Manage To Engage | Businesses Grow When People Do

Change sometimes is hard. Maybe you’ve noticed. What if how you relate to shame is part of what makes it difficult? You can’t turn toward a weakness and address it if you can’t bear the shame that comes up when you try. But shame is a deeply personal issue, maybe the deepest. So how can it be responsibly and appropriately addressed in a workplace? Keep listening to find out more. Today’s podcast is part two of this four part series on the critical subject of shame in the workplace.   I’m very excited to announce the release of my ebook, “Cut the Bullshit: Solve Your Problems By Getting Real.” It’s full of direct, practical advice related to getting employees engaged, hiring right the first time, how to create a culture of radical responsibility, and a lot more. For a limited time, I’m giving this ebook away for nothing. So if you have some spare nothing, go to clearandopen.com/ctb to download it.

What is the most upstream root of all forms of incompetence? If you’re into excellence, and especially if you manage people, this may be the most important question of your life. The answer is what silently and secretly runs most people’s lives until they realize it, and it’s probably running your life too, cutting you off at the knees whenever you get close to deep fulfillment. What on earth am I talking about?   This episode is the first of four parts from a recent weekly member webcast.   I’m very excited to announce the release of my ebook, “Cut the Bullshit: Solve Your Problems By Getting Real.” It’s full of direct, practical advice related to getting employees engaged, hiring right the first time, how to create a culture of radical responsibility, and a lot more. For a limited time, I’m giving this ebook away for nothing. So if you have some spare nothing, go to clearandopen.com/ctb to download it.

Most people spend an inordinate amount of energy avoiding being wrong. Lying, arguing, excuse-making, etc. The irony is that being wrong is one of the best things that can happen to you, because it’s the moment you learn something totally new. What if after listening to this podcast, you could celebrate every time you discover you’re wrong? It takes some practice, but it could change your life, and put you on the fast track to growth. Listen to find out more. This episode is from a recent weekly member webcast. For more information about the many benefits of Clear and Open Membership and how to get the help you need in conversations like this as well as access to powerful online courses, go to clearandopen.com.

The most common root business problem is missing accountability. There is no single more misunderstood and underused tool in small and medium sized businesses than accountability. And in large businesses, it’s used in ways that generally ignore the self-interest of the individual, rendering it impotent. In short, accountability is always part of the answer to any problem, because it’s about facing reality. And that’s precisely why we avoid it like the plague. It puts us humans in quite a pickle: the problem is in reality, and so is the solution–but the pain is also in reality and we don’t want to face that. How do you resolve your inner conflict so you can face the pain productively and get the solutions you need? Listen to find out more.   This episode is from a recent weekly member webcast. For more information about the many benefits of Clear and Open Membership and how to get the help you need in conversations like this as well as access to powerful online courses, go to clearandopen.com.

This episode continues our four-part series on departing from reality with part two. Here we address something you might be a little familiar with: stress. What if stress were an illusion and an entirely optional experience? The idea should excite you, because it means you could be liberated from stress forever. How could that be? Listen to find out more.   This episode is from a recent weekly member webcast. For more information about the many benefits of Clear and Open Membership and how to get the help you need in conversations like this as well as access to powerful online courses, go to clearandopen.com.

This episode begins a four-part series about our relationship to reality. It’s easy to see that we humans have a push-pull relationship with reality. In each of us is a deep desire to know the truth, and in many moments we run from it. Your life, your work, and ideally your dreams happen in reality. What if being able to track when and how you depart from reality was key to your fulfillment?   This episode is from a recent weekly member webcast. For more information about the many benefits of Clear and Open Membership and how to get the help you need in conversations like this as well as access to powerful online courses, go to clearandopen.com.

Businesses grow when people do. And one of the most important predictors of your ability to grow as a person is your relationship to pain. What is your relationship to pain? Do you have the strength to embrace it? To investigate it? What if your ability to learn from life’s lessons is entirely dependent on your relationship with pain?   This episode is from a recent weekly member webcast. For more information about the many benefits of Clear and Open Membership and how to get the help you need in conversations like this, go to clearandopen.com.

Think your people don’t listen to you? Think again. There’s no power in whining about people not listening. There is power in working to improve your communication so that people are more likely to hear you. This is the second and final part on the Buddha’s four principles of right speech, and it is universal to serve anyone, but especially managers.   This episode is from a recent weekly member webcast. For more information about the many benefits of Clear and Open Membership and how to get the help you need in conversations like this, go to clearandopen.com.

Leaders and managers I talk to constantly complain their people don’t listen to them. But paradoxically often the case is they’re listening quite carefully, and it’s the manager who’s not communicating well. Your people hang on your every word, whether you realize it or not, so choosing those words carefully is critical. What if you have more power than you realize to get your people to listen? Making speech a mindfulness practice is the path to discovering this. This is part one of a two part series on the principles of right speech.   This episode is from a recent weekly member webcast. For more information about the many benefits of Clear and Open Membership and how to get the help you need in conversations like this, go to clearandopen.com.

This episode is the fourth and final part of our series on being bigger than your shadow. You’ve probably had the experience that someone knew you better than you knew yourself, yet taking in feedback from others can be difficult, especially when it doesn’t fit with your self-image or your conscious intentions. How do you take advantage of the wisdom that others can offer you without selling out on your own truth? Listen to find out more.   This episode is from a recent weekly member webcast. For more information about the many benefits of Clear and Open Membership and how to get the help you need in conversations like this, go to clearandopen.com.

