Women in the LEAD

IN COMMEMORATION International Woman's Day

Hi everyone...

This year, we were not able to host our woman's dialogue for International Women's Day as we have in previous years, but we hope to do one again soon...

HOWEVER, memories are moments that we can revisit and rediscover joy, so I wanted to share reflections from last year in commemoration...

Over 375 women from around world were drawn to our online day of conversation. They signed up from over 25 countries and represented over 35 states across the United States...

It's A New DAY!
Online Day of Conversation for Women
...Celebrating International Women's Day
Global Dialogue Center ONLINE CONFERENCE CENTER  

In many ways our day was a pioneering adventure to see if we could make such a connection and we did. You were amazing women! Doing interesting work, looking to renew yourselves, finding ways to change the world, and offering new thinking and ideas to share with others. The stage was set for dialogue with the inspiration personal and powerful message from Dr. Dorothy Height --- one that no women should miss!

To extend our connection across the world, we created It's a New DAY! Women's CENTER at Women in the Lead at the Global Dialogue Center.

Our aim is to give YOU access to highlights of this very special event, including Dr. Dorothy Height's message, be introduced to the causes that were showcased, explore an array of renewal resources, as well as the women and organizations that contributed their gifts to our day of conversation around the world.

Take a look: www.globaldialoguecenter.com/newday  

And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud
was more painful than the risk it took to blossom. --- Anais Nin

Click to see larger view of illustrations by Nancy Marguiles above...

Our It's a NEW DAY Women's Community POSTING PLACE
was created in response to the many women that wanted to share ...

* reflections and comments on our day of conversation
* stories, ideas, and best practices
* BLOGs and WEBSITES and NETWORKING PLACES
* Services and offerings to help others 

What can you share with others?
What will gifts will others share with you?

CHECK THE COMMENTS for contributions from the women attending.
TO LEAVE YOUR FINGERPRINT, click on "comment" at the bottom of this post and share...

Thank you for joining us, we look forward to hearing from you and learning from your reflections and experience --- we welcome your ideas too!

Together, we took another bold step toward connecting as WOMEN across the world. Thank YOU!

Best...

Debbe

Debbe Kennedy, founder, president and CEO
Women in the Lead at the Global Dialogue Center
Leadership Solutions Companies
Berrett-Koehler author, Putting Our Differences to Work
The Fastest Way to Innovation, Leadership, and High Performance

It's a New DAY! Renewing Ourselves; Changing the World was sponsored by Women in the Lead at the Global Dialogue Center in partnership with Women's Online Media and Education Network, producers of Women's Radio and Women's Calendar.

Also visit --- our Women in the Lead INSPIRATION BLOG with over 600 inspirational posts for women.

Our Unique and Precious Gifts

Each life holds a precious and unique gift that carries its own meaning and reason for being here.  We need to learn about our uniqueness and build upon it.  No one else can do this for us. We have a responsibility to express these gifts. Only after we discover them can we experience a fulfilled life and begin to make major contributions to the world.

Here are some of the practical steps and questions that have successfully guided myself and my clients to a more fulfilling life...

Quieting the mind • Set aside time in silence at least 3 days a week for 20 minutes. Begin to get to know yourself, your needs, your desires and aspirations. Learn to identify and trust your intuition and inner voice. We all have an inner voice that guides and directs us. We just need to listen. • Question: Can you think of 1 way this week that you could actually create more calm & stillness?

Connecting with the body • Learn to become more aware of your body’s needs. • Listen more closely to the signs that your body gives you, i.e. where are there aches, sensations, and areas of tightness? Is your body sending you a message? What might the message be? • Explore these sensations through yoga & movement. Your body holds great information about its own healing needs and emotional state of being. • Question: What 2 things would you need to do differently to begin to honor and care for your body in a new way?

Expressing our gifts in the world • Begin to look at the day-to-day changes that you can make in your life to express more of who you really are. • Evaluate whether or not your day is made up of work activities and projects that fulfill you. • In the course of each day, do you fully express your greatest gifts? (For example, if you’re a writer, make sure that your day includes writing; if you enjoy people, make sure that your day involves social contact and is not limited to working at a desk job; if you enjoy nature, make sure that each day includes time outdoors.) • Question: How could you bring more joy, richness, and fulfillment into your life on a daily basis? What areas of our life could you improve?

As we learn to honor these small and simple things, we begin to connect more with who we are and what we’re here to bring. From these discoveries we begin to create deeply meaningful lives.

Maureen

Maureen Simon
Contributing Author, Women in the Lead
Create Your Blueprint for 2010
[email protected]
http://womeninfluencingnow.wordpress.com
http://www.facebook.com/maureensimon
www.theessentialfeminine.com
Join our Facebook Group "Women Influencing Now"
twitter@maureensimon

 

WOMEN: The Law of GROWTH

What's on your mind? What thoughts do you carry with you from day-to-day? These are the "fortune tellers" of your destiny. There is a law of growth written about and talked about by many of the sages in history.

