Episode 3 – Performance: The Subjective Reality of Human Action

“We actually act and interact with the subject of reality. So, the real access point to reality is what we’re going to call ‘assessments.’ It’s not the facts and data.” -Kari Granger

Welcome to Leadership Impact, the podcast for modern executives who are reinventing leadership within their organizations. Hosted by executive leadership coach and CEO of The Granger Network, Kari Granger, and Sound Financial Group CEO, Paul Adams, this podcast aims to address the topics of performance and leadership through real-life examples.

In this episode, we talk about the perception of reality. We tend to think human actions are influenced by objective facts, data and circumstances. However, what is actually influencing our actions and reactions is our subjective assessments about reality. The real access to impacting reality is through assessments, as we see through Paul’s real-life example that he provides this week. Paul recalls a story of a salesperson who let his assessment of himself impact the effectiveness of his work. As Kari and Paul dissect the nuances of this example, Kari notes that one of the biggest blind spots we have as humans is that we’re unaware that we’re inventing reality in each and every moment through our assessments. Kari stresses the importance of mastering our assessments, not mitigating them. She urges the audience to ask a set of questions to determine whether to act on their assessments. By listening for and shaping assessments, we can start to understand and alter how we and others respond to reality.

What We Covered:

00:33 – Introducing today’s topic: The Subjective Reality of Human Action

01:39 – Paul recalls a successful business that suffered because of one employee’s assessment of himself

04:13 – The weight and impact of our assessments on reality
06:17 – Kari recalls the coaching she gave to a COO regarding improving the performance of a regional manager

07:19 – Kari breaks down the nuances of facts versus assessments in an example statement

10:29 – Kari acknowledges Dr. Fernando Flores and his impact on business coaching

12:28 – The goal of today’s episode

13:06 – Paul and Kari’s leadership challenge to the audience

13:42 – Kari caveats that assessments are not bad; they are neutral

15:00 – What it means to ground an assessment

18:03 – The importance of understanding the role of authority as it relates to assessments

19:40 – Understanding what productive action to take based on the assessment

20:40 – Kari’s parting words of advice

Tweetables:

•  “We actually act and interact with the subject of reality. So, the real access point to reality is what we’re going to call ‘assessments.’ It’s not the facts and data.” 

•  “One of the things that we often don’t see is the weight of our assessments and the impact that our assessments have on our thinking, on our imaginations, on our decisions, and on our actions.” 

• “Assessments are not hard like a table, they’re not rigid. They’re malleable. They can be altered through conversation. They can also be altered through mood.” 

• “It is our assessments that make up what we relate to as reality.” 

• “The purpose of an assessment is to take productive action.” 

Links Mentioned:

Kari’s Website – www.grangernetwork.com

Paul’s Website – http://www.sfgwa.com/team/paul-adams  

Acknowledgements:
Our work is mosaic art. We read, study, and practice many philosophies, methodologies, and modalities of human performance, to ensure that our approach best serves our clients. We would like to acknowledge all of the thought leaders and organizations, whose ground-breaking work has influenced the Granger Network approach – especially Fernando Flores, Jim Selman, Michael C. Jensen, Julio Olalla, Pluralistic Networks, The Newfield Network, and the Strozzi Institute.

Podcast production and marketing provided by FullCast.

More Leadership Impact episodes: http://grangernetwork.hexcode.ca/category/podcast