From Jenn LedererLeadership and impact coach, motivational speaker, and creator and host of the infamous web series, Weekly Alignment™.
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In a world where motivating others is just one inspirational Instagram meme away, it can be easy to skirt the surface of what it really takes to embody true leadership, or conscious leadership.
Conscious leadership is about more than being seen by others; it's about seeing yourself. When an entrepreneur sets out to make a difference in the world through leadership, the motivation often stems from a desire to be of service to others, which is an undeniably powerful intention to have. 

But, in order to embody conscious leadership, you must start by looking at how you can be of service to your own growth, your own expansion, and your own willingness to step outside of your comfort zone over and over again.
As a conscious leader, your job isn't to run around trying to save the world. Your job is to go within, do the inner work that allows you to show up as your most powerful, authentic self — which will in turn inspire others to do the same. Conscious leadership requires you to identify, plan for, and move through the patterns that come up every time you're about to step out of your comfort zone. These patterns can be self-sabotage, procrastination, fear of success, fear of failure, ego trips, comparison overload, and any other number of ways that you've learned to "play it safe" throughout your life.
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Here are four steps for developing your conscious leadership skills:​

Mother Teresa - Acceptance SpeechTranscript of Mother Teresa's Acceptance Speech, held on 10 December 1979 in the Aula of the University of Oslo, Norway.

Let us all together thank God for this beautiful occasion where we can all together proclaim the joy of spreading peace, the joy of loving one another and the joy acknowledging that the poorest of the poor are our brothers and sisters.
As we have gathered here to thank God for this gift of peace, I have given you all the prayer for peace that St Francis of Assisi prayed many years ago, and I wonder he must have felt the need what we feel today to pray for. I think you have all got that paper? We'll say it together.
Lord, make me a channel of your peace, that where there is hatred, I may bring love; that where there is wrong, I may bring the spirit of forgiveness; that where there is discord, I may bring harmony; that where there is error, I may bring truth; that where there is doubt, I may bring faith; that where there is despair, I may bring hope; that where there are shadows, I may bring light; that where there is sadness, I may bring joy.

