You have probably heard the story of a turkey, fed for 999 days by a farmer, each passing day confirming turkey’s trust that the farmer loves the turkey in a life respecting way. Turkey’s life including. But on the 1000th day, just before Thanksgiving, the turkey is in for a big surprise…
There is this Bulgarian proverb “Too much good portends no good” and it seems that the turkey from Nasim Taleb’s story was not introduced to it. What is more, the turkey confused the world of uncertainty with one of the calculated risk. And the turkey illusion is probably not so often in turkeys, but mostly in people. We often need to go beyond expectations and that is why prediction is not enough. We need to tap into our intuition.
The simplest science based advice one can give you when it comes to utilizing your intuitive thinking is as follows: ‘If you are in an uncertain world, make it simple. If you are in a world that’s highly predictable, make it complex.’ This simplicity consumed the time of good forty years of academic effort of Gerd Gigerenzer and when it comes to intuition applied in decision making, all roads lead to the German psychologist.
WHERE TO START WITH INTUITIVE THINKING?
Opening the chapter of a new year is a good time to develop a new skill and first thing we need to admit about intuition is that is a skill indeed. As a professional, I often use my gut feeling to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to an opportunity and it usually proves right. The way I apply it is the way most of us would and it is called claircognizance, the ability for a person to acquire psychic knowledge without knowing how or why they know it. You drive to work and you should turn right but for some reason you continue straight and later, while listening to the news on the radio, you learn that there was high traffic on the route you miraculously avoided. The miracle, however, has a name and it is called intuition.
As a coach and NLP practitioner I see that the most supportive way for people to find their own healthy dose of intuitive thinking is by guided imagination, visualization and full presence. What it creates for them is a shortcut to inner wisdom. Symbolic imagination is a limitless source of insight and knowledge, and I am happy to have seen plenty of times how it can help people experience a profound mind-shift. Hence they see new perspectives for themselves. It may sound suspicious to the conventional mind but a rising level of acceptance is nudging towards this way of thinking. One prerequisite for applying intuition is to veer from probability theory and investigate smart heuristics or rule of thumb, as prof. Gigerenzer calls it. Simply put, this is our ability to know things. Heuristics is an unconscious form of intelligence based on our stored experiences and is a human tool we all possess to deal with an uncertain world.
HOW TO HONE THAT SKILL?
Cecilia Yeung, a Canadian trainer and coach with 25 years of experience in sales, marketing and strategizing, echoes the opinion that many C-level executives use intuition in decision making, and they are either not consciously aware of using it or they do not advertise that they access it for fear of being mocked. Yeung leads a virtual program that combines the conventional characteristics of bringing business minds together to solve problems with specific mind conditioning and intuitive techniques that are atypical and novel. The premise of her process is that people already have the answers and by using mind and intuition techniques, will be able to see beyond the plethora of information available externally.
“There is no single template for using intuition and it differs for every individual. The good news is that anyone who thinks, feels and senses could develop this ability. Any leader or business owner with a track record of success will know that even when the evidence or data proved the contrary, certain decisions made from a hunch, a distinct awareness or trusting an inner voice have revealed to be right, accurate or disarmingly precise. Accessing one’s intuition may be as simple as quieting the mind or ascending to a meditative state. For others, it may be engaging in activities that suspend the rational mind’s incessant thoughts such as walking in nature, surfing or listening to music. The focus is on seeking validation from the internal channels of information, which includes the subconscious mind.
I truly wish for everyone to realize that there is far more insightful power, illuminating knowledge and profound wisdom than our thinking minds offer. I recommend reading Malcolm Gladwell’s “Blink, The Power of Thinking Without Thinking” and “Stealing Fire” by Steven Kotler and Jamie Wheal to learn more about the validity of using intuition in business, how to access the subconscious mind and case studies of how unconventional wisdom may help with business growth.”
Tapping into this unconventional approach, is intriguing as one develops a relationship with the powerful subconscious. Here are a few tips from Cecilia Yeung on how to raise your intuitive thinking:
Make meditation a regular practice, even if only for a few minutes per day.
