The Soulful Executive
Leading from Deep Wisdom
By Dan Duggan on December 14, 2011
As I’m sure you already know, Steve Jobs, creative genius behind Apple, passed away recently. I was certainly aware of the results of his work having been an Apple user for many years now. What I wasn’t aware of was who Jobs was; what drove him; how his experiences shaped him. I’m curious by nature so I purchased a copy of his just published biography by Walter Issacson.
I’m not very far into it yet, but the sense I have of Steve Jobs was that he was special and knew it. This both helped and hindered him. He did not compromise on what he passionately believed in , although sometimes not very gracefully or respectfully.
One of those passionate beliefs was to follow his heart and intuition wherever it led him. During a commencement address at Stanford in 2005 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc) about a year after he was first diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, Jobs spoke about his life, lessons learned, and death. I was truly inspired by his words:
“Don’t lead someone else’s life”.
We all have a purpose in this life. At it’s core, that purpose is to know yourself. It is your purpose, not someone else’s version of what your purpose is. This resonates deeply with me because I spent decades trying to “be” what I thought other people wanted me to be. Those clothes did not fit well. I am grateful every day for the grace I’ve been given to just be me.
It is not easy. It takes courage, trust, and persistence. The rewards are great.
When you pursue your own unique God-given purpose – without settling, without compromising your values – you will find peace and freedom. You will find the work you love and make the contribution you are here to make. You will spend your time wisely and joyfully. You will find fulfillment.
Today, when you look in the mirror, ask yourself: Who’s life am I living today?
If the answer is “not mine”, it’s time for a change; time to take a chance.
Peace and blessings,
Dan
Posted in Commitment, Gratitude, Life Changing Lessons, Purposeful Leadership |
By Paul Werder on December 6, 2011
Rose Holden is a CEO of a small family business who took our yearlong leadership program in 2007. She recently wrote to us, “I still find it amazing that your program has had such an effect on my life.” Michael Biehler is a successful realtor, who says, “In December of 2001 I embarked on your 12 month program after having been in real estate for nine years prior with only average sales. I set my goal to double my business over the next twelve months and not only did I achieve that goal but increased my volume every year for the next 5 years. Since the recession my last 3 years have been back to average, but this year I’ll almost double over 2010. I attribute this to some of the methods learned in LionHeart’s leadership program: staying extremely positive, overcoming a fear of success, and be willing to go all out for my clients while still maintaining a high level of integrity and honesty.”
Why does our work have such a lasting impact when the notebooks from other programs often become impressive “credenza-ware?”
It’s a simple answer. Enduring impact requires three components: results, enhanced skills, and a new way of being. If you focus simply on results you may achieve short term gains but the methodologies can often have toxic side effects or simply become outdated. If you simply add new skills you will often hear people say, “Sure, I know what the right thing to do is, but I just can’t do it.”
Your way of being is the active ingredient that provides the enduring ability to learn, adapt, and produce results in a way that improves relationships and expands your network of credibility. How do we address this “way of being” thing?”
Again, it is a simple answer, but not an easy assignment.
Continue reading “Lasting Impact”
Posted in Commitment, Goal Setting, Heart-centered Leadership, Purposeful Leadership |
By Paul Werder on November 5, 2011
I am working with the Fowler Center for Sustainable Value at Case Western University with a handful of academic and professional colleagues on a very inspiring assignment.
The Fowler Center board has endorsed a “focus on spirituality as an essential component of the Center’s mission…to help leaders capitalize on new profitable business opportunities to solve the world’s growing social and environmental problems.” This is a magnificent insight into our current reality with clear acceptance of where the sustainability movement is today. And we are encountering our humanity as we move forward: there is trepidation in even using the word “spirituality” in our written work. For me, this is a natural expression of our human emotions as we face up to our current reality of what’s needed in the world. Of course we will encounter our subtle fears!
Thankfully, part of our task is to “define spirituality in a way that falls within the mandate of a management school and makes it highly accessible for business people everywhere.” What a magnificent intention! But when we arrive at a “highest intention” that promotes the possibility of everyone receiving the most good as an outcome of our efforts, we inevitably hit obstacles.
I see three primary obstacles. Spirituality is a taboo subject in business and a charged word for many people that can cause separation…so we must define it in an inclusive manner that brings people together…and like the word love, it is such an expansive and multifaceted experience that words and definitions cannot do justice to it. So we could stop there, declare spirituality a taboo, undefinable word and try to come up with a better word to use…and get on with our work.
Or, we could consult our hearts and see if there is any wisdom available to guide us through these obstacles.
Continue reading “Talking About Spirituality in Business”
Posted in Faith and Action, Spirituality in Business |
By Paul Werder on October 28, 2011
With many of us in my 60 something generation facing the retirement questions that our new economy never anticipated, we need to look at things from a new perspective.
