I recently had the pleasure of interviewing successful entrepreneur Eric Ryan, co-founder of Method Home. He introduced his new book, to be in amazon stores on September 16th, 2011 and handed me a pre-release version. A very interesting read!

Eric and his co-founder Adam Lowry share their 7 guidelines or – as he says – 7 obsessions that helped them to not only become successful in a highly competitive and well-established industry but even revolutionize it. Some very personal, inspiring insights with very applicable advice for entrepreneurs trying to make it.

Also, this book is an account that creating a value- and mission-based company can also lead to financial success:

“Not only was creating a mission-driven company the right thing to do for society and the planet; we’ve proven that it’s the right thing to do for the bottom line, too… working with purpose and values isn’t just a matter of individual growth; finding meaning in work is central to a strong corporate culture. In fact, the power of sharing our values collectively far exceeds any individual benefit. Even when we don’t follow the same passions, we are united by the fact that we are all committed to a greater cause. Working for the common good helps us put ego aside and work collaboratively as a team, engendering a deep sense of continuity, familiarity, and trust that spills over into every discipline in the company.” (The method method, page 57)

Eric Ryan, Co-founder of Method Home and Frauke Schorr, Ph.D., Director of Centered Leadership Institute, July 2011. 

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Simon Sinek has a fresh and complimentary take on Centered Leadership’s premise of “leading from the inside out” and combining somatic and cognitive minds: Asking the right questions in the right sequence can make the fundamental difference to becoming a leader who inspires others and one who does not. When head and gut are aligned it creates a congruence in a leader’s message that is compelling and that others want to follow.

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Pleasure to interview Branding Expert (or “Naming Expert” – as she calls herself) Alexandra Watkins today who knew that she’ll do something “creative” at such young age that she never even went to college. Instead, she jumped right into pursuing her dreams and establishing herself in her dream business.

As she stated quite simply and matter of factly: “I knew I was really good at doing things differently, more creatively, out-of-the-box. This is what’s really fun for me. It’s all about doing what you really love doing.”

Her office must have been the most colorful, creative, and stylish working place I have ever been in. She commented: “I don’t come here to work. I come here to play. Every day. I am lucky, I guess.” Check it out on the website of her company Eat My Words!

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… what would you most want to know about?

I am preparing the interview questions for my conversation with Dr. Marshall Goldsmith next week and would like to pick *your* brain. Talk to me!

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Are you taking charge of your life/business, or is your life/business taking charge of you?

Of course, you want to take charge of your life and business rather than having it control you. However, with all that you do, are you truly taking the lead in your life and business?

How does your current mindset influence your leadership development? Where does your focus and attention go as you are wanting to take the lead?

Are you really in charge of leading your life and business?

The “Doing Trap”

When we are not happy with status quo, most of us sooner or later take responsibility and decide to do something about it.

And so we go… we are making decisions; producing, and doing whatever it takes to hopefully generate something that will yield new results. Along the way, we might be running out of ideas to improve our situation by ourselves. So we get others involved. We are consulting advisors, are reading expert books, and are finding information that will guide our ways forward. Hopefully, by following the “proven paths” of others we can successfully improve lives and careers.

In other words, when facing the need to change and transform status quo most of us immediately and whole-heartedly put all our energy into “doing something about it”.

Sounds familiar?

Welcome in the “Doing Trap”.

Richard Bandler, co-founder of NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) has described this phenomenon in the following way: “When you always do, what you’ve always done, you will always get what you’ve always got.” Albert Einstein was a bit more provocative. He said: “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over; expecting different results”.

When all our energy is going into the “doing” and the producing, we are overlooking a fundamental first step that is necessary to make the “doing” creative, intentional, and – most importantly – effective.

What Is The Missing Link?

When I interviewed successful entrepreneurs and leaders on their “Success Mindset” I was interested in the common thread among them: The “Difference that made the difference” for successful entrepreneurs and leaders; what helped them to conquer or successfully navigate around the barriers of the “Doing trap”? How did they respond to external challenges and needs, innovate and grow themselves and their businesses so they could continuously reach new levels of success?

Most of the entrepreneurs and leaders I talked to spend much time on explaining how they did not follow “proven success strategies” but rather, relied on their own “inner resources”. Their focus was on what they could uniquely bring to the game based on what they were really good at, what they deeply cared about, and what they stood for. They put much attention on mixing their own “Success Cocktail”, based on ingredients of their inner resources. Then they based their actions on strategically leveraged this Success Cocktail for most intentional actions.

The difference that made the difference…

… the common theme that emerged is quite simple – yet very powerful. And it is consistently overlooked by most of us:

The way successful entrepreneurs and leaders THOUGHT about THEMSELVES in their business fundamentally influenced their leadership actions. It greatly determined how they took charge of their businesses and influenced their teams.

The way we THINK determines the way we DO.

As John Locke said: “I have always thought the actions of men the best interpreters for their thoughts.”  When we are focusing all our energy on doing and the end-result we are forgetting to put energy into the most influential piece that helps us eventually generate our results!

