If Leadership is about anything - like Coaching, it is about pacing and leading the inner game of the individual and the collective. Dr Michael Hall below writes about the Meta Stating process that a Meta Coach uses to facilitate empowerment. We teach Leaders to do the same as part of our Leader as Coach training program. This a terrific article - Dr Hall has permitted us to reproduce here.
META-STATING AND EMOTIONS
By Dr L.Michael Hall
If the Meta-States Model offers anything, it offers some very powerful processes for detecting your emotions and managing those emotions from a higher level. When most people first experience Meta-States as a Model, the process seems counter-intuitive, it seems paradoxical, and the last thing they would have thought of or utilize for emotional mastery— yet it is the most effective method.
So what does the Meta-States Model say about “emotions?” First that there are levels of emotions; that is, emotions do not occur just at one level, but multiple levels. First there are primary emotions —direct and emotions that are in direct response to a stimulus in the world. Theorists tend to posit that there are anywhere from 7 to perhaps 20 primary emotions. I follow Robert Plutchik (The Emotions) who posited the following primary emotions: joy / sorrow; anger / fear; anticipation / surprise; acceptance / disgust; tension / relaxation; love / apathy. Then, when you begin mixing these primary emotions, you get secondary emotions — similar to how mixing primary colors gives secondary colors.
Then above and beyond primary emotions and various mixtures of those emotions, there are the meta-emotions of your meta-states. These arise due to your self-reflexive consciousness as you associate emotions to emotional states. To detect these and to flush them out, just inquire, “What do you think and feel about X state?”
What do you think and feel about anger? What emotions do you experience when you experience anger? Or fear, sadness, anxiety, guilt, tenderness, love, joy, etc.?
Now generally speaking, when you bring a negative emotion against a previous emotion, you set the second negative emotion as a frame about and over the first emotion. Now you have fear of anger; anger at your fear; shame about your guilt; fear of relaxation; anxiety about anger, and so on. Do this and you construct a “dragon state” within your mind-body system so that you are essentially in self-attack. And the energy of the meta-emotional state has no where to go except against your mind-body system. Then you will pay for this construct by experiencing mental and emotional suffering.
Yet here also begins the processes that seem paradoxical and counter-intuitive. If you bring emotional states as acceptance, observation, interest, curiosity, appreciation, learning, etc. to your negative emotions, your “negative” emotion will change. Typically the intensity level of the energy of the emotion will be reduced so that you’ll be able to handle it much better. Calm anger, acceptance of fear, curiosity about sadness, appreciation of anger, etc. transforms the primary emotional state so that it can be much more useful and resourceful.
When you meta-state your primary emotional state with resourceful emotional states, you are in a position to qualify your emotional states in ways that will transform them into allies that will support you rather than diminish you. So in Neuro-Semantics, we don’t repress emotions, nor do we suppress them as much as we meta-state them and transform them into resources. This creates a new level of emotional intelligence and effectiveness.
So when you next experience a negative state, the first thing to do is to bring a state of calmness to the experience. Step back in your mind for just a moment and appreciate that you just received a signal— a communication signal. And just observe it. What is the signal about? Something “out there” in the world? Something within your mental mapping about something? What?
Next bring states of curiosity, interest, and exploration to your primary state. Curiously explore how you just created that negative emotion. Accepting that the emotion is yours, and that you created it within your mind-body system, you now have an unprecedented opportunity for deepening your self-knowledge and self-control. Wow! And, once you discover the process, then you can meta-state yourself with a strong sense of commitment to yourself and others as you choose the best way to respond to the situation that has triggered the emotion.
This means that you are creating new adjustments to your life-coping maps, making yourself more effective, enriching your relationships, and properly using your emotions, especially your negative ones. And while doing this, meta-state yourself that it is just an emotion (not “you,” don’t identify with the emotion and personalize it). It is just an emotion— a somatic energy response giving you a signal. Now you can choose:
What would be the best response I can now make?
Act on it; explore it some more; notice and ignore it; act against it; etc.?
Is the emotion appropriate, accurate, useful?
What resource would texture and qualify it making it more ecological for me?
Emotions — we all have them, they are a vital and important part of our mind-body system, and like the rest of the system, they are fallible and can easily be mis-used, abused, and become problematic for us. Emotional mastery and intelligence requires awareness, monitoring, managing, meta-stating, and then using them effectively.
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Showing posts with label leadership team coaching. Show all posts
Showing posts with label leadership team coaching. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Friday, November 5, 2010
The Coaching Relationship
The Executive Coaching Relationship
By Joseph Scott of The Coaching Room
Coaching is often misunderstood, most often! To this end, I am aiming to give a rambling, yet comprehensive, overview of the coaching relationship (between coach and coachee), its functionality and purpose.
The coaching relationship is designed to be an intimate one, based on trust, honesty, equality and love, though for some, you may prefer the label, unconditional positive regard.
The coaching relationship is about the coachee, it is also about the coach and it is also about the organisation that the coachee works for. All of this sounds fundamental as I write this - yet it is most often overlooked.
