Yep.

If you’re a star can-do person – then set your sights on higher or different goals that rock your world.  What will really test this attitude so you know where it’s coming from and how strong it is?

To achieve self-mastery, you must be willing to break beyond your current level of success or competency. This is how you get to the next level of success and can only be done by embracing different kinds of challenges. It’s like strengthening a muscle. To lift a weight you actually break down the fiber of the muscle. With a day or two of rest in-between the heavy lifting, this exercise makes the muscle stronger. Rest is key as it allows for integration and a rebuilding.

What do you need to breakdown (eliminate or reduce) or exercise more of to make you a stronger leader – more in control of yourself and therefore better able to influence others?

• Breakdown could be your apathy. What has you numbed or defensive to caring about how others experience a challenge? What buttons do they press in you? Where do they need more of your support? How deep do you have to dig to be present to their perspective?

• Exercise could be a strength that is not fully leveraged. Are you showing your team how you stay positive and can-do despite repeated obstacles or setbacks? How do you transfer this strength to them? A positive team in unison can move mountains.

Ultimately all activity is comprised of exercise, breakdown, rest and build up for optimal results. In leadership development terms, I identify rest as reflection. Stepping back and integrating what you are working (or pushing) on helps you understand if you need to make an adjustment on the breakdown, exercise or rest (let it go) piece of the equation.

© 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

Whether you are a student of life or leadership, be honest, life and leadership are hard work. Don’t you occasionally want the cliff notes or to test out of the exam?

Don’t you want to cut through the heavy lifting, the pain and muck to get to the glory?

True leadership means embracing your failure, strengthening your courage and cultivating your imagination to try yet again to create a better world – whether it is in your organization or at home.

What good is failure? How does it serve us? As JK Rowling says it helps us strip away the essentials that matter. For it is only when you face your greatest fear and survive that you are truly liberated. As Rowling says in her wonderful commencement speech at Harvard, hitting rock bottom is the most solid foundation one can build upon because there’s no place to go but up!

Our outer reality is only a reflection of what we have mastered within our selves.

Said another way by Greek author Plutarch, “What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.”

So you can start outside and make changes – and this will inevitably change something about your internal workings. Or you can begin inside working on your perspective with a dream or vision and the outside world will give you feedback molding and shaping you. Either way the two are inextricably bound. So, your starting point is irrelevant as you will land in the same place. Anything worthwhile has some stones in it’s path. These are gifts to strengthen your resolve to keep going.

© 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

I find exploring myths, symbolism and how stories affect us, help us create meaning and sense of our lives.
A couple days after the New Year, I was in my office when my assistant yelled to me, “Come quick! Look!”
“It’s like Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds!” Ew, I thought.

Out the bay window I saw dozens of crows descending on the property – with no apparent motive or place to go. Over the next half hour they proceeded to fly back and forth between our property and the neighbors – and then dispersed. We were curious – what’s going on, what does this mean??? We googled – A few notes:

There are a myriad of perspectives – mythical, poetic, scientific, and those we make up ourselves.

The American Society of Crows and Ravens says that crows “have nothing to do with what we think about them. Death and suicide are our problems, not theirs.”

Dr. Kevin J. McGowan from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology says, ”The poetic term for a bunch of crows is a ‘murder.’ No scientist calls them that, only poets. Scientists would call it a flock.”

One reference said crows congregate on lawns to eat grubs. But they didn’t look like there were eating. Besides, what’s different about the lawn this year than last?

A shaman site said: ”Crows are adaptable to all environments and will eat almost anything, they can survive in almost any situation. …They are surrounded by magic, unseen forces and spiritual strength. If a crow enters your life, get out of your familiar nest, look beyond your present range of vision, listen to the message(s) in its caw and act accordingly.”

I just finished a year where my house was literally turned upside down – botched home renovation infecting every room, leaving us homeless for a while – my daughter started high school, step-son started college, both my parents had major medical crises, I had a major milestone birthday and my clients went through dramatic changes. So, the upheaval of 2011 forced me to get out of my comfort zone big time – to rethink my life and business and act accordingly.

It could be grubs, but I choose to see the flock of crows as a sign for 2012 to expect the unexpected, expect surprise visitors, and if I pay attention – this “magic” can take me to a broader perspective with unforeseen possibilities.