Lord, grant that I may seek rather to comfort than to be comforted; to understand, than to be understood; to love, than to be loved. For it is by forgetting self, that one finds. It is by forgiving that one is forgiven. It is by dying, that one awakens to eternal life. Amen.
God loved the world so much that he gave his son and he gave him to a virgin, the blessed virgin Mary, and she, the moment he came in her life, went in haste to give him to others. And what did she do then? She did the work of the handmaid, just so. Just spread that joy of loving to service. And Jesus Christ loved you and loved me and he gave his life for us, and as if that was not enough for him, he kept on saying: Love as I have loved you, as I love you now, and how do we have to love, to love in the giving. For he gave his life for us. And he keeps on giving, and he keeps on giving right here everywhere in our own lives and in the lives of others.
It was not enough for him to die for us, he wanted that we loved one another, that we see him in each other, that's why he said: Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God.
And to make sure that we understand what he means, he said that at the hour of death we are going to be judged on what we have been to the poor, to the hungry, naked, the homeless, and he makes himself that hungry one, that naked one, that homeless one, not only hungry for bread, but hungry for love, not only naked for a piece of cloth, but naked of that human dignity, not only homeless for a room to live, but homeless for that being forgotten, been unloved, uncared, being nobody to nobody, having forgotten what is human love, what is human touch, what is to be loved by somebody, and he says: Whatever you did to the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.
It is so beautiful for us  to become holy to this love, for holiness is not a luxury of the few, it is a simple duty for each one of us, and through this love we can become holy. To this love for one another and today when I have received this reward, I personally am most unworthy, and I having avowed poverty to be able to understand the poor, I choose the poverty of our people. But I am grateful and I am very happy to receive it in the name of the hungry, of the naked, of the homeless, of the crippled, of the blind, of the leprous, of all those people who feel unwanted, unloved, uncared, thrown away of the society, people who have become a burden to the society, and are ashamed by everybody.
In their name I accept the award. And I am sure this award is going to bring an understanding love between the rich and the poor. And this is what Jesus has insisted so much, that is why Jesus came to earth, to proclaim the good news to the poor.  And through this award and through all of us gathered here together, we are wanting to proclaim the good news to the poor that God loves them, that we love them, that they are somebody to us, that they too have been created by the same loving hand of God, to love and to be loved. Our poor people are great people, are very lovable people, they don't need our pity and sympathy, they need our understanding love. They need our respect; they need that we treat them with dignity. And I think this is the greatest poverty that we experience, that we have in front of them who may be dying for a piece of bread, but they die to such dignity. I never forget when I brought a man from the street. He was covered with maggots; his face was the only place that was clean. And yet that man, when we brought him to our home for the dying, he said just one sentence: I have lived like an animal in the street, but I am going to die like an angel, love and care, and he died beautifully. He went home to God, for dead is nothing but going home to God. And he having enjoyed that love, that being wanted, that being loved, that being somebody to somebody at the last moment, brought that joy in his life.
And I feel one thing I want to share with you all, the greatest destroyer of peace today is the cry of the innocent unborn child. For if a mother can murder her own child in her womb, what is left for you and for me to kill each other? Even in the scripture it is written: Even if mother could forget her child - I will not forget you - I have carved you in the palm of my hand. Even if mother could forget, but today millions of unborn children are being killed. And we say nothing. In the newspapers you read numbers of this one and that one being killed, this being destroyed, but nobody speaks of the millions of little ones who have been conceived to the same life as you and I, to the life of God, and we say nothing, we allow it. To me the nations who have legalized abortion, they are the poorest nations. They are afraid of the little one, they are afraid of the unborn child, and the child must die because they don't want to feed one more child, to educate one more child, the child must die.
And here I ask you, in the name of these little ones, for it was that unborn child that recognized the presence of Jesus when Mary came to visit Elizabeth, her cousin. As we read in the gospel, the moment Mary came into the house, the little one in the womb of his mother, lift with joy, recognized the Prince of Peace. And so today, let us here make a strong resolution, we are going to save every little child, every unborn child, give them a chance to be born. And what we  are doing, we are fighting abortion by adoption, and the good God has blessed the work so beautifully that we have saved thousands of children, and thousands of children have found a home where they are loved, they are wanted, they are cared. We have brought so much joy in the homes that there was not a child, and so today, I ask His Majesties here before you all who come from different countries, let us all pray that we have the courage to stand by the unborn child, and give the child an opportunity to love and to be loved, and I think with God's grace we will be able to bring peace in the world. We have an opportunity here in Norway, you are with God's blessing, you are well to do. But I am sure in the families and many of our homes, maybe we are not hungry for a piece of bread, but maybe there is somebody there in the family who is unwanted, unloved, uncared, forgotten, there isn't love. Love begins at home. And love to be true has to hurt. I never forget a little child who taught me a very beautiful lesson. They heard in Calcutta, the children, that Mother Teresa had no sugar for her children, and this little one, Hindu boy four years old, he went home and he told his parents: I will not eat sugar for three days, I will give my sugar to Mother Teresa. How much a little child can give. After three days they brought into our house, and there was this little one who could scarcely pronounce my name, he loved with great love, he loved until it hurt. And this is what I bring before you, to love one another until it hurts, but don't forget that there are many children, many children, many men and women who haven't got what you have. And remember to love them until it hurts. Sometime ago, this to you will sound very strange, but I brought a God child from the street, and I could see in the face of the child that the child was hungry. God knows how many days that not eaten. So I give her a piece of bread. And then the little one started eating the bread crumb by crumb. And I said to the child, eat the bread, eat the bread. And she looked at me and said: I am afraid to eat the bread because I'm afraid when it is finished I will be hungry again. This is a reality, and yet there is a greatness of the poor. One evening a gentleman came to our house and said, there is a Hindu family and the eight children have not eaten for a long time. Do something for them. And I took rice and I went immediately, and there was this mother, those little one's faces, shining eyes from shear hunger. She took the rice from my hand, she divided into two and she went out. When she came back, I asked her, where did you go? What did you do? And one answer she gave me: They are hungry also. She knew that the next door neighbor, a Muslim family, was hungry.
What surprised me most, not that she gave the rice, but what surprised me most, that in her suffering, in her hunger, she knew that somebody else was hungry, and she had the courage to share, share the love. And this is what I mean, I want you to love the poor, and never turn your back to the poor, for in turning your back to the poor, you are turning it to Christ. For he had made himself the hungry one, the naked one, the homeless one, so that you and I have an opportunity to love him, because where is God? How can we love God? It is not enough to say to my God I love you, but my God, I love you here. I can enjoy this, but I give up. I could eat that sugar, but I give that sugar. If I stay here the whole day and the whole night, you would be surprised of the beautiful things that people do, to share the joy of giving. And so, my prayer for you is that truth will bring prayer in our homes, and from the foot of prayer will be that we believe that in the poor it is Christ. And we will really believe, we will begin to love. And we will love naturally, we will try to do something. First in our own home, next door neighbor in the country we live, in the whole world. And let us all join in that one prayer, God give us courage to protect the unborn child, for the child is the greatest gift of God to a family, to a nation and to the whole world. God bless you!

