Leadership Training Class Development

Before anything else, preparation is the key to success. ~Alexander Graham Bell

I have finally completed development on my second leadership training class. All told, I put something in the range of forty to sixty hours into the presentation, forty to sixty hours of preparation for a three hour training. Luckily for me, it's a labor of love, a task which in which I enter the zone and get lost for hours at at time.

I have been asked to shorten the time between classes from a month to two weeks. Two weeks to between training sessions for a class that takes one to one and a half weeks to create. Plus, I need to read some additional books to bolster my knowledge base.

I for see a very busy next couple of months ahead.

Sound of Music

After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music. ~Aldous Huxley

I have been a music fan for as long as I can remember, a music fan from the very first record I purchased, a 45 rpm of The Candy Man by Sammy Davis Jr., a song that can still be found on YouTube. My tastes have evolved since those early days, evolved in ways that I could never have fathomed. I went from an adolescent with an affinity for pop to a High Schooler digging head banging, heavy metal to a middle aged man with few limits on the music I appreciate and allow to enter my ears. My collection covers a wide array of genres dating as far back as the 1940s through current day.

Wednesday night, I attended a concert by a composer from India named Anoushka Shankar. She plays a sitar in a musical style which she terms as a fusion between Classical Indian music and Spanish flamenco. I first became acquainted with Classical Indian music during a visit to India when my friend, Inayat, took me to a morning raga by one of his favorite Indian musicians.  I have found myself enjoying Classical Indian music ever since so, when I discovered Indian music in the form of Anoushka was to be playing in the Chicago area, I immediately purchased tickets to the event.

She was accompanied by five other artists. Two of them played a variety of Indian instruments including an incredible flute type instrument, one was a percussionist playing western instruments of a less common variety, a flamenco guitarist and a female vocalist who switched between Spanish and haunting Indian vocals. The blend of instruments created a intriguing musical texture with a result that was nothing short of magical. The music was nothing short of incredible in it's fusing of the East with the West and had me entranced the entire concert.

On the way out, I overhead someone saying he was surprised it was mostly in 6 / 8 beat. He may well have been speaking Hindi for, though I heard the words, I had absolutely no idea what he was talking about. I simply cannot connect with music in an academic way. For me, music is never an academic encounter. For me, music is always emotional. I connect with music at a base level, a feeling level. Music drives my body to sway, me feet to tap, my fingers to strum, and my emotions to dance. For me, few things are as gripping as the sound of music.

Working Myself Sick

Burn out is theoretical, psychological, a fuzzy thing. Burn out is standing at a lathe for 10 hours doing the same thing. (in) an exciting job, you are turned on every minute and wanting more and more and more.... ~Jack Welch


I must admit to being obsessed the past few months. Not my normally obsessive personality where a hobby consumes the majority of my awake time such that I become immersed in something so deeply I learn a new skill and have a new stack of magazines sitting on the back of my toilet.

I have become obsessed with the development of my Leadership Training Program for my company so my 9 to 5 job has become a 6:30 am to 8:00 pm job. The obsession does not stop at the company walls. My waking hours have become soirée that views all sensory input from the perspective of, "how can I work this into my training program?"

What is the best progression of leadership topics for my training? Does that TV show (the one or two I watch in any given week) have an angle that would help drive home one of the multitude of leadership principles I'm am attempting to instill into my team? How can I use the scenarios in the book I am reading to develop my students? Will the next book I read have leadership undertones that will give me new insights I can share in my program? Should I read a book of fiction such that I will continue to grow my own emotional intelligence? How do I capture those seemingly random gems that pop into my head while I am riding my bicycle on the busy streets of Chicago? Should I be riding my bicycle in Chicago traffic if I am not 100% focused on the steel behemoths flying past my shoulder? When driving somewhere, should I listen to music or pop a book (leadership, fiction, business, psychology, etc) in the mp3 player so I don't miss out on the next piece of this multidimensional puzzle? What is the optimal balance of work and play and sleep?

I am not complaining. No, far from it. I enjoy wrestling with these issues. I enjoy having a focus, a passion, an endeavor, an obsession, if you will. I enjoy that my mind, when it surfaces to consciousness in the middle of the night and the fuzziness clears, is focused on improving my training program.

I feel my skills are being utilized close to their potential. I feel my company, more importantly, my students are benefitting with my myopic quest to create and executing a leadership training program for inexperienced and new leaders. I feel I am making a difference in my student's lives and the lives of the people they touch through their leadership

I am swimming in my own creative juices and watching my baby gestate, watching my baby take shape concept by concept by concept. I am enjoying work more than I ever have in my career. I am so consumed with this activity, I have found myself missing lunch, forgetting to go home from work, not caring about my gym regimen. Yes, this did lead to a slight dip in my health which resulted in me making sure I carve out time for exercise and nourishment.

Despite my health being compromised for a period of time, I have not put the brakes on this obsession because I am getting a great deal of enjoyment out of this endeavor. I never knew it could be so much fun working myself sick.

Unblog

I enjoy the freedom of the blank page. ~Irvine Welsh



This page is intentionally left blank. It has no witty phrases, no pithy statements, no creative turns of word. It does not bring to light the weariness of a  tormented soul, nor does it examine the musing of a troubled mind. It does not seek to bring order to a chaotic world nor does it endeavor to bring chaos to a mind stuck in a rut for so long it no longer understands it is deeply entrenched in routine delirium. It does not challenge, it does not cajole, it does not seek to alter reality. This page does not pretend to be more than what it is. This page just is (or isn't).

