Seth Godin advices “Repeating easy tasks again and again gets you not very far. Attacking only steep cliffs where no progress is made isn’t particularly effective either. No, the best path is an endless series of difficult (but achievable) hills.”

Our ability to take action is meaningful tough work a lot of the time. And not just any kind of action. If as a business person you spend all of your time working on volunteer projects, yes, that’s movement and contribution. However, are these activities easy and will they lead to the business profile that you want? Unless that’s your job, it’s certain that volunteering no matter how good you may feel afterward won’t pay the mortgage. And that reality feels awful. It will take action that may be uncomfortable and out of the box for you. Take the high hills as Seth says. Regardless of what your personality style is, it doesn’t matter. “If it’s to be, it’s up to thee.”

Now I’m off to put on my mountain climbing boots. I have some ground to cover and big hills to climb. Said in another way, “if it’s to be it’s up to me.”

One of the opportunities to express ones leadership is to dressing to fit a new position. Whether it is moving from one senior level position to another or going to another organization,

Here’s an outfit that might have been appropriate back in the day.

How are you doing separating the personal from the professional? Let me know if I can support you in being heard and getting people to respond in the way that you would like. Coach J.

1. The world, this planet, is divided up between the haves and the have-nots. “We” are the haves.
2. People must earn the right to live. Breathing is not an inalienable right.
3. Scarcity and fear, are motivation for reaching ones higher self.
4. Money determines true value and worth.
5. We are care takers for the planet and we are doing a good job.
6. Love your neighbors, when you see them or are related to them or they agree with you.
7. We are never responsible for what someone else does.
8. Where you were born determines the contributions you can make.
9. Your past determines your future.

We have envisioned ourselves as enlightened and benevolent, yet we avoid responsibility for the poor, hungry, oppressed, disadvantaged or the cruel. We reject concepts, like abundance, win-win and empathy because they are not competitive.  We are, unfortunately, passionate about life being a zero sum game, that in order for someone to win someone has to be the loser and when we or others lose, we are eager to determine fault, so that someone is blamed.

Don’t believe me, keep a tally on how often you ask yourself, “Whose fault is it? Who should get the blame for what is going on?”

In our workshops, “Conversation on Leadership”  we look to bring alive what it means to be a “Positively Powerful Person”, to providing a fuller understanding of “Responsibility”  and to how finding fault or blaming others diminishes ones own power.

“She saw more than what we were. She saw what we were to become.”

The Positively Powerful Woman of Global Leadership Award will be given to Kay Kallander for her many contributions as Senior Vice President for Strategic Planning American Baptist Homes of the West (ABHOW); for her design and launch of The Grove, an acclaimed memory support program; chairpersonship of EMERGE, Aging Services of California’s leadership development program; the launch of Leadership ABHOW; her contributions as a delegate to the White House Conference on Aging; representation of the U.S. in Australia at the first Alzheimer’s Association/E-Rotary conference on Alzheimer’s disease; leadership in the  structure of the innovative Leadership AAHSA fellowship program in which she serves as the lead coach and being the recipient of the 2008 AAHSA Mentor of the Year award.

Kay Kallandar is a role model for what it looks like to “have it all” – family, meaningful career, servant leadership and the ability to be positively powerful with grace, humor and style. Florence Nightingale was a history maker. So too, is Kay Kallander.

For her many contributions, Kay Kallander will receive the first Global Leadership Award in the Positively Powerful Women Awards’ 4 years history. She embodies what the Positively Powerful Women Awards stand for: “The empowerment of all people through the celebration of women’s accomplishments in ways that inspire all others to live their dreams.” This annual award is given to women who have founded or lead legacy organizations…organizations that have stood the test of time. During a  gala awards luncheon May 20, 2011 at the Phoenix Ritz-Carlton, Kay Kallander will be honored as royalty for her hard work, resourcefulness, diligence and stand for excellence in global leadership for the aging and health services. While she preferred to remain silently in service (as do so many women making a significant difference), Kay was assured that the commitments near and dear to her heart would share the spotlight with her. Consider these statistics:

• With over 100,000 vacant positions and an ever-growing need for healthcare workers, the career outlook is excellent for the nursing field. Nursing is a highly regarded profession. A 2004 Gallup Poll announced that the public again voted nurses number one for “honesty and ethical standards of various professions.” For those who have a passion for the care of others, we will salute you.
• This year, the first baby boomers turn 65. While Alzheimer’s is not normal aging, age is the greatest risk factor for the disease. “Too many of America’s baby boomers will spend their retirement years either with Alzheimer’s or caring for someone who has it.” For care givers and those searching for a cure, thank you.
• In partnership with Enterprise Community Partners, Inc., AAHSA convened a National Summit on Affordable Senior Housing and Services on May 25, 2010. The event brought together nearly 100 experts to discuss role of affordable senior housing and service models to help lower-income seniors “age in place”; share promising practices and policy initiatives; and identify barriers to the of models. Aging in place, ABHOW’s CCRCS, nursing care, affordable housing and assisted living are important initiatives for us all to consider.

If you would like more inspiration on what is possible when one chooses nursing as a profession, please read on. Then let your imagination about your contributions soar.

