Yesterday was Memorial Day in the United States, a very special day

when we take time to be grateful to those who gave that ultimate

sacrifice – their lives – for the freedom of the rest of us.

I was not personally involved in a major celebration. Instead, I took

extra time…

… to read stories of fallen soldiers in the newspaper and

online. During the day when a short documentary would come up

on TV about a family’s sacrifice, or if I saw a report of a special service

being held, I just stopped what I was doing and allowed myself to

move into a deep feeling of gratitude.

I bought a poppy out in front of the grocery store from an elderly man

who was a veteran of foreign wars. As he shared how the poppies

were made by and bought from disabled soldiers and that 100% of

the proceeds were going to veterans in need, I found myself grateful

for him and all the others involved in this important cause. I proudly

wore the poppy.

As the day went on, I couldn’t help but notice how my little moments

of gratitude were so valuable for ME! I truly HOPE my gratitude is good

for the souls of those who died for our freedom. I’m PRETTY SURE my

gratitude is appreciated by the families of those who sacrificed their

lives. But I KNOW those moments of gratitude were good for my own

soul.

Those special moments of gratitude had a cleansing effect and had

me realize at a beautiful, deep level how trivial most of my worries and

concerns really are. What a blessing to feel that.

Then, this morning I woke up naturally and gradually with a

beautiful sense of peace and gratitude – significantly deeper than I

have felt in some time. I realized that the emotional and honest

appreciation and gratitude that I had felt throughout Memorial

Day was spilling over wonderfully into my new day.

Wow, what a special way to start any day, I realized – in appreciation

and gratitude. What a blessing this entire experience has been

for me. So, I quietly slipped out of bed, put on my robe, and went

downstairs to right this little post.

So, my plan is to take a few minutes tomorrow morning as I awaken

to think about what I am grateful for. I’ll be running on that question,

“What am I grateful for?,” even as I drop off to sleep.

I can only imagine, as I work with my team today at 

Enlightened

Leadership Solutions

, how my starting my day from gratitude will

naturally spill over to gratitude for them and everyone else I

encounter during the day. That will make me a better leader -

I have no doubt.

Leading from a place of gratitude is a powerful place from which

to lead.

I would enjoy your thoughts and comments about this!

In gratitude for YOU!

Ed Oakley

Technorati Tags: appreciation, gratitude, memorial day, POPPY

I hope you’re thriving, or at least holding your own during these challenging economic times.

A week ago, we gathered 5 expert panelists to address management challenges sent in by our subscribers. The result was a webinar 90 minutes long of excellent ideas that likely address issues YOU are facing right now.

This journal post will give you access to the webinar recording, thanks to the suggestion of our Making Managers into Leaders Institute members. We’ve also made it easier for you to review the material without necessarily going through all 90 minutes. So before telling you where to go for the recording, here is what we have done to help:

- We have broken the webinar into segments by question. You can select the TAB with the question NUMBER of interest to you, or go through the whole webinar.

Here are some examples of questions:

1. My concern will be how to convince your non-qualified, conservative, rigid but senior (bosses) on many things that need reform or change? In Pakistan, there is a paucity of informed and qualified leaders in almost all the business and public sector arenas. We as junior managers find it very difficult to convince our pessimistic and non-professional bosses and have to take lot of heartburn in dealing with the organizational development, which is much needed in our scenario.

Shahzad

4. How does a leader who faces layoffs speak with his people without deceiving them, not give false hope but also not crush their hope? 

  What is the most important step(s) to take as we stumble or slide into this next difficult period?

Brian

8. How to minimize the RIF paranoia that seems to build as the economy continues to worsen?

Daniel    (RIF is Reduction in Force)

11. What have you found effective in helping others overcome fear of the unknown?

What works in overcoming the paralysis of analysis?

How do you help others (and yourself) stay focused on the high-payoff actions and avoid wasting time?

Tom

There are nine other sets of questions like these addressed on the replay! Go check it out!

OK, HOW DO I FIND THE REPLAY?

I’m glad you asked.

We put the replay on a new Management/Leadership community that we are experimenting with. It’s a great platform for creating some dialog around the questions and solutions – which can help everyone. Hope you’ll participate!

