Greetings, subscribers. This month's SeaZine offers food for thought and inspiration to whet your appetite, awaken your muse, and summon forth your own unique inner genius as we near mid-year and the Summer Solstice.

Here's the brain-food that you'll find in this issue of Ivy SeaZine:

* Inspired Leadership: The dynamic duo of resilience and vision
* Personal Mastery: Being a master craftsman, whatever your work
* Skillful Communication tip: Dealing with a passive-aggressive
* This Month's Gems: Resources for meaning and inspiration
* Great Quotations: Wise Words for the Journey

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Inspired Leadership and Conscious Enterprise:
The dynamic duo of resilience and vision

Skillful leadership — whether you're leading others, leading yourself, or both — requires a roster of character traits that provide a pathway for lifelong development and mastery. Being an effective communicator is one such trait, as cultivating and demonstrating courage. An effective leader must also be resilient, and resilience requires having a vision, just as manifesting a vision requires resilience. Indeed, having an enjoyable, rewarding life requires both vision and resilience.

Resilience and vision are inseparable. By itself, resilience helps us to withstand challenges and persevere when things take longer or work out differently than we expected (or don't work at all). Resilience can be seen in the person who doesn't believe in failure, and is therefore never defeated by it. Having resilience means seeing past a current dilemma, seeing barriers as temporary opportunities to gather information or clarify vision, and seeing life as a rich adventure rather than a punishment to be suffered through.

Vision is required for resilience, because it is what propels one through periods of set-back or disappointment. Having a vision of what is possible, what one wants to create or make manifest, or how one ultimately wants to be, allows one to be resilient. Without a vision, there is no point, so there is certainly no point in persevering. With a vision, there is no failure, because every setback or disappointment is but new information that can be put to service of manifesting or refining the vision.

Food for thought and mastery (and do think big):

* What is your vision for this month?
* What is your vision for the next year?
* What current challenges or temporary setbacks can a clear vision give you resilience to see through?
* What one thing can you do this week that serves each vision.

Personal Mastery:
Being a master craftsman, whatever your work

What a pleasure it can be, committing to the refinement of or excellence in practicing one's craft. When you think of "refining your craft," you might immediately think of writing, art, or even construction (done the way of the master craftsman).

Yet the same principle applies to anything, as the "craft" of something involves doing it fully and doing it well. It's the difference between excellence and mediocrity. Attending to the craft of something is like an engaged or active meditation, in that you're paying attention to what it takes to do it well, and doing it, versus working from a preoccupied space or settling for quick and sloppy work. A master craftsman is also patient, seeing true craftsmanship as the reward of persistence and effort, of experience and skillfulness built upon over time.

And that's where there is pleasure in the craft, both in the meditative part of paying attention to the work and refining it to a high level of quality that time and attention allow, and in taking satisfaction from knowing that the result is better than the sloppy or mediocre alternative. Craftfulness is thoughtfulness, applied and demonstrated.

The craft of writing, versus simply writing something down, includes paying attention to word choice and order, to cadence and flow, to proper grammar. It means writing good transitions and knowing what to include and what to leave out. The craft of writing can be applied to all writing, not just Pulitzer-prize winning journalistic or fiction writing. A well-written marketing letter, for instance, distinguishes itself in leaps and bounds over its mediocre counterpart.

Right-relationship and communication excellence also have a level of craft with which they can be practiced. For example, a colleague told me that she frequently received email and telephone inquiries from people wanting information about setting up the type of business that she herself has run for several years. Some people even drop into her store for an unscheduled "informational interview!" To date, she has been very generous with information and time, but is becoming more reticent about being that way. Why? Because in a spate of recent information exchanges, where she corresponded at length to answer questions via email, or took time personally to meet with people, or to talk by telephone, she received not one thank-you following the exchange. Not one.

Most thoughtful people would rank such behavior below mediocre, yet such examples also provide a great contrast with "craft-level" interactions. Someone cognizant of (and practicing) one's craft in these areas would always be sensitive to another's time and expertise, and would always follow up with an expression of appreciation. Ideally, he or she would look for a way to reciprocate, if possible. If not, a simple note of thanks would be well received.

Taking pleasure in your craft offers many opportunities, and the results are often evident, both in how it feels to work at a higher level, and how others perceive and receive it.

In what areas of your life and work can you enjoy the satisfaction of moving from mediocrity to master-craftsmanship?

