Monday, April 27, 2009

Inspiring Your Authentic Week

Inspiring Your Authentic Week

World Class

Posted: 27 Apr 2009 12:13 AM PDT

Human communities evolve and today there are many communities and individuals at different levels of evolution.

Some are focussed entirely on their "tribe" and maintaining it's integrity. Some are focussed on expanding the reach and influence of their particular culture. Some seek to nurture and develop everyone they can. All are legitimate and essential.

As individuals we go through the same growth process as our understanding and awareness expands. Most stop developing slightly ahead of their parents and roughly inline with their peers. Over time this leads to a general broadening of scope in terms of thinking, ideology and care. This process can also be reversed.

Occasionally a particularly enlightened individual can inspire a community forwards - Buddha, Jesus, Mohammed, Da Vinci, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Obama. Sometimes these individuals are sacrificed because their message is too advanced for other sectors of the population.

In the past religion and politics have been the platforms on which these individuals have stood. Today business has joined religion and politics as a potential platform for social leadership.

In the past business has been a relatively primitive platform, largely choosing, like tribal peoples, to focus on feeding itself. As business evolved into the era of globalisation some businesses sought world domination by their particular culture.

The internet and the global financial collapse are helping us move on to the next stage, where the most advanced businesses are seeking to empower and enable - not just their staff, but everyone. I call these Authentic Businesses.

The next generation of super successful businesses will be the ones that are able to find clever ways of profiting from giving the greatest value to the widest possible community. The most obvious example of this is Google, who give away huge value by enabling people to find stuff they want for free - and then find clever ways to generate profit off the back of it.

However your business has been affected by the credit crunch, when you are thinking about your next strategic move you need to focus on offering the greatest possible value. Focus on empowering and enabling people to feel genuinely happier, more confident and more able to pursue their passions.

Whatever your business sector - whether it is fashion, technology, design, energy, training or transport. If you want to grow and prosper focus on how your organisation can create the greatest value for the largest number of people.

Help people learn, facilitate connections, help people feel good about themselves, give people ways to contribute to society, always look for a win, win, win, win as the minimum threshold. A win for you, a win for the business, a win for your customers and a win for society as a whole.

These organisations define the new level of World Class. If you would like help creating and implementing your world class strategy - give me a call call.

I have started a Facebook page where you can comment on these messages and on all of my books - come along and share your thoughts and observations.

Join our embryonic world class organisation:
www.amentorforeverychild.com and help us make it happen.

With love

nx

Neil Crofts
Inspirer
authenticis
inspiration innovation motivation

+44 (0)7775 658534
neil@authenticis.com
www.authenticis.com

This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Posted by at No comments:

Monday, April 20, 2009

Inspiring Your Authentic Week

Inspiring Your Authentic Week

Change the World

Posted: 20 Apr 2009 12:01 AM PDT

Received wisdom is not always all that wise.

One particular piece of received wisdom is that people don't like change.

I think this is rubbish.

My experience is that people are desperate for change in all sorts of areas. What they don't like is imposed change that they don't really understand.

I have asked thousands of people what they are angry about it terms of the way that we run our society. Although some claim "not to be angry people" almost all do experience genuine anger at some of the choices that are made: war, homelessness, abuse of children, exploitation and damage to nature, especially.

As a famous piece of Clerkenwell graffiti puts it: "If you are not outraged, you are not paying attention."

Anger is not necessarily a negative thing. Anger has energy. Anger shows that we care. The key thing is to direct our anger positively, productively and passionately.

There are, perhaps, four categories of response to anger:

1- Grumbling - we all know this. Whether it is "water cooler whining", "pub protest" or "mate moaning". The key is to complain to someone who both agrees with you and is equally likely to do nothing about it.

2 - Protest - This is a more public version of grumbling. Protest has some positive aspects, in that it raises awareness of an issue and may connect with someone who is prepared to do something about it. The less positive aspect is that protest inevitably involves blame and most of us resist being blamed.

3 - Conflict/competition - This takes protest to the next level, often by adding aggression. While this is often disastrous, it is not always. Competition is a softer form of conflict, the new generation of electric cars are a competitive response to climate change - for example. However conflict/competition is always a bet on one version of the future over another.

4 - Complement - perhaps the highest level of change strategy that we currently understand. Adding in a complementary tool or approach actually strengthens the very thing causing the anger, but in a positive way AND adds an element that transforms the outcome.

Of course all of these categories have their place and their role. The questions are always - which is most suitable? And can it be taken to a higher level?

www.amentorforeverychild.com is an example of a complementary strategy.

The anger is that children invest so much time in education and yet too many come out of 14 or 15 years of school with no idea of who they are, what they are great at or what their contribution is to society.

Education and schooling, to learn various modes of communication and skill is essential, and in itself transformative. And today many societies have evolved to a level where there is a further element required to enable the greatest potential in people.

That further element is to take the necessarily generic and communal value or schooling and make it personal and individual. To give every individual the clarity of identity and purpose that will enable them to add value to society. Mentoring can provide that value.

Look at it this way: Virtually every challenge we face, as a society, is the result of human decisions. This would indicate that there is a problem with our decision making processes.

If you examine the decisions that cause these challenges, you can see that the problem lies in a too narrow approach. Perhaps some mixture of short sight, fear based, greed based and over rational.

To move beyond these narrow approaches to decision making people need self confidence, they need to trust not just the left side of their brain, but the right side and their body intuition too.

