Evoking Solutions: Shera R. Sever

I’m sure many of you are familiar with  Keith Ferrazzi, author of Never Eat Alone, and his most recent book, Who’s Got Your Back.

Ferazzi believes leadership, at its essence, is a spiritual journey- it takes courage, motivation, discipline, and commitment. Strongly grounded in many years of Vipassana practice, Ferazzi’s weaves his spiritual practice into his leadership style, sharing life-changing strategies for anyone committed to building a lifeline team.

In order to continue to be the best we can, I believe it’s vitally important, especially in these times, to create our own Personal Board of Directors- a small committed group who are not going to let each other fail, ever!

REBUILDING TRUST in A WORLD of GREED & FEAR

According to Ferrazzi, successful networking (our abilities to “connect”) is not about the size of our “rolodex”. Rather success is more readily available to those who can pick up the phone and say, ” I need help”.

Particularly in these times, Ferazzi encourages us to focus on *Relationship Capital* by building a Personal Board of Directors or what he calls *Lifeline Relationships*- the ones that help us rebuild TRUST in a world of fear and greed.

BUILDING Your PERSONAL BOARD of DIRECTORS:

* Identify at 3 people you know who can change your life.

* Call them and share this idea about LifeLine Relationships. Ask them if they will be on board with you.

* Lifeline Relationships lead with generosity. Who bends over backwards for you?  Who do you bend over backwards for?

* Lifeline Relationships are transparent: Who can you let your guard down with and have it be okay?

* Lifeline Relationships hold each other accountable. Who can kick you in the butt when necessary? Which of your peers can you depend upon to TELL the TRUTH and help you face the brutal facts

* Lifeline relationships agree to forgive in advance when we slip up. Sparring is okay (even encouraged!).

* Lifeline relationships have a RELATIONSHIP ACTION PLAN. (R.A.P.) which is rigorous, routine, strategic, and systematic.

Your Personal Board of Directors can come in many forms: Mastermind Groups, Learning or Coaching Communities, Wisdom Councils, Women’s or Men’s circles, or Spiritual Communities.

Rather than changing who we are, enlist others to help us become the best we can be. This is where the true strength of any team, organization or initiative lies. For more information on Ferrazi’s model, check out  Greenlight Community.

How many of you have this lifeline team in place? I’ve had several “lifeline” teams over the years (work groups, learning communities, friends, spiritual sanghas, performance groups) that were extremely beneficial for their duration.

And now, I am looking at creating the strongest, most sustainable  one yet!  Will you help me?

I am eager to partner with an organizational leadership team that needs a powerful provocateur, collaborator, and communications maven/ director to weave it all together: vision, strategy, marketing, communications, engagement, and human capital. Let’s start the conversation!

Equinox-A Moment to Pause & Reflect
by Shera Sever (first posted in Spiral Muse , Sept. 2009)

Feel your inherent balance with a gentle pause between the inhale & the exhale.

Equinox is a time to pause, honoring the perfect balance between light and dark within you and beyond you. It’s a time of reflection and balance, a time for reassessing motivations, intentions, and actions. It’s a time to cleanse, release habits, to surrender, let go, and TRUST in the unknown.

Equinox is a time to honor and recognize the divine in everyone, and experience all beings as your mirror, as your teacher, as your family. Equinox is a time to sit in circle among our friends and peers,  speaking our truth, sharing our joys, our fears and vulnerability, asking for help, offering help, and trusting that our circle will not let us fall, nor fail us.

In the Babemba tribe in Africa, when a person acts irresponsibly or unjustly, he/she is placed in the center of the village, alone and unfettered. All work ceases, and every man, woman and child in the village gathers in a large circle around the “accused” individual. Then each person in the tribe speaks to the accused, one at a time, about all the good things the person in the center of the circle has done in his lifetime. Every incident, every experience that can be recalled with any detail and accuracy is recounted. All his/her positive attributes, good deeds, strengths and kindnesses are recited carefully and at length. The tribal ceremony often lasts several days.

The tribe recognizes that the correction for non-integral behavior is not punishment, but love and the remembrance of identity. They believe a friend, coach, or teacher, is someone who knows your song and sings it to you when you have forgotten it. They are not fooled by the mistakes you have made or the dark images you hold about yourself. They remember your beauty when you feel ugly; your wholeness when you are broken; your innocence when you feel guilty; and your purpose when you are confused.

