Infinite Potential

What if you told your boss, or your board, that you intend to spend more time doing nothing? In her fascinating book How to Do Nothing, Jenny Odell argues that we have lost control over our attention. Every day, our attention is sucked into meetings, reacting to events around us, and fragmented by a thousand emails and social media posts. Doing nothing is her provocative way of pointing in the other direction: toward focus. She writes "To do nothing is to hold yourself still so that you can perceive what is actually there." Seen this way, being distracted means the absence of leadership — just bouncing along from one task to the next — while pausing, which might look like doing nothing, is how you take back leadership of your own life. This challenge — to regain control over the spotlight of our attention — is a central aspect of how we coach leaders. Whatever the spotlight turns on will grow and evolve. What may look like doing nothing is actually a transformative shift in how we lead. Curious to know more? Follow our journey, as a community dedicated to coaching and culture change. 

How do you know you need coaching? Short answer: if you find yourself thinking “I don’t have time for coaching.” Not having time is perhaps the clearest signal that we’re out of our creative flow. Paradoxically, being busy has become something of a status marker. But the most thoughtful leaders see it as a problem. Being constantly busy means being reactive. Missing deeper patterns, sprinting past opportunities. The best leaders we know, many of whom we have the privilege to coach, work to regain time to do deeper thinking. They still have extremely busy periods, but they don’t allow this to become the norm. They know that both their happiness and their business results depend on having time and space to think clearly. Are you seeking more time? Do you have growth opportunities, like coaching, that you pass up because you’re too busy? Curious to know more? Follow our journey, as a community dedicated to coaching and culture change. 

𝙈𝙤𝙨𝙩 𝙡𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙚𝙧𝙨 𝙪𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙧-𝙞𝙣𝙫𝙚𝙨𝙩 𝙞𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙢𝙨𝙚𝙡𝙫𝙚𝙨 — 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙢? Whether from obligation, a busy schedule, or a desire to please others, most leaders defer their own personal development. High effort without inner work can make you efficient — accelerating the path you're on now — but rarely does it give you more creativity. 𝗢𝘂𝗿 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗶𝘀𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗴𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝗰𝗼𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴, 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝘁𝗮𝗽 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝗶𝗻𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝘄𝗶𝘀𝗱𝗼𝗺 𝗼𝗻 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗼 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘄. For some it may be exploring an artistic passion, others meditation, others sports, and much more. The path is unique to each of us. The commonality is investing in your aliveness, to bring more to life in the world around you. What if your own development was actually what was most needed for your success at work? 𝘾𝙪𝙧𝙞𝙤𝙪𝙨 𝙩𝙤 𝙠𝙣𝙤𝙬 𝙢𝙤𝙧𝙚? Follow us to learn more about our community dedicated to coaching and culture change.

Many of us carry an unexamined notion that work is supposed to be grueling. Is that true or helpful? When we see work like this, we tense ourselves and prepare for battle. There are times when this is necessary. But most of the time, this mindset results in less resilience and less creativity. What can we do instead? If we wish to grow, look to the masters of growth: children. They work hardest when they are playing. They lose themselves in flow. They have little tolerance for unimportant matters. As coaches to leaders, we sometimes find ourselves in an unusual position: we give permission to someone to let the spirit of play and creativity guide their work. It doesn’t just create more enjoyment — it leads to more original and successful work as a business. Curious to know more? Follow our journey, as a community dedicated to coaching and culture change. 

Many leadership roles lead straight to burnout. Could we instead design for longevity in leadership? In the book Reinventing Organizations, author Frederic Laloux points to pyramid-shaped org charts as part of the problem. When so many reporting lines lead to a small number of people, they spend their days endlessly in meetings, without time to process or think. In the book Essentialism, author Greg McKeown supplies another clue, writing that "to discern what is truly essential we need space to think, time to look and listen, permission to play, wisdom to sleep, and the discipline to apply highly selective criteria to the choices we make." These ideas are signals, pointing us toward shifting org charts to distribute leadership, in turn changing work days so that leaders have uninterrupted periods of time. As a leader, what could you do if you had a few extra hours per workday outside of meetings? Curious to know more? Follow our journey, as a community dedicated to coaching and culture change. 

JOY AT WORK - Part 2 The most vibrant workplace cultures we know invite laughter, moments of silliness, and an openness to play. The authors of Tribal Leadership characterize the pinnacle of team behavior with "a sense of innocent wonder" and the strong belief that "life is great." Only about 2% of teams get there, they say. And those are the teams that change the world. In his book 11 Rings, legendary basketball coach Phil Jackson, a believer in the tribal leadership framework, says that “in the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities; in the expert’s mind there are few.” In our work at Infinite Potential, we have seen the markers of joy that enable creativity, connection, and resilience among teams. Is play essential to run a company? It's not. Is laughter among team members required to hit sales targets? Nope. But the teams that become truly great — the 2% that change the world — will make space for wonder, creativity, silliness and joy inside their cultures. Knowing that change starts with the mindsets you model, how might you bring more silliness and play to your workplace?

We keep hearing that the joy is gone from work (if it was ever even there in the first place). Our conversations suggest that moments of laughter, opportunities to play, unforced smiles — are vanishingly few in our current workplaces. How can we get the joy back? Does being joyful at work even matter? We spend our time at Infinite Potential figuring out how people and organizations can achieve exceptional results, sustainably. Daniel Pink, author of Drive, has an answer for that: Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose. Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose drive intrinsic motivation — and intrinsic motivation is what you need for a high-performing culture. Our radical hypothesis: Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose are also the foundations that unlock joy at work. The same conditions that create intrinsic motivation also encourage us to play and explore, give us permission to enjoy our work, and create the circumstances to achieve flow. Have our workplaces lost their Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose? How can we get them back? 

The Power of Moments: Why Certain Experiences Have Extraordinary Impact" by Chip Heath and Dan Heath explores how certain defining moments—joy, insight, connection, or pride—have a profound impact on us. The authors argue that these moments aren't random; they can be intentionally created. The book highlights four key elements of powerful moments: Elevation: Moments that lift us above the ordinary. Insight: Moments of realization that change our understanding. Pride: Moments that showcase us at our best. Connection: Moments that strengthen our relationships. The Heath brothers offer strategies to design such moments by breaking the script, recognizing milestones, and fostering shared experiences. For example, The Ritz-Carlton creates extraordinary moments by doing something unexpected, like personalizing guest experiences based on small details. The book provides practical advice on how to intentionally create these memorable moments in both personal and professional What moment will you create? https://lnkd.in/g_tQfUF3

Oprah expresses beautifully the importance of getting to one’s own true clarity in the journey of success. In essence, not living the life others want you to live, but you living the life you truly desire to live. Clarity = Currency. Oprah Winfrey