Leadership – Page 2 – Life Unfolds Blog

Stringing it all Together – AEDM Day 7

I’ve had a magical past 24 hours. Last night I led my first Ladies Who Launch Incubator here in Oakland and it was such fun! I love this work and am so inspired by all the amazing, creative projects that each woman is launching.

I felt like I did when I was a kid on Christmas Eve – having sooo much fun at the Christmas Eve party with all my cousins, playing games, having fun, not wanting to go to bed and excited to get up first thing in the morning to open presents. I couldn’t sleep because of all the energy from the Incubator AND because I was anxious to hear this morning about a position I had applied for a couple of weeks ago. Well, I’m thrilled to share that I’ve been selected as a Quest Circle Coach for the Coaches Training Institute and will now be part of the CTI family, which has been one of my dreams!

To top it off, I had lunch plans with my friend/mentor, Caroline, at her whimsical house boat in Marin. My art project for today came spontaneously as she shared her latest passion of stringing colorful beads. As we finished up a scrumptious lunch, she spread out her rainbow of beads on the table. I was a kid in a candy store! I made a serene strand of lovely green/blue beads accented with a yellowish gold. Like in knitting, I enjoyed how the pattern naturally emerged as I strung each bead. A reminder to just trust the creative process.

Once I was done, Caroline found just the right spot to hang it from her sea shell chandelier. This one-of-a-kind, gorgeous jellyfish-like fixture is adorned with several strands of beads handmade by her and many of her friends and family that visit. What a cool community art project and a way to honor the important people in her life!

[tags]National Blog Posting Month, NaBloPoMo, Art Every Day Month, The Coaches Training Institute, CTI, Quest, Ladies Who Launch, Incubator[/tags]

Labyrinths and Leadership Laboratories

Last Friday through Sunday Brighid and I co-led the third retreat of the 2007 Cheryl’s Dreaming Big leadership program in Indiana. Our retreat kicked-off with some intense storming (literally – lots of thunder, wind and rain; and figuratively – lots of group tension and unresolved issues). I must say it was pretty exhausting and challenging to hold the space for this natural, yet difficult, phase in team development.

One thing that helped me get through it was walking through the labyrinth at the retreat center. Before entering the path, you can hold an intention or inquiry. For me it was around how can I stay with the mess of the storming phase. With every twist and turn, I questioned, “How much longer? When will this end? Where is this going?!” And then I relaxed into it and trusted that I would find my way to the center. I leaned into this insight throughout the weekend. Labyrinths are a great meditative and focusing tool. There’s this really cool portable labyrinth that I imagine would have a similar effect.

The other take-away I had from the retreat was remembering that the program we created is a great laboratory for learning and practicing leadership, not only for the participants, but for myself as a co-leader as well. Brighid kept reminding me of the lessons from an insightful book called Leadership and Self-Deception. This powerful parable reminds us to relate to people as people with hopes, dreams, needs, wants instead of objects or obstacles that our in our way. By shifting my perspective to being “out of the box” I was able to rise above the muck of the storming and group dynamics and reconnect to who these wonderful people are and what they have to offer. The other thing I kept coming back to was the idea that from the crap of group storming comes the fertilizer which nourishes the ground for a beautiful garden to grow. It’s a natural cycle.

How are you with conflict and tension? What are some ways that you move through the storming in your life? How has going through the muck helped new opportunities to blossom for you?

[tags]labyrinth, leadership, leadership and self-deception[/tags]

Let’s Do Launch!

I’m always raving to people about Ladies Who Launch. I just love the positive, creative vibe of this vibrant group of women. Last night was the Launch Party for the Silicon Valley chapter. There was a great turnout at the Bryant Street Gallery and a buzz of excitement in the air.

