Michael Bungay Stanier: How to Begin

Michael Bungay Stanier helps people be a force for change. He’s best known for his book The Coaching Habit which has sold over a million copies and has thousands of 5-star reviews online. His latest book How to Begin helps people be ambitious for themselves and for the world and, find their Worthy Goal, and start something thrilling, important and daunting. He founded Box of Crayons, a learning and development company that helps organizations move from advice-driven to curiosity-led. They’ve trained hundreds of thousands of managers to be more coach-like and their clients range from Microsoft to Salesforce to Gucci. Michael left Australia about 30 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. Balancing out these moments of success, he was banned from his high school graduation for “the balloon incident” … was sued by one of his Law School professors for defamation … and his first published piece of writing was a Harlequin Romance-esque story involving a misdelivered letter … and called The Male Delivery

Episode Notes:

-Trained with CTI but also connected with coaching as a teenager with his friends as well as being a youth crisis telephone counselor. The first answer is not the only answer.

-Living in England and graduating from university, discovered ‘coaching’ - intrigued and got transferred to Boston.

-Called himself a coach despite not knowing everything about it. 

-Trained in 2000 and started a practice, didnt love coaching all the time. Then started writing books, The Coaching Habit, as well as Box of Crayons. MBS.works is also helping others be a force for change.

-At a young age, Mum told him it helps if you ask a good question when interacting with girls…may be the start of it all! 

-How to Begin’s inspiration - Stemmed from The Advice Trap, wanted to add onto the topic. How do you actually change your behavior? It is so hard.

-”We unlock our greatness by working on the hard things” - MBS.

A nice restatement of an old truth.

-When we go out to the edges of who you are and what you are, that is where you learn more about yourself and grow in your confidence and capacity. 

-How do you think about goal setting to bring out the very best in you, as well make a contribution to the world.

-Worthy goal: thrilling, important, and daunting.

-Cheeky cartoon- originally for The Advice Trap Book but it was not a good fit, but he still loved the character.  It helped him to become the obvious guide for this book. 

-It is helpful to be the strongest signal in the room. 

-Two worthy goals: stopping being the CEO, as well as launching a podcast.

-How to Begin: 3 parts, each part has three chapters

Part 1: Draft and redraft your goal - examine, poke, interrogate, and redraft it. 

Part 2:Understand what you are committing to - When you are saying yes to a worthy goal you are saying no to other stuff. Wrestle with it for a bit and get very clear on this.

Part 3: Getting you going- Crossing the threshold. What is important is that you begin the journey. Do not do it alone, and don't think it will be three big leaps and you will be there. Find support, keep working towards the best version of yourself, and keep taking small steps to make progress. 

-Find your right band and check out the pilot light appendix

-Many goals? Hierarchy to organize your life. Prioritize.

-MBS vision: Infect a billion people with the possibility virus 

-What is my best way to achieve this bigger vision or mission?

-Aspire to one worthy goal, one great project! Tactics, strategies, project, vision, and worthy goals.

- “Plans are useless but planning is useful” -Eisenhower - You are doing the planning and that is where the power lies.

-So many chapters - what do I want to accomplish within each chapter?

-Worthy Goal for this year- Write three books! - 2023-2024

-Stay curious a little bit longer, and rush to action and advice giving a little bit more slowly.

-And what else? Because the first answer is never the only answer.

-I can translate knowledge to make it feel accessible for people. Taking the abstract and translate it for you! 

Connect with MBS:

Twitter: @mbs_works

Website: MBS.works

Year of Living Brilliantly - 52 weeks

HowToBegin.com