Passionate Leadership

For some of us, leadership conjures up images of the powerful CEO at the helm of the successful corporation forging a new acquisition or a community activist pushing forward to represent the voice of the unheard. For others, leadership invokes association with words such as influential, mighty, prevailing, guide, significant and/or serving. Leadership is often thought of in the realm of profession and/or service to others. 

How do you feel about these images and words if you apply them to you and your life? Do you see yourself as a leader? If so what images and words describe you as a leader? Is it uncomfortable or fearful to think about? Have you defined yourself as a leader but feel as if you’re playing a part written for someone else?

The truth of the matter is that every one of us is called at some point in our lives to provide leadership. Whether it be to lead in the workplace, our family life or ourselves we all have what it takes to fulfill this role beautifully.

Over the next coming year, let’s explore leadership and the characteristics that you already have within you to fulfill the role(s) that are your destiny. Plus we’ll add some tweaking & techniques to help develop the “you” that you want to become along the way.

Let’s talk a little about passion. Doug Dickerson wrote, “the boundaries of your leadership are limitless if you are devoted to developing your personal leadership skills,” in his book "Leaders Without Border.” In fact there is an entire chapter in the book that focuses on passion.

Every person’s gifts, talents, abilities and passions are different leading them on their own distinct personal journey. Bob Buford says, “It is discovering what’s true about yourself, rather than overlaying someone else’s truths on you or injecting someone else’s goals into your personality.” This discovery is understanding your true passion as a leader and can be ultimately life transforming.

Doug Dickerson challenges those of us searching to define or better understand our passion with these 3 questions: 

• What tugs at your heart?
• What is your gift? 
• What is your purpose?

Okay some of you are thinking this is way too touchy-feely for me. “I just want to lead my team better or get that promotion.” Wait – - let’s talk about how this passion takes you to that goal.

Passion is what gets you up early, helps you pull the late nighters, implores you to make the necessary sacrifices and allows you to enjoy the journey. It is the driving force that takes us from average to great. Passion has a way of stretching us and calling upon courage from reserves that we did not know exist.

While there are nuts and bolts to leadership 101, it starts and most importantly is our passion that gives us resiliency. It is what separates the average and empowers the great. It inspires others. And these are the things that will put that team that works like a well-oiled machine, a promotion, respect from family and many other tangible rewards in your life.

Stress and Overwhelm

Think… 
…fit through stress not in spite of stress
…meeting requirements in a chaotic world
…managing your emotions under intense pressure

Resilience is defined as the capability of a strained body to recover its size and shape after deformation caused especially by compressive stress. Basically stress is a part of life that believe it or not we all need.

Our resilience or ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change is in the attitude that we choose to take. Do we see ourselves as fit through stress not in spite of stress? We fail when we become brittle and unable to absorb more stress. Instead, view stress as a challenge, something to solve rather than an attack upon us. Think of our immune systems. A robust immune system can resist diseases that will kill some people and poor immune systems are not hardy enough to resist incoming diseases.

If you think that you can set up concrete barriers to keep stress at bay, think again. You are wrong. Stress is life. Life is stress. A rich and good life is a life lived out there in the real world, the bustling world, the sometimes scary world.

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Blocks, Fears and Phobias

Releasing them and use that stored up energy
for strong forward drive.
From resistance to resilience

Fear is the oldest and strongest emotion of mankind. Now this is both good and bad. Good? Yes. Fear, and its fright, flight and fight behaviors that follow clearly serve us well in many an situation. They remove us for the source of danger. Without the mechanism of fear that snake would get us, that tiger would eat us.

Yet fear has a another, different face. “Fears are educated into us, and can, if we wish, be educated out” (Karl Augustus Menninger). The fears that we hold so dear to us, that accompany us daily are mostly of the second variety. “I’m not good enough” “They won’t like me.” “No matter how hard I try, I’ll fail”. Thoughts like these, the ones that zoom around in our mind again and again are conditioned. So, they can be un-conditioned. And thanks to new technologies of mind (Neuro-linguistic-programming) and body (biofeedback) and energy psychology (EFT, Thought Field Therapy, Be Set Free Fast, Matrix Reimprinting) overcoming these types of fears is relatively simply nowadays.

The same holds true for blocks and phobias. Blocks, fears and phobias drain our energy and mental capacities in the same manner that holding on to emotions such as anger and unforgiveness do. The successful person learns how to release these negatives and put that stored up energy to good use driving forward to achieving all that they were created to.

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Point of Change

Point of Change Coaching^TM Process

You will notice that one of the services I offer is called Point of Change Coaching. What I thought to reinforce this with today, is how my personalized Point of Change Coaching program can help you when you feel as if you have reached your ‘performance ceiling.’

By this I mean that you may believe you are operating at the very limit of your peak mental performance and yet you still need or want to deliver beyond what you are now.

You might be one of those professionals who wants to constantly outperform yourself. To reach new heights, face and conquer new challenges and continually ‘push the envelope’, so to speak.

On the other hand, you may need to respond to external pressures, demands and expectations. You need to keep your job or are driven to secure a better, more rewarding one. You are suddenly expected to perform and deliver beyond your current perceived capacity. You need to supercharge your performance to get that promotion or increase, and so on.

