Thinking ‘in options’ means that you like to explore many different possibilities. The counterpart to options thinking is thinking ‘in procedures’: sticking to a step-by-step plan. Most people in coaching, consulting, et cetera, are fans of options thinking. Options are creative. Options thinking makes new things possible. Procedures are for bookkeepers and menial workers….
Thinking in options however, can have its downside too.Continue reading
Ana Waleska Soto Abril, is a unique Guatemalan athlete. She is the only Guatemalan to have participated in two sports in the XXII Central American Games and Caribbean Games in Veracruz, Mexico 2014 (Softball and Gun shooting in pit mode). Among sther athletic achievements are the following:
Medals (2010-2020)
• Silver Medalist in XXII Central American and Caribbean Games Veracruz 2014 (Hunting Weapons Shooting)
• Bronze medalist XXI Central American and Caribbean Games Mayagüez 2010 (Softball)
• Gold Medalist in Central American Games 2006, Panama (Softball)
Other achievements
• Participation in XX Central American and Caribbean Games Cartagena 2006 (Softball)
• 8th place at XXVII Toronto 2015 Pan American Games
• Currently classified for the Tokyo Olympics (2020, postponed due to pandemic).
Competition, Ideals (Integration), and Power
As a competitive athlete, it’s no surprise that her predominant Graves drive is orange (competition and winning). She is an athlete who participates in two very different sports that require different mindsets, softball is a team sport, while shooting is a solitary activity, even though she belongs to a team. It is therefore understandable that her next dominant Graves are those of together and power.
Her orange Graves is predominant as she seeks to be the best. However, as a member of a team it is also important to find harmony and solidarity with your teammates to win. When she participates in a team she is motivated by the support of others and knows that to win the team members need to work together. Her reputation as a high-performance athlete motivates her to excel, not just in one event but two. It is important to her that others recognize her achievements and know of her reputation as a double athlete (red Graves), and winning medals represents her excellence and need to be recognized.
Metaprograms
Among her highest metaprograms are present, internal locus of control, development, and matching. Additionally, they are closely aligned with her criteria of concentration, emotional control, motivation and their meta-criterion of good performance.
These prominent metaprograms are congruent with the type of competition Waleska is participating in. The context of this evaluation is “while I compete [in shooting].” In this sport, various targets (plates) are thrown into the air, at random and from different angles. The competitor must have a high concentration to know when to shoot the target to reach her goal. This is where the present metaprogram is seen; She needs to be focused on the targets that are being thrown at the moment. During the event, she has to use her knowledge and experience to shoot at the right time. She needs to evaluate the elements “cold blood” and then decide when to shoot. It depends on her if she hits or doesn’t hit. This is where her CCI is evident. To perform better, she has to train consistently and make adjustments to her technique slowly. In our conversation, she mentioned that sudden changes throw her off balance. She can become irritated and may lose emotional control. (She may get upset at the sudden change). Her need for emotional control and gradual, planned changes is evident.
Waleska is clear on her goals, and knows how to reach them due to her long experience as a competitive athlete. She has a clear and reachable goal, to win she has to hit as many plates (targets) as possible. And to stay motivated, the Matching and Towards metaprograms play an important role in her performance.
One of the things that came out in our conversation was her high together and proximity metaprograms, since this is a sport in which individuals compete alone. Waleska explained, when we talked, that she places great value on working with her coach, listening to his suggestions, and creating new habits to improve her technique. She knows that to perfect her technique she needs to be consistent, and here she activates her development metaprogram a bit. She says that if she can be consistent, it will give her body a certain automatic discipline that will improve her performance. We talked about her specific metaprogram that when she focuses too much on the details, it can prevent her from seeing the big picture, and may cause her to lose emotional control. Despite this, we can see that Waleska is a fairly self-aware athlete, and this has led to her exceptional performance.
Have a look at Waleska’s MindSonar profile and share with us what you see.
Evaluation by Sergio Saenz with the collaboration of Debbie Yarhi and Jaime Leal.
Esther María de Los Ángeles Micheo Santizo is a Guatemalan athlete, outstanding in her sports career as well as a successful entrepreneur. María, The Unstoppable <<la imparable>> Micheo, is a unique athlete, who practices different sports, and gives herself to them with passion. She has specifically excelled in Karate, where she holds a Black Belt III Dan (48/51 kg.) obtaining the following triumphs:
• National Karate Champion (2001, 2012)
• Karate Do Gold Medals 2001 to 2012
• Gold medals in invitational tournaments (Guatemala, Salvador and Nicaragua) 2001-2012
• Gold Medal Murayama Cup, Mexico 2008
• Bronze medal – Team tournaments- USA Open, Las Vegas 2008
• Bronze Medal Central American and Caribbean Championship Karate Do (2007-2009)
In addition, she has participated in 5K and 10K races and half marathon (Antigua, Guatemala 21 km), where she obtained the first places.
