Personal Growth Comes To Work

This article about dysfunctional corporate teams sums up nicely the truth that we bring our dysfunction to our work relationships too.

Another big frustration I experienced in the past was “territorial” behavior.

A management team that has a fixed pie mentality — believing resources are set and they have to land grab as much as possible from corporate resources so they have the best opportunity for success — at the expense of other divisions… creates a competitive culture.

This lack of team-orientation hurts everyone and the success of the company.

Testosterone Has Us By The Balls

I attribute it mostly to testosterone. It’s a warrior mindset driven by the choke-hold our hormones have on us.

Nepotism, or tribal preference is another human vagary that holds teams back from coming together to do great things.

Instead of this department against that one — us against them — having a common external enemy has sometimes been able to sidestep this natural human orientation.

Corporate Consciousness

But that’s a 1.0, unconscious version of trying to bring teams together.

The 2.0 conscious version is, “Everyone in our company is working together for the greater good of mankind, through helping our customers.” There is no enemy internally. There is no enemy externally. We are all one being, connected through the spirit of our humanity. And we will make good choices, support ourselves, each other, our customers AND our competitors. Because when we all thrive we all thrive.

I got out of Silicon Valley and am celebrating a decade of running a globally-distributed team with my husband… Because all the “dick-slapping” brought a bitter taste to my career.

I’d be in the corporate conference room watching the men land-grab, posture, intimidate each other and generally act like big gorillas trying to out alpha each other.

As I witnessed this I’d dream of a job where we could all work together as a team. Where each person’s individual talents were appreciated. Where a team had pride in our outcomes.

I have that now.

And my teams are from Mumbai, Chennai, Manila, Cibu City and Austin, Texas.

They are polite, supportive of each other, dedicated to our vision, supportive of our co-opetition (because we choose to have no competitors) and loyal to Tim and I. We laugh. We make progress. We give ourselves plenty of time for families and life. And we are in service to the happiness of our customers.

When I read Lencioni’s, “5 Stages Of Dysfunction” I snapped back to those old days of territorialism, internal corporate competitiveness and plain old swagger.

I worked in an organization that had to bring in Pat Lencioni because it was so screwed up by all the land-grabbing, AMOGing (Alpha Male of the Group) and general one-upsmanshippery.

No longer.

Co-Creating The Conscious Company

Now I digitally deliver online programs that help people connect intimately and passionately with each other via a happy team who work together yet live all over the world.

At Personal Life Media — we may be a 21st-Century Mom and Pop Shop — but we are bringing conscious personal growth to relationships and sexuality.

Had I not experienced the lessons learned in the Silicon Valley boardrooms of the 90's and 00's, I could never have created the glorious work environment I’m lucky to be part of now.

So it’s up to you to set a new tone for a more conscious corporation. The world needs your guidance. Take a stand for teamwork.

And if you want to bring more passion, pleasure and intimate connection into your personal life, you can see what we’re doing here: http://personallifemedia.com