Cultivating the Art of Leadership

Somatic Patterns & Reflections on Yin & Yang

noreply@blogger.com (Cindy Marteney) — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 13:18:00 +0000

It was April 2001 when I impulsively sold my condo in Boston and moved out to Utah for a new life with someone I hardly knew.

For a decade, I had been in the rock-and-roll high tech industry, with its Darwinian emphasis on survival of the fittest. Rapid prototyping--of software and business models alike--was in vogue, with plenty of clever experiments dying unceremoniously at the side of the ever-evolving information superhighway and promising new efforts being gobbled up by bigger entities.

For the last eight years, I've lived out west where the the pace is faster on the ski slopes than in business development and where I've focused more on personal development than ladder climbing or chasm crossings.

When I started training as an integral coach at New Ventures West, I had to look up the definition of "somatic." Little did I know that I would find the somatic stream of development one of the most fascinating or that I would base a lot of my coaching on cultivating somatic awareness and assigning practices to alter the somatic nervous system.

When I exploring different ways to work with the body, I had rolfing, neuromuscular, myofascial, and cranial sacral bodywork sessions. I studied neuro-linguistic programming and how concepts and imagery were linked to holding patterns in the body. I studied somatic coaching as it relates to leadership through the Strozzi Institute.

In those early days, I learned about a particular holding pattern in my right leg: my right quadricep muscle really didn't know how to relax! Not surprisingly, this muscle was in a perpetual state of readiness to spring into action. For those of you fluent in the Enneagram system, my personality is considered a double assertive type (challenger 8 flavored by enthusiast 7).

My friend, Linwood Paul, who is quite masterful at linking somatic with personality patterns, had me do an exercise where he asked me to fall forward (to see which foot I landed on). Indeed, I landed on my right foot, as he said, "The picture I have is that Cindy is one of those people who gets off on the 'right' foot' but that her instinct to do so is overworked."

I did a variety of things that relaxed this restless muscle but a couple of breaks to my right ankle, requiring months of being off my right leg, exacerbated another tendency, for my left leg to bear too much of my weight. I attributed the breaks to "not looking where I was going" and "moving too fast."

There's another angle on this pattern though, a lack of connection to ground, with a tendency to move "up and away" from feeling trapped by circumstances.

Of late, I've been musing on the Chinese medicine beliefs about yin and yang in the body.

"The lower part of the body which connects to the earth is yin while the upper body and extremities are yang and free to move."

Hmm. At New Ventures West, my first coaching assignments were all yin--becoming more empathic, cultivating compassion, embracing more mystery, and deepening my ability to be present with whatever is emerging in myself or my clients. And, my sometimes-challenging work with my Zen teacher, Daniel Doen Silberberg, was all about balancing my well-developed yang spirit with more yin qualities--sensitivity, kindness, as well as, that quality I have only started to make friends with, humility.

For me, both body and mind point in the same direction: balancing the energies of yin and yang in my life. In my relationships, I want more balance, the ability to move more fluidly between the energies of initiating and receiving. Playing tennis again, I am doing more drills that build balancing strength again in my right leg (open stance forehands, for example). And, a Qi Gong class I've been wanting to take is starting downtown in September.

At the Strozzi Institute, we study the embodiment of the ability to reach--for our vision, into our futures, as leaders in our own lives--as well as the embodiment of ground and center--the ability to support all the reaching and sustain the efforts.

Reaching toward and into the future has been the easy part in my life. But as Chinese medicine also states:

"If the body's yang is weak it will be unable to ward off the invasion of a pathogen. If the yin is weak there will not be enough nourishment and support for the yang and the result will be the same...Not only do yin and yang balance each other, they mutually generate one another."

Balancing inspiration (filling up) and expiration (letting go). Balancing extension (reaching) and grounding (support). Balancing the movement of longings (toward desires) and presence (being here). Wherever the polarity exists, balancing must happen somatically, in the nervous system, and not live as some to-do list item when facing burnout.

I encourage you to think about you own somatic patterns and how they create both possibilities and breakdowns in your life, and then reflect on how you can bring more mindful attention to these patterns. As Richard Strozzi-Heckler, one of my teachers reminds us:

"Energy follows attention. Choice follows awareness."

Check out Holding the Center: Sanctuary in a Time of Confusion by Richard Strozzi-Heckler for more on somatics and the concepts of embodiment of the self that we are and what is required for the self that we are becoming. Drop a line with your thoughts!

The Empathy Game

noreply@blogger.com (Cindy Marteney) — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 22:48:00 +0000

Quick. Think of someone who you think is flat out "wrong" about something. How does that make you feel?

It's funny how we torment ourselves with instant replays of all the ways others "don't get it" or are "causing problems."

I had a client last week complaining bitterly about "the boss," who was clearly "wrong" and my client was clearly "right." Making the case for being right, however, wasn't making anything feel any better and conflict in the workgroup continued unabated.

Ever been in that situation?! I have--way too many times. Perhaps that's why I'm endlessly fascinated by the nature of "difficult conversations."

I often work with clients to trace their own "path to action" (this is a great model from Crucial Conversations that helps people detangle facts from stories and identify feelings that unconsciously drive actions). Here's what the model looks like:

See/Hear (the Facts) --> Tell a Story --> Feel --> Act

When we're tracing another's path to action, it's helpful to assume the other person is a reasonable, caring person whose actions make perfect sense--at least from their unique perspective.

The client with the boss who was "wrong" just couldn't see his boss's recent actions as reasonable or even worthy of respect, so we had a rough start. With some effort, my client realized that he could empathize readily with a perfectionistic (and highly efficient) colleague who was causing a lot of interpersonal conflict. But he could not empathize with his boss, who was taking a stand for a more collaborative culture, until he understood the logic of his boss's different perspective, feelings, and actions.

I asked my client to trace the path to action of someone he doesn't understand--while holding the other as a reasonable, caring person taking logical steps, all based on a unique perspectives and associated feelings.

My client was silent for a minute and then said, "This will be hard, but a really good exercise."

Later, when we returned to the situation with the boss, I playfully remarked that as his kids become teenagers, this "path to action" exercise might become a favorite. He laughed.

Some have called the "path to action" exercise the "empathy game," finding it far more interesting to discover the missing link that makes another's path to action "reasonable" and even "caring"--even if that caring is not expansive enough to include you or the action is hurtful or downright destructive.

Our own work on understanding others' paths to action helps us become more expansive, more empathetic, and thus more able to find common ground. Try it and let me know how it goes.

Moods, Meaning & Wholeheartedness

noreply@blogger.com (Cindy Marteney) — Wed, 13 May 2009 20:55:00 +0000

Broader cultural currents always affect patterns in coaching.

Flush times tend to bring more work around career progression, with questions around how to get to the next level, how to lead more effectively, and how to have work/life balance amidst a flood of opportunities. Moods tend toward those of optimism and ambition, and there's a huge focus on how to manage all the things "happening out there."

Attention is on external events and interactions, as in a fast-moving game, where you must understand the rules, react to surprises, and work on doing things faster and better in order to win.

Economic downturns change everything. Moods become more serious and contemplative, and there's a new focus on what is personally meaningful. Questions turn to things like purpose and calling and how to live and work in more wholehearted ways. Attention shifts from the external to the internal.

The reason? When possibilities abound and we focus on external things, we can mobilize ourselves into action based on reacting to countless, often entertaining and sometimes maddeningly complex, stimuli. When possibilities narrow and there is less to react to, we have to find a new source of energy, which comes from being moved by what is meaningful internally.

I have coached many leaders who have been looking for meaning in all the wrong places, namely from good ideas (head) and have found themselves immobilized. The reality is that meaning comes from feelings (heart). In business and in academic institutions alike, though, we are encouraged to keep things "rational" and pay little attention to emotions.

Alas, only emotions have the power to touch us, to move us, to propel us in a new direction and to take new actions. And, when in doubt about how an opportunity really moves us, we can assess alignment through the body (gut), which acts like a veritable polygraph for feelings as well as facts.

