Take a Beat: Time for a Mid-Year Pause

Tsukada Island in Musashi Province, Hokusai 1830
Boats in calm water before heading back out to sea

Welcome to the second half of 2024! I hope the first half has left you feeling satisfied while also bringing you worthwhile challenges that spur growth and increase confidence.

You likely achieve a lot. You care about making a positive impact or you wouldn’t read words written by a person who is fanatical about helping others lead with generosity, agility and impact. The positive wake you leave is important to you. I’m genuinely glad to know you.

Today is a good time to stop, or slow ourselves enough to get on the proverbial balcony so that we can see our life with broader perspective. To disconnect from the swirl of activity we find ourselves in, check for alignment to what is most important and determine what deserves our attention moving forward.

Every year I publish a packet called Beginning Again. The intent is to help folks get and stay focused on what’s most important for the upcoming year. If you missed this year’s version, Ride the Wave of a Fresh Start, you can find it here.

You may already have a reflective practice that you do quarterly or half-yearly. If so, you can add these questions to your reflection. If not, this is a good place to start.

Am I being the person that I want to be?

Am I living and acting from what I declare is most important? Your values, purpose, and vision will provide the wisdom you need for living and leading consciously.

Compared to how I thought the year would unfold, how is it going?

What am I most proud of so far? What hasn’t materialized yet? What happened that wasn’t on my radar? If you launched your year by getting clear about goals, look back on those and assess how you’re doing. You will likely find you need to adjust by changing some of your goals and intentions. Good for you for being mindful.

Am I making the impact I want to make?

As I look towards the second half of the year, where do I need to put my focus? Good on you for recalibrating your energy, attention and time to be on track for the rest of 2024. You may have realized your approach needs to be adjusted. I sure have!

How do I rate my overall level of thriving?

How are my levels of optimism and resilience? Am I pushing through or savoring the journey? Is my physical-self able to support the life I wish to lead? Your overall wellbeing is inextricably linked to your effectiveness as a leader.

Do I have rigor behind my commitments?

When I set an intention or a goal, do I treat it seriously? Do I put systems in place that support me? Do I prioritize my energy, attention and time around what I say is important? Remember to be generous with yourself when you find you either over-committed or if life showed up and plans change.

Based on this reflection, what should I keep doing?

I am quite certain there are MANY things that are working well for you. What are they? How can you ensure these good habits and behaviors stay sticky?

Based on this, what should I stop doing?

Our tendency is to add more to our plate. The truth is that we all have limits to our bandwidth. You may want to stop behaviors such as interrupting others, the default to social media scrolling, unconscious eating. You may have bigger things to stop like: accepting so many invitations that you don’t have time to yourself or work that takes a lot of effort but yields scant results.

Based on this, what should I start doing?

This option is last because most of us don’t need more to do. Use the same rule of thumb that many people have that requires them to purge the old before purchasing something new. What are you willing to stop doing in order to take on something new? Take some time to get clear about your ‘why’ and to understand what resources (mental, physical, emotional, etc.) doing something new will take.

Congratulations for taking the time to reset. I hope you have also found time to refresh and re-fuel for the journey ahead!

-LeeAnn

Reach out to me if you’d like to know more about Thriving as a leader. I can guide you through the Be Well Lead Well Pulse assessment for wellbeing.Click on the image to download the full Beginning Again 2024: Ride the Wave of a Fresh Start.

Speak Up, Stand Up | Dr. Chris Johnson on Becoming Fierce

by LeeAnn Mallory | Awareness, Embodied Leadership, Leadership, Purpose/Mission, RiseRadio, Somatic, Women Leaders

#32: Speak Up, Stand Up | Dr. Chris Johnson on Becoming Fierce

Dr. Chris Johnson has joined me again in this episode to discuss a foundational leadership capability: the ability to speak up about the value we personally bring to our work. Our conviction is contagious and compelling, inspiring others to trust and believe in us as well.

