I am sitting in my home office in Australia and reflecting on how my life has changed in 6 short months. I run an international training business and have family in the UK, as well as South Africa. My old norm involved travelling on gruelling long-haul flights at least every 2 to 3 months. Late in 2019, I did 16 flights in 6 weeks.
I have a serious lung condition and when COVID hit Australia, I became housebound. Like so many people around the world, my life changed radically, and it changed overnight. I had to adapt and now run all my training online.
What surprises me is so many people see this as life hitting a pause button. ‘When are things going back to normal?’ I hear people ask. Yet what is normal?
We cannot go backwards, the world has changed and will be changed forever. Yes, we will go back to flying again. Yes, we will be allowed to go to restaurants and attend large public gatherings. But the world will be different. The world should be different, if we are to apply what we learnt from this experience. To survive the new world, we will have to accept change.
I resisted doing online training for years. I had tried running my usual face-to-face courses behind my desk on video conference, and the experience was awful. Yet, by reworking the content to an online format, I have seen amazing benefits of the online model. And my clients seem to agree.
To see the opportunity, I had to unlearn what I thought was ‘fact’.
Stanford professor Carol Dweck wrote a book called Mindset where she describes the difference between a fixed mindset and a growth mindset. A fixed mindset assumes the world, and my abilities, are set in stone and judges all feedback as criticism. A growth mindset accepts that things change and that we, and the world, can adapt. Someone with a growth mindset sees all feedback as useful for challenging what they think they already know.
In my experience, unless someone has a growth mindset, any attempts at training or personal coaching have limited benefit, especially in the complex world of leadership development.
What do you think? Please comment below.
I have a serious lung condition and when COVID hit Australia, I became housebound. Like so many people around the world, my life changed radically, and it changed overnight. I had to adapt and now run all my training online.
What surprises me is so many people see this as life hitting a pause button. ‘When are things going back to normal?’ I hear people ask. Yet what is normal?
We cannot go backwards, the world has changed and will be changed forever. Yes, we will go back to flying again. Yes, we will be allowed to go to restaurants and attend large public gatherings. But the world will be different. The world should be different, if we are to apply what we learnt from this experience. To survive the new world, we will have to accept change.
I resisted doing online training for years. I had tried running my usual face-to-face courses behind my desk on video conference, and the experience was awful. Yet, by reworking the content to an online format, I have seen amazing benefits of the online model. And my clients seem to agree.
To see the opportunity, I had to unlearn what I thought was ‘fact’.
Stanford professor Carol Dweck wrote a book called Mindset where she describes the difference between a fixed mindset and a growth mindset. A fixed mindset assumes the world, and my abilities, are set in stone and judges all feedback as criticism. A growth mindset accepts that things change and that we, and the world, can adapt. Someone with a growth mindset sees all feedback as useful for challenging what they think they already know.
In my experience, unless someone has a growth mindset, any attempts at training or personal coaching have limited benefit, especially in the complex world of leadership development.
What do you think? Please comment below.
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