Perform Pros: Peter Shepherd

What is your sweet spot/area of expertise?

The place I love nerding out on the most is leadership development. I'm pretty cool like that. Specifically, I love to help organisations, teams and individuals build confidence and capability in the real, human skills of leadership-what historically we've called 'soft skills'. Skills such as empathy, coaching, curiosity, humility, storytelling, effective communication and giving/receiving feedback. These skills sit at the core of all the great leaders I've been lucky enough to work with from all walks of life and in all corners of the globe.?

What inspired you to enter your area of expertise?

I've worked in the workplace culture, behavioural change and leadership development space for over a decade, partnering with some of the largest organisations in Australia and around the world. Perhaps the most significant catalyst for me was when I first experienced coaching and cohort-based learning as a student in Seth Godin's global altMBA program back in 2017. It was a transformational experience that opened my eyes to different ways of learning, collaborating, and working. Well before "let's jump on a Zoom" was common parlance, and instead felt like modern witchcraft. After completing the program I was asked to join the team as a Coach and eventually Head Coach where I led a global team of brilliant Coaches for 4 years and simultaneously started my own leadership development business, which I still operate today.

From your perspective, what is the single biggest contributor to a successful workplace culture?

Culture, in simplified terms, is the way we do things around here.?Knowing that, I believe the single biggest contributor is the way leaders choose to show up and model certain behaviours.?

Leadership is a skill and a choice, not a title or position bestowed upon you. It is something we must actively and intentionally practice every single day. By choosing to show up and model behaviours that are important to an organisation, such as humility, empathy and curiosity, a successful workplace culture is more likely to be created.?

A question I often ponder to bring this to light is:?Am I worth copying??

What do you see as the biggest obstacle to performance transformation, and how do you help clients overcome it?

In a word, the biggest obstacle is ourselves. Specifically, the stories we tell ourselves about what we can and can't do and why. These stories, mostly driven by fear as Liz Bradford has so insightfully written about, aim to protect us. However more often than not, they cap our perception of our potential and our ability to drive change for ourselves as well as the teams and organisations we work in. Helping clients overcome this starts by helping them see where they're in their own way and then providing them skills, frameworks and permission to get out of the way.

What is the best piece of advice you've ever received? How did it impact you?

Seth Godin once said to me?"when in doubt, look for the fear,"?which has always stuck with me. Because my brain loves to turn things into questions, I'd frame it as:?"Where's the fear?" It's a painful and propelling question I think we can, and should, all get more comfortable with. Just be careful not to use it on your spouse in the midst of a heated discussion.?

Learn more about Peter and his work by?visiting his profile and find out more about the team behind Transform Perform?here.