June 30, 2012

Go for the WHOLE thing…

For years I have been encouraging individuals and organizations to pursue health. I am starting to realize that the vision for healthiness is way too small and limiting. Webster defines healthy as “prosperous” or “flourishing,” which in itself isn’t so bad if health wasn’t so fickle. You can go the gym and eat well…and you can stop. You can have years of solid profits…and then they can plummet. One day you can make great decisions with regards to establishing good boundaries and limits and the next day you violate them.

The better vision is to exchange healthiness for wholeness. Wholeness relates more to being free from defect or impairment. It is about the seamless integration of smaller parts into something bigger and more substantial. It is about lacking nothing. Wholeness is when all the scattered fragments are woven together.

Imagine what it would look like to strive for wholeness and not health. At the organizational level, you create an organization where all the pieces (talent, departments, strategies) work seamlessly together for the good of the whole. At the relational level, selfish conflict could be replaced by a focus on what makes the unit stronger. At the personal level, you can rest from your striving from what you will accomplish and begin to rest in the person who you are becoming.

Healthiness may bring happiness and success. But wholeness brings joy…and joy is something that lasts and transcends all circumstances.

This week’s action: If you are striving for greater personal or organizational health, consider expanding your vision to include the concept of wholeness. 

Betsy
Accelera Consulting Group
407-376-8622
betsy@ACCELERACONSULTINGGROUP.COM
www.acceleraconsultinggroup.com

Clients call Betsy Jordyn “the ultimate think partner for growth oriented senior leaders.” A consultant, mentor and executive coach, Betsy helps great people and organizations be even better by igniting their potential and talent.

June 23, 2012

Wait for it…

I have two clients who are seeking to change their cultures from technical competence to relational excellence AND move from being reactive and short-term to intentional and strategic. I have been pondering what is the link between these two aspects of their change that obviously go together.

After much contemplation, I finally got my answer. The reason why it is essential to become intentional and strategic if you want to improve your relational excellence is because patience is the key driver for love.

Patience is what enables you to stay present, take a pause and think through the implications of your behavior on others. Patience is what gives you the ability to respond positively to a negative situation. Patience helps you settle down and create an internal calm in the midst of challenges. Patience is the choice that allows you to control you emotions vs. your emotions controlling you. Patience is the manifestation of wisdom.

As a result of this insight, I am making some bold changes in my life so that I can better manifest patience. I want to be characterized not just by how well I can help my clients solve complex challenges. I want to be seen and known by others around me as a person who provided them mercy, empathy and stability. You won’t see me on Facebook any more or mindlessly wasting time watching TV with no real purpose. Instead, I hope you will see me instead taking the time for restorative solitude and cultivating the life giving relationships that I have been blessed with.
How about you? Do you want to improve your ability to manifest patience? If so, what will you do?

This week’s action: Patience for others begins with patience for yourself. For today, can you take extra care in monitoring your internal dialogue and work on banishing all the pressures of the “should do’s,” “ought to’s” and “I should have’s.” Consider what it looks like to accept yourself merely for “what is.”

Betsy
Accelera Consulting Group
407-376-8622
betsy@ACCELERACONSULTINGGROUP.COM
www.acceleraconsultinggroup.com

Clients call Betsy Jordyn “the ultimate think partner for growth oriented senior leaders.” A consultant, mentor and executive coach, Betsy helps great people and organizations be even better by igniting their potential and talent.

June 18, 2012

Do You Want to Live Cautiously or Courageously?

This week one of my clients expressed to me a desire to achieve a certain type and quality of success. We discussed the daily tough decisions and tradeoffs that he needs to be making right now in order for him to fulfill that desire. He agreed, however, without hours, he made a significant decision that permanently undermined any chance he has to accomplish that vision he described to me. As I reflected on what happened, I realized that his choice was not about whether or not he wanted his vision. I believe he did. His choice was more about the quality of life he truly wants to live – cautiously or courageously.

The difference between a cautious and courageous life has nothing to do with having a big vision for the future. Instead, the difference is about the willingness to do the hard work required to achieve that vision. A courageous life is one that requires you to live at your best, to choose what is right even if it costs you something significant and is driven by a sustaining drive towards excellence. It is not about being liked…it is about being a person of internal integrity.

