I have heard it said on so many occasions during the past 10 months that 2020 is a year for ‘resetting’ the dial, both for ourselves individually as well as our businesses and economy. The practice of ‘resetting’ means starting over, or making a major adjustment and certainly, the pandemic has given us ample opportunity for reflection and for examining the validity of our pre-existing norms.

Take for example the standard operating procedures for delivering customer service, managing staff productivity and developing a sales pipeline. All involve people and have changed significantly during 2020. The question is, have we just tinkered with an already existing system in order to adapt it to the imperative of an on-line economy, or are we actually making fundamental changes to how we manage our businesses and relationships?

As leaders, this job entails much more than simply making external adjustments. It requires that we consider how we are self-managing through what is likely the most dramatic change we have experienced in our life time. The Change State Indicator, developed by Spiral Dynamics, based on the research on Values of Dr. Clare Graves, assesses the level of readiness for change of individuals, teams and organizations. It also tells us that a prerequisite for fundamental change to occur is a shift in values’ level. Bear in mind that, as the theory goes, values are only helpful so long as they help us successfully navigate our external environment.

Mind-set, which incorporates our values, beliefs and attitudes, locks us into a particular view of the world with its underlying assumptions, and impacts the results that we can achieve. In effect, it is the deepest level of ‘software’ that silently runs our lives.  My question to you is, have you up-graded your internal software programme to match the demands of the existing and post-pandemic world? If not, isn’t it time you did?

Changing your mind-set is not done by reading or research and is seldom achieved solely on your own without the investment of serious time and effort, along with its attendant costs of trial and error. Market research suggests that the Coaching Industry is worth more than US$15B worldwide and is on the rise due to growing demand, likely for this as well as other reasons such as technology growth.

With or without a vaccine, the next 12-months are sure to squeeze more from us. If you want to be on top of your game and ensure that your software can support you on that journey, then hiring a qualified and experienced personal or executive coach for you and your team might be one of the best investments you could possibly make.

Elizabeth Terry, NLP Trainer & Master Coach