I was coaching a new client today. She’s reading Brené Brown’s latest book Dare to Lead.
She is struggling with her leadership role as the Executive Director (ED) of a non-profit and one of the dedicated volunteers who is challenging my client’s leadership.
After I coached her, she realized that simply reading the information was still challenging to LIVE + DO out in the world.
Don’t get me wrong. Reading books is fantastic. We can get insights and awareness to the way we lead and live our lives.
Here’s the but … there’s a difference, and it’s big one, between intellectual understanding and actual implementation in your day to day life.
Things you know how to do and implement without brain juice is what I call knowing it in your bones.
Here are some examples:
Driving to your grocery store. You get in the car and your brain is on autopilot. It just knows how to drive the car and get you where you’re going.
There isn’t any thinking about …
- Where should I put my foot, on the gas pedal or brake?
- What gear should I be using?
- Should I turn on the left turn signal?
You know how to drive to the grocery store “in your bones” and your brain takes care of it while you think about other things in your life.
Morning routine of coffee and breakfast. You have your routine of water/coffee grounds + making your coffee. And while you’re at it, you fix up your go-to breakfast without thinking.
You just know …
- What silverware to grab.
- What plates/bowls you use.
- How to cook those eggs.
You don’t use any brain juice on the “how” you just DO.
To move beyond intellectual understanding you must apply what you learn and practice it.
In the two examples above those became knowing in your bones because of the application of the intellectual understanding + practicing over + over again.
Read to create awareness. Then get that awareness in your bones through application and practice.
My client’s next step is to apply what she’s learned in Brené’s book and in her coaching session, and then go back and practice:
- Leading with her values and the non-profit’s values.
- Check-in with her board of directors. They’ve earned the right to hear her decisions to confirm whether she is in alignment with her plan and the vision of the non-profit.
- Be willing to make mistakes as a leader.
- Reflect using a growth mindset, to look at what worked well and what didn’t work as planned. Then go back out there and lead some more.
This application and practice will allow her to develop leadership skills so she can live it in her bones.
Now it’s your turn. Take the awareness you get from books and my podcast and go out and apply and practice it.
Struggling to do this? No worries.
It’s easier to create the results you want w/ the help of someone else, than it is attempting to do it by yourself.
smiling,
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