It is hard to believe that another year has passed. Our thoughts turn gratefully to all of you who have made our progress possible. Everyone that we have connected with during this productive, growing time....readers and contributors of our newsletter PEPtalk, program participants and clients. As our company icon, Bobby/Bobbie Wombat* reminds us, we are all connected in this beautiful world of ours. It is the season to remember, celebrate and honor all of these connections. In this spirit we say, simply but sincerely thank you and best wishes for the holiday season and a Happy New Year.

Warm Regards,
Herb and Sylvia, CEO staff and faculty.

*If you haven't met Bobby/Bobbie yet, make a point of meeting him/her in 2007.

"It is not the strongest of species that survives, or the most intelligent. It is the one most responsive to change."
Charles Darwin

    In a recent article "On Shaking Things Up" by Mark Vickers, Human Resources Certification Institute (HRCI) the pace of change is speeding up in organizations all over the world. At least that is the opinion of 82 percent of respondents to the 2006 Agility and Resilience Survey, a global poll of organizations, commissioned by the American Management Association (AMA) and conducted by the Human Resources Certification Institute.

    High performers view themselves as having superior change abilities at the individual, team, and organizational levels. They are better able to cope with pressure and stress, better at making sense of ambiguous and uncertain conditions and better able to "see the big picture," taking a systems view of situations.

    For the complete article go to www.amanet.org

    Warm Springs is a deeply moving story about Franklin Delano Roosevelt's (FDR) personal struggle against the crippling effects of polio. While polio rendered his legs useless and confined him to a wheelchair, FDR's greatest challenge was the disease's crippling impact on his emotions, attitudes, and self-worth. One of the greatest American presidents who had the strength to see his country through the dark and terrible times of the Great Depression and World War II, Roosevelt first had to find strength to pull himself out of his own darkness.

    Born to a prominent family whose legacy was built on achieving extraordinary accomplishments, Roosevelt was groomed to follow a political path that would culminate in the US presidency. The movie is set in the 1920's, just as his star is rising, when he contracts polio and his political career seems to be over. After all, as one of the movie's characters exclaims, "Who would elect a cripple?"

    A spoiled, rich and only child who had everything handed to him, Roosevelt was not up to the challenge that life had forced on him. FDR's journey from overcoming what he thought was hopeless to reclaiming his dream is a stunning illustration for everyone who falls into the pattern of victim-hood.

    A victim suffers the loss of a dream and becomes frozen in fear. Whether being persecuted by an individual, group or circumstance, the victim feels out of control, believes that life has dealt a blow that renders him/her helpless, hopeless and at the mercy of external conditions. As his wife Eleanor responds to one of FDR's self-pitying conversations, "My darling, they (the public) will never see past your legs until you do."

    Through a charming path of discovery, Roosevelt finds his inner strength. After many disappointments and many inspiring interactions with friends, family and strangers, FDR finds the courage to accept what he cannot change and chooses to change what (his emotions, attitudes and perceptions) he can. His vision is altruistic, forgiving and creative. His success comes from within himself and because of his new-found humility and connectedness to others. The results are based on a bigger and different way of thinking….a process not possible in the pattern of victim-hood. As a result FDR changes many lives and becomes the US president that America really needed during that dark and terrible period of history.

    CEO develops leaders from the inside out. Its programs are unique because the understanding of our own "life print" brings a deeper understanding of the impact that we have on our ourselves, our family, and the workplace. For more information about CEO programs and services, call (570) 636-3858 or check the website at www.ceoptions.com.

    At the end of October a group of dynamic women, all successful in their fields of work, met at The Country Place Retreat & Conference Center for the inaugural "Women Executive Leadership Learning" (WELL) workshop. This retreat provided an inspiring arena to focus on the valuable contributions that women make in the world of family, business, and the community. Women from academia, large corporations, event and marketing firms, and owners of small businesses gathered in the facility's Great Room to discuss topics such as the double bind of being women in today's work environment, the appropriate time to break through a Glass Ceiling and why we want to work.

    Going back to the beginning of time (as we humans know it anyway), the group studied the power of being female, the play of gender opposites, and the value of male/female partnerships. Through carefully directed facilitation, group interaction, self-discovery, and a multi-media eye-opener (that was definitely not a boring power point presentation), the group explored and discovered a new way of being powerful and influential partners in the world of work and everyday life.