This episode is part three in the being bigger than your shadow series. We don’t like struggling and being frustrated, so why is there so much of it? What if your shadow is not only okay with struggle, but actually seeks to maintain it? Why would that be and what can you do about it? Not only your problems, but the quality of your entire life may hang in the balance.   This episode is from a recent weekly member webcast. For more information about the many benefits of Clear and Open Membership and how to get the help you need in conversations like this, go to clearandopen.com.

This episode is part two in our series on how to be bigger than your shadow. Many people hear the unproductive beliefs in their head throughout the day and think they’re taking the high road by just looking the other way. But you notice the thoughts and sometimes behaviors don’t go away just by you ignoring them. How do you show your shadow who’s boss in a way that creates real change?   This episode is from a recent weekly member webcast. For more information about the many benefits of Clear and Open Membership and how to get the help you need in conversations like this, go to clearandopen.com.

Shadow is a term used to encapsulate our unconscious motives and hidden agendas. Everyone has a shadow, and it’s usually the root of all your problems, because it maintains, even creates your problems in ways that are completely off your radar.   This episode begins a four part series on how to be bigger than your shadow, the basis of creating any kind of change. All of western philosophy is founded on the ancient idea, “Know thyself.” But how do you know the corners of your unconscious that get you into trouble so often, and what do you do when you find something?   This episode is from a recent weekly member webcast. For more information about the many benefits of Clear and Open Membership and how to get the help you need in conversations like this, go to clearandopen.com.

This episode is short, sweet and gives you some very simple ways to help anyone more effectively. Have you ever had the experience that someone asks you for help and then they don’t use what you give them? Get ready to never have that experience again, because you’re going to discover what you’re doing to support that behavior, and what to do instead.   For more information about the many benefits of Clear and Open Membership and how to get the help you need in conversations like this, go to clearandopen.com.

People have hated managers for as long as work has existed. But what if the issue is not inherent in the manager role, but rather the way billions of people for thousands of years have related to it? In this episode, you’re going to learn the single most important thing for any manager to learn: the difference between management and supervision. And the result, determines whether your people hate you or love you. Keep Listening. This concept is part of the core of Clear and Open’s teachings, and I’m very excited to offer it to you.   This episode is from a recent weekly member webcast. For more information about the many benefits of Clear and Open Membership and how to get the help you need in conversations like this, go to clearandopen.com.

This episode is part four of the series of excerpts from the conclusion of the live course I taught in the summer of 2017 called, Open to Excellence. Emotions are some of the most powerful influences of our lives. Love, joy, passion. But what about the ones we don’t like feeling? Depression, anxiety, fear, etc.? What if all your conditioning has been about pushing those feelings away and the result is that it only holds them in place. What if turning toward those challenging emotions were the secret to moving through them?   For more information about the many benefits of Clear and Open Membership and how to get the help you need in conversations like this, go to clearandopen.com.

This episode is part three of the series of excerpts from the conclusion of the live course I taught in the summer of 2017 called, Open to Excellence. If you look at any persistent problem carefully enough, you will find a lack of responsibility, yet honest, curious conversations about responsibility and the lack thereof are few and far between. We live in a world of excuses and deflections. If you’re looking to make a change in your world, or manage someone who is, you need to understand irresponsibility inside and out: how to spot it, how to name it, where it comes from, and what you can do about it. That’s what this episode is about.   For more information about the many benefits of Clear and Open Membership and how to get the help you need in conversations like this, go to clearandopen.com.

This episode is part two of the series of excerpts from the conclusion of the live course I taught in the summer of 2017 called, Open to Excellence. What if the majority of your suffering came from where you don’t realize you have choices? Responsibility means owning your choices, but it also means looking for where you are pretending you don’t have choices. You’ll discover some choices you didn’t even know you had.   Speaking of courses, I’m very excited to announce that the next live course, entitled CLEAR the Issue, begins on September 7th. I’m going to teach you how to solve any problem–no joke. Think it’s impossible? I’ll prove it to you in eleven weeks. For more information, please go to clearandopen.com/clear-the-issue. The course is free to current members, so if you’ve been thinking about becoming a member, now is a great time to jump in. The live course starts soon, and I really don’t want you to miss out.

People talk a lot about shifting mindsets, but is it possible to change your mindset too often, or in ways that get in your way? In our technologically enabled busy world, most people find themselves not only doing a lot of different things, but doing things that require different mindsets. In this episode, you’ll learn about one of the common and invisible causes of chronic overwhelm and what you can do to eliminate it.   This episode begins a four part series that are excerpts from the conclusion of the live course I taught in the summer of 2017 called, Open to Excellence. In the beginning of the conversation there are references something called “ABE lists.” That’s a list of Attitudes, Behaviors, and Energies. It’s a tool that was part of the course. The process of turning the recordings into an online course is underway, so stay tuned to hear more about that release in late 2017.   Speaking of courses, I’m very excited to announce that the next live course, entitled CLEAR the Issue, begins on Septembe

Whatever your challenges, awareness is usually what you need to surmount them. And meditation is one of the primary tools to develop that awareness. However, meditation is widely misunderstood, sometimes even tragically misused. This episode concludes our series on meditation with part four, giving you some concrete tools to make meditation work for you. As you’ve learned so far, real meditation isn’t necessarily about enjoying your experience. You can make it feel good, but it doesn’t necessarily expand your awareness much. No pain no gain, right?   This series is from a recent webcast that happens each week for members. For more information about the many benefits of Clear and Open Membership and how to get the help you need in conversations like this, go to clearandopen.com.