The Winning Edge: Fun, Joy, Grit, and Love

Cindy Klassen is Canada’s most winningest Olympic athlete with 6 medals and Clara Hughes is No. 2 on Canada’s list of winningest Olympic athletes. I was in awe of their performance in the races yet it was their comments after their incredible feats that put me really in awe of these two exceptional Canadian skaters from Winnipeg. To me, they demonstrate the best in Strength Based Leadership.

When asked about her feat Klassen said:

I really don’t think about things like that. I’m just enjoying the moment right now. I’m excited that I won five medals but I’m really excited with how I raced each race.

I went out each time and wanted to put together the best race possible. I did that and I had a great time doing it. I think I’ll look back and just remember the fun times I had.

Can I get better? I hope so. I’m 26 right now and I hope I can get stronger and stronger. Hopefully, in Vancouver I’ll be at my strongest.

When asked about the medals she said she would store them in a closet at her home in Calgary, I don’t like to display things like that.

After winning gold, Clara Hughes’ thoughts were on others. She said she had been thinking about what motivates her and why she likes to compete. She pledged $10,000 to the charity: Right to Play because she thought

that’s what is all about. Just that happiness and that play can give so much to the world, so much hope and so much positive energy.

This is from a women who only get $18,000 a year in Sports Canada funding and she pledged over half her yearly income to support programs in the Third World aimed at giving children the opportunity to play sports.

Hughes had written the word joy above the knuckle of her ring finger on her left hand before winning her gold medal race.

I wrote on my hand, ‘Joy’ because that’s what I wanted to feel after my race…after I recovered from the physical exhaustion of it. And I really feel that. Just sheer joy and happiness, and the rapture of being alive. It was a really beautiful moment.

What would also give Hughes joy is if others would pledge what they can to Right to Play. Click here to read more and to go to the fundraising page featuring Clara’s efforts. I made a donation right away.

When asked about her feat Hughes replied:

For me, this medal is just another battle I happened to win this time. But I think I’d just like to be thought of as somebody who really loves what they do and shows it to people, and is ready to fight.

Cindy Klassen and Clara Hughes are incredible examples of the qualities of strength, love, and energy that are the foundation of strength based leadership.

Skate on.

Technorati Tags : strength based leadership, Cindy Klassen,Clara Hughes Winnipeg

Winnipeg Women Wow in Winter Olympics

Winnipeg Women Wow in Winter Olympics.

The 2006 Winter Olympics have been inspirational for those of us from Winnipeg. Although the ground is frozen, the temperature is frigid, and outdoor skating rinks show no signs of thawing, our hearts were warmed by the performance of Cindy Klassen and Clara Hughes.

Cindy won 5 medals in speed skating and Clara Hughes won her first gold medal to go along with 2 medals from the summer Olympics in cycling and another medal from 2006 in skating and one more medal from skating in 2002!

Now that’s performance.

Although they may be totally out of breath near the end of each race their efforts have been inspirational.

Their performance is the result of the highest levels of physical energy management woven together by emotional, mental, and spiritual energy. They skated with a purpose, their emotional connections with other athletes were strong, and the mental tenacity to keep going when their body was saying stop, give in, quit, is a phenomenal demonstration of the different types of energy working together in women with passion, commitment, and sheer grit.

Their dedication to their sport and to being the best they can be on the oval can encourage each of us on our own leadership path. Here are your leadership questions to answer:

1. What events or performance are you dedicated to in your life?

2. Are you seeking help from others just as Klassen and Hughes received help from various coaches, sports psychologists and trainers?

3. Are you willing to make a long-term commitment to your development and performance?

4. Do you have the flexibility to make changes as Clara did moving from cycling to skating?

5. In the midst of the most important performance of your life can you relax, have fun and enjoy the moment as Cindy demonstrated time and time again during her two weeks of Olympic competition.