Coaching is a mutual commitment to the coaching process in service of the coachee. Coaching is a safe space where coach and coachee share together, individual and collective interiors. From here coach and coachee co-create, share and explore the coaching needs and objectives as they hold a rare and authentic ‘we’ space, in service of the coachee's desired outcomes and their New Way of Being (NWOB).
Next, we'll look at the functionality of the coaching relationship.
There are several functions for coaching; the primary one is having conversations that enables coach and coachee to meet each other at the very heart of the coachee's Current Way of Being (CWOB) and doing. We explore their thinking, feeling, understandings and perspectives; We call this your way of ‘seeing’. Of yourself, others and the world.
The functionality of coaching is also about looking at the coachee's current behaviours and communicating around specific or general experiences (out there); their way of ‘going’ through the world.
Thirdly, the functionality of coaching is about how the coachee shows up with ‘others’ and their ‘environments’ physically and emotionally. It is about their shared actual interactions and collective connections. We call this your way of ‘checking’ - how you check out yourself and your results.
This enables us to fully understand the coachee's integrated current way of dealing (or thinking/feeling, interacting and moving) with and through their personal and professional life. (yes, we get personal!)
Along with the functionality of coaching, are the types of conversations that are available to you to help you actualise the very best 'you' - in your chosen coaching topic.
There are numerous contexts or coaching conversations that you can have, we’d like to share just six of the most utilised conversations from our experience.
We can have a coaching conversation for the exploration of clarity. To explore, discover, causes, drivers, symptoms etc.(that arise internally) with regards to an external event. This allows you time to think out loud, to help you really see the reality of your situation.
We can have a coaching conversation for making decisions and or commitments. This conversation is about exploring the pros and cons with a focus on motivation and usually leads to some form of decision and commitment being realised.
We can have a coaching conversation about planning and implementation, to help you co-create and take effective action on a strategy or game plan, in line with your desired way of being and doing, seeing and checking.
We can have a conversation that helps you to embody, feel and incorporate into your neurology a new skill or role. We can have a conversation that helps you translate the knowing into your body - this is called a mind to muscle conversation for accelerated ‘doing’.
We can have a coaching conversation about transformation. This is an extremely powerful conversation, one that can alter, add or eliminate toxic and unhealthy thinking and doing, it can also change and empower your thinking, beliefs and even your sense of identity.
The last (sixth type of conversation) type of conversation we can have is the confrontation for accountability conversation, which offers a space to address an unpleasant or challenging issue. This tuype of conversation will enable you to be held accountable for doing what you say you are going to do, or to enable you to hold others in this space. It is about resolving conflict internally or out there, with others.
Finally, the purpose of coaching.
There is a widely held corporate theory (or unspoken assumption) that if you are in coaching, then you need fixing, you are falling behind or not good enough.
The actual truth of it is the exact opposite. Coaching is for health people that are not broken! Coaching is premium octane fuel for a high performance output.
Coaching is about unleashing and actualising your greatest and highest potentials, it is about supporting you as you reach further and father than you have ever reached before.
So, if coaching is for you, make sure you hold your coach accountable to being clear about the coaching relationship (between coach and coachee), its functionality and purpose.
Radiantly, Joseph
By Joseph Scott of The Coaching Room
Coaching is often misunderstood, most often! To this end, I am aiming to give a rambling, yet comprehensive, overview of the coaching relationship (between coach and coachee), its functionality and purpose.
The coaching relationship is designed to be an intimate one, based on trust, honesty, equality and love, though for some, you may prefer the label, unconditional positive regard.
The coaching relationship is about the coachee, it is also about the coach and it is also about the organisation that the coachee works for. All of this sounds fundamental as I write this - yet it is most often overlooked.
Coaching is a mutual commitment to the coaching process in service of the coachee. Coaching is a safe space where coach and coachee share together, individual and collective interiors. From here coach and coachee co-create, share and explore the coaching needs and objectives as they hold a rare and authentic ‘we’ space, in service of the coachee's desired outcomes and their New Way of Being (NWOB).
Next, we'll look at the functionality of the coaching relationship.
There are several functions for coaching; the primary one is having conversations that enables coach and coachee to meet each other at the very heart of the coachee's Current Way of Being (CWOB) and doing. We explore their thinking, feeling, understandings and perspectives; We call this your way of ‘seeing’. Of yourself, others and the world.
The functionality of coaching is also about looking at the coachee's current behaviours and communicating around specific or general experiences (out there); their way of ‘going’ through the world.
Thirdly, the functionality of coaching is about how the coachee shows up with ‘others’ and their ‘environments’ physically and emotionally. It is about their shared actual interactions and collective connections. We call this your way of ‘checking’ - how you check out yourself and your results.
This enables us to fully understand the coachee's integrated current way of dealing (or thinking/feeling, interacting and moving) with and through their personal and professional life. (yes, we get personal!)
Along with the functionality of coaching, are the types of conversations that are available to you to help you actualise the very best 'you' - in your chosen coaching topic.
There are numerous contexts or coaching conversations that you can have, we’d like to share just six of the most utilised conversations from our experience.
We can have a coaching conversation for the exploration of clarity. To explore, discover, causes, drivers, symptoms etc.(that arise internally) with regards to an external event. This allows you time to think out loud, to help you really see the reality of your situation.
