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What does "leadership space" mean, and why should you care? Well, in my three decades as a leader and 20+ years as an executive coach, I’ve seen that we’re always in a leadership space relative to others. How you show up in that space affects how your members collaborate, innovate, and thrive. So you should be aware of three distinct dimensions of this space – taking, holding, and shaping. [...]

Do you have an update to share with your boss or a committee. How about an idea to run by a colleague or peer. And are you hoping that your updates and ideas land better and stick better? Well, I’ve seen these conversations break down and plunge deep into the pit of confusion. And I’ve seen conscious leaders successfully climb atop the hill of compelling attention. The pit of confusion [...]

What makes Kellye a conscious leader? Its her ability to expand her sense of self beyond the protection, beyond the greed, beyond the fear and to really include her people's needs and dreams, her team's safety, and an actionable care for all life. And why does she work with Eric Kaufmann as her coach? Let her tell you in her own words.

In this Conscious Leadership in Action conversation between Paul Ward and guest Eric Kaufmann we talked about his new book, Leadership Breakdown: How to break the vicious cycle, release the struggle, and succeed with conscious leadership. Eric has made awakening and expanding the consciousness of leaders his mission in life. Eric says that what makes a conscious leader is not just waking up, opening your eyes and saying [...]

I, like you, judge myself by my intent. Period. But you, like everyone else, you judge me by my impact. So even when I’m well intended, I can be hurtful or upsetting. It’s just inevitable that I’m gonna upset someone, you’ll upset someone, we all upset someone. And because we’re prone to upset and offend someone we’re in relationship with, we’ve collectively invented THE APOLOGY – "I’m sorry!" Since [...]

We’ll never have to wonder if one leader can affect culture. Just six days after inauguration, the culture of the White House is different. This is a leadership perspective; I’m not baiting any political debate. Culture change is visible. And you too, the leader in your space, are affecting the culture around you, whether or not you’re paying attention to it. And I’m encouraging you to pay attention. Culture never [...]

"Sheila is pissed at me," he said. "She wants me to intervene on her behalf, but I'm not going there. She has to figure out how to fight this fight without me hand holding her." Then he went on, "But I tell you, it's bothering me that she's disappointed and pissed at me!" You can relate, right? He hates being perceived as unfair. It reminds me (for a second time in [...]

!! Stop productivity porn !! It’s still too soon for bravado about productivity. We're in week three of isolation, and getting more comfortable with the weirdness. But we're not quite there yet. You're probably working from home, and if you have kids then they're home and you're a full-time professional and teacher, and your normal productivity routines are disrupted. Yes, yes, I know, opportunity and crisis go hand in hand. [...]

FEAR is an appropriate response right now. Fear is our reaction to threat, and we are threatened in ways we can’t control. Fear sharpens the senses, cuts noise away from signal, and provides a boost of energy for action. Unless you’re sedated, feeling fear is normal. And feel it you must. I’ll come back to that. Panic, over worrying, deep anxiety, incessant fretting, though, is unnecessary. Panic is a selfish impulse [...]

Conscious Leadership in Action podcast with Host Dr Paul Ward. We're talking about Eric's new book, Leadership Breakdown: How to break the vicious cycle, release the struggle, and succeed with conscious leadership.

“How do I become an influential leader?” is a question every life science trainer asks, and one that I’ve been investigating for the past 15 as a coach and trainer. Part of the answer is revealed in the two mindsets and three focal areas that follow. First mindset is to base every decision on improving patient outcomes. Put patients first, next consider clinical practitioners, and then the right thing [...]

We’re hardly shocked anymore when we discover that a star baseball player DID take steroids. We’re disappointed, but not shocked. The use of performance enhancing drugs is a cat and mouse game between players and coaches who want ever-increasing power, and regulators who are desperately attempting to maintain a level playing field. In corporations, that performance enhancing drug of choice is motivation. Leaders and managers believe that if their [...]

A good friend of mine is single. He’s such a catch and I often wonder how he’s not married, especially given his stated intent to be married. We got to talking about marriage and the conversation went to commitment. He said he’s a committed man – his business is successful, his circle of friends is rich, his lifestyle is full of athletics and travel – he commits to many [...]

I checked in with my wife and kids in Atlanta for our flight to San Diego. As the ticket agent was taking our suitcase, I knew in my heart I will not be seeing that suitcase anytime soon. I just knew it. Have you ever had that unshakable certainty, even as you wished mightily to be wrong?? The gate agent was flustered, disinterested, and showed no signs of service [...]