We have a saying in coaching that "the body never lies." Turning to the body not only yields breakthroughs in stalled searches for meaning but also vastly shortens the process, a benefit that makes somatic elements of coaching enormously powerful for clients.

A downturn like this one offers the opportunity (forced or seized upon) to slow down, reconnect with what's important, and be moved into action from a more wholehearted and thus energized place.

And, if you're having trouble, contact me for a complimentary session to explore and align your own three centers of wisdom (head, heart, and gut).

High Stakes Decisions, Gut Instinct & Re-Centering

noreply@blogger.com (Cindy Marteney) — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 16:00:00 +0000

A good problem to have. Two big career opportunities, one unexpected. That's the conundrum an executive client faced yesterday. The stakes are high, as going in one direction will most likely permanently cut off a whole line of possibilities on the other side. How to decide?

Often when we're indecisive, we're ignoring signals from one of the centers (head, heart, gut). It's common to hear clients lament "not knowing" when facing decisions that have substantial upside and downside.

More impulsive (reactive) personalities struggle with containing the energy that builds rapidly and feels like an imperative to "do something" now.

More contemplative (withdrawn) personalities struggle with feeling enough energy to act with confidence and can risk staying stuck in the wrong situations.

Whatever the style, whenever we feel "of two minds," we're ignoring information from one of the three centers of wisdom.

Yesterday, my client reported being "jump out of my own skin" excited by an unpublished opportunity that had emerged from contacting one of his former employers about being a reference for a position for which he was being heavily recruited. The idea of being wanted and the possibility of working in his former organization, where he has an existing and quite strong network, got his adrenaline going.

We just completed private leadership intensive, focusing on his signature strengths (things he does well most effortlessly), values (what makes him feel good about the way he lives and works), and authenticity (showing what's inside to the outside). We discussed how seductive prestigious offers can be and how, without alignment with what he cares about and what he does most naturally, he can end up restless and not completely fulfilled. We practiced re-centering under stress or pressure to go against his values.

Yesterday, when we reviewed his thinking about the different career opportunities, it was clear that the old status and prestige melody was animating his feelings of excitment. However, his body was extremely tense. When asked to describe the sensations in his body, he mentioned having a headache, tense legs and abdomen, clenched fists and teeth, high and shallow breathing, and a knit brow. Classic fight or flight responses (fight for prestige/flight from one opportunity or another).

We explored what was missing and he concluded that he was still rigged to say "yes" (fight) for the wrong reasons, and that while his thoughts were all positive, his body (gut instinct) was holding the tension, signalling conflict with important values. Thinking, feeling, and instinct were not aligned.

I guided him through a re-centering exercise that involves relaxation through mindfulness, tuning into sensations systematically and allowing deeper, slower breathing to relax the body's fight/flight response. It only took about 5 minutes, but the shift was profound. My client felt more spacious, more able to think strategically and more inclusively, and more prepared for his next conversations.

His comment: "I no longer feel at war with myself over this decision. This was really big. Re-centering is something I need to practice a lot more."

Yes, indeed, the case for practicing -- tuning into the center we each least use yields huge benefits. Meanwhile, I look forward to hearing about his more centered decision.

Ten Mistakes Transformational Leaders Make

noreply@blogger.com (Cindy Marteney) — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 16:46:00 +0000

Story is an ongoing interest of mine: how people use stories (or not) to enroll others, to get funding, to build support for new initiatives, etc. The latest book I've been reading is The Secret Language of Leadership by Stephen Denning, who is the former program director for knowledge management at the World Bank.

Denning's opening story is how, when a new World Bank president came onboard, his and many other directors' jobs were being reassigned to others. Denning reports that "There were no specific positions available" and that he was told to "look into information," a low-prestige backwater of the bank back in the mid-90s. Despite much discouragement from directors above him, Denning investigated the world of information and information sharing.

Ever optimistic, Denning pulled off a surprising move -- transformation of how knowledge was shared across the bank and with clients in third-world countries. To do so, he had to persuade skeptical, change-resistant senior managers of the value of knowledge management.

As I was reading, I remembered being in the middle of the knowledge management challenge at Lotus/IBM, in the Consulting division, at precisely the same time in 1996. Denning's story was incredibly similar to the stories our consultants told of knowledge management champions they were working with at client organizations. Anyway, I digress.

I found the "Ten Mistakes Transformational Leaders Make" quite interesting as the story behind the list is of Al Gore's candidacy for president in 2000 (Denning contrasts Gore's mistakes in 2000 with how he got it all right in 2006 with An Inconvenient Truth) :

An Unclear, Uninspiring Goal (Gore talked about 11 programs in 90 seconds of his first debate -- ahem, about ten too many - so if you're thinking about sharing all the important initiatives you've been strategizing on, think again and stick to one!).
Lack of Total Commitment for Change (Gore was guarded about sharing his sense of humor and the things he was passionate about and ended up coming across as wooden and less than fully behind himself much less his change platform -- so if you habitually reign yourself in and try to keep the conversation rational, your audience won't see a full sense of commitment).
Incongruent Body Language (Gore had a lot of experience but didn't come across as the poised, seasoned politician that he was, but instead sounded hurried, used excessively combative language, and used condescending body language-- as I so often mention to clients, it's not cheating to do a dry run of an important conversation or presentation and get feedback on how others receive the messages you're sending).
Misreading the Audience (Gore was proposing to "fight" for a lot of things at a time when people didn't feel so dissatisfied and on topics that weren't at the top of their agendas and thus lost his audience -- so, do as Lincoln used to do, spend 1/3 of your time on your content and 2/3 of your time on understanding how your audience is listening).
Lack of Narrative Intelligence (Gore told stories with confusing or discordant details that made listeners consider the stories implausible -- Denning goes on to illustrate that there is a pattern to good narrative)
Not Telling the Truth (Gore was pinned with a reputation for exaggerating and it lost him credibility points that he genuinely deserved -- so, when the stakes are high and your audience is not yet convinced, any exaggeration can be magnified in their minds as being untruthful).
Attention Misdirected (Gore told stories that did not make the case for his proposals and often inadvertently made the case for his opponent's points -- so, while stories are powerful attention grabbers, their inherent logic must support your case).
Inability to Elicit Desire for Change (Gore failed to get people's attention in positive ways -- ah, the problem-solving mentality is the culprit here, when all the research shows possibilities are far more inspiring and compelling than problems).
Reasons Backfired (Gore led with a rational approach and failed to make emotional connections first, the more reasons he offered for his proposals without an emotional connection, the more he started an argument with his audience -- hmm, I've been there, and so have most of my clients, attempting to persuade through reason and clueless to the need for more emotional connection!).
The Conversation Died (Denning states that "leadership communications begin as a monologue. If they are successful they turn into dialogue and then into conversation" and noted that Gore failed to get much past monologue -- alas, this is another common problem in intellectual circles, too much telling and not enough conversing to create ownership).

While Gore lost in 2000, he went on to become a rock star success story, no longer making the mistakes above, with his green revolution theme in An Inconvenient Truth.

We're in the middle of an historic presidential election that is all about change, between candidates from very different generations and with very different styles (McCain from the Silent Generation and Obama from the 13th Generation -- see my childhood friend's, Jamie Stiehm's, essay on this generational topic in US News & World Report).

See if you can detect which mistakes each of these candidates have made/are making and drop a line with your comments here or to me directly!

A Lizard's Tale, Strengths & Happiness

noreply@blogger.com (Cindy Marteney) — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 00:13:00 +0000

It seems like a lot of folks in my practice are dealing with major life changes of late. Happiness is the big topic (or longing) that often comes under cover of "figuring out what's next."

Relationship questions. Job questions. Fulfillment questions. Underneath them all is how to be happier in this lifetime, given these (many, many) options, and given uncertainty about "what it will be like" with a different scenario.

With all of these questions, the answers are to be found not so much in what feels good immediately as in what is meaningful and even challenging.

