The message was simple:

“If you are mentally or emotionally unwell, you ought to see a therapist. But, if you are intention is to become more successful, than you will realize far more value by seeing a coach.”

There are many great Psychology departments in our universities. These schools provide remarkable education in the techniques of facilitating emotional, physical, and behavioral breakthroughs. But, they offer nothing in teaching therapists and psychologists how to make a good living from the endeavor. Right now, the coaching industry is doing a far better job of teaching them life skills that build an affluent practice.

Years ago, I was asked to become a founding board member of the Professional Coaches and Mentors Association. In that environment, I became troubled by the fact that most coaches take a quick course and then develop their skills on the job. A psychologist is required to develop comprehensive technical skills before they connect with a client. On the other hand, the schools fall flat in helping graduates understand the world of commerce, of making a living or starting a business. This is why so many healthcare professionals partner with our company. But, their schools offered nothing to speak of in becoming proficient with sales, business development, digital marketing, and branding.

At Inspired Work, while I participated in the coaching industry, I have never viewed myself as a coach. Much of my education emerged from leading thousands of people through dynamic group programs. Many of our graduates have come back to us with the desire to help launch their first business, provide successful career marketing campaigns, and become more effective with their existing job or business.

I have never viewed myself as a coach. My role is as an orchestrator. Our two-day program moves clients into results that could take months in a one-on-one coaching process. Instead of spending gobs of time to define their ideal role, they have clarity in all they want to accomplish. In other words, rather than continuing with any form of aimlessness, they are directive, perhaps even bossy. As a result, we can go straight to designing a business plan, build necessary skills, make introductions to key hiring managers, or engage in marketing their career. Every client is a blank canvas that has been painted with their aspirations, needs, expectations, and shortcomings. Many coaches would find that too directive.

Today, I believe the coaching and psychology professions would have a great deal to gain by studying each other. Instead of spending so much time addressing each other’s shortcomings, consider their success. Psychologists tend to have far more comprehensive skills in dealing with emotional wounds, behavior, and self-actualization. But, they are given a minimal understanding of how to build a productive career, deal with a transition, or launch a new business. Our graduate schools offer nothing in terms of building the skills that can make us wealthy, nothing in how to construct a business platform that enhances our personal lives, and nothing in developing and marketing a brand.

On the other hand, the coaching profession could use a big dose of understanding of how to capture the complexities of human development. When there is a deficit in this area, a critical turning point can be missed by directly not paying attention. In the absence of an answer, how many tell the client, they don’t have an answer but will get one?

Another area in which both professions could use improvements is in expressing the actual value of their work. Far too many coaching professionals and therapists gloss over the return on investment. Here is an example. One of my close friends has been recognized as one of the best executive development coaches in the world. This masterful coach earns well over a million dollars per year. She accepts about eight clients per year. She is paid because of the results. When a client organization promotes a new executive into taking a significant role, they call her. If the net profits in that group are 40 million, by the end of that year, the gains are 2 or even 3 times that amount.

One of our clients recently encountered a big staffing challenge. One of the business units had almost 40 openings. We designed a solution for the executive, and each role was filled within 30 days. This saved over $300 in external fees and helped retain existing employees.

To summarize, the therapeutic profession needs to develop what we call “courage skills.” Conversely, many business people dismissively call them “soft skills.” These include learning how to sell one’s services, developing strong consultative sales abilities, being able to make effective presentations, and, most importantly learn how to improve the kinds of support systems that generate your business, intellectual growth, and standing in the community.

As for the coaching world, there really are no shortcuts to becoming a master. If you want to work with organizations, get mentors who are hugely successful in this area. Find coaches that can help you understand how to access and speak to the needs and expectations of an organization’s buying influences. Instead of focusing on making an individual feel better, help them understand how to build their self worth by hitting and even sailing past the business targets.

In all cases, the consumers must follow their gut and look for professionals with the skills and the emotional sobriety to help them achieve what they want and need. My most prominent personal bias in this area is that I will not work with a therapist on my long and beautiful, soon-to-be-married relationship if she or he is not in a successful marriage as well. I will not work with someone who is struggling with money to advise us on how to generate more revenue.

We learn nothing of value by studying dysfunction. Study the best.

Perhaps 20 years ago, a highly respected industrial psychologist came through our Inspired Work Program. As a result, he launched an executive and entrepreneur coaching business. Through the grapevine, I heard that he had become rather wealthy. This news irritated me. So, I took him out for a lovely dinner. Both of us are hard workers who don’t cut corners. I told him how irritated I was with the news that his economic worth was in the stratosphere and asked if he could tell me how to do that. He had become an instructor in a highly regarded business school where he worked with budding entrepreneurs. Whenever he worked with a start-up that he believed would become successful, he offered to replace monetary compensation for stock. Three of those businesses snowballed and became successful publicly traded companies.

From my vantage point, the number one reason people fail is through isolation. That is an outcome of fear. So many of us are frightened of getting attention because it might hurt us. At the very least, that hurt in history. Many coaches could become more effective in helping their clients learn from their past. But, an equally large number of therapists could look to coaches as a resource for looking into the future.

