Intercept blog

It’s a conversation you need to have that you’re avoiding…

It’s a thing you want to do, that you’ve talked yourself out of doing..

It’s not knowing what to do next, yet, being too ________________ <insert> Stubborn, Proud, Arrogant, Embarrassed, Stupid, Busy, to ASK for help.

WHY?

Because SECRETLY you’re PUTTING WAY TOO much pressure on yourself to ALREADY KNOW.

Which is really silly when you think about it.

Here’s why.

The Definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result.

If you don’t BREAK the pattern, and have a BREAKTHROUGH you will keep getting what you’ve got.

That means, you have to CUT a new PATH. And that means being in BEGINNERS MIND.

The problem is because you are so COMPETENT in your current SITUATION, you AVOID feeling INCOMPETENT.

The reason you AVOID feeling INCOMPETENT is because it’s AWKWARD.

It’s AWKWARD because you EXPECT yourself TO NEVER EVER FEEL AWKWARD and to ALWAYS have your SH*T together.

This THINKING is FLAWED. And if this is the #1 thing STOPPING you from growing.

From gleaning a new skill. From learning a new way. From cutting a new path. From growing yourself, your business, your relationships, your team, your revenue, your profits, whatever it is that you WANT TO GROW.

You are AFRAID of being INCOMPETENT because you consider it FAILURE.

So, here’s a reframe for you. If you FAIL to feel AWKWARD you have FAILED.

Feeling AWKWARD is the #1 BEST WAY to accomplish SUCCESS.

Every MASTER was once a DISASTER (I heard T.Harv Eker say this) and it’s true.

Therefore, I encourage you to FEEL awkward. To love feeling awkward, and truth be known? Once you’ve done something once, you begin to stop feeling awkward.

Why? Because it’s not new anymore.

My team and I felt SUPER Awkward and I felt VERY Awkward when I filmed all the video’s I had to film to create our online program The Influential Leader Online. It was super uncomfortable… NOT having notes. NOT having a teleprompter. NOT having faces to speak to. IT felt WEIRD and I felt AWKWARD.

To get over that, I had to think about YOU. My client. My customer. My community member.

I had to think about how this material helps you grow your business and grow yourself.

I had to GET OVER MY AWKWARDNESS to help you. And this is exactly the point.

WE get in our own way.

WE STOP ourselves from HELPING OTHERS when we OBSESS about feeling awkward.

In a world that obsesses about PERFECT Instagram pics? Obsess about being AWKWARD and watch what happens.

My clients love the content. I get rave reviews. Why? Because after they come to my live event, or after they have sessions with my team, they have material to reflect on and they get to carry me in their pocket.

They get to grow their company. They get to grow themselves. And, I get to grow.

All because we got over our stupid awkwardness. Make sense?

(C) 2020 Tanya Lacy for The Influential Leader Online Mentoring Program & Positive Business Network.

Join us over at Positive Business Network

Thank-you. #PositiveLeadership#PositiveGrowth#GrowthFacilitator

Why your leadership approach must stop being complicated…

If one of your team members told you they didn’t understand you, would you blame them? Or would you be prepared to look in the mirror at your own approach? 

Whatever the reason for the lack of understanding is, the net result is disconnect, and you are not going to achieve the results you want. So let’s have a deeper look at this for a moment. What does complicated look like in business?

Complicated looks like long emails, long voicemails and unclear meetings where people walk out feeling confused rather than clear and inspired. It looks like additional clarification meetings, staying back late, still talking on your mobile phone in your car while driving home with conversations that continue in your garage once you’ve pulled up at home and are supposed to be cutting off for the evening. 

Complicated for the customer looks like not getting what they want, long drawn out processes, not being listened to, getting orders wrong, and being ‘shoe horned’ into methods that don’t serve them because the business does it that way. 

The cost of this is business risk. Losing good people, losing good customers and losing business to yourcompetitors. 

When a business team is clear and certain, there is no complication. It means that everyone has confidence in what they’re doing, and how they’re doing it and they know precisely what’s expected of them. 

They love their work, and they love dealing on behalf of the business and would do anything for the team. They go the extra mile because they understand that the business is doing its best. 

