Lessons from Parkland: How Shall We Live?
What are the lessons we as a nation are learning from Parkland? We are learning to listen to a new generation of young leaders – driven by violent circumstances – stand up and speak out for those who lack a voice: the young, the vulnerable, and the victims. What these young leaders are desperately seeking is empathetic, compassionate leaders who are strong enough to put an arm around someone who is suffering, not arm them with a weapon. In this search, they themselves are becoming the leaders they seek to find. What we are witnessing is the RISE of a new generation of empathetic, compassionate young leaders who speak to the HEART of what makes us human, what makes us care about each other and what gives us hope. “We will outlive you,” Parkland surviver David Hogg reminded members of the Florida State Legislature. In the face of pain, suffering, and rage, these students are asking lawmakers to reduce children’s RISK of death by an AK-15 shooter. Their raw courage fills us with hope for the future. It inspires us to ask ourselves: How shall we live? Free of Fear? Mindfully? In community, with empathy, care and compassion for ALL life on Earth? Led by children, we are the generation that is emerging from the cocoon of a dark fear into the light. We are learning to fly FREE of fear. What unites us is a common believe that we can also LIVE free of fear. We believe in human kindness and random acts of kindness. We see that our compassion for others acts like gravity to draw us together....Leadership: How to Break Free of the Janus Effect
What is the Janus Effect? How can an understanding of it break us free of it? And perhaps most important: Why are men highly susceptible and women IMMUNE from it? The Janus Effect comes into play in business or politics the moment an alpha male leader makes a decision that is dead wrong. At this moment, none of the men he has hand-picked for his inner circle seem to be able to go against his wishes because, as his followers, they know exactly what he wants and expects. For those in his inner circle, it becomes difficult, if not impossible, to go against the leader’s wishes even if he asks them point blank: “Give me your opinion!” Decisions made under the Janus Effect by an alpha male leader such as Trump are so powerful because the team members will constantly reinforce the alpha male leader’s mindset. They are unable to make a different decision because they believe that to go against their leader carries the risk of becoming ridiculed, ostracized or even exiled from the team. We need look no further back than our evolutionary history to a time when male hunting groups were led by a strong alpha male. In the same way that a wolf pack sticks together, members of an alpha male’s inner circle stick together. Their deepest fear is to be told point-blank by someone who is deadly serious: “John, You’re not being a team player!” The deeply internalized fear of the team turning against them, of being isolated or exiled, is too much to bear. So what’s the solution? In an article in The Hill, Westen, Ph.D....
The Janus Effect (“Follow the Leader”) vs Gender Equality
Gender equality is surely a no-brainer. Apart from being simply “the right thing to do” in any civilized society, its practical benefits can be enormous. My report lays out how it could benefit our country and the world, in the political sphere. ” When gender equality becomes the “new normal” in corporations and Congress it will free us from the Janus Effect and return America to its role as a global leader. ” ~ Alexia Parks is an award-winning entrepreneur, UN Mentor, and Founder of 10TRAITS...
Use These Three Words To Transform Your Workplace
When you’re ready to transform your world, to strengthen a relationship, or to lead your BEST life yet, start by including these three words at the start of each day. I AM POWERFUL. In just three clearly stated words you are claiming your power. You are owning it! When you believe deep down inside yourself that you are powerful, when you can say it to yourself and mean it, then let your words and actions reflect that power through your actions. This is how change...
Hillary Clinton’s Journey Is Ours
Hillary Clinton’s journey from disbelief to anger, wrapped in the guise of a book tour for her latest book: What Happened, is a catharsis – an inner journey to restore her own soul – and America’s as well. Whether we voted for Hillary Clinton or not, HER journey is ours as well. What has happened to America since the the news media shifted its spotlight to hate, misogyny, and the embolden alt-right nationalist crowd and its bot-empowered leader, Donald Trump? Hillary Clinton as America’s president would have stopped a steady news feed about everything Trump. The news and images would have been about HER. Her words would have been accorded a weight and power now accorded Trump. Would her words and actions have been different? As lies, misogny, alt-right, fake news, bot generated news and Trump’s latest tweet become front page news it crowds out news of everything that we value. Who can resist the power of “breaking news.” Everything Trump does generates a steady cashflow for the news media. Les Moonves, the president of CBS news got it right when he declared ”Trump’s run is ‘damn good’ for CBS.” The media feeds on breaking news. Whether true or false, everything the president of the United States says or does becomes breaking news. At some point our overstimulated brain can no longer distinguish right from wrong. Like a heroine addict, like someone with an addiction to sugar, we find it difficult to break the habit. Without an “off” button, we succumb to a daily diet of empty news. It reduces the power of truth telling by filling our minds with empty calories. What nourishes...
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