**This article may contain spoilers. Be advised.**

Name: Don Draper (played by Jon Hamm)

Occupation: Central character of AMC's Mad Men. Former Creative Director of Sterling Cooper advertising firm; founding partner at Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce advertising firm

Career Highlights: After switching identities with the lieutenant he served under during the Korean War (who died in a gasoline explosion), Draper sold used cars and wrote ad copy for a fur company, which is where Sterling Cooper bigwig Roger Sterling discovered him. Draper quickly climbed the ladder to Creative Director, and then Junior Partner, because of his talent for reading people, figuring out what they want, and pitching ideas to them. He's also a tremendous excuse to show off period cars and hot girls in vintage lingerie, which are, let's be honest, the real reasons anyone cares about this show. When a rival ad firm buys out Sterling Cooper, Draper gets himself fired and takes a few coworkers with him to start Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce.
Draper's character is based, at least in name, on Leo Burnett advertising legend Draper Daniels, who created the Marlboro Man campaign. Don Draper beat out actual people Barack Obama and Michael Phelps to be named Ask Men's most influential man of 2009, which is a travesty until you consider that, on the whole, uptight womanizing men in nice suits have done pretty well for themselves throughout history, so why shouldn't it be the same for one whose character flaws and strengths have been obsessively balanced for a show that is essentially an arm of the media congratulating itself?

Dominant Pattern(s): Organizer/Collaborator. Draper's character is not an impulsive one - he waits and picks his moment and contains his personal drama better than anyone else on Mad Men. He's also a perceptive guy who can capitalize on how well he reads people, suggesting healthy Collaborative instincts that also influence his ability to separate his professional and personal lives for the benefit of his work environment.

Recommendation(s) for Improvement: Visionary - now that Don is starting a new firm, he'll need new strategies and more inventive ads to stand even with more established competition. He was really good at pitching ideas that had been digested by a major company, but will he be as good with less staffers and money? He should start with some Loosening Relief exercises to work on his tension and, at the risk of armchair scriptwriting, dip into some of the more creative subcultural activities of the period, or at least pay closer attention to them. His first season beatnik fling notwithstanding, Draper's very much a mainstream guy and that predictability can only get in his way from here on out. Unless the fourth season starts with an asteroid colliding with the earth and wiping out humanity, in which case all this speculation will be completely worthless.

1. Individuals take FEBI and I send them their reports.

2. Team comes together for an introductory workshop (experiential, designed to let them "feel" the energies and to play and think about them with right-brain activities.

3. I coach individuals one-on-one.

4. Team comes together for a facilitated group meeting where we will work with the team's overall energy patterns to create an action plan for how to work better together as a team.

Do you experienced coaches have a gut feeling for the optimum timing of the four steps? What's too long between steps, what's too short? Any advice would be fabulous!

And if you have any other suggestions not related to timing, I'm all ears to anything you want to offer by way of guidance.

Thanks!

Rhonda Morton

Corning, NY

A: Conversations with others absolutely help to bring the FEBI report to life and tease out its insights. I usually start a FEBI coaching session by testing the FEBI results against a person's own experience, as well as my experience of their energy. If either one of us senses a mismatch, that's the first good conversation to have. All instruments capture some combination of present-moment state and long-term traits, though we find that clear pattern differences are durable when people have taken the FEBI multiple times. We also know that pattern preferences themselves can influence how we answer questions on an instrument (for example, people strong in Collaborator tend to answer enthusiastically high on many questions and their scores overall are higher). On top of that, some people are simply more self aware than others.

Having said all that, our research comparing FEBI self scores with 360 data - which are observations from others - show strong correlations that others tend to see our weaknesses in the same pattern as we do. About 1/3 of the time, areas for development - as seen by others - relate to an overused Home pattern; about 3/4 of the time, developmental areas relate to an underused 4th pattern. So even though we only answer the FEBI for ourselves, we tend to arrive at answers that are broadly consistent with the views of others.

A: We include the development table for the weakest pattern - and any low scoring pattern - in the FEBI report, as our research has shown that in more than 3/4's of the cases, the areas for development that others perceive in a person relate to one's 4th pattern. However, as you say, sometimes it's another pattern that's of greater developmental interest. For that, you (or your coachee) can use the Move to Greatness book as a resource; at the end of each pattern chapter is a complete development table for that pattern.

Q: All of my patterns were moderate and fairly close together. What are the implications of this vs. when patterns are far apart?

A: It's common for scores to be in the moderate range; the FEBI report is scaled so that about 65% of the scores will fall in this mid-range (note: when we launch FEBI 2.0 later this spring, we'll be re-scaling the patterns so that only the mid 40% will fall in the Moderate range to be more aligned with other instruments, as well as behavioral observations). Even more important than absolute value, however is pattern order when it comes to predicting characteristic strengths and weaknesses. When the scores are all close together and in the moderate range, chances are good the person is fairly balanced in accessing the patterns and, if she uses the right pattern at the right time, she's probably seen as balanced and effective by others. The downside of a balanced profile is that the person may not be as distinctly "branded" as one who is strongly differentiated in the patterns, and others may not know quite what to expect from the person.

