Is the Invisible Prison Limiting Your Success?

In an interview with Lisa Urbanski, she and I explored how the invisible prison can limit success. If you are already a master at your craft, there is still a next level. That does not mean you are unhappy with your performance. It means you are still capable of learning or inventing new things. Throughout history, many masters have created new possibilities that required new techniques, equipment or other unforeseen changes that were beyond what they previously knew. Tiger Woods is a great example of someone who mastered his craft as a professional golfer. Nevertheless, he changed his swing more than once. Each time he changed his swing he became a beginner all over again, until he mastered the new swing. Once mastered, he rose to the top. On the other hand, if you have not mastered your craft, there is a chance you are being derailed by beliefs that were never true. In the video, Lisa and I discuss how an entire industry was constrained by a simple belief that was never questioned. Once questioned, entirely new possibilities became available. Perhaps mastery of a craft requires one to first master self. Without self mastery, it becomes difficult to see the invisible bars that limit what is possible. While self mastery is not widely celebrated in the US, Navy Seals dedicate 12 weeks to self mastery training. What the military discovered was the self mastery training increased the amount of people who completed the Navy Seal training. Which structures have you put in place to master yourself?

Forget Crisis Management! Creating Crises Intentionally Is What Empowers Breakthrough Growth

In an interview with Lisa Urbanski, she and I explored crises and uncertainty in the workplace. She wanted to understand how disruption, chaos and crisis can impact people. Instead of taking the usual view of crisis, we explored how it can be the catalyst for neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity is what happens when the brain is forced to grow new neural pathways. Those new pathways can increase intelligence and expand one’s view of the world and self. Throughout the interview, she and I uncovered case studies where businesses penetrated untapped markets and experienced exponential revenue growth. The point of the discussion was to see that business as usual is not the path to breakthroughs. Instead, asking people to do things that can initially appear uncomfortable is a more empowering strategy. That temporary discomfort transforms culture, develops new skills and competencies in staff and management and can gives the organization a competitive advantage in the marketplace. While that path may sound attractive to most, the training needed requires people to become comfortable with manufactured chaos, disruption or crisis. As people master self in the face of problems, the individual and enterprise becomes more nimble and capable of navigating unforeseen disruptions that occur from the economy, geopolitical changes or black swans.

Should Extreme Adversity Be Part of Leadership Training When Preparing for an Environment of Constant Change?

In an interview with Sue Firth, she and I discussed how adversity at a young age can prepare a person for leadership. While adversity can appear to be detrimental to a young person’s development, it can also prepare them for the challenges life throws at them. In Malcom Gladwell’s book, David and Goliath, he writes about how being dyslexic can prepare a person to work with people smarter than themselves. Gladwell noted that some dyslexic children learned to delegate homework to the smartest child in their class. Or they organized meetings with the smartest kids in different subjects. In another part of the book, Gladwell talked about the person who lost a parent around the age of 20. He noted that person developed the capacity to take over and lead in the face of crisis. This person developed a mindset that allowed them to function effectively when running a business that was experiencing chaos. As the interview continued, Sue discovered how personal life events can also negatively impact workplace productivity. Throughout the interview, it is noted that training people to navigate unforeseen changes can drive innovation and foster an environment where breakthroughs are created intentionally.