What if Maslow analyzed your hybrid workforce? The good, bad, and ugly side of work from home folks can be improved with Maslow’s ‘ol hierarchy of needs. Indeed, a hybrid employee’s basic needs may be met but there’s distinct deterioration as we ascend that staffer’s experience triangle. 

Working from home checks psychological and safety boxes. To many, comfort and peace of mind from working at home are profound. It feels good to feel good. Moreover, convenience leads directly to safety. Stay at home, have everything delivered, and your chance of getting in a life-altering car wreck drops to zero. Avoid those virus-carrying masses and you compound the feeling of security. That feels extra good. But this is where the good feelings are throttled.

To seek belonging is as natural as breathing. It’s an itch that needs to be scratched. At home, the TV may be flailing around that need. If it’s on one station, your belonging is reinforced but limited. The belonging isn’t tactile, it’s tribal. Zoom may be functional but it’s not profound. A two-dimensional screen is content-rich, and in-person interaction is rich in experience. If you were only to eat donuts from a donut factory, your human experience may feel full but you’ll be isolated from balanced nourishment. 

Climbing this hierarchy and esteem doesn’t stand a chance when your own bubble of thoughts makes up all sorts of narratives. Reality may land anywhere on the spectrum of:

Enlightenment  <—>  Doubt  <—>  Full-on Negativity

Left alone with our thoughts we lack the touchstone of a more comprehensive, broader awareness. 

Extended isolation without human interaction and self-actualization becomes as fleeting as a feather in the wind. It’s a fantasy to seek fulfillment when belonging and self-esteem are pushed aside. 

Remember, I’m on the front lines of this dynamic. I’m a communicator. A writer who is often asked to give virtual presentations. I live the hybrid life! But I won’t succumb and be limited by stopping at the basics of food, shelter, clothing, and security.

• Coaching speakers and executives have me actively going to them or welcoming a home visit.
• Presenting at local conferences or far-away locales is a priority.
• Helping meeting professionals climb the total human experience is more important than ever. 

Let’s talk. Better yet, let’s meet to build a personal sense of friendship, confidence, and creative problem-solving. Let’s bring Maslow to the party and see how we can bring life to that hybrid workforce of ours.  

 #coaching #experience #workfromhome #eventsindustry #setbacktobreakthrough

Chaos can make it feel like we’re losing control. Lean too far into the chaos - turmoil wins. Lean away - it feels like flailing. Here’s where staying over your skis will help you win personally and professionally.

This is what we can learn from actual skiing. First, understand that you must remain perpendicular to the contour of the terrain. When you're standing, you're neither leaning forward nor backward. You are perpendicular to the land. As a rule, you won't fall. If you lean too far forward, you'll tumble. If you lean back too far, you'll fall as well.
 
When you learn to ski. It is one of the first things you’re taught. Stay perpendicular to the slope. The steeper the slope gets. The rule stays the same. Stay perpendicular to the slope. But that's not our instinct, is it? If the slope starts to get too steep. We lean back because we're a little nervous about falling into the imaginary abyss. Just the sight of that ski resort a mile down the mountain and the imagination runs wild. “Don’t fall. Don’t fall. Don’t fall,” and the brain tells the body, “Lean away from that danger.” Then, you fall.
 
On an increasingly steeper decline, it's against human instinct to lean over your skis. Today’s popular, if not overused aphorism is, “Stay over your skis.” We hear it regarding our personal or professional lives. Extend yourself too much and that’s literally like leaning too far forward over your skis.
 
·      Saying “yes” to everything.
·      Volunteering too much of your time.
·      Trying to do everything for your kids, family, coworkers, clients, prospects, and complainers.
 
Boom. Chaos wins and you don’t.
 
What about sitting back?  Again, we will have issues.
 
·      Sit back and wait for progress to just appear. Boom.
·      Lean away from the fear. It gets bigger.
·      Retreat from the chaos, it rages even stronger.
·      Lean too far back and we're ultimately in for a rocky ride.
 
There is that sweet spot, that zone of control, even if it is Controlled Chaos.
 
Stay over those skis. Stay perpendicular to the slope and it’s going to serve you well. If things seem to be a little bit too chaotic, check in with where you spend your time and focus.
 
Are you leaning too far forward or back?
 
If so, then find that sweet spot dynamic and enjoy the ride.
 
#chaos #TheEarthquake #overwhelmed #overcomeobstacles #setbacktobreakthrough

A group of metaphorical creatures presents lessons about perseverance and mental strength in this guide.

There are times when values get tested (or ignored) by personal earthquakes. In particular, the pursuit of excellence can impinge when a massive or painful setback is front-of-mind.

We are all led by certain values that are inherently a filter for how we each interpret our world. Organizations have values that help them and the world they interact with interpret their position and how people see them.

