You cannot separate peak performance from passion, focus and wellbeing. This implies wellness and being-ness. Good health, presence and peace of mind are equally important to top performance as is knowledge and skill. Being interested – focused and passionate about what you do is critical to your success over time. How you attend to something says everything about you and your results.

Our culture focuses so much on over-the-top dynamic doing that we forget that we are human beings not human doings. We are not endless wells of energy but need filling up with what nourishes us to expend more energy – to be infused with a spirit not just a flat obligation.

Have you ever experienced that flow where you are totally focused, working hard on something but also completely relaxed and at ease? Is this a paradox? No. This is the way we are meant to be. Our minds complicate our expression sometimes.

I’ve had “the flow” when painting a picture, facilitating a workshop or reading to my daughter. They all take focus and a certain amount of skill, experience, knowledge or talent. I enjoy these activities but how do I know I am “really on” and performing them well?

Ultimately it’s about other’s feedback and the objective results. Does the painting evoke thought and emotion in others? Is paint skillfully applied? Do workshop participants understand and respond to my questions? Did they learn something? Did their learning effect their life or job performance? Is my daughter engaged in the story? Did the way I read the story engage her to step into another land or character’s mind?

Identify something you are good at and love to do. Can you do more of it? I guarantee this will impact all areas of your life and work.

© Copyright 2012 Sage Leadership Strategies, LLC All rights Reserved.               www.sagelead.com

Einstein said, “The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.”

As a Leader a key piece of your job is to clearly articulate your vision and get others excited about it and acting on it. If you don’t have followers, you aren’t a leader.

This task requires you to leverage imagination and empathy. First, you imagine a world that is different than what you currently see and experience. Second, you empathize with your constituents. Empathy requires that, if you don’t have their experience, as JK Rowling says, you use your imagination to empathize with them. This means you “feel with” them and/or create an idea of what you think their experience is. In doing so, you are best able to translate your vision and articulate why it should matter to them.

Rowling says Empathy is the rare gift we humans have that separates us from many other creatures of the world. We can “learn and understand without experience.”

And we are all gifted in one way or another with our ability to refuse to know. When we don’t exercise our empathy muscle, “we become masters at colluding in apathy.”

When you don’t have empathy for your constituents, they feel it and you are disconnected. They are not onboard – don’t get it or don’t care. It is your ability to enter your constituents’ world that will truly allow you to understand what is required of you – and them – to achieve a different world together.

© Copyright 2012 Sage Leadership Strategies, LLC All rights Reserved.               www.sagelead.com

Fall down 7 times, get up 8. This is an ancient Japanese proverb. I’ve been told the literal translation is: “Always rising after a repeated fall.” Sticking with it after not getting the results you want, time and again. That is dedication.

Commitment requires you to be resolved no matter what challenges life throws at you.

Meditation requires you go back to your breath or focal point, no matter how distracted you get. Just keep bringing your awareness back. I had many stops and starts for years before I was able to develop a consistent, daily meditation practice. And I was only able to do this with an energy lift from my class while going through an intensive teacher training on the subject. Yep. It took that much effort to get me to stick with it most of the time. Am I perfect at it? No.

Because I am human and I allow life to get in the way, I occasionally miss a practice. The point is to keep trying with the knowing that I can get back to it and it produces results.

Am I perfect at all my commitments? No.

My belief is that if I keep trying, I will achieve my dream or goal.

Ultimately it comes down to expectations and reality checks. Do you expect yourself to get it, whatever “it” is on the first, second or third try? Do you give up? Or do you learn from failing and trying again? Why does our culture not value failure as being the ultimate teacher – if one chooses to get up again? When was the last time you practiced compassion and forgiveness toward yourself?

Commitment, Meditation: off-focus 7 times, on-focus 8. In these times of ADHD, we could all use a little discipline and re-orientation now and again. Perfection not required. Only those with an open heart and willingness need apply.

© Copyright 2012 Sage Leadership Strategies, LLC All rights Reserved.               www.sagelead.com

Check out Mike Myatt’s 5 Leadership Tips for 2012.

He makes some wonderful points – and I agree with his areas. Yet I suggest collapsing the areas and have a concerted focus on one area that will impact the other four areas.

Many of my executive coaching clients focus on changing 3-5 areas over the course of a year. This dissipates effort and can marginalize results. I have found that consistent and concerted effort in one leverage area can give you greater results in a deep, sustained way which can be a better return on your investment of time and energy.

In my post yesterday, I made this radical suggestion – to just focus on one thing. When one more effectively manages the white space it can support being more present. Living in the now and making minute-by-minute choices within a long-term perspective will transfer to the kind of choices Myatt suggests.

If one is truly living in the present then they: don’t miss opportunities, postpone decisions or numb themselves to feeling okay about not spending time with family, they listen more, are more curious to learn beyond knowledge, are more engaged, and are aware if they do want to pick up that book.

Living in the whitespace to support mindful leadership could be a cornerstone for Myatt’s tips. What do you think?

By the way, Mike I am so impressed with the volume of reading you do – and I am an avid reader myself. I’m wondering if you read 10 less books and focused more on being versus doing, how your leadership experience might be different? Just a thought that came to me while I sat idle for a moment before finishing writing this post.

© Copyright 2012 Sage Leadership Strategies, LLC All rights Reserved.         www.sagelead.com

…Or in some cases let there be white space.

