Home Archives for coaching

Symposium Supplies Space to Study Sustainability

Posted on June 29, 2010 Written by 1 Comment

image002

What is sustainability as it pertains to coaches and coaching programs?

This is one question among many that 40 professionals convened in Washington, D.C. last week (June 24-25) to explore at the ICCO Symposium; a learning event for multiple stakeholders of coaching in organizations.  The beautiful McLean, Virginia office space for the event was generously provided by LMI Consulting.  The space for the dialogue was created and sustained by the co-chairs: Lee Salmon and Susana Isaacson, the design team: Karol Eller, Bill Carrier, Meredith Woodruff, Vicki Foley, and Donna Karlin in the role of Dean.

Participants hailing from as far as Hong Kong and Canada included executive coaches, leaders of coaching programs, coach educators and researchers, as well as executives from organizations that use coaching. Various illustrious organizations were represented: Georgetown University, Cambria Consulting, the CIA, Federal Consulting Group, Sherpa, Lee Hecht Harrison, the State Department, and the case presenters below.

The structure of the symposium, like all ICCO Symposia, included four case studies presented by various organizations looking to dramatically impact coaching in their organizations, and a series of six “animation” questions for reflection and dialogue.  In this event, case presenters from Zappos, Booz Allen Hamilton, NASA, and the U.S. Department of Treasury shared a fascinating window into the complexities and challenges of infusing coaching programs into the culture of their various organizations.  As one participant worded it, the symposium is “a multi-sectoral conversation about coaching.”  The magic happens in the break-out sessions where participants provide either coaching or consulting for each of the case study presenters.

A theme that resurfaced several times throughout the two day event was the question of “for the sake of what?”, and it showed up in relation to developing leaders, corporate social responsibility, sustainability of resources as well as expansion and sustainability of coaching programs in organizations.  The exploration of sustainability began with a look at how coaching impacts people, profit (results) and the planet.  Conversations journeyed through questions of generating sustainability in ourselves as leaders and coaches; being resilient, adaptable, regenerative, and ready to coach leaders on the forefront of crisis and change.  Speed bumps in the road to sustainability include commoditization of coaching, scalability, agility, and budget..  Large scale coaching program sustainability requires political coverage and advocacy internally, and must be aligned with the strategy of an organization operationally, philosophically, financially, and socially, yet we considered how systemically, it changes the planet.  We wondered how to maintain the integrity of coaching as it morphs with the changes of any given organization, its leaders, the economy, and the world. A strong emergent theme was advancing beyond ROI to the effective communication of (and embedding within the culture) the stories of coaching’s impact and results system-wide.

Is sustainability a myth?  Shouldn’t we (and coaching in general) engage in continual re-invention?  Why put sustainability in at all?  To sustain what? If not sustainability, then what should we be exploring and helping leaders to explore?  How do leaders weave coaching into the tapestry of the whole organizations, sustaining the values of the organization while transforming leadership learning into action?  Should coaching become integrated into the culture such that the need to discuss sustaining a coaching program is no longer relevant, and coaching just becomes “the way we do things”?

What role do ethics, boundaries, consistency, oversight, systemic feedback loops, trends, and stakeholder perceptions have in the bigger picture of coaching in organizations?  Six groups met to discuss these challenges during the animation segment of the symposium, and remarkably, in spite of six very different questions posed and explored, each group reported very similar themes.

What, in your experience, is the secret to sustaining coaching programs in organizations?  Is that even a relevant pr meaningful question? Comment below and share your thoughts!

Filed Under: Leadership Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Leading Coaches’ Center Update and Goodies for You

Posted on June 11, 2010 Written by Leave a Comment

Thanks to everyone who joined in our mastermind call yesterday with Gerhard Schwandt about efficiency in the context of energy flows!  If you missed it, you can access the recording via the Members Only page or use the link here:
http://leadingcoachescenter.com/clubhouse/mastermind-live/recording-of-leading-coaches-mastermind-call-featuring-gerhard-schwandt

I also wanted to point out all kinds of goodies that you may not know about if you haven’t logged into the LCC site for awhile:

1.  Meet Members: We now have 274 members, many of whom are luminaries in the business.  You can search by name or keyword, or you can just go to visit profiles where you can send messages or write on the “wall” of any member. There’s a video of how to navigate that page here: http://leadingcoachescenter.com/blog/how-to/how-to-meet-members

