My family and I just returned from a cruise. It was supposed to be a 5-day trip to Cozumel & Calica, Mexico with two full, sun-drenched days at sea. Instead it was a 4-day disappointment that started with a form letter (handed to us by a parking lot attendant) followed by several hours of chaos in the Mobile Civic Center.

We experienced first-hand the problems that arise when leadership is NOT PREPARED for a crisis.

Rather than critique all the things the cruise line did wrong (it’s a long list), I think I’ll outline a few things EVERY LEADER should do in times of crisis.

#1. Remember that a CORE COMPETENCY of leadership is to inspire CONFIDENCE and TRUST in the people who have chosen to follow you. How you handle crisis situations will determine whether or not people will stick with you through tough times.

#2. Prepare for a crisis BEFORE there is a crisis. Visionary leadership means you see things other people don’t; thus part of your visioneering process needs to include the recognition of potential pitfalls (a.k.a. risks) and the formulation of a contingency plan should those RISKS become REALITIES. Not every potential risk needs to be mitigated but you can’t be prepared for any emergency you didn’t forsee.

#3. Discuss your crisis management plan with your first-responders. Your key personnel in an emergency (the people who will help you respond to the problem) need to know IN ADVANCE what the plan will be if a crisis arises. PUT IT IN WRITING. Your credibility as a leader will quickly dissolve if your first-responders are clueless.   

#4. When crisis comes, the news should be delivered from a person at the TOP — not the bottom. Being in a position of leadership means you will have to absorb the blow of bad news, even if it isn’t your fault. If handled properly, nobody will care who is to blame. Times of crisis require LEADERSHIP, not finger-pointing.

#5. Communicate, communicate, communicate. TRANSPARENCY may be counterintuitive during a crisis, but if you don’t provide people with the information they need, they will fill the vacuum with RUMORS and SPECULATION. In all likelihood, their manufactured interpretation will be far worse than the truth. Save yourself the heartburn.

#6. Put yourself in their shoes. If you were on the receiving-end of the crisis-at-hand, what would you need? A few SIMPLE GESTURES may demonstrate that you understand what people are going through and stop any CREDIBILITY LEAKAGE the crisis induced.

#7. Learn the DIFFERENCE between the ROUTE and the DESTINATION. Leadership is the process of taking people from Point A to Point B. If a crisis pulls you off course, your job is to reroute and get back on track as soon as possible. The WORST THING you can do during a crisis is ABANDON your ultimate destination. People are following you because you promised to take them somewhere — if you fail to deliver on that promise, then you have failed them as a leader.

Crisis is INEVITABLE — but it doesn’t have to be FATAL. I’ve listed a few suggestions for leading during a crisis; can you think of anything else?

By : Dr. Kostas Mitropoulos ( President of the Board of Directors                                                 Eurobank EFG Telesis Finance)

The summer of 401 BC saw the battle of Cunaxa. Cyrus, Satrap of Lydia moved to overthrow his brother the Great King. Cyrus’ allies included the Great King’s mother (of all things!) as well as about 13500 Spartan troops under Clearchus. The Spartan contingent was loaned to the Satrap since it was believed that the Satrap’s move was within Greek (or at least Spartan) interests.

Well, the battle took place and Cyrus was killed, but the Spartan contingent managed to demolish the left flank of the immortals but with Cyrus gone, the victory was pointless.

After the disbandment of Cyrus’ army, the Spartan contingent was faced with a hostile environment (they were in Persian territory and about 800 klm from any allies), without a supply chain. Regardless, the Spartans within 18 months found themselves in Trapezus  (where upon witnessing the black sea shouted Thalatta, Thalatta (the sea, the sea)) and finally Byzantium by the shores of the black sea, where once in Dorian controlled territory made their way back to the Peloponnese.

The whole predicament is documented by Xenophon in his celebrated book.  The success of the Spartan trek back to Lacedaemon can be attributed to three major factors:

1. A tangible vision to hold on too. The Greeks did not want to die in the dry desserts of Lydia. They longed to see the Aegean, or at least the sea. This vision shared by all was translated into sheer will power for survival.
2. Discipline and a common culture, and commonly shared values. This meant that even when their leadership (Clearchus) was captured and executed by the Great King, the contingent was quick to vote in a new chief and start moving towards fulfilling their goal, which was survival.
3. A focused strategy to reach friendly territory in the north (the Dorian colonies of the Black Sea) with minimal casualties. The contingent generally followed the route of least resistance which meant that it had to change directions (tactics) many times sometimes heading west, and sometimes east. Regardless of tactical changes, the contingent always resumed its march towards the north.

