Postponed from August 6, 2021 - Will be rescheduled at a later time

Habits Learned - The Elephant and the Ankle Bracelet

Have you ever improved yourself by getting rid of a habit you learned in grade school?

When we deal with issues similar to those we’ve dealt with before, we attempt to solve them in a familiar way.

We tie our shoes just the way we learned to tie them when we were children, and when we learned the best way to talk to stubborn kids in the schoolyard, we may now be dealing with troublesome co-workers the same way. T

hose lifelong habits can keep returning, even when the evidence is clear that our approach is not giving us the outcomes we want.

When we surrender to the impulse to allow our training to determine our behavior, it means we are no longer in charge of our mental processes, we are actually being controlled by them.

In this interactive LBMD session, you will be encouraged to identify your mental process, not just at this moment but more frequently, to determine if each of those repeated behavioral processes are as beneficial as you once supposed.

The ability to recognize and interrupt one of those habitual responses, even as they are forming in your mind, and to make a fresh evaluation of what actions might deliver the most beneficial result is an ability called MindSkills.

...AND there is no skill more important to your happiness and success than this.

Take-Aways From This Session:

• • Ways to identify ineffective habits.

  • What is MindSkills and how to use it to improve success?

  • Why does an adult elephant remain inescapably tethered to a small stake?

About Our Facilitator:

Chet Richards

Chet Richards is the author of several books, including one on business strategy - "Certain to Win".

Chet began his career with Program Analysis and Evaluation in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. One of his responsibilities was the USAF Lightweight Fighter Program, which led to both the F-16 and F/A -18, two of the most produced aircraft in US history.

After leaving Program Analysis and Evaluation, he spent the next 25 years wandering among various outposts of the defense business, including Northrup Grumman, CACI, and Lockheed Martin.

He attained the rank of Colonel in the USAF (Air Force), Ret. He served as Air Attache` (Reserve) in Saudi Arabia for several years and also commanded two reserve units, retiring in 1999 with the Legion of Merit.

Chet holds a Ph.D.in mathematics (that is why Boyd asked him to review mathematical parts of his paper "Destruction and Creation" which launched their 20+ year association).

He is a certified yoga instructor, and a 70.3 triathlete - holding a national ranking in his age group for swimming the butterfly (Chet claims this proves that outliving the competition can be a viable strategy!).

He currently claims to be working on a new book describing the origins of some of Boyd's strategic ideas in yoga and Zen.

Contact Information

Chet Richards

Website: https://www.slightlyeastofnew.com

Julia helps her husband with his non-profit, Wings of Appreciation, and she teaches at UNC-Asheville’s College for Seniors.

Some of her courses include: Getting the most from Travel Apps, the Science of Happiness and the Science of Sleep.

Contact Information

Julia Loughran

Email: loughran@thoughtlink.com

With the January 2021 session a fond memory, the LBMD has complets its 13th year since its launch and will begin the 14th consecutive year of gathering together seasoned leaders to share their knowledge, experience, and even opinions, each month with other experienced leaders to continue to become even better in their leadership roles.

January 8, 2021

OH WOW,

2020 -

Now THAT was the year that was!!!!!!!!!

Here we are at the dawning of a new year...with hopes that it will be like a blank canvas and collectively, we can paint a masterpiece of success, happiness, AND some form of normalcy during the next dozen months.

To say that 2020 was 'an interesting year' is an understatement!!! If the year were a prize bull, it would have won the Grand Champion of the Show ribbon - a huge blue ribbon - for outshining all other comments about the year we just ended.

Whether we were in a role as the leader, as a follower, or just as a neighbor, we all have been through some of the most challenging times we may have faced wearing each of those hats. Like with most things affecting large numbers of people, the adverse effect of the virus pandemic, employment situation, restrictions & lockdowns, closed schools and many more disruptive elements were (are) not evenly distributed.

For example, a person I know who works at Laurel Racetrack has not missed a day of work or a full paycheck as an essential person overseeing an empty racetrack. Or another person who is a server at a restaurant has worked only about 30 days since Mid-March serving smaller crowds during those limited hours and days.

On the other hand, during these turbulent times, there have been several landmark changes to how business is conducted amid all the challenges and uncertainty. Zoom is now a household word and virtual meets with colleagues, Aunt Sally, Cousin Vinny, or your friend just down the street, are quite common (and is surprisingly easy to make the technology function adequately or better).

Business has finally mastered how to have a remote workforce without sacrificing productivity (and adequate oversight). Contracts and other governing documents can be created on a sole or collaborative basis and be circulated for review and signature without ever leaving your kitchen table.

My point is that there are some good, creative, and innovative solutions that have bubbled up by necessity that will continue to have an impact on 'doing business' for a long time to come.

Our session of the Leadership Breakfast of Maryland on January 8th will be a look-back at 2020 to identify the positive results and innovative approaches or workarounds that have been adopted after the severe tests of practicality and effectiveness. It will be interesting to see how many we can catalog during our session.

This meeting will be different from our usual format and procedure - we'll start with some positive statements (or wishes) by folks to kick off 2021, followed with a brief intro to set a positive tone about things we have learned during 2020 and how we have benefited from the experiences.

From there the group will go to the mattresses (like Elliott Ness) into breakout rooms of randomly formed small groups to tap the knowledge of our members regarding what is good that has come out of 2020. Then the groups will report back to the full group the top two or three items identified by their group.

We will wrap up the meeting by choosing several of these positive items as the most significant or far-reaching elements identified during our session. For this full group portion at the end, I will be recording only that portion to capture the good stuff we'll end up with from our time together (and make it available to the group).

Should be a fun and illuminating session. Come on out (virtually) and offer your observations and insights.

Points of Understanding to Take Away

· While 2020 was a difficult time, some good things resulted with the help of Mother Necessity

· Adopt a positive & constructive outlook when assessing the innovative & practical ideas implemented

· Determine what new tools will continue to serve us well as we move back toward 'Normal' -

(whatever that may mean now)

Facilitator?

Jack, with the help of several others, will try to keep the session from descending into total chaos as we proceed from start to finish. The reporting out will follow the breakout room numbering (room 1, followed by room 2, etc.) and will have no more than about 3 or 4 minutes to briefly describe the top couple of interesting findings from their discussions.

We will make use of the remaining time to circle back to talk in greater depth about the most interesting or surprising findings, ending at the probing question of what are you taking away from the session that you could use at 10:00 AM that morning?

December 4, 2020

Resiliency in Uncertain Times

and a New Environment

Old News: The COVID - 19 pandemic has changed how we conduct our daily lives with social

distancing, masks, sanitizer, restrictive limits, and significantly less face-to-face time for

conversations and visits.

Encouraging Forecast: Things are moving in a positive direction with several vaccines

Misti Burmeister

Misti is one of the most down-to-earth people you'll meet... she is a best-selling author, an award-winning entrepreneur, and a creative innovator.

Her work has been featured on National Public Radio (NPR), in the Washington Business Journal, and Huffington Post, just to name a few.

Ms. Burmeister started her career with a passion for helping young and seasoned professionals understand how to communicate effectively with one another - today her work is about helping leaders reveal the talent hidden within their teams.

Misti is an experienced facilitator, a TEDx Speaker, and she is an active community advocate, as well.

She has empowered leaders with the confidence and tools to solve 'people problems', increasing productivity, and engagement across the generations for nearly two decades.

Contact Information

Misti Burmeister

Phone: 240-401-4397

Email: mb@measurablegreatness.com

Wedsite: www.mistiburmeister.com

October 2, 2020

Creating Enduring Connections

in the Virtual World

When working in the virtual world, it is harder than ever to connect on a human level. No matter whether people are introverts or extroverts they are wired to want to connect.

Although we live in a high-tech world, Leadership and team building is still a high touch job.

This how-to, interactive, and engaging session will focus on the key competencies’ leaders and team members must have to build rapport, relationships and to connect with co-workers,

customers, stakeholders, family and friends.

In fact, according to a study by Harvard and Stanford University, only 15% of your success as

leader in relation to getting things done, building cooperation and creating a positive and

productive culture will be due to your technical skills and 85% will be due to your

communication, everyday interactions, emotional intelligence, trust and ability to get along.

Together in groups we will discuss our experience with the pros and cons of the elements which

influence enduring connections.

This is a pertinent, timely, and revenue-enhancing session you will not want to miss!

If you have any difficulties registering, please send an email to:

jacklgates@leadershipbreakfast.org

Indicate your plans (attend or not).

You will receive an email with connection information for our virtual meeting on Zoom by

Thursday. Any problems or questions, contact Jack Gates

at jacklgates@leadershipbreakfast.org

Please remember that members can invite guests to this virtual session.

Send them a copy of this notice or direct them to

www.leadershipbreakfast.org to register.

About Our Facilitator:

Contact Information:

Arnold Sanow

Email: speaker@arnoldsanow.com

Website: www.arnoldsanow.com

Office : 703 - 255 - 3133

Cell: 703 - 869 - 1881

September 11, 2020

Communicating in a Two-Dimensional Virtual World

The COVID-19 virus has thrust all of us into a two-dimensional virtual world ruled by Zoom, Webex, GoToMeeting and a myriad of other vendors introducing their video conferencing platforms.