Links

Dr. Chris Johnson

Q4 Consulting

Dr. Chris Johnson on Resilience

Show Notes

“You need to be able to take a stand. Extend your voice. Be pointedly focused on what you offer and the vision that you have, in order to impact the people that you say you want to impact.”

– Dr. Chris Johnson

Confidence and the mind-body connection

Dr. Chris Johnson has joined me again in this episode to discuss a foundational leadership capability: the ability to speak up about the value we personally bring to our work. Our conviction is contagious and compelling, inspiring others to trust and believe in us as well.

Earlier, in episode #21, I reviewed the importance of recognizing and owning the value we bring to our work. This value will remain hidden if we’re not able to confidently give voice to it. And the way we carry ourselves is inextricably linked to it all. Chris draws from her years of embodied leadership and martial arts practice to create a commanding presence while also staying calm and centered. She shares her insights on how to expand your presence and self-awareness to ultimately project your inner strength and achieve your goals.

The tangible impact: missed opportunities

[1:30] “The challenge about speaking up shows up in multiple ways…The most common are not sharing good ideas or opinions during meetings, not being able to promote themselves and their team. In avoiding conflict, staying silent or small leads to being undervalued and overlooked, and ultimately, to a lack of fulfillment, and possibly frustration.”

[32:44] “I’d get pulled in to take on leadership roles, and yet never fully owned them. And that was because I didn’t know if I knew enough, I didn’t want to hurt anybody’s feelings. I didn’t want anybody else to feel bad if I happen to do something really well. And all of that was a story that I told myself, and then it took residence in my body. I was very narrow, and small, my energy was very constrained.”

Centering in our body, our vision, and in action

[23:00] ] “We can either close in and hunker down…Or we can choose to learn a very simple skill and practice of centering. And by that, we mean centering in the body, relaxed…and then centering in something bigger than us, even if we don’t know what that is. And lastly, centering in an action that we can then take. And once we can learn that simple practice (because you have to practice it). Pretty soon that practice starts to reshape us…

“What matters is that we’re intentional. It’s based on what we care about, and that we’re consistently in deliberate practice.”

[29:00] “I like to say it’s tolerating the discomfort at the edges because it’s at the edges that literally, our neurobiology gets rewired. Hang out there in the discomfort for at least a little bit longer. Every time we do it, we’re growing new pathways that allow us to expand our capacity.”

Speaking about our accomplishments or sharing our thoughts in a meeting may bring physical sensations. We have to practice tolerating this discomfort though it feels unnatural. With time we grow accustomed to it.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

The Power of Pause in the Mindful Leader magazine:

https://www.mindfulleader.org/blog/44061-the-power-of-a-pause

Episode 21: Owning Your Value | Key Elements for Authenticity and Personal Power:

https://rise-leaders.com/owning-your-value/

A Guide to Owning Your Value

Download Guide

To connect to Dr. Chris Johnson please follow:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/drchrisljohnson/

https://q4-consulting.com/

Dr. Chris on Resilience: https://q4-consulting.com/resilience/

To subscribe to the Rise Leaders newsletter for more resources: https://mailchi.mp/426e78bc9538/subscribe

To discuss executive coaching, leadership development program design, and workshop facilitation, please visit:

https://rise-leaders.com/contact-info/

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What’s Your Cathedral Story? | Jonathan Haberkorn

by LeeAnn Mallory | Conscious Capitalism, Leadership, Purpose/Mission, RiseRadio, RiseWords, Servant Leadership, Vision, Values, Purpose

#31: What’s Your Cathedral Story? | Jonathan Haberkorn

Are you completing a task or working towards a bigger vision? If you have a Cathedral Story your work, your goals – your life will have more meaning.

As the cofounder of Intrizen, Jonathan Haberkorn specializes in making sense of complex processes and organizing them in a way that emphasizes human interaction first. By prioritizing the people who will be using the system and through promoting connections, Jonathan’s purpose fuels his craft.

