Kia ora!
Welcome to your
Enlightened Leadership
resource and assignments portal.
Note: There are no 'assignment police'.
Leaders lead themselves.
Use what is useful and leave the rest.
"The wise leader's ability does not rest on techniques or gimmicks or set exercises. The method of awareness-of-process applies to all people and all situations”
- Lao Tzu
Heading
Comfort Zone to Learning zone
Motivators for Human behaviour
Why become a global learner?
Superpowers Overview
What lobsters can teach us about stress
Emotional Bank Account
The Success Spiral
Session Eight - Presenting
Assignments and Resources
1. Your big assignment is creating a way to present your buddy's brilliance on behalf of the whole group. Reach out if you get stuck.
2. Your now ongoing assignment forever - NOTICE WHAT YOU NOTICE - and choose from there.. These can become habits of practice you continue to nurture. That will be easy as you acknowledge your growth and the impulse to keep pruning and growing and composting and harvesting.
3. GRADUATION DAY
You will have 5 -10 minutes to share reflections on your journey through the programme. Review your Day One outcomes (and the team harvest above) and identify your noticings and best learnings. You will also have 'as long as it takes' to acknowledge your buddy on behalf of the group. and speak to how you used that relationship.
Review your own notes - and practise gratitude
Stay on your own team - back yourself! Your inner coach is a HUGE resource for presenting purposes! You need never do another presentation on your own again! Keep your inner critic out of it ;)
YOU ARE THE PROJECT! Be very good to your fine self always.
Handouts and Resources
1. I Can Speak Clearly Now the pain has gone
(PDF) Highly recommended - especially Parts Two and Three
2. 8STEP Preparation plan (PDF)
3. The Bow and Arrow - short talk structure to inspire action PDF from the session)
4. This stays for every session follow up. A guided sensory check-in (lifted from The Accelerator). This can serve as an introduction to meditation (audio mp3)
Your buddy - it's all over in a month! - go for finishing well!
ONGOING: Keep spotting the brilliance and coach your buddy towards their outcomes. Revisit those at the top of the page...have we progressed?
Remember we are all here to serve each other.
Session Seven - Teams
Assignments and Resources
1. IF YOU WATCH NOTHING ELSE IN HERE, WATCH THIS - A little treat from Nature - may this team inspire you to trust in your own life process deeply. Something greater than us knows best. As we yield to our truest selves and make the leap, our transformation begins...Chapters yet to be written about what we do with our lives.
3. Your now ongoing assignments. These can become habits of practice you continue to nurture. That will be easy if you acknowledge your growth and the impulse to keep pruning and growing and composting and harvesting.
Review your own notes - and practise gratitude
Stay mindful of how you show up in team settings. Having the awareness to notice the influence you have on those around you will keep you growing.
Stay on your own team - back yourself!
YOU ARE THE PROJECT! Be very good to your fine self always.
BONUS MATERIAL - from The Accelerator
Relationships with Others - reading (PDF lifted from The Accelerator)
Upgrade Notes - (PDF) Lifted from Module 5 in The Accelerator
The Accelerator - info and registration page.
Handouts and Resources
1. Juggling back up notes - (PDF)
2. Blame or Gain Cultures (PDF)
3. Handout pack (PDF from the session)
4. The Helium Pole - Facilitation guidance for team building (PDF)
5. This stays for every session follow up. A guided sensory check-in (lifted from The Accelerator). This can serve as an introduction to meditation (audio mp3)
Your buddy - it's all over in a couple of months - finish well so you feel good about yourself!
ONGOING: Keep spotting the brilliance and coach your buddy towards their outcomes.
Remember we are all here to serve each other.
Session Six - Growing Emotional Intelligence
Assignments
1. Continue noticing what you notice... The more you are open to and willing to notice, the more you will see. From there we make our choices rather than reacting from conditioned responses.
