Weeding out old behaviours

An afternoons weeding in the garden this week reminded me of the reasons why we do this activity. Essentially its to make way for the things we want to grow, and prevent the existing established plants or vegetables from getting choked by the weeds.

Applying this metaphor to coaching, how could you weed out old thoughts and behaviours in favour of producing something new and creative? If you dig out those weeds and put them somewhere more constructive, like the brown compost bin, how does that feel? You haven’t applied anything toxic to the mix, just moved the weeds along.

Now consider how you can apply this metaphor to a problem you are experiencing.

We hear the phrase toxic behaviours all too frequently. Have you ever tried to have a conversation at work or at home, that has been stopped before its been allowed to start, you were rudely interrupted, not listened to or even been ignored when attempting to speak? How do you interact with someone showing those behaviours to get the results you want? What if, like the weeds, you don’t really like them very much?

I certainly have heard and been part of, many conversations over the years in healthcare, where a dialogue with a colleague has not gone well leaving me ruminating over the negative experience for several nights after.

The skill is to develop active listening skills and an enhanced level of communication. So how can you make yourself heard? What did, or didn’t you hear or observe? Do you have any unconscious bias’s that you are not aware of that may be affecting your reactions? How will you know when you have been successful? What are those heightened methods of communication that you could use?

Get in touch for some free techniques to moving along all those unwanted weeds and learning some new strategies!