Resolutions Are Really About Commitment, Nothing Else

Seth Godin has a way of cutting to the core on an issue in a really impactful way.

Sometimes it’s the simplest idea, just executed – or executed well – that only matters.

Want to lose 10 pounds? Eat less. Exercise more.

Simple formula.

WE are the ones who complicate matters – our physiology, our will, our fears. There is no shortage of reasons WHY we CAN’T do something.

If you are trying to achieve something that you’ve been working on a for a while, I have two simple questions for you to reflect on:

Do you REALLY want it?

WHY?

If you REALLY want it and it’s for an energizing, positive reason, the rest is easy. The commitment and motivation are 80% of the ingredients. If it’s compelling enough, you can find a way to get the support, tools or resources you need. The hardest part is figuring out what you want and why.

…or being honest with yourself if you are really COMMITTED to it.

If you are not committed, drop it. Save yourself, your spouse, your boss, your parents a lot of heartache, time and money.

Sometimes, the hardest word is no.

© Copyright 2012 Sage Leadership Strategies, LLC All rights Reserved.         www.sagelead.com

2012 Shake Up: Crow's come a calling - mythic, symbolic or just plain old grubs?

I find exploring myths, symbolism and how stories affect us, help us create meaning and sense of our lives.
A couple days after the New Year, I was in my office when my assistant yelled to me, “Come quick! Look!”
“It’s like Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds!” Ew, I thought.

Out the bay window I saw dozens of crows descending on the property – with no apparent motive or place to go. Over the next half hour they proceeded to fly back and forth between our property and the neighbors – and then dispersed. We were curious – what’s going on, what does this mean??? We googled – A few notes:

There are a myriad of perspectives – mythical, poetic, scientific, and those we make up ourselves.

The American Society of Crows and Ravens says that crows “have nothing to do with what we think about them. Death and suicide are our problems, not theirs.”

Dr. Kevin J. McGowan from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology says, ”The poetic term for a bunch of crows is a ‘murder.’ No scientist calls them that, only poets. Scientists would call it a flock.”

One reference said crows congregate on lawns to eat grubs. But they didn’t look like there were eating. Besides, what’s different about the lawn this year than last?

A shaman site said: ”Crows are adaptable to all environments and will eat almost anything, they can survive in almost any situation. …They are surrounded by magic, unseen forces and spiritual strength. If a crow enters your life, get out of your familiar nest, look beyond your present range of vision, listen to the message(s) in its caw and act accordingly.”

I just finished a year where my house was literally turned upside down – botched home renovation infecting every room, leaving us homeless for a while – my daughter started high school, step-son started college, both my parents had major medical crises, I had a major milestone birthday and my clients went through dramatic changes. So, the upheaval of 2011 forced me to get out of my comfort zone big time – to rethink my life and business and act accordingly.

It could be grubs, but I choose to see the flock of crows as a sign for 2012 to expect the unexpected, expect surprise visitors, and if I pay attention – this “magic” can take me to a broader perspective with unforeseen possibilities.

What are you doing to ready yourself to seek and take advantage of the “magic” opportunities coming out of nowhere – or to look for the sublime in the benign?

© Copyright 2012 Sage Leadership Strategies, LLC All rights Reserved.         www.sagelead.com

Raising Our Kids To Aspire To Be Entrepreneurs

An Entrepreneur is someone who “organizes, operates and assumes the risk for a business venture.”

In a recent Teds video, Cameron Herold says we need to be raising more of our kids to aspire to be entrepreneurs, leaders who create jobs, versus getting good “safe” jobs. Even with MBA students we groom them to get corporate jobs. Key tips:

• Teach your children not to waste money.
• Teach your children to save a large percentage of the money they make from an early age.
• Ask your kids to look around the house and yard and come back with a proposal of what needs to get done and how much they would charge for it. Negotiate with them on the final fee.
• Make one night a week story telling vs. story reading at bedtime. Give them 5 items and ask them to make a story about it. This teaches them to think on their feet, develops creativity and polish and confidence with speaking.
• Foster in them the following: attainment, persistence, tenacity, sales, handling failure, boot strapping, speaking, leadership.

I believe that developing a comfort level with taking and managing risks, and working into the unknown are skills and character traits that will only increase in demand in the 21st century.  Why not identify kid’s entrepreneur potential in school versus just slotting them on the talented math, English or science tracks?

These times are screaming for applied creativity in business ventures. What if your entrepreneurial spirit and appetite for taking risks were fostered in school? These can best be addressed, as Herold says, by remembering when you were a kid and all things were possible. It’s time to dream and play. And never give up.

Copyright 2012 Sage Leadership Strategies, LLC All rights Reserved.         www.sagelead.com

Check out  Mike Myatt’s 5 Leadership Tips for 2012.

He makes some wonderful points – and I agree with his areas. Yet I suggest collapsing the areas and have a concerted focus on one area that will impact the other four areas.

Many of my executive coaching clients focus on changing 3-5 areas over the course of a year. This dissipates effort and can marginalize results. I have found that consistent and concerted effort in one leverage area can give you greater results in a deep, sustained way which can be a better return on your investment of time and energy.

In my post yesterday, I made this radical suggestion – to just focus on one thing. When one more effectively manages the white space it can support being more present. Living in the now and making minute-by-minute choices within a long-term perspective will transfer to the kind of choices Myatt suggests.

