June

The Word-Play in “Appreciate”

The word “appreciate” has a bit of word-play involved in its definition that is both useful and fun because it gets us to think a bit.

• Appreciate as in recognize, celebrate or value something – What does it look like to appreciate, recognize, celebrate and value inclusion or authenticity?
• Appreciate as in to grow in value (from the monetary perspective, tends to deal with investments) – What does it look like to appreciate inclusion and authenticity, to increase the value of inclusion and authenticity, to grow the worth of inclusion and authenticity?

How do these play together? What is interchange? What is the exchange?

Creating more Inclusive Environments

I am currently working with people and organizations to really capture the value that comes from diversity and inclusion; a lot of work is going to creating more inclusive environments.

I help people show up more unapologetically and this has led in the discovery that some of the organizations I work with have created an inclusive environment for their ‘diverse’ population but at the same time, they are not really getting any additional value from it.

This is because the people in these inclusive environments are not leveraging their uniqueness, their authenticity. Authenticity brings to life uniqueness or new ideas, thoughts or approaches in a way that adds value.

Making the Most of authenticity in Inclusive Environments

So, how can people make the most value from inclusive environments? How can organizations extract value from the conditions already created within inclusive environments?

It is true that there are spaces and organizations where it doesn’t feel inclusive, yet there is that person that comes into the space and decides to be authentic. I will call this person a lone pioneer, who is going out against the wilderness, against wild and rough terrain!

The Lone Pioneer and the Perceived Cost

It is up to the lone pioneer to remain steadfast in their authenticity because often times, there is a perceived cost to show up authentically.

So, I want to give us an opportunity to explore what it would look like to appreciate inclusion while appreciating authenticity. How do we grow the value of inclusion by helping our individual members to feel comfortable bringing out their authenticity?

This is as they show up in an authentic way within their teams or groups, within the environments of families and relationships.

My questions to you

• In what areas have you created an inclusive environment where you’re not celebrating and recognizing and valuing authenticity?
• Do those within your inclusive environment feel that they are their authentic self and not just their authentic self because their skin tone or sexual orientation or gender is at play, but because they are their actual authentic self?

As an example, one of the reasons I feel I was able to be successful for so long in the US is because I didn’t consider myself a black male. I wouldn’t allow labels to drive what I do.

When it comes to inclusion, it bothers me when people have to show up based on the labels used to define them. If you really want to extract my value, call me Niiamah; I am the most quirky person that you might meet, I am intense, I am intimidating, I am full of joy and I bring people together.

That has absolutely nothing to do with the color of my skin, my gender, or my sexual orientation. Now there are elements from all three labels that have characterized how I show up, however, to really extract the value from Niiamah, you really need to get into the authenticity piece.

What Emerges For You?

I will leave the following with you to think about;

• See what emerges for you, and see in what areas we are looking at appreciating authenticity, so that we can appreciate to grow and value the inclusion
• Play around with this – perhaps you will find it more interesting to look at it from the standpoint of how to appreciate/recognize/ value and celebrate inclusion in a way that appreciates and grows authenticity

I want my clients to understand, recognize and create the conditions for an inclusive environment and to get the return of that investment in their organizations.

For the individuals that I work with, to understand, recognize and create the conditions for them to be authentic, and for them to get the value, the return on that investment in themselves.

It is not easy to do and at the same time, it is a game that is worth playing. I would love to hear your thoughts and I would love to see how all these will fall for you.

Here’s to your next frontier…journey on.

Being a pioneer leader, I get to work with people who have huge visions and have achieved a traditional level of success.  The one question that comes up so often during interactions with different pioneers, regardless of its shape or form, is how.

You have an idea of the end result but you are stuck at the how to achieve it. Well, today I want to offer you something different, I’d love to offer you the question of what.

What vs. How

It is still early in the year and often, the huge vision for the year – the what – is in place. Many successful pioneers want to move on to the next step. The question then becomes how?

Having been a coach for a period of time now, I have found that the how is not straight forward. In fact, the question of how ends up being far more disempowering, than empowering.

I have recently been faced with the realization that it is the what and not the how that gets you to the next step of achieving your goals.

Launching a Community of Pioneers

Recently, I have been trying to launch a community for my pioneers and honestly speaking, this community has yet to exist in the form in which I would like. You see, I have been working with people on a one on one basis for over one and a half years now, a period within which they have had major breakthroughs and I have seen them achieve wonderful results.

Some of them have gone to take on new leadership roles within the organization. For the entrepreneurs, they have been able to bring in new clients based on who they are and not on an external projection of what they believe others would want from them.

Each of my pioneers has their own individual world, and I have had the opportunity to bring them together once in a while. In this regard, I have desired to bring them together in a community, and the question has been “how do I do it?”

In fact, so many how questions came to mind, how do I:

• Get people to come to an event
• Make sure I have people consistently coming in
• Stay current and up-to-date
• Make sure that I don’t lose my own integrity

With all these questions in mind, I delved into research for the answers by asking people for their thoughts. In the end, I didn’t know what help I needed or that I even needed the help.

The Realization of the What

After getting stuck at the how and opting to research for the answers, I was not getting anywhere until recently when I had a mind shift. I came to the realization that I was seeking approval from others:

• That this community was necessary
• Approval and permission from myself to create the community

The “what” was already in place, I knew what I wanted to build, and I just needed to do it!

I realized that all along, I was dwelling on the “how”, while it was really about the “what” that I should have focused on. What:

• Do I want to build, not how do I want to build it
• Impact do I want to have, and not how do I want to make the impact
• Is the impact that I want people to have in my community of pioneers

My Offer to You

I finally did launch a community of a tight-knit group of pioneers who are being challenged even as they challenge each other. It is not as large as what I had in mind, it does not have the questions answered on how I’m going to get people in on a regular basis but at the same time, I have been able to scale it to something that works for me.

When I focus on what I see the community becoming, the how becomes irrelevant. This community is willing to see things differently now and grow through that instead of being alone and isolated.

That community is going to exist in different ways:

• One-on-one coaching
• Group coaching
• Live events
• Webinars

Consider This

Do you have a question you have been asking yourself that starts with how? Now consider the result if you just focused on what:

• Do you want to build, create
• Needs to be different for you
• Is at its core
• Are the elements that you wanted to include
• Do you want yourself and others to feel as they are going through this year

Once you have those answers, that pesky how will take care of itself. I promise you that the community I am starting right now will not look the same a year from now. It is an accelerator and I am going to be accelerated as this community continues to be morphed into shape and co-created by every person who joins it.

Now I don’t know how, but I realize that I don’t need to know how this will happen, I just know what I am looking to create and from there I know I can create it.

Today take a few minutes to write down five things where you have been asking yourself the how question then change it into a what question.

If you would like to join our community of pioneers or would like to get the what question answered, or if you simply wish to share your thoughts, get in touch with me and we will take it from there.

Here is to your next frontier…journey on.