2.  Join the BE A VOICE team: So, one of the annoying limitations of this system is that the real juice of it all (i.e., the conversations) happen in teams.  In order to have one place where we can all be in conversation together, you have to join the Be A Voice team, which is why it’s got it’s own separate tab in the navigation bar.  Please join!  http://leadingcoachescenter.com/groups/be-a-voice/

3.  Post your Announcements and Questions for This Community: Did you know you can now post anything you’d want to announce to our community or engage our community to participate in?  You’ve got to be logged in, and then you can go to the Find A Team tab, and scroll until you get to a team called Announcements and Questions for This Community.  Then you can post away!  Be sure to check out the goodies already posted there: http://leadingcoachescenter.com/groups/announcements-and-questions-for-this-community

4.  Coaching Agenda Debate: Be sure to visit the Keep Learning tab when logged in so you can access the comments field to add your two cents to the various posts there, including the debate about the coaching agenda (yours or your client’s):  http://leadingcoachescenter.com/blog/challenges/coaching-agenda-debate

5.  Leverage the Leading Coaches’ Center for your own purposes: Did you know that you, as a member, can create a team anytime you want?  You can create many teams!  You can specify if the team is private or public.  Here’s how that can help you…let’s say you belong to a coaching team or a mastermind group of coaches.  Or perhaps you are building a coaching cadre for your own business.  You can create a team in the LCC and then invite your group to participate in your team.  You can make it private, if you wish, so that only your invitees can see what’s there and participate in that conversation.  You can use the platform of the LCC, which is already built and free to you to use, to communicate with your group in an online forum specific to them.  Let me know if I can help you think through how you might use the LCC for your business, group, or team.

6.  Post your photo if you haven’t already! Your profile is naked without your photo….and if you haven’t filled out any of your profile fields, you likely are not even showing up in the members area.  Here’s a video about how to post your photo:  http://leadingcoachescenter.com/blog/how-to/how-to-add-your-picture

Filed Under: LCC Updates for Members Tagged: , , , , ,

Discount on ICCO event registration fees until April 30!

Posted on April 22, 2010 Written by 1 Comment

ICCO Spring Break…Better than a Day at the Beach!

For a limited time—only until April 30, 2010—celebrate spring by enjoying 10% off the cost to attend any in-person ICCO event in June 2010!
Join us at ICCO’s landmark symposium events—intimate, senior-level deep dives into the crucial issues of coaching in international organizations. Limited to 40 or fewer people, our symposia promise important
professional opportunities:

  • Learn deeply by doing—all attendees participate in consulting and coaching action

teams to help real-life participants with real-life problems in real time, through in-depth
“case studies.”

  • Get the big picture—improve your ability to leverage coaching in organizations by

understanding the roles in our profession like never before.  Symposia include
participants who are coaches, coaching program managers, coaching educators,
researchers and coaching firms.

  • Meet your peers—as a venue exclusively oriented on coaching in organizations, you

have the rare opportunity to interact on important issues with your most relevant
colleagues.

  • Take practical tools home—in conversation with colleagues and learn about (and

sometimes develop!) new tools, practices, models, and examples with immediate
applicability to your own work

Sign up now for these great opportunities as spaces are extremely limited:

Growing Global Executives: Feedback and Coaching Practices in a Multi-Cultural
Economy, 17-18 June, 2010, Costa Mesa, CA
• Participate in 4 case studies about crucial issues relating to coaching across and within multiple cultures
• Get insight into what helps coaches reduce language and culture conflict while enhancing positive diversity
impact

Members click here to register
Non-members click here to register

Building Sustainable Coaching Programs in Organizations, 24-25 June, 2010, Washington DC area (SCROLL DOWN FOR DETAILS)
• Participate in 4 case studies about critical challenges to coaching programs
• Get insight into what makes programs succeed at different moments in their growth—from idea to
established

Members click here to register for the Symposium
Non members click here to register for the Symposium

Sign up by April 30th, 2010 to ensure your place at the table and to give yourself a well-deserved
professional spring break!

