Leadership Done Right

Recently I had the wonderful experience of participating in a program called, “Sleep More, Play More, Laugh More.”  Sharing the stage with me were the fabulous Dr. James Maas, who recently appeared on Oprah Winfrey and Emily Levine,  a well know Hollywood comedy writer.  We were at the Executive Forum, (www.executiveforum.net),  in Denver, Colorado and we had a great time helping leaders get on track!

Why sleep?  Dr. Maas demonstrated a hundred different ways that our lack of sleep, meaning anything less than 8 hours, makes us less effective and really, not as smart as we can be.  Our favorite clip was a young man talking before he started out on the questions for “How to Be a Millionaire” that he had not slept the night before, but “was fine.”  He missed the very first question, you know, the easy one that is just there for fun.

Why play? I talked about how we are depriving ourselves of the energy and the intelligence that is at our finger tips in just five seconds of play.  The audience indulged me by showing that we could raise their thinking and energy with efforts as small as putting on a hat.  We found the secrets to getting this simple concept into our lives and our businesses without being “unprofessional.”  More importantly the audience learned how play took organizations from $75 million to $210 million in four years and another from $32-$50million in half that time.  Play is powerful to keep leaders in the driver’s seat and knowing how to let the duck do the talking for them at times was also part of the fun.  There were tears when they learned how play saved 400 jobs and how play saved a life.  There was laughter as we looked at how and when our childhood play serves us so well today.

Why Laugh?  We all know the answer to this one.  Emily explained so much about what is going on in this world through the powerful use of philosophy and laughter.  She asked us why does it always have to be either/or and challenged us to make it either-or, meaning we could have two contradictory thoughts side by side.

The three of us are dedicated to helping leaders know that the “business” of leadership must be married to the realities of life.  Sleeping MORE,  Playing  MORE, and Laughing MORE will get you a lot further than those extra hours you are putting in.  Go home and play, laugh and then get some sleep!