What are you doing to ready yourself to seek and take advantage of the “magic” opportunities coming out of nowhere – or to look for the sublime in the benign?

© 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

Yesterday as I reflected on my Grandma’s life, I learned that new technologies take longer than we think to make it to market, if at all, or to become popularized and cashed-in on their commercial value.

I’m sure you’ve heard the adage: Is there really anything new under sun?

I’m sticking with Grandma’s leadership this week: old wisdom is the new wisdom. She always said, hold onto your clothes long enough and they will come back in style. I have to admit I have some of her hats and coats from the 40s that I have worn recently!  I also wished I’d kept my fry boots – they’d be back in style and worth a fortune! Yet they were my sole present for Christmas one year when I was in high school, as my parents struggled to make ends meet raising six kids.

It’s all about perspective. Innovation is not about invention. It’s about taking an invention and making it useful, repurposing it and/or commercializing it.

So, I ask you – what exists right in front of you that you could view differently – whether it is a product, a problem, an employee, or your relationship with a family member? What is something that you can change about your life or business that would give you more money in the bank, greater productivity or satisfaction? These are different faces of the same coin. They are all about changing the energy of your current situation.

If you want your business or life to be different – The ultimate question is, how do you take what you have and make it different or conceive of it differently? This is innovation grandma-style – transform the old into the present for future wear-ability and endurance.

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

My Grandmother was born in 1899 and died in 1991, with a full life at 92 ½ years of age. My daughter was born in 1997, 102 years after my grandmother.

I was talking with my daughter today about embracing change – how this is one of the most important skills for life, particularly for her generation. I used a few examples of changes that took place in Grandma’s life to illustrate what she had to adapt to and how radically her life changed. I mentioned flying, cars, TV. They didn’t exist at all or in the form we know it when she was born. There are many other items she witnessed come into usage: modern refrigerators, dishwashers, ovens, etc. What we take for granted today were radical changes that impacted Grandma’s life – whether it was saving her time on daily chores, giving her access to entertainment, knowledge or greater freedom in traveling. She experienced as many radical changes in 90+ years as we have in the 20 years since her death.

I wondered how fast and new these inventions really were. So, I searched the Internet that Grandma never knew. Here is what I discovered:

1866 First prototype of a steam engine, which would later evolve to the automobile; cars commercialized in the 1920s.

400 BC first curiosity with flight, Leonardo DaVinci’s theories of flight 1480s; first Wright brothers’ flight 1903; airplane flights commercialized 1930s

1878 First concept of an image in motion; 1950s Television was commercialized

1947 Genesis of technology that was the basis for cell phones; commercialized in the mid 1990s

1965 First development of technology used to construct the Internet; popularized in the 1990s; commercialization of products via “the web” 2000s

Many of the technologies we use today seemed to have just been invented and yet parts of the technologies have existed in different forms or changed for commercial exploitation. What’s stayed constant from Grandma’s to my daughter’s life is ongoing experimentation, improvement, and evolution for greater adaptability. In all cases, the need to master handling change has not changed. It is just becoming more of an imperative as the pace of change is increasing and becoming more widespread – not just with product life cycles shortening, but with societal and political institutions requiring change to keep pace with the implications technology imposes.

I wonder – what Grandma would say about the world we live in today?

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

Ben and Jerry’s gave out ice cream to the protesters on Wall Street this week.

This action generated a lot of questions for me: is it possible to be a corporate entity and support those protesting “corporate greed” and asking banks and their leaders to be accountable for money they received via the government bailout?

Is it possible to be a person or corporation that benefits from the current business models but to also see that there may be other possibilities?

Is it possible to fight for social causes and be concerned with making money/delivering value to your clients and shareholders?

At what point does too much money become too much?

What can social advocates and business leaders learn from each other?

Can we be “one of them” and also “one of us?” How do we dance the the dance of duality and remain in dialogue to foster creative solutions?

We only need to look as far as our political leaders to see that once we get positional and dig our heels in, solutions are stymied. Staying connected and dialoguing is the goal. When that stops, game over.

One thing I do know – despite our many flaws, we live in a great country and we need each other now more than ever to get out of this mess alive. Can we dance in the gray areas? Can it be yes, and?

Yes, we can’t be naive to agendas. Yes, a little ice cream can go a long way to smoothing edges and satiating hungry bellies.

What’s your take on it?

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