MY LEADERSHIP - 5
SESSION FIVE — THE DIRECTION
This is a link to the ‘Principles’ tutorial video - ‘My Leadership - Session 5 - Principles’
Alongside the Principes video, I have included the ‘Activation Narrative’ that is part of this session in the self-guided workbooks. The stories I tell aren’t comfortable, nor are they trauma porn. They are designed to elicit a specific response from the reader, tied to the topic our clients are working on in this session.
The Fifth Golden Rule:
“Being aware of impact is the point; how you react to stress is just a catalyst.”
― Robert (Sherpa) Millar
The first thing Jermaine Andre said to me the first time we met was, “You are the most dangerous guy in the room!” I was taken aback, then a bit offended, and finally intrigued. I replied, “Hardly, I am a pacifist.” Later that day, he texted me a quote about pacifism requiring the person to have first mastered violence. From there, we became friends. A little later, Jermaine signed up to certify as one of our coaches. I don’t think either of us ever believed Jermaine would spend any time sitting at a desk talking to clients as a Bespoke Compass coach. However, we both thought it would be a fun way to hang out and learn something, so Jermaine successfully became one of our coaches. As we suspected, he has never actually worked as one of our coaches since receiving his certification.
Let me provide some context for Jermaine’s unusual choice of introduction when we first met. Jermaine is a two-time world champion, a five-time American champion, and a Hall of Fame inductee as a distinguished MMA fighter. He has generously trained my son in MMA, and is someone I respect, like, and am honored to call a friend. All of that is memorable, but it wouldn’t be enough to warrant its inclusion as the Activation Narrative for session five. It was included because of what he said to me when he went through session five for the first time as a client. “Sherpa, you are talking about Bam-Bam!” My response? “What are you talking about? Who or what is a Bam-Bam?” Jermaine laughed and expanded on the origin of Bam-Bam. You see, when Jermaine was busy collecting all of those titles I listed earlier, he had to climb into the ring and fight other men who were hoping to smash him to a pulp and take those titles for themselves. Jermaine’s manager would not allow him into the ring until he was satisfied that Jermaine had given control over to Bam-Bam, the internal ‘voice’ mindset Jermaine activated before each fight. Bam-Bam could handle the intense stress of world champion fights better than any other part of Jermaine’s psyche, and so the manager needed to be sure Jermaine was mentally ready before he got into the ring. While you and I aren’t climbing into the ring to defend our world champion status as MMA fighters, we have developed an inner voice/mindset to handle the stress that inevitably comes with leadership. Ever since Jermain completed session five of this program, that inner voice/mindset has been referred to as the Bam-Bam voice. In this session, we will aim to activate your Bam-Bam and explore how it impacts others while you are in this state by naming your stress profile.
In the next post, we'll explore the introduction to the paradox of Extrinsic/Intrinsic conflict in My Culture.
— Robert (Sherpa) Millar