We’re very pleased to bring you this month’s interview with Dr. Andrew Thorn
Dr Thorn is a TedX speaker and provides behavioral based leadership strategies. He personally guided 2 of the top 50 business thinkers, currently listed on The Thinkers 50.
His work extends to over 50 major corporate clients and over 250 Senior Leaders from many of the Fortune 500 Companies. Graduating with a Masters in Business Administration from Pepperdine University, Dr. Thorn also holds a PhD in Consulting Psychology from Alliant International University, and a Masters in Personal and Executive Coaching.
On average, a person will focus more than 117,000 hours of their life on work– and less than 32,000 hours on themselves. In business coach Dr. Andrew Thorn’s latest book, (McGraw Hill, April 2014), Dr. Thorn focuses on how to manifest those hours spent on the grind for all those who want to leave a lasting–and positive– legacy on their organization. Instead of focusing on the 32,000 hours we have for ourselves, Dr. Thorn unfolds a perspective that rejects the notion of a work-life balance, and instead re-frames how to find value in the time we put into our careers. With this in mind, we wanted to ask Andrew some questions –
1. As a leadership coach, working with some of the leading thinkers in the Thinkers 50 list, you’ve been supremely successful. As many of our readers are coaches or are being coached, what is the single piece of advice you would give to people in a coaching relationship which will increase the chances of it being a successful one?
The purpose of any coaching relationship is to provide the client with the opportunity to hit the pause button so that he or she can become an observer of his or her own life. Most people are so caught up in the business and the busyness of their own lives that they never do this. They think they will do it one day, but they really never get around to doing it. The best advice for success is to take time each day to reflect on what is really going on. We have to become an observer, so that we can look at things objectively. We can’t create the alignment that we need until we pause to discover what is out of alignment.
2. We love your new book Leading with Your Legacy in Mind, and personally I can relate to many of the stages you set out. Meanwhile, I think there is a lot of pressure on leaders to be perfect, and sometimes I think we have to realise they are only human. If any of our leaders who read this are struggling with the pressures on them to be better, or to reflect further on their leadership style, what would be your advice to them?
I think that one of the saddest things we tell ourselves is that “no one is perfect”. Every time we say this, we knock ourselves down just a bit. Being perfect is more about the process than it is about the end state. In other words, there will always be something left to do, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t celebrate right now. I think we are all perfect and I encourage my clients to accept their mistakes and successes with equal value. This helps them to see their own perfection. Most of us will agree that we learn more from the trials and challenges we experience than we do from the smooth sailing, yet we devalue these experiences and seek to hide them from others. We don’t feel comfortable sharing them because we feel that if we do we will be seen as less than. As soon as we begin to recognize the contributions that both make, we begin to be free from the pressures of not measuring up. My advice is to declare victory – see yourself as perfect – value the lessons from both failure and successes equally and enjoy the ride. One final thought, perfection is not about getting better, it is about improving.
3. One of the parts of your book I related to most are the chapters on “Seasons of Leadership”. I’ve led and managed teams for many years, and the challenge for me was always to remain motivated, and as I’ve personally grown, the reasons for my motivation have changed. I am now in the season of serving. I have always known that to be wholly motivated by a desire to serve is a very worthy principle. However, it is only the past few years, I’ve really emotionally felt motivated by serving. What advice would you give to leaders who know intellectually where they should be on the subject of service as a motivator, but just aren’t fired by it right now?
Serve. That is really the only advice that I can think of. The hardest part about serving others is getting started. I never sounds good when I am sitting on the sidelines, yet every time I engage I feel wonderful. Each of us want to make a difference. The only real way to do that is through serving others. The best leaders I know are servant leaders. If you want to reap the reward, you are going to have to invest so get in the game.
4. Who is the most Inspirational Person you know, and why?
5. You’ve been involved in Leadership for many years now, what experience in your career has given you the biggest buzz?
6. Now you’ve launched your book, what is next for you?
7. How can our readers derive maximum benefit from your work?