In Authentic Happiness, by Martin Selignman, there's a great story about a lizard dying of hunger no matter the number of flies, insects, mango pieces, or other food offered. Then, the owner dropped a New York Times over a ham sandwich in the lizard's cage and the most surprising thing happened:

"The lizard took one look at this configuration, crept stealthily across the floor, leapt onto the newspaper, shredded it, and then gobbled up the ham sandwich. The lizard needed to stalk and shred before it would eat...Hunting, it seems is a lizardly virtue. So essential was the exercise of this strength to the life of the lizard that its appetite could not be awakened until the strength had been engaged."

Follow your bliss. Follow your strengths. Same thing. We're most alive and happiest when we're engaging our signature strengths. We feel deadened (depressed) when our most favorite strengths are not in play.

If you're wrestling with a "happiness" question, think about your strengths, what you love doing or experiencing, and where you find flow. Consider how your strengths play into your various options, how your options will allow you to build on your strengths even. And choose accordingly.

You may just find that time dissolves, that work seems like play, and that relationships seem like gifts. Sounds like happiness, don't you think? :-)

Structures of Community, Belonging & Commitment

noreply@blogger.com (Cindy Marteney) — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 02:29:00 +0000

I moved a lot as I was growing up, but California was always home base (Santa Monica primarily, but also Huntington Beach and Santa Barbara). After I went in the Navy, my family moved to Florida, which never felt like home. So, I've had an endless interest in (longing for) community.

While in San Francisco recently, Peter Block's new book title, naturally, caugh my attention: Community: The Structure of Belonging. Here's how Block opens his new book:

"Whenever I am in a neighborhood or small town and see empty storefronts, watch people floating aimlessly on sidewalks during school or working hours, pass by housing projects, or read about crime, poverty, or a poor environment n the places where our children and our brothers and sisters live, I am distressed and anguished. It has become impossible for me to ignore the fact that the world we are creating does not come close to fulfilling its promise.

Along with this distress comes the knowledge that each of us, myself included, is participating in creating this world. If it is true that we are creating this world,then each of us has the power to heal its woundedness. This is not about guilt, it is about accountability. Citizens, in their capacity to come together and choose to be accountable, are our best shot at making a difference."

The opening page had me. Block went on to say "Belonging does not have to be left to chance."

Block talks about how leaders of communities are essentially social architects, creators of public experiences and interactions, and managing the social space within which transformation occurs organically, where the focus is on possibility and not problems, and where people not only belong, they also feel a sense of ownership (with the challenges ahead belonging to them).

Block posits that Questions Are More Transforming Than Answers and distinguishes between questions with little power (e.g., how do we get people to show up and be committed, etc.) and those with great power (how valuable do you plan for this effort to be, etc.).

Block argues that "Powerful questions are the ones that cause you to become an actor as soon as you answer them." He writes: "Community will be created the moment we decide to act as creators of what it can become."

Block makes the case for the MORF process I frequently use with my clients (what do I want more of for Myself, the Other person, the Relationship, and the Future?). By moving from complaints, by bringing longings into language, we can shift our own physiology and the hearts of others in the direction of a vision for what is possible.

Block's book is compelling and practical (check out the Book at a Glance section with its terrific sample questions for generating genuine community conversations -- around ownership, commitment, dissent, and gifts).

Highly recommended for anyone working on change initiatives!

On a separate note, I was delighted to see my friend, Allan Cohen acknowledged by Block as "the best business strategist I know."

Are You Doing Your Best?

noreply@blogger.com (Cindy Marteney) — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 18:17:00 +0000

Many people come to coaching for help in defining and going after what they want. The tricky part is in wanting many things, having some of those things in conflict, and getting stuck without a lot of progress on what we want.

My teacher, Daniel Silberberg, has our group working on being clear about what we want, with the following four questions the core of our reflection and writing assignment for the week:

What do you really want?
Are you doing your best at what you want?
Are you doing it now? (versus putting it off)
Are you being yourself?

I've always been able to go after things in life, whether building a business or becoming a coach or designing a physical space. Knowing what I wanted didn't seem so hard when it came to doing something.

Now, what I really want is to cultivate a deeper ground of being, a presence that both I and my clients can always relax into, a clarity that comes from a quiet mind, a creativity that comes from being truly open.

If that's it, then on to the next question. Am I doing my best? I have been traveling a lot and not making my group's sitting on Thursday nights, even when I am in town. On the other hand, I am sitting more regularly and looking forward to a silent retreat the first week of July at the Insight Meditation Center.

My practice is deepening, but am I doing my best? It's a provocative question, one which Daniel frames in terms of excellence a la the martial arts or training to compete in anything (chess, rock-climbing, etc.).

Part of what kept getting in the way of doing my best was how I addressed family health issues over the past two years (my dad first and then my mom). How I kept throwing myself at their health, happiness, and well-being, with lots of pushing and prodding and a burning desire to alter their defeating behaviors and plenty of suffering on my part when they didn't change.

While I grew closer to both of my parents, I grew more distant from myself. Time to undo that distance.

Daniel's questions this week are grounding: What do I want? Am I doing my best? Am I doing it now? Am I being myself? Good questions to reconnect with both our longing (what we want) as well as our commitment (for the sake of what would we do our best and do it now?).

Reflect on them yourself for a week and let me know what you learn.

Bees, Humans, Risk & Happiness

noreply@blogger.com (Cindy Marteney) — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 16:37:00 +0000

The June 17th headline reads: Decision-Making, Risk-Taking Similar In Bees And Humans. Of course, I had to click through. Here's the lead paragraph:

Most people think before making decisions. As it turns out, so do bees. In the journal Nature, Israeli researchers show that when making decisions, people and bees alike are more likely to gamble on risky courses of action - rather than taking a safer option - when the differences between the various possible outcomes are easily distinguishable. When the outcomes are difficult to discern, however, both groups are far more likely to select the safer option - even if the actual probabilities of success have not changed.

The study was done by the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and one of the institute's professors of Industrial Engineering and Management opined on the significance of the research in terms of workplace rule enforcement, but I was more interested in the phrases "people and bees alike are more likely to gamble on risky courses of action...when the differences between the various possible outcomes are easily distinguishable."

This phrase made me think of my teacher's (Daniel Silberberg's) comments at a meditation retreat last Saturday on "beliefs." We were studying beliefs that we hold that get in the way of success, fulfillment, and happiness, identifying some core beliefs we could afford to let go of. Daniel commented on how so often, when we're unhappy with our life or work or relationships, we believe that if we make a change that we will likely draw the short stick, namely that things will in fact get worse. Daniel encouraged us to observe beliefs that get in the way of having what we most want and to really challenge these beliefs (i.e., what evidence do we actually have that things will get worse?!).

The bees and humans and decisions article made me reflect on how much easier it is to choose a better job when it's quantitatively better (better hours, better workplace environment, better pay, closer to home). When the positive differences we can sense (see, hear, touch) are less clear (e.g., will working for myself under conditions of ambiguity feel better than working for a boss or an organization that I find uninspiring?), most of us can remain stuck, biased toward the safer course of action.

In coaching, we often talk about the importance of offering "distinctions with power" for our clients. If we can find the right language to distinguish current experience from desired outcomes and states, our clients can "gamble on" seemingly "risky courses of action."

A lot of clients are wishing for more happiness, but it keeps eluding them. Daniel talked on Saturday about how often people hold the belief that happiness is akin to a destination, a place at which you can arrive (if you're successful enough, if you're enlightened enough, if you're thin enough, whatever your theory of happiness revolves around). He went on to talk about the quality of being with each moment, as it is, and how this capacity provides for genuine happiness.
Since the whole concept of distinctions was what caught my eye in the first place, I would like to share how Aristotle distinguished three ostensible paths to happiness (he was a fan of door number 3, by the way):

The Voluptuary's path -- the enjoyment of sensual and material pleasures (i.e., more things, more experiences, more pleasure).

