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Nan Russell Articles

Written by: Nan Russell

The Art of Change - Click To Read Article
From the iron age to nearly the industrial age, blacksmiths prospered. Villagers needed plows, shovels, iron tires for wagons, nails and tools to build their homes, all of which the blacksmiths forged. They needed their horses and oxen shod and their tools repaired. Being a blacksmith was a sound professional choice.

How Does That Work? - Click To Read Article
How would you respond to this question: \"Are you one of the top 10% of performers in your company?\" This question posed in a Business Week survey found that overall 90% of surveyed executives, middle managers, and employees from both large and small companies thought they were, indeed, in the top 10% of performers.

Winning at Working--Simple Things - Click To Read Article
I still have the email. It's been years since a highly placed corporate boss, who had the reputation and approach that things were never quite good enough, sent it to me. He was long on critique and revisions while short on acknowledgement and appreciation.

Notes to Boss - Click To Read Article
So in the interests of helping that boss "see what it looks like" to be a winning at working manager, I have a few notes for him, and others like him.

Those Crazy People - Click To Read Article
His voice was loud; his attitude hostile; his words caustic. Despite how rude he was, she remained calm, professional, and polite throughout the challenging encounter. Even from my close vantage point, I didn't detect a hint of irritation in her demeanor.

It's Personal - Click To Read Article
Off to dinner the night before I was the keynote speaker at a regional conference, I wanted something good, but casual; calming but moderately swift. So, my husband and I selected an interesting looking place within walking distant of our hotel.

You Don't Need An Expert - Click To Read Article
You don't need an employee engagement expert to confirm what you already know and Gallup polling substantiates: the majority of employees are disengaged at work. You don't need an employee survey to tell you why discretionary efforts are tamed, passions for work are fleeting, and ideas are tethered. And you don't need a consultant to explain why cynicism is up, enthusiasm is down, and trust is the new workplace currency.

Beyond Your Tasks - Click To Read Article
Ever hear the story of the two masons working side by side at a building site? They're doing the same work under pretty much the same conditions. One day a stranger comes along, approaches one of the men and asks, "What are you doing?"

Career Stock Raising - Click To Read Article
All requests are not equal; all customers or clients are not equal; all to-do-list tasks are not equal; all work responsibilities are not equal. You can do fifty things today and get little, if any, return on your personal investment for having done them. Or you can do one or two things which have a large return.

Find Those People - Click To Read Article
The Emperor's New Clothes was a favorite childhood story of mine. It made me laugh. I couldn't believe all those adults were standing around, watching the emperor make a fool of himself and not telling him the truth. When I grew up and went to work, I discovered it wasn't that easy.

A Better Measure of Success - Click To Read Article
The headline caught my eye, "The Goal: Wealth and Fame." The article in USA Today examined a recent survey of top life goals for the college-age crowd. It surprised me that there was a 33% jump, today versus thirty-eight years ago, in beliefs of college freshman that being financially well off was "essential" or "very important." But what surprised me more was their desire to be famous.

What Basics? - Click To Read Article
The cyclical and now ubiquitously appearing phrase, back to basics, ignites supporters. The reasonableness of returning to previously successful principles, ethics, systems, accountability, approaches, or you-name-it, appears a tantalizing remedy for our individual or collective woes.

Workplace Heists - Click To Read Article
Seated in the courtyard of a sports bar during a playoff game in the home city of one of the teams, it was an energetic crowd that Sunday. While we'd come for a quick bite to eat, we caught a glimpse of a play now and then as home-team enthusiasts roared their approval during the first half.

Maybe Scrooge Was Right - Click To Read Article
According to Right Management, a subsidiary of Manpower Inc, only thirteen percent of employees surveyed said they "planned to stay in their current positions." Two-thirds reported they're looking to change jobs in 2010, and another twenty-one percent indicated they're networking now, just in case.

Working for the Right Person - Click To Read Article
People who are winning at working work for the right person - the one looking back in mirror. That differentiation changes everything. It's easier to know what jobs to seek, skills to enhance, and opportunities to seize. It's easier to know when you should change paths, companies, or bosses. And it's easier to weather workplace stresses when you're the one holding the compass for your life.

Winning at Working--YOUR FIVE ACRES - Click To Read Article
It was the third time in as many weeks he'd asked to see me. Once again sitting across the desk, Jeff was expressing distress at something. This time he was upset that Lydia was making more money than he was. Last week he was unhappy with the hours Joe wasn't putting in, leaving at five when he was often stuck past six. The week before, he registered a complaint about the way work assignments were handed out by his supervisor. As my mother would say, "Same song, thirtieth verse."

