Greetings from France and I feel fabulous

Greetings from France and I feel fabulous. No tiredness. No time distortion. No jetlag.

Sometimes you are just lucky.

Recently in Sydney, I had lunch with Dr Karl. What an icon! He was telling me about his recipe for avoiding jetlag, which involved melatonin, absolutely no food on the plane and definitely no alcohol. I don’t think it involved standing on your head and reciting the psalms, but that’s what it sounded like to me.

Commonly known as Dr Karl, Karl Sven Woytek Sas Konkovitch Matthew Kruszelnicki AM is famous in Australia as an author, science commentator on Australian radio, television and general genius. I should have listened.

The thing is, we all have mindsets that block our learning. In the work I do with others, I am surprised how often I meet the mindset that says being good at communication, especially with large groups is about natural talent. After decades on the job I believe otherwise.

Recently, I was coaching a head of finance who had high levels of concern about her lack of the ability to share the monthly report, not be interrupted and get her message across. She had received the feedback that she “needed more gravitas”, so here we were and here I was facing a picture of defeat across the table.

This is such a common scenario. She has the qualifications, the experience and the top job, but is now facing the barrier of being seen in her expertise and the effect of failure was eating away at the confidence level.

We got started and there was a brief period of facing what I call the gang of four: 

“That’s too hard”. 

“I feel stupid”. 

“Other people will think I look silly” 

or 

“It will take too long to learn”. 

As these concerns surface, it is my job to show the way forward and knock down the barriers as they arrive. It is sort of like the piano teacher we had in my day who tapped your fingers when you played a wrong note. 

Very quickly in two sessions, I noticed her blossom like a butterfly. The smile on her face was something to behold and then I got the winning phrase that is music to my ears: 

“Why didn’t anyone tell me this before”.

Of course, why I do immersions and 6 month coaching programs is because one swallow doesn’t make a summer. If I am not there reinforcing positively what is possible, new pathways revert back to old. It needs reinforcement.

Last week, I was in Perth where I did a half day program with 65 Chartered Professional Accountants. As they say on the kids programs, “Don’t try this at home”. These are serious dudes with time pressures and critical thinking. Each participant scored the session 5/5 and I said to myself “Experience pays off, Louise”.

It’s not luck. It’s not talent. It’s knowledge and application. And I will shout it from the roof tops until the day I die. I hope you are listening.

Meanwhile back at the ranch, I know the return trip to Australia is often not that easy on the jetlag and I may not be so lucky. I might take a leaf out of my own book and listen to Dr Karl. I’m sure he has a podcast on it somewhere. 

Ha Ha. He does. I just found it.