Leading with the heart

We have often made a dichotomy between leading with the heart and leading with the head. Whatever your understanding of anatomy we do use those terms to make a difference between a purely rational logical model of leadership and one that includes compassion , ethics , fairness and being what Tim Sanders, former leadership coach of Yahoo called being a love cat! I heard Tim at a conference awhile ago and he told us that being a Love cat meant...

1. Sharing your Knowledge


2. Sharing your Network


3. Sharing your Compassion

There are two forces that count for much in the human journey. The first is truth. Why truth? None of us likes being deceived and we have an inherent sense of anger against deception. Yet in many ways we too seek to hide and not reveal our true selves whether we do that by our clothes, facelifts, makeup, plastic surgery or avoidance. Enron was all about deceit and we have learned that truth counts for something and that our world runs better when we uphold truth. All of us have lied or deceived ourselves and others in some way or the other. I have! There , I fessed up fast as Tom Peters would say! Yet, even from a pragmatic point of view truth makes sense as you have less to remember!

The other force that counts and has an impact is love. We have relegated the word love to amorous romantic love along with an activity of procreation and pleasure a.k.a sex. If you clicked on this link and were disappointed sorry!!! Get back here anyway! Yet, there is more to love than that and various kinds of love in the human journey. What would happen if we truly loved our customers, employees and employers. That would be a revolution!

We would truly genuinely care for them as human beings and do everything we can to help them. What would happen if you showed up at your office and everyone loved you and tried to help you? What if you met everyone one today and appropriately loved them? What if your mission statement reflected your love for people. What would love do for you?

Anyway go ahead and make someone's day. Love them and if that fails write to me sometime!

Jonathan

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The Folly of Acting without Planning! Just DO IT!

I often meet people who want to succeed but don't want to do the hard work of planning. They say "I want to get out there and just do it." My amazing lawyer friend Dana Yafee from Seattle who is also a life coach says "that's putting the cart before the horse, Jonathan"! (No more Lawyer jokes for me: I love lawyers!)

People who "just do it" sometimes wind up not doing it for very long. I know Nike says that to all of us but how long did the folks Nike work on their strategic marketing plan??????? Did they just get up one day and say lets "Just do it"? Weiden and Kennedy were smarter than that!

We are all very different in how we approach planning and there more ways to skin a cat (just a figure of speech, dear animal rights activists). For example you could idea map your plan using the system of Jamie Nast. I have written about Jamie elsewhere on this blog. The truth is many small business entrepreneurs that I know and work with as a coach, hate planning. My job as a coach and mentor is to get them to do it and stay the course. Sure, many of them are action oriented and very intelligent people. When they stop to think and plan, their thinking cap starts working and they are able to navigate better through the entrepreneurial jungle. I am so grateful for my advisor at entrepreneurial school, Darren Frew who kept me on track with my business plan and still does!

Recently one of my friends and champions Dave Phillips wrote a book called Three big questions. Dave is just a legend and coaches executives all over the world. For more than 20 years, he has encouraged and inspired business leaders and professional athletes as a motivation speaker and life/business mentor/coach. Dave is a world- class athlete who has been both a member and coach of Canada's national freestyle ski team, and currently holds two World Records for Duration Skiing. Not to be outdone, his wife Kathy Kreiner-Phillips got a little Olympic Gold Medal from the Innsbruck Games too! Dave also leads the team of coaches and mentors I work with here in Vancouver. Dave is a humble man and totally uncomfortable with my praise of him but he deserves it. Dave's point is the 3 big questions!

1. What is my purpose for living?
2. What will be my mission in this life?
3. What will be the vision for my life?

This book was designed to lead you through a unique, integrated process that will help you to answer these critical life questions.

Check out his book . If you really can't afford it drop me a line at and I will see what I can do for you! I am here to help you and some of you may not be able to afford the book! It is a great investment in yourself.

It seems so passé to ask someone if they have a mission statement today, but all of us need some kind of compass to guide us. We intuitively know it, deep inside but writing it down helps. Francis Bacon said "Reading makes a full man; speaking a ready man; and writing an exact man." (He wrote this before there were rules on inclusive writing).

I make it a point to daily look at my mission and track how my rabbit trails are taking me from it or to it!

Here is a deal! Stop reading this blog right now and think about your written plan for your life and your business. If you need some direction or help on this write me and I can send you some materials or point you in some directions for resources. Two books to read after you have read Dave's book are What matters most and of course The 7 Habits! (as I have said elsewhere on this blog the teen version is good for the rest of us too!) Your life is a magnificent opportunity. Don't waste it! Put your thinking cap on and JUST DO IT!