She then decided to train in MMA (Mixed Martial Arts), where she participated in 6 fights, winning them all. After, she began dabbling in boxing, which is her new passion. She is now a professional boxer, has participated in 8 fights, and is the current Champion for the WBC International Absolute Title.
Micheo, Sergio Saenz and Jaime Leal during the MindSonar results
María, in addition to being a successful athlete, is also an entrepreneur. She is the owner and founder of the Micheo Boxing Academy, located in one of the most prestigious shopping centers in Guatemala.
With the arrival of Covid-19, Maria’s business was impacted negatively, and her competition scheduled for July was postponed. This has not stopped the titleholder, who is now teaching virtual classes to her students, and is continuing with her training for her next fight. To earn additional income, she has launched a startup of heathy cupcakes.
Metaprofile
Not surprisingly, this high-performance, enterprising athlete’s predominant Graves Drives, are order and power.
In professional boxing it is very important to maintain and present yourself to a fight with the exact weight. A few grams too many or too few means a penalty for the boxer. The blue Graves Drive keep her disciplined, in shape, and exerts great control in her lifestyle. Additionally, as an entrepreneur with several businesses, she needs to be disciplined with her time, finances, and consistency. We can also see that her criteria are closely aligned with her predominant Graves. Her preparation and maintaining her exact weight boost her self-confidence.
She is well aware of her reputation and the importance of her name when she wins a fight or is starting up a business with her name. That is well aligned with her high Power Graves Drive. It keeps her earning titles and continuing with her training regimen so that when she fights, her name can get a wide audience.
Her highest metaprograms are Towards, Matching, Internal Locus of Control, and Proactive.
Being a high achiever, it is natural that her highest metaprogram is Towards. She sets goals and focuses on how to reach them, and with high Matching, she sees no obstacles to winning. After establishing her goals, she develops an action plan (Blue Graves), and jumps into action (proactive metaprogram). It is not surprising that her internal Locus of Control is another predominant metaprogram, since she depends on her sense of discipline and her preparation to obtain the best results. However, this Metaprogram changes radically when she is in the ring, according to our conversation: “I only execute what my coach tells me to do, I pay attention to everything, but my coach is the one in control”. While Maria is in the ring, she is attentive to her coach’s vision and opinion, keeping her focus on her goal but shifting to an external reference and external locus of control. Micheo comments in the interview that one of her mistakes in the past was not trusting her coach, and that not having a coach that she could fully trust, was something that affected her negatively in the past. Today she has managed to overcome her distrust which helps her win more often. It is an interesting mix of Metaprograms for sure!
In addition, her strong options and specific metaprograms allow her to identify the different alternatives during the event, to make quick decisions and achieve her goals.
We deeply thank the Guatemalan champion for allowing us to learn more about the way a champion thinks. There is no doubt that the combinations of Metaprograms and the emotional intelligence to know how to handle them to her advantage, are part of the sustained success of María Micheo, a talent still in the making.
For our Mindsonar Professionals:
1. It is important not only to recognize thought patterns, but to understand how our clients use them to manage the criteria. In this sense, the delivery of results and the conversation around them are key.
In her evaluation, her high ILC result changed completely in the conversation, where she made it clear that she has a high ELC when fighting, as she follows the instructions of her coach, she is there just to execute the plan, her Coach has a huge role in control.
2. Rare/infrequent combinations of thinking patterns can also have positive results.
3. As MindSonar professionals, our thinking patterns also play a role in the analysis of the MindSonar report.
Professionals who conducted the study
Sergio Saenz and Dr. Jaime Leal With the contribution of Debbie Yarhi
“Change your thinking: it’s in your head” – you hear that and you automatically nod, “I know, I have to change the way I think.”
But how? Nobody knows. But how can we change the way we think when our experience, everything we have learned and lived through, what makes up our history, transforms into our personal logic of how we conduct ourselves?
COVID
The pandemic: first strict social isolation, then business slowdown and often collapse. Finally constant choices: where to go or not, shake hands or not, endless discussions as to whether there is a virus or not – it all escalates stress and often divides people. And it certainly doesn’t help companies. People need to look for new ways to communicate, to show and receive attention. What do people have in their heads to behave like this? Do they think at all? – managers get frustrated looking at the results and moods of their teams.