The Sultan's path -- the pursuit of honor (i.e., more accomplishment, power, status, admiration, more honor).

The Sage's path -- the pursuit of wisdom (i.e., more understanding of how cause and effect really works, what constitutes goodness in relationships and community and politics, more wisdom).

More things, more accomplishment, it's not what brings happiness, and I know this as well as the next person, but it's still easy for me to fall into the "doing and acquiring" routine when I'm not paying attention.

It takes a little help (from teachers like Daniel and fellow journeyers) to distinguish between the risks and rewards of the familiar path in contrast with those of the Sage's path. When it comes to happiness, what's really riskier?

Sigh. I guess this is why we have relatively long lives, so we can, just like the bees, "select the safer option" and also revise our bets when a more satisfying future becomes "easily distinguishable" (read: compelling enough for us to choose!).

Life work, indeed.

Corporate Identity Featured by HP/Logoworks

noreply@blogger.com (Cindy Marteney) — Fri, 23 May 2008 17:27:00 +0000

I got a call Wednesday morning from a gal at HP. She asked, "Would you be interested in being in a video highlighting the logo that you did with Logoworks today?"

Apparently, someone dropped out of the schedule, the film crew was in town, and the marketing department had scanned hundreds of logos and selected The Marteney Group as a top prospect to show off the work they have done. It sounded like a cool opportunity. My day was surprisingly open, so I said "yes."

My conference room was quickly transformed into a working studio, with the film crew choosing an interesting angle and using a colored light behind the blinds that were behind me. The VP of Marketing asked me questions about my experience (I have used Logoworks three separate times, for logo/corporate identity and web site development). The crew filmed my stationery, business cards, mugs, and pens up close. I think they'll be capturing screen shots from my web site too.

At some point, I'll get a DVD with the video that HP will be sharing with Fortune 500 company CEOs and marketing executives.

It's an interesting coincidence, as I've been thinking about offering my branding and positioning workshops again, after not marketing them for years. Last fall, I integrated my branding and positioning workshop with leadership coaching for Novitaz, a high tech company.

The CEO, Suni Munshani, for whom I once worked and who is now a friend, sent me a long testimonial letter after the workshop, which included the following comments:

"I want to thank you for your incredible contributions to Novitaz and the team, but also to acknowledge we may not have survived Novitaz if we had not done the off-site with you in Salt Lake City."

"We also came away with clarity on our brand, and we are very clear on the changes we need to make to our messaging. This has created a ton of work for us, but it is fun work, and we are excited to get it done. It will identify us with who we really are and what we declare we will be."

The HP video will be fun to show at the beginning of branding workshops, opening up a discussion on how clarifying vision, mission, essence, and positioning of a brand, as well as defining the core customer value proposition leads to a brand (logo/visual identity) that captures the essence of your offering.

Drop a line if you have questions about how branding can be applied at the personal level!

Book Study Group & Reflections on Presence

noreply@blogger.com (Cindy Marteney) — Wed, 14 May 2008 01:18:00 +0000

I was just playing back a recording of a book study group I'm participating in this quarter. Alas, I missed the first call.

It's always interesting to hear a variety of check-ins, how people describe themselves, a surprising number with rising inflections at the end of their factual statements. That peculiar rise in inflection at the end of a statement sounds hesitant, not fully grounded in one's own experience.

What is it about unfamiliar group settings that makes us sound uncertain about basic things, like what we most care about?!

My client work today was with very different men, yet had interesting parallels to my book study group call. Each client dropped into amazing moments of presence, and then, as quickly, each popped back out and felt distant, abstract, although still continuing to talk.

The difference was in how deeply each man experienced himself as he talked. It's the same for all of us, of course. It can be subtle, we can talk without that disturbing uptick in our voices, but still not be fully embodied in our own experience (the old "talking heads" syndrome).

As I listened to the rest of the recorded call tonight, I tried to imagine each person, how they were holding their bodies, what their mood was, whether they were distracted by a computer screen with email popping up, however silently, etc.

The call wasn't live. I couldn't participate in the conversation. I didn't love the book. So I found myself far more intrigued by the quality of each person's recorded presence than the content being covered.

I'm also left with a curiosity about how I come across when recorded, as part of a visually anonymous group. Hmmm.

Hiatus in Writing - Update on UAE Project

noreply@blogger.com (Cindy Marteney) — Thu, 08 May 2008 23:54:00 +0000

So I've been to the United Arab Emirates and back since I last wrote. I survived the roundabouts in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Al Ain (I got an "are you okay" note from my brother after a 200-car pile-up happened between Dubai and Abu Dhabi on March ).

At the Al Ain Hilton and at the Al Shaheen camp outside of Al Ain, I enjoyed the comraderie of colleagues from around the world -- Jordan, South Africa, Scotland, England, Australia, and Sudan. We spent our first week shadowing the male facilitators at an all-male leadership assessment camp (where participants from the highest levels of government resided at the camp and participated in experiential or action learning assignments designed to test their leadership skills).

To put the work in context, the UAE's visionary president, Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed mandated a comprehensive leadership development program for over 700 of the UAE's civil service leaders to achieve his goal of becoming one of the top 5 most respected and effective governments in the world by the year 2012. To do this, the Sheikh's policy agenda emphasizes:

"(P)rogrammes to develop an open economy, based on sustainable knowledge, that can compete internationally and with distinction, providing the best services in education, health and developed infrastructure within a legislative environment distinguished by efficiency and transparency."

Our job as the first group of female facilitators was to learn almost a dozen games (rules, penalties, equipment, etc.), the leadership assessment model (12 competencies against which each candidate would be assessed), the literal lay of the land (where each game was located across a broad expanse of red-gold sand dunes), and the report-writing process (how to integrate live observations with data from each candidate's psychometric tests). Simple, eh?

Well, there was a catch. After running with many men's camps since the fall of 2007, the camp had to instantly turn into an all-female camp -- so that 40 female leaders could fully participate in the camp's activities and without wearing their abayas, the long flowing black robe that Emerati women wear over their clothes in public.

This meant that the logistics manager had to disappear (he was responsible for the walkie talkies, the water trucks that replenished the camp, the pick-up truck that transports hypertensive or otherwise medically-sensitive participants to the dunes, and so forth).

The IT manager also had to disappear and operate remotely from the Hilton. Even the male chef had to vacate camp for the week and arrange to have food sent in.

Female Filipino security guards were stationed as sentries at the camp's gate, ensuring no strangers and certainly no men had access to the camp, which although rather remote was nevertheless secured by several guards at all times.

The prank nature played on me was delivering a dreadful bug from one of my newest friends, Mira El Tal, a very cool and bright half-American/half-Jordanian woman from Dubai. Incidentally, in the UAE, antibiotics are passed out like candy at pharmacies, and with the ever-changing constellation of ex-patriates coming and going from all parts of the world, new superbugs were brewing all the time. Everyone seemed to have stories of getting a kind of crud when they first came to the UAE. And I thought I had a rock solid immune system.

Sigh. I lost my voice the day before the women's camp was to begin. Bad timing to say the least. A bus load of Emerati women arrived on that hot Sunday of March 16th, and my voice croaked and I coughed (and I worried about making a wretched first impression). I'll never forget one of the younger candidates, who worked in an Organizational Development role, later winking at me and saying that I sounded "sexy."

It's funny thinking back to my fist week in the UAE, seeing women in their abayas on the street, where they looked so unavailable. The Emerati women who lead important parts of the UAE's government services were anything but shy or unavailable.

Most spoke impeccable English and forgave us readily for our few words of Arabic. And, to a woman, they were determined to throw themselves into the challenges of the week wholeheartedly, to take on the performance of over 400 men who preceded them at the camp.

We had our amusing little challenges during the week, but all worked out without any Murphy's Law moments. Well, maybe the pickup truck getting stuck in the sand was one of those moments, but facilitators, Mary Lou Rushforth and L'Re Vanrooyen, and some camp staff freed the truck from the sand and let out the air in the tires to proper sand dune driving levels, and the situation never made it all the way to red alert (read: call the guys in). Well done, ladies!

