Chris Huet from Understood Consulting joins Brendon Le Lievre to discuss changing the world with poetry, prepping for coaching sessions or speaking engagements and the importance of communication and making sure we hear what was said.
Chris also talks through the process of producing video content for LinkedIn, using skills learned as a fighter pilot to be a better coach, a technique for building and maintaining strong relationships with counterparts and colleagues and reflective practice techniques.
You can connect with Chris through LinkedIn, email chris@understood.net.au or through his website https://www.understood.net.au/.
Transcript
[00:00:00] Brendon: Hello, and welcome to the Coach Conversations Podcast, the podcast where coaches have conversations about all things coaching. I’m your host, Brendon Le Lievre and today’s guest is Chris Huet from Understood Consulting Services. Welcome Chris.
[00:00:16] Chris: Thank you for having me on,
[00:00:18] Brendon: An absolute pleasure. I’m really looking forward to getting to speak with you today.
About what it is you do and the type of coaching you do and other services. So let’s start there. What is it that you’re, uh, focused on?
[00:00:33] Chris: I work in communications. So the work that I do is help leaders and organizations improve their performance by having better communication. I have a fairly varied background.
Uh, the sort of pivotal moment for me was about 10 years ago when I was performing poetry. So I, I do spoken word, so performing poetry at markets. And when I finished performing this older lady came up to me and she looks up straight in my eyes and says, how are you going to use your poetry to change the world?
And I didn’t have an answer. Like I had no idea I was uh, quite a back and it was, it took me about six years later, um, to think about what I was doing and what I wanted to do. with my career. I had been in the air force for 20 years as a pilot and an instructor I’d worked in consulting and at this time I was working, doing business development for a big defense company.
So working with defense, but I realized that all of the things that I enjoyed in that work was communicating with people. It was understanding how to help someone learn a new skill was understanding the client’s problem or pitching a new idea or pitching a solution to a potential customer. And, uh, I wanted to bring that work together with the poetry that I was doing and that was when I had that aha moment.
So that’s about almost five years ago. Now I had the realization that this is how I could actually use my poetry to, to change the world with all my other, other, uh, experiences of communication in the business and the technical sense. Uh, and so I often do it one person at a time coaching, but I’m, am using my power to change change the world.
[00:02:17] Brendon: Yeah, it does that mean you try and make questions rhyme with answers or poetry structure into your coaching sessions?
[00:02:26] Chris: I, no, I don’t consciously do that. I may, may sometimes inwardly smile if I’ve phrased a question particularly well, or someone responds in a way that has like a beautiful music to it, and it’s more in the speaking business or helping people think about how they can, they can structure communication in a way that has some of those poetic elements.
[00:02:50] Brendon: And how do you bring in the fighter pilot experience? I think that’s a very interesting field to me, but what did, what did you learn as a fighter pilot that helps you with poetry and coaching and communication?
[00:03:04] Chris: The, the communication that we, we used as pilots in the Air Force was very structured and it was very precise, so it gave me an appreciation for how you want to be precise in the language you use. Um, distinct distaste of the management speak that we, we use some of those words that really don’t mean anything or they can mean everything.
Um, so trying to be precise because if you’ve got the word that you were trying to use wrong, when you speak on the radio as a fighter pilot, for example, then that could have disastrous consequences. And in fact, I was very lucky in my air force career. There was only one time. Feared for my life. And that was on the ground.
It was when I was debriefing a mission and I realized that I’d misunderstood what someone had said on the radio. And because of that, I thought he was much further away from me and his aircraft than he was. But in fact, he, he flew within a few hundred meters of me, which was less than a second at that speed.
So that, that fear I had fortunately was when I was on the ground, but it could have had disastrous consequences because I had miscommunicated. That part the fighter pilots side is more about being precise and being exact and structuring your communication in a way that makes sense. The poetic side is more about the emotional connection, the using vivid imagery, ways to bring things to life.
Um, so those, those two things I find are essential, if you want to communicate well and, uh, finding the balance is always a challenge.
[00:04:37] Brendon: Um, and do you find that people are like attracted more to one side or the other of that story when you’re talking about the services you provide or is it a bit of, I have a bit of a both.
[00:04:49] Chris: I do a lot of work with technical people and people who have an engineering or an IT background, um, in the work that I did while I was still in the air force, working in project management areas and then in consulting and business development as well. A lot of my work was interpreting engineers, for other people and helping engineers get their message across.
So that’s, that’s where I often find myself working now. And it’s often with people who’ve got that technical side you know, worked out, it’s making that emotional connection or converting the technical into something that other people will care about.
[00:05:28] Brendon: Um, and, and, you know, I think we’ve a couple of times already, there’s been, you know, helping people to care, helping people to get their message across and use emotion to do that.
Uh, how, how do you help people through coaching to better share their message? What are some of the techniques you use to get that outcome.
