February 8, 2017
How to Master Your Inner Game
“Your inner game is your relationship with yourself — what is happening inside of you, and how you perceive the outer world as a result,” says Culture Counts Coach Sarah Carr.
“Everyone’s outer game is impacted by their inner game. So if you believe that life is hard, then life is hard. That’s why we work on the inner game in relation to how it impacts the outer game, because the results you’re experiencing will change your inner game as well.”
What does developing your “inner game” look like? Sarah shares some tips on how business leaders can develop their inner game to affect change at their own organization — and in their personal lives as well.
Developing your Inner Game — Face and Shift
The first step to improving your inner game is through “facing,” or developing the ability to see what can be changed, opened, or expanded.
“For most of us, there are things we want to face and things we don’t want to face,” Sarah says. “To look in the mirror and say, ‘What I am doing isn’t working,’ or ‘Wow, these numbers are are not what we forecasted’ — that’s not an easy thing to do.
“Facing is one of those things that gets you out of your comfort zone and business as usual, and gives you the opportunity to build something new and unexpected.”
The ability to face means establishing self-awareness — How do you influence others? How do they influence you? — as well as understanding how that awareness impacts your day-to-day life.
What is the one thing that keeps people from achieving or creating what they really want? Fear.
For this reason, shifting quickly from fear to creativity and power is a very useful skill to practice. Once you are able to face, you can begin to shift away from the problems that frighten or overwhelm you and begin to work on winning your inner game.
How to ‘Win’ Your Inner Game
“When we talk about the inner game, there are these different capacities that people have. The more you can bring them forward, the more you can influence people and results,” Sarah says.
For example, one of the capacities in winning your inner game is appreciation. What’s your capacity to appreciate yourself and to appreciate other people? The more you can do that, the more you can actually create collaboration, which gets great results.
Authenticity is another important capacity — What is your ability to express what’s really going on? Are you able to genuinely express your feelings and emotions? — as well as taking full responsibility for your actions.
Demonstrating your emotional intelligence, creating clear agreements, and working from your Sweet Spot are also essential to win at your inner game. Through one-on-one coaching, as well as working with entire business teams, Culture Counts helps you explore and discover how you can create meaningful results while growing your people right on the field.
“We try and take the inner capacities and turn it into something doable, instead of trying to do a big philosophical shift all at once,” Sarah says. “We make it into something you can actually do today.”
“With coaching the inner game, it’s about creating the soil inside — the willingness and the wanting to see how your capacities to grow can change you as a leader.”
If you could change one thing about your inner game — what would it be? At Culture Counts, we partner with you to discover your strengths and create your unique path to success. Contact us here if you would like to know more.
