You Know What You Know....

...but do you know what you don't know or take the time to discover it?

One of the first conversations I have with clients is "You know what you know. What don't you know that you need to know in order to do your job and succeed?" That in combination with "If you're making decisions based on assumptions then those assumptions just might become truth and is that where you ultimately want to be?" That's where incorporating data or evidence gives them the foundation they need with which to make informed decisions.

It's like trying to forecast the future by only looking at the past which might assume that conditions remain constant. They don't. Situations change moment to moment. It's like driving a car by looking in the rearview mirror. Eventually you crash.

We can learn from from the past, decide to repeat how we did something because it worked for us, or to absolutely never go there again because it didn’t. One of my major roles is to look at a situation or snapshot in time that created something extraordinary for my client, and rather than him looking at what transpired as a stroke of luck or a fluke, I put words around it so he can repeat it again if he so chooses.Alternatively often I share with my client something that happened that didn’t work for him, and help him become so aware of the intricacies of that situation that he will make sure he doesn’t react in quite the same way again.However the purpose of what I do is not to keep my clients in the past but to give them the vehicle with which to create their future right now as each moment unfolds. The future is built on what we do in the present. They’re building blocks, yes, but not independent segments of life. They all need to fit into some sort of puzzle we put together to invent what we want to evolve into. If we constantly live in the past, whether in our own problems or successes, or using pure data, there would be no growth.

Conditions never stay constant. As we grow, learn, experience through life we start this moment in time from a new wrung on the ladder. Forcing ourselves to go back to what was is like starting the climb all over again. Why in the world would we ever want to do that?

I learned not to fight the intuitive thoughts as they come, or to talk myself out of them with logic or pure fact, it's to incorporate them into the whole picture and work with them to succeed.One of my clients recently told me I look right through him. When I asked him what he meant he said I see past the obvious. One of the benefits of them working with a Shadow Coach™ is they know their Coach will be aware of what they were too busy to pick up. I'm not treating my clients as transparent or one dimensional. It's taking into account all the intricacies of a personality and how that person changes with every personal interaction, situation and experience they have and seeing what isn't there as well as what is. Add the foundation of data to the mix and that leader will fly, taking the rest of the organization with him. One is not exclusive of the other. Together they're extraordinarily powerful.

Best!
Donna Karlin

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