I’ve had two passions for my entire life. I had no idea they would collide in such a powerful fashion to create a extraordinary set of leadership skills…
My two passions?
And…
What it really means to be
I’m 56 and I remember being 5 and listening to my father talk about the cyclical nature of his Howard Johnson’s stock during the summer vacation season…
And, right around this same time having an experience looking in the mirror and knowing I was so much more than the reflection looking back at me…
My business passion led me to founding 4 different businesses in a variety of industries, and what brought on the necessity to develop leadership skills…
It was that second “Who are we?” passion that landed me in Peru to learn from the shaman. In addition, it would lead to devouring the Ancient Wisdom teachings of the warrior.
These two passions of mine collided in 2009, during the great recession, when a friend and I decided to create the Ancient Wisdom Leadership Skills based on what we had learned…
We were in for the journey of a lifetime! We would discover how to use the transformative secrets of Ancient Wisdom to take the drama out of leading people into fulfilling their potential…
And,
How much easier…
How much more productive…
How much more fulfilling…
It was going to get for us, and…those who work for us!
Some leaders have natural ability but the great ones are self made…
We discovered that using the specific tools masters from across the globe have been using for 1000’s of years, to master the human experience, are exceptional for…
Emotional Intelligence
Critical Thinking
Clarity of Vision and seeing from multiple points of reference
Leading without Stress and Overwhelm
If you’ve arrived at this article you probably already know quite a bit about leadership…
You’re probably aware you need to have a vision, clearly communicate that vision, put the strategy into place to fulfill that vision, and then lead everyone into fulfilling it.
Maybe you’re committed to a life of learning and self improvement. Always looking for a competitive edge to help you excel as a leader, and at life…
If this is you, then this article was written for you, and it contains little known approaches to 4 key leadership skills, I haven’t seen anywhere else…
So put your seat in the upright position, and fasten your safely belt, because we’re going to dive deep on skill sets for…
Emotional Intelligence
Critical thinking
Clarity of vision and seeing from multiple points of reference
Leading without Stress and Overwhelm
With a new approach for most, but an ancient approach, that has transformed the lives of the leaders I’ve taught them to…
Let’s start with two key points for moving forward that have never failed me. They have allowed me to confidently handle any challenge, (And, I’ve had some challenges. Challenges many have said, would topple most people!)…
And, these two points have paved the way for me to thrive in starting businesses in completely different industries, while living the lifestyle I want.
The two key points?
1. Avoid arrogance at all costs.
2. Realize and then own to myself…that if I apply myself, I can learn almost anything.
Becoming a great leader with extraordinary leadership skills is no different. It’s a skill set you can develop and continue to improve…
That is is you’re willing to work at it! 🙂
Let’s start with the leadership skill of emotional intelligence…
Emotional intelligence is defined as the capacity to be aware of, control, and express one’s emotions,
and to handle interpersonal relationships judiciously and empathetically.
Judiciously means with “good judgement”…
And, empathetically means to “have an ability to understand and share the feelings of another.”
So to bring this together as a leadership skill means…
A leader can, with good judgement, use an ability to understand and ‘feel” where another human being is coming from, to develop rapport…to develop a bond, to lead another person to a mutually desired outcome.
And…
Emotional intelligence or your EQ, as it’s commonly referred to, is one of THE most important factors for your continued success…
as this research from Talent Smart indicates…
But, here’s the problem…
Although your EQ is so largely important for your success as a leader, it’s something that’s difficult to identify and develop…[
Indeed…
You can even find a lot of information that says you either have it or you don’t!
I disagree. And here’s why…
I have found it to be true that some people reach the age of starting their careers with more emotional intelligence, or a higher EQ, than others…
This is largely due to the environment they were raised in, how they were parented, and how they chose to overcome the challenges they faced…
Specifically in the area of relationships, and how they relate to, and work with the emotions of other people.
