Link: http://gaian.com/view_newsletter.php?id=28

Change your Beliefs?

Are leaders born or developed? This has been a common question you will find in much of the research around leaders. You will find that the answer is "Yes", as it is quite certain that some people are born with certain natural tendencies towards leadership, and we also know that our process of natural and social development strongly impacts our abilities to lead. Like many others who work in the realm of leadership development, I am fascinated by the nurture side of that question. I have worked with hundreds (quite possibly that's in the thousands now) of leaders during my career, and my experience is that most of the truly effective leaders are developed. We are certainly born with certain traits and qualities that make aspects of leadership very easy, but the skills of using those and the wisdom of the situational aspects of leadership are most certainly learned.

Consequently, my current book project is looking at the most basic element of leadership, Inspirational Presence, and how we go about developing it. Obviously, it is very multi-faceted and changes as we go through life. Each of our life experiences not only contributes to our overall presence, but also influences what we learn from that point on. Each experience creates a new point in our perceptual filter, which then creates a different view of how we experience life. So, if we have good experiences that teach us that life is good and rewarding, we build beliefs around that and tend to find more of it in the future. By the same token, unpleasant or difficult experiences can teach us limiting beliefs, that then has us find more of those experiences in the future. The good news is, that we may have had some bad experiences in life, but we are not destiny bound to repeat them. We have the power to change our experience.

At the Gaian Group, our leadership practice has many techniques for uncovering these areas and for reframing old limiting beliefs. This enhances our ability to influence others. Of these, most of these become apparent in our language patterns. Some are very obvious, like when we hear a person say "I'm not a very good leader". The more subtle are in areas like "I find this work very challenging" or "I really have to drive these people". Each of these indicates either an underlying belief about self or other.

Working with our belief systems tends to create much more powerful and lasting results than simply focusing on behaviors. Granted, behaviors matter, and we find that our belief systems drive far more behaviors than we might typically identify over a course of coaching sessions. Getting to the core enabling or limiting beliefs creates positive shifts in all areas of life. In the examples above, there is a deeper and more problematic commonality. Each limits the speaker's ability to inspire him/her self and others. This is where it becomes a critical leadership issue. Our ability to lead is directly related to how much inspiration and passion we feel in the context where we are leading. If you feel rotten about what you are doing, what do you think your leadership style will be like? On the other hand, if you are genuinely enthused about what you are doing and where you are going, it will spread faster than you can imagine.

So, take a few minutes, take some notes, and change your life.

Cheers,

Link: http://gaian.com/view_newsletter.php?id=27

Planting the Seeds of Innovation
The seasons change as we move into spring. For me, the transition into spring means a change in the focus of goals and intentions. It is a time of renewal, new ideas, and new directions. May this season be full of creative energy for you. In the spirit of the season, this offering focuses on some things a leader can do to promote creativity and innovation in themselves and others.

One item that I propose you consider in this requires a story about myself and a thought leader who had a great impact on me. I was 19, in University, and having the intellectual time of my life. The course was an intro Philosophy course, and the professor (whom some you will know) was Dr. George Wall. He was a great thinker and a gently provocative spirit. At any rate, he was clear about his own philosophy of thought and encouraged others to get clear about theirs.

Dr. Wall taught one item that you wouldn’t find in the textbooks, and he called it "Wall’s Law". It stated simply this: "What’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander." What a great premise. In case that doesn’t translate well, it just means that whatever I think is good for others to do must be good for me as well. Quite obviously, George had a lasting impression on me with that one, as well as many others.

So, you might ask, what's the point of this with creativity and innovation? It is quite simple. Leaders are continually looking for ways to bring things about in their team, in their community, or in their organization. My point is to follow Wall’s Law. The first piece of promoting creativity and innovation in others is to find it in yourself. What works for others works for you, and vice versa. With that and the beginning rush of spring, here are some ways that you can foster the generative energy of creativity and innovation. Take a few minutes, take some notes, and change your life.

Cheers,
Jeff

Link: http://gaian.com/view_newsletter.php?id=26

Vision-seeing Beyond Sight

We enter March and the last few weeks of winter. Spring is beginning to make its appearance in Santa Barbara. I am continuously grateful for the beauty of this place that I am blessed to call home.

Last week, I stepped off a curb and nearly fell, as I had misjudged the height of the curb. That immediately seemed rather odd. As I became more curious, I realized that I was losing the vision in my right eye. The next day, it was worse. A few phone calls later I found myself preparing for an emergency surgery to repair a detached retina. Not exactly how I planned to spend Saturday night, but I considered it a great time to save my eyesight.