Special Bonus:

Sign up now and get the spring break discount for ICCO’s first-ever Colloquium—a special learning opportunity for individuals and teams to explore new models, perspectives, tools and conversations to evaluate and design coaching programs at Designing and Building a Sustainable Community of Practice for Coaching Program Coordinators, 26-27 June, 2010 Washington DC area

Members click here to register for the Colloquium
Non-members click here to register for the Colloquium

Details on the DC Symposium:

On June 24 – 25, 2010, The International Consortium for Coaching in Organizations (ICCO) is coming to Washington, DC to host a symposium on “Building Sustainable Coaching Programs in Organizations”

Out of all the change, growth, challenge, and personal development that has evolved over time, the one thing we knew we wanted to do was to evolve the Coaching profession in organizations from a multi-stakeholder perspective. An answer to this need was the creation of our unique Symposia.

We know how you value the experience of learning, growth insight and shared meaning. If you’re in the business of growing people in any capacity, whether as coaches, coach trainers, educators or internal corporate program leaders, you need to be a part of this dialogue. Our challenge today is how to build coaching programs in organizations and make them sustainable. This experiential symposium will not only enlighten you as to what’s happening in the ‘worlds’ of all stakeholders of Coaching but will give you the opportunity to build something unique to your area of work.

When you come away from this event, you can expect to take away tools and concepts that can be used immediately upon your return. That’s a given. You will also take with you ideas and insights that will expand over time, increasing the value of your experience. Add that to the like-minded colleagues you’ll be interacting with, and this symposium will be an extremely powerful, unforgettable experience.

And there’s more!

After the two day symposium on June 26-27, 2010, you’ll have the option to join us for a day and half day Colloquium with dialogue and provocative strategic thinking to continue the conversation, brainstorm, share ideas, ask questions and listen to business and marketing best practices to add to the overall experience.  The Colloquium will use proprietary process facilitation tools to help the group design and build a community of practice for coaching program coordinators representing government, the private sector, non-profits, and universities. We are encouraging program coordinators to bring their teams to this event, including one or more coaches that work with them. This is the first time a diverse network of coaching program coordinators will get together.

How does a Symposium work?

Through intimate conversations, participants explore real life case studies presented by organizational leaders and by coaches. Both organizations and coaches benefit from the variety of experiences and the different perspectives that emerge in this exploration. Organizational decision makers discover the value of coaching for issues that affect them in real time, and they share with other leaders strategies for making the best use of coaching. Coaches gain from seeing their colleagues in action, and they get a glimpse of coaching from the organizational consumer’s perspective. Identifiable details of the case studies are held in confidence and stay within the walls of the Symposium.

Roundtable discussions about innovative coaching applications reveal individual perspectives. Similar to the conversations held during Executive Coach Summit gatherings, conversations are held in small groups and are self-managed, often in an open space style. Groups reconvene to share their findings with the larger community.

Participant comments from past Symposia may be found on the ICCO website: http://www.coachingconsortium.org

Registration will be on a first-come, first-served basis so register now as space is limited to 35 participants in each event. We keep the numbers small to ensure rich, generative dialogue.

To Register: On-line through the ICCO website www.coachingconsortium.org/Events.html

To write a cheque: Contact: leaders@coachingconsortium.org

Symposium Fees: $495.00 member rate USD

$695.00 non-member rate USD

Registration for the Colloquium is optional and there is a discount for those who wish to attend both events.  Details are on the ICCO website www.coachingconsortium.org/ Events.html

For more information contact leaders@coachingconsortium.org

We are looking forward to sharing this experience with you.

With deepest respect,

G. Lee Salmon and Susana Isaacson, Co- Chairs

Symposium Design Team Members:

Vicki Foley, Meredith Woodruff, Karol Eller, Bill Carrier

Dean: Donna Karlin

Filed Under: Resources Tagged: , , , , ,

BOOK REVIEW: Fascinate – Your Seven Triggers to Persuasion and Captivation

Posted on March 25, 2010 Written by 1 Comment

This guest post is contributed by Leading Coach David McGraw.

Picture 1

A Road Map to Fascination

Sally Hogshead has written the must-read marketing book of the year.  The book is entitled “Fascinate: Your Seven Triggers to Persuasion and Captivation.” Her writing style is casual, laid back, and in-your-face challenging all at the same time. Hogshead is on a mission to raise your awareness, expand your curiosity, and push yourself into intentional action. She succeeds in providing a road map to fascination.

On the surface, Fascinate is purely about marketing your brand. Using this material to enhance your personal brand and marketing is great, but using this material to improve your coaching is where the real intangible value comes in.

