—Systemic change begins with personal change—
Michael is the Senior Partner at Box of Crayons, a company that helps organizations do less Good Work and more Great Work.
He’s the author of several books, including The Coaching Habit and Do More Great Work. Michael has written for or been featured in numerous publications including Business Insider, Fast Company, Forbes, The Globe & Mail and The Huffington Post.
At Box of Crayons, Michael and his team of facilitators teach 10-minute coaching so busy managers build stronger teams and get better results. Clients come from all sectors and include Box, the United Nations, Gartner, the University Health Network and USAA. A sought-after speaker, Michael regularly speaks to businesses and organizations and has delivered keynotes at Leadership, HR and Learning & Development, conferences around the world, including ATD, SHRM, IPL, HRPA and the Conference Board of Canada.
Balancing out these moments of success, Michael was banned from his high school graduation for “the balloon incidentâ€, was sued by one of his Law School lecturers for defamation, and his first published piece of writing was a Mills & Boone short story called “The Male Delivery.â€
Michael left Australia 25 years ago to be a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, where his only significant achievement was falling in love with a Canadian, which is why he now lives in Toronto, having spent time in London and Boston. He was the first Canadian Coach of the Year.
Michael's schedule turned a modest one-month challenge into a five-month one. Many would give up. I suspect most people respond that way to environmental challenges---when it gets harder or unpredictable, they abandon it. I wondered how Michael would handle it. Needless to say, he stuck to it---amid the extra time, involving his wife, travel, and more. What do you know, the challenge was easy. Not trivial, but something he could have done earlier. Habits Michael is an expert at creating habits, so if you're listening in part to learn to create yours, his story will help. He called some conventional wisdom on habit formation "bollocks," which made me cringe. Until I heard his explanation, which taught me new things and made more sense than what I thought before. I consider myself knowledgeable and experienced on habit formation. As usual, success involved turning community into a teammate. In Michael's case, he enlisted his wife's help and (mutual) support. Sound obvious? It is with experience, but most people find other people obstruct their habits. Michael's story isn't the first where a challenge others might consider big became easy. He described the resulting feeling as warm and fuzzy. My big lesson My big lesson was that it's hard to do big things when you haven't done the small things. But doing the small things enables the big things, so doing the small things helps. The key is doing, not just talking, planning, or settling for awareness. Read the transcript.
Michael is a coach's coach. Our conversation became a two-way interview on leadership, values, and acting on them. He both shared openly and got me to share a lot of why I created this podcast. I was pleasantly surprised that though he wasn't sure what to do specifically, he had thought about acting on the environment. I think a lot of people feel the same way. If that fits you---that you want to act but don't know how---our conversation may give you direction. He took an a personal challenge for himself and his wife that most people would probably enjoy. Listen on. Read the full transcript.