Even if scores are close on the overall profile, the page of Work Behaviors in the FEBI report can be very useful for teasing out pattern preferences, since this was a forced choice part of the instrument and not factored into the earlier scoring. Looking at what patterns dominate in the top half vs. bottom half can substantiate either a good deal of balance (if all colors are in both halves), or more subtle differentiation (if some patterns cluster in the top or bottom). Looking at the behaviors clustered near the bottom of this chart, a good coaching question is, "Are these things you take for granted, or could you use more of them in your work or life?" What often surfaces is that even with a relatively balanced profile, if work or life conditions are such that some pattern is especially needed now, a conversation on the Work Behaviors page can tease it out.

Now that the first wave of Snowpocalypse 2010 is over, here's a Profile in Competence of former presidential candidate/current media-pilloried cad John Edwards.

Name: John Edwards

Occupation: Former U.S. Senator (NC), two-time presidential candidate, director of the Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Career Highlights: The son of a mill worker, Edwards was the first person in his family to attend college and, presumably, law school. Made his name as a "plaintiff's lawyer" in medical lawsuits, possibly using his mill working heritage to his advantage in doing so. He turfed Lauch Faircloth out of his Senate seat in 1998, and immediately began considering a run at the presidency, but still took the time to reassure voters that, yes, his father worked in a mill. Ran for president in 2004 and was initially favored due to his looks and charm - indeed, when this writer was in college, he attended a political roundtable discussion where all the participants talked about for upwards of thirty minutes was how handsome and Kennedy-esque John Edwards was. He lost, ultimately, and bided his time with other political work until 2008, when he ran again and lost. It also came out that he fathered an child with a longtime mistress, despite being married to a woman so sympathetic to his political ambitions that she campaigned with him when not undergoing chemotherapy. Nonetheless, it is still true that his father worked in a mill.

Dominant Pattern(s): Driver and Collaborator. John's combination of charm and ambition is potent to the point of volatile. He knows how to get people to like and feel comfortable with him quickly, a skill essential to swaying juries and campaigning for office. And he's enough of a shark to climb the ladder and profit from these social advantages.

Recommendation(s) for Improvement: Organizer. John's ambition gets in his way; he's so busy achieving that he has trouble staying focused on more immediate tasks. It's worth considering that he wasn't elected because voters got the sense that, with nothing higher to shoot for than the presidency, he wouldn't know what to do with himself. John has to learn to stick to things, and what better time to learn than the inescapable disgrace of the present? Turn on some Bach and start the morning off with Diaphragm Circles. Reorganize the office. Lay out the desk like a props table and make sure everything has a place. Meditate. Get your life together.

You know our commitment to research around the FEBI and energy patterns, and this year we’re excited to launch a two-part study to make the FEBI even stronger and better understand its connection to another instrument, the NEO.

Which one of these 4 requests would get you to join us?

Click here to take the FEBI 2.0. I bet you don’t have what it takes to complete it in less than 15 minutes.

We know we can count on you because you always deliver. You’ll get a data update on the parts and patterns of your personality, and our deep appreciation for your efforts.

Don’t be left out! Join the wave of Focus friends getting their first glimpse of FEBI 2.0. Your being a part of it makes our collective effort bigger and better.

Human energy essence…the patterns are transforming they way we think about transforming ourselves, our teams and businesses. The research we do today will inform generations to come…Your energy is of the utmost importance.

We hope one of these requests resonated with you and that your next click is on this link

After we receive your FEBI answers, we’ll follow up with your FEBI results and a link to an online NEO survey. And you really DO have our thanks!

Ginny

Name:

Occupation: Founder, president, and CEO of Amazon.com.

Career Highlights: A scientist since his mamma put him in the crib. No, really; he tried dismantling his crib with a screwdriver when he was a toddler. How he managed to get his hands on one as a baby is a question best left to his parents. Bezos also rigged an electric alarm in his room to keep pesky siblings out, and turned the garage into a laboratory. Lambda Lambda Lambda material all the way. And speaking of college, he entered Princeton University for physics, but switched over to computer science and electrical engineering, graduating summa cum laude. As a young professional, he applied his degree to the financial industry until he started Amazon.com from his garage after a cross-country drive. He's now so insanely wealthy that he can seriously consider human spaceflight, and in fact started Blue Origin with that in mind.

Dominant Pattern(s): Organizer. Bezos' scientific precision is as much as part of his corporate life as it is his creative/inventive one. His degrees in engineering and computer science give him away as a fastidious thinker, but also a patient one, neither of which are a bad thing. The beginnings of Amazon suggest an impulsive Visionary side to him as well.

Recommendation(s) for Improvement: Collaborator, big time. Bezos is "known for his attention to business process details," which lends itself to Condé Nast's more colorful description of him as "a notorious micromanager. ... an executive who wants to know about everything from contract minutiae to how he is quoted in all Amazon press releases." For a guy who's so good at organizing people, Bezos doesn't seem like he really trusts them to do their jobs. As someone who believes in outsourcing certain processing/administrative tasks from computers to people, he needs to be less of a nag. Art projects, big messy ones that he doesn't assemble piece by piece, would give the other half of his brain a workout. Sculpture would appeal to his tactile nature, in fact. And of course, some core/centering exercises couldn't hurt.

Due to (a) reader demand, here's a profile of current Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell.