Allie is our fearless Bay Area leader and she has enough energy to light up San Francisco. When she asked me last month if I was interested in leading the Oakland chapter, I was certainly intrigued! I went right away to pick up the Ladies Who Launch book to refresh myself on the Incubator experience and get an even deeper look at what the organization is taking a stand for. I devoured the book in less than a day. With every page I turned I said, “Yes! This is such good stuff! I love it!” Their message of feminine leadership and intuition so resonates with my coaching and creativity work.

According to the founders’ research:

“Women want to feel fulfilled, have fun, enjoy their femininity, and not sacrifice these desires for financial success. Women are redefining the very notion of success as they incorporate many elements, not just career or family, and want to be able to celebrate their personal creativity in whatever manifestation that means… Women are natural connectors, they derive fulfillment from relationships, and use them to move forward and execute ideas…Women tend to treat creative projects and new businesses like their children: they become emotionally attached.”

Their approach to embracing the feminine gives us permission to really go for our dreams, ask for help along the way and celebrate the process!

Allie invited the four Bay Area leaders together this afternoon for our first team meeting. I’m super excited to be collaborating with these savvy, fun gals! I know I’ll learn a lot and will have a blast along the way. And I can’t wait to get started sharing with other women the magic of the Ladies Who Launch Incubator program! I’ve been saying to my husband that I’m always having to drive into the city for cool networking events. Well, as they say a complaint is usually a request in disguise, so I’m loving the opportunity to bring this nationally acclaimed way of “launching” to women in my neck of the woods.

[tags]Ladies Who Launch, Incubator, women entrepreneurs, Oakland[/tags]

Dreaming With Others

The second retreat of the Cheryl’s Dreaming Big Leadership Program took place this past Thursday through Sunday in Michigan. The retreat focused on developing the skills of connection, communication and collaboration to facilitate dreaming with others.To prep for the retreat, we had a staff day on the ropes course the day before the participants arrived. That’s my co-leader and dear friend, Brighid, and me almost 30 feet in the air! This element is all about leaning into your partner in order to get across the wires. Brighid, Allen, Wallace and I had a great time swinging in the trees and learning about our group dynamics along the way!

The participants arrived on Thursday evening and we had a jam packed weekend of practicing new concepts and tools through experiential exercises and dialogue. To help the participants build trust and to get the learning “in their bones,” they also did a ropes course together including using teamwork to climb over a wall and doing partner activities in the trees.

Rain drizzled down on us through the treetop canopy, soaking our clothes but not our spirits. The group really rallied together to balance both the tasks at hand and the relationships despite slippery surfaces and tenuous interactions. By the end of the day, we all were exhausted and exhilarated. I was so inspired by the courage, collaboration and inner strength I witnessed in the participants as they faced their fears and overcame challenges.

By the end of the retreat, the group was really embodying all the concepts we covered ranging from checking out assumptions to having really difficult conversations in the service of deepening relationships. From now until August, the group will be doing partner projects to put their learnings into practice. I can’t wait to see what they each create from their collaboration!

[tags]leadership, Cheryl’s Dreaming Big, mental health, ropes courses, team building, life coaching, co-leading[/tags]

Dreaming Big

This past weekend was the first retreat of the year for the 2007 Cheryl’s Dreaming Big leadership program. Our plans were to head off to the retreat center in Michigan so we could do ropes courses on Saturday. We ended up staying in Chicago and holding the event at Brighid’s due to the severe weather in Michigan – 20 degrees F and below 0 windchill factor! We got creative and transformed her place into a “retreat center” complete with a Quiet Room, Library and a Cozy Corner.

The group is absolutely fantastic. They have already totally bonded as a community and are calling each other forth powerfully. Each of them had huge transformations in just the few days we were together. They even called Brighid and me forward by challenging us. It’s definitely busting my assumptions of what these retreats are “supposed” to look like and opening up new perspectives, which is great for me. I can’t wait to see how the rest of the year goes in the program.

[tags]leadership, Cheryl’s Dreaming Big, mental health, co-leadership, personal growth[/tags]