The degree to which you see similarities between a spiritual journey workshop and leadership training tells me how familiar you are with the essence of personal and professional development. In other words, there should be a lot of overlap between the two if indeed some profound change is to take place.

Sunday March 28, 2010, between 9 am and 11am, I’ll have the privilege to work with some unusually gutsy women who inspire me every year. The retreat is entitled Women on a Spiritual Journey to Healing, where the theme this year is ’No One Can Judge You Unless You Allow Them.’ (For local, interested women, join us at Avila, located  in Durham, NC.)

These are women from different walks of life – women recovering from medical challenges, substance abuse and other issues, women who have opened their own businesses in the past year and overcome all odds against them.  If you want to experience human authenticity at its best, there is a certain raw appeal in these courageous women, and I am humbled every single time I am given the privilege to engage them. These are women who have been strengthed by their own acknowledged vulnerability, whose real strength of character has grown from “a scared place,” a place from where their courage mysteriously appeared only because there was no other way out of their darkness.   

Dian Wilson, Housing for New Hope, is a graduate of our Self-Awareness Workshop, and is the brainchild behind this offering, and Terry Allebaugh, who is a graduate of our Personalized Leadership Development Program and the Executive Director of Housing for New Hope, has made it possible for hundreds of homeless people to find not just a home, but reason to hope and to live and to love again.   That’s leadership at its best, and this blog is a tribute to their fine work and the joy I get to feel being a part of their enterprise.

Oftentimes our leadership failures are not life-threatening, but when they are, as in the case of Toyota’s response to the multiple reports of accidents from sticking accelerators, it only adds fat to the fire.  I have encountered only one life-threatening situation on the job during my life span.

During my internship at a large, prestigious training hospital, I had a patient whose surgery left her worse off than had she never had the surgery. Because the mishap landed her on a respirator for six months flat on her back, the mistake in her family’s eyes was indeed life-threatening.  I overheard them talking one day, saying, “If we don’t soon get an explanation and apology, we’ll sue!” A week later, the family spoke openly about how much they appreciated the sincere apology and honest admission of a misplaced incision. “It was a human mistake,” they conceded.  Still, I imagine there are times when apologies and explanations are given to harsh, unforgiving ears. Humanistic leadership is a two-way street.

Once we hear CEO Toyoda speak before a Congressional hearing, how will we respond? I have a notion that we’ll see a more timely response to future accident reports, assuming Toyoda offers a transparent account of where he and his team failed the public and how the enactment of new policies will preclude a similar future public outrage.  This may be exactly the crisis Toyoda himself needs to start him on a path of more enlightened leadership.

William George, Harvard Business professor wrote his take on the crisis Toyota is currently experiencing in a recent blog post this week.  To read the full story, click here.  George details Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda’s actions of hiding and avoiding the true problems have created a leadership crisis for his company.  It’s too soon to tell how long a recovery make take or how successful that recovery will be for Toyota.  To help Akio Toyoda, George offers his advice, based on his recent book, 7 Lessons for Leading in Crisis.

How do you feel Akio Toyoda handled himself and the media during this challenging time?  What did he do that was good; what should he have done differently?

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.

“Becoming a leader is synonymous with becoming yourself. It is precisely that simple, and it is also that difficult.” ~ Warren Bennis

Lance, author of Jungle of Life Blog, recently interviewed me for his blog.  The interview was atypical in the same way our workshops are, meaning there was plenty of room for personal “stuff” that subsequently can shape the good and the not-so-good in our later years- both at work and at home.  We shared a great conversation about my personal philosophy and how The Leadership Trust® helps leaders grow from the inside out.

Here is an excerpt from our interview:

Today I’m honored to share with you Dr. Holly Latty-Mann, president and co-founder of The Leadership Trust®.  The Leadership Trust is a training organization based in Durham, North Carolina.  Holly, along with the late Dr. Jim Farr, created this unique training organization in 1998. Of special note, is that Dr. Farr was the initial founding director of the Center for Creative Leadership, back in the late 1960s and sold his previous firm, Farr Associates, making The Leadership Trust his last leadership initiative.

