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

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

#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.  

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

What’s Your Cathedral Story? | Jonathan Haberkorn

#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.

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

Offering Goodness, Truth + Beauty | Sofiya Deva, This Same Sky

# 27: Offering Goodness, Truth + Beauty | Sofiya Deva, This Same Sky

Sofiya Deva didn’t waver from her commitment to launch a new business, This Same Sky, even in the face of a pandemic.  She was unwilling to turn away from any of her ‘loves’ – of beauty, for supporting multi-generational artisans, ethical and sustainable fashion and her self-described geeky love of strategy and business.  I believe Jim Collins would give her an A+ in building a business with a clear core ideology (Vision, Purpose, Values).  Listen in and you’ll also be gifted with Sofiya’s reading of This Same Sky’s brand poem.

Show Notes

“We have a twofold purpose: On one hand, supporting the artisans and preserving their traditions. On the other hand, we’re trying to inspire a more intentional lifestyle for our consumers…that is more fulfilling and authentic.”

Sofiya Deva, Founder and CEO of This Same Sky

Integrating your passions, strengths, and purpose

Not only did Sofiya Deva launch her brand, This Same Sky, in the middle of the pandemic, but she managed to masterfully integrate her loves and strengths. The company focuses on artisan-centered rotating collections of personal and home accessories, but it’s also a social enterprise that earns these multicultural artists an exceptional livelihood. Her purpose is to preserve traditional arts and crafts and remind us that we can’t forget the irrefutable value art can bring into our lives, – even in an era where minimalism is gaining traction.
One of the other passions the brand draws from? Poetry. The inspiration for the company name comes from a book of poetry of the same name. Everyone under “this same sky” lends to the sense of solidarity, that we’re all in this together. Profiling different artistic lifestyle pieces, it celebrates the distinctiveness of cultural differences while affirming a sense of unity.We discuss how Sofiya is achieving “the good, the true and the beautiful” within her new company, and how her pillars and purpose have fueled the company’s genesis and growth, even during such an uncertain time.

When less is more, choose intentionally

[17:47] “My subtle critique to sustainability in the present moment is we have a lot of emphasis on minimalism, and less clutter, which is great, but…I think if we just negate and eliminate, without tapping into a greater sense of who we are, a greater sense of where we come from, it’s incomplete for me.”

As consumers, we’re always voting with our dollars one way or the other. We understand not amassing possessions just to have them. But let’s also choose wisely, bringing things with beauty and life into our home.

The changing landscape of fashion

[25:51] “[The fashion industry] is in need of reform. But the great thing is that consumers are demanding that reform, so I think the brands that are going to deliver that reform have a competitive advantage in terms of being more desirable by consumers.”
[27:59] “Being born in the middle of a pandemic, it’s forced us to be even scrappier than we would have ordinarily been, and very adaptable and very agile – and to really think through, how can we create?How can we create a diverse and flexible business model?…We leaned into collaboration and how to create win-win scenarios.”

Balance passion and self-care

[34:03] “As an entrepreneur, you have to take burnout very seriously. You have to recognize that you’re not immune to burnout; you don’t have infinite energy and resources. I’ve had some really good coaches who have helped me recognize that, actually, my energy is a really valuable resource in this project, and I need to guard it.”

As Sofiya says, it’s important to engage intentionally and assess priorities so you’re able to follow through.

Connect with Sofiya:
Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sofiya-hyder/

This Same Sky https://thissamesky.com/

Social handle: @thissamesky

Twitter – https://twitter.com/sofiyadeva?lang=en

Other mentions:

This Same Sky by Naomi Shihab Nye – https://www.amazon.com/This-Same-Sky-Collection-Around/dp/0689806302
Guide to Owning Your Value – https://mailchi.mp/d37649fa5f04/own-your-value
Guide to Reading Poetry – https://mailchi.mp/6b573fc30d9e/guide-for-reading-poetry
Vickery Trading – https://vickerytrading.org/
Forbes article on Corporate Gifting: https://www.forbes.com/sites/shamahyder/2020/10/01/how-to-make-corporate-gifting-count-this-holiday-season/?sh=7b7db4453666

Sudara – https://www.sudara.org/
Olivela – https://www.olivela.com/
Wolf and Badger – https://www.wolfandbadger.com/us/

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

Taking a Collective Stand | Achieving a Bold Stakeholder Vision

Taking a Collective Stand | How to Achieve a Bold Community Vision

This episode is being re-published because the content feels incredibly relevant given our political and social environment.  In the mid-1990s Jennifer Touchet and a group of committed citizens took a clear and unified stand against a powerful and complex system and won!  They used positive political strategies based on a win-win-win approach and intentional inclusivity.