Personally, I believe it is time for the coaching industry to be subject to the same type of licensing that takes place with healthcare providers. To enter someone’s life and influence their minds and their outcomes is a sacred contract. But, I also believe that it is time for therapists, psychologists, and psychiatrists to become far more versed in helping high-functioning, educated, and successful people attain even greater success and fulfillment.

Active learning, curious, joyful curiosity about becoming part of the cutting edge pushes away mediocrity. I don’t pay much attention to all of the vilifying directed towards 1%. Sure, there are some true pieholes in the wealth sector. But, there are just as many struggling to get by. Pay attention to the people that are changing the world. Learn from those who are growing every single day. Watch the people who are happy and effective, whether they are with their children at home or are standing in front of a board of directors.

I’ve been in the game of helping people love their work for almost 30 years. There have been countless times when someone asks if I can help them. My usual answer is an enthusiastic “yes.” But, there have been times where I’m clueless about how that will occur outside of the fact that when some of us say we will do it, we are willing to do whatever it takes to make it work.

Before launching our first program, I met with people who wanted to change their careers and their lives. One night, a young man came to my door. He looked a bit exhausted and scared. I asked what he wanted to accomplish. “I am dying from AIDS. I don’t want to stay home alone, waiting for the end. A friend of mine suggested that you might be able to help me get the most out of every day that I have left. Will you help me?”

I instantly responded, “Yes.” I was terrified. He died five months later. But, we worked together in helping him give to others and live with his definition of fulfillment. He told me of looking in the mirror at night only to realize he was not defeated. His demeanor surprised him because he was using all that was left to honor himself and others.

When he passed, his parents whisked away with his remains. When we met, he felt betrayed by their shame. Instead, we worked together in identifying what he most wanted to accomplish. I never saw him again, but he gave me the awareness of just how precious life is.

In a recent appearance on Saturday Night Live, Adam Sandler did a piece as the owner of Romano Travel, telling the audience of their beautiful tours of Europe. But, he warned the viewer, “If you are miserable where you are today, you will probably be miserable when we take you to these beautiful places, filled with art and culture. You will probably be miserable when you sit down to a magnificent meal in Roma. So, if you are miserable, please stay home.”

The world today is filled with choices for all of us. The world is also changing so quickly that we need everyone with capabilities to help the rest of us learn how to change and become active contributors to the future.

Whether you are a coach or a therapist, a banker or investor, a billionaire or someone homeless, every single day offers a choice for us to use our time to become the best that we can be. Generously give yourself to others and the results might outstrip your wildest ambitions.

Brought to you by David Harder, President – Inspired Work, Inc.

Schedule 15-Minutes to Discuss Your Workplace or Career with David (Here)

(C) Copyright, 2019, Inspired Work, Inc. – (All Rights Reserved)

The post Coach or Therapist? appeared first on Inspired Work Services.

The dogs in this picture grew up around a lion who had been rescued when his mother was killed. One of the dachshunds squeezed into the lion’s pen. Three others followed. The lion and the dogs became inseparable. As a result of practicing some type of courage, they realized a gift that changed their lives.

We live in a culture where comfort is progressively given greater value than purusing and realizing the lives we were meant to have. When we make comfort more important than action, the outcome will be mediocrity.

In a culture fixated on security, we have reinforced the myth that there is something fundamentally inadequate about us when we feel fear. If that is the case, we construct our lives around avoiding fear and as a result, the real and best opportunities don’t even reach our field of vision. All of this strange ideology disappears as we cross a street and a large truck roars around the corner. As it heads directly towards us our biology takes over. An alarm goes off that pours powerful hormones and chemicals into our body. This system is perfectly designed for taking us into action. Why does our culture need to make up so many strange stories and myths about basic biology? My personal belief is the mythology developed around fear is to manipulate others.

We can find this strangeness embedded in one of our country’s most famous quotes of all time when Franklin D. Roosevelt said, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” We sent over seventeen million Americans into World War II. I have yet to find any of those soldier’s stories repeating the president’s missive. Instead, we find countless narratives where those on the frontlines characterized the experience as the single most terrifying event in their lives. On the other hand, we find stories of courage, of banding together, and of taking action.

How does this apply to our current circumstances?

Right now, we have dozens of clients that are changing their lives by launching new careers, new businesses or returning to the work they have with new behavior. In other words, they are changing themselves. In the face of accelerating change in our work, large quantities of us are running for comfort. The ones that are thriving are bringing fear along for the ride and responding to fear with courage.

Perhaps a healthier alternative statement would be, “The only thing have we to fear is to forget the practice of courage.” True courage isn’t about walking into difficult situations as a robot devoid of feelings. As the famous male icon of that era, the brutish John Wayne once said,

“Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway.”

Truly successful people are quite accustomed to the experience of fear. When we listen to high performers as they describe their breakthroughs, overcoming fear is invariably woven into the narrative. After Ellen DeGeneres got her first TV show, a journalist asked how she felt about it. She responded, “This elevates my terror to a whole new level.” Ellen didn’t allow fear to keep her from her destiny. In the same theme, as Richard Branson’s numerous businesses began to grow, he had to confront his greatest fear, which is to make presentations. Recently, he said, “There are two types of public speakers, terrified ones or liars.”