Leadership Starts in the Head

Aristotle said: “We are what we repeatedly do”. Maybe because our identity is so much tied to our actions we tend to put all our attention and energy into the “doing”.

However, we can break though the “Doing Trap” and make our actions much more intentional and effective by taking a step back and creating self-awareness first: What is important to US, what WE care about, what WE are really good at.

Any type of growth, expansion, and change requires “Self-Leadership” first. Taping into internal resources first helps us to be more effective leaders. When we know how to draw from our own resources we have a much better change to not “mindlessly” do the same thing over and over and we also don’t need to reach out for external advice for every new step of the way.

When we draw from our own map we can respond and act on external needs, changes, and challenges

• more quickly
• with more ease, confidence, and authenticity
• more creativity and flexibility

Sustainable success as a leader requires continuous growth and transformation “from the inside out”. “We need to encourage habits of flexibility, of continuous learning – for institutions as well as for individuals.” (Peter Drucker).

Centered Leadership™ begins with Self-Knowing. As Seth Godin says: “It’s time to stop complying with the system and draw your own map. You have brilliance in you, your contribution is essential, and the art you create is precious. Only you can do it, and you must.”

Here’s to you, the Centered Leader™, who is truly taking charge of your destiny by leading authentically and powerfully from “the inside out”.

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A story of reinvention: After 25 years Ray Anderson has redefined what he wants to stand for with his business. He has turned his business into an environmentally friendly, sustainable business. Leading from the inside out… that’s what I call Centered Leadership… Inspiring!

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Talking with a client the other day reminded me again how powerful it can be to simply define in clear terms what we want. It is interesting how easy it is for most of us to describe what we don’t want and in contrast how difficult it is to define what we want instead.

How often – as a leader, an organization, or in our daily lives do we spend our time thinking about not doing something or worrying that something does not happen? For example, we think about the customers who aren’t buying, worry about employees who are not producing good results, or beat ourselves up over having procrastinated on a task. As a result, we are focused on what does not work: The economy is bad, my people aren’t engaged enough, I wasted my time.

By the way – check out this amusing clip about the ineffectiveness of focusing on what we don’t want without having a desired alternative.

How does the saying go?

“Energy goes where attention flows”. In other words: As long as we direct our energy towards what we don’t want change will not occur. How could things change? We haven’t defined a desired direction. So how could it become reality?

I am a great fan and active user of visualization techniques – for myself and with clients. These techniques help shift the attention to first defining a desired state and then prepare very effectively for it to happen.

Visualization techniques have their roots in sports psychology. Researchers have investigated the effectiveness of visualization techniques in the sports arena for a while. Testing professional athletes for their reaction during a visualization exercise it has been found that their bodies showed the same muscle tension, increase in heart rate, and other body reactions as if they were participating in the actual game. The body had the same reaction during the visualization exercise as it had later on the field. The realistic experience of the event before the actual event gives sport professionals the opportunity to rehearse their actions, refine and improve their techniques as they were going through the visualization and thus correct their behavior before being in the actual game. Studies in the field of sport psychology have shown that professional athletes who use visualization techniques in order to prepare themselves for the actual performance are significantly more successful. Often, these successful sport professionals spend more time doing the visualization exercises then in the actual game because they know about the impact this type of preparation has on their performance.

Visualization techniques are increasingly adopted in the business context. The opportunity to correct and refine behavior ahead of time helps leaders and business professionals to prepare themselves more carefully and strategically for such events as an important speech, presentation, or an interview. Preparing through visualization allows them to be more purposeful and intentional when the lights are on and the best performance is required.

Check out a demonstration of using visualization to prepare for the game – in this case a golf game:  The Scene is taken from the movie The Legend of Bagger Vance.

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On his blog Tim Sanders makes a great point about the power of what he calls “powerless listening”. Really, what he suggests is that the most powerful listening we can practice is to listen empathically by stepping into the other person’s shoes. Trying to feel the other persons emotions without rushing to own conclusions and clouding the situation by making quick judgments, giving advice from your own standpoint. That is really the most respectful type of listening. It is probably also the most challenging type of listening for most people because it takes the longest and the most patience.

I wrote an entry about Emotional Intelligence as part of becoming a Centered Leader a while back. This is definitely one of the corner stones for becoming such a leader. Centered Leadership has much to do with respecting the other person’s emotions and respecting the pace at which the other person needs to feel and process the emotions.

Tim Sanders shared a nice personal story to illuminate the power of “powerless listening”:

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When you change your thinking,

You change your beliefs.

When you change your beliefs,

You change your expectations.

When you change your expectations,

You change your attitudes.

When you change your attitudes,

You change your behaviors.

When you change your behaviors,

You change your performance.

When you change your performance,

You change your life.

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… to be grounded, strong, and centered in oneself before taking off; exploring, and connecting with the world. A beautiful metaphor for Centered Leadership… leading from the inside-out.

(Wall painting on the Santa Cruz University Campus)

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