Today I have the great pleasure of being the host on Day 14 of the Virtual Blog Tour for Healing the Corporate World by author Maria Gamb.
Written by former Fortune 500 executive, Maria Gamb, who spent more than 20 years trailblazing businesses valued at upwards of $100 million, Healing the Corporate World is a cutting-edge book examining the deep, and usually unspoken, ailment of the modern corporate world, offering solutions for healing at a personal, financial and even spiritual level. By showing the reader “the four cycles of transformational leadership”, Maria provides business leaders, from solo entrepreneurs to corporate senior executives, practical answers on how to transform their organizations from the inside out, and become “Change Agents”, consciously creating their own reality.
Yesterday, Maria visited Don Giberson. For today’s stop on the tour, I decided to ask Maria some questions about how Small Business People impact the healing of the Corporate World, I hope you enjoy it.
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What lead you to write “Healing the Corporate World”?
Maria: I basically got fed up. I realized that something had to change in business. After 20+ years of big business and several more as an entrepreneur I realized the problems are pretty much the same when you come right down to it. People always want to say they’re different but it’s just the scale and the level of creative freedom that’s different.
When I looked back over my career I noticed that there was a very distinct difference between businesses that succeeded and thrived and those that maybe had a spurt but then fell away or just failed completely.
Success is in the relationships we form. The rules of engagement we embrace and the integrity with which we operate. All of these things come back to letting go of an ego that competes, hides and/or creates an unhealthy work environment. However, no one really explains how and why this occurs on a very deep personal level.
Healthy businesses work from a higher level of awareness using a business model that is sustainable. What I’m talking about is the mindset, attitudes and values of the people who work there. People and their mindset or attitudes are any company’s greatest raw material. With that, mountains can be moved and new businesses expanded, developed and innovated. I know this from personally applying these principles and watching flailing businesses return to profitability.
I realized that if I can share this philosophy with others who are in businesses feeling frustrated then they may have the chance to change things for the better, right then and there before they decided to walk away. We all want to make an impact in the world, and this book gives people hope that they can do so no matter where they are in any organization. No matter how frustrated they feel. That’s hope! That’s powerful! But it all starts with them.
You speak about overcoming the victim mentality – can you explain about this and what the alternative is for those who run their own business or still work for someone?
Maria: The victim mentality is that which says, “I have no control. I am at the mercy of others actions, decisions and whims”. Someone who feels like a victim feels powerless to make any profound change. There is a resignation that this “is it.” Nothing will ever get better. They have given over their happiness, security, fulfilment and success to another person or group. This is one of the great tragedies that I see not only in business but in relationships in general.
The book is a call to action, an awakening of the individuals who may be feeling this way to tell them that this is absolutely not so. They are far more powerful than they realize. In essence the book serves as a checklist challenging this point and helps them to see that they control and decide what kind of work environment they work in, how others treat them and the results they achieve no matter where they may sit on the chain of command. An individual can create the most harmonious team and working experience no matter what’s going on around them. This is a choice.
I challenge them to “Know thyself” as Socrates so aptly states it. Do you give your very best or do you hold back? Do you compete rather than collaborate? Are you more attached to the problem or more committed to the solution? Do you spend more time engaging in unproductive actives rather than staying committed to your own success and goals? When the answer to any of those is yes, it’s time to look inside.
You can say “but you don’t know where I’ve been and what I’ve been through….” I hear this a lot. One of the truths is to be consistently persistent in achieving your goals and dreams. You see, this is about shifting your mindset to one of success and leading others to do the same. To creating teams and businesses that are highly productive and profitable. I stress this point because an individual’s consciousness is any businesses most valuable raw material. Change a person’s mind and you can change the organization – solopreneur to multi-billion dollar business.
What do you feel are the key elements for businesses that would like to embrace this model of cooperation you talk about?
Maria: There are several components or skills that go into creating a collaborative business: trust, integrity, transparency and the willingness to drop ones ego as a whole, are part of the process.
While you may be able to shift the group of people that you’re currently working within your own business by letting go of many of the ego behaviors that contribute to a competitive environment, such as fear, insecurity and lack. At times it may appear that those on the outside may not want to play by the same rules you do. Here’s what’s true, as Joseph Campbell says, “When we talk about settling the world’s problems, we’re barking up the wrong tree. The world is perfect. It’s a mess. It has always been a mess. We are not going to change it. Our job is to straighten out our own lives”. This may sound hopeless but in fact there is a very clear lesson here. That is to deal with your own internal environment first and then the rest, outside of you will follow or leave.
In the case of outside partnerships to your business, here’s another truth, people want to work for and with others who are able to partner with them for everyone’s mutual success and betterment. They look for those who are honest and operate with integrity. The more you sink into your own values the message becomes a beacon to those around you and they say “hey I’d rather work with this group rather than a more cut-throat or competitive group” because at the end of the day people generally seek happiness and when they realize working with people who are not wrapped up in the trauma of the drama brings them more happiness they gravitate accordingly.
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I hope you enjoyed this interview with Maria Gamb and that you’ll check out her new book Healing the Corporate World, which is coming to Amazon on Tuesday October 12, 2010.
You can receive a complete library of beautiful personal development gifts when you buy the book on the day of its launch. In addition, Maria is hosting an exciting FREE 4-day telesummit entitled “Transforming Business from the Inside Out” on October 4th – 7th with a distinguished panel of 9 of today’s most innovative authors and speakers on becoming the ‘Change Agent’ in your business, in your life and in the world!
If you’d like to attend, all you have to do is request a “launch reminder” about the book, and you’ll receive all the information to attend. If you cannot make the live event, you can download the audio at your convenience.
Be sure to follow Maria tomorrow when the next stop on his Virtual Blog Tour is Tomar Levine’s blog at www.YourTimeToBloom.com.
What do you think? Can you help “Heal The Corporate World?”
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