Week 23.29 Showing Up

Working with many of the most outstanding leaders, leadership thinkers, and leadership coaches for almost a decade has allowed me to glimpse what makes the absolute best better than the rest. Over the past several years I feel fortunate to have met many great coaches, each of whom is exceptional in many regards. What interests me is the few who are that one cut above the rest. Many times, the difference does not matter; sometimes, it matters a great deal. This week I’m pondering those differentiating factors. When performing at this level, attributes such as intelligence, experience, and influence are a given, but they do not tell the full story. When I think about a few of these truly exceptional individuals, they are amazingly diverse yet all have three things in common: curiosity, generosity, and humanity.

Curiosity is the ability to see a situation with new eyes, to be open to other ideas, and to see the situation as it is rather than as something they expect or want it to be. A coach with curiosity enters the engagement with a sense of joy and playfulness; they are excited to find a new solution to an old problem. They want to discover everything they can about the person, including their history, how they are perceived, their dreams, their nightmares, their aspirations, and what they are willing to let go. They want to see the world through both a telescope and a microscope - to see everything they can both big and small. Curiosity allows them to see what others have missed, which helps them rapidly adapt to new situations and become the coach they need to be to help the leader move quickly and successfully forward. 

Generosity is the selflessness that great individuals bring to any situation. As I listen to our most successful coaches speak about their engagements, they pull out all the stops for their clients. At the highest levels of coaching, the coach often brings in resources from outside the specific engagement to support their leaders and create outstanding outcomes. Sometimes what they bring is experiences from the past; other times, it is present relationships. While the coaching engagement generally involves a set amount of time, the hours are rarely counted, and the phone is within reach. They generously give of their time to ensure that leaders have what they need. The best have an uncanny knack for knowing precisely what is needed and then are keen to deliver. Most importantly, in this relationship, the leader knows that the coach is putting them first and that they can depend on them as their inner circle. The coach sees the best in their client, holding them with grace when they fall short and calling them higher.

Humanity is showing up as a complete, authentic, honest, and vulnerable human being. The best of our coaches know that what a leader lacks more than anything else is a genuine and honest human that they can trust with their humanity. And to win that trust, the coach must exhibit the same traits. What is most interesting about this quality is that there is no list of criteria to exhibit one's humanity. Each one is different... and different in each context. And yet, by showing up in full humanity, the best coaches receive, in return, the openness and trust of the leader. The leader can share their trickiest challenges, and together they can address them. Without humanity, there is no visibility. And with no visibility, there is no progress. 

It may sound simple, but curiosity, generosity, and humanity take intentional work. It means connecting with one's true self and being bold enough to expose it. It is easy to think that the top achievers are at the pinnacle because of external factors such as prestige, pedigree, or popularity. My experience has been quite to the contrary. These individuals are at the peak of their category because of their internal qualities: curiosity, generosity, and humanity. In life and leadership, we can emulate what makes these people great by bringing these same characteristics into the lives of those we love and lead. At the end of the day, what really makes these experts great is how fully they are showing up. 

WD-40 Company Chosen as Model for The Culture Forum celebrating Garry Ridge

As business leaders across the globe take aim on improving company cultures as a pathway to success for individuals and companies alike, WD-40 Company is chosen as a model for creating a positive company culture, inspiring the creation of The Culture Forum to debut in San Diego. “A more engaged employee population creates better results for businesses and higher quality of life for employees,” said Davin Salvagno, Founder of PurposePoint, The Purpose Summit, and Bestselling Author of Finding Purpose at Work. “And after studying companies across the globe, we identified something really special about the culture at WD-40 Company, and we believe others could learn from their good work, along with gathering other nationally recognized leaders and experts.”

This year, the conference will feature CEO and president of WD-40 Company for 25 years, Garry Ridge who was at the helm of the company as it achieved a 93 percent engagement rate among employees. Garry believes that high engagement is not a means to an end, but rather the goal itself. “Culture can have a dramatic impact on results. But you don’t work to create a positive culture just so you can grow profits. If that is your motivation, your efforts will fall flat.” For more information click here

Thinkers50 Awards Gala 2023 Ambassadors

Dorie Clark is a 2021 and 2019 Ranked Thinker, both of which years she was also shortlisted for the Thinkers50 Talent Award. She is an Executive Education Faculty member at Columbia Business School, marketing strategy consultant, and branding expert. She is also an award-winning journalist, contributor to the Harvard Business Review, host of the podcast Better, and the author of several books, including ‘The Long Game: How to Be a Long-Term Thinker in a Short-Term World,’ published in 2021.

Julie Carrier is a member of the Thinkers50 Radar Class of 2022, and was shortlisted for the Thinkers50 Coaching and Mentoring Award in 2021 for her work as a trailblazer in the field of young women’s leadership. She is the founder of the Leadership Development Institute for Young Women; the world’s first evidence-based, applied-neuroscience leadership and coaching curriculum for high schools. She is an acclaimed coach, speaker, and the author of ‘Girls Lead’ from 2017.

Ruth Gotian, Ed.D., M.S. Gotian is a member of the Thinkers50 Radar Class of 2021 and was the recipient of the Thinkers50 2021 Radar Award. She is the chief learning officer and assistant professor of education in anesthesiology at Weill Cornell Medicine. Her research on what makes the world’s most extraordinary achievers reach peak success and performance is distilled in her recent book, The Success Factor, and in addition to publishing in academic journals, she is also a contributor to Forbes and Psychology Today.

Sanyin Siang is a Thinkers50 2021 Ranked Thinker, the recipient of the Thinkers50 Coaching and Mentoring Award in 2019, and a member of the Thinkers50 Radar Class of 2018. She is a CEO coach, investor, and leadership advisor, and the founding Executive Director of Duke University’s Coach K Leadership & Ethics Center at its Fuqua School of Business. She is the author of the 2017-publication ‘The Launch Book,’ which provides an actionable plan for leveraging change using behavioral science concepts.

Are ‘Should’ and ‘Must’ Impacting Your Happiness? 5 Steps to Take Back Control by Whitney Johnson

How often do “should” and “must” show up in your internal dialogue? A few weeks ago, I was listening to past Disrupt Yourself podcast guest Emma McAdam’s Therapy in A Nutshell episode “Don’t Believe Everything You Think: How These 3 Cognitive Distortions make you miserable.” In the episode, she discusses the work of Albert Ellis, a famous American psychologist who developed Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT), which I found to be enlightening and particularly useful for those working to accelerate their growth journey. 

When we learn to examine the ‘shoulds’ and ‘musts’ that are present in our internal dialogues and replace them with realistic and helpful beliefs, we change the trajectory of both our growth curves and our happiness—we change our lives. What are the musts in your life? What beliefs can you replace them with? How will you celebrate your success and growth?

With love, gratitude and wonder. Scott