One of our program graduates, Lance Ekum, Jungle of Life blog author,  was telling us about a unique change movement he learned and participated in to help boost energy through laughter.  The creator of The Levity Project, Katie West, has started a movement of positivity!

She describes The Levity Project as “a social movement to foster buoyancy, laughter, play, and freedom as the new paradigm in social design.  We engage in public acts of levity in which people gather in a flash setting to en-lighten the energy of a public place and those within it.  They are designed to foster a sense of lightness and connection to all who are present.

The goal is to bring people together who see themselves as agents of change toward creating a an upward spiral of positivity in our world.  We want to  create a deeper understanding that joy, play, laughter, and freedom are integral to individual and collective success.”

We visited The Levity Project website and loved the videos of the project in action!  Check out the website to learn more.

You can also read Lance’s Blog where he interviews Katie about her passion for laughter and choosing to be positive.

How do we bring this into the workplace?  Mike Shoemaker, author on Social Earth blog has a great perspective of who builds the fun company culture in the corporate world- the leaders.  In his recent post “What Could Corporate America Possibly Teach the Social Sector about Organizational Culture?” Mike tells how he was pleasantly surprised to learn that corporate America doesn’t always mean drones and robots, but can also mean a sense of community and openness.  Mike says, “Most of all, always remember that senior leadership drives org culture.  Lead by example. Do good work, but don’t forget to have fun.”

The Walk 4 Hearing has chosen Doc Holly as a featured walker!

Sudden Hearing Loss Results in Career Nightmare AND Big Walk4Hearing™ Results

“Eighteen years ago I fell asleep with normal hearing and woke up with a severe hearing loss in both ears. I listened intently as the doctor told me I had Meniere’s disease, non-dizzy type, severe loss category. I was immediately fitted with hearing aids and exposed to a world of warped sounds and multiple requests for people to repeat what they were saying…”

Read the full article here.

Hypnosis isn’t about getting people to do crazy things, it’s about getting people over their own stumbling blocks so they can achieve their personal best.  Teacher and hypnosis coach, David Grinstead says,”I’m an educator, and I teach (people) a skill that they can use the rest of their life.”

Grinstead’s hypnosis helps people with sales skills (including selling yourself), career goals, motivation, confidence, public speaking, weight control, and smoking, among many others.  See the full list of services on David’s website.

Grinstead joined The Leadership Trust® as an adjunct faculty member in September 2009.  He sees clients in Burlington and Durham.  Of his joining the TLT team, Doc Holly says, “We’re excited to offer David’s hypnosis services as part of our expanding programs.  We aim to help people in not only leadership, but in their daily lives as well.  Hypnosis fits naturally into our expansion plans.”

A Leadership Checklist: 10 Things To Do Right Now to Make it  a Great Year

Blog author Terry Starbucker writes his top 10 list of how to start a great year on this blog.  Click the link above to read the full list.

The Leadership Trust has been in the throes of kicking off a great 2010 with full expectation of creating greater fun and profit for not only our clients but ourselves as well.  We are more focused than ever and have “hope with a backbone” that 2010 will catapult 2009 into total oblivion.  Dr. Kathy Sturgis created an amazing team building/strategic planning session designed to stretch our potential to compelling performance.  We are no different from any organization – we want the freshness of ideas coming from within and beyond our own walls.  If you’re looking for a jump start, call us, 1-888-313-2570.

“Where you finish in life isn’t determined so much

by where you start as by whether you start.”

-John C. Maxwell in “Talent is Never Enough”

It’s the new year, and it’s time to start something new.  Start making strides towards those goals you have set for yourself, for your family, for your business.  How did you get started on a task that seemed overwhelming? 

In the recent survey by the Conference Board research group, it was found that 45% of Americans are unsatisfied with their jobs.  This survey shows a drop of 4% since the previous results in 2008.  Read the full story here.

The Conference Board suggests that potential reasons for the dissatisfaction are:

• Fewer workers consider their jobs to be interesting.
• Incomes have not kept up with inflation.
• The soaring cost of health insurance has eaten into workers’ take-home pay.

