See a photo of Katie, her bio, Part 1 of this Q&A, Part 2, and Part 3.
Q&A with Katie Snapp, Question 4:
Q: You wrote to me when accepting my Q&A invitation: “With a credential that I earned last year, I now integrate my leadership training experience into coaching individuals to understand their belief systems and how those beliefs (both empowering as well as limiting ones) write their story. Corollary topics to the life story include: your career story, your money story, your wellness story, your relationship story). All those have the same premise about how we see the world through our story filter.” First, can you talk a bit more about the credential you earned, and secondly, can you discuss the advantages of “see[ing] the world through our story filter”?
A: My Life Story credential is through a terrific program called Live a New Life Story by Dr. David Krueger at Mentorpath. His vast experience as an executive coach and author has led to powerful material about recognizing your personal themes and patterns. I realized this had potent application to leaders in the workplace and developing ourselves as more effective leaders through self-discovery. Thus, my adaptation to leaders!
Much of our personal story is derived from the “messages” we received
while growing up. These become the filters for interpreting the world around us. Of course that can be a terrific tool for engaging us with what we are good at. For example, if your message was “always try your best,” you are more likely to see challenges as something to focus intently on and push through until you know you put all your effort into it.
Consider also the message that we sometimes get in a tough-love family of “don’t screw up.” Surely, mom’s and dad’s intent was something about becoming a high performer, but in our developing years we may have heard it as “you are close to being a failure.” Imagine! Now, our radar is honed in on any misstep and a fear of failure may hinder our efforts.
In adulthood, we can thwart many of those beliefs simply through conscious awareness. The problem though … many of those beliefs may be subconscious to us. Time to become introspective.