Go to www.managerstoleaders.com. You’ll need to do a very simple registration – (unless you happen to belong to any other Ning community).

When you’re in the community, you’ll see “Optimizing Your Teams’ Effectiveness in Difficult Times” in the middle of the page at the top. Just click on the title to see the entire article and video.

You’ll see the questions on the post, so you can selectively listen to responses if you choose. The question numbers can also help you remember how far you got in listening – and more importantly – pick up later where you left off.

Enjoy the excellent answers to tough questions, and share your thoughts or additional questions.

Best regards,

 The Enlightened Leadership Team

Ed Oakley discusses how this concept can become a powerful tool for us – personally and in our leadership roles. He also ties it to the factors surrounding the economic challenges we face and the options we have.

Watch it and provide feedback below. It is approximately 13 minutes long.

Please share your comments below.May you take advantage of this situation to position yourself significantly better than you already are!Our best regards,The Enlightened Leadership Team

Did you see the September 24th NY Times article titled
“The Power of Negative Thinking” by Barbara Ehrenreich?

I suspect it is a great article for the Times, as it is
controversial and will probably draw lots of comments – like
this one – which is good for their business. Nice marketing
job, Barbara!

The writer slams “the delusional optimism of mainstream, all-
American, positive thinking” as a significant reason we are
in this economic mess in the U.S.

She paints a picture of the American family who says “we’ll
buy the expensive house now at the super low interest rate
and don’t worry, our optimism and hope will generate more
income by the time the rates rise.” Now that probably happened
in some cases, but I doubt seriously it is the typical case.

My experience in having delivered leadership skill development
workshops to managers, supervisors, team leaders and
executives from 67 countries over the last 21 years is that
Americans as a whole are NOT particularly optimistic.

Now, there is a certain behavioral style that makes up
approximately 26% of our society (based on research by TTI*)                                         that has a naturally optimistic outlook on life. They are the
type that tend to see the silver lining in most any cloud.

While I don’t happen to be one of those – I have to WORK at
my optimism – I have a feeling that these natural optimists
probably enjoy life a bit more than the rest of us. That does
NOT make them necessarily more effective or productive,
however.

But what I want to discuss is the Power of Forward Focus(TM)
(this is OUR marketing ).

Only in the very last paragraph does Ms. Ehrenreich have a
“by the way” comment that extreme negative thinking is
probably just as bad as extreme optimism. Thank you!

But that wouldn’t sell newspapers, so the article doesn’t have
that slant.

In that same last paragraph, she suggests the potential value
of realism “- seeing the risks, having the courage to bear bad
news and being prepared for famine as well as plenty.”

I believe that last little bit about realism fits what we teach in
our leadership development seminars, workshops and webinars;
that which we call Forward Focus.

There is a huge difference between the “positive thinking” that
Barbara slams in her article and Forward Focus. Positive
thinking is generic optimism that has no bounds and it has no
objective or goal. Extreme positive thinking might be more
enjoyable, but potentially not so productive, especially if it
keeps us from taking appropriate ACTION. Sitting on the couch
hoping for a million dollars is not likely to generate it!

Forward Focus on the other hand is always related to a
specific objective or goal, and it is critical to stay focused on
that goal.

So, while we encourage people and teams and organizations
to first look to their successes, what is already working, the
purpose of this approach is to build energy and open people to
their natural creativity. Ultimately, this process is focused on getting
to the ACTION required to move closer to the goal. The creativity
and positive energy made available by the process is important
in determining innovative solutions to the challenges and having
the commitment to following through with actions required to
overcome the obstacles.

This, to me, is the real “realism.” You don’t ignore the obstacles
or pretend the challenges and problems don’t exist. It’s all about
HOW you deal with the challenges, and Forward Focus has
proven itself to be effective in 67 national cultures and thousands
of companies.

Barbara, thanks for the excuse to talk about the Power of
Forward Focus.

So, here’s to staying Forward Focused (as much as practical)!

Ed Oakley
co-author, “Enlightened Leadership” and “Leadership Made Simple.”

*TTI is Target Training International, Inc.