Throughout the week, in which the temperature had climbed and the wind had become ever more still, the Emerati candidates were in good spirits, saying things like, "When will we ever have another opportunity quite like this? This is an historic experience for us." Indeed, it was the first time many of them had ever met, with women from family services on teams with women from architecture and engineering services divisions. It was certainly the first time many had ever roughed it or shared a room with several strangers in a trailer, far from custoary levels of service these women enjoy.

At the end of the week, I remember finding myself walking alongside a woman with a particularly wonderful profile and commanding presence. I asked what part of the Government she was from. She said, "Presidential Affairs." I said, "Oh, you're involved in the world of politics!" She smiled in a engaging way and said, "Yes, I tell these women that 'I am the Government.'" I liked her and wished we could have spent more time talking, but the week was ending, and the women were boarding the bus headed back to Abu Dhabi.

We waved at them and debriefed and, like that, it was all over. One last shower back at the Hilton and we could turn in our uniforms and chill out for the afternoon with nary a report to be written before dinner. It was a whirlwind adventure, one that I will never forget, and one that also marked an early spring after a long (and hard) winter for me!

Abu Dhabi Bound

noreply@blogger.com (Cindy Marteney) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 00:42:00 +0000

I shopped for desert gaiters today. Didn't know I would ever need such a thing until my friend, Linwood Paul, invited me to support a project he's on in Abu Dhabi. I will be over there for two weeks starting in early March.

Linwood specializes in experiential learning and leadership development events, which involve ropes and games and that take place mostly outdoors -- in parks and, in the case of Abu Dhabi, in a sandy, desert camp. Hence, the desert gaiters, to keep out the talcum powder-fine sand out of my hiking boots.

I worked with Linwood on a similar project in Los Angeles and marveled at how powerful the experiential work was for leaders at all levels, many of whom entered their "day in the park" with some attitude about wasting time "playing" and left with profound insights into their own styles of leadership under pressure.

Directive leaders show up as highly directive in games that involve ambiguity. Natural collaborators reveal their colors in the first game of the day. And so on. The gift of this work is that there's no convincing a leader of what's showing up - they just had the experience, and so did their colleagues.

The first week in Abu Dhabi, I'll be shadowing the male facilitators working with male leaders. The second week, I'll be working with all female facilitators with an all-female group of leaders. What an honor. I couldn't be more excited!

I think I'll have to make that care package I put together for Linwood (and others on the team) that much more spectacular. It doesn't hurt to get off to a good start!

iTunes & Sweet Darkness

noreply@blogger.com (Cindy Marteney) — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 21:10:00 +0000

I arrived in Utah with a large number of CDs and found them clunky to look at in their black towers. So, I decided to toss out the plastic CD shells, keep the album art in a bag (just in case I wanted them for some reason), and streamlined the corner of the family room where the stereo lived.

Roll forward seven years. I lost touch with my music. I had an iPod , but I never felt compelled to carry it around with me. Benign indifference.

Then I discovered the album art view in iTunes (late adopter, I know). It was like rediscovering old friends seeing album covers from my old CDs. I spent dozens of hours loading and organizing my music over the holidays, a bit obsessively, I confess. As an incredibly visual person, I realized that I had always picked up my CD cases and knew what to play when because of the emotional links I created to the images in album art.

My friend, Tess, who is an audiophile at heart, shrugged her shoulders when I shared my discovery. The album art doesn't matter to her. The visuals don't matter. She can remember the lyrics and song names already and loves her iPod, plain text and all.

My friend, Neil Kochenour, was in town last week, and we had lunch. He lost his wife, Edie, an amazingly vibrant woman with a joyful laugh, last year. I decided to play something for him after we talked about his life and loss in 2007.

I shared a track called "Living the Courageous Life" from David Whyte's CD, Midlife and the Great Unknown.

David Whyte has this gorgeous Yorkshireman's accent and lovely poet's cadence in talking and reciting his poetry. Neil and I sat there on Friday afternoon together, listening to Whyte talk about the "great questions" and how we cannot begin the conversation inside the subject of our questions.

Instead, we must "go to a place where you can see a landscape, you listen to a piece of music, you spend time in silence, you turn the lights off and sit in the kitchen in the dark..."

I have returned to Whyte's CDs over and over in the past few weeks, as Whyte reads his poetry so beautifully, repeating phrases that linger and echo in memory.

Here's one of Whyte's poems from the CD set whose last lines keep replaying like a song's chorus: "anything or anyone that does not bring you alive is too small for you."

Sweet Darkness

When your eyes are tired

the world is tired also.
When your vision has gone

no part of the world can find you.
Time to go into the dark

where the night has eyes

to recognize its own.
There you can be sure

you are not beyond love.
The dark will be your womb tonight.
The night will give you a horizon

further than you can see.
You must learn one thing,

The world was made to be free in.
Give up all the other worlds

except the one to which you belong.
Sometimes it takes darkness and

the sweet confinement of your

aloneness to learn
anything or anyone

that does not bring you alive
is too small for you.

May 2008 bring courage to all of us to shed the things that are "too small" to bring us alive.

And, may 2008 also bring the spaciousness to consider our biggest questions afresh -- in a landscape, in silence, with a piece of music, with the lights turned out.

More on the Enneagam & Leadership Styles

noreply@blogger.com (Cindy Marteney) — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 18:13:00 +0000

If you' already an Enneagram enthusiast, I am an "8" (Challenger) with a strong "7" wing (Adventurer), which means:

My primary center is the body (or instinctual) center (my 8 home base)
A close second is the head (or intellectual) center (my strong 7 wing)
My developental work is in the heart (or emotional) center (my integration point at 2)

The emotional center. Cultivating ever greater sensitivity to what's arising emotionally in others and also sensing emotional currents and their meanings in myself. It's life work. For some 8's, there's a real "eew" factor in moving into the heart center, where softness and subtlety are more pronounced than sheer will and boldness of action.

All of us have our integration point, which evokes the recognition that, yes, that's where we don't pay attention, or at least not enough attention. We recognize that place as one that we may not even value so fully.

For Enneagram 6's (the Loyalist), smack dab in the middle of the head center (and common in academia, including academic medicine), the challenge is to become more grounded and peaceful, like a healthy 9.

I'll never forget one 6 client, with a zillion credentials, wondering why all the "new age" talk about grounding and centering in our work. Over time, the value became apparent, as this client shared, "I'm not saying such different things, but people pay more attention to me now."

I'm not surprised. I can feel the difference in her presence, and she acknowledges the value of her daily morning practices that help her focus on trusting herself and moving more instinctively toward what she wants versus spending so much time feeling anxious and "in her head."

An ambitious 3 (Achiever) that I'm working with admitted to being a "driver" on a lot of things, but also feeling "disconnected" to the rest of the team. In fact, the 3's integration point is at 6 (Loyalist), where individual contribution is complemented by fostering greater connections with others who are working on "something bigger" than mere personal advancement.

When I first studied the Enneagram, I was initially confused by the heady 7's (Adventurer's) integration to point 5 (Observer), another head center type. It seemed like the last thing a 7 needed was more thinking.

I grew to understand this path the more I studied my fun-loving 7 friends (I have many 7 friends). The dramatic breadth of ideas can explode like popcorn from 7's, and this excessive breadth becomes shored up with a more disciplined, more structured, and deeper understanding of cause and effect or mastery at point 5.

I've been dealing with my mom's recovery from a bad fall, a fractured ankle, and a bad wound. She's still in a nursing home, and she worried today about short-term memory loss from the bump to her head. I assured her I wasn't so worried about the fall as her daily practices, which have always been a bit flakey.

As an Enneagram 4, my mom is often lost in her own world of imagination and feelings and easily loses touch with things like schedules, commitments, etc. Her integration point is to 1 (Perfectionist) where reliability and results count, and where self-discipline stands out as a core quality.

