Crucible FOR Leadership

cru-ci-ble – a difficult test or challenge; a place or situation that forces people to change or make difficult decisions 

Tired of your status quo?

Do you know your life’s work?

Do you feel constant time urgency?

Does it feel like you’re living Groundhog day, everyday?

Do you desire to live and lead with deeper conviction and greater purpose?

Looking for people who are also inspired, and committed to unlocking the extraordinary?

Are you ready to take on an adventure that will weigh up your life, and challenge you to your core?

Sick of working to overcome problems, and ready to enable the highest potential in yourself and others?

We all face adversity amidst physical, mental, and emotional challenges, and I wrote a book about the adversity I faced early on that made a significant impression on my perspective about what makes a leader.  The Self Reliant Leadership Crucible is about bringing the book to life through the practical application of self-awareness; it’s relying on yourself for self-development; it’s where your passion and others’ needs intersect; and it’s about achieving a balance between independence and the interdependence to accelerate your own personal growth.

A key component that separates effective leaders from average leaders is the discipline to sacrifice, and the ability to endure hardship to strengthen one’s resolve.  In other words, leaders are comfortable with being uncomfortable, because they know every life event thrown their way can be a tremendous learning experience.

The Self Reliant Leadership Crucible is a way to empower yourself to start a lifelong journey of observation, persistence, humility, and a disciplined approach to your personal growth.  This Crucible is not a paint-by-numbers guide for leadership, but a year-long program to learn how you can help others become more self-reliant to create powerful futures.   It’s designed to take your leadership abilities to new levels with ten amazing people who are similarly inspired to make a difference in an intense, dynamic and unpredictable environment that maps to today’s challenging business environment.

At its core, The Self Reliant Leadership Crucible is selective.  Each person has already achieved a great deal in life, and despite a track record of success, is ready to work with dynamic and inspiring peers to really face their edge and change the trajectory of their life, both personally and professionally.  It starts with a 7-day wilderness expedition designed for transforming leaders through adventure and adversity; one year of executive coaching, and three one-day retreats that map to projects commenced following the expedition and ascribed to six core virtues:

1. Wisdom and knowledge (resilience)
2. Temperance (discipline)
3. Courage (integrity)
4. Justice (forgiveness)
5. Love and Humanity (gratitude)
6. Spirituality and Transcendence (optimism)

This list does not include the typical measures of success – for example, self-esteem, good looks, assertiveness, autonomy, uniqueness, wealth, or competitiveness.  Leading virtuous and purposeful projects that will make a difference in the lives of others is about discovery, creation and ownership.

“Organizations that foster virtuous practices or an abundance culture are more profitable, more productive, more innovative, have higher quality, retain their customers, and keep their employees to a significantly greater degree than normal organizations.”

~ Kim Cameron

Hear the Unheard and Hone Your Leadership Edge

The Crucible is designed to bring out true leadership abilities during times of duress and pressure.  Hard times are uniquely suited for the display of strengths for rugged individualism and a sense of individual responsibility.  The heightened awareness and the skills developed will transfer directly into professional and personal pursuits.

“Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power. If you realize that you have enough, you are truly rich.”

~ Laozi, Tao Te Ching

 Embrace Adversity as a Crucible to Build Resiliency and Resourcefulness

The Crucible will show how adversity impacts critical problem solving abilities while learning how to channel focus and resolve to provide optimum team outcomes.

 “Adversity is the midwife of genius.”

~ Napoleon

Leadership Is Not About You – Critical Decision Making and Clear Communication

The Crucible deepens knowledge and skills for making mission critical decisions with incomplete information while improving the ability to communicate more clearly and effectively.  Looking out for number one is a characteristic of sadness rather than well being.

“Nothing worth doing can be done alone.”

~ Tom Morris

Transformation

The Crucible provides powerful and challenging experiences to reinforce learning and foster the exchange of new ideas through trial and error, coaching and peer feedback.  Simply put, the leaders will not be the same on the other side as when they began. 

“Though he should conquer a thousand men in the battlefield a thousand times, yet he, indeed, who would conquer himself is the noblest victor.”

~ Budha

Are you up for a challenge?

“A person can make himself happy, or miserable, regardless of what is actually happening ‘outside,’ just by changing the contents of consciousness. We all know individuals who can transform hopeless situations into challenges to be overcome, just through the force of their personalities. This ability to persevere despite obstacles and setbacks is the quality people most admire in others, and justly so; it is probably the most important trait not only for succeeding in life, but for enjoying it as well. To develop this trait, one must find ways to order consciousness so as to be in control of feelings and thoughts. It is best not to expect shortcuts will do the trick.”

~ Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

We start July 20, 2014.  Please contact me to learn more – Jan@SelfReliantLeadership.com

“It is difficulties that show what men are.”

~ Epictetus