One of the most important lessons we can learn from evolution is that we are related to all that lives. Consider the fact that your personal DNA is 99.99 % identical to the DNA of every other human being, and to all that has ever lived. Once we begin to include ourselves in the story that we are no longer on an individual journey, we have joined the grand caravan of “endless forms -most beautiful and wonderful”. This is cooperation and collaboration at it’s core essence

So, I encourage all to offer some time to BE with your fellow travelers (friends and “strangers” alike) this week, reminding each other that we are one beautiful family on an unprecedented journey back home.

I have been a member of the Center for Creative Leadership community for over 10 years. With their permission, I am reposting a recent article by David Hurst from the CCL Leading Effectively e-Newsletter.

The recession isn’t over and, even if it is, the recovery won’t be pretty.

That’s the general consensus, so even if you are starting to breathe easy, you could benefit from some fresh thinking about how to survive and succeed in tough times.

If you’ve managed not to panic, you’ve already taken David Hurst’s first lesson on surviving economic crisis. Hurst, a writer and consultant who spent 25 years in the corporate world, shared his ideas with the CCL community earlier this year. His thoughts for finding opportunity in adversity include:

It’s for real. A sense of urgency is the most important ingredient for personal and organizational change — now we’ve got it!

Fear can be useful. The relationship between reason and emotion is like that between a jockey and a powerful horse. Fear can be harnessed if it can be focused on coordinated action.

The unthinkable is possible. In times like these, you can do things that were unthinkable before because people are listening and conventional wisdom no longer supplies the answers.

Don’t look for stability. There is no choice between stability and change: It’s change on your scale and timetable versus change on someone else’s schedule.

Don’t rely on current success. The seeds of destruction are in the fruits of success: Large scale and homogeneity lead to a lack of resilience. Be small and mobile for quick experimentation and rapid prototyping where feedback is specific and fast.

Seek out edges and open patches. Change takes place on the edges of systems and in open patches where variety and diversity can flourish. Look for opportunities on disturbed ground, such as in turbulent markets where information is poor.

Control and release. The management/leadership challenge during a recession is to execute a simultaneous centralization of everything to do with cash and spending, while decentralizing responsibility for focused innovation and learning.

Say “no” to turf protectors. If they can’t play on the team, then they can’t stay on the team.Understand what’s going on.

A storyteller is essential to every team: We need narratives to make sense of what’s happening.

Learn more about Hurst and his Seven Pointers to Finding Opportunity in Adversity at www.davidkhurst.com.

Have you noticed all the  knowledge sharing  and strategies from thought leaders, managers, coaches, and consultants addressing the Upside of the Downturn.

It’s everywhere- on Guy Kawasaki’s  AllTop portal, in the New York Times new Happy Days Blog,  Psychology Today,  Inc. and many more on-line and print publications.

Human potential seminar leaders like Tony Robbins and T. Harv Eker have adjusted their content delivery in recent months to address the Upside of the Downturn.  It’s a strategic approach, and  it’s more than positive thinking.  (Hope alone is not a strategy).

The Value of Volunteering

One strategy that continues to emerge in various forms when examining the Upside of the Downturn is the increased focus given to the VALUE  of volunteering.

Like many of you, I started volunteering when I was 14.  I worked at one of the first recycling centers in the USA in a small community in northern Illinois 4 nights a week. The proceeds from our efforts helped fund our high school’s symphonic band’s performance at an International Youth Music Festival in Vienna, Austria. Since then I have volunteer with over 25 community organizations and businesses and have served on several boards of directors.

Last week I was invited again to deliver my High-Impact Volunteer Management™ seminar as part of the Performance- Focused Leadership Seminar series for Board Presidents, Directors and Committee Chairs for the California Hispanic Chambers of Commerce  (42 chambers total).

Businesses and social-profits alike benefit from volunteer capital. One of the re-occurring challenges most organizations encounter is keeping good volunteers (including board members and committee chairs).

Keeping the Good Ones

As in the private industry, the best way to insure volunteer retention is to adopt a strategic approach with a Volunteer Recruitment and Development Plan in place in your organization or business. This includes targeted recruitment, a solid orientation program, low-cost, no-cost recognition, and a performance management/professional development plan in place that includes on-going feedback and performance reviews.

