We are human and it takes something cracking us open to be present sometimes – or to really get something. It’s not about being present every moment. That is not realistic. It’s more about doing it more and recovering more quickly when we find ourselves not present, zoning out or hiding from what is really happening.
The greatest tragedy is that we often miss the beauty that is around us in all ways everyday. Usually this awakening happens through our connections or disconnections – relationships – with one another.
A friend of mine is running her own business and trying to juggle it this week while spending time with her father in his last days as he lay in the hospital gravely ill. She captures this awakening so brilliantly on her blog.
Thank you Liz for helping us all have a moment of pause.
What is your moment of pause today? I am looking out my window appreciating the brilliant blue of the sky and early green buds of spring. Heaven on earth. As I sit here at my computer, it helps me feel more connected to nature.
© Copyright Sage Leadership Strategies, LLC All rights reserved. www.sagelead.com
Friday, April 30, 2010
Thursday, April 29, 2010
The Sage Leader Questions What You HAVE To Do
“You do what you have to do…” I heard it again this morning.
Says who? Who says you HAVE to do something? What DO you Have to do? Who decides?
I find that this is a pervasive paradigm that I hear multiple times a day from:
•An executive who is working globally taking calls at 5 am, 10 am, 1 pm, 6 pm and 11 pm AND managing meetings and emails inbetween.
•A working Mom who says she doesn’t have more quality time with her kids.
•A mid-career professional who “can’t get a job” in their field and takes something way below skill level to “get by.”
The language is limiting, not-strategic, and defeatist and energy-draining. It negates the notion of choice and control. I haven’t been living in a cave the last couple of years – I am aware of the economic downturn, the global political climate, the environmental crisis – should I go on?
The key question that a sage leader asks is – what do I REALLY NEED to do to achieve my goals? Where do I have choices? What are the choices? What kind of focus and discipline do I need to stick to my choices?
The sage leader stays in the space of proactivity versus reactitivity – especially in times of uncertainty and crisis. Often a shift really comes down to going back to basics: delegate, being willing to let go and not trying to do everything – and all at once. What is the one thing that will reset your view – What DO you WANT to do?
Why? What will it get you?
© Copyright 2010 Sage Leadership Strategies, LLC All rights reserved
Says who? Who says you HAVE to do something? What DO you Have to do? Who decides?
I find that this is a pervasive paradigm that I hear multiple times a day from:
•An executive who is working globally taking calls at 5 am, 10 am, 1 pm, 6 pm and 11 pm AND managing meetings and emails inbetween.
•A working Mom who says she doesn’t have more quality time with her kids.
•A mid-career professional who “can’t get a job” in their field and takes something way below skill level to “get by.”
The language is limiting, not-strategic, and defeatist and energy-draining. It negates the notion of choice and control. I haven’t been living in a cave the last couple of years – I am aware of the economic downturn, the global political climate, the environmental crisis – should I go on?
The key question that a sage leader asks is – what do I REALLY NEED to do to achieve my goals? Where do I have choices? What are the choices? What kind of focus and discipline do I need to stick to my choices?
The sage leader stays in the space of proactivity versus reactitivity – especially in times of uncertainty and crisis. Often a shift really comes down to going back to basics: delegate, being willing to let go and not trying to do everything – and all at once. What is the one thing that will reset your view – What DO you WANT to do?
Why? What will it get you?
© Copyright 2010 Sage Leadership Strategies, LLC All rights reserved
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Tiger Woods, Authenticity and Real Leadership - Part 2
There are a number of significant differences with Tiger’s situation. He has taken time out to reassess his life through intensive therapy. He apologized and acknowledged that he thought he was entitled – he doesn’t get to play by different rules than everyone else. I have never heard such sentiments from a powerful public figure. He apologized to the children for whom he is a role model. He appears genuine.
The road to true transformation is messy and chaotic with no quick fixes. He acknowledged he is at just the very beginning of this process. The challenge of any great leader who is at the top of their field is to not to allow their ego to run their life. When their success comes with a lot of money and a lot of people riding on this money, the stakes and temptations are even higher.
