Humility means letting go of self-glorification. There is no effort to build up ego, impress people or compete with others for status. When your intentions are honorable you are able to create value without fanfare. 

Read Annette's insights.   ozzie Mindfulness.com

Read Annette's insights. And start with anyone of Lee Thayer's books.

Read Annette's insights. And start with anyone of Lee Thayer's books.

'Happiness' itself is not a core value at Zappos, but the organizational alignment with core values is so powerful that you cannot miss the end result. Zappos core values center on customer service and connect the employees as human beings. The values are timeless and do not change - the practices and strategies of business should change all of the time. 

Read Annette Schmeling's insights.

How important it is to read aloud to young ones 15 minutes per day? To get the answer to this question explore the infographic published by ReadAloud, a non -profit organization. Although geared to parents this infographic would be great for teachers to see (and refer to in parent meetings). Perhaps it comes as no surprise that "reading aloud is the single most important thing a parent or caregiver can do to improve a child’s readiness to read and learn" according to this infographic.

All voice actors should be reading aloud for 15 minutes daily for practice anyway, so if you're not doing this already with your kids, you really need to make the time to do it. It also happens to be a great way to test out and practice dialects and characters; your kids are usually more forgiving than the reviewers on Audible and Amazon.

If your grandchildren, nieces or nephews live far away, there's no reason why you can't Skype-read to them...or spend 15 minutes daily recording a book that you can send them when it's completed.

And if you don't have kids in your life, your local library or school would probably love to have a professional voice actor come in and read to students. Here are tips from the SAG Foundations BookPals for reading aloud: http://bookpals.net/ten-tips-for-reading-aloud/

...and they all lived happily ever after! 

We know this, but it bears repeating, and repeating and repeating!!!!

I would add my appreciation for Argyris' practical application and the focus on learning opportunities. Double-Loop Learning, Ladder of Inference, Espoused vs Lived experience and the balance between Inquiry and Advocacy are concepts that are regularly used in the practice on Contemplative Dialogue.

Storytelling at its best. If you want a great curated topic Visit Karen Dietz's #Just-story-it on Scoop.it. Thanks to former Vistage Chair Jen Sertl. She continues to be at the forefront of being a leader of leaders.

Excellent article on building a team; however, still applies during the interview process!

 I believe that interviewers are not lonly seeking for intelligence, competenc, skills, and experience.  They are also seeking individuals with interpersonal  skills who will complement the team.

Make it a great day! 

We are interdependent.  We are herd/pack animals euphemistically calling ourselves social animals. It is with the help of others tht we reach our greatness.  That Greatness Zone lays in what Suzanne Livingston calls: My unique contribution. For me that is my passion around servant-leadership and building community.  Cindy shares well how the work as a fellow Vistage/TEC Chair has allowed me to fulfill my passion for the past 27 years.

Cindy talks about being good at what she did. She also mentions "I found I became bored easily"  When I can do something well and it becomes  habit, I can coast.  And you know what they say about coasting.  When you're coasting you're going downhill.

The challenge that Lee Thayer throws down is: How will I be better tomorrow that I was today in living my life and performing better than I was today personally and professionally?

Cindy has found her unique contribution that challenges her daily to be better than yesterday.

Remember, I cannot motivate another person. Motivation comes from within.

Motivation:  the state or condition of being motivated.

Motivate:     Providing motive.

Motive:        Goals or objectives of one's actions.Random House Dictionary

You may be able to inspire me, however it is up to me to achieve the "goals or objectives my one's actions."

Otto Scharmer provides a strategy to to be free of personal preferences, superfluous attachments, and preformed opinions. Effective leaders, argues Scharmer, have the interior disposition and interior freedom necessary to access intention and see the emerging whole. 

P.S. Scharmer would have made a great Jesuit!

Leadership is largely about developing your people, setting a vision, and supporting them in making it happen.  But are you hindering that success by not setting clear expectations, not considering organizational capacity when rolling out a new initiative, or setting policies and procedures that aren't useful?  Leaders clear the way, they don't stand in the way.

The story of Ralph Stayer is interesting in getting out of one's own way.  What is more interesting is that his mentor early on was Lee Thayer who asked the questions that needed to be asked.

Lee Thayer reminded me numerous times:

• No tool is any better than the understanding of the person using it.
• The best tool in the wrong hands will not accomplish what was intended.
• No tool or technique can be any better than its users

And BOLDED as a reminder:

The Mother of all tools is how I think about what needs thinking about.

It would serve one well to get to right thinking by reading any of Lee's books starting with: Leadership: Thinking, Being, Doing or an easier start would be: A Pocket Oracle for Leaders.

Leaders change the world in some way. Often it is radical change. Look at leaders in history. There were no books on leadership. Leaders influence/influenced this person and the next and the next to get out and create the change necessary to alter the world.  The measure of performance is: Performance.

When you think about it, the leader is often identified only after the fact. After the results have been achieved.

Leaders don't have a Vision. They are had by a Vision.

Umair Hague's thoughts on leadership are reflected in the life work of Lee Thayer on Leadership and High Performance Organizations.

Should I want to see what it takes to prepare myself to become a leader should the occasion arise, then I will begin to read the works of Lee Thayer starting with Leadership: Thinking, Being, Doing.  Then I must be prepared to challenge myself for the rest of my life.

It is important to understand how our brains and bodies react to stress. This article also includes an infographic.

Without the stresses of life we would not be here today reading this article.  The issue is that when I stress in situations that are not life threatening or overreact to situations and events that shoot a squirt of adreneline into my system 200 times a day, I am training myself to be anxious...almost all the time.  I like to say: When this occurs I am swimming in an adreneline stew. When you stew me enough, my autoimmune system gets compromised. My normal and natural defenses wear down...andI wear out.

The trick is to train myself to become a non-anxious presence in an anxious and overstressed world. 

The aphorism is: I learn from my experience.  The trust should I look a little deeper is: I DO NOT learn from my experience.  I LEARN from my interpretation of my experience.  Two people can have the same experience. One sees it as a learning lesson, grows from it and continues on with life. Another person sees it as a horrible experience that  they will never get over, and remain a victim of that experience for the rest of their life.

This is where an attitude of gratitude and appreciation come in. Take a breath in, and then out.  Move on to the next breath. I only have this moment.

The evolution of the fight or flight response is no longer as adaptive as it once was