We can have a coaching conversation for making decisions and or commitments. This conversation is about exploring the pros and cons with a focus on motivation and usually leads to some form of decision and commitment being realised.
We can have a coaching conversation about planning and implementation, to help you co-create and take effective action on a strategy or game plan, in line with your desired way of being and doing, seeing and checking.
We can have a conversation that helps you to embody, feel and incorporate into your neurology a new skill or role. We can have a conversation that helps you translate the knowing into your body - this is called a mind to muscle conversation for accelerated ‘doing’.
We can have a coaching conversation about transformation. This is an extremely powerful conversation, one that can alter, add or eliminate toxic and unhealthy thinking and doing, it can also change and empower your thinking, beliefs and even your sense of identity.
The last (sixth type of conversation) type of conversation we can have is the confrontation for accountability conversation, which offers a space to address an unpleasant or challenging issue. This tuype of conversation will enable you to be held accountable for doing what you say you are going to do, or to enable you to hold others in this space. It is about resolving conflict internally or out there, with others.
Finally, the purpose of coaching.
There is a widely held corporate theory (or unspoken assumption) that if you are in coaching, then you need fixing, you are falling behind or not good enough.
The actual truth of it is the exact opposite. Coaching is for health people that are not broken! Coaching is premium octane fuel for a high performance output.
Coaching is about unleashing and actualising your greatest and highest potentials, it is about supporting you as you reach further and father than you have ever reached before.
So, if coaching is for you, make sure you hold your coach accountable to being clear about the coaching relationship (between coach and coachee), its functionality and purpose.
Radiantly, Joseph
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Leadership, Corporate Culture and Paradox
Leadership, Corporate Culture, and Paradox
by Dr. Mike Armour
One of the most unheralded roles of leadership is paradox management. Odds are, you've never heard this term before. Few texts on leadership even mention it.
Nevertheless, paradox is at the heart of every dynamic organization. Not just a single paradox. But a set of them. And each paradox creates tension (and frequently conflict) in corporate culture.
The tension arises from the very nature of paradox. Paradoxes center on a quandary that defies solution. The quandary presents itself as though we must choose between path A and path B (or between truth A and truth B). However, reality dictates that we must choose both A and B simultaneously.
The Structure of Paradoxes
Viewed another way, all paradoxes have three qualities:
1. A paradox pairs two elements, expressed in the form or statements, principles, or values.
2. The two elements seem to exclude one another. They appear contradictory.
3. Yet, in spite of the apparent contradiction, neither element may be excluded. We must embrace both of them.
Paradoxes are commonplace in business. Here are some familiar examples:
Our customers demand products of high quality and detailed craftsmanship.
To remain competitive, we must minimize production costs.
Under our labor contract, we assure workers of exceptional benefits and job security.
Payroll expenses are squeezing our margins and leaving us unprofitable.
Our culture is built around collaborative decision-making.
Fast-changing markets demand swift, almost instantaneous responses.
Non-profit organizations face paradoxes of their own.
To make the wisest use of our funds, we need a quality management team.
High management salaries threaten the loss of donor support.
Our founder's passion is what drives this organization's growth.
Our organization's growth is limited by the founder's management skills.
New realities are forcing us to change our mission.
Our donor support was built around excitement for our mission.
Balance Points
Each of these paradoxes presents two forces that contend with each other. And both elements of the paradox raise concerns about near-term or long-term survival. As a result, leadership cannot afford to ignore or dismiss either element. To do so is to court calamity. Instead, leadership must maintain a balancing act between the two.
Whatever the balance point, someone is likely to second-guess it. Since both elements of the paradox represent legitimate concerns, each element is likely to attract ardent advocates who view their concerns as paramount. To these partisans the chosen balance point may not adequately accommodate their concerns. If not, they will press and politick to relocate the balance point and give their concerns more leverage.
To illustrate, let's look at a widespread paradox at the moment. Due to the prolonged economic downturn, businesses need to preserve capital. On the other hand, they need to invest strategically to position themselves for an eventual turnaround.
Which is the proper thing to do? Conserve resources? Or invest strategically? The answer, of course, is that leadership must do both. But to the degree that we spend money we cannot conserve it. So what is the proper balance point between maximizing reserves and investing strategically?
Those with a more cautious nature will press hard for conserving cash. Those of a more entrepreneurial bent will argue for the opposite priority. And both sides will stake out their position with conviction. Hence the prospect for conflict.
Harnessing Tension
This is why paradox management is vital to successful leadership. Not only does paradox management address survival issues, it also forestalls unhealthy conflict. Proper paradox management maintains creative tension between contending concerns, rather than allowing the tension to degenerate into destructive conflict.
About 15 years ago I came across a thought-provoking book by Charles M. Hampden-Turner entitled Creating Corporate Culture: From Discord to Harmony. He argued that the role of leadership is to identify the most critical paradoxes at work within their organization, then manage these paradoxes adroitly and artfully.
I think his counsel is spot on. And his counsel is just as valid for non-profits, churches, government agencies, educational institutions, and military organizations as it is for companies in the for-profit sector.
