Intentional Leaders Podcast with Cyndi Wentland

Transforming Leadership and Well-Being Through Gratitude with Lori Saitz

August 18, 2024 • Cyndi • Episode 142

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Unlock the secrets to a more grounded and productive workplace with our enlightening discussion with Lori Seitz of Zen Rabbit. How can the simple act of expressing gratitude transform leadership and team dynamics for the better? Lori reveals her insights and shares some compelling statistics on how gratitude can drastically boost employee morale, productivity, and retention.

Struggling with stress and looking for effective ways to manage it? Lori and Cyndi delve into the benefits of meditation and how integrating it into your daily routine can rewire your brain, enhance decision-making, and improve relationships. Hear about Lori's journey through the ups and downs of her Zen Rabbit cookie business and how gratitude and meditation practices help her navigate stressful times. Cyndi also shares her own success story with a 12-minute daily meditation habit, demonstrating tangible improvements in her sleep and overall well-being.

Discover practical, actionable advice on simple wellness habits that can lead to significant changes in your professional and personal life. Visit ZenRabbit.com for additional insights and tips on cultivating work-life balance, and join us in celebrating Lori's impactful contributions to personal and professional growth.

Find Lori here: https://zenrabbit.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/lorisaitz/

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Cyndi:

Do you want to know about the profound effect of gratitude or the amazing effect of drinking water and how these two things go together? Today I'm going to welcome Lori Seitz to the Intentional Leaders podcast and Lori and I met online and I wanted to find out more about her organization called Zen Rabbit. I know you will take away some really interesting insights about the business impact of gratitude and well-being. I'm so excited for you to meet Lori Today. I'm excited to introduce and welcome Lori Seitz of the Zen Rabbit to our Intentional Leaders podcast. Welcome, lori.

Lori:

Thanks so much for having me, Cind. I am so looking forward to this conversation.

Cyndi:

I am too. So we met just through happenstance, through my website. We got together and, as you said, I was so excited to meet you to explore a little bit more about the work you do, but also why you're doing it, because I know you're very passionate about the work you do, but also why you're doing it, because I know you're very passionate about the things you do, so I'm thrilled to get to learn more from you today. My first question is about gratitude. I know your work emphasizes gratitude and the importance of it to leaders and to teams. Tell us a little bit about your research and experience around gratitude. I know there's cookies involved in this. And then why is this so essential to leaders from your point of view?

Lori:

To address the first thing that you said about what I'm so passionate about and this is going to sound maybe a little bit corny, but I always say my mission is to teach the world to be calm and grounded, no matter what's going on around them. I am really passionate about that because, if we can, as individuals, do that, think of the impact this has on the world, for your audience and for the people who are listening in the business world. Think of the impact that has on your business, that has on your clients, that has on your team. It's just so enormous that it's almost hard to wrap your head around it, and so that's why I'm doing what I'm doing. Going back to the whole gratitude concept, I started my first business in 2003. I was making and marketing a product called the Gratitude Cookie, which was based on a family recipe, kind of a cross between a butter and a sugar cookie so delicious.

Cyndi:

My favorites. They're so good. Butter and sugar like is there anything better?

Lori:

Right, I know, maybe some chocolate, but they didn't have chocolate. You could dip them in chocolate. Anyway, I have a background many years in marketing, and so when I started this business, it was not my goal to be the next Mrs Fields. I was creating a product for businesses to say thank you to their clients and their referral sources. The reason that's so important is one it's a differentiating factor for businesses, because so very few businesses do a great job of this. One that comes to mind that does a fantastic job of it is Chewy, the pet company. They are just outstanding, and whenever I bring up this topic, people usually throw out Chewy as an example because they are very good at it, but most companies are not. I remember having a conversation at a networking event when I was running that business and a woman said well, why would anybody want to do that? Of course they know you appreciate them. They're paying you. I was like you're totally missing the boat.

Cyndi:

You do not get it Exactly. It's kind of like, yeah, why do you want to reinforce your employees when you're paying them to do work Right Right. That's a very old school philosophy.

Lori:

It absolutely is. And so back in 2003,. I might've been a little bit ahead of my time, because now there's so much more research and science behind how using gratitude affects business in actual numbers of productivity and profitability 70% of employees would feel better about themselves if their boss was more grateful and 81% would work harder.

