I recently completed the requirements to earn the Certified Professional Co-Active Coach (CPCC) credential, and this learning experience taught me the value of becoming a better listener.
For as long as I can remember, I have been a Level 1 listener, which means I’m mostly concerned about my own thoughts and agenda. When the other person is speaking, I’m ready for them to finish so I can share what I am thinking.
Over the past 30 years, I’ve hired many people while working in different companies. Interestingly, other than preparing for interviews myself, I have never taken a formal course or workshop on hiring best practices.
We recently visited our daughter, Kaitlin, in Houston. She is employed at the Marriott Marquis downtown, and we had the opportunity to explore this wonderful property. If you haven’t visited the Marquis, the Texas-shaped lazy river is a must, especially on a hot summer day.
When speaking to a group of friends, one of them made a comment that resonated with me …
“Authority does not mean you are an authoritarian.”
Like you, I’ve been in many situations where people in leadership positions look for opportunities to wield their power. They never run away from an opportunity to tell or show others they are in charge.
Our son, Aaron, recently graduated from Antonian College Preparatory, a Catholic high school here in San Antonio, and we were fortunate the commencement festivities took place as scheduled. In fact, the steady rain and intense lightning caused more modifications to the ceremony than the pandemic.
During a men’s bible study session, a friend was telling a story about how he has developed a bad habit of looking for what is wrong in others. He finds himself constantly criticizing and complaining about what others are doing and not doing, and this habit is spilling over into his family life.
When he shared this story with the rest of the group, another member noted that he had done the same thing for many years, but had recently adopted a new approach to help him keep a positive perspective on life, and here’s the advice he shared …
Recently, I was listening to a leadership podcast, and I learned about the Power of Noticing.
After a bit more research on the topic, here is what I captured about leaders who notice:
- They seek additional information about the situation or scenario.
- They avoid making decisions solely on what they hear or recall from the past.
- They are prepared to challenge the status quo, knowing that what worked in the past is no longer appropriate or viable.
- They stay away from common biases that prevent an objective approach to decision-making.
While listening to a Science podcast, I learned about the illusion of mastery.
In short, this is the term psychologists use when people perform a task or activity over and over until eventually, they wrongly believe they have mastered it. In essence, it’s having a false sense of confidence.
After realizing the Covid pandemic was going to linger around longer than I first anticipated, I decided to make the most of it by pursuing professional development classes.
There were two areas where I wanted to improve my skills: (1) Leadership, and (2) Agility.
As I prepared to teach a university class, I watched a Ted Talk pertaining to innovative marketing skills, and the speaker made an interesting comment I wanted to share with you …
