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Can you explain how external circumstances don’t determine happiness?

Your happiness, your emotional pain, is never caused by what happens, by other people, situations, or things. In the physical universe, physical events do cause physical experience. For example– sugar, salt, fire, and ice all cause the same physical experience to everyone, all the time. There is a Cause – Effect relationship in the physical experience. This is not the case in the non-physical universe of human energy (thoughts, emotions, etc.). For any given event, we find that human experience such as thoughts, judgments, opinions and feelings is completely variable. If we hold constant the external event but observe a variety of human thoughts and emotions about that event, then the cause must be within that which is varying– which is the people. There is no Cause – Effect relationship between external events and emotions. This means that the person, not the external circumstances, is the cause, the creator, of their emotional experience, including happiness. The illusion that external circumstances create emotional experience is the cause of so much misery and most of the conflict in organizations. As long as employees in the organization do not know that they are the creators of their emotions– of their happiness or pain, there is no way to stop the generation of negative energy.  

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Why is understanding the law of polarity essential to happiness?

Polarity is a term that describes experience. A common example is the polarity of temperature, with an infinite number of possibilities in between the two poles of Hot and Cold. As are most experiences, your emotions (energy) are a polarity ranging from the negative emotions of fear, anger or sadness to the positive emotions of enthusiasm, passion and happiness. All of us have a chronic energy level. Your barometer of your energy level is determined by your emotions. In these times of stress, for many of us that energy level is negative– anxiety, fear, sadness, anger, hopelessness, frustration– any negative emotion.  The ultimate goal of each of us is to be happy. Everything that you do is because you believe that it will make you happy– at the very least you choose the lesser of two evils– that which you believe will bring you less pain. Each of us has as our goal in life, to move from the negative polarity of pain, to the positive polarity of happiness.

In the book you talk about various energy systems. What role does energy play in the workplace?

Life is about energy- and how you use that energy. Your organizational results are the collective energies of your employees. Any group of people, whether it be a business, a family, a community or a nation is a complex energy system, where the basic unit of power is the individual. Your results, positive or negative, are dependent upon whether the collective energies of your teams is positive or negative. Each individual is a unit of energy, life essence energy. While our energies can fluctuate between positive (happiness, enthusiasm, satisfaction, collaboration, etc.) and negative (anger, fear, anxiety, rebellion, etc.) each of us has a chronic state of emotional experience that we return to. For many, that emotional experience is negative.

Leaders and managers who are able to create a work climate that allows employees to experience their innate natural expression of curiosity, creativity, and resourcefulness establish a workforce that is empowered and self-motivated. In turn, employees raise their chronic levels of energy from primarily negative to a chronic state of positive energy and experience. The synergy of the system becomes greater than the whole, creating the positive results that organizations seek. Most businesses are dysfunctional organizations that dis-empower their employees.

This book shows the need for corporate focus to shift from an emphasis on the bottom line to that of engaging an energized work force. The outcomes are a more functional workplace with positive results.  This book challenges the status quo of corporate leadership to accept the larger role they play in the lives of those that they employ and to realize that empowered, energized individuals operate well in positive energy.  We were not meant to operate in negative energy.  In the third millennium the successful leader will manage not just from a technical perspective, but from a holistic one. What most leaders fail to understand is that the primary energy system of each person is the non-physical energy system such as mind, emotion, behavior, communication, motivations, etc.  This non-physical energy system is a part of each of us – It is who we ARE, who we BE. 

The primary cause of conflicts, problems and reduced production is the amount of negative energy that exists within the organization.   Take a look at many businesses and you will see negative energy showing up as anxiety, fear, jealousy, back-biting, poor communication, dishonesty, absenteeism, tardiness, hostility, resentment, sadness, irresponsibility – you get the picture.

How does Creating the Intrapreneur stand out among the many other business books in the marketplace?