However, there is one essential shift a person can make to obtain emotional intelligence and further develop it once they have it…
To take control of their mental and emotional states. Like many people, and perhaps you, it wasn’t ever presented to me that I have control over my mental and emotional states!
I thought that our thoughts and feelings just happened…
It wasn’t until I was mentored in Ancient Wisdom processes and techniques that I learned…
•First, that control over our mental and emotional states, or how we think or feel about anything was possible.
• Second, that almost anyone can do it once they know how.
• And thirdly, and probably most importantly, the enormous implications this control has on every area of your leadership, your business, and your life.
Consider what your life would be like if you exercised consistent control over how you think and feel about everything!
How much less stress would there be in your life?
When leading people through a crisis…
How much better would your decisions be? What would it be like to have mental clarity and emotional centeredness as you make those crisis time decisions?
How would the energy of your calm commanding presence impact your team’s performance?
What would it be like for you to have instant access to a process to quickly shift your state and focus on inspiring and motivating those you lead through any situation?
These aspects of leadership are the intangible soft skills that determine the difference between an ordinary leader and a great leader!
Most anyone can develop them if they have control over their mental and emotional states…
Control over your mental and emotional states might just be easier than you would think. It’s also directly connected to our next skill of critical thinking…
The secret lies in where you hold your focus. Let me explain.
In indigenous cultures they hold their attention (their focus) in their bodies. Whereas in our more modern culture we tend to focus in our heads.
They focus on heart and we focus on thinking. They focus on the feeling of their energy in their bodies and we focus on the energy of thinking.
The calming and centering effects of focusing in the body is one of the big reasons for the popularity of the yoga movement…
And, its one of the reasons why exercise relieves stress. When you exercise your awareness, your focus, is in your body.
This focus in the body stops the internal narrative (talking to yourself) that so often leads to overwhelm and stress!
This is why so many business leaders have found our Instant Mindfulness Method™ to be so effective…
“For me the mental chatter has been pretty much relentless, and I’m finding that after only a week of doing the audio training I’m able to stop it, which is pretty cool!” – Dena Carlson CoFounder Carlson Glass
I took what I learned from the shaman in Peru, and the way they engage this world with mindfulness and joy, and created a training for any leader like yourself to be able to use it very quickly.
This mindful centered approach is critical to our other leadership skills like critical thinking. Which is exactly what we’re going to cover next…
I know you’ll find this next leadership skill an opportunity to come into a new level of power as a leader…
Continue First, I had to find out about it. Then I had to dive deep into the Ancient Wisdom teachings on cosmology to obtain it… Don’t worry I’m going to spare you that. I will do my best to make this as simple as possible, but it will require focus. I want you to be able to begin using it immediately… When I was mentored there was a great deal of emphasis put on developing two key skills… 1. Get out of your head and into your heart. 2. Stop your internal dialog (talking to yourself) and always stay present in the moment. The Tao Te Ching, an ancient collection of wisdom teachings by Lao Tzu in chapter 20 says… “Stop thinking, and end your problems!” Pause for a moment to consider this… It’s your thinking about your problem, your internal dialog, that causes worry, stress, overwhelm and emotional reactions to your problem… All of your internal dialog often makes the problem much worse by bringing in negative emotions… And, The internal dialog, negative emotions, worry, and stress makes the problem more difficult to resolve! Can you act on knowledge you don’t currently have? Of course not! Your mind can only act on what you already know… The real power of mind is kind of like your computer. There’s an enormous amount of information on your hard drive… More than you need in any one moment. Every experience, everything you’ve ever learned, the totality of your knowledge is available instantly from your hard drive when you need it… When using your computer all of this information is just sitting there waiting for you… Your mind and mental body work much the same way. You don’t need to talk to yourself, what most people consider thinking, stress or worry to gain access to the totality of your knowledge… And, actually neuroscience proves these are a huge hindrance… Critical thinking for better strategy and great decision making…is intentionally using a combination of knowledge you possess, and navigating