Whether you are leading your business, life or family, I suggest exercising more of just one behavior that can make all the difference: manage the white space. This means:

• Giving yourself more breathing room
• Exercising the option to say no more
• Not jam-packing your day by scheduling every minute

If you’re like me – a recovering perfectionist – I sometimes schedule down time – I block an hour or two, a day or a week.

Allow downtime where you do things to foster:

• Insight
• Integration
• Reflection
• Creativity
• Renewal and Energy

If you can’t manage yourself and your own energy, then you can’t manage or lead your constituents: whether they are your board, employees, customers, spouse or children.

Since all relationships ultimately are connected to the relationship you have with yourself, and you are all you can control – it starts and ends with you.

The white space is the seed that ultimately leads to being more present. The ability to be more present will give you all the rest: answers and support you need to manage whatever comes up this year.

If 2011 was a year of challenge and transformation, 2012 promises to be a year of possibility – integrating and solving the seemingly impossible…magic!

© Copyright 2012 Sage Leadership Strategies, LLC All rights Reserved.         www.sagelead.com

All great things are born out of chaotic, forming – creative – energy. So this is a time of great transformation potential!
How do you manage yourself amidst the chaos swirling around you – whether it is the fluctuation of the markets, your business or the temperaments of those around you?

You get your own energy in sync and balanced – to stay grounded and nimble in the creativity space. Be – embody – the calm in the eye of the storm.

Tomorrow, I am leading a Naam Abundance Meditation at UUCD at 24 Clapboard Ridge Road, Danbury, CT . A $12 donation goes to the space.

This is a music meditation and we will focus on synchronizing your energy to optimally take advantage of these crazy times!

Open to the public – with or without prior meditation experience. Bring a pillow, yoga mat or something comfortable to sit on.

Yesterday for my (milestone!) birthday, my husband gave me an airplane flying lesson. I’ve wanted to learn since I was 17.

I had a one hour lesson with 30 minutes in the air. This occurred two days after Hurricane Irene yet it was amazing how calm, brilliant, blue and clear the sky was. I walked away with many insights related to life and work that I will be blogging about for the next week.

Within minutes of landing in the cockpit, I was on information overload: My instructor explained the takeoff checklist, the different dashboard tools, how to steer, keep the airplane nose and tips level, etc. I enjoyed the experience knowing HE ultimately had control of the vehicle so I didn’t have to retain everything. Whew – nothing like having a safety net! Like learning to ride a bike – this was as much a visceral as an intellectual experience. I had to steer with my feet. Talk about feeling uncoordinated! I needed to get in touch with my toes while my eyes made sure I was level with the horizon.
Taking Off

The only way that we continue to grow is to put ourselves in situations that are stretching or foreign. If life doesn’t present us with challenging experiences then it is up to us to actively seek them out. This is how we grow beyond what we know and can do. Otherwise, we replicate the same experiences which breeds complacency and ultimately, atrophy of body or mind.

Do you want to be renewed or get a fresh perspective on your career, relationship or work project? Take on learning something new, however small. You’ll be amazed at what else you’ll learn as it keeps you young by creating new brain cells which gives you access to new insights and actions.

© Copyright 2011 Sage Leadership Strategies, LLC All rights Reserved. www.sagelead.com

…at least in your own mind. You can’t control what changes around you. But you can control your response to change. Come join us today at noon for a one hour relaxing meditation that will rewire your brain to handle incoming chaos.

24 Clapboard Ridge Road, Danbury, CT

You can experience better focus, more relaxation and optimal decision-making using Naam Brain Tools™.
Come to our monthly Naam Abundance Meditation and experience the difference. This will lay the groundwork for a prosperous life or business.

We meet once a month on the first Saturday of the month. Tomorrow is our next Meditation 12-1, at:
24 Clapboard Ridge Road, Danbury, CT.

© Copyright 2011 Sage Leadership Strategies, LLC All rights Reserved. www.sagelead.com

In “Neuroscience and Leadership: The Promise of Insights,” Richard Boyatzis discusses implications of recent studies that say a leader’s emotional state effects their employees – in as quickly as 8 milliseconds. That’s instantly. This is reminiscent of Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink.

“Our unconscious emotional states are arousing emotions in those with whom we interact before we or they know it. And it spreads from these interactions to others.”

Science is catching up with what many of us know intuitively. You know if your boss is having a good or bad day. You can feel their energy as they walk by. This is actually their electromagnetic field preceding them and you literally sense it.

Do you really need these studies to tell you it’s better to be social and engage your employees in positive, hopeful discussions versus being negative and only focusing on metrics?

What’s new is Boyatzis and Goldman, etc. continue to pave the way for making it okay for leaders to talk about “having techniques to notice [your] feelings (i.e., know that you are having feelings and become aware of them), label or understand what they are (i.e., giving a label to vague or gnawing sensations), and then signal yourself that you should do something to change your mood and state.”

Therapy or Coaching? Does it matter the label as long as we stay clear on the business goals and context to support more of your engaging, positive self showing up with your employees. The reality is coaching steals techniques from therapy and vice versa. The lines are blurred. Fostering greater emotional awareness doesn’t mean necessarily putting someone into psychoanalysis. The end goal is to have the leader “be” in such a way that s/he engenders an open environment where employees can do their most creative work. Isn’t this what all leaders want?

© Copyright 2011 Sage Leadership Strategies, LLC All rights Reserved. www.sagelead.com