The stats are mind blowing.
1:5 experience mental illness or depression
​6 million workdays lost to depression
3000 suicides a year ....
thats 8 every day !

I just facilitated a new Mental Health in the Workplace program which shows managers
·        what mental illness is and the types
·        how to interpret the signs that indicate severe stress/mental illness
·        how to build pro-active workplaces
·        how to have the brave conversations
·        and how to build self care strategies and resilience

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ld5PPeWY5G8

We can either welcome or resist change. Stigma and discrimination are still an issue in the area of mental health. When we can shift ‘stinking thinking” we open up the possibility of a shift in consciousness, building  awareness and the capacity for empathy and compassion. You see mental illness does not mean mental incompetence. 

​In this new program I am presenting we are removing barriers. Fear is one. 
People fear what they don’t know. My aim is to help shift the “change reluctance” in some business cultures through education and exposure to lived experience. 
Research links stress to depression and once people become overwhelmed they have the potential to suffer real illness such as heart disease . And as we are seeing many are just giving up.





​High trust environments and brave conversations pave the way to change that.




Leaders and managers have a duty of care and a shared responsiblity for workplace wellbeing!
​Discrimination, gossip and bullying in the workplace can be effectively transformed with skilled direction and training.
Please be in touch if your staff need support and training in this area.....

​Healing with Humour and Art
Patch Adams Tour Russia, November 2004
 
Send in the Clowns
 
The song ‘Send in the Clown”s is a curious combination of humour and sadness.  A perfect title then to open on a journey by clowns into poverty and loneliness.  Imagine  36 people from all over the world landing in Russia , in clown persona,  to join Patch Adams  on his 2004 Healing with Humour Tour.   On a mission to visit hospitals and orphanages in Moscow and then St Petersburgh,, Patch Adams aim was for each clown to find and spend his clown self, make Russian friends,  and experience first hand the disparity between rich and poor.  The troupe was lead  through over 30 facilities bringing them  face to face with abject poverty, loneliness and helplessness . 
 
Why Russia?  Patch visits many countries now with a troupe of clowns in tow.  Twenty years ago Patch was chosen to be part of a peace mission to Russia.  He joined 70 other Americans from all walks of life and it was at that time he opted to travel as a clown.  He fashioned his own clown passport and set out to amuse and bemuse everyone who crossed his path, including the 69 others in the delegation.  It was on this tour that he discovered the plight of Russia’s orphans and made a personal commitment to return and take action.  This year was his 20th anniversary of November in Russia.
 
Russian orphans now number close to one million.  In a country of one hundred and forty million people that’s a large percentage.  Why are there so many?  There is no single answer to that question.  Factors such as poverty and alcoholism figure highly as causative agents.  Poor education and limited job opportunities mean the orphans, on release at age 16,  are reduced to a life of crime and prostitution.  Pregnancies occur and the infants they bear are handed over to the orphanages from which they came.   Sex education is non existent and contraception while available is rarely used. 
 