the unknown for knowledge you currently don’t possess. It’s a creative process involving intuition and inspiration. Getting an idea. More accurately, receiving an idea… You’ve probably experienced this before when you had a problem that you thought and thought about, worried about and stressed over, and then when you finally let go the answer simply came to mind when you’re doing something else like driving your car. This is the way your mind is designed to work! Well, a True Business Warrior, a person who leads with heart, uses this way the mind works all the time… This way of thinking is called the True Nature and Power of Mind. We still have a common phrase in our language to describe this process when we say, “It came to mind.” One big problem I address with the business leaders I work with is they don’t set aside time for critical thinking… Time to sit and contemplate everything that’s going on with the company as a whole. Time to contemplate specific challenges the company faces now…and will most likely face in the future. Time to allow inspiration to come to mind. Time to allow their minds to access the totality of their knowledge and experience… Your mind can only do this when it’s relaxed. This is not my opinion. It’s what research on your brain proves to be true. Therefore, myself and the other Business Warriors in our Wisdom Leadership Academy actually schedule time every week for critical thinking… This results in better decisions, better strategy, and a lot more confidence and peace in leading people. Our teams and employees reflect this confidence and peace. This creates a powerfully focused work environment. Using the True Nature and Power of Mind is intentional mindfulness for leadership. As a leader you need this time, and True Nature and Power of Mind to practice emotional intelligence when it matters the most! Using your mind’s real power also paves the way to use the Ancient Wisdom Leadership Skills of Clarity of Vision and Leading without Stress and Overwhelm… How this is going to take your leadership to a whole new level is what we’re going to discuss next… Continue Therefore, Anything worth doing, is worth doing well, and even worth intending and taking action to be the best at it! 🙂 Vision is no different. Hopefully you have a vision for your life, your career and your company… If you don’t…then I have to say, I know what that pain is like. Reach out to us and we’ll help you get in touch with a vision that will inspire you and get you moving forward again. Let’s assume at this point that you have a vision for your career as a leader, and your company. Clarity of vision takes seeing that vision through to a completely different level… Clarity of vision means your vision is firmly fixed on your mind screen. It drives you. It inspires you and motivates your action… All of these combine to provide the will necessary to “Make it happen!” To have and keep the level of clarity necessary to make any vision a reality you need to see this vision from multiple points of view… This is where other people enter into the equation. Specifically the people you lead in fulfilling that vision… By having clarity of vision you will know how to inspire and motivate the people you need to work with. And, not all people are motivated the same way. Add to this the importance of not being derailed by something you don’t see… because you only have one point of reference, and it’s easy to see how as a leader you can lose your clarity of vision… the obvious question becomes, How do you access multiple points of reference to keep your vision on track? To maintain clarity of vision… This is where I’ve found the Ancient Wisdom of the Toltec teachings on the warrior to be so effective. They teach… “Perception assembles reality.” An interesting point to note. Quantum physic experiments have confirmed this by proving that particles behave differently based on whether they’re being observed or not! As a leader I know…Every person on my team is going to assemble the vision differently than myself and everyone else on the team… They’ll also assemble any challenges faced along the way differently… They’ll assemble any possible challenges differently. They’ll assemble the impact the rest of the team makes toward fulfilling the vision differently… They’ll assemble the result differently, including its impact! As a leader I need to… Communicate and make sure we’re all on the same page with assembling the vision. Communicate with each team member and see how they’re assembling… Oh my God has this impacted my leadership! What a relief. I can access as many points of reference as needed for any particular situation… This is where having a group of my peers and a strong healthy relationship with my team has made all the difference… At any time I feel it’s a necessity, I reach out to a peer, or a team member, to get their perspective. This ensures I always have clarity of vision. Meaning, I’m clearly seeing all the moving pieces associated with fulfilling our vision. There’s a great book on leadership called Rocket Fuel that clearly depicts two types of leaders. A visionary and an integrator. I like to