So what is the best way to develop on-going communication and feedback with volunteers?

It’s the  R.A.P. method:

REVIEW the PAST: Take a look at the performance objectives mutually created during the first 30 days of the volunteer’s on-boarding.

ANALYZE the PRESENT: Ask your volunteer what she feels are her major accomplishments in the past (X) months  (particularly as they relate to over-arching organizational goals).

PLAN the FUTURE: Ask your volunteer what changes/support she would like to see in the future.

If you are wanting to enhance volunteer performance and retention in your organization, be sure you can meet the following needs* of your volunteers:

• I need a sense of belonging.
• I need to be part of the organizational planning of our objectives.
• I need organizational goals and objectives that are clear and obtainable.
• I need to feel that what I am doing has real purpose and contributes to welfare of the organization and community at large.
• I need autonomy and collaboration in setting standards for performance.
• I need to know what is expected of me (not a laundry list of “duties”.)
• I need to have challenging responsibilities within my range of interests and abilities.
• I need feedback about my performance and our progress.
• I need to be kept informed.
• I need to have good rapport with and confidence in the leadership of the organization.
• I need recognition, as it is due.

(The Volunteer Creed, adapted from The Effective Management of Volunteer Programs, Marlene Wilson)

Performance Management is an on-going year-round communication process undertaken in collaboration with a volunteer and her organizational leader(s).  With mutual goal setting, on -going communication, individual recognition, and the R.A.P method, your volunteers can become your organization’s  greatest evangelists.

Need help developing a High-Impact Volunteer Management Plan for your business, organization, or upcoming event? Please contact me for a complimentary (20- minute) consultation.

It’s 2009. Let’s all agree- Collaboration is a Social Imperative.

Thus, I am delighted to be  one of 20+ contributing writers to the just released publication,

42 Rules for Successful Collaboration

What do Cisco, Disney, Toyota, Mindjet, Adminstaff, Joire De Vivre have in common?

RULE #29   Use Leaders as Collaborative Strategists

2009, ©Shera R. Sever & SuperStar Press

Get the right people on the bus and in the right seats, with a commitment to building a best-in-class collaborative culture.

Focus on internal-facing collaboration that encourages collective intelligence (simple yet intentional engagement).

Recognize those within the organization who consistently share information, resources, responsibilities, while engaged in and committed to organizational and personal excellence.

Start with Talent Management

• Get the right people on the bus. Build a superior team by recruiting those who have a track record of working and playing well with others, and communicating with transparency, while confronting brutal facts.

• Make collaboration a core competency for any position. Define the specific functions and expectations in the professional development plan.  When collaboration is a core value, employees are able to see the results of their work and the impact it has on company, clients, and colleagues. This in and of itself is the reward.

• Create a Collaboration Manager/ Coordinator position to promote, coordinate and manage your internal systems for knowledge sharing, skill and learning development. Look beyond HR, Marketing or Corporate Communications for this collaboration evangelist. Design the position around competencies and overarching organizational goals and objectives.

• Engage all your people in “big picture” solutions. Interestingly enough, a 2008 study available through the Society of Organizational Learning shows that fewer than 35 percent of employees from 100 companies surveyed, know or are clear about how their role fits into the bigger picture—the overall business objectives and strategic plan. Best leaders motivate with questions, not initiatives.

• Focus on “internal facing” online communities. Awareness Networks released their 2008 white paper, revealing that 82 percent of over 162 leaders surveyed have seen that Web 2.0 technologies (particularly “company branded” Wikis) increase knowledge sharing, employee collaboration, and improved internal communications, and help employees “find” each other.

• Continue to make Learning & Development a top priority. Optimum learning and development occur in systems where there is a rich web of interactions—and this is collaboration. As organizational leaders, ask where collaborative learning communities could be built or expanded upon?*

What new leadership and communication skills are needed cross-functionally to allow for full collaborative engagement in your organization?

*Note:  Some of the most impressive learning communities are being birthed in the non-profit sector. Paul Hawken’s WiserEarth.org site encompasses shared knowledge and learning communities from more than 13,000 organizations worldwide.

I recently introduced Jim Collins’ Leadership Diagnostic tool in a Leadership Seminar for Non-Profit Executives. The participants response was very positive and the results were stellar for designing new organizational development plans and leadership strategies.

