Poems of Possibility

 Every once in a while, I come across an artist that just moves me. When they turn out to be a writer that's super good, I get a little jealous. They show just how mundane my own writing is.  And I am better for this realization.

The entire United States of America was introduced to Amanda Gorman at Joe Biden's inauguration. Her poem was so moving and emotional and inspiring.  I am obviously not a religious person, but this is what invocations should be like. 

Here is the text of the poem for those who didn't see it or want to read it: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/amphtml/amberjamieson/amanda-gorman-biden-inauguration-poem

Here is the video:

I tear up every time I hear this poem. All invocations should be poems.

Let love be our legacy, if only we are brave enough to be it.

What makes an inspirational leader and how someone can strive to be one?

I don’t think inspirational leaders strive to be inspirational. Instead – they are focused on solving important problems and the result is they inspire others. People who strive to be inspirational – tend to come off as – fake. Being inspirational is NOT a good goal. Solving important problems that impact real people – is a good goal. The people who do work hard to solve important problems- are the people we find inspiring. So don’t try to be inspirational – BE inspired and you will inspire others.

  

A reporter contacted me about inspirational leadership. Here are the questions they asked and my answers. 

What type of values do inspirational leaders have?

Inspirational leaders are aspirational people. They have personal dreams and goals they work towards. Those goals are almost always altruistically motivated. Meaning – they aren’t motivated by selfish things (like wealth or fame). They are instead motivated by their concern for others. And it is this that motivates them to work so hard to make things better for other people. What are the specific values?  Compassion is probably the core value. It’s hard to imagine anyone inspiring others if they are NOT fundamentally driven by their sense of compassion and personal responsibility. 

What skills do they possess?

They are strategic. It’s not enough to want to do good. In order to actually do good and succeed at doing good, you have to apply reason and critical thinking so that your actions have a positive impact. Wanting to do good – that is what compassion gives us. The desire to do good.  Strategic and critical thinking – help us to figure out what will actually work. This is what helps us – BE Good. 

What do they do and what don't they do?

They focus on fixing the problems. What they don’t do is worry about their reputation or status. They just focus on solving the problem with compassion and dignity. They don’t waste time on interpersonal pettiness.  They don’t waste time on things that look good, but don’t fix the problem.

The other thing they don’t do – is they don’t sacrifice their personal values in pursuit of solving the problem. They understand that HOW you solve your problem matters. If you hurt people to help people – you aren’t helping people. So they tend to be ethical, compassionate and dignified in all of their professional and personal relationships.  And it’s this last part that pushes them over the edge. Lots of people try to do big important things. But if you think of the people you find MOST inspirational – they are people who are caring, compassionate, loving, and dignified with EVERYONE they meet. They don’t reserve their concern for certain people. EVERYONE is treated well by them. Their personal and professional ethics – are the same and integrated. That makes them people – you want to be around and to work with and be inspired with.

It’s sad that most people are unable to be the caring compassionate ethical and dignified person we all aspire to be. Inspirational people – inspire us to be better – by being that truly good person we all aspire to.

Who do you consider to be an inspirational leader (not including yourself)?

Hillary Clinton. She is insanely competent, and always focused on helping others. From her work to help children get health care and to help change the way children are treated in the courts, through her entire life. It’s clear that compassion drives her and that she is super smart and super strategic and able to navigate and maintain her grace and dignity – even in the face of seriously horrible personal attacks. She has accomplished so much good in the world. My son has benefited from her work and I will be forever grateful to her for that. But she’s done all that under intense hatred directed towards her. And not once has she responded in kind.  She’s the sort of person – I aspire to be.

What do you think makes them stand out from the rest?

They fight and win – using reason and compassion. They don’t fight dirty. They win, not by fighting, but by refusing to back down.  They maintain their compassion and professionalism and patiently keep pushing for change – big and small. 

What about them captures your attention and do you think makes them inspirational?

For me – it’s how they maintain their grace and compassion and dignity and don’t resort to dirty tactics in pursuit of their goal.

What kind of impact does an inspirational leader make?

They change the world. By being a good, decent, hardworking compassionate individual, who doesn’t let setbacks prevent them from doing what they think is right, they provide an inspirational model for the rest of us to aspire to. 

