Susan was sent to me by her boss. She is a very competent Senior Director and they want to prepare her to become a Vice President.
The Senior Vice President told me that what is holding Susan back is that, “She doesn’t have enough executive presence and she doesn’t come across like a leader. She is very confident in what she does, but she doesn’t have that leadership quality and that executive presence needed at the senior level.”
It turns out Susan was terrified of communication. Especially with her peers, the other Senior Directors, who intimidated her. Even worse with people higher up. When she faced an upcoming meeting, Susan was stressed solid the whole week leading up to it and did not sleep at all the night before.
We worked on Susan’s Causative Communication skills. After she completed that program and became a very skilled communicator, we worked on her Executive Presence, which became quite powerful.
Susan is now going into meetings with her peers and senior leaders with a real leadership quality. They are listening to her, they like her, they trust her, her ideas blossom in these meetings. Susan is happy. She’s sleeping well.
And then Susan signed up for more coaching. Yesterday, I saw her after her six-month engagement completed. It was our final session and she let me know she wants the journey to continue. I have many clients who do this. Let me tell you why.
Susan now has much BIGGER goals. And much bigger problems.
Susan is now facing much new stress. But it is at a whole new level and very different. Susan now finds communications at this new level definitely challenging, but also very exhilarating, and not at all draining.
They are now asking Susan to facilitate an upcoming meeting with the seven Senior Vice Presidents in her division plus their Executive Vice President, representing the senior leadership of one of the biggest divisions in the corporation. Seven SVP’s and 1 EVP.
They told her they did not want any other Senior Directors in the room, not even a Vice President. Susan will be presenting and facilitating the meeting on her own. In other words, she will be facilitating the meeting with seven executives who are TWO levels, and one person THREE levels, above her in the chain of command. A heady assignment.
This was followed by a request from a Senior Vice President for Susan to assist with a presentation to the Board of Directors, which is FIVE levels above her.
What I’ve seen with my clients as they become successful is not that they solve all their problems. What I see is that the problems that they have when they come to me are replaced with much bigger, but much better, much more interesting, much more fun problems.
The goal is not the end of all problems. That would take all the interest out of life.
The goal is to have the really FUN problems.
The goal is to keep growing, to always have a challenge in front of you that makes you wake up with a smile and eager to jump out of bed and get going. You want a challenge that fills your days with exhilaration and leads to pouring your whole self into it so that, at night when you go to sleep, you’re that good kind of tired. That’s how you fall asleep with a smile on your face and sleep well.
The goal is to be working with people you want to be working with, doing the things you want to be doing, achieving meaningful victories, making a difference. A big difference, if you are so inclined.
The satisfaction of winning is momentary. It’s fleeting. It’s supposed to be.
It’s the joy of the right effort in the right game with the right players that must be always ongoing.
That all depends on your ability to communicate.
Is your level of communication skill up to the point where you can play the really good games with really good players? Where you can really win meaningful victories?
The joy level at which you live and work is directly connected to the skill level at which you communicate. If you want a better life at work, and even at home, then the leverage point is communication. It’s with communication that you shape relationships and even reality.
This is why I created Causative Communication. And this is the reason we offer advanced programs like Beyond Persuasion.
Most people do not understand the true potential they have to succeed because it’s so far above their current level of being. It’s not luck that you need to realize that potential, it’s communication.
What are you capable of achieving? Just how successful can you be?
It’s my greatest hope that you get to discover the answers to those questions and completely transform your life in the process.
Be the cause!