Zen Leader Blog

How does Zen go to work with you?

Posted by Ginny Whitelaw

Oct 10, 2014 10:06:36 AM

I’m working on a new book, Zen Goes to Work, on how we bring Zen to work with us, and also how Zen goes to work IN us. I’m hearing some great stories and examples from people and, whether you’ve trained in Zen for a few months or a few decades, I’d like to hear yours. I’m not looking for Zen-like profundity, but genuine experience of how Zen shows up for you at work, how it supports your development, leadership or even how you answer the phone. For example, I heard this yesterday:

"I used to hate when my phone would ring. I'd think 'who's interrupting me now?' But now what I do, is give myself a good long breath.  It’s almost like center, enter and add value (the first flip in The Zen Leader). I use my breath to center, then enter, go in open-handed.  Who is it?"

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Topics: the zen leader, Zen goes to work, Zen at work

Leadership Advice: Why I Should Never Have Become President

Posted by Diane Chencharick

Jun 10, 2013 10:39:00 AM

climbing the corporate ladderBack in the 90's, I joined a small company as a partner in the business. I was one of three. Our most senior partner and President was a natural born leader. People gravitated and got behind him no matter how difficult the circumstances - and believe me, we lived through several! His nickname became "Mr. Smooth" and he was the consummate role model of a leader under pressure. My second partner, Mr. Steady, had been there his whole career, working his way up through the ranks with his eye on the prize. I was the newcomer with industry experience, who brought fresh thinking to the table. Together, we were a pretty unbeatable combination.

When Mr. Smooth decided it was time to start stepping back, Mr. Steady became the new president. Following in his footsteps would have been a challenge for any new leader, but for Mr. Steady the contrast was far too jarring. He never lived up to the role for any of the employees, nor even for himself. He left a short time later in a downsizing round of layoffs and that's when I became the new President. I can't think of a worse way to get handed this position.

The Peter Principle plays out in organizations all the time - highly effective people who get promoted until they are beyond their level of ability. I wish I would have said "no" to the offer of President. I knew it wasn't the right position for me. I was a great number two. Task-oriented and driven, I could accomplish more in a normal work day than most people did in three. But I was lacking a very important attribute, maybe THE most important attribute, for someone at the helm - a clear future vision for the company. But the allure of the title was too enticing and there were no better options within our current staff, so I took the position... and it all slid downhill from there.

Looking back, our attempts at succession may not have killed our little company, as much as the changes going on within our industry, but it certainly helped speed things along. I didn't want to build something - I had my own dream of semi-retirement and wanted to start stepping back myself. Instead of a leader with a vision for the future, the company was stuck in my own near-sightedness. Yes, we cranked up performance and eliminated a lot of debt. But we all knew we were on a sinking ship, like rats racing to a higher deck. What could have been possible with another leader - someone who could see a different future for the company, believe in it and pull others into that shared vision?

In the book, The Zen Leader, there is a very good exercise that illustrates how attracting the future is really developing a shared vision - one that begins with you and expands to your employees. We think of time as a line going from past to present and beyond. But when we change our perspective to Now, we see all that is possible through us in the present. "Leaders who can attract great visions into the present create a new shared reality among a great many people. In organizational life, this shows up as a change in culture," states Ginny Whitelaw. If you'd like to try the timeline exercise on your own, you can get it here.

My take on this whole experience is this: execution without insight is pointless. "Attracting the future doesn't mean we forever stop using the Driver's push or the Organizer's plan; both are indispensable for getting stuff done. But they are infinitely more useful when they serve the insight and vision arising from the connected state, rather than blundering along blindly on their own," continues Ginny. Amen to that.

Our old company lawyer was a very smart man with his name on the door and a Vice President title. Even though he started the firm and added several associates over the years, he never once was its CEO. I asked him once why. "God, no," he said, "I don't want to be President!" There was a man who knew his strengths and built a thriving business never once taking over the reins. I thought it odd at the time, but I get it now.

