Coaching For Leaders

John Dickson: Spokane County, Washington Here's a link to the Lean Fighter article John mentioned about some of the work he contributed to at Boeing John mentioned the learning organization that was articulated by Peter Senge. This model was made popular in Senge's book The Fifth Discipline*, which is a must-read for leaders and also appears on my Top 10 books for leaders list. “The servant-leader is servant first. It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, and serve first. The conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead.” -Robert Greenleaf “Enthusiasm is the little recognized secret of success.” -Dale Carnegie A recent article from the Spokesman-Review on the new utility bill payment system that John spoke of on the show. What’s one shift you could make that would make you more like a servant leader? Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic.

For many of us, our tendency is to minimize our daily interruptions so we can get more done. On today’s show, my guest Douglas Conant helps us all recognize why these moments are critical in our work as leaders and how we can best utilize them. Guest: Douglas Conant Founder, Conant Leadership (Facebook) (Twitter) Former CEO, Campbell Soup and President of Nabisco Author with Mette Norgaard of the New York Time Bestseller TouchPoints: Creating Powerful Leadership Connections in the Smallest of Moments* “The More I Learn About the Outside World, The More Effective I Am With The Inside World.” -Doug Conant Doug's TouchPoint framework Ask first, “How can I help?” 1. Listen intently to what’s said and not said 2. Frame the issue so you understand the context in which the person is looking for your help 3. Help them advance the agenda Ask at the end, “How did it go?” Doug mentioned the book Talent is Overrarted by Geoff Colvin* Check out these two articles from Doug Turn Your Next Interr

This week, we dedicate the entire show to community questions about training. Guest: Bonni Stachowiak (@bonni208) Question from Jordan I am a young manager (mid-20’s). My job requires training large amounts of staff on software and technology. Many of the staff are twice my age, and tend to ignore me when giving trainings. I’m, not sure if this is because of my age, or because I have only been with the organization for 5 years, and many of  them have been here for 20+. Or perhaps it is because of the subject matter of the trainings? Do you have any suggestions on how to get through to them? Is it content or credibility? Seven Principles for Leading People Older Than You [episode #59] Seek out people who are giving you objections and find out how to best serve them. Dave mentioned How To Win Friends And Influence People* Lynda.com* is a good solution for learning popular software online at your pace Adobe Captivate is a good option for creating your own simulations Screenflow for the Mac is gr

While many things contribute to happiness, one key attitude shift in how we talk and think about our activities will help us be much happier. “Happiness isn’t doing what you like, it’s liking what you do.” -Quote on my dad's desk Vance Caesar was one of my professors in graduate school. He wrote The High Achiever’s Guide To Happiness* Vance said, “Create more 'gets to's' than 'got to's" Do you have more “get to’s” than “got to's?” Do you have to give someone feedback today, or do you get to? Do you have to give a presentation today, or do you get to? Do you have to resolve a conflict today, or do you get to? Do you have to go to work today, or do you get to? The secret to happiness is having more “gets to's” than “got to's” What will you do this week to turn a “got to” into a “get to?” Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic.

We all know what corporate brands are, but do you have clarity on your own, personal brand? Today, we examine the five elements of an effective personal brand with executive coach Heather Backstrom. Guest: Heather Backstrom HeatherBackstrom.com Executive Coach What is a personal brand? Personal brand is who a person is from the inside out. It’s not about external looks - that is personal image (also important, but different). 1. Values Knowing our values can provide clarity on the kind of work and work environment we choose. To help get clarity on your values, you may wish to utilize Dave’s values exercise at this link. Consider experiences in your life that really brought you joy - what values show up? For more on values, check out Coaching for Leaders episode 20. 2. Vision It’s about where you are now and where you wish to go. Create a target for yourself by defining it visually or in writing. “You can’t hit a target you don’t even have.” -Zig Ziglar For a journaling app, check ou

