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Cross Currents Communications
Creative Solutions for Changing Times
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ORGANIZATIONAL CONSULTING Meeting Facilitation Communications Training Staff Recruitment & Development Volunteer Management Virtual Team Management Performance Improvement *
BUSINESS COACHING
(phone, on-line, in-person)
Marketing Communications Small Business Development Ecopreneurship
Career Management *On-Going Support
Guaranteed Results!A GIFT FOR YOU!Complimentary 30-minute consultation for the first 5 who respond to this announcement.
Call 510.336.9161 or CLICK HERE to schedule an initial consultation.
"Sheryl designed and led an outstanding and engaging High Performance Human Resources Management seminar for our Executive Leadership Institute. She developed fantastic courseware and facilitated action plans that our clients could immediately implement. She has been extremely flexible in meeting our changing needs, and has set the gold standard for all of our consultants. We look forward to working with her again soon."
Selma Taylor, Executive Director, California Research & Training (CARAT)
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The Grand Café
Making Dreams Come True
In California, there is an estimated 770,000 immigrant
and refugee women with the desire, vision, and potential to start their
own businesses. What's lacking is an industry curriculum or service
model that delivers entrepreneurship education to women with limited English skills.
Since 2005, I have had the great fortune of working as a business coach, trainer, and consultant with C.E.O.Women (Creating Economic Opportunities for Women), a ground- breaking business development organization founded in Oakland , CA that transforms the lives of low-income immigrant and refugee women, by giving them training and tools to start small businesses and establish successful and fulfilling livelihoods.
This past year, C.E.O. Women realized the grand vision of their Founder and Executive Director, Farhana Huq, with the launch of the Grand Café "Telenovela", as it's known in Latin countries. This educational genre of soap opera features a diverse group of women immigrants coming together to create their future. By combining intriguing personal dramas with distance learning tools, Grand Café engages and empowers women in the same revolutionary way Sesame Street transformed children's education and broadcasting.
For a sneak preview of the Grand Café trailer, click here.
Would you like to
support a vision that will positively impact thousands of women's lives?
This season consider giving the gift of education. Click here to donate to future episodes of the Grand Café.
Help change lives. It feels good!
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Powerful Seminars
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Warm Greetings of Gratitude! 
It's been a few months since I've sent my last e-zine to all of you. I truly appreciate your taking the time to explore the variety of rich resources I've gathered for this issue.
I've been intentionally whirling in the Mecca as I like to refer to the Bay Area: this Epicenter of Innovation, of Creativity, of Mind-Expanding Change, Invention, Trend-Setting and Paradigm-Shifting. Through all this buzz of activity, conferences, and symposia, the common themes I continue to see emerging in business, organizational, and personal development are mentorship (having one and being one), making peace with radical uncertainty, and living with persistence and courage.
Currently, I continue my studies in Marshall Rosenberg's revolutionary system of Compassionate Communication. Recently, our facilitator at the Oakland NVC Center shared this ritual practiced by the Babemba tribe in Zambia:
In the Babemba tribe, when a person acts irresponsibly or unjustly, he/she is placed in the center of the village, alone and unfettered. All work ceases, and every man, woman and child in the village gathers in a large circle around the accused individual. Then each person in the tribe speaks to the accused, one at a time, about all the good things the person in the center of the circle has done in his lifetime. Every incident, every experience that can be recalled with any detail and accuracy is recounted. All his/her positive attributes, good deeds, strengths and kindnesses are recited carefully and at length. The tribal ceremony often lasts several days.
The tribe recognizes that the correction for antisocial behavior is not punishment, but love and the remembrance of identity. They believe a friend, coach, or teacher, is someone who knows your song and sings it to you when you have forgotten it.They are not fooled by the mistakes you have made or the dark images you hold about yourself. They remember your beauty when you feel ugly; your wholeness when you are broken; your innocence when you feel guilty; and your purpose when you are confused.
As we move into the shortest (darkest) days of the year, and the potential challenges of the holidays in our culture, know your song and sing it. Surround yourselves with others that will remind you of your purpose and bring you back to your song when you seem to have temporarily lost your voice.
In heartfelt collaboration,
Sheryl Sever
aka Coach Shera
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| What is your Desired Outcome?
Even if you're sitting on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there." -Will Rogers
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 Like many clients I have worked with, I am a Personality Type Seven in the Enneagram System meaning, I like to keep my options open. In Northern California, some call this "going with the flow", and may use this strategy as their chosen methodology for postponing decision-making and commitments.
Now, don't get me wrong. I am all for being in the flow. After all, that's where magic happens. There is a great awareness that arises in this "Being with What Is"- or as Gil Fronsdal calls it, the Practice of "Not-Knowing". Socrates said, "The realization of not knowing is the
beginning of wisdom." Practicing being comfortable with the unknown, yet trusting in an
inherent wisdom by keeping the channel open is what Martha Graham coined, "The Blessed
Unrest".
