Performance Tools

Coaching Article

Below is a great article on coaching.   I personally loved it and agreed with everything.  Especially points 2, 3, 4.  These are my thoughts:  Coaching is a choice and privilege for both the coach and the coachee and should never be a requirement.  Once it is made mandatory, the relationship between the two parties of coach and coachee is compromised and trust is down.  As coaches we have to assume that we are not hearing everything and challenge our assumptions as well as the coachee's assumptions by getting the facts.   Coaching is not about advice, it's about asking the questions, the tough questions that people are not asking themselves.  Coaching is about building capability and we do that by expanding ourselves and answering the tough questions?

How to Coach
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(Article by Trisha D. Scudder)
http://tinyurl.com/3xrrtq

What do top performers in tennis, football, the Olympics and performing arts have in common? They aim for the highest level of excellence - and they work with a coach.

To them coaching isn't about something being wrong. It's about something more being possible. A coach sees things the player can't see. And that perspective and the unique way of communicating called coaching makes all the difference.

A coach's role is distinct from the role of a manager, teacher, doctor, therapist, friend or confidant. It is a relationship of equals, both committed to breakthroughs in the performance of the coachee.

Everyone wants to enhance his or her effectiveness and results in life, so everyone would benefit from skilled coaching. Look around you. Who would benefit if you were capable of coaching them on some important goal? An employee? Colleague? Client? Spouse? Friend? Teenager?

Being a professional executive coach requires years of training and experience. Here are seven necessary elements for being an effective, informal, unpaid coach:

1. The coachee must request coaching. If coaching is requested or your offer to give it is genuinely accepted then you have a basis for coaching. To give coaching to someone who doesn't want it is a waste of your time. Your coaching will be rejected and resented.

2. Stay above the fray. Hear what the situation, problem, goal or issue is for which the coachee wants coaching. If it's a soap opera, if there are bad guys and good guys, don't get sucked into your coachee's emotions and points of view. Stay above the fray. Don't agree. Don't take sides. Be compassionate but don't bemoan their situation. Provide the unshakeable center your coachee needs. If you can't provide that, don't coach this person.

3. Facts vs. interpretation. Hear the story. Then ask for the facts. If there's a lot of emotion around the goal or problem they will have difficulty telling you the factual, measurable aspects of the situation. You serve the person by helping them separate fact from interpretation. Worry and suffering comes from their interpretations. Ask questions that help them identify and acknowledge that the facts are the facts.

4. Speak in questions. Coaching is an inquiry, a creative conversation that leads to discovery. Coaching is not about giving your good advice. Nor telling your war stories. Nor sharing your experience. It's not even about you solving their problems for them! Ask questions instead. Ask more questions. Ask uncomfortable questions, with compassion and respect. Questions open up an inquiry. Your answers shut things down.

5. No victims allowed. No matter how horrific the story, your coachee is not a victim. Watch for coachees who blame everyone else for their situation - the clients, management, his/her assistant, the team, the economy. Those entities are not being coached, your person is! The route to a breakthrough is to interact with the coachee as if he/she is 100% responsible for their experience of their life. If you can't do this, don't coach this person.

6. From insight to action. Move the conversation to action once your coachee sees the situation in a new way or creates a new possibility for their future or invents a whole new solution. Since coaching is about performance and results, ask your coachee what actions he/she promises to take, and by when. Keep a record of all promises made. Ask the coachee to inform you whether he keeps his promise, or not, and the results achieved.

7. Integrity. No coaching relationship can succeed without integrity from both parties. Integrity includes all aspects of keeping your word to each other, from confidentiality, to being on time, to doing the promised actions. The minute the integrity is broken the relationship becomes ordinary and extraordinary results are out of reach.

Legendary NFL Coach Tom Landry once said "A coach is someone who tells you what you don't want to hear, so you can see what you don't want to see, so you can be what you've always wanted to be." Coaching is profound, creative and life-altering work. It's a privilege to do it.

Personal Resume

There is a great post on Tim Sanders Blog about reviewing your personal resume.  The end of the year is always a good time to reflect on what we have achieved and what we want to achieve in the next new year.  After all, this is the time of New Years resolutions. Thinking in terms of a personal resume forces us to think of accomplishments and the capabilities that we added to our professional repertoire this year and what new skills we want to develop next year? 

I began reflecting on 2006 and some of the things I have added to my resume include:

Recipient of Up and Coming BusinessWomen Award (Accomplishment)

Learned beginning Front Page (Capability)

Added new associate to Company (Accomplishment)

Hired Virtual Assistant (Accomplishment)

What accomplishments and capabilities did you add to your resume this year?

Quotes of the Ages

Looking for a unique holiday gift?

