Yearly Archives: 2008

The Triangle by Michelle Kunz

Posted on by
Reply

The triangle can work to support the goals of each of the three angles and be in balance. Or it can pit the goals of each against the goals of the others and fall. Here’s how it works:

In this example, you are holding up the expectations of your team and the organization without support. You carry the weight of success or failure, and it is easy to see how any little mistake or slip one way or the other will cause the structure to fall. This is what it looks like to live in a world where you strive to control things which are not within your control.

The success or failure of the team and organization are not wholly within your control and yet you bear the weight of the outcome. Although you may be giving to each of the other angles, and they are giving as well, this structure is not balanced. Furthermore, personal growth is practically impossible because of all the weight you carry. You have no time or energy to spend on yourself or your development because you are too busy balancing the team and organizational expectations and demands.

 

Here we see what it looks like to live in a world where we recognize that we cannot control outside variables. Instead, we choose environments which support our internal values and goals. While this sounds selfish at the outset, what happens as a result is equilibrium. Since the team and the greater organization align with our vision, mission, values, dreams and goals, they support us while we in turn give our best back to each of the other angles. This is a solid, stable structure which can grow and support us in exploring how high and how far we want to go.How balanced is your triangle and how might making a conscious shift better support you and your entire team to more powerful equilibrium?, , , , , ,

Coaching in The Wall Street Journal by Michelle Kunz

Posted on by
1

The May 13 edition of The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) included a short article on the benefits of executive coaching for those who may be in career transition or evaluating their current career position. Columnist Erin Chambers interviewed transition and career coaches Andrew Susskind and Joel Garfinkle for some tips on how to make the most of your coaching experience. They came up with the following list, to which we’ve added additional commentary:

1. Make sure your coach is the best coach for you.
People often find coaches through referrals from colleagues and friends who are working with coaches or through online searches. A good coach should first engage you in a conversation to discover what your ultimate goals for coaching are, if it is coaching you are hoping to find in the first place, and to make certain their philosophy, methodology and personal style are a good match for you. Furthermore, you should interview your potential coach to make certain their services support your goals. At PEL Coaching we work with teams and their leaders to increase productive synergies. We do not market ourselves as sales and marketing coaches, for example, so an organization seeking support in that area of their business would be better served to seek another coaching firm. A coaching firm attempting to be all things to all people may be very new or may be spreading their focus so broadly that they never quite settle on their best coaching area. You may want to question that.

2. Talk it out.
Work out the details of your coaching partnership before you begin. Know how many sessions you will have, how long they will be, how much interaction you can have between sessions and by what methods, how adjustments to the schedule are made and so on. Defining this in advance eliminates potential misunderstanding and problems later on. If your coach is unwilling to put this in writing, you may want to question that. At PEL Coaching, we offer a written coaching agreement or contract, depending on client needs and preferences.

3. Get into it.
At first, talking about your deepest desires, dreams, goals, fears and blocks may seem like a waste of time when more immediately measurable tasks are waiting for you on the business end of your day. In a team setting, discussing similar issues of personal values and goals, fears and blocks can seem far too personal and disconnected from the goal of getting things done. However, the clients who get the most from coaching are the ones who get into the coaching process and relationship the most. It is often deeply surprising to the client what turns up after a completely open session, and that material can change the direction and speed of progress dramatically. At PEL Coaching, we encourage all involved in the coaching relationship to look deeply for answers that may not be readily apparent. Coaching is about discovery, and discovery is about that which we do not already consciously know.

4. Manage expectations.
Be very specific about what you expect from your coach and the coaching relationship from the very beginning. Also be very specific about what you expect from yourself. Your coach is there to help hold you accountable in areas where you may be struggling for that accountability on your own. Accountability goes both ways, however, and your coach should be very comfortable shifting the agenda if you feel things have strayed into areas that are not helpful to your goals. On the other hand, if there are areas you continue to avoid, expect your coach to bring your attention to those areas. It could be that those areas are what hold you back in spite of your best efforts. At PEL Coaching, we work to bring balance to this dance of accountability and expectation, honoring the client’s agenda while bringing keen skills of observation to the table to address potential areas of block and avoidance to further support increased results.

5. Clean out your closet.
Prepare yourself for your sessions by bringing out the hidden information that might be gold in disguise. Hidden assets as well as skeletons are all valuable in the coaching relationship. The coaching partnership is based on strict confidentiality and that creates a safe space in which to explore all the secrets that may be holding you back. Bringing them out frees up your mental energy and gives your coach more to work with in supporting your goals. At PEL Coaching we deeply honor that confidentiality. Clients have shared many types of information in coaching sessions, and have often been surprised by the long term benefit of that sharing. The benefits are often difficult to predict, even weeks after the initial experience, but are deeply valuable no matter when they make their appearance, even after the formal relationship has terminated.

6. Locate your supporters.
The discoveries made during the coaching process can be tremendously beneficial, both personally and professionally. The changes required to take advantage of those discoveries can be challenging. Finding support, in all areas of your life, can make all the difference. Champions are important in any challenging proposition; deciding who to tell about your coaching activities can often be one of the challenges. Engage your coach in the conversation. Sometimes our position is based on fear and has no basis in reality. Sometimes it really is best to keep our coaching activities to ourselves. On the other hand, many companies are more supportive than you may think of your desire for professional growth and development. You may even be able to acquire financial support. At PEL Coaching we honor your desire for confidentiality, and we also support your desire and need for external support. Whether that means providing assistance in requesting reimbursement for coaching expenses or helping you strategize ways to request support on specific coaching goals and objectives, we are here for our clients.

, , , , , ,

Delegating vs. Participating by Michelle Kunz

Posted on by
Reply

Many leaders struggle to let go of their desire to control the outcome of certain objectives and find themselves unable to delegate appropriately. This struggle is based on a fear of failure which is driven by the perfectionistic belief that no one can do the job as well as we can, so we will do it. This approach leads to increased stress, decreased creativity and innovation, increased employee turnover, decreased trust and employee engagement, increased reactiveness and decreased ability to see opportunities for growth and development.

Learning to delegate is a very important leadership skill. Trusting that our team has the skill, the creativity and the commitment to produce outstanding results is a big leap of faith for many leaders. Even the slightest error is likely to send us back to “just let me do it myself.” Providing opportunities for teamwork, learning, coaching, mentoring and accountability are important if we are to build powerful teams that tap into the talent pool we had in mind when we hired them.

Leaders who delegate take a huge step forward away from fear and toward trust and growth. Leaders who participate take an even bigger step forward. Participation is very different from taking over the job. In participation we assess where our talents are uniquely suited and we let others step into the other areas. We engage, we strategize, we give and receive feedback, we are accountable, we become one with the team. Leaders who participate foster higher levels of trust, creativity, engagement, satisfaction, productivity and synergy than those who simply delegate because they get down in the trenches with the team and experience what the team experiences.

Participating does not always mean having a specific role in a team task. It can mean simply being there for the team in an active, undefined, hands-on way. There is a subtle difference between this style of participation and delegation, and that difference is engagement. If we hand off the task and then let it go, we delegate. If we hand it off and offer whatever is needed to support the team member to succeed, we participate.

What style do you currently use most often: do it myself, delegation or participation? Regardless of your current preferred style, how can include more participation in your style this week?

, , , , ,