Make Possibilities Happen
This article is part of our Mentor-Coach Reading List series. Join the mailing list to receive this and more.
SETTING THE SCENE
There are two critical things an executive can influence when it comes to making possibilities happen: your strategy and your ability to execute that strategy. After all, any dream, idea or goal without the ability to bring it to reality is merely wishful thinking. Moving from visualisation to actualisation takes a specific skill set, hyper focus and discipline.
QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER
What is your theory of ‘how’?
What is your definition of success? Do you have a framework for success?
What are your parameters of possibility?
Do you remember the last major initiative you watched die in your organisation? Did it go down dramatically? Or was it slowly and quietly suffocated? Did anyone notice?
How much time do you and your executive team spend discussing what will result in differentiation, what you will create and what you will eliminate ?
Why is execution so difficult?
Why is sticky change so hard?
HAPPY READING AND STAY CURIOUS!
Here is more information about this selection of books.
Make Possibilities Happen: How to Transform Ideas into Reality by Grace Hawthorne. Possibility is the ability to see something in your imagination and materialise it in real life. You already possess (almost) everything you need to make things happen. Discover tools and strategies for overcoming the hang-ups that prevent you from getting things done or even starting. Learn exercises for building the creative capacity of your brain. Explore ways to build on the momentum of your work so that you can keep going. Award-winning author Grace Hawthorne shares insights, ideas, and activities from the Stanford University d.school courses she teaches, as well as scientific research and entrepreneurial escapades to get you thinking productively toward making possibilities a reality.
How to Begin: Start Doing Something That Matters by Michael Stanier Bungay. This is a practical guide to finding the focus and courage to set a Worthy Goal: one that lights you up, compels you to grow, and serves a bigger game by being thrilling, important, and daunting. With Michael’s trademark humor, compassion, and laser-focused clarity, you’ll walk through a tested process to: find and strengthen your Worthy Goal to the very best it can be; get absolutely clear on your commitment so you know what you’re up for; develop the resources to cross the threshold, so you don’t have to travel alone; build momentum, progress, and impact.
The 4 Disciplines of Execution: Achieving Your Wildly Important Goals by Sean Covey, Chris McChesney and Jim Huling. Fully revised and updated, the definitive guide for leaders on how to create lasting organisational change. Almost every company struggles with making change happen. This book will help you reach the goals you’ve always dreamed of with a simple, repeatable, and proven formula. This set of practices have been tested and refined by hundreds of organisations and thousands of teams over many years. When a company or an individual adheres to these principles, they achieve results. These ‘4 Disciplines of Execution‘ represent a new way to work and think that is essential to creating lasting organisational change and thriving.
The Change Book: Fifty models to explain how things happen by Mikael Krogerus and Roman Tschappeler. This book is about change - from the small and seemingly insignificant transitions in our day-to-day lives, to the big and almost incomprehensible shifts in human history. Because if we want to make change happen ourselves, we have to understand it first. Distilling expert wisdom and complex theories, the authors present fifty simple and effective models to help us make sense of our changing world. It offers surprisingly simple explanations of the biggest theories of transformation that will help you see the world anew - and radically challenge some of your preconceived ideas.
Super Vision: An Eye-Opening Approach to Getting Unstuck by Sherife AbdelMessih. A vital guide to mastering the art of perception. Super Vision is an authentic and captivating book by a respected MIT scientist and entrepreneur, that can help us navigate the ups and downs of life and unlock our full potential. This is a book that explores the blind spots and miscalculations that have developed in our subconscious minds, which are holding us back from getting unstuck and realising our full potential.
Hyperfocus: How to Work Less to Achieve More by Chris Bailey. Our attention has never been as overwhelmed as it is today and we've never been so busy while accomplishing so little. This book provides profound insights into how we can best manage our attention. He reveals how the brain switches between two mental modes – hyper focus, our deep concentration mode, and scatter focus, our creative, reflective mode – and how the surest path to being our most creative and efficient selves at work is to combine them both. In Hyperfocus, you will learn how: working fewer hours can increase our productivity; get more done by making our work harder, not easier; do our best creative work when we're the most tired.
OUR RELATED ARTICLES AND READING LISTS
EVERY EXECUTIVE NEEDS A TRUSTED SOUNDING BOARD Most executives understand that the higher they are, the more difficult it is to talk about their real issues or concerns – and to do so free from the weight of company expectations. It is even harder to find effective and neutral listeners. Whether the objective is to be more effective in a role, to assess next-level strategies or contribute to a board, it helps to have trusted guidance.
VISUALISATION TO ACTUALISATION Mentor-Coach Conversation | Whether it is an enterprise-wide strategy, a transformation plan or a key piece of work, moving from visualisation to actualisation takes a specific execution skill set, an investment in mission-critical talent, the right resource allocation, hyper focus and discipline. Certain operating styles create differentiation and impact.
MENTORING FOR A NEW DIRECTION Will the coming year be different from the last? How are you navigating towards the next level? What are the risks you need to counter? What should an executive do to be better prepared? How can you use mentoring to guide you towards a new direction?
FOCUS SHAPES CONTRIBUTIONS Whether you are part of an executive team, in the c-suite or have joined the boardroom, one thing is certain, where you focus your attention and what you listen for, shapes your contributions.
Achieving What Matters Most Can we achieve and master something we choose, if the work we did had significance, if we could tap hidden potential, if we could smooth the friction, if we could make the right things easier and the wrong or pointless things harder.
TRUST: A LEADERSHIP ROADMAP Coaching Conversation: while it is important not to be naive, a lack of mutual trust derails a business. Sustained trust is an ongoing process that relies on maturity, perspective, empowerment, engagement, ethical behaviour and respectful relationships.
🚩 Discover the support we offer executives, new and aspiring directors.
About Dianne Jacobs | Discover how to get On Boards or Next Level | Join the Mailing List
OTHER READING LISTS | DIGITAL DIGEST | COACHING CONVERSATIONS