Some CEOs have it and others do not. Office managers and plumbers express leadership better than their bosses at times. If it isn’t a function of title or hierarchical position, what is the key to leadership? It is a way of being. Sometimes we experience this way of being and sometimes we don’t. But we know that it is in every one of us. And we can intentionally develop a leadership way of being – if we are willing to acknowledge our unique talents and risk expressing them.

Our yearlong leadership program involves a process of self-selection that invites those who are willing to uncover their potential as leaders to step up…to explore their strengths and weaknesses…to stand up for their core values…and to discover the amazing strength in their own hearts. Recently we launched a new journey with twelve people willing to take this challenge. Their ages ranged from twenty-something to fifty-something. There were executives and mid-level managers. Corporations, non-profits, and government were all represented. One person managed herself and another person managed a weekly $2.5 million payroll.

They were very different on the outside, but on the inside they were the same. They all had strong, beautiful hearts longing for purpose and contribution. They all were open to the possibility of deepening their spiritual connection in their own unique way. They were all willing to be vulnerable and authentic in a room of people they had just met. And they were rewarded for taking this journey in a profound way. They discovered that leadership is, indeed, in every one of us.

Here is a sample of their comments after the first two days: “Leadership starts and ends with the heart. It is both terrifying and invigorating…this is a gift we give to ourselves…I feel very clear and energized. It’s as if a fog has lifted…I can now lead with full throated joy…I have the confidence to get out of my own way…these two days were amazing, inspirational, thought provoking and eye opening…the depth of this experience would be hard to beat…I will go to work with a new outlook and a new commitment to grow, succeed, and teach with compassion…this work is ‘for real’…it was weird and powerful…I am happy to have new tools that have me believing I can change the way I do things…all of us can be amazing leaders once we realize we’ve just lost our purpose and learn to inspire others…the promise of practicing remembrance was most impactful…it was a safe and supportive experience that now feels energizing and clarifying…the unity and companionship within the group developed so quickly that the promise of this work is strong.”

It’s ironic, that real leadership seems to be one of the scarcest resources on the planet, when it is truly in every one of us. Our times are calling for you to express your unique brand of leadership. As Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu says, “God has no one else to do the job that you were sent to do. The world needs you to make your complete contribution.”

We are affiliates of the Barrett Values Centre, an internationally recognized leader in making the connection between the health of your business and your values, culture, and leadership consciousness. The Values Centre’s Cultural Transformation Tools (CTT) are currently being used in 60 countries to support more than 3,000 organizations and leaders in their transformational journeys.

The fundamental principle is you can best manage and change what you can measure. The Values Centre’s tools allow you to measure and manage your organizational values along a full spectrum organizational consciousness model that was derived from Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs. The organizational consciousness model is comprised of seven levels that are all necessary for a healthy, fully contributing business culture. Levels 1, 2 and 3 (Survival, Relationship, Self-Esteem) are focused on caring for one’s own needs, while levels 5, 6, and 7 (Internal Cohesion, Making a Difference, Service) are focused on finding meaning and caring for societal needs. Level 4 (Transformation) focuses on continuous renewal, learning, empowerment, innovation, and leadership development. As an organization measures and manages their values along these 7levels of consciousness, there is a reduction in wasted effort (entropy) and improvement in financial performance.

How does the Values Management Process Work?

1. An organization chooses to conduct a Cultural Values Assessment (CVA) through a certified Values Centre consultant. The CVA is offered to all employees (multiple languages are available).

2. Each employee completes a 20 minute survey by answering the following three questions that ask them to select the top 10 values from a standard or customized list:

a. Which of the following values/behaviors most represent who you are?

b. Which of the following values/behaviors most represent how your organization currently operates?

c. Which of the following values/ behaviors most represent how you would like your organization to operate?

3. The Barrett Values Centre then provides a detailed report of the top 10 values in each of the three categories (personal, current organization, desired organization) and the values are plotted on the seven levels of consciousness. The data can be reported in as many relevant subgroups as desired, and it becomes very empowering to see where there are potentially limiting values and what values people are asking for in terms of positive change.

4. Organizational culture change efforts are then undertaken to improve alignment of the personal, current, and desired values while seeking to ensure all 7 levels of consciousness are being attended to. This work involves aligning the mission, vision, and structures of the organization to ensure there is whole group cohesion and the capacity for collective action.

