008: Jim Harshaw, Conversation 1.5

I will recommend this episode a lot. You’ll hear an accomplished man struggle with a goal he expected to be easy.

You’ll also hear him triumph, bringing his wife and children to the triumph—creating it with them.

I’m releasing it on a holiday because it’s as heartwarming a story of a father bringing his family and community together as any—despite, or because of, adversity and the skills he’s learned to handle it. Skills you can learn, starting by listening to his story.

You think challenges are easier for him or anyone else? They aren’t. He’s just learned to handle them. You can too.

This episode is a real-time update from someone implementing a change in his life, facing resistance, figuring out how to handle it, and succeeding through failure where most people give up.

I scheduled this conversation because Jim wrote me that he was struggling to meet the personal challenge he came up with. Between that email and scheduling the conversation, he figured out a solution better for him than the original challenge.

Many people decide to change their lives then face unexpected challenges. Most give up or let their standards slide.

Overcoming challenges

With the plan fresh in his mind, Jim shares

• How he understood the situation
• What he did to solve it
• How he involved others
• He he built community
• His mindset

If you’ve struggled making commitments, Jim’s story will help you.

Leading without authority

Beyond personal change, the episode also reveals the leadership techniques I’m finding work in leading people when you don’t have authority over them. For full depth, read and do the exercises in my book, Leadership Step by Step. You can hear me practice them in my first conversation and their results here:

• In conversation 1, I didn’t tell him what to do, I asked him what he cared about, then invited him to act on those values
• As a result
  • In conversation 1.5, he saw doing this challenge as for himself, acting on his values
• In conversation 1, I set up future conversations, creating accountability
• As a result
  • In conversation 1.5, he described motivation to meet those expectations

See if you can find other techniques in how I framed and led starting the challenge and the resulting behavior.

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