Inspiring Your Authentic Week

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Business Leadership 3.0 Posted: 28 Jun 2009 10:25 PM PDT A few years ago I was discussing business leadership with an experienced business consultant and psychologist. He suggested that the next evolution of business leader would come from an HR background. His hypothesis was that the first generation of big business leaders in the industrial revolution was the idealistic, entrepreneurial and philosophical. They created great enterprise by solving the social problems of the day. Henry Ford is perhaps the icon of this form of leadership. This form of business leadership continues, but is no longer the dominant style. These leaders were followed by what Robert Reich calls "Supercapitalism" and the financially focussed CEO. Here everything is reduced to the binary simplicity of "does it make more money in the next quarter or not?" As competition for shareholders and customers increased the time horizon for this attitude grew shorter and shorter until, in the autumn of 2008, it imploded. Being cynical you might say that Kenneth Lay (Enron) or Fred Goodwin (RBS) are the icons of financially focussed leadership. We are beginning to see the dawning of a new generation of leadership and the "HR based leadership" thinking is only part of it. Will it become the new dominant form of leadership? Was the shock of the credit crunch enough to move us on to the next era of business leadership? This depends to some extent on whether we; as consumers, will continue to demand cheapness over value. As shareholders, will continue demand the greatest short term financial over enduring performance. And as voters will continue to allow lax regulation of business. The reality is that for business leadership to evolve it will need to do it all. Deliver on short and long term financial objectives, be financially competitive, deliver on environmental standards and deliver on a "spiritual" level. My view is that the new level business leaders will start from a base of brand and culture and radiate out from there. The short term financial returns we all understand, but the new level CEO will need to think 5-10 years ahead, as well as the next quarter profits. This means planning the wider direction of the business and being far more in tune with social priorities. The environment will be one of the greatest social priorities of the the next 10 years and also the one of the key dynamics for cost control. Using new technologies to drive down energy consumption and develop "in house" generation will be key strategies for driving cost out of business. Technology will be another key social dynamic as internet and mobile technologies will define how social and commercial relationships are mediated. Technology will also change the cost dynamics of production, transport, communication and administration. The "spiritual" level was not very fashionable with the "financially focussed" CEO, but it will make a comeback with the brand/culture focussed CEO. Spirituality is all about meaning and in the new era long term profitability will depend on a business being meaningful to both staff and customers. In today's networked, hyper-connected, media saturated marketplace attention is golden. Holding the attention of customers and media requires something considerably deeper than discounts and TV ads. Offering "meaning" to customers creates connections and long lasting loyalty that is far more valuable than discounts. Apple are the meaning masters creating and distributing fantastic products at or below cost to make their core products more meaningful. Most Apple software is given away or sold very cheaply because it generates sales and loyalty for the hardware products. For meaning to be truly valuable it has to go beyond mere utility to create "love" for the product or brand. Love is the bit beyond the logical reasons for any relationship, the part of our commitment that is not necessarily rational, and is therefore more powerful. Long term business success will depend on customers loving our products and our brand. Love depends on trust and delivering value over and above the rational. Meaning for staff is the other part of the "spiritual" equation. We no longer live in an industrial world, few businesses want employees who just do what they are told. We need people to feel inspired, motivated, engaged and responsible. To do this they need to "own" the ideology of the business, to feel passionate about it's objectives, it's products and it's effect on customers, community and society. To summarise - the next generation of business leader will be brand and culture focussed with creative and excellent financial discipline. They will also be technically savvy enough to understand how to use it to innovate to reduce environmental impact and costs. The businesses they create will be loved by customers and staff alike. They will be trusted because of their authenticity and deliver emotional as well as practical value. Would you like to help others and organisations to be reach this level? For the first time I am ready to offer training in the Authentic Transformation methodologies I have developed. From the 1st of July (repeated on the 7th of July) and over the summer I am running a distance learning course to train consultants and coaches. Subjects include, authentic business, life purpose articulation, team purpose articulation, Spiral Dynamics and Authentic leadership. If you would like to know more, give me a call. The course starts with a one to one phone session which needs to take place before the 7th of July. These sessions have been so popular that I will repeat each session to make it easier for people juggling holidays, time zones and other commitments. I am redefining my businesses - getting more clear, more authentic about who I am and what I do. www.neilcrofts.com has become the focus for my authentic business consultancy and coaching business. www.authenticis.com is evolving into a matchmaking website that will help authentic businesses and individuals find each other. With love nx Neil Crofts Neil Crofts authentic business +44 (0)7775 658534 neil@neilcrofts.com www.neilcrofts.com Skype - neilcrofts

