Coaching Tip: The Leadership Blog

Executive Womens' Life & Career Focus

Maria Bartiromo of CNBC once spoke at a General Electric (GE) women's meeting about--investing, the Fed, inflation and Wall Street.  She did a fine job in her presentation, and then was asked the question, "How she has succeeded so well in face of all the prejudices and attitudes toward women on Wall Street?" by one of the "work-life balancers."

She answered the question succinctly, saying--as a look of real fatigue crossed her face--"I work very, very, very hard."

You can spot the real players by the focus of their questions.  The good women executives are impatient with all the "women stuff," and will interrogate a speaker on purely business issues.  The drones prefer to whine on about discrimination or work-life balance.

As politically incorrect as it may have been, and even more so now, is that if you want to be a big player in this game of business, your job has to be the primary focus of your life.  Successful women at GE and other companies have been told, or signaled:

1.  do not have a family

2.  have a husband who will stay home and take care of the children

3.  make the children the second priority in your life and hope they will muddle through

4.  understand that the children will probably be drinking and smoking weed while you are having a dinner meeting in Tokyo or Shanghai.

Companies that overindulge in work-life balance are going to be undercompetitive.

In their book, Winning, Jack and Suzy Welch offer some very good advice for "moms": "So before you open your mouth for a fiftieth time to ask for limited travel and Thursday mornings off, or occupy your boss's time with concerns over your childcare arrangements, know that you are making a statement, and no matter what words you use it sounds like, 'I'm not really into this.'"

The history at many workplaces tells us that women seldom supported each other at any level, from "admin" to officer and in fact, were much tougher and more critical with each other than the guys ever were toward women---or toward other men, where their relationships were generally collegial. 

The above should transfix women who are starting out in life and career.

Source:   Bill Lane: Jacked Up: The Inside Story of How Jack Welch Talked GE into Becoming the Worlds Greatest Company

What's Wrong with To-Do Lists?

Instead of allowing our minds to perform optimally, many of us fill our brains with daily life's mundane details and rules.  Worse, we spend endless hours repeating the tasks and projects we're trying to juggle.

We need a functional system to hold these details until the appropriate time to take action.  When we can systematically tick off as many tasks as possible, we are able to clear our mind again.  Writing things down on a to-do list is a good first step, but it's not enough.

As we struggle to multitask, we find there are too many things that are out of alignment with our current sense of reality.  To cope, we put them on "the list" which can grow to gargantuan proportions.  Often, this list is nothing more than names of pressing projects written on numerous pieces of paper, often kept in several discrete places.

Here is what's missing from our lists:

1. A clearly identified intended outcome.
2. A specific next-action step to be taken.
3. Reminders of outcomes and action steps in a reliable system.

Some people keep multiple to-do lists of undone tasks.  There are notes in their Day-Timers, computer calendars, PDAs, iPhones and all of the other common organizing tools to which we cling.  When we write something down and place it on a list, we assume we have a surefire way to remember it. 

But the problem is more complex than keeping multiple lists.

The left brain, that supplies logic and linear thinking, keeps its own list and tends to be untrusting.  It will continually issue reminders and incessantly interrupt your most creative moments.  In response, you will write down the task yet again, blocking the mind from thinking clearly and creatively.

Many of us have experienced working in the "zone," where creative processes flowed and we lost all sense of time.  This happens when we use our right brain hemisphere.  Right-brain thinking is essential for innovation.  It functions like an artist, concerned only with the present moment.  In contrast, the left brain is concerned with time and numbers.  It reminds us of tasks left undone, prior experiences we need to consider and future deadlines....functioning more like a banker than innovator.

If you don't manage your mind to manage your actions, you are giving up the possibility of creative thinking and all of the tasks for which you haven't formulated desired outcomes and decisions remain active in what scientists call "open loops."  They will haunt you, sapping your energy and creative powers.

Mentoring New IT Leaders

As retirement, outsourcing and a shrinking pool of information technology (IT) talent converge, leadership development is being pushed to the top of the succession planning to-do-list.

Cultivating IT leadership is at the core of the "Ones to Watch Awards," presented annually by CIO magazine and the CIO Executive Council. The nominees for this award are top IT lieutenants who most likely have personally answered this question:

It 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?

Seventeen of the twenty 2008 Ones to Watch honorees overwhelmingly rated mentoring and one-to-one coaching as very effective in their personal success.

