“You do what you have to do…” I heard it again this morning.

Says who? Who says you HAVE to do something? What DO you Have to do? Who decides?

I find that this is a pervasive paradigm that I hear multiple times a day from:

• An executive who is working globally taking calls at 5 am, 10 am, 1 pm, 6 pm and 11 pm AND managing meetings and emails inbetween.
• A working Mom who says she doesn’t have more quality time with her kids.
• A mid-career professional who “can’t get a job” in their field and takes something way below skill level to “get by.”

The language is limiting, not-strategic, and defeatist and energy-draining. It negates the notion of choice and control. I haven’t been living in a cave the last couple of years – I am aware of the economic downturn, the global political climate, the environmental crisis – should I go on?

The key question that a sage leader asks is – what do I REALLY NEED to do to achieve my goals? Where do I have choices? What are the choices? What kind of focus and discipline do I need to stick to my choices?

The sage leader stays in the space of proactivity versus reactitivity – especially in times of uncertainty and crisis. Often a shift really comes down to going back to basics: delegate, being willing to let go and not trying to do everything – and all at once. What is the one thing that will reset your view – What DO you WANT to do?

Why? What will it get you?

© Copyright 2010 Sage Leadership Strategies, LLC  All rights reserved.  www.sagelead.com

The question I pose to you today is – what is your calling? How are you uniquely positioned, given your life experience and background, personally and professionally to answer a question that the world is asking NOW? This translates to, how do you fill a need that the world has now – at this point in history?

The mediums of social networking and the internet are potentially very powerful and transforming communication highways and tools to bring people together in service of a collective good.

These times are about connection and integration… and about clearing the name of capitalism – making it okay to make money. It’s about conscious capitalism – it’s about HOW you make money and WHAT you do with the money you make. Are you contributing back to the collective good or is it all about you – as an individual or as a company? How do you BE the strong warrior with a compassionate heart?

© Copyright Sage Leadership Strategies, LLC     All rights reserved.   www.sagelead.com

I don’t think we can give enough weight to how our beliefs shape what we manifest in our day-day lives. The Sage Leader is one who understands the power of his or her mind and the power of the words he or she uses.

We become what we think about and what we talk about. The problem is, we are not always aware of what our mind is thinking below the surface. “The devil is in the details!” Below the surface is what we have absorbed or what has been conditioned into us. It is amazing how, a phrase or look someone gave us 10, 20, or 30 years ago can have such a profound effect on how we perceive ourselves and how we navigate through our lives and our work.

Maybe someone said you were brillliant – and you believed it – rightly or wrongly – in “absolute” terms. Maybe someone said you were not too bright – and you believed them.

The Sage Leader is one who excavates and mines her mind - she explores and looks at her underlying beliefs. Which beliefs serve you to be as great as you can be? Which ones serve you to help others be their best selves? Which ones don’t serve you?

How committed are you REALLY to maximizing your life and your contribution as a leader? How CONVICTED are you? Catch yourself – just for today – doing or saying something that is empowering and expansive.

Let the rest fall away.

© Copyright Sage Leadership Strategies, LLC    All Rights Reserved.

I don’t understand why The Golf Writers Association of America boycotted Woods’s reading of his statement, saying the news conference should have been opened to all accredited media and the golfer should have taken questions. It was most honorable that he made such a deep and heartfelt public apology asking for forgiveness from his family, friends, fans and sponsors.

Let’s be honest with ourselves, it is very difficult and painful to admit our mistakes and transgressions to ourselves let alone broadcast it to the world. Is this about understanding and healing or making a buck? How much does the public really have “rights to” the details of a public figure’s private life especially at a sensitive time of healing when they have retreated from their public obligations? 

Yes, a lot of people have a financial and emotional investment in Tiger Woods – so he should be accountable to them for that, given he is a public figure. Beyond this, I don’t think it is necessary or “right” for them to dictate HOW he apologizes.

