Real Relationship Capacity.

Why are we so afraid to talk with our people about what is really going on with them?

Is it that we believe personal matters have no role in the workplace? Or, is the truth of the matter that we are afraid of the answers we might get if we dared ask the real questions begging to be asked; afraid of the discomfort we would experience at having to realize how ineffective we are at interacting with others on a personal level?

We reason that handling another’s personal challenges is not our job – and perhaps it is not. However, as often as professional challenges impede performance, personal challenges are at the root. Pretending the case is otherwise is simply naïve.

Coaching for Performance – A Perfect Partnership

Imagine that tomorrow you meet someone who you will readily welcome into your life. 

This is a very special kind of person, one who looks right past the superficial parts of your personality, your typical defenses, the insecurities you’ve worked so hard to mask, and the failings you’re ashamed to admit, let alone accept.

The Many Faces of Fear.

What is the number one fear for most people?  

According to some studies, public speaking. Curiously, speaking in front of others ranks higher than the fear of one’s own death, which reaches only second on such Most Feared lists! 

What about the number one fear of most senior executives?  

Earning the Right To Coach

Are you the kind of person from whom others want to receive coaching?

Think seriously about this question.  

As managers we cannot automatically assume the mantle of coach. Hiring, planning, performance management and other such tasks naturally accompany the role of manager – but coaching does not.

Becoming a Leader Coach is a welcome we must earn.

It requires that two choices be made:

1. The first is a decision we make to help another person create personal change;

2. The second is the choice another person makes to include us in his change effort.  

Think back on your own career.

The New Competitive Advantage: Leadership Capacity

Today’s Chief Learning Office states that inadequate leadership development is a threat to business growth.  

According to Corporate University Xchange’s latest study, 97% of companies surveyed are concerned about their leadership strength and 73% believe they do not currently have the leadership capacity to support their companies growth initiatives!

Has your company got the leadership bench strength it needs to compete? Do you?

What can you do:

1. To further develop your own leadership capacity?

2.  To foster the development and capacity of others?  

Sales Success: The Right Way Around.

For several years now (seven to be exact) I have been toying with an idea I call the right way around. Let me explain.

Many of us, in our desire to achieve something in business (or in life), drive straight towards our desired target, afraid that if we do not control every aspect of the situation, we will not reach our goal. This is the Type A approach, with which I must say I am intimately familiar.

Whether our goal is to achieve a specific sale or reach an overall business objective, the tendency is to focus on it and direct all our thoughts and efforts toward achieving that exact result.

This method, however, does not necessarily lead to the results we seek, and in my experience, I have often found it to be counterproductive to doing so.  

Cultlure.

 

In a recent email to a colleague I misspelled culture “cultlure”. My colleague was kind enough to point out the mistake, adding that perhaps my slip of the keys was a subconscious act, and that I would do well to consider coining the word.

Cultlure: that exciting element which draws people to a company.  

The interaction prompted me to think more about culture and what it is exactly that draws people to one organization over another, especially when the competition to attract and retain top talent is becoming increasingly critical to organization leaders. 

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Beyond the need to be right. Do what works.

Have you ever been so worked up about a work-related relationship that you were unable to sleep? Have you even found yourself spending time rehearsing your next response (aka retaliation), time you could have enjoyed, only to get angrier with each repetition?

Of course, most of us have. I can’t believe him (her, that team, department, client … fill in the blank)!, we self-righteously say to ourselves.

How do you do business?

I just started a book I think is brilliant.

It is called How. Why how what we do means everything … in business (and in life) by Dov Seidman. In it, Dov asks this great question: 

“In the past week or two, how many times have you opened an email and had one of the following reactions?

• This is not what we agreed to.
• This pisses me off.
• Why did you cc. my boss?
• I’m offended.
• I don’t find this all that funny.
• Why are you filling my in-box with this stuff?

Other questions worth contemplating:

• How often do you communicate with others in a manner that is less than honest? Less than what they deserve? Less than what you are capable and proud of? 
• In what subtle ways do you use your power or positon to treat others poorly?

I think Dov is onto something big when he talks about “out behaving the competition”.  Read What is Your Promise Kept?

Watch Charlie Rose’ interview of Dov at the following link: 

http://www.charlierose.com/shows/2007/07/11/2/a-conversation-with-author-dov-seidman