Mentoring and coaching matter much in the professional, and even personal lives of many technology executives. Mentoring and coaching are all about developing a career and work/life balance in sync with someone's skills and goals through an ongoing relationship rather than a transaction, like a leadership seminar or executive education in a classroom setting.

To read and/or comment on the complete article in CIO magazine, go to: www.cio.com/article/341068

Best Coaching Practices

Organizations, both for-profit and not-for-profit, have realized that many challenges can be met with coaching. 

"Coaching in Organizations: Best Coaching Practices" by Madeleine Homan and Linda J. Miller (John Wiley & Sons, Inc) is a how-to coaching manual written to support organizational service professionals with simple and easy tools to plan, implement and manage coaching interventions.  The first few chapters are devoted to a board overview of coaching in organizations--literally the basics.  The book then examines the key elements to keep in mind when considering the attempt to create a coaching culture in an organization, including offering some mechanics on how to structure, implement and manage the coaching experience.

Part One concludes with an overview of the various ways of measuring return on investment (ROI) for any coaching implementation.  Regardless of how ROI is determined, more and more organizations are interested in measuring the impact and success of training and developmental activities, including coaching.  ROI data is useful and important, especially today during periods of economic downturns and reduced variable expenses.

Part Two of the book offers a more detailed handbook for the active practitioner of coaching.  Coaching is a broad tool--a means to various ends.  Four separate chapters are devoted to an in-depth investigation into different kinds of coaching: their methodologies, tools, and potential results.  The various ways that people in organizations are using coaching are divided into categories for the sake of discussion.  These are simply areas in which coaching can be deployed to help organizations achieve their strategic business goals:

Coaching to Support Learning

Coaching for Performance

Coaching for Leadership Development--often referred to as Executive Coaching which can take anywhere from six months to a year or more, depending on the leader's commitment and motivation and his or her goals and objectives.  Executive coaching today is regarded as an investment by an organization in its emerging and senior leaders.

Team and Group Coaching

  Madeleine Homan: Coaching in Organizations: Best Coaching Practices from The Ken Blanchard Companies

"Over the years, I found that everybody was excited about The Ken Blanchard Companies' leadership training, but too few were putting their new knowledge into practice in a way that really made a difference in their lives and the lives of those they touched.  When we began to incorporate coaching into our training, the feedback and results were remarkable.  People were actually using what they'd learned.  For companies that agree to give follow-up coaching to their people after training, the benefits far outweigh the cost.  That is why Coaching in Organizations is a welcome and timely addition to business literature."  Ken Blanchard, Co-author of The One-Minute Manager and Leading at a Higher Level

In 2005, The Ken Blanchard Companies conducted a survey with leaders who had received coaching in the previous few years.  Survey participants were asked to describe the expectations that executives have of the coach during the coaching process.  The number-one answer was that they wanted to receive objective feedback.  Other responses: to challenge me, to give me a different perspective, to serve as a sounding board and to tell me what I was missing [as an executive].

Overworked and Out-of-Time

Everyone you meet these days is overworked and out of time.

In our tech-enhanced world, we have more timesaving helpers and systems than ever before.  So, why isn’t there enough time to juggle our work, home and health responsibilities?  We have an enhanced quality of life, but we’re also adding to our stress levels by taking on more tasks than we have resources to handle.

There’s a tremendous need for new methods, systems and, above all, habits to keep us on track.

Information Fatigue

You’ve probably already discovered that whichever system or calendar you’re using to track projects and priorities is important, but limited.  As management guru Peter Drucker explains:

“In knowledge work…the task is not given; it has to be determined. ‘What are the expected results from this work?’…is the key question in making knowledge workers productive.”

We haven’t been taught to think deeply about our work before we undertake it. Thinking in a concentrated manner to define desired outcomes is something few people do.  But outcome thinking is one of the most effective methods available for creating successful realities.

Energy and Time Management

The lack of energy available within the work environment can be the greatest roadblock to managing time well and improving employee productivity.

Energy predicts not only a firm's performance outcomes, but when gaged at the individual employee level, it predicts turnover, absenteeism, customer satisfaction, team outcomes, and even performance appraisal scores (using 360 feedback systems).  The team leader or manager's energy is important because it predicts employee energy, and overall employee energy predicts performance and productivity. 

When leaders have too much work to accomplish in the amount of hours they can devote to their work, their energy can become depleted and everyone who works with them suffers a loss of performance and productivity.  How do employees survive in such a work environment?  They multitask, “surfing” from project to project—doing a little bit of work on each one in a very inefficent manner.