Cyndi:

Oh, wow.

Lori:

Yeah, 91% of people in another study said they are more likely to do business with companies that appreciate their customers, but at the same time, 65% of Americans didn't receive recognition in the workplace last year, so there's a bit of a disconnect. A lot of what's being talked about in the workplace right now is retention and engagement.

Lori:

And how do I do a better job of helping my employees to be more engaged or to stay longer? And again, there was a study done by Glassdoor that showed that 53% of employees claim that they're willing to stay longer in a company if their boss appreciates them. And I think it was that same study it was still a Glassdoor survey that 81 percent of employees would feel more motivated to work harder if they knew that their work was appreciated. And then there was another study by the University of Pennsylvania that said people who practice gratitude were 50 percent more productive than those who didn't you talk about gratitude as it's a nice concept, like did your mom make you write thank you notes when you were a kid?

Cyndi:

Yes, and in fact I just got one from our next door neighbor. She just turned nine. She put a little handwritten note in a picture in the mailbox. I swear that meant more to me than a lot of things. When children write that, and they have the practice of doing that, I think there's a lot of value and benefits, not only to them to be grateful, but to the receiver of it. It was a beautiful thing. I love that.

Lori:

Yeah, so that works, whether it comes from a child or whether it comes from an adult Absolutely. Where I was going with this, though, is yes, that's a nice thing and I want to come back to that whole concept in a minute, but beyond, it's a nice thing to do, it's the right thing to do, and it's what you were taught is good manners. There are all of these hard number reasons why to do it.

Cyndi:

Absolutely, absolutely. So when you think of that cookie business and you said you were a little bit ahead of your time, talk a little bit about that.

Lori:

You know, talking about the concepts of gratitude and how it was a differentiating factor for business and, beyond being a differentiating factor, martin Seligman had done some research on happiness. There's somebody else I'm thinking of, whose name is escaping me, who's done research on gratitude, but there's so much more now. People were kind of starting to get into it 20 years ago, but now it's more accepted.

Cyndi:

Yeah, and more understood and more valued. There's probably not as many people like the woman who you encountered who said why would we do that? Or why would we thank our employees, or why would we thank our clients, or why would we do that. I think a lot more people today, especially in the younger generations, understand the value and purpose of that.

Lori:

They do, and there's still a lot of work to do.

Cyndi:

Yes, so what happened with the Zen Rabbit cookies?

Lori:

I couldn't scale that business the way I would have liked to. I ran it for 11 years. I couldn't get it to a point where it was profitable enough to make it worthwhile to keep going, and I ended up just shutting it down.

Cyndi:

Do you still make those cookies, Lori?

Lori:

At the holidays I still make them, but people are still reaching out to me all these years later, going. I bet hey remember those cookies.

Lori:

You might revive that business. I sold all the equipment. I don't think so.

Cyndi:

Oh darn it.

Cyndi:

Oh, I love that. That means something, too, that people remember it after all these years, and I think that is true. I think people are looking for an opportunity. As you said, retention and engagement is so important, and I think also, you and I were talking, right before the podcast started, about stress and mental health and wellbeing, and when I think about the work you're doing, we know that stress and mental health issues are on the rise and have a big effect. So you also talk in your business about meditation and grounding practices. Why do you think those are so important, particularly in today's work environment?

Lori:

Both practicing gratitude and practicing meditation, or grounding exercises or calming exercises, or whatever you want to call them. They rewire your brain, literally rewire your brain so that you can respond to any situation. It comes back to my mission of teaching people to be calm and grounded, no matter what's going on around them. If you can respond instead of react from that reptilian part of your brain, you are better able to make decisions. You're making better decisions when you are making them. You are physically healthier, you're stronger, you are more emotionally intelligent. So you are creating better relationships, both with your teammates, with your clients, and with the people you live with at home, because if your relationships at home are not great, that's affecting your ability to work when you get into the office or get in front of your desk 100%. That's why both of those concepts are so important to incorporate into your business.

