Women in the LEAD

WOMEN: Survival in Our Own Hands

It seems that in every direction we look, there are opportunities for us to demonstrate our leadership. The economic meltdown in the United States is bringing this to life again. As Rumi told us over 2000 years ago, "the world is reeling" and needs us to work for good. Whether we are talking about our organizations longing for innovation and renewal or our communities, nations or the world, there is a call-to-action for every leader at this time in history. Future is ours to create. However, it's not uncommon to hear people say, "What difference can I make?"

Some years ago, I was moved by a landmark book by Peter Block called STEWARDSHIP: Choosing Service Over Self-Interest. At the time I read this book, I was working to help transform my company as a leader, trying to figure out what it meant to be be empowered myself. One paragraph in the book got highlighted and bookmarked. I've opened up to it many times to refresh my mind with its wisdom or turned to it to share with out leaders:

SURVIVAL IN OUR OWN HANDS:
"For each of us as individuals, empowerment means placing ourselves in the position of being the creators of the organization to which we belong. Empowerment is embodied in the act of standing on our own ground, discovering our own voice, making our own choices, regardless of the level of power and privilege we hold. It stems from our choice of the mindset that tells us that we have within ourselves the authority to act and to speak and to serve clients and those around us. We do not need permission to feel or to take what matters into our own hands."

There is something uplifting about empowering yourself to use your gifts of leadership to shape the future. Frances Hesselbein, Chairman of the Leader to Leader Institute and Recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, wrote in the foreward of my book, ACTION DIALOGUES: "As we reshape the world as we have know it, this is a time of remarkable opportunity for innovation. The individual efforts of thousands of leaders, in millions of organizations, will begin to transform the vision into a new reality of the diverse and inclusive community."

I would like to live there.

Wouldn't you?
What difference will you make?
What can you do to empower yourself in your span of leadership in your work and in your life?Debbe

Debbe Kennedy
Author and founder, Global Dialogue Center
Home of Women in the Lead

My New Book! Putting Our Differences to Work (June 2008)
The Fastest Way to Innovation, Leadership, and High Performance
Learn more: www.puttingourdifferencestowork.com 
Next Monthly Online Dialogue:
Tuesday, October 14, 2008   Join me!
TOPIC: When the going gets tough...

We Need More Caring, Inclusive Work Environments

The entry of women – and with them more stereotypically feminine values – into management has been a major driving force behind corporate innovations such as flextime, daycare programs, parental leave, and other policies that treat employees as human beings with lives and responsibilities outside of work.  Both men and women need to join together to create a more humane, inclusive and caring – and thus ultimately more productive and creative – company structure and culture.

Riane Eisler  “The Power of Partnership”

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In the nearest future, it will be necessary for us to create environments that encourage women to work and provide their stellar organizational and leadership skills as they feel secure that their children are close by or receiving optimal care.  I have worked with hundreds of mothers helping them to create successful businesses.  The number one concern that they repeat over and over is “I have a sense of guilt about my work and how it distances me from my children”.  If women are not included in the world of work the strong contribution of the feminine will never be realized in business or in politics.  I must admit I am not a Sarah Palin fan but was most impressed to see a photo of her baby sleeping as she governed the state of Alaska.  We need more images like this across party lines.

Maureen Simon

WOMEN, Economic Realities, Injustice, and Possibilities

These are times that have left many people worried and scared about the future. The economic realities and other injustices that have hit people's lives throughout the world bring with them great cause for concern and hope for the change we need so badly.

There are always lessons to learn from those who came before us. In times of tragedy and trouble in my own life, learning from those I would never know has always been comforting. Somehow I didn't feel alone, knowing someone else had made it through the seemingly impossible.

In one of my cherished old books written by John Homer Miller, I read about two such people this morning. Interestingly, they lived nearly two thousand years apart: Socrates, the Classical Greek Philosopher ( 469 BC–399 BC), and Fanny Crosby (1820-1915) --- and yet, one's wisdom is brought to life by the other's example. Now there is an demonstration of putting our differences to work that I hadn't thought about.

"Socrates was right when he said that if you would gather together all the troubles of all the people in the world, weigh them, and find the average, you would pick up your own and sneak off better contented with your lot. That is was Fanny Crosby did."

I didn't know who Fanny Crosby was until today. She was an American Lyricist, well known for her quite famous Christian Hymns, many that are sung in churches all over America and the world today. She wrote over 8000, despite being blind from age 6. She developed an amazing positive attitude about her life by taking a long look around. "She saw although she was blind she had many things which other people did not have." Listen to her in this early poem...

O what a happy child I am;
Although I cannot see!
I am resolved that in this world
Contented I will be.

How many blessings I enjoy;
That other people don't;
To weep and sign because I'm blind
I cannot and I won't!

John Homer Miller wrote about this ability to look out into the distance at what is possible... "One more thing can be said.  You develop and maintain a balanced attitude toward life by taking a long look ahead. When you do that, you inevitably view your present moment in a totally different perspective. The knowledge that in the past an apparent defeat has turned out to be a victory enables you to live in the hope that what happened yesterday can happen tomorrow. Then you live your present moment, whatever it may be, in the faith that it is filled with unforeseen and unforeseeable possibilities."

