Presence is “the state or fact of existing, occurring, or being present in a place or thing.”

Most leaders have a general understanding of what being present means, but few can translate that understanding into reality. Every moment through the day offers the opportunity to ask what I am present to?

Inquiry holds the potential to disrupt the fast-paced automatic distractions in life, to bring you to the root of what matters. When you are present, you might notice your past, present and future revealed at once, leaving you at choice to commit to what you care about.

To be present is to live in the moment, the here and now, not in the past assertions or future declarations. It is about being alert and aware of your emotional state and its impact on how you see the world and how others see you. Presence fosters intention.

While in a “presence state” you are likely to ask yourself questions like: for the sake of what am I doing this? how does the situation at hand connect with my purpose? and how do I need to act to fulfill a deeper sense of destiny?

A leader’s presence impacts a room negatively, positively, or not at all, and can be influenced between 3 ways of displayed presence:

1. Powerful Presence

A powerful leader is self-aware of who they are being with others. They are being:

1. • Collaborative – “we” vs. “I” language.
   • A deep listener from a place of support and empowerment (which has others asking questions that put them into action).
   • A generative communicator.
   • Calm under pressure.
   • Supportive of other ideas, opinions, and beliefs – which makes others feel safe in their presence.
   • Accountable for their promises and agreements with others.
   • A learner.
   • Vulnerable – willing to say, “I don’t know” and “I need your support in finding a quality solution to this issue”.
   • Trustworthy.
   • Open to feedback.
   • Responsible for their choices and decisions.
   • Strong communicators/listeners by using direct eye contact.
   • In tune with their surroundings.
   • Relationship focused as well as transaction-focused – long term thinking.

You can measure when you are being a leader with a powerful presence by your impact on others. Your impact creates sustainable action with others. People leave a conversation with you, engaged, inspired, and motivated to execute on their promises made to you. People who work with you are confident at providing feedback and information that is real to support the success of the organization.

2. Forceful Presence

A forceful leader is less self-aware of who they are in the room. They are being:

• • Accountable for their own performance and expect others to do the same.
  • A listener for others from a place of “fix, help and rescue” – which has them telling others what to do to be in action.
  • Exclusive with others which shows up as controlling of their environment, information, and decision-making power.
  • Aggressive when others challenge their decisions or ideas.
  • Less open with others when they are unsure or do not have an answer, they see vulnerability as a weakness, i.e.:” “You are paid to know and if you don’t know, go and figure it out quickly so that you can be reliable for others”.
  • Less collaborative in their communication abilities:
    1. They like to tell vs. ask others for their ideas and opinions.
    2. They speak in the first person, i.e.: “I did this, I accomplished this…”.
    3. Their feedback tends to be critical and unsafe, i.e.: “You should have known that…”.

You can measure when you are being a leader with a forceful presence by the impact you have on others. For example, you create unsustainable action with others, or people leave a conversation with you, confused, uncertain and worried about how to be in action to support the project and how they will be supported by you. Feedback is rarely given, and open-door policies are seldom used.  People who work with you learn to tell you what you want to hear vs. what you need to hear to support the success of the organization.

3. Powerless Presence

A powerless leader’s presence shows up as unwilling and inauthentic. In a conversation, they are unwilling to own their authentic voice, don’t share their ideas or make people feel like they don’t matter by saying phrases like, “sounds good, I’m sure you will make it happen, I have no comments on this topic…”.

This may leave others confused, uncertain, disempowered and lost as to how to be in action to support the issue or opportunity at hand. When a leader is not present with their team, others see you as a powerless leader because they are left in a space of uncertainty or inaction.

Practices to Support Developing A Powerful Presence:

A leader who chooses to be intentional about living a powerful presence has a set of practices that has them being self-aware of their presence (overall energy) which they bring to the moment. Here are some examples of practices:

• Healthy lifestyle – proper food choices and balanced sleeping patterns.
• A daily breathing, mindfulness, or meditation practice.
• Uses slow down techniques like “Power of the Pause”.
• Reflecting at the end of each day to support self-learning.
• Daily exercise.
• Journaling – putting their thoughts on paper to create new awareness and learning
• Learning in a community.
• Giving and receiving feedback to expand self-awareness.
• Self-care – quality sleep, time for self, time for play/fun/laughter, time for creativity and time for quality relaxation.