Workplace Ladder Fuel - Click To Read Article
Maybe you received the email offering cash in exchange for testing the Microsoft/AOL email tracking system. Or you heard that theaters were using subliminal advertising to increase sales of popcorn and soft drinks. Maybe it was the "buy one, get one free" Porsche promotion that caught your attention, or the warning that reusing plastic water bottles is unhealthy since components breakdown and are ingested.

Winning at Working--The Art of Change - Click To Read Article
From the iron age to nearly the industrial age, blacksmiths prospered. Villagers needed plows, shovels, iron tires for wagons, nails and tools to build their homes, all of which the blacksmiths forged. They needed their horses and oxen shod and their tools repaired. Being a blacksmith was a sound professional choice.

What Kind of Workplace Future? - Click To Read Article
In 1883, as soon as construction ended on the Brooklyn Bridge, the scams started. George C. Parker is credited with originating the idea of selling the Brooklyn Bridge, convincing people they could earn a fortune charging tolls for bridge access. Some erected traffic barriers even as Parker boasted he "sold the Brooklyn Bridge twice a week for years." Eventually he was sentenced to life in prison.

What You Control - Click To Read Article
You may not be able to control if your job gets cut, but you can control whether you're a high performer who your boss is fighting to keep. You may not be able to control how quickly you get another job, but you can control the number of daily contacts you make in your search and how you "show up," future-focused, at the interview. You may not be able to control the amount of work you get, but you do control whether you're responding as a victim or taking action toward developing your skills and contacts for a new future.

What is Failure Anyway? - Click To Read Article
Does it surprise you that only 400 cokes were sold the first year; Albert Einstein's Ph.D. dissertation was rejected; Henry Ford had two bankruptcies before his famous success; or Ulysses S. Grant was working as a handyman, written off as a failure, eight years before becoming President of the United States?

What Are You For? - Click To Read Article
Resist. Resist. Resist. That seems to be the congressional model these days. Whatever one party is for, the other is against. Before an idea makes it to the blogosphere, opposing party political pundits are railing against whatever approach or bill or stance was taken.

Two-Sided Answers - Click To Read Article
The room was lovely, the bed inviting, the architecture interesting, and the philosophy appealing. That was my impression as we checked into a newly minted green-hotel in a resort town where we were eager to spend time relaxing.

Time-Out - Click To Read Article
When young children misbehave, many parents, teachers and caregivers insist on a time-out. Think how much better your workplace would be if you initiated the same approach. No, not for your boss or coworkers, but for yourself.

The Whole Person - Click To Read Article
Henry Ford is reported to have quipped, "Why is it that I always get the whole person when what I really want is a pair of hands?" The 21st century version doesn't sound quite like that, but its essence prevails in plenty of workplaces.

The Squirrel Effect - Click To Read Article
Like that squirrel, people often hide what they consider important to their personal survival in the corporate world. It’s called information. Hoarding bits and pieces, they act as if information alone is a work-life sustaining nutrient. The more information nuggets they have, the safer or more powerful they think they’ll be. And while those nuggets might help someone survive in a corporate culture where information is a bartered commodity, long term it won’t help them thrive. Here’s why.

Thought Conformity - Click To Read Article
People pass off others' thinking as their own. They parrot others' issues without personal analysis. And they embrace others' perspectives as if it was their original thought. But these repackaged perspectives hamper innovation, personal growth, and business results.

Thicken The Skin - Click To Read Article
There's a line in the movie Gracie that I love. Gracie is a teenager in the 70s who is competing for a spot on the boy's high school varsity soccer team. In one scene, dejected and on the verge of giving up, her mother, played by Elizabeth Shue, tells her, "If you want to limit yourself, that's fine. But don't let other people do it for you."

The New Dance - Click To Read Article
Poor Pluto. Stripped of its planetary status by the International Astronomical Union and reclassified as a "dwarf planet," two years ago, Pluto's demotion heralds new rules for planet classification. Debate by renowned astronomers from seventy-five countries culminated in the decision to reduce the number of planets to eight "classic" ones.

The Echoes Heard at Work - Click To Read Article
Coward. That word, along with others less printable, popped to mind when I heard a story about a friend's son. It turns out, he learned he was no longer employed via a text-message to his cell phone on a Sunday night. The brief message from his ex-boss informed him that his last work day had been Friday.

Staying in the Game - Click To Read Article
The message came from Human Resources. There's nothing to worry about with the newly announced organizational changes and pending merger, it reassured. The changes will be good for the company and good for the people who work here it coached.

