Training/Executive Retreats

Listening: A Core Business Skill

The ability to listen is a core leadership skill that impacts an organization's culture and all facets of operations. Today's leaders require listening skills far beyond traditional approaches for active listening. The complexity and rapid change of current business environments requires a more comprehensive approach that cultivates multi-dimensional listening.

This broader approach embraces listening as a full circle that includes listening within as well as listening to others. With this more inclusive approach to listening as a foundation, leaders are poised to reap the business benefits of connecting more deeply with others as well as with their own inner resources. This allows them to follow inner wisdom in the moment and provides the resources and information necessary for the critical business decisions required in today's changing times.

Training on listening as a core business skill generally includes the following components:

• Preliminary Intake Interviews with Participants
• Listening Self-Assessments (pre and post training)
• Pre-Training Listening Exercise(s)
• Training for Leaders, Teams, Executive Boards and Groups
• Individual and Small Group Coaching Sessions Provided as Follow-Up to Training
• Article(s) on Listening for Employee Newsletters As Training Follow-Up

Leading, Managing and Working in a Rapidly Changing Environment

In order to successfully navigate change and the issues that accompany it, leaders, managers and workers all need to work from the state of mind of presence to determine the most appropriate course of action. Business solutions used in the past may no longer be appropriate. The current climate in business requires that leaders, managers and workers all have the ability to see new options. This requires the ability to look beyond current conditioned thoughts about how to conduct business.

During times of rapid change, two keys for success are the ability to respond in the moment and being open to innovative options. Present moment awareness is required to determine the most appropriate course of action. During rapid change, it becomes more critical than ever to be able to utilize inner wisdom and take appropriate action in the present.

Resiliency for Change

Our inner resiliency for change is like an automatic reset button that brings us effortlessly back to a state of mental well being. We point ourselves in the direction of well being when we embrace change, are willing to see people and situations in new ways beyond our own conditioned thinking, accept life changes that we have no control over and follow our hearts through the myriad of changes we face on a daily basis. Change is part of the adventure we call life.

Life is a continuous cycle of death and rebirth. We constantly let go of old ways of thinking and being as we embrace the new. Life ebbs and flows just like the tides of the ocean. Our external form and surroundings change continuously but through the connection we each have with the source of life, we have an inner resiliency and an unlimited capacity to adapt to change.

The more we understand change as a normal, natural, healthy part of life, the easier it becomes to embrace and flow with it. This understanding supports us in considering changes that can enrich our lives and ignite our potential for resiliency for change. Nature is our greatest teacher about change. It demonstrates the capacity we each have to embrace, accept and flow with the changes within us as well as those around us. When we embrace life and live in the present, change happens naturally without effort, just as it does in nature.

Awakening Creativity and Innovation

Every individual and every organization has an unlimited potential for fresh ideas and new ways of seeing people and situations. Our state of mind determines our openness to these rich inner resources. Anyone can learn to access the inner resources that artists, writers, poets, actors, musicians, inventors and others who tap into the spirit of creativity have described for centuries. Fresh new ideas and innovative strategies and solutions emerge naturally from within when we tap into inner sources beyond the intellect.

Leading from Within

Is a true leader one who elevates themselves to a level of confidence about having all of the organization's answers or could it be someone who is willing to admit they don't know all of the answers? The most effective leaders approach the need for business solutions with a willingness to acknowledge and draw upon the reservoir of inner resources available beyond their limited intellect. In this way, they open themselves and their organization to solutions that emerge from deep inner wisdom that's beyond anything they learned in an academic setting.

True innovation is possible when individuals maintain the level of presence that allows them to open to new thoughts in the moment. This kind of presence can ignitee sparks of inspired thought. When an individual operates in this way, it creates a positive impact on the organization. When a group of individuals operate in this way, the positive impact is multiplied exponentially. When individuals across an entire organization open their thinking to the realm of possibilities for innovative leadership, the organization is destined for success far beyond anything imagined.

From this point of view, the essence of leadership is really about being able to follow. The paradox is that the capacity to follow is what allows individuals to emerge as true leaders. Developing their ability to follow can pave the way for leadership skills to emerge. In this way, leaders listen within and follow their wisdom in the moment.

Wisdom and Well Being at Work

Every person has an innate core of well being, a connection to wisdom, inspiration and insight that's readily available. This connection is a pathway to unleashing and igniting the potential of an organization's most valuable resource- - -intellectual capital. Supporting people in working from wisdom and well being is an effortless way to achieve the kind of healthy high-performance that supports an organization's goals and allows profitability as a natural outcome rather than the driving force.

An understanding of our inner core of well being ignites insights that enable individuals to experience greater expression of creativity and achieve sustainable business outcomes. This understanding links individuals to opportunities for outcomes with a positive impact on every aspect of the organization's operations, including the bottom line.

The state of mind of individuals impacts every decision and every aspect related to business operations, including leadership, management, culture, teamwork, customer service and the quality of goods or services. When individuals learn to make decisions from wisdom and well being, performance is optimized. Insights that emerge from the state of mind of presence where wisdom and well being are commonly experienced can unleash an individual's capacity for innovation and high-performance. The outcome of this is the ability to live and work in a calm state of mind, regardless of outer circumstances.

The ability to tap into the potential of people operating from a state of mind characterized by wisdom, creativity and inspiration is the hallmark of an organization where individuals are working within the realm of their highest potential. When this happens, the organization soars to new levels of innovation and healthy high performance.

Building Healthy High Performance Teams

Utilizing our innate capacity for demonstrating healthy high performance teams is a preventative strategy that opens a portal to the tremendous reservoir of unlimited potential inherent within every individual and within the organization as a whole. It makes creative business solutions an effortless by-product of healthy states of mind.

The natural capacity of each individual for connection and rapport stems from their connection with life. An understanding of our inner core of well being assists individuals in utilizing their capacity for connection, rapport and deep listening. The result is greater synchronicity, understanding, mutual respect and trust that cultivate authentic respectful relationships. Developing an organization of high performers is a natural byproduct that emerges from utilizing and supporting the capacity of teams to demonstrate a healthy state of mind that connects them to creativity and innovation.

By recognizing and supporting the interconnectedness of individuals through the creative intelligence behind all of life, this natural connection can enhance communication and teamwork and elevate individuals to a level that's beyond competition and conflict. In doing this, businesses can create a great place to work that cultivates the capacity for individuals to work harmoniously and achieve innovative solutions effortlessly.

Secrets of Extraordinary Customer Service

Since every business exists ultimately for the purpose of serving customers, this topic is relevant for all. Learn the secrets of customer service for creating the highest levels of customer satisfaction and raise the bar in your organization for new levels of achievement in customer service excellence.

Explore new ideas about what it means to be of "service" to customers and how to maintain your bearings in challenging situations. Training and activities blend goals for learning and applying customer service principles as well as individual insight on how to improve customer service to achieve desired outcomes. Individual and small group coaching is incorporated into the format as appropriate.

Stress Less

Traditional approaches to stress focus on the inevitability of stress at work as well as at home. It's viewed as something that everyone gets from time to time. Individuals are taught to recognize the signs of stress, manage their stress and to utilize stress as an opportunity to improve their performance. This approach supports the belief that stress is something external that individuals "catch" as a result of their environment.

When the origin of stress is understood as something that's created internally rather than externally, individuals understand that they have the power to prevent it. Rather than learning to manage stress and develop a tolerance for it, individuals learn to prevent it by letting go of the past and creating positive outcomes in the present.