Rooted & Unwavering

Love. Serve. Remember.“No matter how closed off or distracted the workshop participants appear on Sunday eve, at the beginning of our journey together, I greet and see them as grateful and open as I know they will be on Friday.” Amy Elizabeth Fox, co-founder and CEO of Mobius Executive Leadership, has led thousands of executives through immersive transformational programs over the past twenty years. Where did she get the inspiration to get started? “In my early twenties I received this mantra: Love. Serve. Remember. Open your heart more and more every day of this life. Serve others to open theirs. And remember the Divine Blessing Field that is always there to support us.” This is an endless journey of healing and awakening and taking aligned action. This journey includes embracing and holding the traumatized parts of us, that otherwise keep us stuck in regressive thinking and reactivity.Our work is to enlarge our inner container and groundedness to free ourselves from our intergenerational trauma. We curate our healing container in verypersonal ways. For Amy this includes daily repetition of mantras, cooking, spending time in the alchemy of conversation with friends and colleagues, working with teachers and guides, dance, poetry and being in nature. “We are walking too alone.” Who can you ask to sit and be with you today as you go through this healing moment?

Journey of Infinitesimal CourageMajor life transitions can be among our most challenging moments, whether it is for the veteran who transitions to civilian life, or for someone who goes through divorce, being let go at a job, illness, death of a loved one, or becoming an empty nester. Everything changes, it can be disorienting like stepping off a cliff into an unknown world. “The patterns revealed in the lives of ancient warriors and today's veterans are the same…they reveal that a heroes journey is available to all of us, one that gives meaning, inspiration, hope and finding joy again” says Alex Gendzier, co-author, with Lieutenant (SEAL) Rob Sarver, of “Warrior to Civilian: The Field Manual for the Heroes Journey.The question is how do we move through these challenging moments, learn the lessons of these warriors, and receive the gifts that are hidden underneath? "It’s the decision to take the next step – never to quit -- and it’s the taking of these many small steps that represent infinitesimal courage. And, "in the sleepless 3am times, we are confronted by pain, or grief or difficulties that seem like insurmountable obstacles. At these moments, a dragon will dress up as a challenge that has us believe it is unique and unsolvable. When we are in that place, sometimes the only thing left to do is to ask for help from above -- an offering of ourselves to a higher power, with a prayer that says: “I don’t know how but I leave this to you now.” Maybe we even feel the glow of the radiance of eternity.

The Windshield is Bigger than the Rearview MirrorWhat is the next reasonable action to take? Patty Obermaier, Board Member, and Advisor, former Chief Growth Officer at Microsoft Life Sciences, prioritizes resilience and agility in her leadership. She learned from her science background to stay agile by staying focused on learning and asking questions: “What assumptions are you making?” By staying open, you can discover what is true and find out what is needed next. Patty’s motto is: Love fiercely, lead boldly and make a positive impact. Be bold in challenging assumptions and having the difficult conversations. Love fiercely by taking really good care of the people around you and yourself. And make a positive impact by staying focused on the new possibilities ahead of you. “The view through the windshield is so much bigger than from the rearview mirror.” Yes, look at the past to learn from it. But don’t stay there. Apply it and stay curious and positive about the possibilities ahead of you. “Your role as a leader is to give people confidence that they can do it.” Feelig challenged? “Take good care of yourself. Do something fun, like pickleball…and remember ‘this too shall pass.’”

Depolarize with AI“As leaders we need to change our human operating system,” shared Domien Van Gool, Founder of the Leader Academy (www.leaderacademy.tv). Core to leadership is connection. To build a culture of connectedness, we need to access our 3 AIs and 1 AU: Authentic Interaction, Appreciative Understanding, Accumulative Integration and Aligned Implementation. Domien honors a two-fold commitment; one to “the best we know now” while at the very same moment remaining open for “everything that improves the best we now know”. We don’t wait till we know it all, we give the best we have today. At the same time, we stay 100% open and humble to keep learning. This commitment provides a rich foundation for leadership, culture and relationships.

Thrive? Clarify What You Suck At To thrive you need to be clear about who you are. “What do you suck at?” Skip Richards, pilot, photographer, barista, grandfather, father, singer, visionary and now retired technology executive, used to ask his team members. “You need to know what you are not good at so you can focus on your strengths.” Skip learned from his dad, Ed Richards, about the power of appreciating unique talents. His dad intentionally observed his children and what their interests and talents were and supported them actively. He built a dark room for Skip given his budding interests in technology. Years later, as an IBM leader, Skip received a low performance rating. His response? He flew to meet his boss to assert that he was not a low performer and that he needed to find a way to contribute to his team leveraging what he was good at. He became the top performer of the team for five consecutive years after that. Service and getting engaged with your community is another part of thriving. “We live in a time of social isolation. Get involved, find ways to be of service.”

Leading is Trusting Others Trust others, says Simon King, Chief People Officer at Daiichi Sankyo, and 30-year biopharma leadership veteran. Trusting others do their best will help them to grow and give their best. This requires letting go of control. Trusting others starts with trusting yourself first. No, not that you are perfect. You trust that you will do your best. How do you do your best? Remind yourself of your intentions. What is it that you stand for no matter what? How can you bring that into the next situation? Also take it one day at a time. What is one thing you can do today? When setbacks happen, take accountability, and make sure you keep having your team’s back. This doesn’t mean you don’t give tough feedback if needed. You need to. And at the same time, you keep building trust by taking responsibility as a leader for what happened, and not falling into the traps of shaming and blaming. No one does their best work when they are criticized and made wrong in a large group. Extending trust gives people the courage to give their best and take responsible risks, without being afraid to make mistakes. No one is perfect yet you extend trust to everyone you work with.

‘The only line we really need to think about is the Thin Blue Line (the earth’s atmosphere),’ says veteran former-NASA Astronaut and aquanaut Nicole Stott. ‘We are here to be good crew mates, not just passengers, on spaceship Earth.’ Awestruck she felt when she first saw earth from space. And heartened she became experiencing her fellow astronauts from around the world prioritizing purpose and team, over self and differences, no matter what. ‘Great crewmates have great situational awareness and make choices from that integrated perspective.’ ‘Connectedness is a survival skill on a spaceship, also on spaceship earth,’ says Nicole. During the astronaut selection and training process she learned that we succeed by lifting others up and by being willing to accept help from others. Says Nicole: ‘When I put my feet on the ground in the morning, I remember how I am part of a much bigger whole. This inspires me to want to give my best, for the betterment of humanity.’ Challenged? ‘Take a moment, meditate and let a transcendent perspective inform you.’