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Inspiring Your Authentic Week

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Comfort Zones Posted: 21 Jun 2009 09:56 PM PDT "You are either learning or dying" the saying goes. We meet some remarkable people in life. People in their 20's and 30's who are confident in who they are. People in their 40's and 50's who are alive with passion and commitment. People in their 60's,70's and 80's who are fascinated, open and learning. What these people have in common is that they are evolving. Continuously becoming more conscious, more aware of how life works and at the same time becoming more capable of influencing it. Far more "normal" is to stop developing at some point. A big chunk of education for most us was about learning to be obedient. Many of us learn this lesson so well that if there is no one to tell us what to do, we simply do nothing. Apathy is disturbingly common. When I first started running workshops I was surprised at the way some sessions were resisted and how the feedback on those sessions was often negative. After a time I realised that very often the reason the feedback was negative was because people were out of their comfort zone - and they didn't like it. The only way we expand our consciousness is by being outside our comfort zone. Learning is a process of opening up new neural pathways in the brain. Neural pathways are like pathways in a forest, the paths that are used frequently become clear and easy to navigate. Paths that are not used become overgrown. Learning anything is like going through the forest with a machete, opening up new pathways. By definition it pushes us out side our comfort zone. By definition it is uncomfortable. These days I start workshops by telling participants this analogy, and I ask them not to judge the workshop by the level of discomfort they feel. It could be argued that during the industrial era,that it was the role of individuals to be obedient. To work in factories obediently, to fight in trenches obediently or to work in the public sector obediently. Today this is emphatically not good enough. We need EVERY member of society who can to take responsibility. We need responsible politicians, we need responsible bankers, we need responsible teachers and doctors and nurses. We need responsible business people. We need responsible teenagers, community members and citizens. Being responsible does not just mean doing what we are told, it means knowing what is right and doing it. We can only know what is right by knowing ourselves, our values, our purpose and our intuition. Morals, ethics and values do not come from further obedience to a book or dogma, but from being in touch with our inner self. Most of us were not fortunate enough to come out of our formal education with deep self knowledge - so we need to learn it now. Once we are willing to go outside our comfort zone and make learning and expanding our consciousness a lifelong habit and pursuit, we immediately open up our potential to being exceptional. Do you choose to be exceptional? Would you like to be exceptional? Would you like your colleagues and your workplace to be exceptional. It can happen, it just requires a willingness to go beyond what you already know. Would you like to help others and organisations to be fabulous? For the first time I am ready to offer training in the Authentic Transformation methodologies I have developed. From the 1st of July and over the summer I am running a distance learning course to train consultants and coaches. Subjects include, authentic business, life purpose articulation, team purpose articulation, Spiral Dynamics and Authentic leadership. If you would like to know more, give me a call. The courser starts with a one to one phone session which needs to take place before the 1st of July. These sessions have been so popular that I will repeat each session to make it easier for people juggling holidays, time zones and other commitments. I am redefining my businesses - getting more clear, more authentic about who I am and what I do. www.neilcrofts.com has become the focus for my authentic business consultancy and coaching business. www.authenticis.com is evolving into a matchmaking website that will help authentic businesses and individuals find each other. With love nx Neil Crofts Neil Crofts authentic business +44 (0)7775 658534 neil@neilcrofts.com www.neilcrofts.com Skype - neilcrofts This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