[00:05:50] Chris: Uh, often it’s a matter of asking them what they’ve thought about the people they’re trying to connect with. Uh, particularly if you you’re very deep in your technical field, you know, your work very well. You can become absorbed. And a lot of the questions that I start with is, is encouraging people to get out up out of their work and think about the people that they need to connect with the people they’re relying on. Maybe they’ve found themselves in a leadership role, which is often the case. They got there based on their technical skills and now they have to think about other people. And, uh, often that’s the starting point it’s thinking about your audience and, and realizing that the way that you might be thinking of something is not necessarily the way other people do. And they need to have a reason to care, which you, you probably have because you care about this work, but they, they may not because they don’t realize the value in it. You need to find that. Um, is that something that you’ve, uh, you found in that does communication come up often in like coaching?
[00:06:56] Brendon: I find, I mean, it’s relevant everywhere, right? We can’t do a lot by ourselves. I tend to do more in the leadership space, but a good chunk, if not the vast majority of leadership is communication. And I tend to run a lot of training as well for people navigating that, that point you’ve just made, not always engineers, but subject matter expert into line manager or team leader. What have you and, and people sort of realizing, oh, I need a different set of skills here. It’s no longer around my technical knowledge and what I know about the technical side, it’s about how do I become more strategic, more leadership, more, um, focused on others. How do I inspire and motivate and care for them? Um, and so. Often it is around giving them tools and techniques to be able to communicate what their expectations are without overlaying or assuming that people have a similar level of technical knowledge, because quite often they, they don’t.
So that’s where I land. And as I was sharing that, I ran a session with a group earlier in the week. And one of the participants was saying, oh, I keep getting told that I need to be more strategic. I just need to be more strategic. T speaking of words earlier, that kind of mean everything but nothing. And I thought back to, you know, that happened a lot in my public service career prior to doing more coaching and starting my own business and what have you. I got to a point and so I shared it with them to where I would just ask people that said that to me, what would I be doing if I was more strategic and then you get these oh, you’d be, you know, considering the broader picture and, um, acting more strategically and, you know, having more strategic acumen demonstrated.
And I sort of say to them and explain it to me without using the word strategic. And they thought that was quite useful. They went away. A few of them went away and tried it and it was interesting how many different approaches there were from different managers around being strategic. So yeah, quite like it, when you set someone up with a question that they can go and ask
[00:09:16] Chris: yeah.
Quest questions. Okay. So the two things I think that are under underused and communication and sometimes the most powerful. Silence and questions. And, uh, a lot of people that I work with will fill that silence with a statement. So are you, I ask them questions then and then giving the other person that opportunity to speak is, um, can be really powerful. Um, and I, I, um, I had heard that strategic thing. I know that you and I. The coaching that we do is, is in often with people in the APS and that, and that’s the challenge is getting out as the executive levels to the, uh, executive service. So the SES bands often strategic thinking is the thing that is brought up.
[00:10:01] Brendon: Yeah. You just be more strategic and I’m actually lucky in coaching when someone says, well, that’s interesting. Like I pretty much always just fire a what’s interesting about? Yeah, and they sort of have to, they pause. And I think what is interesting about that, because I think interesting is a bit of a word that gets thrown around a bit and I like to dig into that and I think counterparts get good value from oh, okay. What is interesting about that to me? Because now that I’ve realized that what have you sort of silence is important? So yeah. What have you noticed online about the use of silence? When you know, everyone can just be sitting there on mute and they’re effectively silent. Anyway,
[00:10:48] Chris: I think silence, uh, in that context, the, one of the powers of silence is it grabs people’s attention. So if you are delivering or you’re talking online, you’re running a workshop or something, then. Speaking, possibly ask you a question. So you have a questioning tone or you raise you your volume a little bit. Cause you’re making effort, you’re emphasizing something or you might even start whispering and then you’re silent that that’s just sort of breaks the routine and it can grab people’s attention. Uh, I think that’s, yeah, that’s the way that I would use silence often online,speakin-person silence can encourage people to speak but I, I think there’s just that separation. You get online. And if peoplehave got their camera off, then being silent often will not draw people out to get that sort of power of silence. You, you really need to be personally.
[00:11:51] Brendon: If you are to use it, you have to use it for a lot longer online than you do face-to-face as well. And I think that’s because we’re missing all that body language, even with cameras on, we’re still missing a good chunk of it around. And is it my turn to talk or is someone else going first or is it not really my turn yet? And then once we decide to talk, we’ve got to go and find a mute button. Like where is it? I go unmute myself here.. Yeah, but it is, is definitely different online. And, um, having run some coaching skills training, you know, I say to participants, if you’ve asked the question and you can see the processing happening, like that is the point for you to be silent, don’t, don’t break that magic because you know, you’ve done the work as the coach. The work is done. You just have to sit there now and let the counterpart come up with whatever comes next. Yeah. What do you enjoy most about coaching?
