This month, two separate clients mentioned their goal for the people in their teams was to help them survive. The context was lots of change going on in both organizations, the pressure was high, and things were urgent. The typical VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous) world many of us are experiencing.
As a coach, I’m not supposed to have an agenda for my clients. I am supposed to let them lead the agenda for coaching. And I do have an agenda for them, which I often share. I want them to be the best people they can and want to be and live their best lives, fulfilling all the potential they have and being happy and inspiring in the world. Not too lofty 😉
With both these clients, I got curious about the word survive with regards to their staff. And I did ask about thriving rather than surviving. This led to a brainstorm around different possibilities for the staff and a very different mindset for the client. From this place of more abundance, each client was able to generate possibilities that didn’t exist with mere survival.
They left the sessions with more motivation, ideas for how to support their teams and an experience that they could replicate with their staff to help them have a more positive and productive mindset. One of them also wondered how often they used ‘less productive’ language at work so was going to increase their awareness about that.
What would thriving be like for you and your teams?