Nor is paradox management a challenge merely for managers at the top of an organization. Sub-units of the organization contend with their own set of paradoxes.
Here are some examples:
IT departments struggle with the balance between maximizing network security and optimizing employee access to needed data.
Sales departments struggle between stroking current customers to keep them happy and expanding into new markets.
HR departments struggle between standardizing personnel practices and giving managers latitude over personnel matters.
Priorities for Leadership
So let me conclude with a suggested exercise. Take some time to identify the paradoxes that run through your organization. You might do this by yourself, or as a team exercise with your colleagues, peers, or direct reports.
If you discover more than five paradoxes, highlight the five that you consider most critical. (You don't want to ignore any paradox, of course. But in terms of focused management, it's difficult to concentrate on more than a handful of corporate paradoxes at the same time.)
As a leader, no priority is more important than attending to the critical paradoxes you've identified. What are you doing on a consistent basis to manage the natural tension within the paradox? Is the balance point slipping (through inattention) so that it is no longer where it needs to be? If so, what can you do to nudge things back toward a more appropriate balance point? How do you keep your team's priorities aligned properly to sustain this balance point? These are all essential questions for paradox management.
And just a couple of thoughts in closing. We have centered this discussion on paradoxes which pose threats to survival. There can also be paradoxes of opportunity, i.e., two wonderful prospects which, at first glance, look mutually exclusive. But with creativity, imagination, and innovation, perhaps both are possibilities. As you look for paradoxes in your organization, don't overlook paradoxes of opportunity that may be there.
Second, great spiritual teachers and philosophers often use paradoxical statements to convey key concepts. The very tension within the paradox forces the listener to reflect deeply on the teacher's words. In the same way, simply spending time to reflect unhurriedly on the paradoxes within your corporate culture can yield invigorating perspectives and insights.
Identify corporate paradoxes. Reflect on them. Tackle them. That's your task as a leader.
Used with permission of Dr. Mike Armour
Copyright 2010
MCA Professional Services Group, LLC
The Coaching Room
OUR SERVICES INCLUDE
Executive coaching and training – C-Suite, Executives & Managers
Leadership coaching and training – C-Suite & Executives
Management coaching and training - Managers
HR coaching & consulting (recruitment support, employee relations, performance management consulting, etc.)
Life coaching for professionals
Sales coaching & training – including in-house training & licensing of our facilitative methodology
Leadership, team and organisational diagnostic solutions and support services
Organisational development and change management consulting
by Dr. Mike Armour
One of the most unheralded roles of leadership is paradox management. Odds are, you've never heard this term before. Few texts on leadership even mention it.
Nevertheless, paradox is at the heart of every dynamic organization. Not just a single paradox. But a set of them. And each paradox creates tension (and frequently conflict) in corporate culture.
The tension arises from the very nature of paradox. Paradoxes center on a quandary that defies solution. The quandary presents itself as though we must choose between path A and path B (or between truth A and truth B). However, reality dictates that we must choose both A and B simultaneously.
The Structure of Paradoxes
Viewed another way, all paradoxes have three qualities:
1. A paradox pairs two elements, expressed in the form or statements, principles, or values.
2. The two elements seem to exclude one another. They appear contradictory.
3. Yet, in spite of the apparent contradiction, neither element may be excluded. We must embrace both of them.
Paradoxes are commonplace in business. Here are some familiar examples:
Our customers demand products of high quality and detailed craftsmanship.
To remain competitive, we must minimize production costs.
Under our labor contract, we assure workers of exceptional benefits and job security.
Payroll expenses are squeezing our margins and leaving us unprofitable.
Our culture is built around collaborative decision-making.
Fast-changing markets demand swift, almost instantaneous responses.
Non-profit organizations face paradoxes of their own.
To make the wisest use of our funds, we need a quality management team.
High management salaries threaten the loss of donor support.
Our founder's passion is what drives this organization's growth.
Our organization's growth is limited by the founder's management skills.
New realities are forcing us to change our mission.
Our donor support was built around excitement for our mission.
Balance Points
Each of these paradoxes presents two forces that contend with each other. And both elements of the paradox raise concerns about near-term or long-term survival. As a result, leadership cannot afford to ignore or dismiss either element. To do so is to court calamity. Instead, leadership must maintain a balancing act between the two.
Whatever the balance point, someone is likely to second-guess it. Since both elements of the paradox represent legitimate concerns, each element is likely to attract ardent advocates who view their concerns as paramount. To these partisans the chosen balance point may not adequately accommodate their concerns. If not, they will press and politick to relocate the balance point and give their concerns more leverage.
To illustrate, let's look at a widespread paradox at the moment. Due to the prolonged economic downturn, businesses need to preserve capital. On the other hand, they need to invest strategically to position themselves for an eventual turnaround.
Which is the proper thing to do? Conserve resources? Or invest strategically? The answer, of course, is that leadership must do both. But to the degree that we spend money we cannot conserve it. So what is the proper balance point between maximizing reserves and investing strategically?
Those with a more cautious nature will press hard for conserving cash. Those of a more entrepreneurial bent will argue for the opposite priority. And both sides will stake out their position with conviction. Hence the prospect for conflict.
