December 1, 2000
In this issue:
Newsbrief: Executive Roundtables Being Formed
Editorial: The Coin-Operated CEO, by John Renesch
Newsbrief: Ciba Executive Writes Guest Editorial for eCHOICE
Newsbrief: Special Holiday Offer
Announcements
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NEWSBRIEF:
Executive Roundtables Being Formed
The Conscious Leadership Roundtable was announced on November 8 – the first membership group consisting of senior executives who meet monthly with a collective intent to support one another’s personal development; TWO NEW Roundtables are now being formed – one in the SF Bay Area and another in the New York City area – which will start in January of 2001; members sign up for one year and receive two hours of private coaching each month between meetings as one of the benefits of participating.
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EDITORIAL
The Coin-Operated CEO
There’s a very well-known Silicon Valley leader who suggested that people consider him to be “coin-operated” when asked what motivates him, or excites him. Without knowing this man at all, the mere idea that he’d refer to himself in this way suggests that he’s epitomizing the gold rush mindset so widespread in the Valley (and all the Valley ‘annexes’ throughout the world). For years, CEOs and other senior leaders in corporations have been motivated by financial incentives of various sorts – huge salaries, bonuses, vested stock and options, and many other creative perks which may not even be generally known about.
The “coin operated” metaphor serves to identify the traditional mindset of the incentivized leader who can be bought by external rewards. This thinking is outmoded in the context of a revolution in consciousness since it assumes that people can be motivated like dogs or other animals. As several executives in the Valley have been heard to say, “Hell, I can hold my breath that long” meaning that they can put up with all kinds of stress, pressures, invalidations and other negative conditions and endure them for a short time in order to reap the financial rewards they are expecting to come their way.
Some leaders are now re-examining this ‘holding the breath’ thinking. For one thing, at some point in the financial incentive game a point is reached where the rewards don’t work any more; when you’re making several million dollars a year, what’s another million?
Secondly, holding one’s breath requires one to deny one’s inner needs, to lose touch with their souls. People describe it differently but the discontent, the malaise and the deeper longings are being felt or experienced in various ways. Some say they are losing touch with themselves. Some feel empty inside. Others describe a veil of dispassion has come over them, muting their spirits. Many don’t have words for this experience but simply nod their heads when discussions about these things happen around them.
And, this phenomenon is not a generational malady. It is occurring in the dotcom community with Generation X’ers as well as with the Boomers and older leaders. Even those just getting out of graduate school are aware of the sacrifice they seem to be asked to make, even though no one is specifically making the request for anyone to subjugate these highly-personal needs in order to be loyal to the dominant system they are entering. The pressures to conform are quite IMPLICT, lacking any explicit requests or codification.
Much of the work that executive coaches are doing these days involves supporting the client-executive in feeling more satisfied with their subjective experience – enrichening their inner lives while they continue operating under greater and greater pressures to perform better, more efficiently and faster. And the pressure is constant, non-relenting, and endless – somewhat akin to being on one of those Medieval racks they tortured people with, stretching the prisoners bodies further and further, constantly moving the wheel more than they thought possible until eventually the person was pulled in two!
In some ways, the “coin operated” executive is much like those Medieval prisoners – being pulled in two, stretching the gap between one’s soul and one’s mind/body, a painful and tortuous process that ultimately will result in a death of one’s spirit.
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NEWSBRIEF:
CIBA EXECUTIVE WRITES eCHOICE GUEST EDITORIAL:
Peter Sorg, is the author of this month’s guest editorial in eCHOICE , John’s UNfree e-newsletter. Peter is Head Group Relations and Member of Senior Management of Ciba Specialty Chemicals Inc., Basel, Switzerland. Next month’s eCHOICE Guest Editorial will be by visionary futurist Peter Russell. To subscribe to eCHOICE (see information below).
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NEWSBRIEF:
HOLIDAY OFFER FOR JOHN’S LATEST BOOK
Until December 24, you may purchase up to four copies of John’s book “Getting to the Better Future: A Matter of Conscious Choosing” and get a bonus book FREE. That’s right, five books for the price of four. So, if you wish to give these books as gifts to friends and colleagues who might appreciate receiving them, order them now and get them before the Holidays. AND, each copy will be autographed by John personally.
Foreword by Anita Roddick, founder of The Body Shop.
Rave reviews by Warren Bennis, Neale Donald Walsch, Peter Russell, Sally Helgesen, Michael Ray and others…..
Credit card orders: call TOLL FREE 877-273-6372 or 415-437-6974.
Single copies: $13.50 (plus $3.75 S&H); CA residents add 8 1/2% sales tax.
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eCHOICE: The E-Newsletter for Introspective Leaders
the UNfree newsletter from John
eCHOICE is SENT DIRECTLY FROM JOHN, not through the automatic system of his Web site – Renesch.com – like issues of Better Future NEWS. Subscribers receive eCHOICE in two formats – as text in the body of the email AND in MS Word as an attached file so more attractive copies can be archived by subscribers.
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About John Renesch
Better Future NEWS is prepared monthly by John E. Renesch, a San Francisco writer, futurist, and business philosopher. His new book – Getting to the Better Future: A Matter of Conscious Choosing – is just out. He served as Editor-in-Chief of The New Leaders business newsletter from 1990 to 1997 and has created a dozen business anthologies on progressive business subjects, including consciousness, intuition and leadership. These books include New Traditions in Business, Learning Organizations and The New Bottom Line.
He is also an international keynote speaker, having addressed audiences in Tokyo, Seoul, London, Brussels, Budapest as well as many cities throughout the U.S.
