Podcast 386: Awakened Leadership with Alan Shelton

Alan SheltonI recently had the opportunity of interviewing author Alan Shelton who’s new book entitled “Awakened Leadership-Beyond Self Mastery” it is a great read.  The book has lots of Alan’s personal life story, but weaved into the content are life lessons that we can all learn and benefit from if we apply in our life.

Alan comments in the preface of the book about being in a “seekers hole”, a term that I personally can appreciate and relate to from time to time.  I don’t know a soul on this planet that is not seeking, and at times we all get frustrated and dissatisfied with the journey.  In essence we forget that we are spiritual beings having a human experience, vs. human beings having a spiritual experience–big difference.  The key to enjoying our journey is as all times to remember who we are, and why we are here-easier said than done right?.

Alan points out that we are not the center of the Universe, even though at times we think we are.  Yes, our ego’s do take control and we think that we are it!!  Alan reminds us that a life awakened is beyond self-mastery, the belief that we author and control our own reality.  He points out that to become a more effective leader we need to understand what it is like to express our authentic self.  In essence,  not to put on false pretenses or allow our ego to attempt to control or have a negative impact on our relationships.

“Awakened Leadership” is about leadership, and what it takes to become a compassionate and effective leader.  Alan cites author Joseph Jaworski the author of “Syncronicity: The Inner Path of Leadership” by saying ” Institutions of all sorts are facing profound change today, with complexity increasing at a speed and intensity we’ve never experienced before.  Jaworski came to realize that traditional analytical leadership approaches are inadequate for dealing creatively with the complexity.  To effectively face these challenges, leaders need to access the Source from which truly profound innovations flows.

If you would like to learn more about accessing the Source, and what is necessary to become a leader in our business world today, then Alan’s new book “Awakened Leadership” is a must read.  If you would like to learn  more about Alan Shelton please click here to be directed to his website, or you can watch a great book trailer by clicking here.

I hope you enjoy this wonderful interview with Alan Shelton.

 

Podcast 383: Charity Case with Dan Pallotta

Dan PallottaI personally appreciate the position author Dan Pallotta has articulated about the unjust discriminatory rules that society imposes on charities.  In his new book entitled “Charity Case-How The Non-Profit Community Can Stand Up For Itself and Really Change the World.” Dan states that virtually everything our society teaches about charity is backwards.  The donating public is told to measure the effectiveness and moral character of charities by how little they spend on “overhead” never being taught that overhead is really investment without which the nonprofit sector can never hope to solve massive social problems.  The media and government unwittingly perpetuate these views, condemning charities that invest in behind-the scenes infrastructure or attempt to lure talent away form the for-profit sector.

I personally have volunteered thousands of hours on charity boards helping to organize and raise money to assist with the funding of this program or that, and believe me the task is a challenging one at best.  Charities are always fight the battle to attract and keep good loyal and committed donors, and those donors frequently are judging the charity on how they control their expenses, and how much of their donated dollar is going to work.  Believe me just like any other business, charities can waste money but the charities I have been involved with have been lean mean fighting machines and truly use the donated dollars quite effectively.   I understand what Dan is saying in “Charity Case” is that the public sentiment has always been one of suspicion. While we spend money with other private-sector businesses and never once give a thought to how they spend their money on expenses or advertising as long as we receive the good or service we purchased.

In my interview with Dan we speak about his movement to help reposition charities in the eyes of the public.  Dan has a very interesting proposition about building an anti-defamation league for charities, the purpose would be to unite charities and create an advertising campaign that would inform the public about all the good that they are doing.  A great example is the ad campaign that “Got Milk” did that was funded by the  Milk Advisory Board which is comprised of dairy cattleman who have united and created advisory board to help build a positive image about milk.  Dan states that charities have never united together, and put their resources to work building a positive image for themselves with the public.  I personally believe this is a great idea, and one that is long overdue.

 

If you are interested in learning more about how Dan plans to help the charities of the world unite and overcome the ill-conceived views of the public I encourage you to read both “Charity Case” and Dan’s previous book “Uncharitable“.  You can also learn more by visiting his website by clicking here.  Enjoy this great interview with author and activists Dan Pallotta.

Podcast 382: The 21 Skills of Spiritual Intelligence with Cindy Wigglesworth

 

Cindy WigglesworthWe have all read and heard about the work of Daniel Goldman regarding Emotional Intelligence, but now what I believe could prove to be equally important is the measurement of our  spiritual intelligence.  Author  Cindy Wigglesworth has just published a book entitled “The 21 Skills of Spiritual Intelligence“which  provides insight into our spiritual intelligence.  As part of my inquiry Cindy  allowed me to take the 170 question analysis that she diligently developed over many years. The quiz was quite revealing and is certainly a tool that will be quite useful both personally and in the work environment. (For more information on the click here to be directed to her website.)

Cindy defines spiritual intelligence as “the ability to behave with wisdom and compassion while maintaining inner and outer peace regardless of the situation.” Wow, now thats  a skill set  that most corporations would love to instill in their employees.  Cindy states that “transcending our smaller nature and growing into our full potential as human beings is the most important and fulfilling thing we can do with our lives.  The set of skills that are collectively known as spiritual intelligence are designed to help you become more fully who you are, to continue to grow and develop, and to live with greater consciousness, direction, wisdom and compassion.

