Winfried Dressler asked:
>What can be done to become clear about your priorities?
In our efforts to help our middle-management people understand themselves
and grow as leaders, we've found the exercise in The Fifth Discipline
Fieldbook useful. Briefly (at page 209), it offers a list of items which
it calls 'values', such as financial gain, meaningful work, status, power
and authority, community. It asks you to take the list of about 60 and
strike items out until you reach just the ten which you find the most
important. Then strike out a couple more. Then a couple more, until you
have only one.
When I went through this exercise, I cheated and ended with a list of a
half-dozen. I took those items and placed them into sentences with this
format: 'I believe that xxx matters because...' For example, I believe
that self-respect plays a predominant role in my values because when I
cannot respect myself, I cannot authentically respect others.
Now (this sounds a little hokey I suppose) I carry the list with me; when
I'm stuck on a decision, I pull out the list, reflect on it a bit, and
then decide what is 'right' given these values.
Michael A
-- Michael Ayers *** The area code for St. Paul changed on 12 July 98 to 651 *** mailto:mbayers@mmm.com Voice (651) 733-5690 FAX (651) 737-7718 IT Educ & Perf Svcs\3M Center 224-2NE-02\PO Box 33224 St Paul MN 55133-3224 "Sometimes the right question is, 'Are we asking the right question?'" Ideas contained in this note represent the author's opinions and do not intentionally represent the positions of anyone else in this galaxy.Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>