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

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

The kind of service we received does not exist consistently without excellent leadership (my guess was “servant leadership.”), so I requested and was granted an interview with Captain Johnny Faevelen. I was not disappointed.
Listen to Captain Johnny’s remarks on the following audio. The first voice is Ed Oakley:

Provide servant leadership to your team and watch the improvements!

To your ongoing leadership development!

Ed Oakley

It all started when my daughter, Kat, wanted to go
visit Western Washington University in Bellingham, WA.

Watch the video!

May you enjoy the benefits of being a servant leader! My warmest regards,Ed Oakley Enlightened Leadership Solutions