Growing step by step…
Back in 2013 my physiotherapist motivated me to start climbing — „we will never meet again“, she promised and so it was. Climbing became a hobby for me that would radically change my leadership.
· A coach with a growth mindset focuses on your effort and the related results, unleashing your full potential: By giving me new challenges in every training, I feel neither bored nor in the panic zone. Having the chance to make progress in every single training. Never judging me as a person, honoring my effort and progress. What motivates me to keep working hard in order to grow…
· In Summer when we went outdoors in the mountains for the first time, I had a big AHA moment concerning my decision process: coming from indoor climbing, I would set my next step without planning it too much, trusting in „there will be a next bolder“. Climbing on the rocks is a lot more dangerous (you would hit yourself even if using the rope) and needs planning of each step, in advance. Can´t tell you how difficult and hard this lesson was for me. As a practice, my trainer made me to speak out loud where I´d plan to step before doing so. I had to adjust my brain, every step. And I succeeded.
This gave me a new awareness for my leadership style: I tend to negotiate decisions with myself, not integrating my colleagues. Of course they would not be as committed as needed, as it was „my decision“ and not „our decision“.
As consequence, I introduced the so called “AIDA sessions” to accompany our ongoing growth journey: I start my day once a week in the café close to our office, happy to listen to the thoughts and experiences of my team. Whoever feels like it, joins. We share and sometimes create new experiments for growing ourselves and our organization.
· In the last training of the year, in December I was very tired and exhausted from a year of transformation and celebrations and my skills were that poor, that I called my climb the „climb of humility“. After 10 months of progress I made the experience of being a beginner. That was very grounding. Reminding me of
o never over estimating my own skills and power
o being ready to learn new stuff although this is much more exhausting than progressing on something you already know
o being empathetic with beginners, honoring their effort and motivation to learn.
Having said all this, I realize that I should start a “new thing” in 2019 — most probably this will be singing classes. What is your field of growing for your personal leadership? Any suggestions?
