You asked for it, so you got it! We decided to wrap up the The Elegant Pivot Series with a final bring-it-all-together conversation. My daughter, Jen and I have been exploring the five principles in my book, “The Elegant Pivot: An Inspired Move for Navigating Corporate Politics”. While the subtitle may refer to “corporate politics”, my readers are telling me it applies to much, much more. As a refresher, here are the five principles along with the past podcasts we have done.

1: Discern Signal from Noise
2: Focus on what You Want
3: Take Nothing Personally
4: Master Your Stories
5: Develop A Sense of Inquiry

Jen and I have been working together for several years, and given that we are mother/daughter, we get lots of opportunities to encounter some personal politics. The Elegant Pivot, which is about how to assume positive intent, is a really powerful tool to use -- if you can get out of your own way. We've had so much fun having these conversations, because we’ve been applying the principles in the book with each other. We even encountered some live-and-real-time mother/daughter moments about how we have gotten in our own way, and how we navigated some of our difficult conversations. 

In this wrap up, we dive deep into the trickiest character in the book, Fighting Francis. That’s the situation where someone truly has it out for you. When I ask people about assuming positive intent, and where it works for them, they say, “I'm okay to assume positive intent if I don't think they're out to get me, but if I think the other person has negative intent or is out to get me, I just can’t do it. I am going to assume the worst.” I get it and I’ve been there. I still have found that assuming positive intent works wonders and in this conversation, we talk through some practical situations that ended well – and give some strategies for how to use the five principles to navigate the dreaded Fighting Francis.

Guest Contact Info:

Website: ManeelyConsulting.com 

Email: Jennifer@maneelyconsulting.com