Cyndi:

Yeah, gratitude, as you said and we've kind of discussed just briefly, gratitude, I think, is becoming more accepted, understood and there's a desire to do more of that in the workplace. And then, when you think about grounding techniques or calming techniques, anything like that, how do you help businesses really understand that at a level that they want to make an investment in it? Because I can still see a lot of people and I'm in that older generation, although I completely agree with you and advocate for it but that would think it's a little woo-woo Like what are we doing? We're going to breathe now.

Lori:

This is exactly why people hire me, because I am this perfect translator between what could be considered woo-woo and, again, so much science and research behind this. So it is not just woo-woo. Between that and the practical application for businesses Like that's what I show up with are these tools and techniques that you can take and put to work. That will take you five minutes to do and you will see results in five and a half minutes. You know like, yeah, yeah, that's where I show up.

Lori:

I'm not coming to businesses and saying, okay, let's put together this program and it'll take us about six months to put it together and then we can start enrolling people in it and convincing them that they need to participate. No, we're doing a workshop and they're walking out of there with tools and techniques that they can use right now and see results. Like I said, right now. Those results will become cumulative over the next 30 days, 60 days, nine months, whatever. That's what I do with businesses and then they will start seeing those results in productivity.

Lori:

But ultimately, you know, what everybody wants to see is what's the bottom line, the profit from that. But, of course, when you have people who are better able to focus better, able to be innovative and who are physically feeling better. There are physical benefits to this, beyond just mental and emotional. There's benefits on every level, because when people are in pain, there are studies that have been done that people who are more grateful have less physical pain Same with practicing meditation Less physical pain Same with practicing meditation less physical pain. They sleep better. How many people are listening to this who are like yeah, I woke up four times last night or I never fell asleep. Well, a lot of people struggle with that and these techniques help people with all of these things.

Cyndi:

Yeah, and I really believe that I had read. I don't know if you're familiar with Amishi Jha Peak Mind. Her whole focus is on attention management, but in it she advocates for meditation and mindfulness, practicing like focusing your attention. I always thought, woo-woo on the meditation, although I've read all the things that you said around science and in the back of the book, although I've read all the things that you said around science and in the back of the book, she kind of like how to start your practice.

Cyndi:

It advocates for 12 minutes a day and I thought, ok, Cyndi, you can invest 12 minutes a day like do this and I've been doing this over the last I don't know how many months now, but I have totally noticed a difference of those practices, of the mindfulness, of the meditation. And you mentioned sleep. I'm a horrible, horrible sleeper. My sleep hygiene is awful and I thought I have to change this. For my mental health, for my physical health, I must do something different. But I feel like a convert, like a meditation convert, and with only 12 minutes a day, I'm like I can totally invest in this and typically I 12 minutes a day. I'm like I can totally invest in this and typically I do more than that because I found it so helpful. So I think if you can help people one understand the value and benefit of it personally, professionally, physically, mentally, in terms of how they're showing up and saying a very small investment can reap huge returns. I just think that's a beautiful thing.

Lori:

I love hearing that you've seen such amazing results from doing 12 minutes a day. Andrew Huberman is a researcher and he had a study that said even three minutes a day can have an effect. But either way I mean if you don't have three minutes or 12 minutes out of your 24 hours you probably have bigger problems, right, but those can be managed. The question then becomes why don't you want to see benefits and see results? Yeah, like, what is it that's keeping you from giving 12 minutes a day to yourself?

Cyndi:

Absolutely In the total scheme of life, right? What are you willing to commit for? Feeling better, doing better and showing up better, right? So, when you think about working with businesses, what is the biggest challenge then, with organizations or leaders hiring you? Because there's all this research, there's all these perceptions, but what do you find is the biggest, most consistent challenge?

Lori:

The challenge for me really is in making the connections with the right people within the organization.

Lori:

Oh, okay, yeah, because once we start having the conversation, like you and I are having right now, it becomes more of a like well, why wouldn't I do this?

Lori:

Yeah, I wanted to mention when we started talking about meditation that there are so many of the top performing business leaders in the world who are now talking about their meditation practices, openly talking about it and attributing their success to their meditation practice. And now I want to make sure to say they're not just sitting on the couch meditating and not doing anything else and saying, well, my success is just showing up at the door, I don't do anything. But the meditation practice sets them up to be more intentional, to make the rest of their day flow easier. It makes their relationships easier, it makes their focus more heightened, they're better at decision-making, and we're talking about people like Bill Ford, chairman of Ford Motor Company, and Arianna Huffington, who's the founder of Huffington Post. I love bringing up this person because Ray Dalio is a Wall Street icon and he has said that his success is in very large part due to his meditation practice. And Ray Dalio, wall Street is probably as far to the other extreme of woo-woo as you can get.