[00:12:57] Chris: I, I really enjoy those moments that you’re talking about. When you ask a question and you have genuinely, genuinely encouraged somebody to think about something in a way that I haven’t thought about it before, I think that’s, it, it almost feels like magic when that happens and this is a, um, you’ve unlocked something you’ve given them permission to follow a path in their brain that, that never, they’ve never seen before. And I really enjoy those moments because that just shows the power of connection and language and being present for another person. So it’s a beautiful, beautiful human man.
[00:13:36] Brendon: Yeah. I found that early on in coaching career that was really addictive as well. And I’d kind of go hunting for it. And of course, when you go looking for it, it just never appears it because it’s, you’re not connected and you’re not present and you’re not creating that environment where that option opportunity can arise. So it was sort of, you know, through some conversations with other coaches, it’s like just dial that back at bit Brendon and those moments will start to appear again, rather than trying to force it. My I’ve got to get this outcome. I’ve got to deliver this value. I’ve got a, you know, they said they wanted this at the start of the session. I’ve got to get them that. Sort of had to unwind some of that. Have you had similar experience?
[00:14:21] Chris: I think the experience for me is when I first started coaching, I tried to make everything I said an open question and you know, everything I say has to start with what or how, and then I, then I might get hard on myself. If I said something that was a statement. If I responded with a statement or I asked a closed question, and then internally I’ve going you’ve wasted an opportunity. And, and, uh, have since realized that, you know, if you’re sitting with someone for an hour, they might be six or 10 power, power questions, powerful questions you’ve asked in that period and that’s fine. And in fact, I, sometimes I sit with people and we spoken for 40 minutes and they go, yeah. Um, I just like I’m empty and full at the same time. I’ve said everything I can, but I’m full of all these thoughts. I need to go away and work on it because, um, you know, it’s, it’s hard work, so I’d allow myself to be a bit more conversational, be a bit freer, to be a little bit normal and make a bit of a comment about something, or just say something naturally or uh, ask a closed question every now and then, cause it just feels more natural in the flow of a conversation
[00:15:31] Brendon: yeah. Yeah, no, I think that’s, that’s a really nice insight is that it doesn’t have to be all one or the other and it should feel like a conversation. Cause it, it really is a conversation. It’s a different conversation, different type of conversation, but it really is just a conversation. What do you wish you’d known earlier in your life about coaching and the skillset that it know that you have now that you’ve developed.
[00:16:02] Chris: Uh, I think, and it’s hard to hard to say. I’m pretty sure I was told this, but I didn’t really know it until you, you have to experience it, but it’s more about the letting go. I think the, one of the key things you need to do as, as to be an effective coach is you need to let things go andlet the counterpart do the work, let them be responsible and accountable for making it happen. As a coach, you don’t make anything happen. You are just providing space for it to happen. You are encouraging it, but you can’t force anything. So I’ve been in sessions where at the end, I thought, oh, that was, that didn’t go well. Or, you know, it’s been a waste of time. And most of the time I’ve been wrong about that the times where it might’ve been a wasted out, that’s not my responsibility. I can’t, I couldn’t have done anything else to force it to be productive. So it’s that, that becoming comfortable with the fact that you don’t make anything happen, you just, uh, encouraging it to happen. That’s that’s the thing that’s taken me a while to, to actually know, even though I’m pretty sure I was taught it right at the beginning.
[00:17:21] Brendon: Hmm, yeah, I think that’s, it’s a good reflection as well. And, and how do you use your coaching skills when you, are um, doing poetry or, or sort of speaking from the stage? How do you apply those skills in, into that, that arena?
[00:17:43] Chris: The skills of question, asking good questions, powerful questions, and listening are applicable to all communication, but I’ve really honed those skills myself in coaching, through coaching. So whether it’s, uh, you know, in facilitation or working with a team, Or doing the skills coaching work that I do always starting with those questions and those open as open questions to encourage people to think about it, using those sorts of questions, to solidify learning. So asking that sort of reflective questions at the end of a session on what’s been most valuable or what if what’s the one thing you’ve learned? What’s the one thing you’ll do differently. Um, sort of coaching techniques. And then when it comes to keynote speaking, It is asking those sort of open questions as well, to encourage people to be connecting what you’re saying to their, their lives while you’re speaking. So those sorts of questioning techniques are helpful when you’re speaking to, even if you’re not getting any, any response, uh, because it’s just you talking, the question is still have, have power for each of the individuals who are listening.
