Coaching Tip: The Leadership Blog

Scaling Leadership

How do senior leaders, in their own words, describe the most effective leaders--the ones that get results, grow the business, enhance the culture, and leave in their wake a trail of other really effective leaders?

After surveying more than one million leaders worldwide, co-authors Robert J. Anderson and William A. Adams have drawn on their research to define leadership that works, in their upcoming book SCALING LEADERSHIP.

Analyzing over 1,350 pages of written comments about leaders' strengths, skills, and challenges, Anderson and Adams' research team sorted the data into 77 categories of the most commonly mentioned themes comprised of 40 leadership strengths and 37 leadership liabilities.

With decades of experience enhancing leadership skills with clients ranging from Fortune 100, multi-national corporations to fast growth start-ups, the authors provide an innovative and efficient framework to help leaders.

Scaling Leadership: Building Organizational Capability and Capacity to Create Outcomes that Matter Most   

 Robert J. Anderson

Hidden Brilliance

"I can't go back to yesterday - because I was a different person then."  Lewis Carroll

We grow in tiny bursts of new awareness that push us forward until the next lesson comes along.  If we miss or ignore these lessons, we don't get to pass GO or collect $200.  We get the lesson served back to us by the universe until we master that level.

As you gain new awareness about yourself and how you placed inordinate value on accomplishment, you have a big "A-ha!" moment at first discovery.  But following that took many reminders of the same new idea as you adjusted to the new rule you were trying to create for yourself.

Those critical, tangible steps that you have taken to remain close to this new mindset, allow yourself the permission to not worry about "what if" for future days.

As you act, as if the things you really want to achieve were already happening, they do. 

Honor this new mindset, while acting accordingly, and true alignment will begin to matter most for you. 

Source:  Katie Rasoul: Hidden Brilliance: A High-Achieving Introvert's Guide to Self-Discovery, Leadership and Playing Big

Leadership Starts at the Bottom

When low can't go lower, eventually you hit a bottom, and bottoms, personally and professionally, are profoundly important.

Everything gets rearranged at the bottom: your hopes, your dreams, your memories, and most importantly, your ego. 

As lonely as the bottom is, you are not alone. 

You are with your two wolves. 

In the depths of the bottom, your truest nature, with all its complexities and contradictions, is revealed and you are left to grapple with yourself.

It's at this absolute bottom where you learn who you really are, and what you're truly made of.

Source:  Bill Treasurer: The Leadership Killer: Reclaiming Humility in an Age of Arrogance

 

 

 

 

Leadership Skills that Inspire!

Over his four decades focusing on high-level executives, Fred Halstead has come to recognize and understand the distinguishing traits of high-performing leaders.

In "Leadership Skills that Inspire Incredible Results", Halstead emphasizes the power and payoff of sharpening fundamental leadership abilities, including:

• Listening actively
• Asking more on-target
• Inspiring others
• Delegating wisely
• Developing a culture of accountability

"Leaders who truly want others to succeed are the ones who achieve the greatest personal success," Halstead notes.

Great listening leads to great questions. Great questions yield great thinking.  Great thinking leads to great solutions. 

Great solutions lead to higher performance and people inspired to achieve their best. 

The idea is to help others go from "I don't get it" to "I got it!"  

"I now think I have the best solutions, the timeline, and the ability to lead the execution of the plan." 

You will, as a result of your questions, guide them to expand their thinking and achieve what you believe is the best solution and timeline.

Leadership Skills that Inspire Incredible Results  Paperback by Fred Halstead (Author)

How to Defend Your Position

What do you do when someone asks you a question?  If the words "answer it" formed in your head, you're WRONG!

"You should respond to a question," argues co-author James O. Pyle.

"Responding to a question is better than answering it. Your response to any questions can pack much more power and meaning if you start to 'see into' the question and better understand what information the other person wants."

In "CONTROL THE CONVERSATION" Pyle teams up with co-author Maryann Karinch to guide you in crafting responses that are multi-dimensional and include relevant and compelling information that goes beyond a mere answer to questions like: "What qualifies you for this job?"  "How did the meeting go? or "Where were you last night?"

Divided into two parts, "CONTROL THE CONVERSATION" first provides the mechanics of good responses, and how to get adept at separating questions into good ones and bad ones, easy ones and tough ones.  The authors include a close look at how to listen for and use keywords and how to read and use body language.

In the second half, Pyle and Karinch put the mechanics to use in various settings that are common in business environments and social situations--job interviews, negotiation and sales, meetings, media interviews, and dating and family interactions.

