Archive for Leadership Development
A System for the Soft Side of Leadership
Posted by: | CommentsSitting beside a Cisco Systems manager on the way to Sao Paolo,
Brazil recently reminded me how our Enlightened Leadership work fits
so well for people who are highly educated in a focused area. I’m
talking about areas of formal or informal education like science,
medicine, manufacturing, engineering, business and others during
which process they probably did NOT learn much about bringing out
the best in people!
These bright, talented people have systems and processes for
accomplishing many aspects of their work, Read More→
In this Personal Leadership Series, Jonette Crowley, author and principle of Enlightened Leadership Solutions, presents five tools to assist us in flying, rather than falling during critical times—times of chaos, confusion and conflict.
Following is Tool Number 5.
Number Five is Contribution. As you know, when you do something for someone else, it gets you out of your mess. The trouble is that when people perceive that times are hard, they stop doing for other people. They stop doing things with an open heart. They stop giving to charities. They stop contributing. Contribution spreads joy, and joy goes in all directions. If you’re worried, give. If you’re scared, do. If you’re paralyzed, act. If you like to sing, sing. Contribute, whatever it is. Contribute.
Critical times are only as critical as you think, and flying is much more fun than falling. Do you see how close they are, really? Falling and flying – neither of them have anything to stand on; both of them happen in mid air, both of them ultimately end on the ground. What’s the difference between falling and flying? Are you setting the direction or is gravity? That’s the difference. In flying you set the direction and because of it gravity waits. If you are not setting the direction in your life, gravity takes over.
Let’s talk about something else to help you be a better person: that is the whole idea of waiting. Sometimes waiting is perfect because the time isn’t now. Sometimes you wait for something different to come and save you. You wait for your kids to leave home. You wait for enough money for something. Please let waiting be your friend. Waiting is a wonderful thing when used correctly. If you want to do something, and there’s no flow, the answer isn’t to push and worry. It’s to look with your focus, your intuition, your self, and ask “Where is that flow?” There is always flow. Find it. It may not be going in the direction you thought it should. Finding the flow will help you wait when you should wait and act when you should act.
There are really two kinds of waiting. There is a passive waiting; waiting for someone else to do something. Passive waiting is dangerous because you’ve given up your energy, power and your initiative. Remember the difference between flying and falling? When you’re not actively setting the direction gravity takes over. Passive waiting is just asking for gravity to bring you to the ground. Active waiting is where waiting is a choice, not an excuse. Active waiting is using the stillness of life to easily get what you want. When you are blocked in something in your life, really look and see if you are somehow passively waiting or actively waiting.
So enjoy these times and all times!
What are your thoughts on THIS tool? Please leave your comments below.
Jonette Crowley and the Enlightened Leadership Team
In this Personal Leadership Series, Jonette Crowley, author and principle of Enlightened Leadership Solutions, presents five tools to assist us in flying, rather than falling during critical times—times of chaos, confusion and conflict.
Following is Tool Number 4.
Number four is Enjoy the heck out of it! Take the risk, trust yourself, have a smile on your face and see where the roller coaster takes you. Sometimes when you are facing critical times the first thing you lose is your good humor. You need joy, humor! None of the other tools, Self Acceptance, Focus, Risk Taking mean anything if you’re not enjoying it. Pure joy, silly joy, humor!! One thing people notice about the Dali Lama is that he smiles and laughs. The most important thing is not that he’s a spiritual leader; the most important thing is that he is a man of light. People of light take themselves lightly. Humor is their number one interaction with themselves and the world. If there’s a leader who is somber, dry, and very serious find another mentor. Do not be oppressed by all the things you are doing for others. If you’re not enjoying it, stop. Joy.
This isn’t really a step, but I invite you to stop dramatizing what is so. What is so is just what is so. When we dramatize the good or the bad, we take the truth away from it. So, a hint to make all of these tools for critical times work is to see how much you’re addicted to drama and how it actually is a false sense of joy. It isn’t joyful, it is hollow. It takes you from authenticity and reality.
What are your thoughts on THIS tool? Please leave your comments below.
Jonette Crowley and the Enlightened Leadership Team
In this Personal Leadership Series, Jonette Crowley, author and principle of Enlightened Leadership Solutions, presents five tools to assist us in flying, rather than falling during critical times—times of chaos, confusion and conflict.
Following is Tool Number 3.
Number three is Take Risks. Be that eagle that jumps off the cliff. A risk is only a risk before you do it. Haven’t you been in a situation that seems risky – you’re riding a roller coaster; the worst part of the ride is the part up that first hill. Once you go down, that’s the best part because you’re surrendering to gravity. Risk taking is doing things differently than you’ve done them before, treating people differently than you’ve been treated, trying something you don’t have the recipe for. What is the most dangerous thing in critical times? It is approaching the new horizon in the old vehicle. You don’t get a new vehicle unless you’re willing to change. Change is probably the hardest thing to do in critical times, but risk taking and change are the most important tools. Decide what your tolerance is for change. If you’re comfortable with big change, go for it. If you’re not comfortable with a big change, cut it up and make small changes. If you’re afraid of a big risk, cut it in half and take half of a big risk. Excuses are not acceptable. Excuses are a poor man’s reason for staying poor. Excuses are a poor soul’s reason for staying weak. Excuses are an adolescent’s reason for blaming the rest of the world. Take Risks, no excuses.
What are your thoughts on THIS tool? Please leave your comments below.
Jonette Crowley and the Enlightened Leadership Team
In this Personal Leadership Series, Jonette Crowley, author and principle of Enlightened Leadership Solutions, presents five tools to assist us in flying, rather than falling during critical times—times of chaos, confusion and conflict.
Following is Tool Number 2.
