These are the good old days!

The Polish clockmaker finally declared Grandma’s Clock restored after two months and $400. The Chimes are fully wound so there shouldn’t be too much sleep for the next week or so for anyone in my house! I headed to my farewell lunch at Vivace after collecting the clock. As well as being called a traitor and a prick some lovely messages were given directly to me by people who’s opinions I greatly value and respect. I’ve made one last visit to my office at Manukau but got distracted by  what turned out to be the Manukau City Brass Band playing Carols in the Chancery.

Stephen Drain, John Raine, Kevin Pryor, Philip Sallis & Derek McCormack

Pacific men, women and boys in black trousers, white shirts, ties pumping out one soothing carol after another. I sat and listened for a while. Reminded me of the Sallies in Christchurch when I was a boy. On the way out to my office, Grandma’s Clock declared it 12 noon and chimed as I drove. More memories.

At lunch we talked about the Wisdom Retreat I recently ran. Mindfulness was mentioned and Derek reminded us that these are indeed the good old days. Can you enjoy this moment whether it be the brass band you come across, the coffee with a friend, or at a stretch, even Christmas Lunch, for what it is? That special moment.

Working at AUT has been a special moment in my life. I’ve built something quite special, been free to be creative, had a lot of fun and made many life-long friends. I’m very grateful. I’ve tried to feel it on the way, to embrace the special moments on the way – the first Authentic Leadership Course, the Queenstown marketing module on the Innovative Leaders GM Programme and my personal favourite, the Wisdom Retreat. These were definitely good old days for me.

I’m also grateful to the many clients who put their trust in me to help them on their journey. I hope I helped. I hope there are more good old days starting in 2012. New job, still doing what I love, and more!

Thank you.

Stephen

ps and here’s the two people who came in behind me and made most of the stuff actually happen!

Lyn and Tamara - Thanks!

Six archive boxes and some certificates

I loaded them into the car tonight. Almost the end of an era for me. Three years at AUT setting up the Centre for Innovative Leadership, creating programmes with a focus on authenticity and innovation. So many workshops, coaching sessions, client meetings I couldn’t begin to count. Quiet satisfaction of building something. Grief on making the decision to leave what I’d started. That passed.

Now it’s excitement. They’ll be more leadership and other stuff too. Building a business in another context. More growth. More blogs. Can’t wait!

I put up my Christmas Tree tonight, complete with evil guy in the box reading “Christmas for Athiests”. Where he got that from I can’t imagine.

One more workshop in the morning. A great team wanting to finish the year getting their stuff on the table. We’ll do that, kick it around a bit, understand each other better and commit to watering our relationships in 2012. Connect and Commit is what we’ve talked about. Along with Clarity and Direction.

I’m connecting with all sorts of people at the moment. I ran into Barbara Horne yesterday who seemed very concerned that I would continue to blog! Nice to know someone is reading! Thanks. Too many “catch up for a coffees” to do them all but I’ll try. I’m commiting to more blogs – truth is they do lots for me – so why wouldn’t I? Great processing. I’ve got pretty good clarity and direction about what I’m doing in 2012, but it will be ambiguous – new stuff always is and it makes it all the better. Does for me anyhow.

Those certificates will find a new home but the six archive boxes will probably go untouched for a while. You never need most of the stuff. Why is that? No idea. Maybe a security blanket I might need to blog about one day.

Almost time to archive 2011 but before you do, connect and commit to take the great people with you from 2011 forward.

Stephen

A big call

We elected a new government last weekend. That was a big call. By collectively voting to return a National-led government we had to give some things away – the prospect of keeping our government-owned power companies in full public ownership, a tax system that taxed earnings on all capital profits, and raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour, for example.

So selecting something always requires giving up something.

First time for me into the Victoria Park Tunnel

Jasbindar Singh who  I often work with, reminds me from time-to-time: “Stephen, if you going to do that, then what will you give up?” A good but sometimes difficult question.

On Friday I made a big call personally. It will involve change including giving some things up. It wasn’t easy and there is a certain amount of grief that goes with the giving up part. For me, I felt that quite a lot, but in life we need to make big calls sometimes – no change happens without change! And when we get the opportunity, it won’t always been when you’re ready for it – in fact there’s a good chance that no change for growth will occur when you’re ready.  If you were ready it probably wouldn’t be much of a change.

Tomorrow we start the final module of the Innovative Leader’s GM Programme.  It’s a really busy time of the year and those on the programme have to give up something to be there. That’s the nature of preparing for growth.

As for me even though I like change I still find it hard to let go. Logic vs the heart. That’s a big call!

Stephen

Resilient Leadership

Keeping my mind healthy and resilient is partly why I run. Today it was the Kerikeri Half Marathon with my friend Mike and I pushed myself a bit, probably to make up for a slow Auckland Marathon three weeks ago. It’s a largely downhill run so a chance to put the foot down. Enjoyed.

I’ve been pretty busy lately – Workshops, Samoa, Wisdom Retreat, catching up on all the emails, appointments long-planned. A few things have fallen away – couple of missed appointments that got mixed up but people seem to understand. I hope so!

Kerikeri today: nothing like some good exercise to make you smile!

We learned quite a bit from our session on the Wisdom Retreat. We exercised for movement and strength. These were exercises that all abilities could cope with and develop as strength and fitness grew. We stretched. We breathed properly. We learned about the right food. We meditated. We were refreshed.

All these things we know and all these things we often ignore or don’t have time for.

Ask the question: if I don’t have time for keeping my body resilient, what do I have time for? Yes, I’ve taken the laptop to Kerikeri so I could load this up and load some photos. Really! No work. Well not much. And I ran, rested, took photographs and refreshed today.

What seemed almost overwhelming yesterday is in perspective.

I’m going to meditate tonight. No I haven’t turned into a mystical yogi, but I will close my eyes, breathe with my abdomen rising and be present for myself.

I know those that came on the Retreat got all this and more and I consider myself very fortunate to have been present during the sessions too.

Resilience. A powerful component of wise leadership.

Stephen