My biggest hope for Tiger’s reform is in his approach – taking full accountability for his actions and trying to protect his family from further damage and exposure – and above all else where he rests his ultimate solution – to rebalance his spiritual life with his professional life. He is looking to reclaim his spiritual foundation and values – and recognizes he can’t do it alone. He needs the support and help of the very same people he has disappointed. This humility is the way of the sage leader.
Ultimately, I am with Elin – true atonement comes over time seeing a real change in behavior. Tiger has made the necessary first step – asking for forgiveness. This requires something on all our parts – understanding and giving him and his family privacy to journey through this difficult process.
For the judges in the audience, please remember the great adage: all saints were once sinners and all sinners can be saints.
© Copyright Sage Leadership Strategies, LLC
The road to true transformation is messy and chaotic with no quick fixes. He acknowledged he is at just the very beginning of this process. The challenge of any great leader who is at the top of their field is to not to allow their ego to run their life. When their success comes with a lot of money and a lot of people riding on this money, the stakes and temptations are even higher.
My biggest hope for Tiger’s reform is in his approach – taking full accountability for his actions and trying to protect his family from further damage and exposure – and above all else where he rests his ultimate solution – to rebalance his spiritual life with his professional life. He is looking to reclaim his spiritual foundation and values – and recognizes he can’t do it alone. He needs the support and help of the very same people he has disappointed. This humility is the way of the sage leader.
Ultimately, I am with Elin – true atonement comes over time seeing a real change in behavior. Tiger has made the necessary first step – asking for forgiveness. This requires something on all our parts – understanding and giving him and his family privacy to journey through this difficult process.
For the judges in the audience, please remember the great adage: all saints were once sinners and all sinners can be saints.
© Copyright Sage Leadership Strategies, LLC
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Tiger Woods, Authenticity and Real Leadership - Part 1
I am not excusing Tiger Woods from his digressions in any way.
However, given all the many public figures whom have fallen from grace due to transgressions – sexual, money or otherwise – his apology appears to be one of the most authentic and heartfelt.
He did not express a dismissive “I’m sorry,” nor is he indicating this is all past him. Instead he paints a very realistic picture that he has just begun a journey of healing that requires intensive treatment and will take time. As with any healing process, he is starting with trying to make amends – in his own words – he has a lot “to atone for.”
Many disgraced public leaders make apologies after much pressure from the media and their constituents. For those skeptics who say he’s doing this because there is a lot of money riding on his comeback, I say, pay attention to HOW he made his apology – the tone and tenor – and you will see a sincerity that I have not witnessed with other fallen leaders.
© Copyright Sage Leadership Strategies, LLC www.sagelead.com
However, given all the many public figures whom have fallen from grace due to transgressions – sexual, money or otherwise – his apology appears to be one of the most authentic and heartfelt.
He did not express a dismissive “I’m sorry,” nor is he indicating this is all past him. Instead he paints a very realistic picture that he has just begun a journey of healing that requires intensive treatment and will take time. As with any healing process, he is starting with trying to make amends – in his own words – he has a lot “to atone for.”
Many disgraced public leaders make apologies after much pressure from the media and their constituents. For those skeptics who say he’s doing this because there is a lot of money riding on his comeback, I say, pay attention to HOW he made his apology – the tone and tenor – and you will see a sincerity that I have not witnessed with other fallen leaders.
© Copyright Sage Leadership Strategies, LLC www.sagelead.com
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
A Sage Leader’s New Year Begins With Using Velcro
It’s not yet a week from New Year’s and you are back at work. The first day back it is fun to catch up with everyone and hear about their holidays. You have a grace period to reorient back to reality.
The second day in, the slipslider invades. This is what I call what happens when you start to come off the high of your new year’s resolution. Day two it’s time to get serious. Whether it is an official resolution or just an intention, I invite you to focus on how you want this year to be different than last year. What do you want to create or get rid of?
If you really want to create a new and different experience this year then you need to velcro the energy and inspiration you had at new year’s to your brain so you don’t allow the potential for negative thoughts to invade and derail you. The sage leader understands that post-holiday and mid-winter blues can easily invade the best laid plans.
