Rising Stars Coach

Labor Day usually means, back to school and back to work. As kids head to the classrooms, what are you learning to grow your career? Now is a good time to think about how to sharpen your leadership skills. The most effective leaders continue to learn and develop throughout their career.

When is the last time you engaged in personal or professional development? How have you stretched yourself? How you have encouraged your employees to bring their best game to work? How are you growing your business?

Whether you are a leader of a small team or large organization, there is always room to improve your performance. Some managers excel at people skills, developing great relationships, yet find it hard to hold people accountable, so results suffer. Others are quite task focused, at the expense of the team’s morale. These managers often have higher turnover which costs your company significantly in recruiting, hiring, and bringing new employees up to speed. How do you find the sweet spot where you are successful in your people and task skills? Research shows that employees don’t leave jobs, they leave their bosses. Keep your best people, by being the best leader you can be.

Are you interested in coaching for yourself or a direct report? Or are you more interested in how you can bring coaching and a coaching culture to your organization? A recent article by the Institute of Leadership and Management titled Creating a Coaching Culture  (May 2011) provides a wealth of terrific information.   They stated that 90% of organizations with 2,001 or more employees have used coaching in the past five years, compared to 81% for those with 501 to 2,000 employees. Smaller organizations use coaching to a lesser extent.

There is a often the tendency to associate coaching with the talent pipeline – it is predominantly directed at senior leaders and directors (85%) and middle management(85%). The most common reasons for coaching are management and leadership development.  External coaches are used most often for senior leaders. Internal coaches are utilized for middle managers and lower level supevisors and employees.

There was clear consensus on  coaching as a development tool  that assists both the organization (95%) and the individual (96%). The study was conducted with 250 large organizations in the United Kingdom. I encourage you to read the article and get a better sense of why so many companies are using coaching as the leadership development tool of choice.

Did you see today’s Wall Street Journal article titled, “Coaching Urged for Women: Inadequate Career Development Holds Back Female Executives” according to a McKinsey and Co report that will be released tomorrow. The article addresses the issue that we as executive coaches see frequently, leaders  make it to a certain level in the organization and then don’t receive the leadership development opportunities and skills needed to be successful at the next level. This is fairly consistent whether you are looking at the Fortune 500 companies where only 11 are led by females to medium size firms in most industries. It’s no surprise to see that many women are giving up on the corporate ladder to start their own businesses. To read the full article click here http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704530204576237203974840800.html?mod=rss_management

Are your Leaders Creative?
By Joanne Schlosser
If your first reaction to that question is, “No.” know that you are not alone. Many companies are realizing that creativity and innovation are traits they will need desperately in the next five to ten years and that their current pool of leaders does not have the required traits. So what can you do? There are two options, you can develop new criteria in your hiring practices, using questions and assessments to improve your likelihood of hiring new managers and executives with the creativity and innovative spark you seek. Second, you can provide your current managers and executives with leadership development opportunities to grow in place and be prepared for future opportunities.
The first of the Baby Boomers turns 65 this year. Over the next few years many will be retiring. Who will take their place? You need creative, innovative talent to drive your company forward as you face increased competition, shorter product cycle time and a flurry of social media that can launch your unknown product overnight or sink your brand. You need creative thinkers who can challenge the existing business model and take your company to new heights.
The 2010 IBM Global CEO Study highlighted creative leadership as a critical factor for success. The study identified the most important organizational capabilities and leadership qualities for the next five years. See Figures 1 and 2.

Figure 1 – The Most Important Organizational Capabilities over the next Five Years

Alarmingly, only one in three CEOs felt their company was doing an adequate job of leadership development. The 2010 IBM Global CEO Study cites that best in class organizations are working diligently to provide leadership development opportunities to close this gap. Training, coaching, internal and external high potential leader programs are a few investments that are being made. Other skill building solutions include bringing your rising stars together to work on new projects, solve difficult problems or perhaps interface with a customer segment they would not normally work with.
How are you going to recruit, retain and develop creative managers and executives?

Recently my husband surprised me with a birthday trip to Costa Rica. We had a fabulous time, in part because it was clear that the owners of the Peace Lodge and La Paz Waterfall Gardens Nature Park clearly created a vision “to preserve and protect the natural environment of the area for the education, entertainment, and enjoyment of all ages of people.” Our driver said he was originally hired to help build the property and that the owners spelled out their vision for what the Waterfall Gardens and resort would be, who they would serve and how it would be a refuge for romance and relaxation while enjoying the beauty of the Costa Rican rain forest. He said, “Over two miles of hiking trails and viewing platforms were designed and built without cutting one tree.  All of the materials for the trails and platforms were carried on foot in order to avoid bringing heavy equipment into the forest.”

Peace Lodge wants their guests to experience the natural elements, waterfalls, birds, hummingbirds, butterflies, etc. and the romantic, relaxed ambience and beauty of the rain and cloud forest. Then they communicated these expectations to their staff. Our servers in the restaurants greeted us and remembered my special dietary needs. Everywhere we went on the property, the staff was friendly and helpful. They were enthusiastic about the resort and waterfall gardens and about Costa Rica in general. They asked questions and listened with genuine interest. It is clear that the employees are selected for their positive, caring attitudes and then receive additional customer service training.

The resort was featured on the Travel Channel as one of the eight most romantic honeymoon destinations in the world outside the US. We can attest it certainly deserves the honor.

