Heart Centered Leadership on the Inevitable-Success Show - November 13, 2008

Interview with Susan Steinbrecher, Institute of Heart-Centered Leadership

on www.realcoachingradio.com

My guest on today’s show was Susan Steinbrecher, the founder of the Institute of Heart-Centered Leadership and author of Heart Centered Leadership:  An Invitation to Lead from the Inside Out.

Her company, Steinbrecher and Associates, Inc., provides custom-designed training programs, leadership retreats and executive coaching. Susan started this consulting business in the early ‘90s after spending about 14 years in the hospitality industry. However, even with a successful track record, Susan had an obstacle to overcome in starting her own business.  Fear.

For Susan, her rapid rise in the hospitality industry was really the catalyst for her decision to start her own business. Tapping into her early experience as a young manager, she learned how challenging it was to motivate employees to do their best. As she progressed up the corporate ladder, she learned a great deal more about leadership and motivating associates. Conquering her fears, she turned that expertise into something she wanted to share with the world  … and you.

Think about what Susan said and how it applies to your own business:

“If you take excellent care of your associates, they will take great care of your customers which will have a positive impact on your company’s productivity … and profitability.”

This just makes good sense.

Heart Centered Leadership strives to counter the negative impact of chasing profitability first and foremost. That’s because minimizing the importance of associates ultimately means less attention given to customers which results in the pain you will feel the most - its impact on your bottom line. This begs the question - how can you motivate your associates?

At one point in her research, Susan asked people to think about the best boss they ever had. Now, she acknowledged that it was a broad question, so she also asked what that person did or said and what kind of an impact it had. Most people thought of someone within 15-20 seconds. And it wasn’t that boss’s expertise at strategy or planning or budgeting that they remembered - it was the way that boss made them feel. Valued.  I think it’s all about the experience their favorite boss created, because leaders need to create the right environment for people to thrive. This involves developing an emotional climate that resonates with people.

So, what is Heart Centered Leadership (HCL)? According to Susan, HCL is actually defined as “someone who has the wisdom, courage and compassion to lead with authenticity, humility and service. Someone who speaks with authenticity, works collaboratively and has the courage to do the unpopular thing when necessary.”

To get you started, here are the Seven Principles and Virtues of Heart Centered Leadership:

There is much, much more to it, so I invite you to pick up Susan’s book. Here’s why:

• Learn why people really quit - is it their job or you?
• Discover that negativity is like a cancer that may spread throughout your organization.
• Determine if your style of leadership is starving both you and your associates.
• Explore the pitfalls that can derail your career or business.
• Tap into the mental/physical energy that you need to be a successful leader.
• Understand why employees are often disconnected from your vision.

I highly recommend Susan’s book. It’s an excellent gift for you or the leader in your life. It’s available at the Institute for Heart Centered Leadership’s website at www.instituteofhcl.org and Amazon.com, and you’ll receive a 20 percent discount by using the special code RNF2008. You can also read the Roadmap to Success by Susan and Stephen Covey and Ken Blanchard, with  chapters from 15 different authors writing about what success means to them, also available at the Institute’s website.

I wish you all great joy and tremendous success in all that you do.

Jonathan Manske

Time for an Icon or Archetype Upgrade???

This is a topic that we have talked about before:

How do you think about yourself?  What is your self image?

Part of the way we think of ourselves is through the use of icons and archetypes.

Most likely some of your icons and archetypes could use an upgrade.

Let me give you a few examples that I have run across recently:

“Bob” sees himself as a survivor and if you know his history, this is accurate.  He has survived some truly rough experiences and has created a good life for himself.

However, in order to be a survivor you need things to survive.  So, “Bob” keeps attracting challenges into his life that he must then overcome and survive.

Being a survivor is useful, it just isn’t a good final destination.  “Bob” needs to upgrade that archetype to being a thriver.

“Sally”  thinks of herself as a lighthouse - guiding people and showing them the way.

The problem with this icon is:  where are lighthouses typically located?  They are in desolate, storm swept, remote areas.  They are lonely.

“Sally is lonely.”  She needs to upgrade her icon.

What if she thought of herself as a big spotlight shining up into the night sky guiding people to a big party.  She would have a very different experience of her life.