Being connected is great, right until it’s not. How to improve the quality of your connectedness with an expert from the Center for Creative Leadership. Guest: Jennifer Deal, Ph.D Center for Creative Leadership Author, Always On, Never Done: Don't Blame The Smartphone Center for Creative Leadership works to help improve leadership. Many people said that staying so connected really started when they received their smartphone. On average, people in the survey were connected to the workplace 72 hours a week, or 13.5 hours a day. Personal tasks done during the workday were accounted for in the research (even people that don’t work these kind of hours still do personal tasks at work) One of the biggest complaints was the number of meetings required in organizations. A major issue is being invited to meetings and then people realizing that they weren’t really needed. Setting clear agendas is key. Be explicit why each person is needed. Another major complaint was too many people making

Bonni and I respond to community questions on taking the next step in difficult situations. First question from Khrist and a few suggestions from us: Recognize your hot buttons or trigger point Avoid handling things in the midst of anger and emotion, if you can avoid them (for example, don't send emails when angry) Instead, write out your thoughts just for yourself Get input from others who are not as close to the situation Start with questions and not accusations/assumptions Sometimes a bit of expressed anger or frustration is OK, assuming it is genuine Consider what you are really able to do or not do Give yourself grace too - none of us are perfect at handling these situations In fact, we discover the most from imperfect situations Book recommendation: Daring Greatly by Brene Brown* Book recommendation: Difficult Conversations* Video recommendation: Brene Brown's first and second TED talks Past podcast recommendation: How to Lead When Someone is Driving You Nuts [episode #48] S

What do you do when you're the target of criticism? Here are the two kinds of critics that show up at work in the workplace and also how to address them. It all comes back to Mathnet Two kinds of critics The bully The champion Why you need your critics Hawthorne studies (Harvard article) (Economist article) Benefits You Get From A Recognition Program (episode #79) with Michelle Smith of O.C. Tanner “Our chief want in life is someone who will make us do what we can.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson Actions you can take Listen and be calm (useful for both the bully and the champion) Our urge is to become defensive It may put up barriers to hearing something of value If the criticism is unwarranted, you’re the one keeping your cool (unless the other party is factually wrong in a public forum) If the other party is factually wrong in public, make your case confidently and professionally Set aside the tone or personal attack (useful for both the bully and the champion) Is there v

“Knowledge management is a set of processes, individually constructed, to help each of us make sense of our world and work more effectively.” -Harold Jarche Capture Capturing through the stream Twitter Some social media Live TV Live radio Capturing through subscriptions Email updates and newsletters Podcasts RSS via services like Feedly.com Curate Bonni uses Delicious (link to her library) Dave uses Pinboard (link to his library) Evernote Pocket Kindle App Snippefy app (useful to export notes and highlights from Kindle) Diigo Create Social media postings Conversation starters Classroom/meeting starters Writing Bonni's blog is TeachingInHigherEd.com How would you like to get info from Dave? Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic.

If you do these four things with consistency at the meetings you lead, you’ll get vastly better results from the investment you are making in meeting time. Worst offenses Trying to come up with a topic to talk about Let's share what's going on (without any context for how/why) Information sharing only No agenda Too many agenda items People on devices Too many meetings total Good news! Many of us have almost complete control over how we run meetings as leaders 1. Determine if the meeting needs to be held at all Is it for brainstorming, training that needs to be done in person, or making a decision? Yes, have the meeting. Is it for sharing of information? No, find a better way to get the information to people. Consider the real cost of staff time 2. Have written or understood guidelines on communication, technology, decision-making, and overall culture of your meetings What do we do when we get off task? How will we capture what is decided and/or next actions? What rules will we

Have you considered telling the people you lead about the mistakes you’ve made? On this show, why you lead better when you share your mistakes. “Talk about your own mistakes before criticizing the other person.” -Dale Carnegie Here are the benefits to talking about your mistakes with others: You get people’s attention. You open the door for people to be more willing to accept coaching. You give people a realistic path of what it looks like to learn how to lead. It reminds you what it was like to learn that skill in the first place. It keeps you humble. Two words of caution: Make sure you share real mistakes you’ve made. Sadly, not every organization values this kind of transparency. Be smart about the politics where you are. Community Feedback CoachingforLeaders.com/feedback USA: (949) 38-LEARN Thank you to Laz Allen, Elaine Vega, Jay Austin, Miguel Oliveira, Francisco Lopez, Laurie Marshall, Sudhakar Vundavalli, Colin McAllisterm Shari Silverman, Helena Engblom, Oliver Lamborelle, Darren Campbe

