Leading: Courage Culture of Creativity

Every Thursday during consultation team we do a “Check-In” and I thought introducing you to the tool could be helpful as a way to orient both yourself and the people around you to the culture of courage you're wanting to build as a way of doing life.

Begin family dinners, staff meetings, daily huddles, off-sites and board meetings with this tool—even check-in during partner meetings, vendor meetings and candidate interviews. When you seek to lead from the heart and not a place of fear or hurt, beginning with an authentic and quick check-in can invite others to do the same.

What it is: It is a simple but extremely powerful way of quickly observing then describing how you’re doing and sharing it with those around you and asking them to share as well.

Too often in life today, we don’t pause and ask these questions of ourselves:

How is my body feeling? What's my energy reading like?

How is my mind? Clear or cluttered?

How is my breathing? Ready to go or ready to puke?

How I am doing . . . really?

The check-in is the way to ask and answer these questions, for yourself and then invite others to as well.

How it works: As the leader, you start. This is vitally important. By leading by example, it is much more impactful and you can set the tone with your own vulnerability.

You begin by indicating whether you're Red, Yellow or Green.

Red means that emotions are running hot. Thoughts are unclear. You are not in a good place. Perhaps hyper-sensitive or you're in lizard brain, or in an emotion-minded state. Emotion mind is a state where what you're thinking/saying/choosing to do is fueled solely by emotion. The emotion could be sadness, anger, anxiety. It could be anything. Claiming Red could also mean that your body is just not well—maybe you're sick or injured.

Yellow means that you are a little bit on edge. Things aren't awesome, but they're passable. Your energy levels may be sagging, you ate donuts instead of a protein shake for breakfast and skipped lunch so all the cylinders aren't firing. There might be some level or emotional tension, you're feeling overwhelmed or having difficulty focusing or creating a clear priority list. Perhaps your thoughts are slightly jumbled and you're easily distracted.

Green means that all systems are "go!"
My body feels good. You worked out this morning AND hit that protein shake with your coffee. You got some good sleep so you feel rested. You can think clearly and lucidly and can meta-process so meetings are going to go smoothly. This is ideal performance state.

After you indicate which color represents your current state, then explain the WHY behind the color. Two sentences. This is the most important part. It forces you to really examine why your body and my mind are in the state they are in.

Often, the reasons are both professional and personal. We tend to think/believe that we can categorize our lives into these two big bins: Personal.  |   Professional. But as we aim toward more evolved states we seek to integrate ourself so we can bring all that we are to the dinner table and the conference room table. That's how we create our best selves. This exercise brings that to the forefront for yourself and those you're seeking to connect with for personal or professional reasons. It's a tool of authentic connection.

You might be anxious about a whole host of things in my life. Or you might be calm because I got to spend time playing a round of golf and then time with my kid(s) the night before.

You might be tired because you've been traveling a lot—too much, maybe. This can cue a reassessment. Maybe you're sad because someone in my family is experiencing pain and loss or is making what you believe are bad decisions. Maybe you're excited because the Broncos are in the Super Bowl.

The reasons are vast, varied and unique to each of us.

After you finish leading the way, everyone else goes around and notes how they are doing. Make certain not to judge each other during this process. There is no right or wrong way to be feeling.

On a similar note—be careful not to score yourself against/amongst your team. When Jo answers "green," that does not mean she's better than Matt who is "red." This practice is fundamentally about empathy and understanding your people better in order to work/live better together.

And it’s not intended to be anything like a group therapy session. It’s intended to be a tool for us to use to note how we’re doing, understand the root cause, put that aside, and get to work!

I’ve found that while awkward at first, folx naturally adapt to it and ultimately embrace it.

It’s not for everyon, but I encourage you to try it out for a couple weeks and see if it works for you!