What are some of your icons and archetypes that could use an upgrade?  Are you a martyr, a victim, a lone ranger, a rock, a child, a . . . ?  Do these icons and archetypes serve you?  If yes, keep them.  If not, it’s time to upgrade.

How to upgrade your icons and archetypes:

#1  Identify existing icon or archetype.

#2  Figure out what would be a useful upgrade.

#3  Visualize the existing image in the palm of your left hand.  Have that image be as bright and clear as you can.

#4  Then visualize the upgrade image in the palm of your right hand.  Have that image be as bright and clear as you can.

#5  Go back and forth between the two images several times.

#6  Now slowly place the back of your right hand in the palm of your left hand.  As you are doing this, see the image in your left palm begin to fade out and be replaced by the upgrade image in your right palm.

#7  Leave you hands like this until you feel a shift (probably 30 seconds to a minute).  Then bring both hands against the center of your chest and leave them there until you feel another shift.

#8  Repeat this exercise 6 times over the next 3 days.

Also you will want to start actively thinking of yourself in terms of the upgrade.  (”Bob” would think, I am a thriver.  “Sally” would think, I am a spotlight promoting a great party.)

Wishing you great joy and success,

Jonathan Manske

Heart-Centered Leadership

on the Inevitable Success Radio Show

This Thursday at 3:00 EST, 1:00 MST on www.realcoachingradio.com

My guest this week is Susan Steinbrecher, author of Heart-Centered Leadership: an invitation to lead from the inside out.

Heart-Centered Leadership explores both the heart and science of leadership.

According to Steinbrecher: When you adopt the principles of heart-centered leadership you will boost overall profitability by:
- Creating emotionally engaged, tuned in associates who are highly motivated and want to do their very best work for you
- Creating a workplace that attracts - and keeps - the best and brightest
- Developing a strong, innovative, resourceful bench
- Keeping customers and clients satisfied and using your service again.

Susan Steinbrecher, founder of the Institute of Heart-Centered Leadership, is an executive coach, speaker and author, and president and CEO of Steinbrecher And Associates Inc. a management consulting firm that provides professional development services in the areas of executive coaching, group facilitation, and leadership training.
www.instituteofhcl.com and www.steinbrecherassociates.com

I look forward to having you join us on the Inevitable Success Show!

Wishing you great joy and success,

Jonathan Manske

Time: November 13, 2008 at 3pm EST, 1pm MST
Location: http://www.realcoachingradio.com
Website or Map: http://www.realcoachingradi…
Event Type: Internet, Radio, Show
Organized By: Jonathan Manske

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• Start-up Tip: Lead By Example, Not By Title

Emotional Flat Tire

This has happened to you.  It has happened to everyone.  Something happens in your life and “bamm” you are emotionally as flat as a pancake.

Your joy, vitality, enthusiasm, and get-up-and-go have all vanished.  You are stuck in the blahs, completely uninspired and don’t want to do anything.

You have experienced an emotional flat tire.  It’s hard to keep moving forward when you have a flat tire.

The technique I’m going to share here will allow you to get that emotional flat tire patched up and you back on the road moving forward.

In order to utilize this technique, you need to know about two things:  the human energy body and how to fix a flat bicycle tire.

#1  From an energy viewpoint, a person has five concentric layers (see illustration).

#2  If you have ever ridden your bike through stickers, you know what happens.  A thorn punctures your inner tube and all the air goes out of your tire.  You then need to take off the tire, remove the inner tube, find the puncture hole and patch it.  Then you need to reinstall the inner tube and tire and then pump up your tire.  Now you can ride again.

Imagine that the emotional level of your energy field is like that inner tube.  It can get punctured and when that happens you end up emotionally flat.  Instead of thorns, it can get punctured by words, by thoughts or by experiences.

Here’s what you do when that happens:

#1  Using your intent, intend that you are removing the thorn(s) and patching the hole.**  Use “love” as your glue to seal/repair the holes.

#2  Spend some time remembering happy, joyful, playful times in order to reinflate the emotional layer.

#3  Get back on your bike and start moving forward again.

#4  Repeat when necessary.

**You do not need to know what the “thorn” is or how it got there in order to remove it.  All you need to do is intend to remove it.