6. Are you up to speed in your field? Are you ready to go faster?

Although Clara and Cindy may skate around in circles they offer each of us a sense of direction. These two Winnipeg women have demonstrated phenomenal strength and energy. They are true swift exemplars of Speed Skating Canada’s motto: The Relentless Pursuit of Excellence.

Technorati Tags : strength based leadership, Cindy Klassen,Clara Hughes Winnipeg

Attention: Transforming struggles into strengths

There are a variety of sources of strengths as a leader. We may draw strength from qualities, personality, gifts, talents, relationships, experiences, and skills.

I am in awe of people who are able to uncover and use their hidden strengths.

Hidden strengths is a term I use to refer to strengths that a person has that are hidden, at least temporarily, even to them. On the surface this strength may not seem like strength. It may be experienced more as a tough experience or a deficit, but with careful and creative reflection the person may transform this into a source of strength.

In addition to leadership development I am also a counsellor-educator. In the field of counselling we refer to counsellors with hidden strengths as wounded-healers. A wounded-healer is someone who may be wounded in living but is able to transform his or her wounds into the strength of helping. I believe it was Robert Bly who stated: Our wounds transformed become our gifts to our community.

Perhaps you grew up in an unpredictable and chaotic family and now you are at home with an unpredictable and chaotic workplace. Perhaps you grew up in a chemically dependent family and to survive you had to read your parents dependency and now as a leader you find that you “read” people very well. Perhaps you were downsized and this experience gives you the strength of empathy for the people you lead. It is an honor as a counsellor to witness the transformation of a struggle into a strength.

On a cautionary note, the transformation of struggles into strengths does not always occur and I don’t believe it should always occur. When life throws us a lemon we do not always need to make lemonade. Sometimes a lemon is just a lemon and transformation should not be trivialized into always trying to find the silver lining in the dark clouds of experience. Transformation in my mind is invited, usually by the individual themselves, not imposed by well-meaning people “just trying to help.”

Yet, here is an example of tapping into a hidden strength by Pete Quily. Pete is an Attention Deficit Disorder Coach in Vancouver. B.C. Pete authors a site on Adult ADD strengths. If you are unfamiliar with Attention Deficit disorder here is the introduction on Wikipedia

Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) (sometimes also referred to as ADD) is a psychiatric diagnosis that identifies characteristics such as hyperactivity, forgetfulness, mood shifts, poor impulse control, and distractibility, when judged to be chronic, as symptoms of a neurological pathology. ADHD is commonly diagnosed among children. When diagnosed in adults, it is regarded as adult attention-deficit disorder (AADD). It is believed that approximately 30 to 70% of children diagnosed with ADHD retain the disorder as adults.Click here to read more about it.

Pete, who experienced his own struggles with AADD, listed 151 Positive characteristics of people with attention deficit disorder. He also recently published the Top 10 advantages of ADD in a High Tech Career. These high tech career advantages are: the ability to hyper focus; rapid fire mind; multitasking at will, high energy level; highly creative; quick learner; stimulus seeking brain; constantly scanning your environment; great in a crisis, and risk taker.

I believe it can be helpful for children with ADHD, and their parents, to see the possible strengths in children with ADHD. To also know that some of the very things they struggle with may be the qualities a future employee may look for can foster not only hope but also a new look at how the child is behaving in their present environment. When the stress mounts, it can be helpful to take a distant view of close things.

I encourage you to pay attention to what you may have experienced as a struggle or a deficit and re-examine it as a possible strength. As Friedrich Nietzsche stated: what does not kill me, will make me stronger.

What have been your struggles?

Can you now see strengths that you can draw out of those struggles that will make you a strong leader?

How can you leverage, these formerly hidden strengths, in the service of others?

Flying the flag of love on Valentine’s Day

Love is one of the 3 keys in strength based leadership.

The most important love in my mind and heart is for our families. My daughter, Katharine, drew this heart a couple of years ago and I will forever fly the family flag of love in my heart.

This is a brief post so that I don’t spend my time on the computer writing this and you spend your time with the people you love not reading blog posts on a computer. I hope the next link you make is to your family.