Name: Ed Rendell

Occupation: former mayor of Philadelphia, current governor of Pennsylvania

Career Highlights: Villanova graduate and 2nd Lieutenant in the US Army Reserve. Served two terms as Philadelphia district attorney, initially campaigning as a political outsider who hadn't been around long enough to blacken his soul with corruption. Somehow received 28 delegate votes for Vice President at the 1980 DNC, even though he wasn't running and had gubernatorial ambitions in Pennsylvania. After losing the 1986 governor's race to Bob Casey Sr., Rendell ran for mayor of Philadelphia and won, forever squashing rumors that the office was claimed by whoever could eat the most cheese steaks. Rendell inherited a ton of fiscal problems, but managed to pare them down to a balanced budget and much-improved city services (including, for the first time, sanitation), although his cost-cutting pissed off local unions something fierce. Rendell's stewardship of Philadelphia has often been compared to Rudy Giuliani's effect on New York City.

Rendell ran for governor again in 2002, winning this time, and kicked things off with The Plan for a New Pennsylvania, a piece of legislation that led to a glut of local tax minutia that will bore anyone still reading this to tears. He was criticized for his support of legalized gambling and calling voters "misguided" when they voted against something he liked. He was reelected in 2006, and was an ardent supporter of Hillary Clinton in the 2008 presidential race, going so far as to compliment Fox News, of all networks, for their objectivity in their coverage of her campaign. Rendell didn't watch CNN much during that period, we take it.

Dominant Pattern(s): Organizer. Philadelphia, no matter what people may personally think of it now, is a urban utopia compared to what it was when Rendell first stepped in as mayor. Being able to improve so many varied elements of a city that big means that he was able to prioritize and execute (an uncomfortable phrasing, given his support of capital punishment). Every successful politician is a Driver, but Rendell's brain-numbing focus on city and state economic matters sets him apart.

Recommendation(s) for Improvement: Collaborator. Many of Rendell's more questionable decisions and statements are reactionary. Insisting that Janet Napolitano was a good pick for Homeland Security secretary because she had no life is but one example; he also withheld funds for the expansion of the Pennsylvania Convention Center over a spat with management appointments, and partially shut down the state government after an argument with the legislature. Taking one's ball and going home is not a ringing endorsement of one's people skills or overall managerial stamina. Some Standing and Lying-Down Blah exercises could help relieve that defensiveness and keep Gov. Rendell from acting like a pissy little kid when people stray from the path he's chosen for them.

1- Connects Being with Doing

Creates an immersion experience where leaders feel on the inside how they need to be to authentically behave in a certain way or create a certain climate or performance around them; FEBI can then be linked to all other course content

2- Is both Descriptive and Prescriptive

Many assessments give insight into personality, but only the FEBI prescribes specific, mind-body practices to enable and support desired shifts

3- Scales from Individual to Groups

Gives insight into individual personality, as well as how these same patterns emerge in relationships, on teams, in organizations, and across demographic, professional, and national cultures. In all cases, leaders learn levers for bringing out more of a needed energy pattern, and can tie that back into themselves, and how they need to be

4- Accelerates Development

Study after study has shown that mind-body awareness accelerates awareness and development in general; the FEBI makes this crucial link

Likewise, anyone in martial arts or competitive sports has seen this truth operate. When you step into a situation afraid of getting hurt, you get hurt. If you’re afraid of losing, you lose. If you’re afraid you’ll make a mistake, you make a mistake. Any concern for yourself whatsoever automatically misaligns your intention, and weakens your performance. “Don’t let your mind stop,” advised the great sword master, Takuan Soho. For there becomes your sticking point.

This same principle operates in leadership. Not long ago, I worked with a wonderful, high-potential leader who, somehow, had been twice-passed over for a coveted promotion to VP. When he came to the program in which I was his coach, never mind all of his stellar feedback, all he cared about was why wasn’t he getting promoted? He already had a coach who had been giving him pointers to try this or that, but nothing seemed to be working.

“You have to let it go,” I told him. “If you’re stuck in that question, somehow you’re going to get other people stuck in that question. Forget about it. Focus on what you want to create.” Of course it wasn’t quite that simple. He had to dig into why he was holding that promotion question so tightly, and recognize the lurking self doubt (which, subliminally, is what others sense and what fuels their doubt in us, too), as well as the dollop of self worth he thought would come – at last! – with a promotion. But once he saw it, even he had to laugh at the absurdity of it, because he knew this pattern well; it had been with him his entire life. As if one more piece of evidence would finally settle the case of whether he had achieved enough! I could feel him set down this old baggage as the week went on, and leave the program less entangled. I didn’t know what he would do with it or if it would last.

Until last week. He dropped me a note to say, ”I wanted to thank you again for your coaching and insight. I think about them often and they have helped me significantly.” And he was happy to report that he got his promotion after all.

Focusing on what we want to create naturally brings our energy into the world, leading from inside out, as Kevin Cashman would say. Focusing on our self or our fears goes in the opposite direction, outside in, with worry over whether the outside world will accord what we want “in here.” Inside out allows our authentic, creative expression. Outside in, and we’re coping with a crapshoot. Moreover, the mind gets stuck in the exact place where it is least useful – on itself!

Once you’ve got the right focus, for those of you dying to know the rest of the acronym, Weldon’s formula is as good as any:
- E: create an Emotional connection to your focus by writing it down.
- A: Act in accordance with what you want to create.
- R: take Responsibility for your responses to the conditions around you.

Even though I’ve known this stuff for ages, as I imagine you have, too, I’m reminded anew of the power of focus and our non-delegable role in the Law of Attraction. “Where focus goes, energy flows,” Tony Robbins quips. So, what are you focused on now?

