For people who want regular personal or professional development advice from a qualified executive coach.
Status Games And How To Play Them 🃏
|
Plenty of times in my life I've said words to the effect of, "I don't care about status". What I meant was, status in the sense of climbing a traditional, financial hierarchy and having skiing holidays. But that's just one kind of status game. Just because I wasn't playing that one didn't mean I wasn't playing at all. For example, my eldest son is called Felix. Cool name, right. But me and his mum spent ages choosing it over traditional names and fashionable names of the day. Why? To signal status. A sort of semi-intelectual, university educated status. We didn't consciously think we were playing a status game but we were. And simply by saying, "I don't care about status", I was claiming status! In this case a sort of anti-system, within the system status. My point is, WE ALL PLAY STATUS GAMES ALL OF THE TIME. It's part of how we're wired as humans. And if you understand that, it's really helpful. You catch your own behaviour better and understand what's underneath the things other people do. It's also an antidote to hate. On Friday, this is the topic of HeRO Hour. This is a talk I give to my HeRO program clients every week. And now there's a way you can join my exclusive coaching community on a free trial. Think of the status you'll gain! If you'd like to know more, hit reply. Stephen -- If you’re curious whether coaching could help you find more clarity or direction, book a free 15-minute Clarity Call and we’ll explore it together. For anything else, hit reply. I answer every email personally. |
HeRO Chronicles
For people who want regular personal or professional development advice from a qualified executive coach.
The best thing about my job is all of the wonderful, brilliant, talented people I get to work with. And one of the most fun ways I help them is through analogies. Creating a vivid story in their minds that holds the intention long after the coaching session ends. Yesterday I had a session with one of the most inspiring clients I've ever had. Honestly, I wish you could all meet him. His essence is magnificent and magnetic. And we're helping to shape a brilliant vision of what he could become....
I've heard this word so a lot this week from clients. Seen it online countless times. Alarming, right? Except, only one of the people I spoke to meant it literally. And they were talking about how they felt a few weeks ago. Fortunately, they heeded my advice and now feel much better. What I think is happening more generally is that people are tired, running on fumes, at the end of a long year. Which is something to pay attention to (unchecked it could lead to burnout), but actually pretty...
I'm easing you into 2026 this week. On Monday I wrote about goal setting. Yesterday I encouraged you to relax into winter. And in the New Year I will share lots more ideas to help you. But before we get to that, I want you to think about visualising your accomplishments in a different way. Normally, when we use visualisation, we try to picture the moment when we accomplish our goal. For the athlete that might be their chest breaking the tape. In business it might be the moment you clinch a...