Cyndi:

Right, exactly yes, and I have seen some clips of him talking about that and some research with another colleague that I have, and he brings them up a lot because you know again, you think of successful business person and what can help him to be so successful. Talking about that openly, too, I think, is really important. It doesn't take you long to find research about mental health and stress in the workplace right now. So can we connect, as you said, with the right people who are the decision makers, who can be a champion for trying something new and doing something new? I hope the time is now for businesses to start doing more of that. It's so essential.

Lori:

Because you look at the challenges that they're facing in business, with retention, with engagement, with creativity and innovation, with health, like people not showing up because they don't feel well or not giving as much I guess it's a little bit different than engagement, but they're there, they're doing the work, but it's just taking them longer than it probably should because their head is not in the game, because, again, they're being distracted by so many thoughts in their head. So can we do something about all of those things? And these are tools and techniques that can help. They've been proven to help. Let's implement them. And the cool thing is, yes, I mean it costs money to bring me in to do a workshop, but you don't have to continually then invest. The actual tools and techniques don't cost anything. You don't have to Right, they're free. Yeah, yes, exactly, the actual tools and techniques don't cost anything.

Cyndi:

You don't have to right, they're free. Yeah, yes, exactly, yeah. Well, this all connects to acceptance of the stress we have in our life, the challenges we have in business and, as you said, managing even personally and professionally. I just did a blog about cultivating work-life balance. I have a lot of regrets about how much I've invested in work at the expense of family over years. I'm really trying to shift that for myself. You and I talked earlier about acceptance and the importance of acceptance when I do training on stress, and this was put together by the Mayo Clinic many, many years ago four A's of stress how to manage it. So it's avoid, adapt, alter and accept. You and I talked a little bit about the power of acceptance. So talk to the audience a little bit about why you think that is so important or how we can get people to do that or else to do that?

Lori:

Yeah, it is definitely a challenge, because if you've ever been in a situation that you did not like, that you did not want to be in, and now somebody is going to come and tell you to accept it, it'll be okay, like no, I don't want it, this is not okay. This term of acceptance is not about being complacent, it's accepting that. This is where you are right now, backing up one step. First, all of this stuff that we're talking about, none of this is about necessarily changing the circumstances around you. It's about changing your response to them. We're not eliminating stress.

Lori:

Stress is always going to show up. There are always going to be stressful situations in your life, but how do you respond to it in the best way? And so, going back to acceptance, accepting okay, this is where I am Now. What Now? How do I move forward from here? Because if you can't accept that this is where it is, you don't have to like it, but just accept and recognize. Maybe recognize is a better word than acceptance in some places. This is what's happening. I don't like it. Okay, what am I going to do now? What are my options? Because you probably heard the phrase what you resist persists and the other part of that phrase that I didn't hear for a very long time was and what you accept, you can change. Ooh, that's a good one.

Cyndi:

Oh, I like that. It's really interesting that you talk about accepting of the circumstances around. It doesn't mean you have to like it, but staying stuck in not liking something and ruminating endlessly about it and feeling bad about it has no constructive purpose to it. You know, it's like we almost fall being a victim in our life, as opposed to having personal agency, as you said, to move forward in a healthy, constructive way. And the longer we sit and ruminate about what we dislike, the less likely we are to take action, the less healthy we are. I think that's really interesting because I know a lot of people who do. They fall into like I'm a victim of circumstances. And yeah, you are a person in a circumstance. It doesn't mean you have to stay stuck thinking about it in a destructive way to yourself.

Lori:

Right. It becomes a habit for the majority of people in the world, this habit of staying stuck, of being in victim mode. They will say they don't like it, but they're also not necessarily willing to do anything about it. I go back and forth on. Is it because they don't know what to do? Or is it and I think it's a combination because someone offers them an option like some tools and techniques, but they don't take it because it feels familiar to stay where they are, to stay stuck. It's not necessarily comfortable, but it's like this weird comfortable because it's familiar. I don't like it, but I know what it feels like and I don't know what it feels like to not be feeling this way, and that might be worse or I don't know. It's just different People have a hard time with different Like. I don't know if I'm going to like different.

