Coaching for Leaders

Bonni Stachowiak: TeachingInHigherEd.com Audio Question from Jignesh Here are the resources we mentioned on how to plan your career: Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi* What Color Is Your Parachute? by Richard N. Bolles* Carnegie Coach episode #148: How to Determine What’s Next Business Model You by Tim Clark, Alexander Osterwalder, and Yves Pigneur* Business Model Generation by Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur* Finding the Career That Fits You* The Ultimate Guide to Using Your Strengths to Get Hired* Audio Question from Mia “A lot of times people use humor in an attempt to try avoid having conflict or having a real conversation.” -Bonni Stachowiak Bonni recommended an episode of the This is Your Life podcast by Michael Hyatt called 7 Actions to Take Before You Quit Your Job. Question from Taylor I remember listening to a podcast where you, at least I think it was your podcast, talked about self-development. Specifically you discussed using a task manager to help you achieve your self-development goals. I can not remember which episode this was. It would be really helpful if you could direct me to the right one; I would really like to send it to my father. Dave recommended these apps/services: OmniFocus* Todoist Question from Jeffrey I've really admired the ability to use humor to defuse tense situations whether in the board room or one-on-one. It often lowers the volume of a confrontation and allows a moment for those involved to reset. How mad can you be when you are laughing? But it is also risky to use humor since the joke could fall flat, or even worse you might offend your counterparts. Do you have any resources on how I can improve my utilization of humor in these situations? Question from Ravi Hi Dave, I have been listening to your podcast for past 5 months. Have learned a lot. Thanks for great advice all around. I am facing one problem that I am really struggling with and will welcome your advice. I seem to have hit a ceiling in my career. By measure of my education and experiences should have been in a Senior Management position. I look around and all my friends and peers at one time (and those even behind me) have been steadily climbing the ladder and I am frustratingly stuck at the same place! I have all received good to excellent feedback, have been commended for my attitude and thinking, done more than my peers but am still stuck! Any advice what I can do? Happy to share more information about my background if it will help. Bonni recommended Hope for the Flowers by Trina Paulus* Question from Rijul I was wondering if you could share a bit more about your own professional history in how you got into this career path. I am interested in exploring this area and would like to know what kind of jobs and/or educational background someone in this line of work has to become successful. Feedback Comments, questions, or feedback for future Q&A shows: http://coachingforleaders.com/feedback The next Q&A show is episode 204 If you're not already subscribed to this show, please do so and you’ll get new episodes every Monday. Just search for Coaching for Leaders on iTunes, Stitcher, or any podcast app you use and subscribe there. Please join my weekly leadership guide. The leadership guide is delivered to your inbox each Wednesday and includes my thoughts and recommendations on the best articles, podcasts, videos, and books, to support your development between shows. It also includes a brief overview and link to the full weekly show notes. If you, like me, tend to listen to podcasts while you’re on the road or exercising, this will give you an easy way to follow-up later on the links and resources we mention in every show. As a bonus, when you join the weekly leadership guide, you’ll get immediate access to my reader’s guide listing the 10 Leadership Books that Will Help You Get Better Results From Others with brief summaries from me on the va...

Andrew Warner Mixergy Andrew’s “shoved fact” technique: Listen carefully for the shoved fact that doesn’t otherwise belong in the conversation naturally Make sure you’re picking the shoved fact that’s the most personal one Ask a question about that shoved fact Shut up “The things you think are tough are where real life exists. That’s where you really get to know people.” -Andrew Warner “Tell a story to illustrate your point and then make your point.” -Andrew Warner We mentioned Andrew's show: Mixergy podcast Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic.

Marshall Goldsmith: Triggers Marshall says that a key factor is the environment around us in whether or not we are successful. Environmental triggers constantly take us off track. “A trigger is any stimulus that influences our behavior.” -Marshall Goldsmith Trigger —> Impulse —> Behavior Marshall says we have the chance to have a second of awareness on how we behave after the impulse. “Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” -Viktor Frankl Marshall says that the biggest problem with successful people is they’ve gotten very used to winning. Marshall recalled five questions that Peter Drucker said we should all ask ourselves: What’s my mission? Who’s the customer? What does the customer consider value? What’s the goal? What’s the plan? If you want a copy of the article that Marshall mentioned, Leadership is a contact sport, send him an email to marshall@marshallgoldsmith.com Marshall’s wheel of change model: Creating = Positive/Change Preserving = Positive/Keep Eliminate = Negative/Change Accepting = Negative/Keep “Am I willing at this time to make the effort required to make a positive difference on this topic?” -Marshall Goldsmith “Most people waste most of their lives on topics they’re not going to change anyway.” -Marshall Goldsmith “Life is easy to talk and hard to live.” -Marshall Goldsmith “Environment vs. willpower — environment generally wins.” -Marshall Goldsmith Marshall’s six active questions: Did I do my best to set clear goals? Did I do my best to make progress towards goal achievement? Did I do my best to find meaning? Did I do my best to be happy? Did I do my best to build positive relationships? Did I do my best to be fully engaged? The key factor in employee engagement is whether people feel like they can live their own values. -Kouzes & Posner Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic.

