DW's Blog

Let Go

by DW Green — January 9, 2019

Who you are becoming is more important than what you are achieving.

Many of us feel we are our job, possessions, achievements, and relationships. This is how we know ourselves. If we lose one of them, we feel we have lost part of ourselves. Somehow we have not identified with the basis of all life, which is constantly moving, changing, growing. In order to expand our sense of self it is necessary to stop fighting and resisting life, to become willing to let go.But, whether or not we want to let go, life itself decides for us. Change comes in its own time, both giving and taking things away. When this happens, many suffer greatly from this sense of loss. A usual response is to hold on tighter. By fighting change this way we are insisting that life meet our particular demands, fulfill our needs and expectations. A battle is set up. Much energy is squandered.So it’s important to learn to Let Go, not only in our personal life, but in our business life as well. And this is especially true for leaders of organizations. A long-time client sent me an article on Letting Go. Written by Scott Mabry, Letting-Go Leadership. His words are very meaningful to me and I read them often. Let go.This line of thin...

by DW Green — January 2, 2019

Does uncertainty cloud perspective?

Perspective is a great personal quality. For daily living and for leaders. Too often we make decisions based on a perceived short-term benefit, when a long-term view may be a wiser approach. A short-term loss may create long-term gain.I’ve read that wisdom is perspective applied to any situation. Wisdom consist of being comfortable with certainty and uncertainty. The uncertainty is the hard part. Maybe uncertainty clouds our perspective?Perspective: the state of one’s ideas, the facts known to one, etc., in having a meaningful interrelationship. A mental view or prospect.Happy New Years to all!

Read More – Smart does not equal wise

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by DW Green — December 26, 2018

Thank you.

As 2018 draws to a close, I would like to thank our clients, business partners and vendors for your business and for your friendship. I’d like to thank each of you for the positive influence and impact you have had on my life and on my company. I am most grateful and appreciative of our relationships. I am honored to work with you. Thank you.To acknowledge the end of the year, it seems both fitting and proper to share this leadership blessing with you. I am inspired by Mr. Donohue’s words and read them often. For A LeaderJohn O’Donohue May you have the grace and wisdomTo act kindly, learningTo distinguish between what isPersonal and what is not.May you be hospitable to criticism.May you never put yourself at the center of things.May you not act from arrogance but out of service.May you work on yourself,Building up and refining the ways of your mind.May those who work for you knowYou see and respect them.May you learn to cultivate the art of presenceIn order to engage with those who meet you.When someone fails or disappoints you,May the graciousness with which you engage<...

by DW Green — December 19, 2018

Let your conscience be your guide

“To thine own self be true” writes William Shakespeare in Hamlet. “Let your conscience be your guide” the Blue Fairy tells Pinocchio and then asks Jiminy Cricket to serve as Pinocchio’s conscience.Integrity is an important and powerful quality. To be referred to as a person of integrity is the ultimate compliment. I have come to realize that my life experience is about the journey toward wholeness, and to seek wholeness, is to live from a place of integrity. Conscience is the alarm that goes off when integrity is at risk, when wholeness is splintered.“The meeting of our inner and outer lives is called integrity, and the health of our integrity often determines our inner strength and resilience in meeting the outer world. This is the purpose of integrity, to balance the outer forces of existence with the inner forces of spirit,” Mark Nepo, The Exquisite Risk. One of the most useful definitions of integrity comes from Rabbi Jonathan Omer-Man: Integrity is the ability to listen to a place inside oneself that doesn’t change, even though the life that carries it may change.So living from integrity is when our actions, our outer life are in sync with our inner life; our heart, o...

by DW Green — December 11, 2018

False Evidence Appearing Real

I attended my sixth annual, 3 day leadership retreat in Seattle last week. Pretty much the same group of amazing leaders. It was an excellent experience. The best one for me to date. One of the topics that came up in discussion was fear. We all experience fear and it can get the best of us from time to time. When I returned home I did a little research on fear. Interesting. The following was written by Rachelle Williams.Fear. That pesky feeling that arises when you are at your most vulnerable. It roots itself deep within you, telling stories that seem so real that your body responds as if it is true. It can be such a visceral feeling that at times you’d rather acquiesce to than challenge it.It’s a given that fear is part of the human experience, but where does it come from and why does it sometimes dominate your life? How do some people navigate through the fear and come out the other end not only intact but even happier? Yes, it’s possible that the best things in life are on the other side of fear.Perhaps it’s not fear itself that you need to be afraid of, but how you carry the fear. Fear will always be a part of your life, but it doesn’t have to be in the way that you may think. What if you turn fe...

