Executives and Emotional Self Awareness

A major problem impairing an executive's performance is his Emotional Blind Spots. Emotions, whether we like them or not, have a significant impact on one's decisions. An example is the Enron case where executives ran into severe ethical and legal consequences after falling prey to the destructive negative emotions of greed and self-interest. It is perplexing how many success driven executives, choose to fear addressing the impact of negative emotions on personal and organizational performance.

Helping executives become aware of the Emotional Blind Spots that cause them to steer into perilous decision making territory has helped them make better decisions and feel powerfully more secure in themselves. To help achieve emotional self-awareness we use a powerfully new coaching tool, the Mind Resonance Process? (MRP) which allow executives to succeed.

We illustrate MRP with this case:

Following an economic downturn the CEO of a mid-sized public company was faced having to outsource some of the company's services and cut back on staff in order to reach annual performance goals. He felt extremely torn as he valued his staff's potential. Not meeting annual goals meant seriously risking losing shareholder confidence. Deep within he knew riding through the storm with staff on board would make the company stronger in the long run but his fears urged him to think short because he might not be around in the long run. Afraid to make a decision he might live to regret he contacted us.

With him we addressed some key emotional issues that were preventing him from navigating the storm with peace of mind. These included the following:

1. The fear of losing his job

2. The sadness around having to let staff go

3. The fear of regretting a bad decision

4. Worries of how a bad decision would affect staff morale.

Of these we addressed 3) first, as it was the most incapacitating. With MRP we addressed this fear directly by having him look at two aspects of it:

a) What was the fear doing to him?

b) What did the fear suggest it was doing for him?

The MRP Analysis:

A) By helping him feel the effects of this fear, he realized it was paralyzing him in his ability to make any decision. In other words the fear was ruining him.

B) By helping to uncover what he thought the fear was doing for him, he realized that it was "supposedly" helping him to avoid making bad decisions and carefully thinking through the consequences of the options available to him. In other words the fear was supposedly making his life smoother.

The analysis revealed:

1. A and B were contradictory and could not be simultaneously true

2. That A felt true and B felt false for him

3. He was unknowingly accepting B as true i.e. was lying to himself about the benefits of the fear

4. Acceptance of the lie allowed the fear to remain anchored in him, paralyzing his ability to make confident detached decisions.

We helped him

1. Relinquish the lie

2. Relinquish the fear

3. Create a vision of him as detached and confident.

Following MRP he calmly and confidently made decisions he could live with and his resilience to stress increased immeasurably.

MRP is also effective for:

- Improving leadership abilities and performance.

- Opening up creative and intuitive potential

- Challenging ethical issues.

- Reducing stress and improving health

MRP is accessible through personal coaching, live workshops, and ongoing teleconferences.

Copyright © 2005. Arrizza Performance Coaching Inc., All Rights Reserved

Dr. Nick Arrizza: Executive Coach, Author, Speaker, Performance and Stress Researcher, & Developer of the Mind Resonance Process? Web Site: http://www.telecoaching4u.com

---

Can Your Corporate Policy Pass the Monkeys, Bananas, and Water-spray Experiment?

Five monkeys were placed in a cage. A banana was... Read More

Project Management - I Want It ALL

The knee-jerk response to prioritizing requirements is to mark everything... Read More

Succession Planning for Your Business - 7 Key Benefits

A core activity in many successful businesses, Succession Planning is... Read More

Dialogue: the Four Dialogic Principles For Successful Communication

"But you don't understand!" exclaimed the manager, "this new initiative... Read More

6 Simple Steps to Dealing with Difficult Managers

The challenge of managing difficult managers can be rather daunting,... Read More

Business Opportunity - Leverage Your Employees!

As a business asset, they don't sit well on the... Read More

Project Management - The Traveling Product Manager

Various studies ? and common sense ? indicate that involving... Read More

The Art of Motivation and Need Fulfillment

Industrial/clinical psychology and applied psychiatry have made tremendous strides in... Read More

Group Meeting Disrupters

MEETING DISRUPTERS: If two participants are carrying on a personal... Read More

Employee Retention: Keeping the People Who Keep You in Business

The retention of highly skilled knowledge workers is one of... Read More

Five Problem-Solving Success Tips

The ability to solve complicated problems quickly is more important... Read More

ISO 9001 Compliant Program: Steps to Build

Implementing an ISO 9001 system represents a major effort. However,... Read More

Recognition: A Quick, Low-cost Way to Motivate Employees

Recognizing good performance through praise or other positive action is... Read More

Once Upon a Conflict

Once upon a time there lived an innocent, hardworking manager.... Read More

Lateral Thinking, Logical Thinking, Applied Creativity

Certain processes enhance creative output and others enhance innovative output.... Read More

Tales from the Corporate Frontlines: Ideas for Everyday Training

This article relates to the Training competency, commonly evaluated in... Read More

When Change Is In the Wind...Heads Up!

In these days of takeovers and mergers, of downsizings and... Read More

Getting Information From Prospects

You're at a networking function and you've made that all-important... Read More

Unveiling the Value of Your Expertise

All of us have knowledge, expertise, and experience that others... Read More

Good Idea Generation ? A Process

It seems incongruous that good idea generation can be a... Read More

Performance Evaluations Can Be Beneficial

THE PERFORMANCE REVIEW MEETING: It's a fact - most supervisors... Read More

Terrible Meetings - Ten Ways to Spot Them!

Sometimes, better than giving advice about how to run things... Read More

Character: Is It Necessary In Leadership? (Part Two)

In the first part of this two part article, I... Read More

Why Good Enough... Isnt

About a year ago, I had an opportunity to have... Read More

Vampire Meetings and How To Slay Them

Meetings can be like mythical vampires ? sucking the life... Read More

Innovation Management ? the Root of the Problem

Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation... Read More

Executive Performance -- Whos to Blame for Incompetent Managers?

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal raised the... Read More

How To Decrease Profits Without Really Trying

Hurting your sales efforts can be accomplished easily with the... Read More

Five Ways to Influence Change in Others

Because of my work as a consultant, trainer and coach... Read More

Sending Documents Through Email? Dont Get Burned by Metadata!

During a recent seminar I gave located in the suburbs... Read More

What Personal Assistants Really Want

What would happen if the personal assistants in your organisation... Read More

Christmas and Business Gifts for Your Clients and Employees!

Tis' the season for business and corporate gift-giving! If you... Read More

Outsourcing Quiz: Cheap Vs. Good

Someone can say, 'Why do you oppose this?' So I'd... Read More