Rise Leaders Radio: Recent Episodes
LeeAnn Mallory
Conversations with exemplary leaders investing their passion and talents across all domains of life and work. They work with an entrepreneurial spirit characterized by resourcefulness, energy and a commitment to leading financially successful, sustainable organizations that make a positive contribution to society.
This series began with a conversation with my client, Jennifer Bartkowski, and we’re concluding the same way.
Jennifer is the ‘very proud’ CEO of Girl Scouts of Northeast Texas. In Fall of 2022 we launched a multi-month, cohort- and practice-based leadership program: Reimagine Girl Scouts Leadership Academy. We’ve tracked the journey and interviewed subject matter experts in key content areas that we covered.
Today we talk about the final results of the program and a few lessons learned.
Here are a few highlights:
- The general structure of the program, including primary topic areas
- We share actual survey results in key areas as well as observations and impact they have seen on the team and organization as a whole.
- There were plenty of unplanned and unexpected positive results for the organization and individual participants during the program, and after.
- Jennifer provides her insights on how she’s seen her staff transform and what’s been happening on the inside since the program’s inception.
- We name some key structures we had in place that contributed to the smooth running of the program
- The importance of a mutually respectful relationship between client and consultant
- The impetus of the program was to develop the skills and attributes needed to accomplish the GSNETX mission and that seems to be happening!
- We’re launching another program with a few adjustments based on what we learned
If you’d like to get the details discussed in this episode, including what worked and what we learned, and to see key survey results, visit: https://bit.ly/45R34Uk
To discuss executive coaching, leadership development program design, and workshop facilitation, please visit: https://rise-leaders.com/contact-info/
To subscribe to Rise Words newsletter, visit: https://mailchi.mp/426e78bc9538/subscribe
Learn more about Rise Leaders at www.rise-leaders.com
Connect with LeeAnn Mallory on Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leeannmallory/
Follow Rise Leaders on our YouTube Channel: https://bit.ly/47Wk8do
Connect with Jennifer Bartkowsk on Linked Ini: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenniferbartkowski/
Girl Scouts of Northeast Texas: https://www.gsnetx.org/
Also mentioned in this episode:
Rhonda Williams, Phd: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rhondawilliams14/
Moira Variames: https://www.linkedin.com/in/moira-variames-14228877/
George Floyd: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Floyd
Deloitte: https://www2.deloitte.com/
CoSpera: https://cosperoconsulting.com/
Yield Giving:
We have constant demands on our attention, energy and time. If we don’t have strategies for staying focused on what is most important we will almost certainly lose the battle and succumb to distractions that leave us feeling depleted and frustrated.
My friend and colleague, Dr. Chris Johnson has literally written a book on how to stay present. And me? I created a worksheet with strategies to help you get and stay focused.
Here are a few highlights from our conversation:
- To guide your energy, attention and time ask, Who is the person I want to be? What is the impact I want to make?
- Pausing allows us to determine where our attention is, or is not
- Multi-tasking is not actually possible for our human brains
- We discuss a few simple (but not easy!) tactics and meta practices for navigating these demands
- Ask yourself, ‘Do I feel renewed? Do I feel regenerated?’ after time on Social Media
- We get distracted by what is easy rather than focus on what is important
- The importance of a ‘positive no’
- We stay reactive and busy as a way to avoid being alone with our thoughts
- Admit it: the list is too long and you won’t get it all done (Burkeman’s 4,000 weeks)
- There are common places where we leak energy: other’s expectations, over committing, worrying
I’ve created a worksheet to help you navigate the demands on your energy, attention and time. I use it with all of my clients and you can find it here https://bit.ly/3EiEKz5
To discuss executive coaching, leadership development program design, and workshop facilitation, please visit: https://rise-leaders.com/contact-info/
To subscribe to Rise Words newsletter, visit: https://mailchi.mp/426e78bc9538/subscribe
Learn more about Rise Leaders at www.rise-leaders.com
Connect with LeeAnn Mallory on Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leeannmallory/
Follow Rise Leaders on our YouTube Channel: https://bit.ly/47Wk8do
Resources mentioned in this podcast:
To connect with and learn more about Dr. Johnson’s work visit:
Order The Leadership Pause: Sharpen Your Attention, Deepen Your Presence, and Navigate the Future http://bit.ly/44xC4IL
Listen to The Leadership Pause: Sharpen Your Attention, Deepen Your Presence, and Navigate the Future: https://bit.ly/45N5LWZ
Note: These links will support local booksellers
Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals; Oliver Burkeman: https://bit.ly/3EjN4Pe
Atomic Habits: Tiny Changes, Remarkable Results; James Clear: https://bit.ly/3R3XQR4
The Social Dilemma move: https://www.thesocialdilemma.com/
No Time to Think by Kate Murphy, NYTimes:
I’ve worked with a lot of organizations in my time as a coach and leadership consultant and the issue of trust is almost always at or near the center of concern. You’re never done building and nurturing trust. As one of my guests today quotes, “trust is the only thing that affects everything” (Stephen M.R. Covey). We gave it a great deal of air time in the Reimagine Leadership program.
Jerry Magar and Lori Darley join me in today’s discussion and we talk about:
- Signs that trust may be missing in your organization
- There are defined behaviors that help build trust
- One way to think about trust is a combination of competence and character
- Trust-building can be tangible and pragmatic
- Breakdowns provide a great opportunity to create more trust
- What does it mean to have vulnerability-based trust?
There are many models of trust and we cover two during this conversation. Check the links below for three (yes three!) earlier episodes I’ve recorded on trust.
To subscribe to Rise Words newsletter, visit: https://mailchi.mp/426e78bc9538/subscribe
Learn more about Rise Leaders at www.rise-leaders.com
Connect with LeeAnn Mallory on Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leeannmallory/
Follow Rise Leaders on our YouTube Channel: https://bit.ly/47Wk8d
Links from this episode
Lori Darley: https://www.consciousleaders.us/about
Conscious Leaders Wisdom Circle: https://consciousleaders.us/wisdom-circle
Jerry Magar: https://jerrymagar.com/about-jerry-magar/
JerryMagar.com: https://jerrymagar.com/
Rise Leaders Radio episode with Treg Manning: https://tinyurl.com/k3mwp3zh
Rise Leaders Radio episodes on the Trust Formula: 17 - solo episode explaining Trust model: https://tinyurl.com/5f2w93xr
#36 with Charles Green, Author of The Trusted Advisor: https://tinyurl.com/mry4urjv
37 with Andrea Howe where we take a deeper dive into the Trust Equation https://tinyurl.com/mv94nakb
The Speed of Trust by Stephen M.R. Covey https://tinyurl.com/md3e5w7b
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni https://tinyurl.com/ydbb9y7u
Note: Rise Leaders supports local retailers. Books are listed on Whose Books site on Bookshop.org.
When I ask experts in the leadership field what the most important attribute for effective leadership today is, I get some version of adaptability or agility. In other words, what is most important is that we’re able to read a context and shift our approach to meet circumstances and challenges with new thinking and behaviors.
My guest today, Pam Boney, is so passionate about this that she created an assessment that displays our strengths and helps us know how and where we may need to shift to increase our effectiveness and feeling of fulfillment in life. The assessment is Tilt 365, and Pam is the company’s founder.
We used this assessment in the leadership program that this podcast series is centered around. The program began with each leader studying themselves because self-awareness is foundational for our ability to manage our emotions and thus take effective, sustainable action. It’s also vital to our ability to coordinate well with others. So we take the Tilt assessment at the beginning.
Because of the developmental nature of this assessment, each leader was able to define areas where they wanted to grow and then identify practices to help them get there.
Rather than using labels, Tilt 365 is clear about our ability to shift, or Tilt, to meet new situations and work best with others.
We take a walk around the Tilt model discussing:
- The four quadrants of the model: Spirit/Resilience and Head/Wisdom on the vertical axis and Heart/Humanity and Gut/Courage on the horizontal axis.
- Aristotle’s Golden Mean: all ‘virtues’ lie in the middle way between two extreme states: excess and deficiency. This has been popularized as ‘any strength overused becomes a weakness’.
- Oftentimes our fear causes us to move into the extreme states.
- The four profiles that each combine two of the quadrants:
- Impact/Change Catalyst combines the quadrants Spirit/Resilience and Gut/Courage
- Structure/MasterMind combines the quadrants Head/Wisdom and Gut/Courage
- Clarity/Quiet Genius combines the quadrants Head/Wisdom and Heart/Humanity
- Connection/Cross Pollinator combines the quadrants Spirit/Resilience and Heart/Humanity
- The model goes deeper and deeper into personas which give further nuance to why a Tilt style will be animated differently by different people
- Pam and her team have created offers for individuals and teams and ways to explore more fully how to better understand our strengths and how to develop towards agility.
I really encourage you to explore the Tilt 365 website and all the offers. If you’re interested in taking the assessment, please contact me!
You can find out more by connecting with the following:
To discuss executive coaching, leadership development program design, and workshop facilitation, please visit: https://rise-leaders.com/contact-info/
To subscribe to Rise Words newsletter, visit: https://mailchi.mp/426e78bc9538/subscribe
Learn more about Rise Leaders at www.rise-leaders.com
Connect with LeeAnn Mallory on Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leeannmallory/
Follow Rise Leaders on our YouTube Channel: https://bit.ly/47Wk8do
To connect with Pam and Tilt 365, visit:
As part of the Reimagine Leadership limited series, this is the first episode where we dig into content that we actually threaded throughout the program I developed for the Girl Scouts of Northeast Texas.
Jim Fallon is an Executive Coach for The Conscious Leadership Group and a Strategic Advisor for many organizations. He spent decades as an executive for many organizations across various industries, which I feel results in a very grounded pragmatism in his approach.
We talk about the book, The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership, and specifically about the organizing principle of the book: leading above and below the line.
Here are a few highlights from our rich conversation:
- Jim’s wake up call and why he transitioned from CEO to Executive Coach and Strategic Advisor.
- The important distinction between content and context.
- Another Big Idea of the book: To Me, By Me, Through Me, As Me.
- A great description of Locating Yourself (above or below the line).
- The power, and necessity of accepting ourselves when we find that we are ‘below the line’ (which happens regularly for most of us).
- Jim does a walkthrough of the 15 Commitments with lots of context.
- Try the novel and playful approach for teaching others how to get the results you DON’T want - another way that CLG has made this content easier to take in.
- Jim gets vulnerable and provides a personal example of taking Radical Responsibility, which is Commitment #1.
Jim does a beautiful job of embodying the generous, humanizing content from The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership. As you listen, you hear in the conversation my own ah-ha moments and how this conversation will impact the way I explain some of these concepts in the next program.
You can find out more by connecting with the following:
To discuss executive coaching, leadership development program design, and workshop facilitation, please visit: https://rise-leaders.com/contact-info/
To subscribe to Rise Words newsletter, visit: https://mailchi.mp/426e78bc9538/subscribe
Learn more about Rise Leaders at www.rise-leaders.com
Connect with LeeAnn Mallory on Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leeannmallory/
Follow Rise Leaders on our YouTube Channel: https://bit.ly/47Wk8do
Conscious Leaders Group https://conscious.is
Jim Fallon: https://conscious.is/team/jim-fallon
Book: The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership: https://tinyurl.com/15-Commitments
Locating Yourself handout: https://u.pcloud.link/publink/show?code=udhrtalK
Transformation Happens in Community.
We don’t reach our potential alone. Without conversation, without rubbing up against each others’ nervous systems. Without vulnerability, self-awareness, being mirrored by others and without engaging to support their development as well.
I knew this episode would be special and it was, because I was engaging with deep thinking, big hearted people who care a lot about creating structures and ecosystems where others feel safe enough to take risks and shuck off old, familiar ways of being in the service of leaving a big legacy.
Rick Voirin, Chairman and Human Performance Partner at Stagen and Raft Viton of Slalom Consulting are my training partners in this episode.
Here are a few highlights. This was a juicy conversation that I hope you enjoy!
- Development that sticks typically:
- Spans a period of time
- Keeps a cohort of leaders engaged and together over this period
- Is practice-based
- Requires commitment and accountability
- Reference to the Greek proverb: “A society grows great when old men plan trees in whose shade they shall never sit” and what this means practically.
- Training vs Development: Training is more about what’s needed right now and filling skills gaps ; development is expanding that skills cup for the future and usually focusing it on the collective.
- The power of doing integral leader development inside a system is that it expands the impact to all stakeholders: employees, clients, client’s clients in ways that we can’t even imagine
- Integral leadership development is growing human potential in multiple dimensions: career, relationships, spirituality, emotional, physical all those intelligences together. It’s a community-based way of being that puts us in a situation that invites us into believing that progress is possible for us.
- The primary commitment is to helping others reach the promise of their potential
Adaptability is a key (the key? ) attribute for all of us to thrive. Adaptability Intelligence.
- It takes courage to change - to let go of what we know.
- Change is easier when… we know where to focus our attention, when we have practices to follow, when we have a supportive environment, when we have a clear path and we’re with a community of people. (Thank you for the reframe, Raff!)
- People will be attracted to those who are committed to figuring it (challenges) out, to evolving.
- When engaging with development, what you think is going to happen is not going to happen. We put structures in place in hopes of channeling energy and people will apply the learning in unique ways and have unique (and beautiful!) experiences. Or not
This episode is full of passion - we each care deeply about the work we do with leaders and with organizations. We see the power of social learning and grappling together with the challenges of our times. We believe that we can follow a path of intentional practice to expand our individual and collective ability to adapt, reach our potential and create environments that work for everyone.
To discuss executive coaching, leadership development program design, and workshop facilitation, please visit: https://rise-leaders.com/contact-info/
To subscribe to Rise Words newsletter, visit: https://mailchi.mp/426e78bc9538/subscribe
Learn more about Rise Leaders at www.rise-leaders.com
Connect with LeeAnn Mallory on Linked In:
Jennifer Bartkowski, CEO of Girl Scouts of Northeast Texas, and Cris Lopez, Senior Vice President at Village MD join me today and we talk about the various and important perspectives to consider when providing development to current and future leaders in your organization.
Cris sits on the Board for the Girl Sounds of Northeast Texas and played a key role in advising Jennifer on selecting participants for the program.
I love this episode. Here are the important topics we discuss:
- Tying leader development to the mission and vision of the organization
- The important questions to ask individuals when doing succession and development planning. Is there a will to lead?
- The role the Board of Directors can and should play in shaping the future of any organization, whether it’s non-profit or a corporate board
- Developing people will change your culture!
- The importance of the executive team’s commitment to their own development
- Recognize the current reality of how your organization operates today and how that will enable and pose challenges to the new behaviors you wanting to see exhibited
- There will be surprises in how and where people apply their new learning - and where it doesn’t get applied!
- Leader development sits in the context of a larger commitment of the organization.
If you’re leading an organization, advising an organization, or consulting with an organization committed to evolving to meet the needs of all stakeholder, you find yourself listening to this episode over and over!
To discuss executive coaching, leadership development program design, and workshop facilitation, please visit: https://rise-leaders.com/contact-info/
To subscribe to Rise Words newsletter, visit: https://mailchi.mp/426e78bc9538/subscribe
Learn more about Rise Leaders at www.rise-leaders.com
Connect with LeeAnn Mallory on Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leeannmallory/
Follow Rise Leaders on our YouTube Channel: https://bit.ly/47Wk8do
Connect with Jennifer Bartkowsk on Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenniferbartkowski/
Connect with Cris Lopez on LinkedIn: Cris Lopez: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cristinaclopez/
Girl Scouts of Northeast Texas: https://www.gsnetx.org/
Village MD: https://www.villagemd.com/
Women of Distinction Luncheon: https://www.gsnetx.org/en/support-us/donate-locally/women-of-distinction.html
Opal Lee: https://www.opalswalk2dc.com/
In this first episode of Reimagine Leadership, I’m joined by Jennifer Bartkowski, the “very proud CEO of Girl Scouts of Northeast Texas”. This is the episode where we make strong links to organizational vision, mission and strategy and how leadership development is critical to an organization’s ability to thrive. It is the thread that connects strategy to execution to the fulfillment of the mission..
In addition to laying the groundwork for the seven-month program that was designed for the Girl Scouts of Northeast Texas (GSNETX), Jennifer describes the size, scope, and incredible assets of the organization. She does not shy away from the challenges the organization is facing and how she sees leader development as crucial to the organization’s success.
In the spirit of, ‘leaders go first’, Jennifer shares how she felt her own leadership skills first had to shift during COVID and the civil unrest we were all experiencing. She knew she could not change the organization on her own, which is why she wanted to make sure she gave everyone committed to the future of GSNETX the chance to be part of the unique program we were developing.
We hear Jennifer’s views on how the impact of Girl Scouts was declining; she acknowledges that their ways of serving the community had become misaligned with the actual needs of today’s girls and the challenges they face. We discuss the details of how the program was set up, how the module topics were selected to align with who and what the organization wanted to be. The program had to help build the capabilities and skills required to serve the community.
To discuss executive coaching, leadership development program design, and workshop facilitation, please visit: https://rise-leaders.com/contact-info/
To subscribe to Rise Words newsletter, visit: https://mailchi.mp/426e78bc9538/subscribe
Learn more about Rise Leaders at www.rise-leaders.com
Connect with LeeAnn Mallory on Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leeannmallory/
Follow Rise Leaders on our YouTube Channel: https://bit.ly/47Wk8do
Connect with Jennifer Bartkowsk on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenniferbartkowski/
Girl Scouts of Northeast Texas: https://www.gsnetx.org/
Also Mentioned in this episode:
George Floyd: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Floyd
Stagen Leadership Academy: https://stagen.com/
Deloitte: https://www2.deloitte.com/
CoSpera: https://cosperoconsulting.com/
Yield Giving: https://yieldgiving.com/
MacKenzie Scott: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacKenzie_Scott
Welcome to the first episode of Reimagine Leadership, a limited series podcast on Rise Leaders Radio. In this episode, I introduce you to the leadership program I was invited to create and deliver for the Girl Scouts of Northeast Texas.
This transformational program was focused on developing the leadership capabilities required to build an organizational culture internally that could meet the needs of today’s girls externally. The seven-month, practice and cohort-based program used an inclusive approach in growing these leaders professionally and personally.
I’ll give a high-level overview of the program, the strategies used, and what you can expect in the episodes throughout this series. For details on each episode, please listen and refer to the show notes.
To subscribe to Rise Words newsletter, visit: https://mailchi.mp/426e78bc9538/subscribe
Learn more about Rise Leaders at www.rise-leaders.com
Connect with LeeAnn Mallory on Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leeannmallory/
Follow Rise Leaders on our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKZAhRU1iLsXYwpvCECVreg
“I bet half of our anxiety is the energy of trying to remember which hat to put on in my relationship with [others]…And people end up becoming a less real version of themselves. …Why can't we be fully present to this process, and not have to put anything on the side - not try to take away the personal parts of who we are?”
Showing up fully human What if I told you it’s possible to bring your full self to the workplace? Jeff Shiefelbein thinks it's not possible, but necessary for forming humans and building great cultures.
Jeff and I discuss how draining it is to change our personalities depending on where we are and who we're with. The expectations to leave your heart and your personality at the door when you come to work are changing. Jeff also explains the magnetism of authenticity and how facing difficult topics can help form connections and trust.
He speaks with experience: The company he co-founded has won multiple Best Places to Work awards, as well as five consecutive appearances on the Inc 5,000 fastest growing companies in America. His tenets behind the “Undivided Life” have contributed to this success. You'll also hear how a run-in with the law in college inspired him to launch a nationwide nonprofit that has likely saved hundreds of lives.
At its core, successful businesses are comprised of engaged people working in concert.
Authenticity opens doors “As you step into these bold moments of living, the way we’re actually designed to be, show up…what comes after [is] the freedom, mentorship, accountability, cool opportunities that you could have never predicted in your life. It’s because people feel like they know you, they might start to connect to you because you’re speaking and leaving a message that they have buried in their heart.”
Create connections at a micro-level for macro-change “You start to develop this trusting relationship…And if you can keep building, your circle gets bigger and bigger, the ripples get further and further apart. You’re this pocket of people that you have a trusting and loving relationship with, and you're connecting…even if our big giant company or whatever organization has cultures within it that are toxic, let's just make the part that's right around us a place we like to come to. And that begets confidence; it begets this sense of ‘this is possible.’”
Caring about people leads to organization success “You don't run the business by metrics, you run your run it by getting highly engaged, fully formed adults, loving, trusting, and empowering them, and getting out of their way…therefore, I think the whole health of that person becomes an input to the company's long-term health and success.”
“An undivided life also respects the fact that we weren't made to be 24/7 working machines that are 24/7 available. There's a dignity and respect to that person - that if I recognize the personal side of who they are, I also respect their personal time.”
Resources mentioned in this episode: Undivided Life: https://www.undivided.life Connect with Jeff Schiefelbein on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/schiefelbein Energy By 5: https://www.energyby5.com Rise Leaders interview with Nathan Havey - Episode 60: https://rise-leaders.com/podcast/ Link between Heart Attacks and Monday Mornings study: https://www.menshealth.com/health/a19524979/heart-attack-timing/ To subscribe to the Rise Leaders newsletter for more resources: https://mailchi.mp/426e78bc9538/subscribe To discuss executive coaching, leadership development program design, and workshop facilitation, please visit: https://rise-leaders.com/contact-info/
“Business is the social institution that that makes the world go ‘round. At one point in time, it was government and monarchies, and another point in time, it was religion. Now, it's businesses. So if we want to change the world, we have to change business.” – Nathan Havey
3D Business: A force for positive change In the 1970s, Milton Friedman said that the only responsibility of business is to increase profits for its shareholders. Today, conscious capitalism expands the definition of success for businesses to be three-dimensional, to include the environment, a diverse workforce, and more, and to ultimately leave a positive impact on the world. Nathan Havey believes transforming business is one of the best ways to help all people thrive. To that end, he’s done an impressive job weaving together his passions for film and storytelling alongside his public policy and consultant background to bring us the documentary Beyond Zero. Together, we discuss: - Nathan's road to creating the documentary and how it illustrates Conscious Capitalism - How we can bring Conscious Capitalism into business conversations – and who can drive it - The 6 elements important for stakeholder / conscious capitalism - And more With the right mindsets and practices in place, business has the ability to become a restorative enterprise that creates good in the world.
Positive impact is best for business [5:35] “Business people need to understand the consequences their companies have on the environment and on humanity, and they need to try to make sure those are positive consequences. That’s the way we can actually work together to create a world that works for everyone…because it’s the best way for capitalism to operate.”
What's your BHAG? And does it go beyond your shareholders? [7:09] "...all of the macro life support systems on Earth are in decline. And they're in decline because of industrial activity. And as he read what Hawkins said, he realized that he, as the chief executive of a global industrial company, was part of the Vanguard that was driving the decline of the life support systems on Earth. And so it, it absolutely shocked him to his core.
Business success = helping people be the best version of themselves [47:52] “Rather than using people in your company for your gain – ‘I'm gonna pay you as little as possible, work you as hard as I can so I get maximum benefit from you’ – is there a way you can help make them the best version of themselves? Can you help them become who they want to be, to help them be who they need to be for their family? When you do that, counterintuitively, they perform far better, and you actually end up getting better performance.”
Progress, not perfection [24:32] “That stops a lot of companies from starting this journey – they see all these different places – there's environmentalism, and there's economic justice, and there's animal rights, and welfare, and where do we even begin? If we're going to start to do anything, are we going to immediately get slapped for everything that we're not doing?... ”We can't let the perfect be the enemy of the good, but the best way to do that is by holding up how much farther we still have to go so that it’s all in context.”
