I’m working remotely this month from Muskoka and am not as
plugged in as usual. Yes smart phone connected internet but no TV. I just heard of the passing
of Stephen Covey this morning. What a great loss. My work as a coach, but also
as a leader, has been so impacted by his writings over the past 15 years.
Flash back to 2001 when I was still working as a leader and
manager within the UN. I had the opportunity to participate in a 5 day 7 Habits
workshop with the rest of my colleagues in Barbados. Thank you Errol for
your masterful facilitation that week. I still have your business card. What a
gift the 7 Habits was! Yes, my world of work with the UN in those days was so
much in quadrant 1 (crisis mode) as it
is to date for so many organizations. Over the next few years we moved the
needle to move it to quadrant 2.
It was during that seminar that I really took a stand for
wanting to bring training and facilitation work more front and center in my
work. As a Program Manager every day looked differentt – project and program
management, evaluation, governmental negotiations, staff visits etc. Little did
I know that 2 years later in 2003, I would wake up with an eye infection that went
out of control, leaving me with permanent scaring of one of my eyes. This was
the event that tipped the scales for me, putting an end to my full-time
international career, but opening the door for me to think about what I wanted
to do next as a professional. And back I circled to my own vision of the work I
had done in the 7 Habits workshop of running my own training company and working
with others to be more masterful facilitators. This in fact became such a
foundation for my personal work I did as a coach trainee with CTI that fall of 2003. So much of what I had taken a stand for during the 7 Habits
workshop (including being able to work from the cottage during the summer here in Muskoka one day) became the seeds of Potentials Realized, my business today.
As I look back now in 2012, it is amazing to see how the act
of setting my vision, has really helped me create a new path. As an author,
educator and pioneer in the field of group coaching, I still continue to ask
myself “What quadrant am I operating from today”? How am I creating time for
personal leadership and true re-creation?
I know that Covey has left his mark on my work and the work that
I do with leaders. How has his legacy impacted yours?
Have a wonderful week,
Jennifer Britton
Author of Effective Group Coaching (Wiley, 2010)
Phone: (416)996-8326 (TEAM)
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