The Truth of How We See Things | Worth | Stolen Focus
Hello there! Welcome to my weekly LEAPS.
You’re receiving this email because you subscribed to my weekly Wednesday feature or our mailing list. Every Wednesday, I share 5 things using our LEAPS approach:
Learn: something new or an idea
Energy: an energy (good or bad) word and it’s meaning
Action: something to do
Processing: a question to consider
Shout out: something or someone that I want to celebrate or acknowledge
LEARN
Something Worth Sharing
The Truth of How We See Things
Years ago, when I first started working with family businesses and advisors to family businesses, I created a tool called The Way They See It. This was something I’d created during my own challenges with fellow family board members at the time of putting together a ‘Management Buy Out’.
Back in 2002 I’d been to a law firm to seek advice for how to proceed, and it was during this time I’d had to try and explain the complexities and issues involved in our family dynamics. Of course the first run through of this was very much from my own perspective - and how I saw things. In family businesses - as it is in life - there are many vested parties and therefore many ways of seeing something. I was 100% certain that my uncle would not see the situation in the way I did, for a whole host of reasons. The second meeting I worked hard to present how I believed he saw things - along with how various other key family members would.
At the time I remember being asked ‘and which one is the right version?’ Well, the simple answer is ‘none of them'. Equally, none of them was wrong either; furthermore none of my family’s perspectives - or our employees’ and stakeholders’ were right or wrong. To get to the truth of a situation, we need to see things from everyone’s position, draw what we can from this and make decisions. There are multiple benefits to this:
People feel seen and heard
It prevents us rushing
It ensures we don’t miss vital and key information
It helps generate new ideas
It creates a balanced approach
It helps gain buy-in for decisions
Assumptions can be avoided
The truth begins to appear
ENERGY
An emotion or energy; a stand-out word / s
Worth
We all want to be worthy - to feel that we our worth has value. The word WORTHY is from Old English WEORP meaning "significant, valuable, of value; valued, appreciated, highly thought-of, deserving, meriting; honourable, noble, of high rank; suitable for, proper, fit, capable". The word WORTH is truly worth so much!
ACTION
Something small that you can do that might make a big difference
Chunk It
There is a great deal of overwhelm and general ‘stuff’ in our day-to-day lives. The action this week is to ‘chunk it’. When something seems too big, break it into smaller chunks and add progress markers. Begin with the end in mind - what you want to achieve - and then work backwards to today, figuring out the steps needed at each point.
PROCESSING
A question to think about and consider (you can discuss this with someone or write your thoughts down)
“How focused am I?”
Focus is challenging, especially in today’s fast-paced and changing world. There are so many things that can distract us and pull us away from our focus. The question, therefore, is for you to consider how focused you are - and what is causing a distraction for you.
I’d love for you to send me your own stories / thoughts about this. Drop me a line with your answer / thoughts on this question
SHOUT OUT
Who / what I think deserves recognition - my gratitude or to be celebrated.
Creative Sparks
I hate ‘decisions by committee’, when groups of people argue and overly debate something without any significant outcome. However, I have been reminded recently of how valuable it can be to gather a small and select group together to ignite a creative spark. We’ve all had times of feeling stuck - but when we can reach out to our trusted network and pull in the thoughts, ideas, challenges and questions from another person or several people, it can transform us and the generate magic to shift us and make progress! Shout out to that creative spark!
BONUS GIFT FOR YOU
The gift is only available to those that subscribe to the weekly LEAPS email
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The artwork featured in this section is all copyrighted and for private use only. If you wish to use these online, in blogs / features or in presentations etc - we are happy to discuss licences. Please get in touch. The downloads do not have watermarks.
If you’d like to discuss having your ideas, business or culture captured visually - you can also let me know via email.
LEAPS is a process used by our team and clients all the time - and even my own family on a daily basis.
I’ll be sharing a set of LEAPS each week with you and encourage you to do your own version:
L: what have you learned?
E: what’s your energy / feeling word
A: what’s one thing you need to do?
P: what are you thinking / processing?
S: who or what can you shout out?