5. The Values Centre also offers individual Leader Value Assessments which illustrates the alignment and gaps between what a leader believes his/her top 10 values are, and what their colleagues see them as. Leadership development work is a critical aspect of the culture improvement process.

6. Repeating this survey annually allows an organization to proactively improve what it measures.

Your work as a leader is clearly to define what reality is in your culture. We have found no better way to help you engage your people in helping you take your business to the next level.

How are you doing in noticing your cues ?

For some people it’s the pain in the neck, stiffness in the shoulders, queasy stomach, or ache in the heart. For others, the most noticeable cue is the anger, fear, or sadness they feel, or the monkey mind that spins and spins resisting the event or thought that triggered their upset.

Continue to notice and, I recommend, write down your cues for a few weeks so your awareness increases. Once you are aware that this upset needs your attention, you are ready to do something about it.

So here’s Part II

Accept fully that you are where you are. Allow yourself to experience the physical pain and especially the uncomfortable emotions that accompany what upset you. I’m not asking you to wallow in the “bad place”, rather stay in it long enough to really feel the impact. Once there, trace back through those emotions to the source of the upset – the thought or event that triggered your reaction.

What bugs you about it? Why is it upsetting? Declare the problem with what happened.

Many people stop at this step and try to fix themselves or someone else they see as the “Problem”. Stopping here to “fix” won’t transform your relationship to the problem and get you back in balance.

Instead – keep going.

Listen for the meaning you are mostly unconsciously believing this problem means for you – your limited future, your unfortunate fate. These beliefs often sound like “I can’t” or “I have to”. We call it the “Issue”. Our issues drive our experience of life as limited in some way. This is the idea that needs examination and transformation. If it feels crummy and knocks you off your center, know it isn’t the whole truth.

Now it’s time for another opinion.

Ask your heart if what you’re buying into is true. Listen deeply for the answer. There always is one even though you haven’t yet discovered it. Persist until you feel that sense of balance and peace return.

An Example

This is a recent personal experience of a fairly low level upset.

My last blog post contained at least two rather glaring typos (since corrected) that more than one person pointed out to me. This was upsetting to me because I pride myself on excellence and hold a high intention that I put out engaging, helpful posts. Clue: notice the word ‘pride’ in the previous sentence as in “Pride goeth before…..” At first I didn’t believe the input and assumed it was one person’s version of good grammar vs. mine, resisting the uncomfortable moment. When I reread the post I had an OMG moment. I really had made two very obvious mistakes.

I felt embarrassed and in a way ashamed. The problem I initially declared was that I was being pressed for time due to some family obligations that day. If I had stopped there, I would have spent a lot of time working on priority management or simply blowing it off as a minor error that happens to everyone from time to time.

But I’ve learned not to ignore these upsets, no matter how minor, so I kept going.

After some time in contemplation, I realized I was buying into the idea that I’m not that good at this stuff and I should just quit trying. This was the underlying source of my upset – my issue. My heart wants me to express my passion for helping people. My ego wants to play it safe so I don’t risk embarrassment. That conflict caused the tension inside me.

Further reflection revealed that, while I need to pay closer attention and focus while writing, what I have to communicate is valuable, even if only to fulfill my heart’s need to express. I then began to experience a sense of balance and peace again. The whole process took about 10 minutes.

Sometimes that’s all it takes. Sometimes some action on your part is required to align with your heart’s guidance. Sometimes it will take hours or days to move through the issue. If you practice and trust what you receive in self reflection, you will be able to transform even the gnarliest issues into surprising understandings and actions.

It’s really that easy and also difficult at the same time. How do you know if you are listening to your heart’s wisdom or your ego? We recommend the practice of remembrance as the most effective way we know. There is an in depth explanation of this transformational leadership practice on our resources webpage under the title – The Remembrance: Investing Time in Reflection.

So there you have it. Struggling with the episodes in life that knock us off center really is unnecessary. By accepting what just happened and asking your heart for the truth about the meaning you have attached to it, you will always find a way forward to a state of balance and peace. From there, anything is possible.

Love to hear your stories of struggle and breakthrough too.

Peace and blessings,

Dan

When you experience an event or thought that you don’t like, don’t want, or don’t know what to do with, you are automatically struggling on the inside with that uncomfortable feeling. That thought or event evoked a connection to something in your past that you (mostly unconsciously) believe points to something unpleasant in your future. Then the emotion hits – dread, shame, anger, confusion, sadness, loneliness, for example.

