Practice a Value a Day

Posted on May 7, 2009 by pdncoach


Positively change your life and the lives of people around you by practicing the following simple activity every day starting now.

Consider a single common virtue or value, just one for today. Use one of these below or choose your own (and add it to our list by responding with your comments; also, tell us about your experience).

Each day, start your day by choosing a single value from the list and consider the following:

  • How has this value been playing out in my life and work recently?
  • How would my life be different if I had more ____________? (fill in the blank with your value for the day)
  • How can I bring this value more fully to bear today in my relationships, meetings, focus, habits, activities…?
  • When I live this value today, what happens?

Courage, Authenticity, Humility, Patience, Gratitude, Service, Forgiveness, Effectiveness, Cause, Contribution, Encouragement, Gentleness, Honesty, Learning, Legacy, Integrity, Joy, Kaizen, Leadership, Listening, Motivation, Partnership, Questions, Trust, Sacredness, Self-Esteem, Rewards, Spontaneity, Vision, Wonder, Beauty, Chemistry, Equality, Encounter, Authenticity, Truth, Faith, Belief, Love, Destiny, Improvisation, Calling, Empathy, Grace, Honor, Bliss, Wholeness, Yin-Yang, Teamwork, Value, Creativity, Silence, Soulwork, Innovation, Respect, Sanctuary, Openness, Mastery, Lightness, Kindness, Justice, Inspiration, Intimacy, Hope, Moderation, Affirmation, Diligence, Consideration, Modesty, Purpose

Write down the value at least once and look at it often, at least before you start your day, sometime near mid-day, and review it before you go to bed at night, as well as before/after scheduled appointments or when you are about to begin a new task. Heck, hang it around you neck if you really want to make a statement (and be accountable to everyone that day)!

Experience how values work on you, and how differently your value begins to work on others.
There are enough individual values here to keep you growing and influencing for three months, by way. And I think you will find many days – and values – worth repeating.

Oh, and did I say to consider a “common” virtue or value? Well, maybe they aren’t so common, but they could be if each of us started practicing this activity daily. Think of the noble spirit and values you would bring into your workplace, into your community, into your church, into your home, into this contentious world… Think of the salt and light you would be adding to the lives of others. Think of the virtuous person you are becoming day after day, month after month, year after year. (Did I mention the values are worth repeating?)

Soon, you will know your Core Values – and others will see them in you, too.

Friends, this is living at The Intersection of Purpose & Now. I hope you will share your experiences with us by commenting to this article after you put your values into practice.

Have an On-Purpose Day!

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Posted in core values, practice, Purpose, values, virtue | Leave a comment

Why did you become a leader?

Posted on May 6, 2009 by pdncoach


Let’s get this started correctly: there are no born leaders. Not you, not that person you admire, not any of the “greats” from history…there is no such thing as a “born leader”.

Leaders are made. Leaders are developed. Leaders are the product of intent and context, of purpose and events. Leaders take the lead, or sometimes find themselves leading, or sometimes by following leaders create impact. If you still believe that some people were “born to lead”, then you likely are viewing leadership from a very limited perspective, defining it with a limited set of characteristics, or accepting it in limited circumstances. Moreover, belief in born leaders places you either inside or outside an exclusive club that simply does not exist.

Whew, I’m glad that’s out of the way. Now, to the subject I really want to write about.

Why did you become a leader?

First you must answer this: Have you become a leader? Have you determined a specific direction for your life and pursued it with the courage that comes only to one who knows where he or she is going? Has the purpose you have chosen to live for attracted others in search of the same thing? The measure of a leader is in the results produced by followers through their own discretionary actions in pursuit of the leader’s mission. Who follows you? What value are they adding to the world by following your direction?

How did you become a leader? Some say they became leaders when they were asked to lead (these may be the same people who believe in born leaders!). Being asked to take a formal leadership role does not make you a leader. Invitation to leadership merely creates context and opportunity. Invitation merely creates the venue for potential leadership. Leaders are developed in the pursuit of a mission beyond their singular ability to achieve, through noble values and a shared quest for virtue. Leaders are the product of those who want to follow them.

But why did you become a leader?