Demonizing fear has sprouted an entire human potential industry that promises if we take a course or buy a particular book, we will overcome fear. But, if it were even possible to do that, we probably wouldn’t live through the day. “Fight or flight” is far too narrow a view of fear. We live through each day by taking action.

Think of what will happen if instead of promoting fearlessness that we reward our children, workers, colleagues, and friends for the practice of courage.

What will happen when all of us learn what I characterize as the “courage skills?” These include learning how to draw attention to ourselves, how to present one’s ideas, and how to build an effective customized support system.

What will happen if we demonstrate the value of taking risks and going for it, regardless of whether we feel elated or shake from head to toe?

What will become of us if rather than telling someone, “Don’t be frightened,” that we praise them for pursuing what they hoped to accomplish regardless of whether they made it or failed?

In fact, if we have allowed our fears to keep us from right action, the fear of what could exist behind the curtain of the “unknown,” consider that it isn’t a boogie man,

It is the life we are meant to have.

Brought to you by David Harder, President – Inspired Work, Inc.

Schedule 15-Minutes to Discuss Your Workplace or Career with David (Here)

(C) Copyright, 2018, Inspired Work, Inc. – (All Rights Reserved)

The post What if the Only Thing to Fear is Forgetting the Practice of Courage? appeared first on Inspired Work Services.

I like to sit alone at lunch to decompress and that was when I read the news of Peggy Albrecht’s passing. Peggy had become an iconic figure in the recovery community. Thousands of women had gotten sober because of her commitment to the community. The news hit so hard you could have knocked me over with a feather. In some ways, I loosely thought of Peggy as my first client, long before we launched Inspired Work. I met Peggy in my 20’s while I was running a temporary help service in downtown Los Angeles. She had a dignity and kindness about her that was distilled and perfect. I felt honored to be her friend. One day, Peggy called and asked if she could take me to dinner.

At the time, Peggy was working as a legal secretary. At dinner, she told me that the work had little meaning for her and that she felt compelled to find a better fit for her life. I asked her what she enjoyed doing more than anything else. She took a long pause, looked back at me and said, “I most love helping women get sober.”

I smiled and said, “Go do that.” Candidly, I didn’t have enough expertise to say much more and in hindsight, it was intuition, God, a higher power that came through with those three simple words. But, she called me not long after to say she had found a job with a sober living facility called Friendly House. From that day forward, every time that I saw her, whether it was a week, a month or a couple of years, Peggy was happier and more at peace with the world. She had that kind of head-to-toe transformation that can only happen when we define and live the purpose we were born to do.

A few years ago, I ran into Peggy for the last time. Physically, she had become pretty frail but her indomitable spirit beamed joy, contentment, and peace. I told her that I had found my life’s work and fully understood why she was surprisingly more whole and lovely and serene everytime we connected. Her life helped thousands of women find their way. Her being in the world became a testament to all of us of what can happen when we devote our lives to something greater than ourselves.

After lunch, I stepped in front of our participants and opened my mouth; instead of words, tears flowed. So, I told them of Peggy Albrecht, a humble and kind secretary who felt a greater calling in her life. It took one act of courage for her to step into the very place that matched her heart. Today, her body of work is one that lives around us and through us. How much potential did she unleash and bring into reality? The answer is bigger than all of us. I knew where she came from and had a glimpse of what she had become. More than all of it, her love for the work grew that little home into an iconic landmark for healing, supported by thousands including the rich and famous who were moved by this woman’s unmatchable heart.

Peggy Albrecht was one of my favorite people that ever walked the earth. After getting through the initial shock and tears I remember that whenever she looked my way, she had the means of conveying such pride and happiness in what I had become – that look will always be around when I call her name.

Namaste Dear One.

Brought to you by David Harder, President – Inspired Work, Inc.

(C) Copyright, 2018, Inspired Work, Inc. – (All Rights Reserved)

Schedule 15-Minutes to Discuss Your Workplace or Career with David (Here)

The post How One Legal Secretary Saved Thousands of Lives appeared first on Inspired Work Services.

As a partner to Dachshunds for many years, the picture doesn’t surprise me. These little dogs live life to the fullest. A dog trainer once said, “I would rather teach a Zebra to hold a Lion on its head than to teach a Dachshund to heed one command.”

The dogs in this picture grew up around the lion who had been rescued from a shooting and moved onto a ranch. The three animals became inseparable. As a result of overcoming fear, they have realized an unexpected gift in their lives. This is what courage is all about.

In a culture fixated on security, we have reinforced the myth that there is something fundamentally inadequate about us when we feel fear. If that is the case, we construct our lives around avoiding fear and as a result, the real and best opportunities don’t even reach our field of vision. All of this strange ideology disappears as we cross a street and a large truck roars around the corner. As it heads directly towards us our biology takes over. An alarm goes off that pours powerful hormones and chemicals into our body. This system is perfectly designed for taking us into action. Why does our culture need to make up so many strange stories and myths about basic biology? My personal belief is the mythology developed around fear is to manipulate others or simply based on naivete.