Take ‘alpha’ breaks which is the relaxed brain state before waking or when daydreaming. Right before the thinking mind takes over, immerse into the symbols, quiet messages and hypnotic awareness. Meditation is a useful way for the brain to reach alpha state.
Be aware of symbols, in dreams and waking moments. The subconscious does not communicate with language but instead, with metaphors, symbols and archetypes. Paying closer attention to the symbols will help you gain access to intuition.
Code your subconscious for answers and solutions by giving instructions before going to sleep. Your dreams may reveal powerful insights.
‘Program’ the mind with repeated statements or as they are known in personal development, affirmations. We operate from years of subconscious programming and we have the ability to change the conditioning consciously. ‘I don’t have enough time’ is a typical program that we run on repeat and we can override it with ‘I am using my time wisely’.
BEFORE GOING ALL OUT TO INTUITION
Albert Einstein once said, ‘The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift’. Before jumping on this insight with the determination of a New Year’s resolution, we need to admit that this epiphany to tap into the ‘gift’ occurred for Einstein after gaining substantial experience in the field of ‘rational’. When exploring intuition as a business tool, please bear in mind a few scientifically proven facts:
Intuition in one domain does not guarantee good intuition in another;
Intuition leads to cognitive and social biases, like the anchoring effect, where decisions are swayed by the first piece of information thrown at us;
Stress triggers heuristic thinking – habits and short-cuts – but it degrades more sophisticated intuitive processing;
We tend to get attached to intuitive beliefs;
Intuition is highly efficient if we don’t think about it too much.
Intuition is a tool at our disposal and this brings some relief as we carefully open the chapter of 2021 in our lives and business. It can serve us as a torch but we need to discover it as a lantern first. It stems from experience and offers us confirmation in the present moment, in our attempts to sense the emerging future. Whether we should trust our intuition depends not on the strength of it, but on the structure of the domain we are operating in.
The ultimate practical goal in employing intuition in business would be to avoid confusing scenarios of uncertainty with scenarios of calculated risk.
TED Talks curator Chris Anderson explains the 18-minute rule as time ‘long enough to be serious and short enough to hold people’s attention’. When I descended the stage after my 15-minute TEDx talk, I asked my good friend Alex who was there with me, the immediate most important for every speaker question: “What did you think? How was it?”. “It was great that your talk was shorter than the others we have seen today”, was his very first reaction. This could mean a complete failure or a resounding success.
Oscar Wilde once said: “Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes”. As I still haven’t seen the recording from my talk at #TEDxTriaditza #BuildingBridges, my hope to prove Mr. Wild wrong is vivid. Yet I did gain some experience.
The world-famous conference format had fueled my inspiration hundreds of times for many years. At some point it became obvious that all remarkable talks have a few things in common. Here I’d like to put my two cents worth on how to approach the task. It will help you prepare for your TED speech, or any other talk designated to inspire.
1) Know WHY you have been invited. It is not to present your product, service or work, no matter how inspirational it might seem to you. The reason you are invited is to share and hopefully to transport an idea worth spreading. If it’s part of what you do, that’s fine, but please, no brand and service positioning when on stage. You are invited to share thoughts in words that will inspire people to take action for improvement. Their improvement, not yours. There is no other reason for you mounting that podium.
2) Know well WHAT you will say and the words you will choose. If you are a writing person, put pen to paper and say it all in advance, ideally, weeks before the event. Then optimize it by cutting the half of it and leave the gist. If you prefer to talk in quotations, better stick to your own. Every other sentence should contain a key message. At the same time, be careful not to overdose it with too many main messages so people get lost. My ideal proportion is five minutes – new angle to the topic.
