Dancing in the Discomfort Zone with Anne Bonney
Let's face it, life is uncomfortable. Whether it's interacting with other humans (or trying to), going after our goals and improving our lives, or understanding other people's perspectives, preferences and proclivities, being able to face the discomforts in life with courage, compassion, confidence and resilience will make life a lot more enjoyable! So join me as we DANCE IN THE DISCOMFORT ZONE! We'll explore new ideas, learn how to build our confidence, courage and resilience, and laugh a little too, because life is serious enough. We need a little cha cha, and a little ha ha every once in a while! Welcome to the Discomfort Zone with Anne Bonney!
Dancing in the Discomfort Zone with Anne Bonney
Episode 230: Parissa Behnia: Business Whisperer, helping modern disruptor/drivers be better understood
This week I welcome Parissa Behnia (www.sixensestrategy.com) who works with what she calls Modern Badasses. These are high-performing senior leaders who go eighty miles per hour in a forty-five mile per hour zone and don’t always check to see if their teams (or clients) are strapped in for the ride, let alone interested in the destination. They are pattern interrupters and change agents.
People describe them as being bold, brash, creative and sometimes like a bull in a china shop. Just like that bull in a china shop, a modern badass can inadvertently push people away instead of attracting, engaging or enrolling them. And disengaging others comes with significant hard and soft costs.
Most people think it’s better to ignore or sideline this type of leader. The truth is, modern badasses can have a positive outsized impact on all of us when they create new ways to engage and enroll clients, peers, and teams instead of repelling them. They have the capacity to be understood, respected and valued for who they are as opposed to hiding themselves and playing a smaller game to suit someone else’s taste.
Want more from Parissa? Here are the links.
Bio
Parissa Behnia coaches C Suite and Senior leaders who are high will-high skill and have a growth mindset. In other words, they're badasses who go 80MPH in a 45MPH zone but don’t always check to see if their team is strapped in or interested in going for the ride. These leaders are high value to a company but their edges may start to diminish their value. These days, leadership is full of complexities whether you’re navigating from an audacious goal or trying to avoid that iceberg up ahead. In either case, Parissa's clients choose her because she's either sat in those seats or next to those seats often enough to know how it can feel to be alone in a crowded leadership room. She's unafraid to speak truth to power to help propel them forward.
One of Parissa’s favorite things to do is to stand in front of a whiteboard – real or pretend – to help clients imagine what the world could look like and then propels them as they navigate to that vision of success. This work enables clients to put together pieces of the puzzle to create the “A-Ha!” moment that ignites action. She leans into the discomfort of the unknown and invites her clients to embrace all of their talents (even ones they don’t recognize or value fully) to create their own paths to success..
Parissa is the author of “Modern Badass: Tales from the Leadership Front”. She has taught entrepreneurship seminars and is a frequent speaker on strategy, leadership and entrepreneurship. Parissa is a Certified Professional Coach, holds a BA from Northwestern University and MBA from NYU’s Stern School of Business.