Jan Thatcher Adams, MD, Minnesota, has been on a number of tours with Patch.  She says “Some things about winter in Russian cities don't change-- the endless gray days, the harsh, fume-filled air, the dingy buildings and Stalinist era block architecture. Life is hard here, and getting harder. Democracy and capitalism have meant, for the average person, an unprecedented poverty in the midst of stores jammed with western goods. Violence has shifted from state-sponsored to Russian mafia and routine criminal activity. The average life span for the Russian male is 56 years--in St. Petersburg, it's 51 years. One Russian friend tells me that Americans, because they are so fortunate and spend their lives in the pursuit of material wealth, have lost track of their souls. We Russians are married to death. We know how to stay with our souls.”
 
So how in the face of such lack can the essence of clowning be administered?  Only in the guise of the hospital clown can this persona be evidenced.  According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, a clown is "a familiar comic character of pantomime and circus, known by his (sic) distinctive makeup and costume, ludicrous antics, and buffoonery, whose purpose is to induce hearty laughter. The clown, unlike the traditional fool or court jester, usually performs a set routine characterized by broad, graphic humor, absurd situations, and vigorous physical action".
Unlike the circus clown, hospital clowns do not necessarily have a practiced routine or perform elaborate tricks.  All wear costume and make up but the emphasis is on being in the moment and responsive to the person being encountered.  The idea is to bring laughter and joy to the bedside of the sick or into the lives of the poor, thereby boosting morale and the immune system to enhance wellness.  The hospital clowns on this tour used song, musical instruments,  balloons, stamps, tattoos, good humour, and the notion of having fun and being silly to pave the way to a personal or small group encounter that delighted. 
A story of paradox and synchronicity; of stark poverty and excessive wealth unfolded as the tour began.  Two to three facilities a day were visited.  All buildings were in poor condition and some had dirt floors in some areas.  Interestingly every facility had a hat check area!  There was no soap.  There was no toilet paper or handtowel.  There were light bulbs only in key areas.  Children ate soup they called Borsch; to us it looked remarkably like water with 3 carrot sticks and a sliver of spinach.
 
In some facilities the care-givers were kind compassionate and committed to their roles.  In many the caregivers demonstrated mans inhumanity to man over and over, ruling with a severe  countenance and controlling authority.  One facility allowed us only one hour ( we usually had two) saying the children had to have their injections!  It was as the children were starting to really enjoy the clowning experience that they were denied further contact.
 
At Sergiev Posad, the deaf dumb and blind school we saw great love and compassion.  Poor though the facility was the children wanted for nothing in the way of developmental material and a caring environment. Most equipment  had been made or sourced by the caregivers and was astounding in its ingenuity and creativity.  Children were clean, dressed in worn but carefully pressed clothes. 36 clowns and 10 children painted a mural with rainbows,  castles and butterflies.  A child with autism who was also deaf, hummed to me for 45 minutes as she examined my left ear and we both experienced moments of joy and connection as we filled the gaps created in the humming sequence. ( See picture )
 
At one institution for the intellectually challenged we came face to face with stark post war conditions.  Rolled barbed wire fences surrounded the building that no-one inside ever left.  All 200 “inmates” were sedated with the same foul smelling drug.  They were awake only 5 hours a day.  This was the first year Patch had been allowed to visit this facility.  Half of those we saw wore crude, torn and tattered  straightjackets.  Though denied access I feigned ignorance and insisted on helping with the meal.  I fed and gave children fluids in one area and as I did the caregiver threw scraps of food and bread into the mouth of a boy who was straight-jacketed.  As he opened his mouth to catch the bread I found myself dumbstruck with the inhumanity of this moment. When I looked into the eyes of this boy, aged about 14, I knew he was aware and my heart cried out for his plight.  Photos were not allowed in this facility.
 
A further facility for orphan teenagers, many with Downs Syndrome was well prepared for our visit.  The lounge had been decorated, balloons were everywhere,  and music was playing.  The doctor played the piano accordion and they formed a welcome “guard of honour””, made all the more poignant by their old fashioned clothes and loving smiles.  No words were needed here.  Music and laughter was the shared experience.  I almost lost Thomas here as a resident made off with him down the long corridors back to her room! 
 
We were arrested twice .  once for clowning on Red Square, a public place,  and again in the underground for taking photos. We were on our way to the Moscow circus and were spending an hour doing some public clowning on the entrance to Red Square, when the alert ran out that the KGB were about to have us removed and to leave the square immediately.  Most escaped into a nearby mall, however  Patch and ten others were taken away.  They were held for 90 minutes, and then released.  In both instances sums of money changed hands and release was quick. 
 
