The Positive Energy Workplace

It abruptly dawned on me today that I’ve been “holding out” on my list in sharing one of the ways we’re (DTE) leveraging ourselves with others to share our articles and information. Being that “leverage” and “connection” are two of my primary values, I’m surprised I didn’t share this yet, but then again, that’s common with “invisible values” (those values that are so close to you, you just take them for granted.) Anyway, here’s the scoop and ways you can get access to more information and learn about another cool publication!

This past year I set the intention to leverage myself more so that my company could have more impact and connect more with other like-minded business leaders in the simplest, most congruent, and most energy efficient ways possible. Lots has happen this year to help me manifest that intention! One of the ways it’s shown up is in the invitation, earlier this year, to be a regular contributor to tng worldwide magazine. They’ve been publishing these articles for the last 3 issues now and have been wonderful to work with. You can find all of these articles, and more, on our “news” page. Articles include topics such as “Dare to Create Opportunity” (especially apropos right now), “Dare to Elevate Engagement” (another good one), and “Dare to Eliminate Gossip” (never goes out of style…) Check them out, I hope you find them helpful! By the way, if you’d like to learn more about tng worldwide read more here…

Is your organization “healthy”? How about your team? If you knew that the beliefs you held and the actions you took today (even small), would positively impact the health of your organization tomorrow, would you do it? I'm guessing you would.

While many think of "health" in the more traditional sense as "health & productivity," or fitness and wellness, it actually goes much deeper than that, offering tremendous opportunities for impacting your organization's emotional, energetic, and fiscal well being. Just like with attending to a personal fitness program, where you do something for your health every day to move you towards greater wellness, you can do little "somethings" everyday to move you towards organizational wellness. It doesn't take a lot, but it does take intention and focus.

This short article is about creating organizational health from the "inside out." Having a somewhat eclectic background in kinesiology, health & productivity, energy management, and leadership development, this is a topic near and dear to my heart, and one I find that provides lots of opportunity to help leaders stay on their "edge."

Getting what we want and creating lives we love can be a complex process, but most often not as complex as we think. I find over and over again in my work with clients a couple of very common themes. (After all, being human beings, we tend to have common threads of growth and it makes it really convenient to help us learn together.) A couple of these helpful themes are: 1) get quiet, breathe, 2) look inside for answers, trust your inner knowing, 3) directly engage, don’t waste your time in “he said/she said,” making stuff up, and gossip, 4) take excellent care of yourself in the process, and, 5) just do…after contemplation, due diligence and decision making – action must occur.

Whether I’m working with someone on their leadership, their business or their personal life, I believe that it is necessary that we look inside ourselves for answers, that we take great care of ourselves while we do it, and that we put it all to good use focusing on action, outcomes and results. There’s the “being” of life and leadership, and the “doing”….one cannot escape the other, as much as we might try or believe it can work (in a sustainable and peaceful fashion!) There’s an integration of the being and doing, and an opportunity for a very holistic approach to all of it. When we stop, implement even one or two of the five things I mention above, and move forward, we become more aware, leadership happens, our life unfolds even more. It’s a beautiful thing.

I’ve come to call the work that I do with clients and teach in seminars, “Bootism.” It’s easy to remember, offers a kicky and unique style, and it’s fun. I find that it sticks, puts a kick in one’s step, and it’s sticks because it’s congruent with the individual – after all, they choose their path, their plan, their action. It’s theirs. It’s not hard, but it’s effective. It’s not complex, but it’s powerful. And it’s not for me to say WHAT exactly it means for you, but it is yours to find.

So what is Bootism? 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’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.”