Yeah, I
[00:19:01] Brendon: hadn’t thought about it in that way before, but reflecting on speakers, I’d seen that, that have, that I would rate higher than others. There probably is more of that questioning. And then just even the silence from the stage, because obviously not everyone’s answering back. So it’s not even about the answering potentially in that situation. It’s just on the, here’s the question ever think about it. And I’m going to be quiet for a second. rather than I’ve got an hour of keynote. I’ve got to speak nonstop for 60 minutes and
[00:19:35] Chris: yeah, it’s, uh, it’s, it’s a key tool. If you want to engage an audience, whether that’s online or in-person is, is frequently asking a question. So, you know, I’ve just said a lot. I’ve, it’s been one way. How does that apply to you? Or what would you do in that circumstance? Or have you ever been in a similar situation where you felt like this? What did you do? Well, here’s what I did, you know? So it, uh, it just gives that feel of a conversation, even though it’s, it’s not verbally a conversation.
[00:20:15] Brendon: Interesting. What’s interesting about that, Brendon? I think that’s how that lands. I really like that. Uh, how do you prepare for keynote or coaching sessions? Is there something specific you do beforehand to get ready?
[00:20:35] Chris: Well, and this is part of the things that I teach people on communication is that whenever I have a communication event, so whether that’s a coaching session or uh, catching up with someone for coffee, um, attending a meeting or, or doing a keynote presentation, then I always prepare. So obviously if it’s keynote presentation, then I might do 40 hours of work to deliver a 30 minute presentation. But if it’s coffee catch-up, it might be five minutes, but there’s still is, there’s always pre preparation.
And that involves firstly, thinking about the audience. So who am I meeting with? And putting them in my mind, uh, then thinking about, what’s my message. What’s the thing I want to get across. And what are the key points that I’m going to, to convey, um, with a coffee catch-up that can be really casual and it might be just as simple as saying, uh, okay, so I’m going to have coffee with Brendan on Tuesday and last time we caught up, we talked about this, um, and that’s right he said he was going down the coast for, for the, you know, the weekend, in prior times. Um, and so it’s doing those sorts of things so that you can be more present and more engaging in that conversation. And it might be, oh, but I want to make sure that I ask him this, or I have a suggestion.
So it’s, it’s doing that preparation and for a coaching session, there’ll be, who am I meeting with? Um, Thinking about, okay, so this is going to be coaching. So I want to come in with a sort of mind mindset. How can I prepare myself? Do I need to put some things aside? Make sure I don’t have these distractions. It’s that, that preparation. And it’s the same for all of those events just might be longer for some than it is for others.
[00:22:18] Brendon: Yeah. Yeah. I’d like to be able to say I’m heading to the coast long overdue to get down to the ocean and sort of recharge a little bit by just floating around in it building, sandcastles on the beach with the kids and what have you, but, uh, not at the moment, obviously with lockdown and everything else we’re experiencing um, but yeah, definitely on the cards and, you know, hopefully in the future, not the near future where we’re back at that space.
[00:22:47] Chris: Yeah. It’s terrible. It’s, you know, two years ago, I was looking forward to a holiday in the U S um, last year I was looking forward to a holiday in Cairns and this year I’m just looking forward to, uh, being able to walk around Bunnings for as long as I like.
[00:23:04] Brendon: Yeah, it was a while back now, but I used to say to people I’m like, imagine that we were back at the end of 2019, and a lot of people were saying there, I just need a break. If I can just get two weeks away. I’ll be ready for whatever 2020 has to throw at me. And then we had a succession of bushfires and COVID and lock down and all the stuff that’s been happening. It’s like, no, no one worked from home. No one was ready for what? 2020 was going to throw at them. And two weeks down the coast, wasn’t get them in there either. Yeah. Yeah. So lots of mental prep then in the preparation space, do you do anything physically like to warm your voice up?
[00:23:48] Chris: But for those events, Yesi, I do, um, the vocal exercises to try and protect my voice and be able to communicate better, um, do breathing exercises, uh, that’s part of the vocal warmup, but it also sometimes helps if I’m feeling nervous and, and generally do generally do feel nervous in some way before I speak in front of a large group of people, and maybe some physical movement, depending on how I am experiencing that, that, uh, energy, might pace around a little bit, or move my arms do some grunts some type things. Yeah.
[00:24:32] Brendon: I think that’s so nervous speaking in front of, um, large crowds, even though you’ve been in planes flying at very fast speeds. Less, you know, a couple of hundred meters away from someone else, even though unintentionally.
[00:24:48] Chris: Yeah. It, uh, um, all of those different circumstances, uh, and it was obviously well-prepared to fly like that and I was still well-prepared to speak, but, uh, Yeah, I still, I still, I still do feel that nervous energy, uh, which I think is a good thing just makes that I care about the result. And I’m often doing something for some, for one reason or another, it’d to be the first time I’ve done it. So it always looking for new opportunities and new challenges. So maybe I’m talking about something I never spoken about before. It’s a different audience or a different circumstance, whereas something like flying at a fighter aircraft, you do the same thing over and over again, so that it becomes just second nature to you. So I think that’s probably part of it.