Fascination is something that gets under our skin, slips into our conversations, and challenges us to move.  We knowingly and unknowingly use fascination in our daily lives. Fascination axioms are instinctive, innate, and a natural part of our make-up. How we use fascination triggers affects how we show up in the world.

The Seven Universal Triggers

Through her research, Hogshead has determined there are seven universal fascination triggers. Each of these triggers is capable of sparking an intellectual, emotional, or physical response. Leveraging these triggers is a road to persuasion and competitive advantage.

As you read the trigger descriptions, begin thinking about how this applies to your coaching practice. If you want to dive deeper as you are thinking about each trigger, click on the name link and watch a short video on each trigger.

  1. Lust: Seduced by the anticipation of pleasure
    1. Stop thinking, start feeling
    2. Make the ordinary more emotional
    3. Uses all 5 senses
    4. Tease and flirt
  2. Mystique: Intrigued by unanswered questions
    1. Spark curiosity
    2. Withhold information
    3. Build Mythology
    4. Limit access
  3. Alarm: Take urgent action to avoid negative consequences
    1. Define consequences
    2. Create deadlines
    3. Increase perceived danger
    4. Focus the most feared result
    5. Use distress to steer positive action
  4. Prestige: Inspire an envious eagerness to possess something
    1. Develop Emblems
    2. Set a new standard
    3. Limited availability
    4. Earn it
  5. Power: Get people to defer to you and your message
    1. Dominate
    2. Control the environment
    3. Reward and punish
  6. Vice: Get people to act outside of their normal behavior
    1. Create taboos
    2. Lead others astray
    3. Define absolutes
    4. Give a wink
  7. Trust: People will find you safe and comfortable. They will confide in you.
    1. Become familiar
    2. Repeat and retell
    3. Be authentic
    4. Accelerate trust

If these triggers seem like common sense, it is because they are. They are a natural part of who we are.  We have been using them since we were born. The magic comes from identifying when they are at work, when they are not, and leveraging them into action as needed.

The six golden hallmarks of fascination

To do so, Hogshead introduces the six golden hallmarks of fascination. They are a framework to build upon, conversation starters, and the groundwork for action. I have added my initial thoughts on how they relate to coaching. I invite you to add your thoughts to the conversation.

  1. Provokes Strong and Immediate Emotional Reaction
    1. Definition: People respond immediately. People either love it or hate it
    2. Brand Examples: Fox News, Disney
    3. Coaching Value: Clients move when they are emotionally triggered
    4. Coaching Application:  What emotional attachment does my client have to this challenge?  Are they passionate about it or strongly opposed?  What trigger is needed to increase their emotional response?
  2. Creates Advocates
    1. Definition: People who provide active and vocal support. We need to reward them, inspire them, and support their communication. Help them become a part of our story
    2. Brand Examples: Harley Davidson, Twilight
    3. Coaching Value: Client support structure
    4. Coaching Application: Who can support my client in their journey?  Identify people with skills, influence, or who love them. What trigger do I use to get them to request help?
  3. Becomes “Cultural Shorthand” for a Specific Set of Actions or Values
    1. Definition: Reference point for people to identify themselves, and their world
    2. Brand Examples: Home Depot (do-it-yourself), Target (accessible style)
    3. Coaching Value: Identify core values; Cares (what matters most to them); Goal setting
    4. Coaching Application:  Client’s stories invariably lead back to a major obstacle. Does the client identify themselves with their journey? What trigger is needed to own this desire?
  4. Incites Conversation
    1. Definition: Get people to connect with us; generate conversational buzz any way we can
    2. Brand Examples: NFL Fantasy Football, TMZ.com
    3. Coaching Value: The more our clients share their goals, the more they are attached to them, and the more likely they are to succeed
    4. Coaching Application: Push clients to communicate their desires. To have the courage to share, be vulnerability, and lead the way.
  5. Forces competitors to realign around it
    1. Definition: Establishes a new standard. People take notice, think, act, and behave in a new way
    2. Brand Examples: Wal-Mart, Apple
    3. Coaching Value: Clients recognize their gifts and allow their voice to emerge
    4. Coaching Application:  Help the client find and tell a new story for themselves. Help them find their swagger
  6. Taps Into (or Even Causes) Social Revolutions
    1. Definition: People gather around a central message. Accelerates word of mouth marketing. Amp your efforts without trying
    2. Brand Examples: Zappos.com, Red Bull, Netflix
    3. Coaching Value: Clients take pride and build confidence when talking about their successes. Coachee Referrals
    4. Coaching Application: Teach your clients to celebrate their success. Pull the trigger and get them started. Win-Win situation

In this short overview, I hope you have found a few uses for leveraging Fascinate in your business and with your clients.

