Coaching Tip: The Leadership Blog

Aware, Feel, Do

What we are looking for we find.  Yet, we are blind to that we are not looking for nor expecting.  Once we become aware of something, it is call to action.

The discovery process is about becoming aware of what's happening to us and around us. We first determine how we feel about this new thing we see and then take certain action to become complete with it.  That's the process: become aware, monitor how we feel about what we see and then do what we need to do.

Transformation is the natural outcome when you bring awareness to your life.  Awareness is a nonjudgmental seeing.  It is an objective, noncritical witnessing of the nature of any particular circumstance or situation.

In our life, unexpected "life changing events" happen and cause us to reevaluate where we are and where we are heading.   This new awareness is an opportunity to ask ourselves questions like these: What's really important to me?  How do I feel about what has happened?  How do I now want to live my life?    

Our answers to these questions, may surface a new self-awareness that allows us to put into action a plan or adjustment for correcting our life's direction.   Unintended consequences ripple out from this new life direction bringing new possibilities for living a more passionate and meaningful life.

Getting unstuck-at-work

Succeeding in today's economy requires lighting-fast reflexes and the ability to communicate and collaborate across the globe.

Communicating and collaborating well does not have to drain your energy and creativity by spending extended hours engaging in regional and global telephone conferences and exchanging many email messages.  Using new technology, like blogs, wisely can allow you to show and tell colleagues in other parts of the company and the world what you are working on without having to be present.  Just allow yourself and your associates to shift your attention from supervision to collaboration over internal and external networks.

62% of Americans have no idea what a blog is.  The answer: A frequently updated website consisting of personal observations and excerpts from other sources, typically run by a single person.

Jacob Crossman, a software engineer at Soar Technology Inc. in Ann Arbor, MI, uses blogging tools from Palo Alto, CA-based Socialtext Inc. to keep an up-to-date engineering notebook on his ideas about a particular project that can be accessed by other project participants.

"One of the disadvantages of a paper-based engineering notebook is that it's hard to find things unless you want to go through it manually," Crossman says. "So I decided to use the blog feature of Socialtext's software to keep track of my ideas.  I would type them in, and then they're immediately searchable using another feature of the software."  He is also able to link to other documents about the project using the blog entry.

Crossman is not alone. Weblogs, or blogs, which let anyone with an Internet browser and some easy-to-use software publish a personalized diary online, have emerged as a valuable knowledge management and communication tool in business and social networks.

Sources: ComputerWorld, Jan 26, 2004 and BusinessWeek, Jan 31, 2005 & October 3, 2005

Unintended Consequences of Global Warming

With this Fall's powerful hurricanes building energy over warm waters and causing extensive damage upon reaching land, many people are wondering about the future effects of global warming.

The big chill of recent winters in the Northeastern U.S. and near-record warmth globally seems like an early warning of the most dire predictions of climate change.   As most of the world gets toastier, average winter temperatures in Northeastern America and Western Europe could plunge 9-degrees F, according to an article in The Wall Street Journal of March 7, 2003.

Two of the worst repercussions of climate change: the Gulf Stream no longer conveying warmth from tropical to northern latitudes and Antarctic glaciers breaking off and surging into the sea, bringing a catastrophic rise in sea level around the world.

The ice around Antarctica already is setting off alarms.  A couple of the massive, floating ice shelves that fringe the Antarctic Peninsula have collapsed.   One broke off a few winters ago and a piece the size of Rhode Island moved into the southern ocean.   Ice shelves act like corks in a bottle: Remove them, and the glaciers behind accelerate toward the sea.  The usual estimates of sea-level rise (between 4 and 40 inches by 2100) don't include the effects of surging glaciers.  Doing so would at least double the low-end estimates.

When the warm, salty Gulf Stream current reaches its Northern terminus, the arctic air cools it, causing it to sink (cold water is denser than warm).   The Gulf Stream's plunge pulls warm tropical water up to the Northeastern U.S. and Canada and Western Europe.  That makes these regions at least 9.5-degrees F warmer than they'd be without the Gulf Stream.