If I’m riding my bike and discover that I have a flat tire and see a thorn sticking out of my tire does it really matter if I know where or how I got the thorn?  Does knowing that at exactly 12 minutes and 23 seconds into my ride I ran over a purple leaf tiredeflaterus that was in full bloom make any difference at all to the fact that I have a flat tire.  No!  The work in front of me is to repair the tire and get back to riding whether or not I know how it happened.

Where knowing does become valuable is in assisting you to prevent this from happening again.  If I now know that this field is full of thorns, I won’t ride here again or I’ll pay more attention and make sure that I stay on the path.

If we know how we got emotionally deflated then we can take steps to prevent that from happening again.

Wishing you great joy and success,

Jonathan Manske

The Inevitable Success Radio Show

at www.realcoachingradio.com

How To Get Clients

My guest this Thursday, 10/16, at 1:00 PM Mountain/3:00 PM Eastern is Susan Kildahl, Strategy Coach (http://www.coachedbysusan.com ) who specializes in assisting business owners/entrepreneurs/solopreneurs in the skill of getting clients.

Coach Susan owns her own networking group, runs a leads group within our local chamber of commerce and has just started her own online radio show, The Coached by Susan Show, which airs every Wednesday from 12:00-1:00 PM Mountain/ 2:00 PM Eastern on http://www.nowlive.com and http://www.coachedbysusan.com

Coach Susan is also a licensed facilitator for Get Clients Now! (TM) which is a 28 day marketing program based on the book by C.J. Hayden.

Our topic on Thursday is getting clients-how to find a prospective client, how to follow up with that contact, methods of follow up, filling your pipeline with potential clients. So basically anything having to do with getting a client to hire you.

I hope that you can join us.

Wishing you great joy and tremendous success,

Jonathan Manske

The Law of Attraction in Times of High Uncertainty

Stating the obvious, we are experiencing a period of high uncertainty and most people are “freaking out” about it.

The big problem with “freaking out” is that worry, anxiety and panic never improve a situation.  The basic premise of The Law of Attraction is that whatever you give your attention, energy and focus to is what you get - whether wanted or unwanted.

FOCUS
Well, what are most people focusing on?  Disaster, impending doom, catastrophe, fear, loss, hardship, uncertain times, financial ruin, being a victim - the list goes on.

Hopping onto this bandwagon of negative focus is absolutely the worst thing you can do for yourself right now.  All you are doing is attracting more of the same into your life.

I used to teach a mountain biking class.  One of the skills I taught was how to ride through a tight space: such as between two trees.  To do this, you must focus on what you want, the space.  As soon as you focus on what you do not want, the trees, you will probably run right into them.  This will hurt.

Right now, there are a lot of people focusing on the “trees”.  This will hurt!

Instead of focusing on the “trees”, focus on what you want!

PERSPECTIVE and LABELS
Perspective is how you look at things.  How are you looking at the current situation?

During the great depression, more millionaires were made than at any other time in our history.  Those who made their millions then saw an opportunity where the majority saw a crisis.

Your perspective gives rise to the labels you use. Labels then determine how you interact with something.  You will interact differently with something you label “good” versus something you label “bad” or an “opportunity” versus a “threat”.

I guarantee you that there are a lot of successful people out there who are seeing the current situation as a tremendous opportunity.

Warren Buffet is buying by the wheelbarrow full right now.

PERSPECTIVE II
Most problems tend to diminish when we get a bigger perspective.  A bigger perspective can be quite useful here as well.

All systems move through cycles and phases.  They have their ups and their downs.  The real estate market, the economy and the stock market are all systems.

This too shall pass!

DISSIPATIVE STRUCTURES
Noble Prize winning chemist Ilya Prigogine created the theory of dissipative structures.

Without going into what a dissipative structure is, we can take some useful information from this model.  It provides us with a way to manage chaos and uncertainty in our lives without becoming a victim to it.

The model shows us that under certain conditions a system becomes increasingly unstable and reaches a point where it can no longer maintain or reorganize itself.  At this point, the point of bifurcation, the system has to change.  It will either jump to a higher level of organization or break down and reorganize at a lower level of organization.

The period of time while this is happening is called the period of perturbation.  It is a time of high chaos and fluctuating energy.  Chaos always precedes the shift.

We are now experiencing the chaos that precedes the shift.  The system will reorganize.