Links

Jonathan Haberkorn

Intrizen

Cathedral Story

Show Notes

“If we’re going to spend the majority of our time doing work, there’s got to be a good reason and meaning behind it. That’s where the shift is. When you do land on where you feel like you’re in line with your purpose, it is easier to see the impacts, and you become a servant of that.”

– Jonathan Haberkorn

A serendipitous dinner conversation with Jonathan took place a few years ago and stuck with me. I was moved by a story he told about the time when the magnitude of his work was unexpectedly revealed. I call it a Cathedral Story.

Start with Purpose

Charging you work with purpose endows you with a greater sense of congruence between your professional and personal lives. Work then goes beyond the transactional aspects; supporting a life of intention and of fulfilling the promise of your potential.

As the cofounder of Intrizen, Jonathan Haberkorn specializes in making sense of complex HR processes and organizing them in a way that emphasizes human interaction first. By prioritizing the people using the system and the process of promoting connections, he relies on purpose to fuel his craft.

The Cornerstone of The Cathedral Story is our Orientation

[12:30] “The bricklayer said, ‘I’m a bricklayer, I’m working hard to make money so I can feed my family.’ The second bricklayer said, ‘I’m a builder, I’m building a wall.’ And then the third guy says, ‘I’m a cathedral builder, I’m building a cathedral where people will worship.’ …Basically, they’re doing the same job, but the context and the orientation that they’re doing it with changes everything.
“When we see how the work that we’re doing is going to be used, what’s the long term and even the multiplier impact it can have, it really changes. It changes the quality of our work.”

We can approach our work as a series of tasks or as a meaningful part of a greater vision with many ripples.

Purpose keeps us centered and whole

[26:00] “So knowing that things don’t always go to plan more times than not, and there’s deviations that happen, what’s our response to that? How are we going to react to it? We have the different ways we can react to it, we can be conscious about the way we’re thinking and kind of deal with it and handle it and give perspective around it.”

[31:40] “I used to think, okay, this is work, and then there’s home life…there’s definitely different aspects of life. But once I’ve really found my purpose, and have completely aligned to that, it all seems like one life to me. It’s all intertwining with each other.”
Purpose gives a perspective that transcends the silos of life.

Links to Intrizen and Jonathan Haberkorn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanhaberkorn/
www.intrizen.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/weareintrizen
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WeAreIntrizen/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/weareintrizen/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/WeAreIntrizen

To subscribe to the Rise Leaders newsletter for more resources: https://mailchi.mp/426e78bc9538/subscribe

To discuss executive coaching, leadership development program design, and workshop facilitation, please visit:
https://rise-leaders.com/contact-info/

I specialize in helping leaders and organizations thrive. Reach out if there’s a way I can support you.

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Local Economy Multipliers | Michael H. Shuman

by LeeAnn Mallory | Conscious Capitalism, Leadership, RiseRadio

#30: Local Economy Multipliers | Michael H. Shuman

Shop local is a mantra we’re hearing – and hopefully practicing – more often these days. Did you know we can also invest local? Michael H. Shuman is an expert in local economies. He’s a lawyer, economist, entrepreneur, author and activist when it comes to local. We cover the positive social and economic impact of local investment and talk about challenges and new solutions local business owners face. Hint: those that innovate – teaming up with like-minded small businesses in their vicinity, crowdsourcing, engaging their customers – are more likely to thrive.

Links

Michael H. Shuman

Put Your Money Where Your Life Is: How to Invest Locally Using Self-Directed IRAs and Solo 401(K)s

The Local Economy Solution: How Innovative, Self-Financing “pollinator” Enterprises Can Grow Jobs and Prosperity

By purchasing through Bookshop you’ll support local, independent bookstores. Rise Leaders is an affiliate and may benefit from your purchase

Show Notes

“Local businesses spend more of their money locally, and with those local relationships, what happens is that money stays in the economy. And you get the multiplier effect, which generates more income, wealth and jobs.”

