Sage Notes

Spring Equinox - Clean House, Plant Seeds & Renew to Grow

The spring equinox is March 21st. At this time of year, we plant seeds that we want to harvest in the summer and fall. It also is when people spend more time outdoors and feel more energy than in winter months. Here in New England people have garage sales - they clear out what they no longer need and sell it to their neighbors - kind of like a homegrown e-bay. A friend of mine always says "one man's junk is another man's treasure."

From a business perspective, it is the end of the first quarter and we have some foundation for the new year. What is it that you no longer need that may benefit someone else? If you are a leader developing leaders, what have you mastered that you don't need to keep doing but can give to one of your people as a development opportunity? Can you let go of it and declutter your mental inbox? How do you clean your "house" energetically? This refers to the goals, tasks and responsibilities on your plate that could be cleared to free you up to do more strategic work. This plants the seeds for many benefits - it allows your people to stretch to their next level of capability and it ultimately serves the organization better by having your time and attention better focused - and to grow and stretch outside of your comfort zone. Targeted transference is a key sustainable strategy in an overloaded world. Pick just one thing today - a report, a project, leading a project team - that you will give to one of your people to do.

Sage Sense

The Sage Leader Reflects, Connects, Invests

The sage leader is one who rides the turbulent wave of uncertainty and changing business paradigms. In order to do this and keep yourself grounded you need to engage in certain practices: Reflect, Connect, Invest.

Reflect to gain clarity on what you want and to gain insight on what is working and not working in terms of your own leadership getting you to where you want to go or where your organization needs you to go.
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Sage Leaders Reflect to Develop Themselves

All of the top research in how leaders are best developed points to: they are best developed on the job or in life by meeting significant challenges. A key ingredient to codifying these learnings and development is through reflection. Reflection is really garnering the insights to cement the learnings so they become embedded in your being in how you operate.
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What is Great Leadership Really About?

As a leader, leadership is about you and not about you. It’s about you, in so far as you can inspire and support others.

It’s about you to the degree to which you engender a sense of credibility with others.

It’s about you to the extent to which you have clearly articulated a vision and have communicated it to others.

It’s about you to the extent to which you have a following.
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Client Connection - New Assessment Tools, Recent Accomplishments

Our clients are typically senior leaders of Fortune 500 companies, as well as entrepreneurs and mid-career professionals.

We utilize a variety of tools and assessments to inform our executive coaching, leadership team development and organizational consulting work. We partner with you to determine the best tools for the job - whether it is using one of your tools, one we are certified to use, or recommending one that we are not affiliated with. We continually look for ways to upgrade our capabilities with traditional and non-traditional approaches. We have recently added a couple of methodologies to our capabilities:

Naam technologies for fostering high performance and managing stress.

The Hogan Assessment- a suite of personality assessments utililized for selection and development. This instrument has been in use for 30 years, with over 50,000 assessments processed every month and data available for more than 400 jobs. It can be used for executive coaching, assessment and/or career counseling.

Recent accomplishments:

Co-developed and Piloted business simulation for first-time executives at Fortune 10 company - focused on developing strategic capabilities and navigating cultural complexities while addressing challenges in the global healthcare environment.

Developed and presented Webinar to Women's Leadership Forum at IT Consulting Firm with Consultants tuned in around the world: "Women & Leadership - Community Building for Professional Support and Development: Connecting and Co-opetition."

Coached executives on strengthening strategic capabilities, developing their leaders, shifting their team to an aligned team managing across the enterprise.

Coached entrepreneurs on making strategic investments for more targeted business returns and better leveraging of their time.

Coached Mid-career professional on navigating career transitions and career changes.

Does any of this sound like challenges you are encountering or solutions you need? Give us a call and let's talk. 203.730.2103

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March 2010

In this Issue

Sage Notes
Spring Equinox
Sage Sense
The Sage Leader
Sage Leaders Reflect
What is Great Leadership?
Client Connection
Sage Newbie?

Sage Leadership Strategies Founder Susan Shaner helps leaders achieve goals.