Michael S Seaver is an award-winning executive coach, author, keynote speaker, and podcast host. He’s on a mission to unlock human potential to help people uncover and live their purpose, and live a more meaningful and authentic life.
Michael S Seaver offers no-nonsense strategies to help people find confidence in their life’s narrative, commonalities across generations working today, and ways to communicate with emotional intelligence.
Podcast Highlights
Who is Michael Seaver?
Michael was raised in a small town in west Michigan. It was a place of emotional isolation for Michael where he was taught by his family to mainly follow orders and do what he was told.
It wasn’t until Michael got some experience in the hospitality industry and completed an MBA at the Thunderbird School of Global Management did he learn how to be his most authentic self and understand how to coach other people.
He went on to work at Banner Health as the director of talent sourcing but felt stifled in the corporate role. He left the company to start Seaver consulting and built that business through the years where it went from resume writing to communication training and 1 to 1 branding coaching to what it is now, unlocking human potential and cultural change.
Finding Your Authentic Self
There are three major things that happen in our lives. In our early years we encounter some sort of sustained challenge that we are confronted by. The second step is understanding the process of overcoming that challenge, which transforms into helping and teaching other people how to overcome that same challenge. That’s where our missions are born.
When we get to the point where we understand our purpose on earth, life becomes a process of growing and learning, but the next step is always contribution.
Teaching other people gives you a deep sense of peace and accomplishment, and creates a profound positive impact on the world. In many ways the current command and control structure that has been in place forever is transforming into a paradigm of compassion and authenticity.
Society is moving to a place where it has absorbed the benefits of capitalism, combined with emerging decentralization of capability, where people are able to become the CEOs of themselves. We are learning the leaders that make compassion and empathy the foundation for their team motivate the most effectively.
The world is shifting from the belief that someone else has the answers for us, to the belief that we can find our own answers. The Millennial and Gen Z generations have anxiety levels that are 50% higher than past generations. If businesses are going to succeed they need to offer the support that those generations demand.
The bottom line is that authenticity, compassion, and empathy works for business.
Success Stories
Michael had been working with an accounting firm based in Phoenix for the past few years and observed the effect of a leadership change over that time. Over 24 months, the organization transformed through little micro adjustments each day to the point where employees would approach the leadership with solutions instead of questions. Because of these changes, the business has not just survived 2020 but has thrived.
Empowering an entire organization to make decisions changes the game. The person closest to the customer is in the best position to make decisions and if you ignore that and keep decision making at the top it’s not nearly as effective.
The companies that adopt these changes are the ones that are winning.
Cutting Through the Noise
On average, there are 85 interruptions that occur in the workplace each day. Each interruption has a productivity cost associated with, and they occur whether you are working from an office or from home.
Decision making tools can help you understand if an interruption is worth your attention. Your own values can become a filter that helps you simplify your work and focus on what matters most.
The Impact of 2020
2020 became a time of change and introspection. Michael used his time to update his website and write his book. Without knowing how the year was going to end, the forced pause created the time to evaluate Michael’s business that he might not have had time to do otherwise.
2020 revealed to Michael that he should be focusing on coaching others to become their most authentic selves and uplifting people so they can create a more communicative and empathetic society.
We are starting to see people come down from their triggering emotions and begin to recognize other people as being similar to themselves. In the coming months, we will start to see differentiators not as a problem, but as an opportunity to learn something new. The differences won’t separate and divide, they will advance.
Society advances far quicker when we honor and recognize differences as being beneficial and something that creates better solutions.
There will be a neutral zone where society will experiment and learn, and people will begin to see the benefits of coming together and learning from people that are different from them.
Michael’s Takeaway
The simplest way to find your authentic self is to be still. Sit, meditate, pray, be in nature. Society has historically rewarded people that took action, but that’s not going to hold as we transition into a new paradigm. Talk to your friends and mentors, engage information that you haven’t explored before, and experiment with new things. As you go through the process and take some time to reflect on your experience, you’ll gain some clarity. The key will be to separate yourself from the noise society pushes and find yourself in the silence.
Links:
http://www.facebook.com/MichaelScottSeaver
https://twitter.com/michaelsseaver
http://www.youtube.com/user/SeaverConsulting