If the cold, salty North Atlantic waters didn't sink, the current would weaken or stop.  Land temperatures would fall 5.5 to 9-degrees--resulting in winters twice as cold as the worst on record.  Which indicates that global warming doesn't result in more warmth for everybody in the world.

Do you have what it takes?

Personality assessment tests are common in the business world but they are now beginning to be used by franchisers and others who are recruiting new entrepreneurs.

Changing demographics are also helping to drive the popularity of these tests.  Today's prospective franchisees tend to be midlevel or senior corporate managers with lots of experience and definite ideas about how to run a business.  Franchisers need to know whether a candidate "who interviews well really has the mind-set to exchange some of his or her independence and autonomy for a recognized brand and business plan" says Matt Shar, president of the International Franchise Association in Washington, DC.

The bottom line is you can't spend a couple of hours, or even a couple of days, with someone, and know if that person will fit into the entrepreneurial role.  You need to have the help of an assessment tool to better understand the candidate's thinking and reasoning style, behavioral traits and occupational interests during the interviewing process.

For an entrepreneurial reality checklist, go to: http://home.att.net/~coachthee/Archives/realitychecklist.html    

For the top 5 Guiding Principles for Free Agents

Source: The Wall Street Journal, September 19, 2005

Executive Coaching Tips for HR Professionals

"Coaching allowed me to see myself as a leader in the eyes of others and, while that's not always a pretty sight, it's been one of the most impactful experiences of my development," says Chuck Feltz, president of Deluxe Corporation's Direct Checks business unit and financial services.

The International Coach Federation estimates that $1 billion is spent on such coaching services in the United States annually.  Search for "executive coach" on an Internet search engine and over 400,000 hits are likely.  The monthly costs range up to thousands of dollars to groom executives on the fast track to upper-management positions to helping others in times of personal or corporate chaos.

Today's Human Resource (HR) professionals are the people tasked with sourcing qualified coaches and seeing that the high cost of personal coaching delivers a calculable return-on-investment (ROI).  Yet, unlike investments in technology, which often result in cost and time savings, there's no easy way to attach a dollar figure to intangibles such as improved leadership skills and enhanced interpersonal relations. 

In tracking the coaching process, it is recommended that the HR professional or corporate sponsor hold quarterly status meetings with the executive and coach.  Preserving trust and confidentiality is critical in the coaching relationship.  That is why all conversations related to the progress of the executive's personal development are best communicated in a meeting between the person being coached, the HR professional or sponsor and the coach.

Source: Human Resource Executive, September 2005

Adult A.D.D. Awareness is Increasing

A genuine case of A.D.D. is no laughing matter and can do serious damage to personal lives and careers. 

Until a few years ago, the medical establishment believed A.D.D. (the full name of the condition is attention-deficit and hyperactivity disorder or A.D.H.D. and not all who have it exhibit the hyperactivity symptoms so it is often referred to as A.D.D.) was a pediatric disorder that kids grow out of.  The irony is that because it's hereditary, many adults began to recognize its symptoms in themselves only after it was diagnosed in one or more of their children.

Only 15 percent of an estimated eight million people in the United States actually know they have A.D.D. but all are looking for a label for their lifelong restlessness, spaciness, jumping from one subject to the next, easily distracted from completing tasks and meeting deadlines that adversely affect their world of work.  For help, first check out What is A.D.D. and then get a clinical diagnosis and begin working with a personal coach to help you function socially and at work.

The use of prescription drugs for A.D.D. is rising with the increasing popularity of brand-name versions that last all day, limiting ups and downs of symptoms. In a study released today by Medco Health Solutions Inc. of Franklin Lakes, N.J., the use of drugs for A.D.D. rose 113% among women 20 to 44 years old and 104% among women 45 to 64, both far more than among men.  "We're seeing about 1% of adults being treated," but four times as many are estimated to have A.D.D., said Dr. Robert Epstein, Medco's chief medical officer.

People with A.D.D. tend to be creative, tenacious, energetic and sensitive, said Dr. Edward Hallowell, author of the book, "Delivered from Distraction."  Awareness of the disorder is increasing and that is good since you can't run away from A.D.D. 

For more information, go to: www.WhatisADD.info 

Source: The Wall Street Journal, September 15, 2005

Award symbols hold power

Ever wonder how valuable that varsity letter, championship medal, ring or trophy is to the person who won it?

