Coaching for Leaders

Every leader needs to engage others in order to maximize the potential of the other person and their commitment to the organization. This week, we're beginning a series on how to engage the people that you lead. This week's show begins with a quote from Teresa Amabile, author of The Progress Principle. In a recent commentary on Marketplace, she states, "The single most important thing that can keep workers deeply, happily engaged on the job is moving forward on work they care about -- even if the progress is an incremental "small win." Drive by Daniel Pink is an excellent read on how to engage others. In this book, says there are three things that Pink suggests we focus on the engage others: Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose. Autonomy - Do I have the ability to have control over my life and career? Poor leaders say - "This is the way this has to be done." [My way is best.] Effective leaders say - "What's the best way for you to reach this objective?" [My way is best for me.] Mastery - Can I become better at something that's important? Aerospace workers constantly demonstrate their commitment to master something important. WordPress is probably the most popular website platform today and is built by people who get paid little or nothing. It's not about just the money. Purpose - Does what I am doing matter? I give an example of the custodian at our church - he has purpose in what he does and shows it daily. Do you as leader talk about why what you are doing each day matters? Why do you do it? What's the reason you or your organization do what you do? If you don't, you should! Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic.

This episode puts all the pieces together from our personal leadership series into your 2012 action plan. I discuss in detail how I've used the Creating Your Life Plan ebook from Michael Hyatt to bring value to my life. During his 2005 commencement address at Stanford University, Steve Jobs said: “For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: 'If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?' And whenever the answer has been 'no' for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.” See his full talk at this link. A piece of my vision that I had written down last year was: "The Coaching Skills for Leaders podcast and blog generates multiple comments weekly from listeners who have used the show to better their leadership and coaching skills." The action step behind that was: "Produce a consistent coaching podcast and blog that dramatically increases our audience’s skill level in self-leadership, coaching, and personal productivity." My Values (see episode #20 for a full overview on how to get clarity on your values) Meaning: Investing my time and talent into things and people that personally inspire me in the world. Sustainability: Putting my effort into things that will provide lasting, positive change in the world. Vision: Creating the future by building things twice. Empowerment: Give others the confidence to learn, grow, and contribute to the world in sustainable ways. Love: My passion and desire to treat people like fellow human beings. Priorities: Faith Health Bonni Baby Learning Career Extended Family Friends Service Finances An example of my vision for children: "I want my children to remember me as a guiding light in their lives who empowered them with love of God, family, learning, discipline, and friendship. I want them to look back at their time as children as a time filled with many life lessons, joy-filled days, and discipline that served them in their lives as adults. I want them to feel like they were empowered to be whoever God created them to be and that their mom and them always came first in my life. I want them to remember that my love helped them become beautiful and whole people, who would then go on to love their own families and spread God’s love in the world." Current Reality: We don’t have a baby. We will have a baby soon. Neither of us know what the heck we are doing. Specific Commitments: Spend at least one hour daily (outside of care time) that is focused on connecting with our son through cuddling, play, and other ways that he is ready to explore the world. Begin introducing books, reading, and storytelling to him as soon as is practical so that he begins to associate learning and growth with a happy and successful life in this world. Work with Bonni to determine a meaningful name for our little boy. Finish reading “Raising Cain” to establish good practices to support his growth emotionally. Attend as many doctor appointments as possible to continue my education as a father and build a long-term relationship with our pediatrician. Complete reading the American Academy of Pediatrics book section on the first year of life that was recommended by our pediatrician. Step in as the primary care giver at least one day a week so that Bonni has time to rest, even before she returns to work. Determine a guardian for our little boy, should Bonni and I both die when he is young. Another of an action item this year from my career section: Create at least 100 Coaching Skills for Leaders podcast champions by the end of 2012 (people who contact me to say that they’ve gained something from the show or otherwise demonstrate through actions that they are big fans of the show). Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic.

