Tag Archive for: Articles by David Irvine

Power is Derived By The Power of Your Attention

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Whatever you focus on will grow. In other words, focus on what you want. If you are married or in a significant relationship and you want it to grow, put your focus on what you love about your partner. If you want your workplace to be a better place to come to work, focus on what you love about your job and where you work. If you want a better life, focus on what you are grateful for.

If you wish to change some aspect of your life, this power of focus can also relate to your habits. Tie your attention to the solution, not the problem. Shift your focus. If you have a bad habit when you come home from work, such as overeating, find a good habit that will replace it. If you have a good exercise regime or practice, but go through your day dreading it, shift your focus. See it as an opportunity to experience the power of your body.

If you aren’t enjoying your job, before you think of leaving it, discover a higher purpose for your work and shift your focus from misery to possibility. Tap into your potential and end the cycle of drudgery and pain in your life. The joy of that possibility can imbue your day. In the end, it is all a matter of where you place your attention.

Leadership, Renewal, and Being Present

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It’s been a good summer so far. Usually I spend my down time taking on new projects, marketing, or writing. I like keeping myself busy and productive. But I resisted that this summer, and gave myself permission for some unproductive time. For the entire month, I just hung out with my family, got caught up on some reading, made time for friends, and visited my grandson. No expectations. No agenda. I also took time to just be present to the experience of life. I made room to enjoy some of the simple things of life I often neglect in a hectic travel schedule. I sat and actually listened to the sound of the creek in our back yard. I watched the finches build a nest outside my office window. I took in BodyWorlds with my seventeen-year-old daughter and pondered the absolute wonderment of the human body. I cheered on my 14 year-old’s two soccer teams. I listened to the wind and the rain. I watched an eagle teach her youngly to fly. And I took time to listen to the sound of silence. I took time to just be.

I feel rejuvenated and ready to gear up for a busy fall, determined to bring a deeper sense of presence to my work. My three-year-old grandson’s sense of awe and innocence inspired me to observe the world through a new set of lenses, and engage in it as if I were experiencing it for the first time.

As living organisms, we all need time for renewal. There is no better way for me to renew myself than to be present in the present, for this is my source of inspiration and discovery. I am truly excited about bringing a renewed perspective to my work this fall. One aspect of leadership and organizational culture I’m curious about is how being fully present to the experience of life in each moment impacts the leadership experience.

What are you doing to renew yourself by bringing yourself more fully into the present? What is your practice to come back to yourself? Not just during your holiday times, but also in the busy times.

Organizational Culture and The Power Of Discovering Your Gifts

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A video clip of a homeless man begging for money with an amazing voice on YouTube this week went viral and soon gained him national attention and job offers. Within three days, Ted Williams, a 53-year-old former radio announcer who became homeless after battling drugs and alcohol, appeared on morning news programs to talk about job offers with the Cleveland Cavaliers basketball team and Kraft Foods and his stunning instant rise from begging on the streets.

Mr. Williams told the Today Show that drivers in Columbus would drive by just to hear his golden voice and upbeat greeting while advertising his “God-given gift of voice” when panhandling. He hopes to become a radio program director and support his children. His response to how we should treat the homeless was, “Don’t judge a book by its cover. Everybody has their own little story.” A good lesson, not just pertaining to the homeless, but for all of us who are preparing for our talents to shine more brightly in the world.

Since reading this amazing story, I have been reflecting on the gifts that everyone of us have. Are we creating workplaces that awaken the unique abilities of people? Are we getting our talents “off the streets” and into the hearts of the community? Are we shining a light on people’s capabilities? This is what a great culture is: it’s a place where employees at every level have a chance to be their best, realize their potential, and be recognized for their contribution – in the service of others. We need to strive for more than “satisfied” employees; we need to cultivate loyal employees. Investing the time and energy to foster this kind of environment is what it takes.

How can your body help you be a better leader?

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An authentic leader guides and supports people to their own truth, thus developing sustainable leadership capacity in those they serve. To make this happen, people must first recognize that they have inner guidance and learn to trust it. Learning to tune into one’s own harp strings and live with periods of doubt is a life-long process. My work involves teaching simple ways to contact deep wisdom from your authentic self and encouraging you to trust and follow it.

From my experience, many physical ailments are connected to not living in alignment with one’s inner guidance. With so many voices clamoring for attention, listening to and connecting with your inner advisors has become a foreign language. Consequently, we do not trust and take care of ourselves according to our inner guidance. In my upcoming residential retreat, we will explore how helpers and those in the healing profession lose their center and get burned out, then develop methods to restore themselves.

On the journey of learning to contact your deep wisdom, the body is an important source of guidance. One of my early teachers, Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen, said that illness can be considered a Western form of meditation. In the West, where the meditative tradition is not strong and people are not in the habit of stopping periodically to become quiet and reevaluate their lives, illness – and sometimes only a serious illness such as a heart attack or cancer – stops a person so they can step back and take stock of what is important to them.
This is a common experience of people with serious illness. They often make a profound assessment of their life and values and rededicate themselves to those things of most importance.

But you don’t have to wait for a serious illness to connect to yourself. Pay attention to any ailments you are currently experiencing: back pain, headaches, intestinal issues, especially ulcers, discomfort in your joints, any kind of chronic pain or discomfort. While painkillers can certainly suppress the symptoms, be sure that you take time to listen for the root causes. What is your body telling you to attend to?

Your body is a wonderfully tuned instrument. Are you hearing the message? How has tuning in to your body been helpful for accessing inner wisdom? How does listening to inner wisdom make you a wiser, more thoughtful, compassionate leader?

