Shirzad Chamine: Positive Intelligence

Shirzad has been the CEO of the largest coach training organization in the world. He has lectured on Positive Intelligence at Stanford University and has trained faculty at Stanford and Yale business schools. He is the author of The New York Times bestseller Positive Intelligence: Why Only 20% of Teams and Individuals Achieve Their True Potential and How You Can Achieve Yours (Amazon, Bookshop)*.

By overusing our strengths, they can become our weakness. It’s just one of the many ways that leaders self-sabotage. In this conversation, Shirzad and I explore how to shift from self-sabotage to self-mastery.

Key Points

Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them. -Henry David Thoreau

• We are all a mixed bag of Darth Vader (saboteur) and Jedi knight (sage).
• By overusing a strength, you turn it into a weakness.
• Rather than attempting to eliminate all our saboteurs, it’s more helpful to be intentional about quieting them down.
• The four most common saboteurs that show up for leaders are Controller, Stickler, Hyper Achiever, Hyper Rational.
• Sage perspective: Every outcome or circumstance can be turned into an opportunity.
• A 10-second brain shift can help quiet your mind and engage the sage. One way to do this is to rub your fingers together and notice the friction to get your mind out of autopilot.

Resources Mentioned

• Positive Intelligence: Why Only 20% of Teams and Individuals Achieve Their True Potential and How You Can Achieve Yours by Shirzad Chamine (Amazon, Bookshop)*
• Saboteur Assessment
• Dave’s assessment results

Interview Notes

Download my interview notes in PDF format (free membership required).

Related Episodes

• How to Tame Your Inner Critic, with Tara Mohr (episode 232)
• The Path to More Joy in Work and Life, with Judith Joseph (episode 734)
• How to See What’s Holding You Back, with Marty Dubin (episode 765)

Discover More

Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic. To accelerate your learning, uncover more inside Coaching for Leaders Plus.