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Inspiring Your Authentic Week

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The only way is up Posted: 12 Jun 2009 04:38 AM PDT In so many ways our society reached rock bottom over the last six months. There are clear signs now that we are no longer going down and therefore we are going up. What I mean is that in most dimensions, environmentally, politically, economically, socially and spiritually we are on the way up. The bottom was characterized by: The previous US administration, reckless financial speculation, baseless conflict, greedy politicians, irresponsible business and government. The evidence of our ascent is: The election of Barack Obama and his speech in Cairo. Barack Obama is the first global level leader The shift in attitudes to things like corruption, cheating, environmental damage and attempts to control people (except in North Korea). In the UK members of parliament had been abusing the expenses system forever, but in 2009 that level of petty corruption shifted from acceptable to unacceptable. In professional cycling tacit acceptance of cheating has shifted to a widespread "clean cycling" movement. Chinese politics has moved a long way since the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. The lesson that was learned was that the old fashioned violent coercion of people could no longer be relied on to control people. In the last week the Chinese government announced plans to "go green" by producing 20% of their electricity from renewables. In my own experience there has been an amazing upsurge of interest in authentic business. I have been writing, consulting and coaching about authentic business for nearly 10 years. When I started the concept seemed very "out there". Today I am having conversations with bankers, fashion designers, accountants, oil companies, software companies and more, seeking to bring greater integrity and authenticity to their organisations. I am not saying that everything is exactly as we would like it, but the progress we are seeing is very significant. The time is right for me to step up my work to the next level. For the first time I am ready to offer training in the Authentic Transformation methodologies I have developed. From the 1st of July and over the summer I am running a distance learning course to train consultants and coaches. Subjects include, authentic business, life purpose articulation, team purpose articulation, Spiral Dynamics and Authentic leadership. If you would like to know more, give me a call. The courser starts with a one to one phone session which needs to take place before the 1st of July. I am redefining my businesses - getting more clear, more authentic about who I am and what I do. www.neilcrofts.com has become the focus for my authentic business consultancy and coaching business. www.authenticis.com is evolving into a matchmaking website that will help authentic businesses and individuals find each other. With love nx Neil Crofts Neil Crofts authentic business +44 (0)7775 658534 neil@neilcrofts.com www.neilcrofts.com Skype - neilcrofts This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

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Inspiring Your Authentic Week

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It all comes back to confidence 2 Posted: 08 Jun 2009 12:27 AM PDT I wrote about confidence last week and I am going to write about it again this week, because it is so important and it is such a big issue for so many of us. Firstly, let's define confidence. Confidence is an emotion, it is something we feel. We feel confident when we understand what is going on and when our abilities match or exceed the challenges we face. If we polarise it we can see two extremes strategies to confidence. One is to stay within our comfort zone - avoiding exposure to unfamiliar or testing situations. The other strategy is to continually expand the comfort zone to remain comfortable even when exposed to challenge and difference. As a strategy the first example has it's risks, firstly it is likely to involve living a very sheltered life and secondly there are no guarantees, no matter how carefully we plan, that we will not be exposed to challenge. It is worth remembering that when we are pushed outside our comfort zone we all react in different ways. Some will hide in their shell or run away, others will become aggressive or defensive. It is clear that in almost every situation confidence is a prerequisite to achieving our full potential. Self development is what we call the process of learning about who we are and building our confidence. My own personal development, and the business and personal coaching I offer to others focusses expanding the comfort zone to encompass the broadest imaginable range of possibilities. Of course part of confidence comes from experiencing lots of different things and becoming used to them. And this is also an effective mode of personal development. However, I believe the foundation for a really broad self confidence starts within. It is the challenging, unexpected or misunderstood emotion rising from inside us that most often shakes our confidence. In order to feel confident we need to experience, understand, interpret and learn how to respond to (not suppress) these feelings. To do this we need to truly know our own emotional foundations. While we will already be well aware of these the more conscious we are of them, the more clearly we understand them the more confident we will be. We need to know: Our life purpose - this gives us direction and helps us understand what motivates us. Our values - What we believe in and what is important to us, this helps us know our boundaries and our decision making criteria. Our tastes - knowing who and where we prefer to direct our energy towards, Our talents - knowing what we are good at and where we are better off getting help from others (teamwork). Our vision - where we are going with our life. Our strategy - how we are going to put all of this together in our life. Our personality - how we behave in relation to others and how that affects them. We can learn these things through a combination of experience, introspection and the wisdom of others through reading, courses and coaching. What is critical is that we do it, both for our working and business lives and for our personal and love lives. If you want some help in your authentic journey give me a call. I am redefining my businesses - getting more clear, more authentic about who I am and what I do. www.neilcrofts.com has become the focus for my authentic business consultancy and coaching business. www.authenticis.com is evolving into a matchmaking website that will help authentic businesses and individuals find each other. We are looking for associate consultants to join Authenticis and be trained in the authentic transformation tools - for more details visit the authenticis 2.0 page on www.authenticis.com With love nx Neil Crofts Neil Crofts authentic business +44 (0)7775 658534 neil@neilcrofts.com www.neilcrofts.com Skype - neilcrofts This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

