Hey Everyone,

A recent LinkedIn post of ours titled "5 Things Holding High Potentials Back" kind of hit a nerve. What resonated most with the audience was Imposter Syndrome, Inner Barriers, and Presence & Influence. While reading the comments and preparing Thursday's post, I immediately thought: "Inner Team". We haven't covered the inner team yet. That’s about to change. Thanks everyone for being here. Thank you!

It sounded like a chapter from David Foster Wallace's epic novel Infinite Jest: In stressful situations, she felt her face looked wobbly or abnormal. The anxiety of getting red cheeks. Sweating. Putting on a smile like she was acting. Trying to control all her bodily motions at all costs. I don't need to mention that this cost my client enormous energy and focus—so much so that she could only remember parts of what she actually said or did in these moments.

You can follow Andrew Huberman's protocols, adopt Peter Attia's longevity strategies, or channel David Goggins' intensity, like shout at yourself all the time. But none of it will change much.

You have to go where it hurts—whether through coaching or therapy. For this, I like to look at my clients' inner team. So here we go:

Psychotherapeutic research on the inner team is largely based on the concept developed by Friedemann Schulz von Thun. The inner team approach is related to systemic family therapy models and schema therapies.

Friedemann Schulz von Thun is a German psychologist born in 1944. He is a psychologist based in Hamburg and your guy for interpersonal and intrapersonal communication. He is best known for developing influential theoretical models like the Four-Sides Model (also called the communication square) and the Inner Team model. He has his own institute and has major influence in fields like coaching, counseling, and organizational development.

What is the Inner Team?

We can view the mind as composed of multiple "inner team members" or internal voices representing different needs, values, and beliefs. You can make them talk to your inner boss, see what is going on with a certain problem.

What can be the Inner Teams benefits?

Note: This is a shortened version of the Inner Team exercise. I'm presenting it here so you can try it at home on your own. The full Inner Team session in coaching takes two hours.

Step 1: Catch the pull

Awareness is the first step here. Without asking your inner team players, my client started with noticing the inner tension. And naming the state she was in e.g. as self-doubt.

Action: Name it in one line: "I feel like I don't belong" or "I'm holding back my voice."

She wrote these beliefs down. You can also experiment with this step and give this scene a movie title. Make it very catchy. Like: “Melted Faces”. Well, not very catchy, Moritz, but a start!

Step 2: Set up your Inner Team

I give you a list of typical Inner Team key players. What are your key players?

Typical Members of the "Inner Government"

Strengthening Sources

Typical Members of the "Crisis Team"

The Inner Kindergarten

Step 3: Ask your Inner Team

Now you have your team. The players can be talked to. In this short version, I would recommend you, to point out 1 single player, who might be the loudest in your situation.

Action: You can ask yourself: Which player in your inner team is responsible for the core belief from Step 1?

Step 4: Visualize the core player

You can try to get to know your core player. What are his or her characteristics? What might it be derived from? Is this player holding more than one core belief?

Action: Make a sketch of how your player looks. Write down the beliefs and/or feelings/emotions accompanied with this player.

For this, you can follow along with there questions (in like you ask your core player and the player answers):

Step 5: Lock the shift in

Now, you can reflect on what you worked out. You can make it a new habit and start talking to your core player, e.g. once a day.

This alone can lead to a big inner change.

Action: Write three lines (talking to the player) once a day.

This is your first step of a controlled inner communication. And as Schulze von Thun coined it:

"One cannot not communicate. Communication never happens without intention."

Of course, this is meant as a reference to Paul Watzlawick. But, as we have a lot of high potentials and leaders in this newsletter, please think about this other quote of von Thun during the next weeks:

"The highest level of listening is to grant the partner support for self-clarification."

Let that sink in!

That’s it for this month.

See you again on Saturday in 2 weeks, the 13th of December.

Take care,

Yours,

Moritz

PS:

Can you rarely make time for physical activity or regeneration? Do youI feel emotionally unstable and have difficulties to stay calm under pressure? Is managing people emotionally and energetically draining for you?

If that sounds familiar, Mastering Emotions is for you. I began coaching in 2023. Since then, l've coached over 30 executives, entrepreneurs, and high potentials on building Emotional Intelligence and into becoming future leaders.

If you want to learn more about my coaching book an orientation call here:

Masteri

PPS:

If you're still undecided, no problem -we've got you covered. Take our Future Leader Quiz first. We'll send you a personalized analysis of your challenges and a potential outline of your coaching journey with us.