We are all facing a hybrid in-person/virtual presentation world for the foreseeable future.

It behooves us to find out how to best use video conferencing platforms.

In facilitating this topic, Frank DiBartolomeo will describe the various virtual communication methods (they’re not all video platforms).

Together in groups we will discuss our experience with the pros and cons of virtual communication.

Building on this base Frank will provide numerous, practical, and immediately usable ways to enhance our virtual presentations using the Zoom video conferencing platform, making them more effective and 'less clunky'.

This is a pertinent, timely, and revenue-enhancing session you will not want to miss!

About Our Facilitator:

Contact Information:

Frank DiBartolomeo

DiBartolomeo Consulting International (DCI), LLC

Email: frank@speakleadandsucceed.com

Website: www.speakleadandsucceed.com

Office : 703 - 815 - 1324

Cell: 703 - 509 - 4424

August 7, 2020

Leadership and the New New Normal Culture

This Friday’s session will focus on culture of the future, reflecting the experience while fighting COVID-19 this year which dramatically altered the way we conducted business and lead organizations.

With our experiences as a backdrop, it may set the stage for a new cultural framework within organizations and in the business community...a “New New Normal” Culture for the future.

There is a greater emphasis on independent working in changing environments. The comfortable culture of co-located employees - facilitating informal idea sessions and problem solving by "popping" into a colleague’s workspace are no longer a physical thing - at best they have become a virtual experience of a 2-dimentional nature via phone or video conference.

Likewise, the traditional paying for time (e.g., hourly, salaried, contract workers) and supervising to assure 'work' is being done (which is a model from the old factory floor) is, at best, difficult to accomplish with a scattered remote workforce. The shift may involve pay for results for many roles which can be measured by output - and this would alter the effect of supervising the producers.

Many studies have been done over the years regarding the reasons that workers are motivated to remain with an organization, and the one which is always in the top 5 is working with colleagues (usually ahead of money on the list). Working independently (at least physically) will make this motivating factor harder to experience.

The changes that are evolving are forcing leadership to evolve as well. So, let's put our minds and experiences together to peek into the future regarding how leadership and culture will mesh into an effective and successful pairing.

After a brief introduction, we will move into small groups to take up the discussion of a relevant topic or two, and then will return to the full group for brief reports of the one or two most interesting (and impactful) findings from the groups. This will certainly lead to a broader discussion in the full group.

This session is the next one in a series of planned discussion about what we are learning from the unique business environment we have been living through since February, and how these experiences will help shape the business environment (for the better, hopefully) going forward. Since Culture has such a wide ranging effect on work, satisfaction, and success, it is a logical topic to continue the discussion and should generate a number of interesting items to consider in our leadership journey.

You will receive an email with connection information for our virtual meeting on Zoom by Thursday. Any problems or questions, contact Jack Gates at jacklgates@leadershipbreakfast.org

July 10, 2020

How to Prepare For and Respond To A Pandemic or Other Crisis

This virtual program is about the best practices to prepare for and respond to any business crisis.

We have been engrossed in 'learning while doing' since early this year with the onset of the Virus Pandemic and have seen first-hand both confusion and success as the knowledge about the virus developed and the guidelines were 'tested' for effectiveness over a period of time.

Many (or most?) businesses are in crisis mode trying to coming from lockdown to a phased opening, and many will never recover.

As noted below, Edward Segal is a crisis management expert and will be facilitating this session of the LBMD about addressing a business crisis.

Participants will receive a crisis management plan template they can later customize for their company or organization and will be the basis of the morning break-out session.

Here is how the session will flow:

 Introduction

 Best Practices for Preparing for a Crisis

 Breakout Session/Exercise

 Large group discussion

 Wrap-up/conclusion

About Our Facilitator:

Edward Segal

Email: edwardsegalcommunications@gmail.com

Phone: 415-218-8600

Website: PublicRelations.com

This Is the Third of LBMD's Virtual Monthly Meetings!!!!

June 5, 2020

Leading Your Enterprise in the Year of the Pandemic

It’s been at least three months since that most unwelcome visitor, Covid-19 (the Wuhan Virus), arrived in our communities and places of work.

And, like the proverbial “Man Who Came to Dinner,” we ask in exasperation, "when will it leave?"

Commentators, pundits, stargazers, and anyone with an opinion seem to have a crushing desire to share their collection of ideas about the return to normal:

Are we looking at three more months? year-end? Fall of 2021?

Whatever the answer turns out to be, in the meantime it is challenging, sometimes even overwhelming, to come up with strategies to simply sustain our business, let alone return it to pre-virus levels and above.

Rather than hear wisdom from another content presenter, this particular 90-day juncture calls for a focused conversation within our group. We have the best minds in the business community for sizing up issues and developing agile approaches to solving complex leadership issues. The LBMD session will make good use of this natural resource to examine what we are learning and how we are adapting to the totally unique situation we are faced with.

You will have a chance to share, using our classic small breakout format, the daunting elements of running your business today plus some practical strategies and actions you can implement immediately in this trying time.

Here Are the Questions to Reflect Upon for the Discussion:

• How is the coronavirus situation impacting your work as a business owner, employee, or independent contractor?

• What are some approaches, methods, or strategies that are helping you cope, sustain, and ultimately advance your business?

• What leadership qualities within us are particularly critical at a time like this?

So, this month there will be no “sage on the stage,” just tens of sages converging to support and inspire one another. However, you should expect a few words from Ian Cook, Tom Meylan, or Jim Burke to set the sage-less stage for each breakout session.

THIS IS THE SECOND VIRTUAL LBMD EVENT!!!!

May 1, 2020

Conversational Intelligence "C-IQ"

- How to connect deeply and

build trust in a virtual world

Points of Understanding to Take Away

Our Gracious Host/Sponsor: Shulman Rogers, P.A.

Resolutionary Thinking

Our Gracious Host/Sponsor: Shulman Rogers, P.A.

Resolutionary Thinking

Focusing on solutions. Thinking creatively and tenaciously about outcomes. About what’s in your best interests. Getting matters resolved, so you can get on with what matters to you. That’s resolutionary thinking. And that’s made Shulman Rogers, P.A., one of the largest, most respected law firms in the Washington Metropolitan Area.

In 1972, Shulman Rogers was founded on a commitment to client service. Today, the firm’s roster of highly skilled attorneys and other dedicated staff members are all guided by that same commitment. A client-first approach. A smart, efficient practice. A relentless focus on problem-solving. And an underlying compassion—for our clients and our community. It all adds up to resolutionary thinking. The kind of thinking you can count on from the people of Shulman Rogers.

March 6, 2020

February 7, 2020

Ethics for Everyone, Every Day

January 10, 2020

The BOLD Speak Leader

Where would your business (or your client’s business) be if the staff could:

• Increase Their Impact

  • Advance the Organization’s Purpose

  • Sell More Products

  • Lead with More Conviction

  • Engage Their Teams

  • Perfect Their CHANGEspeak

  • Show Newfound Confidence?

The BOLD Speak Leader can deliver all of those outcomes. Researchers say it’s not only WHAT you say, but HOW you say it that matters.

To be a BOLD Speak Leader:

• 1. You are BELIEVABLE. I once interviewed Dolly Parton and she told me that she “invented” the character with wigs, fingernails, and whatever else. She wanted to make a mark to send money home to her very poor community. In spite of all the razzle-dazzle, she knows who she is, what she’s doing, and why she’s doing it. When you stand in front of your staff with a request or a motivational moment, you need to be Dolly Parton Believable.

  2. You are ON -TARGET. We spend all of our time focusing on the words WE are going to say. What about focusing on what our audience HEARS, as we speak? Will they hear our message the same way we intended it, or will it just be adding another request to an already overworked team? What can you say that is designed specifically to lift your team UP from the daily grind. That will be ON-Target speaking that will make them want to listen.

  3. BOLD Speak Leaders are LIKEABLE. Why is it so important and not just shallow to be likable? Your listeners make up their minds about you in 9 seconds! If they don’t like you, they flip the remote to another channel in their minds. Your body language can help immensely with your likability factor. If your gestures are open and warm, inclusive and humble, even the toughest message can be more likable.

  4. You are DARING in the sense of being valiant and heroic. You are sticking your neck out for them! You are offering to be their advocate, even when they know what you are saying may not be possible – YET! You are going to work for them in the face of many obstacles – cut budgets, smaller staffs, long hours. You are daring to fight for their needs.

The best news? You can model the BOLD Speak Leader for your staff. The CEO of the largest company of its kind in the lower 48, said, “Bold Speaking helped change the culture of our company. We speak like leaders. Now our team can follow.”

Takeaways from the Session

• How Bold Speaking yields Bold Hearing

• The Bold Speak Leader helps others better achieve their potential

• Bold Speak Leadership is not limited to just brash, outgoing, “life of the party” individuals.