"Absolutely a failure of leadership!” my colleague declared. “It was a case of senior leaders hearing what they wanted to hear,” (e.g., a chance for big revenues) “and not hearing what they didn’t want to hear” (e.g., the weakness of their risk models, the lack of external reviews, the warnings from internal reviews). Classic Driver-style leadership, I observed, which runs the risk of single-point focus, impatience, arrogance and, above all, not listening. If this style dominates for long in a company, it gets reinforced structurally, where only a small subset of “loyalists” get access to the top, and only a trickle of important information gets through. And yet, it’s something of a paradox, in that the non-wishy-washy clarity and determination of the Driver are often exactly what select these alpha leaders for the top jobs. Leadership guru, Marshall Goldsmith advises leaders who would move to the top: "what got you here won't get you there." The corollary I took from this conversation as it applies to the insulated Uber-Drivers at the top is: "what got you here won't keep you here." These leaders are setting themselves and their companies up for failure.

So what can those of us in leadership development do to help? Well, it's a bit of a catch-22, in that the leaders who are most at risk are those who are most arrogant, insulated, and unaware – unlikely to be the learning-oriented leader who soaks up a leadership program or seeks an executive coach. Of the companies and leaders we can reach, it seems to me we could help by showing the consequences of structural insulation and not listening in, say, a simulation where they demolish their simulated company and then have a chance to try again with greater openness. It seems another tack would be to cultivate more adept influencers with the ability to put their message in a way that even Driver bosses see the “win” in hearing. The energy patterns can help in programs and coaching by highlighting the problem and a way to move out of it – both individually and in a corporate culture – by cultivating the listening skills of the Organizer, the influencing capacity of the Collaborator, and the openness of the Visionary. We know that Drive(r) without recovery and balance in the other patterns leads to burnout for the individual leader. Judging from the observations of this savvy insider, it’s also behind a great deal of corporate meltdown.

It was clear we needed to work on her lowest pattern, Collaborator. We began brainstorming around this and came to the conclusion that she needed to reclaim the fun in her life. When I asked her what she likes to do for fun she literally could not give me an answer. She could not think of one thing that she would enjoy doing. Wow! If that isn’t a red flag I don’t know what is. Our coaching sessions now focus on managing stress, preventing burnout and reclaiming happiness in her life.

I can certainly empathize with her situation as this Organizer/Driver has a tendency to put fun and relaxation on the sideline in order to keep pushing. Sound familiar?? I write about this case as a reminder to all those low collaborators to make sure to recharge those batteries or when it’s time to put the foot on the accelerator they’ll be no fuel in the tank.

The two of them are now committed to playing loose, improvisational, truly funny games – at least trying to do so as of this week…

Agnes Mura

While this may seem like a non-result, it’s actually quite revealing, and there’s much to learn from it. But let me start by saying it’s a good example of why we don’t recommend using the FEBI for job selection! Now it’s fine for career counseling when somebody sincerely wants to figure out where their strengths lie. But we don’t try to make the instrument hard to fake. We encourage people to answer honestly and tease out their preferences by how much they indicate that they “almost always” do something vs. “often” do it and so on. If someone takes the FEBI and almost always answers “almost always”, as Richard did, he or she will score Very High on all of the patterns. Only the Work Behavior part of the instrument forces one to make choices, and there, preferences often make themselves clear, as they did for Richard. But the overall part of the instrument, consistent with 5-factor-type instruments such as the NEO or Hogan suite, assesses each pattern (factor) individually. So yes, one can score “Very High” on all of them.

Now what does it mean? Well, clearly it’s a big, high energy profile. Our early research comparing self-reported FEBI results with impressions from others in 360 data show that people with such a high energy profile (where all patterns score >100) are more likely to be seen by others as highly effective leaders. So if Richard is, in fact, almost always using the right pattern at the right time, his life should look pretty darn good, and it would be obvious when coaching him. Other people should perceive him as a powerful, lively and engaging leader. What I recommend to people like that is keep going! - now with added pattern awareness.

There are other possibilities, likely closer to the truth. In the Work Behavior part of the FEBI, Richard had rated all of the Collaborator behaviors in the top half, along with nearly all of the Visionary behaviors. Organizer behaviors were rock-bottom. Now sometimes even people with an Organizer Home pattern will take their Organizer strengths so much for granted (or delegate these tasks) that these behaviors still show up at the bottom. Was Richard a needing-to-be-perfect Organizer trying to be all things to all people? Or a dramatic, Collaborator Visionary answering everything from a place of abundance? We can’t be certain just from the data, but we can easily test out both possibilities as a coach. “Do you feel like you have to get it right?” I might ask to test out (or rule out) the first possibility. “Do you carry a lot of responsibility?” Or I might just feel for the held presence and rigidity of someone who is truly a Very High Organizer. Because that person will feel nothing like a Very High Collaborator, who will be talking most of the time, telling stories, gesturing dramatically, and probably moving around. Far more likely that Richard is the dramatic, Collaborator Visionary who answered the FEBI in a characteristically BIG way. If this is the case, his life should look large, but cluttered, with a pattern of grand ideas that die on the vine. My coaching recommendation would be help Richard bring in enough Driver to cut through the excess and enough Organizer to nail down the most important. But make it fun and dramatic every step of the way!