Cindy uses her newly defined spiritual intelligence in conjunction with the other identified intelligences, physical, cognitive, emotional intelligence.  When combined and analyzed they become a powerful tool that can assist the management of organizations in defining how employees will best work, inspire and collaborate with one another.  There are 21 skills that have been identified as part of our spiritual intelligence , and those skills have been classified into four (4) quadrants.  Self-Awareness, Universal Awareness, Self Mastery, Social Mastery/Spiritual Presence.  To better understand the spiritual intelligence model I recommend that you click here to be directed to Cindy’s Deep Change website.

I hope you enjoy this wonderful interview with Cindy Wigglesworth, the author of “The 21 Skills of Spiritual Intelligence“.  You can click here to watch a great PBS interview in which Cindy provides the viewer with insight into her personal philosophy and history.

 

Podcast 342: Smart Trust with Greg Link

Greg LinkI recently interviewed my good friend and co-author of “Smart Trust“, Greg Link.  Yet another great book from the Covey Link team.

Many of you may remember a book entitled ” The Speed of Trust” which sold more than 1 million copies in 2006  in which Stephen M.R. Covey wrote about the importance of preserving and restoring trust was one of the most important elements in business today..

In “Smart Trust” Greg and Stephen provide a lens to see how trust issues impact every situation, and how you can cut through traditional either/or thinking to extend what they call Smart Trust, enabling you to operate with hight trust in a low trust world.

Greg speaks with me during this interview about how high trust organization time and time again outperform low-trust organizations by nearly three times.  Moving from a low-trust organization has hugh implications and opportunity abounds.   Organization that can embrace “Smart Trust” have the benefit of having employees, customers and communities that support their organizations thus , employee engagement, profitability and innovation are just a few of the benefits of operating with “Smart Trust“.

Greg and I discuss what they refer to in the book at the “ 5 Actions of Smart Trust“, and how Smart Trust Leaders consistently take these actions.  1) Choose to Believe in Trust–this creates the foundational paradigm out of which all other trust-building behaviors flow. 2) Start with Self–focus first on developing the character and competence that enables them to trust themselves and to also give others a person–or a team, organization or country–they can trust 3) Declare their intent…and assume positive intent in others–they signal goals and intended actions—both what and why–clearly in advance, and generally assume that others also have good intent and want to be worthy of trust. 4) Do what they say they’re going to do–they follow through and act to carry out their declared intent; walk their talk. 5) Lead out in extended trust to others–they are the first to extend trust an initiate the upward virtuos cycle that leads to prosperity, energy and joy.

One thing that I know for certain is that “trust” and “fear” can not co-exist.  If we can move our people, businesses and planet to to understanding the importance of embracing “Smart Trust” we will certainly move toward more equanimity. We would have a world where we work in cooperation with one another without the conflict that fear creates.  Competition would be replaced with collaboration and wonderful synergies would emerge  benefiting humanity as a whole.

 

If you would like to learn more about Greg Link and Stephen Covey please click here to be directed to their website.

You can also check out this YouTube Video about the 13 behaviors of high trust people. I hope you enjoy this wonderful interview with Greg Link from the Covey Link Team.

Podcast 332: The Radical Leap Re-Energized with Steve Farber

Steve FarberI have known author Steve Farber for several years now, and this is my second podcast  with him. His new book entitled “The Radical Leap Re-Energized” is the subject of this interview The Radical Leap Re-Engerized is designed for those readers and leaders who do what they do because they love it,  and and they are in service to others.

Steve is extremely passionate about his work, and in this new book which is part non-fiction and part fiction Steve guides the reader to renew their excitement for what they do and encourage others to lead with passion.  What Steve refers to as the Radical Leap is associated with 1) cultivating love 2) generating energy 3) inspiring audacity and 4) providing proof.

Love is the ultimate motivation of the Extreme Leader: love of something or someone, love of a cause, love of a principle, love of the people you work with and the customers you serve, love of the future you and yours can create together, love of the business you conduct together ever day.  Without the calling and commitment of your heart, there’s no good reason for you to take a stand, to take a risk, or to do what it takes to change your world for the better.

Generate energy-the Extreme Leader is a generator, a powerful force for action, for progress, and an enthusiastic believer in people and in their capacity to do the awesome.    Steve asks ” what gets you out of bed and brings you to work?” If you are to be the generator, where does you juice come from?  In what well do you dip your cup to get the nourishment you need to meet the obstacles and challenges that you and your face every day.   So what generates energy–Love, Great Ideas, Noble Principles, Leaping Goals, Interesting Work, Exciting Challenges and a Compelling Vision.

Inspire Audacity– for the Extreme Leader, audacity is the bold and blatant disregard for normal constraints in order to change the world for the better.  Love-inspired audacity is courageous and fille with valor.  The Extreme Leader is audacious not to serve his or her own ego, but to serve the common good.  And to do so boldly and blatantly and let the naysayers be damned.

