I have always been fascinated with what makes people who they are.  I’ve been draw to nature vs. nurture conversations and have been a personality assessment junkie!  I have taken the MBTI, DiSC Assessment, The Birkman Method Assessment and many others.  I love the insight that personality profiles provide so much that I became an authorized facilitator of the DiSC and the Birkman.

And then I discovered the CORE MAP®!  This profile takes assessments to a whole new level and provides depth and tools you can use to be a better leader, more self-aware, maximize effectiveness, and develop effective communication strategies.

The acronym CORE ® stands for Commander-Organizer-Relater-Entertainer and today I am going to talk about the commander.  Commanders seek to lead, they are bold risk takers who are goal oriented, problem solvers and are results oriented.  Commanders like to take action and desire efficiency and a sense of control.

So here is the question….Is there a commander in you?  And the answer is…Of course there is!  There is a commander in all of us.  Given the right circumstance every person has the ability to step in the commander role.  Sometimes it is because the job requires it and sometimes because what we want is bigger than any other traits that we may possess.  Just ask the mama bear 😉

Obviously there are natural commanders, you know the types, the “born leaders”.  But the truth is that we all possess and have the ability to develop and learn commander skills.  We all have times in our lives that we dig deep, take charge and get IT done!

So, while there are natural born commanders and developed commanders, the million dollar questions are…

1. How often are you being a commander (by chance or by choice)?
2. When you are being a commander, are  you energized or drained?

The answers to these questions can lead you to insights and tools to help you be more effective and fulfilled in your personal and professional life.  I encourage you to take a personal inventory of when, in the past 2 weeks, has your commander taken and charge AND how energized did you feel as it happened.

And if you found that being a commander is draining or you feel you are being one too often…stay tuned for the next several weeks of blogs where I discuss the other CORE ® types 🙂

A few months ago I was driving down a busy street when traffic came to a screeching halt. Four lanes of vehicles all waiting for a flock of geese to cross the road. As I sat and impatiently waited and watched the 30 or so geese meander across the road I said out loud “Geez Louise!  You can fly so why are you walking!!!”

Of course this got me giggling and then pondering about why would a goose walk as opposed to fly.  So I googled it and found interesting facts like why geese fly in the V formation, how the leader of the flock is determined etc.  Quite fascinating really.  I didn’t find out WHY a goose would choose to fly and imagine there is some goose whisperer that could probably answer the question 😉

And of course my coaching mind got me thinking of how many times in my life that I have been unaware that I could “fly”.  Thankfully I have people in my life to encourage me and also being a bit of a dare devil I was willing to actually try to fly from time to time.  Not knowing that you can fly is certainly something that I often see in myself and my clients.

But what about forgetting to fly?!  It wasn’t until recently where I realized I had truly forgotten that I could fly.

In case you are wondering what part of life I forgot to fly, it was having a consistent daily routine.  In my corporate life I was as consistent as I could be.  I knew exactly what to do, how to do, and when to do every action every day.  From getting my coffee to managing contracts.  From the route to work to managing proposals.  From meetings to analysis, I had my routine down.  Somehow, once I left corporate I forgot.  I needed someone to remind me that I could fly AND I needed to experience flying again.  I am happy to report I am “flying” again, am more productive, more effective and much happier 🙂

Like the geese, by me not flying, I actually influenced others in ways I never knew.  By not using a daily routine I negatively impacted myself, my clients and even my family.  When I am not flying, I am not myself.

Conversely, when I fly, I am no longer blocking traffic.  I am allowing things to flow naturally and the way they should in my own life as well as in others.

Coaching question:  What area of your life or business have you forgotten to fly?

We are officially in the 3rd week of January and hopefully your New Years Resolution is still rolling along.  But I wanted to bring something to light that could happen.  Stalled momentum.  It is something that happens to even the most successful people and often times at the most inopportune times.

My clients and I too, have experienced that point where something just stops clicking.  It’s pretty frustrating because it is not like a switch that just shuts off but more like a slow sputtering to a full on stall.  You lose momentum and drive and at a certain point, checking yourself out at some level.  Here are the symptoms:

• Feeling somewhat disconnected to your goal
• “Something” seems to come up that causes you to redirect your focus
• Focusing on what is not working instead of what is
• Questioning the value of what you are working toward
• Wondering if you can really do what you set out to do
• Looking at other options to completing your goal
• Not following through on commitments to yourself, your business or your clients.

If this is where you are, please know that it is completely normal!  It is part of the development process and happens to everyone at some point in the growth evolution!

So what is the cause and why does it happen?

The cause…your STUFF!  Your stuff is coming up and trying to hijack the progress you have already made.  Your patterns are either showing up in a way that you have seen before OR they are showing up in a different but equally as damaging way.  It is like a flu bug that evolves into a different strain of virus.

If you are not in this place I ask that you book mark this blog and come back to it, for IF you do end up in this place.

If you are here now, I ask  “are you going to let your Stuff break the commitment you made to yourself and success?” I encourage you to use your internal and external resources to move beyond this stall.

As a coach, it is my job to challenge and support my clients ALL the way to success. It is my job to hold a higher standard for my clients because I TRULY believe they can accomplish great things.

Whether I am your coach or you have someone else, if you are stalled, reach out to your coach for the support that can take you all the way down the road of Success!

Every year in December I like to evaluate my business and life.  Where am I at, where have I come and where am I going?  It is a process that I absolutely love because it allows me to recount my challenges, learnings, and success.  This has been such a powerful exercise for me that I developed the Business Achievement Self Study for my clients.  You can check out the self study but the point of this blog is to highlight the process by which we all develop and grow.

Without understanding where you have been, it is difficult to understand why you are where you are now.  Or as Tony Horton says in P90X, “If you don’t know what you did, how can you know what to do”.  The power of this perspective goes beyond it’s simplicity.  It is truly about modifying your mindset.  It is about setting yourself up for success at your very core!

Where have you been?

Have you ever done a mindless task to get to the end of it and feel no amount of gratification or fulfillment?  You know, something like go through your email or attend a weekly meeting (where nothing was accomplished) or even just drive into work?  You went through the motions and maybe even paid attention for a moment or two but ultimately was on autopilot.

Now compare that to accomplishing something big and grueling like completing your taxes or creating a big program or putting together a conference where by the end of it you not only were somewhat exhausted but you felt absolutely accomplished!

Isn’t that what we all strive for?  To have a sense of accomplishment?  To feel like what we did mattered, made a difference, reached a goal?!

Well the truth of it is that it doesn’t matter if we are on autopilot or working through a big challenging or exciting process, what we do does matter.  What we do either moves us toward our goal or leaves us stagnate or even worse moves us away from our goal.

Where are you at?

So where are you now?  After looking at your past efforts where are you at and why?  How did that action that you took 3 months ago ultimately contribute to where you are now?