Interview with a BP #4: Connie Cook

“One last piece, which on a personal note is extremely important moving forward – always do what you do because you love it and because you intend to and will always set your team up for success.”

Becoming a Business Practitioner is a big step, but the rewards are also tremendous. We wanted to speak with our BPs and get a sense of what they felt the biggest challenges and rewards of being a BP were, as well as foreground the amazing work they do. This interview with Connie Cook is our fourth, revealing the secrets of life as a BP and the incredible difference they make in the Maps community and beyond. 

 

INTRO

Connie has been involved with People Resources and training and development for over 20 years. Communicating Wisely Ltd proudly began providing successful strategic solutions for individuals and organizations in 2014. She is a professional speaker, trainer and member of the Board of Directors with the Canadian Association of Professional Speakers (CAPS), a certified adult educator, HR professional/consultant, and published author.

TOP MOTIVATOR: SEARCHER 

Connie believes it is deeply important to consider your motivators before acting, particularly in reference to becoming a BP: “Understand your motivation for becoming a BP first – do your motivators line up?” As a strong Searcher, she believes being a BP is perfectly aligned with her primary motivator: “Motivational Maps transformed my ability to help others which of course was essential given the Searcher turned out to be my top motivator at a very high level (known in our terminology as a spike!) This of course means it is an absolute need for me to fulfill my Searcher motivator: having purpose and making a difference.”

 

Not only is it important to consider whether your motivators are aligned with the role, but becoming a BP carries with it a responsibility to others. As she puts it: “Do you have what it takes to work with and guide others on their own journey as a Licensed Practitioner? Do you want to create and train a team who will look to you for guidance?” It’s clear that being a BP is about leadership, which is an ever-increasingly important topic in today’s age, where leaders are coming under closer and closer scrutiny (often with very good reason).

 

Setting an example is not always easy, especially when motivations vary from person to person and no two profiles are the same. However, Connie describes her path with Maps as: “an amazing journey and I have never looked back.”

 

TOP TIP

 

Connie became aware of Motivational Maps through another LP. “The accuracy was amazing and all I could think about really was, wow – how great would this tool be for those in HR, and the manager we assist, with their workforce?” With her already significant experience in adult education and the Volunteer Sector, she realised its potential to help people not only gain awareness of their inner drivers, but harness their ability to learn and grow: “The answer is understanding their motivators to remove personalization of issues and actually set themselves up for success and become happier and create more productive outcomes.”

 

The idea of removing personalization from issues is very powerful. By using the Maps as a language and framework for talking about issues, it becomes about a conflict of abstract drivers rather than conflict on a ‘character’ or ‘personality’ level. Maps provides visibility to these drivers and names them, in some ways externalising them and separating them from ourselves.

 

“The Motivational Maps for me was what I refer to as the “Dyson Vacuum” or as the younger folks refer to as “The Bomb” over all the other tools I had used or heard others use,” Connie says. “Where there are people, there should absolutely be Motivational Maps!”

What is "Interview with a BP"

BP stands for "Business Practitioner". Within Motivational Maps, there are three "tiers" of practitioner: Licensed Practitioners (LPs) who sell and interpret Maps to help companies motivate and improve the wellbeing of staff. Business Practitioners who can recruit and train LPs as well as tackling bigger Maps opportunities. And Senior Practitioners (SPs) who can train and create Business Practitioners, coordinate large networks, and develop Motivational Maps.