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.
 

The Swedes have a great word for this: Lagom, which roughly translates as "enough, sufficient, or just right." Too often, in today's world of avid consumerism, we get caught in a "good, better, best" way of thinking and find ourselves applying that principle to all aspects of our lives, including leadership. Our tendency to overdo can lead to "leadership obesity" which manifests in many undesirable ways: the ultimate problem-solver who fails to empower their employees, or the achievement-driven leader who drives for success at all costs. "Just as we don't serve ourselves well from overeating, we do ourselves no favor by over-indulging these needs," states Ginny Whitelaw, in The Zen Leader. If you'd like a memorable visual of "leadership gorging," I invite you to watch The Zen Leader Animated.

To develop leaders using the concept of "just enough," The Zen Leader prompts us to pause and ask those questions that bring self-awareness to the situation. "When we jump in and do a task that we're comfortable with, but someone else could be doing, we might ask, Am I really the right person to do this, or am I doing this only to satisfy my own need for accomplishment? When we push ourselves too hard and edge toward burnout, we might ask, Does this situation call for this extreme response, or am I doing this because I'm only happy when I'm achieving?" The answers won't always be the same, but they will bring clarity to the source. "Pausing to face our needs at any level, and ensuring we're meeting them just enough and not to the point of greed, we make the flip from compulsively using life to serve our needs into using our needs to effectively serve life."

Changing awareness from "It's all about me" to "I'm all about it" is one of the "flips" in consciousness that The Zen Leader walks you through and is an integral part of leading by the "just enough" rule. Do you recognize the faces of "It's all about me?" Look at these statements below and see how they can be flipped around to change your perspective and how you serve the situation:

• Only I can do this.  >  I'd enjoy doing this, but who else can learn from this?
• I need to market myself better.  >  How can I add real and visible value?
• I'm worried about money.  >  I can be prudent about money and resourceful about living with just enough if I have to.
• If our groups get merge, I may be out of a job.  >  Our groups merging may signal it's time for a new chapter for me.

If we meet our needs at every level using "just enough," what we become are Servant Leaders, who don't get "stuck" in the vicious cycle of self-fulfillment. We have fuel and freedom to serve the whole situation, letting our strengths and true nature shine.

The Zen Leader is available through Amazon and Barnes & Noble in paperback and e-reader editions. "Like" The Zen Leader on Facebook to receive regular updates.

Check out this animated video explaining why we might want to flip around our sense of self, and how it's possible.

 

I had the fortunate opportunity last month to view an incredible film at the Smithsonian Air & Space museum called "Hubble 3D." Part of it was documentary - the fixing of the Hubble telescope in outer space. But the most profound parts, by far, were the images from outer space that Hubble was able to capture and send back once its lenses were functioning properly.

It's hard to even comprehend a light year, not to mention the images on screen that were MILLIONS of light years away. Trillions of galaxies like ours with planets and moons all revolving around their own "suns." Galaxies… black holes… stars being born… incredible photos that were merely a teeny tiny fragment of all that's out there. All the beauty and energy of the universe was right before my eyes. I was totally humbled.

This experience started me thinking about the last chapter in The Zen Leader - From Delusion To Awakening. I've always struggled understanding that chapter. The idea of nothingness and "no place to go" was so far from my daily life that awakening seemed really out of my realm of possibilities. But what I felt in that movie was a sense of being that went beyond all my self-defined notions of life. It made me think, at least for a moment, of myself at the molecular level - a mass of energy, part of a bigger universal source that was infinite. Was that the sense of "awakening" that Ginny was talking about? If it was, it felt awesome - powerful and humbling at the same time and I actually now have hope that I might be able to get there again sometime.

My biggest misconception of the term "awakening" stems from what I define as being awake. Unless you've got some form of narcolepsy, people wake up and stay that way for some time. This is not generally the case with spiritual awakening. One does not have an "aha" experience and stay that way; in fact, Ginny Whitelaw, who has become a Zen Master, laments in her learning how impossible it was to "maintain that condition," as her teacher instructed her to do. He also knew it was impossible, "but you have to try," he told her. All most of us might hope for is a taste, but once we have that taste, like a favorite savory meal, we want more.

"I'd read for years that ignorance is the root of delusion and suffering, and mistakenly equated "ignorance" with "stupidity," states Ginny in The Zen Leader. "Not so; we're plenty smart," she adds. "The evidence of our boundless, immortal nature is available to us all the time… but we ignore it; we are ignor-ant. Our boundless nature doesn't interest us because it doesn't move…It's not a story with a beginning, middle and dramatic end. We ignore it and choose a story instead: our story. Me."

I think I now understand why meditation is key to awakening. We need to slow down the mind chatter - the "Me" story - in order to sense our universal nature. I've dabbled in this a bit, but am now ready to dive in. I've enrolled in a program this September at the Institute For Zen Leadership - a brand new institute Dr. Whitelaw has founded that marries Zen to leadership, where it can do the most good. I hope to learn more about the practice of meditation and the value it brings to leadership, and life in general (contact Focus Leadership if you'd like more information on this - the Institute web site goes live September, 2012).

