Manage your sticky situations
Business management pioneer Peter Drucker’s philosophy was “before you can manage anyone else, you have to manage yourself first.” I come across this so often in leadership coaching sessions, that I refer to it as a person’s “sticky situations.” Sticky situations are ones where you are not showing up as your best self, ones where you feel stuck, and ones that unfortunately repeat themselves.
Some sticky situations I have heard from Clients recently include: getting stuck when pitching an idea to senior leadership, not stepping up to make a decision when the boss isn’t in the room, and keeping emotions in check when being asked hard questions about the team’s performance.
These sticky situations hold my Clients back from being the leader, team member, and human they have the potential to be. Here’s one process I utilize in Client sessions to get to the other side of these sticky situations:
Identify your most prominent sticky situation
Identify the opposite situation, where you are “flowing” and able to show up as your best self
Understand the parameters that allow you be your best self
Recreate those parameters for your sticky situations
For example, if a sticky situation for you is pitching an idea to senior leadership, think of times when you are able to pitch your idea with full confidence and charisma. For one client, he realized he was able to show up as his best self when he had a prior relationship with the people in the room. He began to reach out to people who were going to be in the meeting ahead of time. A virtual coffee, asking a question on Slack, looking them up on LinkedIn to see if they had common interests or backgrounds. This eased my Client’s tension and freeze response once the meeting came around.
Learning how to manage your “sticky situations” can have ripple effects, allowing you to be your best self both professionally and personally.
Warmly,
Bijal
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Bijal Choksi, MA, CHPC, ACC