Quote of the Week

“For a community to be whole and healthy, it must be based on people’s love and concern for each other.”

– Millard Fuller

A Note From Andrea

A very Happy Thanksgiving to you all! I wish to express my gratitude to you for sharing your ideas, thoughts, feedback, challenges and successes with me. I am honored to be included in your life and thank you for the deep connection that you offer.

There will be no Coaching Tip of the Week on November 23, 2007 due to the Thanksgiving Holiday. Enjoy this time of thanks and gratitude. Our next tip will be issued on November 30, 2007.

Intentionally Creating Community
by Sandy Davis

The communities in which you are an active member can play an important role in helping you remain resilient when faced with major challenges. They afford you opportunities to make “energy exchanges.” When you are able, you can generously contribute your own positive energy to these communities, and when you are in need, you can likewise draw positive energy from them.

This energy exchange mechanism works much like making deposits in a savings account. The more you deposit, the more you have to draw on when you need it. A great daily practice is to make multiple “positive energy deposits” into the various communities that are important to you.

Every day, take time to “intentionally create community” by connecting personally with others in a positive and uplifting manner. This might take just seconds, or it might involve an interchange of half an hour or longer. Your goal is to come together with others in your community with a clear intention to strengthen the bonds that make your community whole and vibrant. Skip right over “virtual” communications such as e-mail, voicemail, text messaging, and social networking. Instead, make it a daily priority to connect with at least one individual on a heartfelt, emotional level-eye-to-eye, and heart-to-heart-however briefly.

Your encounters “gotta have heart.” They have to trigger the feeling afterwards of your having been uplifted somehow by the exchange of positive energy that took place. Whether you were the giver or the receiver (or both), life will feel more fulfilled for having intentionally connected with someone who crossed your path. It’s a win/win proposition, one that will result in your feeling more energized and more resilient.

Here are two personal examples of intentionally creating community from yesterday:

    Thanked the new bagger at the supermarket by name–twice. The second time, I got a nice smile back.
    Crossed the street to converse with my neighbor for 10 minutes (instead of just waving from a distance). Expressed further condolences over his mother’s recent death.

Once you make this kind of appreciative interaction a habit, you’ll find yourself intentionally creating community in places and ways you’ve mostly “passed over” in the past. Life will become much more fun and much less stressed. And you will have set yourself up with a healthy reserve of positive energy upon which you can draw in unexpected times of need.

Sandy Davis has been coaching leaders for over a decade. He has also self-published several books about developing and sustaining personal resilience. For information about his latest book, Zillience! How to Succeed in Business without Really Frying, check out http://www.zillience.com. You can reach him by e-mail at sandy@coachmehome.com.

Coaching Call to Action

In this time of giving thanks, what better way to say thank you for the life you live than to “intentionally create community”? What ways will you reach out to others this week to start a new habit that benefits others and you? Call or e-mail with your stories. What did you do? What did you notice about yourself and the other person? Keep it going.

Community Involvement
November 28, 2007
Empowering Yourself: 5 Steps for Gaining Control Over Your Life at Boston Women in Finance

Andrea will provide her 5-step program for reaching higher productivity and deeper levels of professional and personal satisfaction to the Boston Women in Finance — a leading executive organization committed to shaping leaders in business and finance with a special emphasis on the role and development of women. To learn more www.bostonwomeninfinance.org.

Join Coach Andrea in a lively, thought provoking and interactive session at Boston Women in Finance from 5:30 to 8 PM at Bingham McCutchen, 150 Federal Street, 16th Floor, Boston, MA. To register: Click here.

Community Involvement

November 29, 2007
Pounce on a Project VI – 2007

Come join us for the last Pounce on a Project for 2007. As we head into December, what project would you like to get on top of and accomplish? Come to Pounce on a Project VI — 2007. Join Coach Andrea on Thursday, November 29th, from 9:00 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. Eastern. We will join as a group by phone and declare what you want to accomplish: year end planning, written performance reviews, final touches for a sales presentation or finding the top of your desk.

During the morning, the group will gather by phone a few times to check progress and get any support needed to finish with a bang. At noon, the group will celebrate their accomplishments. Who says projects have to be boring and tedious? Bring your lightness and fun and join us for energization and results.

To sign up or learn more, call or e-mail Andrea by noon on Tuesday, November 27th. Feel free to share this with friends and co- workers, the more the merrier. (Cost of the program is only the cost of long distance phone calls.)

Other articles you might be interested in:

  1. Lessons About Leadership
  2. Holding Ourselves Accountable
  3. Who Are You?
  4. Adaptability
  5. Try Delaying Procrastination

No Comments »