If you’re human like me, your first reaction is “get me out of here; I didn’t sign up for this”. In other words, make this thing that already happened go away. Bummer, you can’t. It already happened. So give me someone or something to blame then, because this shouldn’t be happening. I CAN’T BELIEVE THIS IS HAPPENING!!

Next, you might start to rationalize. “It’s not that bad”. “I shouldn’t be so upset”. “If I ignore it, it will go away”. All forms of stuffing it somewhere to avoid that awful feeling. Works for awhile, but…….

Sound familiar?

Yep, me too.

So here’s the unnecessary part -

You can’t arrange your life so that nothing ever triggers an upset. Only the One has that power. You can begin to listen to your being when it is screaming at you – pain in your gut, head, heart; sinking feeling; seeing red; mind racing – to pay attention to what’s going on RIGHT NOW! Not in the past, not what might be in the future, but right here and now.

You see, the struggle isn’t the thought or event, it’s the discomfort you deny. And that is unnecessary. The first step toward moving through that discomfort is admitting you’re there. Saying, yes, it happened and it sucks.

Now, practice paying attention to all the cues you are getting from your body, your emotions, your mind, and even your actions (one of our colleagues realized she was avoiding struggle when she found herself mindlessly cleaning her email inbox). It helped me to actually write down what I was experiencing when I realized I wasn’t paying attention to anything except my mind.

When you first notice the upset – STOP! – identify what got you – thought or event; how you feel – physically and emotionally; and admit it’s upsetting. No blame, no solutions, no check lists, no minimizing – just be with it.

Now you’re ready for Part II of Struggle is Unnecessary where you get to do something about it.

Stayed tuned for a blog near you.

Peace and blessings,

Dan

“You cannot fully commit to stepping into the unknown without having one foot firmly in the certainty that you’ll be OK no matter the outcome”.

True leadership requires both – commitment to a course of action while staying grounded in trust that your heart will show you the next right move when the time comes as long as you remain true to your values.

“But what if I make a mistake?”, you ask.

Call it a bonus when that happens (notice I didn’t say if). Mistakes are opportunities to learn something new about yourself; a chance to examine what was missing, if anything, in what led to your original decision; or a time to affirm that when mistakes occur, you are strong enough to weather them.

LionHeart’s definition of leadership is venturing into the unknown. The courage, strength, and wisdom to take that leap comes from the constant remembrance of the Divine’s endless sufficiency, provision, and love.

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

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.

We all have a set of character traits that are built upon the values and principles we make our decisions from. These decisions are either in alignment with our highest intentions to provide real value to all involved or they are self-serving and/or based on avoiding what we are afraid of. At LionHeart we focus on this work as the pre-requisite of enduring change, as we support you to develop your skills and achieve the results you care most about.

This requires that our clients do some soul searching from time to time to deeply understand what matters to them and where they want to take their careers and organizations. It requires developing those character traits called wisdom and courage and patience and persistence, until you are truly the amazing person you know you have been before or could be someday.

But not everyone wants to look into the mirror in this way and focus on character development or leadership effectiveness. We understand this is the road less travelled, but we know it is the straight path to where people really long to go. So, when people tell us our work is amazing, we say, “Thanks for your kind words, but the truth is that the human heart is what’s really amazing, and we just point you in the direction of that discovery.” Why wouldn’t we? In the long run, results and skill-building are simply not enough. Enduring change requires you to transform the person who is expressing those skills and accountable for those results. That’s your real opportunity!

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.

When I dig into my heart and reflect upon my own journey, and theexamples of the thousands of people I’ve worked with in this way, spiritually is both indescribable and totally describable. It cannot be comprehended or captured in totality, but in can be spoken eloquently by an individual who is present to their own spirituality. It is simply an experience of their view of the spark of life that transforms their moment of despair into moments of hope and trust. It is certainly an experience of connectedness to all of life, and gratitude for all that is. Spirituality is unconditional love that is balanced with justice. It is peace-within during times of external chaos and turmoil. While words are too small to define it, we know when we are connected to this mystery of life and when we are not.

