The Positive Energy Workplace

I’m happy to announce the release of my most recent paper “Leading With Boots On: The Art of Bootism™, 12 Hugs and Cupcakes in Leadership” available to the public today. “What IS ‘Bootism’?” you may ask…In a nutshell think Eastern Philosophy (wellness, spirituality, joy, peace) meets Western Philosophy (business, great results, leadership, bottom lines, growth), add in "boots, hugs and cupcakes" as core secret ingredients, and you have a way of creating sustainable results, authentic leadership and joy in the process.

I’ve been doing this work for 8 years now, having a heck of a time explaining it, and finally after a bumpy and somewhat “forced” path of “elevator speeches” and coached “descriptions”, lots of “branding coaching”, and lots of client feedback, I’d finally let go of “naming it appropriately.” Which is just about exactly when realized I was standing in the name all along when I stumbled into it on a long run with a dear friend, client and colleague. (Which, btw, just reinforces my belief that the most congruent aha’s come when we’re “unattached”, exercising and hanging out with good people. But that’s another post!)

There are 7 core Tenets of Bootism. The "Tenets" are the guiding beliefs and principles, the "Toes & Heels", not included here, are the behaviors and actions, and the "Darecteristics™" (also not shown), are the values and charecteristics that support Bootist Leadership™.

For more information on these, register on the right hand side of this page in our “opt-in box” to download a copy of the paper, and for how to apply them and make them work for you, come to my retreat in July.

For a sneak peek of the Tenets themselves, read more here…

In my work with clients I notice trends. After all, we’re all human beings; we’re bound to have some similarities in how we navigate our lives, conflicts and leadership in general, right? The “trend” that’s on my mind this morning is twofold – the behavior of looking “outside” for answers and the trend of “blame.” And more specifically in my awareness today is the absolute waste of energy that comes from doing both. From an energy leadership perspective, they’re both unproductive and exhausting behaviors. I know this for myself personally, I witness it in others (as individuals and as teams), and I even see it in the grocery store. Exhausting. Not a joyful activity.

Here’s the thing (and something that intuitively we all know, but easily forget)…The answers are not “out there.” The answers are “in here.” They’re in ourselves. And when we focus externally for others to find them, fix them, or change…we’re giving away our seniority as leaders and as spiritual human beings. Energetically, we let the energy seep out in hopes that something external will “fill the void.” I don’t think this works so well. This is often where a “band aid” fix will do…for a bit perhaps…but it’s not sustainable... To create sustainable change, real change, that works we have to do more and it starts “here.”

There was an article in Crain’s Chicago a couple of weeks ago about the toll entrepreneurship takes on relationships, etc. how “hard” it is for entrepreneurs and “balancing it all.” It was a good sized piece and I was happy to see the “soft” stuff being given this attention in the press. This is often the stuff that I notice gets disregarded or put off as it’s not clearly linked to numbers and bottom line results, etc. It’s also often the stuff that is the most difficult to tie to value and “return on investment” with organizational clients. Once they do the work, they get it, but up front, it’s more ambiguous and hard to see where it ties in. I get it. You can’t actually “see” balance or the impact it has as clearly as you can see a P&L sheet and the story the numbers tell... But it’s so there. Everywhere you look, even if you can’t see it, this idea of “balance” and the impact it has or does not have, is there….in our relationships, our health, our teams, our joy factor, etc. It’s there. Now, I don’t actually call it balance, or even believe in balance, I actually invite clients to laugh in the face of balance, but I do have a pretty good hypothesis of why it’s so hard for people to achieve it…so read on….

What does it mean to be a hero in your life? Everyone has their personal stand for what they believe makes a hero. No matter what our personal definition of “hero” is, we all have the opportunity to be the hero of our own lives. Sometimes it takes a bit of an awakening and sometimes it’s just connecting with and “owning” that hero inside us…Whatever the case, we know when we are being a hero in our own life. Being authentic, fully engaging and truly caring about others is a great start…But often it’s not enough. There is much more to being a hero in your life and it centers on creating more energy, stamina, self-awareness and courage for YOU. This article address what it is to be your own hero and how you can use energy, leadership and daring to call forth an even greater hero in you everyday.

I've had this conversation with many people and find it highly fascinating. I've found that the meaning of "hero" is very personal and unique to each individual. Everyone has their personal stand for what they believe makes a hero and some have varying degrees they've designated of the "hero scale."

This morning I had a friend of mine say “Thank you for being you…” My response? “Thanks! I work hard at it!” Afterwards I started thinking about this – because that statement is a bit counter intuitive and counter cultural. Because it should be easy to just be me. It’s all I have to do. In fact, usually people would say “just be yourself – it’s easiest – you don’t have to be anyone else, just be you.” I agree. We can only be ourselves. We’re our best selves. I’m my best version of me (at least I try to be), you’re you…we’re us. No duplicates. Just be….So I’m in agreement, think it’s a total waste of energy and time to try and be someone you’re not, am thrilled that we’re all as unique (or “younique” – pun intendd) as we are. It’s great!

That said, here’s where it is hard and actually work to “just be me” or to “just be you.” (Of course, I won’t speak for you, but use it as it serves.) Just being me actually requires an intention and focus and commitment to staying true to me. To honoring my values. To asking for what I want and need. To say “yes” when I mean yes and “no” when I mean no. To diving deeper into me and what these things mean for me truly. To be aware of my impact and my stuff and to do whatever I want and need to do with it. To do the work….And it goes on and on. It can be easy to get off course, go unconscious and go with the norm, leaving ourselves, because it’s easier. It can be easy to try to be someone else, because they’re already them so we can just adopt a behavior or characteristic instead of creating our own. (Not to say that modeling, learning, benchmarking, stretching into desired characteristics and behaviors, etc. are bad – I think they’re great and highly useful when used consciously.)