Overheard: The LeaderShape Institute

This past May, we received an email from Lead Facilitator and former staff member Anne Arseneau. We thought it was such a cool story, we wanted to share her email to us with you:

"Hi LeaderShape friends, thought I’d share my cool Day 5 experience that happened RIGHT before I started the curriculum piece on social responsibility at the Meredith LeaderShape session (which was a great session experience BTW…)

My sister-in-law Linda (who lives in Champaign and tries hard to understand LeaderShape) :) and I had the following text exchange during lunch (right before social responsibility/Living & Leading with Integrity) and it’s just cool enough that I needed to share it with you all:

Linda: Hey there. hope all is good. yesterday we went to a Cubs game and overheard some 20 somethings talking about how great Leadershape was! thought you might like to hear good chatter out there.

Anne: that is awesome! about 70 different sessions going on this year. that just makes me smile!!!

Linda: yep. we were on the L and we thought of you and how great of a job you guys are doing. felt proud! It made us smile big for you!

Maybe I’ve been around too long (just as the campus institutes were starting) but the idea that someone I know could overhear someone (they don’t know) on a subway train in Chicago talking about how awesome LeaderShape is gives me goose bumps. And it was a really neat thought to have about the viral impact of MORE people experiencing LeaderShape just before going into the Living & Leading with Integrity session. Shared the contents of the text with the Meredith women as an example and thought I’d pass along to you as well."

So thanks to all of you for sharing about your experience with others. You never know who might be listening...

Voice

Yesterday, I was interviewed by a local marketing company who we have worked with in the past as they are doing a project on “voice”. Outside of being slightly uncomfortable having someone taking pictures while being interviewed, I enjoyed the conversation and thought about the concept of voice for quite a bit longer than the actual interview. One of my comments regarding voice was basically that so many people are “yelling” through blogs, Facebook posts, Twitter, etc. that it is hard to hear their “voice”. Made me think that perhaps having a “voice” means absolutely nothing unless you can actually be heard.

So how do we become heard so that this wonderful gift of “voice” truly means something? Hell of a question and I don’t have the answer. But, of course, I have an idea or two. I guess we should start by remembering that yelling usually turns people off and tunes them out to your message. Maybe we should start by not drowning out the truly important messages by using our voice to tell the thousand friends we have (really?) what restaurant you are currently at or taking a picture of your dog sleeping? Maybe we should use fewer words with more meaning given that our attention spans are nil these days? Maybe you don’t have anything to say, but your “voice” shows up in your actions – an act of kindness, a hug, or a wink of the eye that says I believe in you.

I remember the quote “your actions speak so loudly that I can’t hear what you are saying” or something to that effect. My father still tells me that the reason he doesn’t run (or didn’t run in his case) is that perhaps you only have so many steps to take in your life and when you take that last one, you check out. Why waste them running in a circle? Of course, he is making an excuse for not exercising, but what if that principle applied to our “voice”? What if we only had so many words to say in our lives and when we spoke the last one, we were done, checked out, kicked the bucket? How would you share your voice differently? What words would you choose to say?

For someone who can talk much longer than needed, I am going to think about my “voice” much differently for a bit and see what happens. Might even use my “voice” for those that don’t have the same privilege of having their “voice” heard. That would have to be better than using mine to let you know that I am in the airport in Little Rock, Arkansas (no offense intended to Little Rock).

(This is me being quiet now…)

An Attitude of Gratitude

Some of us on staff just came back from a workshop at the Mayo Clinic with Dr. Amit Sood on attention and interpretation.  The two-day experience included all the science behind why it’s beneficial to cultivate and practice things like gratitude, compassion, acceptance, meaning and purpose, and forgiveness.  The basics of the neuroscience are that these practices keep us in the higher cortical center of our brain, as opposed to the more “primitive” limbic system, and lead to lower stress and higher resilience (great qualities for leaders to have!). 

You can read more about the studies and brain science in Train Your Brain…Engage Your Heart…Transform Your Life, and you can begin a resilience building leadership practice right now.  This is my small thought about gratitude and something small and specific you can try today: 

Every day we do small acts for people that may cause them to respond with a “thank you.”  When these things happen I’ve caught myself replying “no problem,” meaning it’s not an inconvenience for me or isn’t a big deal.  Lately, I’ve been trying to be attentive to responding “you’re welcome” or even “I’m happy to” and think silently to myself how grateful I am to be able to do whatever small thing it is I’ve just done.  Whether or not someone says “thank you” for my action, I am trying to focus on gratitude.  I am grateful to be able to physically hold open a door; I am grateful for the sight that allows me to notice others around me; I am grateful for brief interactions and the positive energy they create.  Focusing on gratitude in these situations has helped me to find opportunities for gratitude all around me and more reasons for me to say “thank you” to others as well.

