Deeper Insights: Your Control Resource Links
Throughout June 2019, DRIVEN has been homing in on the nature of Control. We provided an educational webinar for participants who wanted to understand their own Controlling tendencies, and we published 3 articles exploring the challenges faced by the Control Freaks within us, giving examples and solutions for breaking down the barriers of Control which stand in the way of successful teamwork. For instance, in my recent article Your Control Freak Solution: Build Trust With Your Team, I referred you to Kevin Kelly’s technique of being “in command, but out of control”, and I also outlined creative ways to keep your team engaged while preventing your own overwhelm. I hope you’ve discovered these postings and have re-leased your life and career by examining your own relationship to Control.
As with each of DRIVEN’s topics, there are exceptional resources for further reading and listening. These include related DRIVEN articles and external resources like books, podcasts and video presentations. Here’s the June roundup of our favorite links related to Control, some of which will link you to additional resources therein. Explore them, and then reach out to us. We’d love to hear what resonates with you in these areas!
Articles & Blogs:
The Control Crisis: Therapist and life coach Rachel Harder contributes this insightful article about control to the Growing Self website. She takes you through the steps and tips she offers her clients about releasing control and letting things go. I especially like how she, at times, speaks in the reader’s voice, putting herself in your shoes as she delivers her solutions for your controlling tendencies.
The Power of Choice: Executive Director of IFMA Diane Coles Levine is a “Workplace Evolutionary” and contributes this article looking at Employee Control In The Workplace. She indicates how limiting employee control over changes in design of the work space can be counterproductive, leading to unforeseen negative consequences including less productivity and lower morale among the staff. She explores the decisions that a company can make today to provide a sense of co-creation going forward. Although her ideas are specifically related to workplace design and freedom of movement, her ideas can be applied to other aspect of control— mainly the drawbacks of letting control remain in the hands of the few rather than the many.
How Micromanagement May Impact Your Team: Writer John Pearson contributed this article to TheSelfEmployed.com, which puts the micromanager under the magnifying glass. If the micromanager is you, you might be missing what's important about a team project because you’re so in-the-weeds of the details. Pearson reveals your many leadership flaws, including your insatiable appetite for control, illustrating how they can be fatal to the project and even the company.
15 Ways To Get Your Boss To Stop Micromanaging You: If you’re on the receiving end of your manager’s controlling ways, I have a many-sided resource for you. This community feedback posting features the collective responses to the issue of controlling bosses from fifteen of my peers at the Forbes Coaches Council. They are precise, effective, and diverse in their insights.
Additional Articles: There are also a few quick-reference articles online that will give you some basic insight on Control and are useful for referring back to in your journey to release control. Shelley Prevost’s article on inc.com reveals
8 Signs You’re A Control Freak, while Theresa Lawrence on FairyGodBoss.com offers 11 Signs & How To Cope. Then check out Christine Carter’s How To Stop Being A Control Freak on GreaterGoodBerkeley, which gives valuable advice on embracing uncertainty.
DRIVEN’s Own: And don’t forget my own exploration of Control, as featured in this 3-article blog series from the DRIVEN website. You’ll be introduced to the causes of control, you’ll assess whether you’re a card-carrying control freak, and you’ll be exposed to my favorite and most practical solution, prompting you to release control once and for all.
And a Podcast:
Be Water, My Friend: Martial artist, movie star and timeless philosopher Bruce Lee has a word or two on the subject of control as well. Lee’s daughter Shannon curates the Bruce Lee podcast, which features in-depth discussions directly related to her father’s philosophies. “The Nature of Water” is a must-listen for the control freak, or anyone who finds themselves under the control of others. It discusses how Lee discovered the art of detachment through learning never to take a “frontal” opposition to any force or problem, but to swing with it, like water.