XLR8 The Passionate Leader: (G + L + F = JOY!!!)

Weekly Inspiration: You Can Do It! (Click) Affirmation by Louise Hay from her 2010 calendar:

• “I feel as young or old as I choose to feel”. For me, an important part of this is how I look and feel physically. Starting October 2008, I began losing the 25 lbs. I have gained (and more), for the “umpteenth” time. While losing the weight is the easier part (I didn’t say easy), maintaining my desired weight, and more importantly, my physical conditioning is the harder part. Is that true for any of you?
• So what do I have to do differently this time?
• First, it is an important marker for my #1 Passion - Bring peace and happiness to myself and those I love.
• Second, I have a picture of Dr. Life, a man in his 70’s with a chiseled physique, on my Facebook and home vision board.
• Third, I have incorporated it into my “Happiness List”: “I weigh myself, eat a healthy breakfast and exercise at home daily and it motivates me.” This came directly from the book: Influencer: The Power to Change Anything (click) by Kerry Patterson (Crucial Conversations & Crucial Confrontations co-author).
• Lastly, I joined a gym over the holiday. My son is a gym rat, so he was my coach over the Christmas break. Now I’m set up with 5 routines for a total body workout.
• So I pulled out all the stops. What are you willing to pull out all the stops for?!!

2010 Passion Review/Marker Update

An essential part of being all you can be is developing a discipline of periodically reviewing and revising your passions and markers. Below is my #3 “Passion” and my 2010 “Markers”. (Make a comment on the blog and share yours, then others can steal shamelessly - just give credit where credit is due.)

• My #3 Passion: Living Life with Abundance
• This was my Angel Card for 2010 – which is the universe telling me that “abundance” is particularly significant this year. If you didn’t while reading last week’s blog, here’s another chance. Go to www.innerlinks.com (click) and pick your own. I put it and the accompanying quote on business-size cardstock and display them where I’m sure to see it several times a day.
• Offer scholarships to the XLR8 YOU!!! Leadership Excellence process
• Continue to write my weekly blog
• Create “huddle groups” with XLR8 YOU!!! participants as a catalyst for them to share their leadership development progress and “steal shamelessly”.

XLR8 The Passion Leader: The New Formula for Business – G + L + F = JOY!!! (This is the last excerpt from the introduction.)

Anyone in a leadership capacity who is searching for deeper meaning and fulfillment in their life should read this. Said another way - turning success into significance for themselves and their organizations. In my experience, many of the leaders we have coached at The XLR8 Team, Inc. have figured out the “external” factors of success. They know their business and have sufficient people skills to advance their careers. Occasionally, the latter may need some attention but rarely is it a career stopper.

What we do see, and actually have a self assessment that validates this, is their “internal” factors are under developed. They consist of self-esteem, role awareness and self direction. While there are a variety of reasons for this, both situational and causal, by and large these hard driving people have spent a disproportionate amount of time “making a living”, not “making a life”. It is manifested in a misguided sense of self importance that often has them working too many hours at the expense of their families or keeps them managing instead of leading.

These are not always recognized when we get started. While most say with some conviction that they are willing to change, I believe the most effective way is to begin to focus on the inside (character) as well as getting a snapshot of how they are doing on the outside (competence). XLR8 The Passionate Leader combines a pragmatic as well as a “spiritual” approach to leadership development.

Few people in their lifetimes fully discover their “inner guidance system” - passions, unique abilities, personal mission and values, the “G” of the formula. With the power of clarity and focus, you are more fully awakened to “L”oving yourself for who you are and choosing to make a living and build an organization by “L”oving what you do in service of people who “L”ove what you do. Not only will life be more “F”un, you’ll find out if those you are leading are having “F”un in your presence. Put it all together and you get G + L + F = JOY!!! I hope this book XLR8’s your leadership journey.

Be part of the book. Each chapter will feature a real life story or two pertaining to the content of the chapter. While I have some folks in mind, I’d love to hear from you! I wouldn’t be writing this book in the first place if you had not come into my life. Don’t be shy – yours may be THE story that inspires someone.