think of the visionary as a walking idea and inspiration machine. An integrator is the leader who makes a vision become a reality… I have the honor and privilege of working with both and I’m fascinated by how they see the world of business differently! Being a visionary, to see, that is to assemble a situation differently, I will intentionally reach out to a peer or team member who is an integrator. The results are almost always extraordinary! Even if they don’t directly provide a viewpoint that resolves the issue they will spark you into being creative… Into using the True Nature and Power of Mind. Then the best path forward “Comes to mind.” There is magic that takes place when two people, two points of reference, come together and look at something… If you don’t have a group of peers to do this with, I strongly recommend you get one! You can join one of our WLA groups here… If you don’t have this type of relationship with your team then I recommend using the 3 needs in relationships to develop one. You can learn all about those in this free guide. I saved the best for last. How your going to obtain our next leadership skill covered in this article, is the foundation of everything we’ve discussed… It’s key to fulfilling your potential as a leader… And, it’s an important way to take care of your health and stay on top of your game at the same time. Continue It’s so much easier to practice, and grow, in emotional intelligence when you lead without stress and overwhelm… Critical thinking is easier and more productive… And, according to medical science, clarity of vision and using multiple points of reference really isn’t possible when you’re stressed and overwhelmed. Most of us know that stress in the workplace is an enormous problem. It’s costing businesses 100’s of billions per year! The real issue here, and the one I want to address, is that stress really isn’t the problem. It’s not the cause. It’s actually more of a symptom… The symptom of a commonly held system of beliefs. Ingrained in the fast paced work environment we live and work in today. A belief system that’s destroying our health… Making it difficult to work together, often resulting in a toxic work environment… This belief system is killing productivity… And, it’s the reason so many employees disengage at work because they’re doing so to protect themselves from the devastating health impacts of chronic stress! The business leaders who have recognized this and done something about it have been rewarded with an ROI they wouldn’t have dared to dream about… Like Evan, the Business Warrior I wrote about in another article who increased his company revenues by over 100% in a year. They’ve also been rewarded with peace of mind and better health. Happier and more productive teams… What is that commonly held belief? “A little stress is good. It helps you perform better.” Here’s an example of how common this belief is. It comes from a well respected authority in medicine today. Mayo Clinic! Stress is a normal psychological and physical reaction to the demands of life. A small amount of stress can be good, motivating you to perform well. But multiple challenges daily, such as sitting in traffic, meeting deadlines and paying bills, can push you beyond your ability to cope. – Mayo Clinic staff. This is technically true, but dangerous! Especially when you consider what the average person means when they say “I’m stressed!” And this belief has given rise to a whole system of beliefs. Like… A lot of stress at work is “just the way it is,” “Stress is a way of life.” “Life today is stressful!” “A certain amount of stress is unavoidable.” The big problem with this belief system is that what most people mean when they say, “I’m stressed” is that they’ve launched the stress response. “Fight or Flight.” Medical science has proven that when your body spends extended periods in “fight or flight” it’s hazardous for your health… In addition to this… Science has proven you’re operating from the primitive portion of your brain, when you’re in the stress response! Meaning. You can’t do your best thinking, or even close to it, when you’re in the stress response… The Harvard Medical School article (linked above) also indicates you’re damaging your brain by spending too much time in the stress response! As indicated in this Medical News Today article stress happens because we get overwhelmed with the demands of life… To understand where we need to go to eliminate stress and overwhelm from work, it’s important to look at how we got here. We’ve had one technology advance after another that greatly increases the amount of work one person can get done in a day. This began with the fax machine and personal computers in the 80’s… Next, add in the instant access to information via the Internet…Email replaced office memos… Then the smart phone and always being connected…Instant messaging…Apps to organize all of this information… The list could go on and on. All leading to an exponential increase in the amount of tasks a person can perform in any given period of time… And, without a natural ability to control one’s mental approach to all of this information and the