Leadership | Karen Sands https://www.karensands.com Advocate for a New Story of Our AGE Sun, 06 Oct 2019 17:43:16 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.6.2 https://www.karensands.com/wp-content/uploads/cropped-Favicon.512x512-32x32.jpg Leadership | Karen Sands https://www.karensands.com 32 32 94420881 Future Cast Your Long Term Success https://www.karensands.com/uncategorized/future-cast-your-long-term-success/ https://www.karensands.com/uncategorized/future-cast-your-long-term-success/#respond Sun, 27 Oct 2019 10:39:40 +0000 http://karensands.flywheelsites.com/?p=7310 Everyone wants long term success. But it is elusive for most. Long term success is dependent on knowing where you are now and where you are headed. Then closing the gap. Frequently. Continuously.  Whether it’s your business, your career or your life at home., it’s easy to get off track, lose touch or get buried […]

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Everyone wants long term success. But it is elusive for most.

Long term success is dependent on knowing where you are now and where you are headed. Then closing the gap. Frequently. Continuously.  Whether it’s your business, your career or your life at home., it’s easy to get off track, lose touch or get buried under. Without a true sense of where you are in the moment, it is impossible to realize your dreams or be a leader in your field.

Re-calibrate your profound knowledge

The only way we can take 100% responsibility for sustaining our success is to keep re-calibrating-in every aspect of our lives and organizations.

Key to successful recalibration is to acquire what my dear departed mentor, Dr. W. Edwards Deming, coined as Profound Knowledge. This umbrella phrase emphasizes understanding change and how to measure it, being aware of emerging trends and shifts, and learning how to apply this knowledge to leading and sustaining long term success.

Bottom line: If we don’t acquire Profound Knowledge we cannot know how to prepare for and leverage coming change, thus how to sustain our success long term.

Understanding change means understanding shifts in our personal world as well as tracking trends that capsize us, overtake us, or cause us to flounder.

Learning the Hard Way

Unfortunately one of my Gen X male clients learned this the hard way. A rising star in his field and recently married, he was planning far a great future for his kids, tons of time for fun and all the trappings of success. As if out of the blue, the rug got pulled out from under him. His “Happy Homemaker” wife fled, saying I’m out of here!

Somewhere along the way there was a breakdown or perhaps many small fissures below the surface. Had they been recalibrating an checking in with each other, communicating the truth of what was so for each of them…perhaps they could have saved their marriage…or at least ended it with love, grace, and forgiveness.

Even in the most secure relationships, unexpected change happens to ruffle our plans. A recently returned to work mother of teenage kids reported that her new career is now going gangbusters and she no longer worries about the empty-nest . But, the new ripple in her life is that her once very successful husband, in his late 40’s, now faces an unknown future. Surprised by the shifts in his industry, “suddenly” he and his business partner are facing the probability of closing their doors. What once appeared to be the sure path to their dreams, is no crumbling beneath them.

Change is inevitable. If you can learn what Profound Knowledge is and apply it you can avoid these same pitfalls and NOT LEARN THE HARD WAY!

What steps are you going to take to future cast your long term success?

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The Ever-Narrowing Generation Gap https://www.karensands.com/ageless/the-ever-narrowing-generation-gap/ https://www.karensands.com/ageless/the-ever-narrowing-generation-gap/#respond Sun, 06 Oct 2019 11:00:41 +0000 http://karensands.flywheelsites.com/?p=2377 There was a time when the older you were, the more respect you garnered. But this was also a time of disrespect to youth, when children (and women) were supposed to be seen and not heard. Then in the 60s, the boomers turned this notion on its head, and the mantra flipped to not trusting […]

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There was a time when the older you were, the more respect you garnered. But this was also a time of disrespect to youth, when children (and women) were supposed to be seen and not heard.

Then in the 60s, the boomers turned this notion on its head, and the mantra flipped to not trusting anyone over 30.

Now, with boomers clearly over 30 themselves, we are poised on the brink of another transformation in perspective. But as stories like Helen Hatton’s (here) show, that transformation doesn’t have to be a return to the past. We are at a time when we can choose mutual respect and intergenerational cooperation. A time when everyone can be seen and heard.

