Occupying Your Soul

Every holiday has its distinct service and means of connecting us more deeply to God. On Rosh Hashana we focus on coronating our King. On Yom Kippur we engage in deep repentance. Sukkos allows us to remember our true Source of protection and bounty. The service of Chanukah is to shine the light of Torah and adherence on a dark reality that mocks us at our core. Such light can only be generated by a deep engagement that extends well beyond lip service or surface-level devotion.

Where does such depth of commitment come from? How can we genuinely resist all of the pejorative messaging that is constantly broadcast through our soundwaves? Here are some ideas that might help.

Turn off the sound – The easiest way to withstand negative messaging is to not hear it. There is no mitzvah to be a full consumer of all the world has to sell us. Keep in mind that certain industries in particular, such as entertainment and the arts, are populated by those with a particularly strong godless, humanistic vantage point which rejects historical truths and values that can’t be quantified by science. When we invite them into our world we make it doubly difficult on ourselves to filter out that which is harmful.

Naphtali HoffDecember 29, 2016Comment

Taking the Fear out of Change

Few words scare people like “change.” While we know that change is critical for organizations who want to stay cutting edge and prepare for the future, the fact is that change and disruption are hard on individuals and teams. They mess with our routines, raise questions about proper procedure and protocol, and force us to change our behaviors. Worst of all, they create a fundamental baseline of uncertainty, which cause many to descend into fear and doubt.

So what can leaders so to manage change effectively in the organizations and with their teams? The following are strategies to help manage change effectively:

1. Set the expectation that change is inevitable – Communicate your vision of a dynamic and evolving organization, where progress and change are inevitable. When a major shift happens, your people will be more likely to accept it as a matter of course.

How to Make Happy Clients

For most of us, the holiday season is a season of happiness. We get together with friends and family to celebrate our relationships. We also give gifts as a way of demonstrating our love and affection and how much others mean to us.

Many businesses also gift their customers and business associates during this season. They appreciate the special relationship that they’re forged with their clients and consumers and use this time to demonstrate their appreciation. They have built strong relationships and want to make sure that they remain strong in the year ahead.

The importance of developing happy customers is clear. When our customers are deeply satisfied and sing our praises and refer us to others, it helps to build our business on so many levels. We want to have Raving Fans, which, as Ken Blanchard wrote in his book, “Raving Fans,” are fans that “are so devoted to your products and services that they wouldn't dream of taking their business elsewhere and will sing from the rooftops about just how good you are.”

Naphtali HoffDecember 28, 2016Comment

Against All Odds

While the stakes for most business and organizational leaders are far lower than they were for Judah, there are many situations in which marketplace or boardroom victory seems as remote as it did in the Judean caves of the second century BCE. As leaders, we often face circumstances, such as market conditions, lack of funding, or the absence of internal support, that threaten to derail us. We want to persist anyway but recognize the uphill challenges that we will be facing under such circumstances.

What can leaders do inspire themselves and their people to persevere with their dreams when the odds are stacked against them?

Get a heavy dose of cold water – Leaders who want to succeed when others tell them that success isn’t possible would do well to begin with some honest soul searching. What are the challenges that everyone is talking about? Why are so many predicting your failure? Am I personally biased or do I really have something special here? If, despite their contrarian arguments you feel that your the goal is attainable and you can win, then go for it with everything that you’ve got.

When I left my last position as head of school, I debated back and forth as to whether I should pursue a new principalship or try my luck in the coaching arena. In the end I decided that I really wanted to and parlay my experience and past successes in delivering high-impact trainings. But there were very few people who had done this successfully and so I got on the horn with as many people as I could to figure out why others either hadn’t tried or hadn’t succeeded. After determining that I had a blueprint for a successful foray I committed to my current path and have never looked back

Naphtali HoffDecember 27, 2016Comment

Seeing the Meaning in Our Work

As I researched this topic I was struck by the extent by which all people, not just back office or less prominent professionals, identify meaning and purpose as central elements of their job satisfaction. We all seek affirmation and want to know that the work that we do makes a difference. Mary Kay Ash once said, “Everyone has an invisible sign hanging from their neck saying, 'Make me feel important.' Never forget this message when working with people.”

Money alone is not what motivates us. In fact, while meaningful pay is certainly a key element in selecting and remaining in a job, compensation is usually not at the top of what motivates us to come to work every day. Purpose, more than any quality, is what we value most.