Disaster or Opportunity?

When we met that evening, it was clear she was doing her best to hold it together; however her stress was bubbling from the inside-out. Her voice quaked with worry and the tension in her body was apparent, though she was clearly attempting to look calm and poised, caught, as she was, in the anxious grip of the Organizer. Her presentation would come as no surprise, knowing that Organizer is her Home pattern. But it didn’t have to be working against her. It is, after all, a useful pattern in crisis and the best place to start in sorting things out.

So…we talked a little about her current reality – savings, cash flow needs, low lying fruit/ opportunities for immediate transition, basic skills and network – so we could get grounded in what’s needed and what’s available in the present. It became clear that she had a few months to make this transition, though regrettably she’d have to dig into savings. Hey! Savings are meant for rainy days – and this was a time for her when it was certainly raining!

We then talked about the choices she had in perceiving the situation, knowing that how she defined it would determine its reality (for her) and her approach (in response to it). We tossed around three options, which I might roughly characterize as follows:

Option 1: “Oh My God! This is a disaster…I need cash now…and I’m willing to do anything short of taking my clothes off to get it.”

Option 2: “Okay, I just give up and I’m going to sell all my possessions and move to Nepal.”

Option 3: “Thank God! This is the opportunity I’ve been waiting for, and I should send a thank you note to my former employer for kicking my butt out the door because it’s forcing me to find the perfect career move, which I wouldn’t have done on my own!”
I’m sure there are other options, but among these, I’d go with option # 3 – how ‘bout you?

A Pattern Approach to Transitions

Now, it came out in our review of low-lying fruit that two job opportunities had floated across her inbox in just the past few hours (she was completely apathetic about one, and the other brightened her eyes a bit – either would pay the mortgage). It was also clear that these opportunities were NOT something she’d normally consider if the layoff hadn’t pushed her out the door. So we developed a transition plan based on the patterns…and the order of the patterns is important! Here is an outline of her plan and please use this as a basis of consideration / launching pad in developing your own:

1. First, take a DEFINED number of days – five-to-seven days seems ample and appropriate for your circumstances – to completely enter the VISIONARY: visiting places of wide open space and natural beauty (museums, the ocean, personal spaces of reflection and deep connection) and simply sitting with the present moment, giving yourself permission to do nothing. On some occasions, bring a pad of paper and pen and jot down ideas that come to you as you throw in questions like these:

• What does the world need right now and what can I contribute to fulfilling that need?
• What wants to happen in my life and what is my life telling me about the direction of my career?
• When I’m done with my career what do I want to have contributed, what do I want to leave behind?
• What is my most powerful reason – my WHY? That thing/value/belief which propels my decisions and actions? Is the WHY of my past still relevant going forward?
• What is shifting for me? What aspects of Who I Am want to be expressed through my life now?
  

Using COLLABORATOR in the Visionary Stage: Engage your Collaborator energy in this initial phase to do some fishing – put out as many lines of communication as possible to broaden your options, and resist the temptation to real in the first fish that bites! You might have drinks and dinner with your contacts but no official interviews! (Schedule those for AFTER this phase) Keep all lines of communication open, friendly and social. Ask questions that keep exploring who can help:

• When I’m in “xyz” town, who could I call up and go to dinner with?
• Who have I been too busy to visit lately and would visiting them now be worthwhile?
• Who else have I been out of touch with that I’d be interested in reconnecting with?

2. Next, take your best idea(s) that emerge from Visionary reflection (look at your pad of ideas) and make a DECISION – call upon the single point focus of the DRIVER - and put it in writing, make it real, state your commitment. Harness the Driver’s clarity to move from reflection into the world of ACTION! Here’s how…Ask yourself these questions:

• Of all the things I could do, what MUST I do right now? What’s most important?
• Among my talents and skills, which one or two are going to help me WIN now?
• Of all the possibilities in front of me, which am I most PASSIONATE about?
• Given my powerful WHY, what best achieves my mission in the most realistic, actionable way?

You now have your direction. And you don’t have to keep it a secret. You can also use your COLLABORATOR in the Drive Stage: The energy of the Collaborator will help you increase your clarity and commitment as you share it with others and leverage a team to move your mission forward. You might ask:

• Who can I share my commitment with to make it real and have them hold me accountable?
• Who could give me good advice on my new commitment and direction?
• Who in my network, or groups outside of my network, would be most interested in what I’m doing and how can I make those connections?

3. Third, with your powerful WHY lighting the way (Visionary), and the immediate target defined (Driver), create a plan of action for getting from here to there. Enlist the strength of your ORGANIZER and make a list. Prioritize and order your action steps in a clear way so you know what you must do today in order to see results tomorrow. Ask yourself these questions:

• How can I break this task down into a series of actions that take place on a timeline?
• What milestones can I define that will show me I’m making progress?
• What information and resources will help me get from here to there?

As in earlier steps, use your COLLABORATOR during the Organizer stage: This energy helps to make the plan more enjoyable and likely to be executed. You might ask:

• How can I make this planning fun, energizing and exciting?
• Who would want to help me in making sure I’m covering all the bases?
• When can I celebrate? (perhaps several times, come to think of it) Who can I invite?