About Our Facilitator:

Jan Fox

Fox Talks

Jan Fox’s 4 EMMY AWARDS attests to her stellar 25 + year career as an Anchor/Reporter on local network news. But don’t ask her where she went to Journalism School. She’ll answer, “I LOVE LUCY!”

SMALL TOWN START

Jan likes to say she came from an old house in Shelbyville, Indiana, all the way to the White House and Hollywood, interviewing many celebrities and US Presidents. This is a life she never could have imagined. Her personal story makes you laugh, cry, and commit to the impossible.

BIG TIME CAREER

Jan earned 3 Emmys at WUSA TV9, CBS, in Washington, DC. At the NBC station in Portland, ME, Jan helped the news ratings jump from # 2 to # 1, with a huge 51% market share! A Portland News Director recently said, “Jan Fox is revered in Portland in perpetuity. She took the station from #2 to #1 back in 1986, and we never looked back!”

In Boston at ABC, she hosted an Emmy Award Winning talk show.

LIFE AFTER TV

Invitations to speak and coach kept coming, so Jan started her business: Fox Talks. She teaches CEOs, Business Leaders, Entrepreneur Groups, and Sales Teams to speak to their fullest potential.

PARTIAL LIST OF CLIENTS

Jan has keynoted and trained at many government agencies, plus Marriott, Verizon, ACCENTURE/Agilex, Billy Casper Golf, U.S. Coast Guard, DC Board of Trade, Vistage, SYMANTEC, Citrix, American Translators Association, National Association of Professional Organizers, National Association of Pet Cemetery and Crematoria Owners. She only has goldfish!

She has coached more than 35 TEDx Speakers and dozens of CEOs and Managers.

LONG LIST OF AWARDS

Jan has received many Civic and Media Awards: Best National Consumer Affairs Reporter of the Year - American Cancer Society Vision Award - Toastmasters Communications and Leadership Award - Virginia Governor’s Safety Award - NSA DC Member of the Year.

Jan holds an M.ED. from Lesley University, where she also directed and taught in the Graduate Teacher Outreach Program.

She is a member of the National Speakers Association, serving on the board of the DC Chapter for 2 years, and sits on the Women in Business Advisory Board at George Mason University.

Contact Information

Jan Fox

Fox Talks

Email: jan@foxtalks.com

Phone: 202-302-1241

www.foxtalk.com

December 6, 2019

These Are the Years That Were

(with my apology to HS English teacher Ms. Curling)

We are 20-years into this century and it is an ideal stopping point to reflect on the trends (and perhaps fads) of leadership that popped up in these 2 decades.

Seems that we find ourselves living in a very dynamic time with an explosive clash of:

· A decline in traditional civility without restraint on the language used to 'communicate'

· Multiple generations of employees, with conflicting goals, dreams, and desires, posing new challenges for leaders

· The coming of age for artificial intelligence, robotics, and additive manufacturing (3D Printing)

· Disruptive Innovation is alive and well - observe the increasing pace in replacing repetitive tasks with automation, including in the administrative realm - elimination of roles and jobs creating a gap between the needs and availability of suitable new positions (at this time anyway)

· Realization of resources going unused - like the rich potential of ideas and concepts from a diverse workforce – reflecting a mixture of gender, age, cultural background, and both formal & trade-related education.

So, let's take a look at what has been thrown against the wall during the past 20 years and see what survived in an original or iterative form as a leadership tool.

Do you recall these ‘best’ ideas for that period: Matrix Management, Theory Z, the classic One Minute Manager, Management by Wandering Around, Flat Organization Structure, and 360-Degree Feedback? How many are around in some form today?

There are also a number of behavioral approaches – for example, Emotional Intelligence (effect of emotions on success) and Conversational Intelligence (the effect of our communication on the recipient) - which can be some useful for tools the leader.

Other developing scientific areas are supplementing leadership understanding - like neuroscience to map how the brain works and reacts to stimulus, and Michael Maccoby's Strategic Intelligence which homogenizes technology, behavioral science, and communication tools.

Let's share our experience with various innovative approaches from the recent 20-years and which ones are continuing to play a strong role in assisting leaders now and in the future. This will be a highly interactive topic with much of the interesting content provided by the participants in the session.

Take-Aways From This Session:

• • Identifying the trend of the trends since the year 2000

  • Challenges facing successful leaders as we march into the future

  • What was THE most innovative and important concept

  • appearing in the last 20-years...

  • and why it should win the Blue Ribbon.

Jack Gates will kick off the session with a brief synopsis of leadership concepts and experiments over the past 20-years.

Participation and input from the attendees will add depth and richness to our discussion and...hopefully...will yield useful take-aways from the session.

We should have a lively, fun morning recalling the hits (and some of the misses) put forth to adapt and improve leadership in such changing times,

November 1, 2019

The P³ of Effective Leadership in the Age of Technological Advance

To ensure success in this fast-paced and constantly changing world, leaders must get their message across in a clear, concise and compelling manner.

To accomplish this, the key competency, all leaders must possess is powerful presentation and personal presence skills (the P³ of Leadership).

Forbes magazine rated it as the #1 most important development skill for leaders.

Leaders who excel in their communication and presentation skills are seen as more intelligent, professional, successful, likable and trustworthy.

In this interactive, engaging, fast-paced and content-rich session, we will explore tips, tools and solutions to deliver presentations with poise, persuasion, and professionalism.

Whether you speak to one person, ten, one hundred or more, this session is for you.

Take-Aways From This Session:

You will learn how to:

• • Deliver every presentation with power, punch, and pizzazz!

  • Enhance audience engagement and keep everyone awake

  • Present with Poise, Persuasion, and Professionalism

  • Boost your credibility, image, and personal presence

About Our Facilitator:

Arnold Sanow MBA CSP

GET ALONG COACH

Arnold Sanow works with Leaders and Teams to help them Get Along Better with Customers, Co-Workers, and Stakeholders.

Also, he works with individuals and groups to help them improve their Presentation Skills.

He is the author of 6 books to include, “Get Along with Anyone, Anytime, Anywhere” and “Present with Power, Punch and Pizzazz”

He has delivered over 2,500 keynotes, workshops, and professional development programs as well as high-level coaching of numerous leaders on their presentation, personal presence and communication skills.

Also, Successful Meetings Magazine has named him as one of the top 5 best “bang for the buck” speakers in the USA and by his peers as one of the top 30 Global Gurus in Communication.

He holds the Certified Speaking Professional designation by the National Speakers Association.

He is a frequent guest in the media and a former adjunct professor at Georgetown University.

Contact Information:

Arnold Sanow

eMail: speaker@arnoldsanow.com

Phones: 703-255-3133 (Office)

703-869-1881 (Cell & Text)

Websites: www.arnoldsanow.com

www.speakingcoach.com

October 4, 2019

WHAT'S HOLDING YOU BACK?

Exploring Three Tendencies That Retard Our Journey to Greater Effectiveness

As leaders, whatever our field or industry might be, we strive to ascend to higher levels of effectiveness; to creating greater results.

But the most effective leaders do not arrive there just through the passing of time, nor simply by honing their technical skills nor mastering a set of interpersonal skills. They get there by evolving a default inclination to build strong relations, embrace self-awareness, show up in authenticity, adopt a systems perspective, and unleash a passion for achieving outcomes that matter to them.

The path toward leadership excellence, however, runs through a region where our inner beliefs, assumptions, and habits of thought cause us to worry FIRST about caution, playing not to lose, self-protection, and being liked. This is the area of the "Reactive Mindset.” It is a development quagmire for leaders and managers because roughly 80% of them show up daily with their feet firmly planted in Reactive behaviors that, in fact, limit their capacity to create greater results.

We will explore this region by looking closely at the three tendencies that comprise the Reactive orientation–Complying, Protecting, and Controlling–and where they might be holding each of us back from achieving our true potential as a leader.

Take-Aways From This Session:

⦁ How our unaware beliefs and assumptions place a ceiling on what we can achieve through others.

⦁ What leading from a Reactive orientation looks like in practice.

⦁ One area where we might shift from Reactive to Outcome-Creating in how we show up as a leader.

About Our Facilitator:

Ian Cook

Fulcrum Associates

Ian Cook, MILR, CSP Ian is a professional facilitator and executive coach.

His expertise and passion lie in helping mid-to-executive level managers lead effectively at the “micro” level, in that interpersonal space between themselves and the individual employee.

In Ian’s words, “Effective micro leadership practices yield macro results!”

Since founding his company, Fulcrum Associates, back in 1988, he has worked with thousands of managers from over 250 clients from the private sector, major trade and professional associations, small business, government, and not-for- profit organizations.

Ian is a Certified Speaking Professional. CSP is the highest earned designation conferred by National Speakers Association and the Global Speakers Federation.

He has a Bachelor of Commerce degree from McGill and, from Cornell, a Master of Industrial and Labor Relations. In addition, he has been a lecturer at Ryerson University’s Faculty of Business.

Ian channels his volunteer energies through the community leadership organization, Leadership Fairfax Inc.

A 2004 alumnus of the LFI signature program, he has served on the Board of Directors and chaired their Program Committee.

