Coaching for Leaders

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*. 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.

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. To accelerate your learning, uncover more inside Coaching for Leaders Plus.

Discover the art of giving effective feedback and the challenges that come with it. Learn a three-step model for impactful positive feedback, emphasizing specific qualities and expressing gratitude. Build stronger relationships by acknowledging and affirming strengths. Explore additional resources and coaching services for further insights.

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.

Gilbert Fugitt: Concordia University One of the biggest challenges I hear from leaders today is how to coach this new generation of young people entering the workforce. We cite current statistics from the Fall 2011 edition of the Leader to Leader Journal. 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. To accelerate your learning, uncover more inside Coaching for Leaders Plus.

I begin the episode 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. 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.

Here’s the link I promised to the EDS commercial on building a plane in the air. 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? 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.

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. To accelerate your learning, uncover more inside Coaching for Leaders Plus.

Matt Ross: 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. To accelerate your learning, uncover more inside Coaching for Leaders Plus.

Welcome to the first episode of Coaching for Leaders. Why I’m starting 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 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. To accelerate your learning, uncover more inside Coaching for Leaders Plus.