I have to work hard every day on not ONLY being aware of the little things going on around me, but also to take responsibility for taking action when the awareness is there. I often have realizations or awarenesses that are just a little too late. Staying conscious requires staying focused on it.  It is not automatic for me. Can you relate?

Here is an example that happened just this morning. I was leaving Starbucks when I ran into my friends Stephen and Leslie and their friend from Los Angeles, who was in town to sing at the opening ceremonies of the Democratic National Convention just started here in Denver, Colorado.  Now the DNC has absolutely nothing to do with this story, but putting in this posting might just attract some additional readers, so forgive me for that!

It is a bright, sunny day here, so I was chatting with them with my sun glasses on. I was sharing some things that happened over the weekend that I felt they would relate to. As I was talking, I was vaguely aware that their friend removed her sunglasses. Then, I was also vaguely aware that Leslie had removed hers. I had the thought – how thoughtful of them to do that so I can see their eyes and better communicate. And Stephen had his sunglasses off from the very beginning.

Can you guess the rest of the story?

Yep, I had left them and was driving away in my car when I realized that I had not returned the courtesy of removing my own sunshades. I was actually proud of myself for noticing their thoughtful behavior and never made the connection of what I could do to contribute to the communication – as well as just plain courtesy! Geez!

Probably no real harm done here, but if we were in a work relationship and discussing important work stuff, that little lack of awareness on my part could have led to misunderstanding, miscommunication and incorrect action.

I invite you to put some energy and effort into staying more conscious of the little things going on around you, as I promise to do also. The good news for me is that having this awareness – even late – is likely to help me improve.  Awareness is the key first step!

So, if you’re late in your awareness like me, don’t beat yourself up about it. In fact, acknowledge that you did have the awareness. Give yourself credit for it, and you’ll get better and better over time. Beat yourself up, and you’ll never improve!

To ever improving consciousness,

Ed Oakley   Making Managers into Leaders Institute

We would love to hear your comments after taking the tour.

Enjoy the tour! Come back and click on Making Managers into Leaders Institute for more information.

Please comment below!

The Enlightened Leadership Team  & Making Managers into Leaders Institute

We are so appreciative of the quality and quantity of the feedback you gave us on the first content video in our Experiment in Leadership Development. You guys (and gals) are awesome!

Following is our second in the series of videos.

Where we as managers/leaders focus our attention and energy has a huge impact on the results we get through others – the point of management and leadership. It also impacts our own personal results, as this video will clarify.

Watch the video and give us feedback – please!
Now give us feedback below and let us know what you would like to see on a video by answering the survey at this link. What would you like to see a survey about?Our best to all,Ed Oakley & the Enlightened Leadership team ELS home website

Then Ed brought up an example that was particularly
impactful to me. Ed mentioned that many factories and
places where there are accidents tend to reward
employees by the number of days since the last accident
rather than the number of continuous safe days.

You see, this was meaningful to me because I had joined
the Army my senior year of high school and was shipped
off 3 weeks after graduation, just barely 18 years old and
quite unsure of what to expect. After I finished all of my
training I was sent to my permanent duty station, Ft. Bragg,
North Carolina. As the bus I was on approached the main
gates and passed through the first thing I saw was a giant,
almost billboard sized, sign that said

“4 days since last training related fatality.”

You can imagine that all I could think was 4 days since
someone died?!? And this is where I was going to spend at
least the next year of my life? I was a little scared to say the
least. I am one of those people with an overactive imagination
and I could already imagine half a dozen ways I was going to
be the next one to go.

Ed’s idea of rewording the sign so it could have greeted
people with “4 continuous safe days” or something similar
certainly would have made me feel more comfortable and
less threatened while still delivering the same message.

I soon learned the purpose of the billboard was that when
it reached 82 days without a fatality the whole division
received a day off as a reward. I ended up being at Ft. Bragg
for 2 years and we received only 3 days off for lack of fatalities.

Perhaps if we had changed our focus as a unit then we would
have made it with more safe days because we would have
been focusing our minds on safety rather than fatalities.

It’s too late for me to know if it would have worked in my
circumstances, but maybe this lesson is a valuable one for
you and your company to try to reduce workplace accidents
and injuries.

You can provide the leadership!

Tiffany Childs – The Enlightened Leadership Team