Today is the time to work with nature’s energy of the new moon and plan for what you want more of in the new year. I am not talking about a resolution. Those don’t usually work past January 15th.

Take mental and emotional inventory of what you want more of next year. What served you, worked well. What didn’t you have this year that you want to have in your life? Focus on the possibilities - what you want to grow in your work and life. What you focus on expands and grows, and when you align it to the natural energies at play today, it makes it easier and more expansive.

Today is the day to plant the seeds on fertile ground. Befriend your imagination and plan for what if… What have you got to lose but the safety of what you currently know?

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

The best gift we can give loved ones over the holidays is to truly be present.

“The holidays are a good time to renew your heart connection with people. Make that your focus and priority. Spend more time enjoying people and their holiday spirit and it can help rekindle your holiday spirit. A great way you can enjoy more of the holiday spirit is by keeping your focus on genuinely appreciating and caring for others. Ask yourself each morning, ‘Who can I show a little more appreciation to, or who can I express more genuine care for today?’ It can be as simple as opening the door for someone or telling people that you appreciate them. Genuine gestures of care and appreciation are often remembered long after the holiday glitter is gone. You’ll find this is a fun gift for others and a big gift to yourself.”

Excerpts from Tips To Prevent Holiday Stress And Avoid Faking The Holiday Spirit article, Huffington Post Dec. 2009 by Doc Childre and Deborah Rozman, Ph.D

Courtesy of the Institute of HeartMath:

“Into your heart, pour generous quantities of love and care. Stir gently and sincerely. If the mixture is lumpy, add compassion and forgiveness and continue stirring ’til the lumps are dissolved. You may find bubbles of hope rising to the surface. Taste-testing at this point is encouraged. Although you will find the mixture already flavorful, you can enhance it by adding appreciation.
Appreciation for the qualities of your heart, for friends and family, or for this special time of year are all excellent flavor choices. Garnish with a sprig of joy and serve in large spoonfuls to everyone you meet this holiday season.”

Does this sound contradictory? It is possible to be connected to your constituents but not be tied to your pervasive electronic device of choice - wireless laptop, blackberry, I-phone, cell phone? 

In this age of information, accessibility and turbulent changes, it’s understandable that you want to stay connected - to your customers, to your people, and to your suppliers. But, what does it mean to be connected? Is it to be personally on top of the needs, changes or ensuring this work gets done? How honest are you with yourself in making this distinction?

Without sleep and some sense of downtime you lose your edge – your ability to be on, energized and focused. Even your blackberry needs to be recharged occasionally. As a society we have changed our addictions from health, exercise, relationships, and work to our portable devices. What is driving this? Is it fear of losing the next deal? Fear of not being needed? Fear of not being the top performer? Does this little device really give you more control over these fears?

How do you recharge? Is it possible to schedule in time to unplug or discipline yourself to not respond to every ping or call? What does unplugging give you? I propose more balance and therefore ultimately better performance.

What have you got to lose other than freeing up some space on your hard drive?

What would happen if you had empty space? What would you fill it up with?

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

So you have a team that is based in 8 different time zones in more than a dozen countries. If you have to be on calls at 6 am, 11 am, 4pm, 8 pm and 2 am – when do you sleep and how do you manage?

I am hearing about this kind of activity from many executives who work for global organizations.

Let’s get REAL! We have the technology that allows us to communicate and work 24/7 but we don’t have the human capacity to do this – not if we:

a) want to think clearly and effectively solve problems.

b) want to have a life.

b) want to have a HEALTHY life.

What is the solution?

1. Set boundaries for your personal capacity. There is a lot to be said for going back to basics. Be TRULY strategic and make forced choices about what meetings YOU personally need to be involved in.

2. This naturally leads to delegating and effective decision making.

3. Be realistic about your physical capacity: growing it AND realizing you are a FINITE creature.

Focus on YOUR basic requirements of eating, sleeping and exercising “rightly” for your own body needs. Only you know for sure. Some people can get by on 4 hours a sleep forever. Others start to melt down doing this more than 3 nights in a row. In terms of exercise, find a regime that focuses on efficiency - spending the least amount of time to get the most health benefits. I am partial to practices like Yoga, in particular Naam Yoga. 

We are living in the age of the frantic mind. This impacts your body and stress levels. We need to do things that clear and balance the mind – brain aerobics. If you don’t do this you are nowhere – but fast like a gerbil!

Get off the wheel and reassess & regroup for optimal longterm impact.

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

Being a professional in the field of leadership and organization assessments, I have seen everything – instruments that have been rigorously validated by Ivy League PHds to those that have been thrown together using color coding by amateurs. I am always on the lookout for something unique, meaningful, relevant and with some level of rigor and science behind it.

Last year while attending the National Association of Energy Psychology’s Conference in Alberquerque, NM, I met Roberta Coker, who was administering Hand Dynamics’ Life Purpose Fingerprint Assessement. I consider myself an open skeptic – always exploring new and different things with a critical eye. At first I thought, “Okay, this looks like some new age ‘who hoo’ thing.”

After she administered my handprint, explained it’s meaning, and I questioned her methods – I was sold on there being some validity to this assessment.

This system is based on empirical data, like modern psychology. It’s been around for 30 + years. It’s not predictive, like a fortune teller. But it can give you useful information outlining a blueprint of your inclinations, potential and nature – at a soul level. I know this word “soul” is not very “corporate,” but think of it as something core to who you are at a deep level.