What possibilities are you overlooking?

Look out and around with me to see the promise in a new tomorrow.

Best...
Debbe

Debbe Kennedy
Author and founder, Global Dialogue Center
Home of Women in the Lead

My New Book! Putting Our Differences to Work (June 2008)
The Fastest Way to Innovation, Leadership, and High Performance
Learn more: www.puttingourdifferencestowork.com
Next Monthly Online Dialogue:
Tuesday, October 14, 2008   Join me!
TOPIC: When the going gets tough...

Intuition Our Internal GPS

“…we each have an inner compass, the voice of our soul that is our internal navigation system.  It’s just a matter of paying attention to it.  But that’s the rub – many of us haven’t been taught very well how to access the system.  It’s like driving a car with a global positioning system and not knowing how to turn it on…There are as many signals as there are people…The more we come to understand what our signals are, the more we can rely on them as we confront the myriad choices and turning points a life inevitably contains.”

M. J. Ryan  “Trusting Yourself”

Ohhhh….that inner voice.  The rich knowledge and information that we can receive on a daily basis is amazing.  Listening to our emotions can teach us about our feelings and what we value.  This listening can serve as a guide and an inner compass.  Listening to the body language of others and having our own intuitive sense for what it means is another way of gaining invaluable information.  Women have a natural gift of having direct access to our intuitive knowledge. We have the ability to sense and understand ourselves and others in a very deep way.  It is now time to trust and use this gift.

Maureen Simon

WOMEN: Is the WORLD at Your Feet?

One time I learned that there were four essential ingredients to reaching a new level of personal development. Over the years, these proved to be true: 1) You have to have KNOWLEDGE that there is a better way. 2) You have to have a POSITIVE ATTITUDE, so you are receptive new thinking and ideas. 3) You have to develop new SKILLS with what you've learned. 4) You have to practice so the new skills become a HABIT.

GOOD HABITS are very valuable. However, the most effective leaders are constantly in a state of renewal, leaving their HABITS open to adjustment and change. Sometimes you have to dump them! Without this ongoing evaluation, HABITS can be our downfall.

I came across this telling description of the power of our HABITS...

I am your constant companion.
I am your greatest helper or heaviest burden.
I will push you onward and upward, or drag you down to failure.
I am completely at your command.
Ninety percent of the things you do
might just as well be turned over to me,
and I will be able to do them quickly and correctly.
I am easily managed,
show me exactly how you want something done
and after a few lessons I will do it automatically.
I am the servant of all great people
and alas! of all failures as well.
I am not a machine,
though I work with all the precision of a machine,
plus the intelligence of a person.
You can run me for profit
or run me for ruin-
it makes no difference to me.
Be too easy with me and I have the power to disappoint ...and destroy you.
Take me, train me, be FIRM with mean I will place the world at your feet.

Are your HABITS placing the world at your feet?

Do you have any HABITS standing in your way?

Debbe

Debbe Kennedy
Founder, Global Dialogue Center and
Leadership Solutions Companies
author, Putting Our Differences to Work
Visit Women in the Lead at www.globaldialoguecenter.com/women

The Source Of All Abundance Is Not Outside You.

The source of all abundance is not outside you.  It is part of who you are.  However, start by acknowledging and recognizing abundance without.  See the fullness of life all around you.  The warmth of the sun on your skin, the display of magnificent flowers outside a florist’s shop, biting into succulent fruit, or getting soaked in an abundance of water falling from the sky.  The fullness of life is there at every step.  The acknowledgment of that abundance that is all around you awakens the dormant abundance within.  Then let it flow out.  When you smile at a stranger, there is already a minute outflow of energy.  You become a giver.  Ask yourself often: “What can I give here; how can I be of service to this person, this situation?”  You don’t need to own anything to feel abundant, although if you feel consistently things will almost certainly come to you.  Abundance comes only to those who already have it…Both abundance and scarcity are inner states that manifest as your reality. 

Eckhart Tolle “A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose”

Abundance is available to us daily.  Notice the places where it lives plentifully in your life.  Take a moment to be grateful.  Share from your strength.  Abundance is not related to only our financial means but is linked to our ability to fully live and receive life.

Maureen Simon

WOMEN: From limitation to possibility

Some years back, I had the opportunity to meet Susan L. Taylor, former Editor in Chief at ESSENCE magazine at a Women's Conference held by Hewlett Packard. I had been invited to help as a producer of a few events. It was a remarkable experience to meet and talk with her; one I doubt she remembers, but I do :-) The other day, while cleaning out a trunk, I came upon her book: In the Spirit: The Inspirational Writings of Susan L. Taylor. It is full of highlights and underlined pages. There was a blue card sticking out that said "Possibilities" that caught my eye. It was placed midway in a chapter entitled, "New Beginnings." The paragraphs highlighted from another time read:

"Our divinity gives us dominion. ...We know this, but we don't trust it. We possess the creative energy to "re-form" our lives, to reshape the world. Although we have the power to fulfill our divine plan, few of us do. Most people settle for small lives. We sense the great possibilities that life offers us, but we limit ourselves because of fear and lack of faith.