As a member of Faculty, Ian collaborates on the

program’s curriculum design as well as leads two of the sessions.

He and his wife Linda reside just a rowboat’s ride across the Potomac, in

Vienna.

Contact Information:

Ian Cook

Fulcrum Associates

eMail: Ian@888Fulcrum.com

Phone: 571-226-6610

September 6, 2019

The Challenge for Leadership in a Time of Chaos

We all have a common heritage and a common challenge, and though they seem like separate ideas, they are linked deeply in our genetic information and, depending on how we handle them, will determine the future for ourselves, the institutions we work for and, ultimately, our global society.

For the first two million years of human evolution, our ancestors lived in small tribal units in the plains of what we now call Eastern Africa. They recognized that tribalism was necessary for their own protection and they came to believe that any behavior or thoughts outside the tribal norms were dangerous to the common well-being and deserved death or exile, which amounted to the same thing.

In that two million-year span tribalism, or collectivism, was encoded in human DNA as fundamental to safety, while independent thought, individual freedom or individualism was encoded as aberrant, dangerous and a common enemy to all.

One result of this encoding was that anyone whose behavior or appearance was fundamentally different from that of the tribe was a potential enemy, and that anyone who made a suggestion that was not in line with tribal norms was jeopardizing their tribal membership. (Sound familiar?)

Our task, as the business of opinion leaders, is to congratulate hard work on expected tasks and, at the same time, create a working environment that encourages and rewards creative ideas for their own sake. To put it bluntly, we can’t take one side or the other in this debate. We must recognize, and help others recognize, that collectivism and individualism are not opposing ideas but normal and mutually beneficial aspects of human nature.

Take-Aways From This Session:

• • • For those who hold strong progressive or conservative views, this presentation will show they are not opposing ideas, but two sides of the human coin.

• • Encouraging creativity in the workplace can seem disruptive at first, taking away from immediate tasks, but it can develop into some of the most productive and gratifying environments.

About Our Facilitator:

Jack Gates

Jack founded and leads the Leadership Breakfast of Maryland, a membership group of experienced leaders - meeting monthly since February 2008; led the National Captioning Institute – a $22 M organization – as President & CEO; had senior executive roles with Union Memorial Hospital, Towers Perrin, Watson-Wyatt, and PRC in entertainment, healthcare, and human resources industries; and has hands-on experience in operations, human resources, finance, client development, association governance, and marketing/sales. He served for 10-years on the Dean’s Advisory Council of the Smith School and taught business and technology classes as an Assistant Professor at the University of Maryland for 8 years.

He is actively involved with intergenerational programs – activities bringing together individuals from older and younger generations to learn from each other and to expose each generation to the magnificence and accomplishments of the other generation. Jack served on the Board of Directors of Interages for over a decade, chaired the Strategic Planning Committee, and led its merger into the JCA, another non-profit with intergenerational programs. He is a mentor and Board Advisor to the HOCHA Foundation, a start-up established in June 2014, which works with elderly participants to capture their life stories through reminiscing interviews by college students.

Gates is currently focused on mentoring start-ups and the entrepreneurs that launch them, with an interesting mission and a unique approach to achieving results. In addition, Jack is COO of Sales Lab and is active in groups, such as DC Tech for start-ups and the Google technical user and developer group which use technology to gain efficiency. He periodically takes on interim assignments within organizations - his most enjoyable assignment was as interim general manager of a country club for about 4 months (doubled revenue from in-club food & drink orders).

Jack earned a BS from the Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland, College Park and an MBA (Finance) from Southeastern University in Washington, DC.

He is a native Washingtonian and served in the U.S. Army in Viet Nam.

Contact Information:

Jack Gates

Phone: 240-424-0843

Email: jacklgates@gmail.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackgates

Twitter: @jacklgates

May 3, 2019

The Hitchhiker's Guide

to Uncertainty

Our feelings often lead us to the temptation to believe that there's nothing we can do about the future.

Yet we go through much of our lives and careers where our plans for the future work rather well.

Are these times more uncertain, or can we rely on our habits to get us through the next few years?

Maybe all we need is a few little tweaks to get a better handle on our situations, and gain a sense of control as we move into the future.

Dr. Tom Meylan has identified a few basic questions, often applied during the NASA mission for which he worked, that we can use to build certainty into our path to the future:

Take-Aways From This Session:

Here are questions to help bring clarity to planning for the future

• What do you actually know about the future?

• What can you actually control about the future?

• What do you really want to happen in the future?

After a few opening remarks on how to use these questions, participants will be guided into applying them to business issues that they currently face.

The point isn't to get absolute predictions, but rather to reduce the number of likely outcomes and build the amount of lead time you need to prepare for them.

About Our Facilitator:

Thomas Meylan, Ph.D. is an astrophysicist who operated a major research center at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, then moved into large system integration in the private sector.

He built customer support systems for Verizon, and did large-scale project recovery for Carefirst and Montgomery Ward.

Tom is currently publishing self-help ebooks for gifted kids through Digital Clones, Inc., and provides a variety of business planning and operations improvement services to entrepreneurial IT companies.

Contact Information:

Tom Meylan

Email: tom.meylan@gmail.com

Blog: www.digitalclones,biz/gntblog.htm

April 5, 2019

Get Along Better with Anyone, Anytime, Anywhere

…. Leadership Communication is the Key!

Only 15% of your success as a leader will be due to your technical skills but 85% will be due to your communication, emotional intelligence, people skills, and your ability to get along.

Arnold Sanow, “the get along coach” and author of “Get Along with Anyone, Anytime, Anywhere” has worked extensively with leaders and teams to improve their Leadership IQ.

No matter how well people get along, even a slight improvement by leaders in their communication, everyday interactions, and understanding of others can greatly enhance engagement, teamwork, productivity, client relationships, and contribute to positive work culture.

In more than 30 years of working with leaders, Arnold has found over 90% of the problems in companies and organizations today are a result of communication breakdowns such as misunderstanding, misinformation, miscommunication, and mistrust.

This highly interactive session will explore these areas with tips, tools, and solutions leaders can implement by improving their ability to get along with others.

Take-Aways From This Session:

• Is there a translation app to help understand the Boomers, Millennials or any of the generations inbetween (spoilier alert: it's NOT an app)

• A very powerful aspect of communication is listening and understanding - Arnold has some tools to help you hone your effective listener skills

• If you can't understand what someone is trying to say to you. it is highly likely that they cannot understand you either! Hard to share ideas if we can't find a common thread we each know well.

About Our Facilitator:

Jim Burke

Jim Burke has thirty-five+ years in long-range planning, foresight, early warning analysis, organizational development, change management, innovation, operational user requirements, and identifying implications of advanced technologies.

His active military career included operational assignments, system program offices and acquisition, advanced technologies and the Joint Staff.

He is a former President of the Metropolitan Chapter of the World Futures Society, a member of the Association of Professional Futurists, and former Chair and President of several non-profits, including Virginia Interfaith Power & Light and the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy.

Jim is the current vice chair of Ascent Virginia, Inc., (AVI), a collaborative effort involving economic development officials, workforce agencies, technology companies and entrepreneurs, universities, local communities and elected leaders at all levels to make Virginia a center for clean technology jobs that pay and stay. Jim’s AVI focus is on Southwest Virginia.

He also regularly leads and teaches groups and organizations in ways to look at and understand the future.

Jim has an undergraduate degree in history, and graduate degrees in Public Administration and Science and Technology Studies.

Contact Information:

Jim Burke

Email: burkeje@verizon.net

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jim-burke-2225827

February 1, 2019

Change

With this meeting, we begin year 12 of the Leadership Breakfast of Maryland. Launched in the center of a black ice storm on February 1st of 2008 (what a coincidence…this session is also on the first of February!) and the LBMD has been actively exploring leadership issues ever since.

Many knowledgeable and experienced folks have been coming together monthly early on Friday mornings for 1.1 decades to share practical and interesting stories of and approaches to leadership prowess. And in addition, participants are meeting peers and other practicing leaders, and having engaging (and usually interesting) conversations on various topics.

During the years the LBMD has been meeting, we have seen and experienced some mind-blowing changes and innovations emerge – some are spectacular in their own right, while others have turned established industries on their figurative heads! Such as:

Uber has recreated local travel – displacing a large portion of taxi traffic

Additive Fabrication (3-D printing) – started as a hobby in the DIY space, it has evolved to the point that a company is using this technique to build 100% of a space rocket engine and all (launch targeted for 2020)

Smartphone & Apps – While the mobile phone was around well before 2008, during the period since, these phones have taken an important lead in the technology arena – we can bank, monitor health factors, watch streaming video of notable experts (TED), sports live & movies/TV, and pay for purchases via phone apps

Text Messaging – instant communication with others for short notes going directly from your phone to theirs (unlike Twitter which goes through Twitter ‘central’).

Of course, the innovations do not stop here – the complete list is quite impressive (with major developments like: self-driving vehicles, drones, private sector space vehicles, self-publishing e.g., blogs, etc, and AI/Robotics).

