The Impasse and Purpose

30 days ago, I picked up a book I read previously entitled "The Power of Intention" by Dr. Dyer.  I read this for the first time about 7 years ago and found the principles very useful back then.  Today, it has had even more meaning.  A few months I ago I blogged about the impasse.  The impasse I have been in has had me feeling uninspired.  In fact, I probably have allowed my thoughts to keep me from being inspired.

Dr. Dyer writes about our purpose and so I thought, I would let his words of inspiration for those of us at the impasse.

* "If you think you are separate from your purpose and that you are drifting without purpose, then this is exactly what you will attract."  p. 150
* "There's a silent something within that intends  you to express yourself.  That something is your soul telling you to listen and connect through love, kindness, and receptivity to the power of intention." p.152
* "Expand you reality to the point where you pursue what you love doing and excel at it."  p.236

The last quote is very powerful.  Pursue that work, that activity and that life so that what you love doing is your life.  Worry not about the financial reward and the acclimation.  Allow your thoughts and actions marinate in the parts of life that inspire you.  For me, that is work that is about serving others to help them become all that they are intended to become.

The Impasse

Defined as the predicament with no possible out or escape.  A personal impasse in my mind is that feeling of I am stuck, unclear and downright frustrated.  You keep trying to gain clarity for yourself and yet you still feel that sense of impasse.

The last 90-120 days have been that for me in many ways.   I have allowed the externalities of life and work to make things hazy for me.  The picture above sorta describes how I have felt.  The picture evokes several emotions for me.

However, there have been some great learnings during this time of the personal impasse.  I thought I would share a few of my learnings:

* Stay clear on "You." In other words, go with who you are it is the best thing you can bring to life and work
* The cause is right in front of you each day.  Start there and build from there.
* Uncertainty creates anxiety, yet it also will result in passion, creativity and clarity if you can sit in it and let it do its work

How about your impasse learnings?

Crisis Leadership

Webster's would define a crisis as, "A time of intense difficulty, trouble or danger." We all respond differently to those times when there is great difficultly, trouble or danger.  Some of us would hide, while others seize the moment and try to create clarity for others.  Look at history and you see times where leaders would come to the table and create clarity for others during a challenging time.

For me, I would rather engage with people.  After all, they are the ones that will have navigate through the difficulty or danger and make something positive happen.  Here are a few suggestions as you deal with a potential crisis in your work or life:

* Run toward the issues vs. running from the issues
* Re-state the vision for the future vs. questioning the vision for the future
* Help those that want to run from the crisis find their way to engage in the midst of the crisis
* Be careful to blame others for the crisis. Make the problem a group problem to solve.

A leader finds a way in the midst of crisis to build stronger relationships and re-align others to the compelling vision.

Achievement

Have you documented your greatest and proudest achievements?  I value achievement because there is nothing like finding yourself fully immersed in your work and seeing results that are fabulous!

I felt engaged, empowered, passionate, strong and clear during the last six weeks.  I set out on a project and cause that was my own.  It was a great success in so many ways.  I want to recreate the following components more often in my life:

• It was a cause that was from my own personal story
• It was a project that came from my own personal vision. It was my own vision and it aligned with a greater cause
• It was about a group of people coming together and feeling like they are a part of something significant
• It was something that I had ownership over and the results are fabulous
• I did not really care about the results as much as I cared about being present in the moment of the work knowing I had given it my heart and soul
• I expected it to go well
• I really did not fear failure because it was an experiment and a learning experience

The moral of the story for me is that I long to find work that provides an income, is collaborative and has a cause that comes from my story.  In other words, it is real to me. 

Waving the Magic Wand Part II

My daughter loves Harry Potter, so I dedicate this entry to her.  Would it not be great to be able to say the magic words and "poof" out comes your ideal job?  A pretty unrealistic idea or picture I am sure, but what if you do not take the time to articulate what you want? I think you create greater risk for yourself by not taking the time to create the picture.  

I call this exercise the Waving the Magic Wand.  If I could wave the magic wand my ideal picture would have the following components:

1. My work that is about a cause that comes from my story and connected to my values. (Passion, Achievement, Empathy and Compassion)

2. I would be 1:1 for the majority of my day and meeting new people along the way.

3. I am creating my own content 

4. I have a strong sense of my own value and deliver that value regularly

5. I am able to measure my accomplishments and live in the tension of measurable and immeasurable accomplishments

6. Those I work with reach their goals and make progress toward their ideal future

7. Obviously I am getting paid for the work I do

8. I have great flexibility in my work and I am able to manage my own schedule

What about you? 

Passion

Too bad this word has been reduced and overused in life.  I for one think that this word is loaded with impact for me.  I get very frustrated, upset and sometimes even angry when I do not see passion in my life. Passion means enthusiasm, powerful attraction, energy, engagement, importance and life.  Here is where this gets very important for me.  It all is a function of my story.

Let me explain it this way, when we are younger we are formed by our parents, friends and teachers.  I figure much of our values are formed during our youth by these people.  I have had three very strong experiences with three influential people.  First, my 7th grade civics teacher who called me a loser in class. She lacked passion for her students and an understanding of the positive influence she could have had.  Second, my father who exudes passion for life.  This includes his vocation, his wife and his sons.  He does not know a stranger and moves into life without fear.  Thirdly, my math teacher in high school.  She raised the bar and loved what she taught.  She was only doing her job.

Passion is a value for me mostly because I want to see it in my own life for my wife, children and my work.  I for sure want those around me to have passion about their lives and work because I think huge impact can be made on those around us when it is absent and when it is present.  Let us not dilute the word any further.  Let us give it the proper standing and not over use it.

What about you?  What are the values that are instilled in you?  Stan Slap says it well "There's is an intimate connection between your emotions and your strong opinions about the way things ought to be.  It's impossible to separate your emotions from your values because one keeps influencing the other."