As I talked about in another post, We The People;, this form of cooperation isn’t in and of itself new. We’ve always relied on it to varying degrees, although I think it is safe to say that today, people younger and older than ever before are now a regular part of any form of intergenerational effort. We’ve always had child prodigies as well as remarkable achievers late in life, but only in modern times are we actively bringing the very young and the very old into the conversation—in science and technology, business, politics, art.

Science fairs, internships, and online presentations put the very young in touch with real-world opportunities. Now, the reverse of this is coming true for the other end of the age continuum, as Helen Hatton discovered when she teamed up with her son to bring her crafts store online. As more and more business and governments are discovering as they gear up to re-envision the aging population as vital, active, productive workers, leaders, and innovators for decades to come.

The lines we have carefully drawn between age groups are blurring. As we can see from this article (here), technology is no longer a symbol of the great divide between the generations, as people over 50 become the fastest growing group of social media users, increasing their presence on Facebook by 84% between 2009 and 2011. In fact, women over 65 alone increased their presence on Twitter by a whopping 96% during that time.

Some say that this spells the demise of these media as the younger generations pull out, not wanting “their news feed cluttered up with their parents’ news,” but this prediction ignores two key trends: (1) social media is evolving to be so individualized that no one can clutter your newsfeed but yourself—you choose entirely what and whom you wish to see; and (2) social media, and society as a whole, is becoming more interest-based, with other factors, such as age, being irrelevant. Just as AutoCAD software can’t tell the difference between the 70-year-old architect and the 20-year-old engineer using it to draft buildings of the future, the 95-year-old lab tech and the 10-year-old who discovered a molecule aren’t going to leave a beloved chemistry Facebook group because of the other’s age.

It’s the chemistry that matters.

No transformation is inevitable, however. I see the signs of this trend developing, but life and society can change on a dime. But I believe this is a trend worth developing, that it’s time we reach out across generations and work together based on common interests. A future that has a place for all of us is one with fewer artificial barriers (such as those based on age, gender, race, and class stereotypes) and more genuine connections.

Again, it’s the chemistry that matters. Together, we can discover more than “just” a new molecule. We can discover, we can create, new worlds.

Get a sneak peek into Karen’s Amazon #1 Best Seller, The Ageless Way
Claim your FREE chapter, “Agelessness Across Generations” download here. 

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Midlife Crisis…More like Encore https://www.karensands.com/ageless/encore-encore/ https://www.karensands.com/ageless/encore-encore/#respond Sun, 11 Aug 2019 12:00:02 +0000 http://karensands.flywheelsites.com/?p=4760 Midlife crisis. It is a term bandied about, which can conjure images of sports car purchases, new gym memberships, flirtations/affairs/divorces, botox and bikinis. Midlife is, for many, a time of transition, including whether or how to retire. It can be a time of more questions than answers, a time in which you feel less steady […]

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Midlife crisis. It is a term bandied about, which can conjure images of sports car purchases, new gym memberships, flirtations/affairs/divorces, botox and bikinis. Midlife is, for many, a time of transition, including whether or how to retire. It can be a time of more questions than answers, a time in which you feel less steady as you review and revise who and what you find most meaningful, valuable, and worthwhile. Some changes are desired and welcome, while others feel forced or unavoidable.

I believe, as I share in my upcoming book, The Ageless Way, that  “Those of us who are entering, in the midst of or, like me, leaving our rich middle years, are well poised to use such times of transition as opportunities to tap more deeply into our reservoir of innate soulful greatness – what I refer to as our Signature Greatness DNA. As history has shown, change makers and world shakers always deepen their culture and leave a legacy for future generations by confronting the difficulties of such times with invention, insight, and transcendent understanding.”

