Curiosity may have killed the cat but it pays off in networking!

If you think you need to be Joe Slick (no offense, Joe!) to be a great networker – think again. Your natural curiosity – that inherent gift we were all born with – gives you everything you need to get to know others and get connected. Dr. Bob Wright, in a recent networking workshop shared his unique perspective.

Imagine a small child questioning everything: How does that work? Why? How come it does it that way?... Their energy and persistence is endless! We are all born with this natural curiosity but we need to allow ourselves to use it if we want to be successful networkers. Next time you have the opportunity to meet someone, even if you think you have them figured out, allow yourself to be curious. Ask them about themselves and allow yourself to wonder – what do they care about? How did they get where they are? What do they want in their lives?

As Dr. Wright shares, you will be amazed at the relationships you develop and the ways in which your network – and life – will be enriched!

(Check out Dr. Bob Wright's next networking workshop - The Wonders of Intentional Networking - WIN - at http://www.wrightexcellence.com/win.php)

Soft Addictions - You've come a long way baby

Dr. Judith Wright (www.judithwright.com) is offering her Soft Addiction Solution Training for the first time in three years, and as we’re preparing for the training it’s amazing to look back and see how much has changed – and yet not – since Dr. Wright launched her first book in 2003.

Just as a retrospective, in 2003…

• We added ‘cell phones’ to the list of Soft Addictions. Not everyone had them and pagers were still in use for some people over cell phones.
• Facebook didn’t even exist, neither did Twitter or Flickr
• Many people still didn’t shop online
• “Soft Addiction” the term itself that was coined by Dr. Wright was not commonly quoted in media and online as it is today
• Many people still felt like soft addictions were problems that other people had not themselves
• “Crackberry” addict was an unknown term

We’ve come a long way since then in the sense that there is a general recognition that we all have soft addictions—the more compelling question now is which ones you have. And yet we’re still facing the same challenges with new opportunities for indulging our soft addictions coming to the surface almost daily. It’s easier than ever to go lost in our email, our computer, our cell phone, than ever before.

There is one key thing that isn’t common knowledge yet, that hopefully will be by the time we do our next retrospective. Hopefully by the next time we look back, more people will understand that breaking through these bad habits is not really about giving anything up. It’s about adding things to our lives—about creating amazing, fun, exciting, adventurous lives that are so fulfilling and meaningful that our bad habits aren’t as enticing. (Judith’s Math of MORE concept) It will be fun to look back when, rather than feeling shame about their bad habits, people are exciting to see what information they can discover about their deeper needs so they can meet them directly. An overly optimistic vision? Hopefully – an impending reality instead.

Life Purpose

Dr. Robert Wright spoke this morning for American Family Insurance at their Business Accelerator program symposium in Chicago. As the keynote, Bob got the opportunity to work with small business owners on how the journey of a small business owner has the potential to become an adventure in transformation. One of the points Bob focused on that is relevant for all of us in these times of change is the life purpose behind the choices we make.

From his book, “Beyond Time Management: Business with Purpose,” Dr. Wright shares,
“Purpose refers to a wonderful capacity in each of us—to joyously take our place in the progress of humanity and do our part to help all reach full potential. Purpose is the heart of the matter, the “why” behind what we do. It summarizes our reason for doing what we are doing. A clear life purpose gives meaning to all activities. Life purpose is the container into which we fit our goals. If we think of a projector shining a concentrated light through film onto a screen, purpose is the lens through which life flows to project our highest vision.”

He goes on later in the book to say, “Each one of us has an overarching life purpose or reason for being. Sometimes we can boil this down into a purpose statement; sometimes it remains an unstated, motivating force that directs our actions. A well-articulated, accurate life-purpose statement brings our highest goals and principles into focus in a way that helps us clarify choices and move forward. It provides the foundation for powerful, integrated vision. It serves as the ultimate guide to balance in our lives. As we sort our way through life choices, we can keep our purpose in mind to more easily identify which alternative best forwards our ultimate aim.”

In a time where so many are re-evaluating direction and focus, a re-orientation to purpose is a helpful reminder.

Feminine Leadership in our World

This past weekend Dr. Judith Wright led the Woman’s Essential Experience—a powerful 3 day training for women. Dr. Wright has been interviewed many times about what it means embrace the feminine for positive change in the world. Here are some of Judith’s thoughts on the topic:

“We live in a society that overvalues the masculine and undervalues the feminine. I’m not even talking about men and women here, but the masculine and feminine values, characteristics, and attributes. We see masculine attributes—physical prowess, competition, aggression, territoriality, and confrontation—as powerful, while femininity is seen as weak or fragile. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Although femininity can include the stereotypical ruffles and sensuality, it consists of much more—the power to embrace, include, receive, attract, and synergize as well as the aptitude for relationship, vulnerability, holistic thinking, multitasking, collaboration, emotional expression, and communication. The reality is that each of us—male and female—has within us a complement of feminine and masculine qualities with different distribution. It is our job to harness our masculine abilities us in the service of our feminine values.”

As Dr. Wright goes on to share, each of us has a responsibility to embrace the complement within each of us for right purpose:
—to embrace our masculine assertiveness to take a stand for feminine values like relationships or people or collaboration
—to use the masculine drive to build but to use the feminine to guide us on what to build, like structures that serve humanity
—to embrace the masculine attribute of competition but towards feminine quality outcomes, like positive solutions to our planet’s health

If we are all leading all the time then this inquiry is an important one for each of us.

Welcome to the Wright Leadership Institute blog!

"While many people believe that transforming organizations and systems in the world is the most difficult, the truth is that transforming ourselves is the hardest job. And if we transform ourselves, we transform our world."

--Dag Hammarskjöld

We're looking forward to sharing information, content, happenings, news and stories as they relate to leadership, transformational leadership, personal transformation and more!

The Wright Leadership Institute, http://www.wrightliving.com/, was founded by Dr. Robert Wright and Dr. Judith Wright, http://www.judithwright.com/, as a personal and professional development organization dedicated to empowering individuals to maximize their potential and live great lives. At the Wright Leadership Institute, we believe that we are all leading all the time--"Lead Your Life. Lead Your World."

It's always been true that the world is in transformation but now more than ever--the issue is forcing us to reevaluate our lives individually and globally.

Just this morning Judith Wright and Bob Wright met His Excellency, Sergey I. Kislyak, Ambassador of the Russian Federation to the United States as he shared his thoughts on “U.S. and Russia: Prospects for Cooperation," http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/home/permalink/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20090507005974&newsLang=en with the Executives Club of Chicago.

As we initiate this blog, we hope it will further the dialogue on transformational leadership in a way that inspires and empowers each of us to look at ourselves and our capacities in a way that we, as Gandhi said, "be the change we wish to see in the world."