How Strong Are Your Support Structures?

As a leader, you are either in “Action” or you are “Stuck”. I experienced my own teachings last week. I thought that I was in “Action” when in fact I was “Stuck”.

I was complaining, justifying and rationalizing my “Way of Being” with one of my colleagues about another member of our team. To me, this was “Action”. After I had finished being right, and making my team member wrong, my colleague asked me a powerful question: “Is your righteousness going to generate action with our other teammate?”

At that moment, I got that I had been “Stuck”. I looked at my colleague and said “No! Thank you for helping me see that I am stuck.”

What got me “Unstuck”? My support structures!

• A colleague who cared to listen to me and hold me accountable to my commitment to lead from our core values
• A conversation with my team member to generate action

How strong are your support structures?

When you are “Stuck” you are:

1. Closed to other ideas, feedback, and opinions
2. Defensive
3. Non-accountable in your language (I should, I guess, Probably…)
4. Committed to Being Right (I am right and others are wrong, don’t they see it, that I am just trying to help them)

When you are in an “Action” you are:

1. Open to other ideas, feedback, and opinions
2. Curious
3. Accountable in your language (I will, I can, I do & I choose)
4. Committed to Learning

What can I do to shift from being Stuck to being in Action?

1. Pause & Breathe Deeply and then ask yourself this powerful question – “Is this a Threat or an Opportunity?”
2. Make a request to a colleague for support
3. Take action!

Ideas for this Blog come from two sources, my weekly experiences coaching Executives and from an amazing book entitled, “The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership” by Jim Dethmer, Diana Chapman, & Kaley Warner Klemp.