4. As you can see above, it’s recommended that you keep your COLLABORATOR close by and often engaged. This is the energy that will make this time more fun, and keep you resilient, optimistic and bright. See the Collaborator notes above for integrating this energy through the process. Remember that the Collaborator makes connections and does it with a joyful, energetic spirit. The Collaborator writes emails like this:

“Hey Friend, Guess what? The best thing happened to me today! I was fired :-) I’ve been dying to get out of this position for months now and they did me the favor kicking me out – can you believe it?! Anyway, I’m spending a few days considering my options. Wanted to let you know I’m available and looking for opportunities that will be fun and make a great impact! Let me know if you see something. Lots of love!”

5. Finally, go back to the ORGANIZER and DRIVER and get it done! You’ve got your direction, you’ve got motivation (powerful WHY?), you’ve got your network engaged, you’ve got your plan ….now you just need to execute! Don’t get trapped in any one pattern for long though…use the pulse of push and recovery, the stretch and renew of alternating all 4 patterns to keep you energized. Go get em’! And by the way…I want to be invited to the party!

Retreating to the Wrong Pattern

A deliberate strategy that engages all 4 patterns and matches the right energy with the right task lets people find their power in difficult situations, and not get stuck in unproductive places. Many people would face the stress of being fired by retreating into a stuck version of their Home pattern, or force the situation by using the wrong energy at the wrong time.

For example, someone strong in the Driver might not allow him- or herself to let go for even a few days to explore Visionary possibilities. Any action may seem better than no action, no matter how blind it is: “I’ll give it till the end of the day, think of every possibility and then pick the best one and go after it.”

Right…that’ll work really well. Go with that strategy and I’ll cross my fingers that your epiphany comes at a scheduled time this afternoon.

A person stuck in the anxiety of the Organizer might not be able to embrace the Collaborator’s networking efforts: “I’m so embarrassed that I got laid off and I just can’t rely on anyone but myself. What I really need to do is perfect my resume and put it on as many job hunting web sites as possible, and hope nobody I know hears about my bad fortune and thinks poorly of me before I land another job.”

Yikes! Train Wreck ahead…Disaster awaits…Red Flag..Red Flag!!

Many people are getting laid off right now – and more to come. I have at least 3 people in my immediate network who have been asked to leave their jobs in the past week! The reality is that most of them will get scared, defensive, and retreat to a home pattern at its worst and/or use the Driver for survival as is our primal instinct to do so, rather than see this as an opportunity to unfold new potential. Happily, after this conversation, at least one person will act differently. If faced with a similar situation, I hope I act differently, I hope you act differently, and I hope we’re able to help our clients act differently …that we may all look back on the toughest transitions of our lives as our greatest moments of opening and expansion!

Enjoy!

In terms of yoga, my dear friend Abhilash Pandya, shared these insights with me around how the different patterns relate to styles of yoga.

• Driver - The Doer, direct and in-your-face. Making things happen. This kind of person would probably be drawn to Raj Yoga. The doing itself. Raj Yoga – good for the skeptic.

• Organizer - The Thinker, learns through words and questions. This most closely corresponds to the path of Jhana Yoga.

• Collaborator - Playful and interactive; sees things in relationship to other things. Always weighing in human, practical terms. The communion aspect of Bhakti Yoga and its emphasis on seeing in relation to what is not would have appeal to this kind of person. Also Karma Yoga here, with practical mindfulness in all things.

• Visionary - Goes with the Flow, learns by experience, as life flows through. Fits the path of Karma Yoga. Also Bhakti Yoga for the devotional essence seeking person.

With the practice of yoga so much on the rise, good to know that you can help people find the type of yoga and way of practicing it that will do them the most good.

My own biggest insight in working with my FEBI results is focused on the relationship of my patterns in my process. I've worked on developing all four patterns over these years. Currently Visionary has moved to the fore as I develop my PhD proposal, and engage in envisioning my unique contribution through this academic work. Are the Driver and Organizer weak because now they are in 3rd and 4th position in my FEBI? Having utilized them for 30 years as my "bread and butter" skillset (program director, project manager), I know the answer is no. In pondering my FEBI, I notice how I have put D and O, as well as the Collaborator, in service of the Visionary. To use a software metaphor, I see them as "running in the background."

In my consulting and coaching practice, I notice that I combine patterns and move them to the foreground depending on what role I need to shift into to be an asset to individual client or team in which I participate.

Look forward to dialoging in this community of interest and practice!

Whole Leadership – might sound a bit New Age-y to some, as in yesterday’s leader could tell people what to do, divide, conquer, and strike fear into people’s hearts, but today’s leader needs to be more rounded and ”whole.” Or maybe whole leadership sounds like an impossible dream: being all things to all people and situations - the “answer” to the daunting challenges facing leaders today.

There’s some truth in these views. Today’s leader does need more than a driving, my-way-or-the-highway style to be successful. And today’s challenges do call for unprecedented learning agility. But whole leadership is much more than the fashion of the day, but rather a developmental leap to greater awareness and capability – and those things DO go together. Far from being impossible impostoring, whole leadership is none other than the authentic, value-adding expression of the whole Self.

But by capital-“S”-Self, I’m speaking to something beyond the ego (hence the developmental leap). Not just our usual thinking self, but a whole mind-body-spirit Self, an energetic and material Self, a paradoxically individuated and interconnected Self. It is a whole Self that meets diverse challenges with agility, not through impostor-ish surface behaviors, but by deeply engaging and using any of its 4 energy patterns at the right time. Whole leadership in this sense is not becoming other than who we are, just more clear, free and fully who we are!