The International Olympic Committee has three guiding values of Olympism. Excellence - Friendship - Respect. “They constitute the foundation on which the Olympic Movement builds its activities to promote sport, culture, and education with a view to building a better world.”

As an Olympian in the crosshairs of a financial setback around 2008, my deeply held value of “The Pursuit of Excellence” took a back seat to basic survival. (Yeah, Maslow, I get it.) This experience led me to write The Earthquake as a formula for getting back to ‘thrival’ over survival. The three things we can each do when enmeshed in a personal or interpersonal setback is:

1. Give Yourself a Break
2. Give Others a Break
3. Give it Time

As you may know, the opening line in the book, The Earthquake is, “There’s no linear way out of chaos.” Given that fact, a path of self-discovery awaits.

Read the book.

Take care.

You’ve got this.

#wegotthis #TheEarthquake #mindset #setbacks #breakthroughs 

Biography Insights:

Vince Poscente is one of the most in-demand motivational keynote and virtual presenters on the planet. His expertise in resiliency and how to overcome obstacles thrills audiences worldwide. When you bounce back stronger than ever confidence and fun goes up. Vince's client list includes world-class organizations dedicated to being bigger and better. When employees and entrepreneurs handle setbacks, supersede obstacles, and are more focused - record-setting results happen faster than expected. Vince knows first-hand how innovation, persistence fearlessness plays in your future success. He speaks from experience. His foundation is with proven tools. Where does Vince Poscente's “From Setback to Breakthrough” expertise come from? 

• Recreational skier, Vince to Olympic athlete in just four short years.
• Award-winning sales and marketing executive with the world's largest real estate investment service.
• Earned a Masters in Organizational Management while being an award-winning business owner.
• One of only four people on the planet to be inducted into the USA and Canadian Speaker Halls of Fame.
• New York Times bestselling author of eight books.
• Leader and participant on seven Himalayan Expeditions 

What are your teams’ challenges? An uncertain economy? Negative attitudes? Competition? Lower productivity? 

Vince is the #1 go-to guy for taking a team and teaching them how to sell more, lead better, and produce more. Vince will help you move past obstacles and create the success you, and your team, want and deserve. 

Vince Poscente has practical tools to change how your team handles crisis. Problems. Competition. And change. Without understanding resiliency and the absolute importance it plays on everything and everyone—your team will not have the skills they need to overcome the things that will inevitably stand in their way.  #mindset #setbacks #breakthroughs

There's a universal misunderstanding regarding better results in our personal or professional lives. Ask anyone how to get better results and the answer is pretty consistent. "To change your results, change your actions. For different results, do different actions. For better results, engage in better actions." Seems like great advice... if it was accurate. Dear reader, starting with your actions for better results, only leads to more struggle and frustration. There is a better way.

Then, some well-meaning, self-anointed, TikTok guru comes along and gives the sage advice they saw in a Nike commercial, "Just Do It." 

If you're into 'splitting hairs' (a term from the middle ages as it was thought a hair was too fine to cut in half, ergo, futile) then you might argue that action is better than doing nothing. True. BUT WE'RE NOT DONE YET.

Back to the dynamic of fear, confidence, action, and results. Review this graph to see if you non-hair-splitters agree.

High fear leads to low confidence, which leads to poor performance, which leads to poor results. Or conversely, low confidence leads to high fear, leading to poor performance and poor results. Backing up from simply, "just do it" you can see a dynamic between fear and confidence as the source of better outcomes. 

Let's Take a Closer Look at Fear and Confidence

Fear comes from the unknown.

Confidence comes from experience.

Consider the term, an unknown experience and you have the makings for poor results. Hence, fear and confidence are a precursor to the results you are experiencing. Here's where it gets goofy.

What if you don't have experience with:

• working in a post-pandemic setting
• a new job
• reinventing yourself
• some sort of loss
• a new relationship
• a failed relationship
• a financial setback
• a wackadoodle coworker-boss-subordinate-customer-client-relative-neighbor

Without previous experience with any version of the above list, how can you expect to have confidence? Now, what happens? Your confidence is compromised. What happens when confidence is low. Fear goes up. What happens when fear is high and confidence is low? Your actions and how you perform are diminished. Then results are poor. It seems like a no-win situation. (Cue calvary trumpet.) 

Make it Laughable

There is a solution but the optics have gone from 'goofy' to 'laughable' (double entendre intended)

By introducing "fun" to the equation, you will have a shortcut to flipping the gap between fear and confidence.

Simply making the decision to Have Fun before you engage in something new or different will automatically improve confidence and throw shade on those fears. All of a sudden, your performance is improved (despite your lack of experience and the fact that fun is the opposite end of the universe from fear) and your results are optimized. 

This is where the aforementioned hair-splitters can pipe in. Now just do it again, and again, and again. Always start with the decision to have fun and your brain will override the goofy fear/confidence dynamic.  

