What we can learn by stepping into a challenge (podcast)

Today on the podcast, Brian and Linda Schubring, president and vice president of Leadership Vision, reflect on lessons they learned from one of our multi-engagement clients in 2019. This client stands out and has made a profound impact on both Brian and Linda. As you’ll hear, our relationship with this client is complex; not because it is difficult, but because it has grown over time as both sides have learned to trust one another more. In this episode today, we’ll share background about why we initially went in to help this client, the exact tools we used, and how the relationship has grown into something more. At the end of the show, Brian and Linda share a few takeaways that you can implement in your context right away.

This episode format is part of what we hope will become a new segment on the podcast where we intentionally reflect after engagements to share our consulting process and lessons we’re learning and applying to other clients and our own lives. Similar to our episode with the Placer County Library system, this episode highlights some of the ways we’re helping organizations build Strengths-Based culture.

The Big Takeaways

Brian told me this client presented them with some challenging learning. In fact, it was one of the most challenging environments they’ve been in for quite some time. Brian said,

“…this was a learning curve that was quite steep that caught us by surprise, but my goodness, did we apply it immediately after!”

Brian Schubring

I asked Brian and Linda to share something they learned through working with this client that each of us can apply to our personal or professional lives. Below is a summary.

We can bring our best selves to any situation

No matter the context, remember that you’re attempting to connect with a person, not just a situation or challenge. This happens in ALL environments; at the grocery store responding to a homeless person who is outside; how you listen to your children or your partner, etc. It’s an attitude. Ask yourself, “how can I be present and bring my best self regardless of the outcome to every interaction?” Brian says it’s important to remember that we are always responding to a person who has a unique story that needs to be heard and dignified.

Everybody has their own fears

We’re all afraid of certain things in life. Whether that be in a personal or professional setting, it’s important to address those fears. Addressing, naming and admitting that we have fears in specific areas can help us relate to and work with people in a variety of contexts. And then remember those people also have fears.

Courage is hard and necessary

Linda told me working with this client reinforced the idea that we all need to be brave at times, and step into the unknown from a place of courage. After her one-to-one conversation with an individual, she prepared a snapshot of how she saw him and wasn’t sure how it would go over. Linda said,

I had to just push up against my fear that I was getting it wrong and step out in courage – sometimes it’s, you have to wrestle through seeing someone [and] helping them feel known and accepted. And I gave him the gift of being seen and known so that he can be more seen and known in his community, in his family, and in his work and with his clients.

Linda Schubring

Often these interactions give us, the Leadership Vision Team, the gift of having the courage to continue doing what many of us feel we’ve been placed on this earth to do.