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From Indra Nooyi, Chairman and CEO of Pepsico, and an extraordinary leader (quoted in Fortune, May 21, 2008):
"My father was an absolutely wonderful human being. From him I learned to always assume positive intent. Whatever anybody says or does, assume positive intent. You will be amazed at how your whole approach to a person or problem becomes very different. When you assume negative intent, you’re angry. If you take away that anger and assume positive intent, you will be amazed. Your emotional quotient goes up because you are no longer almost random in your response. You don’t get defensive. You don’t scream. You are trying to understand and listen because at your basic core you are saying, “Maybe they are saying something to me that I’m not hearing.”" |
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Check out “ The Alchemy of Leadership,” a wonderful essay by James Huling, and a great challenge to those who believe leaders are born into it. |
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According to Ram Charan, the corporate leadership guru commenting in the February 18 issue of Fortune, do the following in an economic downturn:
1. Keep building. Though your tendency might be to take cover, keep spending on product development, innovation, brand building, and people. Regarding the latter, look to pick up good people let go by other companies.
2. Communicate intensively. When the economy slows, decision-making must accelerate. Make sure data - on customers, opportunities, suppliers, employees - flows fast and free. Be completely candid with employees.
3. Evaluate your customers. Because cash is the focus in bad times (versus the P&L in good times), keep a close watch on customers to make sure you aren't shipping to a customer who will never pay.
4. Don't cut expenses across the board. If you have to cut, that's fine. But don't fall victim to across the board cuts. Be strategic. |
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I love Thanksgiving. What a wonderful holiday! Its sole purpose is to remind us of the powerful energy of gratitude. And gratitude itself is a powerful expression of intention. When you send the energy of appreciation out into the world, I believe your likelihood of your intentions becoming reality is dramatically increased. I believe that when the collective energies outside of us - other people, other forms of life, our physical environment, higher powers - feel the energy of our appreciation, they react just like we do when someone expresses appreciation to us: they want even more to please us.
How does this apply to leadership? Simply put, leadership is ultimately about producing results, the practice of intention greatly increases the likelihood of your producing desired results, and the expression of gratitude is a powerful way to practice intention.
Happy Thanksgiving! |
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Rhonda Byrne's hot-selling book, The Secret, focuses on the law of attraction, which says that like attracts like. Applied to thought, it says thought, which is an energy body, creates condition. As a leader, think about what you'd like for your organization, and then go live it as if it already exists. No "I want" or "I wish" or "I hope". Each of those separate you from what it is that you want. They place you at Point A desiring to reach Point B. Instead, start living at Point B.
This may sound esoteric and even crazy. But it's not. Let's say I want a $10 million company, but I am only a $100,000 company now with no employees. Beginning in this moment, I start acting as if I am a $10 million company. I raise money to get me started on that path. With that money, I employ the people and other resources needed, and execute the strategies required, to generate that kind of revenue. I begin living it in this moment. I banish doubt and fear from my mind because they perpetuate the present.
It is another dimension of the practice of intention, which will be covered in Chapter 4 of The Source of Leadership. |
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| Dr. Masaru Emoto is a highly creative and visionary Japanese researcher, and publisher of The True Power of Water. That book documents, in powerful fashion, proof that our thoughts affect everything in and around us. Specifically, it describes a series of studies where pictures of tap water were taken before and after people held positive or negative intentions. Water that received thoughts of love or gratitude morphed into beautiful crystalline structures. Water that received negative thoughts morphed into very ugly structures and appearances. From Dr. Emoto's work we are provided with factual evidence that human vibrational energy, thoughts, words, ideas and music affect the molecular structure of water, the very same water that comprises over 70% of a human body and covers the same amount of our planet. Water is the very source of all life on this planet, the quality and integrity are vitally important to all forms of life. The body is very much like a sponge and is composed of trillions of chambers called cells that hold liquid. The quality of our life is directly connected to the quality of our water. |
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| Stephen Gale has begun peeling the layers of the intention onion. He is spot on - intention alone is usually benign. In 1937, Napoleon Hill published Think and Grow Rich. Hill was commissioned by Andrew Carnegie to interview the world's most successful people in an attempt to learn the common ingredients of success. The most common ingredient, overwhelmingly so, was intention. But not just passive desire. Rather, ACTIVE intention... a practice of intention. Everyone has intentions. But only a small minority truly believe they have the power to change the conditions in their life and the course of events. For instance, almost everyone I have met has a desire to to something different in his or her life. A corporate executive wants to start a non-profit. A plumber wants to be a corporate executive. A short order cook wants to become a renowned chef. Etc. Etc. But they just sit there passively with this intention, wondering if it might become a reality someday. The small minority recognize that desire alone is not enough. It has to be ignited by an active practice. They wake up every morning and describe in writing and aloud, with great specificity, their intentions. They review their writings throughout the day and before they go to sleep at night. They meditate on it. They pray for it. These affirmations begin to cause an energetic shift in themselves and in their environments. They start to notice doors opening and they start exploring what lies beyond. Conditions start aligning with their intentions and their intentions start shaping reality. Their desires are fulfilled while the great minority quietly wish away in their minds. |
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| There are a number of studies, many out of Princeton, that scientifically prove our ability to use our intention to influence conditions and the course of events. Interestingly, there are studies that prove that multiple people with the same intention have an even greater ability to influence conditions and the course of events. Even more interesting are the studies that show that the presence of love between the people increase that ability even more. I have always been blown away by one comprehensive study that shows that our present intention can affect the results of a past event provided that we don't know the results of the past event. This isn't bullshit. This is science. And yet, we feel so damned powerless most of the time. We have an extraordinary amount of power within our intention. First, we have to believe it. Then, we have to practice it. |
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Inquire about booking David M. Traversi to speak or lead workshops
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A New Leadership Paradigm!
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