Why I took my personal development into my own hands - & how you can too!

As so-called high performers in either start-ups or in larger organisations, we often define our success as being promoted into positions of leadership

The hard work and dedication has paid off. We are so proud, so inspired, so motivated. We know we will now finally be able to implement our own creative ideas, we know we can now set our own challenging targets and get the stuff done, we know needs to get done. We know how to drive the growth, we know our teams and our business deserve. We know, we know, we know. Yes!  We finally get to prove it!  

Our hearts and brains overflow with the potential we see around us, in our teams, our brand and in our own ability to make great things happen

Finally we get to do the things which other leaders before us, failed to get done

When the first few promotions come, we excitedly check the increase in our bank account. We 'accept' the invitations to the ‘important meetings,’ previously out of our pay grade. We lean forward in our chairs, relishing the intellectual challenge of new projects and responsibilities. We thrive with the opportunity to lead our team and prove our collective value

Then the reality of our leadership roles kick in

The change is constant. Relentless. Unapologetic. Measurement is tougher, transparent, totally visible to all management levels - including the Chairman and the CEO who direct message us if the targets are not smashed 'in line with the capability which got you your role'

We thought we were good at conflict management, but this is another level. We thought we were good at developing talent, but seriously, why is everyone so hard to motivate? We thought we excelled at collaborative team building, but how is this possible when the board sets so many conflicting objectives?  What we thought was the dream job of a lifetime is turning into a Game of Thrones 

So in our next one to one, after the revenue update, the resource review and the restructure plan, we ask our boss for help...

30 minutes of 'leadership chat' later, we are none the wiser. We suddenly realise we too have been dolloping out this 'leadership chat' to our own teams, hoping to be helpful, frankly often without a clue 

Wow, this just got real

We find ourselves spending the few gaps between Zoom calls and dashboard analysis dreaming of running surf shacks, mountain cafes and writing books from the back of converted camper vans. We absent-mindedly calculate the size of our redundancy payment and work out exactly how many ‘months of freedom’ it will bring. As we sip our artisan coffee, we drift onto instagram and are reminded how we really need to live in the moment, give our kids more attention at this vital time in their childhood and be present for our partners, or else... we turn our disillusioned gaze back to our dashboard analysis...

We weren’t expecting all this to come with the "High Performer Success Package" 

We know the solution for most senior people in organisations is often executive coaching. The evidence indicates this is a powerful way to create business and personal success for leaders. Yet often only the CEO gets a coach. What's more, a Stanford University/Miles Group survey says there's a big gap between the number of executives who want coaching and the number who actually get it. Of just the CEOs asked, 66% of them did not get executive coaching, yet 100% said they would benefit from it

Surely this is crazy? If executive coaching is such a good solution, why are even the highest paid, most influential leaders in organisations not able to benefit from it? And where on earth does that leave the leaders who are not at CEO level, in organisations and environments where training budgets are being cut? 

I bet you agree that now, more than ever, leaders at all levels need as much help and support as they can get to make smarter, more effective leadership decisions? So they can lead brilliant, diverse teams to create the innovation. the transformation and the positive, sustainable growth so desperately needed in our world today

When I found myself in this position. I was first optimistic, then outraged, then determined

To lead a high performing team in today's environment, I wanted insights, frameworks, tools to help me. If I wasn't going to get it from my business, I was going to take my development into my own hands. Seriously. I paid for my own executive coach

At first this seemed an odd decision. Why should I pay for something my company should be paying for?  True - of my peers - I do not know a single leader who pays for their own executive coach. They may pay privately for 'life coaches' or 'therapists', but they don't pay for executive coaches out of their own pocket

To me, this seems crazy. My rationale was simple, why spend money on a fantastic car, or an amazing beach holiday when you might die young from a stress related heart attack? I literally know a super-talented, super-fit guy who drives a Porsche 911, has over the last 3 years taken 2 week holidays in Ibiza, Bora Bora and Costa Rica and 6 months ago had stress related heart surgery. Yet he would never in a million years pay for his own executive coach. He didn't need therapy, he didn't need the 'woo woo' of a life coach - he simply needed some independent insights and tools to help him deal with complex and stressful work and life challenges. This is the stuff of excellent executive coaches

The thing is. And here really is the thing. Seriously - how to find one? The really good ones, and I know this from personal experience, are very hard to find. This is because the executive coaching industry is full of great people who major in psychology but have very little experience in actual jobs in real organisations. The rare ones who combine deep knowledge of all areas of psychology with an understanding of the latest findings from the world of neuroscience and real-life leadership experience are super effective, super expensive and typically a CEO's best kept secret. Because they are so few and far between and in such high demand, the best executive coaches charge between $3500 and $10,000 an hour and are fully booked for months ahead

So where does that leave our optimistic, yet frazzled leaders who are not on the big bucks? 

I'll tell you where it leaves them. Swirling around in a world of half read McKinsey reports, business and self-help books. Falling asleep exhausted in front of Ted talks at 1am in the morning, desperately searching for ideas on how to inspire their willing, yet fried, remote working teams at 8am the next morning

To stop this disillusioned swirling, this overload of stress, this burnout I could see happening amongst my super-talented friends and peers, I decided to sit down with a truly excellent executive coach and develop an affordable solution. A solution to help people swap their one too many bottles of 'we deserve it' expensive wine and one too many pairs of  'I deserve it' designer shoes for something that might actually help them...

Take their development into their own hands, transforming their work and home lives for the better

Because we saw that so many people can benefit from taking their personal and professional development into their own hands, we set up a company called Progressfull™

We founded Progressfull™ because, having worked with over 14,000 senior execs at a global level, we can see that, for many reasons, many of us live lives today which are not really the lives we are meant to lead

This means we may appear successful on the outside, yet feel wonky on the inside...

The truth is that the first step to leading our best lives is often understanding that we are all a work in progress

In reality, all the answers to the questions of how to progress and live a better life, already exist out there in some way, from the wisdom of the Ancient Greeks to the latest findings from the world of Neuroscience. But even if we are aware of these ideas and concepts, very few of us have the framework or tools to actually demystify and apply them in our everyday lives - from home, to work, to our whole life

So we decided to create it

Using Jo’s experience of 25 years of effectively sharing these tools and concepts with global audiences, combined with Lucy’s 25 years of experience in the world of marketing and communication, we have packaged these into sparky deep insights, simple practical frameworks and handy transforming tools - for everybody to use in the real world

We understand you want to continually learn and progress in life, that you don't want psychobabble or unrealistic 'positive thinking', so we focus on outcomes and results

Now you can - quite literally - take your personal development into your own hands

An experience with us takes you from feeling overwhelmed and unfulfilled to inspired, energised and on track

Our passion is to help you unlock your personal progress and professional potential – helping life work for you not against you – from home, to work, to your whole life

If you would like to discover more about how you can live your life on your own terms, full of progress, guided by your own compass, your true north you can explore the 5 Progressfull™ Principles here

If you would like to accelerate your performance, futureproof your work-life, and fulfil your professional potential - today and tomorrow - you can explore the 3 Progressfull™ Performance here

If you have a real desire to progress, yet feel stuck about how to excel and move forward and would like to jump-start your performance and accelerate your development through the support and challenge of high impact, high focus Progressfull™ Coaching - you can explore Progressfull™ Coaching here

Being progressfull is not easy, but it is worth it. We all have just one life, so we might as well make sure we live our own life, not someone else’s and most importantly live it well. Our teams deserve it, our families deserve it and most importantly, we deserve it - it's time we took our development into our own hands!

As Maya Angelou said,

“My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humour and some style”