When a business team is clear, it means the leadership is clear. It means the leader communicates in a clear manner and that the communication is aligned with the direction of the company. It is easy for the work to flow and for the outcomes you’re looking for as a business to be achieved. 

If you, as a leader, find yourself in a complicated environment and continue to complicate it for those around you, you will create unrest, which can potentially lead to an implosion. Good leaders find ways to simplify things, to get the team focussed on the ‘critical few’ and to be consistent in their communications witheveryone around them. 

No one wants to feel overwhelmed. Being overwhelmed from time-to-time can happen with surges of workflow. However, feeling overwhelmed all the time is not sustainable. 

As a leader, it really is your responsibility to create clarity and certainty for your team. This enables the work rhythm to flow. This style of leadership equips and empowers others, enabling you to step away from the day-to-day, which gives you room to focus on Strategy (your next move) and rewards you with freedom of choice.  

Interested in understanding how you can overcome complexity and activate energy in your team? Apply for a Strategy Call with one of our Intercept team members so that we can understand what’s happening inside your business and share some of our methods. 

On the call, we’ll determine if we’re a good fit to work with one another and support you in creating a high performing team where everyone in your business is on the same page. 

Apply here: www.interceptexperience.com

Or email: mail@interceptexperience.com

Why you must stop stepping in if you want to step back…

Do you pride yourself on ‘rescuing’ your team? 

We’re always told the number one focus for our clients is to step back as leaders. One of the most common frustrations of the same leaders, however, is that they find themselves constantly stepping in to rescue their team.  

When we review this and break it down, we can see a pattern. 

The leader says they want something, yet at the same time, the actions being taken don’t match the words spoken. Why does this happen? 

Stepping in is actually the wrong thing to do if you are committed to developing the leadership within your team. While you may know this intellectually, it’s tricky to do. Especially if you are someone who loves people and who loves to help others. 

Stepping in all the time can look like jumping in to fix things, it can be solving the problems of your team for them or another similar behaviour. Whatever it is, this can have a very disruptive and debilitating impact on the morale of your team, and you won’t even know it. 

Sam, an employee at an industrial products company, shared with us that the water cooler talk taking place internally was not healthy and you can guess what everyone was talking about: the behaviour of the big boss. He was notorious for jumping in, whichled to the team calling him‘Superman’ behind his back. 

They didn’t mean to be disrespectful – the problem was that ‘Superman’ was not giving them the space to figure things out on their own and to gain the confidence to step into the responsibilities they were given. Sam would also complain that he and his colleagues felt left in the dark. That the meetings and town hall gatherings were platitudes and did not reflect the real deal happening inside the business from day-to-day.

The cost of this kind of interplay happening inside your team and your company is that it erodes both morale and trust. Once trust is eroded, people withhold information and fail to contribute in ways that bring the business forward and progress the workload.  

This scenario may be one of the biggest nightmares for directors and business leaders who drive teams. While they need their team to step up, the team is afraid to step up, for fear of stepping on toes and jumping in because their boss or overall leader or director typically micromanages everyone. 

When a business team is in flow, an organic method occurs. Everyone knows what they are doing, how to do it, when to do it by, who they are doing it with and the part it plays in the overarching plan. 

When a business’ team’s members are confident, they go the extra mile and even if they don’t know what to do or get stuck or confused, they ask each other for help, which leads to brainstorming and solutions. They support each other in ways that move the production forward at a pace that everyone can feel proud of. You hired your team so you can grow your business – so you need to let them bring their talents to the table and develop their skills for that growth to occur!

The leaders Intercept work with intellectually know that it is their responsibility to create an environment that enables team members to step up. The one thing that will always destroy this is the leader’s temptation to jump back in when it is not necessary. 

If you‘d like to understand how you can create a winning team that steps up without you having to work any harder or sacrifice your own time, to have a team that surprises you with their new ideas and inventive solutions, and a team that goes the extra mile to achieve success, then it’s timeto apply for a Strategy Call with one of our Intercept team members.

During this call, we’ll work with you to understand what’s happening inside your business and determine if our methods are a good fit for your team dynamics. 

We look forward to hearing from you and assessing whether we’re a good fit to work together so that we can support you to create a high performing team that allows you to step back, without any need to step in.

Apply here: www.interceptexperience.com

Or email: mail@interceptexperience.com