Harnessing Tension
This is why paradox management is vital to successful leadership. Not only does paradox management address survival issues, it also forestalls unhealthy conflict. Proper paradox management maintains creative tension between contending concerns, rather than allowing the tension to degenerate into destructive conflict.
About 15 years ago I came across a thought-provoking book by Charles M. Hampden-Turner entitled Creating Corporate Culture: From Discord to Harmony. He argued that the role of leadership is to identify the most critical paradoxes at work within their organization, then manage these paradoxes adroitly and artfully.
I think his counsel is spot on. And his counsel is just as valid for non-profits, churches, government agencies, educational institutions, and military organizations as it is for companies in the for-profit sector.
Nor is paradox management a challenge merely for managers at the top of an organization. Sub-units of the organization contend with their own set of paradoxes.
Here are some examples:
IT departments struggle with the balance between maximizing network security and optimizing employee access to needed data.
Sales departments struggle between stroking current customers to keep them happy and expanding into new markets.
HR departments struggle between standardizing personnel practices and giving managers latitude over personnel matters.
Priorities for Leadership
So let me conclude with a suggested exercise. Take some time to identify the paradoxes that run through your organization. You might do this by yourself, or as a team exercise with your colleagues, peers, or direct reports.
If you discover more than five paradoxes, highlight the five that you consider most critical. (You don't want to ignore any paradox, of course. But in terms of focused management, it's difficult to concentrate on more than a handful of corporate paradoxes at the same time.)
As a leader, no priority is more important than attending to the critical paradoxes you've identified. What are you doing on a consistent basis to manage the natural tension within the paradox? Is the balance point slipping (through inattention) so that it is no longer where it needs to be? If so, what can you do to nudge things back toward a more appropriate balance point? How do you keep your team's priorities aligned properly to sustain this balance point? These are all essential questions for paradox management.
And just a couple of thoughts in closing. We have centered this discussion on paradoxes which pose threats to survival. There can also be paradoxes of opportunity, i.e., two wonderful prospects which, at first glance, look mutually exclusive. But with creativity, imagination, and innovation, perhaps both are possibilities. As you look for paradoxes in your organization, don't overlook paradoxes of opportunity that may be there.
Second, great spiritual teachers and philosophers often use paradoxical statements to convey key concepts. The very tension within the paradox forces the listener to reflect deeply on the teacher's words. In the same way, simply spending time to reflect unhurriedly on the paradoxes within your corporate culture can yield invigorating perspectives and insights.
Identify corporate paradoxes. Reflect on them. Tackle them. That's your task as a leader.
Used with permission of Dr. Mike Armour
Copyright 2010
MCA Professional Services Group, LLC
The Coaching Room
OUR SERVICES INCLUDE
Executive coaching and training – C-Suite, Executives & Managers
Leadership coaching and training – C-Suite & Executives
Management coaching and training - Managers
HR coaching & consulting (recruitment support, employee relations, performance management consulting, etc.)
Life coaching for professionals
Sales coaching & training – including in-house training & licensing of our facilitative methodology
Leadership, team and organisational diagnostic solutions and support services
Organisational development and change management consulting
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Wil Smith on Leadership, Talent and Success
The video below is a powerful, yet simple expose on Leadership, Talent and Success by Wil Smith (actor).
For me this is Leadership.
Jay
For me this is Leadership.
Jay
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Leadership Development Book List - The 10 Leadership Books you must read ASAP
As part of our coaching engagement, we will require that you grow through education and reading. Below is an ordered list of must read books for Leadership growth and development:
1. Leadership and Self Deception - Arbinger Institute
This is a journey every leader must wrestle with - that of understanding the failings of self deception. As Leadership is about Leading through others, we must first learn to understand and change ourselves, our strengths, issues and challenges. Only then can we hope to become more authentic and congruent and ultimately more influencial with her people.
2. The Anatomy of Peace - Arbinger Institute
Continuing the journey from Leadership and Self Deception, every Leader must learn to understand and deal with conflict - therefore facilitating better communication.
3. The E-Myth Revisited - Michael Gerber
Understanding the role of a Leader and Entrepreneur in an organisation. Michael Gerber is at the forefront of thinking about the impact of Leadership on business.
4. The Leadership Challenge - Kouzes and Posner
A broad and deep text on what Leadership really is. An outstanding reference guide with wonderful metaphors and stories. Heavily research based.
5. Mastering the Rockerfeller Habits - Verne Harnish
Masterful simplification of the keys to Leadership and Business success. Harnish is very talented at simplifying the complexity of business success.
6. Selling With Integrity - Sharon Drew Morgan
The new paradigm of sales and change - Morgan is a genius.
7. Dirty Little Secrets - Why Buyers Can't Buy and Sellers Can't Sell - Sharon Drew Morgan
Morgan has gone further in this book to look at how change occurs through the buying process. An extraordinary piece and literature that every Leader must read.
8. Bonds That Make us Free - Terry Warner
Warner is one of the Co-Founders of the Arbinger Institute. This book is an essential for the Leader in helping create meaningful relationships with their people (followers).