I saw an interview with a man who was described as the most successful bond trader in the world - he was asked what made him so successful. He explained that it was all down to trusting his intuition. He said that the rational stuff was just the minimum benchmark to be in the game. What made the difference was intuition.

If the next generation leave school truly knowing who they are, truly believing in themselves, truly trusting their intuition, with confidence both in their strengths and their weaknesses the world will be transformed.

In fact it is our only chance.

If you would like help in bringing complementary transformation to a challenge that you face - give me a call.

If you would like to help us change the world - visit:
www.amentorforeverychild.com and help us make it happen.

With love

nx

Neil Crofts
Inspirer
authenticis
inspiration innovation motivation

+44 (0)7775 658534
neil@authenticis.com
www.authenticis.com

This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Posted by at No comments:

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Inspiring Your Authentic Week

Inspiring Your Authentic Week

Survival of the Fittest

Posted: 13 Apr 2009 11:35 PM PDT

We have had a lot of Darwin in this, his anniversary year. So here is a little more.

Darwin's theory of evolution has two main themes.

1 - The fittest for purpose will be the ones that survive through natural selection.

2 - Adaptations and variations will help some to become fitter for purpose and survive better than others, a process of evolution.

As a species we have been involved in the 'natural' selection part of the evolution equation for some time. We have artificially selected on behalf of numerous animal and plant species.

This 'artificial' selection has also extended to humans. Medicine and conflict have both contributed to the process of selecting which genes reproduce successfully.

Of course, given that we are also part of nature - who is to say where the boundary lies between 'natural' and 'artificial' selection?

Not surprisingly, the evolutionary imperative is hard wired into our thinking. We find it difficult to think of anything; business, politics, education, religion except in competitive, win/loose, Darwinian, evolutionary terms.

But is this the only way? Is this the "fittest" way?

The focus of evolution is for a particular gene to survive. Some humans have evolved a level consciousness, today, that enables us to understand the interdependence of all life.

Uniquely in the history of evolution, we are capable, both, of understanding that it is not just about our own genes, but about all genes, AND of destroying all life.

This knowledge means whatever we do next is a choice.

Do we choose to continue the narrow pursuit of the genetic success of our 'own', leading to the ultimate failure of all.

Or do we choose to evolve to the next level?

At the next level ALL human institutions; commercial, political, educational, social, scientific and religious - have peace and love for all as core tenets of their existence.

At the next level ALL of these institutions and their leaders actively engage in connecting each of their members with their fullest individual potential.

At the next level there is an absolute recognition that we know far less than we don't know about life, the universe and everything and therefore there is only open mindedness.

If you would like help in adjusting your organisation to the next level - give me a call.

Join us in connecting children with their fullest individual potential:
www.amentorforeverychild.com

With love

nx

Neil Crofts
Inspirer
authenticis
inspiration innovation motivation

+44 (0)7775 658534
neil@authenticis.com
www.authenticis.com

This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Posted by at No comments:

Monday, April 06, 2009

Inspiring Your Authentic Week

Inspiring Your Authentic Week

Lead like Obama

Posted: 02 Apr 2009 05:15 AM PDT

The benchmark for leadership has shifted.

If you lead or aspire to lead in politics, business or the public sector you really need to understand the paradigm shift that leadership and peoples expectations of leadership has undergone.

The emergence of such great leadership is a challenge and an opportunity to all who would choose to lead. It gives permission to a new generation of leaders to step up from wherever they are and champion real solutions to the great challenges we face.

We need these solutions and this leadership to come from all sectors. Not just from government, but from business, from education, from health care, from the military, from charities, from campaign groups from all ages and levels.

Some of the key differences are:

1 - Obama level leaders need to be able to communicate in a way that connects positively with ALL at the same time, not just their own constituency.

2 - Obama level leaders are not driven by their ego. They will actively promote the recognition of others and never seek it for themselves.

3 - Obama level leaders bare responsibility for past, present and future, avoiding blaming others. They do not pass the buck, they accept the lessons with humility and use them to move on.

4 - Obama level leaders radiate integrity, authenticity and confidence. They truly know themselves and have the confidence to be equally open and candid about their strengths and their weaknesses. They are always guided by their their values and purpose.

5 - Obama level leaders focus on the greatest possible good and inspire and motivate all to their greatest potential in serving that good. They are positive, optimistic big picture thinkers who are also well aware of the detail and are undaunted by it.

Leadership is something that is learned. It can be learned by anyone and can be practiced at any level from self leadership to world leadership.

Leadership is emergent; being appointed to a leadership position does not makes someone a leader. A leader is someone other choose to follow.

We need leaders who can move beyond factionalism, criticism and ego politics to truly serve. To move beyond protest to solutions, beyond self service to the greater good and beyond fatalism to choice.

As a society we urgently need these leaders in business, in politics and in the public sector. Not just at the top, but everywhere.

Are you ready to lead like Obama?

Are you ready for this level of leadership in your organisation or community?

I am ready to mentor a small number of clients to their ultimate leadership potential. If you are interested in such an opportunity for yourself or your team lets have a chat.

If you believe that school leavers should know what they are great at, you may want to support www.amentorforeverychild.com - please join us and help change the world in a generation.

With love

nx

Neil Crofts
Inspirer
authenticis
inspiration innovation motivation

+44 (0)7775 658534
neil@authenticis.com
www.authenticis.com

This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Posted by at No comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)