What can you do? The smallest gesture may have big payoffs [14:09] "But what there is for us, each of us, to do is to just do the things that we see to do. And you never know what the other extenuating circumstances are, that when your small gesture of giving a book recommendation might be the thing that changes a piece of the world." About the documentary Beyond Zero: https://beyondzerofilm.com/ Ray Anderson Spear in the Chest https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eUMdcgXxJo&t=11s Interface https://www.interface.com/US/en-US/homepage Paul Hawken https://paulhawken.com/
The 6-Part Stakeholder Score: https://stakeholderscore.com/ Listen to Nathan’s 10-episode podcast: 10 Things You Should Know About Stakeholder Capitalism Visit: https://www.100monthstochange.com/ https://www.consciouscapitalism.org Raj Sisodia http://rajsisodia.com/ Firms of Endearment http://firmsofendearment.com/ Emmanuel Faber, Former CEO, Danone https://time.com/6121684/emmanuel-faber-danone-interview/ Leith Sharp https://eesl.sph.harvard.edu/leith-sharp-program-director-biography LEED Certification https://www.usgbc.org/leed Erin Meezan https://www.linkedin.com/in/erinmeezan/ Jessica Schneider - Conscious Capitalism Consultant https://www.linkedin.com/in/inspiringpossibilities/ Milton Friedman https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton_Friedman
To subscribe to the Rise Leaders newsletter for more resources: https://mailchi.mp/426e78bc9538/subscribe To discuss executive coaching, leadership development program design, and workshop facilitation, please visit: https://rise-leaders.com/contact-info/
Do you ever feel overwhelmed and even stuck by situations that feel complex, uncertain and ambiguous?
I certainly do.
My guest today, Jay Cone, tells us that there's a surprising power in not knowing what to do. He believes that if we can boost our immunity to feeling the chaos, we can respond with creativity and compassion rather than paralysis and tribalism. Does expanding your repertoire and freeing your mind sound useful? Then join us as we talk about bias, quicksand questions, and four disciplines for getting unstuck.
----more---- “If we were able to have a more productive approach to uncertainty and ambiguity, we actually might find responses that make things better. But we want the easy answer. And it's our fascination with the easy answer, actually, that prolongs the chaos.” - Jay G. Cone
Overcoming thinking traps We often find ourselves stuck - both individually and collectively - as we're faced with chaos, uncertainty, and unpredictability. Easy answers can be very attractive, regardless of their long term viability. When we fall into these thinking traps, we may oversimplify the problem to create a simple solution. This need for closure creates hasty actions that can actually sink us further into the problem, like being stuck in quicksand.
Today, Jay outlines tips for avoiding thinking traps and nurturing an “unstuck” mind that’s open to new possibilities. Much of it begins with knowing the right questions to ask to open new ways forward. Being able to adaptively respond to uncertainty is helpful, because expertise and learning from the past doesn’t necessarily provide a fail-proof roadmap for the future.
The importance of building mental stamina [08:28] “[In chaos] the only responses that we have are based in the limbic system in the amygdala, and we want to fight or we want to flee. But if we can develop our stamina for thinking, when things are complicated or uncertain or ambiguous, then we're not as susceptible to the same ideas and…closed mindedness and tribalism, that tends to paralyze us.”
[19:09] “And when you start focusing on simplistic answers, then you tend to hang out with people who have gravitated towards those same simplistic responses. And it gets to the point where it's just too difficult to be open to new information, different perspectives, or to continue processing things.”
How to know you’re stuck [10:21] “One very common experience … you're really not clear on why it is that you can't achieve this goal. You make up all these reasons for why this attempt failed… So if a pattern emerges, there's a good chance that there's something more to be uncovered.”
[14:46] “If someone expressed a point of view…and all of a sudden [you] have horrible judgments…if that’s a feeling you’re having, and it’s one you’re not particularly proud of or that doesn’t make sense to you, that might be a leading indicator of stuckness as well.”
Identify quicksand questions [23:05] “One of the things that you can look at is the way people pose questions ... the way people frame a question about a situation they want to change reveals a lot about how they're thinking and feeling.”
[26:16] “All these things that we want other people to do, we just frame a question around them and we work toward altering the behavior - rather than trying to understand whether we as leaders, organizations, are complicit and whether there’s something other than their behavior that needs to change.”
Get in touch with Jay Cone: https://bit.ly/35ZVSZE
Useful links to "The Surprising Power of Not Knowing What to Do" https://unstuckminds.com/the-surprising-power-of-not-knowing-what-to-do/
Support local bookstores by ordering on bookshop.org https://bookshop.org/a/16835/9781735927404 (As a bookshop affiliate, I may benefit if you purchase from this site)
Resources: Blog: https://bit.ly/2NivMuo Free Assessment: https://bit.ly/2LWZRzg https://unstuckminds.com/
Blindspots (book) Hidden Biases of Good People: https://amzn.to/3642S7T
Rise Leaders newsletter for more resources: https://mailchi.mp/426e78bc9538/subscribe
To discuss executive coaching, leadership development program design, and workshop facilitation, please visit: https://rise-leaders.com/contact-info/
“If we focus on goals alone, without being tethered into this beingness, [it] can activate and trigger us, and we see those goals as our persecutor…‘Was the goal big enough? Did I do it fast enough?’ So the goal-setting can actually become a persecutor. And in our own mind, we feel victim to that.” – Donna Zajonc
Are your goals also your persecutor?
Working toward a goal or vision is important - but how often do we pay as much attention to the person that we're being while in that pursuit, as the pursuit itself?
It’s easy to get caught up in the goal without placing attention on who we are along the way. However, without tending to ourselves we can feel trapped by our own goals and wonder if we’re living up to the standards we’ve set. Distress and reactive behaviors follow.
Donna Zajonc covers this topic in her new book, Who Do You Want to Be on the Way to What You Want.
Alongside her partner, David Emerald, they’ve developed a framework for recognizing and responding more intentionally when life throws us a curve ball. We learn to move out of the toxicity of the Dreaded Drama Triangle (DDT), and how to reorient ourselves with the The Empowerment Dynamic (TED).
We’ll discuss her new book, along with 3 powerful practices for you to use to look inward, spur creativity and conquer stress.
Tangled up in your emotions? Notice and name
[00:28:21] “When we notice and name something, we are now able to see it and hold it in our hand and go, ‘Oh, look at that.’ We're not as enmeshed into it, so we're not subject to it. It’s really a powerful psychodynamic thing that's going on, that allows us to have it and not be it…when we can do that, our body starts calming down.”
Stuck? Tell 3 stories
[00:30:50] “When we're really stuck and attached to a particular point of view, we’re constricted in our bodies, our minds are constricted - and we are totally lost to the creativity of any other possibility. So we literally must broaden our perspective. That's really hard to do when we're stuck in one perspective. The practice of the possibility of telling three stories [helps you realize] there's even more going on here than I realized.”
Create space and see what space creates
[00:39:24] “[Leaders often feel they] need to be able to tell people more ideas about how to fix this or be that. And it's actually the opposite - to let go of needing to have the answers and to create a safe space for others to step into their genius, their creator, their sense of who do they want to be. … Let's take a timeout let's breathe, let's calm ourselves, and trust that our wisdom is going to rise if we can calm ourselves.”
Resources:
Donna Zajonc donna@theempowermentdynamic.com,
Who do You Want to Be on the Way to What You Want? https://bookshop.org/a/16835/9781733678100
Center for the Empowerment Dynamic: https://www.theempowermentdynamic.com/
Link to coach training in May 2022: https://www.theempowermentdynamic.com/coaching-2/
Episode 51 Focus 2022: From Surviving to Thriving with 3 Vital Questions (Replay from February 2020): https://rise-leaders.com/podcast/
Rise Leaders YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKZAhRU1iLsXYwpvCECVreg
To discuss executive coaching, leadership development program design, and workshop facilitation, please visit:
https://rise-leaders.com/contact-info/
“Imagine if we could all show up in more, if not all, places in life fully ourselves - that we could fully open ourselves to learning, making mistakes, taking feedback, taking risks, and be being fully seen for our humanity and our potential without the fear of embarrassment or retribution.”
Move from socially defined to self-authored Have you ever felt that internal tug-of-war where you yearn to bring your whole self to a situation - but you hold yourself back? Perhaps you self-impose guidelines for how you “should” speak and act in your organization?
Endeavoring to live with authenticity often causes internal conflict. We suffer when we constantly try to become what (we assume) others expect of us. As a result, we have less energy to innovate, improve and positively impact stakeholders. We end up with a decreased sense of well-being and satisfaction with work and life.
Ultimately, we want to live and lead in a way that exemplifies what’s most important to us.
To help you ground and elevate your authenticity, I share: -What it means to live and lead with authenticity and be “self-authored” -The cost incurred when we don’t fully show up as ourselves -5 practices to help create more authenticity
Image management hogs organizational resources [03:05] "In an ordinary organization, most people are doing a second job no one is paying them for ... spending time and energy covering up their weaknesses, managing other people's impressions of them, showing themselves to their best advantage, playing politics, hiding their inadequacies, hiding their uncertainties, hiding their limitations. We regard this as the single biggest loss of resources that organizations suffer every day.” – From An Everyone Culture: Becoming a Deliberately Developmental Organization by Harvard Professors Bog Kegan and Lisa Lahey
When we’re inauthentic, we suffer [04:55] “Jesus said, ‘If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.’” – From the Gospel of Thomas
The result of authenticity? Vitality
[16:13] “Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” - Howard Thurman, author, philosopher and theologian".
“An Everyone Culture: Becoming a Deliberately Developmental Organization” by Harvard Professors Bob Kegan and Lisa Lahey: https://bookshop.org/a/16835/9781625278623
Self-Authoring mind: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2017/01/27/what-having-a-self-authoring-mind-means/?sh=51a3a1953b77 The Gospel of Thomas:
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/story/thomas.html
Howard Thurman: https://www.bu.edu/thurman/about-us/who-is-howard-thurman/
StrengthsFinder; CliftonStrengths: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2017/01/27/what-having-a-self-authoring-mind-means/?sh=51a3a1953b77
Owning Your Value | Key Elements for Authenticity & Personal Power: www.rise-leaders.com/podcast Episode 21
A Guide for Owning Your Value: https://mailchi.mp/d37649fa5f04/own-your-value Article: Authentic Leadership: https://www.wgu.edu/blog/what-is-authentic-leadership2004.html#close Rise Leaders YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKZAhRU1iLsXYwpvCECVreg Insight Meditation App (search for body scans that work for you) https://insighttimer.com/ To discuss executive coaching, leadership development program design, and workshop facilitation, please visit: https://rise-leaders.com/contact-info/
“Can you discern between resistance and fear and strategic changes in direction? …not giving up and changing direction because something is hard or scary, yet being willing to change your mind even when something you really wanted to pursue is no longer a good investment of your precious resources?”
Reflect, refresh, and recalibrate The change in seasons reminds us that it's time to pause and reflect on what's behind and what's ahead of us. In organizational life we do quarterly reviews to assess progress and determine what we might need to stop, start and keep doing. Where do we need to step on the gas? Where should we apply brakes?
Spring (our current season in the Northern Hemisphere) is symbolic of new beginnings. Can you find this feeling of a fresh start and new growth in yourself?
Respond with Agility In a constantly changing world, it’s not a problem to adjust our approach or our vision – it’s a strategic response. We reflect on our commitments in order to respond with agility.
In this discussion, we’re going to:
- Pause in a deliberate way to connect with what’s important to us and our work in the world
- Locate ourselves in a broader context, beyond our goals
- Take the opportunity to apply discernment to our earlier planning: do our original commitments still make good strategic sense? Are we placing our efforts on the right priorities?
This is a worthwhile practice to do individually and with your team. You can do this activity anywhere, anytime you have a spare moment, mentally or with a journal. Answer these questions quarterly:
- Who is the person (or team) you are committed to becoming?
- What is the impact you want to make?
- How are you doing on your goals? What adjustments do you want to make?
- How are your systems, processes, and practices supporting your intended impact?
Links & resources:
Beginning Again 2022 https://mailchi.mp/68e183fd18bf/beginningagain2022
Podcast (source of Locate Yourself) Tami Simon & Lynne Twist on Sounds True: An Evolutionary Leap https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yV3BwmYkOCU
Article: How Regular Rhythms Unlock Powerful Growth https://www.monkhouseandcompany.com/blog/how-regular-rhythms-unlock-powerful-growth/
Origin of Easter: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-04-15/the-origins-of-easter-from-pagan-roots-to-chocolate-eggs/8440134
To discuss executive coaching, leadership development program design, and workshop facilitation, please visit: https://rise-leaders.com/contact-info/
“[In contrast to] the ‘either/or’, ‘right/wrong’ mindset where there's nothing in between - paradoxical thinking would say, ‘What if it's both? What if there’s value in understanding the first path, and value in equally understanding the other path, and even the third?’ … It’s about being able to hold that tension between paths.” – Renee Moorefield
Finding comfort in the contradiction When we experience a paradox, we feel pulled in separate directions, without a clear or simple solution.
Most of us find sitting with that paradox uncomfortable, which is why we tend to look for a quick and easy solution - something we can rally around as well as defend. Our brains to do not like open loops, which makes tolerating paradox uncomfortable and why we avoid the feeling of being stuck in the middle!
Renee Moorefield’s Be Well Lead Well Pulse assessment measures the wellbeing of leaders across 19 dimensions. Research conducted by external experts shows that when leaders have a strong sense of wellbeing, they're more able to thrive amidst paradoxical situations. They can more easily navigate opposing ideas, extract important elements from each, and propose integrated solutions.
So when we expand our minds beyond the binary, we can avoid oversimplification and transcend it to create new, richer and more sustainable paths.
Be Well Lead Well Pulse overview [04:12] “The Be Well Lead Well Pulse assessment is built on a framework of thriving, and the framework of thriving has 19 dimensions of wellbeing and stress resilience [that] feed into six dimensions…the framework was built to support leaders and all of us in having a sense of internal resourcefulness, and meet our complex demands.”
Wellbeing and paradoxical leadership [24:06] “[You have] the ability to transcend the situation, because you’re looking for other perspectives, so you're not stuck in the conflict. You're really looking at it like, ‘I wonder how this could be true,’ almost with a sense of play and experimentation and looking for value - and then looking for another perspective that transcends what you feel you're in.” [23:25] “We found that leaders reporting high levels of well-being were 38% (so close to 40%) more apt to report scoring high in their ability to lead paradoxes.”
Our brainstorm of practices [27:22] “A paradox is not a problem that can be solved easily…To understand, usually have to slow down and start asking questions and start seeking a new perspective that maybe you weren't taking on the situation.”
[43:29] “As a daily routine, [start] a very basic mindfulness practice…the heart of mindfulness is about being present in the moment without judging it as good or bad, right or wrong, either/or…that alone can create insight, and possibly some movement, just becoming aware without judgment.”
Previous episodes with Renee Moorefield: Episode 6: An Essential Link: Wellbeing and Leader Effectiveness https://rise-leaders.com/podcast?ppplayer=2166354b3000fc311ad1272907939efb&ppepisode=1bc82973e146e48e32750026acef538d Episode 24: Leadership, Ethnicity + Wellbeing | Renee Moorefield & Jane Cocking https://rise-leaders.com/podcast?ppplayer=2166354b3000fc311ad1272907939efb&ppepisode=56f067defda899999cbb06f0e8d904d6 Resources: Be Well Lead Well Pulse Insights: Effectively Leading Through Paradox: A Pivotal Role for Wellbeing https://www.bewellleadwell.com/effectively-leading-through-paradox/ Renee Moorefield https://www.linkedin.com/in/reneemoorefield/ Be Well Lead Well Pulse https://www.bewellleadwell.com/ Be Well Lead Well Pulse certification program in May 2022: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/be-well-lead-well-pulse-certification-a-remote-learning-experience-registration-258172730587 Thinking Hats - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Thinking_Hats EDS: Electronic Data Systems: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_Data_Systems Newsletter sign up: https://mailchi.mp/426e78bc9538/subscribe To discuss executive coaching, leadership development program design, and workshop facilitation, please visit: https://rise-leaders.com/contact-info/
“Respect yourself, respect others – respect the people you're working with. When you have those two ingredients, that will drive authentic communication among you and will be a part of your everyday working environment.” – Treg Manning
Wholehearted Leadership When Treg reached out to me for leadership coaching, he was facing what he referred to as a crisis of confidence. Trust had been breached on his team and as a result hard decisions had to be made and big shifts occurred. It was not pretty. He knew that it would take hard work to turn things around and he put himself 100% into it. Wholeheartedly.
Treg responded with one of the most amazing examples of leadership and vulnerability that I have witnessed.
He discusses how it felt that day he laid everything on the table. Open Kimono. He also shares his philosophy on leadership and how horsemanship boosts his leadership effectiveness and life balance.
Honest, open communication for everyone [22:56] “It can be painful to hear what [my team has] to say sometimes…but because of that, the loyalty that they have to the organization, and that we have towards each other, is probably the strongest of any environment organization I've ever been a part of.”
Horsemanship and Leadership [29:33] “You have to build a bond with that horse – and you have to expect that they're going to test you, and then you have to respond in the positive way so that they respect you as a leader, but not respond too harshly, cannot be too emotional. You have to be very professional and respectful in that relationship.” Treg explains you need to earn trust with a horse, and the process is a great model of reactive versus creative leadership.
Empathy leads to excellence [36:53] “There needs to be empathy and trust built … because you won't get the best out of somebody until those walls come down. And then, when you're able to bring those walls down, and there's a trusting environment, you're going to see people shine like you've never seen them shine before.”
Resources mentioned in this episode: To connect with Treg Manning, please visit: https://www.linkedin.com/in/treg-manning-51a9b4b/ To discuss executive coaching, leadership development program design, and workshop facilitation, please visit: https://rise-leaders.com/contact-info/ Sign up to Rise Leaders' newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/426e78bc9538/subscribe
“Is our life an illustration of the ideals that we hold dear? Are we a living example of our personal philosophies for how to live meaningfully?”
Letting your life speak As Maya Angelou famously said, "People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
As conscious and conscientious leaders, we not only strive for business results - we want to leave organizations, families and communities better than we found them. To gauge our impact, it’s helpful to look at it from the lens of our actions. What do they say about us?
The informal leaders in our lives are often unsung heroes, shaping families and communities for generations. They leave the world a better place by 'letting their life speak', as Parker Palmer famously wrote. They live in alignment with their often unspoken, yet embodied values.
This episode is about a very special woman in my life. Without ever explaining them, I knew Betty Mallory's values. She always made me feel special, welcomed, trusted and loved.
Reflections: Are you Walking Your Talk? 1. For you, what makes for a full and meaningful life? 2. What is most important to you (aka your values) 3. After several observations and interactions with you, could someone reflect back to you your values? Can you describe why or why not? 4. What does embodying your values look like? What actions and behaviors would I observe?
Links & Resources:
Episode #43: Pay Attention, Stay Curious | Hokusai Says - www.rise-leaders.com/podcast
Episode #33: Putting Your Values Into Action | Jerry Magar - www.rise-leaders.com/podcast
"Let Your Life Speak" by Parker Palmer: ( via my Bookshop affiliate link) https://bookshop.org/a/16835/9780787947354
Maya Angelou: https://www.mayaangelou.com/
Never miss an episode! https://mailchi.mp/426e78bc9538/subscribe
Subscribe to Rise Leaders on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKZAhRU1iLsXYwpvCECVreg
Reach out to LeeAnn: https://rise-leaders.com/contact-info/
“What if life was a place full of possibilities for us to get better at the things that we care about? Instead of a place where we need to prove that we’re great and perfect?” – Fran Cherny
If we expect ourselves to master new skills easily and in short time, we’re setting ourselves up for disappointment and very likely a resistance to future change efforts. To give ourselves the best chance for growth and development, it’s important that we align our efforts with our values.
Also important and often overlooked, we need to find joy in the journey.
Fran Cherny elaborates on this concept in a humble, passionate and compassionate way in his book, Be the Change: The Art of Becoming Our Own Innovation Project. Fran situates this book as "an invitation to learn how to learn: something to help us constantly seek the best version of ourselves".
What I enjoy about viewing myself as “an innovation project” is the idea of experimentation. I can approach any change in dynamic ways that make sense to me while caring for myself along the way. It's a welcome contrast to how-to hacks with 'five easy steps'.
A playful, iterative approach to progress [20:00] “Once we give feedback to each other…the person is not going to be perfect tomorrow. And the moment we treat them in a way that … they're experimenting, they're trying, they're evolving, they're they're progressing, interaction after interaction, we’re creating a world where it's easier for people to change and to evolve.” [21:10] “Let's share what we saw someone doing better than the previous time and then getting positive feedback from the session. That’s connected to growth mindset.”
Initiating change? Include gratitude [45:20] “Transformational change can come from a place of appreciation and gratitude for who we are right now, for what already happened to make us who we are.” [47:00] “I was not used to doing things from a place of gratitude … I was coming from a place of what needs to be fixed. And that created a lot of tension for me, for people around me and for the people I lead.”
Resources To purchase Fran's book and to learn more about his approach to leadership, please visit: Francherney.com Fran Cherny on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/francherny/ Fran Cherny twitter: https://twitter.com/francherny Fran Cherny on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pg/Fran-Cherny-106803110751503/about/?ref=page_internal Immunity to Change: https://www.gse.harvard.edu/hgse100/story/changing-better Axialent: https://axialent.com/ Be the Change Spotify Playlist (Libro): https://open.spotify.com/playlist/139T2Gc92soP1j21gTqBnH?si=vVAzKjrZQQSqX_cHC8iA3g Rise Leaders' newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/426e78bc9538/subscribe
“When we focus on outcomes and take creative steps to go after that, we solve problems in service to those. It’s not that the Outcome Orientation is all goodness and light and problem free, but that we can tackle the problems that stand in the way of we really want and really care about.” – David Emerald Womeldorff
A 2022 Mindset Goal: An Outcome Orientation As we dive into a new year, David Emerald Womeldorff’s discussion of problem mindset versus outcome mindset and the 3 Vital Questions is more relevant than ever. It’s why I’ve recapped this popular episode from 2020, especially as we prepare to tackle fresh challenges.
David discusses how all leadership begins with self-leadership, and how our mindset paves the way to a desired path. When we approach situations with a problem orientation, it drives anxious, reactive behavior and causes drama. In contrast, an outcome orientation keeps us focused on our passion: what we want to create and what’s supporting and aligning with our desired outcome.
As the author of The Power of TED and 3 Vital Questions: Transforming Workplace Drama, David makes complex topics easier to understand through his story-telling superpower.
Revisiting this conversation reminds me of the power of resilience in the face of organizational challenges and refreshes me as I plan my 2022.
Be the Victor, Not the Victim [24:36] “There are two major components to our stepping into and developing our capability as creators. One is to create outcomes. The second is that we as Creators own our capacity to choose our response to whatever is going on in our lives."
Create and Generate [33:32] “What actions are you taking? Are you merely reacting to the problems of the moment, or are you taking creative and generative action, including the solving of problems in service to outcomes?”
[35:03] “The three basic steps of dynamic tension are first and foremost, focus on the outcome and to be as clear as we can on the outcome, that the outcome can sometimes be clear and concrete – other times it may be more vague and directional.”
Resources mentioned in this episode: 3 Vital Questions website: https://bit.ly/2Nsz927 The Power of TED: The Empowerment Dynamic: https://bit.ly/3sM9eCE 3 Vital Questions:Transforming Workplace Drama David Emerald Donna Zajonc Stephen Karpman's Drama Triangle Bob Anderson's episode on Rise Leaders Radio The Leadership Circle Profile Robert Fritz: Structural Tension Rise Leaders' newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/426e78bc9538/subscribe
“’Do Something New’ is about having the courage to take a moment and celebrate it. And finding a way … to move beyond simply seeing and looking to deep observation, or deep listening. It’s about going further than I normally would.” – Bonnie Pitman
The power of observation: Transforming the ordinary into the extraordinary We get stuck and can't see new possibilities. We interact with the same people, face similar situations and respond predictably. If we want to avoid the insanity of doing things the same way and expecting different results we have to change our perspective.