What do you think are some goals of an inspirational leader?

To fix problems. It really is as simple as that.

Learn more: 

Take the online course - Principles of Humanistic Leadership - https://humanistlearning.com/principles-of-humanistic-leadership/

Who inspires me to start Humanist Learning Systems?

I sometimes joke that I fell into my business backwards – screaming – NOOOO!!!!   But I’m glad I did.

I have an online learning company – do personal and professional training in humanistic management and behavior based approaches to things like harassment.  I also do groups and just got my first government contract. In the past few months, I’ve spoken to groups in India and been invited to speak at several conferences.

Who inspires me? This is going to seem odd – but Eleanor Roosevelt. Specifically her book – You Learn by Living. Her philosophy is humanistic and her book covers a wide array of topics, family, business, relationships. All business is relationships. And you do have to balance family and work.

Her approach, to be genuinely interested in the people you are working with and meeting, I love. It helps me get through everything.  And it also helps to remind myself that what I want to do can be done and I don’t have to sacrifice my values or my essential nature to do it.  Very inspiring.

I decided to start my business because I have knowledge to share that people need to know. Young people are committing suicide! If you know how to get unwanted behavior – like bullying to stop – then you have a moral obligation to share that. The challenge is – you can’t share it if you can’t feed and house yourself. I finally figured out how to a) make money while b) making sure that my content is free to parents and kids.  That was my big aha moment!  I want to teach parents what they need to know to help their kids. Where are the parents? In the workplace, being subjected to sexual harassment training that doesn’t really tell them anything useful.  If I can use that training to teach them how to actually stop bullying and harassment, I’m not only improving the workplace, I’m helping parents learn what they need to teach their kids! 

I resisted this for a bit though, as my passion is the promotion of philosophic humanism. But a member of the humanist community told me that teaching people how to stop bullying was the teaching of humanism.  Humanists use science and compassion to change the world and that is what I was doing. That was and is my approach to stopping bullies. That is when I came to terms with what my customers were asking for. 

But what really pushed me over the edge was a female friend. A woman I met in a women’s entrepreneur networking group. Terri Kelly ( https://www.linkedin.com/in/terrikelly/). She suggested I reach out to HR professionals to teach them about the science based approach to stopping bullying and harassment in the workplace. It was that little seed that helped me come up with a business plan that I REALLY like implementing and feel good about implementing.

Has it been a tough road? Yes. Businesses always seem to grow slower than you want them to and need them to. I bootstrapped myself. And during the middle of startup, my husband lost his job. I considered giving up on the business and getting a “real” job, but my husband wouldn’t let me. He told me that what I was doing was too important to stop.  If he hadn’t believed not only in me, but in the changes I hope to create in the world – I would have given up. 

Being on a mission to use business to change the world helps get through the tough times. My work isn’t simply a job and it’s not simply a way to make money.  I really am on a mission to create positive social change through humanistic science based education.  It is the mission that keeps me going when the going gets tough. It’s the mission that led my husband and family to support me to the point they won’t let me quit when I think about quitting.

Is what I teach really that important? Take a course and find out for yourself: https://humanistlearning.com/

Angels in the Workplace

My friend Pauline Mc Charles is a humanistic management colleague of mine. She hosted a really amazing conference in Seattle last fall about building resilience in a changing world.

She is a coach and consultant that helps people find inspiration in the workplace so that employees can make better decisions for the company while maintaining the dignity of all of the participants.

Turns out - she has a book she published. It's a handbook/workbook of sorts. It is designed to help you find the inspiration to help us all remember that everyone you meet is human. And yes, when you practice that - it's inspiring. You can use that to help yourself be more resilient and to create supportive teams that help make the workplace better and by extension, helps your teams make better decision.

Check out her book and let me know what you think. It's called: Inspiration Developers: Angels at the workplace: A handbook - Keep it simple Life is complicated enough

And if you like the book - consider hiring her. You won't be disappointed. She's wonderful and I think the world of her. Here is a link to her website: https://www.inspirationdevelopers.com/

And remember to keep life simple, life is complicated enough.