If you have Enneagram questions with respect to leadership, drop a line. I love chatting about this profound personality system, with its powerful and explicity pathways to personal development.

Three Centers of Wisdom in Leadership

noreply@blogger.com (Cindy Marteney) — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 02:38:00 +0000

Three centers of wisdom. Intellectual, emotional, physical. Head, heart, body.

In the early 1900s, George Gurdjieff, talked about humans being "three-brained" beings and promoted the idea that human development required work on all three centers. Gurdjieff introduced his 4th Way work as an advancement over eastern wisdom traditions that emphasized development of one center over others -- the body (the way of the fakir), the emotions (the way of the monk), or the mind (the way of the yogi).

Today, Dr. Candace Pert --known for her discovery of the opiate receptor and research on endorphins and peptides -- continues to document the biochemical basis for how the "bodymind" functions as an interdependent network of communication across multiple centers. As Dr. Pert likes to say in speeches, she is documenting the science behind the ancient chakra system, which distinguishes seven centers of intelligence.

For leadership work, however, let's stick to the three centers of head, heart, and body.

In each of us, there's a palpable quality that signals which center is home base, where we look first for answers, how we respond to challenges and opportunities, and the impression we typically make on others. Are we oriented to data and theories (head)? Are we more oriented toward feelings and relationships (heart)? Or are we more oriented toward instinct and action (body)? And, as important, what center are we neglecting?

If we don't know, everyone around us certainly does! For leaders it's important to cultivate all three centers and not get stuck in any one habit of paying attention or interacting with others.

The Enneagram is a powerful personality system that illuminates the patterns of all three centers and offers practical ways to develop greater capacity in each center.

As a coach, I prefer the developmental aspect of the Enneagram to the more strictly descriptive personality typing systems, which tend to contribute to "stuck" states ("I'm an intuitive feeler, you can't expect me to deal with data" or "I'm an introvert, please don't expect me to speak up in meetings").

If you are interested in exploring more on the Enneagram, I recommend The Wisdom of the Enneagram by Don Riso and Russ Hudson (it's a brilliant reference that stands the test of time). If you want an easier (more fun) way to start, try The Enneagram Made Easy by Renee Barron and Elizabeth Wagele.

For leaders who are interested in understanding their style, I recommend the Sikora Strategy Preference Indicator instrument for assessing Enneagram type because the SPI provides concise language that busy executives appreciate. Also, the Sikora report you get offers explicit leadership pointers and implications, including:

Map of Strengths in all Nine Types
Description of Primary Type and Primary Anxiety
Communication Style
Leadership Style
Derailers
Efficient Use of Other Strategies
Awareness to Action Model
How Change Really Happens

Write me if you're interested in a leadership development forum with special emphasis on the Enneagram and exploring and cultiating the three centers of wisdom.

I've had interest among my clients (who hail from all parts of the country) and am in the process of putting a program together for 2008.

Meetings: Efficiency or Effectiveness?

noreply@blogger.com (Cindy Marteney) — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 14:53:00 +0000

There is a genre of business book called the "leadership fable" (think: Leadership and Self-Deception).

Patrick Lencioni's Death by Meeting is another such book. The core premise is that bad meetings, mis-managed meetings, in fact all the meetings we would rather not attend share two things in common:

A lack of drama - avoiding constructive conflict and passionate exchanges creates boredom
A lack of context and structure -- mashing different types of meetings together dulls the edge of each topic

Lencioni likes to ask us why we can sit mesmerized for two hours at a movie, when the content and the characters are entirely irrelevent to our lives, and yet we loathe regular one-hour meetings, when the content and characters impact us directly, and the format is interactive.

The first answer is "drama." A movie has conflict and unfolds along an emotional story line that moves toward resolution of tension among its characters. This keeps us interested.

In most business meetings, however, conflict, tension, and emotions are seen as getting in the way of moving through "the list" (the agenda, the action items, the reports, etc.) and being efficient. Lots of conflict stays subterranean, emerging in private conversations outside of the meetings where we had an opportunity to move toward resolution but opted to stay silent.

A lot of leadership work comes back to enrolling people around "why care" -- why care about the vision, customers, and, yes, even meetings. Lencioni talks about this as the equivalent to a "hook" or the "plot line" in a movie. Without mining for conflict, we can't move toward any kind of resolution.

When leaders talk about "increasing profitability," the conversation is not always framed in terms of market needs, strategic initiatives to be funded, or the competitive landscape that keeps changing. Instead, belt-tightening exercises can feel punitive if not placed in a frame of "why care" (the "drama" piece).

The second habit that creates such dreadful meetings is the lack of useful context and structure. Information is different from debate, which is different again from strategic reflection on priorities and goals. Lencioni argues that most organizations need four different kinds of meetings (yes, more meetings), each with its associated dramatic element:

The daily check-in meeting (news headlines (5 minutes)
The weekly tactical meeting (weekly sitcom, drama series - 1 hour)
The monthly strategic meeting (movie - 2 hours)
The quarterly off-site meeting (mini-series - 6 hours or more)

Even if you divide out the information sharing from the tactical resolution of project obstacles from the strategic initiatives and personnel reviews, to be effective, your meetings should clearly be in service of your explicit goals and objectives.

With the possibility of more initiatives than resources, it's always important to keep organizational goals and objectives in view, asking: "How are we making progress -- and how do we know?"

You may need to call a meeting, but a compelling plot line helps you stay focused on making progress and not just "getting through" yet another boring meeting.

On Internal Considering

noreply@blogger.com (Cindy Marteney) — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 23:42:00 +0000

I've been struck by feelings of joy as I've reconnected with people I care about but don't see that often, especially on two recent trips to San Francisco.

It was fun to see my friend, and the person who brought coaching to my world, James Flaherty, a couple of weeks ago. I was his student at his integral coaching school, New Ventures West, in 2001-2002.

James buzzed me in to his blue Victorian on Duboce in the Castro district of San Francisco. We sat on a big sectional couch in his living room and chatted -- about a kooky book of drawings he has by an ex-advertising guy, about my latest scheme to rent a room in the Bay Area so I can hang out and work in the city for a few days every couple of weeks, and the questions I've been in of late, especially since my dad died in July.

I wondered aloud about being in midlife crisis. Drawing a quick picture, James likened midlife to a rocket engine that is burning up the last of its fuel -- for the spacecraft to continue its journey, it requires a next-stage engine and propellant. I always enjoy the metaphors James uses.

We listened to music, including Herbie Hancock's River: The Joni Letters with Norah Jones singing an amazing version of "Court and Spark." James recently started appreciating Eric Clapton's music and gave me the history behind Eric Clapton's love song, Layla.

I told some irreverent stories -- about life in one of the reddest states of the union, about a West Virginia congregation that consistently spaces out whenever the minister talks, about my dad's crazy affairs, etc.

I actually made James laugh. I always recall it going the other way, with him making me and everyone else laugh. James said something like, "You have a lot going on, but you seem feistier than ever."

What was different was a greater sense of ease. I had never been fully at ease around James because he had been in a position to evaluate me, first as a student and then as a faculty member in training. I blurted out and not in jest, "It's the first time I haven't been scared of you!" James made one of those slightly perplexed faces of his and we both laughed again.

It's funny to remember how anxious I could be around people I admired and respected like James. So much energy wasted on being afraid-- of what someone else will think, how they will respond, whether we are getting it right, etc.

In the 4th Way, we study a concept called "internal considering," which describes a highly-subjective, quite mechanical, and entirely inner focus on self and how we believe we are being perceived.

The goal in 4th Way work is to always be moving toward more objectivity and responsiveness in life. To do this, we have to practice what the 4th Way calls "self-remembering," what we as integral coaches point to when we give our clients self observations and journaling assignments in our coaching programs.

I started on my path of deeper self awareness just after 9/11, as America was redefining its sense of self in much more contracted ways. In dramatic contrast, New Venture West's integral coaching method cultivates a less rigid sense of self, a greater capacity to observe ourselves and make new and more fulfilling choices in life.