Consider Quotes of the Ages an E-book with over 150 quotes from all times.

Small bytes of motivational, inspirational and educational wisdom designed to let the wisdom of the ages never die.  Each page can be easily printed out and displayed as a way to motivate and inspire yourself and others. 

Henry Ford said, "You can't build a reputation on what you are going to do."  We all need that extra dose of motivation and inspiration from time to time to keep us focused and effective.  This book allows you to easily print out and display a quote to use as a motivational reminder for yourself and others. 

Start 2007 off with the inspiration to assure your success!

    "Unless commitment is made, there
     are only promises and hopes but no plans."
                   -- Peter Drucker

Studies confirm that thoughts have a huge impact on the success or failure that we achieve.  Use this e-book to keep your thoughts on What's Important and Remember the Wisdom of the Ages for only .$14.97.

For more information and to order, click here:
http://www.performanceleadershiptools.com/special.htm

Great Resources!

A friend and colleague of mine, turned me on to this one page business plan.  It is easy to use and great for projects!  I am using it myself as well as with clients and love it.  Check it out here:

http://www.onepagebusinessplan.com/index2.html

Another resource to check out:

If you are looking to increase your skills in word, excel, powerpoint and outlook, plus hardware, softare, media and the web.  You name it, this company has the answer.  Check out there techclub membership here:  http://www.sharedresults.com/index.asp?name=TechCLUB&new=true&leftnav=true&lid=80

Any other resources out there to share?

Special This Month

Reiss Profile Now on Special until November 30, 20006           $10.00 off regular price

I use a lot of assessments in my coaching and training work.  The one that often creates the greatest transformation is the Reiss Profile.  When we understand what motivates us and drives our actions we can begin to consciously act rather than react to the pressures of the moment.

Do you want to better understand why you do the things you  do?
Are you a manager that wants a tool to better understand what motivates your workforce?

If you want to predict what people will do, find out what they fundamentally desire and expect that they will try and get it because desires and needs drive our behavior. 

The Reiss Profile of Fundamental Goals and Motivational Sensitivities is a comprehensive measure of personality and human motivation.  Based on extensive research by Dr. Stephen Reiss from Ohio State University.  A standardized, objectively validated instrument that assesses 16 basic psychological needs. Everybody embraces all 16 basic needs, but to different extents. How an individual prioritizes the 16 basic needs accurately predicts how that person will behave at work.

Acceptance
Beauty, 
Curiosity
Eating
Expedient
Family
Honor
Idealism
Independence
Order
Physical Activity
Power
Social Contact
Status
Tranquility
Vengeance

The Reiss Profile questionnaire can be administered in about 12 minutes via paper and pencil, personal computer, or Internet. The printout includes a graphic display of standardized scores for each of 16 psychological needs/strivings and interpretive paragraphs (usually 2-8 pages in length). The paragraphs link the person's needs/strivings to values, personality traits, motives, strengths, and potential challenges.

The Reiss Profile can be used in the following applications:

Individual:

Helps people understand what motivates them and the affects on job performance and satisfaction.   

Business Coaching:

The results help clients clarify their personal goals, solve problems, and plan life-work balance. Since the results are easy to understand, business clients can put the results into action.

Hiring Decisions:

The Reiss Profile accurately assesses many traits relevant to hiring decisions, such as trustworthiness, work ethic, organizer, leader, competitor, and so on. It is virtually impossible to fake because most people don’t think in terms of motivations.   

Corporate Teams:

Effective teams are built when people are compatible and get along naturally. Shared values produce team cohesiveness, whereas conflicted values lead to divisiveness and hidden agendas. The Reiss Profile is used to identify shared versus conflicted values among members of a team so that trainers can build on the former and weaken the latter.

Underachievement

By definition, underachievement is often a motivational issue. When an individual understands what their key motivators are it allows them to get in touch with their unique drivers and operate out of their needs and desires rather someone else’s.

What do others say:

Wow!  This was life changing.  Understanding what motivates me and drives my actions has totally changed the way I operate.   Thank you!

                                                                 Accounting Manager

I always thought the best way to motivate my workforce was through money and lots of hype.  I realize now that the only real way to really motivate my workers is through understanding my teams unique motivators and meeting them where they are rather than where than where I want them to be. This minor change has made huge differences in everyone’s productivity.
                                                                 Business Owner

For Individuals:

People’s lives and businesses have been enriched through the power of the Reiss Profile.  Through understanding our unique motivators we are able to operate at maximum efficiency rather than aimlessly gong through our days.

For organizations:

According to Stephen Reiss if you want to predict a person’s behavior understand their motivational needs and desires.  People will behave in ways to fulfill their unique values and needs.   Before making your next hiring decision take the time to know what’s driving a person’s actions.

