Archive for Leadership
Happy New Year! Don’t get caught in old patterns of thought at the beginning of a fresh decade. This is the time that calls for creative thinking.
Creativity initiates a shift to a new approach. This is so much more than taking information, analyzing and building on it, and instead is based on creating transformational thinking. Creativity opens up possibilities and potential more fully. It can be seen as the difference between renovating a house and building one. It breaks down limitations and finds new approaches. Open minded creativity creates new perspectives, reduces limitations and provides a freedom for the future.
True creativity goes further than merely ideas. It is also putting ideas into practice. Picture creative ideas around you in never ending swirls, waiting to be grasped and secured into material being. Just as you can’t harness the wind without tools for physical capture and energy conversion, ideas will dissipate into nothingness unless a relationship is made to turn the ideas into reality. An environment or community that cultivates and cherishes the creative spirit is how true imaginative creativity and innovation come into being.
New ideas and novel solutions can be stimulated with expressive thinking, resourcefulness, and originality. Put yourself into places, situations, and with people that stimulate your imagination. Creative thinking can be used to meet many of your objectives. It might be doing or thinking about situations in a slightly different way, or from a new perspective. The ability to build something from nothing, is what distinguishes a creator from those who do not create. The brilliant feeling you get when a truly creative idea strikes, is often followed by an intense desire to make it real.
In his extensive research on the creative process and its related environment, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi summarized that ‘creativity leaves an outcome that adds to the richness and complexity of the future’. In his book, Creativity, he ventures well beyond the discussion of mere change, to recommend that readers work to find an emotional response that is stimulating and invigorating as they work to increase creativity. When you recognize your emotions, you provoke and stir creative thought by adding a dimension to your thinking. It is key to recognize feelings for interpretation in order to broaden, not narrow your thinking.
Find your passion, and build on it with ideas you can manifest into reality through the creative process. Csikszentmihalyi noted that individuals are motivated by the challenge of the unfinished, and not necessarily drawn to complete and final resolutions. The unfinished are the more interesting problems of intrigue that appeal to your senses. In addition, you would rather work on, and think about something that you resonate with, and awakening a passion inside you. Your zeal is more likely to draw solutions for you, than an area you are somewhat apathetic about.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, the renowned literary figure, utilized creativity throughout his writing endeavors. As an acclaimed American essayist and poet, noted for thinking differently and having broad insights, he wrote Self-Reliance. He stated the importance of following one’s own instincts and ideas, breaking away from conformity and utilizing one’s creativity. Emerson focused on the individual, and famously said ‘The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn.’ Make a start, a fresh start and one idea will lead you onward.
Now is you chance to join Maria Berdusco, www.LeadershipInternational.com as she interviews authors, speakers and inspirational thinkers on the Leadership International Talk Show. You can join the conversation live, just listen in, or download previous episodes to your ipod or mp3 player.
Capturing conversations with remarkable people is what the Leadership International Talk Show is all about. It’s the first and third Wednesday of every month at noon. Mark you calendar for upcoming episodes, subscribe to the rss feed, or download your favorite episodes here. It’s a show, it’s a recording, and a podcast and it’s personal, created just for you.
Best selling authors will inspire you, coaches will lift you and great thinkers and teachers will take you to new levels.
Listen on iTunes: Listen now, or download from www.itunes.com
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Just Released Randomized Trial on Executive Coaching: Effectiveness of Coaching for Achieving Goals
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A much anticipated randomized trial that clearly demonstrates the value of executive coaching was just released in the Journal of Positive Psychology. The study found that executive coaching enhances goal attainment, resilience and workplace well-being. In addition to these benefits, the participants also experienced reduced stress and depression.
The study also asked participants to give qualitative responses to questions that showed that coaching helped increase self-confidence and personal insight, build management skills and helped participants deal with organizational change. These findings show that coaching can be effective in helping people deal with uncertainty and challenges.
The study was conducted by Anthony Grant and his group at the University of Sydney. According to Grant, executive coaching in organizations has grown significantly and is recognized as a helping relationship that uses cognitive and behavioral techniques to support a mutually defined set of goals, with the aim of improving performance and effectiveness. Grant is the author of numerous randomized trials that demonstrate coaching is effective and says coaching is effective because it is outcomes based and leads to not only an action plan, but taking action and success on goals.
Would you like a copy of this important new study? E-mail me for a copy at coachingstudy@leadershipinternational.com.
Wyland has earned distinction as one of America’s most unique creative influences and a leading advocate for marine resource conservation. An accomplished painter, sculptor, photographer, writer, and scuba diver, he has traveled around the world for more than 25 years, capturing the power and the beauty of the undersea universe.
Wylands efforts have been recognized by the United Nations, the Sierra Club, the Underwater Academy of Arts and Sciences, and private and public institutions worldwide.