Show Notes

In the beginning, the vision was something for the community, and truly nothing more than that. That’s what held us together. We wanted to bring the community together.
–          Jennifer Touchet

The Power of Your ‘Why’

In episode 21, I discussed owning your value and the key elements to unlocking authenticity and personal power. This week we take a deep dive into the first element, “Know what you stand for,” as embodied by my guest, Jennifer Touchet.

Holding true to the vision and the “why” of the community was indispensable during her bid to establish a nature center in the urban neighborhood of Oak Cliff in Dallas, TX.

While some wanted to erect a high-end, gated community on that beloved spot of land, much of the neighborhood knew and loved it for the nature and recreation it provided. What followed was a years-long project requiring passion and persistence. Enjoy learning some key pointers from our conversation.

[3:12] …BeBe spoke so passionately and it was clear that she had a bigger vision for who should benefit from … this jewel that was in our community. So afterward, I connected with her and … asked her if she wanted to work together to try and bring the community voice to what’s really going to happen. And she wanted to…

Be Empowered by Your Beliefs

[9:32] “One of my core beliefs is that local communities that are closest to problems are also closest to solutions…”
“I firmly believe that the community can come up with what’s best for itself. I kind of believe that in general, that the communities that live and work and play where they are, that are closest to things know also how to make it better.”

Know the Stakeholder Environment

“If you want to get anything done, you have to look at all the different factors that will affect your ability as a person or as a group to get that done.”

Know When to Relent and Know When to Relax

Knowing your stand is important. But there often comes a time when compromise needs to occur.  Originally Twelve Hills was 20 acres of land. To achieve their purpose, they had to scale back and negotiate. As Jennifer said, “To win doesn’t mean winner take all.”
[16:08] “We had to go back and change our plan, and negotiate with our city government, the school district developers to come up with a different vision. Twelve Hills today is just over five acres…But there were some people that felt like we gave up too much. But at that point, it felt like it was going to be if we fought for all, we were going to get nothing.”

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Owning Your Value | Key Elements for Authenticity and Personal Power
https://rise-leaders.com/owning-your-value/

A Guide For Owning Your Value:
https://mailchi.mp/d37649fa5f04/own-your-value
A downloadable worksheet for defining and voicing your value

To learn more about Twelve Hills please visit:
https://twelvehills.org/

To connect to Jennifer please visit:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifer-touchet-0437571/

Sign up for Rise Leaders newsletter:

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.

Sign up for Rise Leaders newsletter:

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

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

Social Impact | From Idea to Enterprise with Suzanne Smith

Social Impact | From Idea to Enterprise with Suzanne Smith

Organizations committed to sustainable change bake it into their business model.  There are a host of labels and designations for those that “do good”: conscious capitalism, social impact, social entrepreneurship, BCorp, etc. In this episode, we explore the differences and how they function. Suzanne Smith, founder & CEO of Social Impact Architects and adjunct professor at Pepperdine University and the University of Texas at Arlington unpacks it for us.

Show Notes

“[As a social entrepreneur] You don’t always do things (directly) connected to your bottom line, you don’t always have to get an immediate benefit out of something, because it’s part of who you are and your ethos – baked into your DNA.”

– Suzanne Smith

The nuances of doing good

We hear a lot of labels today around “doing good” in business: conscious capitalism, social impact, social entrepreneurship and more. But what are the differences and how do they function in the business world?

Today Suzanne Smith – an expert in social impact who works with nonprofits, foundations, socially responsible businesses and individuals – unpacks it all. She founded Social Impact Architects back in 2009 with a goal to reshape the business of social change, and she teaches on these topics as an adjunct professor at Pepperdine University and University of Texas at Arlington.

Looking differently at social change

We discuss how social change exists in a middle space between the business world and government where neither has entirely tackled it head-on. Historically, the business sector hasn’t created enough of a market for social change, but in recent years brands look differently at how they engage. Creating change has become much deeper than charity donations and volunteering. With such a surge, it’s important for brands and individuals to rely on research-backed methods and best practices without reinventing the wheel. But it’s also important to not lose sight of what you can uniquely bring to the table.

