Coaching Tip: The Leadership Blog

Olympic gold begins with good genes

Michael Phelps stands 6 feet 4 inches (193 centimeters) and weighs 195 pounds (88.5 kilograms), with the broad shoulders and slim waist common to the elite swimmer.

But consider his body measurements a little closer and it becomes clearer why Phelps is dominating these Olympic Games.  He has an extended trunk and relatively short legs, a distinct advantage in the water.  The inseam of his pants is reportedly 32 inches (81 centimeters), shorter than that of Hicham El Guerrouj, the great Moroccan runner, who is 5 feet 9 inches (175 centimeters) but all legs.

Phelps has double-jointed elbows, knees, and ankles, which allows him to bend himself like few swimmers can. His size-14 (European-size 48.5) feet are like giant fins.

Add to that the extraordinary work rate of his lungs and heart and Phelps appears almost superhuman--a different species from the rest of us.

Of course, he also trains extraordinarily hard.  But so do others.  To be an Olympic champion, a person's genes must first be preset for maximal athletic performance.  After all, great athletes are born, then made better.

All athletes have coaches.  What's your game plan for personal success? 

For how to build your innate signature talents into winning strengths, go to:

www.LifeSignature.com

Source: National Geographic News, August 20, 2004

Crossing the Finish Line second doesn't beat first or third:

Neal Roese, author of "If Only" (Random House, 2005) and a professor at University of Illinois at Champaign, recognizes the amazing resiliency and optimism people display after dusting themselves off from a bad situation.

In speaking with high-achieving athletes, he explained, researchers found that the unhappiest people on the awards podium are usually the silver medalists.  Why?  Because they compare themselves to the athletes who won, and they always come up short.

Bronze medalists, on the other hand, are surprisingly happy.  Because they are often comparing downward, to those who didn't medal at all, their thoughts run more toward, "I'm lucky I got here; I could have missed being on the podium at all."

When you seem to always be coming up in "second place" in your life or career challenges it may be time to consider getting up, dusting yourself off, and deciding it is time to be coached to success.

Women Leaders in Government

The number of women in state government leadership positions is on the rise, with the percentage nearly mirroring their representation in the general population in six states, according to a report by the Center for Women in Government & Civil Society at the University at Albany, NY.

Of the governor-appointed posts in all 50 states last year, 35% were held by women, up from 28% a decade earlier.  "The most important thing is the fact that in 36 of the states, women are doing better, I mean as a comparison of the percentage of women in leadership posts compared with the percentage of women in the state," said Judith Saidel, the lead author and the center director.

In Alaska, Connecticut, Montana, Nevada, Vermont and Washington, the number of women in senior policy positions is roughly even with their percentage of the general population in those states, the study found.  Agencies in areas where women have traditionally been better represented--including health, human rights and education--still have the highest number of women in leadership.

Source: The Associated Press, August 12, 2008

The Glass Ceiling

While 95 percent of 2,521 American workers believe women have made important advancements in the workplace over the last ten years, 86 percent also believe that the glass ceiling is still in place, according to the Women in the Workplace survey by Harris Interactive, Rochester, NY.

For women executives mentoring other women, go to: www.WomanLeadership.com 

The Women Leadership Network is an example of how executive women networks are emerging in the corporate world to use their creative smarts and Internet-based technology to counter the old boy's club.  Women are also beginning to mentor other women on how to advance and succeed doing powerful and interesting work...while living a fulfilling personal life.

If you know women executives in your organization who need to become better and more creative leaders, suggest you point them toward:  www.executivewoman.info

Magnetic Field Changes

The magnetic poles of Earth have changed often in the planet's history.  And there are many indications that the planet is preparing for another shift.

The evidence is in every clay pot that was ever fired.  During high-temperature baking, iron materials in clay record the exact state of Earth's magnetic field at the precise moment.  By examining pots from prehistory to modern times, geologist John Shaw of the University of Liverpool in England has discovered how the magnetic field has weakened.  "When we plot the results from the ceramics," he says, "we see a rapid fall as we come toward the present day.  The rate of change is higher over the last 300 years than it has been for any time in the past 5,000 years.  It's going from a strong field down to a weak field, and it's doing so very quickly."

No one is sure what will happen. 

The field could weaken such that the poles suddenly flip polarity--that is, compasses begin to point to the south magnetic pole.  Reversals are unpredictable.  They come at irregular intervals averaging about 300,000 years; the last one was 780,000 years ago, making us long overdue.