We can find this strange mythology embedded in one of our country’s most famous quotes of all time when Franklin D. Roosevelt said, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” We sent over seventeen million Americans into World War II. I have yet to find any of those soldier’s stories repeating the president’s missive. On the other hand, we find countless narratives where those on the frontlines characterized the experience as the single most terrifying event in their lives. In some cases, they did hide. In others, they shot first. In every case where an individual or team succeeded, they took action.

Perhaps a healthier alternative statement would be, “The only thing have we to fear is to forget the practice courage.” True courage isn’t about walking into difficult situations as a robot devoid of feelings. As the famous male icon of that era, the brutish John Wayne once said,

“Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway.”

Truly successful people are quite accustomed to the experience of fear. When we listen to high performers as they describe their breakthroughs, overcoming fear is invariably woven into the narrative. After Ellen DeGeneres got her first TV show, a journalist asked how she felt about it. She responded, “This elevates my terror to a whole new level.” Ellen didn’t allow fear to keep her from her destiny. In the same theme, as Richard Branson’s numerous businesses began to grow, he had to confront his greatest fear, which is to make presentations. Recently, he said, “There are two types of public speakers, terrified ones or liars.”

Demonizing fear has sprouted an entire human potential industry that promises if we take a course or buy a particular book, we will overcome fear. But, if it were even possible to do that, we probably wouldn’t live through the day. On the crazy streets of Los Angeles, fear has pushed me to take constant corrective action.

Think of what will happen if instead of promoting fearlessness that we reward our children, workers, colleagues, and friends for the practice of courage.

What will happen if we demonstrate the value of taking risks and going for it, regardless of whether we feel elated or shake from head to toe?

What will become of us if rather than telling someone, “Don’t be frightened,” that we praise them for pursuing what they hoped to accomplish regardless of whether they made it or failed?

In fact, if we have allowed our fears to keep us from right action, the fear of what could exist behind the curtain of the “unknown,” consider that it isn’t a boogie man, it is the life we are meant to have.

Brought to you by David Harder, President – Inspired Work, Inc.

(C) Copyright, 2018, Inspired Work, Inc. – (All Rights Reserved)

Schedule 15-Minutes to Discuss Your Workplace or Career with David (Here)

The post What if the Only Thing We Have to Fear is Forgetting the Practice of Courage? appeared first on Inspired Work Services.

America’s great, late futurist Alvin Toffler predicted that by the turn of the century, most of us would be in a state of “future shock,” which he characterized as a paralysis from trying to absorb too much change in too short a period of time. He also told us that the future would belong to those of us who develop the capability to learn, unlearn, and learn again.

How on earth do we unlearn? How do we identify the beliefs, the software, the education and conditions that are obsolete and delete them? How do we become skillfully suspicious of everything we know? For me, the journey began when I gave up the need to be right.

I went to USC to become a classical pianist. As a freshman, I was fortunate to become part of concert pianist Daniel Pollack’s Master Class. There, I found myself in a ridiculously competitive environment but stayed ahead of the game by practicing until I dropped – day-after-day. During one session, Pollack asked what I wanted to work on. I reached into my backpack and pulled out a copy of Herbie Hancock’s concert album from Lincoln Center and shyly announced, “I want his job.” The idea of stepping out of classical music was dismissed on the spot. However, to my point-of-view, Frederick Chopin had also been a revolutionary very much like Hancock. Pianists of his time voiced great difficulty in being able to play his music because older styles filled their musical vocabulary. Later, I had the same challenge growing as a jazz musician. Old software got in the way. Quite simply, there wasn’t room for the new. I believe that many of today’s workers are in the same predicament. We want to change but don’t know how. We try to change but cannot keep up.

A rock singer told me of Phil Cohen, the legendary Artistic Director of Concordia University’s Leonardo Project. I asked what he did and she said, “He gets rid of blocks. He opens the door to becoming a true artist.” I had the good fortune to secure a session with him. He was wearing a Heisenberg Fedora and sunglasses, sitting in the corner of a recording artist’s living room. He motioned to me, “Play something.” I performed a tortured little ballad that I was quite proud of. When I was finished, he asked, “You studied at USC? Did you play the Russian exercises for hours? Even on the floor?” After several affirmative answers, he continued, “You need an emotional enema. If you hope to play one living note of music you are going to have to forget everything you have ever been taught.”

It was one of the single most frightening moments in my life. By agreeing to study with Phil Cohen, I was making an agreement to unlearn. He had an acute radar in zeroing in on thinking and behavior that blocked the parts of me that had yet to flourish. Over the years, Phil gave me the skill of identifying aspects of myself as a musician that were longer effective. That identification allowed me to forget the old. Instead of clinging to limiting behavior or patterns, I let go.

Phil’s work informs so much of what I do. His teaching shows up when a client throws away the script and facilitates a miracle. I see it when a client who wants to be a writer forgets the syntax and let’s out his soul. It happens when someone answers one of our questions and realizes the one belief that continues to dictate his or her life is now obsolete. The new truth can flow in. Time and time again, it is clear that untruth and truth cannot occupy the same place. But, if we don’t look, we will not see it. And, if we are too afraid of let go of the idea that change is a bad thing or that hope will be enough, we usually obscure the truth by becoming righteouss.