The difference between someone who lives courageously (and not cautiously) boils down to character. A person with character loves truth. When truth is presented, a person who is wise takes it in and makes adjustments. A person without character is a fool, who shuns reality and tries to adjust the truth in order to avoid having to adjust to it.

The bottomline is that talent, passion and even market need is not enough to transform a compelling vision into reality. What is needed is the internal integrity to understand that when you are running a race, every decision matters. There are no “one offs.” You have to run the race in a manner to win. Otherwise, you are just running around in circles.

This week’s action: Look inside and evaluate if you have what it takes to live courageously. Do you love truth or do you regularly adjust reality (or live in an alternate reality?) Do you make decisions because they are right or because they placate others? Do you choose the hard path of tough decisions or tradeoffs or do you consistently choose the easy path?

Betsy
Accelera Consulting Group
407-376-8622
betsy@ACCELERACONSULTINGGROUP.COM
www.acceleraconsultinggroup.com

Clients call Betsy Jordyn “the ultimate think partner for growth oriented senior leaders.” A consultant, mentor and executive coach, Betsy helps great people and organizations be even better by igniting their potential and talent.

June 9, 2012

Something to Believe In

This week one of my favorite clients rolled out a major change initiative to their senior leadership. Naturally, the group wanted to know why they should believe that the promises of change were not just lip service or the project going to eventually turn into a “flavor of the month.” The team got their answer and reassurance by virtue of the quality words that my client used to respond to their concern but also by how well he backed his words with action.

We all encounter situations in which we have to determine if someone’s promises to “do it better this time” are legit. It could be a direct report that you have been giving feedback to over and over again. It could be a leader like my client who is asking you to join with him on a major change journey. Or it could be a relationship with someone who consistently hurts you and whose behavior has to change in order for you to stay in the relationship. Using my client as an example, here are some quality words and appropriate actions to look for that will provide you something to believe in.

Quality words: “I need to change.” “Although I know I need to change, I am scared that I don’t know how but I know that I need to.” “Here’s what I know…and here’s what I don’t know.” “I am sorry for how my behavior has impacted you – how can I make it better?”

Reassuring actions: Participation in a proven change process, structure and a defined path, skilled help, support and accountability from peers and monitoring systems.

This week’s action: Use the filters above to help you grow in your ability to distinguish between wishing and hoping. Real hope for change cannot be based on time alone fixing what isn’t working. Real hope has to be grounded in reality and reason.

Betsy
Accelera Consulting Group
407-376-8622
betsy@ACCELERACONSULTINGGROUP.COM
www.acceleraconsultinggroup.com

Clients call Betsy Jordyn “the ultimate think partner for growth oriented senior leaders.” A consultant, mentor and executive coach, Betsy helps great people and organizations be even better by igniting their potential and talent.

June 4, 2012

Don’t Blink

Today was my daughter Hannah’s graduation from 5th grade. As I watched her receive her award for excellence in reading, I wondered what happened to my little girl. My baby,whom I used to read to nightly before bed, has been replaced by this beautiful young woman who is more than capable of reading “Harry Potter” and other long novels on her own.

In a flash of insight I was reminded of a warning that I was given when she was a baby. I was told, “Don’t blink…because before you know it, she’ll be grown up.” I realized how accurately and fairly I was warned. My baby in a flash of an eye is going to middle school. With that insight I realized that I blinked. And also…I regularly blink through so much of the process of my life because of my laser focus on my destination.

Perhaps the lesson to me that I want to pass on to you is to not blink. Don’t be so focused on where you want your business or career to be that you forget to enjoy the journey. You may not be where you want to be in terms of money, career, advancement, success, relationships or personal growth. But perhaps the best part of that process is where you are today. Right now. Enjoy the moment because it in the act of growing up is where all the good stuff happens.

This week’s action: “Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble (and joy, wonder, excitement, challenge and opportunity) of its own.” In other words, don’t blink!

Betsy
Accelera Consulting Group
407-376-8622
betsy@ACCELERACONSULTINGGROUP.COM
www.acceleraconsultinggroup.com

Clients call Betsy Jordyn “the ultimate think partner for growth oriented senior leaders.” A consultant, mentor and executive coach, Betsy helps great people and organizations be even better by igniting their potential and talent.