We often hear about the importance of leveraging strengths to achieve success in the business world.
But what does it truly mean to harness the power of our strengths and unlock their full potential?
Join us on an insightful journey as we dive into an engaging episode of our podcast, “Predictable B2B Success,” featuring the exceptional Lyn Christian. Get ready to explore the art of identifying and utilizing your team’s unique strengths and discover the surprising impact it can have on your business’s growth and productivity.
Brace yourself for a transformative experience as we delve into the secrets of leveraging strengths and taking your business to new heights. Get ready to unleash the hidden gems that lie within! Are you ready to tap into the untapped potential of your team? Let’s get started!
Watch the episode
About Lyn Christian
Lyn Christian began her career as an educator before transitioning to work for Franklin Covey in their innovation center as a writer and developer of content. Her journey into coaching started when she sought advice from a business coach about making a switch from academics to business.
Inspired by the coach’s lifestyle, Lyn decided to pursue coach training as a form of personal development. Initially, she never intended to become a coach, but as she gained clients, she discovered her talent for it. She continued to excel in her role at Franklin Covey, eventually becoming the associate director of a project management innovation center. Franklin Covey Coaching then approached Lyn and offered her the position of director of innovation for their coaching division, which she gladly accepted.
What started as a serendipitous accident turned into a fulfilling career for Lyn Christian, where she combines her expertise in coaching with her passion for personal development.
Unleashing Predictable B2B Success: Insights from Lyn Christian
In the latest episode of the Predictable B2B Success podcast, host Vinay Koshy sits down with Lyn Christian, a master-certified coach, and bestselling author, to discuss the keys to unlocking predictable success in the business-to-business (B2B) landscape. Throughout the engaging conversation, Lyn shares her expert insights on leveraging strengths, mitigating weaknesses, building trust, making effective decisions, and fostering personal growth. Let’s dive into the unique takeaways from this enlightening episode.
Leveraging Strengths and Mitigating Weaknesses:
Lyn Christian begins the conversation by highlighting the importance of identifying and leveraging strengths while actively mitigating weaknesses. She introduces the concept of “pseudo strengths,” which are abilities that may initially appear to be strengths but ultimately drain and lower overall productivity. By allocating fewer hours towards these pseudo strengths, businesses can prevent burnout, boost engagement, increase happiness, and enhance work quality. Leaders must be aware of these pitfalls and create an environment that empowers employees to focus on their genuine strengths.
Expanding Perspectives:
A notable point raised by Lyn is that leaders tend to listen to the same five people, which can foster a biased decision-making process. To combat this, leaders must consciously broaden their circle of influence and actively seek input from individuals with varying viewpoints. Lyn suggests utilizing tools like the DISC assessment to understand communication patterns and personal styles. By integrating diverse perspectives into decision-making, leaders can achieve a more balanced scorecard and increase the likelihood of successful outcomes.
Navigating Difficult Decisions:
Making difficult decisions can often result in cognitive dissonance. Lyn explains that cognitive dissonance arises when individuals have to choose between mutually exclusive options, leading to the need for rationalization and potential denigration of alternatives. Workplace decisions can contribute to career success or failure, indicating the significance of decisively honing the ability to make good decisions. Lyn highlights the importance of being aware of biases towards results or quality and actively seeking input from those with differing perspectives to ensure well-rounded decision-making.
The Journey of Growth:
Throughout her career, Lyn Christian transitioned from being an educator to working for Franklin Covey’s innovation center as a writer and content developer. Inspired by a business coach and attracted to their fulfilling lifestyle, she pursued coach training for personal development. Unexpectedly, Lyn discovered a natural talent for coaching and eventually took on clients.
As she progressed within Franklin Covey, Lyn’s role expanded, eventually leading her to become the director of innovation for Franklin Covey Coaching. Lyn emphasizes the importance of creating a safe space for executives in executive and tech companies, where they can be vulnerable. Coaches and mentors provide that supportive environment, allowing executives to express emotions and identify underlying needs. Organizations can benefit from greater employee engagement and effective leadership by fostering transparency and humanizing leadership.
Mastering the Journey of Growth:
Lyn Christian’s book, “Soul Salt: Your Personal Field Guide to Confidence, Purpose, and Fulfillment,” offers readers a year’s worth of life coaching in book form. The book assesses eight “salt of your soul” areas, which aid in deep identity reflection. It encourages readers to record answers and create a map for tracking behavior and decisions against personal growth goals. Discovering the fragments of one’s soul salt empowers individuals to take command and control over their actions. As individuals progress through various life stages, the book’s framework provides a pocket guide for self-guidance.
Continual Learning and Personal Growth:
Lyn emphasizes the importance of continual learning and challenges for leaders to stay ahead in the ever-evolving business landscape. To avoid stagnation and falling behind, leaders must embrace coachability and actively seek out mentors or therapists who can support their growth. She also highlights the significance of creativity, risk-taking, gaining a broader perspective from others, and employing grit to navigate transitions successfully.
Building Trust through Conversational Intelligence:
In the latter part of the episode, Lyn Christian delves into the concept of conversational intelligence, a body of knowledge developed by Judith E. Glaser. She highlights that language and words significantly influence our neurochemistry, affecting brain function and trust-building.
