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

When the stakes are high, it’s necessary to be in alignment to get the right results.
During my flight lesson this week I sought a safe, informative and fun flying experience. I put my life in the hands of my pilot/instructor – what could be higher stakes? You’ll notice in my video clip that my shoulders couldn’t be closer to my instructor.

Co-Piloting

Tight quarters – yes – but I also needed to be closely aligned in mind and spirit as well in order to heed his instruction. My motivations were a desire to learn, to not crash and stay alive and to keep Lloyd focused – our lives depended upon it.

In order to listen, I needed to have complete trust and faith in his abilities – skill and wisdom. I learned that flying not only requires understanding a vast amount of technical knowledge but also paying attention and listening to the view, movement and sound of the sky to know just how to adjust the wings. So too, with leadership, we need to listen to our environment and those we serve to know how to adjust our wings – our ego, our actions, our words – to have the impact we want.

All co-pilots know they need to be seamless, complementary and volleying with their movements and skill to act as one unit that propels the plane forward. It requires being a leader and follower.

As a leader, how do you engender trust in others? When you have a high stakes situation, how well prepared are you? Do you listen to, and trust your gut instincts? As a follower, how well do you listen and get your ego out of the way? How well can you volley control back and forth from leader to follower?

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

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

Deep insight, intensive workshops, breakthrough coaching sessions, a cataclysmic life event… these all are catalysts for change. These are the events that many wanting change seek.

We can come off these events with a high, with a great uplift in our motivation or a low searching for meaning, answers.
THEN, reality sets in and the heavy lifting of integrating these events – emotional and mental shifts and behavior change – into our daily living sets in.

This is where I see the need for an uncommon practice to take root: realistic optimism. How do you stay optimistic and steady with your practice of behavior change despite what you know, despite how hard it may be, despite the lack of support you may face in your environment? How do you keep the faith and believe you can do it? How do you acknowledge the incremental, daily changes you do make?
Regardless of what others say, savor what you know to be true. Savor your improvements. These are the roots that grow great fruit.

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

It rests not just in legislation but with how providers choose to behave in their day-day patient interactions. Thomas Dahlborg has a great blog that reflects on putting “care” back into health care and that this is what doctor’s promise when they take their oath.

This week, I had a follow up appointment with my surgeon on a benign biopsy. In a cost-conscious, productivity-minded system, I experienced my doctor as a humble, accountable human.

My appointment last week was cancelled last minute because he had emergency surgery. I rescheduled this week and his office called me the morning of my appointment – they had a cancellation, did I want to come in earlier? I said yes.

After sitting in the waiting and then patient room for 50 minutes, I still hadn’t seen the doctor. My time is valuable and sitting around during a weekday is money spent for me. I poked my head out of the room to see if he was in sight. As I opened the door, the doctor came in. I shared my experience: “I’m flexible but this is enough waiting.” He immediately said, “I’m sorry. I take full responsibility.”

Wow. This stopped me in my tracks. How refreshing. He then took his time to explain everything to me in language I could understand. He was not arrogant, curt, or harried. He was slow, focused, deliberate and present with me. I was a real human in front of him. He spent whatever time I needed to answer my questions.

This is all we ask of our healthcare providers: To remember that they are treating a whole person who has an ailment, not an ailment attached to a person. My doctor demonstrated empathy, care and compassion – an often low-leveraged human technology that shifts one’s experience. His behavior may have been helped by the fact that he was just back from his own medical leave after having surgery. Perhaps he could more easily walk in my shoes.

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