Know who you are… know what your company needs… and don't get lured into the easy choice. That's my best advice from one who's been there:-)
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Topics: leadership advice, the peter principle, the zen leader, Ginny Whitelaw, Organizer, Driver

Leadership Advice: What to do when you're out of ideas

Posted by Diane Chencharick

May 27, 2013 7:53:00 AM

ideasNobody really runs out of ideas, but sometimes it sure feels that way. Especially those times when you desperately want something miraculous to happen… a big increase in sales, a new client to boost your business, a big idea that suddenly changes everything. Nobody wants to feel like they're tapped out. Here are some thought starters I've used over the years to help stimulate the creative process.

Read something
Pick up a book, a magazine or some other reading related to your issue. Nothing stimulates your thinking like seeing what has worked and not worked for others. When I was an art director in advertising, I began every major project by flipping through a few issues of Communication Arts. Just seeing brilliant work done by others gets the brain excited about the possibilities of the project at hand. It not only puts you in a mode that says "I want to do stuff like THAT!" but it gives your mind creative bits and pieces to begin to play with. I might see a special way that the type was handled, or a photo combined with a chunk of color that could give me a starting point for something I'd never tried before. Ideas spawn other ideas. Let the work of others ignite that spark of inspiration in you.

Involve someone
We've all heard the phrase, "Two heads are better than one," but sometimes we feel like WE are the ones who have to solve something, prove something, or lead the way through messy waters. That's ego talking, not what makes sense from a broader perspective. We all have distorting filters that color our perceptions in different ways. As Ginny Whitelaw states, in The Zen Leader, "Our layers of distorting filters based on our human limitations, culture, family, gender, age, strengths, weaknesses, experiences, fears, position in life, and on and on, create our perceptions and the meaning we make of 'out there'." Get someone involved in helping you solve the problem. In fact, get several someones. You'll find the benefit in collaboration and may uncover a solution you wouldn't have come up with on your own.

Step back
If you're like me, when you're trying to fix something and it's not working, you do what you think is the logical thing - push harder. This rarely ever works, yet we continue to drive, thinking more effort will do the trick, when what we really need to do is stop.

One of the flips in The Zen Leader, From Driving Results To Attracting The Future, speaks to this beautifully: "The flip to attracting the future is simply connectedness applied to sense what future is possible and how to bring it into the present. I say 'simply' because it's not complicated, but it IS subtle. If we're driving results full steam ahead, and not getting where we want to go, or not wanting what we're getting, we have to slow down to even approach this state of connectedness in which acute sensitivity gives rise to insight. Better yet, stop."

Take a break, step back, and stop what you are doing. The energy of the situation needs to realign itself and it can't happen when you're pushing. Driver energy is only one of the 4 energy patterns that you have available to use, and the situation is begging for something else. If you'd like a handy desktop reminder of the other energies besides the pushy Driver, you can download a free FEBox (named after the FEBI that measures these energy patterns).

The creative process IS a process, much like gardening. We need to prepare the soil, plant the seeds, feed/water, and sit back and wait. And when we can involve others in the process, like planting more than one seed at a time, a garden of ideas awaits us.

What other idea-generating practices work for you?
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Topics: leadership advice, inspiration, generating ideas, ideas, the creative process, energy management, the zen leader, flips, Ginny Whitelaw, energy

Leadership Advice: Simplification Changes Everything

Posted by Diane Chencharick

Apr 28, 2013 6:26:00 AM

simplicityI've been on a mission the last few years to simplify my life. It actually began out of necessity a few years earlier as I combined households with a man who was a more accomplished "collector" than I was. How did we ever get all this STUFF?! So, it began… an item by item triage that put everything in a category of keep, sell, gift/donate, or throw away. Little did I know that this lesson would carry over to other aspects of my life as well.

In this country, we've all become massive collectors. It goes way beyond the laughable "the person with the most toys wins." Some economist might call it consumerism, but we don't really consume it all. Most of the time it just sits there, taking up space. When you start running out of spaces to put things, we often move into bigger spaces. In 1973, the average square footage of a new construction home in the US was 1,525. By 2010, it had grown to 2,169.

Two years ago, we downsized again into a home roughly half the size. Some things went into storage, but for the most part, we simplified again - taking only what we really needed and loved. No clutter. Pretty soon simplification spilled over into other areas of our life. Our meals became smaller and a lot healthier. It was amazing how good all this felt - like I had more breathing room. And breathe I did.

