Dear Leaders,

For the longest time now, my prayers have simply been thinking about my loved ones while repeating over and over again, “Thank You.” And this is why:

I believe in Him and I believe in His Will, so I know that there is nothing I can do to change His Will.

So I thought to myself “why pray for something then? Why pray for certain outcomes? Why pray for these things IF I believe that His Will, will be done and there’s nothing I can do to change that.

He knows my heart’s desires already. It’s baked into His Will. He knew my wants and needs before I was even born. So all I can really say is Thank You.

But I realized that in order for this to sit well with me, for this idea to make sense for me, for “Thank You” to be enough, I needed to give it all to Him. I needed to let go of control. I needed to “Let go and Let God.” And that’s all I did… he continues to take care of the rest.

So allll I’m trying to say is: if you’re pressed for time OR if you don’t know what to say when you talk to Him through prayer, just say “Thank You”. He wants to hear from us. It doesn’t need to be a long conversation. Just say Thank You.

“If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is Thank You, it will be enough.” – Meister Eckhart

Also, Thank You for reading!

*originally posted on 10/23/2017

Dear Leaders,

We typically see someone or some organization create a Call to Action because they want the help of their supporters or customers in creating some type of CHANGE.

For those of us who are in positions to initiate Calls to Action (hint: that’s all of us), here are a few things to keep in mind:

1.    CHANGE unfolds through a series of stages, with ACTION being just one stage.

2.    The ACTION stage is not the only time you can make progress.

3.    ACTION is the most visible form of change, but far from the only one and not necessarily the most important one.

4.    Before the ACTION stage, there are a few other stages (Pre-contemplation, Contemplation and Preparation) where people change their level of awareness, their emotions, their self-image, their thinking, etc. And these stages are important because this is when they are changing to more POSITIVE emotions and a more POSITIVE self-image and more POSITIVE thinking… well hopefully their all POSITIVE changes. Because if their experiences during these earlier stages are negative, then their actions will be negative. So you can see how a Call to Action, even one with good intention, can move people to act even though they are not prepared (on many levels) to act.

— and a quick note on how I differentiate POSITIVE actions from NEGATIVE actions: positive actions focus on solutions, strengths and the future and they come from a place of hope. Negative actions focus on the problem, weaknesses and the past and they are rooted in fear.

So yes, we want ACTION. But don’t we want POSITIVE action? And more importantly, don’t we want those positive actions be long lasting?

So all I’m trying to say is: let’s continue with our Calls to Action, but let’s make sure we are spending just as much time, energy, thought and other resources on the steps that lead to POSITIVE, LONG LASTING action.

Thoughts? And thanks for reading!

*originally posted on 12/22/2016

Dear Leaders,

It’s not about the work. It’s never ever about the work.

Your team will do the work. You handing them that offer letter proves that you believe(d) they can do the work – you made the right decision… you always do. Them signing that offer letter proved that they were willing to do that work for YOU because they believed in YOU as a leader.

It’s not about the work, your team will do the work and they want to do the work. They know the work is theirs, but they also know what belongs to you as their leader. The energy of the team, the emotional state of the team, the morale of the team, the vision for the team, the growth of each person on the team… those are yours, that’s your work.

The team will take care of the numbers, you take care of the team… the team, the team, the team.

“A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is brave five minutes longer.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

When was the last time you were a hero? How much heroics will you display today? Believe it or not, it doesn’t take much to be a hero. It doesn’t take much to be a hero, yet being a hero and doing something heroic adds so much love and positivity into this world. And we need this, right? We need more love and we need more positivity, which means we need more heroes. And you know we’re all heroes right? So, IMO, all we really need to do is: (1) be ourselves and (2) allow others to be themselves. Seems simple, when I break it down to these two things, but don’t be mistaken. A lot of things (good things) need to be present for us to (1) be ourselves and (2) allow other to be themselves. And I won’t go into these different things, but I will talk about one component that I think is something we can focus on today.

In Ralph Waldo Emerson’s quote, the thing that separates the hero from the ordinary man is what? Time. Yup, time – five minutes to be exact. So if we want to be a hero today, let’s all pay closer attention to devoting more time to the more important things that make up our day. And for me and the work I do at the Y, what this looks like is me having a conversation with a member or one of my staff for at least five minutes. And it won’t be about work stuff, it’s going to be about life, something they’re passionate about, their family, something/anything that isn’t work related.

And so much good comes from this. I am strengthening the structure and the foundation of our team. And our foundation, our core values at the Y are: Caring, Honesty, Respect and Responsibility. And this is important because IMO, strategy follows structure. Meaning, we need to make sure that the basics are mastered, that our foundation is strong and that our core values are alive and well before we do anything else. We can create the best strategy this world has ever seen, but if our structure isn’t sound, that strategy will fail. With that said, I also see the need of a sound strategy for a team to follow – all teams need a game plan to be successful right? It’s all about balance.

Ok, so now what?

Think about your family, how will you be a hero for your family today? What does it look like – what is it exactly that you will do? How will it make your family stronger? What about work – how will you be a hero at work today? What good will that do for your team and your organization?

Being a hero is all about adding more love and positivity in this world. And sometimes being a hero means caring and listening for just five more minutes. And remember: “we can do no great things in this world, only small things with great love.” – Mother Teresa

Thanks for reading!