Pausing, being more intentional, and deepening how we see people, places and things can transform the trajectory of our relationship with them.
Bonnie Pitman's chronic illness and unending days in medical facilities was the catalyst for a novel approach to living, which she calls “Do Something New.”
Her experience with physicians and medical staff revealed their often transactional and shallow understanding of her as a human being. She now teaches medical students The Power of Observation and uses art as the medium.
As the former Director of the Dallas Museum of Art, it was natural that she draw from her background in art and passion for education in developing these practices. It’s about “stopping the rush” and “celebrating the beauty of things” to experience joy every day.
I’m revisiting this conversation as we wrap up the year, and I hope you’ll harness the power of Do Something New as well as her Power of Observation Framework for your own recalibration and rejuvenation. Make these frameworks a habit and you will experience more wonder in your life.
The role of awe [39:47] “Awe may help stop us from ruminating on our problems and daily stressors. Instead, awe seems to pull us out of ourselves and make us feel immersed in our surroundings and the larger world, which may also help explain its tendency to inspire generosity and a sense of connection with others.”
Applying observation and awe to leadership [31:00] “Look without judgment, so that it's taking the critical eye and the analysis off of it and just let yourself play around with it and be with whatever the issue is, whatever it is that you're contemplating – whether it's a piece of art or a business issue.”
[31:30] “It's another equivalent to a brainstorming session…Let's just take a specific thing that we're focusing on as a problem and go through these steps. You can move the group from this generalizing the problem, down to coming up with new solutions.”
Do Something New Take a few minutes of an ordinary day and make it extraordinary through:
- Visiting new places
- Meeting new people
- Having new experiences
- Planing new experiences with old friends in new ways
- New big things & new little things
- Even new flavors of ice cream are ok!
- Go outside of work or medical experiences
- Starting with a new experience each day - don't carry forward from yesterday
Follow Bonnie Doing Something New on Instagram.
The Power of Observation Framework™ takes us from first look, to increasing focus, new connections and transformational insights. You may recognize these as ah-ha! moment!
Download the full Power of Observation Framework https://rise-leaders.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Power-of-Observation_BPitman.pdf
Follow Bonnie Pitman on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bonniepitman/
The Dallas Museum of Art: www.dma.org
Engage with me on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leeannmallory/
To discuss executive coaching, leadership development program design, and workshop facilitation, please visit:
https://rise-leaders.com/contact-info/
To sign up for the Rise Leaders Newsletter, please visit:
https://rise-leaders.us12.list-manage.https://mailchi.mp/426e78bc9538/subscribecom/subscribe?u=8608091973bb2eb017c70d83a&id=b47a2a29c6
“Don’t tell me what you value; show me your budget, and I’ll tell you what you value.” –Joe Biden
Put your values into action A lot of energy goes into defining an organization's Vision, Mission and Values. It's an exciting time and an inspiring exercise. Usually, steps are taken to put this Core Ideology into action but it often remains separate from the hard core center of the business. It doesn't have to be that way. MaryBeth Hyland dedicates the second half of her book, "Permission to be Human: The Conscious Leader's Guide to Creating a Values-Driven Culture" to this topic.
During our previous conversation (Episode 48), MaryBeth and I discussed wellbeing and mental health in the workplace. Today, we focus on integrating values into cultural norms and operations, top to bottom.
Put simply, MaryBeth shares how to “walk the talk.” She shows how to catapult your values into action throughout your organization – and explains the consequences of failing to do so. Operationalizing your values is the pivotal next step for seeing your values leap off the conference room posters to make a tangible impact.
Be clear about expectations concerning values when hiring [08:09] “You need to have your values as a part of your process for hiring. Because it is not fair, it is not kind to hire somebody without clear expectations of how they're going to be showing up every day.
Your values guide your actions [08:28] “Your vision is your ‘why’ and your mission is what your values are - your ‘how.’ If you have clearly stated values of how you're going to go about accomplishing your ‘what’ and your ‘why,’ but you don't hold anyone accountable to them, then you're basically telling people, they don't matter, and they're not real.”
Tracking alignment to your values [16:28] “You can look at a budget, let's say, for an organization overall, and start connecting line items to values. You could say, ‘Oh, wow, 70% of our budget is skewed towards 'excellence', whereas we really need to beef up our areas of 'people first'."
[16:51] “And that's the same for our schedules – being able to color-code your schedule based on the values you're activating. When you visually look at your time, you can see, 'how much am I really investing in these values that I'm here to embody? And how can I start to balance those out?'”
[15:20] “If you really want change, and depth and width in what you're trying to create with operationalizing your values, you need to invest in them financially as well.”
Connect with MaryBeth Hyland on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/marybethhyland
Get support as an organization or individual at https://sparkvisionnow.com
"Permission to Be Human: The Conscious Leader's Guide to Creating a Values-Driven Culture" https://www.amazon.com/Permission-Be-Human-Conscious-Values-Driven-ebook/dp/B0965XWV49
Rise Leaders Radio Episode 45: 7 Elements of a Winning Culture www.rise-leaders.com/podcast
To discuss executive coaching, leadership development program design, and workshop facilitation, please visit: https://rise-leaders.com/contact-info/
“This book is a love letter to any fellow humans who have felt like they were the underdogs for deeply caring about people and their wellbeing at work.” – MaryBeth Hyland, Permission to Be Human: A Conscious Leader’s Guide to Creating a Values-Driven Culture
Wellbeing at work Just as we go to a doctor if we break an arm, we should treat ourselves with the same level of respect when it comes to our mental, emotional, and spiritual wellbeing – even at work. While we might not think of spirituality at work, I put it in the domain of wisdom and purpose, vision or values – important guiding pillars for showing up as your best self. It all plays a role.
This is the groundwork for my conversation with MaryBeth Hyland. She’s the founder of SparkVision, a firm committed to creating environments where people thrive. Especially in the past year and a half, our mental health may have taken a hit – and it’s important to recognize it’s likely the same with those we interact with each day.
From our discussion, you’ll learn: - What’s included in the term “wellbeing”? - How do you approach someone if you notice they’re having difficulty with their mental health? - How do you address the fact you were hurt by someone who's in a tough place mentally?
Invest in your relationships at work [10:43] “So much of it has to do with your relationship … It's a short- and long-term relationship that involves a lot of investments in each other to feel like it's coming from a place of caring and wanting to help people in their wellbeing instead of maybe wanting to call them out, or stigmatize, or make them feel like something's even more wrong.” [15:48] “The more you're willing to share of yourself, the more willing other people are to share.”
Establishing boundaries [20:05] “There's a big misconception with boundaries that boundaries are about controlling other people. But boundaries are actually about creating an environment that’s good for you, that's going to take care of your wellbeing.”
Taking ownership for your part [24:30] “To truly be sorry, you have to be willing to sit with what the other person experienced and hold space for that just like they did for you, when you were on the other side of it.”
Connect with Mary Beth Hyland on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/marybethhyland/
Learn More about Spark Vision:
https://www.sparkvisionnow.com/
Work Life with Adam Grant https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/we-should-allow-sad-days-not-just-sick-days/id1346314086?i=1000530163973
Be Well Lead Well Pulse www.bewellleadwellpulse.com
WellBeing at Work, from Gallup:
https://www.gallup.com/workplace/336935/wellbeing-at-work.aspx
To discuss executive coaching, leadership development program design, and workshop facilitation, please visit:
https://rise-leaders.com/contact-info/
We will all grapple with trauma in some form. If you haven’t experienced it yet personally, then as a leader, mentor, friend, or loved one, you’ll be with someone who has.
Drawing from my own recent experience, I want to share what I’ve learned from an event that rattled my nervous system. We'll all get shaken by life, and whether it’s a heated argument, natural disaster, or a dog attack (like mine), it’s important to work through that experience so that unprocessed trauma doesn't get lodged in our system, only to make a surprise appearance when we least expect or want it. Not coping with trauma can have significant consequences.
I'm sharing my own response to a recent experience. I’m not a trauma therapist or coach. I took on a few practices to move past a jarring event and as of now, they seem to be working. I do give coaching clients contemplative, grounding and journalizing practices like the ones I describe in this episode. I hope it helps you like it has for me.
If you or someone you know have experience trauma, please reach out to a professional.
Here are a few of my insights:
Help often appears where you’re not looking During the attack, I thought I was powerless and alone. I looked in one direction for help but it came from another. We all have our blind spots, assumptions and ways of seeing reality. We often need others to help us past our limitations. I was not alone.
Trust in Others Who Care About You It takes time for the fight-or-flight chemicals to leave our bodies. Until then we may function 'just fine'. Yet our decision-making post trauma is compromised because our nervous system takes a while to settle. Having someone in your corner that sees reality more clearly and who is willing be straight with you is priceless. And you have to be open to listening.
Make time to recuperate and reflect Take the time you need to heal and process the event. It’s likely you won't be on your game, so go light on work or take a complete break in order to give yourself the space to recover. While I didn't take days completely off, I went easy enough on myself to get my energy back and clear my head. Bodywork therapies like NetworkSpinal and Polarity Therapy helped me immensely, and journaling has been incredible as well. Breathwork, mindfulness and movement were also part of my healing. I also spent the evenings with a good novel!
For further exploration: Network Spinal – search for a practitioner near you Polarity Therapy: https://polaritytherapy.org/ Calm breath exercise – extended exhale https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNXKjGFUlMs&t=5s Calm breath exercise – bubble/box breathing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxayUBd6T7M Third-person journaling https://goodmenproject.com/featured-content/dg/#:~:text=In%20the%20case%20of%20third,referring%20to%20ourselves%20by%20name. Telling Your Story May Be Good for Your Health https://h-i-v.net/spotlight/mental-health-month-2021
To discuss executive coaching, leadership development program design, and workshop facilitation, please visit: https://rise-leaders.com/contact-info/
“We want to inspire a change in the social currency to be not one of status or prestige, but one around what it is that we're doing for others…we think a lot can happen from making small everyday changes or actions.” – Cory Ames, CEO of Grow Ensemble
Using Business as a Force for Good
Inspiring and generous. When I think of my interactions with CEO of Grow Ensemble Cory Ames, he embodies these descriptors with passion and authenticity. He is an exemplar of his goal to make sustainable business and sustainable living the norm.
Prior to Growth Ensemble, at only 22, Cory was the CEO of a digital marketing agency. Next, he began consulting on all things digital marketing and SEO with the aim of using his skills for doing good. Now, as host of The Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation Podcast, he’s gleaned immeasurable wisdom from leaders in the social impact space. Such experience lends to his credibility and thoughtful dialogue.
Drawing from roughly 180 interviews with these important players and his career, Cory takes us through:
- The distinction between social entrepreneurship versus Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and examples of brands in both domains
- What’s different about launching a company focused on doing good, plus helpful advice for those entering the space
- How he views his role as a leader, his personal philosophy and the impact he wishes to make
And more to inspire you ...
Social Entrepreneurship vs. CSR
[08:08] “[Social entrepreneurs’] object and aim is to make some sort of meaningful impact, or some sort of meaningful change. So their business exists to ideally influence something environmental, or social…in contrast, Corporate Social Responsibility is an extension or the arm of a current business model.”
Collaborate, Rather Than Compete, for the Common Good [27:49] “If you're in the space of wanting to use your business as a force for good to leave the world a better place, if someone else has a business whose objective is the same way, you're tackling the same goal; you're on the same team. So collaboration is a much more important priority than competition is in this space of sustainable business.”
Leadership in a Sustainable Business
[31:50] “I don't have all the answers, and I want to remain very curious and open to asking questions. That’s an expectation I want to set with anyone I work with - I'm more than okay being wrong and corrected and provided with the right information…it’s for the betterment of what we're doing, and, ultimately my betterment of understanding the world that we live in.”
For further exploration: Guest links Cory Ames https://coryames.com/ Grow Ensemble https://growensemble.com/ Grow Ensemble Newsletter https://growensemble.com/newsletter/ Grow Ensemble Podcast https://growensemble.com/podcast/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amescory/ To join Grow Ensemble's community for social impact, visit: https://growensemble.com/membership
To discuss executive coaching, leadership development program design, and workshop facilitation, please visit: https://rise-leaders.com/contact-info/
“There’s 10.1 million positions open [in the post-COVID workforce], there is this great resignation, a great reconsideration: What am I doing? Do I feel attached to my company? Do I feel like I have purpose?” – Mike Sullivan, CEO of the LOOMIS Agency
The 7 Elements of Great Culture The pandemic changed the landscape of the working world as we know it. Team members’ priorities have shifted into focus, and in much of the workforce, there has been a mass exodus as they search for companies that align with their purpose or values.
One element that can provide stability and longevity against this backdrop of rapid change is culture. As the CEO of The LOOMIS Agency, Mike Sullivan knows this firshand. Culture is a hallmark of strength in an organization that team members overwhelmingly respond well to. The proof is in the pudding: LOOMIS retained all team members during and after the pandemic.
My previous discussion with Mike Sullivan established why a strong culture matters. Now we’re delving into what it looks like with his 7 elements of a great culture, pulled from his and Michael Tuggle’s book, The Voice of the Underdog: How Challenger Brands Achieve Success through Culture.
Culture Starts with Safety [05:23] “Until people feel like they are safe, and they can bring their full selves to their employment situation, they're not going to be as concerned about tapping into a purpose at work, for example, which is the second [element of culture] – what is it that I'm here to do?”
Don’t forget clients also attract (or detract from) security:
[17:53] “One of the things that I focus on is, again, the kind of clients that you bring into an organization. What I was trying to do when I built my culture was create stability, first and foremost. So if a situation is stable, if your work environment is stable, now you feel safer, now you feel more connected, now you feel like you belong.”
Connection is Founded on Communication [07:20] “Communication is leadership … if you’ll slow it down, and let folks know, ‘I don't have all the answers. Nobody seems to have all the answers. But give me your feedback, help me set our policy.’ And inviting them into that discussion, I think is really powerful.”
Creativity Changes the Game [15:56] “There is no problem that can't be solved with creativity. But all the other things need to be in place to be on top of your game from a creative standpoint. You really do need to feel like you belong, you have a sense of purpose like, ‘This is going in the right direction. I feel good about the people I work with – now I’m able to bring my full self.’ And that's when creativity catches fire.”
For further exploration: Mike Sullivan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikesullivanatloomis/ The LOOMIS Agency: https://theloomisagency.com The Voice of the Underdog: How Challenger Brands Create Distinction by thinking Culture First https://theloomisagency.com/challengerbook https://theloomisagency.com/blog/getting-company-culture-right-post-covid/ The Voice of the Underdog Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-voice-of-the-underdog/id1567247656 HOW THE PANDEMIC NOW ENDS: https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2021/08/delta-has-changed-pandemic-endgame/619726/
To discuss executive coaching, leadership development program design, and workshop facilitation, please visit: https://rise-leaders.com/contact-info/
“Ultimately, I decided I just wanted to create the kind of place that people want to work on Monday morning - they want to come, there’s no Sunday night dread. And again, it doesn't mean that it's perfect. But what it does mean is that we're focused on the right things.” - Mike Sullivan, CEO of The LOOMIS Agency
A Strong Culture is a Competitive Advantage Mike Sullivan speaks with experience and authority. As CEO of the LOOMIS agency, he and his team have made it their mission to help challenger brands win more market share. And he has observed that no matter how great the branding is, if the culture stinks, the company will struggle.
LOOMIS boasts half the turnover rate of other agencies. They themselves are a challenger brand that continues to crack the culture nut with multiple, year-over-year wins as a Best Place to Work. And as a result, they produce award-winning creative.
But what is a challenger brand, and why is culture so important? I sit down with Mike and we discuss challenging the status quo, how culture and brand are inextricably linked, and how he and his team keep culture alive at LOOMIS. We also discuss brands that have successfully nurtured culture by including it in their purpose, values, and leadership competencies.
What is a Challenger Brand?
“Really challenger brands are those that are certainly challenged from a resource standpoint, but they're also oriented towards disruption. They’re oriented towards shaking up the marketplace, changing the rules, in a way that favors them… People within an organization need to think of and understand themselves as challengers.“
Clients Impact Culture, Too
[11:30] “Culture is going to reflect in large part by the company that you keep. If you’ve got difficult, challenging, unreasonable clients, then that’s going to infect your culture. It’s what you tolerate.…
[12:30] "What I always look for is the way they [potential clients] treat [our] people and the way they treat their people - how they interact, how they engage.”
Company Culture - Build an Extended Family
[15:33] “The number-one word people use to describe rich, rewarding, and supportive cultures is family…they do become sort of an extension of your family… [15:14] “And I always think about that, you know, are these the kind of people that I want to put in relationship with our [team], because I think the world of our folks…who do you want to bring into your family, so to speak?”
For further exploration:
Mike Sullivan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikesullivanatloomis/ The LOOMIS Agency: https://theloomisagency.com The Voice of the Underdog: How Challenger Brands Create Distinction by thinking Culture First https://theloomisagency.com/challengerbook https://theloomisagency.com/getting-company-culture-right-post-covid
To discuss executive coaching, leadership development program design, and workshop facilitation, please visit: https://rise-leaders.com/contact-info/
He says look forward to getting old.
He says keep changing,
you just get more who you really are.
- Roger S. Keyes, Hokusai Says
Podcast art: The Great Wave off Kanagawa by Katsushika Hokusai
The Art is the First Iteration. We take it from there.
The poet reminds us that art is a product of inspiration and interpretation. The artist initiates us with their work and then it's up to us to add our own meaning.
Hokusai rolls first by offering his art - the most well known is his beautiful woodblock series, Thirty-six Views of Mt. Fuji. Roger S. Keyes, an art-historian and poet picks up the dice and rolls again by offering an interpretation of Hokusai's work. What it meant to him. I must say I like the meaning he made of the great Japanese artist's paintings.
How does Poetry Inspire Action? Listen as I read and notice what happens with you. Taking the poem in, I want to slow down. I want to pay more attention to my surroundings and to appreciate them. And to appreciate the individual and collective trajectory of our human and non-human lives.
I want to visit a museum and wonder about a piece of art or sculpture. What is the artist saying through their work?
Being impressed and then motivated to new action is a final phase of reading poetry. You can find the Guide to Reading Poetry, along with a copy of this poem. In Episode 18, I interview a colleague who reads David Whyte's Start Close In and we discuss ways to take in poetry.
What's the link between Poetry and Leadership? I have opinions about how reading poetry elevates our leadership and our lives. I think it deepens our experience. If we use the poem as a practice for taking on another person's perspective like Keyes did, we can increase our empathy and ability to deal with paradox, complexity and conflict.
We can read poetry to build the muscles of our imagination, which can lead to creativity and innovation - highly sought after elements of our work and lives.
A Guide for Reading Poetry: https://mailchi.mp/rise-leaders.com/a-guide-for-reading-poetry
Episode 18: Using Poetry to Expand Perspective https://rise-leaders.com/podcast?ppplayer=2166354b3000fc311ad1272907939efb&ppepisode=d0ab05a8823e580f4b6d08ccede05d34
Great Wave off Kanagawa, a painting from Hokusai: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Great_Wave_off_Kanagawa_restored.jpg
To discuss executive coaching, leadership development program design, and workshop facilitation, please visit: https://rise-leaders.com/contact-info/
“Look at sales in a very simple definition - that is delivering value for what someone needs. If you look at sales in that light, that’s a very noble profession. It starts with helping make sure that companies have the right people in their organization and Sales[people] who have the right knowledge, mindset, approach, cultural fit for the business, but also work with other areas of business.” - Chris Goade
Aligning Sales and company culture Sales is arguably the face of the business – and foundational to an organization's success. It’s intrinsically connected to each function of the business, interfaces directly with customers, and delivers the revenue and profits necessary for growth. This is why it’s critical to develop solid sales processes and talent.
Chris Goade is the co-founder of 360 Consulting and saw an untapped market to build, rebuild, and restructure sales organizations while developing its people. He discusses the importance of a sales culture and that it aligns with company culture. This happens by finding the right people, building the right processes, and nurturing cross-functional relationships.
When done well, this creates a win-win relationship for the business and the customer.
People, Mindset, Process [11:09] “Work to make sure you have the right people, the right mindset, a clear understanding from everyone in the organization of what you do in sales: How do we develop leads? How do we articulate our value proposition? How do we create winning relationships?...It's a process like accounting, production, operations.”
About CRMs
[17:26] “If you start off with, 'do we have the right tool configured correctly? Do we have the right processes in there? And always keep an eye on what the ultimate goal is - this changes the whole belief system around what a CRM can mean for your business.”
Change driven by Goals and supported with Accountability
[18:54] “Get participation from everyone on the team…And now it's not just someone saying, ‘Hey, you're gonna do this,’ or ‘This is policy’… that's a whole different kind of mindset and position to come from when you start to hold people accountable… “We don’t change for the sake of change, but change to get to the goals. … [When] they have some ownership in that in that change, then it's not so scary.”
For further exploration:
360 Consulting DFW : https://www.360consultingdfw.com/ Chris Goade Linked In https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-goade-535b2831/
To discuss executive coaching, leadership development program design, and workshop facilitation, please visit: https://rise-leaders.com/contact-info/
“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms - to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” - Viktor Frankl
Unlocking our freedom from within
When we think of independence, we often think of it as an external event, like Juneteenth or the Fourth of July. But freedom and independence, including personal freedom, is actually a process and practice that requires ongoing effort. Internal freedom is our ability and willingness to live into our own creative potential. It's a mindset and comes from within. To achieve internal freedom, spend time reflecting on your values, motivations and authentic desires. Double-check that the dreams you're chasing are yours and not someone else’s. We unlock greater personal power when we recognize self-limiting beliefs and behaviors that inhibit our internal freedom. The benefits are great: when we gain internal freedom, we live from a creative and empowered mindset.
What Internal Freedom looks like:
[07:46]“It looks like creating visions for our own life and then taking steps toward those visions. We’re honest and clear about what we want, not what someone else wants of us, or what we feel obligated to do.” “Using discretion and intention for where we place our focus and attention…Know where you want to spend your time and attention and create boundaries and practices so that you find that sweet spot.”
How we hold ourselves captive:
[12:35] “Complying, staying small, and not rocking the boat. Staying quiet in meetings and agreeing.” [14:47]“Not recognizing and valuing our own worth, expertise, contribution, impact - a feeling of not belonging.” For example, “’Everyone at my company has specific expertise…I run customer support so don’t have much to contribute.’” One way this belief impacts someone is in feeling unable to say no in an attempt to prove one’s worth. Burnout and resentment follow.
For further exploration:
Journal Prompts for Freedom pdf https://mailchi.mp/rise-leaders/journal-prompts-for-freedom
Rise Leaders Radio Episode #13 with David Emerald: Three Vital Questions for Transformative Results and #33 with Jerry Magar: Putting Your Values Into Action (www.rise-leaders.com/podcast)
CliftonStrengths assessment Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
Books by David Emerald: The Power of TED* The Empowerment Dynamic + Three Vital Questions:Transforming Workplace Drama
Mastering Leadership by Robert J. Anderson and William A. Adams (socialized/self-authoring, creative/reactive)
Reboot: Leadership and the Art of Growing Up by Jerry Colonna Cassandra Speaks: When Women are the Storytellers, the Human Story Changes by Elizabeth Lesser Owning Your Own Shadow by Robert A. Johnson Loving What Is by Byron Katie To discuss executive coaching, leadership development program design, and workshop facilitation, please visit: https://rise-leaders.com/contact-info/
“When we’re blending, we felt in lockstep, we were in flow. Perhaps we even felt like the conversation was a nice dance. We felt open, connected with, 'gotten'…When we are able to blend, we have stronger relationships that are based on deeper trust.”