If one is truly living in the present then they: don’t miss opportunities, postpone decisions or numb themselves to feeling okay about not spending time with family, they listen more, are more curious to learn beyond knowledge, are more engaged, and are aware if they do want to pick up that book.

Living in the whitespace to support mindful leadership could be a cornerstone for Myatt’s tips. What do you think?

By the way, Mike I am so impressed with the volume of reading you do – and I am an avid reader myself. I’m wondering if you read 10 less books and focused more on being versus doing, how your leadership experience might be different? Just a thought that came to me while I sat idle for a moment before finishing writing this post.

© Copyright 2012 Sage Leadership Strategies, LLC All rights Reserved.         www.sagelead.com

2012 #1 Leadership Behavior: Manage the White Space Better

…Or in some cases let there be white space.

Whether you are leading your business, life or family, I suggest exercising more of just one behavior that can make all the difference: manage the white space. This means:

• Giving yourself more breathing room
• Exercising the option to say no more
• Not jam-packing your day by scheduling every minute

If you’re like me – a recovering perfectionist – I sometimes schedule down time – I block an hour or two, a day or a week.

Allow downtime where you do things to foster:

• Insight
• Integration
• Reflection
• Creativity
• Renewal and Energy

If you can’t manage yourself and your own energy, then you can’t manage or lead your constituents: whether they are your board, employees, customers, spouse or children.

Since all relationships ultimately are connected to the relationship you have with yourself, and you are all you can control – it starts and ends with you.

The white space is the seed that ultimately leads to being more present. The ability to be more present will give you all the rest: answers and support you need to manage whatever comes up this year.

If 2011 was a year of challenge and transformation, 2012 promises to be a year of possibility – integrating and solving the seemingly impossible…magic!

© Copyright 2012 Sage Leadership Strategies, LLC All rights Reserved.         www.sagelead.com

Innovation: What Would Grandma Say?

Yesterday as I reflected on my Grandma’s life, I learned that new technologies take longer than we think to make it to market, if at all, or to become popularized and cashed-in on their commercial value.

I’m sure you’ve heard the adage: Is there really anything new under sun?

I’m sticking with Grandma’s leadership this week: old wisdom is the new wisdom. She always said, hold onto your clothes long enough and they will come back in style. I have to admit I have some of her hats and coats from the 40s that I have worn recently!  I also wished I’d kept my fry boots – they’d be back in style and worth a fortune! Yet they were my sole present for Christmas one year when I was in high school, as my parents struggled to make ends meet raising six kids.

It’s all about perspective. Innovation is not about invention. It’s about taking an invention and making it useful, repurposing it and/or commercializing it.

So, I ask you – what exists right in front of you that you could view differently – whether it is a product, a problem, an employee, or your relationship with a family member? What is something that you can change about your life or business that would give you more money in the bank, greater productivity or satisfaction? These are different faces of the same coin. They are all about changing the energy of your current situation.

If you want your business or life to be different – The ultimate question is, how do you take what you have and make it different or conceive of it differently? This is innovation grandma-style – transform the old into the present for future wear-ability and endurance.

© Copyright 2011 Sage Leadership Strategies, LLC All rights Reserved. www.sagelead.com

Grandma’s Life: What’s Changed, What Hasn’t Changed?

My Grandmother was born in 1899 and died in 1991, with a full life at 92 ½ years of age. My daughter was born in 1997, 102 years after my grandmother.

I was talking with my daughter today about embracing change – how this is one of the most important skills for life, particularly for her generation. I used a few examples of changes that took place in Grandma’s life to illustrate what she had to adapt to and how radically her life changed. I mentioned flying, cars, TV. They didn’t exist at all or in the form we know it when she was born. There are many other items she witnessed come into usage: modern refrigerators, dishwashers, ovens, etc. What we take for granted today were radical changes that impacted Grandma’s life – whether it was saving her time on daily chores, giving her access to entertainment, knowledge or greater freedom in traveling. She experienced as many radical changes in 90+ years as we have in the 20 years since her death.

I wondered how fast and new these inventions really were. So, I searched the Internet that Grandma never knew. Here is what I discovered:

1866 First prototype of a steam engine, which would later evolve to the automobile; cars commercialized in the 1920s.

400 BC first curiosity with flight, Leonardo DaVinci’s theories of flight 1480s; first Wright brothers’ flight 1903; airplane flights commercialized 1930s

1878 First concept of an image in motion; 1950s Television was commercialized

1947 Genesis of technology that was the basis for cell phones; commercialized in the mid 1990s

1965 First development of technology used to construct the Internet; popularized in the 1990s; commercialization of products via “the web” 2000s

Many of the technologies we use today seemed to have just been invented and yet parts of the technologies have existed in different forms or changed for commercial exploitation. What’s stayed constant from Grandma’s to my daughter’s life is ongoing experimentation, improvement, and evolution for greater adaptability. In all cases, the need to master handling change has not changed. It is just becoming more of an imperative as the pace of change is increasing and becoming more widespread – not just with product life cycles shortening, but with societal and political institutions requiring change to keep pace with the implications technology imposes.

I wonder – what Grandma would say about the world we live in today?

© Copyright 2011 Sage Leadership Strategies, LLC All rights Reserved. www.sagelead.com