Leadership Magic: The Journey from Trickster to Sage

By Solarzar Dellaporta and Jeff McBride

Leadership Magic is not about the specific traits you bring to your leadership; it is about the journey of self.

In ages past, a gathering of experts would school a young noble in the arts of war, letters, horsemanship, diplomacy, and life. These experts were not just teachers; their relationship with their liege was often more personal. Leadership Magic is your personal leadership journey.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Balboa Press
• Release date: Apr 12, 2016
• ISBN: 9781504354776

Solarzar Dellaporta

Solarzar, originally from New York, attended public and Catholic schools. His journey from school days; to living on the streets as a teenager; to enlisting in the U.S. Marine Corps, going through the enlisted ranks to the officer ranks; to consulting with the Department of Defense; to founding Magic-4-Life, bringing inspiration and magic to life, is the leadership journey which he shares. As a Master Trainer and award winning Speaker Solarzar is a recognized expert in the areas of Leadership, Customer Service, and Communication, being cited as an admired leader in the revised edition of “Credibility: How Leaders Gain And Lose It, Why People Demand It”, by James Kouzes and Barry Posner. You can hear Solarzar on his daily radio show Good Vibrations Radio® on RadioMonterey.com

Book preview

Copyright © 2016 Solarzar Dellaporta.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Balboa Press

A Division of Hay House

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.balboapress.com

1 [phone]

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

The author of this book does not dispense medical advice or prescribe the use of any technique as a form of treatment for physical, emotional, or medical problems without the advice of a physician, either directly or indirectly. The intent of the author is only to offer information of a general nature to help you in your quest for emotional and spiritual well-being. In the event you use any of the information in this book for yourself, which is your constitutional right, the author and the publisher assume no responsibility for your actions.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

ISBN: 978-1-5043-5476-9 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5043-5477-6 (e)

Balboa Press rev. date: 04/12/2016

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Why Leadership Magic?

Chapter 2: A Magician's Journey©

Chapter 3: The Foundation

Chapter 4: Developing the Skills

Chapter 5: Discovering the Self and Exorcising the Demons

Chapter 6: The Vision Quest

Chapter 7: The Sharing

Chapter 8: Knowing the Purpose

Chapter 9: The Journey is Yours

Dedicated to all who have mentored and guided me, as well as those who participated directly in the production of this book. Specifically I want to thank Tobias Beckwith; Eugene Burger; Bob Cassidy; Burt Dubin; Cindy Farley; Jeff McBride; Merriam Modell; Richard Osterlind; Clayton Rawson; and Dr. Denis Waitley.

image1.jpgimage2.jpg

Chapter 1: Why Leadership Magic?

I hope that you will abandon the urge to simplify everything, to look for formulas and easy answers, and begin to think multi-dimensionally, to glory in the mystery and paradoxes of life, not to be dismayed by the multitude of causes and consequences that are inherent in each experience--to appreciate the fact that life is complex.

M. Scott Peck

When we hear the words leader or leadership, we form mental images of what that means. Through our own experiences, each of us creates our criteria of who is a leader or what demonstrates leadership.

Yet, with all the resources and stimuli in today's modern age of information, rarely do we all see leadership in quite the same way.

In a quick search online, I found over 19,690 books about leaders or leadership. And my request to the Library of Congress revealed over 6,000 titles that included leadership, that didn't include management. After that I lost count.

Obviously, there is a significant amount of information about leadership already available. Why do I want to add to the abundance of information?

Many people seek quick answers to what it means to be a leader. Too often, we seek the quick fix: If I do these eight things, then I'm a leader. If I use these phrases, then I'm a leader. If I dress, look, and act a certain way, then I'm a leader.

We live in a society with many rules, many definitions, and many expectations. We're taught to find out what the expectations are, and then live up to them. That's why we read such books as Leadership for Dummies; The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader: Becoming the Person Others Will Want to Follow; Leadership 101: What Every Leader Needs to Know; Harvard Business Review on What Makes a Leader; What the Best CEOs Know: 7 Exceptional Leaders and Their Lessons for Transforming any Business; The Leadership Challenge; Business Evolves, Leadership Endures: Leadership Traits That Stand The Test of Time (The Russell Reynolds Associates Leadership Series); Woman of Influence: Ten Traits of Those Who Want to Make a Difference; or The Platinum Rule: Discover the Four Basic Business Personalities---and How They Can Lead You to Success.

Leadership Magic is not about the specific traits you bring to your leadership; it is about the process, or the journey of leadership.

In ages past, a gathering of experts would school a young noble in the arts of war, letters, horsemanship, diplomacy, and life. These experts were not just teachers; their relationship with their liege was more personal because the instruction was often one on one.

The commoner went through a similar process when chosen to learn a trade, and was often signed over to a tradesman for a period of years. During that period, the commoner was expected to live and work with the tradesman until completing the term of service and attaining the necessary skill at his particular trade.

While the process was often more harsh and brutal for the commoner learning a trade than for the noble being schooled, the process itself was the same. The expert schooled the noble in a skill; the novice was apprenticed to a master.

The apprentice was initially given basic or menial tasks. As the apprentice gained skill he would be given increasingly more difficult tasks. Eventually the apprentice would attain a journeyman level, which meant he knew enough to ply the trade on his own. And ultimately, our journeyman might reach the stage defined as master of his skill or trade.

Leadership is one of those skills that take us from apprentice to journeyman to master. Leadership Magic