– Michael H. Shuman

Home-growing a local economy

Around the holidays we often hear the rallying cry to “shop local.” We also hear that it boosts the local economy. Michael H. Shuman is here this week to share the true magnitude of just how important this is for local communities. He also clarifies what constitutes a local business and how they interact with and enhance their environments.

Local businesses have new sets of challenges that also require new solutions. Those that innovate – teaming up with like-minded small businesses in their vicinity, crowdsourcing, engaging their customers – are more likely to thrive.

Finally, the ability to invest in local businesses through self-directed IRAs and solo 401(K)s is becoming easier and provides a bridge between investors and local business owners.

All indicators rise with more local businesses

[10:06] “Regression analysis of communities across the United States [shows] that in those communities with the highest density of locally owned business, there’s the highest per capita job growth rate. And another study from the Federal Reserve in 2013 shows that when you look at counties across the United States and those counties with the highest density of locally owned business, there’s the highest per capita income growth rate.”

[11:03] “They are part of [communities] through volunteering, working through schools, supporting schools, etc. And it shows that in communities with a high density of locally owned business, there are higher rates of volunteership, higher rates of voting, higher rates of engagement in charities, higher rates of social stability.”

Collaboration is key

[12:46] “My biggest piece of advice to a local business proprietor is, stop acting alone, you don’t have the bandwidth to do everything you need to do to succeed. What you do need to do is bring in partners…partners in your ownership. I would bring in some of your customers as co-owners of your business, and also as helpers in the decision-making of your business.”

[28:16] “It’s pretty hard for one local business, especially a small one to take this initiative on his or her own. But if you have a collection of 20, or 50, or 100, businesses working together, these are problems that can be solved. The COVID-19 pandemic has been an invitation to local businesses who’ve been struggling to think about how to pursue their business model a little bit differently, a little bit more collaboratively.”

Partnering with other businesses can take many forms, such as collectively buying foodstuffs and equipment if you’re in the service industry, to bring down unit costs and become more competitive – establishing themselves as a mainstay in the business arena.

Female and minority-owned businesses are setting new standards

[16:18] “What we’ve seen with investment crowdfunding is that a half-million Americans put about $370 million into 1500 businesses. The most disproportionately successful businesses have been those run by women and people of color, those are the ones who have welcomed in grassroots ownership, grassroots partners. And also it represents the people who were locked out of the conventional capital markets. All of these outgroups are innovating in a different and exciting way.”

Michael H. Shuman’s website and more resources:

https://michaelhshuman.com/

https://twitter.com/smallmart

https://www.facebook.com/MichaelHShuman

By purchasing through Bookshop you’ll support local, independent bookstores. Rise Leaders is an affiliate and may benefit from your purchase.

Put Your Money Where Your Life Is: How to Invest Locally Using Self-Directed IRAs and Solo 401(K)s:

https://bookshop.org/a/16835/9781523088904

The Local Economy Solution: How Innovative, Self-Financing “pollinator” Enterprises Can Grow Jobs and Prosperity

https://bookshop.org/a/16835/9781603585750

Local Investing Groups & LIONs:

https://www.locavesting.com/how-to-invest-local/local-investing-groups-lions/

Turn Compost:

https://www.turncompost.com/

Interview with Turn’s founder Lauren Clarke:

https://rise-leaders.com/lauren_clarke_turn/

Sign up for Rise Leaders newsletter for episode announcements and an always-updated list of resources:

https://mailchi.mp/426e78bc9538/subscribe

To subscribe to the Rise Leaders newsletter for more resources: https://mailchi.mp/426e78bc9538/subscribe

To discuss executive coaching, leadership development program design, and workshop facilitation, please visit: https://rise-leaders.com/contact-info/

I specialize in helping leaders and organizations thrive. Reach out if there’s a way I can support you.