[00:25:40] Brendon: Yeah, I think that’s a good reflection on nerves that it just means that you care I, I sometimes get a bit nervous if I’m not feeling nervous. What’s wrong. Why am I not feeling nervous? Because I think I should be. Um, yeah. And how do I manage that? And it’s been interesting working from home. Like I think, um, my, my wife sort of picked up on a couple of things I do because. Uh, one of the things I will do is I’ll, I’ll put music on and I have a, sort of a set playlist that I listen to in the lead up to some sort of speaking event or, or training event. And, um, find that it, it just, it really helps me get prepared, even if I’m a bit flat or I’m a bit nervous or I’m a bit unsure. I might now I’ll just put the, you know, the, these couple of songs on. And that will help me feel like the workshops already sort of started and then I’ll, or the coaching session is, has begun and I’ll be okay from there. Uh, and I have definitely used mindfulness sort of activities as part of that as well. And I find that, you know, um, that’s something I should do more of. I always think that every time I do it, I’m like, why didn’t I do this more? Why do I not find time to do this more? It’s so powerful. But the, the, uh, you know, a little bit of music here and there. I find that helps me because I’m not, I’m not sure that when it comes to coaching sessions or training that I’ll ever be fully prepared, I don’t know that you can prepare without an audience, but I think you kind of need to run it with other people and see how they react and what comment they make and what questions they have.
And they like, oh, that’s really interesting way to think about that. I will deliver that different next time as a result and no amount of preparation without an audience is going to get me there. So it’s kind of like that letting go bit is like, I’ve done as much as I can. I know the general structure, I know the flow. I know what my intent is. Let’s just see what happens when and when another person is in front of me or in the room or virtually connects in and away we go
[00:27:57] Chris: yeah, an interesting thing. I think just talking about it then, and hearing your experience as well is the difference in energy you need from coaching to keynote speaking, which I, I’ve not struggled with, but it’s been something that I have been very conscious of because I think, uh, you know, you might have, you might be similar to me recently someone said to me, oh, you have such a calming presence, which I think is it’s a great compliment, but it also means. Um, I’m not, and I’m not, this is true, but I’m not the person. Who’s the Energizer. I’m not the, I’m not the hype guy. I’m not the person that gets everybody excited about something. But when you’re keynote speaking and when you’re delivering a workshop as well, you need a certain amount of energy to get people involved and excited and interested. So trying to harness that energy, which is at the other end of the spectrum from when you’re a coach. You know, when you’re a coach, you want to be that very calming, relaxed, welcoming sort of energy. And then when you you’re at the speaking side, you want a little bit, you need to be relaxed but relaxed and, but with, with some power, with some excitement, um, so that’s something that I’ve, I’ve had to work on and try and balance the amount of energy you take into the space and the activity to fit the purpose.
[00:29:15] Brendon: Yeah, I get, I get that calming presence quite a bit, which I agree with you is such a lovely compliment and then I mentioned it to my wife or my parents and they go, who are they talking about? That’s not you at all. Right. You’re not calm and you’re not relaxed. And I think I am just, it’s different in this environment. I’ve got a different relationship dynamic here, but you know, Who are you talking about? I think my wife has said to previous colleagues, which I think is amusing and, and, you know, part of that sounds like managing your energy is really important so given that a lot of work is happening online, how do you find that you manage your energy while you’re trying to put energy into the room, even though it’s only virtual and get people engaged?
[00:30:04] Chris: Uh, it is challenging. Um, I think I should use music more now that you’ve mentioned that, because that would be really good, but I try and start. Uh, so I do everything standing, which is for training. Um, I do everything standing, which already helps me with a little bit more energy and movement. And in that preparation I’m thinking of, of starting strong and I think of a way to why that excites people. And I make sure I welcome people when they’re joining the online rooms and that sort of thing. So that’s the way that I, I try and have that energy at the. And, uh, I know that I’m using that energy because I definitely feel exhausted when you finish one of those sessions. Um, because you, you don’t get a lot back from an online session. So you’re not, you’re not getting a lot of audience from the, it feels like, uh, you are creating all of the energy that’s in the room.
Uh, but that’s what you need to do to get people engaged and to make it interesting and, and have a bit of variety, uh, rather than just a monotone getting across the message that you need to get across. Yeah,
[00:31:16] Brendon: yeah, yeah. Yeah. I think even face-to-face there was a program that I used to run because it was face-to-face uh, and it was co-facilitated and one of the co-facilitators I was working with one day said.
Um, before we started on day one, he said, you just have to bring all the energy you can until lunchtime, and then at lunchtime, we can, you know, shut down and decompress because the, the group generally speaking, uh, more internal reflective, um, considered processors. So if you were expecting a lot back lot of extroverted sort of out loud thinking you just weren’t going to get it. And, and so you almost needed to feed the room to a point where it was, it had the energy then to give it back to you. And after lunch, it was almost like a different group had walked in as long as you did that first part of it right. But I was pleased. I was warned about it because if I hadn’t done it, we may not have got to that outcome. And if I wasn’t prepared. I wouldn’t have brought that energy either, but yeah, I stand when I train online as well, I’ve got a sit, stand workstation that allows me to do that. And people quite often comment like, are you standing? Or how are you standing? Like, what’s your setup. They want to sort of see it. And why do you do that? And it’s to that energy point, like I just, I think my energy is better when I’m standing in this context. Yes.