It is at these times that many people choose, whether out of desire or necessity, to begin a second (or third, or fourth…) career, which is often referred to as an encore career. There are different reasons people choose to pursue an encore career, such as: financial security; personal fulfillment and meaning; the desire to give back to the local/national/global community; flexibility; work/life balance; learning new skills and utilizing those that have been acquired over decades; sustaining social connections; pursuing a long-held dream…

Regardless of the reason(s) for selecting an encore career, those in their middle and later years have garnered personal and professional experience and wisdom which they can offer to employers and clients. In addition, Boomers and Matures (members of “The Silent Generation”) grew up in eras which inspired active, organized involvement in response to diverse current events, such as WWII, the Korean and Vietnam Wars, and the fights for civil and women’s rights. As a result, these workers are often valued for their efficiency, sense of responsibility, loyalty, hopeful attitude and strong work ethic.

The trend toward an increasingly older and diverse workforce creates multiple opportunities for building successful intergenerational office environments. Encore career professionals offer a variety of abilities and knowledge to enhance the capabilities of the younger generations and benefit, in return, from their colleagues’ perspectives and talents with new work aspects like technology. Such mutually supportive business cultures ensure a more solid future for everyone, from those engaged in encore careers to the generations yet to come.

There is even a movement afoot to support those choosing or hiring for encore careers. Encore.org’s mission is “building a movement to tap the skills and experience of those in midlife and beyond to improve communities and the world.” It seeks to engage the vitality, wisdom and talents of those in the third and fourth stages of life while emphasizing social purpose. Seeing an aging society as a solution to, rather than creator of, problems, Encore.org connects generations in diverse ways, including hosting an annual conference and offering The Purpose Prize for people over 60 who integrate their passion and experience for the betterment of society. Created in 2005, the prize aims to “showcase the value of experience and disprove notions that innovation is the sole province of the young. It’s for those with the passion to make change and the experience to know how to do it.”

I mentioned the term encore career in a blog posted earlier this week, “Second Time Around” , in which I wrote about Barbara Beskind who is now in her third year of work as an inventor, a lifelong dream she achieved just shy of her ninth decade. Additionally, I have met/worked with diverse women and men who have chosen (are choosing) to embark on an encore career. One 51-year-old woman hot shot media executive left her job to pursue what she always wanted to do as a teenager — she went back to school to become a social worker. Another high flying 62-year-old woman left an intense demanding sales executive post to return to the beloved art career of her youth. A 63-year-old retired teacher became a published author. In her January 16, 2015 New York Times article, Older Job Seekers Find Ways to Avoid Age Bias, Kerry Hannon shares the story of a 66-year-old man who was laid off from a high-powered position. After undergoing the unease of transition, questioning his purpose and averting age discrimination encountered in interviews, he ultimately ended up teaching part-time, making money, and feeling valued. And I am one among many who have found fulfillment in an encore career by creating their own business.

Encore.org and the AARP  are just two of the organizations offering programs, resources and information for those embarking on an encore career. In the short term, this transition may require additional investment of education and retraining (including working with a certified professional career coaching and strategy-creation coach). The rewards, however, can be infinite. Following your passion while giving to others can be stimulating, enlivening and offer adventures which demonstrate that, despite pleasurable memories, the best is still yet to come.

When musicians are called by an audience to perform an encore, a demand for more, it is surely a sign of success. Whether you choose an encore career out of need or want, in honoring and utilizing your skills and knowledge you are the one whose success is to be celebrated. Bravo!!

What’s your encore career story?  Please share your experience below.

 

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No One Wins the Waiting Game https://www.karensands.com/earth/no-one-wins-the-waiting-game/ https://www.karensands.com/earth/no-one-wins-the-waiting-game/#respond Sun, 17 Feb 2019 12:01:44 +0000 http://karensands.flywheelsites.com/?p=1828 Many of us are waiting. We’re playing it safe, not taking any risks, putting off our next big steps, the transformations we long to make in our lives and work, until the winds of global economic change die down. We’ve locked the doors, boarded up the windows, and headed down into the basement. But the […]

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Many of us are waiting. We’re playing it safe, not taking any risks, putting off our next big steps, the transformations we long to make in our lives and work, until the winds of global economic change die down. We’ve locked the doors, boarded up the windows, and headed down into the basement.

