The Tibetan spiritual leader’s visit, aimed at comforting victims of last month’s deadly typhoon, has posed the most serious challenge to relations between the island and the mainland since President Ma Ying-jeou took office 15 months ago on a platform of ending 60 years of hostility.

Taiwan’s ruling party said it sent an emissary to China last week to try to explain why Ma approved the visit.

”Beijing’s attitude toward this is important to us, so we tried to explain to them about Taiwan’s thinking,” Nationalist Party Deputy Secretary General Chang Rong-kung said.

He did not say how China responded.

China has canceled or postponed at least two planned visits to Taiwan, and nixed ceremonies meant to mark the expansion of direct air service, said Nationalist Party spokeswoman Chen Shu-rong. China had already said its delegation would not join Saturday’s opening ceremony for the Deaf Olympics in Taipei.

An official with China Southern Airlines, however, said no ceremony had been planned for the direct flights, saying budgets are tight and such flights have become routine.

China had warned that the Dalai Lama’s visit was ”bound to have a negative influence on the relations between the mainland and Taiwan” – a far harsher stance than its earlier comment that placed the blame for the visit on Taiwan’s pro-independence opposition rather than Ma.

The opposition invited the Dalai Lama to visit and comfort victims of the typhoon, which killed 670 people. Ma later approved the visit but said he would not meet the spiritual leader.

香港仔時昌迷你倉

Shauna, your quote (Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.) is so profound and true in these both trying and exhilarating times.

Corry, your points about “follow-ship” are breakthrough. I have never thought of it in that way, though I have felt the innate pull to be much more, as I follow and am followed by those known and unknown to me.

Thank you both for taking the time to provide your thoughts and insights.

There is an essential shift occurring not only in smart leadership but also in smart follower-ship. As you have highlighted above, Obama makes Biance want to be smarter and the fact that The Dalia Lama is following you on Twitter makes you feel responsible to “tweet” smarter. The President and the Pop Star, the Spiritual Icon and the Business Woman, united more then divided. Connected. I find myself lingering on the word ‘connected’ as I consider its depth of meaning.

What is this indicative of? We are observing evidence of the shift as we awaken to the power of follower-ship. To me this means that responsibility for everything about our lives lies within. We can no longer look outwards to blame anything on anyone, ever again.

Follower-ship and leadership are merging. This makes follower-ship powerful because we want to be worthy of the ideals that our leaders communicate so charismatically.

In the present context of the shift, wanting to be worthy of the ideals communicated by our leaders makes us think before we speak, act, purchase and consume. We must be conscious of whom we follow, how we follow and why we follow. The power lies within us, not outside of us. Knowing this fact is more essential now than ever before.

The paradox that is created through social media is that the leader has the unavoidable evidence that the following is engaged and it forces him to continue to earn the esteem of those whom are emulating him. He fuels us and we fuel him. The bar is raised as science and technology unite the leadership and follower-ship.

Leadership theorists are making the case for ’servant leadership’ and the concept of ‘leading from behind’. This evolution is the dawn of the collaboration of humanity, in service of humanity. The guiding principal is truly, that the more you give, the more you gain.

The beacon of light shining from the dark night of past historical events is that emotional intelligence, mental fortitude and traditional intellect are uniting to form a family of leadership values that will serve humanity as a whole. Those in tune with this new level of complex intelligence will coach us away from “I must have more” and towards “There is always enough for every one to have as much as he needs”. ( Note the work ‘need’ is loaded and beyond the scope of this comment.)

As we continue leading through the shift it will be consistently confirmed that the separation between leader and follower is minuscule however the result of the awareness of such; quantum.

And, by the way, a comment to Shauna’s comment; M.W’s words are so wise. In continuation of the quote that you shared above, I ad her next phrase that reads: ‘Your playing small does not serve the world….’ These words should be the credo of each and every parent, leader, teacher, coach and prophet on the planet today. Imagine a world where children where taught to let their light shine.

Thanks for the space to comment.

Thanks for your post, Lianne. Corry Robertson

PS. I did proof read and spell check this comment so I do apologize if there are typos.

And I think it’s definitely a sign – you are on the right track, and you can pull this one off!

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be?”
-Marianne Williamson

That is a good question. I think the “People” factor is the most difficult and least understood within organizations. Strategy, Process and Technology can be more neatly planned and implemented. But, even with the most buttoned down change management methodology, behaviours, attitudes and organizational culture can be hard to predict.

Managing change requires a real adaptive approach and an indepth understanding of the marketing and communications environment. I have seen broader change management approaches that are good for other parts of the organization fail, because they weren’t tailored to the unique needs of a marketing shop.

Thanks for your comment,
Lianne

Thank you for your comment. You are right, smaller companies need to consider change management as much or more than larger companies, because they are less structured and many employees hold multiple roles. The challenge becomes helping smaller organizations see the need to invest time and money in the change management process.

Some reports claim that as much as 60% of projects fail because of poor user adoption. The most compelling reason for small businesses to invest in change management is that they have less money to lose in failed projects.