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Inspiring Your Authentic Week

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It all comes back to confidence Posted: 01 Jun 2009 12:24 AM PDT I define personal authenticity as knowing who you are and having to the courage to be it in all situations without fear or compromise. This is not always easy. In "Authentic - how to make a living by being yourself" I wrote about a "dysfunctionality epidemic" where all sorts of damaging and negative behaviours can be traced back to individual insecurity. At school most of us learn how to read and write and the capital cities of the world, but we learn precious little about ourselves or psychology. What we do learn we mostly learn in the playground. 1 - Don't stand out. 2 - Don't have an opinion 3 - Defer to anyone who seems physically or emotionally stronger 4 - You are not special Of course we are not all equally affected by these lessons. How they affect us will depend on our underlying character, our appearance, support from friends and parents, the school we are at and so on. But most of us will, at least, recognise these lessons. These lessons play out in a variety of ways in adult life, but always based in insecurity. Some will compensate for their insecurity by bullying and demeaning others in order to look better themselves. Some will seek to remain invisible by saying and doing as little as possible. Some will always try to say what they think other people want to hear - never expressing their true opinion. Some will be permanently defensive, taking everything as a personal attack. Some will just do what they are told even if it goes directly against their beliefs. The global consequences of these childhood lessons are significant. Many cases of crime, violence, abuse and even war can be traced back to lessons learned in the playground. Even if the results are not so extreme they can play out in unfulfilled lives and unfulfilled potential. While we are living in this insecure world it is difficult to recognise it, because we don't know any different. It has been our life. How would we know that different is possible. Even if we can see the potential the journey can look terrifying and immensely challenging. If you recognise any of these experiences in your own life let me assure you that the journey is more than worthwhile - it is essential. The discovery that their can be emotional peace, that there can be love, there can be fulfilment is liberating, empowering and inspiring. If you recognise these fears in others you can help to reverse the lessons of the playground with praise, generosity and love. The day that enough people in the world have the confidence to authentically be themselves is the the day that there is no more war, no more crime, no more violence, no more corruption. We can all contribute to making it happen. If you want some help in your authentic journey give me a call. I am redefining my businesses - getting more clear, more authentic about who I am and what I do. www.neilcrofts.com has become the focus for my authentic business consultancy and coaching business. www.authenticis.com is evolving into a matchmaking website that will help authentic businesses and individuals find each other. We are looking for associate consultants to join Authenticis and be trained in the authentic transformation tools - for more details visit the authenticis 2.0 page on www.authenticis.com With love nx Neil Crofts Neil Crofts authentic business +44 (0)7775 658534 neil@neilcrofts.com www.neilcrofts.com Skype - neilcrofts This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

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