Wyland, hailed a “marine Michelangelo” by USA Today, is listed in the Who’s Who in American Art, Guinness World Records, and many other national and international publications. Wyland inspires people to live their passion, and create a business from doing so.
Inspirational, a great talent and utilizing his passion to lead change conserving our natural environment.
An article in the Wall Street Journal yesterday outlined an increased demand for coaches as executives work to stay on track, hone their skills, and explore possibilities during the recession.
We each especially need to demonstrate resilience, optimism, optimal communications and collaborative initiative during today’s specific and unprecedented challenges. We still need to take action on what is most important and not languish in the waiting game. The wait and see approach that so many people have taken support neither global recovery nor expand personal opportunity. This is the time to build relationships, explore creative innovation, solidify strategic planning and move forward.
On a recent trip to Europe there was significant discussion on waiting it out, and watching to see what people in the US were dong, letting Americans take the lead on recovery and using US action as a yardstick to gage timing on activity. An important interpretation of this response is that taking action on initiatives is even more critical for global recovery than has been recognized, and indicates that action can not wait.
But having someone to champion that process for individuals is equally important, having someone to act as a trusted sounding board, and provide objective feedback is critical. An executive coach supports the prioritization process and provides accountability for the implementation of plans in a systematic and manageable way, within the framework of what is possible.
Finding clarity and taking action is vital when a sense of overwhelm threatens to overshadow initiatives.
Many executives in a coaching partnership talk about how their companies and careers would be different if they had access to coaching decades ago. From personal skills and interpersonal relationship effectiveness, strategic planning and execution, and through to change management, leadership development through coaching is widely recognized as an indispensible tool for today’s time and beyond, as we shift into economic recovery.
Barbara De Angelis is Truly an Angel
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Barbara De Angelis, international best selling author and transformational leader is also a spiritual angel. She is a messenger of great hope and a true believer that a tremendous shift in consciousness is currently underway that is taking us to greater meaning and contribution with our lives.
Barbara is inspirational in the truest sense of the word, reminding each of us to remember why we are here.
Barbara De Angelis, Ph.D. is believed by many to be one of the most influential teachers of our time in the field of personal and spiritual transformation. For the past thirty years, she has reached tens of millions of people throughout the world with her positive messages about love, happiness and the search for meaning in our lives.
As a best-selling author, popular television personality and sought after motivational speaker, Barbara is legendary in the field of personal development as one of the first people to popularize the idea of self-help in the 1980’s, and as one of the first nationally recognized female motivational teachers on television.
Dr. De Angelis is also the author of fourteen best-selling books which have sold over ten million copies and been published throughout the world. Her first book, How To Make Love All the Time, was a national best seller and was followed by the New York Times Bestsellers: Secrets About Men Every Woman Should Know, Are You the One For Me? and Real Moments. Barbara also co-authored the New York Times bestseller Chicken Soup For The Couples Soul. Her most recent book, How Did I Get Here? Finding Your Way to Renewed Hope and Happiness When Life and Love Take Unexpected Turns, has received numerous awards and high acclaim.
In 1994, Barbara wrote and produced the TV infomercial, “Making Love Work,” which won numerous awards, and was the most successful relationship program of its kind. Barbara appeared weekly for two years on CNN, has hosted her own daily television show for CBS TV, and her own popular radio talk show in Los Angeles. She has been a frequent guest on shows including Oprah, The Today Show and Good Morning America.
Dr. De Angelis is currently president of Shakti Communications Incorporated, dedicated to bringing enlightened messages to the world through all electronic and print mediums.
Meeting Barbara is magical and unforgettable. She will have a deep personal message for you that will challenge you to a higher self. Her soul penetrating perceptions are quite remarkable and she is undeniably one of one of the great mystics of today’s world.
My conversation with Barbara was one of the most meaningful I have ever had…more to come on what she said to me.
An Amphitheater Forever
Posted by:I took a walk down to the trail behind the South Fayette High School and was in awe of how beautiful it has become. Every season it is even more scenic, with the school tower above the hollow serving as a guiding compass.
Several years ago I co-founded the South Fayette Conservation Group and together we obtained a grant to build a wetland, educational trail and outdoor classroom that will forever be a part of our school and community.
Here is the amphitheatre, a multipurpose greenspace nestled as a natural classroom in the woods.
Attend this years Pittsburgh Human Resources Association (PHRA) Annual Conference at Heinz Field on September 29 and 30th. This event is not to be missed!
Register for the Conference here! Join me as I speak about the essentials for transformational leadership and my book, ‘How to Think Like a Leader’.
Another chance meeting. I love chance meetings.
Conflict prevention has been very much on my mind for the past year or so, as it has been for many of us around the globe concerned about violence near and far.