These three points above are vital when it comes to surviving any type of crisis, whether economic, environmental, corporate or cultural.

The following poem is dedicated to three men who are not here to read it, but were it not for them, I would not be the person that I am today writing it.

It is dedicated to my father Aguinaldo, my brother Alfonso, and my surrogate father Al Wallach.  These three men refused to yield to what they believed to be injustice.  They instilled in me the deep conviction, that if we try to hide from injustice, if we tolerate injustice, or even if we ignore injustice, we are destroying any hope that in this world, there will ever be justice.  They were not here to witness this day – but I think that they planned it that way so that they would have the best seats in Heaven.

Today the World Changed

I did not receive a release of my debts

But still, a debt was paid this day to a people,

To my people

Today the world changed

For one moment

Those men who sat for days to build a foundation

Upon which a more perfect union could be built

And those slaves who gave their blood, sweat and tears

To lay the bricks and mortar that would secure that foundation

And the Red man, from whom all of this was taken

Rose in silent witness

All of those souls – joining hand, and heart

Standing side by side cried tears of Joy

For the resurrection of the Spirit of America

Today the world changed

Not with a bang – but with a whisper

A whisper that resounded throughout the world

And into the Heavens

The sky did not fall

Only that impenetrable ceiling upon which, the words,

“You may rise no further, this club is for “White Men Only”

Came tumbling down like the walls of Jericho.

Today the world changed

The last unyielding, inhumane, bloody chains of oppression gave way,

The spirits of my Hebrew ancestors who escaped Egypt

And had cried that they could not be really free until all mankind was free

Stand, arm in arm with the spirits of all of the slaves that toiled to build this country as the they had once toiled to build the pyramids,

Together their tears of joy rain down on us,

For they are all finally free, and the yokes of slavery and fear

Are removed from their generation

Today the world changed

Millions gathered ,of all ages, races, religions, genders, gay and straight, from all nations and all political ideologies

And above this multitude of men, women and children

Unnoticed, inconspicuous

Flloated  a multitude of Angelic Beings

All huddled together to bear witness to

the New World of Man,

the resurrection of Hope,

the resurrection of faith,

And the resurrection of Divine Love,

Today the world changed

The President of the most Powerful Nation in the world,

Was  raised up by the hands of the thousands of slaves who laid

The path that he walked , who built the stairs that he climbed,

And with pride and overflowing hearts they placed him in the highest seat.

They were able to work through the pain, the blood, and the exhaustion without giving up,

Without laying down to die,

Fueled and Driven by the faith that

One day, if they built it -

He would come

and complete the circle.

Today the world change

Never again can a teacher tell a little black, Hispanic, or native American child,

“You cannot reach for that goal, why even try, just wash dishes, clean houses

Get those foolish notions out of your head”

Never again, can a teen on the corner selling drugs to other teens

be able to say,

“The White man condemned me to this life, it is not my fault”

Never Again will the Black, Latino or Asian child be able to say that there is nothing more to aspire to

because they are Black, Latino, Chicano, or Asian

except to die in a gang.

Because – this day, if we look to our left, and we look to our right, there

Is the White man -

He is not in front -

He is not in control,

He is one of us – Today, the united States of America had declared this from here on,

Open seating

Today the world changed

No more can a boy or girl, living in a blighted ghetto or an arid dying suburb say,

“I cannot become whatever I want”

No one can ever, from this day forward say, I can’t.

No excuses left – no justifications left,

There is no greater or more meaningful role-model

Than the President Of The United States.

Today life’s struggles are still overwhelming us,

The tunnel which now darkly surrounds us

Has become neither shorter, nor easier,

And for so many of us – the light at the end of that tunnel,

Has grown no brighter.

Today the roof of my house shelters my family,

Tomorrow, it may be the roof of our car,

But if I have to struggle through the challenges of each day

This is the world that I want to struggle in.

Today the world changed

The dark and spiritless landscape that I stared out at yesterday

Has become a garden with the just  the tiniest buds of hope, of possibility, and of Light.

Whatever lies ahead for me, I have lived the best of my life.

My greatest fear was that my children would not have the chance to know

what the best might be.

And I know that the best that lies before my children will be much different than mine -

For mine was not real, it was made of glittering dust and ashes of the material world -

like a star we see far off in the distance of the night sky – so beautiful, yet

As soon as we see it, it is dead -

As soon as we obtain that far off material goal – it too is dead,

Ashes to ashes – dust to dust -we search for the next one.