SERVICE
Looking for the opportunities to serve is a way to thrive in the chaos.  Be of service to others.  Be of use.  See what others need and then provide it. (That sounds like a definition of entrepreneurship)

COLLECTIVE CONSCIOUSNESS
The more you panic, the more you feed the monster and the bigger the problem becomes.

Stay positive, focus on what you want and know that this too shall pass!

Wishing you great joy and tremendous success,

Jonathan Manske

Sales and Marketing for

Service Oriented Professionals

My guest for the Inevitable Success Radio Show this Thursday, October 9th, is business coach Mattison Grey.  www.greystoneguides.com.

This will be a fabulous show.  Mattison is really good.  We will be talking about:

Sales and Marketing for Service Oriented Professionals

Find your passion, live your dreams, work as play:  all that sounds great.  But the truth is that most of the time to do what you love for a living means you have to learn to sell - yuck!  If the idea of selling brings up resistance in you or you find yourself praying that your marketing works so you don’t have to sell, or just the word "sell" feels like a four letter word, don’t miss this show.   You may just leave with a whole new view of selling

Mattison has been teaching marketing and selling for 10 years and has been called the world’s best sales and marketing coach.  She loves to sell, talk about selling and help people feel differently about selling so that they can do what they love for a living.

Tune in to the show Thursday at 1:00 MST at

If you cannot make the show Thursday at 1:00 MST, you can listen to it later on the archives.

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Mirror Mirror on the Wall

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You have an image of yourself inside your head, your Self Image .

This image acts as the ultimate instruction manual for your life.  It provides the rules of operation by which you live.

Your thoughts, behaviors and actions are all consistent with your self image.

Now here’s the thing:  some of your self image is beneficial and supports you to have a great life and some of your self image is not beneficial and causes you to suffer.  And almost all of your self image got created by accident.  It was influenced by parents, teachers, friends, society, culture, religion, role models, and your experiences.

For example:  If your self image includes being a successful business person that would probably make your life better.  If your self image includes being an inept business person that would probably make you suffer.

The good news is that you can change parts of your self image and in so doing you can improve your life.

Here’s an easy way to change your self image:

First of all, you need to get a sense of your current self image.

#1  Pick an area of your life that you are looking to improve.  As an example, let’s use money (or fitness).

#2  Imagine that you enter a big room and in the room are four groups of people.

In one corner are people earning minimum wage and entry level type salaries.  (Overweight non-exercisers)

In the second corner are working people who earn $40-80K a year.  (A little chubby, occasional exercisers)

In the third corner are business owners and managers who make $100-250K a year.  (Fit, exercise daily)

And in the fourth corner are executives, top sales people and CEO’s who make over $250k a year.  (Marathon runners etc.)

#3  In which of these four groups would you feel most comfortable, most at home?  (Stick with reality here - not which group would you most like to be in but rather which one would be most natural, familiar and comfortable.)

That is your current self image.

#4  Imagine that you are a shorts and t-shirt type of person and that you dressed up in formal evening wear, a tuxedo or cocktail dress.  When you look in the mirror, it might take a moment to recognize yourself and then you would say, "oh yeah, that’s me."

#5  You want to use this idea, "Oh yeah, that’s me" to change your self image.

Create an image that is an upgrade of your current image.  Then keep reminding yourself, "Oh yeah, that’s me!"

It only takes a couple of seconds to do this:  "Oh yeah, that’s me - the successful business person!"  "Oh yeah, that’s me - the daily exerciser!"

When you keep reminding yourself of this, you begin to change that self image and when you do that, your life changes!

Mirror Mirror on the wall, who’s that successful ________ I see?  Oh yeah, that’s me!

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Mr. Eat, Pray, Love

Dave Bravdica’s friends often refer to him as Mr. Eat, Pray Love.

(This is in reference to the book Eat, Pray, Love written by Elizabeth Gilbert.  Her book was #1 on the NYT Paperback Nonfiction List for over a year!)

Dave has a great story.  He got clear about what he wanted and then took the courageous steps to make that happen.

When I first met Dave, he was working for a company that was very hierarchical and old school in philosophy.

This was a terrible fit for Dave and it showed.  He looked worn out, stressed out, uninspired and his self confidence was circling down the drain.

His biggest challenge was the "golden handcuffs".  He couldn’t imagine that he would ever be able to replace his income while doing something that he enjoyed.  He had a lot of head trash around this issue.

