The challenge is to be so different that you get attention and make people want to inquire further but not so outrageous that you are not taken seriously. You medium is your message. How have you solved difficult problems in your career? How do you translate this tenacity, creativity and perserverance to your personal branding? Darin Lonergan, about to take off…

Walking Billboard

How and where work gets done has changed dramatically in the last 10 years due to the introduction and acceptance of a host of new technological tools – social media, laptops, cell phones, videocams. All contributing to a sea of effects - organizational restructuring, global sourcing, the creation of new jobs and founding of new career paths. Twenty years ago did anyone hear of a web designer or CIO? We went from MIS VP to CIO or CTO. What will the next 5 years bring us in terms of paradigm shifts and new careers?

If you were laid off recently and don’t want to get another job doing what you have been doing but are not sure where to go now, I say – live with the question honestly and deeply – and pay attention to the trends and shifts in the world and in business.

The intersection of your dissatisfaction coupled with answering a need in the marketplace is where you want to be. When you don’t have the answers, then you are open to your own creative forces. This is where you can find answers to your career transition or more accurately stated: career search. You can’t find something if you aren’t looking for it.

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

To read more, check out our first official newsletter… http://www.sagelead.com/Newsletters/SLS-Newsletter-0907.html

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

Developing transformational leaders is the latest buzz term. Companies and leaders want a five or three or two day program that will transform leaders to be change agents – leaders for the “down economy” or “the new economic era.” Better yet, how about a day or a half-day seminar or lunch and learn that will radically alter someone’s perspective or mindset to jump start their team?

Now I am all for challenging assumptions about what can and can’t be done and in what timeframes. And I have tremendous respect for the complexities and possibilities for us as humans to change ourselves and create environments to inspire others to change.

It seems that everyone wants enlightenment and the “blessed state” but few are willing to do what it takes to get there. First, you need willing and eager participants who want to change. Because we are human types – we make change HARD. Some of what it takes is walking through the mud. The road to transformation is typically not an easy one and one frought with fear, uncertainty, perserverance, and guts.

The current climate has many running afraid. I see it as an opportunity to develop a heightened sense of awareness and presence. It is only in the moment can we truly change ourselves and others. In addition, to senior management support that allows a certain amount of realistic time for changes to take, the greatest asset any leader or organization has to enable true change is to plan big and attend to what lies right in front of you in the moment from that perspective. These times are testing those who have the optimism, strength and determination to perserve – to develop a sense of attention that will give you information and insights to form alliances, develop creative solutions that otherwise might not occur to you.

The greatest tool or process to employ is a daily discipline that cultivates your sense of presence and attention. This is counter-cultural to our ADD sound-bite culture. It is as simple and hard as that.

Are you willing?

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

Todd Shea was a drug addict and a musician living hand to mouth. One would hardly call him a leader. The tragedies of 9/11 in NYC started the shift of his addiction from cocaine to rescue efforts around the world. With no medical training or a college degree, he started a hospital in Chikar, Pakistan. For more information on Todd, you can read about him in last Thursday’s New York Times:  http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/25/world/asia/25kashmir.html?th&emc=th.

I highlight Todd’s story to make this point: Many people shy away from the word “Leader”… or say, “Leaders are born not made,” “I don’t possess any leadership qualities and skills.” I believe everyone has potential to be a leader and leaders are developed not born or “made.” … And the greatest way leaders are developed is by stepping up to the challenges they experience in their current job or daily lives.

When something hits your core and you have passion about it, when you want something badly enough, you will figure out all sorts of ways to make things happen – and enlist others to help you. When you listen and pay attention to the concerns of those around you and allow yourself to be effected by them, this is leadership – serving others. The next step is figuring out what you need to do to make things happen and getting people to listen and follow you. Sometimes it’s just getting out in front of the crowd. Todd saw a need and filled it. He didn’t get caught up in his head with worries such as: “I am not qualified…who am I to do this?…. what if I don’t have enough money?… what will people say?”

Passion is the cure for inertia, paralysis and disconnection from yourself or others. I invite you to identify your passion and step up to the plate to go after it – despite all the reasons not to: not educated enough, not connected enough, not enough money, not skilled enough. ENOUGH!

Leadership qualities start with GUTS. Grab the courage and you can figure out the skills along the way. Many successful people have worked this way. Oprah didn’t have a business plan.

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

Social media, whether it be facebook, linkedin, twitter or others serves a great purpose in connecting us and potentially furthering our consciousness and creativity. For over a year, I resisted getting on facebook but after another invite, I finally succumbed this week. It’s been an interesting study for me. The challenge is to have it be a tool that serves me and others vs. getting sucked into the black hole of the addictive frenzy that sucks the time and productivity out of me. As my friend put it, the “blessing and curse of fb.”