Self-inquiry is the most reliable way of beginning an unlearning process. Until we examine our own lives, we are usually living someone else’s life or instructions. Questioning our beliefs and the way we live is key to having fulfilling lives and it is key to positive change. Periodic self-examination used to be enough. Today, change happens so quickly that continuous self-inquiry not only allows us to be more flexible and nimble, it paves the way for rapid and transformative growth. I know this because we teach it.

The ability to unlearn gave me the life that I lead today. It pierced through the righteousness that once held up a one-dimensional future where music was my only career option. It opened the door towards realizing I am here to touch people’s lives. Unlearning allowed me to open my eyes in the morning and realize that life is now filled with meaning and purpose and goodness. Unlearning not only makes it easier to change, it makes it possible to change. Because of mentors like Phil Cohen, I am no longer concerned with hanging onto my old or even current self. It is far more exciting to see what’s coming. By identifying the restrictions and letting go, each edition is better than the one before.

It doesn’t get better than this.

Each day, we get to see the world with new eyes.

Brought to you by David Harder, President – Inspired Work, Inc.

Schedule 15-Minutes to Discuss Your Workplace or Career with David (Here)

(C) Copyright, Inspired Work, Inc. – 2018 (All rights reserved)

The post How Unlearning Will Change Your Life appeared first on Inspired Work Services.

In 1970, the great scientist and philosopher, Buckminster Fuller, received a note from a ten-year-old boy named Michael, who asked if he was a “doer” or a “thinker.” Bucky responded to the young man with a letter that captures the sense of what a unique gift is all about and he communicated it in such a straightforward manner, it is a end-of-week gift for my readers.

Dear Michael,

Thank you very much for your recent letter concerning “thinkers and doers.” The things to do are the things that need doing: that you see need to be done, and that no one else seems to see need to be done. Then you will conceive your own way of doing that which needs to be done that no one else has told you to do or how to do it. This will bring out the real you that often gets buried inside a character that has acquired a superficial array of behaviors induced or imposed by others on the individual.

Try making experiments of anything you conceive and are intensely interested in. Don’t be disappointed if something doesn’t work. That is what you want to know – the truth about everything – and then the truth about combinations of things. Some combinations have such logic and integrity that they can work coherently despite non-working elements embraced by their system.

Whenever you come to a word with which you are not familiar, find it in the dictionary and write a sentence which uses that new word. Words are tools – and once you have learned how to use a tool, you will never forget it. Just looking for the meaning of the word is not enough. If your vocabulary is comprehensive, you can comprehend both fine and large patterns of experience.

You have what is most important in life – initiative. Because of it, you wrote to me. I am answering to the best of my capability. You will find the world responding to your earnest initiative.

Sincerely yours,

Buckminster Fuller

It is 47 years later and many of us are still waiting to find what we are going to do when we grow up. Years ago, defining and finding what we were born to do, transformed one’s relationship towards work. Today, that unique purpose is quickly becoming the way to make a living. Why? The work that has little meaning is slipping away and offering lower returns for the investment of our time. Work, for most of us, represents the single biggest relationship in our lives. Settling for anything less than what we are here to do, adversely impacts every other relationship in our lives. Do the work that matters to you. Find the work that is meaningful for you.

Orchestrate that life.

Brought to you by David Harder, President – Inspired Work Services, Inc.

(C) Copyright, 2017, Inspired Work, Inc. – (All Rights Reserved)

If you would like to discuss your workplace or your career with David Harder, schedule fifteen-minutes Here.

The post Buckminster Fuller’s Incredible Letter About Everyone’s Unique Purpose appeared first on Inspired Work Services.

I hope that I will get a new job.

I hope a client will come through the door.

I’ve been hoping everything will turn out.

The common thread through these statements is that hope requires nothing from us. In other words, when we take a look at each sentence we find there is no call to action. There is no risk. There is no discomfort. I often equate hope with helplessness. If we want our circumstances to improve, optimism is a far more reliable fuel than hope. Optimism is the belief that our actions are going to lead to positive results. Successful people take action regardless of whether they fail, make mistakes, start over or get someone to help them. Inaction and hope are states-of-mind where good or bad circumstances are happening to us.

I just returned from a wonderful vacation in Kauai. While I was gone I kept getting e-mails and texts that added so much joy to the experience. One of my clients got a job that will change her life in stunningly positive ways. She is leaving a company that she loved for over 20 years. She is brilliant and kind. Most of all, she is humble and followed every suggestion. She asked the right people for help. We literally watched her transform during the search process. I suggested she take a wide variety of actions that were new and in some cases produced quite a bit of discomfort. But, she recognized these feelings were transitory and she believed everything would turn out for the good.

Optimism isn’t about controlling outside circumstances. It is about taking the action that will increase our probability of success. Optimism includes the practice of trusting and believing in ourselves. Hope is often the default mechanism we go to when we do not believe in ourselves. I have met many, many people working in circumstances that are stagnant and soul sapping. But, they hope, often for many years, that things will get better. The problem is that all of the actions that could have changed everything are never taken.

Another client recently called me to share that in the first year since he launched his business, he made more money than in his highly compensationed C-level position. Becoming an owner was all new for him. During that call, we both became quite emotional because he is the sole breadwinner for a large family. Despite the fear and pressure, he became the personification of taking the kind of action that leads to wonderful outcomes.