Today the world has changed

The world of my children will not glitter,

It will radiate.

They will remember what being drunk with the world destroyed,

And so they will seek joy – and not intoxication.

History will record that this date ushered in a New Age

This is a great man,

but a great man cannot climb great heights alone

A great man can only accomplish great things by standing on

the shoulders of ordinary men and women,

Today the world changed

It changed because of white, black yellow and red, Jew, Christian, Muslim, Sufi, Buddhist, Taoist, Hindi, Mormon, Atheist,, Agnostic, and all other faiths -

men and women, gay and straight,

and the littlest of children,

the tiniest of Angels,

all raised him up, with their voices, and their prayers

pledged their toil, their struggles, their nickels, their dimes, their hopes and their dreams.

Because although this man is great

equally great are the people, the nation and  the world that would not let him down.

Today the world changed

Because one man claimed his place in history,

and showed us that we must claim our voices,

We must shout from the rooftops until we are heard,

And never, never be silent again.

He reminded us, and the world that this is our country -

and in the greatest sense – it is the country of the world -

there is no nation that does not have its own seeds planted in this garden.

And Today the World Is Proud to Be An American

And I am proud to have my country back

Today the world changed

I have my Statue of Liberty back,

This Lady was given to us as a reminder of who we are,

and why we are,

As clearly etched eternally on her foundation:

I have taken my faith back,

Knowing in my heart and soul that this moment has sealed it

forever.

Whatever happens, for better or for worse cannot erase,

cannot tarnish,

cannot touch in any way the undeniable fact,

That Today Happened

And it happened to every man woman and child in the world,

And with that faith – I have a reason to go on.

Today the world changed

The Last Great door opened wide today

The Last “Whites Only” sign

Has come down,

And with it, the last excuse for not trying,

or forever yielding the fight Before it’s begun

The White Man has not surrendered -

better than this,

He has realized that we are all in it together

And to stand, we must stand together

Today the world changed

All because one man, foolhardy enough to think that he could,

Promised millions of people around the world, that, “Yes We Can,”

And yes, together we did,

Today The World Changed

This is for every little child of every race, religion, and national origin,

you can dream even bigger,  reach for that far off star

even farther,

And for every man or woman who sees -Nothing

Whose lost -Everything,

You!  Find that dream, dust it off,

And dream it like you’ve never dreamed before,

Search for that star

You long ago lost track of,

And MOVE!

RUN!

REACH !

Everything is possible so long as we

Can hold our dreams

and keep our eyes on our stars,

T oday the world changed

Today, with brown hand placed on the Bible, this man said, “I accept”

And we heard his heart say to us,

I accept your trust, I accept your faith,

I accept your dreams and your hopes.

I accept your need to believe

and I will honor them,

and I will honor you

with every breath in every day.

Today the world changed

On this cold, clouded winter afternoon

We were warmed, united in sacred ceremony

That at last

Meant something

in a place within each of us that we no longer dared go,

Under a common shining light

As One Nation, under God, with Liberty and Justice For All

It matters not what tomorrow brings -

whatever it brings will pass

Only this moment will shine forever

Through whatever darkness lies ahead

It will shine

It will shine until the last hungry child is fed,

It will shine until the last sick child is healed,

And it will shine until the last guns have been beaten into plowshares,

And until the missiles have been beaten into pruning hooks:

and nation no longer lifts up a sword against nation,

And  neither shall we learn war any more.

Today, The world changed

And nothing again as long as we live will ever be deemed, impossible.

What is your favorite memory?

     Memories generate a variety of emotions within me.  Of course, the emotion depends on what event I am reliving…  It amazes me when I think that there are some memories that you cannot forget no matter how hard you try.  Yet I am thankful that I serve a God that forgets all my indiscretions the moment I ask for forgiveness.  (But I wipe away your sins because of who I am.  And so, I will forget the wrongs you have done. Isaiah 43:25 CEV).

     My favorite memory is when I was touched by a God I cannot see, in a place in my heart where my feelings were inescapable.  I was sitting at a cross crying and complaining about my life.  Thinking I had no one who cared or no one who would ever understand the pain I was experiencing, I unloaded everything at the foot of that cross.  When I no longer had any more tears to shed or any more words to speak, my entire being was then filled with a presence indescribable yet the peace I felt was undeniable.  My mind was even filled with answers to problems I thought were unsolvable. This experience birthed a desire to know this God of Peace I met at this deserted church on a Saturday afternoon.

