One of the key learnings of being a spiritually intentional leader is that your organization or team is in some way reflecting your own spiritual state.

(For this example, please picture the Looney Tunes Tasmanian Devil cartoon character spinning and biting whatever it happens to bounce into. Is that you at your job some days?)

Too much anxiety about the next thing we have to do can propel us toward it in the wrong way. As we exit in a hurry, we leave behind misalignment and lack of clarity and spin into the next thing, only to repeat the pattern. After a few cycles we wonder why nobody "gets it" and we ask why nobody can make decisions for themselves. In fact the organization is simply reflecting back our own state of fear.

Clearly this is not the ANE leader's way. Every leadership moment has a start and an end to which we bring the calm, confident, connected state of our essential core. When we work to maintain these qualities in ourselves, we see them reflected back as clarity, alignment, and gratitude - the foundations of lasting performance.

This week, take the Tasmanian Devil test. Pause before moving to the next leadership moment and ask: Are we clear what we now have to do, and by when? Do we all feel that this will take us where we need to get to? If the answer is yes, show your gratitude. If the answer is no, you may need to stop spinning and biting.

That's all folks!

Stephen
Frantic, Sheepish, Unplugged.....NOT

February 28, 2011