Coaching Tip: The Leadership Blog

Body Language Signals

Your ability to control your signals can have a profound impact on a negotiation.

The body language signals what you convey, along with what you say at the beginning, influence what happens during the negotiation. They set the tone for what follows.

When you use body language, you have to be very astutely aware of how your being is perceived.  

Here's where emotional intelligence also comes into play.  Always be willing to walk away from a negotiation.  In so doing you will be insulating yourself from staying engaged in the negotiation if by chance you are below the lowest offer you know you can accept.  Calculate what you're going to walk away from.  Be willing to tell your opponent, "This is not going to be satisfactory for us today.  How about we reconvene later?"

You can gracefully get away from the negotiation, but the one thing you don't want to do is berate the other negotiator.  Always leave the negotiation door at least cracked just a little bit so you can go back in and reopen the negotiation.  Don't burn any bridges.

Through engaging stories and examples by author Greg Williams, "BODY LANGUAGE SECRETS TO WIN MORE NEGOTIATIONS: How to Read Any Opponent and Get What You Want" shows ways body language, micro-expressions, and emotional intelligence influence the outcomes of every negotiation.  This book helps you learn how to employ your knowledge of body language to instantly read the other negotiator's position.

Source:  Greg Williams: Body Language Secrets to Win More Negotiations: How to Read Any Opponent and Get What You Want

Self-Coaching Leadership Books in ebook or paperback editions:                       

 Can't Get Enough Leadership ,  

Develop Leadership Skills: A Mobile Reference Guide ,

Ask the Coach  

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Doing What We Were Meant to Do

To be really good at something we must possess the corresponding level of innate talent.

In other words, do what you are passionate about and good at, and that will allow your natural talents to express themselves.

Likewise with leadership, heredity bestows upon us none, some or a high degree of leadership talent.  We need to do a good self-examination of our own talents and stop kidding ourselves that we can do or be anything we want.  Instead, we must look inward and aim to discover what talents we actually possess.

Good leaders recognize that they need to continually step back and review their words and actions to ensure that they are using their God-given talents for the benefit of those under their leadership or command.

Good leaders understand that the leadership talent they possess is a DNA gift and not something they obtained and developed on their own.  Accordingly, a deep sense of humility is a hallmark of good leaders.

"Leadership DNA, Book Two" by Paul Okum shares techniques to identify, select and help natural-born leaders enhance their skills with a wide range of real-world topics and issues.

"It's becoming clear that people in leadership positions must move toward viewing leadership as an art and not as a science as held by the leadership gurus," Okum said.  "Good leaders must come to recognize and respect their personal instincts and sixth senses when dealing with leadership issues."

Source:   Paul Okum: Leadership DNA, Book Two: Recognizing Good and Poor Leadership in the Real World

Self-Coaching Leadership Books in ebook or paperback editions:                       

 Can't Get Enough Leadership ,  

Develop Leadership Skills: A Mobile Reference Guide ,

Ask the Coach  

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Your First Leadership Job

Leading without Authority

You can choose to be a leader right now.

You have everything you need to lead the movement to positively change your workplace.  If you have positional authority (that is, you are a supervisor, a manager, a director, etc.), that is fantastic news.  If you don't currently have any positional authority, and you are working toward gaining some, that's great, too.

Either way, it does not matter at all when it comes to being a leader.

Contrary to popular belief, you do not need authority over other people to be a leader.  Some of the greatest leaders in history didn't have formal authority when they started on their world-altering journeys.  They did not have the ability to force anyone to do anything, and they didn't have to.  They had something else that was so much more powerful:

The ability to inspire positive actions in others to reach a desired goal and collective success.

Making Work Work, offers solutions for creating a more positive professional environment using kindness and mutual respect.  This empowering guide presents strategies along with actionable plans.  The keys to success include banishing blame and excuses, relentlessly respecting ourselves, maintaining work/life separation, recognizing the benefits of having true and lasting friends at work, taking the time to appreciate colleagues, and dealing with difficult people.

Source: "Making Work Work" by Shola Richards

Self-Coaching Leadership Books in ebook or paperback editions:                       

 Can't Get Enough Leadership ,  

Develop Leadership Skills: A Mobile Reference Guide ,

Ask the Coach  

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The New Fashion Mantra for Office Attire: Comfort

Styles and fabrics have taken so sharp a turn toward comfort that fashions may never entirely turn back again.

"People expect comfort," says Caroline Belhumeur, creative director for the apparel label Club Monaco.  "It's not like in the '80s when people were stuffing themselves into blazers and stilettos and hobbling around."

There's less separation between weekday and weekend clothing these days, says Roopal Patel, fashion director of Saks Fifth Avenue.  "We've started to see a shift in how our customers are getting dressed every single day."

People in their 20s and 30s are particularly adamant about comfortable clothing.

Your office dress code should err on the side of conservative. According to the Lipstick & Lollipops, let these five rules with a bit of Coco Chanel be your guide:

http://www.chicagonow.com/lipstick-lollipops/2014/03/office-dress-code/  

 Dress for Success

What you wear is still relevant.  And some of these studies, although a bit dated, are still holding true.  The truth is that business has changed.  But not as much as many people assume.  Most businesses are still conservative – and many are moving towards ultra-conservative in a backlash against business casual. 

The bottom line is that even today, the women who mimic the dress of the top executives in their organization still get promoted more and paid more.

Source: The Wall Street Journal, September 19, 2016, Journal Report/Trends 

 Free ebook at Amazon.com 

Seeing Beyond Ourselves

In the new book, "THE OUTWARD MINDSET: Seeing Beyond Ourselves" coauthors James Ferrell and Mitchell Warner offer readers a new intuitive way to implement mindset change by engaging in three steps: 

• Seeing the needs and objectives of others
• Adjusting your work to make it more helpful to others
• Measuring and holding yourself accountable for the impact of your work on others

Your mindset governs how you view the world--what you do and how you do it.

When individuals and organizations switch to an outward mindset, they are able to think and behave in ways that further the collective results that they are committed to achieving--results that involve everyone in something bigger than themselves and require collaboration in order to succeed.

In fact, according to a study conducted by McKinsey & Company, those who attempt to affect change by concentrating on changing mindset are four times more likely to succeed than those who focus only on changing behavior.  With this finding in mind, Ferrell and Warner further explore the differences between inward and outward mindsets and teach readers:

• How to get out of their own way by adopting an outward mindset
• To quit waiting on others to change
• How to allow others to be fully responsible--to both plan and execute

Seeing Truthfully

A shift to an outward mindset also changes how people see regard, and engage with others.  

As their mindset turned outward, they began to see and consider not only their own needs but also the needs and objectives others--the needs of their colleagues and of those who might be affected by potential layoffs.  Breakthroughs came as they began considering others in this way.  

Seeing others differently, they began thinking and behaving differently.

Source: The Arbinger Institute: The Outward Mindset: Seeing Beyond Ourselves

Self-Coaching Leadership Books in ebook or paperback editions:                       

 Can't Get Enough Leadership ,  

Develop Leadership Skills: A Mobile Reference Guide ,

Ask the Coach  

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