I have appreciated the writing of Herbert Kelman and studied some of his work for a conflict resolution course I recently undertook.
Then low and behold, he walked into a small gathering of psycholgists for social responsibility I was attending.
There he was stanidng next to me, a chief global mediator who stands for peace. Read his answers to ten questions on peace.
Here is an excerpt:
‘I would describe myself as a strategic optimist, and I am distinguishing it from being a naïve optimist, who would say that everything and the world is good. I see optimism rather as a strategy; and if you maintain this sense of possibility, then you keep looking for where the points of entry are, where there are things you can do in order to move forward. And while doing it, you create positive self-fulfilling prophecies.’
Kelman on Peace Mediation
De-Stress During Difficult Times
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When hard times hit, managing your stress level is more important than ever. With issues and difficulties of many types coming at you from a multitude of directions, your overall stress level can increase significantly, and finding ways to counter the stress you feel is an important priority.
The American Psychological Association just released their annual Stress in America Survey, and no one is surprised that stress levels have increased in the last year in the US. People reported more fatigue, anger and irritability and more than fifty per cent of respondents said they lay awake at night, unable to sleep because of stress.
Combined exhaustion, irritability and anger can result in different behaviors by different people and understanding the effects of stress in yourself, your family and your community is critical. People who otherwise manage their feelings and keep their stress in check may find it hard to do so.
Here are five simple ways to prevent and manage stress. Practice these techniques for yourself, but also share them with others, as you support those around you who are also feeling significant stress:
1. When some things are not working, take time to recognize what is working, and going right. Focus on the good things in your life, and what you appreciate.
2. Understand that many difficult situations are temporary and not permanent, to help keep perspective. Choose your response to events to keep things in balance.
3. Keep news and television watching in check, to prevent specific details from taking over your thinking.
4. Engage in calming activities, such as finding pockets of quiet time to read, or talk with someone you respect and who is supportive of you.
5. Become resilient by accepting what is, and cannot be changed. Try to take away a learning and move on.
The best way to manage your personal stress level is to not allow yourself to become overcome by negatives, but take on an approach that is continually hopeful, in spite of difficult times. Be resilient.
Carefully manage the thoughts you have to keep your stress in check.
Maria Berdusco supports others through challenges and can be reached at 412-221-3376. Visit Maria’s website.
Marty Seligman, the father of Positive Psychology
When the Bridgeville tragedy occurred last week, I felt grief, sadness and deep sorrow for individuals, families and the community. It was a senseless shooting.
Then, just a few days ago I had a fortuitous conversation with the worlds greatest optimist. Marty Seligman is best known as the father of positive psychology and is often credited with turning the discipline of psychology from the state of what is wrong to what is right.
Seligman started his career studying helplessness and was perplexed that in difficult environments not all subjects became helpless. His work transitioned from observing negatives to the study of positive psychology, which is about positive emotion, positive character and positive organizations.
I explained the scenario of the recent shooting to Dr. Seligman, and needed to know how would he explain it, his perspective and how to move forward. He was well aware of the shooting and immediately asked if paranoid schizophrenia was causal. Seligman’s perspective is that crime is based on interpretation of past experiences and intervention includes the perspective of starting with today and creating the better future you envision.
A message to the suicidal gunman might have been ‘What if you were born yesterday?’ and ‘Imagine a future that is different form your past.’ This supports breaking out of a pattern of thinking that is negative and can be detrimental. Notably, we can not easily do this alone, but often need someone to show us the way, to support in us a sense of positive expectancy, and a vision of what life could look like if it were better.
Positive psychology is much more than optimism and hopefulness, or positive expectancy. It is also intervention. It is about creating an alternate future for yourself, which when embraced by all leads to positive outcomes for your community or organization, and collectively for nations and the world.
I learned from my brief conversation with Dr. Seligman to be even more diligent and courageous in teaching possibilities and hope.
Do you have a tragedy or trauma? Do you have a sense of desolation or despair? Do you know someone who feels empty or desperate? Does there sometimes appear to be no solution?
Be supportive of yourself and others. Find support, personally or professionally. Seek out the optimists for help.
Find a positive. Now.
Seligman, Farley & Zimbardo
The club of past presidents in almost any organization, community or country represents not only significant brain power for the individuals who have achieved the role, but also the synergistic strength of their collective knowledge and experience.
Zero in on not just any organization, but the American Psychological Association (APA), founded in 1892, and now with 150,000 members, who gather annually to celebrate new data on the human mind.
When I listened to Marty Seligman, Frank Farley and Philip Zimbardo, all APA past presidents have a conversation this morning about the state of things, it felt as though the collective truths they shared was not their just their own. They represented the progressive and cumulative learning of the previous presidents of the APA. There was a sense that it was not just three of them on stage, but also William James, Carl Rogers, Abraham Maslow, Albert Bandura, and over a hundred contributors who have filled this role to take psychology to where it is today.
