When I first started working with small and medium-sized companies, I joined an international business coaching franchise. But something didn’t sit right with me from the first day of training, like an itch that I couldn’t scratch. Yet my clients were, in the main, experiencing excellent outcomes, so I carried on.
Strange things were happening though…
These shifts and changes are commonplace for people working with me. They seemed to become more emboldened, fearless. As a result, their experience of running their companies became more enjoyable (and this often rubbed off into other aspects of life too).
It became evident that things were going on under the surface and, if I could isolate the code, this held the key to getting people where they wanted to be quickly and cheaply and in ways that didn’t require ongoing support and cost. So, what really stops any of us from stepping up to the leadership plate, creating ideas, making good commercial decisions, and getting stuff done?
It boils down to a few things.
The way we appear as leaders reflects:
- How well we read and respond to opportunities or obstacles.
- The level of self-belief and resilience we have.
- How good we are at building purposeful relationships with others, especially in the face of ‘difficult’ situations.
- Our ability to make well rounded commercial decisions and trade-offs in the face of uncertainty and, often, under time pressure.
- Our commitment to creating change and new outcomes.
It’s not what happens; it’s our ATTITUDE!
Now just to be transparent, traditional training and coaching approaches CAN and sometimes DO create breakthroughs at this level.
However, it’s like deploying a squadron of bombers to play darts. We might well hit the bullseye, but it’s expensive, inefficient (in both financial and time terms) and will cause a lot of collateral damage (primarily by putting us in a sense of overwhelm).
Instead, we need a precision strike, a way of permanently re-shaping our perception of ourselves so that we can show up in our very best leadership position and bring our full range of potential into the game of business.
Now you may be wondering if this is even possible. Can a leopard change its spots, or can we teach old dog’s new tricks? Damn right we can.