Skillful Communication:
Being skillful with a (frustrating) passive-aggressive

Situation—A passive-aggressive is driving you crazy

You suddenly find yourself at the mercy of the passive-aggressive (P-A), who you're certain is trying to drive you insane! Why? Maybe the P-A, whose underhanded, behind-the-scenes efforts to derail, control or thwart your efforts seem harder to peg, and thus harder to confront. After all, maybe you're just seeing things; maybe it's you, you think. He just doesn't come right out and say no to an assignment, for example. Instead, he might nod and then just not do what you've requested. When questioned, he might give an excuse, such as not knowing you expected something, or that something else required his attention. He might say, "Well, if some people would stop wasting my time, I'd be able to do it." The ultimate is when you, in frustration, can't move forward or end up saying, "Fine, I'll just do it myself!" The P-A is a master of manipulation, using what he doesn’t do and doesn’t say to get a sense of power (and get out of doing what he fears to say or do).

Tip—Check yourself, then your response

Many people find the passive-aggressive tough to deal with, which is why, like other behavioral types, he hangs on to this behavior: It's been a successful way for him to feel secure and in control. But as endearing (not!) as this behavior can be, it's often very counter-productive. Not only can it be frustrating for you, but it can derail positive efforts in the organization, drain morale and momentum, and cause effective employees to get frustrated and turn off or head elsewhere.

It's always good to check whether your filters or communications are adding to the problem, yet don't take responsibility if the person is demonstrating P-A behavior. My favorite book of hints on dealing with difficult behavior is The Bad Attitude Survival Guide, by Harry E. Chambers, which has a nice little section on the P-A. Until you have that resource handy, maybe this tip will help save your sanity:

Focus on the behavior, rather than your irritation at the person. Understand that the P-A has been successful using this behavior because others rarely, if ever, call him on it. That's the power he's found in his passive-aggression!

One approach might be to be forthright: "You know, John, this behavior strikes me as passive-aggressive. It's important that we keep this project on schedule, so when will you be done with this particular to-do?" This offers and requires the P-A to make a clear choice, though he may try to deflect responsibility back to you. If he deflects with more P-A tactics, simply restate the point, emphasizing that the position requires someone who is willing and able to complete the assignments as requested, on time; is he, or is he not, and when?

As an internal practice, if your spiritual or philosophical practice makes you so inclined, you might also find it helpful to pray for skillfulness in resolving the situation effectively, meditate regularly to cultivate a sense of less-shakable groundedness, and/or use affirmations to help bolster your most skillful self in communicating effectively in the face of more frustrating behavioral tactics.

This Month's Gems

** Looking for meaning? Check out the INPM.
At a time when more and more people say they’re "seeking more meaning" in life and work, the International Network of Personal Meaning offers one doorway through which any of us might find it … or at least learn more about what's meaningful to us, and how we can craft the meaningful life and work one might crave.

The INPM fosters an "exchange of ideas on meaningful living and promote positive adolescent development, meaningful careers, successful aging, and reflections on meaning." The group shares information and resources through its web site, research, papers, seminars, and networking.

Surf the INPM’s worthwhile resources at http://www.meaning.ca/.

** Looking for inspiration or a moment of relaxation?

This month's edition of Ivy Sea Online (Wisdom and Mastery portal) features a lovely new selection of visual meditations and sacred oases that you can find online. Each site offers a visual sanctuary in which you can rest your eyes and psyche, take a breather, enjoy the digital art, and gain some inspiration in a moment or two (or more, if you’d like to really make use of these tools to fuel up and awaken the muse). Check out the Moonlight Garden, Amethyst Garden, or visit ancient Lemuria or another otherworldly reality. Some of the sites feature words of prayer or meditation, or have audio-clips that you can listen to.

Find links to these visual oases, and other resources, at Ivy Sea's Wisdom and Mastery portal.

Wise Words for the Journey

** "Take a music bath once or twice a week for a few seasons, and you will find that it is to the soul what the water bath is to the body." ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes

** "Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall." ~ Confucius

** "Cautious, careful people, always casting about to preserve their reputation and social standing, never can bring about a reform. Those who are really in earnest must be willing to be anything or nothing in the world's estimation." ~ Susan B. Anthony

** "If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader. " ~ John Quincy Adams

** "The stories of past courage...can teach, they can offer hope, they can provide inspiration. But they cannot supply courage itself. For this each man must look into his own soul." ~ John Fitzgerald Kennedy

** "You have to find something that you love enough to be able to take risks, jump over the hurdles, and break through the brick walls that are always going to be placed in front of you." ~ George Lucas

** "If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun." ~ Katharine Hepburn

Ivy Sea Online is an Inc.com content partner, and has been recognized by Harvard Business School, CEO Refresher, About.com, Entrepreneur's Edge and others as one of the best resources on the internet for entrepreneurs, business owners, and organizational leaders. [www.ivysea.com]

Until next month...Thank you for reading with us. Wishing you blessings and joy in the month ahead.

Sincerely,

Jamie S. Walters
Founder, Ivy Sea, Inc.,
Publisher & Editor-in-Chief, Ivy Sea Online &
Author, Big Vision, Small Business

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