If you’re a professional with bold and important ideas, but you lack the skills or time to transform them into top-notch copy, you’re not alone. Investing in a ghostwriter helps you give your story the powerful form necessary to position yourself for success. I can do all the writing for you or provide you with coaching to do it yourself. Shoot me an email and tell me about your project; if we’re not a fit, I can recommend a colleague.
Are you somebody who wants to know more about giving feedback that improves outcomes? Do you often wonder how to set limits at work and still keep your job and your good reputation? Do you feel guilty, incompetent, or the victim of unclear expectations from above?
I’m Kathleen Sears, Founder and CEO of KSears Institute, and when I started learning about Authentic Leadership, I would have answered YES to all of the questions above. When I teach this practice, whether it’s at a speaking engagement, a workshop, a radio program, or in a book like this one, I approach learners as a peer. I began at GROUND ZERO and, by applying the principles of this well-researched approach, I’ve turned my life around 180 degrees. So I really get it. As you read, please understand I am both a successful business professional and a person who began at rock bottom. More on that later.
The information that follows will show you how to put into practice this concrete, respectful, and results-driven way of being in the world. When you lead from a place of authenticity, both you and the people around you will be transformed. I wrote this e-book for managers, supervisors, and other influencers who need to communicate instructions, give feedback, lead meetings, and get results with teams of workers or volunteers. But certainly this practice can be applied in any situation where people come together to collectively accomplish a task. I’ve used it as a business coach, a consultant, a humanitarian aid worker in Africa and Mexico, and in non-profit social projects. I can envision it helping parents, leaders of social justice movements, principals, sports coaches, spiritual leaders, and more. The applications truly are infinite.
Here are some other questions you might be bringing to this conversation:
By learning about and practicing AL, you and your life will change. You can expect:
As a result…you’ll have
GREATER SUCCESS in reaching your goals.
Today my trainer called me a baby. Can’t remember what I said to provoke her, but I do remember thinking, Well, I can’t really be a badass AND a baby going up that mountain.
So I decided. Adjust my attitude.
In the countdown to Kili, everywhere I turn there’s work to be done. Getting everything organized for a two-week absence is intense. Three months ago, I felt like I had all the time in the world to buy stuff, but astonishingly, I still don’t have all the gear I need. So these days, beside training and working, I’m all about lists and powering through.
But there are moments when the joy and gratitude hit me. My mind flashes on photos of Kilimanjaro and I’ll think, Isn’t it amazing? Aren’t I one lucky badass? I’m going to Africa, for Pete’s sake. I don’t want to be so frantic that I lose track of that. Especially today. It’s a day to remember, to have perspective, and to be grateful.
On my dining room table, now known as the staging area, are many things. Snickers. Check. Go Girl (I dare you to Google this). Check. That’s exciting. My husband has been doing his favorite thing by helping with all the gadgets: the solar charger, the water zapper. And he got me travel insurance (do you know how hard it is to get travel insurance when you’re climbing that high?!?)
My Kili sisters are sharing last minute tips and words of encouragement. So I have this team. I’m not Thoreau, roughing it out on Kili all by my lonesome. I’m doing this in community.
Another flash: this is my second trip to Africa. Mercy College asked me to make a documentary five years ago when our students were on a medical mission to Mali. On impulse, I took my son, Sam. Changed my life. Changed his, too. The story was tremendously inspiring, the most phenomenal thing I’ve shared with Sam, other than his birth. And in that experience were echoes of stories I reported on in network television in my former professional life.
In some miraculous way, everyone involved in all of these stories leaves changed. This is the key to my attitude change. It’s not about forcing; it’s breathing and living the story mindfully. With each interaction, whether it’s the practice climb we did in North Carolina, last week’s conference call, or an interaction with my trainer, I’m drawn in further.
When a group of people comes together to take on a challenge, they become a community. They share stories and they make a new story together. And magic happens.
So, yes, I’m racing around, a little frantically. But I’m also making more space for those moments. And in five days, when we climbers assemble at base camp with the guides, cooks, and porters who will accompany us, a new community will emerge. That space will open up, like a parachute, helping us haul our badasses up and down Kili, while we create the story of our adventure, all the while sharing stories of where we’ve been.
And that, I think, is truly awesome.
Attitude adjustment? Check.