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It is Friday and I am reflecting on what was a very big week. This week we officially launched the new www.SusanLeahy.com website.  What an adventure this project was!  I want to take a moment to thank the TEAM of people it took to get this project completed. 

First, I need to say thank you to my husband Jared who it feels at times is doing more for me then I can ever do for him.  Your support is appreciated more then you will ever know!!  Thank you for helping me to get this website launched. 

Second, I want to say thank you to Louisa and her team at CLICK2IT.  The world of web desing can be a frightening place for a "non technical" person like me but you and your team have been easy to talk to and patient as we are working to create more then just a website but a successful internet business.  You are appreciated and I look forward to our continued relationship!!  We are excited about conquering www.FreewayGuides.com with you!!

Next, a HUGE THANK YOU to Butch Oxendine the executive director of ASGA for supporting me with some great marketing this week.  I really do enjoy the TEAM we have created and I look forward to all the continued success we will have working together.  Thanks for your support and your vision!! I love being apart of ASGA.

Also, I do need to say thanks to Aron Benon.  Where this new site started to take shape. Thank you for your initial investment and please know that it is appreciated.

It was a great week, long in coming but very much worth the wait as there have been more orders this week then I have ever had for Driving the Language of Parliamentary Procedure. Organizations and student government boards across the country have been ordering this needed resource.  It feels so very great to know that this information is making its way into the hands of the people who most need it.  Running great meetings, builds better TEAMS!!

To close out my thoughts for this week I have to thank the 2 schools where I had the opportunity to speak this week!  Speaking is my passion and whenever I have the opportunity to give a keynote, training or speech I feel so very thankful.  I need to give a shout out to the students at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, CA  and to The Art Institute in San Bernardino CA.  Thank you so very much for having me come and speak, you helped to make a great week even greater!!  Remember, the definition of confidence is to feel the fear but do it anyway!!

So it was a full week and I just needed to create the space to say thank you!! 

Thankfully Yours,

Susan Leahy MA. ABS
www.SusanLeahy.com
www.FreewayGuides.com

Today during my workshop at Cal State Northridge http://www.csun.edu I was teaching about Group Dynamics and being a situational leader.  This is such a fun session because it always reminds me about how different people are.  Not good or bad,right or wrong just how different our wants, our needs, our interpretations and perceptions can be.  I think that when these differences are understood and used, teams become more dynamic.

In many of my sessions I ask participants to identify if they are “Thinkers or Feelers”. Today I did the same thing. So you know, thinkers are the people who when faced with an issue think first about facts, data and detail’s. Feelers are the people feel first and focus on intuition, gut reactions and emotions.

Inevitably in each session I tend have a fairly even split of feelers and thinkers.  Today was no exception.  It is fascinating how this one small difference of being a “thinker or feeler” can have such an enormous impact on how we interact with and understand each other.

What are you? Are you a thinker or a feeler?  Yes, I know you might be saying that it depends on the situation.  But I want you to identify where you have the greater tendency to go. Where do you go most of the time?

So weather you area thinker or a feeler, in order to be in a productive communication you are going to have to learn to deal with your opposite.  Thinkers need to learn to talk to feelers and feelers need to learn how to talk to thinkers.  It is an up hill battle to expect people to change to become more like you. My daddy has told me for enough years, "Susan you can't change anybody." And that includes trying to change a thinker into a feeler or a feeler into a thinker. 

While there are many other tips & techniques that I cover in my Group vs. Team presentation(shameless plug  )  one great tool I give is a questions that I have created to make certain you are including both Thinkers and Feelers in the conversation.  This question invites people to enter the conversation from where ever they are in the conversation.  

“So, what you are thinking or feeling?” 

Sounds simple right!  The hard part is just remembering to say it.  But when you do, you have given people the permission to enter into the conversation from where they are not from where you think or feel they need to be.  Be willing to listen for the difference, to more fully understand the person!  You can’t be a team without having both Thinkers and Feelers!

Thanks for reading!

Susan Leahy MA ABS

http://www.freewayguides.com/home.php

http://www.susanleahy.com/

So yesterday was Valentines Day and my husband Jared and Iwent to at dinner at Orsteria La Bucca on Melrose http://www.osterialabuca.com/mainpage.html.It is one of our favorite Italian restaurants and it was our first time backsince they remodeled. If you like Gnocchi you will not find better!

 

The restaurant was full of couples celebrating ValentinesDay.  Including us.  We had exchanged gifts went to a movieand were now enjoying a nice bottle of Italian wine in front of a very cozyfire at our table. http://www.freewayguides.com/product.php?productid=8&cat=248

It seemed like the perfect date to celebrate ValentinesDay.  But because the tables wereso close together we couldn’t help to overhear that the couple at the tablenext to us was not having the same experience.  While they had been sitting close when we walked in and evenhugging, as their dinner progress the gentleman pushed himself back and had hishands folded on the table and was visibly frustrated.  The man was doing most of the talking and the woman waslistening.  The only thing I heardwas the woman saying, “If you can’t forgive me then we are not going to be ableto move forward in our relationship.”

Needless to say this couple was not the focus of my entiredinner but it did get me thinking. What is Valentines Day reallycelebrating?   Of course it iscelebrating love but what if there is something even more then love?  Because haven’t we been taught thatlove is all that matters?  Thepeople next to us were in love but it seemed that love wasn’t enough to movethrough whatever pain was being experienced.  What if what we are really celebrating is being apart of ateam, a team that is in love.

I really think that our primary relationship can be one ofthe greatest teams that any of us will ever have the opportunity to be apartof.  Yet many of us have seen peoplewho are married and in love but who are not apart of a team.

Being apart of a team is more fun, creates more energy,inspires motivation. When you are with people who are together in love and area team it is something great to be around.   So isn’t that what we should be aspiring tocelebrate.  The work that we havedone all year long with our husband, wife, partner, boyfriend, girlfriend to bea team with our mate!  I want myhusband to be my ultimate teammate.

Team is earned and it is something that you have to keepearning.  But when it becomes thefocus of what is important because you see the benefit it becomes somethingthat you want to continue to earn. Celebrate the love but love being apart of a team!

Happy Valentines Day!
Susan Leahy MA ABS

http://www.freewayguides.com/home.php

http://www.susanleahy.com/