One final note…it is true…I drank a lot of Hogshead Kool-Aid (Jaegermeister)…I could not help myself…I was FASCINATED with Sally Hogshead’s message. Read the book. Take the Fascinate quiz. Become fascinated yourself.

What do you think? Did I drink too much Jaeger?  (Log in to comment below)

To contact David or learn more about his company, visit his Leading Coaches’ Center page or on the web at http://wevivify.com/

Filed Under: Resources Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Sabotage! How you’re stopping your clients truly succeeding

Posted on February 13, 2010 Written by 2 Comments

Guest Post provided by Leading Coach Michael Bungay Stanier

You’re FABulous

You’re a senior coach, wise and subtle, well trained and with many hours of coaching conversations under your belt.

It’s both a rewarding and comfortable place to be, and we do good in the world. (I’m taking the liberty to count myself as one of your peers.)

And I suspect you don’t need me to stroke your ego. We get our share of that already.

Hence the title of this post – I think the interesting place is when we can stir things up a little and ‘pop the trunk’ to see what’s really going on.

Let’s get juicy

The question I started with was how do I take my coaching from Good to Great. (You’ll see why in the bio below.)

That led me to ask about further tricks and tips and techniques, further ways of knowing more and more about less and less until I knew everything about nothing. (I stole that line from a t-shirt I saw a PhD student wearing once.)

But the question I ended up with, which I found more useful and is somehow related, is this:

Let’s assume that in some ways I’m sabotaging my clients. If that was true, how would I be doing that?

Mmmm. Interesting. Here are three things that come to mind for me.

1. Loss of focus

I show up with the best of intentions, and our early conversations are fantastic. We talk big picture, we tap into values, we plan change.

But then the mist of familiarity swirls up and gets in my way. And I lose sight of why I’m doing this coaching. Is it just for the money? How does this work shape me and change me? Does it? Do I want it to?

2. Loss of courage

I talk about the “fierce love” I have for my clients, and by that I mean a willingness to challenge them and provoke them, support them and push them when fear or comfort or trumps the desire for change.

And then I find myself colluding in the conversation. Going “u-huh” rather than “really?” Accepting it as true rather than asking, as Byron Katie would, “is that really true?”

Perhaps the opposite of courage isn’t fear but comfort.

3. Loss of resilience

Mary Beth O’Neill in her terrific book Executive Coaching with Backbone and Heart talks about the importance of presence, the ability to retain your sense of self in the midst of ambiguity. And I think that requires resilience, an ability to keep going.

A mentor once said to me that the longer you can hold your breath underwater – swimming through ambiguity – the more interesting a place you tend to pop up.

But sometime my needs for certainty gets in the way, I push to make things real that aren’t, push to pin things down and find the answers (through cunningly directed questions of course – I wouldn’t be so foolish as to appear to give advice.)

Is this Good Work? Or Great Work?

It seems to come down to this question after all. If I say coaching is Great Work for me – work that stretches and inspires, work that has meaning, work that makes a difference – how will I step up the edge of myself and stand in the ambiguity and discomfort of it all, the same discomfort we expect our clients to embrace.

What about you? How do you limit yourself? Or perhaps, if you’re circumspect about publishing what’s in your shadows, let me ask how you manage your way through it?

Thoughts in the comments below…

Michael Bungay Stanier’s new book is Do More Great Work: Stop the busywork and start the work that matters. As well as providing 15 practical, coach-based exercise to find, start and sustain Great Work, it has guest contributions from people such as Seth Godin, Dave Ulrich and Leo Babauta.  The first edition was enthusiastically endorsed by 11 Past Presidents of the ICF. Michael is the Senior Partner of Box of Crayons, a company that helps organizations do less Good Work and more Great Work. He was the 2006 Canadian Coach of the Year and was a Rhodes Scholar.