Whew!!! The world – it’s been a-changin’ (even Bob Dylan says so). And leadership has been changing as well since 2008.

For the February 1st LBMD session, let’s devote our time to a retrospective view of changes that have had or will have a significant effect on our ability to lead others.

Ponder the innovations and changes you have experienced or observed and come prepared to share your thoughts about the more interesting ones affecting leadership and management.

Drawing from the considerable experience of our group, what are the notable changes and innovations that have improved our ability to lead, or have raised the challenge of doing so?

This will be a highly interactive session, with observations, experiences, and stories flying about like Harry Potter’s team playing Quidditch (for the Muggles in the audience, the game is played on flying brooms and it is quite fast).

The discussion will focus mostly on how a change has had a positive effect on the practice of leadership from different points of view. Where appropriate we may want to do a brief review of a void created by the change and what is being done to address it (more fun to stick to the positive side of change, however).

One example of a problem which evolved from innovation is the growth of worldwide teams and the instant communication via Smartphone (with cheap/free calls to anywhere) … how does one manage work time and personal time for an optimal work-life balance?

“Work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. The other four balls—family, health, friends, integrity—are made of glass. If you drop one of these, it will be irrevocably scuffed, nicked, perhaps even shattered.”

– Gary Keller, founder of Keller Williams Realty International

Although the process started well before our recently completed decade, the command and control forms of leadership are in very short supply in current times – even in the military where it was developed.

No longer can a manager or leader be effective by simply saying you do it because I say so! Likewise, with the proliferation of books about leadership and management readily available, the “boss” can’t just read something like The One Minute Manager and expect to have all the answers when the employees and followers raise questions or offer alternative solutions. Familiarization with theory no longer sufficient – the movement is toward mastery now.

So let’s compare notes about our experiences and what we have learned about the innovative changes in leadership and management since 2008. By discussing some of the more interesting innovations identified, together we can investigate what has worked for the better and what may need further tinkering. Perhaps there are some lessons to be learned here for future innovations and changes.

I believe the topic will be enjoyable and feel that during our discussions we will identify several practical approaches to innovation and change.

This session will help tee us up for the March LBMD meeting topic of about the future!

Take-Aways From This Session:

• Innovation, whether new approaches or disruptive changes, has altered the landscape of leadership and management

• Change is not only inevitable, it can be empowering and create opportunities for advancement

• The sharing and discussions with our peers during the session will give us a clearer perspective that others have faced similar issues and we can learn how they approached the issue.

About Our Facilitator:

Doug Holly

Eagle Management Group

An Engineer by training, Doug enjoys applying his analytical and problem-solving skills to help small businesses and start-ups grow and succeed.

As principal at Eagle Management Group, he coaches a number of companies with a particular focus on operational improvements, mergers & acquisitions and project management.

He believes that simpler is better and the challenge is often to sort through the complexity to find the important few issues to focus on balanced with respect for the people involved.

He is also an Entrepreneur in Residence at the Maryland Center for Entrepreneurship in Columbia.

There he mentors Entrepreneurs as they pursue new ventures and encourages them to navigate the challenges and opportunities they encounter.

Doug also enjoys teaching and is an affiliate instructor at Loyola University where he has taught graduate level classes on the Leadership of Innovation and Mergers and Acquisitions. He also teaches project management at Montgomery College as part of the Introduction to Engineering program.

Previously Doug worked for IBM where he managed the development of avionic and system integration programs for aircraft such as the F-15, B-1, and E-3A.

He also worked at a local telecommunications firm, TTC that started in Gaithersburg and was eventually purchased by JDSU where he managed the development of portable test equipment and through various assignments ending up managing M&A strategy and integration.

The lesson he has taken away from this is, at the end, it is all about the people.

Contact Information:

Doug Holly

Principal

Email: doug.holly@eaglemanagement.com

Phone: 301-529-6750

Website: www.eaglemanagement.com

November 2, 2018

Power-Ups for Influence, Impact and Innovation

Innovation – the quest for new solutions – is at the core of many organizations and at the center of their strategy to stay competitive.

When we think of innovation, we often focus on technology, on systems and processes.

While this is important, it is the part of innovation that is easy to copy by a competitor and it does not lead to lasting competitive advantage.

What really matters, is the human side of innovation: our ability to create new solutions, to make change happen, and to engage our customers in new products and services.

In this program, we will explore the five Human Elements that drive innovation and create sustainable new solutions.

With the increasing speed of change in technology everywhere, it’s now time to increase the velocity of our own disruptions and ability to bring new solutions to our markets.

In this program, you will discover immediately actionable steps to lead yourself, your teams and your organizations to increased innovation.

Making simple, yet profound, tweaks in your leadership will empower your teams to fast-forward creativity and innovation.

You will leave the program with a ready-to-use leadership toolkit that will increase your score on the five Human Elements of Innovation

Be ready for a pants-out-of-your-seat program that is a high-energy, highly interactive experience with specific take-aways.

Applying the take-aways from this program will power up your innovation: increase your top-line results, better engage with your team and deepen the relationships with your customers.

Take-Aways From This Session:

• What are the five human elements of innovation

• Ways to influence results, strengthen relationships with clients, and engage your employees to innovate

• Illustrations of the effect of human element innovation.

About Our Facilitator:

Josef Martens, PhD

Katalysor LLC

Josef Martens, PhD, CSP helps organizations move their innovation efforts from good to great.

After completing his PhD in physics at the University of Cambridge, he was awarded several patents in the field of OLEDs, the materials used for high-end TV and phone displays. The spin-off company he and his colleagues founded became the first company from the University of Cambridge to go through an IPO, and it was later bought for US$285 million.

Josef now uses his expertise to help individuals and organizations power up their ability to implement new solutions at work and in life.

For nearly two decades, Josef has conducted programs in over 30 countries across five continents for client organizations such as Merck & Co, Daimler, AstraZeneca, Siemens, 4-H Council, NASA, the Department of Defense, ASQ, PMI, and many more.

His fresh, provocative, and insightful content has also awarded him the experience of being a TEDx speaker.

Josef is a Certified Speaking Professional, the highest-earned international designation by the National Speakers Association. Only about 700 speakers worldwide hold this honor for speaking excellence. Josef is also a past president of the DC chapter of the National Speakers Association.

He has two teenage sons who provide him with plenty of opportunities (and reality checks) for innovation at home. In his spare time, he enjoys section hiking the Appalachian Trail.

Contact Information:

Josef Martens, PhD

Principal

Katalysor LLC

Email: jhfm@josefmartens.com

October 5, 2018

Leading a Team of Customer Experience Superheroes

It's rare to employ those whom you trust to "act like an owner."

Heck, sometimes owners and leaders don't even act accordingly when it comes to creating and deploying proper customer experiences.

Yet in today's economy and unprecedented marketplace, one of the only proven methods of sustainability and growth is doing just that —

intentionally and consistently crafting remarkable and memorable experiences for your prospects, customers, clients ...

and — spoiler alert —

your employees; the types of experiences that keep staff engaged in their work, fostering client relationships worthy of their return, and compelling enough people to send you their referrals.

As someone who's been advising, speaking, and training audiences and teams on CX (Customer eXperience) since 2006, Steve Dorfman also now serves as Chief eXperience Officer for a 100-person, 8-branch mortgage company —

a proving ground for the concepts that he'd been teaching for a decade.

During this interactive presentation, Steve will share how he has helped increase already-high levels of customer satisfaction and loyalty while also becoming a Washingtonian Magazine Great Place to Work in 2017.

Take-Aways From This Session:

• Actionable ideas for both customer and employee culture

• Tips on developing your own "Customer Experience Superheroes"

• Real-world illustrations of customer experience innovations

About Our Facilitator:

Steve Dorfman

Gaurav Bhalla

Knowledge Kenetics

Gaurav Bhalla, Ph. D. is a globally acclaimed ‘thinker-doer, present-ainer’ in Leadership, Strategy, Marketing, and Innovation.

A provocative, charismatic, and entertaining speaker, trainer, and coach, he delivers insight-packed audience experiences that take organizations, teams, and individuals on transformational journeys of greater professional success and personal fulfillment.

In his 40+ years of global experience – 5 continents, 30+ countries – he has helped scores of companies grow their businesses, and thousands of executives, transform and energize their professional and personal purpose.

In 2016, he won a global award, Executive Education Specialist of the Year, in recognition of his speaking and training services.

Currently the CEO of Knowledge Kinetics, he has held senior management and C-level positions at Richardson Vicks, Nestle, and TNS Worldwide.

His clients have included both large and small, for-profit and not-for-profit companies in a variety of sectors, such as Healthcare, Pharmaceuticals, Technology, and Financial Services.

A sampling of his clients include: Glaxo, Capital One, Citi, MetLife, Audi, Marriott, and Caterpillar.

What makes Gaurav unique are his growth mindset, his diversity of thinking and experience, his passion for action, and his WHY – his purpose – that values the humanity of people more than their executive brilliance.

Contact Information:

Gaurav Bhalla, Ph.D.