My daughter came sobbing into the house. She is usually pretty tough, so when she cries in pain, I know to pay attention. She was swinging in the hammock with her friend and they tipped the hammock. My daughter landed on the ground and her friend, on top of her. I saw no bruises or cuts. I prescribed the usual, ice the arm and take it easy for a [...]

I was interviewed about helping leaders make positive changes through executive coaching. One of the questions really captured my attention, “What do you believe causes change?” Through 12 years of coaching intelligent and mature executives, and over my own lifetime of effort, I know that behavior change is difficult. As a facilitator, coach, and trainer I’ve observed a pattern among those who deliberately and successfully alter their behavior; a [...]

During a hiking trip in a remote mountain range, a narrow but deep canyon cut my trail. I hiked northwards along the canyon lip, but found no passage. An hour later, having retraced my steps and gone further south, I found a lightning-felled Ponderosa pine that spanned the canyon. It was sixty feet long, thick and strong, and anchored in place by its remaining roots. The first ten feet [...]

We are often told that compromise is a mature sign of negotiation. We are told that marriages are all about compromise. We are told that it’s better to give a little and keep the peace. We are told that compromise is a win-win… I don’t believe any of this! King Solomon is considered to be one of the wisest men of history. His wisdom was dearly tested when two [...]

Good news per Gallup  is that 29% of employees are truly “engaged.” The concerning news is that 54% of poll respondents are “disengaged.” But the scary part is that 17% of employees are “actively disengaged.” By making organizations flat (fewer layers of management) we have significantly increased the busyness of managers, and equally decreased the time and attention that managers and team members share; a fact that has escalated [...]

When you stand at the top of your organization or team, you have a perspective that no one else has. And yet you depend on subordinate’s input to inform the overall strategy and mission. And for the input to have value, everyone has to understand and focus on the strategy. I witness many a senior leader who comes up with the great strategy, but fails to help the organization [...]

What a terrible mistake it is to aspire to be fearless. Adam Bryant in his book – The Corner Office – shares five habits of highly effective CEOs. There is great material in the book, insights which align with my observations in coaching CEOs and facilitating executive development programs. However, I strongly disagree with the title of his last habit, not with the content. He claims that great leaders [...]

“It is human to have a long childhood; it is civilized to have an even longer childhood. Long childhood makes a technical and mental virtuoso out of man, but it also leaves a life-long residue of emotional immaturity in him.”— Erik Erikson (1902-1994) Eight months ago Myra was promoted from Controller to CFO. I was introduced to her by her CEO when their conversation turned to helping Myra develop [...]

John Maxwell wrote that “people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” We, the followers of leaders, want to know that we are safe as we travel down a new path or toward creating a new vision or goal. Because a journey of creation always involves some risk, we want to have some measure of faith and are constantly concerned for our safety. [...]

There are many barriers to communication, even when we speak the same language. Yesterday I presented “what your CEO needs you to know” to Learning and Development professionals at ASTD. I shared the top issues that occupy CEOs: revenues and profits, strategic focus, and key talent. More deeply though, what I believe forms the greatest gap between CEOs and their functional leaders is a language barrier. Organizations run the [...]

My friend has hit a massive wall in his marriage. It’s not clear whether they will find a way to work it out and stay married. They just committed to see a counselor to help figure this out. Independent of the marriage making it or not is my friend’s ability to be honest. He hasn’t cheated on his wife, or stolen funds from her. He has, however, shut off [...]

I just have to share organizational wisdom I learned from Steve, VP of Operations at a large tech company. He consistently instills in his team three elements that makes them extremely effective at collaboration – open mindedness, trust, and enthusiasm. But before I say anything about collaboration, I want to say a word about organization. Organization comes from the word organism and organized. Whether you are a single cell [...]

Vic, after 22 years with his company, was just promoted to executive. Congrats, Vic, you deserve it! Vic is ambitious, empathetic, a wicked-good problem solver, long term thinker, and driven by healthy competitiveness. Vic is now VP of operations. In his previous management role he was responsible for effectively leading a team and ensuring that they consistently met and exceeded goals set by senior management. Now Vic finds himself [...]

My family and I were flying in an airplane from Denver to Sheridan, Wyoming. The previous flight aboard a Boeing 757 from San Diego to Denver was easy and smooth. Unfortunately, the flight from Denver to Sheridan was an experience of the forces of nature aboard twin prop 19-seater airplane. Flying through updrafts and thermal layers around Denver was a very bumpy ride; a white knuckled flight fueled by [...]

ANGER is rampant in the organizations. Why? Because people experience a gulf of difference between what they expect and want, and how things actually are. While the gulf is common, leaders should take the uncommon path to ease this anger and frustration. If you’re a leader, you can do so by expressing yourself more accurately and authentically, and being prepared to serve the greater needs of the team, vision, [...]