Who knows… maybe I'll even get a chance to experience another awakened moment - this time without the 3D glasses :-)

The idea that we create our own reality is not a new concept, but as you'll read, a lesson I'm still learning. Werner Erhard, the controversial founder of the "est" movement in the 70's was the first one I can remember in my own lifetime to talk about this idea. But if we look back through the ages, we see this same concept in the Buddhist notion of "interdependent arising," or what Thich Nhat Hanh calls  "interbeing." Everyone, everything, everywhere interdependently co-creating the reality we call our world. Do we really create our own reality? If so, why aren't we doing a better job of it? 

Every company seems to have one - a Vision or Mission statement that defines the type of company they aspire to be. Many hours, and often considerable expense, go into the development of this written platform of hope. They are plastered on walls, given prominent positions in Employee Handbooks and used as rallying cries by management - but that's where it often stops. Turning that statement into reality is a much harder task. Lets look at some of the reasons they fail, along with a flip that may help you make it a reality.

The Power of Engagement
Any company can share a vision, but unless their people become truly engaged in the common purpose, it rarely becomes a reality. The best leaders begin by building a sense of ownership and responsibility in their people. Empowerment, sharing progress, listening and responding - these are all things that draw people in to serving under an inspired leader. I worked for one company who opened their books and discussed the situation and outlook to everyone each quarter. People knew exactly where the company stood financially, which made everyone rally together when times were tough. And when times were good, the desire to see greater possibilities unfold was an equal motivator. Engagement is key.

Pull not Push
One of the biggest mistakes leaders make in trying to realize their vision is to try and push their people toward it. "To drive results is to push the present toward the future. It always comes from behind, and relentless habit of it makes us feel like we're always behind," states Ginny Whitelaw in The Zen Leader. "To attract the future is to create the pull of working with larger forces."

So what does this mean "to attract the future" and how do we go about doing it? I'd like you think of a time when you had a moment of inspiration. Inspired thought is very different than regular thinking. It's what The Zen Leader calls "a Samadhi-inspired insight that we translate into thought." When we flip from driving results to attracting the future, we "flip into this connected state, which also flips our relationship with time." For those of you who would like to delve into this a little deeper, here's a very eye-opening little timeline exercise from The Zen Leader that will illustrate the cause and effect of your own past and future events.

"Attracting the future is not a heroic act, so much as unifying our intention with what's ready to happen and bringing it about with our actions," says Dr. Whitelaw.

Listen And Make Adjustments As Needed
"If your future vision is able to be realized, joy will accompany your progress, and a wave of enthusiasm will build." This natural state will pull others along with you. If it's unrealistic, you'll hit stuck points where there is no path forward, no learning and no joy. This is where adjustments need to be made, but done so from a connected state. Keep listening - "…your vision will auto-adjust… and will inform your rational mind what to do next."

So much of our potential for growth and happiness is wrapped up in our own connectedness with Now. Through this ability to sense the hearts of our people, the practicalities of cause and effect and the natural timing of situations, "we become the transforming agent," that is, expressing the Zen Leader in you.

If my many years in marketing taught me anything, it was the importance of understanding your customers and prospects. Before any creative project was started, we would develop a "Creative Blueprint" that clearly stated our objectives and goals. The Main Selling Proposition was considered to be the most important part of the blueprint. But what I found to be most useful - not just then, but now in my own leadership work - is getting a grip on Current Attitudes and Desired Attitudes. Here's how you can apply this strategy to find solutions to many of the issues you face:

Think about a problem you'd like to address. For this example, let's use something very basic like: "I want Sarah and Tom to work better together." Grab a pencil. Now it's time to write in each voice what Current Attitudes and Desired Attitudes exist around this issue. The easiest way to do this is in first person. For example, in imagining Tom's voice, I might write:  "Sarah does most of the work herself so I never feel like an important part of the team."  A desired attitude from Tom might be "My contributions to the team are important and recognized." Really try and BE that other person - feel what they feel. This kind of role playing brings awareness to the needs and aspirations that are not being met and will give you a broader sense of how to develop a solution to satisfy all needs at hand.

This exercise can be applied to bigger issues as well, like growing a business. It is described in great detail in The Zen Leader, chapter 9, From Local Self to Whole Self. By "casting a wider net," we are able to see all the players surrounding the issue and the part they play in the desired outcome. Ginny Whitelaw lays it out quite beautifully:
- state your goal
- widen your net
- role play each person. Imagine what if…
- let imagination become reality

"The more I understand perspectives I never would have imagined on my own, the more realistic my imagination becomes," states Ginny Whitelaw. When we "engage with empathy," bigger possibilities emerge, or what she describes as tapping into our "whole self."

Give it a try!