I am continually reminded through my clients, colleagues and thought leaders I connect with that one of the key factors of performance isn’t that we don’t know the answers, standards or needs of our customers (or how to find out) its more to do with just #gettingstarted.
I was talking to a leader working for a business that provides learning analytics platforms globally. He gave some great examples how learning and development departments seem (in general) to be 15 years behind other departments in the business.
You would like to hope that it wasn’t due to ignorance as to what would add the best impact to the business but more with the need to just getting started.
He then went on to say that with his clients it’s that cliff hanger moment of should I or shouldn’t I do something different to get the results for success.
Making this choice wasn’t necessarily difficult but getting started was and was creating a whole new business opportunity for them. The value wasn’t just in the data and more informative decisions that could be made from that but in the ‘hand holding’ or guiding in building the disruptive mindset and courage to take the first move to allow the next step to happen.
This getting started seems to be a theme with my clients too. “I know what I need to do but I can’t focus” “I can see what needs to happen but I dont know where to start”. To help in these situations I like to ask questions like “if you were advising your friend what would you say” “What would you do just before starting” “looking back now you have achieved your successful outcome what will of happened?” This allows you to step away from the situation as its always seems to be easier to advise rather than see things that are at the end of your nose!
Let me share with you my own story. As a passionate executive coach and performance consultant, I know that one of the best ways to add to the field is through writing and sharing resources. This allows me the great opportunity to give which is a personal purpose.
Its that blank sheet of paper that fills me with dread. But most critically the getting started is about fear. For me its the fear of whether people get some value from it, the brand that I will portray and how genuine others feel I have been.
So what next? Other than a great mindset disrupter? Thanks to Sea Salt Learning which has given me a kick, my advice to support you getting started on your journey in meeting your goal is:
1. Take the plunge with the first step — Reminding ourselves from the Chinese proverb that “the journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step” Find a little something, whatever the size, that nudges you in the right direction.
2. Get support — ask a friend, colleague or a coach/ manager for you to be accountable to and act as a mentor. You might even have technology reminders. However as reminded by Kurt Ewald Lindley @CoachDeveloper yesterday it’s the personal feeling that you get from support and learning that can be the golden nugget of sustaining the new desired behaviour.
3. Recognise the world lives in Beta mode (not quite perfect mode / good enough) — The days have gone where its only technology that is launched in Beta mode. The speed of change through the VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous) landscape we live in means we should be fluid and flexible. What is right today won’t necessarily be right tomorrow so go with today’s choices and actions as they are just the ticket that will get the behaviour change or results you want to see. Then adapt through the journey.
4. You are what you do — Your knowledge, skills and experience make you unique and add value in your own way and so don’t let the universe wait any longer and go for it. This brand is relevant in context.
5. Authenticity is living it and sharing it just as you are. Likeminded people and those that need your energy will build those opportunities for you.
The greatest aim for me is to share some valuable content that allows you and your ecosystems of people you know feel and act better as a result..please share your stories and thank you for the team at #SocialAge who through their 6 week challenge has got me started.
If I can help at all with the simplifying, guiding, implementing and sustaining business and personal development…just getting started please get in touch for a chat.
#gettingstarted #seasaltlearning #julianstodd #learning
