Tempe and I seem fine

I am now in Tempe Arizona for 5 days.

I have been through personal hell for the past 6 weeks. More later.

The US, International, and Canadian markets have been hit almost as hard as the great depression. I am getting c.v.s sent to me by former colleagues and the news keeps reporting how bad it is. There was a massive overexposure of debt, primarily in the US, that led to a huge bubble of consumerism. The bubble popped, the ice caps are melting, Green is now in, things have not even reached bottom. But life goes on.

Tempe is a suburb or part of Phoenix. The 5th most populous city in the US. Tempe is a University quadrant. I arrived here today for five days of a conference for leaders of state/province advanced networks. Originally the only network was the research network, before about 1993 when the internet became commoditized. Now the advanced network exists as CANARIE in Canada, CyberaNet in Alberta, Internet 2 and Lambda Rail in the US, ... , others world-wide. I'm here to find out where it's going and to chill out if I can.

It does not look bad out on the streets of Tempe. Housing prices in Phoenix were always fairly reasonable, got inflated for a while, now are cheap. But things still look good. Maybe I can't tell if the cranes have stopped like they do in Calgary mid-build whenever a recession or bust hits.

So I need to chill out. Try to get the crap out of my head. I now have a coach to help me be nicer. Become a "facilitative leader" rather than a "leader leader". It sometimes makes sense to me, but sometimes gets me all twisted. I can understand that acquiring new leadership skills is a good thing and gives me more range and more tools. I'm having a hard time forgiving B and his selfishness, though. He tried to get rid of me by making me look bad, bringing up unsubstantiated allegations and messing around with Cybera without a lot of context. He was away for 3 years and now that he's back, he wants to be in charge. So, although I understand the benefits of coaching and can also see that facilitative leadership might be appropriate in some aspects of leading Cybera, doing the coaching is like rubbing salt into my wounds. I think my strenghts are my leadership leadership, so why handicap that? Plus, why can't B let me lead - he's had his turn.

Leadership

Work is still complex. Tectonic shifts at the provincial level. Uncertainty at the Universities. Staff confusion. But I am the leader of Cybera and must find a good path through this. I have support and will find a way.

Seven Habits

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, first published in 1989, is a book written by Stephen R. Covey.

Be Proactive.
Begin with the End In Mind.
Put First Things First.
Think Win/Win.
Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood.
Synergize.
Sharpen the saw.