R&R

Rest and recreation and yes, I am re-visiting the topic.  Maybe it's because I'm heading out next week for two weeks in Malaysia and Borneo - with the family in tow and mightily looking forward to the opportunity to take time out and take stock of things. Expensive - yeah, there's always a little financial pain but I learned the importance of not putting money before memories some years ago.

Money can always be earned and renewed but the time in one's life in which it can be used to make memories that sustain you, your loved one and especially your children - to awaken young minds that experience a world that is global and diverse - is finite.

I spent four different coaching sessions with senior executives last week and the theme was exactly the same. Take time out - get away from the job. Give yourself some space - and for good business reasons too.

Most of our creative insights, our new ideas, our renewed motivation comes when we are not working. Typically they come when we take time to go on holiday - or usually when we are asleep and kept awake until the idea forms itself and thus we often lose good quality sleep.

By keeping ourselves at the coal face we fail to see the ideas and the insights that can help us transcend the challenges that we might be facing in the role. Our unconscious minds need time to integrate and synthesise,  to reflect and resolve,  to connect the pieces - it is from this that the insights which drive  our success and creativity come from.

Taking time out regularly is a critical business decision - it boosts our brain power, connects with the universe and shows us the way.

Authenticity

I've just uploaded another video introducing a fellow r'evolutionary Lesley Everett on Rebel Island TV on the www.rebelisland.net website . Lesley speaks about discovering and promoting your authentic brand and by doing so raising your game and that of your business.

Authenticity is a very hard thing to manufacture - it has to be mined.

One has to look deep within oneself to find one's inner compass and then learn to trust it. I'm a great advocate of the Insights Discovery psychometric tool which allows one to discover one's preferred communication and personality style in a non-judgemental way. I use it for coaching and for team communications and find it both great fun for participants and a great way to establish an intuitive language for communication.

The report often presents us with two aspects of ourselves - our 'unconscious self' which is who we truly are and our 'conscious or adaptive self' - the person or the mask that we manufacture to operate in business.

How different would things be - and how much more powerful would we be in our communications and our relationships - if we truly had the courage to discover and live our natural selves. If we could be fearless and free - if we could release the rebel from the business suit.

Rebel in a Business Suit

I spoke in Scotland recently at a conference entitled The Re-Birth of Leadership which examined some of the changes required of today's leaders to engage more effectively with the new world of work.

One of the great advantages of such conferences is the chance to engage with one's own peers in the speaking field and get some insights into other professionals' views of your message. Some of those insights have caused me to look yet again at the unfolding message in the ideas of Rebel in a Business Suit and R'evolution.

I guess the idea of the r'evolution that I'm talking about is the capacity to come to understand oneself - both the light and the dark side of oneself. To learn to be courageous in discovering who we truly are so that in doing so we bring a very authentic self into the new world of work - and when one is authentic one is powerful. When this happens the Rebel in the Business Suit becomes an idea of self-integration - the passion being the rebel and the purpose being the suit.

You might say it becomes the idea of the entrpreneur in the heart of the accountant or the artist at the heart of the engineer - the Ying and the Yang and the Heart and Head. An integration of opposites that creates a powerful being. Imagine that unique person as an asset as a leader or rainmaker.

Purpose and Passion

The twin powers of Purpose and Passion are at the heart of transformation and r-evolution.

When we have a purpose we have a clear vision of the way forward - when we have set our minds on a quest, the wonderful power of the brain begins to focus our thoughts on the achievement of that end. The brain is a goal-seeking organism - it thrives on having an objective.  It is designed for that purpose.

It often seems that many people or organisations have little sense of their true purpose.  They may have started with  an idea and they have grown beyond it or the original visionaries - their purpose achieved - have moved on to other things leaving an organisation in the hands of those who have inherited the body but not the mind of the company.

A purpose must inspire and it must have particular meaning for people. It must have a greater good - something beyond the current perception or expectations of people. It must stretch them - it should be extraordinary.

Purpose alone is not enough however we must fuel that purpose with passion - with heart and with emotion. It must empower us to face whatever, to do whatever, to transcend our current reality. All decisions are emotionally based - fire the emotions and you fire the energy of the gods themselves.