Whether you’re leading a community group, social profit, or a senior management team, Jim Collins has created a beautiful leadership diagnostic for a no-nonsense, honest evaluation of your leadership skills and strategies.

His diagnostic is based on 5 Levels of Executive Leadership.

What do Level 5 leaders do differently?

Ask First Who. . .Then What? (Once you have the right people in place, then figure out the right path)

Confront the Brutal Facts (Create a climate where truth can be heard- lead with questions, not answers-engage in dialog)

Utilize the Hedgehog Concept (Understand what your organization can be best at and then Do It!

Create a Culture of Discipline (Disciplined People, Disciplined Thought, Disciplined Action)

Technology Acceleration (Application of carefully selected technology- thoughtless reliance on technology is a liability, not an asset).

For more information, click here and download the Good to Great diagnostic tool. If you are looking for leadership training within your organization, contact me to discuss an initial needs assessment.

In the past few weeks, probably like you,  I have received hundreds of messages inviting  me to participate in workshops, teleseminars, meetings and groups for setting intentions this new year.

THE AWAKENED ENTREPRENEUR™

These invitations inspired me to create an overarching  theme for the year by declaring this to be “The Year of the Awakened Entrepreneur™.  An Awakened Entrepreneur understands that it’s not just about YOU OR ME any longer. We have entered a whole new game of interdependence and collaboration.  Vision is the Soul of our Business, and Committed Action, the fuel.

Read more. 

Last week, along with approximately 20 others,  I started my vision board for 2009- with images of actions I commit to this year. I’m sharing just a few of these commitments here:

FOSTER a CULTURE of TRUE COLLABORATION

In December, I attended the year end San Francisco Women in Consulting meeting. Of the 70 or 80 women business owners in attendance, I discovered that many were offering similar or complimentary services and targeting similar audiences.

Many attendees was asking for leads or referrals to clients, yet I wanted to hear more about what their clients wanted and needed. I was looking for introductions that answered these key questions:

What do I do best? Who am I serving?  

What do they need?  How can my business fulfill that need?

I thought, “Wouldn ‘t it be wonderful if we could combine our expertise and offerings with  authentic and transparent collaborative models?”  

Successful non-profits have been doing this for years, building coalitions and networks that share resources, expertise, and human capital. Peter Senge teaches very sophisticated decentralized, collaborative models with his systems approach in the private sector. And LOHAS just published their 2009 business trends. Coalitions and affiliations are in the Top 10.

How much more could our clients benefit if WE-small businesses and consultants- created more collaborative “One-Stop Shops”, that serve our clients’ needs in all areas: Strategic Planning, Marketing & Social Media, Human Capital & Leadership Development, Technology, Legal, and Financial?

GET THE RIGHT PEOPLE on THE BUS

We have a new leader. He can’t do it alone. With the right people on the bus, small steps lead to big change and transformative results. This year I am personally committed to staying very awake and alert with each step, and thereby expanding “OUR” fields of influence.

As collaborators, having the “right” people as “power partners ” is crucial. One of my mentors, Jim Collins, author of Good to Great,  makes some interesting distinctions between “Effective” and “Great” Leadership. Great leaders, he claims, first hold a vision and attract the right executive team , BEFORE executing a strategic plan. “Effective” Leaders  create their strategic plan and then search for the implementers, which, according to Collins, can result in a lot of silo structures and organizational fragmentation.  

Stephen Covey, in his newest publication,  The Leader In Me, has taken leadership even further, by introducing personal and collaborative leadership models and practices to youth and future generations.

INCREASE value-based SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

with Relationships, Learning, and Resource Sharing

In some of my free time in past 11 months, I’ve been immersed in studying WEB 2.0 business, marketing, and collaborative learning trends, teaching myself new skills, testing collaborative technology tools, and asking for help, which I still need a lot of!  It’s been a very motivating learning curve, and I am loving it!

I took my website down about five months ago, and replaced it with this WordPress site. The template still needs  more visual customization and a banner (any wordpress geeks reading this?);   I love the collaboration inherent in Wordpress.  Now, my readers (You!) can respond transparently, with added information, insights, resources, and links.  I sincerely welcome your participation.  I invite and encourage you to subscribe to my blYou can leave a comment on any post, and share them with others.  