XLR8 The Passionate Leader: (G + L + F = JOY!!!)

Weekly Inspiration: You Can Do It! (Click) Affirmation by Louise Hay from her 2010 calendar

• “I am free to be all that I can be”. The overwhelming majority of people reading this blog are certainly “free” to choose. But are we all we can be? Check out Wayne Dyer’s Excuses Begone! (click) or Debbie Ford’s The Shadow Effect (click) if you’d like more information about your self-imposed limiters. I know mine for years has been that I wasn’t good enough (see below – I still get a visit occasionally). Thankfully, I have changed that story.
• Speaking of a great story about all you can be, thanks to the Buffalo Division of Wegmans that passed along Steve Jobs' inaugural address @ Stanford in 2005 - "How to Live Before You Die." (click) It will be the most inspiring 15 minutes of your week! I love the final story that leaves you with this message - stay hungry…stay foolish. What great advice to live by.

An essential part of being all you can be is developing a discipline of periodically reviewing and revising your passions and markers. Below is my #2 “Passion” and my 2010 “Markers”. (Make a comment on the blog and share yours, then others can steal shamelessly - just give credit where credit is due.)

• My #2 Passion: Coaching Leaders who are passionate about personal and cultural transformation
• Implement a succession process at Wegmans that integrates the XLR8 YOU!!! Leadership Excellence process into Wegmans Leadership University after we retire in three years.
• Work with two new CEO’s implementing the “Building a Values Driven Organization” process.
• Identify a successor for The XLR8 Team, Inc., and begin preparing them to take over the business in 2012.
• Complete a Coaching Feedback Values Assessment – create a “Learning Action Plan”.

XLR8 The Passion Leader: The New Formula for Business – G + L + F = JOY!!! (This is the second excerpt from the introduction.)

The latest opportunity I had to write was available over the summer of 2007, but my demons of inadequacy got the best of me. Then, a few of the people I had spoken to about the book, asked me how it was going. I started out saying that I wasn’t going to do it and that really deflated me. As soon as I realized that I had no choice in order to lead a passionate life, other positive signs started to happen.

One of my most important teachers is Wayne Dyer. I know that he often does his writing on Maui in January and February, so I decided to get started in January 2008 during our vacation on Maui. My wife and coaching partner, Elaine, and I were sunning along the walk in Kaanapali when Wayne walked by. He looked our way for a moment, as I think he heard me say his name to Elaine. He kept walking and I watched him disappear around the bend. I didn’t want to chase after him, so shortly thereafter, I took a walk in the opposite direction.

I walked quite a distance and on my way back, I thought I saw Elaine and Wayne hugging each other for a photograph. By the time I got closer, Wayne was walking towards me, so this time I extended my hand and said hello. He knew I was the husband Elaine had just mentioned that would be crushed after missing this opportunity to meet him. We exchanged pleasantries and when I said how important his work is for me personally and with my clients, he stated: “Well, I guess we are on the same team, aren’t we!” Indeed we are, and this is how I knew I must write my book. I have that picture of Wayne and Elaine hugging on my laptop background and on my vision board as well.

The signs don’t stop there either. I set aside a week to continue writing in my spiritual home, the Adirondack Mountains, in April 2008. On the eve of my trip, I was invited to submit a story to be included in Wake Up Live the Live You Love - Empowered, along with a contribution by Wayne Dyer, which was published in January 2009 (if you would like a copy – e-mail me for a complimentary copy). When you put your passions out in the world, the world responds.

Be part of the book. Each chapter will feature a real life story or two pertaining to the content of the chapter. While I have some folks in mind, I’d love to hear from you! I wouldn’t be writing this book in the first place if you had not come into my life. Don’t be shy – yours may be THE story that inspires someone.

XLR8 The Passionate Leader: (G + L + F = JOY!!!)