'Blend' to build stronger relationships In a society that seems to value being right and accomplishing tasks quickly, a willingness to engage in the difficult work of connecting with what others care about is a game-changing mindset. Blending is one means of accomplishing this: an authentic willingness to be open to another person’s concerns, move with them, to hear and understand their perspective.
This week we’re looking at what blending is (and isn’t); how to sense it; and how to observe, reflect, and practice it.
What Blending Isn't: [3:42] “When we're having an experience of not blending or not being blended with, we may say that we feel pushed into something. We might feel stiff-armed or kept at a distance. We feel like we had the rug pulled out from underneath us.”
Observation Before Action [6:07] “The magic in all of this is in raising our self-awareness so that we can catch ourselves when we're blending well, and not so much.”
[8:38] “Observe yourself. Notice the situations where you blend well. And when you don't, I've given you clues already to look for: when you jump in to fix, advise or shut something down, or when you move into complying and pleasing.”
Center, Calibrate and Connect [10:57] “When you're actually in the blending conversation, connect to what you care about. Center yourself physically, release tension, calibrate your nervous system. Now connect with the other person and engage by asking questions and attempting to expand your own perspective.”
For further exploration:
Rise Leaders Radio Episodes focused on embodiment: #32 Speak Up Stand Up: Chris Johnson on Becoming Fierce; #25 The Leadership Pause with Chris Johnson (www.rise-leaders.com/podcast)
Pushing Hands - An embodied exercise: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pushing_hands
"Embodied Leadership: The Somatic Approach to Developing Your Leadership" – Pete Hamill https://bookshop.org/a/16835/9780749465643
"The Leadership Dojo: Build Your Foundation as an Exemplary Leader" – Richard Strozzi-Heckler https://bookshop.org/a/16835/9781583942017
To discuss executive coaching, leadership development program design, and workshop facilitation, please visit: https://rise-leaders.com/contact-info/
“Our embodiment is our extraordinary ability to put complex actions and interactions on autopilot. So that what comes next, or how to respond, becomes second nature... I'm talking about the body as a reflection of the person who lives within it.”
-Amanda Blake, Your Body is Your Brain
Embodiment, Learning and Leadership
Amanda Blake is the author of Your Body is Your Brain, a Ph.D. candidate in Leadership and Management, and an expert in experiential leadership learning and the art and science of embodiment.
Today we explore the positive impact that embodied self-awareness has on our resilience, our effectiveness in leading, and ultimately in living a more fulfilling life.
What is embodiment?
[06:55] “Embodiment is a felt sense way of knowing about ourselves about others and about the world…non-judgmental attention to what our interior state is to our sensations or movements…A way of being, a way of knowing, and a way of paying attention.”
A pathway to resilience
[18:39] “When we start to develop our embodied self-awareness, part of what happens is we get better at noticing the red flags, and stress.” [19:57] “It's like this secret superpower where you can go, ‘I'm just going to soften my shoulders a little bit here, I'm just going to relax my jaw or feel myself sitting in my seat.’ All of a sudden, that starts to change the constellation of stress hormones in my body.” Recognizing when you carry stress in your body is the first step to overcoming and bouncing back. This can help us return to the path we need.
Embodiment is personal and pragmatic
[24:10] “It's very unique and individual what we might need or want to do to counteract the tendencies we might have that can be totally unconscious.” [25:55] “Prime people to think about, okay, for this meeting, this conversation, this activity, how do you need to bring yourself to it? What way of being will best serve the outcome that you're aiming for? Then how do you embody that..whatever that may be?” Do you need to open your shoulders and lean forward to better engage? Do you need to soften anywhere to relax and appear approachable? It’s up to you to determine what’s best for the situation and what to do physically to bring your best self.
For more conversations on embodied leadership, try out Rise Leaders Radio episodes #25 & #32.
Free download mentioned in this episode: Stress to Serenity Guide: https://embright.org/centering-challenge/
To connect with Mandy: Website: https://embright.org/ About Mandy: https://embright.org/mandy/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanda-blake-892195/
Order the book through Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/a/16835/9780999368107
“When we connect to our own energy and life force, we're actually connecting to the big energy out there in the world…And this is the venue, the entry point into connecting with all the rest of life around us.” - Mark Mooney
Connect with your body, connect with the world According to Mark Mooney, the embodied or self-actuated self includes a deep connection to all the rest of life on the planet. Achieving this requires an understanding of somatics and ecosomatics.
Somatics is a body-centered approach to learning and transformation; we learn through our body to reach our potential. Ecosomatics integrates deep ecology, which acknowledges the inherent value and interconnection of all living things. Tapping into our senses and sensations lays groundwork for both.
This week Mark explains how our bodies and our “ historical shaping” inform our strategies for navigating the world. He also explains how connecting with nature enhances our wellbeing - and how to connect with nature even when it’s not easily accessible.
Be fully in the experience of life [15:36] “We might as well be in the experience of life as opposed to thinking of life. Joseph Campbell suggested that we're not looking for the secret of the meaning of life. He suggests that we're looking for the experience of life, which means experiencing all of our emotions fully. Being fully aware in the moment and to the things going on around me. [Then the] experience of life just gets better.”
Our shape suggests our mood [22:15] “That's an interesting part about shaping. You look at people’s shape, a ‘resigned shape’ is one of the things that people can see the most: kind of collapsed - looks like there's a weight around the neck…it’s part of the defense of ‘let's make myself smaller.’ I'll bring my energy and I'll condense my musculature. I'll actually bring my head down. Now I'm going to be smaller.”
Connect to your senses to become present and alive [50:21] “Cultivate your connection to your senses. Go for a walk (and nature is probably going to give you the easiest time to do this) and spend 10 minutes strictly in one sense…so I could walk slowly and just pay attention to what I hear. What's the furthest away thing I can hear? What's the closest thing? What's high pitch, what's low and bass? And just pay attention and listen to the quality of sound.” [54:28] “It opens a world getting connected to our senses on this level, it opens a world that we're just not usually paying any attention to.”
Resources mentioned in the episode: Mark Mooney: mooney23@comcast.net ecosomatic.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-mooney-6116a49/ Strozzi Institute: https://strozziinstitute.com/ Richard Strozzi-Heckler, PhD: https://strozziinstitute.com/about-2/#richard-strozzi-heckler Deep Ecology + George Sessions: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_ecology#:~:text=Deep%20ecology%20is%20an%20environmental,in%20accordance%20with%20such%20ideas. Arne Naess: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arne_N%C3%A6ss
To subscribe to the Rise Leaders newsletter for more resources: https://mailchi.mp/426e78bc9538/subscribe To discuss executive coaching, leadership development program design, and workshop facilitation, please visit: https://rise-leaders.com/contact-info/
"If we insist on being buttoned up, polished professionals, that gets us a certain distance in our business lives. But showing up as a human being and being willing to relate to our clients and our colleagues as human beings, not just as professionals, gets us 10 times further.” - Andrea Howe
Strong connections build trust Andrea Howe kicks conventional business to the curb and transforms how people work together. Augmenting our talk with Charlie Green in episode 36, Andrea helps us take a deep dive into the foundations of trust for us to accomplish this.
Building trust can feel risky. It requires shedding protective mechanisms to reveal vulnerability and, as a result, make human connections. In the workplace this often spurs fear. After all, it can be a tough balancing act to appear competent and set professional boundaries while also taking opportunities to let our guard down and reveal ourselves. Fear also inhibits true connection because it magnifies self-orientation. We can’t truly be there for others if we allow our own fear to take hold and guide our interactions.
As you’ll discover, these 3 elements are interwoven, but when they’re examined, you can see how an awareness of them helps a novel way of working and thriving unfold.
Face fear [14:37] “Human beings, professionals, struggle with fear…[sometimes] it’s a subtle, insidious force that has us suddenly doing or saying things that maybe aren't the optimal from a trust-building standpoint. But it's pervasive, and I think it's critical for us to attend to…we’ve got to shine some light on it, normalize it, practice ways to manage it and mitigate it, and therefore be able to show up not only more powerfully in a more grounded and centered way, but also more courageously.” [28:01] “So think about it, when we're in a fear-based place, even if it's subtle, the ability to really tune in to another human being is compromised.”
Intimacy builds a safe haven [31:16] “In looking at the data we've collected over more than a decade now, those with the highest intimacy scores tend to also have the highest trustworthiness scores… “If there isn't safety in a relationship…if you're my client, what's the likelihood that you're going to disclose to me or even be willing to explore with me the real issues? What really needs to be attended to? What you're really concerned about are what your fears are.”
Generosity: The antidote to fear [39:51] “Be willing to give stuff away. Give away ideas. Give things away. And that doesn't mean not valuing your services [or] charging appropriately for your services. But one of the best ways for people to have an experience of who you are is to get a little taste of it. So why not be willing to invest, give them a little demo…a way of getting to know you, who you are, and what you're capable of.”
Resources: Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrea-howe-she-her-22a105/ Trusted Advisor Associates: https://trustedadvisor.com/ The Get Real Project: https://thegetrealproject.com/ (Upcoming Webinar): https://trustedadvisor.com/webinars The Trusted Advisor Fieldbook: https://trustedadvisor.com/books/the-trusted-advisor-fieldbook
Episode 36: A Way of Being for Sustainable Sales Success: Focus on Trust, Courage, Intimacy: https://rise-leaders.com/podcast/?ppplayer=2166354b3000fc311ad1272907939efb&ppepisode=abad7dfecb82a6462b25f83e0101fc4d Trust Equation Guide: https://rise-leaders.com/trust-equation-guide-2/
To subscribe to the Rise Leaders newsletter for more resources: https://mailchi.mp/426e78bc9538/subscribe To discuss executive coaching, leadership development program design, and workshop facilitation, please visit: https://rise-leaders.com/contact-info/
“The goal of most sales books and training programs is to get more sales. The goal of trust-based selling is to help the customer…The paradox is that if you abandon attachment to the sale as the goal and instead do the sale as a fortunate byproduct, you'll actually do better.” - Charles H. Green
The trust equation How do we measure trust? In sales and marketing, the fundamentals of interpersonal trust haven’t changed despite the digitization of the past 20 years. The mediums may change, but ultimately, it’s about people connecting with other people. While that sounds simple, in practice it can be complicated. That’s why Founder of Trusted Advisor Associates Charlie Green has distilled the elements of trust into one equation.
Charlie delves into how building trust is a boon to interpersonal and even organizational success. In our conversation, he explains and gives examples of each element of trust, the trends he sees in his work with business leaders, and how showing up for relationships authentically better serves others in the end.
Myths of trust: [15:56] “ [that] trust takes a long time to build and a moment to destroy. Time is not the issue. Courage is the issue. It's the ability to react appropriately to the other person in the moment.”
Trust helps you serve better: [18:07] “The problem is never what the client said it was in the first meeting. And that's not the fault of the client, they're trying to do their best job of defining what the problem is and have all their own unconscious biases…but the magic that happens between seller and buyer, if it's done right, results in a higher-level, more complex, more accurate shared problem definition. And that's a very valuable part of the consultative relationship, coming to a shared definition of what really is the problem.
Position yourself to earn trust: [27:45] “We've all had conversations with people who are checked out, and you can feel, 'they're not paying attention to me', 'they don't care what my answer is to this'…and we don't trust those people. On the other hand, if somebody does us the grace, the dignity, the honor, the respect of actually paying attention, we’re drawn to those people. And we reciprocate and listen to what they have to say. It's a matter of respect, in a way.”
Resources mentioned in this Episode: https://trustedadvisor.com/ videos, articles, etc.
The Trusted Advisor 20th Anniversary Edition
https://trustedadvisor.com/books https://www.edelman.com/trust/2020-trust-barometer www.rise-leaders.com/podcast Episode 17: Building Trust at Work: The Trust Equation
https://rise-leaders.com/trust-equation-guide-2/ Trust Equation Guide
https://www.linkedin.com/in/charleshgreen/
To subscribe to the Rise Leaders newsletter for more resources: https://mailchi.mp/426e78bc9538/subscribe
To discuss executive coaching, leadership development program design, and workshop facilitation, please visit: https://rise-leaders.com/contact-info/
“Think of virtual distance as an unconscious sense of social and emotional detachment that starts to grow. As we use more and more computer-mediated communications, it shows up as changes in our behavior because we don't feel as close to people, but we may not realize that it's happening to us.” - Dr. Karen Lojeski
Perhaps you can relate to the scenario where we’re answering emails and get stuck in the “mind fog.” You might be distracted by other tasks that await you, or you’re wondering whether you’ve interpreted the sender’s email tone correctly.
Over time situations as these reveal that there’s so much lost in virtual interaction, a lack of focus and context that’s valuable in building trust.
This fog between people that results from our increasingly virtual world is what Dr. Karen Lojeski calls virtual distance. It’s the loss of context around interactions that we naturally get from being in the same physical environment, helping us understand what someone means and how they feel. Ultimately it distills human connection, which is critical to our wellbeing as a species. Karen’s computer science background led her to seek out quantifiable data around this phenomenon and how awareness of it can promote a human-first approach in the workplace.
The Impact of Virtual Distance is Measurable
“What we know through the math is high virtual distance is the statistical equivalent of not only low trust, but distrust… But when you manage virtual distance and bring it down, which we can predictably do with specific techniques and prescriptions, trust turns into good trust, and it also builds, and you can get very strong trust.”
“We measure 10 outcomes – things like job satisfaction, employee engagement, etc., and innovation and revenue increases or decreases. So we do measure very tangible outcomes. And when virtual distance is high, it usually has a negative relationship. So if it's high, then you get lower trust and distrust, lower job satisfaction, lower employee engagement.”
The Importance of Human Connection
“The bottom line is, the worst thing you can do to a human being is put them into an isolated situation. It's just, it's before food before water, we need each other. And then if we're with someone else, it's easier for us to find food by water, and to be okay and to feel okay.”
Business Success Requires an Open Heart
“We've just developed bad habits and forgot that it's not just the number on a balance sheet that counts, it really is the people… The first thing you have to address is the fact that it's really there, that people are really in need of leadership and some help on a human level. And the best way to control your future business trajectory is to open up your heart.”
Lean In: A Need for Connection
'We are all sharing this context. So that's one thing leaders need to understand is to lean into the crisis, and talk about it and discuss it and make room for that discussion in business so that people can share whatever it is they can over online means.'
'People right now are psychologically retreating from other people, because we have to stay safe and healthy. But that habit is going to take a while to break... leaders, we should be planning for it. We should be thinking through this and saying, we're actually going to have to help people come out of their shell, and feel more comfortable being exposed to other people, again, as long as it's scientifically safe and healthy to do that. But we may actually see new types of training, ... we're adapting to stay alive and to stay safe. But we're sort of maladaptive to human social contact.'
Resources in this episode: https://virtualdistance.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/drkarenlojeskivirtualdistance/ https://bookshop.org/a/16835/9781119608592 By purchasing through Bookshop you'll support local, independent bookstores. Rise Leaders is an affiliate and may benefit from your purchase.
To subscribe to the Rise Leaders newsletter for more resources: https://mailchi.mp/426e78bc9538/subscribe To discuss executive coaching, leadership development program design, and workshop facilitation, please visit: https://rise-leaders.com/contact-info/
“We have virtual real estate that makes you look and feel and act and behave as if you were in a real office. So it's not virtual reality, it's reality…the way my brain reacts and creates by changing the environment I’m in…my persona changes [while being] connected to colleagues around the world.” - Toni Portmann
Using Technology to Reduce Isolation and Build Trust The corporate landscape in a global and post-COVID-19 world has presented many questions. One of the most important has been: How can we replicate company culture when almost no one is co-located? Though being able to work from home during a pandemic has helped boost productivity and open the talent pool beyond traditionally tight geographical lines, the issues of building culture has seen a less obvious solution.
Toni Portmann addresses this in the ingenuity that is Walkabout Workplace, a virtual reality platform encouraging positive work cultures based on human connections and place-making. It transports mind and body into the workplace through virtual real estate, simulating real-life – running into people in the hallway and having off-the-cuff banter, joining different rooms to chime in to conversations, and connecting to people in ways other than the constant Zoom meeting that reigns today.
In a world that’s moving away from commutes and increasingly going green, Toni explains how Walkabout Workplace addresses known challenges and offers additional benefits to the workplace and even to our communities.
[18:16] “we’re not feeling connected to the world of work, or the world of community or the world of colleagues. In Walkabout, you can literally walk down the hall and drop in and have that five-minute conversation, get a question answered, say hi, have a cup of coffee, and literally feel like you're building a team.”
[18:40] "It brings us to a place ... I can log on in the morning and I and I see my colleagues... And, and who's like having stand ups...There are these times when people have either brainstorming meetings, or they're having stand ups. And that's one of the things that we're missing out on right now... unless you're invited to that conversation via a calendar, you don't even know what's going on. But from what I can tell... what I what I think will happen with Walkabout is that I can see where people are gathered. And I can just ask to join and that's part of the spontaneity of it... or someone that's in a brainstorming meeting might say, I think LeeAnn has the answer to this, let's see if we can pull her in here real quick. And they can just pull me in and release me instead of having to invite me to a meeting for 30 minutes to two hours or however that that's going to be. So for me, those are some of my favorite attributes is that it really does give a way for that spontaneity to happen."
[19:15] “It's also wicked secure. …we’ve got to be really careful of privacy of protection. We do unbelievable encryption inside the video. We also emit unbelievable encryption inside the chat channels, so that when we're having this conversation, we're encrypting within the video channel itself.”
[30:08] “Talent acquisition will change dramatically with this new accessibility…I'm no longer relegated to what my zip code is, what school I went to, or what transit I can get on. So now I can be a candidate for hire, or I can be a productive contributing employee.”
Connect to Toni Portmann: https://www.linkedin.com/in/toni-portmann-53b454/
Walkabout Workplace https://walkaboutworkplace.com/
The Power of Virtual Distance: https://bookshop.org/a/16835/9781119608592
Hooked on Code: https://hookedoncode.com/about
To subscribe to the Rise Leaders newsletter for more resources: https://mailchi.mp/426e78bc9538/subscribe
To discuss executive coaching, leadership development program design, and workshop facilitation, please visit: https://rise-leaders.com/contact-info/
“What values can do both for individuals and organizations is provide a sense of stability, a sense of continuity, and to provide something to cling to that is timeless and changeless in a world where everything seems to be changing.” - Jerry Magar
It’s the beginning of a new year, and you’re likely setting goals and taking inventory in many areas of your life. As you navigate a new year full of new potentially challenging decisions, your values can act as your compass, providing a north star.
There are many benefits to animating your values in daily life. Keeping them top of mind helps align your actions with your values. This sense of living authentically results in an inner peace - and walking your talk will resonate with others. In other words, your consistency and authenticity breeds trust with others.
Jerry shares exercises that help others identify their values as well as how to live them through actions each day.
To Your Own Values Be True [13:03] “About the typical approach that’s used … what happens sometimes with circling [from a list of values] is that we end up circling things that look alluring or look like we should circle them. And then we end up lugging this value around, ultimately judging ourselves for not living up to it or not activating in a way that we thought was appropriate.”
Rather than choosing values from a list, reveal them from your own lived experiences.
Look Through the Lens of Your Values [24:53] “I still use this practice. On a weekly basis, I sit down, and I look at the week ahead. And I think about, not just the intellectual organization of what's going on, but I look at it through the lens of my values. And I asked the question, how, how are you going to activate these values next week?”
Pledge to find opportunities to incorporate your values in your life and work. Let them guide you day-to-day.
Use Your Values as Fuel [39:52] “It goes back to that idea of a value only matters if it is turned into action at T minus zero, the moment of impact, right? That if that doesn't turn into behavior, or turn into a decision or turn into action, it's meaningless…I see people speak to their faith. I am in no way suggesting that that shouldn't be a value. The problem is when we leave it at faith. Well, what does that really mean? And what does that look like when you're applying that value?”
Values have the potential to shape our actions and create meaningful impact.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
https://www.billgeorge.org/true-north/
https://www.amazon.com/Discover-Your-True-North-Fieldbook/dp/111910355X
Connect with Jerry Magar:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jerrymagar/
https://jerrymagar.com/
Can your voice be heard? Is your value being recognized?
Dr. Chris Johnson has joined me again in this episode to discuss a foundational leadership capability: the ability to speak up about the value we personally bring to our work. Our conviction is contagious and compelling, inspiring others to trust and believe in us as well.
“You need to be able to take a stand. Extend your voice. Be pointedly focused on what you offer and the vision that you have, in order to impact the people that you say you want to impact.” - Dr. Chris Johnson
Confidence and the mind-body connection Dr. Chris Johnson has joined me again in this episode to discuss a foundational leadership capability: the ability to speak up about the value we personally bring to our work. Our conviction is contagious and compelling, inspiring others to trust and believe in us as well.
Earlier, in episode #21, I reviewed the importance of recognizing and owning the value we bring to our work. This value will remain hidden if we're not able to confidently give voice to it. And the way we carry ourselves is inextricably linked to it all. Chris draws from her years of embodied leadership and martial arts practice to create a commanding presence while also staying calm and centered. She shares her insights on how to expand your presence and self-awareness to ultimately project your inner strength and achieve your goals.
The tangible impact: missed opportunities [1:30] “The challenge about speaking up shows up in multiple ways…The most common are not sharing good ideas or opinions during meetings, not being able to promote themselves and their team. In avoiding conflict, staying silent or small leads to being undervalued and overlooked, and ultimately, to a lack of fulfillment, and possibly frustration.”
[32:44] “I'd get pulled in to take on leadership roles, and yet never fully owned them. And that was because I didn't know if I knew enough, I didn't want to hurt anybody's feelings. I didn't want anybody else to feel bad if I happen to do something really well. And all of that was a story that I told myself, and then it took residence in my body. I was very narrow, and small, my energy was very constrained.”
Centering in our body, our vision, and in action [23:00] ] “We can either close in and hunker down…Or we can choose to learn a very simple skill and practice of centering. And by that, we mean centering in the body, relaxed…and then centering in something bigger than us, even if we don't know what that is. And lastly, centering in an action that we can then take. And once we can learn that simple practice (because you have to practice it). Pretty soon that practice starts to reshape us…
“What matters is that we’re intentional. It’s based on what we care about, and that we’re consistently in deliberate practice.”
[29:00] “I like to say it's tolerating the discomfort at the edges because it's at the edges that literally, our neurobiology gets rewired. Hang out there in the discomfort for at least a little bit longer. Every time we do it, we're growing new pathways that allow us to expand our capacity.”
Speaking about our accomplishments or sharing our thoughts in a meeting may bring physical sensations. We have to practice tolerating this discomfort though it feels unnatural. With time we grow accustomed to it.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
The Power of Pause in the Mindful Leader magazine:
https://bit.ly/3ixw9wV
Episode 21: Owning Your Value | Key Elements for Authenticity and Personal Power:
https://bit.ly/3sGO0pT
A Guide to Owning Your Value:
https://bit.ly/3sJajLn
To connect to Dr. Chris Johnson please follow:
https://bit.ly/3sN2lkj
https://bit.ly/3qL3s2r
Dr. Chris on Resilience: https://bit.ly/3sOiiXs
To discuss executive coaching, leadership development program design, and workshop facilitation, please visit:
https://rise-leaders.com/contact-info/
Are you completing a task or working towards a bigger vision? If you have a Cathedral Story, your work, your goals – your life will have more meaning.
As the co-founder of Intrizen, Jonathan Haberkorn specializes in making sense of complex processes and organizing them in a way that emphasizes human interactions first. By prioritizing the people who will be using the system and through promoting connections, Jonathan’s purpose fuels his craft.