Our hotel rooms were another example of paradox.  In Moscow we stayed in a  pretty second rate hotel, with bare furnishings and few creature comforts.  The bathrooms were abysmal and the room temperature was impossible to stabilize.  An overnight train to St Petersburgh was worth the loss of sleep to enjoy the experience.  On arrival at the hotel in St Petersburgh, there we were astounded by the giant chandeliers and the palatial surrounds.  This hotel was grand by comparison, in stark contrast to the previous hotel in Moscow, and another example of the constant paradox we were exposed to.  In hindsight I think a deliberate ploy to heighten our experience.
 
We were warned about the water but old habits die hard.  Almost everybody forgot to  use bottled water for everything, including teeth cleaning.  Even opening your mouth in the shower is risky.  Sounds an exaggeration perhaps but almost every clown rued the day they forgot and suffered 48 hours of terrible stomach cramps, diarrhoea and vomiting in some instances.  Giardia is rampant and many in the past have had the lingering effects of repeated episodes.  Even lettuce leaves need to be viewed with suspician, as some facilities may have used tap water to wash vegetables.  We used $360 worth of bottled water a day between us. 
 
How did we clown in the face of this?  I take pleasure in saying it was easy.  A few had tricks,  could juggle or do some magic however this was the least of our performance. We sang our way to the steps of every facility.  Once inside our task was to make immediate connections.  It was about mirroring, exchanging banter, touching, kissing, holding hands, sending love, playing together, observing, listening and absolutely responding to the moment.  With Improv acting training, 4 days clown school and 12 weeks of practical philosophy I was well equipped.
 
While many of us may never pursue or achieve a life in the performing arts, we can all lead lives enhanced by the performing arts.  Improv acting proved invaluable; no other art form can take you into the moment and support you to be there for indefinite periods.  I failed clown school on purpose…but I did learn to loosen up practice just  being silly.  My experiences at a 12 week practical philosophy class gave me meditations and excercises to use to center after  an emotional experience.  Combining these skills allowed me to find and spend my clown self every day without being depleted physically or emotionally.  In hindsight,  Cirque de Solei we were not but clown we did!
 
Patchs mission was achieved.  We found and spent our clown selves.  We experienced the disparity between rich and poor.  We made Russian friends.  One was Maria Elyseeva, who has founded an Arts Rehabilitation Centre called Marias Children. 
 
Marias plea to all of us at the auction of childrens art was :- ”We are not afraid to dream, and our dreams sometimes come true.  Friends help us.  People who believe in us.  Then the miracle begins.  To the bed of the incurable child comes the black pony….the boy without fingers creates music….Chechen children put on clown costumes…the walls of the orphanages are covered with rainbows…butterflies take you away on their wings to a magical world where there is no pain and tears.  Where every child has someone who loves him.  You can help …”
 
And help we did .  In partnership with an Australain clown Gaby Browarcyzyk I purchased a wall mural called “World of Harry Potter” which will tour Australasia in 2005-2006 and be a vehicle to tell the world of “Maria’s children” and help with raising funds for her work.  The auction of art this year was opened by Patch and sold
approximately $42,000 worth of orphan art. The orphans in Maria’s care are fine examples of how humour and art can heal.
 
The Medical Director ay the Turner Orthopoedic hospital, which was the last facility we visited, said this,  “ There is a very interesting tendency in the 17 years Patch has been coming to our hospital.  Every year the visit  is brighter and better.  Always time flies too quickly.  There is only one negative moment ; tonight the children will not sleep too well!  We love you all very much and always wait for your return. “
 
I have never felt so vital or alive in my life.  For 16 days solid I was “in the moment” and connecting with others at a soul level.  We laughed and cried together in mute understanding.  Language was not a barrier as we laid open our hearts.  I spoke only 3 words in Russian ..hello goodbye, and thankyou!   Hello is privyet, goodbye is dos vodanyah, and pacibo is thankyou.  I needed no other words to communicate.
 
