download the audio file [00:21] Opening / Introduction [00:43] Ann, please tell us a little bit about your background? * A twenty-five-year career as a speech pathologist, working with people who suffered brain injuries. * Became an executive coach about ten years ago. * Have been working with Joe Lynch helping transportation and logistics companies grow their sales. [02:56] Where do the saboteur types come from? * Saboteur type comes from the book, Positive Intelligence: Why Only 20% of Teams and Individuals Achieve Their True Potential and How You Can Achieve Yours, written by Shirzad Chamine * Check out Shirzad Chamine at TEDx Stanford * Chamine's groundbreaking research exposes ten well-disguised mental Saboteurs. * It's the idea that you have strategies that have been with you since you were very young, that you use to navigate your life. * The strategies there to help us meet the three basic needs of independence, acceptance, and security by asserting, earning, or avoiding. [06:19] Tell us a bit about saboteur types. * First, there is the chief saboteur, or judge, which kicks off all the rest. There are three saboteurs that try to create independence: * The controller: individuals who must have control of everything. * The stickler: somebody who is trying to make sure that every detail is covered. * The avoider: an individual who doesn't want to be pinned down. Next is the group that are trying to gain acceptance: * The hyper-achiever: one who has no idea of what is good or excellent because they need to be perfect. * The pleaser: an individual who tries to gain acceptance by pleasing everybody. * The victim: people who feel like their situation is uniquely flawed and they can't do anything about it. The last group is the people who are trying to gain security: * The restless: people who are always wanting to move on to the next thing. * The hyper-vigilant: always scanning the horizon for the next thing. * The hyper-rational: they have a very difficult time with the relationship side of things. [13:25] I'm mostly a pleaser, an avoider, and a hyper-achiever. How does that hold me back when it comes to sales? * Pleasers are working to make sure people are happy all the time. You may have difficulty, for example, letting go of a contract that's not working for you anymore. * There are a lot of different, small tasks to do when running a business, and an avoider can come up with ways to not do those. You can find yourself wasting time. * A hyper-achiever might overextend themselves because they are trying too hard to achieve. * The saboteur assessment is a profile, not a diagnosis. It's a way to start the coaching conversation. [17:51] What's nice about these assessments is that just knowing that these are some of your problems becomes a part of the solution. * It lets you take a step back without beating yourself up. * Saboteurs are sneaky because the underpinnings of them are things that have served you well. * As life becomes more complicated and if you want to take something to the next level, you have to be aware of these. [23:18] Once I take this test and know what my saboteurs are, what's my next step? * It's important to think about some of the situations that they might be sabotaging you in. * It's easier said than done, because what typically happens is that the individual will just begin encouraging others to take the assessment because they see these saboteurs in them. It's more difficult to see them in yourself. * After becoming aware, you need to start caring about how they are impacting you and then do something about it. * These saboteurs are patterns that are deeply embedded in you. There are exercises you can do to work on them. [29:12] If I didn't work with an executive coach, it's difficult for me to imagine how I would address some of these things. It takes a concerted effort over time to get where you want to be. * When you do this kind of thing with a coach, the coach isn't going to tell you what to do