Awards in sports, education or in one's career field hold much value to the person who has been recognized.  Every time he or she looks at or touches the recognition symbol, a good feeling arises by remembering the special life accomplishment.

There are a few exceptions.  In speaking with high-achieving athletes, Neal Roese, author of "If Only" (Random House, 2005) explained, researchers found that the unhappiest people on the awards podium are usually the silver medalists.  Why?  Because they compare themselves to the athletes who won, and they always come up short.

Bronze medalists, on the other hand, are surprisingly happy.  Because they are often comparing downward, to those who didn't medal at all, their thoughts run more toward, "I'm lucky I got here; I could have missed being on the podium at all."

Symbols of intangible memories of living a rewarding life hold great value and meaning for the child inheriting the symbol from the parent.   Passing along "values and life lessons" is overwhelmingly considered (by over 75 percent in a recent study) the most important element of a legacy for both Baby Boomers and elders with children than the financial aspects of a legacy transfer.

Since life is not a dress rehearsal, live your life with meaning and passion---leaving symbols of what you achieved as your legacy.

Copycat or born leader?

There has always been pressure on corporate leaders to perform well.  Some have stretched and improved their competencies by learning more about themselves.   Most have chosen to adopt best practices of those whom they respect to improve their own leadership style.

So, which is the better method to develop leadership skills---improve your innate signature talents or copy what others have developed and used successfully?

The short answer is don't jump from one leadership fad to another but do engage in authentic conversations and self-assessments to know yourself better.

Throw out the Cookbook. Cookbookish leadership doesn't work when you are following someone else's recipe.  Perhaps, the quote from Dr. Maxwell Maltz of the Psycho-Cybernetic Foundation, about the need to focus our internal energy to make the changes we desire, says it best… "Trying to implant a goal that is incongruent with the self-image is like trying to plant grain by dropping seeds on rock hard bone-dry ground.

No one can consistently out perform his or her self-image.  No one can overcome it with willpower.   No one can sneak past it and perform in an incongruent manner.  The bottom line is that you cannot 'do' things without 'being' the kind of person who does those things. You must 'be' to 'do.'"

Bottom Line: Something that works well for a leader in one company is not easily replicated in another.

For the complete story, go to: http://coachedtosuccess.com/coachthee/Archives/copycat.html 

Turbocharged Brain Power

What we think, we become.  How can we think better, faster and longer?

Drugs now in labs are giving us glimpses of a future in which life expectancy will approach 100 and we will have superhuman powers to enhance our bodies and minds.  Here is how we may, in the future, be able to increase our thinking power:

Drugs that restore or strengthen memory can be bought over the counter.  Old people can stay independent, education levels rise, and poker and bridge are transformed.

No-sleep drugs and fear inhibitors, originally for military use, are routinely used by football coaches, police academies, and concert soloists.  Many drugs are activated through ingested or implanted chips that release dosages at required intervals.

Individualized cocktails of neurotransmitter-tweaking drugs enable comprehensive shaping of temperament to accord with different situations.  Those faced with tough work projects might take enhancers of mental focus, persistence, and self-confidence.  Vacation-goers will be able to benignly heighten their receptiveness to novelty, libido, and sensory excitability.

Better living through chemistry continues to enhance mind, body and behavior.

Source: FORTUNE 75: How the world will work, September 19, 2005

Finishing in second place hurts

Neal Roese, author of "If Only" (Random House, 2005) and a professor at University of Illinois at Champaign, recognizes the amazing resiliency and optimism people display after dusting themselves off from a bad situation.

In speaking with high-achieving athletes, he explained, researchers found that the unhappiest people on the awards podium are usually the silver medalists.  Why?  Because they compare themselves to the athletes who won, and they always come up short.

Bronze medalists, on the other hand, are surprisingly happy.  Because they are often comparing downward, to those who didn't medal at all, their thoughts run more toward, "I'm lucky I got here; I could have missed being on the podium at all."

When you seem to always be coming up in "second place" in your life or career challenges it may be time to consider getting up, dusting yourself off, and deciding it is time to be coached to success.

Source: Pioneer Press, August 14, 2005