CEO

KnowledgeKenetics

Email: gaurav@gauravbhalla.com

Phone: 1-833-SOULFUL

Website: www.gauravbhalla.com

YouTube: http://tinyurl.com/9j44kxd

August 3, 2018

Business Innovation Sabotage:

Steps That Can Prevent It

People can overcome bad habits that prevent them from achieving their goals… habits that make them feel comfortable and safe in what they’re doing, but which sabotage their efforts to change when better ideas are right there in front of them.

It may be easy to identify bad personal habits that cause problems in behaviors like eating, lifestyle, and self-image. Unfortunately, we often hold onto what we already know as the only safe and comfortable standard. As business leaders, this can mean being blocked from clearly evaluating new ideas as they are developed. Like having a mantra of “we do things because we have been doing it this way for years!”

This session is about how our response to new ideas can change - whether the source is our own ideas or the ideas of others.

One Definition of a Good Business Leader

A good business leader has an open stance and belief that every idea coming to him or her is worthy of consideration. This kind of leader listens with an unbiased mind, recognizing that there may be value to discover and that there may be a seed of innovation that may come about as a result. This is a learned response.

Defining the Problem

The inability to look at change and appropriately respond to new ideas is the death knell to business and innovation.

Virtually all of us know of an idea being rejected before its completely heard or considered.

In this session we will explore the reason behind this tendency and a positive alternative.

To highlight this tendency and illustrate the alternative, we will look at two examples - a CEO from the book, Immunity to Change (Robert Kegan and Lisa Laskow Lahey, Harvard Business Review Press) and a case study from my work.

With these as a backdrop, we will examine two paths that define a moment of truth and choice between the being open to new ideas path and the sabotage path - illustrating the difference of the paths with examples. As a result, with a better understanding of the chosen path, we can visualize how to change to get a different outcome.

The interactive activity for this session will be to explore known situations where an idea was presented but did not receive adequate attention or consideration (or an idea which was given active attention and consideration AND was a success). In groups of 4, the participants will determine the critical elements which derailed the idea (or created a success), and several groups will report their findings as time permits.

Defining the Solution

In conclusion, I will describe 5 Secrets to Stop The Sabotaging and Silencing – which offers clarity to what is possible when we open our mind beyond anything that doesn’t perfectly match the established mental picture.

Take-Aways From This Session:

Participants will take-away some new ideas and additional clarity, such as:

• Beneficial results can be available when a leader listens openly to new ideas

• Willingness to really listen and consider new ideas fosters business innovation

  • Creating a path for sharing new ideas creates an environment of participation and sense of value for employees and followers.

About Our Facilitator:

Kay Loughrey is a speaker with a universal message. She has been featured in major media including the Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Men’s Fitness Magazine, Newsday, and television and radio stations.

As a public health professional and dietitian-nutritionist, she was a frequent speaker on health promotion and disease prevention at conferences and professional meetings during 28 years of public service that included the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

As a business owner and health and weight loss coach since 2011, she now addresses inner and outer health and habit issues with private clients.

Contact Information:

Kay Loughrey, MPH, MSM, RDN, LDN

Sweet Life Wellness

Phone: 301-5869-1787 (option 3)

Email: Kay@sweetlifewellness.com

Website: www.SweetLifeWellness.com

July 13, 2018

PLEASE NOTE - The July 2018 LBMD Meeting is on the SECOND Friday

- Friday the 13th of July, due to the 4th of July Holiday

“Is This a ‘NO’ I See Before Me?”

Engaging Resistance

As leaders, we strive to make things happen, to make changes in our businesses and in our clients’ worlds.

We come up with great ideas and plans to be adopted.

But, of course, in both work and life, we regularly encounter resistance from others…a boss, business partner, peer, employee, client, neighbor, or even a family member.

What is our typical or even default response to this, particularly when we strongly desire someone's agreement and support?

We spring into action and pitch our point of view and the benefits thereof.

We work hard to counter and turn around their opposing point-of-view, to eliminate the opposition we face.

But this rarely works.

In the words of Dale Carnegie, “A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still.”

Expect a lively, highly interactive and thought-provoking session where you will learn a more effective strategy to engage and work with the resistance you meet–anywhere.

Take-Aways From This Session:

In this lively session, you will be exposed to many ways to address resistance by Ian and the contributions from the knowledge and experience of the wonderful folks sitting around the room - here are three take-aways:

• • Experience the “top dog/under dog” dynamic in action

• Learn a more effective approach for dealing with resistance

  • How you might apply this approach in your work and life.

About Our Facilitator:

Ian Cook

Fulcrum Associates Inc.

Ian is a professional facilitator and executive coach. His expertise and passion lie in helping mid-to-executive level managers lead effectively at the “micro” level, in that interpersonal space between themselves and the individual employee. In Ian’s words, “Effective micro leadership practices yield macro results!”

Since founding his company, Fulcrum Associates, back in 1988, he has worked with thousands of managers from over 250 clients from the private sector, major trade and professional associations, small business, government, and not-for-profit organizations.

Ian is a Certified Speaking Professional. CSP is the highest earned designation conferred by National Speakers Association and the Global Speakers Federation.

He has a Bachelor of Commerce degree from McGill and, from Cornell, a Master of Industrial and Labor Relations. In addition, he has been a lecturer at Ryerson University’s Faculty of Business.

Ian channels his volunteer energies through the community leadership organization, Leadership Fairfax Inc. A 2004 alumnus of the LFI signature program, he has served on the Board of Directors and chaired their Program Committee. As a member of Faculty, Ian collaborates on the program’s curriculum design as well as leads two of the sessions.

He and his wife Linda reside just a rowboat’s ride across the Potomac, in Vienna.

Contact Information:

Ian Cook

Principal

Fulcrum Associates Inc.

eMail: ian@888fulcrum.com

Website: http://888fulcrum.com

June 1, 2018

Extraordinary Presentations

An Essential Leadership Skill

There is likely no leadership skill more powerful than the ability to design and deliver extraordinary presentations.

Beyond the adequate or satisfactory, even beyond the good ones, extraordinary presentations are those special events that impact us in a profound way, tending to stay lodged in our memory often for years.

The arguments they put forward somehow find a special place in our evaluative processes, moving us to an appreciation for points of view we might otherwise have dismissed.

They accomplish this feat by pulling us so completely into the stories they weave that we travel beyond liking or enjoying the tales as they unfold, we find ourselves threatened by the dangers, uplifted by the aspirations and wishing for the goals of the heroes to be achieved.

Build and deliver an extraordinary presentation and the audience will take part in the adventure on a visceral level, deeply and fundamentally sharing the experience, and the new ideas you put forward will appear to them as personal discoveries, as revelations, as a welcome surprise.

In this presentation, I will endeavor to provide a sample.

Take-Aways From This Session:

In this interactive session, Bob's goal is that you will leave with these three pearls to ponder:

• • We are in the business of changing opinions about the products and services people value and acquire

  • The road to changing opinions goes through the valley of personal experience

• No opinion is irreversible, especially if it's held by someone else.

About Our Facilitator:

Bob Keiper

Actor - Director - Author - Speaker - Coach

No business talent or skill is more valuable than effective communication.

My 25 years as a coach, speaker, and instructor in business communication began with years of experience in professional theater as a writer, actor and director where I learned to captivate and motivate the listeners.

Now, in applying those same skills to business audiences, I know the values presented must be expressed and clarified from the listener’s frame of reference.

To be compelling and memorable, the material must be organized to enter the audience’s awareness as a sequential series of logically related conceptual steps, in short in the form known as the story.

Most business presentations fail in at least one of these two ways.

Finally, to hold the listener’s unwavering attention, the presenter’s behavior must be authentic and appropriate.

Contact Information:

Bob Keiper

Actor - Director - Author - Speaker - Coach

eMail: keiper3311@hotmail.com

Office Phone: 703.378.4733

Cell Phone: 703.201.0039

May 4, 2018

Mastering The People Problem

Theory and Practice, Practice, Practice…

What are the realities of what we can and cannot do to deal effectively with ‘other people’?

Human behavior consists of an array of adaptive strategies — including territoriality, status seeking, competition, cooperation, and reciprocal altruism — strategies that have helped us to survive and to thrive for millions of years.

Directed intelligently, responsibly, and flexibly, these strategies can help us today at work, at home, and wherever we may roam, to do the best that we can do and be the best that we can be.

Insights from such diverse fields as management, philosophy, evolutionary psychology, and brain science suggest some answers to the ‘The People Problem’ that can make a difference in both the quality of our work and the quality of our life at work.

In this session learn how to identify our long-held adaptive strategies and how we can use them – or not – for the benefit of ourselves and the people counting on us.

Take-Aways From This Session:

In this interactive session learn:

• how to identify our long-held adaptive strategies

• how we can use them – or not – for the benefit of ourselves and the people counting on us

• some of the answers to "The People Problem" suggested by insights from the diverse fields.

About Our Facilitator:

Madelaine Weiss

MindOverMatters

This program will be facilitated by Madelaine Claire Weiss, LICSW, MBA.