WHAT YOU THINK ABOUT GROWS.

If you want to do a quick self-assessment that will help you identify either the roadblocks holding your back or validate the momentum of positive thoughts that are opening the way for your important work and meaningful life, examine what you spend your time thinking about.

In my favorite book, mentioned before, written by Emmet Fox, he captures this idea clearly for us:

"What you think upon grows. Whatever you allow to occupy your mind you magnify in your own life. Whether the subject of your thought be good or bad, the law works and the condition grows. Any subject that you keep out of your mind tends to diminish in your life, because what you do not use atrophies.

The more you think about your grievances or the injustices that you may have suffered, the more you continue to receive. The more you think of the good fortunes you have had, the more good fortune will come to you."

I have to admit that this law has worked in my life. When my heart was breaking, there was no comfort that came in re-living it---or when stress, fear, guilt have temporarily consumed me, everything only seems to grow bigger than the sky. In my darkest hours many years back, it was Viktor Frankl's message in Man's Search for Meaning that really brought this Law of Growth into view and practice. He recounted how people who survived the holocaust had a common characteristic, they rose above the misery and despair to see a positive vision of their future----a faithful belief amidst the horror that they too had something significant left to contribute. So it is with each of us. In any given situation, we have the personal freedom to choose our attitude, which in turn, helps us discover new meaning and fulfillment in our lives and work every day.

Take time to evaluate what occupies your mind. Fill it full of thoughts of the best you can imagine. Let go of thoughts of the struggles or stresses or injustices that may exist and think instead, ponder anew --- think about what could BE and align your actions to support those thoughts. I know. I know, it is not as easy as it sounds sometimes, but it is powerful and with practice you will in a short time see how positive thoughts make powerful changes in your life. It grows!

"We never know how high we are till we are called to rise; and then if we are true to plan, our statures touch the skies." --- Emily Dickinson

May your way be blessed with only the best...

Debbe

Debbe Kennedy
Founder, Global Dialogue Center
Home of Women in the Lead
www.globaldialoguecenter.com/women
author, Putting Our Differences to Work
The Fastest Way to Innovation, Leadership
and High Performance

Twitter @debbekennedy

To Grow Is To Change

 

Spring is just around the corner.  Here in Northern California, there are daffodils blooming despite the cold, wet, windy winter weather.  As the newness sprouts from the ground, we too are offered the opportunity to embark upon newness in our lives.  It is our choice to change our lives, to grow. Take a look at your life and notice where you could grow or change at this time.  See the areas where you feel stagnation or stuck.  They are the opportunities for growth and the expression of your full potential.  It is important not to avoid risk but to be faithful to ambivalence and growth, for it is in these areas of our lives that we become fully expressed and alive.

 

One of my favorite authors and thinkers is John O’Donohue.  In his book Anam Cara he writes, “Deep within every life, no matter how dull or ineffectual it may seem from the outside, there is something eternal happening.  This is the secret way that change and possibility conspire with growth.  John Henry Newman summed this up beautifully when he said, “To grow is to change and to be perfect is to have changed often.” Change, therefore, need not be threatening; it can in fact bring our lives to perfection.  Perfection is not cold completion.  Neither is it avoidance of risk and danger in order to keep the soul pure or the conscience unclouded.  When you are faithful to the risk and ambivalence of growth, you are engaging your life.”

 

Now is the moment for change.  Take the steps to bring forth your feminine attributes and feel truly alive.

 

Maureen Simon
Co-Contributor
Create Your Blueprint for 2010
[email protected]
http://womeninfluencingnow.wordpress.com
http://www.facebook.com/maureensimon
www.theessentialfeminine.com
Join our Facebook Group "Women Influencing Now"
twitter@maureensimon

WOMEN: In the Process of BECOMING

When I was coming up the corporate ladder, there were few women role models. I was one of the first women managers in the U.S. Northwest in IBM and it was lonely. My first leadership assignment was in ALASKA. At the time, it was always a bit of a joke for others to see me as a women manager in such a seemingly distant place. "Oh, is that where they send women?" people would joke. Actually, it was one of the best professional moves I ever made. We were the TOP revenue producing office in the nation, which meant we got lots of visibility from the top. ALASKA was booming, as I blossomed into a leader in my own right in the environment of its success. Living and working there was a tougher existence than I was used to having come from the metropolitan city life of Los Angeles. No family. No lettuce. Lots of snow. My mentors were a bunch of rugged, dedicated, talented "bush pilots" outdoor types. Much of what I learned from them stays with me. I took their subtle suggestions that following their example would be good ---- being tough-minded and all business, including the navy blue suit, white "shirt and tie" that defined business attire at IBM at that time. For my early beginnings, it worked.