Filed Under: Resources Tagged: , , , , , , , ,

Resource for you: Using ChangeGrid(tm) to build your business

Posted on January 24, 2010 Written by 1 Comment

Leading Coach Steve Eanes is sharing free information with our community!

Steve invites you to experience the ChangeGrid™ a client-driven, activity-specific coaching and management tool designed to help you not only gain more clients but also enhance your effectiveness and revenues within your existing client base.

Experience the ChangeGrid by going to http://www.tinyurl.com/leadingcoacheschangegrid

This should take no more than 5 – 10 minutes.  After completion he will contact you to provide a free debrief and more beneficial information.
If you have any questions, contact Steve either on his LCC page or here:

Changing Matters LLC
704-491-3939

http://www.changing-matters.com

http://www.freechangegrid.com

Filed Under: Resources Tagged: , , , , , , , ,

Participate in a Survey

Posted on November 21, 2009 Written by 1 Comment

What’s the latest in leadership? What’s the hottest choice as a second
career?

As a recognized professional in your field, you’re invited to be part of an
online study about executive coaching and leadership. When you take part,
you will receive an exclusive ‘first look’ at results.

This fifth annual survey is sponsored by Sherpa Coaching, the University of
Georgia, Miami University and Texas Christian.

With fewer than 30 questions, your participation will only take a few
minutes.

Please click this link to get started www.qsurvey.net/coach
(You may also copy and paste the link into your browser.)

Feel free to forward this invitation to interested colleagues.

To learn more about the survey, you can take a look at last year’s survey
results: www.sherpacoaching.com/survey.html

If you have questions, or trouble accessing the survey, please email
ask@iqsresearch.com or call (502) 244-6600 during business hours.

Thanks for being a part of this.
Karl Corbett,
Managing Partner, Sherpa Coaching
Cincinnati, Ohio USA
(513) 232-0002
kc@sherpacoaching.com

Filed Under: Leadership Tagged: , ,

Leadership Styles

Posted on November 11, 2009 Written by 7 Comments

One of my clients sent this to me this morning…it’s good stuff to fuel our discussions of coaching leaders!

Adapted from the upcoming “The Wall Street Journal Guide to Management” by Alan Murray, published by Harper Business.

Leadership is less about your needs, and more about the needs of the people and the organization you are leading. Leadership styles are not something to be tried on like so many suits, to see which fits. Rather, they should be adapted to the particular demands of the situation, the particular requirements of the people involved and the particular challenges facing the organization.

In the book “Primal Leadership,” Daniel Goleman, who popularized the notion of “Emotional Intelligence,” describes six different styles of leadership. The most effective leaders can move among these styles, adopting the one that meets the needs of the moment. They can all become part of the leader’s repertoire.

Visionary. This style is most appropriate when an organization needs a new direction. Its goal is to move people towards a new set of shared dreams. “Visionary leaders articulate where a group is going, but not how it will get there – setting people free to innovate, experiment, take calculated risks,” write Mr. Goleman and his coauthors.

Coaching. This one-on-one style focuses on developing individuals, showing them how to improve their performance, and helping to connect their goals to the goals of the organization. Coaching works best, Mr. Goleman writes, “with employees who show initiative and want more professional development.” But it can backfire if it’s perceived as “micromanaging” an employee, and undermines his or her self-confidence.

Affiliative. This style emphasizes the importance of team work, and creates harmony in a group by connecting people to each other. Mr. Goleman argues this approach is particularly valuable “when trying to heighten team harmony, increase morale, improve communication or repair broken trust in an organization.” But he warns against using it alone, since its emphasis on group praise can allow poor performance to go uncorrected. “Employees may perceive,” he writes, “that mediocrity is tolerated.”

Democratic. This style draws on people’s knowledge and skills, and creates a group commitment to the resulting goals. It works best when the direction the organization should take is unclear, and the leader needs to tap the collective wisdom of the group. Mr. Goleman warns that this consensus-building approach can be disastrous in times of crisis, when urgent events demand quick decisions.

Pacesetting. In this style, the leader sets high standards for performance. He or she is “obsessive about doing things better and faster, and asks the same of everyone.” But Mr. Goleman warns this style should be used sparingly, because it can undercut morale and make people feel as if they are failing. “Our data shows that, more often than not, pacesetting poisons the climate,” he writes.