Doc Holly says, “Downsizing and restructuring have been prolific corporate events long before the economy went south, and the resulting stress of fewer people doing more seems to be at the crux of this mounting workforce disengagement, a major threaten to the necessary team play that underscores which company cultures can best manage competition in the marketplace. The Leadership Trust® has noticed more recently the surge in requests for leadership/emotional intelligence training to address morale issues related to people reacting in fear toward a stressed and/or intimidating manager.”

Want to weigh in on your opinion?  Cast your vote on MSNBC’s poll, “Are You Satisfied with Your Job?”

What does your company do to help ensure your employees are engaged and satisfied?

Happiness as a child is easy.  Happiness as an adult is more complicated.  In a recent survey of over 3,000 respondents, Marshall and Kelly Goldsmith, BusinessWeek Contributors, analyzed the connections between happiness and meaning at home and at work.  Their findings were clear-cut.  (Read the full article here.)   “There is an incredibly high correlation between people’s happiness and meaning at work and at home.”  According to their results, “the amount of time respondents spent solely on stimulating activities had no bearing on their satisfaction at work…Overall satisfaction at work increased only if both the amount of happiness and meaning experienced by employees simultaneously increased.”

As for the individual, what can you do to increase your happiness?  The authors suggest:

1. Reducing TV watching
2. Cutting back on surfing the Web for non-professional reasons.
3. Do as few chores as you can.
4. Spend time exercising and with people you love.
5. Feeling challenged is linked to greater satisfaction, so challenge yourself.

The authors say that companies should stop asking, “What can the company do to increase employees’ experience of happiness and meaning at work” because it can encourage dependency.  Instead, company leaders should ask themselves, “What can I do to increase my experience of happiness and meaning at work?”  This can lead to a better commitment, potentially at a lower cost, than current plans.

We at The Leadership Trust® share the philosophy that work affects home and home affects work, and our programs are comprehensive in addressing both issues as evidenced by our graduates’ testimonials.   What do you do to increase your happiness at home and at work?

Check out the world’s happiest countries too!

Is there such a thing as too much knowledge?  Is that possible?  Through the course of his education, Jeff Stibel learned valuable lessons regarding knowledge and wisdom.  An entrepreneur and brain scientist, Stibel writes about how he has learned that “wisdom can be shattered by too much information.”  Like a bookshelf only holds so many books, our brains only hold so much information before we can suffer from the “knowledge trap” or “analysis paralysis.”  In decision making, Stibel says those who “realize they’ll never have all the answers no matter how much knowledge they gather- are often the ones who succeed.”  Read the full article here.

In these tough economic times, it’s hard to know what will happen to our companies, our communities, and our lifestyle habits.  Instead of succumbing to the knowledge trap and analysis paralysis, we should take on the attitude of doing the best with what we have so that we can maximize our chances of success.  No one knows fully what we all should do, but we all know that doing nothing will not help any situation.  What do you do to help prevent the knowledge trap/ analysis paralysis in your office?

Rita McGrath, Professor at Columbia Business School in New York, writes in her blog about preparing for the upswing as the economy shows signs of turnaround.  Read the full article here.  Start with determining where your company is now and where you want to be.  Having a clearly defined goal will help you as you create the succession plan for your potential leadership candidates.

When you have your candidates in mind, think of their current skills and abilities.  Do they need training? What experiences do they need to fully engage in their potential?  McGrath writes, “Training, promotion and development will be key to winning because not having the right leaders will be a crippling disadvantage when the economy turns up.”

What are you doing to help prepare your team for their leadership potential?

Trying to do more with less?  Aren’t we all aiming to achieve the creative balance for our various work projects?  Jim Collins, author of  Level 5 Leadership, says he uses a stop watch to regulate his time, which creates pockets of white space in his day to be creative.

He “is all about discipline,” writes Bronwyn Fryer, of the Harvard Business Review Blog.  (Read the full article here.)  Collins blocks off time in his schedule where he is cut off from all electronics, including the internet, for creativity and writing.  He says he often uses this white space to clear his mind so as not to “confuse activity with productivity.”

Sounds like a luxury doesn’t it?  Think you can’t do it until you get that big break?  Well Collins used this same philosophy while writing his first book, Built to Last.  He even declined consulting opportunities to fulfill his scheduled white space creative time.

What do you think?  How do you add some creative, mind clearing white space into your schedule?  We want to learn from you.