Daniel Gerarto writing about the Egyptian pyramids stated: ‘the pyramids, a monument of human strength and intelligence, have caused awe and curiosity among men at all times.”

Today, I would like you to visit a pyramid from the comfort of your computer: Coach John Wooden’s pyramid of success. Coach Wooden was a highly successful UCLA basketball coach for many years. To help with coaching and to work with players Coach Wooden began to develop his pyramid of success in 1934. Although the origins of the pyramid are over 70 years old (not as old as the pyramids in Egypt) the pyramid is still very relevant for today’s leaders and I am in awe of John Wooden’s creation.

Coach Wooden said the pyramid was less about sports and more about successful living. Click here to visit Coach Wooden’s site. When you visit the site you can click on each block to learn more about the 15 parts of the pyramid: industriousness, friendship, loyalty, cooperation, enthusiasm, self-control, alertness, initiative, intentness, condition, skill, team spirit, poise, confidence, and competitive greatness.

The ball is in your court:

1. Use the pyramid to enhance your approach to leadership, success, and team work.

2. Be inspired to create your own model of leadership.

3. For the next 15 weeks, dedicate one week for each block of the pyramid. Study the block and determine actions you can take each work to transform the block from a concept to living leadership.

4. Share the pyramid with your team and discuss the implications and applications of Wooden’s Philosophy.

I appreciate John Wooden’s definition of success: The peace of mind which is a direct result of the self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming.

Technorati Tags : John Wooden, leadership, pyramid

Steve Jobs, the CEO of Apple computer, gave the Commencement address at Stanford University on June 12, 2005.

The title of the text of his speech on the Stanford news website is: “You’ve got to find what you love.” Jobs shared 3 stories with the graduates: connecting the dots, love and loss, and death.

He felt he was lucky to find what he loved early in life — working on computers. Yet he was fired from Apple just one year after creating the Macintosh.

Demonstrating a high level of resilience, he said…”I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replace by the lightness of being a beginner again.”

Here is a little more from Jobs on love and loss:

Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.

Do you love leadership?

Will your love sustain you and enhance your resilience when you encounter the inevitable bumps, falls, and bruises in leading?

I encourage you to click here to read Steve Jobs entire Commencement address. Learn how Jobs connected the dots and responded to his personal death threat with cancer. Share this speech with a new graduate or leader. This may prove to be a bigger gift to them than an iPod nano.

Steve Jobs concluded his address with the words from the back cover of the final issue of The Whole Earth Catalog:

The site has been available for just over 2 months. There have been over 1500 page views since the inception on Novermber 11th. I am honored and gratified by such a strong early response to the articles. I am very indebted to Rosa Say for including one of my posts in her 2005 Hawaiian blog carnival on Management and Leadership for Talking Story.

I plan to develop and enhance the site in the next few months. On Febuary 2nd. (Ground Hog Day…Ony the shadow knows for sure) I will be inviting readers to participate more fully in strength-based leadership by engaging in a Google hosted Strength Based Leadership Group. If you want an advanced look at the site click here.

I designed a 4 color quadrant to represent strength-based leadership. The 4 color quadrant logo was created to represent the essential 4 dimensions of strength based leadership. The quadrant also represent the solidness and strong base of the approach.

The green part of the quadrant respresents the core of strength.

The red part of the quadrant represents the love and caring that flows through leadership.

The yellow part represents the energy that is so vital to working with the approach and to use strength based leadership to energize others.

The blue part of the quadrant, the color of sky and water, represents the pervasiveness of areas in work and living where strength based leadership can be applied. For example see this post profiling Esther and her strength as a way of being.

At the centre of the quadrant the four colors meet. Strength, love, caring, and you coming together to transform the ideas and concepts into living leadership.

James Kouzes and Barry Posner published Encouraging the Heart: A Leader’s Guide to Rewarding and Recognizing Others. This book provides an excellent guide on the art of recognizing and appreciating others in the workplace.

Kouzes and Posner outline 7 essentials in encouraging the heart: (1) set clear standards; (2) expect the best; (3) pay attention; (4) personalize recognition; (5) tell the story; (6) celebrate together, and; (7) set the example.

Although the book was published in 1999 it is still an informative and practical resource in 2006. I developed training sessions, curriculum, and resources for the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority’s Leadership StAR (Staff Appreciation and Recognition) program. This book played a key role in the development of that program.

Kouzes and Posner discuss the heart of leadership. They note that encouragement and courage both have their roots in the Latin word cor, which literally means “heart.” Read the following lines from the introduction:

Heart brings forth images or courage when faced with great challenges, hope when confronted with great difficulties, and the fortitude to reach inside and give your best even when faced with great odds. Heart involves strength and toughness. It involves leaders’ awareness of their responsibilities to those they’re entrusted to lead, as well as to the values of the organizations that select them.

Leaders who encourage the heart fuse “toughness and tenderness. Guts and grace. Firmness and fairness. Fortitude and gratitude. Passion and compassion. Leaders must have courage themselves, and they must impart it to others.” (introduction p. xvi)

1. Are you putting your heart into leadership?
2. How well are you encouraging the hearts of the people you lead?
3. How many different tactics can you list to encourage the heart?

Paul Simon had an old song about 50 ways to lose your lover but Kouzes and Posner outline 150 ways to encourage the heart: Click here to access a PDF version of chapter 12 on 150 ways to encourage the heart.

Commit yourself to transforming at least 5 ideas into heartfelt actions.

What ignites your human spirit?

An often-neglected part of balanced energy management is to focus, renew, and expend our spiritual energy. Many people equate spiritual with religion. Although religion may be a part of many people’s spiritual dimension this does not have to be the case.

Loehr and Schwartz define spiritual energy as “ the connection to a deeply held set of values and to a purpose beyond our self-interest.”

Most of us have done some type of values exercise but the key questions are:

When was the last time you looked at your values?
How do you act on those values?
How do you use your values in the service of others?

A popular business book was Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan. Part of the book said the most critical quality for leaders is the ability to put ideas into action. Bringing this impetus to spiritual energy:

How well do you put your values into action?
Do you execute a list of values or strengths into viable and on-going spiritual energy actions?

I conclude this post with Martin Seligman’s thoughts on a full life at the end of his book, Authentic Happiness:

…a full life consists in experiencing positive emotions about the past and future, savoring positive feelings from the pleasures, deriving abundant gratification from your signature strengths, and using these strengths in the service of something larger to obtain meaning.