Social entrepreneurship, charity, conscious capitalism

[8:40] “So the traditional notion of charity is the whole idea of ‘I’ll give a man a fish,’ if we want to use that analogy. Social entrepreneurship changes that narrative and says, ‘You know what, let’s teach a man to fish. Let’s figure out how to do that to scale.’

“We leverage the toolkit that businesses established to create market-based solutions.”

[12:22] “Social innovation is about the idea, social entrepreneurship is about the mindset, and social enterprise is about the business model.”

[21:55] “That’s where I would put the conscious capitalists, those are the people who are hardwired around the idea of, we want to, we want to do a better job of creating social change. But typically, they’re looking at it more from a business practice perspective, it’s part of their ethos.”

The difficulty of effecting social change on a grand scale

[10:58] The danger of starting from scratch: “Leapfrog innovation, which is yes, we want to create change, but we want to give ourselves the best chance at creating impact. So we want to build it on a solid foundation of best practice research, problem, ideation, etc. So that way, we get as much impact as we possibly can from that innovation.”

People are drawn to social change

[30:15] “I consistently look at what I purchase, and I vote with my dollar…if you look at some of the research that’s been done, those companies who perform better time after time, are the ones that are socially conscious. People running those organizations are making more thoughtful decisions, they’re making less decisions that are in the short run, the better decision versus the long run being the better decision.

“Companies have to start thinking about these issues. It’s not just about them creating the product or service anymore… Do their employees have appropriate daycare? Are they moving their employees up in a career pathway?”

Her recommendation to students

[37:40] “Find that thing that they’re uniquely passionate about, marry that with the thing that they are uniquely God-given from a talent point of view,”

Resources mentioned in this episode:

https://socialimpactarchitects.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/social-impact-architects/

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

https://twitter.com/socialtrendspot

https://www.instagram.com/socialtrendspot/

https://www.facebook.com/SocialImpactArchitects

Sign up for Social TrendSpotter blog:

https://socialimpactarchitects.com/newsletter-signup/

Sign up for Rise Leaders newsletter:

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

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

Owning Your Value | Key Elements for Authenticity and Personal Power

Owning Your Value | Key Elements for Authenticity and Personal Power

There are times in our professional lives where we need to advocate for ourselves. – to take a stand. Recognizing our worth and being able to communicate it isn’t rude, nor is it bragging.  But it can be uncomfortable.  Owning our value supports our authenticity, which liberates our spirit and launches excellent performance.  

Show Notes

When we’re able to own our value, we’re more likely to bring positive contributions to work,

to life, to our communities-  to whatever we care about.

The Power of Authenticity

There are times in our professional lives where we need to advocate for ourselves. – to take a stand. Recognizing our worth and being able to communicate it isn’t rude, nor is it bragging.  But it can be uncomfortable.  Owning our value supports our authenticity, which liberates our spirit and launches excellent performance. Communicating our value is necessary to get a seat at the table. We make the value we bring apparent when we confidently acknowledge and demonstrate it each day – and it also helps us bring our unique advantage to the workplace.

Explore the Eight Elements of Knowing Your Value

This week’s episode is an efficient 13 minutes as I outline 8 elements to help you own and speak your value. These are actions you can take to increase your feelings of power and authenticity in all aspects of life. I’ve created an in-depth, integrated guide for your reflection and to help you develop new habits.   Whether you’re mentoring someone or need strategies for realizing your own impact, you will achieve greater awareness of what you offer and how to communicate it.

Highlights from this episode

[2:30] “Know what you stand for…what you care about and what you’re committed to. These values guide your decisions, your actions and your priorities. Have clarity around your vision.”
[3:30] “Knowing what we stand for keeps us in our lane, focused on what we care about rather than pursuing what others are striving for.”
[6:53] “Track your contributions. These are quote receipts of your good work. I do this daily in my journal to remind myself that I spent my time well, and so I can articulate the deliverables that I’m working on with clients.”
[8:51] “To go along with speaking your value is to practice embodying your value. Embodying your value means that you feel it at your core, and others also feel it and see it in your presence.”
A Guide to Owning your Value:
Clifton Strengths Assessment:
Tilt 365:
Episode 19: Trudy Bourgeois about workforce excellence: https://rise-leaders.com/achieving-workforce-excellence-trudy-bourgeois/
To discuss executive coaching, leadership development program design, and workshop facilitation, please visit:

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

 

 

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