Commanding. This is classic model of “military” style leadership – probably the most often used, but the least often effective. Because it rarely involves praise and frequently employs criticism, it undercuts morale and job satisfaction. Mr. Goleman argues it is only effective in a crisis, when an urgent turnaround is needed. Even the modern military has come to recognize its limited usefulness.

Your comments are welcome below (make sure you’re logged in to see the comment box).  How do you see using these with your leader clients?

Filed Under: Leadership Tagged: , , , , ,

Commitment to each Other’s Success

Posted on November 10, 2009 Written by Leave a Comment

Guest post contributed by Charlie Smith

Thirty years ago if you said “coach” people mostly thought of a handful of sports figures. Today it seems there are millions of coaches — business coaches, executive coaches, life coaches, project coaches, career coaches, coaches’ coaches.  Coaching may be today’s version of the “Philosopher’s Stone” – that magic sought by alchemists in the Middle Ages, which could turn base metal into gold. Visions of impossible wealth and power and the very idea captured people’s hearts and minds. Coaching, done well, is such a gift.

At its heart, coaching is commitment to another’s success.  The base metal in modern life is everything that suppresses people’s vitality and willingness to reach beyond the predictable.

For a long time I’ve sought simple ways to reliably transform this base metal. The sometime magic of new possibility keeps me playing the coaching game, yet it often reminds me of playing the slot machines in Las Vegas. Every once in a while, I pull the lever and in the next moment there is an explosion of energy and excitement.  When people commit to each other’s success, this kind of energy, attraction, and excitement are the products of their intentions, regarding whatever they care about.

What’s always in the way, with coaches or clients is:

  • People feeling like they have no power to act
  • Personal, professional and organizational identities that stop us from listening
  • Ignorance of what works
  • Resignation, and compliance
  • Absence of dialogue
  • Having to be right
  • Behaving like victims
  • Moving to solutions before agreeing on problems
  • Losing commitment to goals in the face of events
  • Control is more important than winning
  • Unwillingness to commit to performance aspirations beyond normal
  • Avoiding each other’s domination

As I’ve worked with hundreds of organizations over the past forty years, I shifted from seeing organizations as static objects, to seeing them as interacting energy fields.  I came to see that simple tools are what’s needed to let people change what they see and to see more clearly the energy that makes things work (the absence of which stops progress).

Shifting the paradigm of coaching to one where the systems with the most energy in focus will prevail permits a degree of quantitative and qualitative measurement, and intervention, not previously possible. When you begin to see coaching as an energetic phenomenon, everything changes.

Merlin was King Arthur’s “coach.”  In The Once and Future King by T.H. White, Merlin, Arthur’s mentor, had an uncanny ability to know the future.  He gave Arthur this insight into how he knew what was going to happen before it did:

“Ah, yes.” Merlin said, “How did I know to set breakfast for two? Now ordinary people are born forwards in time, if you understand what I mean, and nearly everything in the world goes forward too.  This makes it quite easy for ordinary people to live.  But unfortunately I was born at the wrong end of time, and I have to live backwards from in front, while surrounded by a lot of people living forward from behind.”

Merlin is my hero.  He is the quintessential example of standing in the future to empower what’s needed in the present.

For years I’ve been creating and testing tools to help people move toward an inspired and unlikely purpose.  The Merlin Navigator is such a tool that I want to introduce here.  I am finding that it reliably allows you to evaluate and predict the chances of success in any project, based on how people are using their energy — their power to act.  It provides instant coaching guidance that eliminates blind spots and facilitates success.  The Merlin Navigator helps deal with conflicting objectives and tells you exactly where you need to pay attention in order to dramatically improve your chances of success.

I’m very excited that The Merlin Navigator platform is nearly ready to go public.  I will write more about it in this blog as that launch date approaches.

Your comments are welcome.  Please remember to log in to the Leading Coaches’ Center to be able to see the comment box below.

Filed Under: Resources Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Coaching is…

Posted on November 8, 2009 Written by 1 Comment

The following poem was created by Susan Symington, an executive coach in the DC area who was inspired to write it during the ICCO Membership Lab meeting in San Antonio last month. She gave me permission to share it with you here….

Why is lost in what
Be is lost in do
and sometimes in have

only by
peeling back
each hardened layer
through pain

can be emerge
full flowered
aromatic
and whole

Filed Under: Leadership Tagged: , , , , , , ,
« Older Posts
Newer Posts »