COMMIT to EXPANSION

with new publications, course offerings, and media

With conversations birthing and potential collaborations brewing, stayed tuned for an upcoming “Awakened Entrepreneur™” course series delivered in multi-formats, aiong with on-going group coaching. To join the development conversations, and participation, I invite you stay connected via this site, Facebook and Twitter. 

Let’s invest in our “inner economies”. Take a break from the news,  and come play with me.

It’s a new world, and We are creating it!

Are you feeling tired with the constant gloomy news in the media? I hope by now, you have turned off your TV!

It’s a constricted lens that complains about all the things we don’t have or all the problems in our life.  But as my reader, you’re bigger than that- right?!

The Gratitude Scan

I’ve re-instated The Gratitude Scan into my morning daily practice by starting each day expressing thanks for all the abundance in my life.  Right now can you think of at least 3-5 things you are thankful for? How about 10? or even 20?

Starting tomorrow morning before you get up, release anxiety, stress and noise in your mind by expressing gratitude before you engage in any other activity! I find writing down all that I am grateful for to be a very powerful practice.

Excellence is a habit!

If you keep it up daily, you’ll start to notice a sense of peace, joy, and renewed confidence.  As a result better, clearer decisions,  more resilience, and a peacful “knowing”  are at your fingertips.  And most of all, you will attract more blessings, synchronicity, and  opportunities to you. And now, let’s take this a step further.

Practicing an Attitude of Gratitude in the Workplace

1. At a future meeting, ask everyone in the room to share something they are thankful for about their job:

• this could be as simple as a window in their office
• an ergonomic workstation
• a manager who really cares
• a supportive co-worker
• or the learning experience associated with a current project they are working on.

2. Let your co-workers, boss, and employees know how much you appreciate them. A simple note, e-mail, or dark chocolate(!?) at least once a week can uplift everyone’s spirit and add to the sense of collaboration in the workplace.

3. How can you let your clients know how much you appreciate them?

• Send a one or two line weekly motivational tip or favorite quote
• Offer a free resource reminding your clients that you are on their team to support their continued success.
• Call them on the phone
• Host a gratitude luncheon for your clients.
• Remember: Good things come to those who collaborate!

As the season of Thanksgiving is approaching let’s  make a special effort to have an Attitude of Gratitude. Engage yourself in activities and environments that reinforce your JOY!. It’s your birthright!

Last night I felt it, and I am sure you did, too!

As Michael Moore writes in his post today, “we have experienced a stunning, whopping, landslide of HOPE in a time of deep despair.”

One my mentors, James Kouzes, laid out a seemingly simple, yet powerful leadership model and evaluation tool for personal and organizational leadership in his 2002 best-seller, The Leadership Challenge.

After eight (8) long, painful years, America (the USA), has finally elected a leader that:

• Models the Way
• Inspires a Shared Vision
• Challenges the Process
• Enables Others to Act
• Encourages the Heart

We have seen that anything is possible with focused intention, commitment, and ACTION. The world has been longing for a leader like Obama.

In Hebrew, “Obama” means Lightening. May he electrify and purify the past by co-creating and helping us all rebuild a better future. Let’s support this transition by awakening our own personal leadership practices.

We are all the messengers of change!

I am working on the development of a 16 -week on-line High Performance Human Resources Management course for one of my clients.

Initially, a two- day seminar which I developed in 2007 for the CARAT Executive Leadership Institute, this course emphasizes the synergistic systems inherent in  talent management, retention, learning, and overall organizational effectiveness and growth.

According to the “2008 Ethics and Compliance Risk Management Practices Report, one-quarter of organizations have a desire to engage employees in learning, but are challenged to put their corporate values and integrity into action.

One of the key (and often times) most challenging strategies in birthing a learning culture in an organization is to discard the old paradigm of organizational “silos”.

Learning is not a one-time event. A true learning culture is based on an organization’s mission and core values where learning (human capital development) is transparently woven into all roles, functions, divisions and regions of an organization.

Understanding that Human Capital (Workforce) Development is an organization’s greatest asset is critical. Like any transformation, evolving into a Values-Based Learning Culture does not happen overnight, but rather requires strategic, thorough assessment of leaders attitudes, management approach, and current learning curricula.

Read more in this months’ issue of Chief Learning Officer.