Archive for June, 2005
Psoriasis to Peace
I’m a prone to stress. Anyone who knows me knows that much at least. External stress from events and internal stress from thoughts and projections. On this subject, if I have credibility with my clients it is because know of which I speak.
For about two years I have had a small patch of redness on my arm - the fleshy part on the side of the forearm that is exposed when I turn my extended hand up to the sky. A month ago, when I started my grad school application, I noticed the patch expanded and flared up; it got larger and swollen, rather like hives swell up. I knew I was feeling stress over whether I would be accepted into the program or rejected. My body was reflecting…
Paying It Forward
Dear Clients and Friends,
Recently, I was accepted into a specialized Masters Degree program called a Masters of Science in Executive Leadership, or MSEL, for short. It’s a program co-created by management legend, Ken Blanchard and the University of San Diego.
I am excited to undertake this rigorous study in not only management of organizations in general, but the secret sauce of success – leadership. Think of the MSEL program as 60% traditional MBA and 40% leadership dynamics – what it takes and means to inspire and guide people to important achievements and experiences, to create and communicate BIG ideas and advance the good of all parties involved - staff, customers, suppliers, community and self, while making a profit. These are BIG subjects I’m excited to master.
The program emphasizes applied…
Courting Legends
The dinner/drinks meeting I was to have with Ken Blanchard on 6/16 - the meeting I invited him to and the invitation he accepted - did not happen. And it really doesn’t matter much.
A day before we were to sit and talk I got this email:
Dear David,
Sorry, I’m not going to be able to get a drink or dinner this Thursday after the MSEL Reception. However, we could have a conversation after the session but I’ll need to leave shortly thereafter.
See you then.
Ken
That night, I thanked him for helping me via his books, but beyond that we did not have a conversation. Like I said though - it doesn’t matter.
Why, all of a sudden, does it not matter? Well, let’s see if I can explain it. For starters,…
Others Like You Are Here, Too
Dear David
I have spent the last 3 hours perusing ActivatePotential.com. I wanted to write to both compliment you on a job well done and to thank you for your insights. When I was a student at USC’s Marshall School of Business I studied leadership development, and had the great honor of studying with Warren Bennis. From a more macrocosmic perspective, your site, which sparkles with enthusiasm and personality, has reminded me for the first time in several years why I am so impassioned by the subject of leadership and personal development (your enthusiasm is COMPLETELY contagious!). Once upon a time I pursued this passion with a job in Arthur Andersen’s Strategy, Organization and People consulting group . . . but as a result of the firm’s grand demise I have…
Reply from Reader - It Shall Pass
Dear David,
I can tell reading your entry of this past Saturday that there is still some lingering effect of what you describe in you.
I, too, have been under the spell of distraction and low energy… so much so that people who are used to see me on 300% most of the time feel the change instantly.
At some point, confusion set in and I lost the ability to immerse myself in the beauty and flow of the moment. As you say, it shall pass. It is hard for superachievers to ‘put up’ with it though.
A book that recently came my way on “Positive Energy” by
Judith Orloff helped me remember that sometimes what I need is less. Sometimes I need silence and the sweet “let it be” mantra.
Thank you for…
It’s Not All Cake
In the past week or so, I’ve started and deleted new entries at least four times. Each time I’ve felt a little more pressure to write one - but nothing important or inspiring was coming - so I just deleted each one and hoped for inspiration tomorrow.
Alas, none came. If inspiration came before this post, it came in the form of the truth; I have been grinding it out for the past couple weeks. I should write about that.
I was not feeling creative. I didn’t feel all that motivated. I didn’t make my bed. A forgot to close my bedroom door and a client walked by on the way from the lounge to the guest bathroom. I apologized. “I already saw. It’s okay, now I know you’re not perfect,”…
But You Keep Doing It Anyway
On Sunday, after a long day of work, I went to a friend’s house for dinner and some relaxing conversation. For convenience sake, she bought a package of “Beef Enchiladas” from Costco. After 40 minutes in the convection oven, the “food” was ready to eat.
It was disgusting. Everything about it was disgusting. From the instant the food hit my tongue I thought it was disgusting - and I cleaned my plate anyway.
For starters, the sodium content was out of sight - 610 grams per serving. It was so salty I almost couldn’t eat it…almost. The stuff also looked horrible. Seriously, we could picture precisely how it’s made.
Enormous grinders, salt dumpers and mixing contraptions churn the goop. A giant, loud pump plops it into the plastic containers from long,…
Finding Our Ways
The further and further down this coaching path I get the more I realize that all coaching is personal. There is no way to move a business without moving its people. I cannot inspire or evoke greatness from a business. I cannot educate a business. A business is a construct, an idea, or rather a big rubber-band-ball of ideas conceived by humans, by people - and made tangible, real and hopefully good.
It’s all personal. Seems to me, the sooner we business owners and executives get that, the sooner we will be on the fast track to mastery. And I don’t mean just technical masters, like super-managers, I mean masters as men and women, on the path to becoming true elders, worthy of our youth’s attention. Protectors of what is good.…
