
Topics: zen leader, the zen leader book, zen, leadership, Ginny Whitelaw, whole leadership, whole self, zen leadership
We often hear from readers of The Zen Leader, talking about their reactions, experiences or insights as they read the book and work through the activities. Since some are just too good to keep to ourselves, here is a note we received from James Murphy, who described his own reaction to several of the chapters.
What has landed for me are the following:
Chapter 5: From Playing Your Strengths to Strengthening Your Play
While I’ve done a lot of these personality tests in the past and pretty much know where I am, this was a fun chapter. It was also unique in the sense that this is the first book or course I’ve seen where it is proposed to develop personality attributes that are not your strengths. I think this makes a lot of sense and I will try to do this. Instinctively, for example, I know my collaboration skills are weak and I’ve been trying to get my wife to join a ballroom dancing class to help me to improve this skill. I also know my driver skills are weak and my main physical activities are running and weight lifting. So it is curious that these activities have not resulted in stronger driver attributes.
As a side note, I chose to read this book not for work but for personal reasons. I am building a sailboat racing team and quickly realized that I was not performing as a leader properly. At work, I am not a manager, I am an architect, but I know to turn concepts into reality I need to lead so the concepts here will help me in that role.
Chapter 7: From Driving Results to Attracting the Future.
While reading this chapter and doing the exercises I was able to see a future that I hadn’t seen before. In a sense, I knew what some of the components of the future might be but I didn’t put them together into a larger whole. With this exercise I was able to do that. The unfortunate part of the results of this exercise is that if indeed my vision is the future and I am to lead the world to it, then I’ve got a lot of work to do because the future is very big indeed and fundamentally different than what we currently see. The silver lining is that I can see a path that starts with limited scope and can be incrementally expanded. (Note, this vision applies to my work, not sailing)
Chapter 10: From Delusion to Awakening
This chapter is good since it sets down some practical steps to make the lessons from this book stick. Indeed practice is required to acquire a Zen mindset. This chapter makes that clear and provides some good guidance. Indeed much of the book, and this chapter in particular were incomprehensible to me mostly because I have not experienced the mind state described in the book. Specifically I am talking about the concepts from the Surangama Sutra and understanding self and host versus guest, etc. I believe that in order to become the whole I will need to consistently practice and probably re-read this book a couple of times. As an ex-competitive runner, I believe my approach will have to be similar to athletic training. A plan, a schedule, making time and being consistent and disciplined.
Topics: zen leader, the zen leader book, mindfulness, spirituality, well-being, zen, the zen leader, energy patterns, leadership, Ginny Whitelaw, managing energy, zen leadership
Topics: zen leader, the zen leader book, mindfulness, zen, meditation, the zen leader, zen leadership
Posted by Anthony Attan
Jul 9, 2012 12:55:00 PM
Topics: the zen leader book, mindfulness, well-being, zen, meditation, the zen leader, flips, energy, zen leadership
Topics: zen leader, stress, tension, flips, control, leadership, managing energy, zen leadership
Ginny Whitelaw is interviewed on the Stu Taylor radio show (www.stutaylor.com) about her new book, The Zen Leader: 10 Ways to go From Barely Managing to Leading Fearlessly. Listen to the full interview below.
Topics: zen leader, managing change, the zen leader book, zen, the zen leader, leadership, leadership development, whole leadership development, whole leadership, managing energy, managing stress, zen leadership
In the final installment of our video series, Dr. Ginny Whitelaw, author of The Zen Leader, discusses what type of experience a participant can expect from one of her workshops or speaking engagements.
Topics: zen leader, the zen leader book, speaking engagement, leadership workshop, zen, the zen leader, leadership, leadership development, zen leadership
Topics: zen leader, paradox, the zen leader book, zen, the zen leader, leadership, leadership development, business coaching tool, zen leadership
In this video, Ginny Whitelaw, author of The Zen Leader, discusses the importance of spending the effort and energy to lead like a Zen Leader.
Topics: zen leader, stress, the zen leader chapter 1, zen, the zen leader, leadership coaching, leadership, leadership development, managing energy, zen leadership
"It was the first time in my own writing that I really felt I could get out of my own way. And I hope that same sense of inspiration comes across to the readers." - Ginny Whitelaw, author of The Zen Leader.
Topics: zen leader, the zen leader book, the zen leader, flips, leadership coaching, leadership, leadership development, whole leadership development, zen leadership
This blog is dedicated to the concepts described in the book The Zen Leader by Ginny Whitelaw. In this blog we discuss how these concepts are applied to a variety of current situations and applications, helping us all unleash the Zen Leader within us!