How do we become more clear, free and fully who we are? That’s one of the things we’ll explore in this forum. From birth to death, we’re on a path of development that we might describe as growing or shrinking, flowing or stuck, becoming more capable or more of a caricature. Growth sounds like the only side of this equation we’d ever want to be on, but we’re paradoxically put together such that the opposite is often true: when we’re growing we’re not comfortable and when we’re comfortable we’re not growing. Challenging learning curves and hardship are known to be reliable catalysts for developing leaders - especially when combined with reflection. This forum might be just the place to do that: reflect on your own pivotal learning experiences and learn from the reflections of others.

The other known catalyst for development are what the great integral philosopher, Ken Wilber, calls “integral practices,” that is, integrated mind-body practices that engage and develop the whole person. For example, Wilber cites a study measuring the percent of people at an advanced stage of development he calls “Tier II,” that we could equate with the capacity for whole leadership. Among the general population, less than 2% are at this stage, however among people who have meditated for at least 3 years the number is 38%. What’s chicken and what’s egg? I say run your own experiment, and you’ll see that it doesn’t matter! This forum (and website!) might provide just the spark of inspiration for you to find your own best practice for whole leadership, and to share what’s worked for you or for leaders you know.

So whole leadership - and our forum dedicated to its exploration - embraces both the spectrum of agility needed to be an effective leader in the world today, and using our whole selves to foster that critical development. Why does it matter? There are plenty of logical reasons: we’re either growing or shrinking – and whether we’re talking about a company or ourselves, navigating the challenges of growth is much more rewarding than is the suffering of being stuck. But beyond that, if whole leadership is the fullest, value-adding expression of our very nature, what could be more natural than that?

Grace did not end there. Concentrated in this conference were hundreds of remarkable explorers – including the quite literal explorer Remy Lecluse who has dragged his skis up and made death-defying descents down more mountains than anyone on earth. “How far have you ever fallen,” one questioner asked. Remy didn’t understand the question, even after it was repeated in his native French. Oh yes, he grasped the words, but “fall” puzzled him. “I’ve never fallen,” he said, going on to explain what was only now obvious to his audience, “If I had fallen I wouldn’t be here.” What made Remy “flawless in his execution?” – the operational objective of so many a business leader. “I spend more than 250 days a year in the mountains,” he said. “I become the mountains.” Moreover, this “becoming” plays at the razor’s edge of life and death – not some kind of hazy, lazy one-with-everything bliss, but rather an intense oneness reminiscent of the Zen Master Shosan who would sleep with a sword dangling above his head. To what practice do we commit with such perilous passion to reveal our essential nature?

Another great explorer, George Kohlrieser, spoke the day before me. A former hostage negotiator and now a leadership professor at IMD, George spoke of bonding. “Where there is bonding, a difference of opinion is not a conflict,” he reminded us, even as he cast an invisible bond among the hundreds of us listening. “You’re a genius,” he had us saying to one another – on one hand an easy emotional lift, on the other hand such a profoundly deep truth of the enlightened, infinite nature in every one of us.

I spoke of the energy patterns of personality, and how they connect us mind-in-body, and also interconnect us in the world. I had people moving in each of the patterns, checking their reactions, comparing experiences. Having done this countless times in smaller groups, I was still astounded at how, in a matter of seconds, hundreds of people could synchronize their movements in the Organizer pattern! We explored how the patterns show up personally, on teams and in organizations, and how to cultivate a needed pattern at any level. For the rest of the conference, people came up to me to share their experiences of the patterns. “I could suddenly see better,” one man said of entering the big-picture Visionary pattern. One woman just cried and hugged me. "I get it!" said another, “It’s so simple and clear.” So many of these coaches had been through other somatic learning as part of their coach training, but the patterns pulled something together for them, as they had for me 10 years ago, when the wonderful Betsy Wetzig showed them to me.

Whether it is our mountain, genius, or – my term – “greatness,” I was reminded at this conference how we are all mapping similar territory. Along our particular trajectories to be sure, but we are all describing the journey to an ever-more-capable, ever-more expansive self, to the point where “self” itself disappears. We’re at different places in the journey, carrying different tools and different challenges. And yet, I leave this conference with a sense of the lovely perfection of it all. And a deep appreciation to have joined with hundreds of explorers who are also carving a path for others.

A: It’s a great question, and one that I invite other coaches to share their experience on as well. For in landing on the right practices by which our clients can cultivate this or that pattern, we make the patterns deeply personal for our clients, and HOW we do that is deeply personal for us as coaches. This is how I do it: start with exactly where the client is starting:

What are you interested in?

What do you love to do?

What renews you?

What did you used to make time for that you no longer do?

These are the sorts of questions I might ask. And then I listen deeply for whether they know what’s good for them or are they lost? In particular, is there something they name that could be done in the energy of the pattern they want to cultivate? And can we identify some strengths that will help them strengthen a weak pattern?

For example, one client, I’ll call her Margie, was a strong Driver and wanted to develop more Visionary. Other things I knew about Margie was she had a strong sense of responsibility (i.e., especially not letting others down), her health was starting to fail, and she was Driver-determined to “make war” (her words) on getting her life back. When I asked her about practices already in her life, she said she used to go to the gym and weightlift, but didn’t have time for it anymore – classic Driver! – but she knew she needed to get back to it. She also loved cooking, gardening, just being out in nature, but didn’t have time for those things either.

