MYPRISM
We are the Kantologos, six coaches from five countries on four continents, all Fellows of the Institute of Coaching at McLean Hospital, a Harvard Medical School affiliate: Maribel Aleman, Douglas Choo, John Lazar, Beth Masterman, Fernando Morais, Rolf Pfeiffer.
We have written MYPRISM in service of the relationship between leaders and their calm, clear-minded, most effective selves. We invite you – whatever your role and responsibilities may be – to override your autopilot and choose mindful leadership. In MYPRISM we detail how to develop mindsets and skills you can depend upon to restore composure, and suss out the best next steps for all stakeholders, including yourself.
MYRISM is backed by scientific research into human behavior, psychology, coaching, and neurology, and draws on our collective experience of decades of working with thousands of leaders across industries, sectors, functions, cultures, on all six continents.
The seven facets of MYPRISM summarized below:
We start with the concept of autopilot, because all of us develop an autopilot. It is a cluster of deeply ingrained habits, based upon one’s life experience and beliefs, that are triggered and take over our behaviors and choices, usually before we notice what it is happening. Think about your morning routine, or even a sport you play. MYPRISM shows you how to find space between the agitating stimulus and your response. In that space, you will find time to pause, restore equilibrium, and plan. How ready are you to recalibrate your autopilot to reach more mindful, purposeful, sustainable responses?
Prisms allow one to see around obstacles, and bend light to reveal otherwise hidden bands of color. That led us to think about blind spots and turning chaos into clarity. We came up with an acronym: MYPRISM.
Each of the letters represents a principle to integrate into your practice to open the way for a more nuanced and adaptive response to any stressful situation.
- M for mindfulness. Getting grounded in the present moment promotes objectivity and mitigates one’s perception of urgency.
- Y stands for “why.” We are born with natural curiosity, the drive to understand. Asking why is a survival skill that stays active for an entire lifetime. MYPRISM asks leaders to pause and consider: Why is the situation important to focus on now? What am I inclined to do, and why would I choose those behaviors? What is the purpose behind what we would do? Why is that purpose relevant and need our attention? Why ME?- what is it about this situation that I am especially qualified to address? Metaphysically, why ME? Why have I been put here now to be part of this challenge?
- P for perspectives. What value can we derive by looking at things in a variety of ways? What else do we see that could also be true or confounding? What more do we understand about the situation by looking at it from several alternative points of view?
- R for reality. The importance of ‘keeping it real’ cannot be overstated. How can you distinguish between assumptions and facts? What value do we derive from checking our assumptions and beliefs about what is happening in the present? What are the immutable or agreed upon facts, here and now? What process do we have in place for monitoring changes occurring on the ground in real time that would impact our strategies or objectives?
- I for inquiry. Once curiosity is activated (‘why’), the inquiry chapter describes how to leverage that natural motivator to investigate multiple, viable options, and integrate new information into what is known. The leader determines when it is time to stop taking-in information and make a decision. Once having decided, the leader turns to crafting ways to communicate the decision, to establish a direction, and create an inspirational vision that gets people excited about working together toward a common goal.
- S for staging. How do you stage announcements, activities, and other time, place, manner processes so that what and who you need for a successful kick-off and execution are present? And finally,
- M is for move. To have the conviction, clarity, and the courage to execute decisions and always, very importantly, get continuous feedback so that MYPRISM becomes a way of being, a leadership practice that enhances preparedness and agility.
That is, in a nutshell, what the book is all about. We wrote it with the intention to be in service of leaders who want to develop to be more effective, efficient, and impactful. Coaches might incorporate this in their practice, too, to be more in service of their clients.