Want more? Check out our resource material for this:

1. Article on the Power of Presence – https://www.bhavanalearninggroup.com/in-the-power-of-presence/
2. Book entitled, “Leadership Presence” by Belle Linda Halpern & Kathy Lubar – https://www.amazon.ca/Leadership-Presence-Kathy-Lubar/dp/1592400868/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1602172801&sr=8-2
3. Article on the Power of the Pause – https://www.bhavanalearninggroup.com/3-conditions-cultivate-attention/
4. Article on Fixing, helping & rescuing – https://www.uc.edu/content/dam/uc/honors/docs/communityengagement/HelpingFixingServing.pdf

Have you ever said to yourself?

“Oh, if only there were more hours in a day, or another day in the week, then I could get it all done?”

Let’s be honest, even if there were more hours in the day, you probably still wouldn’t get it all done. We don’t really need more time; we need to make better use of the time we have. 

More than any other word, “overwhelmed” captures the state in which most of us find ourselves. There’s simply too much to do and not enough time to get everything done. ^*

The Oscar-winning movie, “Crash,” aptly details how we are all so involved in our everyday lives that we really never notice – let alone care about – anyone else … unless we crash into each other. We have no time to care or to even think about having time to care. ^*

We are on the verge of collapse but have not found the time for that either.

Let us start by looking at the relationship we have with time.

Do we own our time or does time own us? Another way to look at is to ask ourselves are we “busy” or “productive” with our time.

People tend to work harder at getting ahead to complete their workload, ultimately creating more interactions, more timelines, more meetings and more follow up, all resulting in overwhelm. This cycle is what we a “vicious circle” at Awesome Journey, as illustrated below.

There are a few steps that we can support our leaders with, to break this vicious circle.

A big one is learning what gets in the way of a leader saying no.

“The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say ‘no’ to almost everything.” Warren Buffett

Challenge: For the next two (2) weeks journal each night on how your relationship to time was for that day.

1. Where did I automatically commit to tasks and experience overwhelm as a result? –
2. Where did I say no to avoid overwhelm?

Did time own you or did you own your time?

*Courtesy of – Tony Zampella of Bhavana Learning Group.

As we start to re-enter the workplace in person, many of our clients are asking us:

“What are other leaders doing to lead in a hybrid world?”

The phrase “hybrid world” means functioning between video platforms and live in-person interactions. Technology alone is not going to serve us, so we must shift some of the conversation to focus on the human aspects of re-entry.

Take a few minutes to self-reflect on your recent experience of operating in a hybrid world  and ponder these two questions:

1: Where do I need to upgrade my listening skills to support my team living in a hybrid world?

Example:

• Being Fully Present for Others. One of the biggest mistakes we see leaders make is having back to back events in their calendar. Creating space between meetings supports “being fully present” for others by minimizing carry over from one meeting to the next.
• Fixing or Supporting. As we lead ourselves and our teams in this VUCA world, we have two places where we can listen from:

A. A place of “fix & rescue” – we hear what is wrong and then we tell people what to do (or we do it ourselves)

OR

B. A place of “support & empowerment” – we hear what is missing or emerging, then we focus on asking questions to engage others, to take ownership and action for their projects.

A great paper to support your learning journey on listening is Helping, Fixing & Serving. (10 min read)

 2: What self-care practices will you expand and include in your daily schedule to support yourself in this hybrid world?

Example:

Highly functioning leaders are disciplined in the following areas:

Physical

The 4 pillars of your physical well-being are:

• Rest
• Exercise
• Water intake
• Quality Nutrition

Ask yourself: where are you in these 4 pillars?

Mental

A key pillar of your mental well-being is the “quality of attention” that you bring to every conversation. The 2 key components are:

1. Your ability to focus
2. Your ability to concentration

Insight: An excellent practice to strengthen your “quality of attention” is to have a daily meditation practice. Download the Headspace or Calm app and get started today!

Emotional

A key component of your emotional well-being is your awareness of your emotions. Are your emotions using you or are you using your emotions to create sustainable action with others? You become a more effective leader when you are intentional about strengthening you emotional well-being through daily practices of:

1. 1. Harnessing the Power of Pause. This allows you to convert a perceived threat into an opportunity through leveraging your breathing practice and asking empowering questions.
   2. Not avoiding conflict and concern when they arise, you address them by noticing it and then naming it so you can then speak to it
   3. Expressing gratitude daily. Start and end your day with expressing gratitude for the support, guidance, and love in your life.

