Niiamah Ashong leads a Tribe group coaching session on the Outlier's Edge Podcast built on one idea: start from the end, as if your heart's desire were already your reality. He coaches a leader who is creating a community and helping lead a movement, and a financial services professional who wants to have the biggest impact possible. What emerged is the practice of naming the one conversation to have next, and asking what it would take to put in 10 percent of the effort for 10 times the results.
Episode at a glance
- Host: Niiamah Ashong, coach to outlier leaders
- Show: Outlier’s Edge Podcast, released September 15, 2020
- Format: session, 52 minutes
- Topics: Starting from the end, Making a movement a career, Uncomfortable conversations as a strength, One person, one conversation, Linear versus exponential value, Things are one way until they aren't
What this session is about
Two leaders joined the session. One is creating a community and helping lead a movement, and he is making that work his career and path, and that day he had, in his words, turned down an opportunity outside that space in a way. His strength, in his words, is having uncomfortable conversations, and the conversation he most wants to have is with someone who in the past would have been closed-minded about the work. The other has spent 10 years in financial services, finds his power in the process of getting somewhere, and wants to position himself to have the biggest impact possible, going from helping 10 people to 100 and then a thousand.
What emerged
Starting from the end, Niiamah Ashong noticed the first leader's vision kept stopping short of specifics, so he invited him to write out the conversations that feel most daunting and practice saying them out loud; the leader named one person he wants to talk to, and Niiamah Ashong acknowledged the simplicity of one person, one conversation. With the second leader, Niiamah Ashong contrasted adding value, which is linear, with exponential value, and invited him to find the one piece of support that would let him put in 10 percent of the effort for 10 times the results. When the leader described the extra effort he has always brought, Niiamah Ashong reflected back that he is a reality changer, and that things are one way until they aren't.
Questions this episode answers
What does it mean to start from the end?
Niiamah Ashong invites leaders to speak from the place where their vision is already real, for example treating the work they love as the career they are already in, and to coach from there. When one leader said his power is in the process, Niiamah Ashong noted that starting from the end doesn't end the process; it starts it from a different place.
How does a leader turn a vague vision into something specific?
Niiamah Ashong noticed that each time the first leader described his vision, it hit what he called a floor, with the vision summarized in an indefinite way. He invited him to write out the conversations and people that feel most daunting and to say at least one out loud in the session, as practice for being the leader he already knows he is.
How can a leader scale impact beyond one-on-one work?
Niiamah Ashong says adding value is linear, where 10 times the input gets 10 times the output. He asks what exponential value would look like, and what one piece of support would let a leader put in 10 percent of the effort to get 10 times the results.
Why would a coach tell a hard-working leader to be lazier?
Niiamah Ashong told the financial services professional he thought he was working way too hard, and that how hard he was working might be limiting his impact to really scale like he wants to. The invitation was to find leverage rather than add more effort.
Can a leader change a reality that feels fixed?
Niiamah Ashong acknowledges that systemic oppression and institutionalized racism are real, and says that what he does is help people create new realities. He reflected that the leader he was coaching is himself out there changing reality, and that this is how it is until it isn't.
In their words
There's one person one conversation start there.
Niiamah Ashong
What I do is I help people create new realities.
Niiamah Ashong
This is how it is until it isn't.
Niiamah Ashong
Key moments
00:02 – Starting from the end
02:41 – Leading a movement
12:42 – Uncomfortable conversations as a strength
14:13 – Playing at the revolutionary level
26:35 – Finding power in the process
31:10 – It's all about scale
34:45 – What exponential value looks like
35:15 – An invitation to be lazier
40:19 – One person, one conversation
45:56 – Helping people create new realities
About Niiamah Ashong
Niiamah Ashong is a coach to outlier leaders, host of the Outlier’s Edge Podcast, and founder of the Trailblazer Collective. He coaches leaders who are creating something only they can make: a company, a body of work or a movement. Make a difference with your difference.
Work with Niiamah: 1:1 with Niiamah | World of Difference
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