You’ve probably heard that time-honored advice when giving a speech. Tell ’em what you’re going to tell them, tell ’em, tell ’em what you told them. On today’s show, what that’s lousy advice and how you can do better. Here's some advice that many of us have heard when we starting giving presentations or speeches for the first time: “Tell ’em what you’re going to tell ’em, tell ’em, tell ’em what you told ’em.” Four great and interesting speeches, with varying levels of importance: Honoring the dead - The Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln Civil rights - I Have A Dream by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. A successful product launch - The iPhone Announcement by Steve Jobs Human personality - The Power of Introverts by Susan Cain Three commonalities that these four very different "pitches" share. They all: Tell a story of the problem Articulate a vision Inspire action Resources you may wish to investigate: The Quick and Easy Way To Effective Speaking* by Dale Carnegie Resonate: Present Visual Stor

Many of us struggle with making time to prioritize the things that are most rewarding to us and our careers. On today's show, we tackle the topic of time management through the questions from the community. Plus, responses to questions on additional topics as well. Guest: Bonni Stachowiak 1. Question about leading during a school closing from Jermaine We recommended episode #55 with Carol Taylor on How To Lead In A Crisis. 2. Question about giving feedback from Sue 3. Question about prioritizing emails and voice mail from Matt Dave's task management system: OmniFocus Bonni's task management system: Remember The Milk VIP contacts and flagging on iOS7 for the iPhone and iPad: How To See Important Messages in iOS7 Mail from The Mac Observer Mailbox for iPhone Sanebox.com We recommended episode #109 on Seven Online Tools That Will Help You Do Your Best Work. We recommended episode #119 with David Sparks on How To Get Control Of Your Email. 4. Question about small tasks and large tasks from Cather

So you’re in the midst of conflict and frustrated with the other party. What can you do get what you really want? On today’s show, Bonni Stachowiak joins me to discuss the path to get there. Guest: Bonni Stachowiak Bonni and I discussed three steps for getting what you most want out of conflict: Recognize our tendency to focus on ourselves being right and the other party being wrong. Getting clear on the feeling factor: becoming aware of our own feelings and learning to express them accurately to another party Know your short and long-term goal. “Given what has already transpired that you can't change, what do you want to have come out of this situation?” We recommended the book Difficult Conversations* Community Feedback CoachingforLeaders.com/feedback USA: (949) 38-LEARN Did you know? That there is a full episode list online? Check it out at CoachingforLeaders.com/episodes Did you know there is a tag cloud of topics for everything on the Coaching for Leaders site? Check it out on the homepa

If you Google the phrase “work-life balance” you’ll get 265 million hits. There’s lots of information on this so called balance, but not as much on the practical perspective of what works and doesn’t for people. Today, my guest John Corcoran and I tackle the practical pursuit of work-life balance. Guest: John Corcoran SmartBusinessRevolution.com John also appeared on Coaching for Leaders epsiode #106: How to Create Your Personal Networking Plan List of resources that John or I mentioned during our conversation: Ursula Burns (CEO of Xerox) and her thoughts on work-life balance, as reported by the Wall Street Journal The Storyline Productivity Schedule (used by John) David Allen's Getting Things Done* (both John and Dave use the philosophy of this system) ProductiveFlourishing.com (John uses) OmniFocus (Dave's task management system) Drafts (how Dave captures thoughts throughout the day) 5 Days To Your Best Year Ever (Dave attended this course over the holidays to set his 2014 goals) iCloud c

What if you loved starting your work most days? What if you were able to create a workplace where people felt joy? Our guest today leads a place that Inc. Magazine has called, “The most joyful company in America,” and is here to inspire us to do more for the people we lead. Guest: Richard Sheridan Author of the new book Joy, Inc.* CEO, Menlo Innovations Community Feedback CoachingforLeaders.com/feedback USA: (949) 38-LEARN Episode #125 airing later this month will be an all question and answer show focused on the topic of Time Management. If you have a question relating to time management, please record it for consideration for this episode at this link. Thank you to Juha Ruohola, Mir Ali, Chad Belletete, Donnie Mefford, Simon Cooper, Varun Perla, Sanjay Patel, Craig Strickler, Terry Cao, Melissa Hecht, Hani Alshoulah, Par Hoglund, Reza Ahmadi, Rebecca Mohon, Lynn Schaffer, Teresa Gibson, René Rasmussen, Klaus Feldam, Dick Donovan, Melissa Williams, Sylvia Emery, and Ron Echtenacher who subscribed to my