I found myself drawn to meditation and yoga. The simple act of following my breath increased my awareness of all that is going on around me. I became more aware of all the mind chatter and began to recognize the voice of ego and the fears it works so hard to protect. "By doing less, we sense more," states Ginny Whitelaw in The Zen Leader. This act of simplification is at the very heart of the "flip," from Controlling to Connecting.

In leadership, "we can experience this flip when we do less ourselves and reach out to others more," continues Ginny. "When leaders have delegated away many of their everyday tasks to attend the programs I teach, I always caution them about how much they take back when they return on Monday morning. Who can help? Who can learn from this? Where else in the organization could we get support? The more we connect with people around us and their ideas, the more we scale beyond the capacity of being merely a 'one-man-band.' Not only does connection help leadership scale to greater levels, but it's even essential for the uptake of our individual efforts…It is the flip that gets people moving with us, not because they have to, but because our connectedness brings them along."

Connectedness rewards us in many ways. In its most complete state, we experience Samadhi - where "I" disappears and we reach total absorption in the moment. Athletes call it being "in the zone." But this is not something we can will, rather it is a natural state that arises on its own. We can nurture the conditions for Samadhi through meditation and breath. If you've never tried this, here are some basic exercises from The Zen Leader that are both relaxing and rejuvenating. I encourage you to give them a try.

Simplification has taught me many things. I have learned that I don't need half the things I once thought were important to own. Letting go of material things has allowed me to more easily let go of other things, like anger and disappointment. I also worry less because I spend more time in the moment rather than role-playing future scenarios that never play out. The greater "space" in my life allows me to connect more with people and activities I enjoy. Less is more - I get it now.

I invite you to do this simple experiment. Right now, focus on where you are. Take in your whole surroundings, the smell of the air, the posture of your body and the feeling of your clothes, the things around you. Pick one thing you see. Is it important to you? If it is, appreciate its function and place in your life. Is it something you really don't need? Then do what I did and sell it, gift it, or throw it away… and enjoy the freedom that begins to develop:-)
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Topics: simplification, awareness, leadership advice, just enough, the zen leader, Ginny Whitelaw

Leadership Advice: Why "Experiencing" is better than "Showing"

Posted by Diane Chencharick

Apr 13, 2013 7:18:00 AM

laughingAs leaders, we are often in teaching mode - communicating our vision, letting others learn from our experience, and correcting and adjusting our course to accommodate the winds of change. But there are times when it's best to sit back and let others experience the situation rather than be led through it, in other words, to lead from behind.

This was one of the hardest lesson for me to learn. Maybe it's the mom in me. I was forever in "teaching" mode and it became very easy to carry this through to my managerial style. But there are many things better learned firsthand, by really feeling it. Here's a few I'd like to share.

Not everybody wins
Learning to lose graciously - now there's a good life lesson! You gave it your all, it was darn good stuff, you pitched it flawlessly and they went with somebody else. Having spent many years as a creative director in advertising, I can tell you, this scenario plays out all the time. But for every winning team, there is at least one losing team. You can't lose sleep over it. After a defeat, the faster you can get your team to "acceptance" the better off you'll all be. At your "post-mortem meeting," do a thorough review of what worked and didn't. Get everything out in the open, including time to vent. I encouraged everyone to keep a file drawer with "great work that didn't sell." You never know if it may find life in some other variation somewhere down the road. It also helps us remember that doing great work still matters, whether it wins the day or not. Just keep doing great work, and the rest will take care of itself.

In the book, The Zen Leader, by Ginny Whitelaw, she talks a lot about this letting go and not taking things personally in the "flip" From It's All About Me to I'm All About It.  If we peel back the layers of frustration when our work doesn't have the desired outcome, we'll usually find a fear underneath about not being good enough, secure enough, appreciated enough or something enough.  When we quit "requiring" that our work somehow lead to personal sucess or admiration, we can put it out there more clearly, more cleanly in service of others.  "When we are that leader who is "all about it," "it" manifests more completely through us in the Now, without the footprints of self-doubt or self-glorification," states Ginny.