In spring 2020, a client called me:
“Agnieszka, is there any hope?” He looked at me with big eyes filled with what he was asking. “We are scared by the thinking of our employees. They say that they cannot sell in this situation. In addition, customers clearly take advantage, extending the terms of the complaint to the limits of common sense. Our people are not coping. Everyone is irritated. As a result, the relationships built over the years – just like a snap – fail. And the team says: it’s impossible.”
Here’s what happened two hours later and for several weeks.
“So, Agnieszka, will you train people or fire them, close the business or forget?”
| Oh, how this question flatters me. Me the clairvoyant, me the genius, me a miracle worker! |
Two-way work: the group and the trainer
Bosses: don’t be fooled by this way of thinking! The trainer is not a fairy-tale character who can generate a miracle, to the delight of the audience that will only sit and listen during the training. Today’s coaching styles primarily work on a group process and so-called following the customer. This is two-way work: the group and the trainer. You have to dig deep – to the personality, mindset, and value systems of individuals and then the team.
Educational training – why not? But not yet, not in this situation, the pandemic, it is too early. Here is the most common mistake customers make: let’s take a trainer to fix us – they think. A magic wand effect is expected. Training knowledge, or education, is essential if people are ready to use it. But when it is “not theirs” – i.e. when their head does not buy it, and the style of thinking does not agree with the value given by the trainer, the training will end in a traditional way: well, maybe it’s cool, but with us it will not work.
I prefer working on deep emotions and “digging” – as I say – “to the bone”. Plus a solid portion of fun in order to bring out exactly what is deeply rooted in making results for the company and for yourself. Fun, wisely conducted and facilitated, served at the right moment, will take the process further than a series of all-day training sessions.
How to do it?
First, thorough questioning of the team to clarify the context for which I will measure mindset and for which we are starting the process at all. A conversation about the company, but also about values, “what for” and their own “why?” – in an atmosphere of safety and openness, showing future participants empathy so that they really care about the trainer and the client. Impossible? It is possible when a trainer working in this way meets with a conscious client.
Then diagnose the values and mindset of each individual and the entire team together. I conduct individual, sometimes team sessions, and the MindSonar® mindset test, which is being applied almost all over the world by licensed consultants in many languages. The consultant’s experience matters. The results make participants eyes big like two euro coins. And the real fun has not yet begun!
At this point managers get the first, albeit very solid, information about new team management opportunities. New situation and a new style of work. How to motivate, how to enforce, how to control, how to distribute tasks, how to regroup teams so that people would be eagerly returned to work and their efforts would be effective. The test is knowing about their subordinates, but also about themselves. Working in turn with management and managers at subsequent levels brings a change in perceptions of people through the prism of their individual personal thinking styles. It shows the aspects in which they can effortlessly strengthen management and, what is important, it demonstrates how exactly to do it.
Now it’s time to play. Now the Lego Serious Play methodology together with MindSonar deepens the reflection process even more and supports effective dialogue in the organization. It is invaluable in times of crisis – it accurately indicates what you can do and how easily you can do it in your circumstances. There is a real breakthrough: each participant clashes with a certain truth. Because it’s not them, but their buildings which speak. Then – as a team – they formulate conclusions and create rules ready for implementation (here, in my own hybrid method, elements of the Design Thinking method and classic creativity training appear).
But it doesn’t stop there!
MindSonar individual and team profiles are in motion. The room is filled with all the colours of MindSonar blocks and teaching aids. Emotions reach their zenith. It’s usually fun. The test results don’t show what people think, but how they think. This is a very exciting moment. People begin to analyze their values, which, along with a dozen or so other identified factors (shown in MindSonar’s bars, tables, and personality profile diagrams), become what underlies their behaviour. They begin to understand why they say that it is impossible to sell now, what the reason is for the fact that someone has lost their assertiveness in the complaint procedure, another gets tangled in negotiations, yet another lets go of the relationship with a so-called difficult client. And who is a difficult client for this individual? What kind of client? Yes, this will also be shown: alternately individual and joint team work.
And finally: the most important thing.
“Agnieszka, how are we to change this way of thinking to make it serve us?”
Changing team mindset starts with management. It is impossible to teach people to work in a new style if they are not managed in a new style. In any case, it all starts with opening your mind to knowledge about yourself and others, and for a change that starts with working with old and new habits. This is possible thanks to a change in thinking style which turns out to be possible thanks to the understanding by each person that is usually enough to slightly “move” the individual elements that make up this way of thinking and which are so easy to control. MindSonar points to them and describes them very precisely.
