Coaching Tip: The Leadership Blog

Time Management

In today's 24/7 environment, the roles we play at home and work must be in concert...and not requiring us to play different roles.  Although there are distinct competencies attached to each role, it is to our advantage to create a powerful synergy among all the roles we play.

Your life is not a dress rehearsal but the real minute-by-minute, hour-by-hour, day-by-day live performance.  The word “performance” makes it seem as if we are on stage.  Success at work is our applause, the managers and leaders of our organization are the directors and producers, and our successful performance run is obviously the bottom line.  Very few actors walk away with a Tony or an Oscar for mediocre performances.  That is also true in the work world.  Survival as an organization rests on the quality of our work.  Without stopping to playback our performance, we might find that our run will be much shorter than we anticipated.

In highly developed countries, there is a growing percentage of people thinking about the meaning of life. This genuine spiritual concern is broader than traditional views of religion practiced in numerous countries of the world.  Yet, it is unclear to most how they want to live their life in a meaningful way.

A Redirection of Focus

A Newsweek-Beliefnet poll taken in August 2005 reveals that of 1,004 Americans, 55 percent consider themselves "religious and spiritual," while another 24 percent describe themselves as "spiritual."  Two thirds say they pray daily and a third meditate.  Prayer, meditation, chanting, visualization are all about focusing attention to achieve a higher level of consciousness. 

You can use the power of your thoughts to focus on potentially positive outcomes, instead of potentially negative ones, and change your life.  Is it time to turn your attention toward intentions you'd really like to make happen?   Your time, energy and priorities must be clear and balanced to insure you live the passionate and productive life you deserve to live. 

Creating a more holistic paradigm of balance to your work and home life will help you from thinking you are running between compartments.  This new dynamic equilibrium is meant to allow all the parts of life to work synergistically in a highly interrelated whole.  A good place to start is by taking an in-depth look at your management of time.

Take a Time Management Self Assessment for only $24.95

Time management is not really about managing your time.  It is not about setting long and short goals and keeping in mind the prioritization of those goals.  Too efficient scheduling and control of time can be counterproductive.  The efficiency focus creates expectations that clash with the opportunities to develop rich relationships and to enjoy spontaneous moments on a daily basis.

The most important knowledge is self-knowledge.

Knowing what's important to us requires good, honest introspection.  Changes in self-awareness lead to changes in behavior followed by important improvements in time management and work-life balance.   When you start spending less time on things that don't matter and start spending more time on things that do, there is no reason to be concerned about managing your time and energy.

Translucent Reality

The current scientific model that dominates much of our thinking and beliefs about the nature of reality was born during the Age of Enlightenment in the 1700s.

Newton's primary metaphor was that the universe runs like a clock, and all we have to do is study the parts to know how to run it.  While the scientific method is a powerful way of learning more about the observable world, it has come to dominate much of our modern world-view in the absence of other models that could compete on the same terms.

Although academic science is more free from corporate influence than industrial science, it is still limited by taboos about what topic areas are worthy of study---with a resistance to methodological or ideological innovation and a privileging of the physical sciences over the "softer" sciences.  Extensive research on emotional, social, and relational intelligence and learning has yet to be embraced by an educational system mired in bureaucratic and dogmatic resistance.   Despite evidence of global warming that now has broad scientific and public acceptance, corporate-funded climate research still routinely calls this data into question.

What's Your Corporate Strategy?

Can you summarize your company’s strategy in 35 words or less?   If so, would your colleagues put it the same way?

Very few executives can honestly answer these simple questions in the affirmative.  And the companies that those executives work for are often the most successful in their industry.

Conversely, companies that don’t have a simple and clear statement of strategy are likely to fall into the sorry category of those that have failed to execute their strategy or, worse, those that never even had one.  In an astonishing number of organizations, executives, frontline employees, and all those in between are frustrated because no clear strategy exists for the company or its lines of business.

Finding a Mentor

If you had one or more people, whom you admired a great deal, offer themselves and their resources to help you reach your professional goals in the next few years, how do you think it would accelerate your progress?

Your answer to that question will determine if you are ready, willing and able to self-select a mentor or coach.

What is mentoring?

Mentoring can occur naturally, informally or formally.  It can be part of a formal program with a mutually agreed upon contract for meetings or other arrangements or it can last a lifetime. 

Mentoring most often includes an exchange of wisdom, support, learning or guidance for the purpose of personal, spiritual, and career or life growth.

What is a coach?

Unlike mentors, a coach can be less visible but very much present.  Coaches are drawn from the outside to provide individual executive support on personal and business matters. 

A coach is a person who wants to see you win for the rest of your life.  A person to talk to when you run into problems or want to prevent problems from developing.  A person who will stay in contact with you across time and settings.

You can find a coach at the Coach to Coach Network at www.Coach2Coach.info and you can find a mentor at the new social networking website, www.iMantri.com.  IMantri provides help in areas such as time management, communications, leadership or breaking through the glass ceiling.

What does iMantri mean?

“Mantri” (pronounced as “Man” “Three”) is a Sanskrit word and means a minister, wise man, a counselor, a trusted advisor and a mentor. (Think of Alexander the Great and his “Mantri” Aristotle.) In addition to Sanskrit, the word has similar meaning and connotation in other languages such as Malay, Indo-China, and Arabic cultures.

At www.iMantri.com, users search through profiles of individuals registered with the site to find a mentor, or they can use a proprietary matching engine that hinges on a competency assessment. The engine also factors in use preferences, such as location.  Not all mentoring on the site is free.  Professional coaches who register with the site usually charge a fee. iMantri can connect with other corporate applications, such as an Intranet, through API-based Web services.

Source: CIO Magazine, March 15, 2008

For more information, go to: www.MENTORINGandCOACHING.com