By far, the most frequent question I receive as a strengths-based coach is, ‘I’ve done StrengthsFinder, now what’. My coaching has been the answer to that question. After coaching over 2000 people (individually and in groups) I am taking the most effective exercises and techniques and putting them into the Talent Fieldbook series. Volume 1 comes with a brief video lesson how to get the most out of the volume. After working through the exercises in Volume 1 you will be able to:
Describe your talents in work language. You will see a direct link between your talents and their potential for productivity. With awareness comes realization and with realization comes application. I am not advertising these volumes because I am in the middle of conducting cutting edge research with continues to build on the most effective exercises I’ve created over 30 years of strengths-based coaching. This is your opportunity to benefit from the primary results and participate in ongoing research if you like. Typically that means you get the benefit of the research discoveries at no cost because you’re participating in the research. You’re the case study others will want to learn from.
All I need to create your personalized Talent Fieldbook volume 1 are your 5 talents.
Reach out to me for payment details. Cost to you is $15.95 for volume 1. The complete series will consist of 10 volumes. If you buy volume 1 and agree to be a research participant, then you will receive the remaining 9 volumes for free as long as you continue to participate in the research.
Leading From Purpose – Short Video Primer and Worksheet
This video primer and worksheet is designed to help you reconnect with your purpose statement. This work is based on the book 'Leading From Purpose' by Nick Craig
Leading From Purpose by Nick Craig is one of the best books I’ve read on discovering your purpose. One of the many reasons I like this book is because of Nick Craig’s definition of purpose. ‘It is the unique gift you bring to the world’. As Nick says – If you were pulled out of your life and replaced by someone with equal skills, what would people miss the most 3 months later. Whatever it is they’d miss, that’s your purpose.
Purpose is a gateway to the state of peak performance called Flow
He lays out a framework to help you define your purpose. There are 3 Sets of experiences that will help you uncover your purpose.
Magical Childhood Moments
Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment. Cleverness is mere opinion, bewilderment is intuition
– Rumi
Think back to when you were a child. Consider those moments when something magical happened and changed our perception. Best learners on earth are children. What were some of your peak magical learning moments. I suggest you start an inventory of all of the magical childhood moments you can remember, keep the list in a notebook with you at all times, new memories will come at unexpected times.
Crucible Moments
Pressure is a Privilege
Billie Jean King
Your purpose manifests when all hell is breaking loose around you. Reflect on your most challenging experiences, how did you get through it, what was your way of surviving the journey.
Passions you’ve had for a long time
Passion is energy. Feel the power of focusing on what excites you.
Oprah Winfrey
Think about those activities that are autotelic (Love for the sake of doing) for you. Whether it be reading, playing drums, walking the dog, yoga, karaoke, meditation, any activity at all where you feel like you’re in flow when you’re doing it. According to a study I did in early 2019, 90% of study participants found a strong link between at least 3 of their 5 talents (as per StrengthsFinder) and their autotelic activity. Talents at play are fertile ground for helping you uncover your purpose.
My Purpose
Although I knew my purpose before I read this book (I used to call it my strength statement). The exercises in this book helped me uncover a slightly longer version.
I love helping people loosen the mental knot by stimulating their thinking with unorthodox connections.
When you step into the room of your purpose, you feel a surge of clarify, focus and confidence. Thank you Nick Craig for such a succinct summary of what that room feels like.
This is one of the most interesting books I’ve ever read on the topic of investing in the stock market. More relevant than ever, in my opinion. If you look carefully, these principles also help you get into that state of peak performance called Flow.
On Risk
Worry is normal. If you are not worried enough, you’re not risking enough. Spice up your life with some risk.
“High-risk experience can precipitate radical shifts in consciousness”
Albert Heim (1871)
Always play for meaningful stakes. If you’re too conservative, your rewards will be small. Resist the allure of diversification, they run the risk of cancelling each other out. Make 1 or 2 significant investments at any given time.
On Greed
Always take your profit too soon. Decide in advance what gain you want from a venture and when you get it, get out.
On Hope
When the ship starts to sink, don’t pray, jump. Accept small losses cheerfully as a fact of life. Expect to experience several while awaiting a large gain.
On Forecasts
Human behaviour cannot be predicted. Distrust anyone who claims to know the future, however dimly.
On Patterns
Chaos is not dangerous until you start seeing patterns in it. Beware of the age old illusion that history repeats itself. Just because wiggles and jiggles were seen before a past large increase does not mean the appearance of the same jiggle is predicting a future increase. Beware of correlation and causality delusions, just because two events occur in close proximity does not mean we should construct an elaborate link between them. Beware of the gambler’s fallacy, there is no such thing as a hot hand.
On Mobility
Avoid putting down roots, they impede motion. Don’t become trapped in a souring venture because of sentiments like loyalty and nostalgia. Never hesitate to abandon a venture if something more attractive comes into view.
On Intuition
A hunch can be trusted if it can be explained. Never confuse a hunch with hope. Be highly skeptical when you have a ‘hunch’ that something you want to happen will happen.
On Religion and the Occult
It is unlikely that God’s plan for the universe includes making you rich. You are not the centre of the universe. If astrology worked, all astrologers would be rich. A superstition need not be exercised, it can be enjoyed, provided it is kept in its place.