Back to my original question… My guess is that your answer and that of most leaders arises from the specific direction that you sought or still seek with passion. You had a cause, a mission, an agenda. You became effective as a leader through pursuit of a dream, and the subsequent struggle, failure, success, reward and consequence, much like gold ore is purified into 14 karat gold.

Then perhaps you are ready for the ultimate step our most admired leaders always take. You may need to lose your own agenda for one far greater. Perhaps God has a mission for you for which everything else you have done up to now is preparation.

You need to let go of the things that brought you here.
Only then can you become a true leader.



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Posted in dreams, leadership, mission, passion, values, virtue | Leave a comment

Identity is Destiny

Posted on May 4, 2009 by pdncoach


This morning was a disaster. I decided to try out the new website administrator tool that my web host had installed. (I have known my main business website has needed a serious overhaul for some time.) My home page needed some reformatting, at the very least, so that is what I was doing when upon my click of the “bullet” icon, everything disappeared.

EVERYTHING but a few lines of my business website home page is gone.

Of course, my first action was to call my web host (the owner, by the way); I had to leave a voice mail…but that’s another story yet to be written. My next thought was that I may have to recreate, rewrite, reconstruct those precious words and graphics I long ago had written. I felt like a victim of identity theft.

But I abhor thinking like a victim at all, so I got to thinking: How much of an opportunity might I really have here? When was the last time I truly rethought my business? Is my story today the same as it was a couple of years ago when I last updated my home page? I have a new partner, Becky Morris, and we are beginning to do this in earnest together, but now I literally have a clean canvas on which to paint my – our – vision anew.

Then I got to thinking of a comment made by my friend and colleague, Grant Tate, when we had dinner last week at a professional conference. Grant said something like this:

We’ll never reconstruct the old economy, so what will the new economy look like? What is our role? We are perfectly equipped to shape what is to come. Shouldn’t we be leaders in shaping what is to come?

Much of what we have been writing for decades in our economy is gone. It has disappeared. We’ll never reconstruct our old story; we shouldn’t want to. We don’t like it, but we are forced to shape something new and within that lies the potential to shape something better.

Who are we? What do we stand for? How are we different? Where do I fit in?

In his book Identity is Destiny: Leadership and the Roots of Value Creation, author Laurence D. Ackerman sites a Conference Board survey report on post-merger integration from the late 1990s, in which three factors were cited as being instrumental in creating a framework for designing a successful new organization.

  • Basic identity, core values and business strategy
  • The underlying economic model of the enterprise
  • The philosophy and style of the CEO

The combination of these factors helps to “create a common understanding and commitment” among all stakeholders. Employees love their work and deliver results that mirror their passion; customers want to do business with their companies again and again; and investors stay with the companies in the face of inevitable ups and downs. Loyal employees; loyal customers; loyal investors: a perfect formula for success.

Ackerman gets it: Our identity – a company’s, or a person’s, or a nation’s unique characteristics – determines our potential and capacity for success. I can use the blank canvas of my web page to great advantage by rethinking my identity, my business and the value Becky and I add for our clients. Our nation can rethink our identity and how we create value in the world. Our nation’s businesses can rethink how they add value to their customers and in our economy. Our teams can rethink how they add value to corporate mission. Each of us can rethink how we uniquely can contribute to something bigger than ourselves. In so doing, we create a common understanding and commitment to pursue new results with passion.

I can rewrite my success story by rethinking my identity. I am the CEO of my future.

Reflections to inspire personal growth and identity:

  • Where are you now? Why? What are your striving for that seems just beyond your reach based on your current thinking?
  • What are the unique characteristics and interests that make you who you are? How do you know? How would a professional assessment help?
  • What is your identity: your personal vision, values, strategy, career/business model, philosophy and style? When was the last time you rethought your identity? What kind of help do you need?
  • If I asked you to come up with 100 or more dreams for your future, what is your capacity to dream of success to this extent? Would a process that helped you dream and achieve the dreams that are most important to you be helpful?
  • If “Identity is Destiny”, who are you, what do you want to have, to do, to become and how are you going to achieve your desired future?

Our future – your future – begins at The Intersection of Purpose & Now.

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Posted in economy, future, identity is destiny, mission, opportunity, passion, potential, strategy, success, values, vision | Leave a comment