The Truth About Taking Your Career & Life to the Next Level
Author: Nicky J. Davies |
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Categories: Career Reset
The truth is we all want to live a life with meaning and purpose, using our great gifts and being of use and service to others. Sometimes we can find ourselves a long way from this, experiencing frustration, feeling trapped, knowing that something needs to change but not sure where to start.
In this piece I’m going to introduce you to a helpful model that can provide you with some insights into your own life, and some questions to get you moving and take your life to the next level.This comes from the work of Gay Hendricks and starts with identifying what percentage of your life is lived in the four zones of incompetence, competence, excellence and your zone of genius. Let’s take a look at each one in turn:
Zone of Incompetence
These are all the activities we are not good at and others can do them a lot better than we can.We tend to periodically waste time and energy doing things for which we have no talent when it would be far better to delegate these things to others. Eg. For me I have a zone of incompetence which includes activities to do with constructing websites and integrating software. Recently I’ve spent hours working trial and error style on our new website and really what I needed to do was hand it over to a website developer like I did for my other company. But no, I decided I wanted to save money while starting up – crazy idea really as I’ve wasted so much time and energy. Now I have handed it over to a developer – what a relief!
What would a recent example be for you?
Delegating the things you are not good at makes sense unless there is something you want to enjoy or master. For me that would be sailing. I’m slowly moving from the Zone of Incompetence to the Zone of Competence with that one. But this has a completely different goal in mind. With the website I was looking to save money and ended up wasting time and not enjoying the experience at all. With sailing, I love the challenge of learning how to sail even better and, more importantly, actually enjoy the experience.
Zone of Competence
​You are competent at the activities in the Zone of Competence but others can do them just as well as you. We often spend far too much time and energy in this zone.I often see newly appointed managers spending a lot of time in their Zone of Competence before they finally delegate such tasks to direct reports who are equally competent. The message they tell themselves is “its quicker for me just to do it rather than delegate it and have to follow-up with the person”.
What do you end up doing because you think it would be quicker than delegating it to someone else?
Zone of Excellence
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Here are activities you do extremely well. You make a good living in your Zone of Excellence. But its seductive, its comfortable and it can become a trap. Its where not only are you comfortable but your loved ones are comfortable with you being there too - and want you to stay there. You are reliable there and you provide a steady supply of all the things that family, friends and organisations thrive on.
The problem is that deep down there is a part of you that will wither and die if you just stay inside your Zone of Excellence. Symptoms that this is true for you include those niggling health issues such as headaches, back pain or frequent colds. It may be feeling unfulfilled or that something is missing but not sure what that is; a sense that every day is just the same boring routine…..
So, there is only one place where you will ultimately thrive and feel satisfied and that is your Zone of Genius.
Zone of Genius
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Your Zone of Genius is the group of activities that are uniquely suited to you. They draw on your special gifts and strengths. You are constantly being called to operate from your Zone of Genius – and these callings often get louder as you go through life. The illnesses, injuries, depression, relationship conflicts are all alarms that remind us to spend more time feeding our natural genius and letting it do its magic in the world.We want to gently move more into our Zone of Genius, create bridges to take us from where we are to where our Zone of Genius lies, incorporate more of these activities in our current lives.
I love my work developing managers into leaders for large multi-cultural corporations. It’s what I am good at, and is in my Zone of Excellence and often takes me into my Zone of Genius. But I’ve always loved working at a deeper level with people getting even better and quicker results for them. Working with corporations as my clients comes with certain expectations and constraints so now I am building a bridge to have the freedom to work more and more with private individuals and propel them forward in their careers and their lives. This is my new evolving space where I get to operate more and more in my Zone of Genius.
We are constantly raising the bar on ourselves – the better we get, the better we want to be.
So how do you find your Zone of Genius? Well the answer lies in you. Sit quiet, relax and ask yourself some questions:
- What is it that you always find energy to do?
- What activities light you up inside when you think about doing them?
- When you are at your best, what is the exact thing you are doing?
Be really specific - your answers to these questions will help you identify your Zone of Genius.
What now?
Well now we need to overcome inertia – remember the Zone of Excellence where you are comfortable and your loved ones are comfortable with you being there too. We need to build a bridge, a plan that helps you step more and more into your Zone of Genius.
Imagine spending 70% of your work time operating in your Zone of Genius. What would that look like, sound like, feel like? How different is it from what you currently do? What’s your biggest challenge in spending more of your time in your Zone of Genius?
You can do this on your own, it’s a simple concept. But simple is not necessarily easy!
A coach / mentor, someone who has taken the same journey really speeds up the process and helps. You don’t have to re-invent the wheel. This goes beyond the support of your loved ones.
Deep down we all want to be doing something more meaningful and inspiring with our lives, operating more from our Zone of Genius. It transforms not only our own lives but those we love around us. Its not an easy thing to do – if it were, more people would be doing it! Want some help? Book a FREE Career Breakthrough Session with me using the link below.
Nicky works with managers who are looking to make a career change, helping them make the changes needed to fall back in love with their lives.
I’ll help you get that:
- Clarity – on what you really want. The more specific you are about what you really want, the more likely you are to achieve it.
- Direction – by coming up with a 3-step action plan to move you forward to the future you desire.
- Confidence – uncover obstacles that may have been sabotaging your success.
Leave this FREE Career Breakthrough Session renewed, re-energised and inspired to finally achieve the change you seek.
Click on the link below to book one of only 5 slots available this week: ​CLICK HERE TO BOOK SESSION