I have spent many months in this "Blessed Unrest, practicing the "Not-Knowing" inquiry. I've learned to befriend radical uncertainty. When we practice being comfortable with the unknown, a deep inner knowing does emerge of a what is possible. This or something better! We don't need to have all the answers to take action towards a desired outcome.
With the recent explosion of The Secret & The Law of Attraction, we
have all been reminded that desires and passion coupled with focused
intention and trust is the most powerful formula for manifestation. In order to create change and see specific results, it is essential to put our attention on what we want.
The Key is to FOCUS on the OUTCOME
as if it already EXISTS.
So, do you want to create the momentum that will produce optimal results in your business or organization? Would you like to attract more ideal clients? Increase your revenue? Double your income? Transition into a new career? Try these seemingly simple steps for 60 days and see the results:
1. Write your goals as affirmations. Writing is essential.It creates suggestion in the subconscious. Use present tense, with specifics: It is now March 2008, I have/am________ or my company is/has________.
Write what you will be doing and feeling when you are living in this outcome. Include as much detail as possible for evidence of achievement. This is a critical component in knowing/seeing that you have achieved your desired outcome.
2. Read these goals aloud 2-3 times a day- first thing in the morning and right before bedtime is very effective.
3. Use visuals to support your goals/affirmations: Create a collage or vision board. If you are leading a management team, facilitating a change initiative or strategic visioning process, I recommend using more sophisticated graphic template guides such as those available at www.grove.com.
4. Surround yourself with people who will support the achievement of your outcomes and hold you to high standards. Remove yourself from people and environments that do not support your vision.
5. Get inspired. Read autobiographies and biographies of your heroes, living or not. I was very motivated in my recent re-reading of Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, and following his "secret" 100%.
6. Saturate yourself with learning. Engage in personal development workshops and seminars. Harv Eker's Millionaire Mind Intensives and Guerilla Business School are life-changing.
7. Vow to Play a Bigger Game. Marianne Williamson said it best: ". . . we ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be?"
8. Maintain a consistent exercise program and balanced, healthy nutrition. Drink plenty of water. Reduce/eliminate sugar, alcohol, caffeine and red meat intake.
9. Every moment is a choice point. Living in this realization is very empowering. If you find yourself unclear at a choice point, be with the uncertainty. As one of my mentors often reminded me in times of anxiety or fear: 'Don't do anything, just be still." Allow the inner flame of clarity to emerge. Then, refer back to the picture /words of your DESIRED OUTCOME and select an ACTION(S) that propels you towards your desires and goals.
10. Have fun with the process and enjoy the journey!
If it's humanly possible, you CAN DO IT!
We all need support. Are you seeking a professional partner and vision keeper committed to helping you achieve desired outcomes in your
business, organization, or with your "blessed unrest"? Click here to schedule an initial consultation. |
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Social Entrepreneurs: ChangeMakers of Today
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We are in the midst of a rare,
fundamental structural change in society: citizens and citizen groups
are beginning to operate with the same entrepreneurial and competitive
skill that has driven business ahead over the last three centuries.
People all around the world are no longer sitting passively idle; they
are beginning to see that change can happen and that they can make it
happen." -Bill Drayton, ASHOKA, CEO and Chair WHAT is a SOCIAL ENTREPRENEUR? ASHOKA's criteria for Social CREATIVITY includes: CREATIVITY & PROBLEM SOLVINGSuccessful social entrepreneurs must be creative both as goal-setting visionaries and as problem solvers capable of engineering their visions into reality. Creativity is not a quality that suddenly appears-it is almost always apparent from youth onward. Does this individual have a vision of how he or she can meet some human need better than it has been met before? CHANGE, INNOVATION, MISSIONFirst class entrepreneurs are leaders who see opportunities for change and innovation and devote themselves entirely to making that change happen. These leaders often have little interest in anything beyond their mission, and they are willing to spend the next ten to fifteen years making a historical development take place. Social entrepreneurs are individuals with innovative solutions to society's most pressing social problems. They are ambitious and persistent, tackling major social issues and offering new ideas for wide-scale change. Rather than leaving societal needs to the government or business sectors, social entrepreneurs find what is not working and solve the problem by changing the system, spreading the solution, and persuading entire societies to take new leaps. Social entrepreneurs often seem to be possessed by their ideas, committing their lives to changing the direction of their field. They are both visionaries and ultimate realists, concerned with the practical implementation of their vision above all else. Read more . . .
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 Here's wishing each of you a holiday season filled with gratitude, grace, and ease. Walk lightly on the planet.Reach into yourselves
and out to others.
Consume less, share more.
Love with All your Heart!
Coach Shera
Sheryl R. Sever (Shera)
Cross Currents Communications
www.sherylsever.com
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