But when last did someone do it for you?

If you’re a senior or executive leader, chances are not too recently. I know because it’s one of the main reasons my coaching clients seek out my services.
Senior leaders need to consciously create circumstances that’s conducive to growth if they don’t want to stagnate.

The leader’s barrier to growth
When you’ve reached a certain level of success in your career, subordinates and even peers are much less likely to call out potential areas of growth than when you were more junior.
The thing is, as Marshall Goldsmith says in his book by the same title: what got you here won’t get you there.

Your current leadership brand has enabled you to get to where you are today. However, you need to rebrand yourself just like a business does. Whether it’s to stay relevant in a changing market or to take new ground, you need to rebrand yourself if you want to reach the next level in your leadership journey.

Start with yourself
A natural place to want to start self-transformation is with yourself:
● Pause and reflect
● Identify your strengths
● Identify areas of yourself that need further development or that bother you
● Ask yourself what’s the one thing that will give your career a boost
● Rely on your inner source

Those are all valid strategies, but they are limited to your own perspective. It means that you might be missing a crucial shortcoming or strength that you could grow.
You can widen that perspective by getting input from others.

Get input from others
Eliciting and interpreting feedback from others is not always as simple as it seems. Many people feel intimidated to give candid feedback to their leader or someone they see as successful. As leaders with strong opinions, we can also easily dismiss or miss important nuances in feedback.

A very useful technique for getting input from others is the Johari Window. It helps you see more of yourself by asking for others’ perspectives. This technique is especially helpful for soliciting feedback from people who wouldn’t normally feel comfortable sharing their views of you, like subordinates or those with less power in an organisation.

If you want feedback from peers, superiors, mentors, friends, or family, you could simply ask them for input without using a structured technique. I find feedback from spiritual mentors and friends especially insightful since they don’t only rely on their minds and emotions but also on their spirits.

As the one receiving feedback, be an active listener. Listen carefully on a deeper level to what a person is attempting to tell you they need from you. They often won’t spell it out, and they themselves might not even know what they are trying to say. Also listen and look for connections and patterns between different people and situations using your body, soul and spirit.

Active listening also means being open to both positive and negative feedback. Some people tend to think of personal growth as improving what they’re bad at. However, growth could also involve uncovering or practicing a neglected strength.

Create your own magic
We aren’t able to predict the future, also not who the future you will be. However, by asking for feedback and actively engaging in recreating your personal leadership brand, you’re creating possible scenarios. By being intentional and engaged, you’re increasing your chances of success and progress.

It all comes back to believing in the magic of new growth. Instead of waiting for some magical solution to the problem of stagnated personal growth, you’re making the magic happen. And taking others along on the journey.

By Dr. Rean du Plessis
To book a session with Dr. du Plessis contact us at info@mypocketcoach.co.za

The First Thing to Remember Is That Successful Thinking Allows You to Have an Enabling Mindset
• It is a known fact successful thinking is a mindset that will enable us to reach our full potential. It provides us with the mental discipline to create and achieve positive outcomes. By tapping into the essentials of well-defined and controlled thinking, we can learn to determine and implement actions that will enhance our professional and personal lives.
• We also know how we think affects how we function in life. It is about transforming our thoughts that can possibly lead to poor decision making and outcomes into ones that promote better consequences. It’s an investment that will challenge you to develop new skills to cultivate a successful frame of mind.

“Successful thinking is a mindset that will enable us to reach our full potential.”

So, The Question Remains – How Do I Transform My Mindset?
• Start with Knowing Who You Are. In what ways does your current thinking add value to or impede the quality of your life? Do you love what you do or are you simply going through the motions?
• Secondly, Take Responsibility for Your Choices. Assume responsibility for the way you think, how you react, and what you do.
• Next, Be Resilient. Transform setbacks into opportunities, be flexible and think outside the box. Initiate action by focusing on resolving the obstacles rather than wallowing in your negative emotions.
• Then, Persevere Through Adversity. While you might occasionally stumble and fall, pick yourself up and brush yourself off. Don’t allow misfortune to win. You will achieve your next level of success whenever you can challenge yourself to strategically work through present obstacles.
• Even then, Learn and Grow All the Time. Become insatiably curious about learning and doing new things. It is knowing that your exposure to diverse and innovative opportunities will enable you to reach your full potential as you learn along the way.
• More so, Pave Your Own Way to Success. You can accomplish great things with the right amount of confidence, purpose, ethics, and trust in who and what you are. It is about believing that you can, and you will be halfway there.
• Lastly, Find Time to be Thankful for Everything. Find time to be thankful for the people in your life who have supported and encouraged you along the way. Your family, friends, and colleagues & even experiences (good & bad) can play a vital role in enriching your journey.

