint-Exupery

It’s that time of year to think about your Shoulda, Coulda, Woulda list or for some its our New Years Resolutions.

It’s that time of year when we ‘herd’ people into staff and board retreats and re-evaluate the strategic plan and also the time of year we feel our waist lines explode over our jeans and think back to the #1 New Year’s Resolution – to lose weight.

The question for me is at what point did we really understand the immensity of the sea before us? When we wrote the goal did we really design a plan to approach the magnitude of work that it would take?

Planning needs to address the vision. Before you can even think about the assigned tasks ask yourself; Do you have the right people on board? Is the big picture defined and in writing? For many of us the big picture is clearer now then it has ever been and therefore it’s time to clarify our vision, determine our goals, and embark on the journey to reinvest in ourselves and our team.

A final question I’d like you to consider is on the subject of being a catalyst for creating extraordinary organizations. It isn’t a destination. Rather, it is something you create everyday as it should embody the way we work on a daily basis. Can we align our purpose, our actions, our values and our passion to build our extraordinary ships?

><(("> Emma Good

Emma is a ><(("> Team member at Catch Your Limit, a management firm with offices in Tallahassee, FL and Richmond, VA. To learn more, visit www.catchyourlimit.com.

If I Can Do It – So Can YOU!

Emma Good — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 11:00:00 +0000

I thought perhaps last week was to be my last installment of my triathlon blogathon, and then two things came to mind. Firstly I need to do a little reflection, a recap, an evaluation, and secondly I am not going to stop training. Now my focus is on the upcoming trail 1/2 marathon!

The Catch Your Limit credo has been on our minds lately. And it occurred to me that in my pursuit to train for my triathlon I was also in pursuit to catch my limit. On reflection, my training has challenged and encouraged me to work harder and motivated me to what I feel was a very successful end result. I finished 6th in my age group. After a very fast swim I slowed a little on the bike, but fell into a great rhythm for the run finishing in a respectable time of 3:10:28.

There’s room for improvement of course, but I discovered my capabilities and strengths and I am thoroughly celebrating my success. I also had fun and had a smile on my face even at the finish line.

One of the best parts of the triathlon experience for me is when the athletes gather on the beach at sunrise, and you embrace the idea that everyone standing there is your team mate. Everyone who has aspired and trained for this race has been on your team all along, supporting each other every step of the way. How? Because our story is the same.

During the swim, as I reached the last buoy, I pushed myself towards the beach by telling myself this is why I, and we, got up at 5am three times a week to endurance train. Then those last 2miles on the bike, when the sign at the last water stop asks how much your bum hurts and when you really want to just get off the bike, place it gently next to a tree and start walking but determined to reach the transition area, you continue. Then you find yourself running 6.2miles with wobbly legs, burning quads and a bottom that is numb. I fell into a trance of sorts and found myself re-living conversations I have had with my running buddies: Robin, Vicky & Shelby. I think I even giggled out loud at one point to the conversation I was having in my head with my absent running buddies.

And then there it was, the finish line. Allan, the amazing boyfriend, was waiting ready to take that finish line photo (not too bad as it turns out). With a medal around my neck, my good idea to complete an Olympic distance triathlon was achieved.

So the Catch Your Limit logo at least has swam a mile with me, rode 25miles on a bike and ran a 10k race, what a team!

><(("> Emma Good

Emma is a ><(("> Team member at Catch Your Limit, a management firm with offices in Tallahassee, FL and Richmond, VA. To learn more, visit www.catchyourlimit.com.

Little Known Ways to Plan for the Big Day

Emma Good — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 15:00:00 +0000

It’s the last installment of my blogathon as the triathlon is on Saturday. There are no more days to worry about form or technique. There are no more days to worry if I am training to the best of my ability. The best advice that I have heard from seasoned triathletes is that at this stage do not change a thing. So this week my training routine is the same, I plan on eating the same foods and my trusted equipment is seeing the light of day.

So here is my list of ways that I planned my big day:

Involve the Right People in the Planning Process – I found a training buddy, Jeffy, and although he cannot complete the race with me due to an injury, he was the RIGHT person to be on my bus. Teaming with him made me slow down and plan my training schedule, evaluate my technique for each sport, and I found him to be a great asset for support and as a digital resource. Everyday he would send me a new link to online articles that were extremely helpful.

Goals/Strategies – The overall goal was clear; to complete the race. But my strategies were to be disciplined, to learn from others and if this can be a strategy enjoy the training process.

Objectives – Setting myself milestones along the way has been really helpful and has kept me motivated. I designed my training plans to increase strength and pace and it really worked.

Tasks – This is where having the right people to support you is so important. This week I designed a race checklist and it created yet another list of tasks to be done before heading to the race this weekend. Divide and conquer has always been something I adhere to and with that I have assigned many of the tasks to my boyfriend, Allan, to help with. Is that really dividing or just conquering?