I am in Connecticut, USA, and we are under about a foot of snow…so it can be a cozy and hibernating or depressing – sun depletion time, depending upon what you allow in. I find the cold invigorating and the quiet of the snow inspirational. If you are experiencing the post-holiday letdown, make sure to invite in a blanket of comfort and something that will allow you to stick to your vision of the new you in the new year. You want it to be untouchable like teflon amidst changes – in your moods, in your team, in the economy.
Tenacity is the wisdom of success.
Copyright 2010 Sage Leadership Strategies, LLC www.sagelead.com
The second day in, the slipslider invades. This is what I call what happens when you start to come off the high of your new year’s resolution. Day two it’s time to get serious. Whether it is an official resolution or just an intention, I invite you to focus on how you want this year to be different than last year. What do you want to create or get rid of?
If you really want to create a new and different experience this year then you need to velcro the energy and inspiration you had at new year’s to your brain so you don’t allow the potential for negative thoughts to invade and derail you. The sage leader understands that post-holiday and mid-winter blues can easily invade the best laid plans.
I am in Connecticut, USA, and we are under about a foot of snow…so it can be a cozy and hibernating or depressing – sun depletion time, depending upon what you allow in. I find the cold invigorating and the quiet of the snow inspirational. If you are experiencing the post-holiday letdown, make sure to invite in a blanket of comfort and something that will allow you to stick to your vision of the new you in the new year. You want it to be untouchable like teflon amidst changes – in your moods, in your team, in the economy.
Tenacity is the wisdom of success.
Copyright 2010 Sage Leadership Strategies, LLC www.sagelead.com
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Planning for Next Year – Take Stock and Grow
Today is the time to work with nature’s energy of the new moon and plan for what you want more of in the new year. I am not talking about a resolution. Those don’t usually work past January 15th.
Take mental and emotional inventory of what you want more of next year. What served you, worked well. What didn’t you have this year that you want to have in your life? Focus on the possibilities - what you want to grow in your work and life. What you focus on expands and grows, and when you align it to the natural energies at play today, it makes it easier and more expansive.
Today is the day to plant the seeds on fertile ground. Befriend your imagination and plan for what if… What have you got to lose but the safety of what you currently know?
Copyright 2009 Sage Leadership Strategies, LLC www.sagelead.com
Take mental and emotional inventory of what you want more of next year. What served you, worked well. What didn’t you have this year that you want to have in your life? Focus on the possibilities - what you want to grow in your work and life. What you focus on expands and grows, and when you align it to the natural energies at play today, it makes it easier and more expansive.
Today is the day to plant the seeds on fertile ground. Befriend your imagination and plan for what if… What have you got to lose but the safety of what you currently know?
Copyright 2009 Sage Leadership Strategies, LLC www.sagelead.com
Monday, December 28, 2009
Planning for Next Year – Take Stock and Grow
Today is the time to work with nature’s energy of the new moon and plan for what you want more of in the new year. I am not talking about a resolution. Those don’t usually work past January 15th.
Take mental and emotional inventory of what you want more of next year. What served you, worked well. What didn’t you have this year that you want to have in your life? Focus on the possibilities - what you want to grow in your work and life. What you focus on expands and grows, and when you align it to the natural energies at play today, it makes it easier and more expansive.
Today is the day to plant the seeds on fertile ground. Befriend your imagination and plan for what if… What have you got to lose but the safety of what you currently know?
Copyright 2009 Sage Leadership Strategies, LLC www.sagelead.com
Take mental and emotional inventory of what you want more of next year. What served you, worked well. What didn’t you have this year that you want to have in your life? Focus on the possibilities - what you want to grow in your work and life. What you focus on expands and grows, and when you align it to the natural energies at play today, it makes it easier and more expansive.
Today is the day to plant the seeds on fertile ground. Befriend your imagination and plan for what if… What have you got to lose but the safety of what you currently know?
Copyright 2009 Sage Leadership Strategies, LLC www.sagelead.com
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