It’s a forest-through-the-trees kind of thing. You don’t see your thinking because you’re using your thinking to see.
Perception begets interpretation > Interpretation begets emotion > Emotion drives behavior.
Many physicians, physician leaders, healthcare executives and leadership teams don’t take the time to examine these perception-feeling-behavior progressions and their impact on performance. Yet failure to do so creates “the single biggest loss of resources that organizations suffer every day.”[i]
The field of psychology has a word for this dearth of awareness: “Normal.”
It’s normal to be unaware of your own meaning making. It’s normal to use fear-based thinking without realizing it.
Seeing your own thinking is the first step to growing it.
We adaptive development coaches call it going from subject to object. Just as a gemologist examines a diamond to see its facets and defects, we facilitate people holding their thinking in front of them like a gemstone. Where does it come from? What’s good about it? Where are the flaws? How does it limit my ability to lead or to thrive in complex environments?
Then we use exercises to methodically replace fear-based reactivity with passion-based competency.
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Brad Fern is the founder and principal consultant for Fern Executive and Physician Coaching. Go to fernepc.com for more information.
[i] Kegan and Laskow Lahey, an Everyone Culture.