Susan Gerke: GO Team Resources Susan Gerke has been the president of Gerke Consulting & Development. She has worked with global teams and has certified facilitators around the world to deliver management, leadership, and team offerings. Susan is co-creator of GO Team, a training suite for organizations to power team performance. Key Points Don’t create guidelines yourself and give them to the team. A starting point for how to create team guidelines is what did not work well on a previous team. The interpersonal dynamics that emerge are more critical than the guidelines themselves. Aim to create no more than 8 guidelines. Disagreement is the sign of a healthy team. Continue to revisit guidelines in future meetings and milestones (new members join, change of team composition or purpose) Resources Mentioned GO Team Resources Related Episodes The Four Unique Types of Teams, with Susan Gerke (episode 138) How Great Teams Find Purpose, with David Burkus (episode 481) How to Engage Remote Teams, with Tsedal Neeley (episode 537) How Top Leaders Influence Great Teamwork, with Scott Keller (episode 585) How to Help Team Members Find the Right Work, with Patrick Lencioni (episode 610) 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.

Tom Henschel Host, The Look & Sound of Leadership podcast and Executive Coach, Essential Communications When it’s a development issue (or a way of thinking) it’s coaching that’s most helpful. Tom says that coaching needs good goals, or at least one single goal over time. Think about the goal as if it were on video — how do you want the end result to look? “Coaching? It’s not about you.” -Tom Henschel “The coaching process is helping someone understand, from their own point of view, why it would be in their benefit.” -Tom Henschel Tom shared two stories from his teenage daughter Julia that helps him with coaching. Food for thought: Do people see coaching as part of their jobs? Do they have time for it? To improve your coaching skills: Let them go first. Use open ended questions, such as, “What does that sound like to you?” Earn the right to give advice. Tom last appeared on these two episodes: 107: Three Steps To Soliciting Feedback with Tom Henschel 164: How to Handle a Boss Who’s a Jerk with Tom Henschel Feedback Comments, questions, or feedback for future Q&A shows: http://coachingforleaders.com/feedback The next Q&A show is episode 191 on the topic of books Please join my weekly leadership guide. The leadership guide is delivered to your inbox each Wednesday and includes my thoughts and recommendations on the best articles, podcasts, videos, and books, to support your development between shows. It also includes a brief overview and link to the full weekly show notes. If you, like me, tend to listen to podcasts while you’re on the road or exercising, this will give you an easy way to follow-up later on the links and resources we mention in every show. As a bonus, when you join the weekly leadership guide, you’ll get immediate access to my reader’s guide listing the 10 Leadership Books that Will Help You Get Better Results From Others with brief summaries from me on the value of each book. Download the 11-page reader's guide and 9-minute video of these book recommendations…plus, insight on the 2 books that I rely on weekly! http://coachingforleaders.com/subscribe Community Member Spotlight Want to be featured in an upcoming member spotlight? Visit http://coachingforleaders.com/spotlight

James Whittaker Author, The Art of Stage Presence* “The audience will relate to your concept that you’re talking about much more than details.” -James Whittaker You are there for the audience, not you. “You are speaking for the audience, not to the audience.” -James Whittaker Have the first sentence completely committed to memory. During the first 99 seconds, do one of these four things: Inspire Intrigue Interest Inform Spend as much time on the opening as on the rest of the presentation. Seek out small stages to practice on (your 1:1 with a manager, team meetings, etc.) Give your attention to the people taking notes and nodding their heads and engaged with what you are saying. Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic.

Bonni Stachowiak TeachinginHigherEd.com Question from Jignesh I have been on a leadership course in 2012. Through the Myers Briggs Test, I have learned about my personality type and have received feedback/comparison on world's most famous leaders. I also recently read Simon Sinek's book - Start With Why. My assessment about myself has been that I am an introvert. I love working on my own. I realize that Leaders need to challenge their own comfort-zone and for me this would be to try communicating my ideas and practicing my leadership skill by interacting with others. Knowing the fact that I am introvert. I am not sure how to strike a conversation and to get maximum out of my one-on-one meeting with my stranger LinkedIn industry colleagues. I will really appreciate receiving some advice or ideas on how to strike impactful conversations. Teaching in Higher Ed episode 38: Steve Wheeler Talks Learning with ‘E’s Question from Willie I value wisdom over rules, but wisdom doesn't scale well. Our director wants a more consistent experience for our customers. Rules are the traditional method to accomplish consistency, but we can't make a rule for every scenario because each scenario is different. We do have guidelines in place, which cover the vast majority of cases, but it seems like every time an exception occurs, the natural opinion across the organization is that we need to figure out a way to address the exception in the process. Is it okay for an exception to just be an exception? Bonni mentioned Zendesk Episode 92: Barry Schwartz on How to Tap Into Your Practical Wisdom Barry Schwartz: Our loss of wisdom Question from Simon I am downunder in Australia, love your show and your podcast is a staple in my professional life as a manager of customer-facing people in the software industry. I'd like to ask if you could dedicate some time in your podcast schedule to explore "accountability". It is common these days to hear the words "empowerment" and "accountability" in the same sentence and I use them often. The empowerment side of the coin is straight forward (do what you need to do). I'm looking for ideas on the "accountability" piece. Is this a stick / carrot mentality and how have you seen people make accountability mean something that people don't just pay lip service to. Dave’s three steps: Communicate Follow-up Consequence We also mentioned: Episode 117: The Seven Steps You Follow To Delegate Work Bonni mentioned Asana and Dave mentioned Basecamp Bonni mentioned Slack Here’s a recent article about Slack in the New York Times Question from Valery My current set-up is to act as a consultant working for a large training firm. It's a good set-up as consultants do not have to worry about the prospection aspect of the job on top of providing the training. On the other hand, it can be frustrating because they are not "my" customers. My set-up is good and I can live decently from it but I am looking for creating a company based on my areas of expertise (sales consulting and coaching). I have this inner voice telling me "Valery, it's going to the right direction" but what are the steps now? There are a few companies out there providing the same expertise but the addressable market is big enough. Are there any prerequisites such as raising funds to invest into technology and/or people? How should I consider the transition between my current set up (consultant) and the entrepreneurial one? Are there new forms of associations I should think of? For example, approaching a consulting company and offering to develop an activity in sales development I would partially own from an equity stand-point? Dave mentioned the StartUp podcast and Copyblogger Audio Question from Howie Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic. To accelerate your learning,