Take me there with you
I've seen hundreds of pitches with all the best visual aids you can imagine, but those pitches generally didn't work when people just told or showed me their solution without letting me experience it or arrive there with them.  Sometimes I'd find myself thinking, "I know this is your baby and you've been living with it for weeks now, but I'm seeing it for the first time, so don't just spring it on me and expect me to be as enthusiastic as you are." If you want others to be enthusiastic about your idea, put yourself in their "beginner minds," and take them on a journey to experience that enthusiasm for themselves. This is a "flip" from "show" (or tell) to "experience," from thinking from your own perspective using empathy to craft a story. Set the stage with a protagonist - maybe you or a client or customer - and the key issue or challenge that must be overcome.  You might share your thought process, or the other things you thought of and rejected, and the "aha" moment when suddenly something clicked.  As you tell your story, it gives a chance for others to experience what you experienced, to feel the passion you feel, and for your passion to show as well. Become a storyteller when making your presentation and you'll have more winners than losers.

Actively engage me
I was fortunate to attend a leadership program at The Institute For Zen Leadership that took this lesson to heart. During the course of this 3-day workshop, our group was physically involved at every step - from the quietness of sitting to active movement in the 4 energy patterns, where we immersed ourselves the experience of each pattern from inside out. Now, maybe it's not practical to get people on their feet during a meeting, but there are plenty of ways to actively engage an audience. I always encouraged groups to interject any thoughts/comments when I was presenting. Some might view this as an interruption, but I never did. Getting conversations going during your presentation does two things: 1) it allows you to become the listener, giving you good feedback that you may be able to use/refer back to later in the presentation. 2) it begins to create ownership with the people you are presenting to.  Some of my best presentations were when this happened and it forced me to "go off script." I remember one in particular, where by the end of the meeting, the whole room was engaged in conversations on how they were going to roll this out internally. It doesn't get any better than that.

What this all boils down to is that people want to feel an emotional attachment to you, your ideas, and your company. This can't be done if you're in coping mode, which defends or distances itself. This is probably why From Coping To Transforming is the very first chapter and flip in The Zen Leader, as it's the starting point of real leadership. "This is one empowering flip," states Ginny. "It reframes everything from a focus on the self-having-a-problem to the creative agent who learns from what's going on and often changes the game...it get's your engergy going in the right direction, which is from the inside out – adding the best value you have to offer." I've included a link to that chapter above. Give it a read. It may change the way you think about transformative power that unfolds rather than pushes.

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Topics: leadership advice, leaders, Dr. Whitelaw, making presentations, the zen leader, energy patterns, leadership, Ginny Whitelaw, Institute for zen leadership

Leadership Advice: When decisions offer no "good" outcomes.

Posted by Diane Chencharick

Mar 30, 2013 2:24:00 PM

decisionsWe've all heard the phrase, "The lesser of two evils," but sometimes leaders are faced with decisions where even the lesser of two evils is not clear. Sometimes decisions seem equally crummy in either direction, depending on your perspective. I was reminded of this while watching the news the other night, as yet another crisis evolves in the Middle East. It appears, once again, that an action by the United Nations and/or the United States will be forthcoming, and we will be judged harshly by our involvement or lack thereof.

So what do you do when faced with decisions where no one is going to be happy? It's sometimes hard not to seek out acceptance, appreciation, and validation that we are making the "right" decisions. We want our followers to stand behind us and support us, and when they don't, we can take it personally - as a slap in the face that says, "I don't trust you are doing the right thing." This is where clarity and awareness are most critical. They are how to remain clear on our intent so we make decisions that benefit the greater good. They're how we are able to weave through and not be clouded by all the voices we hear that are based in fear. They're how to find some peace ourselves, when faced with a difficult paradox.  So when you find yourself caught between rocks and hard places, here are three things that might help.


Sit and Breathe
There's only one way I know to stop all the mind chatter long enough to see through the fog: sitting meditation centered on the breath. I've recently recommitted myself to this, which has been an on-again, off-again practice for me. By paying attention to everything that's going on in and around my body, by dismissing thought as it tries to enter (or blending it with my breath), I am able to experience life as it is, non-judgmentally. This state, when practiced, can then be carried over into daily life including those times of tough decision-making. Meditate. And keep going back to it when you quit doing it. For the novice, here's a very simple guide to sitting meditation that also lets you experience the 4 energy patterns that work within you.

