Welcome to the sixth episode of Coaching Skills for Leaders! This week's topic: The Importance of Making Time to Coach. I begin the show by speaking about my first job out of school and revisiting our coaching definition from episode #2. If you want to know what is important to people, look at their calendar and in their checkbook. Why don't we make time to coach? People don't know the correct way. Perception that things take too much time. I cited some of Larry Bossidy's comments and lessons from the book Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done. Coaching takes time. Are you investing time into coaching? Here are four ways to get started: Contract with the other party on development priorities Plan out the schedule of when to meet and what to do - book it Follow-through on your coaching commitments Be flexible and yet consistent You make life easier during review time as well if the above four things are done consistently. Make a commitment this week to do one of these things above. 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 to submit comments, questions, or feedback See you in a week for the next episode!

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!

A brief overview of how teaching fits into coaching. We're going to examine a few lessons from The Adult Learner* by Malcolm Knowles. Pedagogy vs. Andragogy (art of teaching kids vs. self concept of being responsible for ourselves) (Greek: child-leading, man-leading). You can't teach adults the way you teach kids. Why talk about kids? As coaches, there's the tendency to fall back on what we've seen all our lives and what we remember from school - unfortunately, those same skills don't work with adults. 6 assumptions about andragogy: The Need to Know (adults need to know why something is important before learning it) The leaner's self concept (they want to be responsible for the progression of their own lives). The role of learner's experiences (adults have a lot more of them) Readiness to learn (adults need timing that corresponds with developmental tasks) Orientation to learning (adults will learn to support what they think will help them in real-life tasks) Motivation (adults want job satisfaction, self-esteem, quality of life) Book recommendation: Drive* by Daniel Pink Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic.

Matt Ross: Liberty Mutual Welcome to the second episode of Coaching Skills for Leaders! Special guest this week: Matt Ross from Liberty Mutual How did things go with the listening assessment from the first episode? If you missed it, download the PDF here. How to start coaching someone: This is a huge missed opportunity for a lot of leaders. Leaders start teaching a new skill, and that's it…before getting to know someone and without connecting it to the other person's goals/desires. The model for how to start coaching someone: F - Future R - Reality O - Obstacles M - Meaning What to listen for in the interview with Matt Ross: 1) FROM model 2) This shouldn't be an interrogation...you can jump around 3) The importance of silence Interview with Matt Ross Contact Matt Ross at this link What I would do if I was Matt's manager? I'd want to talk in terms of how the tasks he's working on connect with his goals. If those opportunities weren't there, I'd do my best to create those opportunities for Matt. This doesn't take long...the entire interview was 14 minutes and could have been shorter. Three reasons leaders skip doing this: They don't know they should do it (but hopefully you see how helpful this can be) They don't know how to do it (but now you do!) It takes too long (not really, per our example) And a final reason right now, they don't have to do it because of the economy. However, at some point better times for employees are coming and those that aren't led well will move on. In 2010, Harvard Business Review reported on statistics for high potential employees. They reported that: 1 in 3 high potential employees admit to not putting all their effort into their job 1 in 4 believes they will be working for another employer in a year Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic.

Why start this show? A bit of background about me How my doctoral dissertation got me thinking about the importance for leaders to focus on themselves One thing I've learned for sure: leaders can make a big difference in the lives of others if they take a little time to make a difference in themselves Why I care about this Lots of resources coming - articles/blogs/Q&A/guests/authors/books/my own perspective I want your perspective as well: To submit a comment, question or feedback, visit coachingforleaders.com/feedback Powerful Listening Audio exercise - part 1 What did you hear? It sounds a lot like a lot of our work lives. Audio exercise - part 2 Four Listening Levels: Pretend Partial Present Powerful You can't listen powerfully all the time - but you need to at least some of the time. Good listening is important work for a leader...just an important (if not more so) than "normal work" Download the Listening Skills Assessment Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic.