Many of you are two weeks into your New Year’s resolution – addressing something you want to change about yourself or your life. Merriam Webster’s Dictionary, defines “commitment” as: “The act of answering: solving … a formal expression of opinion, will or intent.”

What problem are you trying to solve – being too heavy, too loud, out of shape, bored? What do you believe about this problem or opportunity? What do you REALLY have the will to address? As Merriam says, are you emotionally “impelled” to do it?

Impelled implies a force that you need to exert. This is key – and why many resolutions are dead by February 1st.

If you really want to stop or start something – you need a lift off to get you going. Shake up the status quo.

Step 1. Enlisting others for a push, pull or support is critical: your boss, peers, spouse, kids, your best friend or a formal support group.

Step 2. Try.

Step 3. Try again.

Step 4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 as often as necessary.

Real commitment to a change implies you are convinced about your decision, belief, direction. Your belief must be unshakeable, despite setbacks or falling off focus. Expect these. They will happen.

As Mary Robinson, the first President of Ireland said, “Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending.”

This is commitment – sticking with it – and trying again, and again and again. If it were easy, it wouldn’t require a Commitment. Really. So, yesterday was a miss. What is your “again” today?

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

Seth Godin has a way of cutting to the core on an issue in a really impactful way.

Sometimes it’s the simplest idea, just executed – or executed well – that only matters.

Want to lose 10 pounds? Eat less. Exercise more.

Simple formula.

WE are the ones who complicate matters – our physiology, our will, our fears. There is no shortage of reasons WHY we CAN’T do something.

If you are trying to achieve something that you’ve been working on a for a while, I have two simple questions for you to reflect on:

Do you REALLY want it?

WHY?

If you REALLY want it and it’s for an energizing, positive reason, the rest is easy. The commitment and motivation are 80% of the ingredients. If it’s compelling enough, you can find a way to get the support, tools or resources you need. The hardest part is figuring out what you want and why.

…or being honest with yourself if you are really COMMITTED to it.

If you are not committed, drop it. Save yourself, your spouse, your boss, your parents a lot of heartache, time and money.

Sometimes, the hardest word is no.

© Copyright 2012 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

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

This requires Downtime, Discipline, Rewiring your Brain.

I went away in January by myself on a caribbean retreat. I was offline, completely disconnected for two weeks. I had coverage at home and work – worry-free! I did a lot of thinking, writing and walking on the beach. Ah – no more noise! My system calmed down and I found my own voice again. It was heaven.

This was a stark contrast to what I experienced upon “re-entry” back into the atmosphere of 21st century constant availability. I came back to a snow crisis, client needs and a backlog of emails. I tried to do too much, too quickly. I got sick. This slowed me down. It helped me see that I need to be more disciplined in saying “no,” deferring or delegating. I continued my meditation practice.

McKinsey’s article Recovering From Information Overload offers some additional strategies.

If you’re already overloaded, here are the key points – information overload makes us anxious and we need to focus, filter and forget.

Easier said than done!

The “need” to be connected constantly is an addiction – we get hooked into fear – of missing something, not being current, etc. We can rewire ourselves for greater capacity and reduced reactivity which allows us to be more selective, proactive, clearer thinking.

My (edited) McKinsey comments:
Changing this behavior comes down to better self-management.

1. Understand and manage your own motives,
2. Enforce team norms for support – initially this may require outside support,
3. Rewire different neural pathways in the brain to not be reactive.

We give our clients concrete tools to calm down the mind and rewire the brain for response versus reaction. When one leads by shifting their energy, it impacts everyone around them – their family, their team, department or organization.

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

There is a time to lead and a time to follow.

The true calling of a conscious leader in these changing times is recognizing which is which.
The complexities, dependencies and crises of today call for leaders to carry a lot.

How much do you carry?
When you can’t carry, how do you know it?
When you can’t carry, what do you do?
When you can’t carry, how do you ask for help?

When you can carry, what do you do?
When you can carry more because you feel full and you need to release your talents and gifts, what do you do?
When you can carry, how do you ask – what can I do to help?
When you can carry, how do you make it okay for others who can’t carry?
When you can carry, how do you care for others who can’t carry?

When you are upset at others who can’t carry, how do you recognize yourself in them?
When you are upset at others who are carrying, how do you recognize yourself in them?
We may all – leaders and followers – have our time of being in both places.

The conscious leader discerns when, and in what context to lead or follow.
Care.
Care.
Care.
But do not neglect Self-care.
You must make it okay to leave and come back to this, otherwise you will not lead from a full cup.

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

We are 6 days into the new year, and I don’t know about you, but the speed of change is picking up – the tension is palpable wherever I go. Even if changes are positive or desired, it can still feel like an unmanageable blast.

When it feels as if everything is, or needs to happen at once. What’s a leader to do?
Go slower.

Right.

2011 will be a year of transformational change – with things coming out of nowhere. With this kind of activity, it can feel like your head is spinning – multiple demands, uncertainty, going into unknown territory.

This is exactly when you want to take a deep breath and pretend someone has hit the slow speed button on your life movie. Or, as my brother says, imagine you are walking in peanut butter. This will give you a chance to hit the pause button to allow your brain to process what is happening to make better decisions.

When we live in a microwavable world, we think if we wait 10 minutes to respond to that email, text or phone call, we’ll miss that deal or be unacceptably behind on the to do list. It’s all an illusion and a matter of perspective. I chucked my microwave a long time ago and in those extra two minutes waiting for that water to boil, I’ve conjured up all sorts of great ideas.

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