Superpowers and resilience to crisis are within us, although they do not always look as we would like them to. And yet, anyone can be a superhero – you just need to assign them the right task, and motivate them properly when it comes to teamwork. To make it possible – you should get to know individual and team ways of thinking as a basis for behaviour at work.
What next?
There is a regrouping in teams, a new assignment of tasks, reorganization. And, of course, working with habits. Then the results – and of course, happiness. Management, team and… trainer.
Over the years, I’ve found that a common client problem that is brought to coaching is that of a newly-promoted manager struggling with a promotion from team member to team leader. The related changes to the relationship with members of their team, coupled with developing a leadership mentality often leaves them feeling stressed and insecure about whether or not they are performing their new role effectively.
Since training in MindSonar, it has become apparent to me that one of the underlying causes of the stress lies in the client’s manager not recognising my client’s need for feedback on their performance during the early stages of their new role. The more senior managers are generally experienced leaders who are expected to take initiative and make decisions. Consequently, they tend to be predominantly Internally Referenced. This can result in them not recognising (or remembering) that new managers may be more Externally Referenced in the context of their new roles, requiring some feedback on how they are progressing. This difference can lead to new managers being left to their own devices and feeling unsupported, as their managers believe that they’ll either cope or request support as and when needed.
Less often, new managers feel they are not trusted because they feel that their manager is micro-managing them and giving feedback far too often. Such cases are less frequent, but can also arise from a disparity between the Internally/Externally Referenced Meta Programmes.
In larger organisations, formal structures may exist in which regular feedback meetings are undertaken, but these still operate on the assumption that all staff are running the same thinking patterns, which of course is not the case. The result is that some feel that such meetings are too infrequent (those who are highly Externally Referenced) and some feel that it is micro-management (those who are more Internally Referenced). Many smaller businesses have no feedback procedures at all.
If middle and senior managers were to invest in MindSonar profiles for their direct reports, they could tailor their approach to individuals, giving more frequent feedback to those who prefer it (the Externally referenced individuals), and feedback on a “as needed” basis to those who do not (the Internally referenced individuals). This would reduce the stress and insecurity felt by all members of the team, whether new to post or not. As a result, team members will feel more motivated and so develop within their roles more productively.
Of course, there are other Meta Programmes which are at play in such circumstances, especially around the changing context of moving from team member to team leader. The MindSonar profiles will also enable more experienced managers to support their junior managers to handle those changes too.
If you are a middle or senior manager who would like to get the most from your junior managers, then contact your local MindSonar Professional to learn more about how MindSonar could enable you to get the best out of your team, and keep each team member motivated and less stressed.
If you’re a coach who works with managers at any level, then you’ll find becoming a MindSonar Professional a really worthwhile addition to your coaching toolkit, so do consider adding it as soon as you can.
Recently, after a discussion with some fellow business owners, I have been thinking about how businesses develop their branding and messaging – specifically the effectiveness of branding workshops.
It seems that many branding and business development exercises run for small businesses include workshops at which groups of business owners share information about their businesses, the services or products they offer and the future development they hope for. The group members then analyse and critique each other’s current materials and offer constructive comments for improvement.
On the surface, this seems to be a positive exercise, and participants often leave with new ideas and an action plan to put those ideas into practice. However, on looking more into the outcomes that people come away with, I now have some concerns about the final effectiveness. My reason for this is that, in my experience (as I’ve mentioned in previous blogs) business owners have a tendency for certain thinking styles over others. For example, I see a high level of Towards motivation in the self-employed, along with high scores for Internal Locus of Control.
It doesn’t surprise me therefore, that many of the suggestions that come out of these workshops is about making the branding and messages more focussed on the outcome that services provide (Towards), rather than on the problem they solve. Similarly, the wording suggestions are often amended in such a way as to emphasise the control the client will have (Internal Locus of Control). Of course, if your clients mainly comprise other business owners and similar people, that’s great. However, what if your clients are often people who have a high External Locus of Control, or have a predominantly Away From thinking pattern in the context of your product? Your communications could miss them completely.
It has been my personal experience that many types of business workshops, including (but not only) those on marketing, often involve working with like-minded individuals. I now wonder if they carry the risk of resulting in ineffective strategies for those businesses for which the client group are quite a different group of people than those attending the workshops.
Perhaps this is another area in which we can utilise MindSonar profiles – encouraging business owners to use focus groups of actual clients to understand more about what they want in order to decide to develop their messaging, products and services. Or maybe MindSonar could be used within the current groups to highlight similarities and then lead to consideration of whether, from what they tell you, your client group are similar or very different?
It’s certainly something to be aware of whenever we are creating and further developing our own businesses. I’d love to hear your experiences of this or similar situations, so please leave comments in the box below.