      This memorable event changed my life and my perspective about God.  In this one encounter, I knew God loved me and cared enough to touch me when no one or nothing else could.  I wanted to search out and know all that I could about this loving God.  This desire has created a love for the Holy Bible, the Book he left behind…

 

His Book of Memories...!

 

 

 

 

 

         Do you have a plan to realize your dream?

     I love to dream and often do dream of what my life would be like if I did this or if I had that.  Until one day, this thought entered my mind, “I dare you to live out your dreams!”  For the first time in my life, I found myself being challenged to do something about what I desired.

     Daydreaming and living out a dream are two separate mindsets.  Until I challenged myself, I did not think about my dreams being within the realm of possibilities.  My dreams were only an escape from my present reality.  The thoughts of “what if” were exciting to me and eased the tensions of the immediate moment.   However, once I decided my dreams could become my reality, a plan emerged on how to achieve and draw closer to the vision.  The ‘what ifs” became “what will be.”

     If you knew “what will be” in your life, everything about your thinking changes, every decision is made with a purpose.  “Will this bring me closer to my dream or will it move me away from my dream?” 

     Living into your dreams is much more exciting than daydreaming about the possibilities.

Then the LORD told me:  ”I will give you my message in the form of a vision. Write it clearly enough to be read at a glance. At the time I have decided, my words will come true. You can trust what I say about the future. It may take a long time, but keep on waiting–    it will happen! (Habakkuk 2:2-3 CEV)

Walking With The Wise In Overcoming Obstacles

My life is about to start a new chapter and a new focus. 

I am very happy to announce that my first story is about to be published in a book entitled “Walking with the Wise in Overcoming Obstacles.”  The author, Linda Forsythe, has chosen to publish the triumphant memoirs of fifty individuals.  Thank you, Ms. Linda, for including my story.

You can read more about the book at:  www.walkingwiththewise.com/HelenMaria

I have always enjoyed writing; there is something that comes alive in me when I see my words on paper.  Journaling is very therapeutic for me. I never thought anyone other than God would care to read what I write.

I believe God gives us gifts so we can learn how to receive.  You cannot give what you have not yet received.  God knows best how to bless…!

My son has a close friend TJ. I had noticed his father at different school functions. Jerry was blind and had one leg. His attitude was so completely at peace with his situation that I thought he must have spent most of his life this way. After all, how could anyone seem so happy unless he had had a lifetime to adjust to such tragic circumstances?

I learned that it had only happened a year and a half before. I was shocked that such relatively little time had passed and that everything was so normal. This caused me to look back over my life and the many crises and tragedies I myself have had to face and I found that the only thing I had to regret was the length of time I spent on self-pity. Regardless of what we go through, eventually, we must face that moment when it becomes necessary to evaluate the living of our lives and not our lives themselves. You see, we have no control over what happens to us, but we do have control over how we react, and how we react could possibly determine the quality of the rest of our lives. Although it may seem difficult to control a reaction, reaction is a function of the lower mind. It is a habit. I had my hair pulled when I was a child so as I grew, anytime someone reached their hand in a way that appeared, to me, to be coming towards my head, I would flinch and pull back. Once I became conscious of this reaction, I began to do it less and less, first intentionally, and later not reacting became a habit. It took time to build up our reactions and it will take time to change them, but they can be changed.

We are each being faced, right now, with some form of personal crisis, within a national crisis within a world crisis. At this time, as perhaps at no other, it would be difficult to find one individual on the planet who is not at this time dealing with a crisis. We, in this country, are dealing with the effects of the Iraq War, the destruction caused by the climate changes, and our evaporating economy, while at the same time every individual is dealing with some form of personal, political, financial, racial or religious crisis. So, it helps to know that we are not suffering alone but have actually joined the suffering of mankind.

Putting it in this perspective, we must rise above our personal situations and understand that this is a time of change in the universe. There have been unprecedented increases in the sunspot activity in recent months. The atmospheres of various planets including our own have been going through drastic changes. We have just entered a new millennium, but with all things being synchronistic, we can say that the entire universe is also entering a new era.

For change to occur there must first be a period of breakdown; logically, there cannot be a breakdown without chaos and crisis. That which is not built to move to the next level must be transformed. The beginning of the last millennium was dominated by the advent of Christianity. The first years of breakdown and realignment of previously held beliefs were difficult years. They were not easy years in which to be incarnated, yet many souls chose them for their growth.

