The Authentic Leader Blog
Therapist and volleyball coach Dana Upton helps clients make shifts in their lives by deconstructing an ostensibly insurmountable goal into smaller steps, experiencing success with the small steps, and using that success to gain confidence to continue toward the overarching goal. Keep reading to learn how Dana helps clients be more successful.
As an executive coach focused on developing leaders, I have observed a number of parallels between my professional work and coaching kids on the sports field. In particular, the values I introduce to our rec sports teams overlap with those adopted by some of the most successful leaders. While they look a bit different on a wide-eyed 6 year old versus a seasoned and sometimes cynical executive, they do hold up quite well. Below I have depicted how the values come to life within our youth sports teams as well as how I apply them in developing leaders.
Every day of our lives presents each of us with a new opportunity to be bold and try new things, yet often we find ourselves defaulting to our to-do list or hanging by our Outlook calendars. Or worse yet, we jump immediately into the email “black hole” and spend hours crafting and sending responses to messages—ultimately responding to other people’s priorities.
To help break free from the day-to-day grind, I start each day by asking myself a provocative question.
