Shawn's Leadership Journey

https://hbr.org/2016/12/4-ways-to-improve-your-strategic-thinking-skills   1. Know: Observe and Seek Trends 2. Think: Ask Tough Questions   “What does success look like in Year 1?”  “What does it look like in Year 3?” “What could impact the outcome in a negative way?” “What are the early signs of success/failure?” “What do business partners need to understand to ensure its success?” “ Do the outcomes support the broader goals of the organization?”   3. Speak: Sound Strategic 4. Act: Make Time for Thinking and Embracing Conflict    

Power Cues by Nick Morgan 1. Self-Awareness: How do you show up when you enter a room? 2. Non-Verbal Impact: What emotions do your tone of voice and body language convey? 3. Feedback: What unconscious “messages" are you receiving from others? 4. Presence: Do you have a leadership voice, one that resonates with authority? 5. Clear Signals: What authentic signals do you send out in key situations? 6. Unconscious Mind: Is your unconscious mind limiting you or freeing you? 7. Storytelling: Are you telling powerful stories? All of these skills have a higher purpose: To ensure that your message and how you communicate it – both consciously and unconsciously -- help you to achieve the given objectives, and meanwhile, to help ensure that you “get” the messages that others are communicating to you, whether they realize it or not. http://www.rogerdooley.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/EP011-BrainfluencePodcastTranscript.pdf Take Control of Your Non-Verbal Communication, Nick Mo

I had to deal with a difficult conversation recently.  I think the more you do it, despite how uncomfortable it can be, the better you get.  Here's a template that I've found useful for dealing with a difficult conversation: Conversation opener: Delivering the message: Situation (Describe the situation where the observed behavior occurred) Behaviour (Describe the facts and observed behaviours only) Impact (Share with the individual the impact of the behavior on you and/or on others.  Impact is what you or others experienced) Ask (Ask for their side - how do they view the situation?) Anticipate reactions and responses (How might they respond?  What emotions are they likely to display?  How will you respond?  What will you do if you feel yourself getting emotional?) How will I bring the conversation to a close?   (Examples: I'm glad that we've had this chance to discuss this issue, and I think that we've come up with some excellent ways of dealing with

http://www.powerpoetry.org/actions/5-tips-spoken-word Spoken word is written on a page but performed for an audience. It relies on a heavy use of rhythm, improvisation, rhymes, word play, and slang.  Spoken Word is writing that is meant to be read out loud. Some examples of spoken word you might be familiar with are stories, poems, monologues, slam poetry , rap and even stand-up comedy . When writing a spoken word piece use words and phrases that project onto the minds of the listeners like vivid images, sounds, actions and other sensations. If your poem is rich with imagery, your listeners will see, smell, feel and maybe even taste what you’re telling them. Here are some spoken word poems from our Power Poets. Choose a subject and have attitude . No attitude, no poem! Feelings and opinions give poetry its “richness.” Each poet has a unique perspective and view of the world that no one else has. It is important that a spoken word poem embodies the courage necessary to share one

(Mostly speeches, but for other times too!!) 1.     Address the room and always the Speaker individually ; 2.     Always indicate your evaluation is your personal opinion 3.     Face the person you are evaluating frequently during the evaluation, especially when you are emphasizing a point. 4.     If you have some special connection to the topic of the speech you are evaluating, do mention it BRIEFLY and comment BRIEFLY why it is important to you ... “I really enjoyed hearing about your trip to Ireland...my family and I went there last year , it brought back some great memories.” STOP. It is important to build rapport, but evaluators can sometime start telling their own story, especially if they don’t think the objectives of the speech were really met. They can take cover behind giving a speech of their own. Remember, you are evaluating against a set of objectives. Do it. 5.     Don’t cover every point you can think of . If you thought there were three areas

Set a goal that you have  50% likelihood of achieving.  That way, you are challenged, but it is still within your abilities. For most people, 3-5 goals are manageable. An attitude that I want to embrace is whoever has the most stories and adventures at the end of their life wins.  Live full, die empty. "Here’s the great seduction of a human life: we postpone doing what matters most until some time in the future when we hope it will all be easier." Robin Sharma My new year's resolution was to do more push-ups.  I have been keeping up with 50 push-ups per day.  Ultimately, my motivation is a stronger core and upper body, and to improve my posture.  It's also a catalyst to do something physical every day.  I often tack it on the start or end of a workout. While I'm on physical goals, I've been working on an ergometer goal (indoor rowing machine) of 3 x 500m under 1:40, with 1 min rest between each 500m.  I'm almost there.  Here's my progression