Take a look at Leadership
Through Your Own Lens®
Tap into your strongest leadership mojo with just a smartphone camera and a willingness to see things differently.
What do you see in this photo?
A Leadership Through Your Own Lens® participant, Karen1, photographed these cans from a disruptive new angle, and it gave her a disruptive new perspective on her existing beliefs about leading.
Karen saw that allowing imperfection in her leadership could be a relief. She noticed that she had the power to shift her beliefs about perfection, and recognized that all her attempts at perfect orderliness might not be necessary.
Karen embraced the idea that she doesn’t need to have all the right answers, or come up with the perfect deliverable, in order for her work to be valuable.
At a one-day Leadership Through Your Own Lens® retreat, Karen began a deep personal exploration of how imperfection could actually contribute to outstanding leadership, and how embracing the vulnerability of being an imperfect leader brought her a sense of ease in going forward from where she was.
What do you see here?
But because she had accepted the Through Your Own Lens® challenge to find beauty in ugliness, she looked for it. She focused in closer, and saw this:
…a googly-eyed cartoon face. The bright green dandelion leaves added a splash of contrasting color, suggesting a lighter, more playful mood. This suggested a question:
How might reframing something difficult create a lighter, more playful mood to help her overcome the challenges she was facing in her business?
At Leadership Through Your Own Lens®, Andrea found her natural curiosity to be a source of wonder and openness, traits which she values as a leader because they lead her to creative new discoveries.
Why choose Through Your Own Lens®?
When you feel stuck, it’s important to remember that the problem isn’t the problem. The problem is how you’re thinking about the problem. Through Your Own Lens® retreats were designed to teach you a simple, foolproof, and effective method of changing your focus so you can change the way you think.
But is it right for you?
If you’re a leader, you’ve experienced the relentless pace of business, forcing you to face new challenges, new situations, or new stressors every single day. You may find yourself stuck, because the expertise that got you here isn’t providing enough innovative thinking to move past the obstacles.
And you’re not used to being stuck.
Your stress level rises, and you’re thinking, “I just have to figure this out!” but no matter how long you sit with it, chained to your desk, racking your brain, the solutions don’t appear. And your frustration with coming up empty causes you to doubt your abilities. “I should have figured it out by now!” is the classic narrative, which only compounds the pain.
If you could have “figured it out” by now, you would have.
The problem is that your brain isn’t going to respond to the racking. It needs something different.
What your brain really needs is a productive way to un-focus.
Productive un-focus? Sounds like an oxymoron, doesn’t it? But neuroscientists find that stepping away from the tools of focus—the to-do lists and calendars, SMART goals and reminders, noise-canceling headsets and project timelines—can actually improve your ability to problem-solve. Ironically, learning to be unfocused sharpens your focus when you actually do need it.
In fact, the letting-go, the surrender, the stress-free zone of unfocused time is necessary to allow your thinking to evolve, connect to your innate creativity, and unleash your unique genius.
At Through Your Own Lens®, we create the conditions for you to make odd and wonderful connections from your own photos, so you can come up with creative solutions, see paths to overcoming stress and overwhelm, and find new ways of being in your job, rather than just doing your job.
If you’re willing to take an active role in your growth, and you prefer to learn by doing, Through Your Own Lens® offers experiential exercises and in-depth facilitated discussions that will help you see more clearly.
Re-train your brain, and get valuable, new information to guide your decisions. Learn to observe and take notice, broaden your focus, and see what you’ve been missing.
Small groups. Big epiphaniesTM .
Leadership Through Your Own Lens® retreats are designed for deep dives into the issues that are most important to you. Group sizes are limited2 to ensure that each participant’s needs are met, protect confidentiality, and provide a safe haven for unexpected inspiration, meaningful learning, and profound self-discovery.
Stop thinking, and start seeing. Stop doing, and start being.
Join Ovation Coaching for an upcoming Leadership Through Your Own Lens® retreat, or book a private retreat for your team.
Book a Private Retreat
Yes! I’d like to learn more about booking a retreat for myself or my team.
Scheduled Retreats
Through Your Own Lens has gone virtual! To accommodate social distancing practices, I’ve redesigned the program to focus on seeing new possibilities in familiar places, like your home, your neighborhood, and your own back yard. You’ll see your surroundings, and your challenges, in a whole new way with this full-day, home-based retreat. Your registration fee includes short, targeted journaling and photography assignments, and one virtual group follow up session over Zoom conference.
Retreats begin at 9:00 a.m., and end at 3:00 p.m.
Here’s what participants from a recent virtual retreat had to say:
“It’s like a vacation for your hard-working and overtaxed brain where you get to discover easy and unexpected ways to open up the areas in life and work that seem terminally stuck.”–Andrea Howe Lee
“The whole experience was so well orchestrated – it was theory, practice, application, tips. Moreover, it was realistic and relevant – you didn’t have to wait or go away for results.”–PLH, Washington, DC
“Amy is a gem! She facilitated this session with positivity, excitement and ease. She guided us through this experience in a very thoughtful way-I felt safe, heard and respected. Not only did I gain insight on how I see things, but also gained insight from how others see things as well. I gained a perspective that will support me in “showing up” as a more observant and reflective person.”–EB, Arnold, MD
Your satisfaction is guaranteed, or your money back3.
Upcoming Events
1.All photos and stories have been used by permission, and names may have been changed to protect confidentiality.
2.Registration is limited to six participants for virtual retreats. Private retreats can be configured to accommodate larger groups.
3.If you don’t come away with helpful new perspectives, you can pay only what you think it was worth—including nothing!