But the problem is that boarded-up windows not only keep the winds from coming in, they keep us from seeing out—we close off our perspective, our ability to see the big picture. The problem is that sometimes playing it safe and sticking with the status quo is the most unsafe choice we can make.

When we finally venture out from our basements and tentatively open our doors, we are likely to see a different world out there, one created and reshaped by the people who didn’t hide away, who instead realized that the only way to survive was to start planning the rebuilding process before the structure collapsed, not after.

We are likely to find that the place we held in the old world, that we so desperately tried to protect, no longer exists. And because we weren’t part of creating the new world, we also weren’t part of creating and ensuring our place in it.

Now I’m not suggesting that you just abandon everything and throw yourself out into the storm. If you are an executive or business owner, you need to start preparing to lead change by figuring out exactly what that means and how you can stay ahead of the curve of change without abandoning what already works in your organization.

If you are not financially ready to start that new business you’ve been longing to start, quitting your job today isn’t the answer. But as I’ve said before, the choice isn’t either/or. It isn’t either you stay at an unfulfilling job or you risk everything and start your business. The choice is both/and.

Stay at the job while you take concrete steps toward starting your business, going beyond just dreaming about it. Commit to taking action every day to build it, and taking into account the bigger world picture as you do: The world is undergoing an epochal shift. Build your business based on what the world needs and will need, based on likely trends as well as the changes you want to see in the world. If you build your future assuming it will look like the past, your business will be obsolete before you even open its doors. In fact, the business of the future might not even have doors, not the way we’ve always thought of them anyway.

Waiting on the world to change is the riskiest move we could ever make—not because it won’t, but because it will.

Download a FREE mini-book, The Origins of the New HERstory of Our AGE based on The Ageless Way  

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Integrate the Inner Feminine with the Masculine https://www.karensands.com/ageless/integrate-the-inner-feminine-with-the-masculine/ https://www.karensands.com/ageless/integrate-the-inner-feminine-with-the-masculine/#respond Sun, 10 Feb 2019 10:44:58 +0000 http://karensands.flywheelsites.com/?p=8083 “The best thing about getting older is that you can really begin to think about your calling, your passion. . . . When I look into the future, it is so bright, it burns my eyes.”  Oprah Winfrey  Integrating the inner feminine with the inner masculine is the third (R)evolutionary axiom that is essential to […]

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“The best thing about getting older is that you can really begin to think about your calling, your passion. . . . When I look into the future, it is so bright, it burns my eyes.” 

Oprah Winfrey 

Integrating the inner feminine with the inner masculine is the third (R)evolutionary axiom that is essential to greatness. 

There is no stronger force in nature for softening the hard edges of stone than water. In the same way, no influence is more healing in taking away the edges of living in a high-pitched accelerated world than that of the Sacred Feminine. The traditional masculine qualities of competitive achievement, hierarchical organization, and goal-orientation have been at the foundation of our institutions and our very way of life. Both men and women who are successful have to internalize some or all of these values in order to succeed in the mainstream. 

As more and more people feel their lives out of balance, they yearn to integrate their masculine qualities with the inner Sacred Feminine: that which is intuitive, connected to body and nature, the Soul’s access way to the transcendent, and which allows a softer way of living. As people quest into the Canyon of the Soul, they often discover their own Sacred Feminine waiting for them like a pool of still water at the heart of fallen stone or the transformative waters of a tsunami eroding what no longer works, leaving a sculpted, newly revealed essence. By connecting to the Sacred Feminine in all her qualities, we forge a more balanced life and a more collaborative, unified way of relating to the earth and ourselves. It is through the Feminine in us all that we discover an innate wisdom that sees connections in all things and the longer view. The Sacred Feminine is rooted in our bodies as is the Soul—what Jung called the Inner Feminine, or Anima. Body, Soul, and Earth, the Sacred Feminine returns us to our sacred roots. 

Listen to the voice of the Black Madonna, for she is also part of the archetypal Sacred Feminine and has many faces that emerge across the world. Renowned Jungian analyst and prolific author Marion Woodman tells us of the Dark Feminine, “her darkness is associated with the unknown, repressed side of our femininity” and appears all over the world as Sophia, Shekinah, Lilith, and Kwan Yin. Her truths are uncompromising, and when we listen to her, and voice her discerning truth, the world will change. 