2. The Superpowers framework identifies BUGS in the human operating system. Our Superpowers of Awareness, Intuition, Imagination, Reason and Will are expansive forces and promote growth and evolution. BUGS are contractive forces. They pin us down. Notice any BUGS that are holding you back in any way. These BUGS are Blame, Undermining, Guilt, and Shame. All can be handbrakes and the more we notice their presence, the easier it is to eliminate them...by noticing, and choosing what we 'pay' attention to.
3. Pause several times a day and turn your attention inwards - ask yourself “How am I feeling?” … if this is challenging, try using a frame that is a metaphor eg: ’Right now I feel like a leaf in a hurricane’ or ‘Right now I feel like I have ants in my pants/I’m fizzing like champagne!’ At the end of each day, summarise to yourself what sort of day you had on the inside. Notice. No judgements, only noticing. If you discover insights, write about/draw them.
3. Remember you have other resources to help you along like the book 'Activate Your Human Superpowers - a path to your potential'. If you read a few pages nows and then you will romp through the book. Download your copy here.
Review your own notes - with your colours
Keep journaling, noticing, reflecting...especially your letter to your critical self and your letters to others (that can all be burned with the intent of transforming that energy into something good).
Remember - YOU ARE THE PROJECT! Be very good to your fine self.
Continue reflecting on your relationship with control (leaders can lead AND follow), your relationship with risk (do you back your own judgement?), and stay on the lookout for BUGS in your system. Your interior leadership coach is ALWAYS on your team so remind yourself to engage.
Handouts and Resources
1. Candid Letters - PDF bother templates we had in session
2. The Accelerator Check it out. This is a deep dive programme of personal growth - x52 one hour sessions that will bring the superpowers work to life. One hour per week. You have free for life access and can roam around as you like inside the programme.
3. Videos - Emotional Intelligence and The Success Spiral.
Supporting your buddy
Help your buddy stay focused on the outcomes they want from Enlightened Leadership. This relationship is one in which peer coaching is the go. How can you be of service? We are past half way now so my encouragement is to make the most of a safe pair of ears to work through challenges, bounce around ideas and generally know you have someone in your corner cheering you on!
Session Five - Stress Management and Wellbeing
Assignments
1. Continue noticing what you notice... The more you are open to and willing to notice, the more you will see. From there we make our choices rather than reacting from conditioned responses.
2. Stop complaining...for one week...or even one day...or one hour. Noticing how much we complain can be enlightening! Focus on what is in your control and what you can influence rather than all the noise.
3. Reflect on your progress with the productivity hacks - 7-8hrs sleep, 45-50min block times through the day to progress YOUR work, Regular stretch/change of scenery breaks through the day, morning and after work routines/rituals to embed new habits, dim the lights/no screen for an hour before bedtime...
3. It's time to introduce 'Activate Your Human Superpowers - a path to your potential'. If you read a few pages nows and then you will romp through the book. Download your copy here.
Review your own notes - with your colours
Keep journaling, noticing, reflecting...
Remember - YOU ARE THE PROJECT! Be very good to your fine self.
There is a short video above about what lobsters can teach us about stress...it is less than two minutes and good reminders!
Handouts and Resources
1. Wellbeing at Work - PDF Handout we had in session
2. The Accelerator Check it out. This is a deep dive programme of personal growth - x52 one hour sessions that will bring the superpowers work to life. One hour per week. You have free for life access and can roam around as you like inside the programme.
3. Video summary - check out the Superpowers framework overview video above.
4. Stress management Strategies (PDF)
Supporting your buddy
Help your buddy stay focused on the outcomes they want from Enlightened Leadership. This relationship is one in which peer coaching is the go. How can you be of service? We are past half way now so my encouragement is to make the most of a safe pair of ears to work through challenges, bounce around ideas and generally know you have someone in your corner cheering you on!
Sessions Three/Four - The Essence of Facilitation
Assignments
1. Continue noticing what you notice... The more you are open to and willing to notice, the more you will see. From there we make our choices rather than reacting from conditioned responses.
