What's Stopping Your Results

It is ironic to me how many companies ask me if we can do "instant" training for their leaders because they don't have the time to take away from work. Hmm... what does that really tell you?

Even when you look at nature there are always Four Seasons- Spring (a time for regrowth), Summer (a time for warmth and enjoyment), Fall (a time for reflection and shedding of bad habits so you are ready for growth), and Winter (a dormant time of deep learning beneath a bed of snow so it emerges in the Spring with new colors).

In work we follow the One Season mode-work, work and more work. At what point do you stop and improve your game? When do you do your intense learning so you can come back in the Spring stronger than you were before? If nature didn't take all four seasons to rejuvenate what would happen?

Why do we believe if we heard or learned something once we don't need to revisit it? I believe that there are deep layers to our learning and at times we may listen to something but we don't hear it at a deep enough level because we don't have the capacity at the time to grasp it completely. Then you come back later at a whole different level and all of a sudden your understanding is so much deeper.

To really grasp this concept think of how many times you, as a parent, reflect back now on what your parents did and you say, "I understand now." Or when you were promoted to management for the first time and you finally understood why your old manager did things the way they did. You had a shift in thinking which then shifted how you viewed all the experiences in the past that relate to that thinking.

So challenge yourself as a leader to continue to grow, stretch and learn। There is a good reason why nature follows four seasons!

Anne Warfield, www.impressionmanagement.com