Already she had given me plenty of clues. We talked about converting her “make war” determination into committed time for a renewing practice. Using her Driver strength and sense of responsibility, I suggested keeping score (“Give yourself a point each day that you stick to your commitment, and set a target for, say, 70 points this quarter. Make a bet with a friend. If you don’t hit 70 points by end of the quarter, you owe her something you’ve agreed on.”)

Now that we had a wedge of time, how could Margie best fill it? She wanted to get back to weightlifting a couple times a week, and I told her that was great, but don’t expect that to develop the Visionary. It would be important renewal time for her, however, and would keep refreshing her “make war” determination, so I didn’t try to talk her out of it. “In addition,” I asked, and this is where the pattern activity lists come in, “Would you consider Tai Chi once a week? Done with a friend (whom she wouldn’t want to let down, of course!). In general, this is where in a coaching conversation I might bring out the lists. Do any of these speak to you? Which of these are you already doing? Which are you curious about?

As for Tai Chi and Margie, she said she would think about it, but in a way that made me think she’d do nothing more than think about it. But the seed was planted, I let it go. In the meantime, gardening was already a passion (and on the Visionary list); could she commit to an hour a week being one with her garden? And doing it in a sort of Visionary way – creating, making spaces, feeling into the nature of what wants to happen in a semi-shaded part of her yard? She was quite charged about this possibility, and I could hear it would have enough energy to get started. She also wanted to add a Visionary walk at lunch through a park near where she worked – a midday refresher that would also spark ideas for her own garden. Twenty minutes for her walks, an hour a week for her gardening, weightlifting twice a week, and a bet with a friend wrapped around all of it – a perfect starting practice for this Driver!

So there is a place for the lists – i.e., those development activities listed in the end of chapters in Move to Greatness, or in the Development Recommendations of a FEBI report – but I suggest not starting with them, but rather starting with where our client starts, listening for how we can build on strengths and current passions, and making connections to what we hear will resonate for him or her.

A: Let me address several questions embedded in here. First, when I coach around activities that people have listed at the bottom of the activity table, I ask them how important those things are to their work right now. Since this part of the instrument is a forced choice, there will always be activities at the bottom; being at the bottom is not necessarily a bad sign. But it is something to think about, especially when those activities come out of a weaker pattern. Do they do them enough? What might they get out of doing them more? “Making work fun” being at the bottom particularly resonates with me – probably because I’ve lived that way, too, and I see it so often among Driven, Organized leaders and entrepreneurs. If Collaborator is someone’s weakest pattern, I might inquire as to whether she’s bringing enough joy out to draw others toward her and engender cooperation. Does she need to lighten up more – not only for her health, but also for the brightness and positive emotions that are so positively contagious to others. If she already has a good dose of Collaborator energy, no problem. But if this being at the bottom is symptomatic of a sort of relentless driving nature, I’d recommend some fun breaks - ideally with others. Whether people are on their own or not, I always look at how they can use their strengths and their present life as a way to move in the direction they’d like to. So, if this person is very disciplined, to use your example, maybe a disciplined approach to “fun” would appeal to her – as in buying theatre tickets for a season that enforces the discipline of a weekly fun break. If she has a pet, maybe play with it daily. If this person loves to cook, maybe join or create a cooking group with a few friends and enjoy a roving dinner once or twice a month. But as much as I’m a fan of practice and appreciate the patterns as a map for how to move in desired directions, I never force practice on people. If their life is working, if their leadership is working, whatever the context we’re coaching in, they don’t have to do anything. Maybe just being aware of the patterns for awhile is the best “prescription.” Awareness itself propels our growth when we’re ready to go there.

40 cities...

4 countries...

56 engagements...

thousands of books...

and a ton of great laughs, inspiring stories, insights to die for and people I'll never forget!

For those of you who welcomed us into your businesses, organizations, and homes...to those of you who played full out and shared your stories of success and struggle...to those of you made this tour possible and made this tour an unbelievable success, I thank you with all that I am!

I didn't get to attend all these events in all these cities but I made it to most of them and its an experience I'll draw from for a long time. Being an executive coach, business development guy and researcher with Focus is great and all...but I had a chance to be a roadie for a short period of time and the one-woman band I was following around was well worth the effort!

To the people that came up to us after our events and told us stories of insight and transformation, barriers broken and new hope, I am most grateful. I continue to get stories coming in of people who have read the Move to Greatness book and are breaking down perceived walls, playing with their life in whole new ways, seeing unforetold possibilities, and getting their act together like never before. The patterns seemed to reach such a diversity of people and were so broadly applicable to their lives that is was moving to see and inspiring for my own development as a person and a professional coach.

I had one person come up to me recently and say "I never read books like this and I read this one because I was inspired by Ginny's energy and presentation. I am such a collaborator - visionary and I've always struggled to stay organized and stick up for myself at work, this has given me new hope and I can see a way to access more of that energy now". You go girl! Keep up the great work and thanks for putting your whole self into the patterns and getting great results!

I know there were thousands of people that walked away from these event with a book in hand and I'd love to hear your stories about how reading the book has helped you out - or perhaps where you're still stuck and we could lend a hand. Best wishes and many thanks to all of you and I hope our paths will cross again soon!

- Bob Caron