I advocate for you to be intentional about HOW you use these tools as TOOLS. I am seeing a trend of a frenetic outward search. Search for what? For business I say some of it is fear induced – trying to grab for perceived smaller pieces of the pies. For personal, I say some of it is to be known, liked, to matter. What is the definition of “friend” and how many true ones can you have?

Whether it is your life or your business, I advocate to know what gives you meaning. It all starts and comes back to the Big WHYs and WHATs. Why does it matter? What do you want? You must keep some private life intact otherwise you run the risk of alienating yourself and having outward success and a life you don’t want. This = unhappiness.

This is what I mean by your personal strategic visioning process: How do you discern what you want in life? What is the life you want to create? How will you do it? How do you want the life you have? This gives you essential clarity, grounding and the ability to respond to these changing times. It allows you to make decisions about your work that align with your best self. It makes the difference between fighting upstream and going with the flow gracefully. Otherwise, the inputs can be overwhelming and you are vulnerable to reacting to the latest fb wall or “tweet”. Tag, you’re it.

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

The “hashing out” I mentioned in my last entry, step#2 refers to dealing with what is not comfortable or you don’t agree with. The thing about change – whether it is reorganizing a function, getting a new supplier or taking on a new client  - is that it requires doing something different. Many times, we want to play it safe or just be “efficient” by repeating the SAME experience. Sometimes there is a balance point between systematizing processes and being open to discovering what is unique and different -or better yet, possible.

With budgets tight, this is necessitating challenging our assumptions or previous experience about what is really required to accomplish a job. It also requires more than ever to have the difficult dialogues across your teams to create synergies – REAL synergies. Sometimes this can be especially hard when you are dealing with teams with a lot of history.

Here is an experiment to try when you are working on revisiting or finalizing your tactics. To get TRUE leadership alignment: just for today - approach your colleague not from the standpoint of what you are going to give UP or dig your heels in on, but instead with what you are going to GIVE and ask questions and try to understand the other’s position fully, seeking what is possible.  This is a very simple orientation but it often is not implemented and can reap huge dividends. I’d love to hear how it goes…

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

These days there is a ton of information out there on the ingredients to this dish: 1 part summary, outline your companies and positions with 3-5 parts accomplishment statements per job, throw in education, certifications and special trainings or interests – keep enough white space to make it digestible and don’t let it simmer too long – not over 2 pages.

Outside of this formula or general practice - every career counselor or colleague might have an opinion about how to refine and write for optimal impact or readability, but whatever you write needs to reasonate with you. You shouldn’t forget the context for this “dish” and your key ingredient. The context is – what are you looking to do? The key ingredient is – what is your story? Especially if you have a 15, 20 or more year career with multiple jobs or companies, you can’t, nor should you include it all in a resume. This should accent your salient highlights and the “so what factor” – what was the impact.

The resume is a marketing tool to tell your story – either to spark interest to get the interview or as a leave behind – “tell me more” -  after a networking meeting.

Don’t lose focus – the most important point is – does it tell the story – position your experiences and lead your reader to where you want to go? My statistics teacher in grad school always said, “the numbers know not what they say.” We can massage and shape the numbers to create any argument we want. So too we can interpret and frame our experiences to tell the story we want to tell.

Keep where you have been in perspective to where you want to go in light of where you are today. One gentleman has made a blog out of his job search experience in hopes of helping others, specifically targeted toward those over 50 – http://joewantswork.blogspot.com/.

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

Don’t let the internet vortex demon posses you or yes, this will be you!

As an entrepreneur, it can be so easy to lose focus or feel that you are not making progress because you are juggling so many tasks and you want everything done today or aren’t willing to delegate. ..And if you spend any amount of time looking for resources or customers online – forget about it!! Before you know it, you have cut into half a day, and signed up for a number of newsletters, etc. .. that then take time away from your reason for being – your customers.

Yes, the internet is a vast resource for a ton of information that you can then translate into enhanced operations or revenue and profits – and it can also be a huge black hole that sucks a ton of time and money from you. It all depends on how you manage it. I say, think big and act small – meaning one-step at-a-time with reputable resources. Yet don’t discount the value of a source just because you haven’t heard of them. They may help you cut to the chase on certain tasks. Here are two helpful resources:  www.resourcenation.com and www.sba.org. The first is a source that I stumbled upon while reading the newsletter from another great resource  – Ladies Who Launch http://www.ladieswholaunch.com/. Both sites have a ton of information for entrepreneurs – whether you are seeking guidance on how to write a business plan or sources for internet phone services. The second is the small business association – a staple and likely source of information.

The key is self-vigilance. To monitor your goal for the search and your time online.

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