Mastering Leadership: An Integrated Framework for Breakthrough Performance and Extraordinary Business Results

TAKING STOCK What is the organization that, if it existed, would put you out of business? What would the soul of your organization say about its enduring reason for being—beyond money or stakeholder value? What are your individual, team, and organizational non-negotiables? If the system had a voice, what would she say to us right now? What voice of

challenge leaders with the question of vision: what would you do if you could? These questions (How am I playing not-to-lose? How am I getting in my own way? What do I really want? What would I do if I could? How would I lead if I knew I could not fail or would not be fired?) are key developmental questions for the evolving Creative Mind.

In Man's Search for Meaning, Viktor Frankl wrote: “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances. When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.” Frankl learned this lesson in a Nazi concentration camp (Frankl, 195

decides that Jonah's leadership is less evolved than He thought. God concludes that Jonah is in need of some serious leadership development. And so, a whale rises from the ocean and swallows him. Jonah is now riding the Descending Current. He has to go into the deep and the dark to find his light. Jonah probably does not know this. All he knows is

To what are you attached, that if you let go of, would set you free? Have you opened your love to the great love? Are you are helping people you have never known and may never see? (Barks, 2004) Have you ever been introduced to the “you” that pre-dates you, that wants for nothing, that has nothing to lose, and that does not need development and nev

When we ask leaders what they would do differently looking back, their most frequent response is, “I would have made changes in my executive team more quickly.” They hang on to low-ratio return, high-cost leaders for too long, and it costs them dearly. Having the right people on the leadership team and investing in the Leadership Agenda is high lev

In leadership positions, more people get fired for their caution than for their courage. If we play for purpose, we accept the inherent risk of leading, of living full-out, and that brings with it an inherent sense of security. This security is not rooted in powers outside ourselves, upon which our future seems to depend. It is rooted in our capaci

Performance, individually and collectively, is always consistent with our level of consciousness. We cannot perform at a higher level of performance than is built into our operating system. Likewise, an organization cannot perform at a higher level of performance than the collective consciousness of its leadership.

“Circumstance does not make the man; it reveals him to himself.

TAKING STOCK What is your fundamental reason for existing? We have two choices. Face reality or ramp up our delusions. Which do you regularly choose? What is this problem forcing you to learn? What do you need to learn in order for this problem to completely go away, to completely dissolve? What if you knew with certainty that you are the cause and