9. The Art of Possibility - Rosamund Zander
The new paradigm of Leadership - Leading through inspiring, enabling, awakening and empowering others - YOU MUST READ this book if you are in any type of Leadership position.
10. Generation Y - Peter Sheahan
An Australian author writing on thriving and surviving with Generation Y. A must read for any Leader dealing with 18 - 35 year old staff. This book will help you understand and awaken this generation from a Meta-perspective (Values/Thinking Patterns/Beliefs etc.
1. Leadership and Self Deception - Arbinger Institute
This is a journey every leader must wrestle with - that of understanding the failings of self deception. As Leadership is about Leading through others, we must first learn to understand and change ourselves, our strengths, issues and challenges. Only then can we hope to become more authentic and congruent and ultimately more influencial with her people.
2. The Anatomy of Peace - Arbinger Institute
Continuing the journey from Leadership and Self Deception, every Leader must learn to understand and deal with conflict - therefore facilitating better communication.
3. The E-Myth Revisited - Michael Gerber
Understanding the role of a Leader and Entrepreneur in an organisation. Michael Gerber is at the forefront of thinking about the impact of Leadership on business.
4. The Leadership Challenge - Kouzes and Posner
A broad and deep text on what Leadership really is. An outstanding reference guide with wonderful metaphors and stories. Heavily research based.
5. Mastering the Rockerfeller Habits - Verne Harnish
Masterful simplification of the keys to Leadership and Business success. Harnish is very talented at simplifying the complexity of business success.
6. Selling With Integrity - Sharon Drew Morgan
The new paradigm of sales and change - Morgan is a genius.
7. Dirty Little Secrets - Why Buyers Can't Buy and Sellers Can't Sell - Sharon Drew Morgan
Morgan has gone further in this book to look at how change occurs through the buying process. An extraordinary piece and literature that every Leader must read.
8. Bonds That Make us Free - Terry Warner
Warner is one of the Co-Founders of the Arbinger Institute. This book is an essential for the Leader in helping create meaningful relationships with their people (followers).
9. The Art of Possibility - Rosamund Zander
The new paradigm of Leadership - Leading through inspiring, enabling, awakening and empowering others - YOU MUST READ this book if you are in any type of Leadership position.
10. Generation Y - Peter Sheahan
An Australian author writing on thriving and surviving with Generation Y. A must read for any Leader dealing with 18 - 35 year old staff. This book will help you understand and awaken this generation from a Meta-perspective (Values/Thinking Patterns/Beliefs etc.
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Leadership and Executive Coaching; The New Leadership Paradigm
The second of 2 videos on Leadership by Ben Zander, author of The Art of Possibility; an exceptional book on the new paradigm of Leadership. This video looks at Leadership from a completely new perspective. This is an example of the new Leadership paradigm in action.
Leadership and Executive Coaching in action
Leadership and Executive Coaching in action
Leadership Coaching - The Art of Possibility
Below is a video showcasing a simple and yet very effective metaphor for Leadership. This video features Benjamin Zander and his new paradigm for Leadership Coaching - The Art of Possibility. It is well worth the watch and just may have a profound effect on your Leadership potential.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Leadership Coaching Article - In the Absence of Vision - A Leadership Article
In the Absence of Vision
by Dr. Mike Armour
Books on leadership inevitably place a priority on developing a compelling corporate vision. But articulating a compelling vision is a challenging task. Just ask anyone who has ever taken a stab at it.
So what do you do if you can't come up with a strong statement of vision for your organization? As a consultant and coach, I'm increasingly asked this question by clients. Oh, they have a general, well-conceived notion of where they want to take their people. But they are stymied when it comes to reducing these intuitions to crisp, compelling language, visionary enough to guide the organization for years to come.
It's not that these men and women lack the imagination, creativity, or insight to develop a well-formed vision. No, the villain is most commonly the relentless pace of change. These leaders find themselves in settings where vision statements are outmoded almost as soon as they are finished.
This is especially the case in industries where marketplace realities change color more quickly than a chameleon. In technology-related businesses, for example, product obsolescence is often measured in months, not years. It's not uncommon for market conditions to compel companies to rethink their entire business model in relatively short-term cycles.
A Heretical Notion.
In circumstances like this, how can you develop a long-range, sustaining vision? The truth is, it's often nigh unto impossible. You fundamentally have three choices.
First,you can forego a vision statement altogether. A second alternative is to develop a vision statement in precise, engaging language, simply accepting the fact that it is likely to be quickly outdated. Yet this goes against the principle that vision statements should provide consistent, long-term definitions of direction.
The third option is to offer a vision statement that is so generalized that it can weather periodic wholesale redefinitions of the core business. When they are this generalized, however, vision statements typically sacrifice the precision to be motivational and compelling.
Thinking about this problem recently, I've begun to toy with a bit of a heretical notion. Namely, vision may not always be as necessary for success as our management theories make it out to be. In particular, if you have a set of core values that are well-conceived, precisely-stated, and consistently-pursued, your organization may be able to do quite well based on these orienting values alone.
The power of vision is that it gives people a common focus and a common sense of direction, while also serving to inspire them to superior performance. Well-stated core values have the same potential. True, values do not give us as much focus as a compelling, well-articulated vision. But it seems to me that (in the absence of a clear sense of vision) corporate values which are carefully-enunciated, constantly promoted, and consistently followed can afford us much of the benefit of leadership vision.