Businesses focus on results, in most cases negative results and attempt to devise solutions to alleviate, reverse or eliminate what they don’t want.  For instance, if a business is faced with high absenteeism often the strategy hinges on establishing punishment and restrictions instead of seeking the root cause of this result.  Leadership that is operating in ego or dictator mentality could very well be contributing to the situation.  The source of power, and therefore results, of any organization is dependent upon the collective energies of its teams.  Identifying and  changing the negative energy of the leadership will create a different result.  In addition to absenteeism, there are many symptoms that indicate that a business is dysfunctional. These can include poor communication, rebellion, low productivity, low morale, high turnover and loss of customers.

Current business models fail to produce positive results because they fail to understand the pervasive, underlying motivation of every human being– the need to experience greater levels of positive Energy. 

The failure of businesses to understand this basic, innate motivation of every person keeps businesses in a cycle of inefficiency. Organizations that foster a climate where an employee can experience an increase in personal power will see an increase in personal initiative, responsibility, creativity and resourcefulness. The power of this book is that it shows leaders and managers how to release the human potential that lies dormant within most employees and therefore within the organization.

Why Did You Decide To Write A Book like “Creating the Intrapreneur”?

When I began my management career in the mid 1980’s, we lived and worked in a climate of “Shape up or Ship out.” Everything was black and white, with no gray areas. The predominant management style was harassment and intimidation. From 9 – 5, as an employee, you belonged to the company. Any life beyond that didn’t exist. For many years I managed by intimidation and was known as the “Terminator”. While companies no longer sanction these practices, in reality, intimidation by management is still prevalent in many organizations. After a period of personal challenges I began to examine my priorities, particularly how I relate with people– personally and professionally. I changed my management style from that of harassment to one focused on developing employees to their full potential. To do that I had to find out what their talents and passions were and then find ways to let them express these talents within their job tasks. I also had to work on identifying and eliminating my own internal negative energies– barriers to effective communication and team building. The results were astounding. Cooperation, support and creativity soared. When people are doing what they want to do they are naturally self-motivated. People that are self-motivated approach their work with enthusiasm, commitment, resourcefulness and initiative. Creating the Intrapreneur provides managers and leaders with an understanding of the internal, spiritual energy processes that reside in all of us. Although this may be a non-traditional management approach, from my own experience, it works. I decided to write the book to give those managers and leaders whose teams are not operating at peak performance another option to consider– one that will get you positive results. Your ability as manager, to effectively tap into these positive internal energies is the make or break point of your departmental and organizational success.

How Do You Become an Intrapreneur?

First, let’s define Intrapreneur:

Intrapreneur: An employee who works as an entrepreneur within an organization. The qualities of the Intrapreneur include passion, commitment, resourcefulness, creativity and initiative. Intrapreneurs are risk-takers who see problems as opportunities and assume direct responsibility for tasks and outcomes.

Intrapreneurship is natural to most people. We are born with the innate characteristics of curiosity, ambition, flexibility, creativity and tenacity– all necessary components of Intrapreneurship. Intrapreneurship can only exist within companies that grow positive energy. Take a look at your work climate. Is your organization operating in positive energy? Are employees enthusiastic, self-motivated and productive? Or is your organization operating in negative energy– interpersonal conflicts, absenteeism, and decreased productivity?

Leaders and managers have the unique opportunity to assist employees in becoming intrapreneurs by establishing organizational cultures where innovation and passion abounds.

Tell Us About Your Book, “Creating the Intrapreneur: The Search for Leadership Excellence”

This book will show leaders and managers how to implement strategies and processes that will increase the positive energy in the workplace environment. Leaders must understand that within any organization, the power of that organization is its source of energy. An organization then, is a complex energy system made of many subsets of energy systems, one of these – the most powerful of these- is people. A business then can be described as an energy system made up of subsets such as teams and departments. The basic unit of power of each of these subsets is the individual. Whether or not your organization is operating with positive power or positive energy is dependent upon whether employees are operating on positive or negative energy. Simply put, positive energy is that which creates the positive power that allows your organization to meet its goals and objectives. Organizations operating in negative energy will find that the energy that is produced is counter-productive to the goals and purposes of your business. In “Creating the Intrapreneur”, you are shown the cause of negative energy and how to eliminate it from your teams.