Naphtali HoffDecember 17, 2016Comment

Appreciating What We Have

It can be easy for all of us, especially the chronic complainers amongst us, to see the glass as half empty. Particularly in a society that makes many promises and encourages us to think that we deserve every last convenience and pleasure, it can be easy to fall into the trap of complaint when things don’t go our way. But if we just take the time to look at things from another’s perspective, we can often see that we have it good even when it doesn’t always appear that way.

So how can we start to see things from another’s perspective? And how can we adjust our thinking to be more thankful for what we have and see our life’s glasses as being half full?

Adjust your paradigm – In his book, “The Seven Habits of Highly Successful People”, author Stephen Covey shared a story involving a young father and his children on a train. Covey was seated on the train, preparing for a long weekend in front of him. He expected a nice, quiet ride while he read through his favorite periodical. The children, however, had other ideas. They were loud and boisterous and the father seemed quite oblivious. Increasingly annoyed, Covey eventually made his way to the father and asked him to control his children. You can imagine his shock and dismay when he was told that the man and his kids had just come from the hospital, where their wife/mother has passed away. Covey uses the story to speak about paradigms, or the way that we see things. If we have rigid, me-first perspectives on what should happen, such thinking will impact how we act and communicate. If, however, we condition ourselves to think more in terms of what others want and need, as well as to set more realistic expectations for situations (such as taking public transportation), then we can approach them with more patience and balance.

coaching, leadership, relationshipsNaphtali HoffDecember 17, 2016happiness, appreciation, living, bus ride, perspective, paradigmComment

From Lovable Losers to Lovable Leaders

For many, Cubs fever is still upon us. No matter which baseball team you root for (unless it’s Cleveland) there’s a part of you that is surely excited that the Lovable Losers from Chicago’s North Side have finally ended the longest title-less streak (by a long distance) in professional sports, a whopping 108 years. As a New Yorker-in-exile (and avid Yankees fan) living in the Windy City for a dozen years, I got to observe what it was like to be a Cubs fan up close. And believe me, it was not pretty.

I was there when Steve Bartman interfered with Moises Alou along the left field foul line in 2003. I observed the National League leading Cubs get swept in the first round in 2008. And of course I heard all about the curse of the Billy Goat, the black cat, and all of the other reasons as to why a North Side champion was a near-impossibility.

Refrains like “better luck next year” (in April, mind you) and “everyone can have bad century” remain well etched in my mind. As someone who grew up rooting for George Steinbrenner’s Yankees (love him or hate him) the notion that mediocrity was acceptable, let alone embraced, went against my very nature.

But something changed over the past few years. The Yankees former nemesis, Red Sox championship architect Theo Epstein, took the reins at Wrigley and began to build a winner. With some existing assets (acquired through some early futility) and deft maneuvering, Epstein has turned the Cubs into what appears to be a perennial powerhouse with strong nucleus of young talent.

Naphtali HoffNovember 9, 2016Comment

Establish clear work-home boundaries

One of the biggest challenges for any employee is to establish clear boundaries separating work from home. Many people fall into this trap regularly, bringing their domestic challenges to the workplace and/or making their homes an extension of the office. While doing so may make sense or feel right in the moment, it can have negative repercussions, particularly if done regularly.

People who bring their personal problems to work can face a number of problems. For starters, depending on how often you do this and the nature of what you share, others around you might start to view you negatively, and may come to classify you as a chronic complainer.

To be polite, they might listen with a look of concern on their face and nod their head in agreement. But if you do this too often, people will start to tune you out, walk away as you approach, or silently wish for you to shut up and go somewhere else. Remember that everyone has problems and hardships. They have a hard enough time with their own and certainly don’t want to add yours to their list.

Naphtali HoffNovember 7, 2016 Comments

Learn to Let it Go

When I say that haven’t recited this prayer properly I refer mainly to the above paragraph. After all, there have been people who have hurt me, sometimes in serious ways. They seemed very content with their behavior and most did not seek forgiveness. Even though I recognize that if we all – myself included – willingly forgave one another then we would all be able to approach God for the atonement that we desperately seek. But still, it was so hard to forgive sometimes, especially is their behavior hurt my career and/or affected my family. I suspect that most of us have struggled with this point. We simply have a hard time letting go and are prepared to hold grudges indefinitely when we feel that we were right, even to our own detriment.

Naphtali HoffOctober 6, 2016Comment

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