by DW Green — December 3, 2018

It’s about competing with yourself

Growing up in the 60’s and 70’s, I became a non-conformist, a maverick, and a Beatles fan, always questioning and challenging the status quo. I think that’s why the study of brands is so appealing to me. Branding is about connecting companies emotionally to their customers and helping them differentiate themselves in their markets. It’s about leading, not following. It’s about competing with yourself, making your company better, stronger, staying relevant in an ever-changing world and creating the best possible shopping EXPERIENCE for the customer.Take a look at a different organizational paradigm. Consider refocusing on the deep longings we have for community, meaning, dignity, purpose, and love in our organizational lives. Begin to look at the strong emotions of being human, rather than segmenting ourselves by believing that love doesn’t belong at work, or that feelings are irrelevant in an organization. Begin to see ourselves in much richer dimensions, to appreciate our wholeness, and hopefully, to design organizations that honor and make use of the great gift of who we humans are.In a word, it’s purpose. What is the underlying purpose of your organization?

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Millennials

by DW Green — November 28, 2018

Beliefs and values are based on our life experience

Years ago, we did a lot of research on millennials. Our goal was to discover ways we could better connect with them from a marketing perspective. More importantly I learned better ways to communicate and manage millennials at the workplace. Since our beliefs and values are based on our life experience, it’s important to understand the “world” different generations have grown up in.Check out this link on Millennials. This is very interesting. 16 minutes long.Time to study up on Gen Z (also called Homelanders or GenEdge). Here’s the surprise. Gen Z shares generational DNA with their grandparents and great-grands, the Silent generation that came of age in the wake of World War II.

Read More – What an A-Hole!

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by DW Green — November 20, 2018

Gratitude is one of the greatest expressions of love.

Today and everyday is a time to be grateful. The more we practice gratitude, the more we see how much there is to be grateful for, and our life becomes an ongoing celebration of joy and happiness. When we master gratitude, we perceive God in everything, and our reaction is love and gratitude for the greatest gift, which is life.To live with gratitude is to enjoy every moment of this precious gift that comes from God. Gratitude is one of the greatest expressions of love. To express what is in our hearts is to be truly alive. Just saying thank you will open all the doors to an abundance of life’s blessings from all directions, but especially an abundance of love.Since Thanksgiving is the “official” day to express thankfulness for our blessings, I would like to express my sincere gratitude for clients and staff, past and present, who have provided me with so much joy, knowledge, wisdom and happiness.Thank you all very much and Happy Thanksgiving.DW “Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a ho...

by DW Green — November 15, 2018

My ego has gotten the best of me at times.

I’ve always had an interest in the ego. We all have one, and the fact that our ego effects our relationship with life. I know my ego has gotten the best of me at times.Ego defined: A person’s sense of self-esteem or self-importance. The part of the mind that mediates between the conscious and the unconscious and is responsible for reality testing and a sense of personal identity.I read the following in the November 6th Harvard Business Review. It’s written by Rasmus Hougaard and Jacqueline Carter. An edited version below.“Our ego is like a target we carry with us. And like any target, the bigger it is, the more vulnerable it is to being hit. In this way, an inflated ego makes it easier for others to take advantage of us. Because our ego craves positive attention, it can make us susceptible to manipulation. It makes us predictable. When people know this, they can play to our ego. When we’re a victim of our own need to be seen as great, we end up being led into making decisions that may be detrimental to ourselves, our people, and our organization.An inflated ego also corrupts our behavior. When we believe we’re the sole architects of our success, we tend to be ruder, more selfish...

by DW Green — November 6, 2018

When we develop Brand Foundations for clients, we begin our work, with what we refer to as the “Soul of the Brand”. Or the meaning of the brand. Over the years, we’ve experienced some apprehension for using the word soul to describe the unique meaning of a business. Like a person, the soul of a business is actually the essence of who the business is. The soul is then seen and experienced as the company becomes that essence. It’s Doing business activities grounded in Being.