Transcending Thought
Have patience with all things but first with yourself. Never confuse your mistakes with your value as a human being. You''re a perfectly valuable, creative, worthwhile person simply because you exist. And no amount of triumphs or tribulations can ever change that. Unconditional self acceptance is the core of a peaceful mind.
Team Building and Leadership Skills
A Team is More than a Group of People
When John Amatt led the 1982 Canadian team on a successful Mount Everest Expedition, only three people reached the summit. Many climbers who were part of the team, whose lifetime ambition was to stand on top of Everest, made the conscious choice to stay in the base camp.
Why? Because they knew the effort was likely to fail if everyone tried to make it. They chose to forego their individual dreams in favor of helping the team succeed.
This wasn't John Amatt's first time to plan an Everest expedition. Ten years earlier, with one of his friends from Norway, he had gathered a team of world- class climbers from many different countries, for the challenge. But at the last minute, he backed out. Officially, it was to get married.
"But that was just an excuse," he said later. "I knew that, despite having the best climbers in the world, this expedition would not succeed. Everyone wanted to reach the top for their own glory or that of their country. No one seemed willing to make decisions for the good of the team."
Leadership as a tool
One of the tools I use daily is a calendar.
I'm picky about what I put up and it's usually a scenic one. For the last couple of years I've been using one that combines motivational messages with scenes of animals. Last month's topic was on leadership. The picture was of a male lion and it's caption:
"The true leader inspires in others self-trust, guiding their eyes to the spirit, the goal."
The combination of both the picture and the caption made quite an impression on me. Here is a picture of a male lion at rest looking over a grassy field with intent. His mane is fully visible and softly blowing in the wind. In a way it reminds me of a shepherd watching over his or her flock.
So it is, or should I say supposed to be, with anyone in a leadership role. Sadly, we rarely see this in the real world. What we usually experience is that people in leadership positions are just pawns for someone or something. Their true motivation is not what a true leader is about or does. They are looking out for number one.