It’s methods are based on those used by the FBI to identify unique characteristics. Your fingerprint patterns, unalterable and unchanging since 5 months prior to your birth, are coded in your DNA. With all the change happening in the world, isn’t it nice to know that at at least your fingerprints don’t change? For more information, check out Roberta’s website for not “just another tool” to help with cultivating self-awareness & understanding.

Her methods are based on the work of Richard Unger.

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

Huh?

What is the energy and intent you “put out there?” If we are all connected, then whatever we do can act like a ripple in a lake – it can spiral and escalate. Do you want it to be a gentle ripple in the water or a world war 3 bomb that displaces everything in your wake?

We recently watched Morgan Spurlock’s Where in The World is Osama Bin Laden?

It reminded me of the difficulty and misunderstanding I had with my insurance agent (wrote about August 19th). It helped me understand why walls build up and people reinforce perceptions and negative feelings  … it’s up to us on a small scale everyday to keep our side of the street clean – all we can control is our own integrity.

For me, it ultimately is a question of managing my emotions and reactions so they don’t escalate and I can have an authentic two-way communication with another person. We too often think we have communicated when we speak and “get something off our chest”… we need to hear and understand not just the words of what someone else says but their motivation and intent.

Our challenge lies in neutralizing our emotions or seeing beyond the other person’s emotions – and yet our emotions give us much needed information. So, how do you balance accessing and feeling your emotions but not letting them run you?

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

How can you aspire to be a transformational leader if you spend your day in back/back meetings and every free moment trying to “stay connected” via the social media frenzy?

There is no way for you to change dramatically or be a leader that facilitates transformational change with those around you or in your business, if you do not take time for quiet and reflection. Remember, you can be by yourself – in the car, in the restroom, in the shower – and still have the loudest noises going on in your head.

Deep, sustained change requires time and space to hear beyond the noise to listen to what really needs to be heard.  Rumi, a 13th century poet said it so well: “Let the waters settle   you will see stars and moon mirrored in your Being.”

To be a transformational leader, you need to create a discipline of quietude that invites the strength, insight and wisdom required for our times. There is no guarantee it will come but if there is no fertile ground, it certainly will not come.

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

Conscious leadership means you have a keen awareness about your strengths and development areas. You understand yourself and what drives you. You understand the people around you and the impact you have on them. It’s about controlling your thoughts and observations so you are intentional about how you leverage and manage your emotions. Authentic emotions are a necessary asset in business. They give you your connection to your employees and customers. Any emotional charge can be contagious. You want to make sure you are sharing ease vs. dis-ease.

This means capitalizing on the positive emotions – you know the ones that move and inspire people because you are energized and excited about a new product or client relationship. And it’s neutralizing the negative emotions so as to minimize any adverse impact. You know the ones where you react and get angry because one of your managers just told you the last order was misplaced and you have an irate customer.

It’s about keeping perspective amidst the very real pressure cooker of deadlines, deliverables and dollars. We all have our hot buttons – those things that hook us into forgetting that we are conscious, compassionate, competent and work well with people.

A number of years ago, one of my employees routinely did not proof and spell check reports that went to the President of the company. This is a seemingly simple thing – and it really irked me. I had to remind myself that few people make mistakes intentionally. I had to step back and manage my response in a way that allowed the individual to save face yet get clear feedback and direction for what needed to change. And I wrestled with how many chances  do I give someone who is earnestly trying but not getting it before I reassign or fire them?

It is as simple as understanding and managing yourself so you bring out your best self which invites others to apply their best selves to the task at hand. So why can it be so hard? What presses your buttons? How do you keep yourself in check? It absolutely requires that you are able to seek and listen to feedback and information that you may not want to hear. THIS is what you get paid for.

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

 How do you keep yourself grounded, focused and centered while laying off 10, 20 or 100s of employees who have families and mortgages? You were hired to be a leader and manager with a surgeon’s laser-focus of diagnosing and treating the business’s ills and opportunities for health and growth – yet, let’s be real, you are a HUMAN being and these kinds of activities can take their emotional toll – no matter how analytical you are or how much you live by the numbers. ..Not to mention the water we are all swimming in these days further exacerbates the toll – the fear and anxiety frenzy feeds on the latest news on the local or global economy.

Going back to the basics is essential during these times – you can’t give away what you don’t have. How do you lead and manage others during these turbulent, uncertain times when you aren’t sure when the next wave will hit? If you want others to quickly refocus and re-energize during and after these kind of activities – it starts with you leading and embodying the way. People’s antennae become extra sensitive in this times so you can’t fake it. So how do you stay grounded and clear? 

It starts with taking control of what you can – your person and your reactions. At the core you must consistently engage in two fundamental activities on a daily basis: Express and process your emotions NOT your thoughts – Venues for this can be talking with a colleague, coach, spouse or friend, or writing in a journal, or even talking into a tape recorder on the way home from work. The second activitiy is cultivating your creative energies and recharging – weather it is doodling on the memo pad, singing in the shower, meditating or playing the bass guitar at night. The goal here is experimentation and having fun. Reflection and downtime – even if they are only 10 minutes a day - are bare essentials. The key is consistency and continuity. Your mind and nervous system can only process so much without it coming out somewhere negatively in your mood or at it’s extreme in your health.

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