On Optimism and Pessimism
Optimism means expecting the best, but confidence means knowing how you will handle the worst. Never make a move if you are merely optimistic.
On Consensus
Disregard the majority opinion, it is probably wrong. Never follow speculative fads, often the best time to buy something is when nobody else wants it.
On Stubbornness
If it doesn’t payoff the first time, forget it. Don’t forget, you’re in the market to make money. Don’t stubbornly ‘chase’ a stock determined to get money out of it. Never try to save a bad investment by averaging down. By throwing in new money you make the old money look smarter. If something goes down by a lot, study why before buying more of it. Ask yourself, would I buy more of this stock at the lower price on its merits alone, if the answer is no, don’t throw new money into it.
On Planning
Long-range plans engender the dangerous belief that the future is under our control. It is important never to take your own long-range plans, or other people’s, seriously. (See Mobility – roots come partly from long range plans) Don’t retreat into the cozy comfort of your plan. Shun long-term investments. Money lost in short term speculation is small compared to money that can be lost by riding an investment over the long-term. Act promptly to hold your losses to a minimum. The long-term investors are the big gamblers. Value the freedom of movement, don’t ever sign it away. Only long-range plan you should have is the intention to get rich. The how is un-knowable and un-planable. All you need to know is you will do it somehow.
You’ve done your resume, you’ve updated LinkedIn, you have 15 – 20 accomplishments statements memorized. Are you ready for interviews? Not quite yet. There’s one more thing you need that will be the connective tissue that brings everything together during the interview process. You need an interview brand, I call this an interview brand as opposed to your general employee brand as this one is specifically crafted for the interview process.
The interview brand is like a ‘meta-resume’, its 3 or 4 lines long, its what you use to answer the ‘tell me about yourself’ question and its also what you use to continually ‘match’ yourself to the requirements of the role. Your interview brand should have 4 key elements.
Unique – Something about your background experience that’s a little unusual or a little unique. This should instantly pique the curiosity of the interviewer.
Provide Your Bona Fides – A description of all of your past experience in one sentence, crafted in such a way that you demonstrate how you’ve cultivated the relevant skills and knowledge over time.
Therefore I can…. – A combination of elements 1 and 2 means you bring a specific and unique value proposition to the table. It should be easy to imagine how this value proposition can be used.
This is useful for…. – This involves flipping element 3 from ‘what you bring to the table’ to ‘this would be useful for companies looking to….’
My interview brand
I have a background in Engineering and HR, both in education and experience. (Now isn’t that a little unusual!)
I have worked for global, hi-tech Canadian companies for the past 26 years. (See the theme?)
I am able to accelerate strategy with effective HR (combination of 1 and 2)
This is of particular use for small to medium Canadian hi-tech companies looking to expand, scale and grow and are interested in learning from my experience.
Send me your drafts and I’ll be glad to give you my feedback.
I was lucky enough to be asked by my CEO to spend two minutes talking about peak performance.
Here is what I said.
I am here to talk about why it’s important to tune-in to your talents. There have been enough studies done in the field of psychology to show that performance is strongly correlated to the state you’re in. Typically the focus has been on negative performance and it’s correlation to negative states such as depression and anxiety. Then sports psychology started looking at peak performance and it has been shown that peak performance can be anywhere from 2 times to 5 times your baseline performance.
Peak performance is strongly correlated to a state called Flow. Flow is that state you’re in when time flies and you’re completely absorbed in the use of your talents. We’ve all experienced it. The state of Flow has 7 characteristics to it. The goal is clear, the challenge is stretch, feedback is inherent in the task, you have no fear or distraction, you are absorbed in your talents, time flies and you love what you do.
When you tune in to your talents, you have strong moments, which are mini moments of Flow. Over time you can create a cascade of strong moments which then triggers Flow. And when you trigger Flow, you boost your performance exponentially.
This is good not only for you but also for the people you work with. Because, when it comes down to culture, it’s about creating a platform that brings out the best in all of us.
I just had the great fortune to talk to NHL star Patrick Sharp of the Dallas Stars. I’ve been fascinated by one core idea for my whole working career. The idea – ‘When you ‘enter the zone’ you boost your performance exponentially. I’ve always wanted to talk to a professional athlete and ask them what its like to be in the zone.
Here are some highlights of what Patrick had to say.
‘Every athlete strives to enter the zone. For me, the game becomes easy, I’m not influenced by the coach or the other players, that doesn’t mean I’m defiant, it means I am on auto-pilot, I’m not thinking, my mind is clear.
For me it’s a frame of mind. If you clock how fast I’m skating, it’s the same, if you clock how fast the puck is going, its the same. It’s a feeling and only I know how I’m doing. I can tell when a hot streak is coming on, I get a few lucky breaks and then it just snowballs from there.
I don’t overthink it or dwell on the bad results. When I have a lot of goals, I replay them over and over again in my mind. I watch the video, I watch the highlights, I specifically what I was doing, I do this so I get the same good feeling I had when I scored the goal. I don’t watch videos of when I missed the net or hit the boards because that focuses me on bad feelings and why would I do that. Bad feelings make me feel bad!’
Patrick, thank you for taking the time and sharing your perspective. Having the opportunity to listen to an athlete describe peak performance puts me in the zone every time.
Engineering Peak Performance 