Coaching Tip: The Leadership Blog

Leadership and Premonitions

Why do premonitions exist?  What if all of our decisions were emotional and we only justified and rationalized them analytically in our brain?

 "Nothing happens unless first a dream." Carl Sandburg

"Premonition" comes from the Latin prae, "before," and monere, "warn."  A premonition is literally a forewarning, usually of something unpleasant, such as a looming natural disaster or an impending threat to our health.  Premonitions, therefore, help us survive, and survival is the great theme running through the premonitions that people experience.

Thomas L. Friedman wrote "The Inflection Is Near?" in the New York Times on March 8, 2009: "What if the crisis of 2008 represents something much more fundamental than a deep recession?  What if it's telling us that the whole growth model we created over the last fifty years is simply unsustainable economically and ecologically and that 2008 was when we hit the wall--when Mother Nature and the market both said: "No more."  But as environmentalists have pointed out: Mother Nature doesn't do bailouts...  We must grow in a different way.

Jobless Recovery: An Oxymoron

The depth of this recession, plus widespread expectations that unemployment will keep rising into 2010 and remain high thereafter, may exert a powerful drag on the recovery.

Shortly after the 1990-91 recession, consumers went out and bought houses, cars and other expensive goods on credit, noted Richard Curtin, director of the University of Michigan consumer sentiment survey.  That helped boost job growth in construction, manufacturing and other industries.

Consumer spending accounts for about two-thirds of U.S. gross domestic product.

However today, Americans have abruptly switched from living beyond their means to saving more and working down the debts they incurred during the bubble years.  This time around, because of the severe credit crunch, people won't be able to get financing as easily as they did in the 1990s--while many others who can borrow will be reluctant to do so, Curtin's survey's indicate.

Instead of leading the way to a more vigorous economy, consumers are saying they want to save and keep their personal debts low.  Americans socked away almost 7 percent of their after-tax income in May, the highest rate in 15 years.

That's what scares Howard Roth, chief economist at California's Department of Finance.  The nation's biggest state has been hit particularly hard by the housing meltdown, and its jobless rate is already hovering at 11.5 percent.

"If you look at the situation of consumers--home equity, it's gone away.   The stock market has wiped away retirement savings," Roth said.  "The consumers are not going to be able to spend as much as before."

Source: Ann Arbor News, July 2, 2009

Job Test Ruling's Impact

The Supreme Court's recent landmark employment-discrimination ruling might prompt employers to use tests more in making hiring and promotion decisions.  But it has others scrutinizing their existing tests to ensure they are free of bias.

"There's going to be a re-evaluation of what additional tools are available to employers," says Maria Konev, human-resources manager at Liquid Transport Corp. of Avenel, NJ.  Ms. Konev says she sometimes uses personality tests to help choose between equally qualified candidates for jobs or promotions, and would like to use tests more frequently.  Following the court's ruling, Ms. Konev says she is considering using personality tests more and giving other exams to dispatchers and drivers.

"It is a tool," says Paul Nolan, owner of Cincinnati-based Personnel Profiles, which designs and administers aptitude tests.  He suggests clients follow five steps, including an introductory interview followed by a skills test, a second interview, a drug test and a background check.

Doug Reynolds, vice president for Development Dimensions International, a Pittsburgh human resources and leadership consulting firm that develops tests for employers, says tests for hiring and promotion are most commonly used by retailers, manufacturers, telecommunications companies and businesses with large sales forces.   Mr. Reynolds says the court's "very public statement of support for an objective and validated" test should ease concerns among private-sector employers about using tests.

Source: The Wall Street Journal, July 1, 2009

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

Learn about Gallup's new job candidate testing for team engagement

Why Every CEO Needs a Coach

Every Chief Executive Officer (CEO) is "on the stage" the majority of his or her work life but needs pre-performance quiet and confidential time to be creative, bounce their ideas off someone in a safe environment, and explore the unintended consequences of their future actions.  Engaging in a personal coaching conversation is a refreshing opportunity where the CEO can be completely open and creative in a confidential and safe place.

When asked what was the best advice he ever received, Eric Schmidt, Chairman and CEO of Google, recognized it was from John Doerr, who in 2001 said, "My advice to you is to have a coach."  Schmidt initially resented the advice, because after all, he was a CEO.  He was pretty experienced.  Why would he need a coach? 