Madelaine has held front-line positions as a hospital-based health care provider, group practice administrative director and provider, insurance industry chief organizational development officer, and medical school educational program associate director.

She is a trained mediator, executive coach, and organizational consultant.

With a style that is warm, quick, and direct, she merges a successful career as a psychotherapist, with an MBA and direct management experience, to tackle the most basic question: “How does human nature interfere with or further the achievement of our goals?”

Madelaine speaks in a variety of settings in the DC area, where she also enjoys her family and private practice clients.

She is a chapter co-author in the Handbook of Stressful Transition Across the Lifespan (Springer, 2010) and has co-authored numbers of articles in both the Across-Species Comparisons And Psychopathology Newsletter and the Massachusetts Council On Family Mediation Quarterly.

Madelaine is currently working on a book as co-author entitled Get a Grip: Negotiating Great Narratives…to Succeed in Work, Play, Love, and Life.

Contact Information:

Madelaine Weiss

MindOverMatters

eMail: madelaine@madelaineweiss.com

Phone: 202-617-0821

Website: madelaineweiss.com/

April 6, 2018

Mindful Leadership

Mindfulness is the psychological process of bringing one's attention to experiences occuring in the present moment - "live in the moment."

Leadership is a process of social influence, social influence, which maximizes the efforts of others, towards the achievement of a goal.

A mindful leader is someone who embodies leadership presence by cultivating focus, clarity, creativity, and compassion in the service of others.

Mindfulness has become a business buzzword recently with far more people talking about it than actually practicing it. You will not be one of those people.

Take-Aways From This Session:

In this interactive session, you learn and experience more about mindfulness, participate in practice exercises, and take away some practical insights such as:

• the science of mindfulness

• how to remove the very real obstacles to showing up fully for your business, team, boss, employees, or partner

• how to cultivate greater awareness about yourself and others that lead to empowered leadership

About Our Facilitator:

Dawna Newcomb

Bold Strategies

Dawna started her career as a cell biology with a focus on virology and subsequently focused her 20-year sales career around growing revenue for companies in life science research, biotechnology, and healthcare.

Concomitantly with her sales career, she opened and ran a yoga center in Montgomery County where she taught yoga, meditation, and offered wellness workshops to a wide variety of students and clients.

Dawna enjoys the energy of a well-run sales organization, coaching sales managers and their teams and training scientific sales professionals who are moving beyond technology evangelism to commercialize their products and services.

She also has an unusual knack for helping clients (and business leaders) who are terrified of the word "sales" move gracefully and professionally into a more functional role that allows their ideas to reach the marketplace and generate revenue.

Recently Dawna opened her own business, Bold Strategies, to give her more freedom to coach, consult, and train sales professionals and teams within biotech and emerging technology companies.

Contact Information:

Dawna Newcomb

CEO - Chief Enablement Officer

Bold Strategies

eMail: dawna@BoldStrategyCoach.Com

Phone: 301-466-2666

Website: www.BoldStrategyCoach.Com

March 2, 2018

Discussion of What Changes In Leadership To Expect By 2030

[The weather on this day was hazardous and the scheduled session was postponed. The facilitated topic is an ad hoc substitution. The write-up below is a snopsis of the main ideas from the discussion by the group as a whole.]

Observations by the group:

• Don’t look 12 years out – look closer for the substance of changes in leadership

• Look – See – Just Do It…don’t overanalyze or over study possibilities – be adaptive and flexible NOW

• Leadership Structure is changing radically - however, the core concepts will continue to govern leadership, but will require a much greater degree of mastery by the leaders - no more 'read a book - become a leader'

• Selling (for example to the Federal Sector) has changed significantly – the mid-level functionaries are gone and the big contractors have a lock on the work – meter it out to the little contractors. The little guys can no longer sell direct. Most traditional avenues have disappeared.

• There is a vast difference between the millennials and the other generations in outlook, applied technical knowledge, and goals – personal & professional. Likewise, there is a vast difference between these groups in communications, social interactions, and multi-leveled relationships (e.g., real, social media ‘friends’)

• Leadership Skills will not change at the core level and above – they remain valid and effective…BUT… the leader must remain flexible, open, and adaptive in applying the skills to new and changing situations. While the skills remain valid, the situations and circumstances are changing.

• Millennials have a short-term focus and outlook. Plenty of shiny things to attract their attention – makes it difficult to remain attentive to the dull and mundane. In general, they seek to be ‘in the know’ and to be taken seriously – with a desire to contribute opinions and solutions/options to the organization and project.

• The discussion began with a tone of either/or – that we must make a choice between one idea or another…between one generation’s outlook or another’s outlook. The group agreed that the discussion of possibilities should be inclusive rather than exclusionary.

• Leadership requires a flexible outlook. More leaders will need to achieve mastery, rather than merely read some books, articles, and blog posts and then play it by ear.

• The concept of enlightened leadership is not limited to the big organizations – smaller organizations have unique needs for leadership skills as well.

• An interesting observation: start-ups tend to be idea oriented and the differences between generations has a minimal effect – ideas rule and are NOT age related - look for the results, not the differences.

About the Facilitator:

Jack Gates

Jack founded and leads the Leadership Breakfast of Maryland, a membership group of experienced leaders - meeting monthly since February 2008; led the National Captioning Institute – a $22 M organization – as President & CEO; had senior executive roles with Union Memorial Hospital, Towers Perrin, Watson-Wyatt, and PRC in entertainment, healthcare, and human resources industries; and has hands-on experience in operations, human resources, finance, client development, association governance, and marketing/sales. He served for 10-years on the Dean’s Advisory Council of the Smith School and taught business and technology classes as an Assistant Professor at the University of Maryland for 8 years.

He is actively involved in several organizations providing intergenerational programs – activities bringing together individuals from older and younger generations to learn from each other and to expose each generation to the magnificence and accomplishments of the other generation. Jack served on the Board of Directors of Interages for over a decade, chaired the Strategic Planning Committee, and led its merger into the JCA, another non-profit with intergenerational programs. He is a mentor and Board Advisor to the HOCHA Foundation, a start-up established in June 2014, which works with elderly participants to capture their life stories through reminiscing interviews by college students, creating a legacy memory book for the participant and their family.

Gates is currently focused on mentoring start-ups, and the entrepreneurs that launch them, which have an interesting mission and a unique approach to achieving results. In addition, Jack is COO of Sales Lab and is active in groups, such as DC Tech for start-ups and the Google technical user and developer group which use technology to gain efficiency.

Jack earned a BS from the Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland, College Park and an MBA (Finance) from Southeastern University in Washington, DC.

He is a native Washingtonian and served in the U.S. Army in Viet Nam.

Contact Information:

Jack Gates

Phone: 240-424-0843

Email: jacklgates@leadershipbreakfast.org

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackgates

Twitter: @jacklgates

Google+ Profile: +JackGates

February 2, 2018

Create Your Future the Peter Drucker Way

You can think, hope and dream about it, but you can’t fully plan for the future without a future-focused mindset. The future is not guaranteed for individuals or their organizations. That is why it is critical to develop a systematic, organized approach to how you view the future, and how you will create a better tomorrow.

In this interactive session, Bruce will guide us through his five-point framework for future planning inspired by the life and work of Peter Drucker (1909-2005), “the father of modern management.” We will learn practical and actionable strategies for developing our own future-focused mindsets. Although much of Drucker’s work was future-focused, he never organized that body of work into a framework, and never wrote a book about his future-focus. Bruce took up a challenge to create the framework, presented in his book Create Your Future the Peter Drucker Way, published in 2013 by McGraw-Hill/Brilliance Audio. This is his second Drucker-oriented book, based on extensive research in the Drucker Archives in Claremont, California; as well as interviews with Drucker, and Drucker’s students, family, professional colleagues and consulting partners.

Working in small groups, we will seek practical, actionable strategies for developing our own future-focused mindsets, and begin a Creating the Future notebook. From this beginning, you can add content in the days, weeks and months ahead as you refine your plan with additional detail and specific goals.

Drucker’s forward-focused mindset was a major factor in his professional success. In a career which spanned 70+ years he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom (the nation’s highest civilian honor); sold millions of copies of over 40 books; was a consultant to major corporations, nonprofits and governments; and was a renowned professor at the school named for him in 1987, the Drucker School at Claremont Graduate University.

Peter Drucker believed that the future can and must be created - day by day and step by step - rather than be left to chance, fate or the whims of others. The information you take away from this session will be crucial for LBMD participants in continuing their leadership journeys and planning for meaningful futures.

Take-Aways From This Session:

Participants will take-away some practical ideas, such as:

• Develop and cultivate a forward-focused mindset

• Understand and plan for “the future that has already happened”

• Become your own successor by building individual success factor

• Help shape the future of your organization

• Build your future through activities outside of the workplace.

About Our Facilitator:

Michael Starobin

1AU Global Media, LLC

Michael Starobin is President and Creative Director at 1AU Global Media, LLC, a multimedia production and consulting company. His award-winning work has played at The Smithsonian, The United Nations, congressional and other federal presentations, national television outlets, and corporate venues. Two of his films have been finalists at the Jackson Hole Science Film Festival.

