Walt Whitman

This is what you shall do: love the earth and sun, and animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence towards the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown, or to any man or number of men; go freely with the powerful uneducated persons, and with the young, and mothers, of families: read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life: re-examine all you have been told at school or church, or in any books, and dismiss whatever insults your soul.

 Walt Whitman

The Tenth Man by Graham Greene

I found this old masterpiece on Netflix this weekend and it’s one very thought provoking story. For myself, any movie that causes me to think about it and want to talk about it long beyond the viewing is worth my vote and recommendation.  Additionally, it stars Anthony Hopkins who can be so captivating. 

Stories like this one always make us think of what we’d do in the same dire situation – buy our way to “life”? or choose another path? Then comes the issue of living with our choice – check out this story and see what you think. It always comes back to those Personal Strengths we talk about.

Based on a Graham Greene novel, I give you this introduction to the story based on a review of the novel by Dan Haggard.

 “There is an old clichéd maxim that the truth will set you free. No doubt you know it. But if you reflect on it a little while, its meaning can often feel elusive. In what way free? Graham Greene’s novel The Tenth Man is about as fine an answer to that question as has ever been provided. Terse in length, yet rich in theme and symbolism – the novel delves deep into the hideous nature of anxiety borne of deceit, lies and deception. Entwined in this mesh is a story about courage and sacrifice. The two themes wrap around each other, providing a greater intensity to the plot than would have been achieved singularly.”

Learn more about the story by reading the rest of the review here….

This is a movie worth searching out.

Personal Strength on Mt. Everest

A late January weekend and one WHOLE day spent in front of the TV! Seems like a waste, but we tuned in Everest: Beyond the Limit(three season’s worth!) – and it wasworth it. This Discovery series had everything: stimulating, edge-of-the-seat examples of leadership, teamwork, individuality, compassion, perseverance, fortitude, failure, astonishing success, humility, courage, self-confidence, gratitude, effort, tolerance, commitment, responsibility, patience, decisiveness and more.

Discovery filmed teams making the Mt. Everest summit approach from the famous south side, but also from the north side of the mountain. These people invested months – and a great deal of money – in the dream/obsession/goal of summiting the world’s tallest peak. Their reasons for taking this on were different, the people themselves were very different, but each was determined to make it. One man was 71 year old, others live daily with physical disabilities, one man was raising money for a cause close to his heart, most were “regular” folks who had determined this was something they had to accomplish!

While summiting Mt. Everest wouldn’t be my particular dream at any age, it’s always mightily inspiring to watch others working toward something they really want – what they’re willing to contribute, how they’re willing to devote themselves and how they endure unspeakable hardships. Each person also learns something about him/herself through this process; after all, you’re facing yourself in some grueling situations, it’s life and death, so how do you behave?

I could stop here; just watching the series impressed me so much I woke this morning reliving some of the climbers experiences. But I also found myself thinking about the expedition leaders – these were the experienced climbers whose job was to “see the big picture” and manage communications, weather forecasting, coordination of sub-teams, guides and Sherpas. The leaders didn’t actually make the climb – they’d done that many times, but they oversaw all aspects of their teams’ experience; in fact their leadership was vital.

Climbing Mt. Everest has changed dramatically from the phenomenal feat accomplished by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay in 1953 – today there are hundreds of climbers in any one short season and those who plan to survive usually use a commercial outfitter who provides the radio communication, climbing guides, indispensible Sherpas, safety ropes, ladders and weather forecasting from a base camp. As I said, the leader is below the climbers to see the big picture – lots of tension, nerves and finding a balance between “allowing” a team to continue or recalling a team or members for any number of reasons.

The leader is in charge, he’s there to provide expert advise, but after all, he’s not on the climb and cannot force climbers to do as he recommends.

As I thought about all the strengths we saw exhibited in this series, I mentally tallied the Personal Strengths ProStarCoach has built into it - strengths any one us can work to improve whether we ever climb Mt Everest of just deal with the daily challenges life throws our way. We all need the strengths I listed earlier: leadership, teamwork, individuality, compassion, perseverance, fortitude, failure, humility, courage, self-confidence, gratitude, effort, tolerance, commitment, responsibility, patience, decisiveness (and more!) and that’s the beauty of ProStar – it’s an online development system that structures exercises and provides resources for each of us to select and work on our personal growth – check it out here and use the 15 day FREE pass to explore the system. You  never know what challenge you’ll decide to take on in this life – get yourself prepared!