See the Big Picture
In the book, The Zen Leader, Dr. Whitelaw calls this "flip" From Local Self To Whole Self. What she suggests we do is to look beyond our own immediate inner circle to see all the players and, through role-playing, feel and experience the fears, challenges, advantages and disadvantages around your decision. To me, this is like viewing things from the peripheral wash of a floodlight, vs. the single beam of a flashlight. How much more we can see! Here's a helpful little guide from that chapter called From Local Self To Whole Self: Seeing All The Players, that illustrates how far-reaching our decisions really are.

Manage the Paradox
One of the most difficult challenge any leader may face is in managing a paradox that has a high emotional component to it. We see this in religious beliefs, political beliefs and cultural differences all the time. They create potential for over-reaction and under-reaction that keep us locked in the extremes of one side. "The leader who can see and show others that we're not dealing with a 'slippery slope' so much as a figure 8 of managing a healthy tension within bounds we can agree upon, moves the dialogue - and the company - to a higher level," states Dr. Whitelaw.  "The leader who can tease apart 'what exactly did we do last time that caused problems?' and identify thresholds within which we can maneuver successfully raises the bar of performance." Here's a guide to managing paradox, from The Zen Leader, that may be very helpful to you.

The toughest decisions we must make leave everyone feeling that they're not quite happy with the outcome. I was told this from a court arbitrator once, and it certainly holds true when you are managing a paradox. It's so much easier to take sides and have at least SOME of the people supporting you. But with paradox, that's not in the best interest of the company, the country or whatever collection of people you lead. Through clarity and awareness, it's easier to get through this unpleasantness. An unfaltering vision and a clear mind will help you navigate these waters.

And don't forget to breathe…

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Topics: managing paradox, awareness, Dr. Whitelaw, mindfulness, decision making, meditation, the zen leader, whole self

Leadership development is not a straight path

Posted by Diane Chencharick

Mar 16, 2013 4:55:00 AM

winding roadNothing seems to run in a straight line. We start something, move things forward and then the backslide begins. Whoever penned the phrase, "two steps forward and one step back" understood the pattern of growth -  something we can see in everything from our personal relationships to leadership development. I guess I always thought that knowledge and learning were more linear - and preferably ascending at a 45 degree angle:-) Silly me! Learning advances in stages, with sometimes numerous setbacks along the way. Unfortunately, many people give up after the first one or two. Why? Because it feels too much like failure and we take it personally. Don't confuse failure with the normal forward and backward motion of growth.

How do you react to the first setback when working toward a goal?
It's so easy to take things personally when setbacks occur. What don't people like about my goal? Why aren't they on board with me? What did I not take into account? These simple questions, while varied in their answers, all have a common denominator - me, my, I. When we can make the "flip" from It's All About Me, to I'm All About It, we gain freedom, energy and the ability to move forward for the greater good.

The many faces of It's All About Me
No leaders I know think "it's all about me." "And yet," as Ginny Whitelaw states it in the book, The Zen Leader, "The need to meet our own needs is deeply human and doesn't disappear the moment we start caring about others or connect ourselves to causes." Take a look at a few of the phrases she's heard during her coaching career from high-flying, highly skilled leaders who indeed care about the people around them, and see if any of these ring true for you:
  • Only I can do this (fast enough, correct enough, and so on)
  • I (or my team) want credit for this
  • I'm worried about money
  • It bothers me that my peers don't like me
  • I need to be heard (or respected, or promoted, etc)
  • I'm burning out; I work too hard
  • If our groups get merged, I may be out of a job.
Perhaps you have your own I-centered statement you can add to the list. All of these have one thing in common - they relate to a current need asking to be met.