So You Were Wrong - Click To Read Article
I once worked for a boss who was never wrong, never made a mistake or a bad decision. All you had to do was ask him. To his staff he was Teflon-man. Nothing stuck to him and everything came sliding toward us.

Shades of Grey - Click To Read Article
A paperweight sits on my desk, etched in silver the message: Life isn't always black and white. It serves as a reminder there are few absolutes at work (or in life). Yet, it would be easier if there were; if good ideas from bad, trustworthy people from non-trustworthy, and right paths from the wrong ones could easily be discerned. I've learned in twenty years in management that increasing one's perspective increases the grey, as words like always and never become obsolete for describing most situations and most people.

Secret to Success - Click To Read Article
Most people are looking for the secret to success; the secret to being a millionaire; the secret to winning at working. To help them find it, Amazon inventories 1,797 books promising success secrets, everything from "Mustang Sallies: Success Secrets of Women Who Refuse to Run With the Herd" to "The 21 Secrets of Self-Made Millionaires."

Progress Trumps Perfection - Click To Read Article
In the late 17th century, Lord Chesterfield, an English writer and politician, wrote to his son, "Whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well." Three hundred years later, we still heed this advise from the fourth Earl of Chesterfield. Yet doing it well doesn't mean doing it perfectly. The 21st century workplace requires more than doing something well.

Relationship Basics - Click To Read Article
People who are winning at working understand relationship basics. Common courtesy, mutual assistance, timely communication are tools they use to build, foster, and enhance their relationships. They understand their relationship approach is a reflection of their foundational principles. And those principles start with giving.

Past or Future - Click To Read Article
Watching a rerun of "What Not to Wear" on The Learning Channel, I was struck by the dialogue between the individual being transformed and the cast of experts. While agreeing to follow the advice and input from these style-masters, "Joyce" was closed to the ideas presented of what she should wear, how her hair should be cut, and her make-up enhanced.

Making a Fresh Start - Click To Read Article
"How could that be?" I muttered silently as I reread the message. This was not a person I wanted to encounter as I returned from a holiday vacation filled with family, friends, and fun. And yet, there he was on my calendar. My first meeting of the New Year was scheduled with my nemesis.

Lying on a Nail - Click To Read Article
Once there was a young woman who didn't like her job. Everyday when she came home from work, she told her husband how terrible her day had been, how tiring the work and how unreasonable her boss. "Leave that job," her husband told her.

Leveraging Your Future - Click To Read Article
A friend's hairstylist saw her bookings drop as the economy fell, ultimately losing her job at a salon. But when my friend asked her if she'd be willing to make a house-call to style her ailing mother's hair, the stylist saw an opportunity. Ultimately, she launched a specialized in-home business and now makes more money than she ever did.

It's Not About Time - Click To Read Article
With mounting to-do lists, big projects with short delivery dates, consuming workloads, growing obligations and festering unfinished tasks, it's no wonder in this what-have-you-done-for-me-today world we often feel time deprived. Work-life flows to home-life, balance becomes imbalance, and goals and dreams get relegated to a closet shelf.

Kept Waiting - Click To Read Article
People who are winning at working aren't playing the I-win-you-lose game, translated in this example as I-don't-want-to-wait-so-you-can. You see, for people who are winning at working, their perspective goes beyond themselves. These are the people whose consistent, everyday actions contribute to a better workplace and a better world.

How About, THANK YOU? - Click To Read Article
It started with a turkey. In the early days of a start-up company I once worked for, a plump turkey was a small thank you token given to employees around the holidays. The turkey-giving practice lasted maybe three years, until the growing size of the organization necessitated its change. And while enhanced benefits emerged to replace that poultry gift, I found it amazing that the missing turkey still appeared as a resentment issue five years later in employee forums.

Hot Coals - Click To Read Article
Involved in an expensive developmental workshop, Chad volunteered first when the facilitator queried the group about their objectives. It was the morning session of a weekend event that a friend of mine was conducting, and she'd asked me to sit-in. So, on a Saturday morning when I'd normally be sleeping, I found myself listening to Chad's frustrations about his lack of success, his inflexible boss, and his difficult coworkers.

Herd Mentality - Click To Read Article
Booths featuring products and services related to employee engagement, web-based delivery, global performance, and talent management were overflowing with conference attendees as I walked the trade show at a national conference where I was speaking. Just a few years ago the magnets were initiatives like total quality management, six sigma, diversity, work-life-balance, and customer driven.