If you are a leader, and I am not just don’t referring to  someone in business.  Leaders are all around us, Mom’s, Dad’s, Sisters, Brothers we are all leaders.  Steve’s book will provide you the inspiration to lead with principle and integrity and to take the leap forward into a new way of perceiving your role as a leader.

 

I hope you enjoy my interview with author Steve Farber and for more information please visit his website by clicking here or you can watch some great video’s of him on YouTube by clicking here.

Podcast 326: Being Extraordinary A New Model for Success with Guy Finley

Guy FinleyI always have a great time interviewing Guy Finley.  He is one of my favorite authors with a heart of gold, and a love for humanity.

I had the pleasure of actually being involved in the making of “Being Extraordinary-The New Model for Success“.  This new book is what is referred to as an enhanced book for the Apple iPad.  I am a partner in an organization called Wiseologie Media Group, and we develop enhanced books for authors and publish them in the various forms of digital media for tablets such as the iPad, Nook, Amazon Kindle Fire etc.

Guy’s new book ” Being Extraordinary” is  a question and answer format allowing the reader to easily extract the words of wisdom from Guy Finley without having to read every page of the book–although you should its a wonderful book.  I personally interviewed Guy for over five hours, and our interviews are the foundational material included in “Being Extraordinary”  For Guy Finley this book is a leap into addressing many issues facing business leaders from a spiritual perspective.

A very important topic that is covered is the shift that Guy would like to see business leaders make, from one of “what can I take” to “what can I give or contribute to the world“.  This concept might seem simple, but imagine a world where our business leaders make a shift in their thinking from “taking” to “giving”.  Not only would our business world be transformed, all businesses and the stakeholders–employees, vendors, stockholders would become part of a global transformation in the exchange of good and services benefiting humanity–social responsibility would be the focus.

Guy says that the ordinary is created to serve the extraordinary, and that we realize this relationship within ourselves by learning what it means to come “awake” and be “present” to ourselves at all times.  In becoming extraordinary, one of the most valuable lessons is to awaken to our own personal relationship with our “higher-self” the self that transcends aspects of our self that are not awake to what and who we are becoming in each and every moment.  At this point we experience our own personal revelation, we realize that their are not failures only learning lessons and opportunities to progress in our own awakening to who and what we are becoming.

Guy states that the “I” must be willing to die for the “We” if we are to become fearless.  In “Being Extraordinary” the reader will learn that to transcend the ego’s dominion and realize our connection to the “One”.  You learn that you are  not separate, you are One with the Source and Being Extraordinary is part of our divine right.

If you want to learn more about “Being Extraordinary” please click here to be directed to the iTunes store where you can download the first two chapters for review on your iPad.  You can also learn more by clicking here to be directed to a You Tube video with an introduction to the book.  I hope you enjoy this wonderful interview with author Guy Finley about “Being Extraordinary“.

Podcast 306: The Executive and The Elephant with Richard Daft

Richard DaftI thoroughly enjoyed my interview with author Richard Daft about his new book entitled ” The Executive and the Elephant-A Leaders Guide to Building Inner Excellence“.  I have interviewed 100’s of authors in the personal growth industry, but none  have as good of perspective  as author Richard Daft with the challenges we face in applying and sustaining change in conjunction to our beliefs,  behaviors and associated actions.

In my interview with Richard Daft we discuss what is referred to as the knowing and doing gap.  As Richard states ” Kings, heads of government, and corporate executives have control over thousands of people and endless resources, but often do not have mastery over themselves. From a distance larger-than-life leaders may look firmly in control of their businesses and their personal behavior.  What about up close?  Personal mastery is a difficult thing.”   The book is truly about helping leaders to recognize the two parts of themselves and to learn how to calm down, train and guide their inner elephant toward the desired success.

Richard gives an assignment to his MBA class at the beginning of the school year. He asks them to find one thing that they would like to change about themselves over a period of three weeks such as an improved exercise plan, diet, better nutrition etc. What he finds after checking in with the students is that the things they wanted to change about themselves were short lived and unsustainable over a long period of time.  He quotes from Dr. Jim Loehr ” Everyone has the same amount of self-discipline, almost none.  People mistakenly think they can change their lives if they just try harder and summon enough willpower.  It seldom happens.”
Richard says that a human beings seems composed of two selves-one it habit bound, impulsive, and emotion driven, and the other more thoughtful, circumspect, and rational. The idea of the two selves has a long tradition in Western culture; they are represented in the battle between reason and emotion, superego and id, angel and devil, the light side and the dark side, good and evil, and the spirit and the flesh.   This all adds up to as having two parts, or two selves, so to speak that sometimes are in conflict.  The bigger part is unconscious and forceful, and manages most of our behavior,  the other, smaller part is conscious and makes deliberate choices, and seems to play a subsidiary role, being used only on occasion when needed.

I sincerely appreciate how the author explains these aspects of our personality, and how they interfere with us reaching personal mastery or our highest potential.  I highly recommend this book, for its simplicity ease of reading as well as overall wisdom on the topic of personal mastery.

If you would like to learn more about the author Richard Daft please click here to be directed to his website. Enjoy this wonderful interview with a great author.