21st Century Leadership, Leadership Tune-Up Workships Professional & Personal Coaching
NEWSLETTER CONTENTS:	Featured Article Announcements And Schedule Acknowledgements Kudos Recommended Reading And Viewing

Phil and I are extremely appreciative of your friendship and of your continuing support. We are grateful for the example you set with your leadership and effectiveness, and with your contribution and caring. To you and yours we extend our warmest wishes for a rich and full Holiday Season. We look forward to working in collaboration with you, each of us continuing to contribute to the human condition by expressing the best parts of ourselves, in 2008 and well into the future.

THE single clenched fist lifted and ready, Or the open asking hand held out and waiting. Choose: For we meet by one or the other.

I think I am not naive. I understand and I am aware that there are many whose approach to life is to lead with a clenched fist lifted and ready. I prefer, however, to choose my own strategy rather than reactively respond in kind. I prefer an open asking hand held out and waiting - held out in friendship, in caring, in encouragement, in strength, in acceptance, in commitment to help. I believe this is the path to great results.

To me, Sandburg's few words are more than the exaggerated notions of the poet. Consider the words of Dr. Karl Menninger (1893 -1990), one of the fathers of modern psychiatry and a founder of the famed Menninger Foundation and Menninger Clinic:

"We need to neutralize the aggressions that often well up within us, often, strangely enough, against those who have the most in common with us. To understand all is to forgive all, and to know one another well enough should not be to hate one another more but to love one another more."

As leaders, we each have but a single job, to create the change necessary to bring our visions into being.

As Phil and I navigate our way through this Holiday Season and begin the New Year, we have redoubled our commitment to lead with an open asking hand held out and waiting. We invite you to join us.

Announcements

21st Century Leadership The second time is even better than the first. Start 2008 with the traction necessary to accelerate toward your goals by claiming one of the few remaining spaces in the January 7 to 13 session. Or, help a friend, colleague or family member notch up his or her game by making a referral. To register, get your questions answered or refer someone, call 1.800.891.2956 or send Lori an email at lori@extraordinarylearning.com. 21st Century Leadership in 2008 January 7 to 13 March 10 to 16 May 5 to 11 July 14 to 20 September 15 to 21 November 17 to 23

Leadership Tune-Ups in 2008:   SEATTLE - February 8 - 10 CALGARY - May 16 - 18 VICTORIA - August 8 -10 SAN FRANCISCO - November 7 - 9

NOW is the time to register for the SEATTLE Tune-Up, February 8 -10, the first Tune-Up of 2008. Tune-Ups are from Friday evening at 6 PM until Sunday evening at 6 PM. 2008 tuition of $1,595 includes your meals, a Saturday night social event, and, most importantly, the Tune-Up and leadership coaching and follow-up that come with it.

If you have yet to register for Extraordinary Advantage Points, please take a moment and do so now. Just click here -lori@extraordinarylearning.com- and write "Register me for Points" in the subject line.  There is no obligation on your part, just benefit. Receive a Point just for registering. You earn Points by attending Extraordinary Learning courses or referring others. Each point is worth $100 toward tuition or fee, with some restrictions on use. Complete details of the program are found here.

EXTRAORDINARY COUPLES - ACCENTUATING THE POSITIVE is at the beautiful Port Ludlow Resort three times in 2008: February 20 to 24 June 11 to 15 August 17 to 21

This four-day - four-night retreat is designed specifically for couples that think their relationship is working and who want to further enhance their experience of life by writing their next chapter together. There are couples already registered for each of the courses and space is limited. Act now to make sure you and yours share this fantastic experience in 2008!

Representative comments from graduates include:

�If you want to start a journey to be more fulfilled and richer in your relationship, and in the process to have increased self-awareness and self-discovery, then this is the course for you.�

�The course is great! No matter what stage you think you are in (or how comfortable you think you are) in your relationship with your partner, you will gain / learn something that will help you build an even more positive relationship. Take this course!�

Acknowledgments

Congratulations to 21st Century Leadership graduate Alex Margolin, previously mentioned in these pages as having been named on of the San Francisco Bay Area�s top personal fitness trainers, and his partner, Deanna Hull, upon the November 26th birth of their son, Jack Alexander Margolin � all 8 healthy pounds of him. Welcome Jack!

Congratulations to Carrie Anton of Edmonton, profiled in a previous Newsletter. After nine years with the Aroga Group, a leader in assistive technology and training, Carrie has recently taken an appointment with Athabasca University as its Assistive Technologist for the Access to Students with Disabilities Department. Athabasca University is �Canada's Open University�, dedicated to removing the barriers to a university education.

Carrie writes, �I am really excited at this opportunity that I think is full of challenge and new learning for me, with a bit of relying on what I know as a base. I intend to become more web savvy so as to develop and deliver distance learning and assessment modules to help staff and students of AU worldwide. I am still based in Edmonton. And, I am still involved in sports, promoting the Paralympic movement, and more."   For two and one-half years Natalie McGee of Ottawa, also previously profiled, has been the point person for Telus, Canada�s second largest telecommunication company, on a project to assist hospitalized children and young people stay connected with their families, friends and schools. Earlier this year Natalie changed business units to the Telus Business Solutions - Healthcare Unit to lead the project to launch. The result is Upopolis, launched earlier this month at McMaster Children�s Hospital in Hamilton, ON.

Upopolis.com provides a personal profile, secure mail, instant chat, discussion board, personal blogs, links to child-friendly games and even a homework site. It's designed to help young patients feel less isolated while in the hospital for long periods of time.

The online support network was inspired by the hospital experiences of two teenaged friends, Christina Papaevangelou and Katy McDonald, both of whom were hospitalized with life-threatening illnesses in 2002.

Sadly, Katy has since lost her battle with cancer. Christina recovered from her illness. It was her father who founded Kids Health Links Foundation, which plans to expand Upopolis to children's hospitals across the country.

We applaud your contribution, Natalie.


To the many graduates that have been writing with updates about their lives and with ideas for topics and recommendations for books, movies and activities, "Thank You."

Your feedback and recommendations are of great value to us. Phil and I, your fellow graduates, and other subscribers
really enjoy reading about you. Please keep writing.

ku�dos n � praise, credit or glory for an achievement

✰ I have known Jen Moore since 1994. I met her in San Francisco when she was 23 and was fresh off an internship at Ms. Magazine. To know Jen was to know that her passion was, and is, working on feminist issues, writing, immersing her self in woman studies, and helping girls and young women find their stride. To me, Jen is an example of the power of a vision to which one is committed and faith that �all roads lead to where I stand.�

Recommended

Phil and I promote the idea that people are generally most effective when they focus on and emphasize what works rather than what doesn�t work. In this vein come Marcus Buckingham�s book, Go Put Your Strengths to Work: 6 Powerful Steps to Achieve Outstanding Performance.

Author of bestsellers First, Break All the Rules and Now, Discover Your Strengths, Buckingham jump-started the strengths movement that is now sweeping the work world, from business to government to education. In this book, Buckingham offers his answer to the ultimate question: "How do I actually apply my strengths for maximum success at work?"

�Research data show that most people do not come close to making full use of their assets at work -- in fact, only 17 percent of the workforce believe they use all of their strengths on the job. Go Put Your Strengths to Work aims to change that through a six-step, six-week experience that will reveal the hidden dimensions of your strengths. Buckingham shows you how to seize control of your assets and rewrite your job description under the nose of your boss. You will learn: Why your strengths aren't "what you are good at" and your weaknesses aren't "what you are bad at." How to use the four telltale signs to identify your strengths.