© Copyright Sage Leadership Strategies, LLC             www.sagelead.com

There are a number of significant differences with Tiger’s situation. He has taken time out to reassess his life through intensive therapy. He apologized and acknowledged that he thought he was entitled – he doesn’t get to play by different rules than everyone else. I have never heard such sentiments from a powerful public figure. He apologized to the children for whom he is a role model. He appears genuine.

The road to true transformation is messy and chaotic with no quick fixes. He acknowledged he is at just the very beginning of this process. The challenge of any great leader who is at the top of their field is to not to allow their ego to run their life. When their success comes with a lot of money and a lot of people riding on this money, the stakes and temptations are even higher.

My biggest hope for Tiger’s reform is in his approach – taking full accountability for his actions and trying to protect his family from further damage and exposure – and above all else where he rests his ultimate solution – to rebalance his spiritual life with his professional life. He is looking to reclaim his spiritual foundation and values – and recognizes he can’t do it alone. He needs the support and help of the very same people he has disappointed. This humility is the way of the sage leader.

Ultimately, I am with Elin – true atonement comes over time seeing a real change in behavior. Tiger has made the necessary first step – asking for forgiveness. This requires something on all our parts – understanding and giving him and his family privacy to journey through this difficult process.

For the judges in the audience, please remember the great adage: all saints were once sinners and all sinners can be saints.

© Copyright Sage Leadership Strategies, LLC                 www.sagelead.com

I am not excusing Tiger Woods from his digressions in any way.

However, given all the many public figures whom have fallen from grace due to transgressions – sexual, money or otherwise – his apology appears to be one of the most authentic and heartfelt.

He did not express a dismissive “I’m sorry,” nor is he indicating this is all past him. Instead he paints a very realistic picture that he has just begun a journey of healing that requires intensive treatment and will take time. As with any healing process, he is starting with trying to make amends – in his own words – he has a lot “to atone for.”

Many disgraced public leaders make apologies after much pressure from the media and their constituents. For those skeptics who say he’s doing this because there is a lot of money riding on his comeback, I say, pay attention to HOW he made his apology – the tone and tenor – and you will see a sincerity that I have not witnessed with other fallen leaders.

© Copyright Sage Leadership Strategies, LLC           www.sagelead.com

A great leader is in command of navigating the nooks and crannies and ups and downs of life.  A friend recently emailed me this “handbook” for life. There are a ton of emails and blogs out there with similar stuff but I liked how this is categorized, practical and simple. It starts with health, which is the foundation for your life. When you master your personality, you can get out of your own way so you can contribute to society. This is how to have a happy life. Enjoy.

HANDBOOK 2010

    Health:
    1. Drink plenty of water.
    2. Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a beggar.
    3. Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants and eat less food that is manufactured in plants.
    4. Live with the 3 E’s — Energy, Enthusiasm and Empathy
    5. Pray.
    6. Play more games.
    7. Read more books than you did in 2009.
    8. Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day.
    9. Sleep for 7 hours.
    10. Take a 10-30 minutes walk daily. And while you walk, smile.

    Personality:
    11. Don’t compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
    12. Don’t have negative thoughts or things you cannot control. Instead invest your energy in the positive present moment.
    13.. Don’t over do. Keep your limits.
    14. Don’t take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
    15. Don’t waste your precious energy on gossip.
    16. Dream more while you are awake
    17. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
    18. Forget issues of the past. Don’t remind your partner with His/her mistakes of the past. That will ruin your present happiness.
    19. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone. Don’t hate others.
    20. Make peace with your past so it won’t spoil the present.
    21. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.
    22. Realize that life is a school and you are here to learn. Problems are simply part of the curriculum that appear and fade away like algebra class but the lessons you learn will last a lifetime.
    23. Smile and laugh more.
    24. You don’t have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.

