Changing roles
Last Sunday in the Anglican Church was "Vocations Sunday" when the congregation is asked to review their purpose in life through their work in local communities, employment and daily lives, not just the big things but the little things as well, like deciding what you’re going to do with your day, which brand of coffee you’re going to pick off the shelf, who to sit next to at a meal.
The previous week had been interesting for our family as we all moved on a generation. On the first Saturday we celebrated the eighteenth birthday of the then youngest member as he moved into adulthood, on the Tuesday we welcomed the birth of the first member of the next generation, and then on the next Saturday we gathered again for the funeral of the last member of my parents’ generation.
Within a week we all moved up a generation! A change of identity and a challenge for us as we each assumed a new level of responsibility.
What are we about? What is our vocation? What is important about how we live and what we do? What has changed?
I have been talking to a client about the book Built to Last. One of the lessons of the research carried out by Jim Collins is that great companies that have survived for very long periods know who they are, they have consistent values but are very flexible in what they do. As a result they can be very responsive to changes in the environment, and yet maintain a consistent direction.
There is a powerful exercise we do with individual clients to help them review who they are, why they are here and what they do.
We ask them three questions:
- What would you do if you won £1 million (or became financially independent)?
- What would you do if you learned that you had a medical condition that would give you good health for six months followed by a sudden death?
- If you were able to attend your own funeral, what would you like people to say about you?
We have found these questions very powerful at focusing people’s minds. If their current lifestyles are not congruent with the answers they give, why not – and what should they do about it?
The next series of funerals in our family will be my generation – hopefully not for another 30 years. There is a saying in NLP, "It is never too late to have had a happy childhood." It is also never too late to prepare for your own funeral; and what people will say about you!
Brefi Group has several tools that will help you sort out where you are now so that you can decide where you would like to be:
Brefi Network at the ICF?
Today sees the opening of registration for the 11th International Coach Federation Annual Conference which will be held in St. Louis, Missouri, USA, November 1-4,. The theme is: Quantum Thinking on Human Potential … Tools for the New Frontier.
St. Louis is located in the middle of the United States and is easily accessible from all areas of the world.
"This year’s programming is being designed to provide more dialogue and truly quantum thinking in a variety of areas. You will have opportunities to hear from the pioneers of our profession describing what it was like as this profession came into being, and you’ll have opportunities to dialogue about future directions with thought leaders from outside our profession. If you’ve been looking for inspiration, new thought, and challenge, you won’t want to miss this conference!" says Barbara Luther, MCC, one of this year’s Conference Committee’s Chairs.
Will you be joining the Brefi Network group setting out for St Louis this year; an opportunity to attend amongst a group of friends. If you haven’t yet done so, check out Brefi Network and the ICF Conference.
I am delighted to include an article by David Childerley in this week’s Coaching Notes. David is a new member of Brefi Network, taking advantage of this opportunity to promote himself in CorporateCoach. His article is about the use of EFT Tapping, which is a very simple but powerful technique we should all know about.
USEFUL LINKS
- Subscribe to the CorporateCoach RSS feed
- Brefi Network
- ICF Conference
- Built to Last