Jeff Spencer, D.C. DrJeffSpencer.com Jeff noticed that the people who should have won didn’t often win. “The single most important factor is how people perform in pivotal moments.” -Jeff Spencer “Do you have the readiness for the 3-5 pivotal moments that occur each year that will make or break your career or your life that year?” -Jeff Spencer “There’s a lot of people who have will and talent that don’t go anywhere.” -Jeff Spencer “You cannot think your way fast enough to be able to perform with ideal timing. Ideal timing and ideal responses are the direct product of your level of preparation.” -Jeff Spencer “Most people concentrate on all the things that can go wrong rather than the 1-2 things that have to go right.” -Jeff Spencer “The natural tendency is to want to be the best at whatever you’re doing. I don’t know if that’s really the best strategy. I think the place that you really start is creating your legacy.” -Jeff Spencer “Our judgements don’t help us and they don’t give us a free pass about what we need to do in terms of our own legacy and our own way of relating to people.” -Jeff Spencer Feedback Comments, questions, or feedback for future Q&A shows: http://coachingforleaders.com/feedback The next Q&A show is episode 187 on the topic of coaching Two new resources: The list of all past episodes is back! There’s a new resources page. Please join my weekly leadership guide. The leadership guide is delivered to your inbox each Wednesday and includes my thoughts and recommendations on the best articles, podcasts, videos, and books, to support your development between shows. It also includes a brief overview and link to the full weekly show notes. If you, like me, tend to listen to podcasts while you’re on the road or exercising, this will give you an easy way to follow-up later on the links and resources we mention in every show. As a bonus, when you join the weekly leadership guide, you’ll get immediate access to my reader’s guide listing the 10 Leadership Books that Will Help You Get Better Results From Others with brief summaries from me on the value of each book. Download the 11-page reader's guide and 9-minute video of these book recommendations…plus, insight on the 2 books that I rely on weekly! http://coachingforleaders.com/subscribe Community Member Spotlight: Torrey Peace Torrey mentioned a past show on delegation. It’s episode 117: The Seven Steps You Follow To Delegate Work. Torrey and her husband Shannon host and produce the Two Mules in a Field Podcast, show on value-based long distance relationship advice for happier, committed partnerships. Thank You Thank you to Howie Phung and duckbutt2 for the kind review on iTunes. If you would like to post review as well, it's a huge help in the growth of the Coaching for Leaders community. If you use iTunes, just visit http://coachingforleaders.com/itunes and if you use Stitcher, please visit http://coachingforleaders.com/stitcher – and thank you in advance for your support!

Kevin Pho, M.D. (Twitter) (Facebook) Author, Establishing, Managing, and Protecting Your Online Reputation Social media is not a passing fad, but many people perceive it as such since the media tends to focus problem situations. “Today, getting published and getting people to read your thoughts and read your articles is no more than a click of a button.” -Kevin Pho “If you have a strong social media presence, you are many steps ahead of your competition in defining yourself online.” -Kevin Pho “If you aren’t proactive in establishing your online reputation, other sites, such as rating sites, are going to create content about you.” Three steps to creating your identify online from Kevin’s book: Curate Connect Make a difference “Using social media to follow experts in your industry is a tremendous way to learn.” -Kevin Pho A strong social media presence can marginalize the rating sites. Set up a Google alert to monitor mentions of yourself online. Dave mentioned at the end of the show a previous episode on LinkedIn. Check out episode 101: How to Get the Most From LinkedIn. Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic.

David Allen, productivity expert and author of Getting Things Done, discusses the steps of his methodology, the impact of technology on productivity, and understanding the six horizons of commitments. He emphasizes the importance of capturing information, prioritizing tasks, and doing the thing you are least looking forward to. Allen also recommends books like The War of Art and Brain Chains.