During a conversation on leadership, vision setting and the execution of said vision, a friend of mine brought up the point that many leaders are more like managers with a look at me agenda than a true leader.
At first I chuckled at how right they were, then the reality hit me as I looked back at the leaders in my own personal life that left a positive impact in comparison to those that were the opposite.
Being coachable puts us face to face with being vulnerable, which unfortunately is often viewed as a weakness when the reality is that to be vulnerable, great strength is required.
In order for us to reach the best version of ourselves, we must be fully responsible for ourselves. There is very little room for blaming others for how we choose to respond and move through life.
Blame if anything is a very toxic energy that does nothing except keep feeling stuck. Becoming more conscious involves a diverse range of perspectives that often exist outside of our individual bubbles. This is where being coachable comes into play.
It should be noted that being coachable isn’t the same as people-pleasing, which is a misguided attempt to find love and acceptance in all the wrong places by trying to earn it from others, and one of the most common roadblocks to success in general.
Get Out of the Way
Pause, retreat, refresh your soul, renew your focus, get out of your own way.
Take a moment to look around at the current state of your life. How many blessings have you asked for that you’ve watched pass you by? How many things are you currently giving your focus to?
Chances are there’s too much on your plate and not enough time to work on your personal growth.
When you take the time to work on yourself that improvement will naturally shine through to your work and interactions with the world around you.
Simply put, you as a person are the one who is the heart and soul of the work and energy that’s put out into the world. Why put out subpar work and energy?
Anything that prevents you from powerfully and positively walking your path in life is inauthentic to who you are.
One of the most important things you can do is to not to stop questioning the world around you.
In order to be open to growth, possibilities, and creativity, you must have the capacity for constructive use of self awareness. A key skill that often aren’t found in a person that is uncoachable.
Community Coachability
Once a tribe or community has been established, its effectiveness and cohesiveness can essentially be measured by two key elements: the element to which it is held together, and the element to which it can be extended to other people beyond the original tribe.
We now have to keep top of mind the context, individual to brand narrative, and trusted relationships within communities and representation of those elements outside of the community.
When we engage with others in an ethical, straightforward manner, we are planting the seeds of that attitude in them. We can and should expect to reap the same attitudes.
If that isn’t the case, it’s time to be a little diplomatic and find a way to empathetically move beyond the person and experience.
When we as leaders are doing our jobs properly, our community members will enjoy the experience of being a part of your community. They will know they are contributing something worthwhile to their fellow community members both online and off, to themselves, and to their families.
The conflicts that would normally be around to hold us or the community back are no longer present and growth both on an individual and larger level becomes more impactful.
We must nurture those we lead, plant good seeds and care for them attentively, while guarding against the inevitable.
There is no shortage of courses that present the idea of finding, connecting, and living within one’s purpose.
Alignment of thought and purpose is what produces the intelligent accomplishments we often praise. Unfortunately, many of us will never achieve that level of excellence due to our ignorance and indolence.
In short, we’re often too lazy and short-sighted to be truly effective at anything we do.
Often only seeing the apparent effects of things and not the things themselves, and instead of focusing on what truly matters, zone we instead talk of luck, fortune, and chance.
Purpose without a dose of reality is blind to the trials and failures and struggles which successful individuals have voluntarily encountered in order to gain their experience, and have no knowledge of the sacrifices they have made.
Not everyone is going to have the same drive and passion for making a difference as you may have.
Keep creating good outside of the comfort zone anyway and get out of your own way.
At some point you have to stop praying for blessings and stepping out the way wondering why they passed you by.