Resources and Budgets – I won’t lie, there is a lot involved in training for a triathlon at any level. Resources take many forms; my local tri-club and its members have been an amazing resource to tap into for advice and support, my budget has been a major resource that has been dipped into many times from race fees, to equipment purchases and even gym membership, but the best resource is my family. 2 years ago my parents flew from England to be at my first race and endured the heat, rain and mosquitoes to see me cross the finish line with a smile.

Build in Accountability and Evaluate the Planning Process and the Plan – You know I nearly forgot about this most important factor and therefore next week’s blog will be a look back, a review of that training plan and an evaluation of my performance and next steps for the next big race.

Acknowledgment and Celebration – A big thank you to everyone who has supported me. My co-workers who woke me up during my afternoon lull, (getting up at 5am plays havoc on your body), my boyfriend who helped cook wonderful meals (I am also a vegetarian and can never eat enough as it is), and who now knows how to apply Bio-Freeze and has become my own personal masseuse, and also to my friends whom many of which have no idea why I do what I do but continue to listen to the MANY triathlon stories I share.

This week I am focused on performance and with that I am off to plan my last meal on Friday to enhance that performance.

><(("> Emma Good

Emma is a ><(("> Team member at Catch Your Limit, a management firm with offices in Tallahassee, FL and Richmond, VA. To learn more, visit www.catchyourlimit.com.

Planning & Preparing for the Transition Area:

Emma Good — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 07:00:00 +0000

The next installment of my triathlon training blogathon is focused on preparation and planning. Unlike the first stage of my triathlon planning which was training; the second stage is now planning what I need for my transition area.

With only 3 weeks to go the specific details are going through my mind. A few weeks ago biking along the St. Marks trail with Jeffy, I explained to him in detail the ‘process’ of a triathlon. Bear in mind he has never participated in one before and he is starting with an Olympic distance, I thought I would at least help the bloke out a little. I started my tale with the registration area and the branding that will occur. I will forever remember my number from triathlon as they mark your body with a sharpie and send you on your way. Retelling the entire race took nearly an hour and it brought to my attention the amount of details that need to be planned for when racing. The most important is the transition area.

The transition area is where you can lose the most amount of time. Understanding how to strip off layers of clothing after the swim and be ready to jump on your bike is no easy feat. Especially as I will have the sand and salt to contend with this time around.

It was then that I realized that although Jeffy had listened intently and had asked the appropriate questions a checklist was needed. Did I really know when and how to transition correctly? What happens if I leap off the bike only to discover I forgot my running shoes, unlikely, but at 5am when you are setting up it could, for me at least, be entirely possible. And then something brilliant occurred to me, others have had the same dilemma and must have sought a solution and there it was, finally I found a reason to search through the copious number of videos on You Tube to find the following:

You have to watch it, giggle away as I did, but now I know the tricks of the trade, thanks to Gale.

The more important concern that I am considering is reducing the giggle factor from the crowds as I jam my bike helmet on my head or as I stumble around trying to squeeze my feet into my trainers. So with that in mind I just purchased an aluminous green tri-mat to help me identify my transition area. Saving me from another potential roar of laughter from the stands as I will hopefully be able to locate my transition area quickly. I am also focusing not only on the organization of my ‘stuff’ but the organization of my brain. By the time I reach my transition area I will have swam a mile in open water appearing with a salty runny nose and fogged up goggles. And during the second transition after a 25mile bike ride during which I have attempted to eat and drink a 4-course meal to replenish my energy levels all using one hand, while remembering to pedal and even attempting a flying dismount, well maybe not the dismount, but all in all you get my general drift, organization at your transition area is key.

So out came the notebook and already I am up to a sizable checklist, I extend gratitude again to Gale as she had already made the planning process easier with my next, rather high-level giggle factor You Tube video on preparing and planning for your triathlon.

My only question is how many rolls of tape do I need compared to the number of packets of tissues? It reminds me of Tom’s recent article, Simple Planning in which he lists the 7 Benefits of Planning.

Planning better defines the course of action that we propose to undertake
Planning gives a rough estimate of the time required for a project
Planning gives us a fairly good idea about the expenses involved in the project. In fact a budget is only a financial plan
Planning helps us to get prepared for emergencies that may arise during the course of the project
A well thought out plan gives us a clear idea about what is to be done every day, every week and every month
Planning helps avoid duplication of labor
A plan gives everyone a clear idea of their respective role in the project

I believe Tom was specifically referring to organizational planning but every one of these benefits apply to planning for yourself. Whether we compete in triathlons or not the adversity we deal with is tantamount to swimming a mile and then embarking on a 25 mile bike ride. We’re all in a race called life and while each of us measure success differently, I do believe everyone wants to finish. The essential thing is to make sure we’ve planned for the times in our lives when we come to a “transition area” to make sure we’re both mentally and physically prepared to continue on to the next part of the race.

><(("> Emma Good

Emma is a ><(("> Team member at Catch Your Limit, a management firm with offices in Tallahassee, FL and Richmond, VA. To learn more, visit www.catchyourlimit.com.