This week our post is from Steve Core one of our Holland based members of the FED team. Steve is English and has lived in Holland for the last 16 years with his Dutch wife and their two children. To read more about Steve click here.

Steve Core

One of my favourite questions is: Do you feel like you are a round peg in a round hole or a round peg in a square hole? I think the concept comes from playing with Meccano and wooden blocks as a child.

The context in which I ask clients this question is normally related to their job. From personal experience I know what it is like to experience being in a job that felt very much like I was a round peg fitting into a square hole. To best describe this I would use words like : tiring, energy draining, confusing, stressful. I am afraid to say that often working with large organisations I see and coach many many people who also feel like round pegs trying to fit into square holes. In other words, they (and I in a previous job) are very much in survival mode with their focus on the problems and circumstances of the present. They (and I) are very task focussed, often seeing the world through somewhat blinkered glasses with little feedback and self awareness, not learning nor growing and in many ways somewhat stuck in a rut.

I also know what it is like to really feel like a round peg in a round hole and I often work with and coach clients in this mode. These people have lots of vitality and their work adds to, rather than distracts from, their energies. These people tend to also have a fulfilling life both inside and outside of their work. They are up to something, they have a purpose and a clarity in their thinking as they are leading themselves and others towards a desired future that matters to them. They are in short, at their best in a balanced and enriching type of way. They know who they are and they are playing on their strengths for most of the time.

Leadership nudge: Are you a round peg in a round hole? How can you become even more so?
How can you support and challenge your colleagues, family and friends to also become more round pegs in round holes?

By Steve Core