How do effective leaders plan when the future is so wildly unpredictable? - part #3

Given all the strategic meetings I have been involved with during the last six months before COVID-19 hit us like a tsunami, I want to share two more insights I have gleaned from the experience. First, I have come to the same conclusion as John Paul Lederach in his book, The Moral Imagination: The Art and Soul of Building Peace (Oxford University Press, 2005) that “The past lies before us.” Since we can not see or know to any degree of certainty the future what we know the most about is the past. In essence, as Lederach explains “we walk backwards into the future.”

From my vantage point, as a leader or an executive team initiates change, we begin walking on a sigmoid curve, a normal pattern of organizational change. This curve is driven by four things:

- Remembered history, i.e. the stories we learned from others, and the selective way we remember history.

- Lived history, i.e. the experiences we personally lived through.

- Shared history, i.e. the experiences we personally lived through with others.

- Current and/or recent events, i.e. the experiences that are happening now.

All four of the above can create the narrative we tell ourselves and others about what is happening now and the why is it happening in a particular manner.  

In particular, I think the challenge is that most leaders want to answer the WHY question and talk about mission and/or purpose. However, many are not very good at it. Sometimes, their answers are simplistic at best. This happens because they do not understand the history of the organization. To be very specific, they have not created the space to develop a shared history, a shared sense of clarity and a shared understanding. As a result, the narrative is incomplete or not helpful to those who are trying to make change happen. 

As John Paul Lederach points out, “We have the capacity to remember the past, but we have no capacity to fully predict much less control it. Not even God can change the past…. We have the capacity to imagine a different future, but we have no capacity to fully predict much less control it. Try as we might nobody controls the future…. The web of life is juxtaposed between these realities of time, between memory and potentiality. This is the place of narrative, the art of re-storying.”

This reminds me of something Jim Mattis wrote in his book, Call Sign Chaos: Learning To Lead (Random House, 2019): “I was out to win their coequal “ownership” of the mission…”. For me this happens, when we develop a shared understanding and collective set of experiences which strengthen who we are, what we believe in and how we work together.

My second recent insight related to strategic planning is that relationship building is a big part of strategic planning. While most people focus on goal setting and document creation, I think we undervalue the relationship building part of the process. The keys to planning in widely unpredictable times, notes Ron Heifetz and Marty Linsky in their book Leadership On The Line: Staying Alive through the Dangers of Leading (Harvard Business School Press, 2002), is to “commit to the importance of relationship building and community building.” When we find new partners and maintain old partnerships, we understand that these “partners provide protection, and create alliances with factions other than your own”.

Furthermore, I believe we need to respect complexity, rediscover emergence, and understand that there are times when a bridge plan is the best plan to purse. At the same time, we need to provide safe space for the creative thinking and action to occur, have the willingness to talk about risks and risk management, and be willing to accept pain (physical, spiritual, financial, mental) so others with less can do better.

Nevertheless, the challenge right now for so many leaders is organizational “amnesia”. We have forgotten our history. We have forgotten our roots. We have forgotten our story up until this moment and we have forgotten our past strategic choices. All of this results in weak, non authentic relationships and ultimately weak communities. This “land of forgetfulness” creates relationships which do not have the capacity to trust, deal with risks, or generate creative responses to extraordinary and complex challenges, notes John Paul Lederach.

Given the above in mind, adaptive leadership and adaptive planning involves four key activities say Heifetz, Grashow, and Linsky. They are as follows:

- observing events and patterns around you which involves collecting data and translating it into useful information.

- interpreting what you are observing with the assistance of others so your interpretation is not a guess.

- designing interventions based on observations and interpretations to address the adaptive challenges you have identified.

- implementing what you have designed.

Just remember that in the realm of adaptive leadership, such as what we are experiencing right now with COVID-19, you have to believe that your intervention is absolutely the right things to do at the moment you commit to it. But at the same time, you need to remain open to the possibility that you are dead wrong.

In short, we need to engage above and below the neck, i.e. head and heart, and  remember that people prefer status quo to doing things differently. We also need to remember that the lone warrior myth of leadership is a sure route to heroic suicide. We need partners.