Your core values influence how you view the world and how you interact with others. It's key that we understand our own core values as part of our series on personal leadership. I read a quote on page 46 of The Leadership Challenge by Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner Here are the values that I spoke about: Meaning - Investing my time and talent into things and people that personally inspire me in the world. Sustainability - Putting my effort into things that will provide lasting, positive change in the world. Vision - Creating the future by building things twice (once with vision, once in reality). Empowerment - Give others the confidence to learn, grow, and contribute to the world in sustainable ways. Love - My passion and desire to treat people like fellow human beings. Some questions for you to consider as you determine your core values: What is your perfect day? What are you doing when you are in flow and lose track of time? What events are you most proud of in your life? When do you feel most alive? What makes you angry? What are you willing to fight for? I mentioned this document on the show that contains a list of values and may be helpful in determining your core values. Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic.

Welcome to the fifteenth episode of Coaching Skills for Leaders. This week's topic: Get Specific With Goals This week I was listening to the HBR IdeaCast and a recent interview with Dr. Heidi Grant Halvorson about her book: 9 Things Successful People Do Differently I've also been reading Get Rid of the Performance Review! by Samuel Colbert To reach me with questions, comments, feedback: CoachingforLeaders.com/feedback Examples of actual ineffective goals: "Communicate more effectively" "Develop leadership skills" "Communication skills to be improved (writing) and get your point across more clearing and concisely" "Improve quality and completion of assigned duties" "Begin working outside of their comfort zone towards new opportunities and/or subject areas" SMART Framework S - Specific M - Measurable A - Attainable R - Relevent T - Time-phased Examples of more effective goals, utilizing the SMART framework: Establish procedures with vendors to reduce year-over-year error rates by 20% before June 30th Become a subject matter expert on departmental software use by achieving Microsoft Office Specialist Certification by the end of the year Develop skill in departmental training activities by facilitating one training class in Q1 of 2012 and receive participant satisfaction scores that are 80% or higher Stay connected with this show on iTunes or on Facebook I'd love your feedback on this show as well as any questions or topics you'd like me to address in future shows: Visit CoachingforLeaders.com/feedback to submit comments, questions, or feedback See you in a week for the next episode!

Welcome to the thirteenth episode of Coaching Skills for Leaders. This week's topic: How Culture Affects Coaching To reach me with questions, comments, feedback: CoachingforLeaders.com/feedback What do we mean by a strong culture? Strong culture: consistent throughout the organization and thus has a strong influence on individuals Weak culture: do not have as strong an impact on individuals because of inconsistencies (does not mean it is not effective) In Organizational Culture and Leadership, Edgar Schein (2004) defines culture as, "…a pattern of SHARED BASIC ASSUMPTIONS that was learned by a group as it solved its problems of external adaptation and internal integration, that has worked well enough to be considered valid and, therefore, to be taught to new members as the correct way to PERCEIVE, THINK, and FEEL in relation to those problems" (p. 17). We accidentally referred to Schein's book in the episode as "Making Sense of the Organization" which is actually a book by Karl Weick and also an excellent read on organizational culture, though the Schein book is an easier read, so we recommend that first. We discuss Schein's three indicators of culture: Artifacts Espoused beliefs and values Underlying assumptions We also referenced the model below from The Character of a Corporation by Goffee and Jones: Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic.

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*. You can't create a shared vision without having your own vision first. It's inappropriate for us to be dependent on others or independent from them. Rather, we need to have relationships of interdependence. Bonni mentioned a clip from the movie Spartacus which captures the power of interdependence: Two key elements of a shared vision: The people involved have a shared picture of what the future looks like. Everyone is committed to achieving the work and working towards it together. We discussed four steps for leaders to take when creating a shared vision: A few books that we mentioned on this episode: The Fifth Discipline* by Peter Senge The Leadership Challenge* by James Kouzes and Barry Posner We also mentioned Linda Krall, our favorite strategic illustrator 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.

