Month: November 2020

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Inspiring Change: Solutions-Focused Feedback for a Virtual World

Man jump between impossible wording and possible wording on mountain. Mindset for career growth business.

Inspiring Positive Change:
Solutions-Focused Feedback for a Virtual World

I can’t wait for my performance review, said nobody, ever. As many approach year-end feedback season, it should be a time for celebrating and acknowledging wins throughout the year, and reflecting on past situations, extracting unintended learnings that will allow further development and growth of skills. Our brains are wired to hear and see the negative, and many systems like performance reviews or 360 feedback instruments when implemented unintentionally create barriers to seeing the positive, having the effect of shutting us down, versus engaging and inspiring focus on what we can do to affect positive change and continue to grow. Authentic, constructive feedback seems more elusive in a completely virtual pandemic environment that has become our new reality.

Throughout this year I’ve been using a ‘game-changer’ narrative 360, grounded in positive psychology, that helps break down these barriers and enables the feedback recipient to get context-specific, solution-focused feedback in a way that engages action, supported by a social system intentionally engaged for individual and organizational success. In our virtual reality where it’s difficult to see how to shift and what actions will fuel success, I’m seeing first hand just how transformative applied neuroleadership and positive psychology can be for individuals and their teams.

Feedback shared from some clients:

“The narrative feedback was truly a pivotal moment to understand what others might see or hear that was not visible to me ordinarily and allowed me to apply new behaviors to immediately shift what had been creating perceptions.  It was easily addressed and become a strength, once I was clear about what others suggested I should do differently, and when I should do it, and applied the solutions.”  

“Missing out on the in-person office interactions left me also missing out on in the moment feedback and opportunity to make a change.  This approach brought my colleagues closer, in a virtual work from home environment and allowed me to develop powerful new leadership skills from behind a zoom screen.”

The Shift Positive methodology allows the feedback recipient to:

– Trust the intention of the person sharing it with you, truly for your benefit
– Understand context to the feedback, not a rating on a page
– Gain a clear, tangible, and pragmatic picture on what you “can do” to grow, versus focusing on what “not to do”.
– Build a social system of allies that reinforces your growth

The beauty of this approach, positive solutions-focused feedback, coupled with a team of allies who are fully engaged and accountable to commitments to help the feedback recipient positively succeed for the benefit of all and shifts our mind in a “reward and growth state.”  It allows our brains’ limbic system to tamp down the anxiety that leads to fight or flight, allows the “executive function” to have the space and resource to hear, see, and process solutions in a context-rich paradigm to apply immediately and have a social system surrounding the feedback recipient that support, see and recognize the positive change.

Virtual reality being our new reality, why not supercharge success, and build leadership skills that will transcend pandemic and work-from-home to elevate your leadership and your teams success.

Explore how you can use feedback to inspire positive shifts for yourself and your teams click here.

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💡6 Ideas to Nurture Creativity Amidst COVID Captivity

Hawaii sunset on a surfing yoga retreat connecting like-minded women

💡 6 Ideas to Nurture Creativity Amidst COVID Capacity

One thing is for sure, 2020 has left us navigating through a seemingly constant state of “fight or flight.” Caught in a state of lock down, bombarded by negative media, unable to reach out and see loved ones, and the uncertainty that even the next week holds can easily paralyze our ability to think, decide and act.  It’s difficult to just get through each day, let alone attempt to be creative. Just when we think we’re through the fog, we are hit with another dose of social media that sends us retreating. Neuroscience helps us understand what’s happening when under threat, and why feeling this way is completely normal; all that oxygen and glucose in our brain is redirected to prepare us to protect ourselves, and diverted away from our prefrontal cortex which requires a large amount of resource to think, create and innovate.  

As coaches, we seek to empower thinking, using techniques to help clients dampen down that fight or flight reaction, and facilitate a psychologically safe environment to be able to think, ideate, and solution a positive way forward. Even skilled coaches need a special thought partner to break through the constraints of a limbic system on fire, and tap into and unleash creativity. Connecting with the right thought partner that you trust and inspires you is key.  

I would never have launched my website during this COVID time without the help of my creative marketing thought partner, “Website Wonder Woman,” Jocelyn Lu of Rainfield Marketing. I met Jocelyn on a SwellWomen Retreat in Maui, and learned of her talents, in and out of the water. Serendipitously, we met again, 5 months later atop Whistler Mountain, snowboarding got our creative ideas flowing before COVID quarantine hit a week later. Over the past few months, Jocelyn has been able to truly get inside my head and help me pull through insights to visualize and bring to life a site that represents me holistically.  I would never have been able to break out of the quarantine-fog without my thought partner.  She helped me to limit all the distractions swirling, focus on the most critical aspects of building a website, put me on a schedule which kept my attention focused on specific goals & deliverables – delivering the right ideas and decisions at the right time, focused my attention through questions and alternatives in creative reviews and gave me ample time to process, reflect, and ideate. With my creative sounding board and the right conditions established, I was able to tap into my creative juices and have her help bring them to life.  

Some brain-friendly activities we can all try out, even during quarantine, to put our brains at ease, and free up resources to be creative.

  • Clear the Space:  focusing on what you are feeling, the emotions, and putting words to them, and stating them out loud helps to calm.  This helps clear what’s buzzing around in your head, like an etch-a-sketch screen erase, and welcome new space to think.
  • Do Less.  Focus:  carve out time to be completely focused on on task or mastering an experience like learning to play a new instrument, cook a new meal, master a new yoga pose, in a goal-oriented way; this allows us to develop deep connections in our brain
  • Play More:  tap into your inner child, be spontaneous, creative, and allow yourself the time to playfully enjoy a new or novel experience; this helps us make new connections in the brain which increases creativity and memory.
  • Connect:  with a thought partner who is a great listener and helps you elevate your thinking, inspires new ideas, and grows your perspectives.  
  • Unplug: stop analyzing, surrender control, and detach from stress producing thoughts.  Turn down the volume on the executive function of your brain, and allow yourself to disconnect and daydream.  Allow yourself the luxury to wander and daydream, your brain will recharge, and provides space and precursor for sparks of insight and new perspectives to emerge.
  • Mindfulness:  not just for yogis or a passing fad to enlightenment, being able to truly focus in the present moment, and non-judgmentally, creating awareness on sensations, images, feelings, emotions, promotes many healthy benefits, including enhanced attention and creativity.  This takes time, and skill to master, a consistent activity over time to develop the meditation-muscle, but allows for a level of grounding, and ability to hold space for yourself and others; through silence and presence, insights emerge!
What have you done to juice up your creativity during COVID Captivity?