For those of you who like to read, I suggest you explore the following two books on this subject:

- Heifetz, Ronald, A., and Marty Linsky. Leadership On The Line: Staying Alive through the Dangers of Leading, Harvard Business School Press, 2002.

- Heifetz, Ronald, Alexander Grashow, and Marty Linsky. The Practice of Adaptive Leadership: Tools and Tactics for Changing Your Organization and the World, Harvard Business Press, 2009.

Both of them are full of good food for thought and reflection.

Geery Howe, M.A. Consultant, Executive Coach, Trainer in Leadership, Strategic Planning and Organizational Change Morning Star Associates 319 - 643 - 2257

Decipher the Stone - Principle-Centered Leadership - part #2

When committing oneself to the pathway of being a principle-centered leader so that your organization is more nimble, flexible and agile over the coming two years, there are four key steps to take.

First, you must become 100% focused on building and maintaining relationships. Over the years, I have learned that organizational change is the sum of individual change. And for this to take place, people need to feel supported, respected, and understood. People in leadership do this by learning to listen to understand rather than being understood, paraphrasing an old Covey concept.  The best principle-centered leaders I have met also recognize the difference between ability and attitude problems, and are clear about their expectations.

Second, these same leaders are exceptional at setting priorities and helping others to do likewise. When they do this in combination with routine goal setting, they empower people to make the right decisions for the right reasons.

Third, principle-centered leaders are addicted to learning about themselves and others. They do not slip into patterns of self-deception. Instead, they are humble enough to admit mistakes and the lessons learned from the mistakes. They frame this as learning opportunities and the building blocks of character.

Finally, they do not hesitate to celebrate success and progress, plus lessons from failure. While some may see this as silly and inconsequential, principle-centered leaders understand the relationship between clarity, commitment and confidence. Building all three is critical to successful organizational change.

This week, reflect on the above four key steps and evaluate how well you are doing each one. Then, make a plan to get better at all of them.

Geery Howe, M.A. Consultant, Executive Coach, Trainer in Leadership, Strategic Planning and Organizational Change Morning Star Associates 319 - 643 - 2257

What is the connection between organizational history, culture and meaningful work within successful organizations? - part #1

As we sat down for dinner, I realized that I had not seen her in quite a while.

“So how have you been?”, I asked her.

“Overwhelmed” was her response. “I’ve had to work on all four pillars of the organization, namely people, structure, systems and culture.”

“It’s been painful,” she continued. “These are good people. We are good people, but we have no control over all the changes that are taking place. It is waves upon waves of unforeseen variables and choices being made by people who do not realize the impact of their actions. It breaks my heart to lead through such difficulties.”

“I am so sorry you are having to go through this,” I responded.

And she wept quietly at the table. They were tears of grief, tears of anger about stuff over which she had no control, tears of letting go of control, tears to finally be with someone who gets the pain of leadership and tears of realization that it is going to get harder before it gets better.

Right now, life is dynamic, not linear. We can not control so much that is going on and yet we have to move forward together through the pain.

Since the Fall 2018 From Vision to Action Executive Roundtable, I have learned three important lessons. First, we need to pry ourselves away from screen time interactions and analysis, and reconnect with people, mission and meaningful work in person. Dashboards tell us some of the story but never the whole story. As Gregory Boyle in his exceptional book, Barking to the Choir: The Power of Radical Kinship (Simon & Schuster, 2017), reminds us: “Everything that counts can’t be counted.” There is a time and a place for fast leadership, but I believe we need to invest in slow leadership, namely the work of building and maintaining key relationship. Metrics help, but relationships are the foundation of successful action.

Second, we need to remember that deciding something and doing something are two different things. We have lost track of this in the work of fast leadership, particularly in our work with younger leaders. “I sent the e-mail” is not executing a decision.

