by Baeth Davis, Your Prosperity Purpose Mentor
This past weekend, I attended a magical leadership retreat at Canyon Ranch, hosted by Stedman Graham, and featuring some of the top thought leaders, speakers, CEOs and executives in the U.S. It turns out that real leaders don’t want followers — they seek authentic leaders.
Today, we’ll explore 5 key ways you can be a leader who ATTRACTS other leaders
Do you:
1) regularly create what my former VIP client, Renee Shatanoff, affectionately refers to as ‘time to think?’
2) surround yourself with people who are smarter, faster, healthier, more athletic, more successful and more talented so you don’t stagnate?
3) choose growth as your personal educational style?
4) feel, express and embody love?
5) practice “Genshai?”
Time To Think
In his November 2011 newsletter, Dan Kennedy wrote: “In any case, the best advice I have is to insist on some time everyday to think bigger, broader, creatively, beyond the swamp, and make some progress toward positive goals.”
Nowhere is this type of broader thinking more possible than at a place like Canyon Ranch, whose tagline is “The Power of Possibility.” If you don’t make time to think, you will either fall in the swamp, get stuck in the swamp or be drowned by the swamp. Not pretty.
Arriving on property at 10:50 am, I went to my room to make a client call and get some work done before my intentionally scheduled ‘time to think’ process began. At 3:30 pm, I headed out and received a phenomenal head, neck and shoulder massage followed by a Watsu treatment, which is essentially weightless shiatsu in a heated pool. Divine floating bliss. I wouldn’t recommend it if you have trouble surrendering yourself into the arms of a stranger (in this case, an Earth Angel named Darcy) while wearing a bathing suit. Personally, I was only aware of the sensation of my breath, my body floating and the water. At several points during the treatment, I could have sworn there were two people in the water stretching me and swirling me through the pool. A nearly full moon came out to greet us as the treatment ended with the moon beaming down on my heart.
These two body treatments allowed my restless body, tired from weeks of traveling, to rest and my mind to quiet. No deep thinking can begin with a cluttered mind. You must create space so what you desire can move in.
I then met up with my BFF, Ali Brown, a brilliant entrepreneur and mentor to other leaders. We got gussied up and ventured over to the opening night cocktail party of the retreat. It was there that Stedman Graham shared his concept of “Identity Leadership” and we all introduced ourselves.
After the introductions ended, we mixed and mingled. One of the event organizers asked me to speak the following night, telling me, “Baeth, your message about soul literacy being the key to finding your purpose and being of service kicked things off in such a beautiful way and gave everyone the permission to go deeper and be more authentic in their introductions. We’d be honored if you’d speak to us tomorrow night on purpose.” I said “yes” of course. I noted that my willingness to be vulnerable in my introduction modeled a level of leadership I hadn’t allowed myself to experience until that moment. No doubt, the physical self-care earlier in the day, the time to reflect and a room full of powerful, loving people made it more possible.
More time to think was granted by this retreat format:
- Thursday: check in early to enjoy the property and its amenities
- Thursday evening: meet and greet cocktail party
- Friday day and evening: full day of speakers and master mind sessions
- Friday: group lunch and dinner
- Saturday: group breakfast
- Saturday: spa day
- Saturday: group lunch and dinner
- Saturday evening: event wrap up
- Sunday morning: group breakfast
Notice that the learning sessions are bundled so there is ample time for rest, relaxation and inner contemplation. How many times a day, week, month or year do you make ‘time to think?’
Surround Your Self with People Who Up Your Game
The great self-development leader, Jim Rohn, said that our incomes are typically the average of the five people we spend the most time with. If you take that idea further, your development quotient is likely the average of the five people who dominate your outer relationships.
Do the people in your life:
- Challenge you to be a stand for your Life Purpose?
- Encourage you to achieve your dreams and goals?
- Engage in healthy behaviors when it comes to socializing, eating and exercising?
- Pursue their own dreams and goals with passion and commitment?
During Stedman’s presentation, he pointed out that it is important to not get caught up in someone else’s vision or you will lose yourself. The whole point of ‘identity leadership’ is to find your own unique identity and become the leader of your own life. As the leader of your life, are you choosing to surround yourself with people who pull you forward, who reach down to lift you up?
Growth As a Way of Life
Stedman chose “growth” as the primary theme for our time together. If you are not growing you are stagnating. In his book, You Can Make It Happen: A 9-Step Success System, he observes that we are all given the same 24 hours each day. For the person who has found their identity and is living their Life Purpose, they can be highly selective in terms of what projects, programs, mentors, friends, social activities, books, and so on they chose to engage in. When you know clearly who you are and choose to lead your own life, you are on the way to real freedom. Growth on a daily basis is something you choose and see as a privilege.
Do You Feel, Express and Embody Love?
Stedman went on to say that LOVE is the core of a great leader. Why? A great leader pursues what they love in every area of their life and becomes a living, breathing embodiment of that love. And if you ever meet Stedman, you’ll see that he IS love. He is one of the kindest, gentlest, most truly humble men I’ve ever met. He did not come by this easily, but with discipline, commitment and focused work.
For example, let’s say that family is a priority for you. How do you express this love for your family? You could:
- take family outings and trips
- create a family legacy plan
- make time daily and weekly to sit and talk with your family members
- encourage learning by taking your children to a museum, the opera or the theater every week
- help your kids find their true passions and support those passions with appropriate mentors, tools, books, etc.
In our 2012 S.L.A.M.M. program, we will cover 12 areas of your life, three every quarter, and help you determine how you are maximizing each life area and living that part of your life with love. This type of planning and focus can make the difference between living your daily 24 hours the same way over and over again, or doing things each day that support and nourish what you truly love.
Genshai
One of our speakers, Kevin Hall, author of Aspire: Discovering Your Purpose Through the Power of Words, brought forth the word “genshai.” Genshai is an ancient Hindi word that means you should NEVER treat yourself or another person in a manner that makes one feel small.
Are you enough today? If you aren’t treating yourself as small, are you treating yourself as enough? As worthy? And imagine loving others as much as you love every area of your life? How would that change your interactions?
Genshai is the way of the humble leader.
Your Leadership
Have you decided to be the leader of every area of your life? Your health? Your emotional mastery? Your intellectual mastery? Your character? Your spirituality? Your romantic partnership? Your family? Your social life? Your finances? Your career? Your quality of life? Your life vision?
Will 2012 be the year you stop making resolutions and instead, make time to think, hang with the best, choose growth, express love and practice genshai?
If you want support, please consider our S.L.A.M.M. program. You can obtain a registration form from Cindy@YourPurpose.com and REGISTER HERE for our educational webinar about the program.
Mentor’s Challenge:
Review the 5 key points raised in this article and write out your responses to each point. I invite you to be the leader of your life.