A lot of us fear making mistakes, but mistakes are such an important part of the process in moving forward. Today, you’ll hear why this is important even for (and maybe especially for) the most successful thinkers and doers. Guest: Dr. Mario Livio Author, Brilliant Blunders* Astrophysicist, Space Telescope Science Institute Community Feedback CoachingforLeaders.com/feedback USA: (949) 38-LEARN Thank you to Bradd Molner, Rob Camann, David Embleton, Paul Johnson, Brendan Van Deusen, Aimee Armstrong, Wendolyne Buckner, Satyanarayanan Kumar, Paul Belsak, Alice Kubíčková, Michael Norwood, Gaudy Rivera, Nicole D’Auteuil, and Randie McAllister for subscribing to my weekly update this past week. Thank you also to Andres Janz for your very kind written review on iTunes. If this show has been valuable to you as well, please leave a written review on iTunes or Stitcher by visiting coachingforleaders.com/itunes or coachingforleaders.com/stitcher What's a blunder you've made that later led to a big success?

How do I manage my former peers? Should I get an MBA? What can I do to get my organization to train people? I tackle these and more community questions on today’s show. If you have a question for a future Coaching for Leaders Q&A show, be sure to submit it at coachingforleaders.com/feedback Resources I mentioned for Kyle's question on managing peers vs. being buddies: My appearance on Firefighter Toolbox to discuss How To Motivate and Lead in the Fire Station FirefighterToolbox.com Resources I mentioned for Kirks' question on deferred email: Sanebox.com Mailbox app for iOS devices Halina's question on getting an MBA: How can I apply my passions for coaching and training? [VIDEO] American Society for Training and Development Jennifer's question on how to get the training her organization needs: Leading Change by John Kotter* Community Feedback CoachingforLeaders.com/feedback USA: (949) 38-LEARN Thank you to Nick Cinotti, Cheikh Ndiaye, Alison Cianciolo, Tricia Brand, Richard Mofet, J

Has email taken over your life? If you’re like me, is certainly can often. Today, I welcome David Sparks of MacSparky.com to teach us how to get better control of this communication medium. Guest: David Sparks of MacSparky.com Author of Email* and Paperless* Co-Host of the Mac Power Users podcast David and I speak about his new book Email and how we can use more effective workflows and planning to take control of email. You'll find his perspective helpful for considering actions you can take with your email. Community Feedback CoachingforLeaders.com/feedback USA: (949) 38-LEARN Twitter: #CFLshow David's book Email* David's book Paperless* Coaching for Leaders episode #120 is an all request show! Record your question at this link. Almost 500 people are participating in my coaching plan on the Lift app on how to Become A More Respected Manager. Check it out at coachingforleaders.com/liftplan Thank you to Halina Kavalenka, Paul Gallo, Vitaly Rubanenko, Jenny Jones, Chelle Ziegenfuss, Kian Ruddock, Debra

What is the difference between management and leadership? Do you know? Do you care? Today I welcome executive coach Bill Bliss from Bliss & Associates, Inc. to share his wisdom and experience with us about the distinction. After listening to this episode, you'll have a much better understanding of the difference between management and leadership. You'll also discover when to apply each, given the situation. Guest: Bill Bliss Bliss & Associates, Inc. Community Feedback CoachingforLeaders.com/feedback USA: (949) 38-LEARN Twitter: #CFLshow Managing vs. Leading document Coaching for Leaders episode #120 is an all request show! Record your question at this link. Here's a little something to make you smile: Thank you to Nick Eady, Steve Karum, Lidija Car, Puneet Sharma, Randy Franklin, Ronda McCoy, Saratt Prim, PVS Narayanan, and Bill Bliss who’ve subscribed to my weekly update this past week. Thank you to Mabo Steinert, Chutchapol, and Fran McClure for your very kind written review on iTunes. If this s