Experience is the most uncanny thing.
It is something that you gain by being consciously aware through a process – this results in an enhanced level of knowledge and insight. Yet, sometimes, you develop experience without really knowing you’re getting it.
Experience teaches you lessons and grows your outlook so that you prevent yourself (or others) from making the same mistakes repeatedly. Making it a very valuable asset in your artillery.
Through Executive Coaching there are numerous impressions that have been left on us. The most pertinent are the following three:
Different perspectives matter:
Regardless of our experience and expertise, there is always a benefit to actively listening to others who have different perspectives and take a different approach to us.
This doesn’t mean that everyone else is right and that anyone with a mouth is worth listening to, rather than educated and experienced contributors can shift your perspective or spark a thought that you otherwise may not have had.
There is a benefit in opening yourself up to diversity, and potential to be unlocked when you expand your approach.
Be discerning:
This may sound like the antithesis of point one, but it’s not.
There is nothing more dangerous than ignorance advice. Select who you talk to and select who you listen to. When you accept advice from all sources, you open yourself up to potential damage.
When you are discerning about who you engage with, the calibre of the advice or information that you receive is naturally filtered and of better quality.
Choose carefully and then listen carefully. Those worth listening to can save you endless stress and trauma.
Do not answer your own questions:
Many executives are so used to answering for everyone and providing solutions that they have forgotten how to implement points 1 and 2.
There is great value in unlearning answering everything and having an open approach when conversing with others. Particularly in areas in which you may not be an expert.
Practice listening actively, and potentially not even giving your point of view. This may be the most enriching process of all.
An experience is something that makes an impression on you. Three people can sit through the same scenario and have a completely different experience.
The quality of the experience is derived from how present you are, and what you are intending to gain from the experience.
Open yourself up to live each experience for its own sake, and the value of that moment will easily reveal itself to you.