The fact that humour influences both business and life is doubly fixed in my mind.  We spent $360,000 to get there. A further $36,000 on giveaways, $72,000 on training and preparation, and $21,000 on incidentals such as phone calls, email and sundry items.  The idea of service does not just belong to the health sector or charity.  The “clowns” came from all walks of life and came together for the sake of humanity.
 
Pacibo!  My life will never be the same.
 
 
Pat Armitstead
Joyologist
joyologist@humour-resources.com
 

Without even knowing you in this moment I am going to say "Yes" to the above question!  I have the temerity to do that because I have had occasion now to reflect on my own stories and thousands of "others stories" and see the impact stories  make on the listener !

Being able to relate in story form the significant events in our lives and their relationship to furthering our own path or the path of others gives people such a sense of connection. It is not that you have all had the same experiences but the patterns may be the same and they essentially "nod" thinking "that kind of thing happened to me !"

"When you tell a story to a friend, you can transfer experiences directly to their brain.  They feel what you feel.  They empathize.  What's more, when communicating most effectively, you can get a group of people's brains to synchronize their activity.  As you relate someone's desires through a story, they become the desires of the audience.  When trouble develops, they gasp in unison, and when desires are fulfilled they smile together. 
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For as long as you've got your audience's attention, they are in your mind.  When you hear a good story, you develop empathy with the teller because you experience the events for yourself. This makes sense.  Stories should be powerful." https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/you-illuminated/201106/why-sharing-stories-brings-people-together
If you are interested to develop and refine these skills please be in touch and book a FREE 30 minute discovery session

Before we can interconnect we need to connect

In 1990 the World Health Organization declared depression to be world health burden number four and predicted it would be number two by 2020.  The drug funding agency Pharmac says doctors wrote 1.2 million prescriptions in 2009  ( In New Zealand ). That’s 1:4 people being prescribed antidepressants. 
In both developing and developed regions, depression is women's leading cause of disease burden.  Depression is referred to as the modern plaque and affects peoples ability to perform across a wide section of activities of daily living.  The stresses of daily living, including grief,  low morale and poor self esteem affect decision making, concentration and productivity. 
 
The practiced application of good humor in the workplace can aid in the reversal of this modern day malady and create a fun and productive environment.  Humour in business is not about clowning.   It is about demonstrating that you are a warm, responsive, intelligent and considerate person. Humour is a creative tool that sharpens the mind, engenders positive attitudes, fosters friendships, encourages mate ship, generates optimism, boosts  enthusiasm,  restores hope and is simply fun.
 
Humour takes a positive and a negative form.  Being able to laugh at yourself enables you to feel good about yourself.  Positive humour is constructive, appropriate, relevant and strengthens relationships, whereas negative humour is inappropriate,  destroys and alienates. 
 
In the world of comedy,  humour is about creating maximum laughs per minute as a measure of success.  In business being good humoured  is about creating an open,  positive, receptive and cheerful mood with successful communication the end product. 
 
You can optimize this less formal communication by having fun, being responsive and in the moment.  Use all these encounters to generate goodwill. If you made someone else’s day every day your business would grow exponentially.  All you have to do is catch people doing something right and acknowledge it.  Maintain this sort of environment and you would see improved and sustained bottom line results.
 
The first Humour in Business conference was convened in Australia in 2002, following a survey that revealed a FUN workplace would make employees more productive. The study by consulting company Customer Care Solutions in Sydney found that 81 per cent of people believed a fun work environment would make them more productive while 55 per cent said they would take less pay to have more fun at work. Ninety-three per cent of respondents said that laughing on the job helped to reduce work-related stress. The survey of 2,500 employees was released ahead of the “Humour Summit”—a conference which looked at the issue of fun in the workplace and its impact on a business’ bottom line. 
 
Recent research done in Victoria University by Professor Janet Holmes and Maria Stubbe confirms that effective workplace communication has many facets and that humour along with small talk and repetition play an important part.  They found that feelings of solidarity were fostered when workers contributed to office humour.  People were considered to be part of the team and these workplaces tended to be happier .  ( Full research results are available in their book , Holmes, Janet and Maria Stubbe 2003.  Power and Politeness in the Workplace.  Harlow Essex: Pearson Education.)
 
​You can read the remainder and others contributions below in the pdf.