Dr. Greg Sipes
Whether you are a leader by virtue of your position in an organization or not, you are leading a life and you are influencing those in your life. Therefore, we all are leaders and the way you live your life is the way you lead others. In
Lead as You Live, Live as You Lead: Discovering the Six Principles of Uncommon Sense for Uncommon Success you will see that you know a great deal about leading that you seemingly forget in your everyday life. By "remembering" and living out of these Six Principles of Uncommon Sense your life will be transformed and you will become a transformational leader. In these Six Uncommon Sense Principles you will discover how you can know what life holds for you, you will rediscover where your personal power lies, you will understand the secret to a better quality of life, and you will learn the common denominators to greater happiness, better health, enhanced productivity and increased profitability.
Greg is husband to Markine, father to Chris and Julia, and father-in-law to Jaime. Favored with a great extended family and many wonderful friends, these relationships are what really matters in his life. But for those who want to know more, Greg Sipes, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist with nearly 30years of clinical experience. Senior partner of Indiana Health Group, Inc., a multidisciplinary behavioral health practice, he has also been involved with a number of not-for-profit agencies serving at-risk kids in Indianapolis. Formerly a medical school professor, researcher and scientific author, he is also the founder of nextVoice-a company committed to helping people have better relationships for business and for life. In addition to this book he is the author of Soulful Parent-Soulful Teen: Moving from Control to Caring.
Ken Honeywell is the author of Bobby Plump: Last of the Small Town Heroes, Perfect Souls Shine Though, and the audio book InterneXt. He has also ghostwitten or collaborated on several books on coaching, marketing and health care. He lives in Indianapolis with his wife Becky and too many cats.
In his intriguing new book, A Whole New Mind: Moving from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age, Daniel H. Pink says the new era we are entering will be characterized by “right brain” processes as opposed to the “left brain” functioning of the more technical information age that we are exiting. These days left brain functioning is being done more efficiently and effectively by computers. “Right-directed thinking”, as Pink calls it, is uniquely human and is about high concept or, in other words, design and high touch or relationship. My marketing friends have pointed out that what this means for business is that relationship is taking center stage because design is really about relationships to concepts and so business that flourishes in this new era will be all about relationships.
We’ve long known that healthy personal lives are about the right brain functioning, although we don’t usually think of it this way. Right-directed thinking is inclined toward empathy, play and meaning, in other words, relationship. In our personal lives nothing is more important than our relationships with family and friends.
So for the first time in American life we are encouraged to be relational at work as well as at home because it’s what works best in both settings. No longer does the employee have to put on a different hat at work from the one they wear at home. No longer can we explain non-relational work decisions as “just business” because non-relational decisions at work are just as misguided and self-defeating as non-relational decisions at home. No longer is success at work about being primarily numbers focused and making “hard nosed” decisions while success at home is about being “soft hearted.” No longer can we afford to live in duplicity. We must lead as we live and live as we lead.
And this change requires not a new way of thinking, for that is left-brain oriented, but a new way of “seeing”, a change of heart and soul. This is a change in “how” we see. With new sight, new vision, new perspective, eyes of the heart. And, of course, how we see determines “what” we see. Seeing with left brain perspective is about analyzing and managing, it’s about numbers and circumstances but seeing with the right brain is about relationship, it’s about engaging and influencing those around us whether at home or at work. And finally, how we see determines what we see and what we see determines what we “will” do. Our actions change because we see our world differently.
Years ago I read that when you leave home for work you should never leave your heart behind. The advice given at that time was that if your job required you to do so then you ought to consider changing jobs. Today this advice is more than a matter of your work setting preference. It actually has to do with becoming and remaining a cutting edge professional in this new Conceptual Age. This change will determine who flounders and who flourishes at work, at home and in life.