“If we're going to spend the majority of our time doing work, there's got to be a good reason and meaning behind it. That’s where the shift is. When you do land on where you feel like you're in line with your purpose, it is easier to see the impacts, and you become a servant of that.” - Jonathan Haberkorn
Start with purpose Charging you work with purpose endows you with a greater sense of congruence between your professional and personal lives. Work then goes beyond the transactional aspects; supporting a life of intention and of fulfilling the promise of your potential.
As the cofounder of Intrizen, Jonathan Haberkorn specializes in making sense of complex HR processes and organizing them in a way that emphasizes human interaction first. By prioritizing the people using the system and the process of promoting connections, he relies on purpose to fuel his craft.
The Cornerstone of The Cathedral Story is our Orientation [13:41] “The bricklayer said, ‘I’m a bricklayer, I’m working hard to make money so I can feed my family.’ The second bricklayer said, ‘I’m a builder, I’m building a wall.’ And then the third guy says, ‘I’m a cathedral builder, I’m building a cathedral where people will worship.’ … Basically, they’re doing the same job, but the context and the orientation that they’re doing it with changes everything. “When we see how the work that we’re doing is going to be used, what’s the long term and even the multiplier impact it can have, it really changes. It changes the quality of our work.”
We can approach our work as a series of tasks or as a meaningful part of a greater vision with many ripples.
Purpose keeps us centered and whole [24:35] “So knowing that things don't always go to plan more times than not, and there're deviations that happen, what's our response to that? How are we going to react to it? We have the different ways we can react to it, we can be conscious about the way we're thinking and kind of deal with it and handle it and give perspective around it.”
[28:45] “I used to think, okay, this is work, and then there's home life…there's definitely different aspects of life. But once I've really found my purpose, and have completely aligned to that, it all seems like one life to me. It's all intertwining with each other.” Purpose gives a perspective that transcends the silos of life.
Links to Intrizen and Jonathan Haberkorn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanhaberkorn/ www.intrizen.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/weareintrizen Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WeAreIntrizen/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/weareintrizen/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/WeAreIntrizen
To subscribe to the Rise Leaders newsletter for more resources: https://mailchi.mp/426e78bc9538/subscribe
To discuss executive coaching, leadership development program design, and workshop facilitation, please visit: https://rise-leaders.com/contact-info/
I specialize in helping leaders and organizations thrive. Reach out if there’s a way I can support you.
Shop local is a mantra we’re hearing – and hopefully practicing – more often these days. Did you know we can also invest local? Michael H. Shuman is an expert in local economies. He’s a lawyer, economist, entrepreneur, author and activist when it comes to local. We cover the positive social and economic impact of local investment and talk about challenges and new solutions local business owners face. Hint: those that innovate – teaming up with like-minded small businesses in their vicinity, crowdsourcing, engaging their customers – are more likely to thrive.
Finally, the ability to invest in local businesses through self-directed IRAs and solo 401(K)s is becoming easier and provides a bridge between investors and local business owners.
“Local businesses spend more of their money locally, and with those local relationships, what happens is that money stays in the economy. And you get the multiplier effect, which generates more income, wealth and jobs.”
– Michael H. Shuman, Director,
Neighborhood Associates Corporation
The symbiosis between local business and their neighborhood [10:06] “Regression analysis of communities across the United States [shows] that in those communities with the highest density of locally owned business, there’s the highest per capita job growth rate. And another study from the Federal Reserve in 2013 shows that when you look at counties across the United States and those counties with the highest density of locally owned business, there's the highest per capita income growth rate.”
[11:03] “They are part of [communities] through volunteering, working through schools, supporting schools, etc. And it shows that in communities with a high density of locally owned business, there are higher rates of volunteership higher rates of voting, higher rates of engagement, and charities, higher rates of social stability.”
Strength in numbers [12:46] “My biggest piece of advice to a local business proprietor is, stop acting alone, you don't have the bandwidth to do everything you need to do to succeed. What you do need to do is bring in partners…partners in your ownership. I would bring in some of your customers as co-owners of your business, and also as helpers in the decision-making of your business.”
[28:16] “It's pretty hard for one local business, especially a small one to take this initiative on his or her own. But if you have a collection of 20, or 50, or 100, businesses working together, these are problems that can be solved. The COVID-19 pandemic has been an invitation to local businesses who've been struggling to think about how to pursue their business model a little bit differently, a little bit more collaboratively.”
Female and minority-owned businesses are setting new standards [16:18] "What we've seen with investment crowdfunding is that half million Americans put about $370 million into 1500 businesses. The most disproportionately successful businesses have been those run by women and people of color, those are the ones who have welcomed in grassroots ownership, grassroots partners. And also it represents the people who were locked out of the conventional capital markets. All of these outgroups are innovating in a different and exciting way."
Michael H. Shuman's website and more resources:
https://michaelhshuman.com/
https://twitter.com/smallmart
https://www.facebook.com/MichaelHShuman
By purchasing through Bookshop you'll support local, independent bookstores. Rise Leaders is an affiliate and may benefit from your purchase.
Put Your Money Where Your Life Is:
https://bit.ly/3oevBNL
The Local Economy Solution:
https://bit.ly/3o65c4u
Local Investing Groups & LIONs:
https://bit.ly/397Js45
Interview with Turn's founder Lauren Clarke:
https://bit.ly/3o0sx7C
Rise Leaders' newsletter:
https://mailchi.mp/426e78bc9538/subscribe
Our attention is in demand. It’s up to us to know how to keep it focused on what matters most so that we spend more time enjoying what’s in front of us: other humans, nature, pets, art, etc. Managing our attention also provides a pathway for bringing our unique gifts to the world. Join me and Seth Braun as we explore the grander implications of Attention Management and a few strategies for living and working with intention.
“This isn't just about squeezing more productivity out of the machine…we get discouraged, disheartened, and we give up on the things that are important to us. So one of the most important things that I see in this is to come back to what's important to me.”
– Seth Braun Stagen Leadership Academy
Mindful Life, Better Living Today we have more distractions than perhaps at any time in history, with our attention bought and sold as a commodity; our electronic devices tempting us with the promise of instant gratification. With so much vying for our attention, the question becomes: How can we navigate life in a way that’s meaningful, purposeful, and creative?
Attention management is a set of practices and habits that helps us increase the time we’re present, minimize distractions, and find flow. There are 4 zones to engage in: proactive, reactive, distraction, and waste. This week Seth Braun discusses Stagen's Attention Zones model and how being mindful of these states can help us plan for and allocate time effectively. Ultimately it can help us bring our unique gifts to the world by engaging in life in a satisfying and productive way.
Beware the Distraction and Waste Zones [9:59] “I'm not going to tell you that Netflix is a distraction. Consider: what in your life is a distraction - and what's rejuvenating? There are certain things that I do in my family, like watching Netflix, where we laugh, and we have endorphins, and it’s rejuvenating, and it's family time. It's great. But then, where I start binge-watching and it's 11. Then it's 12…now I'm in a waste zone.” A “lazy” activity isn’t always considered wasteful by default. Sometimes it’s what we need. However, there’s a point of diminishing returns, and we must consider the balance.
[19:20] “Most of us don’t come into the world highly disciplined, able to sit down and do the work. We need structures and practices to help us do that, including your 10-minute waste time.” Even “wasteful” time has its place in preparing you to be proactive.
Be Guided by Your Ideals Generally, anything in the proactive zone (with focused work) doesn’t come naturally and requires an act of volition. [19:50] “Any act of creation or volition, whether it involves anything involving exercise or starting a business. Anything that's…creative is going to have resistance.” [33:30] “The most important thing we can do to live a fulfilling, satisfying life is (to) have an ideal. Keep track of it each week, when we're planning our week, say, here's what's important to me, and I'm willing to go forward again.”
To learn more about Seth Braun and the Stagen Leadership Institute please visit: https://stagen.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/sethdbraun/
Stagen's Attention Management Core Practice Sheet https://rise-leaders.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Stagen-Attention-Management-Core-Practice-Sheet.pdf
Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography: https://amzn.to/396UaaS
“In Over Our Heads” - Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey https://amzn.to/2M792wV
To subscribe to the Rise Leaders newsletter for more resources: https://mailchi.mp/426e78bc9538/subscribe
To discuss executive coaching, leadership development program design, and workshop facilitation, please visit: https://rise-leaders.com/contact-info/
I specialize in helping leaders and organizations thrive. Reach out if there’s a way I can support you.
I called in a lifeline for this one. I wanted to talk about the importance of a supportive ecosystem when engaging in leadership coaching and didn’t like what I was producing on my own. So when my esteemed colleague, Jerry Magar, offered to interview me, I gladly accepted. And he delivered!
"The pressure and expectation of organizational leadership demand emotional maturity, requiring leaders to be willing to do their internal work…we all must move away from leading from a place of fear and lack…and move toward vision and collaboration, which results in desired and sustainable outcomes." - LeeAnn Mallory, Founder Rise Leaders
The tables got turned during this episode, and I was interviewed by Jerry Magar, a wonderful friend and colleague. He was my lifeline! Listen to find out why...
Two decades of coaching insights
Leadership coaching has become increasingly common in organizations. Because it’s a significant financial investment, it’s worth knowing what to expect and how to maximize the experience. Being aware of the situations that could benefit from coaching, and knowing the potential pitfalls before beginning, are useful to walking in confidently and ensuring it’s a rich, seamless process.
The value of coaching
The more responsibility a leader gains and the broader the scope of their leadership, the more important that they're able to develop and maintain meaningful positive relationships across the organization and outside the organization, as well as think strategically and execute against that strategy. Leaders will hire a coach as they step into new and unfamiliar assignments and also as they face the inevitable bumps in the road. Having access to unbiased wisdom from outside the organization can provide a lifeline during times of transition and chaos. While they intuit the need to raise their awareness and increase their ability to respond to complex issues, the necessary feedback and support are often hard to come by.
A Wholehearted Approach Most important to a successful coaching engagement is a motivated client who is committed to doing the work and has a learning or growth mindset. The work will be intense at times and will require courage and humility.
To subscribe to the Rise Leaders newsletter for more resources:
https://mailchi.mp/426e78bc9538/subscribe
To discuss executive coaching, leadership development program design, and workshop facilitation, please visit:
https://rise-leaders.com/contact-info/
To contact Jerry Magar: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jerrymagar/ Website: http://jerrymagar.com/about-jerry-magar/
I specialize in helping leaders and organizations thrive. Reach out if there’s a way I can support you. https://rise-leaders.com/contact-info/
Remember...Elevate Your Part of the World!
Sofiya Deva didn’t waver from her commitment to launch a new business, This Same Sky, even in the face of a pandemic. She was unwilling to turn away from any of her ‘loves’ – of beauty, for supporting multi-generational artisans, ethical and sustainable fashion and her self-described geeky love of strategy and business. I believe Jim Collins would give her an A+ in building a business with a clear Core Ideology (Vision, Purpose, Values).
“We have a twofold purpose: On one hand, supporting the artisans and preserving their traditions. On the other hand, we’re trying to inspire a more intentional lifestyle for our consumers…that is more fulfilling and authentic.” - Sofiya Deva,
Founder and CEO of This Same Sky
Integrating your passions, strengths, and purpose Not only did Sofiya Deva launch her brand, This Same Sky, in the middle of the pandemic, but she managed to masterfully integrate her loves and strengths. The company focuses on artisan-centered rotating collections of personal and home accessories, but it’s also a social enterprise that earns these multicultural artists an exceptional livelihood. Her purpose is to preserve traditional arts and crafts and remind us that we can’t forget the irrefutable value art can bring into our lives, - even in an era where minimalism is gaining traction. One of the other passions the brand draws from? Poetry. The inspiration for the company name comes from a book of poetry of the same name. Everyone under “this same sky” lends to the sense of solidarity, that we’re all in this together. Profiling different artistic lifestyle pieces, it celebrates the distinctiveness of cultural differences while affirming a sense of unity.
When less is more, choose intentionally [17:47] “My subtle critique to sustainability in the present moment is we have a lot of emphasis on minimalism, and less clutter, which is great, but…I think if we just negate and eliminate, without tapping into a greater sense of who we are, a greater sense of where we come from, it's incomplete for me.”
As consumers, we’re always voting with our dollars one way or the other. We understand not amassing possessions just to have them. But let’s also choose wisely, bringing things with beauty and life into our home.
The changing landscape of fashion [25:51] “[The fashion industry] is in need of reform. But the great thing is that consumers are demanding that reform, so I think the brands that are going to deliver that reform have a competitive advantage in terms of being more desirable by consumers.” [27:59] “Being born in the middle of a pandemic, it's forced us to be even scrappier than we would have ordinarily been, and very adaptable and very agile - and to really think through, how can we create? How can we create a diverse and flexible business model?...We leaned into collaboration and how to create win-win scenarios.”
Balance passion and self-care [34:03] “As an entrepreneur, you have to take burnout very seriously. You have to recognize that you're not immune to burnout; you don't have infinite energy and resources. I've had some really good coaches who have helped me recognize that, actually, my energy is a really valuable resource in this project, and I need to guard it.”
As Sofiya says, it’s important to engage intentionally and assess priorities so you’re able to follow through.
Connect with Sofiya: LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/3p5B36M Social handle: @thissamesky Twitter - https://bit.ly/393avxo
Other mentions This Same Sky by Naomi Shihab Nye - https://amzn.to/2MgrAe0 Guide to Reading Poetry - https://bit.ly/2Mc4G7I Vickery Trading - https://vickerytrading.org/ Forbes article on Corporate Gifting: https://bit.ly/2Y1CkQh
Sudara - https://www.sudara.org/ Olivela - https://www.olivela.com/ Wolf and Badger - https://www.wolfandbadger.com/us/
Guide to Owning Your Value - https://bit.ly/3sJajLn
Jay Gordon Cone Ph.D. has decades under his belt working with leadership teams to build successful strategies and navigate challenging times. These days he is also focusing his considerable intellectual horsepower and passion on creating a “vaccine against mind traps and closed-mindedness”.
Jay believes if we can boost our immunity to chaos, we can respond with creativity and compassion rather than paralysis and tribalism. Join us as we talk about bias, quicksand questions, and four disciplines for getting unstuck.
“If we were able to have a more productive approach to uncertainty and ambiguity, we actually might find responses that make things better. But we want the easy answer. And it's our fascination with the easy answer, actually, that prolongs the chaos.” - Jay G. Cone
Overcoming thinking traps We often find ourselves stuck - both individually and collectively - as a result of chaos, uncertainty, and unpredictability. In such times, it’s common to gravitate toward the easy answer, regardless if it’s the best way forward. When we fall into these thinking traps, we may oversimplify the problem to create a simple solution. This need for closure creates hasty action plans that can entrench you further into the problem - getting your mind “stuck.”
Today Jay outlines tips for avoiding thinking traps and nurturing an “unstuck” mind that’s open to new possibilities. Much of it begins with knowing the right questions to ask (avoiding “What should I do?”) to forge a new way forward. Being able to adaptively respond to uncertainty is helpful, because expertise and learning from the past doesn’t necessarily provide a fail-proof roadmap for the future.
The importance of building mental stamina [10:10] “[In chaos] the only responses that we have are based in the limbic system in the amygdala, and we want to fight or we want to flee. But if we can develop our stamina for thinking, when things are complicated or uncertain or ambiguous, then we're not as susceptible to the same ideas and…closed mindedness and tribalism, that tends to paralyze us.” [21:04] “And when you start focusing on simplistic answers, then you tend to hang out with people who have gravitated towards those same simplistic responses. And it gets to the point where it's just too difficult to be open to new information, different perspectives, or to continue processing things.”
How to know you’re stuck [12:06] “One very common experience … you're really not clear on why it is that you can't achieve this goal. You make up all these reasons for why this attempt failed…So if a pattern emerges, there's a good chance that there's something more to be uncovered.” [16:44] “If someone expressed a point of view…and all of a sudden [you] have horrible judgments…if that’s a feeling you’re having, and it’s one you’re not particularly proud of or that doesn’t make sense to you, that might be a leading indicator of stuckness as well.”
Identify quicksand questions [25:00] “One of the things that you can look at is the way people pose questions because the way people frame a question about a situation they want to change reveals a lot about how they're thinking and feeling.” [28:16] “All these things that we want other people to do, we just frame a question around them and we work toward altering the behavior - rather than trying to understand whether we as leaders, organizations, are complicit and whether there’s something other than their behavior that needs to change.”
Get in touch with Jay Cone: https://bit.ly/35ZVSZE
Resources: Blog: https://bit.ly/2NivMuo Free Assessment:
https://bit.ly/2LWZRzg https://unstuckminds.com/
Blindspots (book) Hidden Biases of Good People:
https://amzn.to/3642S7T
Rise Leaders newsletter for more resources:
https://mailchi.mp/426e78bc9538/subscribe
To discuss executive coaching, leadership development program design, and workshop facilitation, please visit:
https://rise-leaders.com/contact-info/
Dr. Chris Johnson’s background combines psychology, Aikido (she’s a 3rd degree Black Belt!) and mindfulness training. The result is a powerful and pragmatic approach for moving wisdom into action. We talk about Embodied Leadership and the importance of creating a Leadership Pause habit.
“Embodied leadership has an edge over anything conventional, because it allows us to access all of who we are…rationally, cognitively, analytically, our capacity for empathy, and to take effective action based on sound decisions that we tune into that are congruent with our values.” – Dr. Chris Johnson
Physical awareness leads to authenticity and better decision-making The world is becoming more Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous. For today’s leaders to stay ahead of the accelerated pace of change, it’s important to inspire trust and confidence in those with whom they work. Embodied Leadership practices help us achieve this.
Leadership is often approached in a cognitive-first or “top-down” manner: first working to understand the skill, infusing emotional intelligence, and then acting in accordance with that knowledge. Conversely, embodied leadership draws from bodily awareness. In other words, shifting focus to the physical being to open up, relax, and in turn, create space mentally. Tuning into physical sensations and sensory experiences can center us. This nurtures a connection between body and mind that enables congruence and authenticity between mind and actions.
It starts with a pause [13:16] “It might be a momentary pause, where I step back, take a breath, and in that breath, I can see and observe what's going on between you and I, and I can feel into myself, like what's congruent with my own values here, I can actually look at the broader horizon of work.
[13:46] “A pause could be momentary, it could be short pause to create a deliberate practice of mindfulness. It could be a weekend pause… Those are the things we often think we don’t have time for, and we hit that point of diminishing returns. “Reminding ourselves and taking that pause to say, ‘What’s the bigger commitment, what’s the bigger vision?’ Align around that instead of getting sucked into the details.”
Clear mind, clear path forward [22:16] “This is where mindfulness also comes in to help. When there's a lot of chatter [in the mind], it's really difficult to be clear-headed, clear-eyed, and clear-hearted about what's the most important. There’s a quote by Lao Tzu – ‘Can you be patient enough to let the mud settle so the right answer can arise?’… “If we intentionally create the space, and if we commit to it, as a part of the leadership pause, it can allow all of that mud to settle. So that whatever shows up in this moment, as the next right action is the one we see and can move toward.”
Take care of yourself - and see a ripple effect [10:33] “Organizations and businesses of all sizes reflect their leaders. When your energy is high, and your actions are congruent with your words, your presence produces trust…While you can't erase the uncertainty your organization and people are facing, you do have the power to respond to their challenges with intention, integrity, and honesty.” [30:15] “Awareness is key for all leaders who are aspiring to lead in this VUCA world and be really present to the craziness and how to stay present in it - and maybe even enjoy the ride.”
Resources: The Power of Pause in the Mindful Leader: https://bit.ly/3ixw9wV
Episode 21: Owning Your Value: https://bit.ly/3sGO0pT
A Guide to Owning Your Value https://bit.ly/3sJajLn
To connect to Dr. Chris Johnson please follow: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drchrisljohnson/ https://q4-consulting.com/
To subscribe to the Rise Leaders newsletter for more resources:
https://bit.ly/2LTNxzV
To discuss executive coaching, leadership development program design, and workshop facilitation: https://rise-leaders.com/contact-info/
Renee Moorefield and Jane Cocking share important findings from research they conducted on the relationships between leadership, ethnicity, and thriving. Based on data from 900+ leaders in the BWLW database, Black and Hispanic leaders who completed surveys about their well-being scored significantly higher than leaders who identify as white or Asian. To gain a better understanding, Jane and Renee interviewed 20+ leaders across a wide swathe of industries and ethnic identifications to unpack the data.
“I succeed when we succeed, so part of my job is to amplify the well-being, the effectiveness, the success of the people around me, and in particular, to help lift up my ethnicity.’”
– Interviewee's feedback from Be Well Lead Well Pulse research
Race and the science of thriving In the Be Well Lead Well (BWLW) Pulse model, thriving is defined as 'having the internal resourcefulness to meet external complexities and demands'. Renee Moorefield, the creator of the Be Well Lead Well Pulse wellbeing assessment, and Jane Cocking an executive coach and BWLW certified guide share important findings from research they conducted on the relationships between leadership, ethnicity, and thriving.
Certain themes emerged…
Resilience The respondents gave striking insights on inner strengths were built naturally – a byproduct of not living in the dominant culture:
[19:18] “We heard that a lifetime of challenges for leaders who identify as Black or Hispanic have enabled them through the hardships they've had in this dominant culture, whether that's a door shut in their face, whether that's discrimination, or whether that's microaggressions. You can think of all the things we're hearing about in society that have enabled them to build a level of resilience within themselves, coping mechanisms to just live in this culture. It's also enabled them to build a sense of identity beyond that white dominant culture of success.
“So it’s a way of seeing themselves that goes beyond this culture. And it's also built within them a connection to their internal capacities.”
[25:43] “… Under stress, growth occurs. In the situation of these people we were talking to, they would say, ‘The reason I got to where I am as an executive, is because I drew from all of those experiences – me knowing who I am and what creates well-being for me enabled me to become and grow as a leader'."
Not everyone’s version of success is the same [17:19] “Overwhelmingly, we heard, no matter the race of the person, that we are all living in a white model of success…
“The white model is you have to be productive, you have to achieve, in order to be successful. If you're not productive and successful, then maybe you're lazy. Acquiring wealth is important, the status of your job title or where you live or what car you drive – the status and very much a ‘me’ culture.”
These individuals have a story [34:43] “’What I would love everyone to know what I believe about myself is that I'm fully human and humane. And as a black executive, when I operate in the world, I often don't get treated as fully human, I get treated as an asset or sort of marginalized voice.’”
[38:33] “The people I talked to who identified as black or Hispanic knew a lot about their own history, their story, they had a connection for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years back.”
Resources:
Be Well Lead Well Pulse Well-being assessment:
https://bit.ly/2LT7wPg
6: An Essential Link: Wellbeing and Leader Effectiveness
https://bit.ly/362O7SS
Renee on Star Coach Show, Episode 141 Be Well, Lead Well
https://bit.ly/3qJqZRo
Connect to Renee and Jane:
Renee Moorefield https://bit.ly/3qABI0a
Jane Cocking https://bit.ly/3cdCDjt
To discuss executive coaching, leadership development program design, and workshop facilitation, please visit:
https://rise-leaders.com/contact-info/
Rise Leaders newsletter for more resources: https://mailchi.mp/426e78bc9538/subscribe
This episode is being re-published because the content feels incredibly relevant given our political and social environment. In the late-1990s Jennifer Touchet and a group of committed citizens took a clear and unified stand against a powerful and complex system and won! They used positive political strategies based on a win-win-win approach and intentional inclusivity.
“In the beginning, the vision was something for the community, and truly nothing more than that. That's what held us together. We wanted to bring the community together.” - Jennifer Touchet
The power of your ‘why’ In #21 I discussed owning your value and the key elements to unlocking authenticity and personal power. This week we take a deep dive into the first element, “Know what you stand for,” as embodied by my guest, Jennifer Touchet.
Holding true to the vision and the “why” of the community was indispensable during her bid to establish a nature center in the urban neighborhood of Oak Cliff in Dallas.