The famed 20th-Century Psychologist, Sylvano Arrietti said, “The world’s mental institutions are filled with creative thinkers.” Real creativity requires action. Real creativity requires courage.

A few years ago, a chief human resource officer walked me across a studio lot to introduce me to an executive client. She was spectacularly beautiful, spun around in her chair and proclaimed, “Welcome! You are my solution!”

I couldn’t help but laugh and respond, “What a nice greeting. How do you know that? You don’t know me!”

“Have you watched The Secret?”

“Ancient wisdom that solves all of our problems for only $29.95?”

“That’s the one! I watched the video this weekend and practiced the exercises. I actually wrote that someone would walk in my door on Monday morning with the answers to my problems.”

Today, she works for one of the world’s most celebrated media icons. She lives in a beautiful home in another country. She is one of my best friends. When we are together, she skips down the streets. Luck did not change her life. Once again, she followed every suggestion, took right action, and kept moving forward. In that journey, she developed new level of self-confidence and she turned down several opportunities that didn’t fit the person she had grown into.

All of us have the capacity to choose our outlook.

Here are a few suggestions in how to build and develop optimism as a foundation to our lives:

• Every day define the actions that will help you realize your vision
• Define and Commit to a mission, vision and purpose that you love
• Shift your energy from living with the problem to focusing on the solution
• Hang out with people who are succeeding rather than failing
• Rather than watching the news, let others tell you the important events of the day

Hope certainly has its place in life. Hope can be the one thing that keeps us alive when everything falls apart. But, optimism helps us build the life we will love.

At least for me, there is no hope.

Brought to you by David Harder, President – Inspired Work Services, Inc.

(C) Copyright, 2017, Inspired Work, Inc. – (All Rights Reserved)

If you would like to discuss your workplace or your career with David Harder, schedule fifteen-minutes Here.

The post Hope – The Baggage That Can Sink Us appeared first on Inspired Work Services.

This basic seismic shift is so frightening that many are doing what humans do. We point towards the symptoms rather than the truth. But, for those of us who do tasks for a living, we either need to reinvent ourselves or become mired in a problem that appears to be unfixable.

Task-based work comes from a history that didn’t give us much on the topic of personal change. But today, tasks are being taken over by software and technology, as quickly as humanly possible. Even though we are the authors, history didn’t much prepare the human race to an exponential acceleration of change.

Prior to the industrial revolution, change happened at a glacial pace. We could visit a village in 100 A.D. and return two thousand years later only to find that very little had changed. But, when we invented mass manufacturing, the world went through a revolutionary change that lasted for three hundred years. The kind of anger and political unrest that we witness today has a great deal of similarity to what happened three hundred years ago. Back then, the industrial revolution handed out pink slips to virtually everyone who worked. But, work didn’t stop, it moved. This is also what we are witnessing today.

For three hundred years we built a solid middle-class out of task work. The middle-class filled out quotas, stood in assembly lines, finished tax returns, smiled and answered phones. Some mastered the completion of an acceptable number of tasks which led to mid-management roles. Now, we are having to make fundamental shifts that require new skills, wakefulness, and a change of heart. Because task work is being replaced by software and technology in bigger and bigger waves. Task work is driven by logic, which typically occupied our left brains. Logic is all about numbers, critical thinking, black & white. Unfortunately, those of us who lived in our left-brains have had great difficulty perceiving the rest of our brains. Isn’t it ironic that in order to partner with the industrial revolution many of us had to become machines ourselves?

The challenge was outlined in Daniel Pink’s seminal book, A Whole New Mind, he predicted that as we offload task-driven work to software and technology, new work would emerge. But it would be centered in the right-brain. At first, some of this work would be dismissed by left-brain workers, possibly because their parents did the same. Mr. Pink pointed out that the growing work includes creativity, design, communications, influencing others, building relationships, engaging, consultative sales, strategy, and more. His book was published 12 years ago.

In my new book, The Workplace Engagement Solution, I talk about how global engagement figures of 13% represent more than just a business problem. Disengagement is a tragedy infecting our lives, families, customer satisfaction and day-to-day living. The great disengagement of the modern worker leads directly to the real scourge of our modern economy: underemployment. How of our best and brightest task workers are now part-time and less time task workers?

Our political leaders do a great disservice by promising jobs from the past. At the very time where we need leaders who tell our citizens to stop waiting and begin the process of reinvention, to elicit new discoveries and to pursue active learning, we patronize the underemployed by looking to the past. This freakish behavior is perpetuated by all political parties and is simply a reflection of what so many people want to hear. That dynamic, my friends, represents a crisis.

If the work that you do is centered on tasks, here are a few suggestions:

• Recognize that technology offers freedom. What do you most want to accomplish with that freedom?
• Use your available time to prepare for a new and more interesting life.
• Invest in books about successful change, coaches with a track record in this field, and building the life skills that make your more successful.
• Ask people who are succeeding with change to mentor you.