For some, spirituality involves Divinity or Higher Power, and for others it is simply a better view of life than the alternative. A person’s relationship to religion can bring him or her closer to the experience of spirituality. For another person, religion can take them away from spirituality. And this is true in every religion. It is not what we believe or proclaim that matters; it is much more about being awake or connected to our virtuous higher self. In fact, many people who claim there is no God are very spiritual people, while many people who pronounce themselves to be with God and the true religion are not spiritual at all. Sadly, these people can even kill in the name of God.  This is tragic.  Spirituality would have us seeking and discovering the universal truths hidden under our apparent differences, like a beautiful tapestry woven from the multitude of our emerging understandings.

Spirituality is the experience of wholeness with all that is, and uniqueness in being who we are meant to be – at the same time. It is not a badge we wear, but a way of being that promotes sustainable living for all of life…and that way of being is remembered and forgotten by all of us, as opposed to a destination we arrive at or never deviate from.

This experience of wholeness or unity can occur on a football field, a playground, a battlefield…anywhere a person is conscious of the precious and sacred opportunity of being alive. Why not in business?

What matters to business leaders regarding spirituality, in my experience, is whether or not people are actively working from a sense of purpose and expression of values toward a vision that promotes benefit for themselves, all people and the planet – in a balanced and holistic way. We certainly know when business leaders are taking us in the opposite direction.

Spirituality can be a divisive topic; but only because at the beginning of our infinite journey it is especially impossible to see the totality of what spirituality is. When each of us awakens to spirituality we do it in our own unique way; and our unique way often superficially looks wrong to others. But our view of spirituality when we begin is never wrong, it is simply incomplete as it always will be. And as we continue our journey we can see more and more of what spirituality is; but the further we travel, the more we realize how infinitely vast, amazing, and undefinable it is.

So, when a Christian executive asks, “Is our employee volunteer program with the homeless spiritual?” we must answer “Yes, thank you, and there is more.” When a marketing professional invites her gay community to a Friday evening music fest and a colleague finds deep joy in playing the guitar for the first time at 58 years of age, and she asks, “Is that spiritual?” we must answer, “Yes, thank you, and there is more.” When someone builds their entire company philosophy around Buddhist teachings and asks, “Is this a spiritual company?” we must answer “Yes, thank you, and there is more.”

And when a terrorist of any faith bombs a bank and injures people and declares they are spiritual, we must answer, “No, you are not connected to spirituality with this act of destruction.” And when a church goer is committing crimes of greed and says “it’s just business” the same is true. Spirituality is a function of our intentions and behavior that are altruistic, loving, peaceful, and in service to the golden rule. Even more, it is a responsibility to educate and minimize the damage of those who have forgotten the truth of their own spirituality.

To speak about spirituality in business, we must be inclusive of the infinite number of ways people find the spark of life in what they are doing, and humbly knowing there is always more to discover for all of us. And at the same time, we need to be openly discerning of what every business is doing as an agent of world benefit, as well as what we, as humanity, are doing to the contrary. Only then, in the spirit of love and justice, will our planet’s dialogue fulfill the Fowler Center’s inspired intention to “…solve the world’s growing social and environmental problems.”

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?

Counting on it is not enough. In my work with the Fowler Center for Sustainable Value, I met an eighty year young man named John Ehrenfeld who was retired from MIT. “But I’m not really retired,” he told me. “I’m still teaching part time, writing books, and putting out a blog that gets 50 replies per post.” His active mind is still very sharp and keeping him young. And when I saw him run a bit to catch the hotel door for another one of our colleagues, I thought to myself, “Wow! Maybe I have 20-25 years left instead of the 10 I had been planning on.” My hat is off to you John!

When I shared this story with another colleague, she told me another story that illustrated how far from reality our culture is, when it comes to honoring old age. Years ago, she visited Ligiang in the province of Yunnan in China and attended a string concert of traditional instruments. When they introduced the performers, they began with the oldest people in their nineties; and then worked their way backwards to someone who was seventy years old. None of the performers under seventy years of age were introduced. She assumed it meant they were still in training and were not quite old enough to be recognized!

So, if you are fretting over retirement, take on a new perspective. My conclusion is that if we love our work we can always continue to find ways to contribute. We simply need to take great care of ourselves, continue to consider ourselves in lifelong training, and maintain a happy heart. Perhaps we have a silver lining to consider in this dark cloudy economy: thankfully, we have a long time to go before we retire.

So eat your Wheaties, swim a few dozen laps every few days, and play on! But do so with this question in your heart: how old are you?

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?