A Successful, Happy Life - It Takes More Than You Think

"A Successful, Happy Life - It Takes More Than You Think"

Read Dr. Denny Coates' insight into what it takes and why to be successful and happy:

"... Failed careers, failed marriages, and worse...

It happens all the time.

The reason is simple. To build strong relationships and prevail against adversity, a person needs to develop skills and strengths that are almost never taught in the home or in schools. This model illustrates the areas of ability a person needs to develop..."

When you look at ProStar Coach, you'll see the connections and the HOW-TO's of developing personal strengths and people skills - for all aspects of your life.

Your Life Bank Account

A 92-year-old, petite, well-poised and proud man, who is fully dressed each  morning by eight o'clock, with his hair fashionably combed and shaved  perfectly, even though he is legally blind, moved to a nursing home today. 

His wife of 70 years recently passed away, making the move necessary. After  many hours of waiting patiently in the lobby of the nursing home, he smiled  sweetly when told his room was ready. 

As he maneuvered his walker to the elevator, I provided a visual description  of his tiny room, including the eyelet sheets that had been hung on his window.  "I love it", he stated with the enthusiasm of an eight-year-old having just  been presented with a new puppy. 

Mr. Jones, you haven't seen the room; just wait. 

“That doesn't have anything to do with it,” he replied. 

“Happiness is something you decide on ahead of time. 

Whether I like my room or not doesn't depend on how the furniture is  arranged ... it's how I arrange my mind. I already decided to love it.  'It's a decision I make every morning when I wake up.. I have a choice;  I can spend the day in bed recounting the difficulty I have with the  parts of my body that no longer work, or get out of bed and be thankful  for the ones that do. 

“Each day is a gift, and as long as my eyes open, I'll focus on the new day  and all the happy memories I've stored away.. Just for this time in my life. 

“Old age is like a bank account. You withdraw from what you've put in. 

"So, my advice to you would be to deposit a lot of happiness in the bank  account of memories!”

We’re all still depositing. 

Remember the five simple rules to be happy: 

1. Free your heart from hatred. 

2. Free your mind from worries. 

3. Live simply. 

4. Give more. 

5. Expect less. 

Getting Ready for the Dance!

Workplace learning is becoming increasingly informal and more social, with the integration of Social Media tools. All this is changing the traditional classroom, event-based training approach to one of more user control.

To keep pace (or set the pace!) training professionals must become facilitators of a new learning process by integrating social media into their training activities. For example, Learning 2.0 means more collaboration, learner-to-learner connections, and the ability to contribute to a vast body of organizational knowledge so that workers can easily access 'learning in real time' and become more effective.

"Getting Ready for the Dance" means preparing now for new models of workplace learning. In their book, The 2020 Workplace: How Innovative Companies Attract, Develop and Keep Tomorrow's Employees Today, Jeanne C. Mesiter and Karie Willyerd wrote:

"Thriving in the 2020 workplace will require organizations to understand the various needs, expectations and values of all the generations. Companies will need to start making some fundamental changes in how they design jobs, careers, learning programs and even benefits."

Join Vital Learning for our next webinar, "Learning Becomes Social: Getting Ready for the Dance with Vital Online 2.0" on Thursday, September 15 at 2:00 p.m. Eastern time (1:00 p.m. Central, 12:00 p.m. Mountain, and 11:00 a.m. Pacific)

Registration Link

Read the entire article

How Could This Be Handled? #3 Resolving Team Conflicts

This edition's Leadership Problem: Resolving Conflicts within the Team

How many types of conflict can a team leader have to deal with among team members?! At least as many as there are people on the team...and more!

Conflict can become a daily happening without warning, disputes flaring up unexpectedly and over things that will surprise you. Very often the conflicts seem trivial, based on nothing! But of course, they surface from somewhere don't they?

Maybe it's been a long-simmering-below-the-radar dispute between two team members, perhaps someone came into work that day with lingering issues on the home front, someone new has joined the group or assignments have altered - pick any topic, any situation and it has the potential to cause disruption among team members!

Read the entire article