Happy New Year to all! As I mentioned in my last post, I will be changing the format and focus for the second year of “XLR8 The Passionate Leader” blog. For the month of January, I will focus on more fully living my passions by coming up with new markers for 2010. Similar to last year, there will be weekly inspiration, this year in the form of an affirmation from Louise Hay and others. The final segment will be an excerpt from the book I am compelled to write: XLR8 The Passion Leader: The New Formula for Business: G + L + F = JOY!!! So let’s get on with it.

This is a great time to look at your top passions and update your markers for the coming year. Since it is the beginning of a new decade, what is your BHAG! (Big Harry Audacious Goal? – open the blog and make a comment for all to see). I realize there are many new subscribers who may need additional information on passions and markers. Please e-mail me at tbrady@thexlr8team.com and I’ll bring you up to speed.

During the month of January, I will take the lead and list mine. Make a comment on the blog and share yours – then others can steal shamelessly, just give credit where credit is due.

• # 1 Passion: Bring peace and happiness to myself and those I love:
• Improve my spiritual disciplines: happiness list; meditation; affirmations - see angel below
• My 2010 Angel card – Abundance – “create an attitude of generosity and act as though there is plenty for you and everyone.” Give freely and generously. (pick yours @ Pick an angel/mentor - click here)
• Take fitness to the next level: Weight below 170; Join Gold’s Gym - go five times/week
• Work with Steve D’Annunzio & Richard Schultz as my coaches
• Finish writing: XLR8 The Passionate Leader – my BHAG!!!

Weekly Inspiration: You Can Do It! Affirmation by Louise Hay from her 2010 calendar

• This can be a year of great joy. Affirmations are created to support us as we live from day to day. What we think is what we get. Life will support whatever you choose, so choose only the best and highest good for yourself.
• “Positive change is in the air. I bless and prosper everyone in my life, and everyone in my life blesses and prospers me.” What comes to mind related to this thought? For me, it’s the belief that you cannot get what you want in life by wishing that others won’t get what they want.

XLR8 The Passion Leader: The New Formula for Business: G + L + F = JOY!!!; Introduction

Questions that come to mind are why write a book and who would read it anyway? As the title “XLR8 The Passionate Leader” implies, this is deeply connected to my passions. For that reason, I not only have to write it, but I don’t believe I will fully realize my passions if I don’t write it.

Several people have been kind enough to suggest, given the impact we have had on their lives, that we should capture these experiences in a book. I have discounted this for some time because I haven’t had too many original ideas in my work. Indeed, I have read and studied widely and taken what has worked for me and my coaching clients in designing my leadership development approach. There a many coaches like me doing good work, but not as many who have focused on the heart and soul of leadership. Well, then maybe I should.

But I’m at the end of my career, nearly sixty-three now. How much longer will I work? Would I get a return on my investment of time and energy? I can write, but it takes me a long time to get psyched! Then again, many very successful people didn’t hit their stride until later in life. Louise Hay, who is 84 and looking great, was on Oprah a couple of years ago, talking about a movie she just released based on her breakthrough book: You Can Heal Your Life, which she wrote when she was about my age. Not only was it the culmination of her life’s work, she appeared on Oprah almost twenty years ago to the day, and she has never been the same . . . nor has the world! If she can, and countless others have, then maybe I should. Is it a coincidence that I am using Louise’s 2010 calendar while finishing my book?

What brought me to the edge was when I read: The Passion Test on an airplane to Aruba in late 2006. When I wrote down my top five passions and the subsequent “markers” for each, writing a book crossed over all five. I started talking to people I knew who had written books and got a lot of ideas and encouragement. I spoke at a professional conference which forced me to capture my latest thinking and had it taped, so I could use the transcript to help me, since I am a talker not a writer! I knew I could do it and it would be of value to the world.

Be part of the book. Each chapter will feature a real life story or two pertaining to the content of the chapter. While I have some folks in mind, I’d love to hear from you! I wouldn’t be writing this book in the first place if you had not come into my life. Don’t be shy – yours may be THE story that inspires someone.