Recognize that behind every epic change that eliminates old jobs, new opportunities appear. For example, 3-D printing will wipe out assembly lines and portions of shipping, distribution, & warehousing. It will also produce a whole new class of entrepreneurs who manufacture goods, products, even art from their homes and offices. Artificial Intelligence will wipe out a whole slew of jobs. But it will introduce millions of new ones. For example, innovations that cure cancer, develop green energy, and make high-quality education available without charge, a slew of new careers will emerge. In fact, easily a third of the jobs we will have in ten years have yet to be invented.

Learn “The Courage Skills”

Moving from the old to the new world requires that we learn a new set of skills. As the speed of change increases, skills we used to dismiss become vitally important. These can include the ability to draw attention to oneself, to sell, present, and to influence others. We will need to become adept with building new support systems. I am proposing something more mindful and visionary than “networking.” These are not soft skills. What a dismissive phrase! They are courage skills and we need to learn to use them with confidence and with a certain boldness.

Constant Learning & Growth

Active learners own the new world of work. In the years ahead, change will only grow more exponential. For those of us who simply react to change with anger, the future will be quite painful. For those of us who take the initiative to grow, the near future is already showing that we can create untold abundance, wealth, and freedom. The information is already available. It sprouts fresh and new every day. The more that we learn to learn, the easier it becomes because information allows us to make use of change to improve our lives, circumstances and the world around us. But, like a distance runner, we can’t get there if we walk one mile a month.

What is in the way? Fear and Numbness.

The average American watches four hours of Television and five hours using “devices.” We consume 152 pounds of sugar per year, use 80% of the world’s legal and illegal drugs, and have become masterful in checking out from these frightening changes rather than dealing with them head-on.

If you relate to any of us (and I believe we all do), invest time in learning how to change. If you are mastering or have mastered this new game, help inspire others to do the same.

Quite frankly, I want to live in a world where people are doing what they love, using technology to be even more successful and free, and solving the big problems in front of us.

Suggested Reading:

A Whole New Mind, Why right-brainers will own the future – Daniel Pink -(Riverhead Books) Order Here

The Inevitable, Understanding the 12 technological forces that will shape our future – Kevin Kelly – (Viking Press) Order Here

The Workplace Engagement Solution, Find a common mission, vision, and purpose with all of today’s employees – David Harder – Career Press Order Here

Brought to you by David Harder, President – Inspired Work Services, Inc.

(C) Copyright, 2017, Inspired Work, Inc. – (All Rights Reserved)

If you would like to discuss your workplace or your career with David Harder, schedule fifteen-minutes Here.

The post The Middle-Class Is Not What We Are Losing! appeared first on Inspired Work Services.

That morning opened with a drive down Pacific Coast Highway to the Loews Beach Hotel. Walking through the lobby, each step felt like a jump out of a plane without a parachute. But, an inner voice suggested I would find my wings and fly. It was 1990 and I was 37. Thirty-six people were waiting in a room drawn by the promise of defining and finding the lives they were meant to have. We also promised they would transform their entire relationship towards work.

I knew we had a bold curriculum but absolutely no idea how it would actually turn out. A tumultuous year had painted me into what appeared to be a very big a corner. A long relationship had ended and I was broken-hearted about that. So, I threw myself into work optimistic it would lead to fulfilled dreams. I was a staffing executive by day and a jazz musician at night. I did both so I could live in Malibu until I got the cherished record contract. The deal actually happened. Then, my producer dropped dead of a heart attack. In that one moment, I realized that not only was my brief recording career over but that I had been putting off my happiness for many years. In fact, I knew nothing of value in how to build sustainable happiness in my life.

Socrates believed that you could bring people to truth by asking them the right questions. So, I sat on the beach with a notepad and wrote my way out of what some would characterize as a severe mid-life crisis. My answers led to an awareness that in our culture work is the biggest relationship that we have. That means that if we are in love with our work, we tend to be in love with our lives. But, our culture, especially our industrial culture sold work as a source of predictability and survival. Characteristics such as joy, meaning, creativity, legacy, purpose, were quickly cast aside for survival and predictability. Along with the very people we served, I did it myself. At the time, this was the norm.

In the midst of answering questions, I realized that questioning everything we have been told is the true act of revolution. For almost three hundred years, we were given the legacy of fitting in. If we were a little more intelligent than the rest, we were told to become, for example, a doctor. That is what had happened in my home. It didn’t matter that I passed out whenever it was time to dissect a bug, a mouse, or a cadaver. When I ran a staffing business, it was clear that most people gave lip service to happiness, but quickly settled for the predictability and survival offered by fitting in one more time.

The door to the ballroom was open and as I looked at each participant, I was reminded of my expression when the call came in that my producer had passed. Everyone had a workbook. I explained that we would cover one aspect of our lives and our work at a time. In the first hour, someone stood up and announced a major career change. By lunch, it seemed that everyone was in some sort of revolution with her or his life. That night, I sat on the beach with my two dachshunds. There was moonlight on the water and a storm had created fresh waves. I pondered, “What have I done to my life?” Everything was new. These were the same themes of our participants. When the program was over, I sat in the parking garage unable to move. I was enthralled and I was terrified. What happened over the course of those two days changed everyone’s life and became a turning point. Years later, some of them were irritated to learn it was the first program and that I was going through the very same issues they were going through.