I have often said that God (however you may perceive it) speaks to us through visions but sings to us through our emotions. Put the pictures with the music and you have a powerful soundtrack for your life or work.

To find such extraordinary purpose and passion often requires the ability to take time to actively reflect, to structure and then communicate the vision. Time away is needed for only then can we start to allow our purpose and passion to unfold - as it surely will - free of the distractions of our current reality.  

David Conway, an author of several books on philosophy and mysticism, once said to me that 'magic was the ability of the magician to bend the environment to his or her will'.  If that is the case, then we can truly create 'magic' and transform our worlds when we fire our true purpose with our true passion.

What's in a Name

In magical lore the knowledge of someone's true name was meant to give you power over them. That's why, in the story of Rumplestiltskin, the knowledge of his true name allowed the girl to break the curse.

In older societies the choosing of a name for a member of the tribe was done by their undertaking a rite of passage or by the reading of signs and portents - their name was meant to be a connection with the world or the people around them - a representation of their true spirit.

In the modern world, as soon as we enter 'the system' we are assigned numbers or logos and quickly our name becomes a part of a list - another body. As a result, re-connecting with your name and sometimes the meaning that name had for your parents can take a bit of effort. Many of us are called after grandparents - carrying on the family tradition.

Names are powerful - the Christian story of Adam, the first man, naming all the things in Paradise shows Mankind's first effort of categorisation and control over the beings we share the planet with.

As consultants and speakers it becomes usual to create and become your business name - and lose sight of the essence of the business which is ourselves. Clients hire us - and not our business name.

Sometimes we use that business name as a means of creating credibility for ourselves or to appear something more than what we are. However, if we return to the core we come to realise that we are who we are - our name. It embodies us, our spirit and all the pain and passion that we have lived in our lives. We resonate with the energy of it.

It's been a lesson of personal acceptance this week to return to who I am and to use just this name in business. Seán Weafer. Or Seán Kilcommons-Weafer (a name which blends Normans and Celts, land and sea, Christian and Pre-Christian themes).

It's taken some soul searching, some reflection and some courage to committ my future to just my name. To realise that I have various aspects of myself and that to grow I need to remember who I am and not be afraid to share all of that with my clients and friends.

R-Evolution takes courage - sometimes that courage is needed to return, recognise and accept the core. Onwards.

Global Leaders

An interesting article by Rebecca Knight in the Financial Times was brought to my attention today. Entitled 'Studied Approach to a better world' it talks about the Goldman Sachs Global Leaders Program funded by the Goldman Sachs Foundation.

This programme brings outstanding young students from universities (such as the Stockholm School of Economics) around the world together to network and engage in discussing solutions to world problems. The stated intent is 'to inspire students to be bold innovators, leaders in the first degree' and 'counting on them to make a better world'.

The programme is run by the Institute of International Education and draws from speakers and academics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and Morehouse College.

Fantastic work and much to be congratulated on. I would however also have liked to know if there is a similar programme for entrepreneurs and senior business leaders who are currently in positions where they can transform the planet and our society.

While it is fantastic that such a focus is being placed on the coming generation, there is also so much more that can be accomplished by working and promoting such opportunity within the current 'transitional' generation.

It is precisely this generation that is currently in the positions of power for creating transformation and who are seeking more purpose, meaning and passion in what they do.

Many very successful entrepreneurs and business leaders (the Rebel in a Business Suit generation) are looking for new visions whereby they can use their businesses to help transform the world around the new values of connectedness, collaboration and community. We are currently building an on-line community to bring these like-minded thinkers together in Rebel Island and create r-evolutionary business thinking for the challenges of the world and business today.

The Goldman Sachs Foundation and their associates in this venture are to be hugely applauded for bringing on the generation to come and there is so much that we can also do to work with the current 'evolutionary' generation.

Net Values

Over the last few months with the generous help of Declan Elliott of Mobil Avenue I have been exploring the deeper potential that the Net has for connecting us and allowing us to communicate our thoughts and ideas. More importantly, I have been struck by the core values of the Net which are so close to the values of the new evolutionary feminine age.

Values such as communication, connection, community and sharing - the values of the new age - are inherent in the construction of the Net. The Net now allows us to reach out and have our digital voices heard in many places by many people in many nations.