Information and to order: www.performanceleadershiptools.com/special.htm

Leaders as Learners

Here is an interesting article in the Chief Learning Officer magazine about Good Leaders are Good Learners.  http://www.clomedia.com/content/templates/clo_article.asp?articleid=1562&zoneid=180

We live in a knowledge era where knowledge is the competitive advantage.  If leaders don't know how to continually learn they will not be able to keep up.  Many people and companies today preach the knowledge factor but their actions are more in line with the old industrial model of command and control.   Leaders who are learners typically possess a certain amount of self knowledge that is critical for leaders in this economy.  Because knowledge not applied to oneself or environment is lost.  If we are to be successful in this age, let us not forget the power of knowledge. 

Engage! Tapping Potential Through Understanding Motivation

“People who are unable to motivate themselves must be content with mediocrity no matter how impressive their other talents.”
                                                                                             -- Andrew Carnegie

In the workplace there is a tremendous opportunity to tap unused potential and resources.  Unleashing some of this hidden power is the challenge organizations and individuals face in today’s world of increased competition.  To get individuals cognitively, physically, and emotionally engaged in their work is a worthwhile goal for all organizations.  Almost all individuals have an innate desire to do well and to excel in their endeavors.  The challenge then is not in creating a desire but in understanding motivation and what creates it.

Motivation comes from the root word “to move” and can be defined as the emotions, wants, needs and beliefs that drive a person’s behavior.   We are all individuals with different needs and desires. In an organization no matter what the motivational technique used to increase productivity, the result is always that the method works positively on some people, negatively on others and has little or no effect on the rest. One size does not fit all, in other words different things motivate different people.   Understanding what our unique motivators are and what makes us different gives us the power to be effective at what we do.

In our interactions with others, we observe their behavior but what we don’t see is what creates that behavior: their inner thoughts, feelings, values and needs. It is through understanding what lies beneath the actions that we can motivate ourselves and others.   Feelings of confidence and optimism or of anger, guilt, and fear can cause us to act as we do.  Studies have shown that the power of emotion directly effects our buying decisions.  If we feel good about something, we are more likely to take action on it, whether that action is purchasing a product or service or completing a task at work.  If we love the work that we do we are much more likely to take action and get things done.  At the opposite end, if we don’t enjoy the work or experience negative emotions in relation to it, we are more likely to avoid taking the necessary action or do just enough to get by.   Pleasurable feelings impact not only our buying decisions but the quality of our work as well.  Many people are not consciously aware of the power of their feelings and don’t know how to use the power of emotion to their advantage.

Another underlying part of a person’s behavior is values and needs.  We tend to act on what we judge is important to us at that time.  These values unconsciously guide our actions and priorities.  Stephen Reiss from Ohio State University said that if you want to predict a person’s behavior, understand their motivational needs and desires.  People will behave in ways that fulfill their unique values and needs.   As part of his research, Reiss discovered that nearly everything we do could be traced to sixteen fundamental values and desires.   He designed the Reiss profile as a way to measure these individual strivings.  For information on the Reiss Profile:  http://www.performanceleadershiptools.com/the_reis_pro.htm

Reiss believes these 16 individual strivings motivate everyone but to different extents.  In other words, each individual has a unique motivational profile that drives his or her behavior.

In another set of research results on motivation, David McClelland, in his acquired-needs theory, suggested that an individual's specific needs are acquired over time and are shaped by one's life experiences.  Most of these needs can be classified as either achievement, affiliation, or power.  A person's motivation and effectiveness are influenced by these three needs.

High need for achievement - High achievers desire to excel at what they do and like  challenging projects with reachable goals. They prefer frequent feedback as a way to  monitor the progress of their achievements. 

High need for affiliation -  High affiliators perform best in a cooperative environment.   They need relationships with other people and strive to be accepted by others.

High need for power – Individuals who show a high need for power seek the opportunity to manage others. They desire to organize the efforts of others to further the goals of the organization.

Does all this sound complex?  Maybe humans are complex creatures and there is more to us than can be seen by the naked eye.   As leaders, we must strive to use our emotions to positively engage those around us and look beneath the surface manifestations for the seeds that make us unique.  When people can begin to understand what drives them, they can proactively act in accordance with their needs, values and emotions to effectively achieve results through right action.

Wake Up! Identify and Act on What's Important

Do you feel thrown around like a rag doll, keeping up with the pressures of today?

Do you feel as if you don’t have time to do the important things?

Do you feel as if you are spinning, but not sure where you are headed?