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Own Your Attention | Seth Braun

by LeeAnn Mallory | Awareness, Leadership, RiseRadio

#29: How to Own Your Attention | Seth Braun

Our attention is in demand. It’s up to us to know how to keep it focused on what matters most so that we spend more time enjoying what’s in front of us: other humans, nature, pets, art, etc. Managing our attention also provides a pathway for bringing our unique gifts to the world. Join me and Seth Braun as we explore the grander implications of Attention Management and a few strategies for living and working with intention.

Links

Seth Braun

Stagen Leadership Academy

Stagen’s Attention Management Core Practice Sheet

Show Notes

“This isn’t just about squeezing more productivity out of the machine…we get discouraged, disheartened, and we give up on the things that are important to us. So one of the most important things that I see in this is to come back to what’s important to me.”

– Seth Braun
Stagen Leadership Academy

Mindful Life, Better Living

Today we have more distractions than perhaps at any time in history, with our attention bought and sold as a commodity; our electronic devices tempting us with the promise of instant gratification. With so much vying for our attention, the question becomes: How can we navigate life in a way that’s meaningful, purposeful, and creative?

Attention management is a set of practices and habits that helps us increase the time we’re present, minimize distractions, and find flow. There are 4 zones to engage in: proactive, reactive, distraction, and waste. This week Seth Braun discusses Stagen’s Attention Zones model and how being mindful of these states can help us plan for and allocate time effectively. Ultimately it can help us bring our unique gifts to the world by engaging in life in a satisfying and productive way.

Beware the Distraction and Waste Zones

[9:59] “I’m not going to tell you that Netflix is a distraction. Consider: what in your life is a distraction – and what’s rejuvenating? There are certain things that I do in my family, like watching Netflix, where we laugh, and we have endorphins, and it’s rejuvenating, and it’s family time. It’s great. But then, where I start binge-watching and it’s 11. Then it’s 12…now I’m in a waste zone.”
A “lazy” activity isn’t always considered wasteful by default. Sometimes it’s what we need. However, there’s a point of diminishing returns, and we must consider the balance.

[19:20] “Most of us don’t come into the world highly disciplined, able to sit down and do the work. We need structures and practices to help us do that, including your 10-minute waste time.”
Even “wasteful” time has its place in preparing you to be proactive.

Be Guided by Your Ideals

Generally, anything in the proactive zone (with focused work) doesn’t come naturally and requires an act of volition.
[19:50] “Any act of creation or volition, whether it involves anything involving exercise or starting a business. Anything that’s…creative is going to have resistance.”
[33:30] “The most important thing we can do to live a fulfilling, satisfying life is (to) have an ideal. Keep track of it each week, when we’re planning our week, say, here’s what’s important to me, and I’m willing to go forward again.”

To learn more about Seth Braun and the Stagen Leadership Institute please visit:
https://stagen.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sethdbraun/

Stagen’s Attention Management Core Practice Sheet
https://rise-leaders.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Stagen-Attention-Management-Core-Practice-Sheet.pdf

Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography:
https://www.amazon.com/Autobiography-Benjamin-Franklin/dp/B08C9616WW/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?dchild=1&keywords=benjamin+franklin&qid=1605824734&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUExQklORjUySDVOTUo3JmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwNTAxNzU5MkQ3VjBUNzNWOEo2SiZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwMDA1MjIxM0tYNDRIVzJPV0lEWSZ3aWRnZXROYW1lPXNwX2F0ZiZhY3Rpb249Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU=

“In Over Our Heads” – Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey
https://www.amazon.com/Over-Our-Heads-Mental-Demands/dp/0674445880/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=In+Over+Our+Heads&qid=1605824766&sr=8-2

To subscribe to the Rise Leaders newsletter for more resources: https://mailchi.mp/426e78bc9538/subscribe

To discuss executive coaching, leadership development program design, and workshop facilitation, please visit: https://rise-leaders.com/contact-info/

I specialize in helping leaders and organizations thrive. Reach out if there’s a way I can support you.