Not only are we being called to connect to the Sacred Feminine within ourselves— men and women alike—but we see an increasing emergence of women leaders who are blazing the trail. Conferences, workshops, books, and associations are appearing throughout the country because women are taking on new leadership. Unlike years past in which women tried to lead like men, these new leaders are encouraging a more sustainable and long- lasting view based on feminine principles. Greatness is not possible without the Sacred Feminine; only through the marriage of the Inner Masculine and Feminine polarities can we evolve as individuals and as a society. 

Don’t you agree? If not, why?

 

 

 

 

Download a FREE mini-book, The Origins of the New HERstory of Our AGE based on The Ageless Way  
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Humanility https://www.karensands.com/earth/humanility/ https://www.karensands.com/earth/humanility/#respond Sun, 20 Jan 2019 12:00:43 +0000 http://karensands.flywheelsites.com/?p=1707 Another quality of the visionary, along with presence, truth telling, discernment, wisdom, etc., is a combination of empathy and humility that I call humanility. Being humble is to be free from false pride and arrogance. It does not mean lacking confidence or being falsely self-deprecating, for it rests on a clear sense of the truth […]

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Another quality of the visionary, along with presence, truth telling, discernment, wisdom, etc., is a combination of empathy and humility that I call humanility. Being humble is to be free from false pride and arrogance. It does not mean lacking confidence or being falsely self-deprecating, for it rests on a clear sense of the truth of what we don’t know and how much we still have to learn while owning the knowledge and the knowing that we do have, and respecting our earned wisdom.

In a visionary, humility is paired with compassion and empathy, an understanding of how we are all interconnected in the flow of life, nature, the universe, much as I described in Friday’s post. The resulting humanility enables us to see what the world needs while being acutely aware of how our unique talents, knowledge, and knowing can meet those needs, as well as what we still need to learn.

Humanility is key in a visionary leader, particularly. As Jim Collins found in his research of companies who have managed sustainable success, “The most powerfully transformative executives possess a paradoxical mixture of personal humility and professional will.” Making a difference in this world requires collaboration, leaders with vision who can help the people they lead and serve to bring out their visionary voices as they together move toward meaningful, sustainable success—as individuals, as a team, and as a planet.

But this attribute is essential for all of us, not just those at the helm, for ultimately we are all leaders of ourselves, and we are all part of various teams and networks of people, at work, in our families, in our communities, both online and in person. Even the solopreneur with no employees does not live and work in isolation. Humanility can help us get in touch on a deeper level with everyone we are connected with, from our colleagues and clients to our family and friends, and these deeper connections are the path to reinventing our world together.

Download a FREE mini-book, The Origins of the New HERstory of Our AGE based on The Ageless Way  

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Have You Seen the Wizard? https://www.karensands.com/leadership/have-you-seen-the-wizard/ https://www.karensands.com/leadership/have-you-seen-the-wizard/#respond Sun, 04 Nov 2018 22:34:31 +0000 http://karensands.flywheelsites.com/?p=5003 I often wonder…how would I bring up my grandkids today? Certainly differently than their parents when they were growing up in the 1970s and 80s. I parented them with optimism because the future showed so much promise and possibility. Only later on did I come to realize that I did my kids a disservice by […]

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I often wonder…how would I bring up my grandkids today? Certainly differently than their parents when they were growing up in the 1970s and 80s. I parented them with optimism because the future showed so much promise and possibility. Only later on did I come to realize that I did my kids a disservice by not preparing them for the derailing truth that we citizens can’t always trust what our elected representatives say, much less those we trust the most.

As (grand)parents, we want to protect our kids’ innocence and teach newer generations to emulate leaders and ideal citizens…those who know what’s real and what’s not, who will stand up for what’s “right” and just, freedom, equality and opportunity for all – the basic tenets of the American way…

I clearly remember the day my son told me “I’ve seen the Wizard (of Oz)!” I knew instantly that his innocence was gone. Even as he brings up his young family now, he too carries the torch of hope and possibility for them but knows not to trust wizards.