Third, organizational culture, once established, can not be solved by reductionism. Trying to change group behaviors through individual goal setting, measurement and accountability will only work so far. We forget that our organizational culture reflects our collective behaviors. For example, you can not remove the ingredients within a baked cookie, i.e. the culture. You can not undo things to change things; you can not move backwards to make it better. Instead, you have to start over. This must be a re-founding by returning to our identity/purpose, reclaiming what we still believe in, a reclaiming of what gives meaning to what we are doing and what we aspire to be. It all depends on the values we embed at the start of this process.

Therefore, it is time for leaders in large and small organizations to engage in restorative processes. We must restore and/or build new processes where people feel confident and smart again. We need processes where we make sense of what formerly made us feel overwhelmed. We need experiences where “We are all in this together” takes on new meaning.

The first way to do this is to engage in more strategic dialogues. The goal of a strategic dialogue is to create strategic awareness, strategic understanding, and strategic perspective, which will result in better strategic choices and operational choices.

Strategic dialogues are a capacity building exercise. An effective strategic dialogue is the combination of three elements, namely education, awareness, and the building of commitment. Successful strategic dialogues are often facilitated so the leader or leaders can just focus on listening.

Within a strategic dialogue, focus on three areas. First, explore strategic context or if you do not like that word then use the words “strategic landscape.” Here, I encourage you to answer the question: Why are we moving forward? The big picture outside the organization needs to be explored and in particular, explain how the customer has and has not changed over time.

Second, explain strategic direction by answering the question, Where are we going? As leaders, we do this by connecting the why from above dialogue with the where of this question. In particular, explain how the company’s strategy has changed over time in order to meet the changing needs of our customers.

Third, explain the strategic nexus or philosophy by answering this question, How will we do this? Being mission-driven, and values-led means there needs to be  alignment and interconnection between mission, vision and core values with the current strategic plan. In particular, explain why the company’s mission and core values have not changed over time. 

For leaders to do the above successfully, they are going to need to get very good at the following two behaviors: sharing over telling and listening over responding. Now, some of you may be thinking what is the difference between sharing vs. telling and listening vs. responding? Mutual respect is one major difference. When leaders choose to share and listen during a strategic dialogue, there are no leaders or followers. There is no us vs. them. There is instead a collective we.

From my experience, this level of work requires leaders to utilize deep listening. This is a way of hearing in which we are fully present to what is happening in the moment without trying to control or judge it. We are hearing others with an open mind and a compassionate heart.

When we engage in restorative processes, we must engage in routine coaching in order to build capacity. From the person who is being coached, this means they are feeling heard. From the person who is doing the coaching, they must show up and be present. It is more transformational coaching rather than technical coaching. 

For coaching at this level to be successful, there needs to be the right environment for coaching. Many leaders think we are in sync with our environment, but actually it’s at war with us. As Marshall Goldsmith points out in his top-notch book, Triggers: Creating Behavior That Lasts - Becoming the Person You Want to Be, (Crown Business, 2015), we think we control our environment but in fact it controls us. Our environment changes us, and a changing environment will aways change us. Therefore, if we do not create and control our environment, our environment creates and controls us. And the result turns us into someone we do not recognize.

From my experience, the right coaching environment is one where certain elements are not changing, namely ample time, an uninterrupted space,  mutual respect, deep listening, two way dialogue, and active note taking.

Furthermore, when we engage in restorative processes, we must also engage in regular feedback. Feedback is vital to coaching. However, feedback is rarely given because it can make the coach and the person being coached uncomfortable. Returning to the aforementioned Goldsmith’s work, we forget that a coach is a follow-up mechanism. He or she instills accountability. At the highest level, a coach is a source of mediation, bridging the gap between the visionary Planner and short-sighted Doer in us. The Coach meshes our inner Planner with our inner Doer.

This week think deeply about strategic dialogues, restorative processes and how to take your coaching work to the next level. Given the dynamic world we are living in, this level of leadership is sorely needed.

Geery Howe, M.A. Consultant, Executive Coach, Trainer in Leadership, Strategic Planning and Organizational Change Morning Star Associates 319 - 643 - 2257

Living In Interesting Times

“May you live in interesting times.” I’ve been told this is a Chinese curse. