Engaged work is your signature – a unique expression of who you are.

Marking time? Some people make their marks while others sign their names. Are you just marking time or is your work a full expression of who you are — signature work!

Impression and expression. Occasionally you see a picture of a production crew putting their signatures on a piece of an aircraft that they manufactured to indicate their investment in their work. Are you putting your signature on all your work including your intangible or knowledge work? And you know I don’t mean buying a permanent marker and scribbling all over your computer screen. Does your work not only impress others, but express who you are?

Signature expression. I believe good work is an expression of who you are. We have much of our identity tied into our work and performance. When asked who we are most of us reply by telling the other person what we work at. When we not only realize this but give work our full expression we begin to sign our work.

Signature moves. If you love a sport you can identify individual athlete’s strides and mannerisms from a mile away. Can the people you work with identify your work this easily? Does everyone know your signature move?

Signature and identity. When we are young many of us work on developing our personal and unique handwritten signature. We swirl the letters, make a large dot for an I, fuse a bunch of letters into a smooth line, or experiment with a multitude of different autographs. Here is an explanation of signature:

A signature (from Latin signare, “sign”) is a handwritten (and sometimes stylized) depiction of someone’s name, nickname or even a simple “X” that a person writes on documents as a proof of identity and intent. The writer of a signature is a signatory. Like a handwritten signature, a signature work describes the work as readily identifying its creator.

Sign into these questions:

• Do you focus on making work a full expression of who you are?
• Do you have your unique work or performance signature?
• Do others recognize it?
• Do you “sign off” on all your work?
• Is your signature work a strong endorsement of your value and values?

Dominate your work. Here is an old experiment. Take a moment, grab a pen and paper and quickly sign your name. Now do it again but sign your name with your non dominant hand. Most of us struggle to get a signature that looks as good as a fifth grader with our non dominant hand. Let your unique strengths, experiences, contributions, and learning dominate your work.

Signature story. I have written about signature story at another site, Joyful Jubilant Learning. I believe we each have a signature story that gets played out in all that we do. Learn to identify your signature story by clicking here to learn more about this perspective.

Can I have your autograph? If you are ever going to “make your mark” at work ensure your mark is an authentic signature of who you are and how you express yourself in the world. Who knows, people just might want you to sign in or sign up for all kinds of projects, performances, and work.

Click here to read other posts on THE ONE BALL.

Play Ball!

“PLAY BALL,” the umpire shouts to start the game. The umpire does not say let’s get down to work here, he says, “play ball.” Musicians play their instruments they don’t fret much unless they play the guitar. Young children spend the whole day engaged in various acts of playing.

Fumbling playfulness. Are you playing? Not on a diamond or in a rock band but playing ball at work each and every day? Are you leveraging play as a powerful source of employee engagement?

Playful engagement. Playing is a vital pathway to engaged performance. When we play we seldom realize how engrossed we are in what we are doing. Go ahead, ask some children who are learning so much through play what they are doing and chances are they will look at you like you are slightly daft and don’t realize, “we’re playing.” Yet while engrossed in play they are performing, relating, engaging, communicating, creating, and learning. These functions and benefits of play are effortless and children feel bothered when told it is time to stop playing.

Grow up. When did you stop playing? Do you feel that play is just a trivial activity for children — not something that belongs in the seriousness of work? As you got older did you also grow out of a childlike playfulness that made every day seem alive with vibrant activity and relationships?

WORKshop phobia. Is work playful for you? The mark of sanity is to blur the line between work and play. Yet so many of us have divorced work and play and view work as a drudgery to be engaged in only for instrumental reasons—getting paid. Or we take a FISHY workshop to learn to play. If you are enrolled in a WORK-shop to learn to play I think we have spotted the source of the problem.

Of course. Young children do not need to enroll in a course to learn to play and it sometimes seems when they enroll in school that play begins to dissipate out of their approach to living. Play can be invited, play can be initiated, play can be engaged in, but play is not something to impose upon others or to put too much conscious effort into achieving a playful state.

