Musings |
This is a critical question that causes many companies — and individuals — to suffer unintended conseqences. SO many of our actions are based on faulty assumptions. You really can challenge your core assumptions effectively.
I offer you the possibility that doing so will grant you humility and vulnerability that will make your life and leadership rich and meaningful. Nothing else will have quite the same impact. Yet it usually takes humans a personal crisis to embrace this gift. Darned it anyway. Can YOU beat the odds and embrace the challenge without suffering first?
This video is the totality of my point. Bless you, Peter Attia, for demonstrating so poignantly what Brene Brown says over, and over, and over again — VULNERABILITY is the source of ALL power. All innovation. All leadership effectiveness.
On this topic there is nothing left to say except to expose my own vulnerability, which is also a physical health experience of being a breast cancer survivor. You need not read any further to get the point of this blog about challenging your core assumptions because if you’ve seen the video, Peter says it all. If you want to know more about my journey, read on.
Most people have NO IDEA I even had a cancer experience much less get any clue from me about the life-giving aspects of the experience. That experience, by the way, was 19 years ago. I am guilty of not leading with my vulnerability as Peter has done here. It did not seem relevant to the pursuit of my passion which is to make a difference in the world with teams — unlike Peter I am not working in the area of my illness — people don’t need to know I have experienced a life-altering near-death experience in order to appreciate the value I bring to them. It’s not about me anyway. In fact, the less we focus on me the more comfortable I am and the more effective I can be. Frankly, if you have read about the DRAMA TRIANGLE you know I’m not fond of the victim role so having one doesn’t sit well. I told doctors, “Don’t throw me into the melting pot of your statistics, I don’t give a damned. I am me, having my own experience of this illness, and my experience is the ONLY relevant data I require here. I shall persevere and thrive, way beyond survive.” My attitude was my aptitude and my altitude.
Although I have known people whose stories revolve around their illness, or their moment of physical vulnerability I am not one of those people. The experience DID force me to challenge my core assumptions about my life, however — I was healthy before, and I have been healthy ever since. So what gives? What WAS that masked year-long moment in my life? It was a “take stock” pause and I did take stock. I changed a number of significant relationships out of challenging my core assumptions.
This quickly, for me, becomes a spiritual conversation and I do not need to go there other than to say that looking back I was angry, mostly with myself. I now reflect on that cancer experience as a physical expression of my anger, and I challenge my assumptions ALL THE TIME.
I also help others challenge their assumptions. I am not interested in your comfort and you shouldn’t be either; comfort is a dangerous place, like driving in the ruts in a road. I assert that when you take comfort in your assumptions those assumptions bite you in the butt like mine did.
Where can you take this conversation for your own self-expression once you challenge your core assumptions?
You can take it here. Remember this video? This message?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmwXdGm89Tk
What follows, apart from the blog, is an opportunity to register for an event I’m hosting in San Diego on August 13th. I invite you to join me if you want to challenge your core assumptions about what makes a team high-performing.