And so it goes, we keep keepin’ on. Until one day when the Wizard is thrown out of the magical castle for being a fraud! It’s time we cleaned out all of our castles and towers. Don’t you agree?

A few weeks ago New York Senate’s Dean Skelos and his son were arrested on corruption charges.

In another notable failure of integrity and leadership, look to J. Dennis Hastert, the former elected official who, for eight years, held the title of Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives (third in line to the presidency, I might add). This current Washington Lobbyist was said to be an upstanding role model, yet has just been indicted by federal prosecutors on charges that he violated banking laws (and lied to authorities) in order to pay $3.5 million to an unnamed person to cover up “past misconduct.” Though innocent until proven guilty, reports suggest this was hush money paid to a man Mr. Hastert is alleged to have sexually abused decades ago.

Then there’s the unraveling FIFA disaster and the final shoe dropping with FIFA president Sepp Blatter resigning as its head after a 17-year career. That career has ended in infamy due to a U.S. Justice Department corruption investigation for wire fraud, racketeering, and money laundering.

The congressional castle is truly turning my stomach these days. It’s past time to vote out all the self-serving wizards choosing hatred and power abuses above actual leadership and democratic representation.

In late December, before heading into surgery, I heard the tiny news snippet that twisted up my insides: how at the 11th hour the Arizona senators had slipped a mickey in our holiday drinks so those in congress and the country wouldn’t even notice their trickery.

Arizona has the second-largest Native American population in the U.S. with 22 sovereign Native American communities inhabiting nearly a quarter of the state’s land. As the longest currently serving member of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, Arizona Senator John McCain is said (on his own website) to have “tirelessly supported the bedrock principles of tribal sovereignty and Indian self-governance and self-determination.”

If I took those words at face value, I would automatically believe that this elected politician was an admirable American role model. A leader enabling the “American Dream.” A hero rectifying the wrongs done to a people who were the country’s original citizens who taught the “founding immigrants” how to survive and thrive on this land before being systematically undermined and devalued by those very same newcomers they had welcomed.

But actions speak louder than words.

As it turns out, Mr. McCain is one of several politicians whose behaviors have included sneaky actions that continue stripping Native Americans of sacred lands, areas of our planet they have sustained for centuries with reverence and care. Lydia Millet shares the latest abomination in her NY Times opinion article, “Selling Off Apache Holy Land.

In December 2014, Congress promised to hand the title for land in Arizona to a private, Australian-British mining concern owned by the company Rio Tinto, who has coveted the area for the high-value ores beneath the land. “A fine-print rider trading away the Indian holy land was added at the last minute to the must-pass military spending bill, the National Defense Authorization Act. By doing this, Congress has handed over a sacred Native American site to a foreign-owned company for what may be the first time in our nation’s history.” Who slipped the giveaway language into the bill? Senators John McCain and Jeff Flake of Arizona. At the 11th hour.

Millet further suggests “It’s worth noting that Rio Tinto affiliates have been McCain campaign contributors, and that Mr. Flake, before he made it to Congress, was a paid lobbyist for Rio Tinto Rössing Uranium” (a huge uranium mine in Namibia of which, according to The Huffington Post, Tehran owns a 15 percent stake). And, apparently, Rio Tinto “has been called out in the past for environmental devastation.” Taking local citizens’ lands and livelihood to personally benefit from a foreign-owned company with ties to Iran? Degrading the environment, which has unhealthy repercussions for us all?

I’m outraged, horrified, and ashamed. Who are these elected representatives representing?

One last word on words… Corrupt political-speak isn’t the only way in which falsehoods are propagated. In my work transforming how we approach aging, I often address the language we use to describe being and growing older (e.g.: past blog posts Language Matters, Deactivate Office Ageism, and Words are Power). It’s important that our actions match our words. Just as essential is knowing that what we say and how we say it matters.

I’m stymied about what to do to reverse the rider other than venting and spreading the word. Do you have any ideas on how we can make this happen?

We know it’s not all bad news…what examples of integrity (and situations in which carefully chosen words were followed by matching actions) have you recently witnessed or been a part of?

