I want to share with you some tips and tricks about how I personally have grown as a coach, and how you can grow as a coach. A lot of it just starts first with going to get some knowledge.
A strong foundation in the way of formal education.
For me, I started getting a lot of confidence when I went to a certification program, or when I took a college level course, or when I started looking at some formal learning objectives.
So, if you want to get into innovation, you might say, “What’s a good certification program around innovation?” And, boom, you just found the two day innovation games. And, “What’s something around leadership. What’s a good leadership model that I could go to?” Then boom, you just found the three day leadership circle program. This is something that’s going to help you build confidence when you get that strong foundation, that theoretical underpinning of what you want to do in the world of innovation or collaboration.
Then, once you’ve got those, the key word is structure.
The structure might be coming from the model that you’re learning, or it might come from the learning objectives, or the structure might come from a path of development that leads to a certification, or a college certificate. But structure, because then once you’ve got the structure, that gives you the underpinnings, the foundation, to begin some organic self determined informal learning.
Here the keyword is curiosity. Curiosity. Maybe you don’t want to spend that kind of money on a topic, but you want to learn about it, and you don’t want to have somebody else tell you what you’re supposed to learn on the neurology of change, which was a topic for me. What I did, is I went out and I got the top bestsellers on change. Nudge, The Power of Habit, Switch by the Heath brothers. These are great books that helped me understand on my own time, and in my own kind of curiosity, and then I sort of kind of moved along. Maybe for you, it might mean going to a conference. I know an informal learning conference that helped me a lot, was Wisdom 2.0. For you, it might be going to a conference for teachers, because you want to get really good at understanding how adult education works.
So, find some opportunities that are a little bit unstructured. Follow your curiosity. When you do that, one place you’re going to find a lot of opportunity for some informal learning out there is in the professional community. This is so important.
The keyword here is connectedness.
If you want to get good at your craft, you’ve got to get connected to others that do it outside the office. This might mean that regional local user group. You’ve got to show up and you got to hear some of those speakers, that’s informal learning, and then you’ve got to start offering to speak a little bit yourself. You’ve got some concerns you want to share with other people and hear what they say.
It could be, for me, the Project Management Institute chapter meetings. The National Speakers Association was another good group. For you, it might be going to the Better Business Bureau and finding info on how entrepreneurs get started. What is that like? But, you’re connected to a group of people that help spur, and offer encouragement. So, get out of the office and get connected in the community, and you’re going to find some great people that could eventually become collaborators and mentors. Here, this is about your deepest professional relationships. You go through life and there’s going to be one or two people that have a permanent impact on you outside of your immediate family.
These people are the ones that are going to help you grow, whether it’s professional mentors, it might be a boss. Maybe you’d had a boss that was fantastic, or maybe it was that martial arts instructor who taught you how to view the world as something that you can influence, instead of always feeling like you don’t have any control over your destiny. Or, maybe, just maybe it was when you were coaching Little League and there was a person there who had this whole idea about developing skills in people. About “you do A, and then B, and then C” and you’re like, “Wow, that was really structured, and you’re like half my age. I would love to collaborate with you on how to translate this into a professional environment.” So, go out into the community. Find your personal board of advisors.
If you haven’t found two or three people that you could cling to, go find them. And if you have, take them out for coffee. Dig deep, harvest more out of that relationship.
Toxicity is the New Management Fad - let's discuss at "Refewell", our virtual hangout April 15th
April 8, 2025 9:32 pm
Join us April 15th for "ReFewell" our Virtual Hangout with Jesse
Come Recharge, Refresh, Recap, Network and more at our Virtual Hangout with Jesse.
Sign Up Here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/BTJwiRxqRPGYiK9csV32Bw
We'll talk about what's on YOUR mind and Jesse will share and lead a discussion "Toxicity is the new management fad“
You are the answer to your own destiny in toxic times! ...