Carry on caring,
David

Put yourself on the map: Receive an Olympic Loonie

Citius, Altius, Fortius
The Olympic Motto

The 2006 Winter Olympics start tomorrow in Torino Italy. The motto means swifter, higher, stronger. Stronger made me think of the strength in Strength Based Leadership.

Here is the Olympic creed: The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well.

I would like to use the Olympics to encourage you to take part in the Strength Based Leadership discussion group by putting yourself on the map.

Perhaps the Olympics will put Canada a little more on the map and get the world ready for the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. To commemorate the Olympics the Royal Canadian Mint has struck a new Olympic Loonie.

The Canadian mint is just down the road from me in Winnipeg and I love the new coin. In honor of the Olympics, to share the excitement, and to send you a little piece of Canada and Winnipeg, I will mail the Olympic Loonie to the first 25 people (from anywhere in the world—that includes Winnipeg) who put themselves on the strength based leadership discussion map.

I want the group to be meaningful and helpful and I want the group to have fun and be playful. I thought sharing a loonie with you is a way to symbolize this fun and Olympic spirit and to encourage you to take part.I hope this will be your first step towards fuller engagement in our discussions about strength, love, and energy in leadership.

Click here to go to the post on the Strength Based Leadership discussion group that explains the map. If you have any difficulties email me and we can sort it out. (There are already 4 people on the map).

Once you are on the map email me with your address and I will send you the coin as swift as I can.

Citius, Altius, Fortius…The Loonie is Flying…Go Canada Go!

Stop energy going down the drain

Our old dishwasher did not wash dishes.

Perhaps you have kept with something that is no longer working.

The dishwasher was never very good but it got progressively worse. In the last year or two you needed to pre-wash the dishes in the sink, load them in the dishwasher, and then pull them out after washing them only to find that you had to scrape off assorted-sized particles that had encrusted on the plates and glasses like barnacle to a ship.

We now have a new turbo charged dishwasher that leaves the dishes clean and sparkling. Why did we wait so long to do something? How much energy was wasted?

Energy is one of the three foundations of Strength Based Leadership. When we fail to pay attention to energy we may be losing one of our most vital resources as leaders. We need to stop things that waste our energy but sometimes we just carry on mindlessly engaging in work that could be done much more effectively and efficiently.

Where does your personal and organizational energy go down the drain?

Here are a few questions to put through your energy rinse cycle:

What wastes your energy the most? What are you doing about it?

Are your working on things three times that should only take once?

What can you improve, change, or replace that would enhance energy efficiency?

When something or someone is not doing the job what is your response? Is there a different response you could make to improve energy?

To maximize our energy we must at times clean our plate of work and take a close look to make sure everything is in good working order and then use our energy to enhance or replace what is not working so that we may have more energy in the long run.

Nobody but another barnacle wants to eat off a barnacle-encrusted plate.

Ground Hog Day & The Strength Based Leadership Group

Today marks the official start of the Strength Based Leadership Group hosted by David Zinger on Google groups.

It was Ground Hog day today. Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow which according to old German superstition means another 6 weeks of winter. To avoid a “winter” of isolated posts and sporadic comments I have created a group for people interested in this topic to share ideas, questions, thoughts, emotions, conundrums, and other contributions concerning strength based leadership.

I warmly invite you to join the Strength Based Leadership group. If you click into the Strength Based Leadership page you will see a box on the left hand side with a link for new users to join. Once you have joined you will be able to read all the discussions and to start your own topics.

I am moderating this site. I am doing this to prevent spam and any comments that may be offensive. Unfortunately, it will also mean that there is a delay between when you make a contribution or start a new topic and when it shows up on the site.

I want this site to be a place for people to engage in discussion about the roles and functions of caring, strengths, and energy management in leadership. I intend for this group to evolve slowly and by the end of 2006 I would like to have between 12 to 20 regular group members and have a number of others who will visit and make occasional contributions.

In future posts I will be encouraging specific interactions based on the content generated on this site.

	Strength Based Leadership
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