I have recently travelled through the US combining a family holiday with a new coaching program I am a part of in Toronto.  The coaching workshop was both intense and rewarding whilst I met new people with similar aspirations, goals, challenges and values to myself.  The three and a half week holiday has been a terrific exposure to people, experiences and locations that I have not had previously.

On the first day of the coaching program our coach really honed in on our mindset.  That is, focusing on our mindset and the manner in which we approach circumstances and events and further, the responses we choose.  A lot of discussions in this program centred on how we work hard, grow, gain success and then hit a ceiling.  The ceiling in a lot of ways prevents us from continuing to grow as the habits, skills and practices that have previously assisted us to this point won’t necessarily get us through the next phase of growth.  Rather, we need to break down what we are doing, simplify things and then shift our mindset for the next growth phase in order to reach our aspirations and intended success.  This concept intrigued me particularly when you take in to account that some people break through many growth ceilings over the course of their life, while others may hit the wall after only one or two.   This all depends on how you view growth and whether or not you are wanting to continually reinvent yourself in order to grow, learn and improve.  This explains why some people appear happy once they have gained success and choose to remain at the same level, or why others struggle to sustain/continue to their success as they do not realise the same skills that have helped them previously, won’t necessarily take them to their next destination.

This discussion in the workshop explains a lot for me around where I am on my journey.  BRS, myself and others in our team have had a lot of success over the last seven years.  However, I think there has been recognition from all of us that the practices that have assisted us to date will not be the same things that allow us to continually grow our business in line with our aspirations to exponentially grow in our key services, geographies and regions.  This reinvention of yourself through growth, simplification and the learning of new tools is challenging.  It requires you to re-examine everything you do, think or undertake all with the purpose of whether or not it is useful for the next phase of your growth. This practice is essential to continuing to adapt, evolve and grow.

This lesson is very relevant for consultants.  Consultants as a profession need to continue to learn, grow and evolve as we sell our experiences, expertise, skills and insights to clients.  We need to be able to offer our clients new practices, techniques and skills that allow breakthroughs to occur for themselves, their people and even their own customers.  This is where the biggest value can be provided to our clients as we offer them something that will drive improvement and change worth many more times than the investment they make in us.

This sounds like a no brainer for all of us.  However, the challenge lies in freeing up time to reflect on this, commit to courses/workshops and time to allow these growth opportunities to occur. Being so busy does not cut it as an excuse any more.  We must take the time to reflect on where we are at around our growth journey and what we must do personally to break through our current ceilings.  Without it, our value diminishes in the market and the level of satisfaction we gain from what we do is less than what it should be.