Strong play. Some of us our gifted with a playful strength. Play comes easy to us like water from a tap and we engage in play because it engages us. For us not to play is to risk disengagement and lowered happiness. My number one signature strength on the VIA Signature Strength Inventory is humor and playfulness. I personally risk disengaging when I don’t play everyday.

Entertain playfulness. Entertain playful notions. Don’t stifle yourself. Don’t learn to play or work at playing, just play.

We’re here to play. I was a counselor for almost 25 years. Many couples entered my office declaring they were there to work on their marriage. I saluted their determination and resolve and willingness to engage in rekindling their relationship but I often wondered what it would have been like to have a couple come in and say, “we’re here to play on our marriage.” Of course I always thought if that was the perspective they had, they probably never would end up seeing a marriage counselor.

Mindful play. It is not my intention to provide an instruction manual or a lengthy to-do list or send you off to Seattle to throw a mackerel around. It is my intention to remind you of play. You often played as a child and it did so much. I simply ask that you become more mindful of playfulness and allow it to seep into your work…perhaps if you can do this, even just for a few minutes everyday, work won’t feel so much like…what else can I say….work!

Here’s my pitch. I invite you to get a ball. If you can find an old classic rubber ball that I use to illustrate these posts, even better. Put it on your desk or near where you work. Every so often just pick it up and feel it, roll it, toss it, play catch with a peer, and remember the primal power of play as you play with the The One Ball.

Be the ball. Go ahead, have a ball at work and as you engage in your work let your work engage you so that you experience full engagement, not feeling separate from your work or your organization, as you become: The One Ball.

I think David Allen offers useful perspectives and advice but it got me thinking that The One Ball is not about his titles.

I don’t want to make it all work. I just want, in the moment, to make one thing work. And a lot of that is working on myself to focus on The One Ball.

It isn’t about getting things done. It is about getting this thing right before me done.

Have a ball.

Next One Ball Post: Bounce.

Choose your One Ball and Know Your No.

Take your pick. Do you know what your One Ball is? How do you choose which ball to pick up? When there are so many possibilities it can be stressful just to make one choice. We may even choose to just keep juggling rather than determining the ball that is the best fit for us and getting the most out of our engagement with the one ball.

Choice paradox. Performance means anything worthy of your attention. The challenge is to determine which ball is most worthy of your attention. Barry Schwartz wrote an insightful book, The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less on the paradox of choice alerting us to the stress of trying to make the right choice. There may not be a perfect “ball” to pick up but there are some guidelines to follow to help you engage with the one ball:

Ball paralysis. Rather than suffer from ball paralysis just pick up the ball that seems best at the time. Engage with the ball and monitor your focus, energy, and performance. You could follow Marcus Buckingham’s suggestions to find your strengths: determine what activities you look most forward to, watch for activities that you feel fully engaged in while you are working with them, and watch for activities that you have positive reflections about.

Mastery trumps competency. Strive towards mastery rather than merely being competent. Many organizations encourage “ball juggling” by having managers and leaders responsible for so many competencies that they cannot even remember them without referring to the 150 pages manager’s competency guidebook outlining the 287 managerial competencies at 5 different levels. This reminds me of the old statement: he got on his horse and rode off in all directions at once.

Know no. Learn the power of a positive no. Know that you must say no to say yes to something else. William Ury wrote about the Power of the Positive No. Here is the lead paragraph from his site:

No is perhaps the most important and certainly the most powerful word in the language. Every day we find ourselves in situations where we need to say No – to people at work, at home, and in our communities – because No is the word we must use to protect ourselves and to stand up for everything and everyone that matters to us.

3 tips. Ury created a tip sheet that is available at his website that outlines the 3 steps for a positive no:

1. uncover your deeper yes,
2. deliver a respectful no,
3. negotiate to a healthy yes.

Click here for the pithy one page PDF from Ury’s website.

The choice is yours. Go ahead make a choice. You are not glued to your choice for life and you can make additional choices too. Just don’t choose to engage with more than one ball at a time.

And that’s the way the ball bounces.