Awareness Archives -

February 6, 2018February 6, 2018BLOG

How Coaching can raise your awareness.

Responding to awareness is usually dependent on your maturity as a leader. From a biblical perspective, I believe God always wants to connect with us and wants to lead us to be a better example of him, so we can be a better example to others. But ultimately, I believe he wants us to living out our purpose.

Having purpose and knowing it can be a powerful thing, but it’s something I’ve learned that some people don’t think a lot about. Some people don’t even know how to respond to the question when asked what their purpose is.

Why is awareness so important?

Awareness is important because it brings clarity. Clarity is an important ingredient for growth. Gaining awareness is one of the things I love about coaching leaders. Leaders are called to inspire and influence others because leadership is influence, nothing more, nothing less. However, if you lack clarity about your purpose or if you’re stretched too thin as leader or even as a company because you’re saying “yes” too much, it can create an unclear path and ultimately result in being pulled in multiple directions that doesn’t lead to living out your purpose. It may be fun, it may even be in your sweet spot, but it may also be leading your further away from your vision.

Being coached gives permission for you to be asked the right questions in the right way that can lead to incredible breakthroughs. Coaching is not mentoring. In order to grow deeper, whether it’s in your faith, in your leadership abilities or in your life, awareness has to take place. Gaining awareness isn’t always pleasant. Sometimes it takes something painful for you to have that moment or that thought. It’s not until you take the time to reflect on those moments where you can be asked those important questions. If you’re honest with yourself, you can move in the direction that’s ultimately closer to living out your purpose.

In a world that’s filled with chaos, it’s easy to allow yourself to become consumed with the things of this world that honestly don’t matter or add any value towards your growth. It’s easy to become unfocused and unclear and lose sight of your vision and become stuck and being stuck stinks!

Last year, I found myself there, saying yes to too many things and putting myself in a position where I became stretched so too thin, I was preventing myself from being fully engaged or able to really give my best to every project, opportunity or commitment.

After reflecting and writing down all of the projects and commitments I was working on, I had to asked myself – are these really apart of my purpose? Are they really helping me come closer to my purpose and vision that I want to have. Are they bringing me closer to where I want to be in life? And after sitting down with my coach, it became clear that I wasn’t clear and my focus was off.

So what do you do? Have you ever found yourself in this position? What did you do?

Sometimes it can be a lot easier to lead others before you lead yourself. But it’s such a crucial step to lead yourself first especially when others are watching your example. Earlier this year, I wrote about leading yourself and shared 4 tips to leading yourself better. But in it, I wrote about how to get out of your own way and become a better leader.

Wanting to go deeper and become more effective requires you to get out of your own way and get intentional about getting clear. Write down your for the next 90 days. Then write down all of your competing projects and commitments and ask yourself – what’s important? The key is to identify where you are and where you want to be. Then make the path to where you want to be.

If you would like to learn more about coaching and how it can help you become clearer and gain more awareness in your personal or professional life, contact me today. I’m currently accepting new clients and will coach you how to become clear and start gaining more traction in your life. For the month of February, I’m offering a complementary coaching session for the month of February.

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December 7, 2017December 7, 2017BLOG

Defining Moments – responding when your awareness is heightened

Responding to awareness is usually dependent on your maturity as a leader. From a biblical perspective, I believe God always wants to connect with us so he can lead us to be a better example of him, so we can be a better example to others. But ultimately, I believe he wants us to living out our purpose.

But, why is awareness so important and what’s it got to do with our purpose?

Awareness brings clarity. I recently read the Deeper Path by Kary Oberbrunner and it his book, he wrote about clarity and shared it is an important ingredient for growth, in fact it is essential. Clarity knows where you are going, what you value and represent. It is the most accurate vision of yourself and your business. Having clarity represents your inner values as a business owner and leader. Getting there isn’t always fun or easy but it’s worth it.

Gaining awareness is one of the things I enjoy most coaching leaders on. Leaders are called to inspire and influence others because leadership is influence, nothing more, nothing less. John C. Maxwell writes about this in his book the 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth. However, if you lack clarity about your purpose or if you’re stretched too thin as leader or even as a company because you’re saying “yes” too much, it can create an unclear path and ultimately result in your being pulled in multiple directions that really don’t lead to living out your purpose. It may be fun, it may even be in your sweet spot, but it may also be leading you further away from your vision.

Being coached gives permission for you to be asked the right questions in the right way that can lead to incredible breakthroughs. Coaching is not mentoring. In order to grow deeper, whether its in your faith, in your leadership abilities or in your life, awareness has to take place. Gaining awareness isn’t always pleasant. Sometimes it takes something painful for you to have that moment or gain that “aha”. It’s not until you take the time to reflect on those moments where you can be asked those important questions. If you’re honest with yourself, you can move in the direction that’s ultimately closer to living out your purpose.

In a world that’s filled with chaos, it’s easy to allow yourself to become so consumed with the things of this world that honestly don’t matter. It’s easy to become unfocused and unclear and lose sight of your vision.

I found myself here recently, saying yes to too many things and putting myself in a position where I became stretched so thin, it was preventing me from being fully engaged or able to really give my best to every project or commitment.

After reflecting and writing down all of the projects and commitments I was working on, I had to asked myself – are these really apart of my purpose? Are they really helping me come closer to my purpose and vision or bringing me further from it? And after sitting down with my coach, it became clear that I wasn’t clear, my focus was off.

So what do you do? Have you ever found yourself in this position? What did you do?

