It's Just Easier to Follow the Leader

 Change is a lot easier when there are examples to follow...

Today's work environment is increasingly complex. Leaders need skill sets not traditionally offered in undergraduate and even graduate curricula.  Furthermore, they need to update and refresh these skills quarterly, monthly, and even weekly to keep pace with a rapidly changing business culture. Providing a personal leadership coach is one way to help the key people in your organization overcome the challenges they encounter every day.

Every individual brings with them certain passions and talents, and the job of a leadership coach is to align these with the vision and goals of your team. Offering a forum for sharing best practices and gaining a solid set of leadership skills is seen as a benefit to both emerging and seasoned leaders within your organization.

Leadership coaching workshops/sessions assists in five main areas:

Communication Skills

The ability to persuade others through media or presentation is natural for some and acquired for others. In both cases, being able to calmly and clearly explain an idea is a skill that can be enhanced through practice and self-analysis.

Adaptability

Sometimes an organization's most seasoned employees suffer from being set in their ways and resistant to change. The best way to overcome this is by modeling adaptability: When the leader shows an ability to learn, grow, and stretch, even dug-in employees will try to follow suit.

Problem-Solving

Within the chaos of every problem is a solution that can make your organization even better. “Focus on the opportunity, not the problem” is the message that best serves the emerging and veteran leaders of today’s rapidly changing business environments. This begins with a positive attitude but also involves the willingness to see problems as they really are in order to develop solutions that will work.

Critical Observation

Data is very useful in pointing out blind spots and informing organizations of possible areas of improvement. Coaching helps take this idea further by asking and giving guidance around questions like “How do I best communicate to my staff the changes that are needed? What does my staff need from me to make these changes feasible? How do I get them to buy in to change rather than resisting it?"

Conflict Resolution

The effective leader must be able to recognize conflicts that are impeding smooth functioning and negotiate win-win solutions. Often this requires understanding the personalities involved and how they relate to each other.  A good coach assists in attaining the vital skill of holding multiple perspectives while staying on-course toward goal achievement.

Could You Use Some Free Parking?

Look for the win/win!
 
So, I’m playing Monopoly with my daughter last night.  She thinks the shoe is the best token when everyone knows it’s the car. We’re playing a version of the game where all taxes go under the Free Parking space and are won by anyone landing on the spot. The pot rose to over $1500 and the object of the game shifted from purchasing properties to being the first to land on the Free Parking space. I was down to my last $6, just visiting in jail, and needed to roll a 10. I rolled a 3 – Craps! Now it’s her turn. She’s on Electric Company and needs the magic 8… Cha-Ching! – A 5 on one die and a 3 on the other. With no buildings yet on the board, she could have purchased several hotels and likely won the game very easily. With a quizzical look on my face I asked her why she wasn’t doing that. Her answer -  “I just like playing with you, Daddy.”
 
Look for the win/win.

Tip:  Make 2011 the year you win by helping others win!

Generosity Through Self-Care

Most of us are natural caretakers. We do a great job of assisting and loving those around us. However, we sometimes fall short when it comes to taking good care of ourselves. We exert our energies giving to our kids, our jobs, our partners, and others. Then, at the end of the day, we have nothing left for us. If this goes on for too long, we can begin to experience our lives as less than fulfilling.

Recently, more and more of us are opening to the idea of prioritizing our health through radical self-care and self-love. If this sounds selfish, it's only because we've been conditioned to value the needs of others over our own. But consider for a moment that being run down, exhausted, and stressed out lessens our ability to take care of other people. So taking good care of ourselves is actually a very generous act.

Following are some great ways to care for your spirit:

• Daily time alone, reflecting on where we’ve been, where we are now, and where we want to go in our lives is great. It allows us to make contact with our spirits and listen deeply to our own truth. It helps us calm our internal fears and thought-produced problems. Jotting down our thoughts during this time makes this activity even more powerful!
• Hiking and spending time in nature is another powerful way to connect to our spirits. Breathing fresh air while taking in the beauty of our natural world does a great deal to calm the mind and heal the soul. The physical exercise is an additional bonus.
• Reading great books or listening to audio on the issues of spirituality and personal growth is yet another way to get stronger and move more consistently toward the life you desire.

Engage or re-engage in some of these nurturing activities. As you move forward on this path, you will notice that that the constant chatter in your head will be quieted, and as a result you have more patience for others. You will begin putting yourself first in an unapologetic way, with the understanding that the healthier you are, the more positively you affect the people around you.

Lift That Back Tire a Little Higher

Back in the day, I remember the kids in my neighborhood building a dirt ramp and jumping as far as possible with our bicycles. We would measure the distance by placing a small twig where the back wheel landed. Our goal was to “set the new mark” by jumping past the twig. The first couple of days saw frequent jumps pass the mark – sometimes by an inch, sometimes a half-inch. We soon hit a plateau and were no longer able to jump past the mark. Later, a kid from another neighborhood asked if he could jump on our ramp. We all watched in amazement as he flew past our twig by at least two feet.
 
Do I need to tell you what happened next? We were immediately able to jump further now that we knew that it was possible – our expectations had changed!
 
So it is with the important aspects of our lives. We can keep our momentum moving forward by expecting better jobs, more money, a thriving relationship with our partner, good health, warm friendships, and more time for leisure. Expand your expectations and give yourself permission to do what you want with your life. “Set a new mark” and begin taking meaningful steps toward your goals.
 
Need ideas? Give yourself the gift of a free coaching session today!

A $20 Bill

Imagine I place a board on the ground. It’s about 2 feet wide and 20 feet long. I place a $20 bill on the opposite end as a reward if you can put one foot in front of the other, walk along the length of the board, bend down, and pick up the 20 bucks. No sweat, right? It’s simple to walk one foot in front of the other for 20 feet.

But then I place one end of the plank on the top of a 20-story building, and the other end on the top of an adjacent 20-story building – I place a small rock on the $20 bill in case there is a slight breeze. Now I ask you to walk the plank just as before. Would you do it? Not on your life! But what has changed? The task is exactly the same. Fear takes over and makes something that used to be easy nearly impossible to achieve.

So it is with the things and situations that we want in our lives. If we are honest with ourselves, we know we can do it. However, when it comes to achieving a goal, we often focus more on the possibility of failure than the actual goal, making it almost impossible to achieve. We must train ourselves to focus exclusively on what we want – not on what we don’t want. “I want to speak up at work” vs.” I don’t want to look silly for saying what I feel.” “I want a trusting relationship” vs. “I don’t want my partner to cheat.” In the beginning this takes a lot of practice and support, but you can do it. I believe that you can have anything that you can imagine.