September 17, 2013 • Volume 4, Issue 19 • ISSN: 2154-3240

In This Issue

♦	Feature Article: Asking for Help
♦	Ask Amanda: How do I create a culture of innovation?
♦	Practical Tips: Personal Power

Asking for Help

About the last thing achievers ask for is help, yet it’s often the best strategic move you can make. If you do it right, you’ll get better results, those who help you will feel good about their efforts, and others will learn more about you.

When you make requests, the onus is upon you to know what you want and to express it in a way that makes sense. Resist the urge to make blanket requests; instead, think strategically about who is best able to help you in specific areas. (By the way, this goes for job transitions too.) Usually people make requests but in a very vague way, e.g., “I’m looking for a job in marketing,” “I’d like another senior position with a good company,” or “I’d like to work somewhere close to home.
read more

	Remembering means disengaging from the present.

Practical Tips:
Personal Power

Everyone makes assumptions. For the most part they are fear-based, have nothing to do with facts, and just get in the way. Our assumptions about power have everything to do with why we spend more time talking about power than having it.

Power is having the resources you need to make a decision for an outcome without permission from others. It’s not gender-specific and it’s not wrong to want it. Powerful people know who they are and who they aren’t, and they know how to be generous—as leaders, resources, and listeners.
read more

Our company's new catchphrase is "innovation." We're all supposed to suddenly be innovative and I have no idea how to go about it. How do you create a culture of innovation? B.T., NY, NY

First, recognize that it is impossible to change a culture without a concerted and sustained effort. That said, I’d ask my manager exactly what innovative outcomes are expected from your group. How do they differ from past expectations? read more

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About Us: Our Corporate Life LLC (OCL) is a company that offers a new system for reducing unnecessary workplace suffering caused by the organizational, interpersonal, and ethical issues of our time. It is founded on the belief that adhering to core human values and achieving business success are always compatible. Working with both companies and individuals, OCL helps create solutions that enable corporate employees at every level to optimize profits while enabling them to thrive in the corporate environment. OCL was founded by Amanda Mitchell to help meet the needs of people working in corporate America during this transformative moment in our nation's history. The OCL system reflects her experience and insight gained from a 20–year corporate career working with Fortune 500 companies, and as an executive coach to senior–level corporate executives.