Cyndi:

Yeah, absolutely. Well, and it's awkward to change. You know, when you have that sense of normalcy, as you said, it's normal to feel stuck or powerless or like I don't like it. But then the energy and even when someone gives you here are the tools. I was the same way around meditation for a long time and I remember practicing yoga decades ago where I'd be like quit, telling me to breathe and be awake. I just wanted to exercise and I resisted it a lot. And I look back on that and think why was I so resistant? So I think you're getting at something important that the familiar, although it's painful and it's not helpful sometimes, is more comfortable than the awkward and the unknown Like ooh, what if I do meditate? What if I don't do it right? What if I can't figure out those breathing techniques? What if they don't do anything? So then it prevents us from the trying, because the trying is awkward and uncomfortable, but of course it is.

Lori:

Yeah, anything new. When you're moving from high school to college, it's unfamiliar and awkward. When you're moving from one job to another job, you might be really excited about this new opportunity, but it's still a little scary Like, oh, what if they don't like me there? What if nobody wants to sit with me at lunch or whatever?

Cyndi:

Right, I still think things like that.

Lori:

Right, right, right. But once you get into it you're like oh my gosh, this is so much better. Agreed.

Cyndi:

On your website you have a program called F*** being fine. So when you say swear word being fine, what does that mean? What do you mean by that? To me, again, it's kind of back to all the things we've said about acceptance and gratitude and how you're feeling and your well-being. So what is it about the word fine? That is bad or, I guess, ineffective from your perspective.

Lori:

It's a default word that everybody says. You know, humans have a tendency to say everything is fine, even when it is so far from fine. That would never be applied. Somebody outside of your situation would never apply that word, and I have a podcast that's called Fine is a Four Letter Word. Fine is not okay, fine is mediocre. Who wants to go through life living a mediocre life? And so F being fine is designed I mean, you've heard me, I'm not dropping the F bomb, every other word here, and that's not normally how I speak but it's designed to be a wake up call Like this is your life here. I don't know how much time I have, you don't know how much time you have. Let's go and make things better than fine for everyone, for yourself. We as individuals have a responsibility to do that, yeah, and then, once you're better than fine, you can go make things better than fine for everybody in your orbit, for your clients, for your team, for your company, for your friends, your family, like the world.

Cyndi:

I agree I'm going to be stalking you, Lori, your podcast. I've already, like on the website, I signed up for your newsletter and like, I just want to totally absorb all the things that you're saying, because Brad, who's my business partner and husband, we have a longstanding joke about the word fine, because for him, everything is a longstanding joke about the word fine, because for him everything is fine, it's always fine, fine, fine, fine, fine, fine, and it's never fine. You know, as you said, fine is just a habit or something that we say that isn't descriptive of what's really happening. When you were talking, I was picturing a tombstone. She was fine.

Lori:

Yeah, she was fine really. She lived a fine life. Yeah, so fine.

Cyndi:

It was. So. How do you help people get out of the fine when you think about fine as a four letter word? How do you help them specifically to be unfine?

Lori:

It's all these tools and techniques that we've been talking about, these concepts of gratitude, of meditation, of acceptance, and then layer on top of that some physical things that you can do. And I have a program called Staying Calm in Chaos. That's a digital program where we talk about like, are you drinking enough water? I mean just silly, like stupid, simple things that, again, most people don't do. People have headaches and backaches and all of these things, but they're not consuming enough water, like it could. Potentially I'm not saying I'm not a doctor, I'm not diagnosing anybody but maybe some of these things could be alleviated by simply drinking enough water. Hydrating your body, hydrating your brain. Again, going back to the sleep, the sleep hygiene you mentioned earlier Are you watching the news before you fall asleep? All of these things are components of this program. To help you become the best version of yourself is really what we're talking about.

