What does it take to become a leader?

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, the psychologist responsible for bringing the concept of “Flow” into our awareness shares his viewpoint on this question:
A leader will find it difficult to articulate a coherent vision unless it expresses his core values, his basic identity…one must first embark on the formidable journey of self-discovery in order to create a vision with [...]

6 Positive Guidelines from Michaëlle Jean, Canada’s Governor General

Michaëlle Jean, the Governor General of Canada, was interviewed by Aaron Wherry for the 14Jan 2008 Maclean’s magazine: Canadians Get Their Very Own Oprah (although I was disappointed to find the article about a leading Canadian woman a bit buried on the Maclean’s site) . In this article, she shared some of her strategies for [...]

A Positive Campaign Pays Off: Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard

On 24 November 2007, Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard were elected as Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister of Australia.
This was hardly expected. The on-line Progress Magazine described the surprise:
…”it has been argued that Howard simply outstayed his welcome, had grown tired and voters were attracted by a dynamic and fresh alternative. However, on its [...]

A Positive Vision for Women in Politics: What Would It Take?

 What do you think it would take to create a way for women to aspire to being a politician and confident that they won’t have to change their style to a culture of “maleness”? (And what does that mean, anyway?)
Bethan Jenkins, the youngest female Member of the National Assembly for Wales wrote an interesting post [...]

Women Blogging on Politics

Catherine Morgan has been creating a list of women who blog about politics — and she’s up to 200 and counting!
To see her list, pop over to her Informed Voters blog.
Following the creation of her list, she started a whole new blog called the Political Voices of Women to give women political bloggers another platform [...]

Another View on Politics as Self-Serving

I suspect many people think of politicians as out to get as much as they can for themselves– power, money, status.
But maybe they’re getting much more than that — good feelings.
Here’s a summary of a new study about people’s brain activity when they decide to donate money to a charitable cause (emphasis mine):
Giving found [...]

Connecting with your Courage as an Essential Step

“One isn’t necessarily born with courage,
but one is born with potential.
Without courage,
we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency.
We can’t be kind,
true,
merciful,
generous,
or honest.”Maya Angelou
It isn’t always easy to follow our own sense of rightness, our sense of personal integrity.
There are so many external — and even internal — pressures that push us to conform, [...]

What Does Your Political Business Make?

Odd question, eh?
Political business?
What does it make??
The inspiration for my question comes from a post by Dawud Miracle: Does Your Business Make Meaning, which was in turn inspired by a YouTube video by the marketer Guy Kawasaki, The Art of the Start.
Here’s the heart of the matter from Dawud’s blog:

Giving: The Secret to Political Success?

I came across a couple of recent blog posts on how we do business. One is from Dawud Miracle on The One Core Secret of Business Success. The other is from Seth Godin on What do I get?
Without intending to usurp their message (it’s worth popping over to read their whole posts), there are [...]

UN Launches a New On-line Network for Women in Politics

On 27 February, The United Nations launched an on-line network as a gathering place for women involved in politics all around the world.
Here are snippets from their Newsroom release:
New virtual network unites women in politics around the globe
New York — ‘iKNOW Politics,’ the first virtual network linking women in politics throughout the world, was launched [...]