What You Resist, Persists; What You Appreciate, Appreciates

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“No one is to be called an enemy, all are your benefactors, and no one does you harm. You have no enemy except yourselves.” — Saint Francis of Assisi

I love helping people succeed in business by helping leaders succeed with people. What I’ve learned is that it’s a lot easier to talk about how to get along with people than it is to actually do it. Dealing with differences of opinions and goals, differences of approaches, or differences of personalities creates some of our most frustrating and rewarding opportunities for growth and contribution. We are here to learn, and people who trigger frustration in us can often be our greatest teachers. Here are some thoughts about dealing with resistance.

I live in the beautiful foothills of the Canadian Rockies and with our warm summers, we like to stay home in the summer and take our holidays in the winter. In addition to writing, developing new products, and networking, my summers are for relaxing, spending time with my family, and puttering around the house. And this year I have come up against a roadblock.

Behind our home is a creek with a great swimming hole. It’s a sanctuary for our family and neighbors. I go there for quiet contemplation and renewal. And we have a trespassing issue. On hot days people love to come and use the creek, and, while the creek itself is public land, they have to trespass to get there. With the great weather this summer, there are a lot of people there making a lot of noise, disrupting my serenity.

While the police are happy to come when people light fires, bring in booze and drugs, or have loud parties late at night, we can’t expect the RCMP to be there every minute to chase away sometimes well-intentioned people who simply want to enjoy the creek. We are, for the most part, responsible for managing the problem on our own.

I, along with our wonderful neighbors, who share ownership of the land surrounding the creek, are up-in-arms. Signs have been posted, saying that we will prosecute trespassers. And the signs get torn down. When we get angry, we confront the trespassers and, for the most part, are either ignored or argued with. I feel like an activist this summer, fighting for a cause. I believe I am right and that, indeed, the cause is a worthy one.

However, I notice that the negative energy that flows into what we are trying to do actually generates increased opposition, creating “enemies.” What you resist, persists.

This is a good opportunity for me to realize that the problem is not “out there,” it is in me. I teach people not to be victims. So now I get to practice what I preach. My “enemies” are not my enemies at all, but actually my greatest teachers.

My work is to let go of my craving for control in order to feel safe. I will never have enough power to control this situation. Letting go is about acceptance, but this is not the same as passive resignation. What I’m ultimately letting go of is the struggle. By accepted life on life’s terms, I can take responsibility for my situation and for all those events I see as problems, but still change the things I can. Val and I still love to walk the creek at night and will call the police if there are people down there breaking the law. In the daytime we will continue to remind them that they are on private property and ask them to be respectful of the land and surrounding property. Not with resistance or anger or negativity. Simply a request. And we will have continued venting sessions with the neighbors as we get support for expressing and letting go of our anger about an impossible situation.

I teach leaders that their ability to influence will come from their own peace of mind. When we are present, relaxed and calm amidst the turmoil, then we are able to make contact. And with this contact comes impact. When stressed or fearful or angry or preoccupied, the connection is broken.

How is your inner state? What are you resisting? What do you need to let go of to make room for serenity? What you resist will persist. What you let go of won’t necessarily give you what you want, but an inner state to create much more.

As I write this blog my sixteen-year-old daughter, Chandra, played the youtube video of Nick Vujicic, the man with no arms and no legs who reminds groups about focusing on what you have, not what you don’t have. That’s my focus for today, to stay conscious each moment and pay attention to my blessings, not my frustrations. What you appreciate, appreciates.

Great Cultures Start With Conscious Action

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Culture is ultimately about energy – the energy that emerges from the experience of participating in the culture. We are drawn to places – as a customer, employee, patient, or member – that have a high frequency of energy, places where people are engaged, vibrant, and alive. Conversely, we are repelled by places that are bureaucratic, listless, and dead. While positional leaders affect the energy level in a culture, every person – either inside or outside the culture – who participates in the culture contributes to the energy of the culture.

Regardless of what you say or do what face you show to the world, your mental-emotional state cannot be hidden. Everybody emanates an energy field that corresponds to his or her inner state. Most people can sense it even though they may be unaware of it’s effect or unable to articulate it. It’s not what you do, but how you do what you do that determines whether you contribute or  drain energy. The way that you act each moment, regardless of your position or your role, represents a certain vibrational frequency. I’ve learned from Eckart Tolle that if you are not in a state of acceptance, enjoyment, or enthusiasm in any task you do, then you will be creating suffering for yourself and others.

I used to hate housework, and yet I knew that doing housework was a way to contribute and feel a part of the family. Being at war with myself, I would find myself resenting doing any housework, causing stress and suffering to myself and my family. Frankly, I was a pain to live with whenever there was cleaning that needed to be done.

So, I made a decision to accept the simple act of vacuuming. I stopped complaining and resisting and made a decision to stop hating it. In the process, I have actually grown to enjoy housework, and have an improved marriage! Two for one! The enjoyment in the work came, not because the nature of the work changed, but because I changed. I became more present to the experience.

Take an audit of the work you are doing – at home, at your office, or in your community. Become conscious of the actions you are taking and the state of mind you bring to those actions. If you can neither enjoy nor bring acceptance to what you do, then stop doing it. If, on the other hand, you decide that it is important to do this work at this time, then decide to change your state of mind. Becoming conscious of the actions you take and the effect that your inner state has on yourself and those around you, begins to build a new culture, starting with you. Taking this kind of personal accountability – action with consciousness – is not only the core of a great culture. It’s the core of a great life.