A Values-Shaped Company
I had been toying with this concept for several months when I came across a book that seems to illustrate the power of values to shape a company's destiny. The book is Kirk Kizaniian's Exceeding Customer Expectations, a study of Enterprise Rent-A-Car and how it rose from obscurity to be the number one rental car company in the world.
Founded by Andrew Taylor, who fifty years later is still its Chairman and CEO, Enterprise began as a car leasing business. It started in two rooms (actually converted service bays) at a Cadillac dealership in St. Louis. Taylor had no vision of becoming a dominant player in the car rental business. In fact, he made a reasoned, purposeful decision to stay out of the car rental business. He felt the car rental industry was cluttered with too many players, which made margins too thin for sustained profitability.
From the outset, Taylor set out to build his automobile leasing company around a handful of orchestrating values. His first and foremost value was to exceed customer expectations and to do so consistently. Another value was to make it easy for customers to do business with his company. Still a third value was to provide a fun place for people to work and to give employees every opportunity to grow and advance both personally and professionally. Only satisfied workers, he believed, would rise to the performance standards to meet his customer satisfaction expectations.
Responding to Values
Without making this newsletter interminably long, let me quickly summarize how Enterprise went from ignoring the rental car business to being the industry's front-runner. Taylor's leasing customers kept asking him if he had a car that they could rent for a few days. Usually this was because they needed extra wheels for guests from out of town or because their own vehicle was out of commission for repairs. In the early years Taylor said, "No, we don't offer short-term car rentals."
But then he concluded that his failure to accommodate these request violated his value of exceeding customer expectations. So he added a few "loaner" cars that could be rented on a short-term basis by preferred customers. Slowly the rental car side of the business grew and expanded. Soon it was operating out of several locations.
But to honor another of his values -- making it easy for customers to do business with him -- he located his rental agencies in residential neighborhoods, not at some remote airport, as other companies did. This same core value led to another innovation which became his company's hallmark, the famous "We pick you up" policy.
Next, because customers needed a rental car so often in the wake of an accident, he pioneered arrangements with insurance companies to provide Enterprise vehicles to policy holders who had cars in a body shop. And to make things even more convenient for customers, Enterprise today offers rentals at body shops themselves.
At each step of the way, this progression of expanded services resulted from a commitment to exceed customer expections and to make it easy for customers to do business with Enterprise. None of these innovations occurred because Taylor had a vision of revolutionizing the car rental business. To the contrary, his innovations all came about because he kept his eye on his orchestrating values. Had he not given himself so thoroughly to exceeding the expectations of his leasing customers, he might well have never entered the rental car industry.
Values as Substitutes for Vision
If Taylor had a genuine vision early on, it was apparently to build a company that was true to his orchestrating values. Then, as unexpected opportunities came along, he opted to capitalize on them, not on the basis of a compelling vision, but on the basis of their alignment with his most critical values.
This, then, takes me back to the observation at the outset. A crisp, well-articulated vision may not always be essential if, in its stead, a proper values-structure is in place. Now, I'm not suggesting that just any set of values will suffice. From what I can tell, the values that best serve in lieu of a vision are those that embody the essence of the Golden Rule: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."
Moreover, the primary, orchestrating values need to be few in number. Perhaps no more than three or four. Otherwise it's difficult to maintain consistent focus on the critical values over the long haul. And these values must be the determining factor in who gets raises, who gets promotions, and who gets celebrated as a hero within the corporate culture. Only then will employees take the values seriously enough for these orchestrating values to exercise their full potential to shape the organization.
So strive for vision. There is no substitute for a precise, inspiring, compelling vision statement. But absent a vision statement (or the ability to create one), capitalize on a central core of appropriate values. Talk about the constantly. Relate every element of your business plan to them. Embody them personally yourself as the leader. Let them serve as marker buoys to keep you moving in the direction of whatever success the future holds out to you and your people.
Copyright 2007 - Dr Mike Armour
Used with permission and respect.
Leadership Development
and Executive Coaching
by Dr. Mike Armour
Books on leadership inevitably place a priority on developing a compelling corporate vision. But articulating a compelling vision is a challenging task. Just ask anyone who has ever taken a stab at it.
So what do you do if you can't come up with a strong statement of vision for your organization? As a consultant and coach, I'm increasingly asked this question by clients. Oh, they have a general, well-conceived notion of where they want to take their people. But they are stymied when it comes to reducing these intuitions to crisp, compelling language, visionary enough to guide the organization for years to come.
It's not that these men and women lack the imagination, creativity, or insight to develop a well-formed vision. No, the villain is most commonly the relentless pace of change. These leaders find themselves in settings where vision statements are outmoded almost as soon as they are finished.
This is especially the case in industries where marketplace realities change color more quickly than a chameleon. In technology-related businesses, for example, product obsolescence is often measured in months, not years. It's not uncommon for market conditions to compel companies to rethink their entire business model in relatively short-term cycles.
A Heretical Notion.
