Revisiting Self-Renewal –Smart-Steps and Renewal of Mental Maps

 

“Exploration of the full range of our own potentialities is not something that we can safely leave to the chances of life. It is something to be pursued avidly to the end of our days. We should look forward to an endless and unpredictable dialogue between our own potentialities and the claims of life — not only the claims we encounter, but the claims we invent. And by potentialities I mean not just skills, but the full range of our capacities for sensing, wondering, learning, understanding, loving, and aspiring…Change is the essence of a great civilization and self-renewal and community are the drivers for it.”  John Gardner  

Self-Renewal: Smart-Steps personal change process is about attention and acceptance. Focus, attention, acceptance and deliberate decision making and problem solving are the cornerstones of living a purposeful life. Smart-steps personal change process is not about instant change and magically thinking. It’s about being fully engaged in the “here and now” and being aware of why you are living the way you are, and knowing that life is about choices you have made. SSPC is about designing our lives to align our values, beliefs and daily action on a purposeful life mission.

Cure for America’s Lack of Vision and Direction– New Leaders Needed…

“We must be silent before we can listen. We must listen before we can learn. We must learn before we can prepare. We must prepare before we can serve. We must serve before we can lead.” ~ by William Arthur Ward 

Starting and building a better America is all about leadership – a “flash of brilliance”, honing the idea, building an involved team and followers and developing strategic plans based on vision and experience. What have I missed on –Oh Yeah, creating an environment for growth and clearing a path over and through all negative objectors and real obstacles. Yet the image of leadership in government and business is at an all-time low, according to national leadership experts, considering the political debacles, record business bankruptcies, and executive fraud cases. For example read what James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner in their book on Leadership view credibility as the foundation of future leaders. They say “Leaders we admire do not place themselves at the center; they place others there. They do not seek the attention of people; they give it to others. They do not focus on satisfying their own aims and desires; they look for ways to respond to the needs and interests of their constituents. They are not self-centered; they concentrate on the constituent. . . Leaders serve a purpose and the people who have made it possible for them to lead . . . . In serving a purpose, leaders strengthen credibility by demonstrating that they are not in it for themselves; instead, they have the interests of the institution, department, or team and its constituents at heart. Being a servant may not be what many leaders had in mind when they choose to take responsibility for the vision and direction of their organization or team, but serving others is the most glorious and rewarding of all leadership tasks.” ~ by James Kouzes and Barry Posner in Credibility: How Leaders Gain and Lose It, Why People Demand It.

If the country is to recover financially, politically, and emotionally new transformational leaders will have to emerge. It will take new leaders who understand that leadership is a about flexibility, serving people through participatory processes,  not power and commands. These leaders will identify the problems people want solved not made-up issues such as deficit spending during a time of joblessness and poor consumer confidence. These new leaders will be citzen-centered rather than self-centered, having the mental mindset of collaboration and flexibility, authenticity, innovation and focus on problem solving and results. They will have the required passion, perseverance, assertiveness and ethical character to do what is right to achieve shared goals.  For example, having everyone including the very rick 2% of Americans and big Corporations  pay their fair share to get America back on track. What these new leaders will focus on is developing relationships across party lines so as to find common ground in making America strong again.

Let’s examine the lack of leadership in our government. This Citzen-Ccentered leadership style will be  different from many media reports that  see leadership as position power and character driven. Leaders  before being elected will have to show proven track records for producing results through democratic processes and engagement with people. Here are some of the keys for succeeding as a leader in the 21st Century::

• Communication skills of Active Listening and Empathy are the most important skills for a future leader. We need to pay attention to the words and actions of others while suspending judgment long enough to allow your thinking to catch up with your emotional instincts. Why? Because as leaders, if we speak too soon, we shut off communication and stifle innovation and problem solving.  When shut of communication we create divisiveness and encourage decreased involvement and participation. We create an environment of win-loss thinking and dictatorial mandates that do not gain the support of followers. Thus, creating a more tribal  and patrician approach to governance than pluralist involved electorate.
• Leadership is a learned behavior, not a character trait. Good judgment, for example, is certainly a hallmark of exceptional leadership, but it isn’t something you are born with. “More than anything, good judgment comes from listening and learning how to cooperate and gain public or employee support for their vision and initiatives.