The conversation flowed like that of old school chums, or even brothers; comfortable, trusting and willing to dialogue openly, knowing they were on call to teach the past, present and future of psychology, but humbled by the responsibility and determined to represent the best of what psychology has to offer. There is great learning to be gleaned from listening to a clever conversation.
They talked about undoing the constructions of the past, overrating of the past and childhood, and imagining a future different from the past to live optimally. They discussed creating alternate futures, and that much is determined by how one interprets the past, present orientation and future perspective.
Thankfully, psychology is no longer based on the medical model of what is wrong, but instead on what is right and building on it. They talked about strengths, time perspective, Mount Everest, and sex on Sunday, bantering until they summarized with, ‘Start your life today, create your future’. They concluded that the key is to instill hope and dispel fear because future gazing is at the heart of being human. Seek hope and have positive expectancy, they said.
Not bad for a trio of leaders who have authored thousands of peer-reviewed papers.
It was unscripted, reflective, fully supportive and so natural that one could not help but acknowledge the great wisdom of this band of brothers. They represented learned, highly credentialed researchers who’s common bond is that each have served a lifetime of studying human behavior.
One could not help but think that Seligman, Farley and Zimbardo modeled human behavior optimally. They created amongst each other a perception of the closest achievable bond among us, that of family.
What a pleasure to experience the conversation and somehow with 10,000 APA conference attendees, I felt as though I was attending a family reunion, even in the midst of academia, with the family being one of those who deeply care about humankind.
The first time I recall having a front row seat at a major event was at a production of le Miserable. The event was especially memorable because I watched in rapture as a feather dislodged from a dancers costume and wafted slowly down from the stage and landed right in my lap.
Ever since, securing a front row at any event has been a delight and an honor, coveted, and hard work, but well worth it, because it puts you right up close with the action.
I have found over the years that obtaining a seat in the front row requires lots of extra effort and even then happens only occasionally. It means arriving very early, reserving far in advance, paying more for the privilege, knowing someone special, or even by helping the planners out. I didn’t expect though, that my profound feather experience would ever be repeated, and yet it happened again just this morning.
It was uncanny, serendipitous and synchronous, when a feather dropped from Stephen Covey’s ‘Indian Talking Stick’ as he waved it to the audience, emphasizing its strength. I have read Covey’s books many times over the decades and hearing him speak live at 77 years old meant a lot to me.
There I was somehow ready for the unexpected, front and center, and managed to catch a photo of Stephen Covey and his stick. A shiver went down my spine as I recognized the beauty of the moment, it’s wonderful alignment and congruency and I knew that I was in the right place.
Covey reminded us with the warmth and wisdom of a sage of the timeless ‘Seven Habits of Highly Effective People’:
Dependence to Independence
- Habit 1: Be Proactive: Principles of Personal Choice
- Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind: Principles of Personal Vision
- Habit 3: Put First Things First: Principles of Integrity & Execution
Independence to Interdependence
- Habit 4: Think Win/Win: Principles of Mutual Benefit
- Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood: Principles of Mutual Understanding
- Habit 6: Synergize: Principles of Creative Cooperation
Continual Improvement
- Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw: Principles of Balanced Self-Renewal
The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People was published 20 years ago and is still a best seller in business and leadership. Five years ago, Covey followed with The 8th Habit, which is finding your voice and inspiring others to find theirs. When we asked him how he came to develop the extra habit Covey said he sensed a lack of emotional commitment to what people represent, and felt compelled to teach personal significance and passion. Covey delivers his message with a quiet, knowing conviction, and I felt drawn to his personal passion.
You may be wondering what the ‘Indian Talking Stick’ is all about? Ask someone to hold a talking stick, and then ask them to talk until they feel that you completely understand what they are thinking and feeling. ‘I am serious, try it,’ Covey said. The talking stick is a tool for conflict resolution, empathy and improving relationships.
A marvelous message from a feather.
Leading with Love and Dispelling Fear
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A chapter on courage in my book, ‘How to Think Like a Leader’ looks at using love in the workplace to drive away fear. At a recent workshop on leadership, I asked participants what they replace fear with, when they create anew space, where it used to be. Answers included hope, optimism, happiness, joy, sincerity, and because they knew what I was after, love.
Love in the workplace should not be a foreign concept. It has many synonyms to help find and support its presence. I have decided to talk about love in the workplace more, and in the context of leadership because leadership includes service and change, and if leadership is inspirational and being ones best then all of that can only occur in love.
What a wonderful way to fill the space that opens up when fear is dispelled.
How to Think Like a Leader Workshop
Posted by:Thanks to all attended the How to Think Like a Leader workshop today!
Coaching in Demand: Staying in the Game
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