By Philip Brady, Executive Coach and Director at Vitamin P Coaching Ltd.
Would you like to grow in your career?
Get that promotion you’ve wanted.
Set up your own business.
Meet some new people.
Learn some new skills.
Lead pieces of work.
Lead teams.
What does growth look like for you?
Do you have the confidence to grow?
Growth follows predictable models, keep this one below in your mind.
It follows the Hero's Journey (or heroine’s!) and is summarised into 4C’s by Dan Sullivan.
It will explain
• Where you’re currently at.
• Why you might be low in confidence &
• most importantly, what to do next.
Most change and growth starts with a realisation.
You wake up to a world that isn’t what it used to be.
Your current world feels a bit funny, like it doesn’t fit you or you don’t fit it.
The role you’re in no longer stretches you or feels fun anymore.
The team dynamics are holding you back from growing.
The corporate world isn’t as shiny as it was.
Ignorance was bliss before you realised this.
But something wakes you up.
In these moments, you have a choice.
Like The Clash’s song: “Should I stay or should I go?”
I think it should be called “Should I stay or should I GROW!”
Do you move forward or stay where you are?
If you commit to growth, this is the first step in the model: COMMIT.
Commit to the decision to grow.
Commit to the adventure in front of you.
Commit to go from the known to the unknown.
This is exciting but it’s also scary!
You don’t know who to be.
What you need to do.
Where you’re going.
The best advice I’ve ever had for this exact moment is: Back yourself.
The next step in the model is COURAGE.
Courage is only ever shown in response to fear, never the absence of fear.
In a new environment, a new team, a new company, a new environment, your body goes into survival mode.
The self-doubt, the uncertainty, the loneliness etc. all create fear.
The response, the choice you are invited to make, is to choose to show courage.
Courage to continue forward.
Courage to not know.
Courage to grow.
This is often where a mentor or guide will appear to you.
They’ll help light the way and help you carve out your path.
They will help you continue to move forward when the doubt and fear are telling you to turn back.
Telling you to return home to the known world.
In these moments, just keep moving forward.
Next you start doing the new thing.
You start leading the team.
You start meeting new people.
You do the repetitions of what this new world asks of you.
You’re now doing the thing.
You’re building CAPABILITY.
You’re building evidence that you’re doing the thing.
This is why after doing the thing, multiple times, you develop the next step in the model.
The one we all desire.
The one we wait for before we commit, before we make decisions.
It’s never first, it’s always last.
CONFIDENCE.
Confidence never comes before the choice to grow.
Look back and think about times you've gone through this cycle in the past.
This, I hope, will give you the confidence to commit to your next adventure.
Adventure awaits.
Onwards!
If I can support you on your leadership adventure I’d be honoured.
