As I reflect on 2018, the wins, the losses, the “could have beens”, the “what ifs”. Amidst my musings I feel a lot of gratitude for many of the choices I have made over my life but most significantly over the past 10 years. I have always beed driven and focussed on “success” in my career pursuits. A number of the pivotal roles and challenges were exciting and demanding and I left feeling like I did my best but…”is this all there is?” “is this really as good as it gets”, “I’ve got a lot going on but I still want more” “I m still not where I thought I would be by now.”
These thoughts came and went over the years with differing intensities and consequences. But the internal stirring, the rumble, the sense of unrest that I couldn’t quite put my finger on became my Catalyst for significant Change. Today I am immensely grateful that I listened to that rumble. Somehow I knew there had to be a better way. My outside world was not producing the results I wanted and my inside world was vague and messy. I wonder if you can relate.
From a very young age I have been intrigued about why people do what they do and what makes people tick. I devoured historical novels about the Egyptians, Romans, Hawaiians and The Middle East. The stories about how humans evolved and what makes life work kept me fascinated for years. My second passion is business and wealth creation. I was drawn to Sales as a career because it’s all about people, money and success. If you don’t sell you don’t make money and you can’t succeed. And your product must solve a significant problem that people will pay to solve. Your client decides the value. It’s very much about WIIFM principle. If the price is too high, they don’t buy. If the price is too low, you risk being lost in the sea of competition and not being profitable. Some early attempts at entrepreneurship in my 20’s didn’t make enough money so I chose the corporate sales route as a way to make enough money consistently and create income-producing assets. I am very grateful to have achieved this objective.
My 3rd passion is Health. Without good Health we have nothing. Today my first priority is my Health. These days I train and run marathons. I found my way into Executive Leadership & Sales coaching through Health coaching. It drove me nuts that people would simply not do what’s good for them even when it is spelt out in a simple plan.
It was about 10 years ago, when that rumble, that nagging feeling was becoming too stressful to ignore. This was my Catalyst for Change. I replaced some of the unhealthy behaviours into healthy ones through coaching and mindset development programs and Coaching Psychology education. We must keep watering and weeding the garden daily.
Today, I often see a similar behaviour patterns with Leaders as I saw with Health clients. Many CEO’s and Sales Directors are expecting their people to create miraculous sales results in highly competitive noisy markets with exactly the same toolkits and resources as last year. As Einstein so aptly said: “You can’t solve a problem with the same level of thinking with which you created it”. And another favourite quote is “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results.”
There are many ways to spend sales and leadership training budgets. How much is enough? I don’t have an answer for that. What I do know is that you can never lose by investing in your people performance development. Many surveys consistently show that when employees do personal and professional development and coaching, their sense of commitment, belonging, loyalty and value increase and their personal output also increases.
My Catalyst for Change continues to grow and evolve. I am passionate about propelling Visionary passionate CEO’s, Sales Directors and Leaders forward into a whole new dimension. Are you ready to make your Vision real and profitable? You bring the Vision and the drive. I bring the psychology, the strategy, the structure and the Sales skills which I transfer to you and your team. Success is a team sport. Each member counts.
I challenge you to take the time to decide what your Catalyst for Change is. Everyone has one. Not everyone takes notice of it. And even fewer follow through long enough and are willing to change enough to get to the top. 2 simple questions to ask yourself:
- Am I improving?
- What do I need to move myself and my team from good to great?
Everyone wants to hire the winners. And my most successful clients are the ones who choose to become winners. I trust this has served to spark your thinking. Our best thinking got us here. Better thinking will get us different and better results.
Do share your comments and feedback below – do you agree? disagree?
Tomorrow I will share a post on the second stage of the journey to success for the Leader with a Vision and passion to make that Vision real and profitable. In the meantime, do reach out and connect with me. I do have 2-3 openings for new clients in 2019. Applications will open shortly.
