Waitaki District Council Leaders
Welcome to your
Enlightened Leadership
resource and assignments portal
Note: There are no 'assignment police'. 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
Ideal learning environment and outcomes WDCEL3
Session Five - Communication - Stress Management and Wellbeing
Keep noticing what you notice
1. 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.
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.
3. 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.
Keep observing your own values in action
Keep journaling, noticing, reflecting...
Make notes of your own stress causes, symptoms and strategies...staying mindful of these will give you more control.Remind yourself what contributes to your wellbeing - and do more of it! Small increments add up. Your wellbeing recipe can be tailor made - by the best expert on you - YOU!
Remember - YOU ARE THE PROJECT! Be very good to your fine self.
Handouts and Resources
COMMUNICATION
1. The Four Questions - Facilitator Guide (pdf)
NOTE: The doc references another team activity. We will get to that.
2. 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!
WELLBEING
1. Wellbeing at Work - PDF Handout we had in session
2. Personal Action Plan(PDF)
3. Productivity Benchmarking (PDF)
4. EXTRA - How busy people manage Stress (PDF)
5. Highly recommended for introducing you to the 100% natural and best ever stress management tool - meditation! Guided sensory check in
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!
If you can make time to get together with your buddy and work through your personal action plan together, you will gain more as you engage your 'accountability buddy'. Your word is your magic wand!
Sessions Three/Four - The Essence of Facilitation
Assignments
1. Keep 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 react from conditioned responses.
2. Ask another question. Facilitators listen more than they tell. Staying fully present and listening deeply (being open to being changed by what you hear) is the go.
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. 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. Summary of key messages for ongoing exploration - PDF (note there may be points we have yet to cover...they are coming right up!)
Supporting your buddies
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 and try out different approaches.
Remember we are all here to serve each other
Sessions One/Two - Resources and Assignments
Make noticing a habit
NOTICE what you notice - without judgement (curiosity is MUCH 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 through your day will grow your capacity to 'stay present' more and 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.. 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, 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 - for your buddy and for yourself. We will explore this more. Remember YOU are the project!
Session One/Two Handouts
Juggling back up notes (downloadable PDF)
Practise juggling. Go back regularly and aim for the most beautiful perfect 'ONE' (a metaphor for refining excellence in the basics). Find someone willing to let you teach them to juggle. The effectiveness of your communication will be reflected in their results. Notice how thorough you are (or not). Note: If you got all the instructions and understand the application of chunking, you do not need to be able to juggle to teach someone else
Check in with your buddies
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 get together and get to know each other a bit. Establish how you want to work together. Listen to each other carefully. Get clear about what your buddies wants to gain from this programme. You are there to support them to achieve that. Your buddies can now be your accountability partners!
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 this short video
This 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.