How clearly do you communicate the vision for your organization? Does every employee know exactly what you expect of them? Can they define what success looks like? How do you let people know when they’re on the mark and when they’ve missed it?

Leaders who excel in creating and communicating a vision for their employees achieve stronger results. Help your team achieve excellence this year by ensuring everyone is spot on to achieve your vision.



 Ask for help and encourage involvement

Unsure about how to achieve one of your company or department’s goals? Facing a challenging quality or process problem? Great leaders admit they don’t have all the answers. Ask your team for help. Let them brainstorm ideas, then encourage their involvement to implement the ideas, so they truly have ownership. Ask them to create specific measures to determine if they are successful. People feel energized and engaged when their opinion counts. Show them how important they are to your company’s success. Engaging people in this way helps to develop them for positions of greater responsibility. Build your bench strength while you’re improving your organization, a true win-win scenario.

 Have you ever thought, “It’s easier to do it myself than to teach someone.”? That may be true in the short term but over time you’ve developed people with new skills. That frees up time you can spend developing others, problem solving or golfing. Learning energizes people and makes them feel more valuable. What do your employees want to learn? What tasks or projects can someone else do? Imagine the benefits you reap when you broaden your people’s skills.

Frances Hesselbein, CEO of the Leader to Leader Institute, says that positive feedback is a key to growth and productive relationships and recommends you banish the word “but” from your vocabulary. How many times has someone told you how well you have performed, and you feel good about the feedback, until you hear “but.” At that point, the positive, energizing part of the feedback is lost in the “but” and what follows it. “But” is nobody’s friend. “And” provides the graceful bridge to mutual appreciation and effective relationships. So, replace “but” with “and” if you want others to listen with an open mind.

Recognize that when you ask for help and encourage involvement, people will give you their best effort and they may also have some learning and growth experiences along the way. You may not get perfection; you will receive their energy, excitement and enthusiasm. This also builds loyalty to you, so key performers are less likely to jump ship to a competitor, as the economy improves.

Leadership development courses and leadership coaching are two additional ways to develop your key people for future success and retain their loyalty.

Part of effective leadership is capacity for change.  In order to help others through the many changes in business today, we need to be flexible and resilient. How are you stretching yourself?  Have you taken on a new project or challenge? Learned a new task? Created a new process?

As I was concluding a one year coaching relationship yesterday, my coachee said, “It feels like I’ve had a lot of muscle growth this year. You continuously challenged and encouraged me to develop. Sometimes my head hurt because I could literally feel my brain developing. I would have never accomplished this much in this short of a time period, without you as my coach.”

Take a minute to reflect back on your accomplishments during the past year. What are you proudest of? Where was your biggest stretch? What made your head hurt, as you moved into new territory? How can you continue to challenge yourself?

Are you happy? Does your life have meaning and purpose? Are you living your values? Do you know what your signature strengths are? They are the character strengths that make you uniquely you. They help you be your best, most authentic self.

Dr. Martin Seligman’s main mission has been the promotion of the field of Positive Psychology. This discipline includes the study of positive emotion, positive character traits, and positive institutions. His research has demonstrated that it is possible to be happier — to feel more satisfied, to be more engaged with life, find more meaning, have higher hopes, and probably even laugh and smile more, regardless of one’s circumstances. He has written several very well respected books including: Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life and Authentic Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize Your Potential for Lasting Fulfillment

As a leadership coach, I encourage my coachees to use the VIA Signature Strengths Questionnaire that Dr. Seligman created. It is available for free, online at http://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/Default.aspx and it measures 24 Character Strengths.

It’s a wonderful self-assessment tool to help you realize the strengths you have. According to Dr. Seligman, our lives are better when we incorporate more of our signature strengths in our lives.

Take about 15 minutes to answer the questionnaire honestly and then review your strengths. Are you satisfied with how often you use your strengths? Are you finding that in your work or life right now, some of your key strengths are not fully able to shine? If so, that may be causing dissatisfaction for you. What would it take to bring out more creativity? Or gratitude? Or to reignite your love of learning? Well… maybe that’s why you’re reading this blog.

Our lives are meant to be lived fully. One way to do this is to express your unique self, your authentic you, by being in touch with your strengths and sharing them with others.

One quarter of your highest potential people intend to jump ship in the next year (How to Keep Your Top Talent, Harvard Business Review, May 2010, p. 54-61) Additionally, according to Jean Martin & Conrad Schmidt , “one in three admits to not putting all his effort into the job. One in five believes her personal aspirations are quite different from what the organization has planned for her. Four in ten have little confidence in their coworkers and less confidence in the senior team.”

As a senior leader, these statistics may sound frightening. There are ways to engage your high potential employees to reignite their passion and energy for your organization. The article focuses on six mistakes leaders and organizations often make.  One of the biggest mistakes is not making a differential investment in the people you feel are important to your company’s future. During the past few years, many organizations cut salary, reduced headcount, limited or eliminated raises and took other frugal measures to survive.

 Many employees went along with the changes, grateful to have retained their jobs. The high performers though, tended to become disengaged, they felt that if they put in additional knowledge, energy and effort it should be rewarded. Research indicates that high potentials may put in up to 20% more effort than their peers. They want be treated differently, in terms of compensation, recognition, opportunities for leadership development, coaching and special assignments or access to senior leadership.

Several ideas were shared from companies that found creative ways to reward and recognize this talent pool. Senior leaders, what are you doing to motivate your top talent?

If you are a rising star, what would you like from your company? What would increase your loyalty and engagement?