Kay Kallandar’s management expertise and commitment to quality are grounded in frontline experience. A registered nurse, she joined ABHOW in 1985 as director of nursing at Plymouth Village in Redlands, Calif., after 12 years of nursing work in hospital and home health settings. Throughout her career, she has volunteered as a nurse through World Vision, traveling to such countries as El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti and Tanzania and working in refugee camps in Cambodia and Thailand.

Once at ABHOW, she took on ever-expanding roles, becoming assistant administrator then executive director of Plymouth Village before joining the corporate team in 1996 as senior vice president and chief operations manager. She moved into her current role in 2001.

While at Plymouth Village, Kay Kallander launched The Grove, an acclaimed memory support program that ABHOW has since expanded to five communities with several more programs in development. Her goal is for The Grove to be in every ABHOW CCRC. Designed for her MBA thesis at the University of Redlands, The Grove emphasizes residents’ abilities rather than disabilities and encourages staff to enter the world of residents. She has shared The Grove’s approach with national and international groups. In 2004, she represented the U.S. in Australia at the first Alzheimer’s Association/E-Rotary conference on Alzheimer’s disease.

Kay Kallander’s work has led to other invitations to lead and speak. She served as a delegate to the White House Conference on Aging. She currently serves as chair elect of Aging Services of California. In addition, she is a trustee for American Baptist Seminary of the West and an advisory committee member for the health care administrator certificate program at the University of Redlands, where she also earned her bachelor’s degree and was named Alumni of the Year in 2001.

Much of her focus today is on cultivating the next generation of senior living leaders.  She understands that a commitment to excellence must include the intentional formation of leaders. She helped structure the innovative Leadership AAHSA fellowship program in which she serves as the lead coach. She received the AAHSA Mentor of the Year award in 2008. (AAHSA is now named LeadingAge.)

In addition, she is chair of EMERGE, Aging Services of California’s leadership development program, and she launched Leadership ABHOW, the company’s yearlong initiative to create a ready reserve of trained and licensed team members who can move into management-level positions as they become available. In her teaching and coaching, Kay Kallander’s aim is always the growth and self-development of others. She motivates people by first having faith in them. As one AAHSA fellow put it, “She saw more than what we were. She saw what we were to become.”

It’s this belief in potential, coupled with her passion for excellence, which brings Kay Kallander into relationship with emerging leaders. She invests in others because she is ultimately a person of hope. In the words of another AAHSA fellow, “Kay affords people the opportunity to turn their potential into reality, their dreams into destiny. Her impact cannot be measured because there is no telling where her influence will stop.”

Kay is known for her commitment to excellence in the service of others. For more than 25 years, she has advanced the senior living profession through pioneering efforts in Alzheimer’s care and memory support, planning for the future of aging services, and mentoring of the next generation of leaders.

As senior vice president for strategic planning for American Baptist Homes of the West (ABHOW), Kay Kallander guides the company’s award-winning initiatives in quality management, governance, leadership development, and communications. She oversees the accreditation process for ABHOW’s continuing care retirement communities, and she promotes the companywide commitment to Quality First, a national initiative of American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging to build public trust through exceptional service. ABHOW’s Quality First efforts are considered best practices across the nation.

Note: After this post appeared, we received this message from Michele Hollaran. Her thoughts provide background on why we said in our post, Kay has it all. “Kay has been my role model for many years. What… is so important to Kay, is her family. She is an exemplary wife, mother and person of deep faith. When I think of all the people who have touched my world in a profound way, Kay is right up at the top of the list. She has been by my side, lending me support and hope, more times than I can count. She is a positively powerful person in every aspect!”

For more information on the 2011 Positively Powerful Women Awards please click here.

We can sense that we are out sync and instead of taking a rest we press on. Using a sports metaphor, “we’ve got to let the game come to us” and find our rhythm. Rest is essential to our physical and mental health. Rest recalibrate our brains so that solving the challenges we face becomes a possibility.

There is no need to go it alone.

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Do you remember the Phone Booth

Marty Cooper, creator of the cellular phone

It is a lot easier to predict what industries will be in existence and should be thriving in 2020 than it is to guess what people will actually be doing to make a living in these industries. What will the jobs be? What kind of careers can people expect? How should people prepare for future employment? Obviously health, energy, food, water etc. will have continued importance in our lives but the question remains, what skill set will we need in order to excel in the industries of 2020?  One thing we can be certain of is that a single skill set will not cut it in 2020.

Within the next ten years, rapid changes will effect just about every industry we can think of and those we can’t think of because they haven’t been invented yet.

Communication and the phone booth for example.

Think about all of the different jobs, careers, and businesses that changed, closed, and/or required skills that were not transferable when Marty Cooper invented the mobile phone in the 1970s. Then consider how quickly the mobile phone was replaced by the “Smartphone”. What skill set are needed for what’s next?

The Smartphone

If you have recently graduated from college regardless of the industry you chose, you can expect to have  3 distinctly different careers in your lifetime requiring skills that may not be transferable from one to another. The industry may remain the same but your expertise will need to be ‘flexible’.

If you are on a multiple career path, we would like to hear from you. What and how did you decide on the career  and/or educational choices you’ve made to prepare for the future?