Dave Stachowiak: Coaching for Leaders In his book What Got You Here Won’t Get You There, leadership coach Marshall Goldsmith warns against the habit of leaders adding too much value and stifling the motivation of an employee’s independent ideas. He says that when we start improving an employee’s idea, “You may have improved the content of my idea by 5 percent, but you’ve reduced my commitment to executing it by 50 percent, because you’ve taken away my ownership of the idea.” Does it even make sense to give someone feedback? Here's a helpful guide. Minor issue? If the person is aware: ask what they plan to do to resolve it If the person is unaware: let it go Major issue? If the person is aware : ask questions and help brainstorm If the person is unaware - redirect by using EXPECTATION -> EXAMPLE -> EMPOWER Saying something "nice" first can get us in trouble as a leader: It doesn't sound sincere, since it's often done only before constructive feedback It's not credible since the leader will often fail to cite evidence and examples The leader ends up gliding over the real issue and the person never really hears the constructive feedback Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic.

Dr. Bonni Stachowiak, President of Innovate Learning and Associate Professor of Business, discusses coaching Millennials in the workplace. Topics include generational differences, autonomy in work culture, characteristics of baby boomers, understanding Millennials' needs, and effective coaching strategies for engaging and motivating younger employees.

Welcome to the seventh episode of Coaching Skills for Leaders! This week's topic: How to Coach the Millennials (Part 1). One of the biggest challenges I hear from leaders today is how to coach this new generation of young people entering the workforce. I cite current statistics from the Fall 2011 edition of the Leader to Leader Journal. Special guest: Dr. Gilbert Fugitt Associate Dean of Students at Concordia University in Irvine, CA You can reach Gilbert at gilbert.fugitt@cui.edu Gilbert mentioned the book Not Everybody Gets a Trophy by Bruce Tulgan as a resource for leaders. Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic.

Welcome to the fourth episode of Coaching Skills for Leaders! Today's topic: What is coaching and why it's different from other development tools. Here's the link I promised to the EDS commercial on building a plane in the air. Visit CoachingforLeaders.com/feedback with questions, comments, or feedback. Socrates said, "The beginning of wisdom is the definition of terms." (accidentally attributed to Plato in the audio of the show - apologies!) Let's look at: leading, managing, training/teaching, mentoring, consulting, counseling, and of course coaching. Leading: Creating environments that achieve a shared vision. Peter Senge describes a shared vision in The Fifth Discipline The rose windows at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris are a good analogy John F. Kennedy's shared vision to get us to the moon Managing: Establishing, monitoring, and controlling processes and procedures Communicating clear expectations Follow-up Feedback or consequences My work at SCORE! Educational Centers was an example of management in action Training/Teaching: Transferring information from a knowledgable party to a less knowledgable party Lynda.com is a great example of online training This podcast is also an example Mentoring: Providing advice and perspective from experience Generally this is someone who knows a lot about a process My parents have provided lots of mentoring for me: insurance, home, investments, etc. It's less about the position and more about what you are communicating Consulting: Making recommendations based on expertise Clients hire Bonni (my wife) for her expertise in eLearning Counseling/Therapy: Helping an individual reframe the past in order to improve the future Don't do it as a leader Refer people to human resources, employee assistance programs, or a counseling center (at a university) A note about coaching definitions: Coaching is a results-partnership. True, but too general. International Coach Federation says "Partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential." Also true, but too general...and why only with clients? PCMA says, "The field of coaching is growing quickly, and is continually redefining and refining itself in the process. Even coaching and consulting experts do not always agree on precise meanings and applications." Certainly true! Kampa-Kokesch and Anderson (2001) review research and detail a process for coaching. Coaching: Developing a person through the process of rapport, assessment, feedback, planning, implementation, and evaluation Rapport - Build the relationship and trust - FROM (see episode #2) Assessment - Prescription without diagnosis is malpractice - use observation, assessments, questioning Feedback - Data points for people to understand Planning - Make a flight plan Implementation - Work the plan Evaluation - How did we do? Stay connected with the show on iTunes, our website, or on Facebook I'd love your feedback on this show as well as any questions or topics you'd like me to address in future shows: Visit CoachingforLeaders.com/feedback with questions, comments, or feedback. See you in a week for the next episode!