What is your Winning Strategy?

 The Renascence Program is based on the foundational premise that everyone has a Winning Strategy. This is the way that you function in the world; it is what has made you successful so far. Understanding what your Winning Strategy is, observing the way you operate within its constraints and learning how to both acknowledge and move beyond it are key to transforming your relationship with the world around you.

 “A Winning Strategy is a lifelong, unconscious formula for achieving success. You did not design this Winning Strategy, it designed you. As a human being and as a leader, it is the source of your success and at the same time the source of your limitations. It defines your reality, your way of being, and your way of thinking. This, in turn focuses your attention and shapes your actions, thereby determining what’s possible and not possible for you as a leader”   - Tracy Goss, The Last Word on Power

 When we work with individuals to help them uncover their Winning Strategy, we begin by asking them to consider three elements:

 I listen for _______

So as to act by ________

In order to be, and avoid being __________

 As a simplified example, you might be someone who listens for what   expectations are, so that you can exceed them, in order to be successful and to avoid being perceived as mediocre.

 Doesn’t sound so bad, does it? In fact, you could argue that that particular Winning Strategy has propelled many people to the top of their organizations. And yet, your Winning Strategy can and does hold you back. In the example above, an individual with this specific Winning Strategy will always be listening for expectations. Immediately, this becomes a narrowing of what is possible because it is always in reaction to something that has been defined by others.

 So, your Winning Strategy has a dark side. To understand why, it helps to understand how you developed your Winning Strategy in the first place.

 The Origin of Your Winning Strategy

 At some point in our lives, we learned that there are specific expectations for how we move through the world.  These parameters were imposed on us by our families, our environment, our culture and our own interpretations. We learned that there was a way things were done and we learned that there were things that weren’t done.

 We all participate in this human condition which says that there is a way that things should and shouldn’t be. Our Winning Strategy is simply our way of making sure that things turn out the way they “should.”

 Except, here’s the stinker…. we all know that life doesn’t turn out the way it should; that terrible things happen, that people often operate from threat/fear that things might go wrong if they take a risk – or even if they don’t take a risk. This threat/fear leads to resistance to change and to an underlying belief that we cannot change how we react to the world around us.

 Resistance to change and a belief that we cannot rise above our circumstances leads to stagnation, anxiety, stress, and, if you are leading an organization of individuals who have not done this transformative work, as if you are pushing the same rock up the same hill (by yourself) only to watch it tumble back down.

 At Renascence, before we begin the 3-day intensive program, we work with each participant to define their Winning Strategy. Then we give them time to see how their Winning Strategy operates in life. We ask participants to become aware of the ways that their Winning Strategy both helps and hampers. In fact, it is the examination of the “dark side” of the Winning Strategy where the real fun begins.

 People begin to see how they have shut down conversations, ended relationships, left jobs and more because the situation didn’t fit with their Winning Strategy.

 In our work with organizations, leaders will learn what their Winning Strategy is and do a deep dive into the pros and cons of it. Then we give them the tools to truly move beyond – to see that what was once considered impossible is only defined by their Winning Strategy at work. Nothing more.

But, don’t blame yourself for this – right now your Winning Strategy is the only tool you have – if it is a hammer, then, everything looks like a nail. You have no choice – we will give you a choice – a choice on how you can live a transformed life.

 If you want to learn more about your Winning Strategy, reach out to us: