SYZERGY - Executive & business coaching, personal evolution

[Emergence--Personal Evolution for the Integral Leader and High Achiever]

The exemplary leader and integral leadership are one and the same thing. One cannot master what one cannot see. The ability to see more clearly is about being able to develop context, and to develop context, we need to develop through the stages (such as Spiral Dynamics, see www.spiraldynamics.net). The more evolved we are, the clearer the sight. This process is not a weekend workshop. This is a commitment to your own evolution. It requires a fundamental integral practise. Implemented daily. It requires working with coaches that challenge your way of seeing and interpreting the world. It requires willingness to sit in discomfort, to question the questions.

Models, applications, discussion, case studies for leaders and high achievers seeking to evolve themselves and their leadership.

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Welcome Back

It has been over two years since the last newsletter. It has been an exciting time with many changes in my business and life. All of them ultimately positive, with a few small and large speed bumps along the way. (Some great joys, some tears, many challenges)
I have been coaching now for eight years, loving every minute of it. Each year my clients, myself and my business has evolved. It is to be expected. When I started this journey, one of my coach/mentors said that I had to be continually evolving in order to stay up/ahead of my clients. I have now recognised that the journey of evolution is the one I love most.

Update

The significant global changes are:
1.The name of my company. Syzergy. (pronounced s-is-er-gy). This is a made up word, if you are wondering, and could mean synergy and energy. I wanted to remove my name from the company banner, and have it be more about the work than about me. There is a real word, spelt syzygy, which means that the earth, moon and sun are in a straight line, or two points in the orbit of a celestial body are in alignment. It is from the Greek word meaning union, paired, yoke

2. The title of this email newsletter.
I have decided to call this newsletter Emergence--Personal Evolution for the Integral Leader and High Achiever, rather than the Extraordinary Leader. This name change reflects an alignment with my specialty, which is working with the evolving, emerging human. The change was motivated by my study of the work of Spiral Dynamics and Ken Wilber, and all things integral. See www.spiraldynamics.net or www.integralinstitute.org or www.kenwilber.com

3. The format of this newsletter.
Less structured, more conversational. Typically once a month.

4. The work Syzergy does.
We have made the choice to work with leaders committed to their own evolution. We do this through the delivery of four products.
Radical Truth, a facilitated retreat for teams and families who choose to create a context of truth and clean, clear communication.
Dare to Care, a workshop to take our communication to an advanced level, particularly around caring enough about self and others to tell the truth.
Integral leadership, a coaching relationship for leaders and entrepreneurs who choose to be on the evolutionary path consciously.
Group coaching, for the high achiever and entrepreneur who is committed to their own evolution and would like a way to work on this that is affordable and convenient.
If you wish to read more about these programs, please send an email to Christine@syzergy.biz with ~About Syzergy~ in the subject line, or better yet, check out our upgraded web site at www.syzergy.biz

5. The purpose of this newsletter.
The purpose of this newsletter is to provoke inquiry into self, to inspire commitment to the evolving self, and ultimately to express our evolving self in a way that serves the world. It is written from a place of pragmatism. My goal would be that you find this material applicable, useful and always inspirational.

Our work is about personal evolution. What I mean by personal evolution is not simply acquiring more knowledge. It is evolving to a higher level of development. At its very essence, this means changing the way we see the world, changing the way we live and respond to the world. It also often means changing many things we do in the world, even changing the people that frequent our world. In the nature of my own emergence, I am up for feedback, in all of its forms and guises.
I don’t make myself out to be a guru, on any level. I too suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous misfortune and struggle with some things, while others mysteriously come easily to me.

In my own personal journey I have allowed my self to be seduced by the appearance of guru’s to whom I have given away my power in some form or another. Only to discover that these guru’s where not so guru. Maybe in one area they where brilliant, but in others, like me, they had much work to do. Therefore, in my commitment to truth, I bring myself and my journeys, the rough and the smooth, into these articles. Not because I want to talk about me, but because my stories and experiences are really the only places I have the right to talk about. At the same time, reminding others and myself we are all on a very human journey.

