random acts of leadership

Just Ask

by Susan Mazza on August 29, 2010

Photo of Mandala Created by Dr. Masaru Emoto

Photo of Mandala Created by Dr. Masaru Emoto

You have this big dream or a really exciting idea.  Your spirit is brimming with positive energy from the possibility.  Your mind is racing with tons of great ideas on how to make it happen. Then you start to think of who you would love to ask to join you.

And then you think to yourself…but who am “I” to ask “them”.

Maybe it’s your boss or the president of your company.  Maybe it is the leader of your place of worship.  Maybe it is a person you met at a conference last year, but haven’t contacted since.  And maybe it is that famous person you really admire and respect whose work is totally aligned with yours.  And maybe it is even one of your heroes.

So why don’t you ask them?  Of course you have some really valid reasons.  At the top of the list is  that you think they will say no.  But what if they say yes?

If you don’t ask “yes” will never be a possibility.

Kumari Mullin took that risk very recently and was pleasantly surprised by the response.

She is a big fan of Dr Masaru Emoto, an internationally recognized water crystal researcher from Japan (among other endeavors).  In fact, she refers to him as one of her super-heroes.

A childhood friend who had studied with Dr Emoto called her saying she had this idea that Kumari contact Dr. Emoto about collaborating with her in some way to facilitate healing in the Gulf from the oil spill.  The ideas of what they could do immediately started to flow.  She was getting really excited about the possibility and a clear idea started to take shape.  Then this thought popped into her head: “there is no way he is going to come all the way over here from Japan, he doesn’t even know me.”

It would have been so easy to let that thought take over and deflate the energy of possibility.  Yet she chose to contact him and ask anyway.  Within 24 hours he accepted her invitation and a date was set.

What was the key to his “yes”?

She made a request that was totally aligned with his work and his commitments.  She shared her commitments and her vision and spoke directly to his.

On September 11, 2010 she is co-facilitating a workshop titled Healing the Gulf: the Power of Intentions with Dr. Emoto.  They are partnering with The National Wildlife Federation to raise funds for restoration of wildlife in the Gulf of Mexico.

Not only is this a great demonstration of the power of just asking, Kumari has demonstrated leadership in action.  She reminds us that any one of us can find a way to use our unique gifts to make a difference in the things we care about.

So when you hear that “little voice” in your mind that is busy trying to keep you safe and maintain the status quo, try asking yourself these 3 questions:

> Is my possibility, my vision, my idea worth the risk of hearing a “no”?

> What do I really have to lose?

> And what is possible if they actually say yes?

What’s your dream or your big idea and who will you have the courage to “just ask”?

  • Twitter
  • Technorati Favorites
  • FriendFeed
  • StumbleUpon
  • Delicious
  • Digg
  • Share/Save/Bookmark

{ 8 comments }

Stamping Out Political Correctness

August 17, 2010

In an excellent post on Leadership and Political Correctness, Mike Myatt of N2Growth discusses the debilitating phenomena of political correctness that has unfortunately, as he puts it, “become a dominant mind-set in our society”.  In this post he posed the following question:
“Do you ever wonder how the term “Politically Correct” evolved from an obscure catch-phrase that was once used [...]

Read the full article →

Can Trust Be Repaired?

August 3, 2010

There are many who believe that once trust has been breached or broken it can never be repaired, at least not to the level that returns the relationship to it’s former state.  I absolutely agree with that.  Except I believe that while the relationship will never be the same, that does not have to mean [...]

Read the full article →

What Does Leadership Look Like?

July 16, 2010

While scanning through some of my earliest blog entries I came across one that had me reflect on the fundamental purpose of this blog:  to inspire everyday leadership through everyday actions.
We may have an idea of what leadership is, but what does it look like in everyday action?  In the post titled  The Red Car Theory of Leadership I discuss [...]

Read the full article →

What Freedom Makes Possible

July 4, 2010

In honor of the 4th of July celebration in the United States I have been thinking about what freedom makes possible.
Perhaps the most famous line from the Declaration of Independence is this:
“We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable [...]

Read the full article →