3) Rehearse, practise, excel. If the organizers have framed it as 18-minute talk, aim at 18 minutes on the dot and even better, do a few mocks in front the mirror setting the stop watch at the 15th or 16th minute. Put a real timer, don’t just count minutes while looking at your mobile phone when starting and finishing. Watching a chronometer counting down the seconds reminded me of the times as host of a morning radio show, where we excelled the so called intro-outro. To do it the right way you need to start talking at the fading melody of a song while another begins and you need to precisely stop talking a second before the voice enters the music. Don’t count on writing a few bullet points and imagining roughly what you mean with each one. Being a TEDx speaker has more similarities to performing a piece or etude than delivering a lecture at university.
4) You are the presentation. Not only the message but the way you spread it has its impact. You need to plan both your words and silence. Like inhaling-exhaling, doing it hurriedly will get you out of breath. To use or not to use slides? That is not the right question. The proper one is “Do your slides add to the story you are telling?” If not, you know the answer.
5) Be confident ENOUGH. While confidence stems from rehearsal, this is not valid for the right volume of it. A couple of years ago I attended a fantastic training on powerful presentations. There was this popular round red small carpet they put on each TED stage. The trainer asked us to imagine the red dot as a 1-10 target and to consider how confident one would feel when delivering a speech or talk before a group of people where 1 is “I’d better collapse”, 10 is “completely certain of my ability to do this”. As an amour-propre booster all other trainees chose “10”. Surprisingly for the trainer, I spotted 8½ as my desirable confidence gauge. The reason behind was the clear insight after watching numerous orators in action: overconfidence distances you from the audience and isolates you on a private island called “your ego”. Being too confident means you are there for yourself and not for the audience.
Delivering a TED talk or any other inspirational speaking undoubtedly provides personal branding opportunity as much as it is a call for personal responsibility. It is about taking and giving back. Approach it purposefully with open heart and mind, and then head to the stage not only to perform, but to serve and to create meaning. This is way to go if you are well-intentioned about building a bridge from you to people who have gifted you their time and attention for this-maximum-of-18-minutes.
Growth mindset is a well-known concept of not only the ambitious novice – it is also a conscious corporate target of many renowned employers. Carol Dweck, a lead researcher on the topic and author of the book with the same name, states that as humans, we operate in both a fixed and a growth mindset. Apparently, one should intentionally strive for amending their brain to the growth state of mind.
GROW INTENTIONALLY
Growth mindset is an attitude that allows us ‘to understand that [our] abilities can be developed’ (Dweck, 2014). It is often intertwined with the idea that if someone demonstrates a growth mindset, they are coachable – open and dare to change. Even with the best coaches at your disposal, it is your coachability combined with first-rate coaching that will ultimately determine your progress.
A Google search of what being coachable means, will stumble you across virtues, values and good behavior features like “humble”, “respectful”, “eager and keen to learn”, “curious”, even “inquisitive” and “unafraid of mistakes and change”. It all sounds like the perfect wish for a Christmas card. And it is not to say that there are not such super-humans. They are sometimes around us and every once in a while we even see them in the mirror.
GROW PURPOSEFULLY
I now invite you to build on the idea of possessing a growth mindset with something I’ll call a great mindset. It is an attitude that every time I witness as a coach fuels my belief that people actually can change for the better. Great mindset in my view is the ability of a person to admit and acknowledge their individual pace in achieving a goal. It is a matter of velocity and a matter of momentum too.
GREAT MINDSET BASICS
Great mindset is about Growing Reasonably, Eagerly, in an Admirable manner that makes you Thrive à feeling GREAT.
How will you know that you experience the great mindset yourself?
While fulfilling a desire or a goal, climbing the career ladder or euphorically launching a startup, here are five signs of that unmatched mindset as an acronym for GREAT:
1) Growing
The change is going through your veins. You are partially out of your comfort zone, but you are savoring the effort of, for instance, waking up an hour earlier to learn the alphabet of a new language or code.
2) Reasonably
Growing reasonably is growing in a satisfactory way at a price that is not too expensive for you to pay. It means you know your Why, and the gravity of the change you want to create or the milestone you are about to accomplish.