A Laugh-Worthy Story About Having Fun

Scan ahead in this video to 4:38 and you'll see a one-minute story about having fun as a way to accelerate better results.

Take care and enjoy the journey. It's all about having fun. 

You may think you're the exception. BUT... Everyone has Blind Spot Bias. We each have a tendency to see other people being more biased than we are. In fact, in one study over 85% of Americans reported they are less biased in their thinking. People are motivated to seen themselves in a positive light while biases are generally seen as undesirable.

Everyone has unconscious patterns and personal ‘factory defects’ if you will. There are things about you, you don’t know you have. Let’s say elbow skin for example. Roll your sleeve up and give your elbow skin a pinch. There, see that, you have no feeling in your elbow skin. A factory defect you weren’t aware of. Another 'factory defect'... you have a Blind Spot.

Take this quick test. Cover your left eye. Keep your right eye on the + sign while you slowly bring your face closer to the screen. At some point you the black spot will disappear then reappear. THAT is your blind spot.

When it comes to topics you’re passionate about, you also have any combination of blind spots. Blind Spot biases are enhanced by confirmation bias and repetition bias. You recognize data as aligning with your way of seeing the world, and bingo you have reinforced, or confirmed your bias. Or, you hear a certain bit of information repeatedly and you are in the sights of repetition bias. 

If you hold your gaze from a fixed position, there is nothing you can do about your optical bias. It is by seeing something from a different angle or position will you then see what you couldn’t see before. The same can be said in life.

If you are posting your bias on social media, or arguing your point with a significant other, know, you may have an unconscious bias, A BLIND SPOT that’s a factory defect somewhat like the unfeeling elbow skin of objectivity. 

A self-serving bias can cut two ways. Avoid any form of self-destruction.

As you'll see in this video, if you take credit and say, "Those good things are due to me," then you have a self-serving bias. If you say, "Those bad things are not my fault, they happen to me because of someone or something else," then you have the other side-of-the-sword where you are playing the victim.

Basically, having these kinds of biases hobble your growth.

The solution is to let go. Let go of the credit. Let go of the victim language. Just let go of the bias altogether.

It all correlates to the versions of the truth. There's your truth. The other person's truth. Then theirs likely 'the truth.'

Having a bias may make you feel good. You may feel vindicated. You may feel 'right.' Your bias may launch you into, "The good fight." But if bias has anything to do with ego or fear, it is a bias that is on the road to dysfunction.

If you absolutely HAVE to HAVE bias, then have a bias for LOVE while you have a bias against hate.

As Martin Luther King said, "Hate is too great a burden to bear."

Look for ways you can observe without judgment. Look for opportunities to clarify someone's point of view. Challenge yourself to actively listen over silently formulating what you're going to say next. Self-serving biases diminish your relationships with others, and, get this, your self.

Breakthroughs in life happen when you are constantly in the solution loop of listening, not talking. Test out what you think and challenge your own beliefs. Be part of a conversation not a one-way stream of your biases. Being right is far less important than being happy.

Let go of the self-serving bias.

Lead By Example

Few of us "sign-up" to be a role model but all of us are a role-model in some way or another. Whether it's your inner circle, random acquaintances, or an unknown observer, you are being observed at some level.

I remember when Michael Irving was being scrutinized for his behavior and he said, "I never signed up to be no role model." Too bad there Sparky, you and the rest of us ARE role models. We all influence each other in some fashion or another. What you do about it is up to you.

There are all sorts of paths to "lead by example." What you do leads the list. What you say, is a close second. Who you hang out with, snuggles up to third-place. Then there's a pack of: who you work with, play with, endorse, reject, and inspire. There are the places you visit, the events you attend, the sites you click onto, the mail you receive.

There are a gazillion different ways to be perceived and an overwhelming number of messages you send out to your world.

What is a mere mortal to do?

Do the best you can while knowing you can always go from your best to better. Being a perfect role model is not the point. Being an ideal role model is not the destination.

Being the person who serves with love and seeks fulfillment is a pretty good place to start.

All this is not in the video but I did want you to have a touchstone for being the role model you are meant to be.

Fear can be the bane of our existence. Getting rid of fear(s) will be a lifelong pursuit. 

The paradoxes surrounding FEAR is multilayered: 

• Run away from fear it gets larger.
• Run towards fear and it gets smaller.
• If you let fear go up, confidence goes down.
• If you minimize fear, confidence goes up.
• Fake that you're not scared and you're only kidding yourself.
• Embrace your fears and you are courageous.
• If you ignore what you fear, you're ignoring what is important to you.
• If you dive into the middle of what scares you you're on your way to fulfillment. 

This video is a small exploration into the power of fear. Whether that power is in your hands or out of your control is absolutely up to you.

Enjoy.

Conversations with Dune explore a variety of inspirational topics, practical tools for entrepreneurs, insights for parents, and anyone searching for a better way... Enjoy this one hour and fifty minute interview.