Exercise: Pick 1 of the 3 emotional well-being practices, develop a daily practice for 7 days and measure the impact to your emotional well-being!

As a leader, you are either in “Action” or you are “Stuck”. I experienced my own teachings last week. I thought that I was in “Action” when in fact I was “Stuck”.

I was complaining, justifying and rationalizing my “Way of Being” with one of my colleagues about another member of our team. To me, this was “Action”. After I had finished being right, and making my team member wrong, my colleague asked me a powerful question: “Is your righteousness going to generate action with our other teammate?”

At that moment, I got that I had been “Stuck”. I looked at my colleague and said “No! Thank you for helping me see that I am stuck.”

What got me “Unstuck”? My support structures!

• A colleague who cared to listen to me and hold me accountable to my commitment to lead from our core values
• A conversation with my team member to generate action

How strong are your support structures?

When you are “Stuck” you are:

1. Closed to other ideas, feedback, and opinions
2. Defensive
3. Non-accountable in your language (I should, I guess, Probably…)
4. Committed to Being Right (I am right and others are wrong, don’t they see it, that I am just trying to help them)

When you are in an “Action” you are:

1. Open to other ideas, feedback, and opinions
2. Curious
3. Accountable in your language (I will, I can, I do & I choose)
4. Committed to Learning

What can I do to shift from being Stuck to being in Action?

1. Pause & Breathe Deeply and then ask yourself this powerful question – “Is this a Threat or an Opportunity?”
2. Make a request to a colleague for support
3. Take action!

Ideas for this Blog come from two sources, my weekly experiences coaching Executives and from an amazing book entitled, “The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership” by Jim Dethmer, Diana Chapman, & Kaley Warner Klemp.

At Awesome Journey, we are passionate about learning to be great leaders both personally and professionally. One way we challenge ourselves to learn about leadership, is by exposing ourselves to others who are passionate about leadership. Check out our 2020 book recommendations below hyperlinked for easy purchasing.

To build a high-performing organization we need to be intentional about creating “workability” in the organization. At Awesome Journey Inc., workability means that an organization is working well at delivering the right actions, that can deliver the right results, allowing the organization to win and have quality success. When workability is high, performance will be consistent, repeatable, and reliable throughout the organization. Below are five key building blocks that your organization needs to have for workability and to achieve the results you are looking for.

Shared Understanding

All team members are clear what the company’s vision and the strategic plan are, to successfully achieve the organization’s short and long-term vision.

In an article by Cas Mollien titled, The Importance of Clear Vision, Strategy & Tactics, Mollien points out that “vision is a view of what the future can look like, in its best form, and that the best vision, is one that all participants can stand behind.”

An Intentional Culture is Present

The organization’s culture becomes real when, as an organization, everyone is intentional about living the company’s core values in every conversation.

Of course, when we discuss culture, the phrase “culture eats strategy for breakfast” always comes up and its true. Without a high performing culture, expected results are not achieved no matter how good the plan is.

A System of Accountability

The organization is clear about what they need to count and measure to generate success and this can allow accountability to be present.

Another key component to this system is that everyone on the team has a clear role, clear responsibilities and defined goals to support executing the strategic plan.

In Bob Prosen’s article, How to Increase Accountability in Any Organization, Prosen mentions that “one of the best ways to help people win is to establish an accountability-based, culture focused on producing results, not activities.”

Quality Agreements

A quality agreement consists of a clear request and a real promise. When a quality agreement is created between teammates, that agreement is put into people’s calendars, to ensure that the future can be created and predictable. Quality agreements=achieved deadlines and high performance!

Support Structures

Three strong structures that need to be in place are:

1. Having the right people, in the right positions, with the right skills, to deliver the results, that they have agreed to deliver on.
2. Well-defined and measurable processes, and systems are in place to ensure that consistent, repeatable and reliable services and products can be delivered when promised.
3. A set of practices to create quality action, i.e.: quality meetings, onboarding staff, holding staff accountable for their promises etc.

Over the past 20 years, at Awesome Journey Inc has seen repeatedly, that one of the most fundamental places that an organization can improve workability, to support generating quality results is to improve the workability of the Senior Leadership Team.

