It’s LEAP Day!
But, you know, it only happens once every four years, so it seems a shame to mark the occasion with only one measly day.
So, what do you say we just declare it LEAP Week?
What are you doing to make yours Radical? How will you cultivate Love, generate Energy, inspire Audacity and provide Proof this week?
Tell us about it in the comment section below.
Most inspiring example will get a free signed copy of The Radical Leap.
3…2…1…go!
Suzy W (via email) says:
I am planning my yearly calendar with blocked time for prepping for my meetings ( priority management) and discussing at out Friday install meetings what love means when interacting with our clients.
My leap is to focus on solutions and move away from problems. As a manager and leader I am no longer going to spend time and energy scraping on the poo pile of problems it is a waste liking going to a restaurant and eating the menu. ?
Haha! Some menus are tastier than others.
My leap is to first change my state of being. If i begin with my mindset and then i can give positive energy to my team energizing them to be the best part of our members day.
Cultivate Love: I am working on stripping away my selfishness to cultivate what I think of LOVE which is to “Leave Ourselves Vulnerable Everyday”
Generate Energy: I am applying “The Art of War” principles into all my relationships …
Inspire Audacity: No excuses No regrets….. I refuse to be anything but authentic
Provide Proof: Show up everyday
I am coming through one of the most challenging times in my business and personal life… not to mention the fact that with my last name, this is “my” day to take that LEAP of faith into the next season. Instead of waiting for the season to change…I’m determined to change my situation.
It’s Leapley Week!
I have a very exciting LEAP Week planned! Wednesday and Thursday, I’ll be working with UCSD’s Design Lab and a company from Germany! I LOVE this work, and I will focus on doing what I “love in service of people who love what I do”, in the area of human centered design. I will exude ENERGY during the work of these two days. I will be AUDACIOUS in presenting ideas and asking audacious questions to keep the conversations moving toward the goal of the workshop. And I will provide PROOF by DWYSYWD, when it comes to taking on projects for this!
Additionally, on Friday, I will be working with architects and a San Diego area school that is designing an exciting new campus for high school students. I will definitely introduce Extreme Leadership and LEAP to them, as we tour the campus I opened in 2014: Design39Campus. This campus was built on Extreme Leadership and LEAP, which shows in the way people work, and in the graphics throughout the Welcome Center.
This will be a wonderful LEAP Week!!
Go, Sonya! Changing the world of education!
Jan M (via email) says:
My daughter is in college and I sent her a “LEAP day” care package. She has heard me talk about LEAP before and thinks it’s just business mumbo jumbo (she’s a biology major). I made up a little card and put it in the package talking about Love, Audacity, Energy and Proof and how they relate to her in her college experience. Then I put in 4 packages representing Love (home made chocolate chip cookies – what generates more love than that!), Energy (a new charge cord for her iPhone, which she was needing), Audacity (crazy pajamas, tie died socks, a funny sleep mask), and Proof (an envelope with $61 in it – money that she needed to buy a sweatshirt for a Sorority she is joining. On the envelope I wrote how just wearing the sweatshirt with the logo would not ‘prove’ that she was in the sorority – she actually needed to prove that she lived the values of the sorority and that’s how she would prove she was in it). I’m still a student of incorporating LEAP into my own life/work (busy-ness unfortunately takes my focus off it; something I need to change), but I thought I would enlighten her as to how the “business mumbo jumbo” could apply to a college biology student on LEAP day.
Hi Steve!
I’m happy to say that my leap week was all about adjusting my goals for this year. In particular, I am focused on cultivating love through recognition of great acts. A huge gap in the entire retail corporate world is the gap with the frontline that it supports. This is where that darn “they” plague comes in. In short, the front and back lines tend to have a chasm that divides them for a variety of reasons.
I don’t really care about those reasons; I am holding myself accountable to crushing this problem head-on. Plus, I relish the chance to make people who do good feel good about doing it.
For my organization, we have an official form of recognition that serves as our thank you. This form makes it straight-forward to recognize someone and their leader is also made aware of the recognition at the same time. Last year I sent just a bit over 100. My original thought was to aim for 180 this year, but last week I finally decided (Steve, you always inspire me to raise my bar!) to aim for something hard. I’m going for 300 and I’m on pace to exceed it.
This encourages me to constantly look into the entirety of our organization (especially the front lines) to find what is right with the world. I almost invariably get a grateful and excited response and make a difference in someone’s day just by appreciating what they do. Critical tip: all recognition must be delivered in language that ties solid action to desired values & behaviors of the culture.
In the past week I had a great opportunity to recognize one of our associates who took extra time to solve a customer’s very tricky problem in a way that wound up literally saving the customer’s life by giving them a working device to call 911 with later that same day (major heart attack). Hearing this story moved me to tears and reminded me again what an honor it is to work with the people in my organization.
Take the time to discover and recognize the greatness that happens around you every day, my friends. Never miss a chance to change someone’s world by letting them feel like a hero, even for just one day. And yes, that’s a special shout out for Mr. David Bowie.