Betrayed By God

To me, the thing that is worse than death is betrayal. You see, I could conceive death, but I could not conceive betrayal. ~Malcom X


I just finished the book "Running With The Giants: What the Old Testament Heroes Want You to Know About Life and Leadership" by John Maxwell.. I bought the book because I am a big fan of John's writing on leadership. The book is built on the biblical verse:

My only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord has set out for me. ~Acts 20:24b

The gist of the book is that we are in a race in a stadium and greats from the Old Testament come out of the stands to give us encouragement. For, as John says:

Encouragement is the oxygen of the Soul. ~John Maxwell

The book got me reflecting on my own life and a race that I started when I was in my early 30s. At that time, my life, thanks to living it on my own terms, was a shambles. I was recently divorced and, once I realized my folly, was trying desperately to put things right, which meant, reuniting with my ex-wife and recreating the family that I had broken apart because I was a very selfish individual. I was depressed, lost, a mess.

It was during this time that I started going to church. At first, it was to manipulate my ex into liking me again for she was a long time Christian but it became for me, a spiritual journey. During that journey, I felt I was being told to stay the course, to keep focused forward and run the marathon required to reunite my family. It took me a few years but I did put it back together. The reunification was seen as something of a modern day miracle.

Fast forward 13 years, and I was again divorced. This time not of my own doing. It was at this time, that I felt betrayed. I felt betrayed by a Christian ex and I felt betrayed by God. I had run the race set out for me, run the race consistently and ended up having my heart broken. For this pain, I blamed God.

Because of what I view as betrayal, I have a difficult time trusting God has the best in store for me despite that being a theme of the New Testament. My faith that God exists has not wavered but, I have a difficult time putting stock in some Biblical precepts. My attendance at church is spotty. My reading of the Bible a rarity. For the most other parts of my life, I do live by loving my fellow man, by trying to serve those that are part of my life.

My logic (or lack of logic) is that I was betrayed so it is ok if I do on my terms. Is this rational? Perhaps not. Still, I have a hard time completely trusting again. I have a hard time believing that God has the best in store for me. I have a hard time believing God has got my back. It is very difficult to trust God when I have this undercurrent of belief that I have been betrayed by God.

The One

When two close kindred meet What better than call a dance? ~William Butler Yeats

 If we are fortunate, we find the "The One", the mysterious one with whom we develop a connection, an interconnectedness in multiple dimensions - physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual. We find the one with whom the attraction is so powerful we cannot pull ourselves from them for a moment, our co-lead without whom we cannot envisage a life, we cannot envisage an existence without that person as a main character in the play of  our life, the protagonist and the antagonist on the stage of our world.

If we are fortunate, we connect with the one person with whom we feel interconnected, the one person that perfectly fits the puzzle piece we need to complete our soul, the one person that makes us whole.

If we are fortunate, we bump into that one person for whom we want to forsake all others, for whom all others become devoid of color and disappear into a misty morning fog, that one person with whom we feel loved so deeply we cannot fathom an existence without the person at our side as we navigate this crazy, insane, joyous journey that is life.

If we are fortunate, we encounter that one person and we take a long walk, a never ending walk that outlasts a lifetime yet feels like it's over in the a bright flash of lightning cutting the sky to shreds in the dead of night. We take that walk and never look back because a journey without the person is just a plodding, lonely march through a barren desert devoid of life.

If we are fortunate, we stumble upon that one person who we love completely and makes us feel completely loved. We find that one person who transforms a heart as dry and barren as a desert into a vast sea of color, a desert populated when the suns rays melt, seep into the ground, and emerge as a rainbow of ephemeral flowers each attended by a jeweled hummingbird with feathers sparkling in the sunshine, hummingbird wing beats become the murmured song of our heartbeat.

If we are extremely fortunate, we find that lightning can strike the heart twice.

Book: The Book of Leadership and Strategy - Lessons of the Chinese Masters

Learn without thinking begets ignorance. Think without learning is dangerous. ~Confucius


 I am almost always eager for two things. The first is to continually improve my leadership skills through as many means as possible. My first choice is generally reading because I can learn from a great many people in a relatively short period of time. The second is to learn from and about people brought up in cultures other than my own.

It's not that I think people from other traditions have some inherent wisdom or are somehow more intelligent than those growing up a world view similar to mine. I seek out books written by people from other cultures because they will give me a perspective that is decidedly not like mine. Not better than mine. Not worse than mine. Not right. Not wrong. Just different.

I feel it is an important skill to be able to see from a different perspective, a strength to look at a problem with eyes of the West, eyes of the East, eyes of everywhere in between. I think a person that understands there a multiple possible views of life and embraces that knowledge and seeks out the understanding of others is better prepared to travel this lovely little planet, to comprehend all the world has to offer.

It is with this perspective that I read "The Book of Leadership & Strategy: Lessons of the Chinese Masters." It was formatted similar to the sayings of Confucius or the book of Proverbs in the Bible, phrases or grouping of phrases extolling wisdom. Nothing in the book was shockingly new. Most were variations of sayings I have heard time and again during the course of my life. The book claims these were recorded in ancient times in old China prior to the rise of Confucius. I guess, in that context, the were on the radical side of cutting edge when originally conceived.

I was struck by how congruent the sayings were with the concept of Servant Leadership, the style of leadership I try and emulate. It that respect, these sayings are also radical for modern leadership. And for that 'radical' perspective, I recommend this book.