Last time we spoke of feedback through auditing, interviews, and the like.  Even going to the doctor is a form of feedback albeit less formal than audits or interviews.  However, I know some folks who are just as stressed out by doctors as interviews and audits.  We also spoke of the leadership gap between what is expected of us and what we are entrusted to do.  This is the same when dealing with ourselves or with others.  The trust we extend ourselves or receive from others provides credibility and accountability.  If we are unable to deliver results then the trust wanes creating a reinforcing negative feedback loop.  Often we have to break the loop by changing jobs or other extreme measures.  Before we get to those extremes, there are other options.

When there are gaps between what’s expected of us and what we are empowered to do either by ourselves or others, understanding the things we can change and what we cannot is a vital necessity.  From the business of you perspective this understanding relates to manageable and emergent properties.  A manageable property is something we can control to varying degrees of influence. Some of the most basic manageable properties in our life our attention, attitude and action.  These are the things inherent in our lives.  Emergent properties arise through the interactions and interdependencies of the system(s) we are a part of.  They are those things we do not have complete influence over in our lives like health, wealth, happiness, net worth, success and quality of life.

When there is a gap to manage between expectations and reality it is imperative we focus on the manageable properties.  The things we have influence over and especially those things having a greater impact on the outcome are the things to pay attention to.  Our attitude towards those things we don’t have influence becomes secondary and an opportunity to exercise our compassion. Whereas our attitude towards the things we can influence becomes primary and an opportunity to create what we truly want.

Relative to the auditors that will be visiting my organization next week, I do have influence as the quality manager.  As the situation develops, I will be focusing on driving improvement in the organization supporting our long-term goals of winning multimillion and even billion dollar projects.  This is a huge hurdle for us which at times seems insurmountable.  This feeling of dread for the problems that may come with a big opportunity are the emergent properties and ultimately nothing I can do anything about.  I do have influence over what happens now.  Herein lies the key to managing the business of you. Recognizing what influence we have and exercising it to better our situation both for ourselves, others and our environment creates the vision we have for a better future.  The more we address the manageable properties in our lives, the less leadership gap there is.  our integrity increase as does our trust and self-worth.