It can be a lot easier to lead others before you lead yourself. But leading yourself is crucial if you want to lead others. I learned a long time ago that others are watching you. Earlier this year, I wrote about leading yourself and shared 4 tips to leading yourself better. But in it, I wrote about how to get out of your own way. This is why awareness is so important and why reflecting can be so powerful in your personal growth.

If you want to go deeper and become more effectively, you have to get out of your own way and get intentional about getting clear and staying focused. Write down your goals for this year and you might as well prepare for next year. Then write down all of your competing projects and commitments and ask yourself – what’s important? What has my attention? The key is to identify where you are and where you want to be. Then make the path to where you want to be.

This Friday, December 8th at 11am EST, I’m going to be going live with one of my long time mentors and fellow coaches, Sandra Goode Harrington. In it, we’re going to be sharing the process of getting clear about your goals and how we prepare each year about our goals for the following year and what we’re going to be intentional about. We’ll be taking questions so come prepared. If you’d like to join in on this free lesson, it’s free and I’ll be we’ll be hosting the live call free on Zoom. This is a free leadership series with no gimmicks or something to sell. It’s a way to share with you how to get and stay focused.

You can join from any PC, Mac, Linux, iOS or Android: https://zoom.us/j/845746512

See you on the call.

Updated on January 17, 2017January 17, 2017BLOG LEADERSHIP

ONE QUESTION EVERY LEADER SHOULD BE ASKING

Regardless of your position, title or industry, leadership is influence, nothing more, nothing less. I believe this to be true. However, to grow as a leader, I believe their is one important element you MUST be doing as a leader regardless where you’re at in your career or organization. This one thing is something only you can do and can’t rely on others to do it for you.

It is a question you should be regularly asking yourself and it is: Am I investing in myself? This is a question of personal growth…about your personal growth. My mentor and leadership expert, John C. Maxwell states, there are 3 main factors that determine if and how you will invest in yourself. In his book, Good Leaders Ask Great Questions, Maxwell lists these factors as:

1. Your self-image: How you see yourself.
How do you view yourself? Would you be the type of leader you would want to follow? Do you serve others before serving yourself? Are you a positive person to be around or do people avoid you? This should be an easy question to answer…if you’re honest enough with yourself. If you were to describe yourself, what words would you use? What you don’t realize is how you view yourself determines how you will invest in yourself. And the way you view yourself will always match how much you invest in yourself. If you were to rate yourself as a 5 on a scale of 1 to 10, this also describes your willingness to invest in yourself and this will never change. Which explains why those with low self-esteem usually don’t make great investments in themselves because they feel like they’re not worthy of. Maxwell writes, “its not what you are that keeps you from investing in yourself; it’s what you think you are or are not. You will never be able to bet on yourself unless you believe in yourself.

2. Your dream: How you see your future.
I often ask people what their dreams are and I often hear, “I don’t know” or “I’m not sure” or sometimes even “I don’t have one”. If you don’t know what you want in life or how you want your future to look like, how do you know you’re on the right path in life, in your career, etc? Furthermore, if you’re not dreaming, how do you know what its going to take to achieve it. Maxwell writes, “The size of your dream determines the size of your investment. If your dream is large, you will invest in yourself to achieve it”. If you have no dream, you may not invest in yourself at all. Your dreams should fuel your desire to grow. I’m reading “Chase the Lion” right now by Mark Batterson and he writes, “You are one idea, one risk, one decision away from a totally different life. Of course, it’ll probably be the toughest decision you ever make, the scariest risk you ever take. But if your dream doesn’t scare you, it’s too small.” This is where your faith and how much you believe in that dream will fuel you.

3. Your friends: How others see you.
I once took the Leadership Circle Assessment – this is a powerful 360 assessment that assesses your creative competencies and reactive tendencies as a leader. It shows how you view yourself and compares it with how others view you in those same components. I was surprised to see how others viewed me, especially in areas where I scored myself low, they saw them as some of my greatest strengths and where I thought I was strong, they showed I needed some improvement in. It can be a highly beneficial tool to your personal growth to participate in these kinds of assessments because they can unlock the realities and raise your awareness. Author and Publisher of SUCCESS Magazine, Darren Hardy says,

“Picture where you are at in any area of your life, right now. Now picture where you want to be: richer, thinner, happier, you name it. Do you have it? The first step toward change is AWARENESS. If you want to get from where you are to where you want to be, you have to start by becoming aware of the choices that lead you away from your desired location. And become very conscious of every choice you make today so you can begin to make smarter choices moving forward”.

Use the people around you for the growth you need. The people around you and in your inner circle can be very valuable to your growth but you have to be ready to accept their feedback. If you can get feedback, USE IT, don’t get mad. Maxwell writes, “People need others to help them stay inspired and growing. Missionary Doctor Albert Schweitzer asserted, “In everyone’s life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flames by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle our inner spirits”. If you have friends who light your inner fire, you are very fortunate’ they will make you want to keep investing in yourself and keep growing. If you don’t, find some, because nothing is more important for your potential as a leader than your daily personal growth.

This last one can be very challenging but it’s essential to take a look at your inner circle. Your potential as a leader is determined by those closest to you. This is the Law of the Inner Circle. Those around you, have influence over you whether directly or indirectly and how they see you can inspire you or bring you down. Its important to have those around you who will add to your investment in your own personal growth.

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If you would like to learn more about investing in your personal growth including information on how you can take the Leadership Circle assessment, be sure contact me by clicking here.