Tag: authenticity

Taking your friends into a new year

Family often get talked about, or that is my sense, in my blogs here. I wrote a blog of lessons on the first day of 2010 and when I started thinking about a blog for the last day of the year I thought I’d go back to the very beginning and see where I was at. I started 2010 thinking about happiness, authenticity, running and leading without waiting for the superhero to save or do for you.

On reflection, they were good things to start the year on and I’m going to take them through to next year. Family was big this year (is it ever not) but I had meaningful conversations with siblings, children and parents about all sorts of things and as a result family relationships definitely feel richer.

I’m going to keep connected to family and I’m going to grow my relationships with friends. I’m sure I’ve neglected some and that’s been at times when I’ve been so busy that it hasn’t felt like there is time. Somewhere in that equation, happiness fell away when it got too busy or the friendly chats stopped. I’m not sure if we drew a causal loop on that where it would start and finish, but it doesn’t matter.

I’m going to lead myself into 2011 being myself, I don’t need to mention the superhero again, but I will be mindful of friends along with my family.

That’s got to be a happy place to say happy new year!

Stephen

An afternoon with an artist

Tim and I drove north this morning.  145km to be exact and then back again. In-between we shared time with an artist who inspired and made us laugh. I hope we might have made him happy too. As well as snapper and fries we had Bob Dylan and deep stories that started to connect us.

Connecting at a level that matters. The world is overloaded with head and logic. Today it was heart. And that meant family, the good and the challenging. But realising that whatever, all is learning and growth.

Tim left with a special message of caring for his upcoming surgery. I left warm and content.

Even the road seemed peaceful going back. Uncle Stan was waiting for me when I got home. He seems peaceful.

So does Tim.

Thanks my new friend. It was an authentic day.

Stephen

 

Inside Out

When I hang the clothes on my clothes horse, much to the disdain of any casual observers, they go on the line, like, well they just go there. Often inside out. When it’s all done and dried, then they are sorted and folded. They’re pretty and neat then, you’ll be pleased to know. Ordered.

Being someone how leaves the possibilities open it can mean last minute activities to get ready. Like having slightly wet socks drying on my car’s parcel shelf on the way out to Waitakere Estate yesterday. So at least now I look okay on the outside – well no-one has told me otherwise yet!

Eckhart Tolle tells us about life having an inner purpose and an outer purpose. Outer purpose concerns doing, and is secondary. Inner purpose, on the other hand concerns our Being and is primary. He says  “No matter how active we are, how much effort we make, out state of consciousness creates our world, and if there is no change on that inner lever, no amount of action will make any difference.”

It’s a year today that we started the first Authentic Leadership Course in the same room I am writing this blog. Even more than then, I believe that our authenticity is the key to leadership, organisational and business strength. And happiness. We have well-developed processes, great exercises and exceptional people that work with me. Our participants, like those before them want to make changes. Sometimes quickly. Identification of opportunities and issues early is fantastic and 24 hours into the programme, we’re seeing this already.

But changes happen from the Inside. Start there and change your being. Otherwise, it’s inside out. And you’ll have action, but it’ll be temporary.

We’ll spend the week feeling a bit mixed up at times, a bit disordered and the participants will feel at times that there’s lots to do in such a short time.  But a week of it and we’ll be clean and dry and suddenly, sometime unexpectedly, we’ll crinkle it all out and be ready for action.  

Stephen

Marketing a Marathon

At 34 kilometres I stopped at Okahu Bay for three drinks and my last carbo squeezie. The ‘Why?’ question. It always comes up at some point on a marathon, and this time, having been prescribed steroids to get me through a throat infection and the run, it was later than I thought. People refer to it as the wall. It’s real and it hurts. But 34 soon becomes 37 and suddenly it’s 40 and I’m smok’n to the finish line. I remembered to tell a few people “Marathons hurt”.  To be honest, I’ve kinda forgotten already.

We’ve got our 4th Authentic Leadership Course coming up and we’re near the finish line – or is that the starting line? Feels a bit like the finish line as the intensive marketing comes to a close and we can get ready for the really good stuff.  It will have been a year almost to the day since our first course and each one is special. They are big weeks and the start of a journey for the participants.

I enjoy marketing strategy – aligning the products, the pricing, the promotion, our processes and so on with our authenticity. Selling I’m not so keen on, I prefer buying! Well someone buying anyway. I really enjoy meeting our clients on the way – I consider myself fortunate to get the rich texture of life from so many really neat people up and down the country. But sometimes promoting a course is hard.

Just like 34 ks on the Auckland Marathon.  Next year I’ll have my permanent unique number for having completed five Auckland marathons. I’ll have it for life. Not sure how many punters sign up for the first one thinking “now that’s one hell of a good incentive to start!”. Just like I’m not sure that all our clients start off on the Authentic Leadership Course thinking that a year down the track they will be noticing the impact. But they have and they do. We’ll have participants from the previous courses check in on this anniversary course and we’ll find out how their journey in authenticity is going.

Bet they’ve hit the wall occasionally, some even on the course. But they’ll have their permanent unique number.

Like we all do. Can’t be copied. You’ve got it for life. But you need to find it, your authenticiy.  And that can take work. Will you ask why? Maybe, but once you’re up and running again, you’ll never look back. Any hurt will be subsumed by delight.

Can you market that do you reckon?

Stephen

ps check out one of my photos on the promotional banner for our course on www.aut.ac.nz