Either way, you want a sure-fire way to quick and effective solutions. But not just a quick fix. Functional and practical tools and strategies that will ensure lasting, positive change. Let's take a closer look….

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Performance Coaching: Peak Mental Performance

Achieving Peak Mental Performance and More

Corporate performance coaching comes in many forms. For instance, executive coaching, performance management training, management development training, leadership coaching and training, stress management, brain training and much more.

The purpose of any management training needs to be aligned with company performance goals and objectives. What are your corporate goals? How do you plan to reach and exceed them? Do you have the resources necessary to effectively manage your growth? Do you and your management team have everything that is necessary to out-perform your competition and remain profitable in your market sector?

In an ideal situation, your management team is probably highly qualified at what they do best – management, sales, accounting, technology – or whatever your areas of specialization are. However, in today’s challenging and competitive corporate environment, executives and management need to have advanced and effective skills, behaviors, attitudes and standards towards themselves, their colleagues and their customers.

Here we are talking about superior ‘life’ skills, as opposed to business, academic or technical skills. Heightened awareness and access to tools and techniques that will help you best cope with modern-day business demands.

And these demands of your daily business routine can often become overwhelming. How well equipped are you to cope with what your business day throws at you? Which critical areas of your performance have you identified as needing urgent attention? How much would you and your company benefit from a tailor-made Corporate Performance Coaching program? Let's find out….

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Building upon excellence and success to the next level

Building upon excellence and success to the next level

Rebooting from crisis mode to success and well-being mode

“There is ALWAYS a solution to the problem, and pssst….it’s normally there just around the corner.” 

Let’s get it straight. We are ALL competent, capable and talented. We ALL have the skills that we need to create the life that we envision.  Then problems come up.  Life happens.  This simply means that life pushes us to a new level of responsibilities.  So “where do I go from here?”

You will find that you go through 3 important steps on your way to answering that question.  The first is to “reboot.”  You have to put this new life stumble or new responsibility into perspective.  See it as merely a small stumbling block on the path to your dream and the life want to enjoy.  Clarify your goal. Clarify your vision.  Get clear.

Next figure out what got you stuck in the first place.  Read More

Critical Incidents and Anger

Today’s world of chaotic change and barrage of rapidly changing expectations seemingly is affecting everybody. Many of us “major in minors,” the rest of us “minor in majors.”

Stress level rising? Do you feel your personality shifting and not quite sure you like what you see? Feeling thin-skinned or feeling the need to control yourself more than usual? Your future look dimmer?

But think about it. Really, what’s gone astray here?

The other day I was traveling with a woman I know for a quick R&R trip to Charleston. We were taking a brief respite from our normal life, chilling. Out there on the interstate was another car. With a not so chilled driver at its helm. In the left hand lane and, ironically, at going at a snail’s pace. And me wanting to pass – on the left as I was taught (a long, long time ago). So without thinking I flashed him from behind with one sole flash of the headlights. Wrong move! From that point on for the next several minutes he played tag with me. In front of me, behind me, beside me. Close-up. Then came the things tossed out of his windows at my car. What could have ended up badly didn’t. He exited. I continued….

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Information Overload

Crushed under the weight of daily information needs? Notice yourself making mistakes and spending more time correcting them? Make decisions with speed and confidence!

The age of technology, rapid information processing and increasing expectations are upon us. Down deep we know that we are proficient and possess all of the skills needed to accomplish our goals. However the ever-changing world has some of us making more mistakes, working in reactive mode, constantly back-tracking and letting the little voice of insecurity creep in. It is high time to put all of that aside and remember what we are made of. We get perspective about where we want to be.

What motivates you deeply? In life? In your career? Why did you really take that job, marry that person or start that family in the first place? Give yourself plenty of time to ferret out the answers. And when you’ve got them, savor it! Reflect forward seeing vividly the life that you will have. Now reflect backwards again remembering your key drives. Now then RELAX.

Take this challenge and let me know how it works for you….

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Learning Development

How to get and keep the information, knowledge, skills, tasks, jobs, and responsibilities.

Know that without a shadow of a doubt that you can get and keep the information, knowledge, skills, tasks, jobs, responsibilities that are vital to your success. And know that it’s just simple human nature to want to trudge back to your comfort zone. We humans just don’t like change too much. That’s biologically in our genes. It helps us to survive in a round-about way. So don’t let yourself be shocked when you find yourself questioning your learning capabilities. Every profession has core competencies that are required. I have never met a professional unable to learn a new competency easily. The trick is to learn how to rid yourself of the beliefs and/or environment that blocks learning.

People that have to learn new competencies have to be willing to take the risk. Taking that risk means not focusing on the perceived consequences of your actions. Instead focus on moments in your life where you’ve succeeded very well in learning something. Now, and this is big, know that this absolutely is still in you and that you can still do it. Banish the lingering “I’m too old, slowing down, not smart enough, too much to lose” doubts. Taking the time to work on your self-doubts is huge and working on any environmental conditions holding you back will give you the confidence to take the risk and master the learning that you so desire.

Reining in a weary, chaotic brain…harnessing it to focus at will

Living in a messy, confused corporate present?

• Rein in a chaotic brain
• Setting goals and reaching them