In the context of building trust, Lyn explores a five-step process, beginning with transparency. She shares a story about a mother’s transparent communication during a Zoom call with her daughter, where the mother opens up about her struggles with pre-algebra. Acknowledging her limitations, the mother suggests getting a tutor, fostering a deeper connection with her daughter, and nurturing trust.
Leveraging Strengths and Mitigating Pseudo Strengths
This episode dives deep into pseudo-strengths, biases in decision-making, the power of vulnerability, and the steps to build trust and transparency. Here, we summarize the main themes discussed and offer actionable takeaways for businesses and individuals to implement in their journeys toward predictable B2B success.
1. Understanding Pseudo Strengths:
- Pseudo-strengths are abilities that may appear to be strengths but ultimately drain and deplete individuals.
- Allocate fewer hours towards pseudo strengths to avoid burnout, decreased engagement, and reduced work quality.
- Identify false strengths by evaluating whether they align with your values, passions, and natural talents.
Actionable takeaway: Conduct a personal assessment to identify and prioritize your genuine strengths and focus on developing them further while consciously allocating fewer resources to pseudo strengths.
2. Amplify Diverse Perspectives:
– Leaders often have a bias towards listening to a small group of people, limiting their exposure to different viewpoints.
– Broaden the number of voices you listen to and actively seek out perspectives that challenge your own biases.
– Utilize tools like the DISC assessment to understand your communication style and adapt it to foster effective collaboration.
Actionable takeaway: Create an environment that promotes diversity of thought through team collaboration, active listening, and seeking diverse perspectives, ultimately leading to more well-rounded and informed decision-making.
3. Battling Cognitive Dissonance:
Making difficult decisions will inevitably lead to cognitive dissonance, which manifests as rationalizing and denigrating alternatives to justify our choices.
Be aware of this tendency and strive for self-awareness to recognize when cognitive dissonance clouds your judgment.
Regularly evaluate decisions to ensure they align with the desired outcomes and make adjustments when necessary.
Actionable takeaway: Cultivate a practice of critically examining decisions to ensure they are grounded in objective analysis rather than being influenced solely by personal biases and cognitive dissonance.
4. The Power of Coaching and Mentorship:
- Coaches and mentors provide a safe space for leaders to discuss fears, obstacles, and emotions.
- Externalizing thoughts and concerns can lead to solutions and strategies that might have yet to be discovered.
- Foster transparency, authenticity, and good leadership by creating a safe environment where vulnerability is welcomed.
Actionable takeaway: Seek out a coach, mentor, or therapist to provide guidance and support your personal and professional development. Establish an open communication and vulnerability culture within your organization to foster trust and growth.
5. Unlocking the Salt of Your Soul:
- Lyn Christian’s book, “Soul Salt: Your Personal Field Guide to Confidence, Purpose, and Fulfillment,” focuses on deep reflection and self-assessment in eight critical areas of life.
- The book encourages readers to record their answers and create a personal map to track behaviors and decisions.
- The premise is that we can gain command and control over our actions by understanding our deep identities and reflecting on our best selves.
Actionable takeaway: Engage in regular self-reflection and assessment of the key areas of your life to identify patterns, uncover your authentic self, and make purposeful choices that align with your core values.
Conclusion:
The Predictable B2B Success episode featuring Lyn Christian enlightens the keys to unlocking predictable success in the business-to-business landscape. By leveraging strengths, mitigating weaknesses, broadening perspectives, making effective decisions, and fostering personal growth, leaders can confidently navigate the complex world of B2B. Lyn’s expert insights and inspiring journey offer a wealth of knowledge for individuals seeking to build successful businesses and cultivate positive leadership cultures.
Some areas we explore in this episode include:
- The importance of persistence and consistency in outselling and outperforming competition.
- Victor’s journey from starting as a recycling company to providing reverse logistic services.
- The strategies the company employs to differentiate itself in the market and acquire large clients like Google.
- The recommended book, “Blue Ocean Strategy,” for finding a unique niche in business and setting higher prices.
- Insights and strategies for making effective sales calls and initiating conversations with potential customers.
- The significance of sharing insights and strategies among the sales team for improved success.
- The challenges faced in the business growth and the improvements made in the hiring process.
- The role of technologies like Apollo in finding leads, analyzing email statistics, and making direct calls.
- The benefits of automation and outsourcing in business, with examples from Victor’s experience.
- The importance of learning sales techniques, handling objections, and positioning the business correctly.
- And much, much more.
Listen to the episode
Related links and resources
- Check out Soul Salt
- Get a copy of Soul Salt: Your Personal Field Guide to Confidence, Purpose, and Fulfillment
- Download a free copy of – How to be your authentic self
- Learn from Dejan Gajsek – How to Use Competitive Intelligence to Win Bigger Deals And Scale Growth
- Learn from Robbie Phoenixx – How to Harness Competitive Intelligence For Creative Business Solutions
- Learn more from Srikrishna Swaminathan – How to Drive Pipeline With Less Spend With a Data Backed Strategy
- Learn from Georgiana Laudi – Customer-Led Growth: How to Operationalize Customer Obsession to Drive Success
- Discover more with Itai Amoza – Transforming Buyer Engagement: How to Boost Sales and Supercharge Revenue Growth
- Learn more with Anna Harrison – How to Boost Your Brand Message And Drive Growth With Data-Driven Insights And Customer Empathy
Connect with Lyn
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