Get The Facts - Click To Read Article
It was his perception that caused the outburst. "Why aren't there any managers at these sessions? Why aren't they required to attend, too?" he challenged. Hired to provide workshops on building trust in a workplace lacking it, I answered his question to the extent I could during that first session, "It's my understanding that everyone is attending," I offered. "But let me find out for sure and get back to you."

Follow-Me Leaders - Click To Read Article
Winning philosophies drive successful leaders' behaviors, creating work groups, communities, schools, and homes where others thrive, differences are embraced, and ideas, productivity and excellence flourish. These follow-me leaders offer the why behind the what, give trust, and share knowledge openly.

Check Your Thoughts - Click To Read Article
It was clear she was having "one of those days." But to be truthful, I didn't care. I was too nervous about my surgery to pay attention to Doris, the nurse grousing about how overworked she was that Thursday. But by the time I was wheeled back to my same-day surgical room, she was even less hospitable and entrenched in complaining.

Changing Rules - Click To Read Article
Poor Pluto. Stripped of its planetary status by the International Astronomical Union and reclassified as a "dwarf planet," Pluto's demotion heralds new rules for planet classification. A week of debate by renowned astronomers from seventy-five countries culminated in the decision to reduce the number of planets to eight "classic" ones. This reclassification got me thinking.

Carved in Granite - Click To Read Article
In the Black Hills of South Dakota, carved in granite, the six-story faces of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt create a grand impression viewed from a distant, or standing on the national monument's viewing terrace. Visiting Mount Rushmore on vacation, I found the documentary of its making fascinating. Weeks later, one story stayed with me.

But, It Will Take Too Long - Click To Read Article
Sitting in a waiting area above the tradeshow floor, I watched the forklift drivers deliver crates and boxes to small groups who were waiting to transform their rented cement floors into inviting marketing endeavors for the next day's expo opening, hosting seven thousand conference attendees.

Busy About - Click To Read Article
Once upon a time, a prince and princess lived in stressful palace, surrounded by a stressful village, inside a stressful land. They knew it was stressful because everyone said it was. Their parents, the king and queen, worked from sunrise to sunset hearing issues from their kingdom, weighing the requests, and appropriating the collective harvest to the people of their land.

CARVE YOUR SUCCESS KEY - Click To Read Article
I had just finished commenting to my husband how much I liked the use of copper in the Parade of Homes' kitchen we were touring, when I overheard another woman telling her husband how much she disliked the look. It made me laugh. It's funny how we see things differently.

Choosing A Path - Click To Read Article
Reading in the airport while waiting for a flight to Houston, a housekeeper was tidying around me when approached by another facilities employee. After a few minutes of easily overheard chit-chat, she received coaching from her now apparent supervisor.

Big Hat No Cattle - Click To Read Article
I did exactly what the magazine wanted me to do. I bought it solely for an article featured on the cover. But when I got it home and started searching for the piece I wanted to read, I couldn't find it. The headline drew me in, but hidden behind other features was an article with a different title that sort of, kind of, talked about the topic. I felt cheated.

BEING PRESENT - Click To Read Article
Purposeful engagement transforms the way you think about and approach your work, allowing you to both learn and contribute. People who are winning at working know that being present magnifies their results, enhances their potential, and creates their future. They're not just at work, they're actively in it.

Better Together - Click To Read Article
During the Beijing Olympics, beach volleyball players Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh were undefeated in their second gold medal Olympics, with an amazing record of 108 consecutive wins. Watching the advancing duo during the Olympic coverage, I heard commentators mention that when either woman was asked during interviews which one of them was better, they responded, "We're better together."

As If They Were You - Click To Read Article
"Treat everybody else as if they were you." These words gave me pause. I wonder what it would be like if we each did what this "unknown author" is advocating?

Assessing Your Progress - Click To Read Article
I'm not a big fan of New Years resolutions. Sure I've made dozens of them, all with good intentions and a bit of magical thinking, believing this time the resolution will stick. Maybe a few have, but generally these wishful self-promises end up broken. And when that happens my self-esteem suffers.

ANCORA IMPARO - Click To Read Article
Ancora imparo, translated as "I am still learning" or "Still, I am learning," is attributed to Michelangelo in his eighty-seventh year. The man who painted the Sistine Chapel and sculpted the Pieta and David, whose very name evokes mastery of his craft, exemplifies a lifelong learning philosophy.

About Those Words - Click To Read Article
Like a weasel sucking out an egg's content without destroying the shell, weasel words give the appearance of communicating information as they suck out meaning.





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