It takes time to catch on to internal considering, to notice our internal considering of how we'll look, to notice our propensity to focus on what others will think of us.

Far better to be focused on the results we want to achieve, the qualities we long for, the futures we find inspiring and worthy of creating.

If you would like to catch on to yourself a bit more, then consider studying your own internal considering: When are you taking actions (or not) based on how others will perceive you?

Let me know how you make out!

Strategic Marketing & Leadership

noreply@blogger.com (Cindy Marteney) — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 22:04:00 +0000

I just did a two-day workshop for an early-stage technology firm, founded in Silicon Valley and seeking it's day in the sun.

The subject was marketing, as in "what does the brand stand for," "who is the core customer to target," and "what is the unique promise of value?"

I don't market my marketing offers these days, but an executive with whom I had worked in the 1990s made the request. I had material to use, so workshop design was a breeze.

It helped that I knew the CEO so well, and I liked the fact that the group would be small and comprised of the top leaders in the company.

So with a couple of weeks notice, I said "yes." It was the first time I really integrated my marketing offer so intensively with my coaching offer.

One of the goals of the day was to move from "inside-out" to "outside-in" thinking (a la moving from "Personal" and "Material" to "Social" in the integral quadrants model).

"Inside-out" thinking is near epidemic in high tech. Understanding a technology and its myriad applications leads to trying to "push" the message out to the market, which ultimately is a very expensive proposition.

Instead, we spent time on customer segmentation (who was on the other side of the "conversation for relationship?").

We worked to convert messages into language that addressed customer needs and breakdowns and not just theoretical possibilities. We worked on telling the company story in more accessible and powerful ways, ways that their kids and their families could understand.

We also worked on how each of the leaders were showing up in their business conversations.

What declarations were they speaking into and were they believable? Were they generating the trust that would be required for a visionary early adopter to sign on the dotted line?

The team members had flown in from both coasts. They were incredibly bright, committed, and open. Together, and in just two days, they made a quantum leap in how they position their company.

The leadership team also walked away knowing themselves and each other better, saying "we got far more than we ever expected."

The best thing is that the work was really fun. It made me want to spend more time with high tech innovators again.

Interestingly, the competencies required for precision and focus in branding and strategic marketing are not so very different from those that leaders need when extending their vision and enrolling people in an uncertain and not so inevitable future.

Dimensions of Morality & Leadership

noreply@blogger.com (Cindy Marteney) — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 22:41:00 +0000

Morality. It's about happiness and suffering. It's about individuality and the collective. And, in a light-hearted way, it was the theme of the movie I watched last night, Chocolat.

Morality is also a big topic when it comes to big-time political debates. And, since politics keeps coming up over dinner table talk of late, the article Is ‘Do Unto Others’ Written Into Our Genes? by Nicholas Wade and Dr. Jonathan Haidt's work keep coming to mind.

Haidt has spent a lot of time studying ideas of morality from around the world and found two systems of moraliy (one being primitive-emotional and the other modern-rational) along with five foundational values that show up across all cultures, including:

Prevent harm to another person (individual)
Offer fairness and justice to each person (individual)
Demonstrate loyalty to group (social)
Respect authority and hierarchy (social)
Demonstate sense of purity and sanctity (social)

In Haidt's model, some people (predominantly liberals) identify primarily with individual functions of morality and are called "contractualists" -- those who work to fine-tune laws and institutions to maximize freedom of choice and minimize suffering of individuals.

Other people (predominantly conservatives) share these values but also identify with the social functions of morality and are called "beehivers" -- those who work to ensure the survival of the hive, its intrinsic order, and its traditions.

While Haidt talks about religious versus secular along with liberal versus conservative views, his model can be illuminating for leaders. In particular, I liked how Dr. Haidt defined morality:

"Moral systems are interlocking sets of values, practices, institutions, and evolved psychological mechanisms that work together to suppress or regulate selfishness and make social life possible."

Replace "social life" with "organizational life" and morality (think: morale) becomes the code that in fact makes work possible. If morale is low, we can use Haidt's five distinctions to assess what's at risk in our moral code.

We can ask how well are we honoring the individual? How well are we preventing harm and ensuring fairness for each individual?
We can also assess how well are our organizations serving the collective? How well are we all demonstrating loyalty, being respectful of others, and maintaining integrity with our public commitments?

Over dinner table talk, I'm always interested in how leadership disciplines -- in this case social competence with its emphasis on curiosity, respect, and collaboration -- can contribute to the national dialogue on politics and politicians.

When consulting and coaching, especially in the land of the "rugged individual," it's often helpful for clients to move beyond the "I" and into a more genuine collective sense of purpose and shared values.

If you're curious about where you would land on the five foundations of morality , consider taking Dr. Haidt's moral inventory and drop me a line about your thoughts on this topic!

The Rocking Chair Syndrome

noreply@blogger.com (Cindy Marteney) — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 22:58:00 +0000

In my last entry, I talked about the "structure of attention" being biological.

While walking downtown for a break, Tess and I were talking about attention and the "rocking chair syndrome," which speaks to structural tension that leads to unresolvable conflict.

Here's how it goes. Pressure builds up in a problem area. We "rock forward" to take action to relieve the pressure and prevent outcomes we don't want. Think of dieting or putting a budget together or investing in business development.

Our action is successful in relieving some pressure and we unconsciously "rock backward" and relax a bit. Think of indulging in favorite foods or buying high tech gadgets not in our budget or enjoying current customers instead of building new business.

Alas, pressure builds yet again, and the cycle of rocking forward and backward repeats itself. Our challenge is to build structures that don't create the rocking chair syndrome -- and to do so takes clarity on where we're going and why.

I can tell my own rocking chair syndrome stories.

When I started running my own businesses, I used to put off my bookkeeping endlessly (always something "more important" to do). I was committed to a beautiful office environment. I frequently raked piles of paperwork into a box and tucked it away for what seemed like archaelogical digs when I returned my attention many months later.

The pressure would build until I could stand it no more. I would do a marathon session to catch up (rock forward) and would feel much better. Then, I would do the same thing over again (rock backward).

Finally, I clarified my strategic goals for my businesses -- and knowing I couldn't scale with my old system, with its tedious detective work during tax season, I went to work on new structures.

The vicious cycle of "rake and regret" made a graceful exit at last. Even with business growth and the entrance of yet a third entity to track this year (my father's rather messy estate), I never reach the frantic places I used to reach.

One of my medical school clients complained about a repeating rut his management team found itself in. The department had more than tripled in patient visits over a decade, yet the management team had not grown commensurately. They "rocked forward" to solve HR issues that became urgent and "rocked back" with relief when crises were resolved.

Addressing the structural tension led to recruiting a skillful HR manager, whose charter is to be a chief people developer, with an eye on the organization's strategy of a new paradigm of practicing medicine, and not just a policy whip.

If you're in the midst of the rocking horse syndrome, it's useful to ask "what" before "how" questions:

What outcome am I committed to creating?
Given the outcome I seek, how will I get there?

It's simple but worth repeating. When things feel untenable, it's helpful to ensure our process is in service of our desired outcomes -- and not a rocking chair syndrome that simply relieves a little pressure (over and over, but with no forward momentum!).

Cultural Experience & Perception

noreply@blogger.com (Cindy Marteney) — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 20:11:00 +0000

I subscribe to Brain Work: The Neuroscience Newsletter published by The Dana Foundation and the current edition has an article called "Cultural Experience Affects Perception" by Kelli Whitlock Burton.

Researchers in Illinois and Singapore showed young and old people pictures of objects on various backgrounds. Participant brain activity was monitored and researchers found:

Young people of both cultures demonstrated quite similar brain activity and areas of focus.
Older people, however, showed much greater variation in the parts of their brains that lit up for MRIs as they viewed the pictures.
Americans focused more on the objects in the pictures. East Asians focused more on the backgrounds of the pictures.