The basis behind the training that Holly and her group offer is that leadership is built from the inside out through a highly psychologically driven process.  Regarded as life-changing, nearly all past participants have called this the best training they’ve ever had – both personally and professionally.  And this is evidenced in the many video and written testimonials of their graduates, found at The Leadership Trust website.  I encourage you to check these out, even just for the inspiration they offer, given they do not fit the norm.  It is so worth reading/viewing some of these – just take a couple of minutes to really let this all soak in.

Holly has created a learning environment that truly promotes fundamental change, in a safe and caring environment.  With a rich history of alliances that include Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, their Coach K Center for Leadership and Ethics (COLE) as well as Wake Forest University’s Babcock Graduate School of Management, The Leadership Trust currently enjoys an informal partnership with NC State’s Organizational Behavior program where their collaboration has produced research findings on leadership behaviors that work and don’t work.

Please join me in welcoming Holly here today. 

1. Tell us a little bit about who “you” are (family, career, any special life experiences you’d like to share, etc.)
Lance, I notice you ask about family first before career in your question, and I say you have your priorities right!

While most people tend to offer positive spins when asked about specifics of who they are (family, special life experiences, etc.), I’ve found those sensational life events, including the ones where I made mistakes, have turned out to be wonderful training grounds for not only helping me become my best, but also helping others do the same.  So here are some special life experiences that molded and shaped me because of my responses to them: I lost my brother Michael when I was almost 3, and he was almost 9. Michael was my everything. My father was an alcoholic, albeit a successful business executive. That’s because his drinking started when he came home in the evenings.  I went steady with Billy Graham’s son for two years in high school, but he broke up with me because I was a “goody two-shoes,” and he had discovered “wild” girls during his prep school years at Stony Brook.  Years following my divorce at the age of 30, I saved myself from a second marriage. Don’t laugh when you hear my doctoral dissertation was on mate selection. After years of being married to my company, I’m now finally ready again. Continuing to speak to special life experiences, I’ve had one supernatural experience that has nurtured a metaphysical orientation to my faith. Another “supernatural” experience was my losing half of my hearing overnight in 1992 due to a virus. But most importantly as a result of working steadily on myself over time, I can say with gratitude in my heart that I am a happy, secure person who loves life and believes the best in humankind! No, I am not naïve. I have watched thousands of people go from anger, despair, insecurity, arrogance, and selfishness to happy and peaceful. I am a true believer that people change, and my passion is playing a role in supporting meaningful, lasting change in others.

You’ll learn from this link about my career, educational background, and what I do in the name of showing leaders how to inspire and motivate. It was only this past year that I asked all faculty members to add what they do for fun in the last paragraph.  As for me, that includes foreign travel (52 foreign countries so far), playing the piano, playing tennis, hiking, and most fun of all, biking! I feel like a free child as soon as I start to peddle!

Lance’s Commentary:  Holly, I love the approach you took with this question.  Life has bumps for all of us, and those bumps along our journey really can lead to lasting change.  You are doing wonderful things on all levels, and I’m sure that’s in part to what your past experiences have taught you. 

2. You are the president and co-founder of a pretty innovative organization.  Tell us briefly about “The Leadership Trust” and what it is? 
How about our mission statement for starters? The Leadership Trust® is an organization dedicated to support on a global basis the creation, development and implementation of highly effective, high integrity leadership serving the ultimate well-being of all persons everywhere.

3. What is the deeper purpose of your organization?
Our deeper purpose is to support the growth of the human spirit in order to contribute toward a kinder, gentler world.

Lance’s Commentary:  The human spirit – what a deeply meaningful purpose.  Holly, I think this answer alone speaks to just how “right” what you are doing is.  The more connected with our deeper self, the more we see life through the lens of humanity and what is possible!  What a great place to work toward, and you get to help others do this every day – how awesome!

To read the interview in full, please click here: Leading From Within