The Power of Play by Jan Shannon

I’ve read several blog posts and articles recently that connect the dots between consuming too much—whether food, material goods, television, or addictions—and lack of pleasure and play. The question they ask is this: What are you truly hungry for?

Though I love working with my clients and their teams, I can get so exhausted by business and conversations and people and doing-ness that I find myself feeling starved—for something. But I have a hard time slowing down enough to notice what I’m truly hungry for. I end up eating too much, or spending too many hours sleeping in on weekends, or wasting time or money on things that I know won’t bring me any real pleasure in the long run. As a culture we are especially susceptible this time of year to indulging in these false comforts.

Here is what I know truly restores me and feeds me:
• Walking barefoot in the grass
• Sitting in the sun on a crisp fall day, just feeling the warmth and breathing fresh air
• Co-inventing new games with my dog, Sienna
• Reading poetry
• Playing games with family and friends
• Watching wildlife at a lake or river
• Taking a long bath with lavender oil and a good book
• Making art
• Finding and appreciating beauty—outdoors, in a museum, in music, in a gentle conversation with a beloved friend
• Getting out of my head and into my body

It took me just a few moments to make this list, and none of these require much money. Only a few require much time.

So now I will leave my computer and go out into this beautiful fall day, drive to nearby Mt. Tabor Park, and enjoy a walk in the fresh air to relieve my hunger.

What pleasure or play restores and feeds you? I invite you to make a list and choose at least one to do today.

Being a Leader of a Great Group-Written By Dede Henley

WARREN BENNIS SAID, “There are groups, and then Great Groups that come together and accomplish the extraordinary.” To become a Great Group, you need to engage in five elements of collaboration:

1. Stay connected to a compelling purpose. The purpose reminds people of the larger idea of which they’re part. Teams flounder when members are unsure why they’re doing what they’re doing or how it fits into the larger scheme of things. When well-crafted, a compelling purpose has a powerful and irresistible effect. Team members feel like they are on a mission. They must put their talent and creativity into the tasks at hand. Leaders of Great Groups remind team members of why and for what they are giving their time and energy.

2. Cultivate a culture of trust and respect. Co-workers don’t have to like each other to work together, but they must trust and respect each other. Cultivating trust and respect begins with hiring talented people and putting the right person in the right job. When the person and the task are well matched, great things happen. Sometimes, it’s making the tough call-addressing underperformance or disruptive behavior. Great team leaders devote much time to cultivating trust (going slow to go fast), creating a culture where conflicts can be resolved in healthy ways.

3. Increase competence in three domains-emotionally, physically, and intellectually.

• Emotional Competence is about increased self-awareness, authenticity, empathy, motivation, and social skill. It enables us to handle impulses and emotions well and choose how we act and react.
• Physical Competence is about paying attention to our physical well-being and encouraging those we work with to do the same. If we are tired, worn out, or stressed, we can’t contribute or collaborate. Physical energy helps us manage our emotions, sustain concentration, think creatively, and maintain focus on our shared purpose.
• Intellectual competence isn’t just about being smart and having skills. It’s about bringing our best thinking to a project. We must think and work creatively and collaboratively; engage in shared problem-solving; sustain focus, maintain optimism, and access both the left and the right brain; take in sensory data—sight, smell, taste, touch, sound, and feelings. It opens up possibilities. You can think big thoughts, because there is no association to the past or the future.

4. Persevere in the face of breakdown and failure. As difficult as failure is, it is inevitable for teams that are stretching and growing and trying to make a difference. How that failure is dealt with speaks to how successful a team will be in reaching goals. When faced with a setback, Great Groups get back up, get on track, and keep going. They fail fast. They don’t dwell on the failure. They focus on fulfilling their compelling purpose. They venture into the unknown and learn along the way. They rarely dwell on failure except as something to learn from.

Failure suggests that we must try another way. At the moment of failure we gain access to new levels of creativity. How we deal with failure, how we react when things go awry, says a lot about our ability to cultivate a Great Group. Leaders who acknowledge failure, look past it without trying to lay blame, and choose to learn from it, gain a powerful relationship to failure. Winston Churchill said: “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”

5. Engage the power of appreciation. Warren Bennis notes, “Appreciation makes everyone feel that they’re at the heart of things, that they matter. Then, people feel they are making a differ- ence.” Most people leave their jobs because they feel underappreciated. Appreciation is a powerful tool for cultivating Great Groups—and it doesn’t cost you a cent!

These five elements take practice, contemplation, and consideration. I invite you to practice just one element. Try something new, seek feedback, and expand your skill. This is how you become a leader of a Great Group.

Power of Collaboration: Being a Leader of a Great Group was written by Dede Henley and published in Leadership Excellence magazine August 2009.

A Conversation on Success-Written By Carol Zizzo

As a leader, how do you define success? What is the one thing you pay attention to in order to achieve that success?

One of our company core values is learning, and one way I define successful leadership is that ongoing learning is taking place. Each year I choose a learning focus and explore a variety of ways I can begin to learn about it.

One year, I chose a seminar called Success: The Power of Context, offered by Landmark Education Corporation. As a result, I am now giving my attention to how I define success, how others define it, and mostly noticing how important most of us think it is. Amazon offers 122,864 books on success. Barnes & Noble lists 67,227.

I sometimes impede my own success because I fear that I won’t feel successful even when I am successful. I find myself either frantically trying to learn something in short order, or completely withdrawing and depending on others because I think I will never be successful in that area. This is when the joy of learning flies out the window and what blows in is fear of failure.

I recently came across a quote by Thomas John Watson, Sr.:

"Would you like me to give you a formula for success? It's quite simple, really. Double your rate of failure. You are thinking of failure as the enemy of success. But it isn't at all. You can be discouraged by failure or you can learn from it. So go ahead and make mistakes. Make all you can. Because remember that’s where you will find success."

Thomas John Watson, Sr. was the president of IBM who took the company’s growth to international status. He became one of the richest men of his time and is often referred to as the greatest salesman of his era. He paid attention to doubling his failures! And, he paid attention to noticing what there was to learn from those failures.

Maybe your definition of success as a leader is focused on the people you lead, living the vision of your company, leaving the planet a better place, discovering a new product or process, or retiring before you are forty. Maybe it is making good use of what you gleaned from a great mentor. There is something you are paying attention to in your pursuit of success—what is it?

If you’re willing, we would love to see your posted response.