Brad Traeger

A coach can help you see what you’re overlooking, especially the obvious things. The more clarity we have the more precise we can execute and the better chance we have of being so focused that we can get into flow, our most productive state.

Yes, and we give our power to people or things largely outside of our awareness. This might be achieved through the feeling of aggression, control, or protection or through the conscious and intentional setting of internal and external boundaries that allow us to maintain positive regard for our self and the other.

Learn about first principles, design thinking, and creativity (see Kaufman). Develop a mind that is skilled at rule-based systems. Build a team of people that are skilled at rumbling with ideas and calling out assumptions without criticism. Develop a strong imagination for wild ideas that may be theoretically feasible in some distant future. Then ask “what does it take…” in many different ways, “to make it work”, “to make something similar today”, etc. Leverage the built-in characteristics of the human brain and mind to introduce novelty and distant connections. Take breaks to walk in nature at the right moment. Develop a high level of self awareness and knowledge of the flow cycle (see Kotler).

Define the problem. Is it really a technical problem or does it just look like one? Are yields high and machine up-time maximized? What is the team’s energy level? Are they consistently working at 80 % of their capacity? How does each person recharge and recover after a high-energy work cycle?

One who cannot sit with and process their own difficult feelings cannot have empathy for another person who’s experiencing difficult feelings. If we are to maintain a relationship, we need to bring compassion to our interactions, joining people in relief of their feelings, separate from attempting to solve their problems. To have conflict without an escalation of self-protective behavior, we must become skilled at repair and amends without blaming or blame shifting. Sometimes this means taking a break to address our biological need to down-regulate before we can have a conversation without the heightened emotional experience.

Psychological safety is a precursor to trust. We need to see people we know and are familiar with stay true to their word in difficult situations and behave predictably. If they screw up, they need to make amends, not just apologies. Psychological safety occurs on 3 levels, internal, 1:1, and in groups. We often neglect to build our psychological safety with ourselves first and it leads to the distrustful, self-protective behaviors that undermine our ability to be vulnerable. In groups, people we have trust with 1:1 will unconsciously give power to others, often people who have the most influence. When that happens, it can lead to the toxic behaviors that erode trust and vulnerability as well.