From where I sit, viewing the world from my beautiful little apartment, the world needs leaders. Not just the big ones, the presidents and peacemakers. We need leaders in the schools, and councils, in homes. Everywhere. We need to awaken our own leader if it lies dormant. We need people who get that the work to be done is integral, on the inside and the outside. On our inner being, and the way we express that in the world. We need people bold enough to take a stand, to speak the truth, to challenge the status quo. We need more Michael Moore’s, even if their message isn’t 100% and you do not agree with it. People brave enough to stand up and provoke a different conversation when the prevailing conversation is stuck in lies and fear.
Perhaps Martin Luther King Jr put this more eloquently.
This hour in history needs a dedicated circle of transformed nonconformists. Radical shifts happen, not through the complacent adjustment of the conforming majority, but through the creative maladjustment of the nonconforming minority.

What is an Integral Leader

Firstly, what is a leader?
A leader needs followers. Inherent in this, the leader needs to inspire followers with a vision of some sort. Unless of course the leader is elected by a minority and the rules of the organization say we must follow the leader. But this is really a tyrant, and not a true leader.
True leaders must ultimately be able to make a decision and take a stand for that decision. Wise leaders seek wise council, but they still have to make the hard decisions themselves, and pay the price, good and bad, for the decisions they make. Few of our current political leaders are honest enough to take ownership of their good and bad decisions. And if we are really honest with ourselves, few of us are able to do this either? When was the last time you acknowledged your stuff ups, and owned them fully? How easy it is to deflect them onto someone or something else? In this day and age one of the very frightening observations is the level to which we have learnt to apportion blame, and hence, to become victims. There is no personal power in this. Standing in the truth around our less inspiring choices maybe the road les travelled, but it is the only one that leads to leadership that has at its heart a core of integrity. You and I can start that movement, today, by refusing to blame. In our own way, we can become great leaders.

Integral practise includes working on our interiors and exteriors, our subjective world and our behavioural world, and within the domain of the individual and the collective.
For example, the state of organizations to this point has been a predominant external focus. Bottom line, measurables, systems, behaviour.
The interior world has been largely neglected in the work place. Who are we as people, why do we do what we do, what are our values and beliefs, both individually and culturally? What is the point of everything? These interior questions have been left to shrink in the dark. Our soul and spirit get to stay at home, while we go to work.

Conversely, the new age movement has focused on the interiors to the other extreme. But they don’t have any infrastructure or systems to support them, and the bottom line is mostly ignored. They’re broke and hungry.

Integral leadership includes all domains. Interior, exterior, individual, collective, and through body, mind, emotions and spirit.

We cannot ignore one at the expense of another. We need to develop in all domains. This task is not easy, and yet it is intensely rewarding.

Questions to ask yourself.
1. Am I really committed to my own evolution, and if so, what are the things I am willing to do?
2. What am I willing to give up. Beliefs, behaviours, relationships, habits? That no longer serve me?
3. What kind of leader do I want to be, and why?
4. What integral daily practise do I need to place in my life to create a framework from which I can evolve and add value?

In future issues we will look at topics such as:
What stops us from having the most important conversations?
Why we sabotage our own development.
Confronting truth is self and others, and why we fear this.
Developing through the spiral, from first tier to second tier.
What is an integral practise?
Presence. Being fully in your own skin.

I am, as always, open to feedback, comments, suggestions, discussion and would love to hear from you.

Warmly,

Christine

PS. Once again…do check out our new web site….we love it. Designed here on the Gold Coast by two young talents. Byron from Hepburn design (hdesign@bigpond.net.au), and Jospeh, www.designseven.com.au And all of this housed lovingly at www.webvalence.com

Upcoming Events

The launch of a new coaching group on either Tuesday 8th March 9am Queensland time/ Monday 7th 5 pm EST US time or Wednesday 10th March 12 noon Queensland time/Tuesday 8th March 9 pm EST. Please go to the web site, http://www.syzergy.biz/group-coaching.html to learn more and register.
Free group coaching trial sessions will be offered on the following days.
Times and dates are as follows.
Option #1
Qld time. Thursday 24th Feb at 11 am, (Sydney time, 12noon)
USA time. Wednesday 23rd Feb at 8 pm EST

Option#2.
Qld time Tuesday March 1st at 12 noon (Sydney time 1pm)
USA time Monday Feb 28th at 9 pm.

Option #3
Qld Thursday March 3rd at 10 am. (Sydney time 11 am)
USA time. Wednesday March 2nd at 7 pm EST.
Please send an email to christine@syzergy.biz with ~group coaching trial~ in the subject line, to register for the free trial.