CEO Schmidt asked himself, "Am I doing something wrong?"  His argument was, "How could a coach advise me if I'm the best person in the world at this?  But that's not what a coach does.  The coach doesn't have to play the sport as well as I do.  They have to watch you and get you to be your best.  In the business context a coach is not a repetitious coach.  A coach is somebody who looks at something with another set of eyes, describes it to you in [his] words, and discusses how to approach the problem."

Schmidt said, "Once I realized I could trust him and that he could help me with perspective, I decided this was a great idea.  When there is  [a] business conflict you tend to get rat-holed into it.  [The coach's] general advice has been to rise one step higher, above the person on the other side of the table, and to take the long view.  He'll say, 'You're letting it bother you.  Don't.'"

When a person faces a challenge and becomes stuck, he or she may seek the services of a personal coach.  Once this commitment is made, the person begins to experience a different, more hopeful, world as his or her perceptions evolve in meeting the personal challenge.  Professional coaches understand that the success of a coaching engagement depends on the willingness of the person-being-coached to commit to his or her personal development process. 

Team Cultural Fit

The recession has forced companies to be more competitive than ever; employees and managers have to be extremely customer-oriented and at the top of their game.

What this means is that all new hires have to be star players.  The have to be able to hit the ground running and get up-to-speed almost immediately, because the company doesn't have the luxury of waiting. 

They have to be ready, willing and able to play their position well and know how to play on an All Star Team...putting in the extra effort required in practicing their intercommunication skills to allow the team to win.  And they need to be employees and managers who appreciate and apply the team training and personal coaching the company invests in them.

Cash Remains King

The nation's monetary base--consisting of bills and coins in circulation plus banks' deposits at the Fed--has climbed 114% over the past year through May.  For comparison, the biggest annual increase before this crisis, going back as far as 1960, was a little under 16%.

Whether it's voluntary frugality or under the coercion of creditors, Americans have abruptly switched from living beyond their means to saving more and working down the debts they incurred during the bubble years.  Normally, consumer spending accounts for about two-thirds of U.S. gross domestic product...and...when you're saving, you are not spending as much as you did before.

The dramatic pullback in consumer spending means money that otherwise would have gone into raising prices is going into propping up the faltering economy.  Banks have drastically increased their reserves at the Fed rather than making new loans.  That's the biggest cause for the increase in the monetary base.  "At every level of the economy and every level of society, the demand for cash is unprecedented," says David A. Rosenberg, chief economist and strategist for Gluskin Sheff & Associates, a Toronto money manager.  Says Rosenberg: ""If the Fed didn't meet that demand for cash, we'd have a destabilizing deflation on our hands."

As a matter of fact, the economy is making ends meet, creating a deflationary spiral...where cash is king.

Excluding food and energy, consumer prices rose a modest 1.8% in the 12 months through May--and including food and energy, they fell 1.3%, the most since 1950.  Cutbacks by consumers are bringing about deflation in business, with unemployment in May at 9.4% and manufacturing using only 65% of their capacity, the lowest since recordkeeping began in 1948.  Small businesses that were aggressively raising prices a year ago are now "worried about weak demand, the fact that they don't have many customers," says William C. Dunkelberg, chief economist of the National Federation of Independent Business.

Source: BUSINESSWEEK, June 29, 2009

For information on how not to invest your funds:  5 Fatal Flaws of Trading
By Jeffrey Kennedy

EWI Senior Analyst Jeffrey Kennedy discusses why most traders lose, the five flaws associated with losing, and how to overcome these five flaws to become successful. Read More.

Inspire Interest to Create Desire

Positive stories are extremely important for inspiring interest that can create a desire to buy into what you propose to others. If you want your team to do something different, present stories and clear examples of how successful innovators are making a difference.

To 'sell' your concept, product or service, you must pass the ACID test: 

A. Gain favorable Attention,

  C. Inspire Confidence,

  I. Build Interest to where

  D. Desire surfaces.

When 'desire' surfaces, the other person takes the lead in the conversation while you begin to provide the evidence necessary to justify your proposal.

Appeal to both heart and mind to gain an enthusiastic buy-in.  Effective leaders establish an emotional connection.

