As you well know, this past November, our latest Easy Breezy Coaching Business Bootcamp ended.

We’re proud to present you Ali Godding, one of our Top 10 students in this past session—the “cum laude” of the bunch who launched her businesses with our support and who is now thriving!

Facebook, LinkedIn

What Strengths Do You Need To Thrive in Today’s World?

Have you felt it too? The feeling that the world is accelerating at an incredible pace… That the sands are shifting beneath our feet? When we look into history we can see that this is a cycle that has always been revolving. Revolutions in human development technologically, socially, politically, spiritually have been cycling on and on for millennia. But what can we do about it?

At the recent Engage For Success conference aptly titled ‘Engage or Bust’ I heard this phenomena described very eloquently by Nita Clarke the co-founder of this movement, dedicated to the idea that there is a better way to work. She said:

“We are living in a world full of Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity”

I couldn’t agree more! It is somewhat of a mouthful and so people have taken to reducing these meaningful words to an acronym. VUCA.

If you hear the phrase “We are living in a ‘VUCA’ world” you now know what the hell they are talking about! Personally I feel that phrase reduces this important-to-pin-down concept, it to mumbo jumbo ‘management speak’. However, the sentiment and what it is describing couldn’t be more relevant, and I doubt the term is going away anytime soon so I guess just need to get over it!

So… we are at a point in time where multiple revolutions are taking place all at once, some large, some small. Yet added together these shifts are dramatically changing how we operate as a society. These circumstances have manifested the volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity (VUCA World) we now find ourselves experiencing every day. I don’t think that is ‘news’ to anyone. We all feel the impacts of this ‘chaos’ don’t we?!

As wonderful as it is that we can now put our finger on, and finally articulate what is going on around us. It still leaves us the question of what to do about it. The Engage for Success movement goes on to answer this from the perspective of an organisation and for our economy, But what can I, as an individual, as a professional ambitious woman, do to improve the stress inducing environment we find ourselves in day to day. Which seems all the more urgent because this ‘VUCA world’ seems to breed the worst of the fear based behaviours; manipulation, game playing, politics and the like.

It probably won’t surprise you that my approach is to focus on what we can influence – ourselves. Developing ourselves personally, so that we can not only survive but thrive in this environment. That is the reason I wish to share with you this film by Tiffany Shlain. I believe it to be so powerful because it looks at the qualities we can focus on and develop, that will help us navigate this crazy world we all live in.

Watch it now, or if you don’t mind jumping to the punch line, I have summarised the qualities below. These are the areas that we can all work on to help us survive and thrive in today’s world. I still recommend you watch the film after you finish reading this post. 🙂

The Top 5 Strengths You Need To Thrive In Today’s World:

1) Curiosity – Taking an interest in ongoing experience for its own sake; finding subjects and topics fascinating; exploring and discovering.**
2) Creativity – Thinking of novel and productive ways to conceptualize and do things; includes artistic achievement but is not limited to it.**
3) Initiative – the ability to assess and initiate things independently. The power or opportunity to act or take charge before others do.*
4) Multi-disciplinary thinking – A multidisciplinary approach involves drawing appropriately from multiple disciplines to redefine problems outside normal boundaries and reach solutions based on a new understanding of complex situations*
5) Empathy – the ability to understand and share the feelings of another*
* definition from wikipedia ** definition from VIA institute on character

Do you agree that these strengths are what is needed to navigate our way through or do you think others are just as, or even more important? How do we as a society measure up on these strengths? Are they around in abundance or are they scarce? Do these qualities come naturally to you? Do you want to develop them and hone the skills that go alongside these strengths? I would love to hear your comments on those questions or any other thoughts you may have…

================

Ali Godding is Business Owner and Coach at MindSpa, the coaching practice dedicated to helping successful women achieve even more. If you want to get ahead and stay ahead whilst living a healthy balanced life then get in touch today.

LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/aligodding
email: ali@mindspalife.com