What Sort of Soil Are You Standing In?

I recently returned from a summer break with a clearer mind and a renewed appreciation for something we often explore with coaching clients: before we focus on performance, we need to pay attention to the conditions that make performance possible.

In a recent coaching session, one client put it perfectly:

“You need to sort the soil that helps you grow from the soil that doesn’t.”

That simple observation captures much of what we believe.

Some of you reading this newsletter have worked with us. Others haven’t. Either way, we hope these fortnightly notes provide a gentle prompt to pause, reflect and make one small change that improves the conditions in which you work and live.

Too often, organisations focus on the crop: targets, results, performance and productivity. But anyone who has walked through a field of struggling plants knows that healthy crops rarely grow from poor soil.

The same is true of people.

When energy is depleted, attention is fragmented and recovery is neglected, we often find ourselves making poorer decisions. The symptoms are obvious, but the causes usually lie beneath the surface.

That’s why we begin with the soil.

This summer, wherever you are, take five quiet minutes to ask yourself:

* What is nourishing my energy at the moment?

* What is steadily depleting it?

* What is one small change I could make this week to improve the conditions around me?

Then take the reflection one step further.

Whether you’re leading a team, planning the next quarter or simply thinking about your own life, resist the temptation to create a long list.

Instead, ask yourself:

What are the three most important decisions I need to make this summer?

Not thirty.

Just three.

Clarity creates momentum. And when the conditions are right, those decisions have a much greater chance of bearing fruit over the months ahead.

Healthy organisations, healthy teams and healthy lives are rarely built through dramatic change. More often, they grow from small, consistent improvements to the conditions in which people think, decide and act.

So, as summer continues, don’t just look at the crop.

Spend some time tending the soil.

The harvest will come later.

Warm regards,

Mark