John Wooden, the famed basketball coach, said, “Young people need models, not critics.” Leaders are most effective as coaches when they model and demonstrate their values, beliefs, and expectation. But criticism should not be overlooked. Critic comes from the Greek word Kritikos, able to discern. Leader coaches know how to discern, how to perceive and recognize qualities in their people. Leader coaches perceive the strength of team members and [...]

Waves of rich sound were rolling from the stage. I nodded my head to the same rythm that was moving hundreds of heads up and down and undulating bodies from one foot to the other. Reggae music splashed in our ears and flowed around our feet. The band was awesome – drums, bongos, guitars, keyboards, base guitar, and singer. But my brain was stuck. The singer looked like a [...]

Few things are as paralyzing as fear of the unknown. In the face of this dark, deep, yawning chasm of perceived danger, the mind races into overdrive and creates visions of pain and loss, great or small. I’ve seen entire exec teams convince themselves the unknown is so awful that they defaulted to fighting for status quo rather than growth. I’ve struggled with my own doubt and indecision in [...]

Manny looked physically hurt. His eyes were sunken, his posture was stooped, and his normally taut skin was grayish. He had been under great stress over the past three weeks. He was making one of the biggest decisions of his career as a leader. He was showing the toll of a difficult decision. Manny was physically hurting! The pain we feel in the midst of intense stress is real; [...]

Unfounded insecurity and anxiety about incompetence visit themselves upon me once in a while. I used to become anxious at their mere presence, now I’m mostly at peace with them. Like vines they creep into the garden of my mind and weave themselves into the foliage of my thinking. Sometimes I know exactly what fertilizer quickened their growth – a less than stellar client engagement, a rejected proposal or [...]

I don’t believe there is real “fear of the unknown.” Over the past decade, as I’ve asked people what about the UNKNOWN frightens them, they have always listed KNOWN fears such as pain, loss, embarrassment, death, rejection, etc. The Unknown acts as a blank screen onto which we project our Known fears. What we’re afraid of is the Uncertain. More accurately, we are afraid that what we want to [...]

I was a real rebel as a young man; I questioned authority and cast off my parents conventions. I challenged everything with “why,” and “who decided that this is the right way?” Have I changed now that I’m an adult with a mortgage, a father of teenagers, and a business owner? Sure, but I maintain a deep respect for rebellion, and I’ll tell you why. Admittedly, at its lowest [...]

How you give feedback is all wrong; probably because you were taught the old sandwich technique. You know the one, open with a positive statement followed by constructive criticism, then close with a positive statement. Quite frankly, it’s a crappy sandwich. It’s the antithesis of John Wooden’s, the famed basketball coach, comment that “Young people need models, not critics.” As a leader, you have to give – and your [...]

If you’re a CEO you may have noticed that thinking out loud actually generates new projects! What gives?? Well, people listen to the CEO for directions, and suggestions are merely new directions. Sorry ;-( Watch this brief video for tips on how to deal with this inevitable reality.

I crave physical and mental comfort – no pain, maximum delight, effortless patterns, and easy decision making. In fact, all my colleagues, clients, family, friends and strangers crave comfort, and consumer companies promise us comfort through food, drugs, home furnishings, cars, travel, you name it. Who doesn’t want to be comfortable? But what is the price of the comfort zone? What do you give up in order to [...]

A down to earth conversation between Eric Kaufmann and Shana James, and an easy way to absorb, as Shana says, “brilliant and deeply impactful ideas and tools.”  

The election of Donald Trump is socially and spiritually bruising to enlightenment minded people, who are actually quite varied in their political orientation – from fiscal conservatives and religious idealists to social progressives. And in the presence of a president that is undermining my leadership teachings, writing, and coaching I wonder how will we practice our mindful principles, not fall into fear-based reactivity, and continue to promote the best of [...]

Two big factors kicked in when I was 30 – I reached eleven years of intense meditation practice and I was intensely called to  dive into an overtly spiritual exploration. I started meditating at 19 as a survival strategy because I was kicked out of college and had to get my head screwed on right. So at 30 I left a great management job, shaved  my head,  sold  my  stuff,  [...]

Last year my family and I flew from Denver to Sheridan on a frightfully memorable flight. We just transferred off a large commercial Jet from San Diego and enjoyed an easy flight through the grand sky. But the flight out of Denver was aboard a little twin-prop plane that turned into an 80 minute white-knuckled ride, bumping and jumping through updrafts and cross winds. As the small plane bucked through [...]