How many times have you wondered who the future leaders will be in your organization? When I listen to organizational sponsors express their needs for leadership development, it can be framed as a need to shift people from almost ready to ready NOW. Coaching is a significant way to develop high potentials into emerging leaders.…
Think about a leader you admire. Maybe it is the CEO of your company, the principal of your local high school, or the president of your alma mater. If I asked you about the specific qualities that made them successful, you’d probably tell me about their hard skills—teachable abilities such as vision and strategic thinking.…
When an organization invests in coaching for their leaders, it is often because they want to move the leader from “almost ready” to “ready now” on promotion lists. In many of these situations, the coaches are asked to help the leaders improve and increase specific skills or develop and deploy underutilized strengths. Basically, skill acquisition…
We’re winding down to the end of another year. I find that late December provides a great opportunity for a “year in review” assessment. But instead of looking at your goals and lining them up against the measures for success delineated by your company, I propose a different review today. Ready? Look ahead—far, far ahead.…
It’s true. In some organizations, people are not given clear direction. They don’t know what a good job looks like. They don’t receive specific praise when they do well or concrete redirection when they run off course. They don’t know whether or not they have succeeded in attaining a goal because the goal was never…
Coaching over the phone? Not texting, but actually talking on the telephone? How quaint! When it comes to interacting with others in today’s digital age, the telephone may seem like a relic from the past. You may think coaching over the phone would be a poor substitute compared to face-to-face interaction. But the truth is,…
One of my favorite buildings is the Chrysler Tower in New York City. Although it was constructed 90 years ago, that building is still standing because it was built with integrity. Since it was designed and assembled properly, it doesn’t need to be propped up—it just needs to be maintained. The same can be said…
I’ve always appreciated this quote from famed author Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.: “Another flaw in the human character is that everybody wants to build and nobody wants to do maintenance.” What good is building character only to have it erode due to a lack of maintenance? Coaching enables people to gain clarity about who they are,…
Who? What? Where? When? Why? How? Each of these one-word questions can push organizational leaders and their team members toward the clarity they need to achieve success. In this post I’d like to focus on who and what. When leaders set clear expectations, outcomes are much more likely to hit the mark. And it’s just…
Think about a leader you admire. Maybe it is the CEO of your company, the principal of your local high school, or the president of your alma mater. If I asked you about the specific qualities that made them successful, you’d probably tell me about their hard skills—teachable abilities such as vision and strategic thinking.…