[00:32:54] Chris: The in-person training is, is better for energy is as well because you can get people moving so you can actually invite them to generate their own energy. Even if they’re not giving you much feedback. It’s uh, so the, the, the breakout rooms, the effect that you might have, but they’rebit ofin person, you can have that with people standing or people having to move around the room. You know, we don’t have that, uh, as much, unfortunately when you’re online, unless you encourage people to let’s all stand up and have a dance break.
[00:33:28] Brendon: So then put your favorite song, bit of music, bit of dancing. That’s cool. And, you know, I find, you know, breakout rooms online, really useful where the energy is a bit low. It’s like, I’ll just throw them in breakout rooms of three or four, let them have a bit of a chat. And the energy seems to lift as they come back in or they do a lot more talking in those smaller rooms, which is,
[00:33:55] Chris: yeah. I’ve found the same thing. And then when you get people to and give feedback on their, what they’ve talked about, it’s often easier to get someone from. So first group was someone, someone summarize that and they yet usually more willing to do that because they’ve had a good discussion.
Mm
[00:34:12] Brendon: Hmm. One of the, the other things that are, I really like that you do, I suppose, is your little videos that you do on LinkedIn. And I saw you did one the other day about, and might have even just been a post. It may not have been a video, uh, around the importance of getting people’s names right. And then I saw there were multiple people that went on there and purposefully, um, used the wrong name to reply to your comment, which I full disclosure was thinking of doing and then we will, if I’m the fifth person that does it, it’s not gonna be funny anymore. Is it? So maybe just dial that back, Brendon, but what sort of reaction do you find from people when they see you on a video or some of those communication tips that you’re posting for people on LinkedIn?
[00:34:57] Chris: I get really good feedback, I really enjoy that actually, the, there are several benefits from, from doing that. Um, one is simply me having to put my thoughts into a form and share them, helps me work through them and get better at communicating them and a lot of the content that I put on LinkedIn will be content that I haven’t used for training or in another form or for a keynote.
Before, or it’ll be a different way of expressing it. So it’s a great way to test that and then clarify your ideas. It’s a really, really good way for people to know you for what you do. And I I’ve, I’ve definitely found that and the number of people who I meet for, I think the first time. And they say, oh yeah, I really enjoy your videos I’m like, oh, okay. I didn’t know that. I didn’t, I didn’t know that we’d, uh, I didn’t know that you were watching me or you saw that. So, and that’s really, it’s really nice to hear. It means that you’re connecting with people and people know you for the work that you do, and it’s making a difference. I get some really good feedback people are saying, oh, that was really useful. And several occasions, people said, oh, that was really timely. Because then I had a conversation with my boss, or I used that in a presentation that I had to give them those sorts of things. So knowing that you’re actually helping people. So doing that, uh, using my poetry to change the world one person at a time, uh, it happens a little bit on LinkedIn, right?
From the pure business sense. I do get work from LinkedIn. So people know me for that work and then six months or a year after we’ve connected or so on, they’ll say, oh, Hey, we’re running an offsite or we need someone to come in and talk about this and you immediately came to mind. So it’s good.
[00:36:51] Brendon: There’s definitely things I’ve picked up in there. So if people aren’t connected with. They should connect with you to get access to those things is
[00:37:02] Chris: yeah, definitely. Yeah. I welcome anybody who sends me a connection request with a, with an explanation with some, some texts. Um, yeah. I, I really enjoy connecting with other people and seeing what they they’re doing to and, uh, seeing where at the, our interests overlap.
[00:37:21] Brendon: Yeah. That text in LinkedIn, such an important thing, unless I know someone really, really, really well, uh, if the connection requests comes through and it doesn’t have text or, or if I’m sending them a request like it’s, it’s always got to have something in it about now I think this is interesting or I’m enjoying, you know, I saw this or I met you at, or. You know, that, that thing. And you mentioned in that name, one about having training, you, you go around the room and just like, um, quietly, mentally lock people’s names in which is a skill that I’m kind of worried I’m going to lose cause everyone online just comes with a name tag. You don’t, you don’t have to lock them in quite as strongly, but the reaction when you do and you’re on face-to-face and they make their first comment, you say, thank you, Chris. That’s a really insightful comment. Like he remembered that’s, that’s kind of nice isn’t it? So it’s, it’s a good skill set to build.