The Net connects us like never before, allowing one to reach out to groups or individuals in myriad ways. It is the new frontier and will help accelerate human evolution as the access to knowledge, perception and understanding increases. And it is only beginning.

Singing Sinatra

I would have a fairly eclectic taste for music- I' d pretty much listen to anything really- from classical themes to heavy metal rock. Love it all. In fact as a kid I used to play trombone in my school band and that, coupled with a musical and artistic dad and hiding out at the back of the garden shed to avoid my piano lessons (sorry Mr. Rafferty), probably helped me with creating such a wide taste.

However when it comes to just good old relaxing fun music to listen to while driving, I've gotten much more into the Rat Pack (Sinatra, Martin, Davis Jnr) in recent years. So, last Friday, I had the chance to fulfil a dream and that was sing to Sinatra in front of a live band at a live gig. 'Love and Marriage' the chosen piece - light and easy - and more importantly for the organisers who had reluctantly allowed me to sing after I'd helped raise a few bob for sponsoring the charity (blackmail or what?) - short. At least if I was bad I'd be off the stage quick.

Now I could talk to thousands and it would never bother me - but sing in front of strangers? That was quite another thing. 250 of them to be precise who had all paid to be there - plus my family. I was nervous all week but I was going to do this - yet it would have so much easier not to. Courage they say is not the absence of fear but the ability to act despite it.

The night came, (after I had been rehearsed repeatedly, then put in front of the musical director that night- if I was that bad there was no way I was going on...) and passed the 'audition'. When the time came it was unexpectedly upon me - I swore that if the MC gave me a big build up that when I got the mike I'd say that was my brother he'd been talking about - and then it was counting the beats in and begin.

When you commit to something you may as well go all the way and so I did - the whole shebang - moving around, hand gestures, the lot. It was over before I knew it to huge round of applause. I felt buzzed and especially so when I got back to the family table - my Dad said I was'ok' , my mom said I was ' very good' and my sisters said I was 'brilliant'. In my family, that's a hat-trick of compliments. Plus my wife didn't have time to disappear to the 'ladies' when I got up to sing.

Many of us have dreams - some large and some small - in order to be all that we can be - to actualise our potential - it's important to step up to the mike now and then and despite the fears, sing your song.

Maybe I'll bring out a Christmas album........

Unfolding

Its been a busy week this week but it still feels like it takes forever to make things happen.

Doesn't matter how much work you do it still feels as if the "prize" is always that little way out of reach - just enough to tantalise but never enough to satisfy. There is a saying in business that it always takes "twice as long and costs twice as much" - from personal experience I'd say that's true.

Apart from the impact of others on a project - waiting for people to get back to you, or to make decisions over things you don't control - the time taken for things to be fulfilled is often frustratingly slow for me. Of course, then I don't relax or take time out with the family or take some time out for myself and that just makes everything seem to take longer because I am never in any downtime.

Then I start making mistakes. I want to move things along so I hurry decisions that should be refelected on. The costs mount up as you have to re-visit things.

I have to consciously remind myself that life and the Universe are an unfolding process. That there is a season for things and no amount of impatience on my behalf will change that.

There are lessons and secrets I am meant to see but do not, as a I rush by with "my eyes on the prize". My childrens laughter at their horseplay annoys me when it should be something I take part in. I get annoyed (and sulk inside!) when my wife drags me away from my very important work (which could wait 'til the working week) to visit a garden centre so that we can as a family share the experience of designing a garden we will all share in the future.

Experiences that can never be re-visited. Memories that could enrich the fabric of my life.

This week I'm going to draw a breath before I think, say or act. I'm going to "reflect not reflex" and maybe the universe may unfold very differently.

PassionforthePlanet.com

I recently was interviewed in Wimbledon, London for a DAB (digital audio broadcast) radio station with a very niche orientation. Called Passion for the Planet it broadcasts on issues that effect human well-being and the planet as a whole. Its demographic is 30-40 year old ABC1's.

For those of us who are Rebels in Business Suits with an interest in ecology, our connection with the planet, our understanding of the "oneness" of things, the fragility of our earth and the part that our values play in the well-being of the planet - this is a radio station worth bookmarking. Check it out.