Time management is all about organizing and executing around priorities.  That does not mean just focusing on creating notes and checklists or having well-scheduled calendars or appointments to give some semblance of recognition and inclusiveness to the many demands placed on your time and energy. 

Business Blog Tips for Busy Bloggers

Ever wonder if you're getting the best results you can from your business blog?   Would you like some tips on how you could get more people reading your blog postings?

My friends, The Blog Squad (Patsi Krakoff, Psy.D. and Denise Wakeman), say most business blogging professionals don't know what they really need to know to get better results from their blogging efforts.

They say, "Most bloggers leave their blog parked in the garage and only take it out for a drive on Sundays!"

Patsi and Denise have been studying what works in business blogging since 2004. That's why you'll benefit from their free report, "Better Business Blogging: 4 New Concepts for Getting Spectacular Results!"

What will you learn from this free report?

* How to get faster at blog posting so it doesn't eat up so much of your time

* How to come up with great blog content that "WOWs!" your readers

* How the design of your blog can inspire trust with readers

* How to vastly improve the number of subscribers and readers through a blog outreach program

* How to get readers to take action that turns them into loyal customers

Download the Blog Squad's free report and learn what you need to do to take your blog to the next level.  I did....because I love to get free advice that I can put into action right away.

Click here to get your copy of the free Better Business Blogging Report: 

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Superman or Clark Kent?

Do you part your hair the way Superman does or on the right as Clark prefers?

In recent years a pseudoscience non-verbal indicator has emerged around the theory that left-partedness signals leadership potential, while parting on the right suggests something a little off-kilter.

"It's difficult for right-parters to be leaders," says John Walter, a 49-year-old systems engineer at New York's Marymount Manhattan College.  Walter is credited with creating the theory three decades ago after he discovered only a few U.S. presidents parted their hair on the right.

According to the theory, left-parters attract attention to the left side of their of their face, which conveys left-brain functions like logic (as Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway and Indra Nooyi of PepsiCo do), while right-parters come across as creative but also mysterious.  Hair-part aficionados are abuzz over whether right-parter John McCain stands a chance of winning the 2008 presidential race.

Source: FORTUNE May 5, 2008

The Power of Friendship

This is a story of friendship, and the principles behind the story, taken from the book, "The Ultimate Gift" by Jim Stovall (ISBN: 1434799906).  Friends Gus and Red were getting started in the cattle business in Texas.  These two friends had ranches several miles apart but they and several other ranchers all shared the same range. 

Each spring, all the ranchers would have what they call a roundup, which involved collecting and branding all of the new calves which had been born since the last roundup.  The young calves simply follow their mothers wherever they go, so as the cattle are collected, representatives from each ranch are present to brand each new calf with the same brand as its mother's.

Gus was concerned that Red wasn't going to make it as a rancher.  So, during the roundup one year, Gus simply branded about thirty of the calves that should have been his own with Red's brand.  But at the end of the roundup, when Gus performed his tally, he found that instead of being thirty calves short, as he thought he should, he actually had almost fifty more than he started with.

Gus was confused about that incident until many years later, while he and Red were on a fishing trip. Red told Gus that when they got started, he had been worried about Gus making it in the business and had actually branded a bunch of his calves with Gus' brand.

This friendship story illustrates the Law of Love which is a principle behind the power of relationships.  We are predisposed to trust and cooperate with others.

Research on empathy, compassion, and altruism shows that when we encounter the pain or suffering of another, we are wired not only to feel their distress but also to reach out to help relieve it. Relationships between people or institutions are based on exchange in which all parties have a mutual understanding of their rights and obligations.   

Genius is developed, not born

Exceptional intellectual and creative power is developed over time by minds that are focused on paying attention to an opportunity waiting to be explained.

In the nineteen-sixties, the sociologist Robert K. Merton wrote a famous essay on scientific discovery in which he raised the question of what the existence of multiples tells us about genius.  No one is a partner to more multiples, he pointed out, than a genius, and he came to the conclusion that our romantic notion of the genius must be wrong.  A scientific genius is not a person who does what no one else can do; he or she is someone who does what it takes many others to do.  The genius is not a unique source of insight; he or she is merely an efficient source of insight.

Ideas aren't precious.  They are everywhere, which suggests that maybe the extraordinary process that we thought was necessary for invention---genius, obsession, serendipity, epiphany---isn't necessary at all.