It’s been an exhilarating experience being part of the new Free School experiment sweeping the UK – we’re a community with the opportunity to build a school that reflects our values and ethos, and this week the doors of Eden Primary opened. Ziggy (our four year old) is excited about his uniform (he gets to chose the colour he wears) and amazingly our temporary building is ready on time.
At the opening party we blew the shofar (a hollowed rams horn), as we are keen to build our children’s inquisitiveness and the spiritual meanings of our heritage and rituals. We blow the shofar for 30 days leading up to the Jewish New Year, as a reminder of the period of inner reflection that leads to our most spiritual day of the year, Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement). It’s a period where we reflect and open ourselves to the behaviours and attitudes we want to leave behind and transform. Kabbalist’s teach us that the shofar is the sound that opens the heavens to receive the energy of our positive thoughts, whilst it’s also been used as a military rallying tool, and a weapon of war (it was the instrument that razed the walls of Jerico).
During the past week, I’ve also been reading a book on the 3 Principles, a Sydney Banks concept that suggests that the two most powerful tools for creating the best state of mind are forgiveness and gratitude, and that we have the power to transform individuals, teams and organisations by applying these.
If the launch of our school, a renewed interest in implementing the 3 Principles, and the start of the 30 days of shofar blowing aren’t enough for one week, this week feels like the beginning of a new business year, as many companies have a full staff complement for the first time since the royal wedding in April!
So at Inspire, our new marketing executive Priya, has ignited our desire to lay new plans to build our Lumina Affiliate community and reinvent other areas of our business. And we’ve come up with an accelerated, implement immediately, three step transformation that may help you become more effective leaders.
For our client’s who’ve already completed their Lumina Spark portrait, refer to it for support with the three steps. For those that have yet to complete it, call us quick or use your knowledge and self awareness.
Step one: Look at which of your 24 qualities you score highly in. List up to 6 qualities and note your gratitude for being able to use these effectively in your role. Research shows that writing these down positively impacts your state of mind.
Step two: Do the same for colleagues in your team. Note the link between their highest qualities and their specific jobs.
Step three: Take the time to express your gratitude to your staff or peers for the roles, tasks and behaviours you’ve observed. Be prepared to get reciprocal gratitude back – resist the temptation to brush it off – it’s a good thing to receive gratitude as well as give it.
Add in a splash of gratitude for your own qualities and you have the recipe for an engaged team, an engaged self and a more effective personal mind-set.
