Christopher Avery's Leadership Gift Blog » twitter

Responsible Leadership Interview

christopher — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 17:03:49 +0000

Michelle Ward, the When-I-Grow-Up-Coach, wrote these interview questions just for me. It’s part of a Twitter & Blog game. If you want to play, please read the interview rules at the end of this post. I’m especially interested in interviewing leaders with a Responsibility Practice.

And now, for Michelle’s questions:

What’s your definition of “responsibility”?

First, thanks for asking such a relevant question! You are my newest friend forever Michelle.

Owning your power and ability to create, choose and attract. Period.

Most people expect something more at the end of this definition, as in “create, choose and attract what?” The answer would be “your entire reality.”

The operative word is “Owning.” I take for granted that we are each completely creating, choosing, and attracting our reality. Mastering responsibility is the process of owning that more and more.

What’s your favorite aspect of being on Twitter?

I’m still pretty new on Twitter, but as a social media marketing experiment, I like how it connects me to all sorts of networks. The first hundred or so people I followed are in direct marketing, but now I’m discovering networks for leadership, teamwork, politics, relationships and more.

Today I heard from a friend I haven’t seen in 8 or 10 years. I tweeted about interviewing Dr. Harvey Barnett and after the interview Dolly Garlo emailed me about what an inspiring interview it was. We were following each other on Twitter and I had not realized who she was. And now she is helping me research a business question that’s been nagging me for a few weeks. Dolly has better skills than me to look into it and doing so will benefit her.

It’s a win/win/win.

What would happen during your Perfect Day, where you can do what you want, when you want, how you want? Describe it from the time you wake up until the time you go to bed.

Okay. First, let’s change that from the hypothetical “would” to “does” or “will.”

I wake up for the sunrise in a seaside resort on the outer banks of South Carolina — or the coast of France or Italy or Greece, or maybe the Baha. I meet my leadership mentoring clients for breakfast followed by 2 hours of Application Mastery Group. That’s where we help each other with my proprietary process, the Perfect Problem Breakthrough™, to become powerful leaders .

Then we mount our road bikes and cover 40-60 miles of coastline, catching lunch en route. Or maybe we hop aboard our flotilla of 12 to 15 meter sailboats and play cat & mouse to the next island.

After a refreshing swim we spend another 2 hours in Application Mastery Groups developing more leadership power and freedom, and expanding choices. Then comes cocktails, dinner, and early to my room for a call home before bed.

No wait a minute. Maybe the perfect day will begin waking up with my wife in our hill-top home in Comfort…

It’s one of those — if I have to choose.

What’s your favorite movie of all time and why?

Whichever one I’m watching with my wife Amy. I’m not a big movie guy.

Why is Comfort, Texas named Comfort? Feel free to answer figuratively or literally.

Great question. I tell audiences I live in Comfort and keep my famiy in Comfort. The cool metaphor-for-life aspect of this is that Comfort (TX) is only 9 miles from Welfare (TX). But it is 70 miles from Utopia (TX).

Comfort is an unincoporated town of mabe 2000 people (and 20,000 cows) in the Texas Hill Country west of Austin and northwest of San Atonio. It’s on Interstate 10 about 45 minutes from the San Antonio airport. We moved here as a lifestyle decision in 2001 after 20 years in Austin.

It was named by German settlers, as were all the surrounding towns — Frederiscksburg, Boerne, Kerrville — and since it was a rest stop along the trail, it was aptly named.

The Interview rules

leave me a comment saying: “interview me”
all comments will be published, as long as your name isn’t Mr Cameltoe (obviously, Mr Cameltoe, who commented this week, is a robot spammer)
I will submit to you five questions of my choice
you can then answer the questions on your blog {with a link back to my blog}
you should also post these rules, along with an offer to interview anyone else who e-mails you wanting to be interviewed
anyone who asks to be interviewed should be sent 5 questions to answer on their blog
it would be nice if the questions were individualized for each blogger

Alan Weinkrantz: For Some, Twitter Means Business

christopher — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 17:17:42 +0000

15 minutes of fame for Christopher Avery

I’ve known Alan Weinkrantz for 20 years, first in Dallas where he lived then, and now in San Antonio. He was kind to include me in his column today in the San Antonio Express News about business people and Twitter:

For some, Twitter means business

Alan’s an extraordinary PR consultant with a special expertise in tech firms with U.S. and Israeli ties.

Follow us on Twitter

Follow Alan on Twitter: @alanweinkrantz

Follow me on Twitter: @christopheraver (note: no “y” at the end of Avery due to character limitation)

Responsible Tweets – Be Careful What You Post

christopher — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 01:46:54 +0000

Peter Shankman’s post is a gem. It’s a true story of a Twitter post that came back to haunt. And it’s the drama of people and an industry that should know much better — and a big well-known client.

After you read the post, for a great example of “confront” read comment number 25.

Be Careful What You Post | The Home of Peter Shankman

By the way, follow my tweets.

Taking Responsibility for The End of the Financial World as We Know It

christopher — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 17:22:38 +0000

Friends on Twitter have been retweeting The End of the Financial World as We Know by Michael Lewis and David Einhorn in the Sunday New York Times Op-Ed page. And I’ve been “head-down” since Thanksgiving reinventing our approach and working on multiple web, product, and service launches to support you with the Responsibility Redefined™ mission in 2009 (I promise there is a link between these two opening statements) including

at least 5 sessions of Knowledge Team Leadership in the US and UK,
the exciting new Journey to Responsibility and Self-Leadership DVD-based Do-It-Yourself workshop for organizations,
an innovative leadership development program for enlightened senior leaders I’m calling the Perfect Problem™ Breakthrough,
a new web presence, and
as they say — much more.

