No Complaining Week: Personal Action Plan 
Day 1: Monitor your thoughts and words. You’ll be amazed at the thoughts that pop into your head and come out of your mouth.

Day 2: Make a gratitude list. Write a list of things you are thankful for.

Day 3: Take a thank-you walk. While you’re walking, think of all the things you are grateful for.

Day 4: Focus on the good stuff. Focus on what is right with your life, rather than what is wrong.

Day 5: Start a success journal. Write down all the great interactions and accomplishments you have had today.

Day 6: Let go.  Make a list of the things you would like to complain about.  Go through the list and identify the things that are within your control that you have the power to change and identify those things that are beyond your control.

Day 7: Breathe. Spend 10 minutes in silence.  Throughout the day, anytime you find yourself feeling stressed or wanting to complain, stop for 10 seconds and breathe.
 
Resource: Gordon, J. (2008).  The no complaining rule: positive ways to deal with negativity at work.  Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.


LW Alumns Highlights
Leadership Worthington's tag phrase is Discover Your Potential.  Here's an update of those doing just that. 

Chief Wayne McCoy, Class of 1994
Wayne has moved south and is the Chief of Police of  Blue Springs Police Dept. in Blue Springs, Missouri.
While in Blue Springs, he enrolled in and graduated from Leadership Blue Springs, with a program similar to our own Leadership Worthington, but with a "southern twist".
 
If any of his class mates of 1994 and others, would like to connect with Wayne, he can be reached at:  wmmcoy@bluespringsgov.com


Mark Watson, Class of 2002
We are living  near Naperville, IL, a suburb in West Chicago-land- in sort of the fashion that Springfield is a suburb of Columbus- but with more city and less vegetation.

Mary and I have 1 dog--a Labrador, Harvey, not yet 1 year old.

I am President of Watson Stores Inc. and I am pursuing my CCNA and CCSP for Cisco certifications.

Adult Program Update  
Leading Sustainable Change through Self-Discovery: a Values Accountability System defined

Before positive change can truly occur on a systemic level, the identification of one’s humanity (value and belief systems) is a crucial factor.  Countless workshops, research studies and management courses discuss various behaviors of successful and unsuccessful leaders.  However, when leaders recognize a desired behavior, that leader is prohibited from achieving a sustainable change in that behavior by the collective rules of life (such as showing emotions is weakness, so reading about emotional intelligence or EQ does not create the desired change).  In order to create sustainable change, an individual must look at the core of a human being from the perspective of their own identity and belief/value systems.  Based on recent research with business leaders on organizational change as well as grounded theories such as Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP), Systems Thinking and Transformational Leadership, this session guides leaders through a process that will create sustainable change on a systemic level.  The session title is – Leading Sustainable Change through Self-Discovery: a Values Accountability System (VAsys) defined.

Living as an immigrant, the values concerning human rights, labor, environment and anti-corruption form the basis for much needed change in global business practices as many immigrants often reach out to their homes in many capacities.  Asking leaders to change their behavior is a challenging task.  Keeping a new behavior is an entirely different beast, especially with the pressures of today’s fast moving environment. Despite the best intentions of business leaders to make positive change in their own behaviors, these individuals often unconsciously fall into their natural habits when under these pressures. VAsys goes significantly beyond desirable behaviors; it takes participants through a value/belief discovery process that has proven to be effective in learning about oneself.  Participants will start with a self-inquiry to solidify their own values and beliefs. 

Step 1: Define tacit values
Individual values represent the desired mode of conduct or outcome.  Values represent what is important to an individual.  Each individual has a set of values called the values system.  While most individual values system contains a prioritization of specific values, many people possess contradictory values.  In the event of a situation that engages opposing values, an internal warfare breaks out. This war creates unnecessary stress and self-doubt that has a tremendous negative impact in the long run. 

Step 2: Create individual congruence
During this step, the initial self-analysis intends to reveal individual inconsistencies between one’s values system and behaviors.  Although this is a difficult and perhaps even painful process, the lack of congruence stimulates learning and the desire to change. Participants during this step engage in a self-analysis process over a two-three day period.  Each participant takes 15-30 minute snapshots of their activities throughout the day.  These snapshots include the type of activity and the decisions made during that engagement.  Using the list created over multiple days, the analysis starts with simple time clustering.  Participants calculate the number of hours for each activity.  For example, one executive at a major global fashion company found that she spent on average 36 hours working on business issues, while only 9.5 hours on personal/family time over three days.  This revealed an obvious incongruence as this executive had listed family as one of her top values.  The time difference between work and family illustrates an alternate value in opposition with the value of family.

Step 3: Seek values of others
Understanding values of others at the core of their humanity initiates organizational congruence at the global level.  This process seeks a deeper understanding between people with minimal time investment.  Rather than the typical “what do you like to do in your free time” conversations, these conversations move directly toward the core values. Before moving into step three, participants walk through a self-analysis of one’s beliefs. Each participant answers the following questions:

1) What is my belief about myself in the role that I play?

2) What are my beliefs about people working for me and around me?

Leadership Moments
"Ah-has", tried and true tips to help individuals lead and guide with a new insight to administer, direct, share and comment. 
 
Eight Rules for a Civil Life

1.      Slow down and be present in your life.
2.      Listen to the voice of empathy.
3.      Keep a positive attitude.
4.      Respect others and grant them plenty of validation.
5.      Disagree graciously and refrain from arguing.
6.      Get to know the people around you.
7.      Pay attention to the small things.
8.      Ask, don’t tell

From: Forni, P. M. (2008).  The civility solution: what to do when people are rude.  New York: St. Martin’s Press.