Coaching for Leaders

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.

Susan Colantuono highlights how women's career advancement is often hindered by a lack of business acumen, urging listeners to strengthen their skills. Debra Tannen discusses the intricacies of communication and its role in fostering professional relationships. Don Miguel Ruiz revisits the impactful teachings of 'The Four Agreements' for personal and professional growth. Karen Berman emphasizes the importance of financial intelligence, providing tools to decode business models and financial statements, crucial for succeeding in the corporate world.

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 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.

Dorie Clark Author, Stand Out* It’s getting harder and harder for an individual’s message to get out and be heard. How to stand out as a thought leader: Have valuable intellectual content Build a following! There is a three-step process people are following to gaining an audience: One to one idea transmission (small mastermind) One to many idea transmission (writing, speaking, etc.) Many to many ideal transmission (others become ambassadors for you) “If you are the only person, who at the end of the day, is still talking about your idea. That’s a failure. You need to get other people talking about it.” -Dorie Clark Dorie mentioned her past article on Harvard Business Review: How to Reinvent Your Personal Brand How do you figure out what you want to be known for: Niche strategy – become a recognized expert in a narrow area and expand into related areas Combining ideas/fields – bring together elements from two or more fields Creating original research – information based on concrete knowledge from data or research (Dorie mentioned Nate Silver) Tackling a big problem – bring something of value the resolves a major issue for lots of people Creating a framework – build an explanatory system or device for your field (Dorie mentioned Robert Cialdini* and Dave mentioned Dale Carnegie*) “One of the most important things to do early on is content creation.” -Dorie Clark There really aren’t guarantees anymore in the work world. “You’re not just competing with the local talent pool. You have to explain to people why they should pick you.” -Dorie Clark 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.

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: Teaching in Higher Ed Bonni is the host of the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast, Dean of Teaching and Learning and Professor of Business and Management at Vanguard University, and my life partner. Prior to her academic career, she was a human resources consultant and executive officer for a publicly traded company. Bonni is the author of The Productive Online and Offline Professor: A Practical Guide*. 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, uncover more inside Coaching for Leaders Plus.

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 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.

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.

Tim Stringer Technically Simple and Learn OmniFocus Connect in Person to Strengthen Relationships Tim mentioned the podcast Home Work, a show for people who work at home Dave’s team at Dale Carnegie meets once a month for half a day Tim mentioned his co-working space, HiVE Vancouver Make Intentionally Richer Connections Move your level of communication up a level When possible, seek out the opportunity to connect by video We both recommend Zoom for video conferencing Ways to Stay Connected Participate in a mastermind group Attend a class that utilizes video-conferencing Social Media Tim and Dave both utilize Twitter and follow a limited number of people Ask the second question when interaction online, especially with a first connection Resources Sign-up for a free account with Zoom Tim has an affiliate relationship with Zoom. If your needs require a Zoom Pro account, utilize this link. Tim offers courses on Holistic Productivity that utilize many of the principles and technology we spoke of on this episode Tim recommends ShareDesk, a worldwide directory of co-working and meeting spaces, for those who are outside of Vancouver. Tim also suggests Meetup.com Learn more about Tim’s Holistic Productivity model from his prior appearance on Coaching for Leaders episode 151. 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.