While some wanted to erect a high-end, gated community on that beloved spot of land, much of the neighborhood knew and loved it for the nature and recreation it provided. What followed was a years-long project requiring passion and persistence. Enjoy learning some key pointers from our conversation.
[3:12] ...BeBe spoke so passionately and it was clear that she had a bigger vision for who should benefit from ... this jewel that was in our community. So afterwards, I connected with her and ... asked her if she wanted to work together to try and bring the community voice to what's really going to happen. And she wanted to...
Be Empowered by Your Beliefs [9:32] “One of my core beliefs is that local communities that are closest to problems are also closest to solutions…” “I firmly believe that the community can come up with what's best for itself. I kind of believe that in general, that the communities that live and work in play where they are, that are closest to things know also how to make it better.”
Know the Stakeholder Environment “If you want to get anything done, you have to look at all the different factors that will affect your ability as a person or as a group to get that done.”
Know When to Relent and Know When to Relax Knowing your stand is important. But there often comes a time when compromise needs to occur. Originally Twelve Hills was 20 acres of land. To achieve their purpose, they had to scale back and negotiate. As Jennifer said, “To win doesn’t mean winner take all.” [16:08] “We had to go back and change our plan, and negotiate with our city government, the school district developers to come up with a different vision. Twelve Hills today is just over five acres…But there were some people that felt like we gave up too much. But at that point, it felt like it was going to be if we fought for all, we were going to get nothing.”
Resources:
Jennifer Touchet’s Visionary Leadership & Creating A Win-Win-Win https://rise-leaders.com/jennifer-touchet-visionary-leadership/
A Guide For Owning Your Value: https://mailchi.mp/d37649fa5f04/own-your-value
To learn more about Twelve Hills please visit: https://twelvehills.org/
To connect to Jennifer please visit: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifer-touchet-0437571/
To discuss executive coaching, leadership development program design, and workshop facilitation, please visit: https://rise-leaders.com/contact-info/
I specialize in helping leaders and organizations thrive. Reach out if there’s a way I can support you.
Organizations committed to sustainable change bake it into their business model. There are a host of labels and designations for those that “do good”: conscious capitalism, social impact, social entrepreneurship, B Corp, etc. In this episode, we explore the differences and how they function. Suzanne Smith, founder & CEO of Social Impact Architects and adjunct professor at Pepperdine University and the University of Texas at Arlington unpacks it for us.
“[As a social entrepreneur] You don’t always do things connected to your bottom line, you don’t always have to get an immediate benefit out of something, because it’s part of who you are and your ethos - baked into your DNA.” - Suzanne Smith
The nuances of doing good Suzanne Smith - an expert in social impact who works with nonprofits, foundations, socially responsible businesses and individuals - unpacks it all. She founded Social Impact Architects back in 2009 with a goal to reshape the business of social change.
Looking differently at social change We discuss how social change exists in a middle space between the business world and government where neither has entirely tackled it head-on. Historically, the business sector hasn’t created enough of a market for social change, but in recent years brands look differently at how they engage. Creating change has become much deeper than charity donations and volunteering. With such a surge, it’s important for brands and individuals to rely on research-backed methods and best practices without reinventing the wheel. But it’s also important to not lose sight of what you can uniquely bring to the table.
Social entrepreneurship, charity, conscious capitalism [8:40] “So the traditional notion of charity is the whole idea of ‘I'll give a man a fish,’ if we want to use that analogy. Social entrepreneurship changes that narrative and says, ‘You know what, let's teach a man to fish. Let's figure out how to do that to a scale.’
“We leverage the toolkit that businesses established to create market-based solutions.”
[12:22] “Social innovation is about the idea, social entrepreneurship is about the mindset, and social enterprise is about the business model.”
[21:55] “That's where I would put the conscious capitalists, those are the people who are hardwired around the idea of, we want to, we want to do a better job of creating social change. But typically, they're looking at it more from a business practice perspective, it's part of their ethos.”
The difficulty of effecting social change on a grand scale [10:58] The danger of starting from scratch: “Leapfrog innovation, which is yes, we want to create change, but we want to give ourselves the best chance at creating impact. So we want to build it on a solid foundation of best practice research, problem, ideation, etc. So that way, we get as much impact as we possibly can from that innovation.”
People are drawn to social change [30:15] “I consistently look at what I purchase, and I vote with my dollar…if you look at some of the research that's been done, those companies who perform better time after time, are the ones that are socially conscious. People running those organizations are making more thoughtful decisions, they're making less decisions that are in the short run, the better decision versus the long run being the better decision.
“Companies have to start thinking about these issues. It's not just about them creating the product or service anymore… Do their employees have appropriate daycare? Are they moving their employees up in a career pathway?”
Her recommendation to students [37:40] “Find that thing that they're uniquely passionate about, marry that with the thing that they are uniquely God-given from a talent point of view,”
Resources:
https://bit.ly/3iACis0
https://bit.ly/393hAOu
Social TrendSpotter's Newsletter:
https://socialimpactarchitects.com/newsletter-signup/
Sign up for Rise Leaders newsletter:
https://mailchi.mp/426e78bc9538/subscribe
There are times in our professional lives where we need to advocate for ourselves. – to take a stand. Recognizing our worth and being able to communicate it isn’t rude, nor is it bragging. But it can be uncomfortable. Owning our value supports our authenticity, which liberates our spirit and launches excellent performance.
“When we're able to own our value, we're more likely to bring positive contributions to work, life, our communities, to whatever we care about.”
Benefit from knowing who you are There are times in our professional lives where we need to advocate for ourselves. – to take a stand. Recognizing our worth and being able to communicate it isn’t rude, nor is it bragging. But it can be uncomfortable. Owning our value supports our authenticity, which liberates our spirit and launches excellent performance. Communicating our value is necessary to get a seat at the table. We make the value we bring apparent when we confidently acknowledge and demonstrate it each day – and it also helps us bring our unique advantage to the workplace.
Explore the Eight Elements of Knowing Your Value This week’s episode is an efficient 13 minutes as I outline 8 elements to help you own and speak your value. These are actions you can take to increase your feelings of power and authenticity in all aspects of life. I’ve created an in-depth, integrated guide for your reflection and to help you develop new habits. Whether you’re mentoring someone or need strategies for realizing your own impact, you will achieve greater awareness of what you offer and how to communicate it.
Highlights from this episode [2:30] “Know what you stand for…what you care about and what you're committed to. These values guide your decisions, your actions and your priorities. Have clarity around your vision.”
[3:30] “Knowing what we stand for keeps us in our lane, focused on what we care about rather than pursuing what others are striving for.”
[6:53] “Track your contributions. These are quote receipts of your good work. I do this daily in my journal to remind myself that I spent my time well, and so I can articulate the deliverables that I'm working on with clients.”
[8:51] “To go along with speaking your value is to practice embodying your value. Embodying your value means that you feel it at your core, and others also feel it and see it in your presence.”
A Guide to Owning Your Value: https://mailchi.mp/d37649fa5f04/own-your-value
Episode 19: Trudy Bourgeois about workforce excellence: https://rise-leaders.com/achieving-workforce-excellence-trudy-bourgeois/
Clifton Strengths Assessment: https://www.gallup.com/cliftonstrengths/en/252137/home.aspx?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Strengths_ECommerce_Brand_Search_US&utm_content=clifton%20strengths&gclid=Cj0KCQjwqfz6BRD8ARIsAIXQCf32_TGLD1r9bEiWXfqGzCKndOoFD6xl-Exe0WOydEZOM-qrJTus2I4aArwUEALw_wcB
Tilt 365: https://www.tilt365.com/
To discuss executive coaching, leadership development program design and workshop facilitation, please visit: https://rise-leaders.com/contact-info/
Hillary and Joel Patterson transformed a business opportunity into a passion project. After designing ERP solutions for clients in the electronic waste recycling industry, they jumped into the fascinating world of recycling, repair and redistribution of the electronics we regularly toss in our trash. They became SO passionate that they privately funded and produced a documentary, Silicon Mountain.
“It’s the ultimate win-win-win situation where we help the environment, we help businesses, we help people – the products that are sent off to other countries can help with education. There’s just such a big benefit. I wanted to show what all the opportunities are, and how individuals and companies can make a difference.” - Hillary Patterson, The Vested Group
The Unintended Impact of Constant Innovation Today we use more electronics and gadgets than at any point in history. Electronics are used in everyday life, with people upgrading their phones to the latest model, buying new technology for their companies, homes and more. This raises the question: What happens to the waste? How can we recycle and safely dispose of it? And what does this process look like?
What is electronic waste recycling?
Joel and Hillary's education began when they started working with an electronic waste recycling business. The goal was to help them improve their effectiveness by implementing software to manage the journey of the recyclable items they received in their facility. In the end, though, they gained a new awareness of an industry with untapped potential for doing good in the world.
The creation of a business solution turned into a learning opportunity and greater purpose as they realized the impact of electronic waste and the potential for each of us to do collective good. The way we tend to our electronics’ upkeep and disposal creates a ripple effect with huge environmental, economic, and social implications.
[17:05] “Only 20% of any of the waste in the world gets recycled. So that shows you the potential of growth and the amount that can be gained by just recycling our own devices… “Such a small percentage of what’s out there that can be recycled is actually being recycled... Approximately 400,000 smartphones are thrown away every day in the United States.”
[18:14] There’s $343 million worth of gold in those phones, $46 million worth of silver. If we don't recycle that, then we have to dig that out of the earth again. The environmental ramifications are obviously ongoing and large – something that we can easily take a big chunk out of.”
On electronic recycling [33:31] “They have almost unlimited demand for their products when they recycle and repair these items that come in. Their struggle as [an eWaste company] is getting this stuff.”
Data security [20:58] “As long as you're going to a certified recycler, they have the process in place…as long as you're using somebody reputable, they're going to take care of it … because their reputation is on the line as well; they're going to make sure that that that it's secure before it’s actually sent to anyone.”
Circular economy and its value [22:47] “It’s taking something that one person has stopped using. And a lot of times people will buy the new iPhone because they want a new iPhone, not because there's anything wrong with the last one that they have. Instead of leaving it in a drawer, they’re giving it to somebody that can either sell it, refurbish it, and putting it back into the economy.”
To learn more about Joel and Hillary Patterson and The Vested Group please visit:
http://www.thevested.com/netsuite-provider-the-vested-group
About the Documentary: Premiere Information: Date: Thursday, September 17th, 2020 Time: 7pm CST Streamed through: http://www.siliconmountainmovie.com/
To discuss executive coaching, leadership development program design and workshop facilitation, please visit:
https://rise-leaders.com/contact-info/
Trudy Bourgeois came to the work of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) reluctantly. She wanted ‘nothing to do with’ previous ineffective efforts to improve DEI in organizations. Yet the work kept calling her. As a former executive in a Fortune 500 consumer products company she brings pragmatism and passion. And results.
When you see something that is not right, not fair, not just, you have to speak up. You have to say something; you have to do something.
John Lewis
Trudy Bourgeois came to the work of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) reluctantly. She wanted 'nothing to do with' previous ineffective efforts to improve DEI in organizations. Yet the work kept calling her. As a former executive in a Fortune 500 consumer products company she brings pragmatism and passion. And results.
Here's what to pay attention to as you listen to the episode today: first, where she sees hope for the changing landscape in terms of equity in organizations. Second, listen to Trudy's perspective on how to own the value that you bring to your organization so that you can speak with authenticity and with power. This is particularly for women of color and women in general. Third, listen for Trudy's perspective on the role of white and black women in moving the equity conversation forward.
[09:31]: This is not new. What is new is that through the power of a smartphone, people had an emotional connection. Their consciousness was touched. I think that organizations would say many of them, that they were on the journey. I would humbly submit that they might have been on the journey, they hadn't gone very far.
So many of them would say, it's a business imperative. I don't know as a former line manager, I don't know what business imperative would go unresolved for 50 years and people would keep their jobs.
Owning Your Value = Power to Choose [15:45]: If people realize, you spend the largest percentage of your life at work. Why do you want to wake up every day and put a mask on and go pretend to be somebody that you're not, just so that you can get a paycheck? If your value is that good, then you know what? Your attitude, it should always be, “I am choosing to give my gifts and talents and add my value and impact here. I’m not being held hostage to stay here. I’m making a choice.”
[18:49] ... organizations talk about innovation, yet when you stifle people and you put them in a box and then they get scared and then they don't know their value, you're not going to have any innovation and you're sure not going to have any collaboration. You sure are not going to have all the things that people write up about how they want to function as a company, but this notion of knowing your value is so important. It's important for everybody, that it's especially important for women and people of color.
Women Hold the Key [28:42] ... I am specifically calling on women, us, to stop pointing the finger at men and the lack of progress that we've made. This is not to suggest that we don't need male champions, but I am calling on us to have the courageous conversation.
Resources:
Trudy Bourgeois https://workforceexcellence.com/trudy/
Center for Workforce Excellence https://workforceexcellence.com/
Equality: Courageous Conversations About Women, Men and Race to Spark a Diversity and Inclusion Breakthrough
https://amzn.to/2Y0trpY
HBR: Why Diversity Efforts Fail https://hbr.org/2016/07/why-diversity-programs-fail
Questioneering, Joseph Bradley https://www.amazon.com/Questioneering-Model-Innovative-Leaders-Digital/dp/1944027440/ref=sr_1_8?dchild=1&keywords=joseph+bradley&qid=1599318601&sr=8-8
https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2020/06/share-the-mic-now-instagram-campaign
To discuss executive coaching, leadership development program design and workshop facilitation, please visit:
https://rise-leaders.com/contact-info/
Poetry can be a powerful developmental tool to help high-achieving personalities transcend the linear and analytical world of business in order to integrate a world of beauty and whole-system thinking. Rick Voirin has incorporated poetry in his coaching and leadership for years and has seen firsthand the profound impact that it can have in professional growth and self-development. In this special episode, LeeAnn and Rick discuss the work of author and poet David Whyte, and how the poem “Start Close In” directs us to take the first step that leads to change.
We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, engineering, business, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life.
But poetry, beauty, romance, love, this is what we stay alive for.
John Keating Dead Poets Society
Leadership Beyond ‘Just the Facts’ Good literature has the power to help us better understand the human condition. Poetry and other creative writing evokes something deep in us, it widens our perspective and helps us connect with parts of ourselves (and others) that otherwise we wouldn't have easy access to.
Poetry can also be a powerful developmental tool to help leaders and 'Type A' personalities transcend the linear and analytical world of business. Rick Voirin has incorporated poetry in his coaching and leadership work since the '90s and has seen firsthand the profound impact that it can have on professional growth and self-development.
Start Close In 2020 has been a year of big, complex challenges. Racial tensions have been high and organizational leaders are expected to meaningfully respond. This pressure, and the fear of ‘cancel culture’ has caused many to pause; to defer doing anything until they have it all figured out. David Whyte’s poem, Start Close In admonishes us to, “… don’t take the second step or the third, start with the first thing close in, the step you don’t want to take.“
Links to the poem, A Guide for Reading Poetry and additional resources can be found at the end of these notes.
24:53 - " If we really engage something, whether it's a poem or a piece of art or a piece of literature or something that's happening on a screen In front of us in a movie, the first approximation is just the way that the information lands in our senses. And then what starts to show up as we relate with that, that happens, like in a back and forth conversation."
27:25 - "Poetry or good literature is an invitation into a deeper relationship with life, a deeper reflection on the meaning of one's life. And what one is caring about (...) and what one might intend to do with one's wild and precious life."
29:24 - "When I try to start big, it's probably because I'm seeking an excuse to get out of doing anything. The big stuff is beyond my reach, at least at the moment. But if I start close in, I'll find things I can do right now."
Resources:
A Guide for Reading Poetry:
https://mailchi.mp/rise-leaders.com/a-guide-for-reading-poetry
The Heart Aroused: Poetry and the Preservation of the Soul in Corporate America, by David Whyte https://www.amazon.com/Heart-Aroused-Preservation-Corporate-America/dp/0385484186 Interview with Bonnie Pittman: https://rise-leaders.com/awe_art_observation_bonnie_pitman/
Connect to Rick Voirin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rick-voirin-a43413/ David Whyte's work: https://www.davidwhyte.com/ David Whyte reading Start Close In: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=030YqrN4SFc How to Talk about Race at work: https://rise-leaders.com/how-to-talk-about-race-at-work Start Close In - The On Being Project https://onbeing.org/blog/start-close-in/
Start Close In – The On Being Project https://onbeing.org/blog/start-close-in/
Dead Poet’s Society – John Keating: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aS1esgRV4Rc
Sign up for Rise Leaders newsletter:
https://mailchi.mp/426e78bc9538/subscribe
High Trust environments invite people to focus their precious energy and passion on creating and delivering value rather than on managing politics, their reputation and their image. In this mini-episode, I walk through The Trust Equation, a model that illustrates distinct, yet nuanced elements of trustworthiness.
If you want a high-trust workplace, be trustworthy!
The Value of a High Trust Workplace
High Trust environments invite people to focus their precious energy and passion on creating and delivering value rather than on managing politics, their reputation and their image.
The ability to show up authentically and to openly collaborate creates a path of least resistance. The lack of friction produces freedom and flow. In high-trust organizations, people show up as their authentic selves, maximizing teamwork and solid relationships.
So how do you go about creating a high-trust environment? A quick search on Amazon for books on Trust reveals over 80,000 titles; narrowing the search to building trust gives us over 10,000 results. There is no shortage for approaches and models for Trust.
In this episode, we delve into Charles Green's Trust Equation, a model that illustrates distinct, yet nuanced elements of trustworthiness. You'll have the opportunity to explore the level of trustworthiness in one of your relationships from three different perspectives by using the Trust Equation.
Credibility, Reliability, Intimacy and Self-Orientation 05:06 - "(...) think of all models as a trellis. They give us something to hold on to - a structure for growth and reaching out. And not to get too deep with the metaphor, but we also need to remember to clear out the dead stuff that no longer serves the living organism."
06:50 - "Both credibility and reliability can be observed, or measured, and take less emotional energy than intimacy. (...) David Brooks calls these ‘resume virtues’ – their knowledge, experience, abilities."
09:25 - "Self-orientation – Take a moment to reflect on the term, self-orientation. What do you think of when you think of someone who is self-oriented?"
14:26 - "Use the equation as a journaling tool, using the initial ratings as a starting point and going deeper from there. (...) Focus on yourself and raising your own rating. You can even ask someone whom YOU trust to share their ratings of you."
How did you do? What were the most surprising results?
For more resources highlighted in this episode please visit the links below:
A Guide to the Trust Equation:
https://rise-leaders.com/trust-equation-guide-2/
Episode 15: How to Talk About Race at Work
https://rise-leaders.com/how-to-talk-about-race-at-work/
Charles Green: The Trusted Advisor on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Trusted-Advisor-David-H-Maister/dp/0743212347/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=Charles+Green%27s+The+Trusted+Advisor&qid=1597958450&sr=8-2
To discuss executive coaching, leadership development program design and workshop facilitation please visit: https://rise-leaders.com/contact-info/
These types of conversations are High Fidelity because they provide strength and resonance for the people who engage in them. They’re designed to support the Core Ideology of the organization and especially support the people experiencing the change. LeeAnn describes nine elements important for launching these conversations.
“Waiting until you have created the perfect, most elegant solution keeps you out of today’s game. Launch it!”
High Fidelity Conversations Support Culture Change Organizations are constantly changing due to both internal and external events.
Mergers and acquisitions, disruptive technology, and various economic pressures, like those brought on by the Covid pandemic are prime examples. This year, in addition to facing a pandemic, the US had to deal with hard truths on racial injustice, and the need to address the topic in the workplace was no longer avoidable.
On a previous Podcast episode, How to Talk About Race at Work, Drew Clancy and Lori Bishop shared how they tackled the topic head-on at PCI. They explained why they didn’t wait for the perfect long-term solution to address concerns about race and how they tied the conversations to their values and focus on increasing trust throughout the organization.
Whether your goal is to step fully into conversations about race, or to committing to the successful adaptation of a critical change to your culture, it’s important to provide strength, alignment, and resonance, – or fidelity – for the people who engage in them.
Do you know how to provide the proper framework for these delicate conversations?
This entire episode has been created to guide leaders on how to begin culture change in their organization by following these nine actionable concepts for designing high fidelity conversations.
A Few Elements from the Guide Described in the Episode 05:52 - "Create a vision that everyone can see themselves in. And what that means is, create a compelling future that matters for people. People need to see how the change is going to benefit them and the organization long term."
07:26 - "And with conversations, that means listening and learning and being open to other points of view."
10:36 - "Waiting will keep you out of the game today. And you want to balance this immediate action with the longer-term creation of policies and structures that provide resistance-free solutions."
11:43 - "Naming the effort gives people language for how to refer to the change".
For more resources highlighted in this audio episode please follow the links below:
Episode 15: How to Talk About Race at Work https://rise-leaders.com/how-to-talk-about-race-at-work/
Launching Culture Change through Hi-Fidelity Conversations guide:
https://rise-leaders.com/hi-fi-conversations-icons/
To discuss executive coaching, leadership development program design and workshop facilitation please visit: https://rise-leaders.com/contact-info/
To subscribe to the Rise Leaders newsletter for more resources: https://mailchi.mp/426e78bc9538/subscribe
Publishing Concepts (PCI) didn’t wait for the perfect long-term solution to address concerns about race. Drew Clancy, President, and Lori Bishop, CPO, saw people hurting and they responded. They thoughtfully organized Meaningful Conversations as a way to talk about race. This is their first step for improving long term trust and for healing throughout the entire workplace.
“What we’re creating here is, first and foremost, just living our values. Just being who we say we are and digging deeper as it relates to the structural racism that we have all been forced to live in here in the United States...”
Lori Bishop, CPO, Publishing Concepts – PCI
“I think this calls for leadership and leaning into it… I think it’s a tremendous opportunity to ultimately strengthen the culture of the organization and have better conversations, better relationships, a stronger organization.”
Drew Clancy, President, Publishing Concepts – PCI
Where do you even start? Conversations in this domain can be delicate and deserve to be handled with care. It takes courage, commitment, and humility to open oneself to hear the experiences of those who have been marginalized. It can be uncomfortable.
Start By Listening to Experiences [06:28] Drew: …what I said to them that afternoon was, I’m really just here to listen and I'm interested in your perspective. Many of these guys [African American male leaders at PCI], we’ve worked together for many years but we’d never had a conversation about race or these types of issues, and it was, I will say, for me, very eye-opening and just the level of frustration, the level of discouragement, the hopelessness in certain cases around what was going on.
Each of the men told some version of a story of growing up and a parent or maybe a grandparent saying, “When you leave this house, you need to be very careful what you say, how you act, especially around law enforcement.” After that conversation, it really struck me that the advice they were getting was you essentially have to be invisible. Again, good advice but what a message to hear.
I'm just fed up, and we've reached a moment in time when action is required here. As businesses, as a for-profit business, perhaps businesses – We can be part of the solution.
Vulnerability + Courage [10:21] Lori: I was afraid. I have learned that I’m going to have to take off some masks... There's a level of safety and caution that I wasn't sure I can let go of and really embrace from a trust perspective. I had to tell myself, as a black person, all the things that I've heard from growing up and how my safety depended on me never trusting in white people. I had to admit that to myself before I could help Drew on this journey.
Structure Your Conversations About Race [19:04] Lori: … the original conversations had breakout sessions … and people are very unvarnished and open … people are embracing it. They’re asking questions. They’re doing their homework. They’re sharing stories. They’re coming into levels of self-awareness that they never thought that they would have as people, and they’re doing it at work. To be able to experience this with people has been incredibly fulfilling.
