Hacking your OS
There is something very Scottish about not wanting to accept help, a stubborn pride that comes from growing up in the wee sunless country. I’ve always thought that coaching was something for people who just can’t handle their own stuff.
Peepshows continual mockery of coaching enforced my ostrich beliefs (when one decides to keep their head in the sand ignoring facts).
It was a pleasure to discover how wrong my preconceptions were. Over the last three months I’ve been receiving executive coaching from T C Kelly of Kelly Associates (Tom). Sometimes you don't see the forest for the trees and you don't realise that your head is in the sand.
Tom’s coaching is consultative, as an external force his questions helped to provide reference, enabling me to much better understand the state of my business, and most importantly were I want to take it. Often the most simple of questions are the hardest to answer:
How are you / your business? (visualise where you are right now)
What are you goals? (pick a time frame and visualise where you want to be in a certain period of time)
Once you've got a clear picture of the above, then you can start to work out, how are you going to get there?
One of the most profound frameworks Tom took me though was belief cycles.
What positive or negative belief do you hold?
What event causes to trigger it / reinforce it?
What is the emotional impact?
What is the physical impact?
What actions do you take after the event? What actions should you take but don't?
This introspective behaviour analysis enables you to identify patterns and hack your own operating system. Identifying your behaviour triggers and gaming your internal feedback loops to replace negative behaviours with positive and productive behaviours.
I've realised that when I have good new at work, I'm happy but don't utilise the motivation as well as I could. Where as when something negative happens at work it de motivates me and I have no reset button to get me back on track. Both behaviours that I now have the sight to change.
Having someone help frame the problems, enables us to focus on breaking out the key parts and empowers people to come back with their own solutions. It's possible to be more productive while doing less work, streamlining your own efforts and others. If you're interested in this I would highly recommend reading the 80:20 principle.