Cyndi:

Absolutely, which I love, and when I think of the work you're doing in the world to help people feel mentally, physically better, I look at so many people that I work with and I encounter hundreds and hundreds of people every year through learning and development. There's a lot of people who aren't fine, who are really stressed, who aren't sleeping well. It goes back to you mentioned too what creates the stuckness with people and how do we help them to get unstuck. Some of it is showing research about these tools and techniques. Some is just reminding people like who doesn't know you should drink water and get good sleep. Again, it's common sense, but it's not a common practice at all. You know, when we look at our habits and say, am I really changing them or not? So I think the more people in the universe that are spreading the message that you are spreading, we're all going to benefit from that, because that could be good role models and good coaches and good partners to other people to do the same thing.

Lori:

Right and I think to your point. A lot of times, people they may have heard it before, but they don't really understand why. Why they're being advised to drink more water of all the effects that actually hydrating your body can have. Yeah, like they've heard it, but they don't really understand how it applies or why it matters so much. The second thing is and I think we mentioned this earlier is that a lot of times they just don't know what to do. I mean, yes, maybe drink more water, but the whole like well, how do I meditate? Because I've tried it before and it didn't work, and that's a whole other podcast. Yes, but this is something that I do talk about in the workshops, and the work I do is how to make it work for you, how to customize it for you. So it's a matter of helping people to understand what tools and techniques are available to them and how to make them work for them, based on where they are, because there's not one size fits all. One size fits all never fits all.

Cyndi:

Totally agree.

Lori:

It doesn't.

Cyndi:

I'll say, having tried on many, one size fits all. I'm like, apparently that is not true. This is not true.

Lori:

No, and then the question to ask after someone's been exposed to this information and this is why I'm so passionate about getting into companies and working with people, because a lot of people who work in companies and in teams have not been exposed to a lot of this personal and professional development stuff. But it is very simple, which is also why it's so easy to dismiss Wait, so I just meditate for five minutes a day and that's all I need to do. Really, let's start there. That will have a profound effect, but it seems too easy. We want to complicate everything Right, we need to make it harder, wait, but I need 17 steps and I need to forget three of them in the middle so that it doesn't work.

Cyndi:

Isn't that true though? I mean that is kind of ironic. If you said to people here are three things you can do over the next six months to feel and be better. Number one clean up your sleep hygiene. Number two make sure you're getting enough water. And number three, meditate for five minutes a day, I think people would say you're nuts, lori, like that's not going to help because it would be so easy to trivialize it without actually doing it. And those small incremental habits and seeing the compounding effect of those very small changes, and how over a relatively short period of time. Like I said, I've only been meditating, I think maybe three months, but I thought stick with it, just stick with it, stick with it, just stick with it, stick with it. And I have been noticing it a lot.

Cyndi:

I was taking three small children to a splash pad last Friday night and you know four, five and nine, and then we went to the playground, then we went to the splash pad and playground splash pad, and then we went for ice cream and then what was so interesting is I found myself being very calm through the whole thing, like I didn't get frustrated. Really, I set some good ground rules. If we needed them, I added a few more, but I did not feel stressed like the Cindy of a year ago would have. I know I would have. I know I would have been probably more jittery or more like I got to get home or this is making me anxious in some way and it did not at all. And I thought this is working for me. It's helping me show up differently, better, more present for the important things. You know that's not even work, but that's my life important things, you know, that's not even work, but that's my life.

Cyndi:

Yeah, it waterfalls over into work. Yes, absolutely, it always does. It's hard to separate the stress associated with your personal life and how it is impacting you professionally. For sure, I want to encourage every human being to go check out your LinkedIn, sign up for your newsletter and also, as I said, I want to start following your podcast, and we just connected via LinkedIn. So I'm really excited about that because I think the work that you're doing I know the work that you're doing is critical, so us trying to get more people to understand the value and benefit of this is important, and the value and benefit of this is important.

Lori:

Yeah, I invite listeners to make a commitment to take one of these things and commit to doing it for the next seven days. Can you commit to the next seven days and just see how you feel. Yeah, any one of the things that you mentioned, and I think too.

Cyndi:

When you and I first talked, we talked about breathing techniques and the importance of that for feeling grounded in the moment. Some of those techniques, again, are very simple and I find myself coming back to my breath a lot, I think because of the meditation, and when I feel really either rickety or stressed or distracted back to that, those centering techniques are just uber helpful.

