Climb the Ladder... Change Your Results!
Posted on June 07, 2012 by Christopher Kostoff, One of Thousands of Life Coaches on Noomii.
Use a simple yet powerful ontological tool to create the results you want and truly achieve any goal.
Climb the Ladder… Change Your Results!
When people hear that I am an “ontological coach,” their first response is often “What is that word…ontological?” or “How is that different than other types of coaching?” Today I will show you one way you can use an “ontological” tool to make a big difference in the results you are able to create. I call it “Climbing the Ladder of Consciousness.” Basically what this means is that we have different levels of consciousness that all work together to determine the actions we take. When clients are “stuck,” or are producing sub-par results, we work our way up the levels, make a simple, natural shift, and align each decending level until new results are created. Here is one example that shows how this ontological tool works:
Jon, a fictitious character, is a manager of a medium sized business who is struggling with one of his employees, Julie. Julie has typically been a strong team player and a consistent worker. However, for the past week she has been noticably unproductive, and yesterday she left work early without notifying the proper chain of command. Jon was more stressed out than expected about Julie’s change of behavior, so we took a closer look and “climbed the ladder.”
At the lowest level (the material), Julie had displayed poor performance and left work early. At the next level up (emotional), Jon was very stressed about her decrease in performance. At the next level up (mental) we made a discovery. Apparently other workers had displayed similar behaviors in the past, and eventually had either quit or been terminated. What Jon was making Julie’s behavior mean was “Here we go again,” “What am I goint to do now?” and " If I don’t do something quick, I’m going to lose my best employee." At the next level up (beliefs), Jon was operating under the belief that “You can never truly count on employees,” and “Once one starts down the road to laziness, it’s over.” Finally, at the highest level (source), Jon was using past circumstances, fear, and judgment to create his apathetic beliefs, which led to the disempowering thoughts, which caused the emotional stress, which led to the next logical action: Jump all over Julie and use pressure or fear of punitive action in an attempt to make sure she doesn’t continue the current behavior or worse. Though this course of action is the fair, appropriate thing to do, the likely result is a strain in their professional relationship, dissatisfaction from Julie, more work for Jon, and eventually the same poor results.
But what if we shift Jon’s source? Jon’s number one ideal at work is communication. He is always saying “There is a reason we have two ears and only one mouth. We need to listen to our customers and listen to each other.” So we shifted his source to “Listening and Communication.” Because Jon believed so strongly in this ideal, his belief shifted to “If I truly listen to my employees and communicate, any issue can be resolved.” That led to the thought of “If I find out what is going on with Julie, I bet I can get her back on track. She is a great employee. There must be something else going on.” That led to an emotional state of encouragement, compassion, and achievement, which led to the next logical action: Talk to Julie. Listen for the issue and give her support. Then bridge the gap between her needs and his expectations. Jon’s natural, easy action led to an improved professional relationship with Julie, more open lines of communication, and a renewed focus on consistent productivity. Julie quickly got back to her old ways and Jon had more confidence than ever in his ability to turn around employee behavior.
This was just one fictitious example of the ontological tool “Climbing the Ladder of Consciousness.” But think about your own struggles. Consider how you might create the results you want by applying this tool and shifting your source. You will surely get a simple, yet powerful look at the incredible difference “ontological” coaching can make on results both in the world of business and in everyday life.