“While you might occasionally stumble and fall, pick yourself up and brush yourself off.”

Take a Moment to Assess Your THINKING PATTERNS
Please rate yourself on the following thinking patterns
• 1st rate the current level of thinking is on each pattern
• 2nd rate where you would like to be in the next 6 months
Leading Out of This Assessment Ask Yourself Three Important Questions
1. KEEP THINKING – What must I KEEP THINKING because It is Working and Assisting Me in Reaching My Goal?
2. STOP THINKING – What must I STOP THINKING Because it is NOT Working in My Favour and Getting the Wrong Results?
3. START THINKING – What must I START TO THINK, that If I THINK this Way in the Future – It Will Assist Me Exponentially in Reaching My Goal?

Remember – “What We Think … We Become”
When we take the time to set positive personal THOUGHTS PATTERNS, we are aligning ourselves with what we want to bring into our lives. We are affirming our commitment to that FUTURE GOAL. When we return to it over the hours, days, weeks, and even months, it begins to take shape in our lives. Our lives begin to form around our intentions, and we then notice how INTENTION FINDS ITS WAY INTO ACTION.
We start to see our lives change shape before our very eyes.

“What we think, we become.”

By Alistaire Lategan
To book a session with Alistaire, contact us at info@mypocketcoach.co.za

Beatrice Attrill
Executive Coach

Bachelor of Arts Degree (Wits University) ; Postgraduate Higher Diploma in Education (Wits University); Master of Management (Human Resources & Organisation Development) (Wits Business School). ICF PCC (International Coach Federation – Professional Certified Coach); Co-Active Training Institute (CTI) trained Coach ; Accredited Enneagram user.

Since 2004, Beatrice has collaborated with individuals (specialists, generalists, senior leadership) and teams (senior, operations, cross-functional) in order to support the realisation of their goals through Organisation Development and Design solutions, the facilitation of Leadership and Team Development interventions, Change Consulting and Professional Coaching.

Beatrice uses a variety of coaching skills and experience to work with individuals towards the alignment of their personal and professional goals. She actively subscribe to the Co-Active Coaching® approach which holds the client as naturally creative, resourceful and whole, and completely capable of finding their own answers to whatever challenges they face. Co-Active Coaching® balances self-awareness, a keen agility with relationships, and courageous action to create an environment where individuals can be deeply fulfilled and successful in what matters most.

With over 16 years of corporate experience, at senior leadership level, in the areas of Learning and Development, Human Capital Strategy, Organisation Development and Business Change and Transformation and solutions delivered in numerous sectors and industries in South Africa as well as internationally Beatrice is a great addition to the MPC team.

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Like with the Covid pandemic, some people and organisations are severely affected while others are not so much. But the systemic impact is felt across the world and by all of us in some way.
For example, towards the end of last year we worked with leadership teams, and they stood further from each other than in their previous sessions. The isolation we have been experiencing was being manifested physically. It will be the same as the effects of this war ripple across the world.

Despite what feels like more uncertainty and disorientation than what we can handle, I still feel that 2022 can be a year of growth for you and your organisation. The words “recover” and “restore” have been on my mind for this year. Today I want to add the word “grow” to it.

The image of a plant that is pruned comes to mind. If you only look at the immediate results, pruning seems counterproductive: a big portion of the plant is being cut away. If the plant was a human, it would probably have complained about the pain and done its best to avoid it.
But the end result is a tree that is more resilient, beautiful and productive than one that hasn’t been pruned.
We’re going through a season of pruning. If we take the perspective of a plant, it will be painful and can even seem like a loss that won’t be recovered. But if we choose to look at it like a gardener, we can see new beginnings, opportunities and growth.

It applies to our organisations as well as to all areas of our lives: the physical, intellectual, emotional, relational, and spiritual.

As Lewis Carroll wrote in Alice in Wonderland:
“You know what the issue is with this world? Everyone wants some magical solution to their problem, and everyone refuses to believe in magic.”

I want to encourage you to be the person who believes that some “magic” can happen. Yes, we plan, prepare and work hard. But we should also be open to unexpected turns of events that are ultimately for our good and the good of others. Even when days seem dark like they have been for a while now.
What that means for me is to continue stimulating ideas about leadership that can be even more effective and reach workers on the frontline.

What does expecting some “magic” this year look like for you? What would you like to see recovered and restored? Or what’s some growth you’d like to see because of the pruning the world and many of us are going through?

By Dr. Rean du Plessis
Organisational Psychologist and Executive Coach