I turned my resignation into my boss. Gail was one of the most fearsome and seemingly fearless women I have ever known. We had lunch two years ago. I had not seen her since the day that I left. Gail sold the company and has become a celebrated artist. Her first words to me were, “What is it like for you to wake-up in the morning? What is it like to have changed so many lives?” I laughed, “All that I really did was change my own life. That is how real change works. No one does it for you.” She pushed, “Yes. But, who knows what would have happened if you had continued on the same path?”

Who knows?

In 1990, I believed that anyone could have a great relationship towards work. Today, I know this is true. Today, I know that all of us have a unique purpose and that until we find and define that purpose, we suffer. Today, I know that all of us can do the work that we love and that finding that sweet spot is just as practical as it is spiritually rewarding. To know this makes me one of the most fortunate and blessed individuals on earth.

Brought to you by David Harder – Founder & President, Inspired Work, Inc.

(C) Copyright, 2017, David Harder – (All Rights Reserved)

Get your copy of The Workplace Engagement Solution here.

The post 27 Years – What Did I Learn? appeared first on Inspired Work Services.

Los Angeles is the single most diverse city in America. Here, we are used to differences in a town filled with countless tribes and neighborhoods. Partially, this is because we have attracted one of the most powerful talent pools on the face of the earth. Those of us who want happiness in the city of fallen angels have become fairly permissive about the diversity of beliefs. And, why not? California is the birthplace of an ideology. We hatched the idea that if you are an American, you can believe anything you want. “Truthiness” began on the bluffs of Big Sur where Esalen opened its doors in 1962. The organization was quite attractive to the human cerebral cortex, that unique wrapper that allows us to make things up. The new movement attacked science, medicine, history, religion, anything was up for grabs. Timothy Leary doled out LSD, Emily Coleman led nude encounter groups. One of the founders was led off to a mental institution, clearly a conspiracy by the 1% to suppress the new truthiness.

Are we really prepared to do away with an embedded idea that if you are an American, you can believe anything you want?

This past weekend, we could not get to Gold’s Gym in Venice because of a rally against Google. Ever since James Damore was fired for his incendiary memo about what’s wrong with gender equality in the tech world, crazy people have been pouring out of the woodwork. There I said it. Personally, I believe that Google did the right thing in letting Mr. Damore go but they were not very clear in their reasoning. Mr. Damore’s interminably long and poorly written memo revealed he was not the brightest bulb in the chandelier. Lack of smarts is a felony at the world’s biggest information company.

Turf protection is the big unvoiced driver behind bias and racism. The notion there isn’t enough for everybody shows up in all types of stories that with any type of rigorous examination simply will not hold up. The 50-year growth of you can believe anything you want is now emerging as a war of ideas. Beliefs have become a blood sport in this country as well as the workplace where erroneous stories flourish in the face of accelerating change. I believe the craziest amongst us are driven by their terror of the future.

When it comes to the truth, the stories we tell are not as important as the quality of the questions that we ask. Socrates began a movement that I participate in today. He believed that if you ask people the right questions they would come to their own truth. Unfortunately, the political and religious leaders of the time had him poisoned because they did not want to have the population thinking for themselves. Right now, our country is in a war of ideas and beliefs. Personally, I believe it is healthy for us to be engaged in the conversations and arguments at hand. But, we are in very real danger when we give up questioning what is in front of us.

Here are a few examples:

• Why would developing people for jobs in coal, oil, retail big box stores, and trucking represent a good investment in our future?
• What evidence is there that gender, gender preference, the color of one’s skin, and religious belief relate to productivity and value?
• How can I tell this is a belief, an idea, or it is really true?
• Is this story coming out of fear or is it something I ought to pay attention to?

Questions trigger cynicism and contempt. But, over time, they really do help us get to the truth. So, as this storm of ideas and beliefs and fears and aggression flows through the nation and the workplace, start asking questions. Don’t give much energy to the close-ended questions that can easily be dismissed with a “yes” or “no.” Ask the questions that push people to make their case, that trigger their innate intelligence.

Like Los Angeles, we are a nation of tribes. Right now, we are witnessing a new form of terror that multiple tribes are losing in the game of turf protection. Instead of being at war with each other, what would happen if we went to war with stagnation and with holding onto the past? What would happen if we responded to erroneous beliefs with the very questions that inspire truth?

The real price of diversity are the casualties from our ongoing distraction. Make no mistake. Our arguments and shock and outrage are distracting us from intellectual, moral, and spiritual growth.

I don’t really know if everyone has a place at the table or the capacity to change or the capability to establish her or his unique place in the world. But I choose to believe it. I work on that mission every single day. When people come into our programs, we suggest that rather than arguing with our point of view they try on our philosophies for a couple of days. See where the ideas take you. Then, we ask questions.

Perhaps it would be valuable that instead of making our case, we start asking the rigorous questions that will lead our nation to the all important outcome of truth.

Brought to you by David Harder – Founder & President, Inspired Work, Inc.

(C) Copyright, 2017, David Harder – (All Rights Reserved)

Buy a copy of David’s new book The Workplace Engagement Solution here.

The post What Is The Real Price of Diversity? appeared first on Inspired Work Services.