How can you become more impactful - and create better results - without exhausting yourself with the sheer willpower and effort?
How can you become the leader you know you can be, when your existing habits and approaches are so engrained?
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What I’ve discovered is that our environment shapes us to an extraordinary extent. We shape our environment, and then our environment shapes us. It’s the greenhouse principle - if you provide plants with the right amount of sunlight, nutrients and water then healthy growth is practically inevitable.
So it’s incredibly important to build an environment around us that naturally results in growth and more impactful ways of operating.
There are three components to this “Inevitable Environment” that, when combined, I’ve found to be an explosive, transformative combination.
Component 1: Insight
Stanley Pollitt, the founder of advertising agency BMP, finally made enough money to purchase his dream farm in the British countryside. However, he soon realised he didn’t know the ways of the country: his sheep were getting fatter and fatter. He was clearly overfeeding them.
So he cut the amount of feed down, but still the sheep got fatter. So he cut the feed again, but they got even fatter. So he cut the feed again, and one day the sheep all died.
They’d starved to death. They hadn’t been getting fatter - they’d been growing wool! This would be completely obvious to anyone from the country, of course, but Stanley didn’t have that experience and so his interpretation of events was way off.
The possibilities we see are limited by our experience. So the first component of your Inevitable Environment needs to be insight. Who is stretching your thinking, getting you to step back out of the day-to-day, and helping you see what you can’t currently see?
Component 2: Accountability
Insight isn’t enough. You can have conversations, read books and consume content all day long and not make progress on your real goals and ambitions. Anyone who’s tried to give up smoking, or lose some weight, or build some muscle can attest to this. You need a way to turn your insights into new behaviours, even when your motivation dips.
An environment that strengthens your own resolve and accountability makes a huge difference. It’s why Weight Watchers is so effective. It’s why runners often find buddies to train with. It’s why hiring a personal trainer is more effective than privately resolving to head to the gym.
If you’re looking for inevitable success, make whatever decision you need to create accountability and measurement into your life. This is the second component of an Inevitable Environment.
Component 3: Community
The people we hang out with and the conversations that surround us dramatically affect our future. Any parent instinctively knows this, which is why so many sacrifice so much to put their children through private schools and Ivy League universities. As the saying goes,
“When you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room.”
I’ve found this to be true in my own life. I’ve committed 75,000€ of my own money to high-end masterminds and communities in the last couple of years, because of the way these groups train you to think at a new and higher level, upgrade your expectations of yourself, and become bolder in your action. And I see this in my clients. Our Rivendell CEO Mastermind is thrilling to watch as high-level CEOs spark off each other.
Community is the third component of an Inevitable Environment. So… which community is pushing you into inevitable success? Who are the peers that call you up, support you and challenge you?
Let's create your own Inevitable Environment
If you want an environment that provides you with the insight, accountability and community that will propel you forward to the next level, then our upcoming Impact Accelerator programme might be perfect for you.
Impact Accelerator is a group coaching programme for ambitious execs who want to become more strategic, catapult their influence at senior levels, and get the best from their team - without adding to the overload!
It's perfect for an ambitious leader who's stepping up to a new level of responsibility (or who wants to), and needs to be more strategic and more influential.
What makes it different from most corporate training is that it takes a personalised coaching approach to really focus on your individual needs, it offers new ways of thinking and tools to increase your impact, and it immerses you in a small group to encourage you to go further and faster than you would by yourself.
We're starting the 2022 cohort in a couple of months - you can read full details about the programme here. We had rave reviews when we ran it in 2021 and we've improved it further since then.
“I was completely overloaded with operational tasks - but I’ve been able to free myself up and take on higher-level responsibilities.”
“My approach to leading my team has completely changed. They’re less passive and are taking more ownership as a result.”
“It was a huge eye-opener and somewhat life-changing. My expectation of myself changed significantly (for the better). It has been hugely beneficial for me.”
“I successfully delegated a lot of my work to provide myself the time desired to do higher level strategic work. And I just got a promotion!”
If you, or someone in your team, might be a fit for this, then do get in touch. Right now there's early-bird pricing so it's a good time to kick off a conversation.