Dave spent a while having a tug of war with himself:  I should do something different - I cannot do something different and make money.  This only further depleted his vitality.

Finally on his birthday, Dave said to himself, "I either need to do something different or resign myself to the way things are now.

He decided to do something different.

He quit his job and enrolled in chef’s school.  After chef’s school he went to Italy to learn more.

Dave believes that in order to understand the food you need to understand where it comes from and the people.  To this end, he spent time working in a winery, a cheese farm and a cured meats farm.  He really immersed himself in Italian culture.

Now he’s back in Denver and has opened his own catering business, Flavor Cater, and is also teaching at the chef’s school.

I recently saw Dave and was delighted to see how good he looked.  He looks so much more happy and full of vitality.  He’s excited and optimistic about the future.  And, he is doing what he loves.

Dave is all about food and wine and how they can bring people together.

We can all learn something from Dave’s story.

We have all done what Dave did when he got trapped in an either/or perspective.  (Either I can stay here and be miserable or I can do something different and make much less money.)  In Dave’s mind those were the only two possibilities.

Here’s an analogy: There are two kinds of light switches, on/off and dimmer.  With on/off you only have two options.  With a dimmer switch you have a wide range of options.

Whenever we seem stuck or trapped, we are doing the on/off switch.  When we change our perspective and start to see more possibilities (dimmer switch) the sense of being stuck or trapped tends to disappear.

Dave will be my guest this week on The Inevitable Success Radio Show

You can tune in to that show on Thursday September 18th at 1:00 Mountain Time at www.realcoachingradio.com.

The show will also be archived if you want to listen at a later time.  archive link

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Keep On Moving Forward

This spring I went on an adventure.  As it turns out, my adventure is a pretty good recipe for success.

My motto during the adventure was "Keep Moving Forward!"

Four friends and I decided to ride the Kokopelli Trail.  This is a mountain bike trail that runs from Fruita Colorado to Moab Utah.  It is 150 miles of very tough riding.

Going into the ride, I had concerns about my ability to complete this ride.  Simply put, I had not prepared enough.  The longest training ride I had done was 20 miles and I was exhausted after that.  Now I needed to do three 50 mile days in a row.

I decided that as long as I kept moving forward I would be all right.

I kept this idea, Keep Moving Forward, in mind throughout the ride.

When I came to really steep sections of the trail, I got off my bike and walked.  I have the ability to ride those sections but the energy it would have cost me was too much.  As long as I was walking, I was still moving forward.

My goal was to complete the ride and if walking 50 yards here and there helped me to complete that goal then I was fine with that.  In fact, there are numerous mandatory hike-a -bike sections on the trail that nobody can ride.  I just had a few more hike-a-bikes.

This strategy served me well.  I kept moving forward and I completed my goal.

Other elements were necessary in order for me to keep moving forward and achieve my goal.  (Do you have these elements in place to support you to keep on moving forward?)

Support:
Jason’s dad drove sag.  He met us about every 20 miles with food, water, tools to fix our bikes and our camping gear.  Without him, we wouldn’t have been able to complete the ride.

We also had the support of each other and of friendship.  This helped immensely.  (What’s your support?)

Rest and Recovery:
Part of moving forward is taking breaks where you are not moving forward.  Without stopping to rest, eat and sleep we wouldn’t have succeeded.  In the face of stress and effort, we still needed to take care of ourselves.  (How do you rest and recover?)

Snacks:
I ate a lot of powerbars and other energy snacks on the trail.  Whenever I would start to feel tired, I would put some more fuel in my tank which would allow me to keep moving forward.  Without these snacks, I would not have succeeded.  (What are the "snacks" that put fuel in your tank?)

The Right Equipment:
Obviously the right equipment was an important part of being able to complete the ride.  A road bike would have been destroyed 5 miles into the ride.  This is a serious mountain bike trail.

I also needed my pump and a spare tube.

My camelback carries 120 oz of water, has storage for tools, food and extra layers of clothes.  (Do you have the right equipment?)

Trail Map:
All of the other things I have mentioned would have been useless without a plan of where we were going and a map to guide us.  (Do you have a map and a plan?)

Remember, your success is a long journey.  As long as you Keep Moving Forward , you constantly move closer to achieving your goal.