Scientist Gary Glatzmaier of the University of California at Santa Cruz has observed such reversals as they occur in computer simulations.  These virtual events show striking similarities to the current behavior of Earth's magnetic field and suggest we are about to experience another reversal.  However, reversals take a few hundred to a few thousand years to complete.  "During that time it just gets more complicated," says Glatzmaier.  "Magnetic lines of force near the Earth's surface become twisted and tangled and magnetic poles pop up in unaccustomed places.  A south magnetic pole might emerge over Africa, for instance, or a north pole over Tahiti."

Of course, since the last magnetic field shift occurred over 780,000 years ago, none of us really knows what happens to humans.  But the real magnetic shift will happen over long periods of time, allowing humans to adapt their bodies to a new environment.

The greatest danger of a magnetic pole shift is the breakdown in the magnetic shield that protects us from solar radiation.  There is evidence that the shield is not likely to disappear but simply to have weak spots, even holes, that may allow more than normal radiation to penetrate to the surface in a few places.  Scientists have presented detailed information about this on the PBS NOVA program Magnetic Storm, originally aired November 18, 2003, but often re-aired.  A DVD of this program is available at: http://shop.wgbh.org

Source: Ancient Mysteries newsletter, www.EdgarCayce.org

Layoff in Your Future?

Automakers, brokerages, retailers, airlines, home builders, banks, newspapers and countless other ailing industries are slashing staff.  Your job could disappear tomorrow.  Getting ready for your next career transition should be part of your workday schedule today.

Here are some career transition tips that you should pay attention to long before you are walked out of your workplace:

Transfer your latest performance review, summary of accomplishments, address list of business and personal contacts, work samples and laudatory customer letters to a jump drive--a portable computer-storage device--so you can retrieve them from outside the office.

Update your resume but don't plan on sending it out until you have discussed what's next for you with an executive career coach....because you only have one chance to make a good first impression with people who can help you find your next job. 

Transformation Process

Transformation often asks for something to die so that something new can be born.

Some transformations seem to require the kind of vulnerability that accompanies extreme loss or grief.  Nature often reveals new self-knowledge to us and thus serves as a catalyst for transformation.

It's a lasting change for the better that springs from a radically shifting your perspective of who you are.  Meaning and purpose become more clear to you, and things that are out of alignment in your life gradually fall away.  But the most fundamental change is within you; it is a profound shift in where you direct your attention and your intention.

The new self-awareness reveals a more expanded world of relationships than you previously perceived while you gain new perspectives and definitions of self.  Seeing with new eyes allows for a new understanding of yourself and your unfolding.  This most essential change, the one from which all other changes spring, is a change in your worldview and your perception of what is possible.

Source: "Living Deeply: The Art and Science of Transformation in Everyday Life"

Marilyn Mandala Schlitz: Living Deeply: The Art and Science of Transformation in Everyday Life (IONS/ New Harbinger) 

Soulful Schooling

"Senior Honoring Ceremonies" are designed to celebrate each graduating senior--not just the few who have shown outstanding achievement in academics or athletics.

A vase filled with a variety of long-stemmed flowers sits in the center of a softly lit room.  The first circle of chairs holds a number of students and the teachers who will address them.  In the chairs behind them are parents and other faculty. 

After a welcome by the school principal, teachers go one at a time to the center of the circle, select a unique flower from the vase, and stand before a surprised and curious student.  One teacher begins: "I have watched you grow this last year and become strong like the sturdy stalk of this giant iris.  When you came into my class, I could tell that you were used to being one of the clowns.  Yet, when it came time to share our stories, you took the first risk.  You inspired all of us with the courage of your vulnerability.  I want to honor you for the warmth you brought to each of us and the initiative and courage you've shown.  I respect you as a leader and value you as a friend."

The young man beams.  His father, behind him, looks stunned.  This is his younger son--the cutup, the disappointment after the academic achiever who went before him, the one who has brought his father too many times to the disciplinary dean's office.  After listening to one of the most respected teachers in the school describe the outstanding gifts of character this boy has demonstrated in his final year of high school, the father's face is soft, tears glistening.  He places is hands on his son's broad shoulders.  One squeeze tells the boy that his father has heard, that he sees him in a new light.

In the father's eyes looms a key question: What went right?

The answer: At the heart of every adolescent experience is an exquisite opening to spirit--an awakening of energy when larger questions of meaning and purpose, of ultimate beginnings and endings, begin to press with both an urgency and a loneliness much too powerful to be dismissed as "hormones."  What went right is that this young man found experiences that nourished his spiritual development.

Source: SHIFT: At the frontiers of consciousness, June-August 2008