[00:38:20] Chris: Uh, yeah, definitely. And I’ve always said, well, up until recently, I’ve always said that I’m terrible with names, but it’s not, I don’t think it’s really the case. It’s I end up become much better at it because I’ve been because of the work I do is on communication I’ve been focusing so much on communication. I have become better remembering people’s names because I, when I meet someone I’d, I’ll reflect on what I learned from them. And. And what I said I was going to do. And then I do that preparation the next time I see them and, and doing that kind of thinking about who you’ve met and, and what you learned from them, puts their name into your head, and you’re more likely to remember it so it is, it is a skill that can definitely be developed and it makes a real, a really big difference. Um, I have found
[00:39:14] Brendon: Is that a mental sort of log book that you keep, and that’s just all there or do you jot notes?
[00:39:22] Chris: I, yeah, I, my reflective practices is written, so I do, um, I I’m always, I always have a book where I record all of my meetings and events and what I learned and who I was talking to. I was just going to say, uh, it was an engineer who, who taught me how to do this 20. Yeah, it’d be a bit over 20 years ago now. Um, who ruled out a, uh, a table in the front of all of these notebooks or diaries that had where you recorded the date and what the meeting was and the which page it was on and numbering all your pages and I’ve got into that habit since then, um, um, of, uh, of doing that. And it makes it much easier to go back and say, what notes did I write about this person last time I saw them so that I can remember.
[00:40:15] Brendon: Yeah. I, I think, uh, reflective practice is such an important part of development as well. Just, you know, what did we notice in our conversations, in our training sessions, wherever it might be.
Um, and one of the things I’ve added to my calendar is a half hour every Friday. So where, and it’s just called review the week. And then it specifically says, what went well and what could have been better? And I try and, um, I got, I’ve got a notebook and I open the notebook to like two blank pages and on the left, write at least three things that have gone well and on the right up to, and no more than three things that could’ve gone better. And I started doing that when I was working in the public service and I really like it cause you know, over the space of a month, you’ve, you’ve got a book that has 12 things in it that have gone really well. So if you’re having a bit of a down day, you just pick it up you’re like, oh, what’s been, what’s been well, been going well over the last month. And you can just say, oh yeah, I got that done and I did that and I had that meeting. Yeah, we got that deliverable done and that can be quite helpful. And the other side of the book is useful around where’s my development opportunity, or where’s there a potential for some growth here, because now I’ve written that I didn’t get that done on time three weeks in a row, you know, maybe it’s maybe I need to focus a little more on that. So do you do much reflective practice about on, on your coaching? Do you have a framework that works with that?
[00:41:55] Chris: It’s actually fairly close to what you described. So yeah, when I have sessions, um, with, I learned something that I’ll write down what went well, and what’s at least one thing that I’ll do differently next time.
And, uh, and, and that’s also what I encourage people that I work with to do. I think a reflective practice is essential to development. Um, it’s essential. And if you, you know, you can go to a workshop a one day workshop, but unless you continually revisiting the content of that workshop and applying it to what you’re doing, then you never really learn anything from it.
So, uh, yeah, I, I try and have that reflective practice myself and I definitely encourage other people. And it’s really interesting, uh, because, um, I’ve only just recorded a video for LinkedIn and it will be going up soon. Uh, and I’m sure it’ll be, it’ll be up there. Well, before you posted this, this podcast, but it’s talks about self-awareness and how a reflective practice is essential to, to being self-aware and improving and how mindfulness is also essential to being self-aware. So it’s very timely. The things that we’re talking.
[00:43:15] Brendon: Go and track those things down I noticed when we moved house just over six months ago now and was, I was cleaning out the garage and I found a box of stuff that I brought home from, uh, my sort of last public service job, you know, it’s sort of tradition to walk out with a, printer paper box Reflex box or whatever, with a whole bunch of stuff off your desk in it. And I found it and there was a couple of manuals in there for training courses I’d been on. And, you know, it was in the part of, it was interesting. Cause I looked at some of the content that I’d added to like the reflections I’d added to the content. I was like, well, actually I’m I have been thinking in that way or I have been using more of that and a good chunk of it, which I obviously haven’t been reflecting on because it’s been in a box in the garage for five or six years, I was like, man, I really should dust that off cause that was interesting when I learned it, but I haven’t actually applied and done anything with it yet. So, you know, that’s how do I bring that in? You know, how do I add that? Or how do I create an example or a metaphor that I could share with someone in a coaching session or a training session around that thing?
