2024 Mini-Sabbatical: Back on the Island Photo Credit: Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, Mary Stelletello Photo Credit: Keahou, Hawaii, Mary Stelletello It is that time of year again…when I do my annual mini-sabbatical. November is a time of transition. In the U.S. we turn the clocks back an hour, the days seem to be getting shorter more quickly and the sun is lower in the sky. I was able to take my annual planning retreat/mini-sabbatical on the Big Island of Hawaii this year. Since I have been there many times, it is familiar and I don’t have an urge to go exploring..well not too much. It is my time to do the activities that bring my ENERGY, like play tennis, run, float in the ocean, watch sunsets and rainbows. This year I ran in the Kona Coffee Cultural Festival 5K that happened to take place while I was on island. A great way to connect with energy and community. It is my time to connect with COMMUNITY, see old friends and make new friends. I spent the day with a dear friend I journeyed through coach training with beginning in 2009 and she introduced me to one of her close friends who lives life fully. It is my time to try out some new ways of tapping into different paths of CREATIVITY. Earlier this year, I attended a webinar series offered by Leadership Learning Community series on liberatory practices. One session was called The Art of Repair, where we learned the practice of Sashiko. I had my kit and finally gave myself the space to play with it. It is my time to READ things that I have had sitting on my desk or bedside table all year. I have been following Valarie Kaur for several years. She wrote See No Stranger and just released her new book called Sage Warrior which explores the question: “How do we find the wisdom to envision a new world and the courage to fight for it?” It is also my time to REFLECT on business goals for the current year and make plans for the coming year. In 2024, we built some new programming, launched a series of Enneagram Offerings. It is a significant body of work and I am proud of what we created in partnership with Jayson Morris of WITHINSIGHTS. As I thought about 2025, what became clear is that Vista Global has done a lot of work with many incredible organizations and I could do a better job staying in touch. Therefore, my primary goal for 2025 is to RECONNECT with past clients to just see how you are doing. What is new? What do you want to celebrate? What are your challenges? If you are a recent client and you haven’t heard from me in a while, don’t be surprised if you see a note from me in the near future. I am looking forward to celebrating the work you do to make the world a better place. I’ll be in touch soon!
How do we actually “Be the Change We Want to See”? If you have been following my blog over the last few years, you may recall that I wrote a blog series on a course I was taking on Conversational Intelligence (C-IQ) for coaches regarding the impact that neuroscience has on the quality of conversations. The blog series can be found at the bottom of the post titled, Courageous Conversations: The Future is Now. Skills that I learned in the course were: Being Open to Influence, Priming for Trust, Asking Questions for Which We Have No Answers, Listen to Connect, Conversational Agility and Double-Clicking. Over the last two years I have been using these skills with coaching and consulting clients to close gaps between intention and impact and to elevate awareness of the power of conversation to transform the world. This year, I decided to certify as a C-IQ coach. The certification program was an additional six months of course work and a capstone project to demonstrate how I embody conversational intelligence. During the first few months, it was very challenging to grasp what “embodying C-IQ” really meant. The dictionary.com definition is “to give concrete form to; express, personify, or exemplify in concrete form.” To embody conversational intelligence, we were asked to explore our level of competence along the four stages of competence. The highest level of competence is “unconscious competence”, which is the level at which we are in flow, when things come so easily that you don’t even think about what you are doing. It becomes second nature. In C-IQ certification, as coaches we were challenged to go deeper with our learning, adding new conversational essentials, to stretch ourselves to move through the four stages of competence. New conversational essentials presented were: Making the Invisible Visible, Deconstructing Conversations and Co-Regulating our Conversations — up-regulating oxytocin and down-regulating cortisol. Oxytocin and cortisol are the neurotransmitters triggered when we have either positive or negative conversations. As I mentioned, I was really struggling with the notion of embodying and then one day, I realized I was TRYING too hard. I wasn’t getting to the flow because I was too much in my head, not in my heart. When I “loosened up the grip” on learning and leaned back, I started to notice that I was now using these skills not only in my work but in all aspects of my life. I can see how many of the conversational essentials I learned in 2017 have now become second nature. I am deconstructing conversations with family and friends. I am raising visibility of conversational patterns that are unproductive in all aspects of my life. I am starting to build the unconscious competence…embodying conversational intelligence. Conversational Intelligence essentials have helped guide me in all aspects of my life, to be the change I want to see in the world. Are you experiencing challenging conversations in any area of your life and don’t know how to shift from the patterns that keep you stuck? Are you THINKING about it too much? To get a sneak peek of how C-IQ can help you transform your conversations, we are offering a free 30-minute webcast and live chat on Conversational Intelligence next week, August 21 @ 12:30pm CDT. We will offer it again in September, if you can’t make it live. Join us to begin the journey of transforming your conversations!
Transforming Paradigms for 21st Century Leadership The world is changing more rapidly, in more contexts, than ever before. Technology seems redundant or obsolete just as soon as we understand how to use it. Restaurants open and close, trends change – so often to our surprise, and who knows what television show we should be watching on what streaming service and when? There are viral challenges, new social media platforms, photo apps to age us and others to turn us into rabbits. As trends and new apps come and go, we are welcoming more of the world into our smartphone and encountering more diversity, more ideas, more complexity in our workplace. This requires a change in leadership that rejects many paradigms that warn us “but that’s how it’s always done!” Leadership strategist Dov Baron writes, “For many in ‘old school’ leadership positions who are unfamiliar with allowing people to really see them, this can, of course, be scary and may even seem threatening.” Some of it might seem daunting, but so much of it is exciting when viewed through the lens of social impact and resources for a more just and sustainable world. But how do we transition from the “old school” to a 21st-century leadership model? Baron can summarize it succinctly: “In a word—by learning.” Continue reading “Transforming Paradigms for 21st Century Leadership”
Every great nonprofit begins with a great board This post originally published on June 8, 2016 has been updated. My experience with nonprofit board governance began in college when I was President of U.C. Berkeley’s Sports Club Council, comprised of 30 different clubs on campus. I had no experience with nonprofit governance. I didn’t realize that my role as Council president was broader than just running meetings. I didn’t have any understanding that the individual club members could and should play a role in strengthening the overall mission of the Council. Over the course of the past few decades, I have learned a lot about what contributes to a bad, good and great board and why that is important for nonprofit success. If only I knew then, what I know now. Continue reading “Every great nonprofit begins with a great board”
The Future of Leadership Development is Now All year long, I work with organizations, small groups, and individuals to identify their strengths and values, to forge cross-cultural connections, and to expand their conversational intelligence. So why is taking this work from the conference room to an online platform so exciting and so valuable? Continue reading “The Future of Leadership Development is Now”
Blast Off! How VLI propelled me to the stars! When I started the Vista Leadership Institute, I felt stuck in my career and life plans. I had a successful career, health, great community; but I didn’t feel like my dreams were being realized. I needed help implementing ideas I was hesitant to take action on. Continue reading “Blast Off! How VLI propelled me to the stars!”
Being More…Doing Less Each year on New Year’s Day we arrive in Oaxaca. 2019 was no different! It is such a wonderful feeling after being on the road for a week to finally get out of the car and breathe in the warm air and soak up the sunshine. Each year on New Year’s Day we arrive in Oaxaca. 2019 was no different! It is such a wonderful feeling after being on the road for a week to finally get out of the car and breathe in the warm air and soak up the sunshine. Continue reading “Being More…Doing Less”