The world is moving at an incredibly fast pace. More is expected of us than ever before and the opportunities and threats to our success and well-being are increasing.  The typical businessperson experiences 170 interactions per day and has a backlog of 200-300 hours of uncompleted work.  Focusing on the important is critical.  Yet if you are like most people, you find yourself just reacting to the pressures of the moment.  You may feel as if you are on automatic pilot and have no choice in where you are headed.   But where you are today is a result of the choices you made yesterday.  We all have choices in how we invest our time and our resources and what we deem is important.

Identifying What is Important:

More often than not, people do not take the time to identify what is most important.  We live in a quick fix society where we look for instant gratification and a fast, painless solution to our challenges. Yet without taking the time to identify what is most important in any situation, we don’t solve any problems or identify the core issues.  I see it often in organizations that decide they want training but don’t take the time to really identify the type of training that would offer the greatest results and leverage for the future.  They blindly select a topic because it hasn’t been done before without taking the time to consider the results.

Only through identifying what is most important can we expect to wake up from the cloud of information overload, move forward through the maze and make a difference. 

To identify and focus on what is most important there are some things to keep in mind:

Are you clear on the vision and mission?

Are you clear on the vision for the company?   Are you clear on the vision for your department? To identify what’s important at any given moment, you have to have a clear picture of where you are headed and how the things you do on a daily basis contribute to that.   In most organizations, this is easy for the people high in the ranks because they are in charge of making sure the vision gets fulfilled.  But what about those further down the ranks? How clear are they about the vision?  Do they know how their daily work contributes to that vision?   Often frustrations occur because daily actions are not directed or focused in a specific direction. The actions are simply reactions to the pressures of the moment.  It is like driving a long way and then realizing that you weren’t on the right road.   Having a vivid picture of where you are headed makes the journey shorter and more fun and allows you to identify and focus on what is most important.

Values 

If you aren’t clear or don’t honor your core values, business and life can feel empty.  Until you are able to identify what is most important to you on a deep level, and to honor those values, you will feel thrown around like a rag doll.  When you feel distracted and out of touch, you are most likely honoring someone else’s values and not your own.  Honoring what is important to you brings clarity of intention. 

Get Your Needs Met:

We all have primary needs such as security and appreciation.
Abraham Maslow, in his hierarchy of needs, says that you can’t fully move to the next level until you satisfy the current need.  Maslow’s theory is often shown as a pyramid with 5 levels:  Physiological (biological needs), Safety, Love, (belonging), Status (esteem), Actualization.  The lower the need is in the pyramid, the more powerful it is.   Too often we stay stuck in life because we are not taking care of our more basic needs.  If you are struggling to pay your mortgage and electricity every month, you are still at the second level of security and will have trouble moving on to the next until you find a way to take care of that.  A sales rep will have a hard time focusing on increasing sales (What’s Important for the organization) when he is behind in his mortgage.  Unidentified and unfilled needs become distractions from focusing on the things that will make a difference in your work and in your life.

Unless we are able to identify and act on what is important, we are thrown around by the forces of nature and our actions lack clarity and effectiveness.   However, in order to identify and act on what is important, we have to have a road map with a clear vision, defined values and fulfilled needs so that we can effectively pursue our deepest desires. 

We are either the masters of our time or victims of fate. What are you?

Tim Sanders has a blog

I just discovered that Tim Sanders, author of Love is the Killer App, has a blog.  He also has a new book called the Likeability Factor you can check them both out here:  http://www.sanderssays.com/sanders_says/2006/08/on_monday_deal_.html

Much of what Tim writes about boils down to buiding relationships.  The key to any kind of success in business and life.   

Because I feel so strongly about this I try to focus on one relationship each day that I want to nurture.  That relationship could be an associate, colleague, friend, spouse or child.  The trick is to focus your attention on your interactions with that person.  Ask yourself these questions:  What do I add to this relationship?  What do they add?  What do I need from them?  What do they need from  me?  Spend extra time with that person and get to know them and let them get to know you.  The key is nuture your relationships with people because in those relationships lie the the key to your success. 

Mastering the Ego

There is an interesting article in The Chief Learning Officer magazine titled Could Mastering the Ego Be a Learning Executive Solution.  You can access it here:  http://www.clomedia.com/content/templates/clo_article.asp?articleid=1380&zoneid=180

Briefly the article comments on one of the big challenges organizations are having is keeping the egos of some of the senior executives in check.   People tend not to really understand what ego is and have a negative connotation about it.  Ego can be a very good thing and a certain amount is healthy, the missing ingredient though is humility.   Not balanced ego can quickly become a weakness.  What's the cure?  Lack of Self Awareness and knowledge is what turns ego from a strength into a weakness.  It is only through understanding ourselves can we leverage this strength and use it to fullest rather become victim to the weakness.