3) Eagerly
“Go the extra mile, it’s never crowded there” they often say. You pursue your better self in a joyous and fulfilling way, you have the energy to go that extra mile, and you are exhilarated to do so.
4) Admirably
You follow your way in a fashion worthy of admiration. Moreover, a tribe of followers, inspired by you, is about to form and it seems that your goal or cause is enlightening others too.
5) Thrivingly
This is the thing and this is the way. You feel it, you see it, you know it. What differentiates it from bare enthusiasm though, is that it doesn’t appear as a sprint, but is much more like a marathon and you have the capacity to endure it. You don’t need a special energy recourse to fuel your stamina, by taking action itself you gain the energy to keep going towards the direction you have chosen.
The great mindset is the sweet spot of doing and being altogether. This is a territory where there is no need to define yourself. You are a work in progress and a will in action and it feels… yes, it feels exactly great!
I now hold an ACC credential by the ICF. What does it require and mean?
It means I covered 60+ hours of onsite training, in my case it was 125 hours outstanding coaching program with Intunity Coaches, Gergana Pavlova~Petrova and Plamen Petrov, in 2016.
It means I have been mentored to polish my coaching skillset, in my case it means I worked 10 hours with my mentor coach Teodora Kamenova in 2020.
It means that recordings of sessions of mine was examined by ICF and I have demonstrated knowledge and emerging proficiency in the application of the ICF Core Competencies, Code of Ethics, and definition of coaching. If you are curious about the standards, please see the links, following the badge https://www.youracclaim.com/badges/57c44f69-a078-46d6-ac6e-d02a4acf5094
It means also I have experienced coaching as a coach in 100+ hours, in my case it was 160 individual coaching hours so far, starting in 2019. These are, however, far more than hours to count, these are 71 coaching clients so far, 71 individuals who trusted me to support them in their journey to a better and fulfilled self, 71 persons who partnered me so far in my journey to a more fulfilled self.
It has been quite an adventure, and the best about it is that kind of starting off now. For me it means keep relishing the positives that the ‘beginner’s’ mindset brings along – dedication, curiosity and readiness to learn and grow. Because this is the only way one can [try to] serve efficiently.
Delegation is like parenting: others seem more successful, although you’re sure you are doing no worse than anyone else. And similarly to parenting, once you master that skill, it will rain down noteworthy benefits on you: it will help your team grow and thrive; it will scale up your business; and it will create time for you.
Coaching clients on time management and efficiency has helped me to discover three appropriate times for business owners to address the need to delegate:
When it appears unnecessary because the business is still relatively new and the founders are running it themselves;
When company expands from two founders, to two founders and a few employees;
When the business has been running for a while and efficiency is lacking in the daily operations.
(THINKING) IT IS NOT ON THE AGENDA
Ask yourself:
Am I the only one who can do this the way it should be done?
Is it important for me to monitor the whole process?
Is this a matter of responsibility: my responsibility for my business?
While delegating it, would I actually invest the same time as if I do it myself?
Is this something that I wouldn’t pay my salary to an employee to complete it?
If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, this is an opportune time to play the “delegation” chorus in your head. It may well save years of futile efforts and help you focus on growing your business smartly, right now.
“To delegate doesn’t mean to abandon the business. Actually, this is the only way to bring business” was the inflection point of a coaching conversation with a client of mine. Being a solopreneur for five years, has taught him that scaling up is not a solo-game. He has been managing a team of eight for almost a year now and attests that “assigning an important business task to an associate is not just about finding someone suitable for the work but calming yourself down that no one but you can do it the right way”.
NO ONE CAN DO IT AS WELL AS I CAN
What my client identified at this point was that the controller was playing an active role as one of the saboteurs of accepting the need to delegate. We all have such saboteurs. The controller, for example, convinces us of the need to control and take charge. Other saboteus, which are just stories that we tell ourselves, where we assume our thoughts are facts include:
Being judgemental – focusing on what is wrong with us and others rather than appreciating what is good.What story does it tell us?‘Last time I gave a *team member* a sensitive assignment s/he didn’t complete it as I was expected and it was half-done. S/he is so irresponsible. And it is my fault that I entrusted the person with the task…’ Eventually, instead of carefully assessing what may have caused the team member not to complete the assignment, you conclude that sensitive projects should not be delegated.
