Mindfulness & The Mindful Leader

Lee has been adding the contact for over 40 years. Check out my Pinterest board on Lee Thayer On Leadership especially @BrianNarelle did a cartoon capture of Lee's Presentation here in San Diego a number of years ago. We forget that knowing and doing are worlds apart. You might want to start with: Leadership: Thinking, Being, Doing and progress through his 9 or 10 other thought prodding and provoking  books by Lee. In the works: Mental Hygiene.

My thinking influences who I am and who I am impacts what I do and the habits I create. 

Check out this piece I wrote on the Kalama Sutra about who to believe.

You might want to check out @SusanScott and her Delegation/Decision Tree metaphor in Fierce Conversations. Excellent visualization of managing the delegation process by monitoring the decisions until the trust is established of the delegatee's decisions have been verified to be in alignment.

It is about contribution.  Each of us have a unique contribution.  When we share our contribution the world responds.  Nice article and understanding how we can help in ways that truly are a giving back through a passion project.  The Little Prince reminds us:  It is with the heart that one see rightly. For what is essential is invisible to the eye.

I would probably put it: Why I Choose to Work for Free (Sometimes)

Dan Ariely's The Cost of the Social Norm talks about the difference between social norm based on trust and relationship and the market norm based on a transaction.  When the Social Norm is destroyed it is near impossible to recover. 

You need to watch the entire series at:

http://tedxrockcreekpark.com

Just a moment in time. That is all it takes.

A dear friend, teacher, mentor, and leader has died. Red Scott's legacy will live on for many generations to come.

Red, like Pat Hyndman, gave all though their lives and will continue to give for many generations by the legacy they have left behind. Red was the consumate: green and growing.  Always learning. Always having a story to put it in a way that would get the point across and yet having Texas humor.

His message to us came in December:

Sent: 12/6/2012 2:04:10 P.M. Eastern Standard Time
Subj: <no subject>

Dear Family and Friends:

To quote the great Dandy Don Meredith:

"Turn out the lights - - the party is over."  Oh and, I have also been
advised to not buy any more green bananas.

As most of you know I was diagnosed with aggressive Prostate Cancer almost 8 years ago. Kathy and I vowed then that we would try to live a normal life and squeeze out ever ounce of "living" - - for what ever time was left. Boy oh boy what a wonderful ride we have had !  Thanks in no small part to a great team of doctors who are knowledgeable, caring and loving !

My Maternal Grandmother (Eliza Jane Patton) used to say to me as a little boy:  "He with 1000 friends has not one to spare!"  Eliza, I don't know if I ever hit the 1000 mark - - but I came pretty durn close...

I apologize to the many, many of you who have called or wanted to stop by. We turned you away simply to try to preserve what little strength I had left.  I hope you understand.

Worry not about me now. I am looking forward to the greatest reward of all - - to go be with my Lord & Savior - - Jesus Christ.

Red Scott

Red's Cardinals  http://bit.ly/14eR0Mv

Read Karen's Insight.  Relating to Leadership and reflecting on Lee Thayer's 4+ decades focused on Leadership and High Performance, leaders don't have a Vision, the Vision has them. And the story they share allows others to choose to be part of that Vision.

As Karen shares: "It's the stories you as a leader share, and the stories told about a leader, that defines that signature. As the article says, it's a leader's values, experiences, and skills that make up that signature. Again, I'm saying that happens through the stories that are shared."

Actually it starts with the way that I think. My thinkiandrogen influences who I am. Who I am influences what I do. The writing part comes from my thinking and my being. Reading Lee Thayer's book Leadership Virtuosity would be very helpful in seeing leadership from this aspect and all its many other perspectives.

It's not what I know that gets me in trouble. It's what I know that just ain't so.

You will know me by my actions.  When someone has to tell me or I have to tell you how great they are/I am, it is often the need to use words to get myself and others to believe that it is true.

Similarly it is about what I do and not what I say.

This is about me living in a gender biased world and not seeing it because I see through men's shorts.

I'm appreciative of James' sharing. and Mark Lefko asking the question on the LinkedIn group: Conscious Leadership Connection

Last night at the engagement party for Brian and his fianace, Sarah; somehow it came up in conversation in one of the small groups; How long will it take before the first woman Pope?

I'm sure God is patient. She moves in strange ways.

It has been a delight to meet Marty and Arlene through my dear friend Victor Geberin and his wife, Alison. 

What I walked away with from reading this article is Marty's words:

“Good technology is not technology at all unless it makes people’s lives better,” said Cooper. “They have gone about as far as they can go with the hardware. But hardware doesn’t count. It’s people that count.”

Jennifer Sertl's reminder about not losing our humanity when we believe that technology has the answers.  Or Lee Thayer's observations that communication is about our humanity and what we can become and can achieve if we can get our thinking right.

Taking the time to reflect, to be mindful, or to meditate by turning off all the technology and listening, being present and observing.

As Siddartha said:  I can wait, I can fast, and I can meditate.

It is with the heart that one see rightly. For what is essential is invisible to the eye.  The Little Prince

Hidden in the word Listen is the word:  Silent.

In Vistage, the foundation of its Values, at the base of a triagle is: Trust. Up one side is Caring, up the other side is Challenge, and in the middle is growth.

Dan Ariely speak about the Cost of the Social Norm which is based on Trust and Social Relationships. The Market Norm is based on Financial Transactions.  When the Social Norm is replaced by the Market Norm he says it is extremely difficult if not impossible to regain the trust.

Trust cannot be bought, it must be earned.

If you lose my trust by your behavior, then I can trust that I cannot trust you.

Lee Thayer speaks of Leadership is a role that one plays. If one plays it well and is had by a vision that may outlast them, then history recognizes them as leaders. Those who we recognize as historical leaders did not have access to the 10,000 books that we have today on Leaderhship, yet what they accomplished was because of their competence at doing what needed to be done to accomplish their leadership role.

As Simon Sinek reminds us:  They had followers.