Maverick: The Tale of a Skeptical Leader

This is a story told by a recent participant attending one of our private client programs…

My journey from "Yet another training I have to sit through" to "Maverick" as my screen saver.

Who doesn't know that feeling when you wake-up to a day of yet another leadership training your company asks you to attend, in a remote location, starting early morning and yes, of course it's raining. Well, at least there's a free lunch, when I am dry again. When they asked me about what I expected from this two days, I was about to ask for a hair-dryer.

After two days I thought differently. I thought, hell, this was powerful!! The training was so special and far beyond what I had expected. It wasn't another round of Situation-Behaviour-Impact-Solution-Feedback roleplays where you struggle to come-up with examples somebody could learn something from. It was a training full of useful exercises, self-studies and a firework of useful tools. It felt a bit like Christmas, there were many gift underneath the tree. Attending this training allows you to better understand where you stand on your leadership journey. It shows you how people tick, supported by many tangible examples that resonate and it gives you many useful tools that allow you to actively engage your team.

'Catalyst' is the newly declared goal. The only decision I will take going forward is whether to fire or not. All other decisions will be taken by my empowered team and the catalyst conversations approach will make my future feedback conversations a sheer delight. Thank you (Trail Ridge) Agile Leadership Journey!

Now, why Maverick as a screen saver? At the end of the training I was given the opportunity to sign-up for a 360 feedback exercise, which I would never have done at the beginning of the course. At the end I was committed to push others aside in order to make it to that white board and put my name down to sign-up for it. The 360 gave me access to a wealth of valuable feedback and a few private coaching sessions with Jasmine. Jasmine and I co-created a nice development plan for my future journey and since her furnace sounds like a F-16 taking-off from a Nimitz class carrier, we called my personal plan "Maverick". I put a picture of Maverick and his esteemed steed as my screen-saver to remind me what I need to do. Every day.

I serious can't wait to have the my next call with Jasmine. Why? Because its powerful…!