In circumstances like this, how can you develop a long-range, sustaining vision? The truth is, it's often nigh unto impossible. You fundamentally have three choices.
First,you can forego a vision statement altogether. A second alternative is to develop a vision statement in precise, engaging language, simply accepting the fact that it is likely to be quickly outdated. Yet this goes against the principle that vision statements should provide consistent, long-term definitions of direction.
The third option is to offer a vision statement that is so generalized that it can weather periodic wholesale redefinitions of the core business. When they are this generalized, however, vision statements typically sacrifice the precision to be motivational and compelling.
Thinking about this problem recently, I've begun to toy with a bit of a heretical notion. Namely, vision may not always be as necessary for success as our management theories make it out to be. In particular, if you have a set of core values that are well-conceived, precisely-stated, and consistently-pursued, your organization may be able to do quite well based on these orienting values alone.
The power of vision is that it gives people a common focus and a common sense of direction, while also serving to inspire them to superior performance. Well-stated core values have the same potential. True, values do not give us as much focus as a compelling, well-articulated vision. But it seems to me that (in the absence of a clear sense of vision) corporate values which are carefully-enunciated, constantly promoted, and consistently followed can afford us much of the benefit of leadership vision.
A Values-Shaped Company
I had been toying with this concept for several months when I came across a book that seems to illustrate the power of values to shape a company's destiny. The book is Kirk Kizaniian's Exceeding Customer Expectations, a study of Enterprise Rent-A-Car and how it rose from obscurity to be the number one rental car company in the world.
Founded by Andrew Taylor, who fifty years later is still its Chairman and CEO, Enterprise began as a car leasing business. It started in two rooms (actually converted service bays) at a Cadillac dealership in St. Louis. Taylor had no vision of becoming a dominant player in the car rental business. In fact, he made a reasoned, purposeful decision to stay out of the car rental business. He felt the car rental industry was cluttered with too many players, which made margins too thin for sustained profitability.
From the outset, Taylor set out to build his automobile leasing company around a handful of orchestrating values. His first and foremost value was to exceed customer expectations and to do so consistently. Another value was to make it easy for customers to do business with his company. Still a third value was to provide a fun place for people to work and to give employees every opportunity to grow and advance both personally and professionally. Only satisfied workers, he believed, would rise to the performance standards to meet his customer satisfaction expectations.
Responding to Values
Without making this newsletter interminably long, let me quickly summarize how Enterprise went from ignoring the rental car business to being the industry's front-runner. Taylor's leasing customers kept asking him if he had a car that they could rent for a few days. Usually this was because they needed extra wheels for guests from out of town or because their own vehicle was out of commission for repairs. In the early years Taylor said, "No, we don't offer short-term car rentals."
But then he concluded that his failure to accommodate these request violated his value of exceeding customer expectations. So he added a few "loaner" cars that could be rented on a short-term basis by preferred customers. Slowly the rental car side of the business grew and expanded. Soon it was operating out of several locations.
But to honor another of his values -- making it easy for customers to do business with him -- he located his rental agencies in residential neighborhoods, not at some remote airport, as other companies did. This same core value led to another innovation which became his company's hallmark, the famous "We pick you up" policy.
Next, because customers needed a rental car so often in the wake of an accident, he pioneered arrangements with insurance companies to provide Enterprise vehicles to policy holders who had cars in a body shop. And to make things even more convenient for customers, Enterprise today offers rentals at body shops themselves.
At each step of the way, this progression of expanded services resulted from a commitment to exceed customer expections and to make it easy for customers to do business with Enterprise. None of these innovations occurred because Taylor had a vision of revolutionizing the car rental business. To the contrary, his innovations all came about because he kept his eye on his orchestrating values. Had he not given himself so thoroughly to exceeding the expectations of his leasing customers, he might well have never entered the rental car industry.
Values as Substitutes for Vision
If Taylor had a genuine vision early on, it was apparently to build a company that was true to his orchestrating values. Then, as unexpected opportunities came along, he opted to capitalize on them, not on the basis of a compelling vision, but on the basis of their alignment with his most critical values.
This, then, takes me back to the observation at the outset. A crisp, well-articulated vision may not always be essential if, in its stead, a proper values-structure is in place. Now, I'm not suggesting that just any set of values will suffice. From what I can tell, the values that best serve in lieu of a vision are those that embody the essence of the Golden Rule: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."
Moreover, the primary, orchestrating values need to be few in number. Perhaps no more than three or four. Otherwise it's difficult to maintain consistent focus on the critical values over the long haul. And these values must be the determining factor in who gets raises, who gets promotions, and who gets celebrated as a hero within the corporate culture. Only then will employees take the values seriously enough for these orchestrating values to exercise their full potential to shape the organization.
So strive for vision. There is no substitute for a precise, inspiring, compelling vision statement. But absent a vision statement (or the ability to create one), capitalize on a central core of appropriate values. Talk about the constantly. Relate every element of your business plan to them. Embody them personally yourself as the leader. Let them serve as marker buoys to keep you moving in the direction of whatever success the future holds out to you and your people.
Copyright 2007 - Dr Mike Armour
Used with permission and respect.
Leadership Development
and Executive Coaching
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