• Communicating and storytelling. This is not a skill everyone is born with, but it’s a skill we can all develop. People on your team want to believe! They want to believe you know where we are going, that you keep your promises or you will get us there even if you are not  sure of the exact path at this moment. They want stories that inspire them and encourage their involvement in creating their own constructive solutions to problems.

• MMFI Rule and Recognition for contribution for team success. This is necessary to sustain motivation during the hard times. It’s not hard to do and doesn’t require a lot of effort or expensive gifts. A thank-you note or peer recognition is enough most of the time.

• Negotiation is a practical skill for every leader. Negotiation is often misunderstood to be the domain of clever deal makers. It’s actually really simple. Make very clear requests for a promise. Understand exactly what the promise is – what is being done, when, and what the standard of excellence is, and then check up on the status to make it happen.

• Leadership for Others rather than focus on personal achievement and ambition. We need leaders who use power as a tool for inspiring others to create a better future for all not the select few , not as a tool for retaining their position or perks.

• Assertiveness–Firm and decisive decisions that take courage and spine to make.  

These are the process and  leadership skills essential for 21 Century Leadership, inspiring excellence, and meeting followers needs. They are easily practiced, and serve as the foundation for successfully attracting funding, talent, making tough decisions and persevering in reach the vision that inspired us all in the beginning.

In this fashion the transformational leadership deficit is really an “opportunity” for selfless people to get involved and put us back on the path of freedom, caring and economic security.  So practice the leadership skills needed, and step in when you are ready. Now is your golden opportunity – let’s see how many of you are up to the challenge. We need you all.

Power of “Peer to Peer” Small Groups: Change Diagnosticians

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful and concerned citizens can change the world; indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”-Margaret Mead

As people watch one problem morph into several more, they start wondering what they can do. Try working in small roup ( 6-8) people team.

Some people feel helpless and just get stuck. Others try to keep the “status quo” in place by sabotaging change efforts. Some look around and try to fix blame.  Others become dependent and just wait for someone like government to tell them what to do or look for someone to safe them.  And a small number try to figure out solutions to improve their situation. Coming up with constructive ideas and programs instead of waiting for “George to do it” takes courage and structure for effective action.  One solution in community organizers toolkit is the forming of community action teams. I call these change structures ” Peer to Peer” change teams. These teams focus on ordinary citizens becoming diagnosticians. These teams focus is on dialogues which energize citzens to develop  a more trustful and productive environment for identifying and solving problems.

These problems may be in joblessness, physical or mental health, education, housing, or the environment issues. These citizen action teams must become organizations who apply knowledge and skill to diagnose both healthy and pathological conditions and relationships between peer to peer advocates and larger society.  This approach provides the opportunity for constructive team problem solving and personal action. These local “grassroots” teams are not a social club, therapy or venting forum; their purpose is to put in place an effective political advocacy organization that can design and implement change initiatives at the community, family and individual level.

The positive trend toward activism by citizen groups must be met with a corresponding  education and skill preparation for developing impactful intiatives for change. A Peer to Peer change team leader  must understand interpersonal relationships and skillfully utilize the dynamics of group processes to facilitate an adequate and effective performance of the members of the team and of yourself.

What mentalset, skillset and toolset do teams need to be effective change organizations.

1. Your team must learn to look directly without defensiveness at the nature of services that agencies are offering citizens and ask how it meets and responds to the needs of the public. Your team must have the skills to gather data and and translate it into relevant knowledge and concepts that will describe the functioning state of agencies in relation to their stated goals and objectives.

2. Your team must learn to understand local agencies as human organizations –do you have the relationships necessary to influence policy; is the team able to identify and remedy friction points between goals and  actions; and locate pressure points where there is the greatest potential for accomplishing new and better delivery of services.

3.  Your team will need an expert diagnostician who can deal effectively with elected officials,agency public administrators and bureaucrats. Who many times are satisfied with the status quo.

I never cease to be impressed with how great an impact a small group, like Habitat for Humanity, Sierra Club, National Alliance for Mental Illness Illness,  and other “Peer to Peer”change teams can have. And yet, I am equally impressed with how little impact most people think they can have. What are you doing to make a difference?