One Word Suggestion: Batteries

This suggestion actually came in a few weeks ago, but I saved it up for today because we have some news. This podcast has, up until this episode, been brought to you by LMA Professional Development – Australia’s best improv-based corporate training.

But, LMA recently rebranded to PowerProv, and so, you know. Batteries. Power… you get the idea. So if you’re a long time listener, or just checking out your first episode, head on over to powerprov.com to see all the fun team building activities on offer, including new online workshops for business teams.

And with that, let’s get back to “batteries.”

In this modern age, it’s easier than ever to learn how to do just about anything and everything. Just Google a how-to guide, find a tutorial on YouTube, or sign up for Skillshare. And there are a hundred more ways to learn and develop a new capability.

But just because you can doesn’t always mean you should. Learning to do everything on your own takes time, energy, and definitely drains your batteries.

These days we tend to wear fatigue, stress, and busy-ness as a badge. But all it really means is we’re not using our personal power wisely, and perhaps have become powerless to focus on what we really want to do or change that deserves our attention and energy.

Instead, I suggest you find the thing or things you’re great at, and focus on those. Dan Sullivan from Strategic Coach calls this your “Unique Ability.”

Focus energy on your positive strengths, not your negative weaknesses. To do this effectively it helps to have other people around you with different strengths and unique abilities.

Even people who appear outwardly to be successful solo mavericks have teams of people collaborating and contributing their power to a shared common goal.

Bill Gates didn’t make the worlds most famous operating system alone. Elon Musk isn’t on the factory floor wielding a wrench. And Zuckerberg could not have built the shittiest social media platform without thousands of helpers choosing to give their energy to his disappointing vision.

The point is real power is collective power. When you work together as an ensemble you really are stronger.

So remember, how you spend your power or energy is important. Who you spend it with is important. And what you spend it on is important. Don’t deplete your batteries by focussing on the wrong things.

To quote Dan Sullivan again, ask yourself who, not how. Who can help you get things done, instead of how you can get it done, or how you can learn something new to get it done yourself.

No matter how big your goal, learning to work with your team, to communicate and collaborate effectively, will make you more powerful. Like an entire field full of Tesla batteries.

And nothing recharges your communication and collaboration skills like PowerProv’s fun team building activities.