When a Senior Leadership Team of an organization, is working well together that organization will be generating quality results. So, we leave you with a question…

“How would you rate the workability of your Senior Leadership Team?”

A few areas to evaluate the workability of the Senior Leadership Team:

1. Everyone on the team trusts each other.
2. Meetings are effective, deliver action and results.
3. There is quick movement from conflict to opportunities, through genuine listening and thoughtful questions.
4. Strategizing on opportunities well.
5. Giving and receiving feedback to each other in real-time.
6. Any issues and concerns are addressed authentically.
7. Quality results are generated together.
8. Authentic communication with each other.
9. Quality decisions are made collaboratively.

Contributions to this article from Bhavana Learning Group and the Awesome Journey Inc. Team.

To grow your business, you need to be intentional about growing your people. To grow your people, you need to focus on learning how to “Unlock Human Potential.” The difference between performance and potential is this:

1. Performance = the action or process of carrying out or accomplishing an action, task, or function.
2. Potential = having or showing the capacity to become or develop into something in the future.

There are six access points to “Unlocking Human Potential” that a leader must listen for:

1. Curiosity – the ability to forward action by challenging assumptions through inquiry and wonder
2. Perseverance – the ability to stay in action despite setbacks
3. Initiative – the ability to create action without being asked or told
4. Courage – the ability to take action when you are in a state of fear
5. Engagement – the ability to be in action through commitment vs compliance
6. Passion – the ability to generate action by enrolling others into what is most important

Example:

In a recent Town Hall meeting where you as the CEO challenged all staff to be in Possibility Thinking to find ways to move the organization forward in either of two ways:

1. Reduce costs out of the business
2. Generate new value to support growth in the business

On the following Monday, you get a knock on your office door at 7 am by a member of your Engineering Team. She says to you, “Do you have 10 minutes sometime this week, I would like to share two ideas that I have been working on to create new value that I believe will move product x forward and from my calculations grow our market share by a minimum of 20% over the next 2 years with product x.” 

What potential is this person expressing?

Challenge:

Listen for potential in others and then foster the person’s potential by empowering the person to expand their hidden talent.  Challenge them to turn their potential into a new possibility that creates value for the organization.

This blog was written by Eric Crowell and Scott Clark with significant contributions from Tony Zampella (Bhavana Learning Group) and Rob McNamara (Leadership Teacher).

At Awesome Journey, one of the key learnings that we teach from Peter Senge’s book, “The Fifth Discipline,” is that there are three roles inside being a Powerful Leader – Steward, Designer, and Teacher.

Steward You create clarity in what you CARE about. What you CARE about gets your time!

Designer You focus on designing intentional conversations to support the things you CARE about.

Teacher You are intentional about creating learning experiences and learning environments to support your people in being effective for the things that the organization CARES about.

Recently, I was in the presence of three Master Teachers. In August, I was in a four-day leadership course with Peter Senge, Otto Scharmer and Arawana Hayashi in Stowe, Vermont. One of my key learnings that I took away from our four-day conversation on leadership was seeing Master Teachers teach. Here are some of the key principles they taught me about being a Master Teacher:

1. Create an environment where learning is safe to be vulnerable. Master Teachers encourage you to say, “I don’t know how to solve this issue and I need support to move forward”. When you embrace a beginner’s mind, new possibilities can emerge.
2. Ask thoughtful questions to disrupt your current mindset. This gets you to think differently about a challenge or issue you are struggling to create new future possibilities.
3. Create space for learning through “Dialogue Conversations”. When we embrace learning in community, cool breakthroughs start to occur! Dialogue conversations allow diverse thinking to be present to allow new possibilities to emerge.
4. Be committed to your student’s winning! Winning means that your students are learning from their experiences (success & failures). By challenging your students to debrief their experience by observing how their learning has impacted their ability to lead.

Ask yourself “has the student’s learning expanded their…”

• • Thinking
  • Awareness to connect with others
  • Influence to impact others to be in action
  • Expertise to generate new possibilities
  • Relationship to problems:
    • Perspective from seeing problems as something is wrong/ needs to be fixed to seeing problems as an invitation to discover what is missing and what is emerging!

Your Leadership Challenge: Be a teacher to your team this week by applying one or all of the four principles of a Master Teacher.

Our four-day Classroom outside under this tent! From left to right: Peter Senge, Arawana Hayashi, Me and Otto Scharmer.