I read a book, “Life before Life<!–[if supportFields]> XE “Life before Life” <![endif]–><!–[if supportFields]><![endif]–>“, by Helen Wambach which is now out of print, in which she, during the course of a few years, regressed over one thousand people from all over the country, to the time before they were born. She asked each person to find out the answers to a list of questions, one of which was why they chose this time to be here. The overwhelming reason was that this is a time of so much change and chaos on one hand, and so much available spiritual knowledge on the other, that it offers each soul the rare opportunity in which to fit many lifetimes worth of growth.

When life doesn’t work the way that, we planned or hoped it would, we can’t sit around until we rot; feeling miserable because we were given lemons. We just have to make lemonade. Sure, it is never easy, but the history of the world and the history of our own lives tell us that this too shall pass. And when it does, it is important that we have not wasted this valuable time in self-pity. When God closes one door, He opens another. It may be a struggle at first to face a new door, but it is worth the effort. For every pain, and every heartache there is a seed of equivalent benefit. If we take this as an opportunity to move to the next level, we will find that many of us are being given an opportunity to recreate our lives in a way that we never before believed possible. For so many years now I have been living under an cloud of debt. In the past few years I have felt like the commercial where a couple want to move their house is hovering over their heads. It has been a constant panic, will we lose the house, the cars, and the insurance – or even, will we eat. I constantly fear that I will exhaust my reserves of faith if this goes on much longer. Then, as irony would have it, Easter Sunday my husband walked outside to find that both of our cars had been repossessed. I was initially distraught, I felt violated, lost, and how could we work without transportation? I just felt that this was the domino that would knock the whole building of dominos down. And it could have, no car – no work – no money – no home. But, a funny thing happened after the shock wore off – I felt just them most exhilarating sense of relief knowing two more payments that we could not afford to make were no longer hovering over our heads.

Just a few years before this, I was in the same position only this time I was renting and six months behind in my rent. I had this moment – you know – a movie moment when everything stops in mid-action, and I said to myself, ‘I have done all that I can do, I have tried everything that I can try, if we lose everything and end up in a shelter – it will be God’s will, and we will all learn what we arrived at this experience to learn and climb up from there.’ In that moment there was an energy shift in my life. A crisis can last ten years, or it can last ten minutes. It lasts as long as we remain in crisis mode and ends when we enter acceptance that what is – is, and move on to plan b – or at least to formulating a plan be. Anything that we do, that is not wallowing in the approaching trauma or existing trauma will shift the energy. I shifts from what was or will be lost – to what was or will be gained. Acceptance is the train out of suffering. It is the open door that allows new air to come in. Above all, acceptance allows us to realize that we are in good hands – always. And nothing happens that we did not choose before we came – and for the highest of reasons.

]]> http://helenmaria.wordpress.com/2008/06/24/anger-management/ Tue, 24 Jun 2008 15:14:48 +0000 Helen Maria http://helenmaria.wordpress.com/2008/06/24/anger-management/

How do you express your anger? 

Everyone gets angry.  My own issues of anger have left me asking “What do I do?”

I know that anger is a hurting heart demanding to express the emotional pain. 

My problem was that I was venting my anger out at those I loved with hurtful words or vengeful deeds until the consequences became more painful than the anger itself. Revenge only gives longevity to the pain and verbal abuse is hurtful and ugly to everyone listening.  Both actions leave you with feelings of remorse and guilt.  I want my actions and words to bless not curse.

The question became “How do I harness this anger long enough to evaluate how to release it without hurting another?”

I have read many books on the subject and heard many sermons. The conclusion I made for myself is that it is an emotion that cannot be denied its expression.

The only person I know that can handle my anger is Jesus.  I now take personal time outs when the anger arises to be with Jesus. He helps me to find out what is at the root of my anger.  It is a method that works for me.  As I share this, it may sound simple but it has taken me over 20 years to discipline myself enough to not react in anger until I am in His Presence alone…

Remember, Jesus got angry too.  He is well acquainted with all our sorrows and pain!

1.     Stop whatever you are doing to breathe slowly and recapture your peace…

2.     Sit, stand, walk away or be quiet; just do whatever it takes to disconnect yourself from the destructive force. 

3.     Take time to re-evaluate the situation before taking any action or making any decisions.

4.     Talk to someone who has experience in dealing with whatever you are facing.

5.      Journal your thoughts before saying or doing something you might regret.

6.      Exercise to release any emotional tension.

7.      Seek professional counseling or a support group for yourself.

8.      Read books on the subject you want to overcome.

9.      Listen to music that encourages and inspires you.

10.  Pray for wisdom and understanding.

Remember you are important, so its okay to take care of yourself !