Erin Rocchio: Executive and Team Coach

Thrive. Lead. Impact.

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6 Questions Every Executive Needs to Ask Themself

Have you ever felt that gnawing in your gut begging for more from your work, or heard a voice inside gently (or loudly) nudging you to explore what you’re really capable of?

You may be 35 and wondering how to powerfully shape your career or 65 and eager to leave a legacy in the final leg of your leadership journey.

When you hear the calling to explore, the instinct to move beyond “what is” into “what might be”, you’re at a ripe time for reflecting on how to accelerate your leadership impact meaningfully and mindfully.

The executives I coach are at all stages and ages, and ALL of them must answer these questions to achieve real, deep growth:

  • Who am I at my best, most aware and awake self? Who am I when I’m unconscious, under stress, and in survival mode?
  • Who do I really want to be, as a human being and as a leader? How is this different from who I think others want me to be, or who the critic inside my head tells me I “should” be?
  • What do I value most? How do these values translate into genuine ways of behaving, speaking, and engaging with others?
  • What are my big learning opportunities now? What gaps will make the biggest difference for me and those I lead when I build those capabilities?
  • What structures (plans, teams, practices, partners, and tools) will best support me in achieving my vision and purpose?
  • How will I know when I’m there? What metrics matter most and will let me know I’m on track?

As my former, esteemed professor of Appreciative Inquiry, David Cooperrider, eloquently shared:

We live in the world our questions create.

So, dear friends, may your questions be powerful ones and may your inquiry lead you to new levels of freedom and fulfillment in your work/life.

To your thriving,
Erin

PS. My mission has so clearly and powerfully emerged as ending suffering at work. If you or someone you care about would benefit from executive coaching support (me or otherwise), please message me. I’ve got a strong community of resources and you don’t have to go it alone.


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Filed Under: Appreciative Inquiry, Creativity, Leadership Tagged With: appreciative inquiry, leadership, self discovery

May I have the courage

“May I have the courage today

to live a life that I would love,

to postpone my dream no longer

But do at last what I came here for

and waste my heart on fear no more.”

– John O’Donohue

Filed Under: Creativity

Psychic Autonomy

Psychic autonomy: to cut the mental cords that bind you so as to free up your capacity for new experiences, new relationships, and new insights;
the freedom to know yourself anew.

 

When I’m slowly watering my tomato plants in the early mornings, existential questions swirl around in the dewy periphery. I swear my vegetable garden knows the secrets of the universe. Lately, I’ve been asking it questions about freedom.

What does it mean to be free?

Free your mind of something?

Free to go toward something?

The greatest freedom, my tomatoes and I agree, is freedom within oneself. A type of freedom that takes place inside you, that breaks mental and energetic ties to some outside force that may otherwise dominate or constrict your life or work. [envoke_twitter_link]This is psychic autonomy: making room for your genuine, creative self to thrive.[/envoke_twitter_link]

Take Mark, for example, a leader I worked with many years ago. As the General Counsel for a growing healthcare technology firm, he was known for playing it safe. He performed fine in his role, but he wasn’t inspiring followership. Instead, his dispassion emanated through the organization with an overall malaise. He personified “meh.”

Deep inside, Mark was gripped by fear of his boss, the CEO. In budget season especially, his boss grew highly controlling, sending intense emails at all hours of the night, and generally creating an environment akin to a pressure cooker. Everyone, not just Mark, was terrified to fail or lose favor with the CEO. People complied, but they were not committed. And they were certainly not engaged or excited about going to work everyday.

Mark’s (and everyone else’s) best performance was tamped down by rampant control, demands, fear, and judgment. The organization lost (or diminished) way too much of its people’s potential. It, and they, could have been so much more. This is that outside dominant force.

“Conceptual creativity requires psychic freedom.” – John G. Young

In my own work life, I have felt that stranglehold of fear, compliance, and obligation. I know what it’s like to be disempowered, both self-inflicted and organization-inflicted. Being trapped or tamped down sucks your energy, passion and vitality right down the drain—the syllabus for Misery 101.

In an environment where we feel obligated or fearful, we drastically limit our creativity, our curiosity, and our impact. The organizations we are a part of lose out on our true talents. We become robotic and unnatural, stifled and generic.

Leader or not, I want your best self to shine. I want you to be free to share your creative genius. I want you to guide yourself and others with honesty, heart, and inspiration.

To do so, you must have mental freedom—psychic autonomy—to fail and know that it will be okay. You must have the mental space to let your mind wander and dream up wild possibilities without fear of retribution. You must know that your organization genuinely supports your wellbeing and self-expression. You have to feel that you don’t have to hide.

During the Holocaust, one of the very worst circumstances in recent history, Victor Frankl discovered that despite the literal horrors surrounding him, he was in control of his inner state. Only he could grant himself mental clarity, peace with his circumstances, and balanced emotions. That would remain in his charge. Psychic autonomy then, as Frankl so bravely and brilliantly reminds us, is an inside job. Each of us, regardless of how stifling our environment may be, has that choice.

“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”  

– Victor Frankl

Here’s your opportunity:

  • Grant yourself some space. Notice where you are not feeling free, where obligation, duty, or fear reign. Ask yourself, “Where would a healthy dose of psychic autonomy enrich my life and my work?”
  • Grant people around you some space. Ask them what level of psychic autonomy they need to engage with you authentically. Give up the idea of controlling them and gain true commitment from your teammates. The more you let go of your attachments (to them/to an outcome), the more freedom you give others to find their own solutions, likely better ones, in service of your shared goals.
  • If you’re a business leader and feel stuck, disempowered, and a little hopeless in the quest for freedom, please reach out. Call me. Now is the perfect time to engage in executive coaching and find a powerful way out/forward. I promise to have your back, to support you in finding your own psychic autonomy in the area of your work-life that is most important to you.

When we have a sufficient level of mental capacity, we have the room to show up as our biggest, best selves. For you leaders out there, this is not just a fluffy idea, but rather a must-have for high-performance. Human potential is a gorgeous thing. Now let’s get out of our own way.

Filed Under: Creativity, Emotional Intelligence, Leadership

From This Hour

From this hour I ordain myself loos’d

of limits and imaginary lines.

-Walt Whitman

Filed Under: Creativity

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