Financial security on the High Road has always been a function of contributing to society in a way that adds real value to the quality of people’s lives. It’s never been, for many of us, a function of how much money we have stashed away for the time “we no longer need to work for our living.” We love our work and don’t want to stop contributing. The challenging new economy may now be supporting you to keep contributing as a necessity, in addition to the opportunity it has always been. Many of us can’t afford to stop working even if we wanted to.
But we often notice we can’t get away with working as hard as we used to. We need more rest on weekends and an easier schedule after returning from our business trips. So the age question arises: how long can I keep doing what I love to do?
Well, that depends. It depends on physical wellness and stamina to be sure. But isn’t that dependent upon attitude and being young at heart? We think so; in fact, we’re counting on it!
Is counting on it enough or is there more to it?
Continue reading “How Old Are You?”
Posted in Commitment, Hope, Life Changing Lessons, Purposeful Leadership, Self Awareness |
By Paul Werder on October 19, 2011
One of our clients is very gifted and no stranger to winning awards in an industry that is highly competitive. His track record, beginning with being voted class president as a senior in both high school and college, is one stellar accomplishment after another – for several decades.
He has a great heart and his work opens the hearts of others. But, he has one little problem.
His ego gets in his way occasionally. It’s easy to let our success go to our head. What we see time and time again is that eventually, the unhealthy aspects of our egos catch up with us. He knows this is true because he has a number of incredible projects just about to break loose. Meanwhile the financial constriction called “not yet” is creating a great deal of duress.
This is all good news, of course… because…he has a deep awareness that something has always been holding him back from his most important contributions. And now he has the opportunity to clean up the unhealthy aspects of his ego and put his emphasis on what he is referring to as his inner journey. The financial constriction has him boxed in with no alternative: surrender the tinges of grandiosity that have him envisioning accomplishments that never happen, or go through an embarrassing financial breakdown.
Now, all successful people who are experiencing financial challenges are not struggling due to grandiosity – not at all. We only found the key to his breakthrough because we knew where to go looking. We knew there was a spiritual lesson of immense importance that was eluding him. He calls it humility and I believe he’s on the right track, because after a handful of coaching sessions, this magnificent human being landed a new project offering more prosperous times. After all, he’s a guy with a great heart – and now he’s learning how to rely on it.
We’re rooting for him because now he has a new dilemma: Does he want temporary relief from that troublesome ego so he can get back to business as usual? Or, does he want a turning point he will never look back from? If he wants the latter, he’ll embark upon an amazing lifelong journey that begins in the heart and leads to unprecedented contribution – not business as usual.
How about you? What are you up for?
Posted in Accessing Inner Wisdom, Commitment, Heart-centered Leadership, Life Changing Lessons |
By Paul Werder on September 16, 2011
William Edwards Deming was very well known for popularizing quality through process improvement in the second half of the 20th century. One of his principles was that “people are rarely the problem if the process is robust enough.”
I was coaching two different CEOs yesterday who were each frustrated that the processes they had in place had not prevented serious breakdowns in their businesses. In each case it appeared to me that the process was fine, but the people involved were not robust enough.
It got me thinking about Deming for the first time in years, and I noticed I had not heard one word about him in a very long time. In fact, I had to think hard to even remember his name. He was out of sight and out of mind, and that stimulated further thoughtfulness.
Perhaps we’ve graduated to an era where good process work is a “given” in any successful organization. Perhaps we learned that lesson and can now address the next lesson as a business community.
What is our next lesson? Continue reading “Where’s Deming?”
Posted in Goal Setting, Heart-centered Leadership, Life Changing Lessons, Uncategorized |
By Dan Duggan on September 5, 2011
Sometimes when I look in the mirror, I’m startled to see my dad looking at me. When did that happen?
He was a great guy, but I’m my own man or so I think.
The truth is, I’m still uncovering who I really am. It’s not always a pleasant discovery.
Some days I’ll see an angry or haggard or hard-hearted person peering back at me from the reflection in the mirror. Other days that guy is looking scared or sad. What’s his story? What happened to him to bring on this state? If I’m willing to look deeper, the answers are there in my heart, along with the compassion to ease the impact of the lesson I need to learn.
Anyone we encounter on any given day is our next best teacher because everyone is a mirror for everyone else.
If I have a judgmental reaction to someone’s unkindness, then it is hitting the place in me that is sometimes unkind. If I label someone as arrogant, then the button being pushed in me is either my mistaken sense of unworthiness or my own belief that I’m better than them. If a person lies to me, my sense of betrayal points to my shame for the times I’ve deceived others.
