AKA: My coaching approach
AKA: Mental Fitness is the key to lasting positive change
Note: The following blog series is only relevant if you’re <insert ANY occupation here>. It doesn’t matter if you are on the Board, C-Suite, middle management or an individual contributor. It doesn’t matter if your industry is tech, health, education, hospitality, resources or other. When we take the perspective of having meaning in life and fulfilling our potential we are all in the same boat, operating within the same parameters of the human condition.
My approach to leadership coaching is anchored in the formula:
Excellence = Potential - Interference
Potential, our ability to perform at our peak, is based on one's ability to know and leverage:
Strengths
Value Based Goals
Uniqueness of Others
Lead with Positive
Interference, the factors holding us back from achieving peak performance, is driven by:
Strength blindspots
Saboteurs & Inner Critic
Wellness imbalance
Underpinning all of this is our Mental Fitness - our ability to take on mental challenges and work toward positive goals. In the same way that achieving physical goals requires building and maintaining physical fitness, handling mental and emotional challenges is equally improved through development of Mental Fitness.
All of us sit somewhere on a continuum of extremely high performance, a + 10, through to extreme interference and low performance, a - 10. I see my role as a coach to assist individuals with a) identifying where they are on that excellence scale and b) exploring and uncovering how their unique talents can create positive momentum, and c) determining what is the biggest thing limiting their ability to move to a more positive point on the scale. Identifying both limiting factors as well as the ideal future positive state is key to identifying a path to enduring change.
It is my belief that knowing how to leverage your potential: strengths, value based goals, working with the uniqueness of others, is often limited - defined by the weight of the interference holding you back. It's OK, we are all in the same boat, it’s the human condition. My point is that a holistic approach is needed. Working on only one in isolation, either the potential or the interference, will limit the opportunity for positive change. Taking a holistic approach and tackling both concurrently, while building Mental Fitness to maintain a new positive position, will provide opportunity for lasting change.
See details in Part 2: Unlocking Potential with Leadership Coaching: Strengths, Value Based Goals, Uniqueness of Others, Lead with Positive