Tripping over the truth

Earlier this week I was invited to attend the Workhuman live Forum in London.

It is an event where industry leaders convened to share their most innovative thoughts and cutting-edge strategies to lead and evolve their companies effectively.

Speakers and panellists included Eric Mosley (CEO, and charismatic leader of Workhuman), Jenn Veevers (Global Head of Culture @Sanofi, Nathalie Mackin (VP, Reward and Wellbeing Solutions @ bp), Simon Alexander Ong (Life Coach and Business Strategist).

Dan Heath, 4-time American bestselling author of books ‘Switch’, ‘Made to Stick’, ‘Decisive’, and ‘The Power of Moments’ shared tremendous insights on how to make change stick and companies evolve successfully.?

One of deepest takeaways was the concept of ‘Tripping over the Truth’.

This alludes to the idea that we, humans, tend to begin to change primarily when we trip over the truth. In other words, with hit a crisis moment and we don’t have any other options but to change.

We can trip over the truth with our health and wellbeing, relationships, fitness, financials, career, business and so on.

Living a future by design, rather than by default.

It is the title of a podcast episode I was recently invited to as a guest (My Perfect Failure Podcast, coming out soon).

The premise of living by design is that it is not necessary, nor desireable or wise, to wait for the next crisis to hit for us to make a change.

Broadley, the reasons why we often wait until it is too late (rather than taking proactive action) are:

1. We don’t know what we don’t know. We have no way of spotting the red flags, behaviours, tiny adjustments, or mindset shifts required that can prevent the crisis from happening or reoccurring.
2. We are aware, and consciously decide to be ok with the consequences of a particular action. It is a perfectly good decision because it can be effortful or extremely difficult to change all areas at once.
3. We know where change is required and can’t quite break our current habits or the momentum (we don’t know how or are not sure on what is holding us back). Often, we have made commitments to others or there are implicit expectations we are keen to live up to which hold us back.

It is possible, nonetheless, to break through this loop.

Many of the readers of this newsletter know me personally and would have heard several anecdotes of how personal change is possible (in any area) with the right guidance, consistency, and accountability.

For new readers, the insights, and distinctions I write about here are a result of a significant body of applied knowledge, accumulated over a period of 13 years and used in personal change (1:1), organisational, and entrepreneurship. I was also fortunate enough to have access to organised education I gained through Academic degrees from 3 leading European Universities (La Sapienza, University of Helsinki, Henley Business School). I have been keeping up to date and have read over 388 books or academic papers on the topic of human change and, most importantly, have tested these insights in real life, with people from many walks of life, myself included.

The questions people come to me as a trusted advisor and are seeking an answer to are:

What is preventing you from achieving your goals (personal or business)? How can we make sure you are using the right strategies, tactics and are resilient enough to see them through to realisation? (Minimise trial and errors and be proactive to prevent a crisis?)

The leverage you need to achieve change in personal and team settings can vary however not drastically.

(Disclaimer: the focus of my work is not past-oriented or therapeutic, but rather future-looking. In other words, it is about the realisation of a personal, or business vision that results from adopting strategies, habits, views, belief systems, and lifestyles that enhance the quality of your life, or scale your business while – as a biproduct - preventing the reoccurrence of a crisis.

We are accelerating progress by working on the core drivers.

3 pillars

Here are the 3 areas worth considering that will accelerate progress:

1.??Awareness (Self and context)

I am highly sceptical of any advice (business or otherwise), that does not exactly meet you where you are, in context.

For example, reading a resource, attending a seminar, or doing an online course may be eye opening at first, event interesting, yet it is only the foundational level if, let’s say what is needed is the groundwork of establishing whether that path, career, or business decision, aligns to your values, direction of travel, natural attitudes, and plays to your strenghts (awareness of self). And if it is ultimately, worth pursuing.

Have you ever signed up to a programme and felt like an alien and could not quite fit in? (I did. It is costly however it does not move you forward or you might have been lured into buying something you don’t really need).

Here are some things you can do to improve your awareness:

·????Become curious, experiment, yet do not over commit. Deeper awareness comes primarily from action and direct experience and less through media or other type of content consumption. Consuming online content is a simple construct of reality and does not replace it.

·????If you are drawn towards a particular decision (feels right), but are not getting the results you aspire to, you would benefit from investing in 1:1 mentoring or coaching. These 2 disciplines dramatically shorten the amount of time, effort, and resources required to achieve your goals (otherwise through lengthy trials and errors) because they make you aware of the ‘implicit rules’ and real-life hacks to move you forward. It can accelerate your progress by a factor of 20 (Although there is no science behind the number 20 I don’t think it is way off).

2.??Gain momentum through accountability

We can’t do it alone. We all have a certain amount of momentum built into our lives and how our businesses operate. At times we are going too fast to even notice the opportunities and changes required. Other times we need to be held accountable for commitments we would not otherwise follow through with.

Momentum is the most underestimated factor when it comes to any type of change (personally or organisationally). Without it, any new information, or insight we are exposed to, can make very little difference. In fact, more information and knowledge can become confusing and detrimental.

3.??Courage to Commit

“When you are 70% ready. Jump!”

I’ve invested in coaches and mentors for as long as I learned about such words existed and every single one of them kept repeating this very same sentence

Committing requires courage and in my view, there are 2 types of courage. ‘Reckless risk taking’ which can quickly place you into survival mode (fear is not a sustainable driver of any endeavour and gradually becoming outdated as an effective motivator). Then there is ‘taking calculated risks’ which challenges you just enough to get you out of your comfort zone without causing you to feel overwhelmed and stuck.

In my coaching I often refer to Steven Kotler’s 4% rule. It states that your current challenge must be 4% higher than your current skill level for you to experience flow, and make any tangible progress as a result.

It is my job to challenge your thinking, reconsider habits, just enough to stretch you without making it impossible or overwhelming. It is where growth is and how we change by adopting a growth mindset. In other words we are becoming receptive to the environment around us instead of being out of touch with it.

If I were to turn it into a formula: How to make concrete strides forward, promote resilience and sustainability, it would be: Awareness + Momentum (Accountability) + Courage = Progress

Simple, yet not easy.

What area is it worth you focusing on? What is holding you back? What is a small step in the right direction?

I am excited to share I will be partnering with a preeminent US Educational institution for the study of music, dance, and theater. Although I can't share the full details yet we will be running a 12-week joint interdisciplinary programme (in London) to accelerate personal growth, vitality and connection, while providing a refreshing alternative to entrepreneurs, freelancers and professionals in the Capital.

Stay tuned!

#executive #executivecoaching #leadershipdevelopment #personalgrowth