Some years later, after I had moved on to assignments with more responsibility, another mentor said to me, "Now that you've established yourself, how about being more like a women in your approach?" His question came with a bit of a sting that I still remember. He also offered ideas for dressing and bringing out the softer side that he felt was much more a natural way, knowing me. His counsel became the catalyst for me discovering a whole new side of myself as a leader. I worked on developing my own style of leadership----learning to not be afraid to project more of the person that lived inside me. In the process, I began to use all the lessons learned in my early years, adding my feminine qualities as key asset. The combination helped me shape a distinctive message and influence in my work. I've always been grateful for the courage it took for him to ask that very personal question. I wonder now if he knew his influence and how grateful I was for his help? Looking back, there were few men in my world bold enough ask any woman such a question.

I ran across a wonderful quote that brought this memory to mind. I thought it might help you think about your own style of beauty as a leader in your own world and how you share it with others. Remembering that leadership is an opportunity that presents itself at home, in our work, in the community or anywhere we have the chance to have an influence or set an example for others.

Instead of getting hard ourselves and trying to compete, women should try to give their best qualities to men -- bring them softness, teach them how to cry.

--- JOAN BAEZ

What have you learned in the process of becoming...

Debbe

Debbe Kennedy
Founder, Global Dialogue Center
Home of Women in the Lead
www.globaldialoguecenter.com/women
author, Putting Our Differences to Work
The Fastest Way to Innovation, Leadership
and High Performance

Twitter @debbekennedy

THE GAUNTLET HAS BEEN THROWN DOWN

The gauntlet has been thrown down.  Last year at the 5^th Annual Women’s Forum for the Economy and Society, “what clearly emerged from the Women’s Forum…is the insight that with global economic crisis come global issues that are so complex and intertwined, no one party can hand off responsibility to another.  Business, professionals, academics, innovators, entrepreneurs, governments and public bodies alike have to care and have to take up these challenges practically. We need to find different models for social and economic progress or face repercussions and continued cyclical economic time bombs.  The Women’s Forum put women at the centre of this challenge and the heart of the solution.”

It was for good reason that the Women’s Forum put women at the center of this challenge.  Women have the natural talents and gifts to see things differently and to create different “models for social and economic progress”.  This is based on their feminine attributes of collaboration, intuition, relationship building, and communication abilities to name a few.  As recent studies have shown, diversity at the board level of companies and women holding decision making positions improves both the quality and soundness of decision making and quality of performance.  We must educate ourselves and our young girls to this fact. 

This is the time to believe in our feminine gifts and to develop them.  It is only through these gifts that we can empower change, contribute to our own success and that of the world around us. 

Maureen Simon
Co-Contributor
Create Your Blueprint for 2010
[email protected]
http://womeninfluencingnow.wordpress.com
http://www.facebook.com/maureensimon
www.theessentialfeminine.com
Join our Facebook Group "Women Influencing Now"
twitter@maureensimon

P.S. The Forum was held on 15-17 October 2009 under the theme "Think again, think ahead! It is time for action change and hope." A review of the Forum was written by * Julia Harrison, Managing Partner of FD Blueprint (FD Blueprint is a leading EU public affairs company) and Member Founding Committee of Women’s Forum (Belgium) and published in the December 14 issue of the European Business Review.

What Are You Doing For Others?

Life holds so many synchronicities. I had not realized that Martin Luther King's birthday holiday is once again upon us – this coming Monday. Independent of this, I have been thinking about him. When I logged on today, I saw Debbe's most recent post on Dr. Martin Luther King! What better example of leadership and synchronicity can one think of?

I am of few words today and  but seem to be holding many questions as you may have noticed in my last few entries, I am grateful for this time of many questions. This morning I was pondering one of Dr. King's most famous questions:

“Life’s most urgent question is “What are you doing for others?”. MLK

As our nation has been founded on the principles of independence, we must learn to remember others. The American culture has become self –focused. How can we come out of our selves and begin to contribute to the lives of others.

We have many great inspiring leaders to model. The time is now. Thank You Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. for your courage, wisdom and leadership. It is up to us to keep it alive in each of us daily.

Maureen Simon

Dr. King: Rosa Parks on Role Models

IN COMMEMORATION: Dr. Martin Luther King's Birthday
January 15, 2010

In the book, Quiet Strength: The Faith, the Hope, and the Heart of a Woman Who Changed a Nation by Rosa Parks, she shared several examples of people who served as role models. One was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. She recalled:

"Martin Luther King Jr. set a profound example for me in day-to-day living. He was such a young man---just twenty-six years old---when I first met him at the beginning of the bus boycott. I was forty-two.

I'll always remember the way Dr. King would respond to violence. He would use the same words that Jesus said on the cross: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." Brutality was to be received with love, he would say. Though I knew we needed to strive for nonviolence, when I saw the brutal treatment some of us got, I had trouble believing it was always the best thing to do.

