When I am coaching and deliver workshops for leaders a main value is giving each individual time to actually focus on: who they are, what matters and how motivated they are to put in the effort that change requires.
Coaching clients and workshop attendees don’t always come with the right mindset. Some have been ‘selected’, or are part of a development program, attend in case they might not get a future opportunity. How they ‘show up’ to coaching or development sessions is going to make a huge difference to what they gain from them.
Here are 5 questions to enhance yourself awareness and identify your readiness for change
- What has your relationship with change been like so far? What is your change history? Work or personal. What have been your change successes and achievements? What have been the failures or misses you have experienced? How would you rate your ability to set and stick to what is needed to make change happen and last?
- Are you at the thinking about stage, or the ready to act stage? To find out make list of the pro’s and con’s for making this change. Until you have more pro’s than cons you are more likely to be in a ‘thinking about’ stage. More pro’s means you are ready to identify actions and to act on them.
- What’s your reason for making this change? Clients often don’t have a solid enough reason for wanting to change. Self awareness helps to identify what about a change is important to the individual or group involved. This can include the understanding of personal values (the rules you live by) – think link may help you. Having clarity on your strengths, what you stand for and what really matters. A change that supports these is one that is driven by YOU and that feeds YOUR motivations to act.
- How good are you at having goals and committing to them? Are you someone who prefers to self motivate or someone who does better with external support? Self motivated people will have a really strong ‘why’ and ‘purpose’ that keeps them going. For those that sustain their motivation better with the support of others, have a coach or trusted peer in place. They can keep the ‘why’ and ‘purpose’ in focus. They will play a big part in providing encouragement to achieve the goal.
- Does your mindset for change help or hinder you? Positivity toward change is key to a person’s belief that they can make the change happen. Thoughts and mind-talk can quickly demotivate. It impacts teams too. Because a group’s mindset can swing from positive to negative or back again due to a particular individual’s views and opinions. As a coach I test the truth of mind-talk, helping to re-frame negativity into learning and opportunity.
Change isn’t easy, yet, with the right preparation and support you can be both ready and successful in making positive changes happen.
Contact me and see how I can help you or your team to identify and commit to changing.