🎙️ EP 49 : Leaders who grow have Courage Humility and Discipline

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Imagine this scenario. You are aware that a colleague went to a Leadership Course or even got

Executive Coaching. However, when they ‘return’, nothing seems to be different. They don’t even mention it. You see the same behaviours as before, the ones that you like and those that you wished the person would have grown out of.

What’s going on? Why are some development efforts futile and not leading to visible change?

Admittedly, there are many factors. Here, I will pick one that in my view is a one strong contributor to success: the mental prep of the person who wants to grow. In particular, I will talk about Courage, Humility and Discip

In this article, I open my toolbox to share about one major way how I help participants in my programs achieve the success they desired: by becoming intentional about their own readiness and mindset.

As mentioned, there are likely a myriad of success factors, ranging from the participant, to the trainer, to content, to external factors and others. All of them play a role.

However, the mental readiness of the participant is special and decisive. The participants are the carrier of success. They own the resources to make it happen. They absorb. They implement.

In the further cause of this article, I will speak directly to YOU, as if you are indeed joining a course/program.

I will share the approach that IntelliCoach will take to help you assess and commit with intention before committing to a development effort that involves personal growth.

I consider 3 things as very relevant on a broad level:

1. Having a Productive Mindset.

2. Having the ability to give effective feedback to peer learners.

3. Having the ability co contribute with concise and clear manner language.

This article addresses the first element of a Productive Mindset and in particular the traits of Courage, Humility and Discipline.

What gives these 3 terms such a big role here?

Now, why am I telling you all this?

I deeply believe and know a few realities:

To participate in this course means you have to say NO to something. This requires Courage to change..

You will be on the fast track to Personal Leadership growth. This means you will be in the spotlight a lot. Accepting feedback with grace and seeing others’ perceptions as reality takes a lot of Humility.

Every overnight success has a long history of dedication behind it. You will face times when you think you want to prioritise away from the course. That’s normal. While the course and your peers will give a certain structure and external accountability, the main drive to see it through will be your internal Discipline.

If there is one big distinguishing criteria for members of the IntelliCoach Leader Academy, it is that they bring in high Courage, Humility and Discipline. Aside from the quality of the program itself, this is the number 1 differentiator to eventual success that is fully in the control of the program member, i.e. YOU.

Let’s have a look at each of the three qualities in a bit more detail:

Courage means to accept from the beginning that this journey about becoming a Leader Coach is about changing and growing YOURSELF.

It is easy in day-to-day interaction to point fingers at others and say that they are the focal point of needed change. We are not concerned about that. Our focus is to grow and learn to improve

OURSELVES.

When we are courageous, we explore the limits of our comfort zone and venture beyond it to try new ways to communicate, even if we built seemingly working patterns over the past decades.

Courage in a program also means to speak up and to ask the questions that are likely on everyone’s mind. Courage also means that you share criticism and concerns about something the Facilitator does.

Lastly, courage also means to put your intentions into actual practice. Knowing is not automatically doing.

One typical example?

I saw many times over the years that Leaders find it relatively hard to actually express the coaching agreement in a conversation.

Why?

As coaches we feel a contradiction here: On the one hand, we KNOW that the coaching agreement is absolutely essential. We MUST at some point in the conversation ask a variation of the question ‘What do you want to get out of this very conversation we are in right now?’. If not, the conversation has no goal. However, especially new coachees will feel that by asking this question they break a connection with the client. They become self-conscious; they feel pushy or formulaic, simply unnatural.

My take is that feeling like this is actually very natural. It takes courage to try this question and extend your comfort zone around it. I have seen many Leaders take the jump become intentional about their coaching agreement. You can do it, too!

Humility means that all this is NOT about you.

Our performance is ultimately a reflection of the perception of other people. Our stakeholders, including our team, peers, customers, suppliers and leaders ultimately define our performance.

Humility means to accept with grace their perception as a given reality.

We can’t change people, but it is in our power to change the perception of the people around us with our actions and behaviours.

It also means not to lash back at the feedback from others, but instead to response with ‘Thank you’ and curiosity to learn and to clarify what factors contributed to the perception they had.

Humility also means to admit that we are not perfect and that we are all works in progress.

Leadership is often assumed to work ‘differently’. I have seen countless times that even mature Leaders take it as their duty to project an image of certainty and infallibility.

What is one of the clearest signs of humility in a Leader in my personal view? They have no problem asking people for help and advice who have significantly less power than them AND they listen and act on what they hear. It has amazing effect when this happens.

Discipline is about implementing and doing, in the face challenges.

There is one further reality in many longer courses that I would like to mention: Initial excitement is followed by the realisation of the need of effort. Exuberance is replaced perseverance. I enjoyed a lot how the Marshall Goldsmith training prepared participating coaches to anticipate shifting priorities in clients and how we can help them stay on track when their discipline begins to falter.

As a Coach and your program facilitator, I see it as my role to help you make the connection between the amazing things you want to achieve for yourself with the training and the discipline that is required to get there.

In the simplest way, committing to a high degree of discipline firstly means to show up. It also means to anticipate a potential future drop in motivation and taking steps early to counter it.

Discipline is a magic sauce. It leads to consistency, progress and (in more cases than not) achievement.

As mentioned in the beginning of this article, there is a lot of value in becoming intentional about how much Courage, Humility and Discipline we want to bring in.

The questions I would you then ask are quite simple:

How willing are you to explore the corners of your comfort zone?

How willing are you to actively and intentionally invite and act on the feedback and feedforward of the people around you, including your sternest critics?

How committed are you to turning the insights from the course into actual practice? How committed are you to becoming a proud, Certified Leader Coach?

In this article, I opened my workshop toolbox. How would I help a course participant set themselves up for success early on?

I shared what is in my view the most important and powerful way to help: an intentional, productive mindset.

This mindset has 3 qualities to it:

1. Courage: How willing are you to explore the corners of your comfort zone?

2. Humility: How willing are you to accept other’s perceptions of you as reality?

3. Discipline: How committed are you to do what it takes to become a great Leader Coach?

These three qualities are mentioned as CHD throughout the course. I have adapted this concept from the way I prepare my coaching clients as a certified Marshall Goldsmith’s stakeholder centered coach.

I explained that when participants are high on these three qualities, their chance to achieve measurable growth and success is very high. My deep belief is that when we help participants take stock early (before they commit) and assess their mindset, we do a great service to them.

They will go in stronger. They make an informed and intentional decision about the excited road that’s ahead of them.

Excited and high on CHD? Let’s get started!!