Dr. King was  a true leader. I never sensed fear in him. I just felt as though he knew what had to be done and took the leading role without regard to consequences. I knew he was destined to do great things. He had an elegance about him and a speaking style that let you know where you stood and inspired you to do the best you could. He truly is a role model for us all. The sacrifice of his life should never be forgotten, and his dream live on."

IN COMMEMORATION...

          I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true
          meaning of its creed - we hold these truths to be self-evident that all
          men are created equal.

This will be the day, this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning "My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring!"

And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every tenement and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last, free at last. Thank God Almighty, we are free at last."

- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  - August 1963

What example do you set for others by your day-to-day leadership?

Photo: Academy of Achievement

Warm wishes to you all...

Debbe

Debbe Kennedy
Founder, Global Dialogue Center
Home of Women in the Lead
www.globaldialoguecenter.com/women
author, Putting Our Differences to Work
The Fastest Way to Innovation, Leadership
and High Performance

Twitter @debbekennedy

STILLNESS of the HEART

This blog was originally posted four years ago and I believe it’s worth posting again. Time spent in the “stillness of your heart” will help you discover your heart’s desire.  Then create a blueprint to achieve your dream.  Here it is:

******

As the holidays closely approach, we have an opportunity to understand where our home actually is.  Creating beautiful spaces and sharing intimate moments with family and friends are all an important part of this special holiday season.  However, our physical world and how we live in it is only one aspect of our actual home.

[Once again,] during this holiday season, I have renewed a very special commitment to myself, and that is to remember that my true home lies in the stillness of my heart.  My true home lies in a deep connection with that which is much greater than me.  In the rush and quickness of these times, it is very important to remember that if we quiet our busy mind and go inward and connect with that which is greater than our selves, we will truly come home for the holidays.

May all the blessings of the Season be yours!

 

Maureen Simon
Co-Contributor
Create Your Blueprint for 2010
[email protected]
http://womeninfluencingnow.wordpress.com
http://www.facebook.com/maureensimon
www.theessentialfeminine.com
Join our Facebook Group "Women Influencing Now"
twitter@maureensimon

Transform Your 2010

 Say good-bye to 2009 and transform your 2010. In a year that has seemed to emphasize failure, financial stress and doing things the hard way, we have an opportunity to make a change. Our time is now to create powerful, influential success with ease and from a Feminine Perspective. Women hold natural talents and gifts that are particularly essential in business, relationship building and politics today; gifts, such as being relational and caring, holding advanced communication skills and being able to actively see the whole in the environments in which they live. We can use these gifts in creating a blueprint for 2010 which will transform our lives and the lives of those around us. 

There is no greater time in the history of the world where these feminine traits and attributes have been more needed.  If we take a moment to look outside ourselves, we can’t help but see the imbalance in our world.  Over a hundred years ago, Baha’u’llah (Founder of the Bahia Faith), wrote, “The world in the past has been ruled by force, and man has dominated over woman by reason of his more forceful and aggressive qualities both of body and mind.  But the balance is already shifting – force is losing its weight and mental alertness, intuition, and the spiritual qualities of love and service, in which woman is strong, are gaining ascendancy.  Hence, the new age will be an age less masculine, and more permeated with the feminine ideals --- or, to speak more exactly, will be an age in which the masculine and feminine elements of civilization will be more evenly balanced.”  Are we ready to create that new age?  Are we ready to bring forth the feminine attributes that can transform our world? 

 

To me, it would not be a successful world if women elbowed men out and stepped in to the limelight of our world’s leadership.  But as Baha’u’llah mentions in the quote above, we will all benefit from a world where the masculine and feminine elements are more evenly balanced.  These changes will not happen without us; women stepping up, claiming our feminine attributes and learning to use them to create balance within ourselves first. Say good-bye to 2009 and transform your 2010.  In a year that has seemed to emphasize failure, financial stress and doing things the hard way, we have an opportunity to make a change.  Our time is now to create powerful, influential success with ease and from a Feminine Perspective.  Women hold natural talents and gifts that are particularly essential in business, relationship building and politics today; gifts, such as being relational and caring, holding advanced communication skills and being able to actively see the whole in the environments in which they live.  We can use these gifts in creating a blueprint for 2010 which will transform our lives and the lives of those around us.

 

Begin 2010 by taking steps to understand how you can use your feminine gifts in business, relationships, and leadership.  Join us in a three month individual consulting program to launch your New Year with maximum success. Find out more by emailing [email protected]

 

Maureen Simon
Co-Contributor
www.maureensimon.com
http://womeninfluencingnow.wordpress.com
http://www.facebook.com/maureensimon
www.theessentialfeminine.com
Join our Facebook Group "Women Influencing Now"
twitter@maureensimon