Maslow recognized human needs and gave us a simple way to understand how they build on one another in his hierarchy of needs. But we don't scale this hierarchy only once in a simple linear fashion. Instead, we go back and forth - "down to the physical level when we are hungry and up to the self-actualization level when we are doing our best work," adds Ginny. When we map the faces of It's All About Me into Maslow's hierarchy, we begin to see the root need that is trying to be met. For example:
  • Only I can do this -> self-esteem, personal power
  • I'm worried about money -> security
  • I'm burning out; I work too hard -> physical
  • It bothers me that my peers don't like me -> affiliation

Awareness opens more doors
Why is it important to map this out? Because when we discover the underlying fear/need that is not being met, we become aware of where we tend to get stuck in Maslow's hierarchy. "Really understanding how our needs function, not as a judgment against ourselves but with curious exploration, moves them from being faces in disguise to faces we recognize," Ginny further explains. Awareness gives us the ability to see those needs and the freedom to choose beyond them for the greater good.

Making the flip from It's All About Me to I'm All About It
When we can invert our way of thinking from a self-serving focus to one that focuses on serving, we are ready and fully capable of moving ourselves and others forward again with our goals. Let's take those same I-centered statements and see what they look like after making this eighth flip from The Zen Leader:
  • Only I can do this -> I'd enjoy doing this but who else can learn from this?
  • 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 merged, I may be out of a job -> Our groups merging may signal that it's time for a new chapter for me.
  • It bothers me that my peers don't like me -> even if Jane doesn't like me I'm going to help her anyway.
It's not as hard as you think to make this flip in consciousness. Here's a helpful guide from The Zen Leader, Flipping the Voice of Resistance, that maps out many of the common areas where leaders get stuck and how to flip them around.

Just because we now understand the pattern of growth that moves backward several times along the way doesn't mean we want to linger there when it happens. We can listen to the voice of resistance and become aware of the fear/need it is trying to protect and then ask ourselves, "If I could take my need out of it, how could I become All About It?" It's nothing more than listening, learning and getting out of our own way. Adjustments and decisions we make based on the whole picture are always better.

"When we work with a true steward, one who is creating a more valuable world for the sake of others, it brings out the best in us and we get bigger. When a great leader like President Kennedy reminds a nation 'Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.' he pulls people up Maslow's hierarchy toward a greater sense of who they can be in service to others, By contrast, the politician who promises it's all about you, and that he'll go to the Capital to 'bring back your money,' draws people down into angry selfishness. As leaders we are not only tending to our own hierarchy of needs, but inspiring (or dragging) others up (or down) Maslow's hierarchy as well. As we draw more people up toward their self-actualizating potential, we see more creativity, agility, spontaneity, and broad-based thinking, and less fear," states Ginny. And nothing draws people to a leader more than when they feel inspired to be their best self.  Why lead people anywhere else?
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Topics: awareness, Maslow's hierarchy, voice of resistance, servant leaders, the zen leader, leadership, leadership development, Ginny Whitelaw

Leadership Advice On Building Connections

Posted by Diane Chencharick

Mar 4, 2013 6:51:00 AM

connections 180pxHas it ever seemed like the right person came into your life at exactly the right time? This has happened to me on many occasions. For example:
  • the man who introduced me to another man, whom I later married
  • the artist who unblocked me when I was feeling stuck in my work (this has happened to me twice)
  • the teacher who deepened my personal growth or showed me a new perspective to a problem I was struggling with (still counting!:-)
We are forever meeting new people and crossing paths with others, mostly on a casual basis. But, I pay closer attention now than I used to. You never know who may be that next person of influence… the one who will shake up your thought processes, help build your vision or lead you into an area of your life that is not yet revealed.

There is a television show called Touch, now in its second season, that speaks to this same idea. Keifer Sutherland plays Martin, the father of a challenged 12-year old mute son.  He discovers his son has the ability to perceive seemingly hidden patterns that connect every life on the planet. In each episode, Martin helps decipher these numbers and put the pieces together in order to help people all over the world whose lives touched one another – whether they knew it or not.

This whole idea doesn't seem so far-fetched to me anymore. In fact, I try to approach every introduction and encounter with a kind of watchful anticipation. I have stopped passing judgment on who is important and who isn't, and as a result, my life gets richer and more interesting all the time. Judgment, or "limiting beliefs,"  makes us smaller.