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Is the Glass Ceiling Half Empty or Half Full? https://www.karensands.com/earth/is-the-glass-ceiling-half-empty-or-half-full/ https://www.karensands.com/earth/is-the-glass-ceiling-half-empty-or-half-full/#respond Sun, 14 Oct 2018 11:00:50 +0000 http://karensands.flywheelsites.com/?p=2508 When we look at women’s power in the workforce, whether running their own businesses or working as executives or on boards in the corporate world and academia, we can view the situation as negative or positive depending on our focus. Obviously, women are still underpaid and vastly underrepresented in positions of power, although this is […]

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When we look at women’s power in the workforce, whether running their own businesses or working as executives or on boards in the corporate world and academia, we can view the situation as negative or positive depending on our focus.

Obviously, women are still underpaid and vastly underrepresented in positions of power, although this is changing (glacially). Silicon Valley just added another woman to its top executive list, with Marissa Mayer as the new CEO of Yahoo (joining Meg Whitman of Hewlett-Packard, Virginia Rometty of IBM, and Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook).

Yet the fact that this is news only shows how far we have to go.

Another positive development is the recent rather dramatic shift in employment among women and men over 55. According to a study by Challenger, Gray & Christmas, reported in Fortune, people over 55 have been awarded nearly 70% of the jobs created in the United States since 2010. Companies are looking for managers and professionals in particular who have the experience and demonstrated ability to weather storms like the economic chaos of recent years.

Many more women are bypassing the entire question of whether the glass is half empty or half full by starting their own firms. As I’ve written about before (e.g., “How Being Successful Can Save the Planet”), women-owned businesses are growing at an ever-increasing rate. The recent State of Women-Owned Businesses Report cites an amazing 54% growth rate in the past 15 years! This translates to annual revenue of $1.3 trillion dollars.

Add this to the spending power of women, especially women over 50, and one thing is clear—one glass isn’t even close to big enough for the tidal wave of women who will lead the way into the future for all of us.

What can we do to move these trends along even faster? Here are just a few ideas:

  • Coach and mentor women to step up and out as visionaries, creating opportunities that match their gifts with what the world needs now
  • Support funding efforts (including grassroots organizations like kickstarter.com) that bring women’s visionary ideas into fruition.
  • Build more and strengthen existing networks of women, online and off, connecting professionals, executives, business owners, and visionaries-in-the-making of all generations.
  • Recognize (and spread the word about) the measurable impact on all of us of helping women in particular to create money-making futures that matter (as detailed, again, in “How Being Successful Can Save the Planet”).

What are your ideas for supporting each other in bringing our visions to the world?

Karen Sands

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Presence and Invisibility https://www.karensands.com/visionary/presence-and-invisibility/ https://www.karensands.com/visionary/presence-and-invisibility/#respond Sun, 23 Sep 2018 10:08:07 +0000 http://karensands.flywheelsites.com/?p=1682 The phenomenon of growing increasingly invisible as we age, and using that invisibility to empower us and others to be change agents, is related deeply with the visionary attribute I discussed in “Unwrapping Your Presence” and “Stop, Look, and Listen”. The invisible power to fly under the radar and quietly lead change, which I talk […]

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The phenomenon of growing increasingly invisible as we age, and using that invisibility to empower us and others to be change agents, is related deeply with the visionary attribute I discussed in “Unwrapping Your Presence” and “Stop, Look, and Listen”. The invisible power to fly under the radar and quietly lead change, which I talk about in my powerful Forbes and Next Avenue book excerpt “The Positive Side Of Being An Invisible Woman”a part of the ineffable presence visionaries carry in their everyday lives.

When we resonate with our visionary voice in everything we do, our presence is palpable yet effortless. We are in the zone, going with the flow, yet able to move that flow in subtle directions simply by moving through it toward our clear vision. The flow moves with us, and the people around us shift as well, often imperceptibly, for we are all interconnected. The more others get into their zone, moving with the natural flow of nature and life, they more they too will be able to gently shift the flow toward their vision.

As more and more of us awaken our visionary voice, these gentle shifts in flow become a tidal wave of change.