… and people are answering with real-life experiences. We’ve made that a rule because we don’t want to start debating, as Drew says, politics and a bunch of whataboutisms and frankly just ways to stay stuck on either side of this issue. …We decided that trust was the only way to get there…
Links:
Transcript:
https://bit.ly/39256Xb
Drew Clancy:
https://bit.ly/3p4CkL8
Lori Bishop:
https://bit.ly/3p4KMtN
Eric Mosley:
https://bit.ly/3o1ODqu
PCI:
https://bit.ly/2XXKLvV
White Fragility:
https://amzn.to/2LTxh1I
Robin DiAngelo:
https://bit.ly/39VJ5IL
Servant Leadership:
https://bit.ly/2M6h1u8
Bob Kegan:
https://bit.ly/3p3gU14
Immunity to Change:
https://amzn.to/2LGviOv
An Everyone Culture:
https://amzn.to/3qDnqMh
Visit Rise Leaders:
https://rise-leaders.com/contact-info/
As an applied positive psychology and sport and performance psychology practitioner, Gloria Park, PhD is uniquely qualified to speak about how we continue to learn, grow, evolve, and even thrive in the face of challenge. And we are certainly being challenged in 2020! Gloria shares transformative skills and strategies during the interview.
“I’m often navigating the tension between helping people do better at whatever craft they’ve chosen for themselves…and balancing that with how [they] do that AND maintain some degree of wellbeing. It’s my fervent belief that you can have both; that you can do well and be well.”
Gloria Park, PhD
Regoaling vs Reacting It’s easy to get overwhelmed these days while we’re in the middle of the Covid-19 crisis and also trying to thoughtfully enter and positively impact the domain of racial injustice.
In April, I attended a webinar co-lead by Gloria. It was very timely given the newness and shock concerning Covid-19. When I first heard the term, ‘re-goaling’, I thought, YES!, this is how I would describe the thoughtful and intentional shift I see some people making. It’s different from simply reacting. Re-goaling means that I consciously disengage from the old goal and thoughtfully create a new goal. It also means that I feel and acknowledge the continuum of emotions and engage in hope. In this interview, we explore ways to our own resilience.
A few quotes that stand out for me:
Covid’s Impact on the Human Psyche 11:31 - "…everyone is dealing with this very deep sense of grief about things that matter deeply to them and now look no longer like they used to…the second place where people are really struggling is the uncertainty."
The Important Role of Hope and Goals 13:43 - "…what gives me hope is that people are finding things to be hopeful about despite all of the uncertainty and despite all of the grief…"
26:36 – "But if you think about the average person and the goals we set for ourselves, we set those goals because they’re a reflection of things that are really valuable to us and they’re often tied, especially in the performance domain, deeply to our sense of self-worth and our identities, and you wouldn’t have set those goals if they didn’t mean a lot to you."
C.R. Snyder’s Hope Theory: "People feel hope whey they have three things: they have a goal that they’re focused on; they have beliefs that they have the capacity within them to strive towards that goal; and that there are avenues available for them to be able to pursue those goals."
29:38 – "A lot of the foundation of resiliency training, as well as a lot of the foundation for performance psychology, is about understanding the connections between those three things: your thoughts, your emotions, and your behaviors."
43:51 – "But the accomplishments will always be there. The world will be there to await you to show up and be able to strive towards those things again. I think, right now, we really need to be paying attention to our wellbeing and figure out how we can support our families and support our employees in an organizational context to really help them navigate this crisis successfully."
We’ve all heard of SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Time-driven); Gloria is also an advocate for DUMB goals! (42:05)
Find resources on resilience at Eudaimonic by Design, especially Choosing Optimism: The Art of the Reframe. Also, find Embodied Resilience and Hope.
Register for this FREE course on resilience: Resilience Skills in a Time of Uncertainty offered by the University of Pennsylvania. Gloria is one of the instructors and her mentor, Karen Reivich is the primary instructor.
Sign up for my newsletter to receive more links and resources:
https://mailchi.mp/426e78bc9538/subscribe
Transcript:
https://bit.ly/3sFfiNc
C.R. Snyder’s Hope Theory:
https://bit.ly/2LPkuNW
David has followed up his wildly popular and super sticky book, The Power of TED: The Empowerment Dynamic with 3 Vital Questions: Transforming Workplace Drama. When we answer these questions and re-orient our perspective, we become more resilient and more likely to create the results we desire.
“All leadership really starts with self-leadership and the way that we lead our own lives has everything to do with the quality of leadership that we bring to our organizations, frankly our families, our communities, our school system, etc.”
David Emerald Womeldorff
Ask these 3 Powerful Questions ... when facing change, feeling stuck or dealing with workplace drama. They'll help you level up the results you get.
- Where are you placing your focus?
- How are you relating?
- What actions are you taking?
David has followed up his wildly popular and super sticky book, TED: The Empowerment Dynamic with 3 Vital Questions: Transforming Workplace Drama. When we answer these questions and upshift our perspective, we become more resilient and more likely to create the results we desire.
Highlights from the Interview [07:10] ...The first vital question is, Where are you putting your focus? The subtext to that is, are you focusing on problems, or are you focusing on outcomes? What informs that question is an organizing framework that I call FISBE. FISBE is an acronym that stands for Focus, Inner State and BEhavior. The idea is that what we focus on engages some emotional response. That inner state that then drives our behavior.
[17:16] ...Vital Question Two is, How are you relating? How are you relating to others? How are you relating to your experience? And how are you relating to yourself? Are you relating in ways that produce, or perpetuate drama? Or are you relating in ways that empower others and yourself to be more resourceful, resilient and innovative?
If our orientation is problem-focused, fear-based and reactive in nature, that creates the environment and the conditions for the Dreaded Drama Triangle, or DDT, which I'll explain in more detail in just a moment. I also want to say that if we can consciously choose to operate as much as possible out of that Outcome Orientation, where we're focused on what we care about, that our inner state is more passion-based and we're taking creative action, that creates the conditions for a different set of relationship roles and dynamics that we call TED or The Empowerment Dynamic.
[31:29]: What actions are you taking? Are you merely reacting to the problems of the moment, or are you taking creative and generative action, including the solving of problems in service to outcomes? Dynamic tension informs the Third Vital Question.
[32:42]: The three basic steps of dynamic tension are first and foremost, focus on the outcome and to be as clear as we can on the outcome, that the outcome can sometimes be clear and concrete, other times it may be more vague and directional.
Then the second step is to step back and tell the truth about, what's my current reality in relation to the outcome? That engages a tension between what we want and what we're currently experiencing.
The third piece of dynamic tension is to then determine and take baby steps that move from our current reality toward our envisioned outcome. Baby steps to me are things that as an individual, or team, we can choose to do that tend to be short-term and in organizational terms. LeeAnn, it could be as simple as, ‘I need to have a conversation’, or ‘we need to go gather this information’.
Resources: Transcript:
https://bit.ly/39ORe1F
3 Vital Questions website:
https://bit.ly/2Nsz927
The Power of TED: The Empowerment Dynamic:
https://bit.ly/3sM9eCE
3 Vital Questions:Transforming Workplace Drama
David Emerald
Donna Zajonc
Stephen Karpman's Drama Triangle
Bob Anderson
The Leadership Circle Profile
Robert Fritz: Structural Tension
Rise Leaders' newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/426e78bc9538/subscribe
Bob Anderson has dedicated his career to exploring the intersections between leadership and personal mastery, and between competence and consciousness. Over the past 35 years, he has helped leaders gain deep, personal insight into their creative competencies that promote effective leadership, and their reactive tendencies that limit it. He is the creator of The Leadership Circle Profile, a 360 leadership assessment tool that provides integrated feedback in multiple domains across the Creative and Reactive categories.
"A Creative style of leadership is driven by passion, purpose and vision and is about bringing into being what I care about and becoming who I most desire to be as a leader. Reactive leadership is about responding to problems, fears and threats.
You can't create the kind of agile, adaptive innovative and engaged workplaces that we are trying to construct in order to thrive in a VUCA world. You literally can't create those cultures and systems and structures from a Reactive leadership mindset."
- Bob Anderson
The Times Call for Exemplary Leadership Bob and I spoke on February 21, 2020. The date is significant because the first case of community-spread novel coronavirus had not yet been detected in the U.S. Today the U.S., as well as much of the globe, is in some sort of lockdown to prevent its spread. The lack of mention of Covid-19 seems tone-deaf today, as managing the spread and responding to the health and economic crises are all-consuming for many.
Bob has spent the past few decades understanding what characteristics indicate a leaders’ ability to deal effectively with the increasingly complex situations they’re presented with. Our current, unfortunate predicament illustrates, even more, the need for agile, innovative and visionary leadership.
Creative Leadership [17:26]: The highly effective, and Creative leaders had a very different set of strengths. They had all the other strengths in equal measure: technical strengths, domain knowledge, etc., but they excelled at people, ... people, teams, developing people, listening, approachable. Six out of the top 10 most commented-on strengths for the highly effective Creative leader group had to do with people and teams and their ability to develop people and lead them well.
The next set of strengths was purpose, vision and authenticity, and that rounded out the top 10 list of the most effective leaders. Yes, they have their technical skills and their intellect and brilliance. You have to have that to play. That’s table stakes. It doesn’t define leadership, and it doesn’t scale if you’re trying to run your leadership through your own creative brilliance. It scales when you can develop that in others.
The top 10 Creative competencies, according to write-in comments on the Leadership Circle Profile 360:
[20:48]: Number one: Strong People Skills. 79% of leaders had three or more comments from their raters on good with people – 79%. Reactive leaders rated only 28% good with people. That just sums it up. If you look at the list, Strong People Skills, Visionary, Team Builder, Personable/Approachable, Leads by Example. That’s authenticity and integrity, right? Passion & Drive, that’s purpose. Good Listener, Develops People, Empowers People, Positive Attitude. That’s the top 10 list.
Links:
Transcript:
https://bit.ly/39ORe1F
Creative and Reactive dimensions of the model:
https://bit.ly/3qEgNJG
Leadership Circle Profile:
https://bit.ly/2LWyA03
Full Circle Group:
https://bit.ly/3qKvHho
Bob Kegan:
https://bit.ly/3p3gU14
Socialized and Self-Authoring mindsets:
https://bit.ly/3c1N0q8
Stephen Covey:
https://bit.ly/3sMd5zC
Mastering Leadership:
https://leadershipcircle.com/en/our-books/
Download Practices to Boot Up Your Inner Game:
https://bit.ly/3qGPBds
Subscribe to the Rise Leaders newsletter:
https://mailchi.mp/426e78bc9538/subscribe
Conscious capitalism is a term, a movement and the name of the non-profit organization, Conscious Capitalism, Inc. (CCI), whose role it is to be the foundation of the movement. CCI brings business leaders together to share best practices for implementing the ideals of conscious capitalism.
“By delivering a genuine, no-baloney product for our guests and environment for our employees to work in, we then could deliver for our shareholders… Starting from that place of authenticity and caring profoundly about the lives of other people leads to better financial results because of the way the economy and capitalism works.”
Ron Shaich
CEO and Founder, Panera Bread
Can We Make Conscious Capitalism Redundant? That’s the long term goal.
The general opinion of capitalism and of the for-profit business world is one of greed and scarcity, a winner-take-all mindset, and overpaid executives at the expense of underpaid and under-insured employees (just listen to the 2020 election rhetoric!). While that opinion has been earned, there is a movement underway that is gaining support from capitalist business leaders across the globe to change that.
Alexander McCobin is CEO of Conscious Capitalism, Inc., an organization founded by successful corporate CEOs and founders who are committed to shepherding in a new way of running businesses. As Alexander says in the interview, it’s a Copernican Revolution, putting humans at the center of business rather than profits. And the good news is that it’s not an either-or choice.
[10:29]“It’s about creating a foundation for people to build the movement the way they want to… We need to let a thousand flowers bloom if we’re going to achieve our long term goal, which is for Conscious Capitalism to become redundant.”
[00:11:17] “The times are changing. This is an idea whose time has come, finally. A decade ago, when this idea was being kicked around and introduced to conferences and boardrooms, it was being laughed out of those spaces. It wasn’t taken seriously. The initial job of Conscious Capitalism Inc. and even the reason for writing the book was to make the case for this, to change people’s minds, because everyone thought business is just about maximizing profit, serving the shareholders, and everyone and everything else is serving that end.”
[00:12:35] “The Business Roundtable is a group of 190, 200 or so CEOs of the largest companies in the United States. We’re talking everyone from J.P. Morgan, to Amazon, and if you know the name of the company and it’s a Fortune 100, it’s probably in there. In 1997, they adopted a statement on the purpose of the corporation being to serve shareholder interests. That this is the reason they exist.
Last year they changed that. They said that the purpose of the corporation is to serve a higher purpose and to take care of all their stakeholders. They basically took the conscious capitalist’s credo, reworded and adopted themselves, and that is tremendously exciting because it shows these principles and ideas are becoming well-accepted and these are CEOs making a commitment that this is how they’re going to run their businesses going forward that they can now be held accountable to.”
[00:22:29]: “That is part of the stakeholder model. We need businesses to be at the forefront of addressing the challenges of climate change and environmental degradation conservation. Business has the greatest impact in these areas and it has the greatest opportunity to innovate and figure out what the solution is, because we’re not there yet and it’s not going to come from committee.”
Links:
Transcript:
https://bit.ly/35YHMYJ
Larry Fink’s 2020 Letter:
https://bit.ly/38YboqW
Conscious Capitalism Philosophy:
https://bit.ly/3sSHGvw
Annual Conference (April each year):
https://bit.ly/3sSHKeK
CEO Summit (October each year):
https://ceosummit.consciouscapitalism.org/
About Rise Leaders:
https://rise-leaders.com/contact-info/
Bonnie Pitman shares how Doing Something New inspires us to make each day extraordinary. Her Power of Observation Framework instructs us on the critical steps for moving from the first glance to making new meaning of our observations. She is both delightful and incredibly grounded in her approach to appreciating the banal and sublime.
Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought.
Albert Szen-Gyorgi
1937 Nobel Laureate
Make Everyday Extraordinary Awe and wonder are getting a lot of attention these days because of what happens in our brain when we’re in these states of mind. Inspiration and generosity spike and we feel more connected to the world around us. And as a result, stress and rumination decrease*. Overall wellbeing is amplified. The great news is that we can experience awe and wonder as part of our daily life – we just have to become more aware of what is already in our midst.
Bonnie Pitman, with her long and distinguished history in the world of art, developed two foundational practices that support the onboarding of these states in response to a life-changing illness that she continues to navigate.
*Source: What Awe Looks Like in Your Brain (https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/what_awe_looks_like_in_the_brain)
Stand-out Quotes from My Interview With Bonnie [14:04]“Do Something New is about having the courage to take a moment and really celebrate it. And finding a way … to move beyond simply seeing and looking to really deep observation, or deep listening. It’s about going further than I normally would.”
[16:06] “I’ve discovered that one of the really important things, which we’ve been talking about, comes from my meditation practice: the power of staying in the moment and just seeing things in new ways, or seeing the world in new ways. To slow down and really invest in those moments and to – just like when you’re meditating – focus on your breathing, focus on the people or the place”
[22:33] “…80% of the way you acquire information is through visual images. Particularly important for physicians is that ability to see if a patient over the days that they are seeing them in the hospital, or in their clinics is evolving in a positive way, or a negative way. That need to be able to look quickly and observe quickly and get solid information, to be able to remember it is something that’s very important for them.”
[ 25:56 ] “Those tangible, experiential moments transform a two-dimensional experience into memory in your brain. Now your hippocampus – your whole limbic system – is working in a different way and at a higher level to codify this memory as one you’re going to hold on to.”
The Do Something New™ practice Take a few minutes of an ordinary day and make it extraordinary through:
- New places
- New people
- New experiences
- New experiences with old friends in new ways
- New big things & new little things
- New flavors of ice cream are ok!
- Cannot be work or medical
- Cannot carry forward to the next day
The Power of Observation Framework™ Scanning – Taking a first look
Attending – Focusing intentionally over time
Connecting – Seeking and processing information to make new connections
Transforming – Engaging deeply and creating a personal response
Note: Download the full Power of Observation Framework here
More Links Transcript:
https://bit.ly/3bXWbbi
Bonnie Pitman Instagram:
https://bit.ly/3qJDcFI
DMA – Speechless: Different by Design:
https://dma.org/speechless
What Awe Looks Like in Your Brain – Greater Good Magazine:
https://bit.ly/3c2rTUO
Videos: Art and Medicine:
https://bit.ly/3qU1Nrt
Nasher Sculpture Center talks on Art and Health:
https://bit.ly/361ZPgG
Can You Train Your Brain to Work Better? Verify – WFAA:
https://bit.ly/35ZukUs
Be Well Lead Well® Pulse Assessment:
https://bit.ly/3c0aPP7
Rise Leaders newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/426e78bc9538/subscribe
Drew Clancy, President of Publishing Concepts (PCI), is a self-proclaimed ‘cultural enthusiast’. His commitment to the core elements of culture has resulted in year-over-year growth and consistent recognition as a Best Place to Work. As a third-generation leader, he has brought this near 100–year-old family business solidly into the 21st Century through innovation and servant leadership.
We Inspire Dreams and Transform Lives
- PCI’s Purpose
A Successful Third-Generation Family Business Drew Clancy is President of PCI, a midsize, third-generation family business headquartered in Dallas, Texas. In 2021, they will celebrate 100 years in operation, and like any company that has weathered that much time, they’ve experienced iterations and evolutions. In 1982, Jack Clancy, Drew’s father, breathed new life into the company and gave it a new name: Publishing Concepts, now best known as PCI. They’re in the business of “helping college, university, and association clients engage their alumni and membership and raise money in order to fulfill their mission of educating our nation’s future leaders”.
Drew entered the picture in 1995 after his father suffered a heart attack and could no longer bring his energy and presence to the business. Drew navigated the company past the ‘founder’s trap’ as described by Dr. Ichak Adizes, creator of the Adizes Corporate Lifecycle, and steered PCI toward sustainability. And it’s working – PCI continues excellent financial performance, targeting $50M in revenue this year, doubling 2016’s performance.
Organizational Culture as a Business Strategy We spent the bulk of our time discussing Drew’s passion: workplace culture. He is a strong believer in Servant Leadership and sees creating a thriving workplace as a foundational business strategy. His orientation is paying off: PCI has appeared on both Dallas Morning News 100 Best Places to Work and Best Companies to Work for in Texas, nabbing first place in 2015 & 2016. Even with these accolades, he doesn’t take culture for granted, claiming “you have to work for it every day”.
They have a term for the central elements of their culture, theFIVE:
- 5 Elements of the core ideology: Purpose, Values, Vision, Goals, Commitment
- 5 Values: Excellence, Unlock Human Potential, Act with Integrity, Innovate a Culture of Relationships & Fun, Lead with a Servant’s Heart
Structure Will Set You Free A best-place-to-work culture will not happen by wishing for it. It won’t even happen if you articulate your core ideology (Jim Collins’ term for Purpose, Vision and Values) and hang posters throughout the workspace. You have to take action.
Drew is keen on the idea that “structure sets you free”. Liberating structures are created to channel individual or group energy toward a specific goal. James Clear’s book, Atomic Habits, guides individuals to make tiny shifts in daily behaviors that will lead to big results.
PCI’s Organizational Rhythm:
“Try a lot of things and keep what works”. This is the advice Drew gleaned from Jim Collins’ epic book, Built to Last. Here’s what is working for PCI now:
- Annual Planning – Yearly
- Monthly Extended Leadership Meeting – Trail Blazers meeting for anyone leading a team, project, product, client relationship, etc. This meeting is focused on growth and learning.
- Weekly – CEO Council. This is an L-10 meeting (Level 10 from EOS)
- Daily Huddle – 10 minutes at 8:30a, called the 10@8:30.
These meetings share critical information such as metrics (transparency is key), updates, and progress and also keep team members focused on ‘theFIVE’
Best Companies to Work for in Texas:
https://bit.ly/3c1zov6
Atomic Habits:
https://jamesclear.com/atomic-habits
Transcript:
https://bit.ly/3p8ULhM
Publishing Concepts:
https://www.publishingconcepts.com/
To subscribe to the Rise Leaders newsletter for more resources: https://mailchi.mp/426e78bc9538/subscribe
Lauren Clarke is the founder of Turn Compost, a wildly successful social enterprise focused on reducing food waste and improving how we utilize our urban environment. She shares alarming and exciting statistics about food waste and the blooming food waste industry. She also gives essential advice to anyone with the vision of starting a social enterprise.
My passion for gardening may strike some as selfish, or merely an act of resignation in the face of overwhelming problems that beset the world. It is neither. I have found that each garden is just what Voltaire proposed in Candide: a microcosm of a just and beautiful society. ”
Andrew Weil
On Earth Day 2018 Lauren Clarke launched Turn Compost, Dallas’ first subscription composting service. Turn has experienced phenomenal growth, proving that it’s possible to run a profitable company that truly and clearly does good.
In 18 months, Turn’s subscription service has grown to 17 zip codes in Dallas and 8 drop-off locations in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area. Revenues are up 648% comparing Q3 2018 to Q32019. Any start-up would love these numbers!
A Social Enterprise Model [10:43] Turn Compost is a Social Enterprise, or Social Impact business. In short, it’s a business that does good by addressing a social or environmental problem AND it does well by being financially self-sustaining. Social Enterprises and Social Impact businesses may be non- or for-profit. Turn is a for profit business.
The Business of Food Waste Food Waste is a big problem in the U.S. It makes up about 40% of our landfills and if it were a country, would be the third-largest emitter of methane gas behind the U.S. and China. [02:38]
Tackling food wastage can be a 2.5 trillion market opportunity for business according to an article by CNBC .
[05:35] Turn is a private, organic waste pickup subscription service with both doorstep and drop off services. It’s a very innovate model!
Organic waste is processed three different ways: it’s donated to local farms and gardens, turned into small amounts of compost and delivered back to members, and finally they partner with commercial composting facilities for other post-consumer waste. [07:51]
Bonton Farms and Farmers Assisting Returning Military (F.A.R.M.) are examples of two local farms that receive Turn donations.
The City of Dallas does not currently compost (yet!); you can learn more about Dallas’ Comprehensive Environmental Climate Action Plan and give input at their website. [11.56]
The Vision: Getting Reconnected With Food There’s a cost for us with all the innovations in food delivery: it’s getting us further disconnected from the source. We aren’t experiencing the growth cycles, the work that goes into food production and the satisfaction of providing for ourselves. [15:05]
Horticultural Therapy is a term being used for the therapeutic effects of gardening. [18:25] Bonton Farms, mentioned above, sees farming as a way to “redefine a community”.
Lauren gives some advice on starting a social impact business: [20:33]
- make sure it’s financially sustainable now and has future growth potential
- assemble an advisory council of experts from various industries who will “get in your face” and tell you the truth
- be open to listening to the advice
A Deeper Purpose Lauren’s big WHY – the ultimate reason she started Turn:
[25:08] You know I care about my children, but I care about other children and children in all sorts of communities, wealthy and poor, and their connection with food and their understanding of it…it’s very concerning that there are children and families who are struggling to put food on their tables.
Transcript:
https://bit.ly/3sLn4Fo
CNBC's article on Food Waste:
https://cnb.cx/35XDalx
Dallas Climate in Action:
http://www.dallasclimateaction.com/
Lauren Clarke:
https://bit.ly/3bZvsLk
Turn Compost:
https://bit.ly/2MdzIMo
For more about Rise Leaders:
https://rise-leaders.com/
Michelle Kinder is well-known in the domains of social-emotional learning, education and family counseling. She is also an authoritative voice in the discourses of leadership, stress, emotional health, trauma and parenting. Her increasing passion about historical and structural inequities has led her to make an important shift in her career, which we explore in depth in our conversation. In the midst of her transition, Michelle has taken time to slow down and adjust her focus from striving to one of getting results with a sense of ease and groundedness. This inside-out approach takes self-awareness, persistence and patience. She talks honestly about her experience in this episode.
