Are you ready to improve your leadership skills and yourself? Michael Diettrich Chastain joins the biz besties to discuss his new book Changes. Michael is a licensed therapist that focuses on leadership development and the psychology of business at Arc Integrated. His years of work in this field have lead him to write Changes for busy professionals and team leaders that want to create change in their own lives. Listen to this episode of My Biz Bestie to hear more about the book and how it can help you improve your leadership skills and yourself.

Why did Michael write this book?

Michael had blogged for his company’s website for several years and after a while, he began to notice a common theme to his blogging. He noticed that the clients that he worked with usually needed more help in certain areas of their lives before they could improve their leadership skills. Most busy professionals that he works with are looking for clear direction translating insight into their behavior. Unfortunately, insight alone doesn’t create sustainable change. To improve your leadership skills, you must take action for lasting change to come about. He knew that he wanted to help more people create change in their lives and so began the lengthy process of writing this book.

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What is the book, Changes, about?

There are 2 parts to the book. Part one focuses on 7 life domains that are important to improving your leadership skills and yourself. These habits are good predictors of success and failure. They make up the acronym Changes.

  • Cognition – how people think

  • Heart – how people feel

  • Action – what people do

  • Nourishment – the physical component of how people sleep, move, and eat

  • Guts – the courage people have to act

  • Environment- people places and things people surround themselves with

  • Spirit – belief systems which include spiritual and nonspiritual

The second part of the book helps the reader understand who to ask for help if they struggle to do the work on their own. It focuses on helping people find the right kind of professional to help them. Michael used his experience with clients as well as plenty of research to write the book.

How can you use the book to improve your leadership skills?

Michael recommends that you choose a few areas from the book to evaluate in your own life and move forward from there. Each section has work that you can do on your own. For instance, consider the stories that you tell yourself. Write out 3 negative stories that you tell yourself and think of ways that you can reframe those stories. What you tell yourself stays with you. What you may consider failures can be reframed into a different narrative. Listen to this interview with Michael Diettrich Chastain to hear how you can improve your leadership skills and your life.

What should people do when they recognize that they need some support?

As people dive into the book they may recognize that there is a theme with the work that they are doing to improve themselves. They may find that they need a bit more help than the exercises in the book can offer. Think about your communication style and personality then think about the problem you are having. Is the problem stemming from a trauma or is it a lack of skill set or lack of motivation? There is a big difference between having a mentor, a coach, and a therapist. The book outlines the different disciplines so that people understand what they’re getting into. It also recommends ways to choose the right kind of professional to help you improve your leadership skills and your life.

In this episode…

  • [5:42] A bit about Michael’s book

  • [11:46] What are the different pillars of his book?

  • [16:58] Where to begin the process of diving into the work?

  • [22:35] What do people do when they recognize that they need some support?

  • [31:02] Are there any common patterns among leaders?

Resources & People Mentioned

  • BOOK – Changes by Michael Diettrich Chastain

Connect with Michael Diettrich Chastain

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