If You Don’t Know by Now, Knowledge is Not the Key
Ken Carlson
Experienced Executive Coach and Leadership Trainer with a knack for working with Geeks; Specializing in Engineering, Science, Math, and Medical.
Imagine being a heart surgeon. Imagine seeing patient after patient with heart disease and sharing with them this undeniable fact: “if you don’t make changes in your diet, your exercise regimen, and your smoking—you will die.”
Next imagine that only one in seven patients heed the surgeon’s warning. It defies logic. We are talking about literal life or death and only one in seven people make the changes that will save their lives.
This is what it is like to be a leader. To be a parent. To be a mentor. To be a family member. We know what will make a difference for other people, we know the actions they need to take, they even know what will create change for themselves—but they don’t do it.
You can read LinkedIn all day long and find out what you need to do in order to be a good leader, or to get a promotion, or to find a job. It rarely works. We know what to do and we don’t do it.
So what’s required?
This study about the heart patients is referred to in a book that maybe holds the answer to how to deal with the fact that knowing what is needed isn’t enough. The book is called Immunity to Change by Kegan and Lahey. Their work basically states that we don’t do the things we know we should do because we have deeper hidden commitments that stop us. In other words, we have blind spots.
Enter a coach.
At our core, this is what coaches do. We help you discover your blindspots—because you can’t do anything with knowledge you don’t know you don’t know.
So you sit with a coach. He or she asks you big questions that help you see yourself in ways you have never seen yourself before. You may discover a hidden commitment or perspective that you had that held you back.
Here is just a short list of blindspots my coaches have helped me discover in the last 10 years:
What has your experience been working with coaches?
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Past Articles: Neurodiverse Leadership Resource Library
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