“I don’t have fears”
All of our behaviours are based in fear.
How do you feel when I tell you that? (Doesn’t sound very fun, does it?)
But it is the fear of each of our animal influencers that drives our behaviour.
For me, my strongest fear is the fear of the Cheetah, which is a fear of underperforming.
When you look back on my career and experiences that becomes pretty apparent…
Ex-international gymnast and 4x World Record Holder in Indoor Rowing, over here.
#ProofOfThePud
I’m a performer, and I overdeliver in everything I do because I fear underachievement.
But one thing I have heard before is this, “I don’t buy it. I don’t have any fears”
A gentleman once said this to me after I delivered a zoom training to the leaders in his company, of which he was one.
Fast forward a year, and that same gentleman rocks up to week one of our full leadership programme.
So…
> They do the TRAIT Test™.
> They’re told their top three animal influencers.
> And they’re given both the strengths and vulnerabilities of those animals.
We split them up into breakout rooms in pairs – a safe and private space – to reflect on where those fears came from (Spoiler alert! It’s likely from childhood)…
(These conversations are at least 15 minutes long, we’re not doing 2-minute lip service here)
That same gentleman who told me he didn’t have any fears and didn’t believe that fears drove his behaviour, came from his breakout room and volunteered to share…
“I didn’t agree with you. I thought it was a bit ‘woo’ and ‘hocus-pocus’ when you did that briefing last year, and now I get it.
I totally understand where my fears come from and I’m so glad we had this conversation.”
If you have the same hesitations, it’s understandable.
We’ve had our habits for so long that they become our blind spots, we think that our behaviours are normal because we’ve never stopped to really look and understand them.
Now imagine being told by some woman that you’ve never met (that’s me!) that those behavioural traits are driven by fear, you’d think, “I’m sorry, who the heck are you?!”
The irony is that we’re often afraid of exploring the fear (who wants to face that head on?) because we’re not in control of what we might uncover.
But with the right questions and a willingness to explore…
You can feel safe to *really* look at YOU and understand WHY you are the way you are.
Then you can actively choose to work from your strengths.
This is what our Leadership Training is all about. It’s thought-provoking, and it’s about raising self awareness rather than traditional ‘one size fits all‘ approaches.
You must know yourself and lead yourself before you can effectively lead others.
And this gentleman did exactly that.
Good on him for having the humility to say “I was wrong and I get it now”
If you want more info about how The Training Rock can deliver the same ‘AHA!’ moments to your team leaders, book a call to chat here.
(This is the stuff that makes for exceptional leaders within thriving organisations)
Rock on!