Lori:

Yeah, it's as simple as focusing on your breathing and noticing it which is again weird.

Cyndi:

But of course the Olympics are on these last two weeks and you see people visualizing and breathing and calming themselves before very high stakes situation. Most of us are not on a stage like that, but it matters all the same to how we perform and how we're showing up doing the work that we do.

Lori:

Yeah, we talked about business leaders using meditation, but plenty of athletes and celebrities as well, and they've used them for decades.

Cyndi:

Yeah, absolutely. I ask all my podcast interviewers about being intentional, and you have used that word. You and I have talked about it. But when you think of showing up as an intentional leader, what are a couple of the most important practices for you that allow you to do that successfully?

Lori:

Meditation is one of the most important practices because it allows me to be calm and grounded again, no matter what's going on around me, and I am known for that among my friends and my colleagues and my clients. Nothing, almost nothing, rattles me, and even if it does, it's a very short time between oh my gosh, what's happening right now? And getting back on solid ground and going okay. Now, what do we do? So, to be an intentional leader, you have to intentionally practice things that help you be the best person you can be, to be able to respond instead of react. To be able to be somebody that people can look to for. Like what do we do? Yes, how should we act in this situation? If a leader is running around like their hair is on fire yes, because something's burning down, a client is angry, whatever then everybody else picks up that energy.

Lori:

Being an intentional leader is about intentionally managing your energy for me for intentionally managing my energy so that I can influence and affect the people around me in a positive way.

Cyndi:

Yeah, oh, Lori, I think that is so profound and I know from Daniel Goleman or Travis Bradberry one of them associated energy and leaders. Energy is contagious. I think back to myself as a leader managing people, but also a lot of leaders I worked with picking up on that stressful energy Like oh my gosh, we're in the retail environment. Retail is very hard, we're going through all these tough times. We're in the manufacturing environment, like not having enough workforce or the right workforce. So there's that end of the spectrum and having that chaotic, stressed energy. But I also have known some leaders that show up uber calmly like that's the I'm fine, we're all fine, and it wasn't fine. Under the surface they're like, but they projected kind of a false image of calmness that did not help the people they were leading. What you're saying is different. You're managing your energy in a healthy, constructive way. But I have seen leaders almost pretend like everything is fine, thinking that's how they should model energy to their employees. Does that make sense?

Lori:

Yeah, that makes sense. I'm not talking about pretending. I'm talking about actually being this. And again, it is not dependent on the situation, because you can have a leader who is frantic because of the situation and you can have the same situation and have a leader who is intentionally managing their own energy to keep everybody else calm.

Cyndi:

Absolutely, and being a good model for that. I hear a lot of people saying I want to be a good role model, I want to be an example, I want to set an example.

Cyndi:

To me, that's a tricky phrase, because if you want to set an example for others and you don't know the example you're setting, that's where it can be very ineffective long-term if people lack that kind of self-awareness that you're talking about. Yeah, oh, it's a wonderful thing. I am so thrilled that we were able to make time to get together and for you to share the things and the work that you're doing with organizations, with your coaching clients and with your business. I absolutely want to do whatever I can to help spread the word, to help move people in your direction, because I believe so much in the power of what you're doing and I love your approach to it as well.

Lori:

Well, thank you so much for having this conversation today, because this has been fantastic, not fine Fantastic, right.

Cyndi:

And you're the kind of person I just I want other people to be exposed to your energy. I think also, Lori, what I love about what you do and how you do it is it's a very hopeful approach. It isn't like, oh my gosh, there's nothing I can do to change this. I just have to live in chaos and stress and my job sucks, and I have to accept that. No, you don't. I think you offer science, you offer techniques, you offer hope, you offer small changes that can yield big results, and to me, I just find that really powerful that you can help people in that way in your work and in your business. So I'm eternally grateful for what you're bringing to the universe.

Lori:

Thank you. Anything else you want to add, perhaps sharing that? If people want to find me, the website is zenrabbitcom and I am equally excited to connect with people on LinkedIn wonderful.

Cyndi:

Check out my website because I don't know in addition to these podcasts, if you know that I do blogs, and there is one recently about cultivating work-life balance. Top tips for leaders. When you think about your own personal well-being, there's some great tips for you to implement, Easy and helpful.