In the book, The Zen Leader, Ginny Whitelaw describes how we are our own worst enemies when it comes to limiting beliefs. "'I know' is possibly the most self-limiting phrase in any language," states Ginny, "for it stops our mind on an 'I' that is certain of conventional delusion. Not because we're stupid," she continues, "but because we are working with limited sensors, vaguely grasping a three-dimensional projection of an at-least-10-dimensional universe, through the biases of personality, culture, and so on, selecting what we notice and how we make meaning. In conventional matters, such as knowing the rules of the road or where we keep our toothbrush, conventional knowing works just fine, and we'd exhaust ourselves if we constantly questioned it. But in assumptions we make about the world, our customers, the future, the people closest to us, or the possibility of innovation, we can get huge mileage out of knowing less and learning more."

Are you aware of how your own filters play into the world you create for yourself? Here's an exercise you might enjoy from The Zen Leader that lets you play with these connections between "how you are" and your everyday world.

In this time of global connectivity, where information is now measured in millions of terabytes, our own influence is broader than we can possibly realize. Making connections, and using awareness to uncover the threads that each connection may offer, may seem like a painstaking process, but it's not. All we really need to do, as Ginny states, is "Suspend knowing."

Our future and the potential of our own lives on this planet may be entwined in the very next person we meet. Be aware that even a casual introduction might lead to an important piece to the puzzle.
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Topics: leadership advice, building connections, the zen leader, Ginny Whitelaw

Leadership Advice: How To Expand Your Peripheral Vision

Posted by Diane Chencharick

Feb 17, 2013 5:59:00 AM

sphere of influenceHow many followers are in your camp? How many people do you influence? Have you ever stopped to think about the number? Probably not. It's more staggering than you could possibly imagine.

When we talk of leadership, we're usually referring to our direct reports and other employees within our company. We can also apply it to our customers and vendors. If we think about it, we might extend our view of leadership to our family, friends or even our community. But our leadership doesn't stop there. If we think of leadership broadly as authentically adding value, it can be active in every interaction we have, every day of our lives. There is no OFF switch when it comes to leadership… and no limit to whom we may influence, or how even the most remote individual may influence any given situation. Expanding our peripheral vision to include all these players is key. It will improve our imagination and promote better decision making.

This reminded me of a "flip" from The Zen Leader, from Local Self to Whole Self. Even when we think we are looking at the big picture, are we really seeing all of it? Here is an exercise that you can do from that chapter to show you just how wide your sphere of influence is in any given situation. When we change our field of view to see ALL the players and listen closely to their individual voices, we become aware of crucial perspectives that affect the whole. Our imagination has ground in which to operate and our actions become more tuned to the whole context. As Albert Einstein once said, " Your imagination is your preview of life's coming attractions." Care to see a glimpse?

I invite you to take this challenge:

Choose one issue that surrounds you and do this exercise, From Local Self to Whole Self. Don't be overwhelmed in the enormity of all the players in your situation, but relax into it and "let intuition operate with your good intentions," as Ginny Whitelaw suggests in The Zen Leader." Through this process of flipping to our whole self, our local self is changed. We are changed in what we notice, what we think, and how we act. Because we are changed, a new reality is possible in the Now. As we flip from local self to whole self, we manifest a whole new picture. And eventually, we don't have to imagine what if we were the whole picture. We can say with clarity, 'I am that'." As you explore these connections and imagine "what if…" see how your own interconnectivity provides boundless possibility.

In this spinning, face-paced world, our influence is more like a galaxy than a single solar system. We never know whom we may influence, or who may play an important role in future events.

It's also important to remember that one does not "become" a leader. It is a privilege given to us by others - and we have no control over its breadth.

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Topics: leadership advice, the zen leader, Ginny Whitelaw, whole leadership

Leadership Advice for When You're Running on Empty

Posted by Diane Chencharick

Feb 6, 2013 10:12:00 AM

low energy

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Topics: leadership advice, leaders, rhythm of the day, the zen leader, energy patterns, leadership, Ginny Whitelaw, energy, Driver

Welcome to the Zen Leader Blog

A blog that transforms:

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!

Also visit the FEBI Learning Lounge: The official FEBI blog

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