And the list goes on……
I know this sounds a bit crazy. Continue reading “Mirror, Mirror, On the Wall”
Posted in Accessing Inner Wisdom, Compassionate Leadership, Faith and Action, Life Changing Lessons, Self Awareness, Spirituality in Business |
By Dan Duggan on August 25, 2011
I was working with a client recently who was struggling with the performance of one his supervisors. He came to the session with an elaborate plan for reorganizing the entire work flow in an effort to simultaneously train a replacement and move the supervisor over where his performance would have less impact.
After a few questions about how direct the client had been with the supervisor regarding his performance and the natural consequences of continuing that behavior, it became clear to both of us that the reorganization was a work-around not a solution.
I asked him if he thought the supervisor would be successful after clearly understanding what was expected and how soon his performance needed to improve. His answer was telling…..
“I’m not sure”, he said. “I don’t think so.”
He went on to list all the supervisor’s shortcomings and how long he had seen his sub par performance and disengaged attitude.
I asked what the supervisor was doing well. The client had to think for a minute and then slowly came up with a list. I wondered out loud if that list of strengths was something the client could help him build on while working on modifying the unacceptable behavior. Something shifted then in the client’s sense of what was possible.
He began to “see” the supervisor in a different way. He was able to appreciate his strengths and put the downsides in proper perspective.
We spent the rest of our time crafting the conversation with the supervisor with the intention of developing his strengths instead of designing him out of the organization. In the end, I don’t know how this will work out. The supervisor will need to follow through and do his part to keep his position. But, at least the client is expecting him to succeed rather than fail.
So what’s the lesson? Continue reading “If You Want to Get the Best Out of Others, Get Your Eyes Checked”
Posted in Compassionate Leadership, Heart-centered Leadership, Purposeful Leadership, Self Awareness |
By Dan Duggan on August 8, 2011
This blog is about finding and bringing your soul into business. That includes the business of running the country. I am frustrated and dismayed by the apparent lack of soul in what I witnessed out of Washington over the last few weeks.
What happened to the constitutional ideal of government providing for the well-being of all its citizens? That ideal seems to be lost in the race to “win” at all cost. The outcome is everyone losing at great cost.
Effective organizations focus on what they can contribute, not what they can get. The key to effectiveness is heart-centered leadership building an environment of trust and collaboration in its decision making. Trust and collaboration leads to differing gracefully and honestly. The respectful expression of different perspectives results in accessing the creative capacity of the team to find wise solutions to thorny challenges that include those different perspectives or at least their serious consideration.
If you agree, get involved. Contact your legislators. Speak out respectfully, but powerfully. Let your voice and your votes be heard in support of trust and collaboration for the common good.
Have a purposeful day.
Dan
Posted in Commitment, Heart-centered Leadership, Purposeful Leadership, Spirituality in Business |
By Dan Duggan on July 29, 2011
I’ve been sick for over a week now and while feeling better today, I’m not yet 100%.
My usual M.O. when I’m ill, is to power through and continue with my pre-planned schedule expecting the discomfort will pass. I find I’m not a very “patient” patient.
What’s different this time is a bit of compassion for myself. My level of competence hasn’t been up to my usual standards and I’m OK with that.
The other awareness is my compassion for other people who may succumb to this sickness too, if I don’t deliberately avoid contagious contact; a common polite consideration for most people, but a blind spot for me as my wife likes to point out.
It’s a small thing…
When the realization hit me that you might get sick if I didn’t consciously watch out, it was accompanied by a subtle shift I felt inside from doing to “being”. There was this heightened awareness of my state of health physically, emotionally and mentally that I tend to ignore when the to-do list is running the show.
I knew I had to honor my own needs if I was going to be of any use to others. With that state of presence, I began to notice the richness of life around me starting with the small things – the delicate, but purposeful flight of a butterfly; bright red flowers against green leaf blades. The internal tension I was holding eased and I was able to truly rest. Actual healing was underway.
Wisdom starts with awareness and being present with the small cues that tell you something needs your attention. That awareness provides you with a choice of responses to a given situation instead of unconsciously falling into a familiar pattern. From there, positive change and actual transformation is possible.
Take two minutes today – 120 seconds – and just allow yourself to tune into your inner being and the creation around you. It does wonders for the soul.
Enjoy.
Dan
Posted in Accessing Inner Wisdom, Compassionate Leadership, Life Changing Lessons, Self Awareness |
As I’m sure you already know, Steve Jobs, creative genius behind Apple, passed away recently. I was certainly aware of the results of his work having been an Apple user for many years now. What I wasn’t aware of was who Jobs was; what drove him; how his experiences shaped him. I’m curious by nature so I purchased a copy of his just published biography by Walter Issacson.
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