Coaching

“Leadership is going somewhere -- if you and your people don’t know where you are going, your leadership doesn’t matter.” Alice learned this lesson in Alice in Wonderland.  She was searching for a way out of Wonderland when she came to a fork in the road. She confronted the Cheshire Cat and asked “Would you please tell me which way I ought to go from here?”  The cat responded, “That depends on where you want to go.”  Alice replied that she really didn’t care much.  The smiling cat told her, “Then it doesn’t matter which way you go.” We need to be careful when our vision statement is in a file or on a wall for declaration.  It should be [...]

Let me ask you a question, "Did you get here alone?  Are you really self-made?"  Probably not. Am I right?  Whatever we have accomplished up to this point in life, it’s likely the result of someone helping guide you. It may have been a coach, a boss, a co-worker, teacher or a parent -- and maybe several people. As leaders, we make investments and decisions on a daily basis. When we decide to invest our time in mentoring someone, we expand the enterprise, we help move it forward.  In the book, “The Leadership Challenge,” authors Kouzes and Pozner state “Leaders are pioneers; they guide us to new and often unfamiliar destinations.  Leaders move us forward.” The positive result of mentoring [...]

Steven R. Covey the late author of, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People noted, "The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing." I believe it is true that  individuals and companies with too many priorities have no priorities and are at risk of spinning their wheels. In turn, laser -focusing everyone on a single priority--today, this week, this month, quarter, etc. creates the clarity and power throughout the organization. As leaders, one of our responsibilities is to obtain from team members alignment on what is the priority. For example, "If we could do only one thing this week, month, quarter what would that be?" Get agreement, get commitment and start the plan. We all spend plenty of [...]

Hopefully we will have no argument with the following statement: the most important asset we have is our people. We may be business builders, but I am reminding all of us that we must first be people builders -- they will grow the business.  There is no doubt that people development and effective coaching takes time. Our busy schedules and pressing matters can contribute to dismissing people development. Our leadership team and top performers are the most important assets we have. Therefore, investing time with them would be a good investment.  Here is what I have found, coaching and mentoring another person is about changing their thinking. When you change thinking you change beliefs. When you change beliefs, you change [...]