Brainy Leadership

The emergence of leadership training, books, blogs and socratic thought around the topic of leadership is uncanny.  You will find it just as interesting to know that the neuroscientists (Brain Mavens) are heavily engaged in investigating how our brain functions in regards to leadership.  I recently read a Neuroleadership journal regarding some of their recent findings.  

I found their findings fascinating:

* It is accomplishments that we often learn from better than our failures.

* Our brain is more elastic than we think and we can make changes or improvements for the better.  

* A person that is engaged is "attracted to, committed to and even fascinated by their work"  Stan Slap would call this emotional commitment.  The brain is immersed in the work.

* The SCARF model: "Every decision the leader makes either supports or undermines the perceived levels of status, certainty, autonomy, relatedness, and fairness among followers." 

The last bullet has me deep in thought and even more aware of how my actions and emotions effect others.  As leaders, we need to reduce the obstacles for our people to help them become better engaged in the work. 

Vacation

What an incredible week in beautiful Jackson, Wyoming.  It only took a day to completely disconnect from work and connect with my family and this wonderful area.  The temperature did not exceed 85 degrees and there was hardly any humidity.  We were awakened each morning to the sun rising on the Grand Tetons and fell asleep to the sun setting behind them.

On vacation, my hope and expectation is that I will reconnect with my heart.  I typically do this through reading, journaling and just thinking.  I read a great article on the critical elements of emotional intelligence in leadership.  Daniel Goleman shared that two critical elements in leadership are empathy and self-awareness.  Empathy is about feeling with another person.  You have to be able to understand where a person is coming from in order to help him/her move forward.  I believe there is objectivity to empathizing in the sense that you have to be able to stay detached enough from the emotion to stay present with the person.

Self-awareness is not only knowing yourself, your triggers and your emotions, but also knowing how these impact those around you.  Sometimes the best thing I can do is simply acknowledge that I am struggling or feeling a certain emotion and it seems that I am able to work through it with those around me.

My heart is about living with a sense of passion, a desire for accomplishment, a strong sense of empathy for others and a life lived in the service of others.  Perhaps, this picture from the end of one of our hikes with inspire you.  A part of this hike is entitled "Inspiration Point"

What's your style?

Some leaders lead by example, others by strong dictatorial style and others by a supportive approach.  I would say I spend most of my time with my support "hat" on in an attempt to be helpful to others.  This does not always work and in fact, many times people just do not want that.  They want to be directed and need someone to make the decision.  Said another way create the vision, make the tough decision and create the picture for the future.

I have been applying this supportive skill to every situation.  It may not call for it.  Our friends at the Leadership Challenge would say that there are five methods or a five factor model in leadership.  Leaders need to have skill or be able to pull from all five.


1. Model The Way
2. Inspire A Shared Vision
3. Challenge The Process
4. Enable Others To Act
5. Encourage The Heart

Today I learned that I can grow in number 2 and 3.  I tried it today.  I felt the muscle strengthen in a couple of meetings today.

What about you? What is your default? Where can you improve?

Consistent Clarity

I spent two days focusing on some great content  at the The Leadership Challenge workshop last week.  I entered the time really sensing a need for some personal clarity.  Clarity is so important to me and it mostly centers around my cause and the sense that I am living it out.

During the workshop we spent a fair amount of time focusing on vision and mission.  I realized that by reviewing my life story, I came upon the fact that my cause is about helping others win.

My vision is that I want to see others "Cut down the nets" in their own lives.  This is about team, victory and accomplishment. The phrase "cutting down the nets" refers to the ritual in college basketball where the national championship team cuts down pieces of the net to symbolize victory.  This is the greatest accomplishment in all of college basketball.

The picture to the right is Coach Everett Case who started the ritual after a championship was won.  My mission to daily seek to help others "cut down the nets" in their lives and in my own.

This has helped create some great clarity these last several days.

Great reminder

I enjoyed a nice six day vacation to sunny Phoenix Arizona this past week.  I always enjoy the opportunity to get away and reflect on my life, work and family.   I am a very introspective person and have a high need for clarity of purpose.

During one of my introspective mornings, I happened across a great article in Experience Life magazine.  The article focuses on self-esteem, yet has a strong message for us in our work life.

One of the suggestions was to Practice Self-Assertiveness.  "To practice self-assertivenes is to live authentically, to speak and act from my innermost convictions and feelings-as a way of life, as a rule."shares Branden.  Here are some questions to ask yourself regrading your life work as it corresponds to your sense of self:

* Are you living out your "cause" in your work?  You have to fight for this and live out your innermost convictions.
* Is your organization creating the "space" for you to live out your cause in your work?
* Is your work the canvas for self-expression? The article shares that the best leaders express their passion in their work.
* Finally, do you allow yourself to bring who you are to work each day?  Or are you the chameleon who simply fits in with no sense of cause?

The risk is great.  If you are simply allowing others to dictate the tempo of your life, you will end up an angry, resentful and grouchy person with little impact on others.  Those that you lead need you to live out your cause at work.

Dreams and Boundaries

I was inspired by the story of Amelia Earhart.  The movie ends with the quote of "What do dreams know of boundaries?" The challenge with dreams are that the pragmatic side of our lives come to a face off with our dreams.  We must actively remain clear about our dreams and enlist others to help us follow.  

Here are some suggestions for you as you follow your dream.

1. Write it down.  Write down the emotions you want to feel, the people you are with and what you are doing.

2.  Find a picture or portrait of the dream and look at it regularly.

3. Create a 5 year plan to get there and enlist another person to help you.

4. Fail and fail again and get back up and do it again

5. Meet the people who are living your dream currently and build that network

Face pragmatism with passion