This is not a huge surprise (i.e., a Western focus on the "parts" and an Eastern focus on the "whole"). Still, Denise Park, senior researcher and professor of psychology at the University of Illinois, underscored that more than preferences are involved:

"These are the first studies to show that culture is sculpting the brain" and "that culture impacts individuals on a biological level."

The researchers concluded that different attention stems from different cultural biases, with Westerners being more individualistic and East Asians being more socially interdependent and contextual. No matter how we're rigged, we're missing a part of the picture.

Integral coaching has always made these assumptions, that culture affects perception, that perception is always selective, and that perception is wired into us biologically.

The pillars of leadership model that I use distinguishes three core leadership development streams (self mastery, social competence, and leadership presence), each requiring a different attentional lens (perception) and body of practices (biology).

For example, clients who are incredibly visionary and strategic or simply very ambitious and self-serving (who never lose sight of their goals) often need help developing more attunement to context within relationships and organizational culture.

Conversely, clients with exceptional emotional intelligence (who read subtle background currents and cues) often need help clarifying their commitments and eliminating distractions.

In integral coaching, we recognize that how we pay attention is actually structural, it's in us at a neurobiological level. Different parts of our brains fire up involuntarily, depending on stimuli, based on repeated habits of attention.

That's why lasting change takes time and practice (and patience with ourselves).

The Power of a Powerful Declaration

noreply@blogger.com (Cindy Marteney) — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 21:08:00 +0000

It seems like topics come in waves. Several clients of late, after successfully working on their professional relationships (with peers, with direct reports, with bosses) have found themselves out of gas, somewhat burned out, and wondering "is this it?!"

I came across a quote from "Leadership in the Balance" by Joan Gurvis (of the Center for Creative Leadership) that is germane:

"Balance is not a matter of managing your time or giving equal effort to two opposing sides; it is about aligning your behavior with what you believe is really important to you."

Many people feel that they need to somehow balance the heavy weight they are carrying with alternative and rejuvenating activities, but the very thought of adding more to their already full days is daunting.

Instead, the challenge is to our align behavior with our greatest longings. In so doing, we can stop fighting against ourselves, stop resisting doing what we're ostensibly committed to doing.

Aligning ourselves starts with a powerful declaration, one that we feel from the inside out and that orients us toward a future that is far from inevitable. Because of this, declarations are acts of invention versus description, where we invent a future we want to create and that others can support us in creating.

I often talk about the "man on the moon" declaration when describing the process for clients.

When John F. Kennedy declared that the U.S. would put a man on the moon, his declaration opened up possibilities for others to contribute to this dream. Engineering enrollments skyrocketed. Requests and commitments for NASA funding increased. Media coverage was ever-present. Public support ran high.

When I first started coaching in Utah, I had a lot of aspiring coaches seek out my services (I was known for entrepreneurship, branding, and marketing and had a thriving practice). A lot of people I worked with in the early days also had major personal relationship problems. I wondered if I was being called to coach coaches and/or specialize in relationship issues.

When I did my own declaration work, I ended up with a focus on leadership development. I've always worked for and with top leaders. I've studied leaders. My bookshelves are filled with leadership books. I enjoy strategy, whether in chess, tennis or business.

Gaining clarity on what I wanted to create also helped me be clear about what I wanted to say "no" to, freeing up energy from trying to "balance" so much.

While I still work with clients in the midst of marital problems and I still work with coaches, all of my clients are leaders who want to be better leaders. I refer out a lot of other opportunities (such as general training, consulting, and lifecoaching) and experience more joy by focusing on what I am genuinely committed to creating.

Such is the power of a powerful declaration.

A Writer's Passion

noreply@blogger.com (Cindy Marteney) — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 23:05:00 +0000

My friend from childhood, Jamie Stiehm, stayed with me recently. She spent a decade at the Baltimore Sun as a reporter and earlier years covering Washington politics. Jamie has published more than 80 opinion pieces and has even written a play.

Never shy about dramatic touches, Jamie shares as much through her hands as through her stories. And, her stories center on people.

Whether reporting in 2007 on Jonathan Hamm's death in Iraq (Soldier steers out of trouble here, into deadly enemy fire in Baghdad) or on major political figures from her time covering Capitol Hill, Jamie has always oriented her writing toward the human element.

Often confessional (Capitol punishment: how the Hill's religion of the revolving door cost me my job in a Senate office) and at times controversial (Jamie is a "liberal's liberal"), Jamie has never been unclear that writing is her passion, her calling, her way to contribute.

I'll never forget sitting in Jamie's San Francisco apartment in 1989, after she had returned from a stint with CBS News in London. Jamie was working on an opinion piece about Virginia Woolf for the Christian Science Monitor.

Her piece had been rejected (again) by the editor, who nevertheless had seen something he liked in Jamie's work. This man, 3000 miles away on the other coast, repeatedly took time to pencil in his thoughts in the margins, giving Jamie valuable feedback, not once, but three times.

Jamie's piece was rejected three times before she finally got it published in a 2-page spread, complete with illustrations, in the Christian Science Monitor.

I remember being a little stunned by Jamie's tenacity.

Rejection is hard for most of us. Each rejection could have been the proverbial straw that broke Jamie's spirit. Instead, Jamie persevered toward mastery in her writing -- and in the art of getting published (she probably has close to 2000 bylines by now).

Jamie's story came to mind as I talked to her about my piece on "apprenticeship" and mastery and the distinction between "finding" a calling and "cultivating" one. Jamie nodded and shared the famous Quaker saying about how "way opens," which refers to finding ones path in life, when one truly engages.

My teacher, Daniel Silberberg, likes to ask people, "What is the difference between people who are successful and those who are not?" No Zen koan of a question, Daniel's answer is quite simple. Those who succeed persevere. They keep doing what they most care about and don't give up.

Indeed, the intersection of intention and repeated action (persevering) is where "way opens."

On Apprenticeship & Mastery

noreply@blogger.com (Cindy Marteney) — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 19:12:00 +0000

One of my colleagues, Tess Beasley, and I were talking about apprenticeship the other day over lunch. Tess remarked how much she's learned from working together so closely-- about marketing and branding, customer management, and business itself.

It's interesting how learning happens -- over time, through repetition, through experiences that challenge us, and through debriefs on how things work (or don't).

Often, we think of apprenticeships as something almost pre-modern, when young people studied alongside masters for years at a time to cultivate their own sense of mastery -- whether as painters, cathedral builders, carpenters or other artisans.

An apprentice is fundamentally a beginner, focused on learning a trade or occupation and accepting of instruction from the person teaching "the way" -- think: Jedi and Samurai as warrior examples.

In business, it's common to hear leaders talk about the dearth of "good talent" and the "lack of experience" when they try to fill open positions. And, it's not uncommon to hear twenty- and thirty-somethings say, "I'm not sure what I really want to do."

It seems that too few leaders are cultivating "the way" for the next generation, while too few young people are cultivating their own mastery.

Impatience comes in on both sides. I think it's our cultural penchant for discovery -- whether it's the newest superstar to recruit or the coolest new job to score, we often want to find rather than cultivate.

Alas, mastery in a "way" takes time. It takes deep soaking in a milieu of effort to understand hidden sources of cause and effect. It takes cultivation of real competencies as well as discernment.

In Sources of Power: How People Make Decisions by Gary Klein, there is a section that talks about the power to see the invisible, including:

Novices are confused by much that happens to them because...they keep encountering events they did not anticipate.
Experts can detect differences that novices cannot see, cannot even force themselves to see.

One of the strengths of an apprenticeship is the opportunity to learn how to see (and how to practice) in the ways that come not from theory or intellectual knowledge but from a deeper sense of cause and effect and how things work.

Funny. The topic of apprenticing seems to be in the air. In a client call today, I learned about an intriguing apprenticeship program -- for preparing candidates for CEO positions in hospital administration. Given the complexty of healthcare today, it's an encouraging story.

Given the dissolution of informal mentoring networks (through families and closely-knit communities), I wish for more of the same in other industries, and also for less senior levels too.