What is an Inspirational Leader?

So what is an Inspirational Leader? Not everyone can, or wants to be, a command and control, old school, follow me the leader type and there are real dangers in trying to be unauthentic. Some of the best leaders are unassuming like Mother Theresa, Ghandi, and you can fill in the blanks with others you know. By inspirational leader, I mean a leader who has an unwavering commitment to the fulfilment of a vision. Exactly what form the dream takes is not the focus, but how the leaders inspire others with their dreams is. It is likely that it has come from an awareness of your organization’s true essence and mission. It will certainly be unique to your organization but the question addressed here is how do you succeed as an authentic leader, not for a short leap, but so that you can soar like a flock of swallows in synchrony and on purpose.

Dealing with Change in Your Organization

Weekly tips to help you and your colleagues become more effective and respected leaders.

Helping Your People Deal with Change
Leaders play a critical role when it comes to change. Whether your team is facing large organizational transitions or smaller (yet still painful) procedural adjustments, you need to help everyone cope with and successfully implement different ways of doing things. Here are a few ideas to remember and use:
• Don’t plant seeds in untilled soil! Just as in nature, the seeds of organizational change need to be planted in soil that has been prepared to accept the germinating ideas. So, involve others in the planning and cultivating of change initiatives. And remember that the ground has to be fertilized with rich additives, so supply information outlining the good business reasons for the change.

• Prioritize for change. You will not have enough time to take care of everything that comes along during transitional periods. Therefore, make sure you help team members prioritize and take care of the things that matter most. Start a priority list and arrange it in High, Medium, and Low order. Complete the High priorities before progressing to the Medium … and then the Low.

• Monitor your team’s temperature. Once a week, have a short, informal “how are things going” chat with each person who reports to you. And pay attention to how team members behave and interact with one another – especially when working on tasks and projects that involve significant change with specified deadlines. If you sense that things aren’t right, investigate each potential problem and take whatever action is appropriate to “nip it in the bud.”

When you’re finished changing, you’re finished!
~ Benjamin Franklin

Full Engagement for Leading Change in Challenging Times…

Full Engagement for Leading Change “To be fully engaged in our lives, we must be physically energized, emotionally connected, mentally focused, and spiritually aligned with a purpose beyond our immediate self-interest.” — Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz, The Power of Full Engagement (2003)

Failure Can Be Glorious and Create True Leaders

I just read, “The Last Lecture” by Randy Pausch, once a professor, before his untimely death at Carnegie Mellon. I was beyond curious to read what a Computer Science Professor would write down as his final words. Would they have wisdom along the lines of the Power of Now, The Four Agreements, Zero Limits and other titles that are written by authors that dedicate their lives to self awareness and human development? I never put the book down once I started reading. It was so authentic, so real, so moving. I know that he was about my age, and leaving 3 children and a dedicated wife in this world, but that wasn’t what moved me to tears. It was the section on failure.

Leadership in Parenthood

Thank God I is a book with stories from true life that show how grateful one can be for tragedies. I really enjoyed this:

“Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself. They come through you but not from you, and though they are with you, yet they belong not to you. You may give them your love but not your thoughts. For they have their own thoughts. You may house their bodies but not their souls, for their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams. You may strive to be like them but seek not to make them like you. For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday. You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth. The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far. Let your bending in the archer’s hand be for gladness; for even as he loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable.” – BY KAHLIL GIBRAN

The Liberty Hill Foundation Upton Sinclair Dinner last night was full of heart and inspiration. I was moved to continue to overcome my fears to do the work that must be done, courage is not the absence of fear but the ability to overcome it. Thanks Kafi and Nelson Mandela….

Life is peaceful, so quiet I can hear myself breathe. Scratch that, the neighbors started construction work again. It lasted a few moments, and for that I am grateful.

is preparing for presenting on Creating a Fundraising Plan, in South LA and Pinging for the first time, check out my www.theinspiredplanet.wordpresss.com for latest on Leadership rants by marta.

Leading from Abundance & Emerging from Fear

It’s been a long time since our nation had a common sense of inspiration and hope. Scarcity, budget cuts, and messages of fear fill our daily news and our daily lives. We want to see change but we can’t let go of the fear that’s holding us down. As nonprofits, you’re reaching toward changes that will usher in a new era of leadership, but you might find yourself getting dragged down by the overall feeling of hopelessness that is polluting our country.

What Came first? A Crisis of Leadership or Crisis of our System?

The system we have breeds fear, anxiety and ego driven actions. That’s why even now, with all of this stimulus money coming out, there is abuse, corruption and misappropriation. Its like an addict that can’t get enough to get his fix, this country can’t get enough money to feed the gluttony that has existed for too long. It will prbaboy take many Leaders with character , vision and workable plans to change the system, to one of inspiration, transparency and sustainability. So, it’s kind of a cycle perhaps? To transform what exists we need a turning point of many leaders with good character and leadership to create changes in our lives, communities, cities, neighborhoods, States, and Nationa and World. Woah…that’s a lot of change that needs to happen. It’s going to take more than just one man’s dream for sure, and it must be inclusive and broad based support for acting out of kindness instead of self serving, self promoting behavior. The one man hero paradigm is dead, it no longer exists…Wake up people, take this into your own hands, be the first to be the change you seek. That’s my challenge to myself and anyone else out there who wants to join me.