2. Ask TWO more questions. Staying fully present and listening deeply (being open to being changed by what you hear) is the go. Do your best to 'ask another question' during your days.
3. It's time to introduce my first book "I Can Speak Clearly Now the pain has gone'. If you read a few pages nows and then you will romp through the book - all of it is relevant to our mahi in EL. If you explore the chapter on framing and reframing, it will flesh out what we did in session. Download your digital copy here
Review your own notes - with your colours
Sometime in the next few days, go through your own notes on all our topics and capture reflections that have had time to cook. What will you remember? How important is purpose and outcome?? How important is being fully present? How important is listening and asking good questions and creating safe spaces ? How important is framing??? You get the drift.
Making a summary of your main take outs each session is a good idea and will help the short to long term memory transfer stick.
Remember - YOU ARE THE PROJECT! Be very good to your fine self.
Handouts and Resources
1. The Essence of Facilitation - PDF
2. EOF follow-up reflection for you and your team (PDF) This is an 'extra' you can use for in-house leadership reflections if that applies to you.
3. If you are interested in learning styles and the way we process information, check out the Global Learner video. This is a webinar recorded earlier. We will visit this content a little later in session too. It is around 45mins long.
Supporting your buddy
Is your buddy relationship working for you both? If you can, have a check-in and take the pulse. Tell your truth about it and re-choose it for the duration. If you are unable to do that, let's talk and we will find other ways to support you. The buddy relationship brings up things but is also intended to be a safe enough space that you can be real. It is a space to practise your skills, be curious, and try out different approaches in a supportive setting.
Remember we are all here to serve each other.
Session Two - Resources and Assignments
Keep noticing what you notice
1. Remember you are practising observing when you notice. Noticing activates a superpower you have. AWARENESS. As we become more aware, more wisdom can inform our choices and decisions. That leads to better outcomes. Noticing is not about overthinking, it is simply choosing to be aware of your environment and your space in it.
NOTICE everyone does the best they can with the resources they have in any given moment. This helps ease judgements. We do not know what others carry. We will continue to gently and naturally midwife ourselves into next level capacity to be fully present in life - to show up.
2. "Ask one more question". In your day-to day interactions, deliberately ask another question for a whole day (as often as you remember). This practise opens you to enquiry rather than 'telling', listening more than talking.
Keep observing your own values in action
Notice if you are being true to your own values - as defined by YOU. As we build our leadership practice around those values, you will see results. It's your job to 'read' those results as you go through your days. Make of them what you will and notice where you want to make corrections.
Encouragement: Share your values with your buddy and give each other permission to gently hold up the mirror if you are compromising your values. This coaching could facilitate a revisit and re-choose of what your leadership values (what you believe is MOST important) are.
Keep journaling your noticings/reflections each week around your top five. Remember - YOU ARE THE PROJECT! Be very good to your fine self.
Handouts and Resources
1. The Four Questions - Facilitator Guide (downloadable pdf)
NOTE: The doc references another team activity. We will get to that.
2. Session Two digital handout supplement (PDF)
3. Leader/Manager Reflection: (PDF) Where is your focus? Check out the distinctions presented between Managers and Leaders. Intend to expand your perspective - and you will!
4. A guided sensory check-in (lifted from The Accelerator). This can serve as an introduction to meditation (audio mp3).
Supporting your buddy
This relationship will naturally evolve and settle into how you will both roll through this programme. How you engage is up to you - and - my encouragement is to be open to what you can give to it and what is in it for you too.
Remember we are all here to serve each other and in so doing, help each other grow. The idea is you all get clear about what you want to learn more about/skills you want to build, and then you set about helping each other gain them when we are together (and any other time you give to the relationship).
