If I were to appear in front of you, in person and place an orange in the palm of your hand and ask you to squeeze, what do you think will come out?
If you were to repeat the same exercise in your office, what do you think will come out? No matter where we are, whether at work or at play – When a certain stimulus is applied— stress, uncertainty, empathy, joy etc whatever is inside is what will come out.
How we show up at work and how we show up at play are not that different as we think. We don’t wear a coat that says “person” on the back, only to remove it at the doorway of our office and wear another coat that says “professional”.
We behave and act in different situations according to our own personal experiences, though processes and beliefs, which means we can’t really expect us to become completely different people in different situations, unless we decide to put on a mask.. Well we all know it didn’t work for Jim Carey and neither will it help us.
We bring our whole selves to work every single day. When we get better at a behaviour at work, we can be assured that it will positively affect other areas of Life as well. 8 years ago, I was facilitating a coaching conversation with Senior leaders at an organisation. The HR manager who was curating the program invited a senior leader to say a few words.
The senior leader said “All this leadership development stuff is ok, what’s the big deal? In my career, I didn’t have a coach and I did alright and there was a hush in the audience..
My friend told him gently “Sure, you can be a leader without investing in a coach. After all, no one teaches us how to breathe and we just breathe.. Then, why do some people seek out Art of Living course courses or learn Pranayama?”
We can all get better leading ourselves and our teams, right? Maybe, a coach could help.
Now, let’s take a deep breath, shall we?
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