“If you have come here to help me you are wasting your time, but if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.” - Lilla Watson
Michelle shares how growing up in Guatemala influenced her perspective on social issues and how this developed her capacity to innovate and problem-solve. We hear her view on the destructive “us” and “them” narratives that often accompany outreach efforts and how cultural forces are counterproductive to our ability to be grounded and sensitive as individuals. We discuss the focus of Momentous Institute, her new partnership with the Stagen Leadership Academy, and her collaboration with Rex Miller, with whom she is co-authoring a book on the challenges of educators. Michelle advises that, for us to be most effective in bringing about positive change, we need to do the required work of regulating our own nervous systems. She speaks frankly on her view about the responsibilities of the corporate and philanthropic worlds in establishing a more equitable society.
A Deeper Layer of Leadership Development * “What are the ways we can change our relationship with fear and stress and ego and show up in a more self-regulated/mutually regulated way?” * Michelle’s journey of shifting from striving to listening and surrendering, of calming and “clearing the vessel”. * There are many forces in our culture that pull us away from our grounded, sensitive selves. * We can become addicted, or at least very accustomed to an ‘air-traffic controller’ way of living and working. * There is often a need to reset our neurobiology and to build up a tolerance for the lack of activity, or busy-ness.
Practices for “regulating our nervous system”:
- Mindfulness, meditation
- Reflective Journaling
- Guided body scan (try one of the many from Insight Timer). Becoming more familiar with where you hold stress raises your awareness of tightness in those areas.
- Unplugging completely from: work, email, digital devices, social media. Schedule periods of time daily. Prolonged periods that include full days or weeks can also be scheduled.
- Regular exercise or movement
- Consistent 7 – 9 hours of sleep
- Time in nature.
- Eating whole, unprocessed foods
- Regular checks for alignment with personal values
The Upstream of the Upstream * The importance of focusing on a community’s ability to create the spaces in which children can thrive. * There are historical structures that benefit certain groups while disabling others. * “How is my long straw connected to someone else’s short straw?” * The important role of the corporate and policy world in creating social change. * Can we honorably grapple with each other as we explore these questions?
Here’s what else you need to know:
- Michelle shared several important statistics from Momentous Institute’s research on the impact of their work with children of ages 3yrs old – 5th grade and their families. The focus on both academics and social-emotional health has had staggeringly positive results.
- Watch Faith talk about the importance of breathing.
Michelle Kinder:
http://michellekinder.com
Social-emotional Learning:
https://bit.ly/2LXyqFz
Stagen Leadership Academy:
http://stagen.com
The importance of breathing (video):
https://bit.ly/3odn25O
About Rise Leaders:
https://rise-leaders.com
What does wellbeing mean to you? Are you thriving? How would you know?
Renee Moorefield is a dear friend, a spectacular creator and a wise woman. She and business- and life- partner, David, have developed a groundbreaking assessment for wellbeing. Be Well Lead Well Pulse® is based on over thirty years of experience in the areas of wellness, change management and leadership transformation. In this conversation, we follow the thread that began in exercise physiology, winds through Renee’s own experience as a leader and has evolved into a very integrated way to assess wellbeing.
At the center of the Universe dwells the Great Spirit. And that center is really everywhere. It is within each of us.
- Black Elk
Without a global revolution in the sphere of human consciousness, nothing will change for the better in the sphere of our being as human.
- Vaclav Havel
Following A Thread Early in the interview, Renee tells us about a thread that has run through her life – ” a deep belief in our capacity to be well and to thrive”. Her thread runs like this:
- The journey begins with pursuing a degree in Exercise Physiology.
We all have threads, how would you trace yours? In my view, a thread is closely tied to our life’s purpose.
Wellness or Wellbeing? Wellness – as it is typically used in the U.S., refers to lifestyle behaviors such as nutrition, sleep, exercise, and even breath. But early on, as Renee shares in the interview, forward thinkers such as Halbert Dunn, M.D., Ph.D. were describing wellness in ways that included the ‘spirit of man’. I found an absolutely fascinating article written by Dr. Dunn; in it he says this about Knowing Thyself:
“Psychology tells us through laboratory demonstrations that our perceptions of the outer world are indissolubly linked with the concepts and emotions fixed in our minds and body tissues. Without a knowledge of one’s inner self, understanding of the outer world cannot have breadth and depth. A mind tortured with prejudice, hate, and fear projects itself in distorted human relationships.”
In reading about Dunn and the impact he had on the holistic wellness movement I’m reminded of all the shoulders we stand on.
It’s easy to draw a line from High-Level Wellness, as he describes, to the effectiveness and impact of a person who is leading others.
My favorite definition of wellbeing, a la Renee, is “our internal resourcefulness to meet the demands of our external world”. She adds another aspect to include how we are in relationship with others – that we exist in relationship. These are both in line with how Dr. Dunn considered wellness in the 1950’s!
Here’s what the Be Well Lead Well Pulse® measures. You can see how the aspects of wellbeing we discussed, plus more, are reflected:
- Thriving – your evaluation of your own wellbeing now, plus the optimism you hold for your future.
- Fuel – how you energize yourself physically, mentally and emotionally; this includes diet, movement, rest + breath.
- Flow – aka being in ‘the zone’; engagement, presence, mindfulness and the feeling of bringing value to your work.
- Wonder – continuously evolving your worldviews and perspectives with appreciation and awe; learning and growing.
- Wisdom – tapping into and integrating your purpose, vision, and innate genius and bringing equanimity and lightness to life.
- Thriving Amplified – creating the conditions where others thrive; energizing and maximizing their impact and growth.
You can tell by reading the descriptors of the dimensions of the Be Well Lead Well Pulse® that this is a thorough and generous assessment
Wellbeing and the Role of a Leader: Thriving Amplified I can’t help but make ties to Servant Leadership in this category of wellbeing. Can you imagine the world if we all supported each other in such a fundamental, life-enhancing way?
Like the ability to empathize requires us to be aware of our own emotions, supporting others’ wellbeing requires that we are connected to our own. We begin with ourself.
I wrote a few blog posts several years ago that sprouted from my experience cycling. One post links engagement, a cycling team’s paceline and the concept of distributed leadership as outlined in this article by Nick Petrie of CCL (Center for Creative Leadership). In short, employee engagement requires the effort of leaders and members of the team.
Renee speaks passionately and often about creative vs. reactive leadership:
“The Be Well Lead Well Pulse dimensions promote a generative, open, present and connected stance to leadership, rather than leading from reactivity and fear.”
The creative orientation is a characteristic of leaders who achieve sustainable results. You can learn more about this in earlier show notes from my interview with Jacqui and Renee, owners of Anytime Fitness Bishop Arts.
The Value of the Be Well Lead Well Pulse® Assessment I’m a believer in a good assessment and this certainly is one. Seeing my collective answers to their well-crafted questions reflected back to me gave me a perspective I could not have arrived at on my own. The combination of elements are unique to anything I have ever encountered and I was able to make connections that I would not have otherwise made.
Based on the report, I was able to see that although I was feeling a bit shaky and unsure in my current situation, I did have an optimistic view of my future. Life can be challenging and some days I feel swallowed by uncertainty and even fear. But when asked, I honestly feel optimistic that I am evolving and that something good is cooking within me. I lean on this feedback when my energy and mood are low.
I’ll close with a quote by Warren Buffett that sums up the link between wellbeing and leadership:
The process of becoming a leader is much the same as the process of becoming an integrated human being
Rennee Moorefield, PhD:
https://www.bewellleadwell.com/about-us/
Jacqui Bliss and Renee Reed, owners of Anytime Fitness Bishop Arts District share how they’ve built a great culture through relationship-based leadership and continuous learning. We also talk about how they stay relevant in a changing industry and their experience in growing the business even as their own relationship was tested.
Culture eats strategy for lunch - Peter Drucker
Anytime Fitness Bishop Arts is in the 97th percentile of clubs (of 2,475 clubs) in the Anytime Fitness franchise system and quite easily achieved status as a Platinum Club. Several metrics combine for this designation: member retention, financial results, team member retention, and their PLEASE scores, which are based on the club’s alignment with corporate values.
I have a colleague who likes to say, leaders get the organizations they deserve. Owners Jacqui Bliss and Renee Reed have a lot to be proud of and they are getting exactly what they worked hard for and thus deserve.
A Creative vs Reactive Orientation Jacqui and Renee articulated over and over what they cared about and what they want to bring into being during our conversation. This way of thinking is called a Creative Orientation. Quite simply, keeping your sights on goals, vision, values, and purpose results in more passion and less drama; more sustainable results and fewer rollercoaster rides. Leaders who lead this way build motivated, inspired and high-achieving organizations.
An Inclusive Environment Inclusion and diversity are powerful words these days. The AF BAD club is a microcosm of Oak Cliff, with all the shapes, sizes, ages, races, gay, straight, trans, and decorated people you can imagine. If you’re not comfortable with all that, this probably isn’t the place for you.
Inclusion is good for business and good for humankind.
Staying Relevant Most industries have experienced significant shifts in the past decade or so – just look at the retail, taxi, and news industries as proof. The fitness industry is no exception.
Renee and Jacqui stay relevant by:
- Investing in leadership and organizational development.
- Committing wholeheartedly to their decisions.
- Updating equipment and renovating the space.
- Always researching and learning.
- Using Social Media in positive ways to tell good stories.
If you want to make it in today’s world it requires constant evolution.
Navigating Partnerships Renee and Jacqui beautifully illustrate a new composition. With the same dedication and commitment with which they seem to run the rest of their life, they have made their way to a very positive and respectful business collaboration. They are also parents to an exceptional son and they’re doing a fantastic job in their shared parenting – vacationing and spending holidays together as a family.
Based on the success Jacqui and Renee have experienced in their situation, here are a few questions to consider if you find yourself in one that is similar:
- Re-assess your vision for the business. Do you still feel strongly about it and want it to succeed?
- When the emotional dust particles settle, is your business partner someone who you respect and who you feel has a similar work ethic? Was the business partnership working, even if the life partnership wasn’t?
- Are you willing to ‘do your work’ and learn about your contributions to the breakdown and declare to improve in those areas?
- Can you move past the hurt and work without resentment?
I’m not an expert in this matter, but it seems if you can answer ‘yes’ to these questions you have a good starting point for the next iteration of your evolving business.
Links: Anytime Fitness: https://www.anytimefitness.com
Creative Orientation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LZ7q-BP8YA&t=44s Rise Leaders newsletters: https://mailchi.mp/426e78bc9538/subscribe
To discuss executive coaching, leadership development program design, and workshop facilitation, please visit:
https://rise-leaders.com/contact-info/
Christian’s success in residential development is built on lessons he learned while training as a professional golfer. From mentors like Hank Haney and ‘Psycho Dave’ Esterbrook, he learned how to set and achieve goals, practice with intention and how to work hard. His professional golf plans were shattered due to a back injury when he was 28 years old. In this interview, Christian shares his journey to his current and very fulfilling life.
Passion is the result of a good life design, not the cause.
Bill Burnett & Dave Evans, Designing Your Life: How to Build a Well-Lived, Joyful Life
I knew that Christian’s story would be interesting because while he was building his residential development business he also finished a Masters degree in Transpersonal Psychology at Naropa University in Boulder, CO. This all came on the heels of an existential exit as a professional golfer as a result of a career-ending back injury. Let all that sink in!
He now owns and operates Christian Chernock Properties, a design + build firm in Dallas that focuses on the revitalization of historic and conservation districts. His intellect and focus on sustainable and future-focused design pushes the edges – and some local residents’ buttons, too!
Christian’s background as a high performing athlete and his ongoing commitment to ‘leave it all on the field’ have been instrumental to his success.
The Details Designing a Life: Unbeknownst to me, there is a term for putting intentional thought and then creating a strategy for realizing it: Lifestyle Design. Tim Ferris coined the term in his book, The Four-Hour Work Week. I have always called it ‘visioning’ and do ‘visioning’ work with individual clients and with teams and organizations. In fact, clarity around what one is expending time and resources towards is important, especially as it evolves.
Stanford professors Bill Burnett and Dave Evans have written a fantastic book that applies design thinking principles to life and career: Designing Your Life: How to Build a Well-Lived, Joyful Life.
Self-Awareness Self-awareness means that you are conscious of various aspects of yourself: your thoughts, your feelings and emotions – including emotional and physical responses; your moods; your capabilities; your beliefs and biases; and the impact your behaviors and actions have on others, and more.
Self-awareness is a foundational skill in development and change.
Finding Flow, or Timeless Awareness When faced with the rest of his life ahead of him and previous plans shattered, Christian asked himself where he found passion. Since childhood, he would get lost in designing and building things, first with Legos and then through architecture classes in high school.
Breaking Down Goals Christian’s description and examples of breaking down a vision into smaller goals may be the best I’ve heard.
Luck and wishful thinking don’t make extraordinary achievements happen. We’ve heard of the saying, An overnight success that took 10 years. Look at any level of sustainable achievement and a process like his goal-breakdown and some semblance of deliberate practice underlies it.
Links:
https://fourhourworkweek.com/
http://www.christianchernock.com/
http://hankhaney.com/
Rise Leaders newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/426e78bc9538/subscribe
Dallas City Council Member Chad West shares his vision, the importance of accessibility, community engagement and creating a sense of place.
Citizenship is a chance to make a difference in the place where you belong.
Charles Handy
First a look behind the curtain. I had the chance to see Chad West in action when our technology broke down and his tech-support partner had to switch out his laptop. A half-hour ticked away, and I was getting antsy about having enough time for a meaningful interview.
This breakdown afforded me the gift of eavesdropping on Chad as he continued to work calmly with his assistant in the background, answering a few questions and ultimately delaying his next meeting so that we had enough time for the interview.
Chad had previously shared with me that he is a stickler about keeping commitments. Integrity is high on his list of virtues. I witnessed him walking his talk while also staying kind and generous with employees. This recollection reassures me that we elected the right person for Oak Cliff and for Dallas.
First Impressions and Accessibility * Accessibility to constituents and clients is important to Chad and is expected for a City Council Member (CM). I experienced that firsthand when he personally answered my call and accepted the podcast interview invitation without a previous introduction. * To balance his extreme availability, he’s sure to bake downtime into the end of his day for reading or other solitary activities.
Balancing the Whole and Parts * I wondered about competing commitments between District 1 (D-1, our district) and the City’s vision and goals. + Unique challenges of D1: we’re one of the oldest neighborhoods in Dallas with the original street grid, old infrastructure and tons of new development. * Importance of public engagement: + Neighborhood feedback is very important when trying to encourage developers to include pedestrian & neighborhood-friendly elements in their projects. + Engagement also poses challenges. People will question Chad, and rightly so. While this creates more work, lack of engagement causes a neighborhood to lose its character. + Chad is working to build trust in lower-engagement neighborhoods by attending non-city events and getting to know the neighbors so that they, too, are able to influence their future. * Building relationships and trust with other Council Members is important for moving both the city and individual districts forward.
Holding the Vision + Integrating Thought Leadership * Oak Cliff is a gem with 100-year-old street-car informed grids and adjacent neighborhoods. Bishop Arts is a great example. + In the plans: Oak Farms, a mixed-use development with workforce housing, market-rate housing, retail, and plazas. + Two major streets will be repurposed. The new streetcar between downtown Dallas and North Oak Cliff, pedestrians and bicycles will be routed to one street, with cars on the other. This will improve safety and accessibility. * D Magazine’s New Urbanism edition included an article by Oak Cliff resident and Urbanism expert, Patrick Kennedy: Bishop Arts Can Be a Model for Southern Dallas Development + There’s a focus on preserving single-family neighborhoods; once you take them down you can never get them back. + More trail expansions are in the works, linking people with parks. + A strong sense of place is being ignited.
Reflections + Resources + Practical Applications Building Trust & Relationships
- The Trusted Advisor’s Trust Equation is a helpful way to consider trust and the components of trust.
Holding a Long-Term Vision
- Notice the vision for D-1 has been unfolding for 10 – 20 year. We’re challenged to become ‘decaders’.
- How do you and your organization stay committed and aligned to a long-term vision? What rhythms and structures have you created to support this vision?
Links:
https://bit.ly/2YgebFX
https://bit.ly/2Y2ucPt
https://rise-leaders.com/trust-equation
https://bit.ly/2M83y53
Rise Leaders newsletter: https://bit.ly/2LTNxzV
David shares his thoughts on meaningful work, spotting talent and the complex topic of gentrification. He riffs on developing real estate by reinvigorating beautiful old buildings and how a community developed an independent spirit.
Good work, done well for the right reasons and with an end in mind, has always been a sign, in most human traditions, of an inner and outer maturity. Its achievement is celebrated as an individual triumph and a gift to our societies.
David Whyte, Crossing the Unknown Sea
David Spence is a commercial and residential real estate re-developer in Oak Cliff, Dallas, TX. His specialty is the meticulous re-imagining and re-constructing of beautiful old spaces. If you are familiar with the area, Lucia and Dude, Sweet Chocolate are located in the Bishop Arts Building, his very first project. This is also where the Good Space office is and where we held our interview.
David’s background and credentials include Peace Corp work in Guatemala, an MBA, a law degree and a love (and talent) for fixing up old things. This type of intellectual horsepower, paired with a commitment to community, is not uncommon here in Oak Cliff.
The Integral Nature of Structure, Culture and Individual Capacities * David cites the historic flooding of the Trinity River, which often isolated the southern sector of Dallas. This isolation required that residents develop a sense of independence and resourcefulness. This isn’t exactly the same thing as grit, but those who built successful lives in Oak Cliff likely had it. Even today one has to work a little harder for access to services and other basics of life when they live in Oak Cliff.
A Complex Perspective David shares experiences and opinions on balancing progress and preservation and on gentrification. These are complex topics, as opposed to complicated ones. Knowing the distinction is important if your desire is to make lasting change.
- Progress and Preservation could also be studied through Polarity Management. In short, two positive outcomes (here, progress and preservation) are seen as opposites that can be managed rather than considering them as either/or. The intent is to maximize the positives of each pole and minimize the negative.
Meaningful Work As a kid, David would create useful items, like lamps, out of trashcan finds. He has always been able to see new uses for old things. Today it’s buildings – and he’s really good at it!
Our long-time interests and passions are often clues to our purpose. Have you identified yours? How does it get expressed?
How do you feel about ‘meaningful work’, and do you have it? How do you expand your focus and energy beyond your goals and tasks, to include elevating others? Do you find ways to invest in a community of which you are a member?
Illustrations of David – What happened before recording…
Stakeholder Orientation Before we started, David made a quick call to a residential neighbor of one of his commercial tenants, a small, thriving bar on West Davis Street. The tenant’s lease is coming up for renewal and before he renews it David wants to make sure they are good neighbors. Parking can be an issue in Oak Cliff and the resident tells David that sometimes the bar customers infringe on his property with their parking choices. David offers to yellow-stripe the street so that this doesn’t continue to happen. This gesture serves everyone: the neighbor, David and his tenant, the thriving bar. David is a master at tending to his stakeholders.
It’s a good practice to be consistently aware of those whom your business impacts through stakeholder mapping. Most all businesses have the following stakeholders: customers, employees, community, environment, shareholders. Adding vendors and regulatory agencies is a common practice.
Links:
Polarity Management:
https://rise-leaders.com/polarity-management-summary-introduction/
Stakeholder map:
https://rise-leaders.com/stakeholder-map/
https://jamesclear.com/articles
Rise Leaders Radio is a podcast about Exemplary Leadership. Season 1 highlights leaders in Oak Cliff, a community just south of Downtown Dallas, TX. The land itself has fostered a sense of independence and built resilience and resourcefulness in its citizens; the business and community leaders amplify this. I interviewed several people that tell different stories of leading in Oak Cliff.
Rise Leaders Radio is a podcast focused on Exemplary Leadership. The following statement pretty much sums it up:
At its very essence, leadership is a calling to serve. In a world increasingly at risk, leadership is a vocation that can link diverse people from all walks of life to create remarkable achievements. As such, leaders play a key role in designing a thriving future for all who inhabit this beautiful planet.
Bob Anderson & Bill Adams
Scaling Leadership: Building Organizational Capability and Capacity to Create Outcomes that Matter Most; Wiley, 2019
It feels very appropriate that I launch Rise Leaders Radio with a season focused on movers and shakers in Oak Cliff. This part of Dallas, situated just south of downtown, drew me in like a magnet. My husband and I read about projects and movements initiated by citizens, business and civic leaders in this part of the city and couldn’t get here fast enough. Independence and resourcefulness fueled by passion and intelligence have made living here an ongoing lesson in leadership.
I hope this first season, focused on local leadership, inspires you to appreciate the risks people in your own neighborhood or organization take. Financial investment is only one type of risk. People who take bold steps to actualize their ideas also invest precious time and energy and open themselves up to scrutiny and criticism because not everyone will agree with their ideas. If you are one of these committed citizens or business leaders, thank you for putting yourself out there.
As this Trailer is being edited and published, I am about halfway through my interviews. That’s why you only hear four voices in the trailer, in addition to mine.
A heartfelt thanks go to those that raised their hand to go first and be a guest on the first season. Through these interviews and communication afterward, I’ve had the privilege to deepen my relationship with several of them and hope to circle back to discuss the amazing things I’m learning from and about them.
So far on the show:
Jennifer Touchet and the vision for Twelve Hills Nature Center, bonus interview with Jennifer Stuart, founder of Seedschool
David Spence owner of Good Space
Chad West, Dallas City Council District 1, and Chad West Law, PLCC
Jacqui Bliss and Renee Reed, owners of Anytime Fitness Dallas (Bishop Arts)
Christian Chernock, founder of Christian Chernock Properties (promised)
To subscribe to the Rise Leaders newsletter for more resources: https://mailchi.mp/426e78bc9538/subscribe
To discuss executive coaching, leadership development program design, and workshop facilitation, please visit: https://rise-leaders.com/contact-info/
Season 1 of Rise Leaders Radio is focused on a unique type of entrepreneurial leadership that happens in Oak Cliff (Dallas, TX) at the community, business and civic levels. Jennifer Touchet kicks off the storytelling by sharing how Twelve Hills Nature Center was envisioned, fought for and created by the community. It’s a story of win-win-win with a variety of stakeholders, shared vision, positive politics and power.
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.
– Margaret Mead
I begin Season 1 by interviewing Jennifer Touchet. She played a pivotal role in saving a parcel of land that was slated for re-development at the end of the street where I now live. I was not expecting to learn such deep and transferable lessons from her. I knew by reading the donor names and invocation inscribed in a rock at the entrance of Twelve Hills Nature Center that a significant effort had been undertaken and that someone(s) had been in charge. Jennifer shares wisdom that is useful for anyone, anywhere, leading change.
EASTER EGG ALERT! Stay tuned to the end of this episode to hear my visit to Seedschool, a small school that convenes weekly at Twelve Hills in a converted bus named Matilda. The owner, Jennifer Stuart, is another Oak Cliff Hero. You’ll be delighted by sounds of children learning!
Takeaways from our conversation:
- Use a communication style that invites other perspectives.
- Acknowledge that there are multiple stakeholders. Understand where the power and influence are and who has it through Power Mapping when you’re leading change.
- Start with a shared vision and let it evolve.
- Use inclusive strategies to widen the circle and increase engagement.
- Adopt a ‘win≠ winner take all’ core belief.
- Consider that there are no permanent enemies and no permanent allies.
- Commit for the long term.
Links:
Power-mapping: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_mapping
Follow Twelve Hills Nature Center:
https://twelvehills.org/
Follow Seedschool:
http://www.seedpreschool.org/
Connect to Jennifer:
https://bit.ly/2M92Q7E
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