Session One - Resources and Assignments
Make noticing a habit
1. NOTICE what you notice - without judgement (curiosity is more useful). Raising Awareness is simple. We bring our attention into the present moment and observe thoughts and feelings as we breathe quite consciously and deliberately. Even a short connection will grow your capacity to 'stay present' more. It is very easy to become distracted if we do not have the mental discipline to focus attention 'on demand'. We will gently and naturally midwife ourselves into next level capacity to be fully present in life - to show up.
If we try to hurry the process, we can 'blow a fuse' so please trust your process deeply. - no digging up your spuds to see how they're going. I promise you, you can afford to lean in to yourself on this.
For now, there is nothing to 'do' but notice. We will condition ourselves to a bigger 'charge' as we grow this capacity this year. The present moment is loaded with infinite possibility. It's where the ACTION is, and all the feels that go with that action! As we develop, we grow the capacity to stay present to the emotional content of life but if we opened to it all at once we would combust! Let's take good care around that. Wisdom is in knowing how to pace yourself. Our individuality is a conduit for life energy... it is brilliant!
Aligning fully with your leadership values
Reflecting on what you believe is important in a Leader (your leadership values), please reflect on your share in session, review your notes and others' feedback, and observe your own actions and behaviours day-to-day. By opening yourself to rating how you go with living them for real week by week ('walking your talk'), you will tune in more and more to your own integrity, and you will notice when you stray (the choice is then yours as to what to do with that noticing).
This can be a great topic for a great peer coaching conversation. Choose a rating scale to evaluate 'walking your talk' for yourself
Eg: % or out of 10 etc.
Journal your noticings/reflections each week around your top five. Do you keep your word? Do you say what you mean and mean what you say? Nothing to 'do' but notice with genuine curiosity.
Treat yourself as a topic of study from here on, and begin considering the best coach you could be - to yourself. We will explore this more.
Personal Action Plan
Check out your personal action plan (downloadable pdf)
Start on your own and/or (ideally) go through with your buddy. Capture what you really want and know you have your very own cheerleader willing you on (as you are for your buddy). Clarity leads to power -of the personal kind.
Dream big and aim high! The only limits are the limits of our imagination (another human superpower!).
Reminder: There are no 'assignment police'. Your commitment to your explorations is what will enable you.
Check in with your buddy
This is the space to practise your listening and coaching skills, to seek support in challenging moments (you do not need to suffer alone). Remember we are all here to serve each other and in so doing, help each other grow. The idea is you all get clear about what you want to learn more about/skills you want to build, and then you set about helping each other gain them when we are together (and any other time you give to the relationship).
Your first 'assignment' is to coach each other through the action plan - if you can manage that... we are just beginning to sketch a few things out. Your buddy can now be your accountability partner! There will be riches in these relationships - your job is to hunt for your treasure :).
Thought preparation for Session One
Reflection One
Consider what sort of leader brings out the best in you (and what doesn’t). Consider leaders you have experienced/been exposed to throughout your life. Notice what stands out for you and jot down your thoughts.
Highlight your top 5-7 things that bring out the best in you and bring them along.
Reflection Two
Reflecting on your early life, consider the environment you grew up in and what you learned about leadership from your ‘first leaders’ (parents/primary caregivers). The key is to observe without judgement as much as you can. We can learn from what worked, and what didn’t. Who led? How could you tell? What did you learn was important?
Watch the video above
This short video overviews my take on comfort zones and what you can expect as we learn and grow. It is lifted from my online programme called The Accelerator. You will learn about this soon - because you get free-for-life access as part of Enlightened Leadership!
Encouragement
These reflections are intended to be gentle thought experiments to start getting us in the mood for doing the work that no one else can do - to enhance our strengths and grow our skills and capabilities as leaders.
Notice your thoughts and feelings as you reflect. Notice your enthusiasm levels as you engage and observe any reluctance/resistance you have to these 'internal enquiries'. It is all grist for the mill. You may notice thoughts arising/dreams that hang around. There is nothing to 'do' but notice - even if emotions are in the mix. Be very good to yourself and genuinely curious about what shaped you.