speed at which we can now work… Overwhelm ensues and the person launches the stress response. without a way to identify the stress response and stop it…many people spend entire days, and even weeks, operating at work in “fight of flight!” Let’s sum this up. The Beliefs. Accepting that stress as we experience it today is “just the way it is” or “a fact of life” is the cause. Stress is the symptom. The results: Heart disease. Other major health problems. Burnout. A disengaged workforce. Emotional reactions at work. Productivity issues…people can’t do their best while in the stress response… When you consider all of this. It makes perfect sense why the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health says… “Overall, 43 percent of working adults told us their job negatively affects their stress levels…The takeaway here is that job No. 1 for U.S. employers is to reduce stress in the workplace.” But how do we accomplish this? Working and living without launching the stress response… The answer? Mindfulness. That’s right. When a person has been taught how to practice Mindfulness they will know… All of this, and much more, is accomplished with mindfulness! And, It also fits within anyone’s belief system. Since you decided to learn how to use Ancient Wisdom for 4 Essential Leadership Skills, you’re probably realizing that Mindfulness is a skill… that will be very beneficial… To lead your organization out of the time wasting. Productivity killing. Overwhelm. Stress and drama that holds groups of people back from fulfilling their potential… For all of these reasons, and because mindfulness is the easiest way to take control of your stress and lead with extraordinary leadership skills… You’ll definitely be interested in learning our Instant Mindfulness Method™ This is our proprietary process for practicing mindfulness and control over your mental and emotional states, to eliminate stress as you know it from your life. Here’s what you’ll get if you join: Lifetime Membership to our Instant Mindfulness Method™ membership area. Video training on the technique. ($197) You’ll have access to 4 videos to train you on using the technique. You can start right away… Our 5-minute per day audio training to download onto your phone and/or computer. A 50 minute coaching call with our Chief Relationship Specialist. ($250) To ensure you understand how and when to use the technique in your particular situation. So you can begin taking control over your mental and emotional states and working without stress. You’ll feel empowered as you navigate work with a renewed sense of peace and mental clarity. You’ll be proud to model this calm presence within your organization. Our proprietary training is just 5 minutes per day for 30 days. Thereafter, other leaders use the 5 minute audio a few times a week, but this is optional… The video training is less than an hour and you can get started with the audio training just 30 minutes from this moment right now. The coaching call is about an hour. This training and coaching is a $449 value. Your investment is only $297. A savings of $152 and almost 40%! And with our… “Bold as Business 30 day Money Back Guarantee.” There’s no risk for you… Take the training, use the method, and even have the coaching call. If for any reason you’re not satisfied, send us an email and we’ll promptly refund your money. That’s how confident we are that this method will work for you… If you’d like to inquire about having us come in and train your organization on the Instant Mindfulness Method… As well as put together a powerful employee development training where we teach your employees what we’ve covered in this article and more… Let our Chief Relationship Specialist know this when you have your coaching call on the method. He’ll set up a call so we can get to know… As a leader it all begins with you… Someone has to take the first step to end the madness of addressing the symptoms instead of the cause. Shouldn’t it be you? Having eliminated stress from my life…I most certainly hope so. Sincerely, John English
Here’s why.
Instead consider this…
Our progress…Our challenges…Any possible challenges…Any impact I might not be seeing…
How to stop overwhelm so it doesn’t lead to launching the stress response (fight or flight)How to use pressure productively without letting it become stress.How to calm their bodies down. If they do launch the stress response they can stop it quickly.How to resolve conflict easier. Less conflict with team members. Increased productivity. Less drama at work.How to use emotional intelligence.
How many people or groups you want us to train.What specifically you want to accomplish with the Instant Mindfulness Method™ .What specific behaviors you want to eliminate in your organization.What else we need to know to customize the training for you and your organization.
Our Mission
Using Ancient Wisdom principles we transform organizations into spirited cultures of purpose!
We achieve this by empowering individuals to become charismatic, mindful & passionate leaders.
Our Vision
To create a bridge to a new workplace where people are engaged, courageous & fulfilled in today’s world