Hyper Vigilant – worrying all the time that something bad will happen and trying to prevent it at all cost. How does that sound? ‘If I allocate this project to *team member* and s/he screws it up, the deal with client “X” will fall through, then we will lose the client and may be even more, because the CEO of client “X” is a friend to the CEO of client “Y”, and I know that our main competitor is just waiting for a chance to grab client “Y” from us…’ As a result, you become hesitant to assign important tasks to the team, thereby preventing your business (and staff) from growing and learning.
Hyper Achiever – addicted to doing tasks by yourself being praised. Oftentimes, people who become managers or business owners were top performers who then graduated into management. What is the story behind that?‘I want to do it myself and get the credit for it.’ As a manager, if you continue applying this attitude you then miss the bigger picture – managing people should benefit employees too. Being honest and clear about this strengthens the relationship with your team and you help them grow, by seeing how will they too can handle the business and become managers themselves one day.
IT IS ABOUT TIME
Overcoming the hurdles to delegation starts with admitting them. Plamen Petrov, a popular Bulgarian broadcaster and author of business books explains why managers delay delegation, ‘It needs initial time investment, for which managers are not keen; it piles up possible mistakes; too much delegation can cause derailment in a business process.’
Ask yourself:
When delegating a task, do I first go mentally through it myself?
Before delegating to an employee, do I check what else is on their plate right now?
If I delegate the ownership of the work and the responsibility, do I also delegate the ownership of the outcome?
If you answered ‘no’ to any of these questions, this is another opportune time to play the “delegation” chorus in your head. Advice from business practitioners:
Ivelina Atanasova – Genchev, founder of DigitalKidZ STEM Clubs and CEO of Newtrend Agency, Bulgaria:
Take the necessary time and attention to the selection process;
Accept that sometimes there may be more than one right approach;
Be prepared to make mistakes and always have a plan B.
Leon Gavalas, CEO of Bespot, Greece:
Accept that no one will do things, exactly the way you would. Start by delegating small tasks;
Invest time early enough in developing your team and teaching skills;
When you delegate for the first time, trust, but verify the status of progress before the delivery deadline.
Emna Everard, CEO of KaziDomi, an e-commerce business for organic products:
Trust your people. If you do not trust your team, then either you have a problem with control or maybe you didn’t hire the right people;
Understand, that if you don’t take a step back you will never succeed. Give your people chance to act – after ensuring that you are all on the same page about the vision for the business;
You need to find your delegation formula because at some point you need to go on holiday and be able to disconnect leaving the team with both the work and the responsibility for the outcome.
TAKEAWAYAS
‘Delegation is a way to value my worth. I should stop ‘hiring’ myself for administrative tasks for which I wouldn’t pay my salary to someone else,’ as summed it up my coaching client introduced earlier. Delegation requires good communication, effective coordination, patience, trust and maturity. It takes effort but it pays off because:
It will help your team grow and thrive. Choose an area where your team needs improvement, delegate interesting and desired projects, challenge your people and show trust.
It will scale up your business. May be no one can do the job as you but you may be pleasantly surprised by people in your team. Start with aiming at what is accomplished, as Bill Gates advised. Once you take the administrative tasks off your list, you will be able to focus on the strategy with propelled efficiency.
It will create time for you. Even if you don’t want to grow your business, and just want to have more spare time or time with your loved ones, you need to consider delegation as a way to respect your time and yourself.
Find your own formula on how to approach delegation by listening to both yourself and to your team. Before you instruct, ask for input. Before you judge, listen and think. As a parent needs to acknowledge that as children grow up they often have a better sense of what is best for them, the same principle applies to your business and your team.
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