Welcome!
Welcome. If you're here in the early days of this site, you probably know me personally or you know someone who does. Thank you for coming to visit. I hope you'll come back often. (You can sign up to receive updates as new content is posted.) What you'll find here is a preview of material from my first planned published work, a book entitled: "How To Succeed in Business... Without Eating Your Soul For Breakfast."
The site is being re-launched with this post in January 2012. What you'll find here over time is insight on key topics and themes as requested by my followers and highlighted in the next post in overview form. For those who are new to the site... this post is your jumping off point.
The introduction above provides insight as to what will come in the posts to follow. I think it's equally important to point out what you won't see here: negativity toward the business world. I've enjoyed great success in my career, working with companies of all sizes. Some were fantastic in every sense of the word... and others, less so. I love the world of business. This blog, and the associated book, focuses on helping individuals learn how to thrive in a business setting. It's about finding the best possible way to achieve success through your work, on your own terms.
So what does it mean to be successful? There are thousands of books that instruct and inform people about particular industries (Healthcare, Telecommunications, Music) or functional areas of expertise (Marketing, Sales, Service). As a result, you can work in an industry you love, and master the skills you need to be astoundingly successful. My experience suggests, though, that success as evaluated by others doesn't always equate to feeling "successful" on a personal level. As an example, my personal view of success includes achieving results through my work, but it goes further for me, as I think it does for many people. I thrive in an environment that consistently demonstrates integrity and respect, always striving to balance the needs of the business with those of customers, employees and shareholders. I want to be inspired on a daily basis to be not just a better worker, but a better person. It's a tall order. When I work for companies where I don't feel a strong fit in this area, I feel like I'm eating my soul for breakfast on a daily basis. What does personal success mean for you? What's important to you as an individual? Every person likely defines it differently.
The question becomes, how do you manage situations in the workplace that challenge your personal measures of integrity, success, and satisfaction? There are no right or wrong answers. There are no approaches that are guaranteed to work for every person and every environment. But there are common situations that create challenges in the workplace on an ethical, cultural, political and personal level that impact individuals in the business world everyday. No one seems to want to talk about them. Maybe it's precisely because there are no easy answers.
Where's the fun in easy? My belief is that perspective is always helpful in the pursuit of personal success. Sometimes we find it ourselves and sometimes we benefit by hearing insights from others. If you agree, I hope you'll find this a forum for interesting discussion and debate. I look forward to hearing your thoughts as we go along.
More soon.
Lisa