The surgery was long and successful. Recovery requires me to be face down for significant amounts of time. In fact, the first week I was down for most of the time. There are some great lessons in this experience which prompted my theme for this article on “Vision”. Most of all, I have found myself really compromised by my reduced perceptual ability. The other amazing thing is the ability we humans have to adapt and to take control of our senses. I have spent a lot of time “turning up” my hearing, which I have now found to be responding nicely to help fill in the gaps. At any time, we can take a moment to consciously turn up the volume on our ears, or to increase the sensitivity of our feelings, just to be able to more appropriately respond to any situation.

So, take a moment, tune in your senses, and change your life.

Cheers,
Jeff

Link: http://gaian.com/view_newsletter.php?id=25

Creating the Future

How many of us have wished we could predict the future? When I was a child, I was really fascinated with the aspect of traveling into the future and being able to know what the world would be like many years from now. Actually, I’m still fascinated by that.

There is one thing that I now know to be true. We can all predict our futures. In fact, most of us do it on a daily basis, some of us more than others. There is no real trick to this, just awareness, that whatever we think about all day, we get. If you want to know what the future will be, take a bit of time to write down what you thought about last week.

This means the things you think about when your mind is wandering, or when you are reviewing the day you just had, or the day you are about to have. What do you think about when you are getting ready to walk into a meeting, to greet a loved one, or to start the day?

These repetitive thoughts become the life we lead, the filter through which we view the world, and the energy that we attract into our lives. As a leader, this becomes even more important in groups. There is a concept of “shared mind” that involves the collective consciousness created by the stories and commonly held pictures of a group of people. Understanding this and engaging it is a crucial aspect of leadership.

So, predict the future? Absolutely. In fact, we are creating it every day, whether we realize it or not, or even whether we believe it or not.

Ready to learn more? Take a moment, take some notes, and change your life.

Cheers,
Jeff

Link: http://gaian.com/view_newsletter.php?id=23

Set High Performance Goals

Some years ago, I set a goal for myself to get a Ph.D. Now, that by itself is a pretty big goal, but I added on to it a few wrinkles. I was working full- time, and I was not in a place where I wanted to leave that position. Also, the only program that I found that fit my criteria was a mere 183 mile drive -one way.

Not one to let things like this discourage me, I set about brainstorming how I could make that kind of commute up to 3 times a week and meet my other responsibilities on a daily basis. So, I had this idea. I could fly. Not commercially, but myself, in a private plane. That idea added a lot of other complexities. For instance, I needed to have the proper ratings and experience to do this safely and reliably. I also needed a dependable plane I could fly. Above all, I needed to be able to pay for all of that. So, I wrote another set of sub-goals through which I obtained the proper ratings and licenses. I traded into a couple of airplanes that would get me back and forth. I carried an old bicycle to the University airport for ground transportation. Then, I started commuting by air and bicycle. I flight instructed to pay the extra cost. To top it off, I finished my Ph.D. a full year earlier than my goal, and faster than anyone had ever finished that program.

When I told people about my goals at the time, I got very consistent reactions. It was usually either a laugh or "you're crazy". My mindset was one that saw this as challenging and demanding, but not impossible. As it turned out, it was immensely rewarding and enabled me to accomplish goals I might not have reached otherwise. The surprise in the package was that it wound up being faster and easier. The things that were most required were commitment, planning, and consistency. To top it off, I still regularly commute by private plane. It was a goal that paid off over and over again.

My learning was this. High performance does not necessarily mean harder. It does not necessarily mean that it takes longer. It does mean that you expect high performance. As you know, a high performance automobile can get to your destination faster and you can have a whole lot more fun while driving it. Transformational leaders expect things to move faster, be more efficient, and tend to have more fun getting there.

So, as we talk about the Law of Attraction, we can add these ideas. If you look at a goal and expect it to be hard or take a long time or to barely get accomplished, you will get it. If you look at a goal and expect it to be accomplished the same way everything has always been done, you will get it. Instead, choose to look at the world and see amazing results. Choose to experience processes that work smoothly and easily. Choose to see time-lines that happen more quickly than you ever dreamed. Remember, the Law of Attraction is simply put, that what we think about, we get. Now, choose to think about living peak performance. The Law of Attraction is that -a law. You are using it where you know it or not - whether you believe it or not.

So, take a moment, take some notes, and change your life.

Cheers,
Jeff