We fear change and resist it because it threatens the order --- or disorder --- in our lives. Change always means leaving something or someone behind, and breaking with the past forces us to question deeply and do the work of recreating our lives. ...Whatever you wish to achieve awaits your calling it forth---perfect health, a beautiful home, a supportive relationship, a new and better life. Continue to name it and work at achieving it."

Next to these highlighted words, I had written "Breakthrough!" What she wrote afterwards was also deeply moving, as if she could look into a women's heart and feel it for us.

So, what will you continue to name and work to achieve?

Susan Taylor offered this action plan at the end of the writing:

• Declare that you are now free of self-doubt and fear, unfettered by limitations.
• Put your trust in God and live each day committed to positive thoughts and actions.
• Let them built your "spiritual factory," harnessing the intelligent energy surrounding you, shaping your way.
• Remember, the power is yours. It is within you, waiting to be radiated outward, into the universe to do your bidding.

Begin again...

Love,
Debbe

Debbe Kennedy
Author and founder, Global Dialogue Center
Home of Women in the Lead

My New Book! Putting Our Differences to Work (June 2008)
The Fastest Way to Innovation, Leadership, and High Performance
Learn more: www.puttingourdifferencestowork.com
Next Monthly Online Dialogue: Tuesday, October 14, 2008   Join me!

Do Not Take Life’s Experiences Too Seriously

Do not take life’s experiences too seriously.  Above all, do not let them hurt you, for in reality they are nothing but dream experiences…

If circumstances are bad and you have to bear them, do not make them a part of yourself. Play your part in life, but never forget that it is only a role.”

Paramahansa Yogananda

I love Paramahansa Yogananda’s belief that we are actors on the stage of life.  We actually have full control over our emotions if we choose to use it.  Step outside of your life and notice the things that are working and the things that are not.  Do not give power to the parts of your life that create challenge.  Use that challenge to grow and learn. 

Maureen Simon

WOMEN: Leadership and Our Words

Invitation to LEADERSHIP DIALOGUE:
Join me on TUESDAY, September 9, 2008 for my monthly online virtual dialogue. Special Guest: Emily Duncan, former VP, Culture & Diversity, Hewlett Packard. No charge. Register here (allow a few seconds for the link to open). Learn more here.

Right now, the world could use a little feminine charm and intuitive insight. Anthropologist, Dr. Helen Fisher told, "The strongest pressure in the world can be friendly pressure," wrote Lester Pearson, former prime minister of Canada. Women know it. ...they use their innate talents to unite behind common causes." In almost any direction, there are common causes needing our leadership in our organizations, communities, cities, nations, the world...and on the homefront.

I would also love to see women bring this kind of charm and intuitive insight to our politics, wouldn't you? One observation is that it seems that our day-to-day existence has become so filled with violence in so many parts of our lives that "red meat," mockery, lies, and mean-spirited sarcasm have become commonplace --- acceptable. It represents a kind of violence in our words and it gets our cheers . It makes me sad. I think this reality is a challenge to women as leaders --- a challenge to us to call upon something bigger, deeper, more moving from within. The power within can result in wide sweeping influence.

The issues of the people have always been the same, it starts with each of us as Confucius shared thousands of years ago:

If there is righteousness in
the heart there will be
beauty in the character.
If there be beauty in the
character, there will be
harmony in the house.
If there is harmony in the
home, there will be order in
the nation. When there is
order in the nation, there
will be peace in the world.

Confucius
(551-479 BC)

Yogananda also spoke about this truth in his writing about The Beautitudes "...the real peacemakers generate peace from their practice of daily meditation." He shares that as we experience peace in ourselves, we bring to our homes, to our neighborhoods, to our nations. "Anyone who brings peace to an inharmonious family has established God there." We could use this every where in our world.

This kind of leadership is not about winning at all costs. It is also not about mocking or creating disharmony, or dividing people. It is about us working on every level --- men and women working together for the good of all. This is our time to be a strong voice of leadership wherever we have an opportunity to spread the seeds of peace in our lives and work.

What contribution will you make?

Debbe

Debbe Kennedy
Author and founder, Global Dialogue Center
Home of Women in the Lead

My New Book! Putting Our Differences to Work (June 2008)
The Fastest Way to Innovation, Leadership, and High Performance
Learn more: www.puttingourdifferencestowork.com

Join me Tuesday September 9 for my monthly dialogue.

Eternity

“Eternity is not the hereafter…this is it.  If you don’t get it here, you won’t get it anywhere.”

 

     Joseph Campbell

 

Never put off learning lessons today that come your way.  Always make sure to live life to the fullest and to take advantage of every possible learning experience that entices you and fills your soul.

Maureen Simon