The task isn’t to impose your will on an audience; it’s to enable participants to see the possibilities and come to their own conclusions, based on the evidence presented in your positive stories. These stories allow audience members to see the world for themselves, view their relationships in a new way and make progress in implementing organizational goals.

Reinforcing with Reasons

The desire for change will wane unless it’s supported and reinforced by compelling reasons. Remember to share the story of:

·         What the change is, as seen through the eyes of those who will be affected by it

·         How the change will be implemented, with a delineation of the simple steps for getting from “here” to “there”

·         Why the change will work, with an explanation of the underlying mechanisms that make change virtually inevitable

For more on passing the ACID test go to: www.SalesTip.info

Gaining Favorable Attention

 Successful leaders follow a unique, almost hidden communication pattern to pass the "A" of the ACID test. 

Grab the audience’s attention ► Stimulate desire ► Reinforce with reasons

To 'sell' your idea, product or service, you must pass the ACID test: 

A. Gain favorable Attention,

  C. Inspire Confidence,

  I. Build Interest to where

  D. Desire surfaces.

When 'desire' surfaces, the other person takes the lead in the conversation while you begin to provide the evidence necessary to justify your proposal.

Step 1: Getting the Audience’s Attention

In an experiment with 60 executives, researchers found the most important factors in grabbing their attention were:

1.    A personalized message

2.    Evoking an emotional response

3.    A trustworthy source

4.    Concise language

In fact, personalized messages that evoked emotion were more than twice as likely to resonate with the group.

Social scientists have shown that negative messages are more attention-getting than positive ones. To get an audience’s attention, share:

·         Stories about the audience’s problems

·         Stories about the problems’ worsening trajectory

·         A relevant story about how you dealt with adversity

·         A surprising question or challenge that will interest the audience--like "How well is _____ working for you?"

Traditional Communication Style Doesn't Work

The traditional communication approach follows this sequence:

Define the problem ► Analyze it ►Recommend a solution

This approach appeals to reason and has been a revered intellectual tradition in organizations since the ancient Greeks.  It works well when the aim is to pass on information to people who want to hear it, or who are obliged to comply and follow without question.

But if your aim is to get people to change their behavior and act in some fundamentally new ways with sustained energy and enthusiasm, old-school communication has two flaws:

1.    It doesn’t work.

2.    It often makes the situation worse (negative impact).

People who disagree with you or have other ideas and habits won’t respond well to your list of reasons to change. In fact, lecturing them on your beliefs will often lead to greater entrenchment in their long-held approaches and behaviors.

Confirmation Biases

A significant body of research shows that asking people to change often drives them more deeply into opposition. In study after study, people display a phenomenon called confirmation bias.

Confirmation bias is a tendency to search for or interpret new information in a way that confirms one’s preconceptions and to irrationally avoid information and interpretations that contradict existing beliefs. All of this happens instantaneously in the part of the brain that’s responsible for emotional reactions.

This explains why traditional persuasion techniques fail, especially when delivered too early in a presentation.  You risk speaking to a skeptical, cynical and/or hostile audience whose confirmation bias has been activated.

 Stephen Denning: The Secret Language of Leadership: How Leaders Inspire Action Through Narrative (J-B US non-Franchise Leadership)

How do you lead change?

Many experts proclaim that leadership is solely an issue of inner conviction: You must find the leader deep within yourself.

Other experts encourage you to:

·         Become the person others will want to follow

·         Discover your strengths

·         Increase your self-awareness, self-regulation and authenticity

·         Become emotionally and socially intelligent

·         Visualize to materialize

·         Be true to yourself, and change will happen

If leaders’ own inner commitment to change is to have any effect at all, they must communicate it to those they aspire to lead. Leaders’ actions speak louder than their words, but in the short run, it’s what leaders say — or don’t say — that has an impact.

The right words can create:

·         A galvanizing effect

·         Enthusiasm

·         Energy

·         Momentum

·         Sustainable motivation

The wrong words, or even words said in the wrong sequence, can undermine your best intentions and plans, killing an initiative on the spot.

 Stephen Denning: The Secret Language of Leadership: How Leaders Inspire Action Through Narrative (J-B US non-Franchise Leadership)