In 2006, Michael led the development of technology and procedures for delivering the world’s first movie created specifically for spherical screens. The resulting film, called FOOTPRINTS, continues to play around the world. Time Magazine named FOOTPRINTS one of the best inventions of the year. Michael and his team used these techniques to produce the principal film presented by the United States delegation to the Copenhagen climate summit.

Michael’s international production experience has taken him to Japan’s Tanegashima Space Center for a joint US/Japanese launch of a vital research satellite. Recently he accumulated more than a hundred hours flight time on NASA’s P3 aircraft over Greenland on a mission to measure ongoing changes in polar ice, and not long after he traveled to Chile for a month-long journey with scientists making similar low altitude research flights over Antarctica.

In addition to working with spherical and conventional screens, Michael and his team have produced for 3D systems, ultra-high resolution wide aspect video walls, and live events. His most recent work has been with 360-degree video technologies, including augmented reality components, demonstrated at a recent launch event from NASA’s Wallops Island Flight Facility in November 2017.

Earlier in his career, Michael worked in the Washington news corps, overseeing daily news and video distribution for Conus Communications, a national media company. Before assuming a leadership position at Conus he started the company’s science and technology desk in Minneapolis, reporting on a wide range of subjects. Prior to Conus, he worked in Public Radio as a producer.

Michael graduated from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota with a degree in anthropology and honors work in biomedical ethics. His weekly blog on creativity appears on Mondays at 1auglobalmedia.com

Contact Information:

Michael Starobin

Founder, Creative Director

1AU Global Media, LLC

Phone: 301-524-4404

Email: mstarobin@1auglobalmedia.com

Website: 1auglobalmedia.com

Twitter: @michaelstarobin

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/mstarobin

Facebook: facebook.com/1auglobalmedia

November 3, 2017

Put on Your CRFLPJS to Be a Better Leader

This session will explore the uses (and abuses) of “Neuroleadership."

The “Primary Palette of Feelings (CRFLPJS)” will be offered as a paradigm for utilizing neuroscience in leadership, management, and consulting.

Examples from the facilitator’s practice and the audience's group experiences will illustrate the advantages and limits of present-day psychological (mind) and neuroscientific (brain) concepts.

Take-Aways From This Session:

• What CRFLPJS stands for and how it applies to neuroscience applications

• Appreciation for using current psychological and neuroscientific concepts to better understand (and lead) our followers

• Limits of today's mind and brain concepts as tools to influence performance and results.

About Our Facilitator:

Dr. Thomas Hoffman

PScience Associates

Thomas Hoffman is a physician scientist who completed a 20-year career in the United States Public Health Service at the FDA and National Institutes of Health as a research team leader, regulator, and science administrator.

Thomas combines his public and private sector experience in R&D and biomedical management with a thorough knowledge of classical psychoanalysis, contemporary psychology, and management theory.

He is expert in individual and team dynamics, management science, immunology, and neuroscience.

He is a clinician with a private practice, an academic, and a practitioner, having founded the consulting firm PScience Associates that focuses on biotechnology and high-tech enterprises.

He currently serves as the Co-chair, Committee on Corporate and Organizational Consultants, American Psychoanalytic Association.

Contact Information:

Dr. Thomas Hoffman

PScience Associates

Phone: 301-493-8630

Email: thoffmd@pscience.com

October 13, 2017

What the Best Leaders Do During Unseen Hours

I’m confident we can all agree that time is our most precious resource.

While we can blame the minute-by-minute distractions life throws at us, the real problem can be found in our daily habits and what we do during the unseen hours.

To solve this problem, we must learn to guard and protect our time and live in the present.

Which means we have to train ourselves to be excellent in every moment.

How?

Having the awareness to ‘be where your feet are.’

This will instantly raise our ability to lead, influence and impact others.

Take-Aways From This Session:

• Learn the '3 Steps to Change' and the '3 Barriers to Change'

• Learn how to design a daily schedule that works for you, not against you

• Learn the connection between caring, attention and connection, and why they are the foundation of effective leadership

• Learn why you are only two habits away from drastically improving your leadership.

About Our Facilitator:

Alan Stein Jr.

Alan is world-renowned basketball performance coach, corporate speaker, executive leadership coach, podcast host and social media influencer

He has spent the past 15 years working with the highest performing basketball players on the planet, including NBA superstar Kevin Durant and the #1 pick in the 2017 NBA Draft, Markelle Fultz. Alan now teaches organizations how to utilize the same strategies in business that elite basketball players and teams use to perform at a world-class level.

He is passionate about developing genuine leadership, authentic team cohesion and true mental toughness, and works relentlessly to educate and inspire people to take immediate action to improve their mindset, habits, happiness and success.

Contact Information:

Alan Stein Jr.

URL: https://alansteinjr.com

Email: alan@alansteinjr.com

September 8, 2017

Understand Yourself and The People You Lead

Fifty percent of the employees studied by Gallup have left a job because they couldn’t stand their manager.

Effective leadership at work requires understanding the people you want to lead.

To understand others, you first need to understand yourself.

Understanding people requires both intellectual and emotional understanding; it engages both head and heart.

Dr. Maccoby will describe techniques for developing this understanding.

At this interactive meeting, using personality questionnaires that Dr. Maccoby has used with hundreds of managers and participants in executive programs at Oxford University’s business school, we will examine our different styles of leadership, their strengths, and areas that need work.

Take-Aways From This Session:

⦁ Different leadership styles & indicators to help identify them

⦁ Certain leadership styles which are most appropriate for specific environments

⦁ Shortcomings of different leadership styles in certain situations

About Our Facilitator:

Dr. Michael Maccoby

The Maccoby Group

Michael Maccoby is globally recognized as an expert on leadership. He is president of The Maccoby Group in Washington, DC.

For over 35 years, Dr. Maccoby has been consultant and coach to leaders in global corporations, unions, universities, the World Bank, and the State and Commerce Departments of the U.S. Government and the U.S. Army. He has worked in 36 countries in the Americas, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.

Dr. Maccoby became known internationally both for his books on leadership and his pioneering projects to improve the workplace. His book The Gamesman (1976) was a bestseller and the first study of the new entrepreneurs and managers in high-tech industry. The Leader (1981) followed, presenting as an ideal, managers who developed both their organizations and people for a changing world. Why Work? Motivating the New Work Force (second edition, 1995), presents a new theory of motivation to fit the changing values of knowledge workers. It has been translated into 10 languages. Maccoby is co-author of Agents of Change: Crossing the Post Industrial Divide (2003), which describes his leadership of AT&T’s Workplace of the Future in the 1990s. His 2007 book, The Leaders We Need, And What Makes Us Follow, examines leadership from the point of followers as well as leaders. His 2015 book Strategic Intelligence, Conceptual Tools for Leading Change is based on his organizational experience and learnings from working with Russell Ackoff and W. Edwards Deming.

Dr. Maccoby’s article “Narcissistic Leaders: the Incredible Pros, the Inevitable Cons”, January, 2000 won a McKinsey Award, which recognizes the two best Harvard Business Review articles published each year. It was the basis for the book, The Productive Narcissist: The Promise and Peril of Visionary Leadership, published in 2003. In 2007, Harvard Business School Press published the paperback with a new introduction, re-titled Narcissistic Leaders: Who Succeeds and Who Fails.

Dr. Maccoby was facilitator of the National Coalition on Health Care in developing specifications for a comprehensive U. S. health care policy and is on the board of the NCHC. He has been a consultant on the management of change at health care centers, and received grants from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation for the study “Leadership for Health Care in the Age of Learning”, which was published by the Association of Academic Health Centers in 2001. He is the senior author of Transforming Health Care Leadership, A Systems Guide to Improve Patient Health, Decrease Costs and Improve Population Health. (2013.)

Dr. Maccoby worked as a consultant, researcher, and lecturer in Sweden from 1973-2005. His book Sweden at the Edge (1991) described some of his work. In 2007, King Carl XVI Gustaf named him a Commander of the Royal Order of the Polar Star.

From 1978-90, Dr. Maccoby was director of the Program on Technology, Public Policy and Human Development at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. He has taught at Harvard, University of Chicago, Cornell University, University of California, l’Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris, Oxford as a Woodrow Wilson Fellow, the Brookings Institution and the Washington School of Psychiatry where he received a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016. He received a B.A. in Social Psychology, and a Ph.D. in Social Relations, from Harvard. He also studied philosophy at New College, Oxford, and psychoanalysis with Erich Fromm and graduated from the Mexican Institute where he was a training analyst. With Fromm he wrote Social Character in a Mexican Village (1970, reissued in 1996). He has been a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences and is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, American Anthropological Association, Society for Applied Anthropology and the National Academy of Public Administration. He is a member of the boards of The Albert Shanker Institute and he coaches leaders at Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos, homes for orphaned and abandoned children in Mexico, Honduras, Haiti, Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador, the Dominican Republic, Bolivia and Peru.

Contact Information:

Dr. Michael Maccoby

President