    Society:
    25. Call your family often.
    26. Each day give something good to others.
    27. Forgive everyone for everything.
    28. Spend time w/ people over the age of 70 & under the age of 6.
    29. Try to make at least three people smile each day.
    30. What other people think of you is none of your business.
    31. Your job won’t take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will. Stay in touch.

    Life:
    32. Do the right thing!
    33. Get rid of anything that isn’t useful, beautiful or joyful.
    34. GOD heals everything.
    35. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
    36. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
    37. The best is yet to come.
    38. When you awake alive in the morning, thank GOD for it.
    39. Your Inner most is always happy. So, be happy.

    Last but not the least:
    40. Please Forward this to everyone you care about, I just did.

Author Uknown

It’s not yet a week from New Year’s and you are back at work. The first day back it is fun to catch up with everyone and hear about their holidays. You have a grace period to reorient back to reality.

The second day in, the slipslider invades. This is what I call what happens when you start to come off the high of your new year’s resolution. Day two it’s time to get serious. Whether it is an official resolution or just an intention, I invite you to focus on how you want this year to be different than last year. What do you want to create or get rid of?

If you really want to create a new and different experience this year then you need to velcro the energy and inspiration you had at new year’s to your brain so you don’t allow the potential for negative thoughts to invade and derail you. The sage leader understands that post-holiday and mid-winter blues can easily invade the best laid plans.

I am in Connecticut, USA, and we are under about a foot of snow…so it can be a cozy and hibernating or depressing – sun depletion time, depending upon what you allow in. I find the cold invigorating and the quiet of the snow inspirational. If you are experiencing the post-holiday letdown, make sure to invite in a blanket of comfort and something that will allow you to stick to your vision of the new you in the new year. You want it to be untouchable like teflon amidst changes – in your moods, in your team, in the economy.

Tenacity is the wisdom of success.

Copyright 2010 Sage Leadership Strategies, LLC      www.sagelead.com

We are seeing the fall-out of leaders everywhere who live disconnected from their heart. They make decisions based on pure logic and rationale without consideration of the impact on people’s lives. Much of this activity is related to making money. Whether it’s the likes of a Maddoff, a business leader engaging in insider trading or politicians conducting money laundering schemes… 

These times are revealing a crisis of integrity and ethics - which are present when you are authentic and heart-centered - being in touch with how you feel and what you know deep in your being to be right and true. There are no shortcuts…

Making money is good and using your logic and rationale are good. They need to be integrated with the whys and hows of it all. Why are you making money – to what end purpose do you serve? How do you go about making money – with honesty and respect for others?

Change the paradigm - we need both head AND heart. It IS possible to make money honestly, with passion and doing what you love without adverse impact on others. What can you do today to reconnect, rediscover and reclaim your heart connection – what you know to be true and in right livelihood with yourself and your world?

In the wise words of Sarah Ban Breathnach: “Only the heart knows what’s working in our lives. The heart is our authentic compass. If we consult her, the heart can tell us if we’re headed in the right direction.”

Come about if you need to.

Copyright 2009 Sage Leadership Strategies, LLC        www.sagelead.com

Recently I attended a reunion of HR Professionals who are former GE employees at Crotonville, GE’s Leadership Development Center. I was impressed that Jeff Immelt came and spent time with us – mostly answering our questions. My question: What are your greatest learnings as a leader and what advice would you give someone early in career who hopes to have your job one day?

His candid, thoughtful response:

Perseverance. You can’t be in this business these days and not have perseverance.

Listening. It’s not that it was a development need for me, but I have learned just how important deep listening is.

Bringing people along with you. Loyalty in times of crisis is key. I have been through 3 recessions in 8 years.

Other key comments:

The future of GE is outside the United States. American companies must have a global footprint. The new currency of business is who has jobs in the U.S. We can’t keep exporting jobs.

My lesson from the Board is to question: “What is the value of financial services?” This business will be smaller but now is not the time to get out.

As a country and as a company, we can’t take our reputation for granted.

Copyright 2009 Sage Leadership Strategies, LLC             www.sagelead.com