Look for more on all off these in the coming days and weeks.

I Said “Reinventing”

I’ve been confronting my value proposition as a leadership developer and organization change consultant. Without going deeply into it, I’ve decided to personally serve only those leaders who desire to change their own consciousness. No more change-those-other-people-so-I/we-can-be-successful assignments.

That’s big, humbling, and scary (consider the self-talk: am I a fool, or worse, stupid?). Its like saying no to your boss—or family. And it does put my family’s daily bread on the line…again.

It’s not a moral issue for me (I enjoy economic prosperity, cool business models, and leadership success a great deal). It’s an ethical one. Continuing to serve the corporate-success-at-all-costs-machine won’t accomplish the Responsibility Redefined™ mission of changing the way the world thinks about personal responsibility.

And it’s no wonder this comes at a time of unprecedented conflicts, disasters, and other tumult on our planet. We see immense fear and lack of ownership everywhere we look. I don’t know about you, but I also see immense opportunity to take responsibility for the world we want around us, you and me.

Repeat: I’m Mad as Hell and Not Going to Take it Anymore!

While I generally don’t join the right/wrong debates in national and international politics and issues (taking 100 percent responsibility is about getting past blame and right/wrong, and, as Gandhi said, simply being the change you desire) I am feeling called to show up with courage and strength at this troubling time.

The Sunday NY Times article produced a few lines that seemed to crystallize my thoughts. The authors open with a poignant premise about the United States leadership in the world:

We’ve been viewed by the wider world with mistrust and suspicion on other matters, but on the subject of money even our harshest critics have been inclined to believe that we knew what we were doing. They watched our investment bankers and emulated them: for a long time now half the planet’s college graduates seemed to want nothing more out of life than a job on Wall Street.

This is one reason the collapse of our financial system has inspired not merely a national but a global crisis of confidence. Good God, the world seems to be saying, if they don’t know what they are doing with money, who does?

But the piercing statement comes in the middle of this later paragraph (bold italics are mine):

Richard Fuld, the former chief executive of Lehman Brothers, E. Stanley O’Neal, the former chief executive of Merrill Lynch, and Charles O. Prince III, Citigroup’s chief executive, may have paid themselves humongous sums of money at the end of each year, as a result of the bond market bonanza. But if any one of them had set himself up as a whistleblower — had stood up and said “this business is irresponsible and we are not going to participate in it” — he would probably have been fired. Not immediately, perhaps. But a few quarters of earnings that lagged behind those of every other Wall Street firm would invite outrage from subordinates, who would flee for other, less responsible firms, and from shareholders, who would call for his resignation. Eventually he’d be replaced by someone willing to make money from the credit bubble.

I’m in. Who’s With Me?

So I’m out to develop enlightened leaders who will say this business is irresponsible and we are not going to participate in it, not because they want to be fired, but because we seek a better and simpler way to prosperity and life success. How cool will that be when all across the land enlightened leaders start saying “no” to all sorts of irresponsible, oppressive, unsustainable, and greedy practices. If I can help support leaders in making this move, then I’m all in. I hope you are too. As if to drive home this need, the NY Times article ends with this:

Our leaders have framed the problem as a “crisis of confidence” but what they actually seem to mean is “please pay no attention to the problems we are failing to address.”

Where would these authors say “our leaders” minds are on the Responsibility Process™?

The Onion Spoofs the Mindset of Obligation

christopher — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 14:59:24 +0000

This headline just reported by The Onion (picked up from Twitter. By the way, The Onion‘s Twitter id is “theOnion”, mine is “christopheraver”):

Top Story On John McCain Run Out Of Obligation | The Onion – America’s Finest News Source

It’s an hilarious spoof on the mindset of “obligation” in the Responsibility Process™. It truly portrays what miserable performance we give in the mindset of obligation.

Obligation is one of the landing places in the mind’s Responsibility Process™. The Responsibility Process is a recent discovery in normal psychology (the psychology of normal people like you and me) that shows how we respond when things aren’t quite right in our worlds.

If you are living any part of your life in obligation (your job for instance, or some aspect of a relationship) and want out, the first thing to do is to understand there is life beyond obligation. You don’t have to stay stuck in Obligation. This site has tons of resources to help. Try following some threads on this blog, download some of the pdfs and mp3s, join the Responsibility eTips list, and check out the store. We’re here to support you in learning how your Responsibility Process works so you can overcome an challenge, achieve your dreams, and have a better life.

Finding me and Responsibility Redefined on social media platforms

christopher — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 06:00:00 +0000

We’re incrementally developing a social media strategy. These are the places you can currently find me:

Follow me on Twitter
Let’s be Facebook friends
Link up on LinkedIn
Subscribe to my shows or show feeds at Blog Talk Radio (Follow and Favorite me there too!)
Subscribe and recommend Responsibility Redefined videos at YouTube

As we figure out how to participate in other valuable places, I’ll let you know. I greatly appreciate your links, follows, friends, subscriptions, comments, tags, and recommendations. Let’s take Responsibility Redefined to the world.