Science is discovering the power of invisibility and presence in quantum mechanics. According to Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle, the act of observing alone changes what is being observed. We do not need to be the visible bulls in the china shop to effect real change. Several small, subtle changes—many of them carried out through collaboration—can make a monumental difference in our lives, our work, and our world.

The word “presence” itself hints at multiple meanings. Within the word phonetically is both essence and sense. Presence is about getting to the core of your essence, discovering what really matters to you and stripping away the mental, emotional, and physical clutter in your life to get at what you are really about.

When you have this clarity of focus, you will find that your senses also sharpen. Without the clutter of our mistaken, self-limiting beliefs, our preconceptions, our commitments of time and energy to things that just don’t matter to us, we clear the way for our senses to perceive what is truth—a necessary element of that other visionary attribute we’ve discussed, truth telling.

With our senses sharpened, with presence, we even gain the ability to “pre-sense,” as first described by Peter Senge, to be so in tune with others, with the world, with the natural flow of things that we begin to expand our senses into the future, to sense the alternative futures we can create, the trends that we can use as tools in this creation, and the ripple effects of our possible actions. I’m not talking about fortune telling but keen perception that we can all develop in a way that makes all of us not only visionaries but Everyday Futurists.

As you focus on how to use invisibility to empower you to make change, I recommend that you also take the time to reflect and make conscious choices about what really matters to you. If you start clearing away the clutter from your life today, the boulders in the stream interrupting your flow, you will be that much more empowered to change your world tomorrow.

What mental, emotional, and physical clutter is obscuring your essence, what you are about?

Karen Sands

 

 

 

 

 

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Innovation in Our 50s and Beyond https://www.karensands.com/ageless/innovation-in-our-50s-and-beyond/ https://www.karensands.com/ageless/innovation-in-our-50s-and-beyond/#comments Sun, 19 Aug 2018 11:00:22 +0000 http://karensands.flywheelsites.com/?p=2449 Dominic Basulto’s article in the Washington Post (Why Baby Boomers Are the Innovators of the Future) discusses the shift occurring in the world of entrepreneurship. Much of the article focuses on what we’ve discussed here before (Ageless), such as the Kauffman Foundation’s findings about the rapidly rising rate of entrepreneurship among the 55–64 age group. […]

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Woman in the office

Dominic Basulto’s article in the Washington Post (Why Baby Boomers Are the Innovators of the Future) discusses the shift occurring in the world of entrepreneurship. Much of the article focuses on what we’ve discussed here before (Ageless), such as the Kauffman Foundation’s findings about the rapidly rising rate of entrepreneurship among the 55–64 age group.

The article doesn’t discuss how women specifically are one of the fastest growing groups of entrepreneurs, or that the Kauffman study found that people 55–64 have the most successful startups of any age group. Both of these trends are key to making sense of the study in ways that we can apply to our future.

The reason I’m writing about this article at all is that it raises a new potential angle on these trends. Basulto points out that boomers are poised to turn the tables and become leaders in innovation—which has traditionally been associated with youth.

This isn’t so much a reflection of older generations suddenly becoming more creative than older generations in the past or younger generations less so. Circumstances are simply changing. Younger generations are faced with less time and disposable income than ever before, with innovation taking a backseat to the day-to-day necessities of finding a job (or jobs), paying the rent, affording food, etc. Boomers on the other hand have more disposable income and time than younger generations as well as an increasing connection to the world of ideas and trends via social media and the Internet as a whole.

Time, income, experience, and successful businesses through which they can act on their ideas provides the boomer generation with an unprecedented opportunity to quite literally reinvent the world around them.

But first, all of us over 50 need to change our mindset about what it means to be growing older, to get rid of the outdated stereotypes and stop seeing our future as a sequence of mandatory retirements—from work, from the world, from relevance.

Now is the time to take advantage of these changing currents and to listen to and act on our inner visionary voices, to let loose the ideas and let them flow out and change the world.

We are the innovators we’ve been waiting for.

For more in depth information on this subject. Check out my Amazon Hot New Release The Ageless Way

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