Intent & Impact

When I went to push the send button on my last entry, I hesitated and felt the flash of anxiety ... Is this it? Is this what I should be writing about? What difference will it make? A good reminder of what it feels like to learn something new. It’s vulnerable. I am going to make mistakes. My job is to learn from them.

Another part of learning is asking for help. Thank goodness we could go to Clay and Blaine. They pointed us in the right direction so we could get started. (Thus yesterday’s entry.)

You see we were thinking about educational content, about coaching. Of course, that is what we do, what we are used to.

Social media is a different animal. I generally don’t engage relationships with someone I cannot see. I have come to depend on the cues of eye contact, body movement, breath, and sound. I get immediate feedback that tells me we are connecting, that our conversation is meaningful or irrelevant, offensive or inspiring.

To be effective with social media, I have to take the risk to reveal myself and my thoughts just as they are in this moment. Wow, that feels vulnerable!

I recognize, it is fundamentally important for me to know that my intent aligns with my impact. I also recognize I concern myself with your judgment ... what else should I expect from my ego. And I recognize to truly know one’s impact is a rare privilege.

My job is simply to stay present with what is and have confidence that the impact of my actions will ultimately reflect my intentions.

Kristina

Blogging a New Way of Thinking

For the sake of learning to engage in relationship using this virtual tool, I have sat down many times to write and been stopped. What should I write? Why? Who cares? 

I am writing this blog because I want to learn and because I said I would. And by so doing created a structure of accountability to enter into unknown territory with you. My hope is that by taking the first step, we will learn together and that it will be valuable. 

I, like my colleague Emile, have done a lot of writing, especially when it comes to training and education. I would think that would make it easier ... Nope ... 

The purpose of social media is creating and building relationship through engaging in dialog, it's not designed for transfering knowledge.

Then I thought to myself, I’m a coach. The foundation of coaching is using conversation to work through otherwise elusive problems. Coaches ask questions. The questions are the gates ways through a maze of walls. Some lead to dead ends and others to the next question, the next opening, the next idea, the next action. Together coach and client use conversation to work through the maze, one-step-at-a-time, revealing a pathway to gold.

However, a question alone in social media is not enough. Why? Because the relationship has to be built first. There has to be an agreement to engage and a reason to answer.

Kristina

Standing Room Only

With standing room only, last Wednesday’s “Energize Your Business” kick-off was a great success. We’re aware there are a variety of options competing for your time. We’re honored you chose to spend it with us.  Thank you for coming and adding your contribution through sharing your experience and asking your questions.

And as you know, “Energize Your Business” was the result of multiple businesses collaboration together to create the whole experience. We especially want to thank:

• Brislawn Lofton for consistently adding value through their collaborative mind-set
• John Calhoun at Union Bank who provided personal service beyond expectation 
• Social Media for Executives for changing the way all of us think about how to create more trusted and loyal relationships with our customers and employees - faster, deeper and at a lower cost than we could ever imagine using the power of Social Media.
• Lindsay Andreotti of Brilliance Enterprise and Terryll Bailey of the Allison Group for immediate, enthusiastic and responsive service with a smile.
  

This is just an example of the power of leveraging business-to-business relationships to provide value for your clients.

Kristina

Our first blog post - Exciting!!

This is our first blog post - to be updated.

Kristina and Emile

About Kristina and Emile

How Emile and Kristina came to know Shirlaws and join the organization.

Kristina (Katayama) Bass
kkbass@shirlawscoaching.com

Emile Haddie
ehaddie@shirlawscoaching.com