Source:  James O. Pyle: Control the Conversation: How to Charm, Deflect and Defend Your Position Through Any Line of Questioning

 

Both Sides of Leadership

One of the most difficult leadership positions in business today is also the most common: the "leader in the middle." 

If you lead people and answer to someone else--a boss, shareholder, customers--you are among the millions of "leaders in the middle."

"Leaders in the middle too often serve down to their people and defend up to their bosses, instead of serving up to their bosses and coaching down to their employees," says author Nathan Jamail, who has spent decades managing and coaching top performing teams.

"It's time challenge the traditional notions of servant leadership and learn to serve up to your bosses, serve out to your peers, and coach down to those you lead with humility, selflessness, and confidence."

In his newest book, "SERVE UP COACH DOWN", Jamail provides a playbook for leaders in the middle detailing just how powerful they are without pretending that their position doesn't require different skills.

 Nathan Jamail: Serve Up, Coach Down: Mastering the Middle and Both Sides of Leadership

The Expertise Economy

To help people become experts--to help them gain knowledge, build skills, and become lifelong learners--it's critical that we understand how adults learn best.

Today, we know more than ever about how the human brain works and how people learn most effectively.

In THE EXPERTISE ECONOMY, Author Kelly Palmer argues that as the future of work changes, skills and expertise--not credentials--will be the most important asset a company and its employees need to succeed in the New Economy.

Skills are the currency of the expertise economy, and the most successful companies are already thinking about how this will apply in a world where people are living and working longer.  Gone are the days when a four-year degree guarantees job security and the skills to stay relevant for an entire career.

Source:   Kelly Palmer: The Expertise Economy: How the smartest companies use learning to engage, compete, and succeed

Leading With Edge

It's easy for executives to get caught up with meeting targets and lose sight of the leadership skills they need to motivate teams.

In the new book, LEADING WITH EDGE, author Jose R. Costa shows leaders how to inspire their teams to reach levels beyond what they ever thought possible.

Costa stresses the importance of humility and self-awareness in dealing with employees.  Humility can be acquired by minimizing outward appearances of rank and status when communicating with employees.  Leaders need to be willing to admit they don't have all the answers.

Leading is about getting others to identify what's important to them.  These soft skills aren't taught in business school but are the hallmarks of great leaders.

The lessons in LEADING WITH EDGE are built on four principles:

Gaining and sharing knowledge

Modeling and driving expectations

Dream big, work hard

Trust but verify

Learning how to provide feedback is crucial to being an effective leader.

 

Source: Leading with Edge: Activate Your Competitive Advantage Through Personal Insight

Seek, Seed, and Scale Innovation

Leaders today responsible for revenue growth and competing effectively know that real innovation requires moving beyond known business models, towards customer insight-driven opportunities for value and growth that sustain businesses and brands.

THE CHANGE MAKER'S PLAYBOOK is for leaders who understand that the world is changing in ways that will affect their mission and bottom line.

This book is rooted in practice.  It does not stop at theory, strategic insights, or ideas.  It is packed with tactics that work:

• Part I, Seeking starts with what it means to discover insights into problems, define the brand's purpose, and find and define compelling concepts.  It establishes the change maker mindset--the leadership demanded to get from napkin sketch to market success.
• Part II, Seeding tackles the skills, tools, and capabilities to validate and refine concepts for market readiness, shape the business model, and determine a viable execution path.
• Part III, Scaling focuses on taking great ideas toward the ranks of sustainable businesses, assuring adaptability through the future forces of change.

"Success is happening for those who adopt a new mindset, tactics, and commitment, and who establish their purpose.  These are the change makers--they are few in number, and are worthy of encouragement and support," author Amy J. Radin.

Source:  Amy J. Radin: The Change Maker's Playbook: How to Seek, Seed and Scale Innovation in Any Company

Executive Peer Networks

"There's a huge difference between networks and networking," says author James Millar.  "Networking is often desperate and transactional; whereas networks are groups of peer we trust."

While few enjoy "networking," many crave authentic conversations with peers, clients, and key stakeholders.  The pace of change is accelerating, and executives need peer groups more than ever to understand what others are thinking and doing.

Time, trust, and low expectations too often get in the way. 

"There are more than a million conferences a year in the U.S. and nearly every vendor in every industry hosts round-table meetings, webcasts, or seminars.  Some are substantive, while other are less so," says Millar.

Even when a group of peers gets together, the design and nature of their interactions rarely supports an increase in trust over time.  

BUILDING BRIDGES urges executives to demand more.  Because, in a transactional world, we all need to belong.

Source:  James Millar: Building Bridges: The Case for Executive Peer Networks