Leadership Development

Wouldn’t it be great if hard work really did enable you to achieve your goals?

In order for it to be a possible you would need to be motivated and have the resources. If that is the case, a good performance coach could help you achieve those goals.

If I’m coaching a business owner, they will usually achieve their success because they’ve got the resources and they’re motivated. But there can be a downside.

Somebody can achieve goals and realise it wasn’t worth the effort and neither is it worth keeping up the charade of ‘being seen’ as successful.

French chef Sébastien Bras, having achieved three Michelin stars, realised it wasn’t worth the effort to maintain them and so handed them back. The Michelin stars were not aligned with his motivation or values. They were not ecological.

The personal development industry probably started as far back as the Axial period which occurred around 500-300 BCE. This is when humanity experienced a cognitive shift from a narrative style and acceptance of what happened as being beyond our control, to one which was more reflective and analytical.

It also helped us focus on longer-term meaningful goals as opposed to short-term materialism. This was enabled by the invention of symbols and writing which we used as memory tools but also helped us reframe our own lives.

It was now possible to understand the effects we and others have on the systems around us. Which, given the situation within the world presently is obviously not being utilised effectively by the winners of this paradigm.

As the agrarian revolution became established, we see that warfare increased as the already powerful people grasped for more land and power. This was the beginning of capitalism.

A good performance coach would have been useful then because not only do wealthy landowners have the resources to achieve all the goals they desire, they’re also highly motivated being infected with greed and self-importance. So, a performance coach appearing as a Machiavellian bureaucrat could help them identify strategies and opportunities to increase their wealth.

However, at what cost?

As chef Sébastien insightfully realised, the goal is not WISE.

Worthwhile – Is the goal worth the effort in terms of resources and impact on your health and wellbeing?

Inspiring – Is it a long-term goal which will be a positive benefit to the world?

Stretching – Will the goal stretch me personally making me a better person?

Ecological– is it ecological? What do other people and the planet think about it?

We have to think more in terms of ecology. The universe and nature do not move in straight lines powered by simplistic philosophies, which is where the pseudo-scientific world of personal and professional development world abound.

For example, if you were to examine any business from an ecological perspective and ask

“Is your business profitable?”

Then you would, if you were to add back into the equation all the external costs such as pollution and waste which occurs, realise most businesses are not.

We work in a world which is unfair and unequal. The rich don’t play by any rules that the rest of us abide by. They have armies of accountants and lobbyists to keep it unfair.

Being told you’re not winning because you’re not motivated enough, not in possession of the right skill set or got the right coach, is only half the story. That philosophy plays right into the hands of the winners to keep them winning.

The system isn’t able to operate on everybody being successful in a way which suits the status-quo.

Only some people are in the right place and time to be competitive enough to be successful entrepreneurs. Not everybody can or wants to be a tech-digital superstar.

The world of capitalism is based on compete and control, so is only designed to suit some winners. If you’re being coached on chasing somebody else’s version of success then you might want to think again.

Setting goals that are not ecological are usually bad for you, your connections and the environment. We will not transform the world overnight, but by becoming more eco-system literate, we can shift our thinking to when compassion, collaboration and meaning mattered more than material success.

As a rebel, maverick, coach or leader, you can learn to become better at setting more ecological goals. You might not achieve success based on other people’s version of success, but you might be able to see more of reality and perhaps gain insights on how you can make a positive impact in the world.

If you’d like an introduction to Eco-Coaching join me here: https://tinyurl.com/EcoCoaching