    One participant wrote "There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think of something that was said at the WELL Seminar at The Country Place in October. I have gained a greater insight into myself and have integrated that insight into my work as well as my everyday life."

Some eye-opening thoughts.
• Women speak 7,000 words a day, men speak 4,000;
• Too much of anything is toxic;
• Women are the doorkeepers of relationships;
• Deflection (such as humor, sarcasm and lectures) keeps us from feeling uncomfortable. (Is this a good thing?);
• Both men AND women struggle with the balance between work and family.

    In case you think you missed out on this exciting opportunity, another workshop is offered on January 31 - February 2, 2007.

    Start 2007 off right! Give yourself or a colleague the opportunity to learn and change in a way that makes doing business better.

    Click here for the Registration Form linked to this article or visit www.womenexecutiveleaders.com. For personal service, call Shirley Cusatis at (570)636-3858.

    The mascot of Creative Energy Options, Inc (CEO), the Bobby/Bobbie Wombat, delivers the message that we're all connected. The recent book, Social Intelligence: The New Science of Human Relationships, by Daniel Goleman, shows us how we're connected neurally and why that matters. Goleman, also the author of the 1995 bestseller, Emotional Intelligence, says "we're wired to connect. Neuroscience has discovered that our brain's very design makes it sociable, inexorably drawn into an intimate brain-to-brain linkup whenever we engage with another person. That neural bridge lets us affect the brain-and so the body-of everyone we interact with, just as they do us." Wow! Just thinking about the implications of that statement gives me goose bumps.

    Goleman delves into the details of the emerging field of "social neuroscience". Although his theories and examples are backed by a lot of research, the book is still very accessible to those of us who are scientifically challenged. The two recent discoveries about brain circuitry that underlie the book are spindle cells, which act rapidly to guide quick decisions; and mirror neurons, which reflect back the feelings and actions we observe in others so that we mimic or mirror those feelings and actions. Mirror neurons create "emotional contagion", which means that if we see someone smile or cry, we will tend to feel the same emotion and imitate the action without even thinking about it.

    According to Goleman "social intelligence" means "being intelligent not just about our relationships but also in them." The difference between social and emotional intelligence is that emotional intelligence focuses on self-awareness and self-management, and social intelligence looks at what happens when we connect with others. And those connections are what make our lives rich and satisfying. He notes that, unfortunately, in today's world, human connections are happening less often. Technology makes it very easy to disconnect from others. I thought a lot about that disconnection as various "Black Friday" stampedes were reported on the news. It was apparently so important to some people to have the latest gaming technology, Play Station 3 (and other games that tend to promote isolation) that, in one case, the crowd nearly trampled a man in a wheelchair. That's an example of emotional contagion at its worst.

    Social intelligence has two components: "social awareness", which includes sensing things about others such as their feelings, and understanding complex social situations; and "social facility", which is what we actually do with our social awareness to create effective interactions. As we interact with others, we can actually reshape the neural circuitry in their brains, for better or worse. Keeping that awesome responsibility in mind, we need to think about all our relationships in a very different way and elevate their priority and significance in our lives. Goleman gives examples of how social intelligence can impact parenting, love life, caregiving, the workplace, schools and prisons.

    For leaders, developing social intelligence is especially crucial. Goleman says: "Leaders need to realize that they themselves set much of the emotional tone that flows through the halls of their organizations, and that this in turn has consequences for how well the collective objectives are met." Many of us in the leadership development field have been saying essentially the same thing for years; the difference is that now there's scientific backing for our words. This is no longer "touchy-feely" stuff, but good science-and good business.

    Goleman says all of us-not just leaders of organizations-can make a difference in the world, thanks to our social brains. What can we do? First, we can take responsibility for how our words and actions reshape others' biology positively or negatively as we go about our daily tasks. Second, we can consider ways to make our social institutions more compassionate, and work in community with others to provide care for the sick, elderly and imprisoned that keeps them connected rather than rejected. Third, we can nourish the connections with those who are closest to us, and even those who are not so close.

    Goleman concludes the book by stating "the crucial challenge for this century will be to expand the circle of those we count among Us, and shrink the numbers we count as Them." As leaders, let's rise to that challenge and take one step each day to expand our circle. That's a New Year's resolution that will really make a difference!