Cultivating an attitude of gratitude can change how we interpret what’s happing around us and is a small, daily way to move us just that much closer to a just, caring, thriving world.   

What is in Your Book of Awesome?

As summer approaches, my tradition is to make a list of all the books I want to read. This year my list is longer than normal- guess I haven’t read enough lately! One of the books on my list is The Book of (Even More) Awesome by Neil Pasricha. It is a follow up book to, The Book of Awesome.

About a month ago as I was getting ready for work, I heard Neil in an interview on the Today Show. I had heard of the book before but hearing him talk about it really peeked my interest. So, I bought the book. Since that time the book has sat on my desk until this week when it became my first book to read from my summer reading list. If you want to check out the book, click here. (http://1000awesomethings.com/book/)

The book is, well, AWESOME! It isn’t kind of book you can open it up and read any page. In the introduction to the book Pasrisha states, “Nobody can predict the future, but we do know one thing about it: It ain’t gonna go according to plan.” He goes on to talk more about his idea for these books and how his real hope is that people are reminded “that the best things in life are free”. As I read these words, I found myself agreeing completely with his thoughts. So often I am looking for the BIG things and I forget about the simple things that make me smile. So for the past few mornings, I have started my day reading this book. It’s refreshing and a great reminder that there are things in daily life that are truly awesome.

Some of the awesome things he write about include:

· When your fries order has a few onion rings stashed at the bottom

· Picking up something that turns out to be a lot lighter than you expected

· When someone saves you a seat

As I’ve been reading the last few days it has given me a reminder to pay attention to the awesome things in my day that make me smile and to appreciate those moments. If I were writing a book of awesome, it would include:

· Hearing a child say they love you

· Talking to friends you haven’t seen in years like no time has passed

· Towels right out of the dryer!

· Getting your inbox to 0

If you were writing a your own personal book of awesome, what would you include?

Mid-Life Unraveling?

I recently had a conversation with a good friend about the term "midlife crisis" and how it is inevitable that people our age will be going through this stage of life. We took issue with the word "crisis" because it makes it sound so ominous and heavy. Like we need to avoid it at any cost. We are out to change that.

Life for me has come in stages as I'm sure it has for most of you. Well the stage I'm in now is looking a lot like a midlife crisis. No, I haven't bought a sports car, but the music is getting a little too loud, I'm really looking forward to getting in bed by 10pm, I'm growing my hair longer just to prove that I can, blah, blah, blah. So, my friend and I were looking for a better word and I think I have found it. Instead of calling it a mid-life crisis it should be a mid-life unraveling. I can't take credit for this as I read it in a book by Brene Brown. She describes this concept as "a time when you feel a desperate pull to live the life you want to live, not the one you're supposed to live." She goes on to say that the "unraveling is a time when you are challenged to let go of who you think you are supposed to be and to embrace who you are." Maybe being older, I have less patience or less of a filter for those things that are not congruent with who I am. The struggle has been characterized as a "crisis" when perhaps it is me changing and learning to lose the need to please other people so often.

Yeah, I know that most of the participants and graduates of LeaderShape programs are no where near their midlife crisis; however, perhaps they can learn from a few of us older folks some lessons to make their path a little easier. I'm thinking the sooner we all embrace who we are and let go of who we are supposed to be, the closer a just, caring, thriving world becomes.

And then, we can tell you how we used to have to wait for dial up internet service instead of walking 5 miles in the snow to school like our "elders" told us...

Palmer Award Application is Available!

The Palmer Award is provided each year to two LeaderShape graduates who have participated in a national or campus-based session during the previous year. The award is given to recognize the achievements of those individuals who have demonstrated their commitment to bringing their vision to reality after attending a session of The LeaderShape Institute.

The Palmer Awards began as an endowment gift donated to the Alpha Tau Omega Foundation by Dr. Edmund T. Palmer, Jr. Together the Foundation and LeaderShape provide two $500 awards for a graduate of The LeaderShape Institute who has implemented their vision.

Individuals eligible to apply for this award must be 2010 graduates of The LeaderShape Institute. To view the Palmer Award application, please visit http://www.leadershape.org/PalmerAward2011.pdf. Applications are due June 30, 2011. If you have any questions, please e-mail Kristen Hyman at kbh@leadershape.org.

#3best

#3best is a hashtag that can be found on Twitter. It can be used as a way to reflect on the highlights of your day and share them with your Tweeps, or Twitter community. I've found myself more and more drawn to this movement. I'm finding that in those moments of thinking about my #3best, I am more connected to the positive things that took place throughout my day. I like how this thinking connects me to gratitude, because I do find myself feeling truly grateful for those daily high points and the impact they make on my life. That gratitude helps me to be more appreciative of the "every-day" and puts into perspective the frustrating moments that are experienced. I guess today, one of my #3best is #3best!

What are your #3best?