Number two is Focus. If you continue to focus on all the things that you think are going wrong, or worse, the things that might go wrong, you will destroy any sense of peace you’ve managed to attain. You are in charge of your focus. A misguided focus is a misguided life. If you focus on contribution, abundance, self-acceptance, acceptance of others, love and gratitude, you will draw those things to you. As you focus on what might go wrong, what has gone wrong, who’s elected and who isn’t… your focus is like your nose. You go where your nose goes. You go where your focus is. Number one is Self Acceptance because you have to have a self before you can focus. Choose your focus or else it will be chosen for you. If you don’t choose your focus it’s not likely to be where you want it to be. It’s likely to go to the lowest common denominator. It goes to the sludge at the bottom of the pond. It is vital that you realize that you choose your focus. Focus shouldn’t be democratic. 90% of people are generally focused on all that’s going wrong. Don’t go with the majority on this.
What are your thoughts on THIS tool? Please leave your comments below.
Jonette Crowley and the Enlightened Leadership Team
In this Personal Leadership Series, Jonette Crowley, author and principle of Enlightened Leadership Solutions, presents five tools to assist us in flying, rather than falling during critical times—times of chaos, confusion and conflict.
Following is Tool Number 1.
The number one point during critical times should be number one at any time: Self Acceptance.
We can read about this in every how-to book in every bookstore, but it doesn’t mean we’re any better at it. Self-Acceptance. First, Self-Acceptance starts with actually looking at you. You can’t accept yourself if you’re looking in every other direction than inside. In critical times step number one is surrendering to what is—not necessarily agreeing with it, but not resisting or fighting it. That puts you in yourself. It takes you away from the conflict. When you’re focused on your smallness or darkness then you can’t see your grandness. When you focus on your grandness, sometimes you deny the smallness. Darkness, shadow, and light – it takes them all to make a photo. You are all. Surrender to what is. Self-Acceptance.
Think of three current and specific things that are grand about you, that are great, that you’re proud of. You may notice that each one has a specific feeling associated with it. Whatever the feeling is, one at a time let the feeling of those qualities move into your cells until they totally merge with who you are.
Think of three things about you that are your shadow side, things that might be a little dark about you. Think of specific things – only three though. You can be honest; no one is listening to your head. Those have feelings too. They are different than the first 3 feelings in their quality and tone. One at a time, accept those three things as qualities that merge and dissolve into your cells. Self-Acceptance. Notice how you feel. Did those dark things destroy the grand things, or did it make you feel more whole, stable, full, and honest? When you accept not just the idea but also the feeling of all of you, you’re stronger. Accept all of you. If you were perfect you would have wings and a harp. No one ever asked you to be perfect, they ask you to be perfectly you! Feel the solidity and strength of yourself now. Self-Acceptance, the number one tool in critical times.
What are your thoughts on THIS tool? Please leave your comments below.
Jonette Crowley and the Enlightened Leadership Team
The Power of Leading from Gratitude
Posted by: | Comments
Yesterday was Memorial Day in the United States, a very special day
when we take time to be grateful to those who gave that ultimate
sacrifice – their lives – for the freedom of the rest of us.
I was not personally involved in a major celebration. Instead, I took
extra time…
CEO’s or Captains?: Personal Gain or Leadership?
Posted by: | CommentsToday’s Denver Post, highlighted the courage of two heroes:
one, U. S. Airways Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger who
successfully landed his plane on the Hudson River after the
engines became disabled; two, Captain Richard Phillips of the
Maersk Alabama, who allowed himself to be taken by pirates
to save his crew. Both of these men demonstrated courage and
skill, while taking total responsibility for their people in a situation
that could have been beyond their control. These men are not
captains in the military. They are civilians. They are managers.
Like managers everywhere they are in charge of capital
equipment, employees, customers, safety and goals.
Contrast them with the story earlier this week of ex-Qwest CEO
Joe Nacchio beginning to serve his 6-year prison sentence for
nsider trading. His name, adds to the list of wealthy CEO’s of
huge companies sentenced to prison for fraud and other crimes,
executives such as Bernard Ebber of WorldCom and Jeffrey
Skilling of Enron.
These CEO’s and the captains each faced extraordinarily difficult
situations—the CEO’s faced (helped create?) the financial
meltdown of their companies. The captains faced imminent,
perhaps catastrophic danger. The CEO’s acted like emperors,
grabbing riches and surrounding themselves with lawyers. The
captains assessed the situation, behaved as heroes, and in the
case of Captain Phillips, put his own life in danger to protect
his crew.
As managers we each decide daily if we have the true grit to
behave as these captains did, taking full and complete
responsibility for the situation and their charge. We can take
seminars in accountability or we can read the newspapers and
decide who are the real leaders and who we want to be.
by Jonette Crowley, Enlightened Leadership Solutions, Inc.
Leading Change: Does it fit your circumstances?
Posted by: | CommentsA frequent question relates to types of change
and size of organization that “Leading Change
in Difficult Times” best fits.
Watch this six minute video to get that clarification!
Just three more days before we close registration.
Let us know any questions you might have below!
The Enlightened Leadership Team
Apologies from Ed Oakley About Leading Change
Posted by: | CommentsHi Everyone,
Thanks to some feedback from a true friend, we realize we didn’t tell you what actually would be in the “Leading Change in Difficult Times” webinar series by module. Duh! That’s a problem, and the video below addresses that.
If the series contents interest you, then please watch the 10:30 video below, OR READ the information below the video.
To register for the webinar series, GO HERE
Written Information About the “Leading Change in Difficult Times” is below:
Well, I’m a little embarassed. I received some pretty important
feedback a little while ago that I had not given you enough Read More→