[00:44:24] Chris: Yeah. And that’s, that’s something unusual. We, when. Uh, so learning how to fly in the air force. And then as an instructor myself, I taught people how to fly the, FA18 Hornet, and every, every flight, not, not just the ones when you’re on a training course, but every flight you would debrief and a key part of the debrief is that at the end, you would have three things that you were going to do differently next time and it was always three. You know, there might’ve been 10 different things that went wrong or we’re working on 10 different parts of, of what we’re doing, but the most you can take away and actually work on is three of those things. So if you go to a workshop and I generally do this with the workshops that I run, I ask everybody to nominate one thing they’re going to do differently tomorrow or are they going to be working on from this in the week? And you know that for a lot of people, that’s the most. And, uh, and that’s why having handouts or manuals like that can be helpful and revisiting them. Cause you’ve, you’ve embodied one of the things, but there was something else that came up that was not relevant for you right then, or you just didn’t have the space to work on that now you can apply it in a new, certain new circumstance. Um,
[00:45:40] Brendon: How do you given that, you know, storytelling and sharing of examples is I’m assuming quite a good strength of yours. I think that I’ve seen you do really well. How do you sort of hold that back or time that when you are in, in more of a coaching engagement and the expectation is that there’d be more questioning I’m intrigued as to how you navigate those two, two things.
[00:46:07] Chris: Uh, definitely I have different, I’m thinking in a different way. In in coaching and, uh, that’s something I definitely do try and do is to, to make sure that the content is the counterparts. It’s not my own. And only, and only if I’ve asked several questions and they’ve asked me specifically for what have you done, or what have you seen. I might share a story. Um, and I’ll have to say that it’s, it’s really heartening for you to say that you think that storytelling and examples and anecdotes is a strength of mine because it’s something I’ve had to work on and a part of that calming presence. And perhaps the thing that makes me suited to being a coach is generally in the past I haven’t really wanted to talk about. I’m one of those people that’s very happy for other people to control the conversation. Um, and I’ve never felt the urge to share with other people. Um, every moment of my, my living day, you know, my, uh, so, uh, I’ve had to learn to draw out the things that I have experienced and tell them and share them because other people can learn from them. Um, so I think the coaching like that coaching mode, I’m, I’m much more comfortable in that asking questions and let other people talk about themselves. So it’s, I don’t find it that hard to hold that back. It’s more that I, I find I, I have to draw in my experience and share it in a way that’s engaging when I’m training or speaking.
[00:47:44] Brendon: Wonderful. So we can, uh, connect on LinkedIn, just make sure there’s a comment about why they’d the people would like to connect with you, obviously. How else can people track you down? Uh, if they’d like to know more about you?,
[00:47:58] Chris: my company is understood and, uh, understood.net.edu has the information about the consulting, coaching, and training that I offer and I have a separate website for my speaking, which is Chrishuet.com. Um, so they can find me there. I am on Instagram and Twitter but I don’t do a lot on either of those platforms. LinkedIn is the, for social media. It’s the one that I use the most, but that plus the two, the two websites, the way that people could find me and get in touch with me.
[00:48:32] Brendon: Awesome. I’m hoping many people do. Cause you know, I always learn something from our conversations and I’ve taken something away from today and, you know, has mentioned, enjoy your videos when they go up there. Uh, it’s always nice when scrolling through the feed and one of those appears, I’m like, oh, I’ll just pause here for a second see what Chris has to say today and see what I can adapt and bring into my own coaching and training practice. So thank you. Thank you. Um, and thanks for coming along today, it’s been great to have a chat.
[00:49:05] Chris: Yeah. Yeah. I’ve really enjoyed it. So thank you.
[00:49:09] Brendon: Yeah. And what is it that you’ve enjoyed about it? Let’s one more question, I can’t help myself.
[00:49:16] Chris: I, I really enjoy, uh, putting into words, these thoughts and these experiences and what you. Um, as we both know, as coaches, there’s often a power and actually having to think through, and then verbalize moments of learning. And because we’ve been talking a lot about what we’ve learned from our experiences, I really enjoy that. Learn from that sharing of learning. And, uh, I’ve also enjoyed hearing about your experiences too. And a lot of cases it’s affirming, it’s validating, so, oh yeah. Other people have similar experiences and also. Slightly different ways of, of thinking about, uh, ideas. And for example, playing music, I should play more music to manage my energy before an event because I love music. So I should be doing that more. Yeah.
[00:50:08] Brendon: Awesome. No, thank you. I really appreciate that reflection and it continues to amaze me how we think we’ve had the conversation in our head. Uh, and then we say it out loud and I was like, actually, that, that doesn’t sound the sameI’m seeing that completely differently because I’ve said it out loud. So, um, thank you for saying some stuff out loud with me today.
Thanks for listening in to today’s coach conversation with Chris Huet I really enjoyed getting to talk with Chris and getting to hear about all those wonderful things that he’s doing and he’s experience. And I’m definitely taking away that just, what’s one thing you’re going to do differently as a result. So my question to you is what’s one thing you’re going to do differently as a result of hearing this conversation today.
If you’d like to connect with us on Facebook, you can through the coach conversations podcast page, track us down there. And give us a like, and we’ve also started a community that you can join ask many coaches, great questions. Uh, and hence the name of the group is asking great questions. Come along there and share your experiences and stories with us. Uh, as we continue to grow that community. And hear more about what coaches are doing and what they’re enjoying and what they’re learning through their coaching practice. Thanks very much for listening and look forward to connecting with you in the future.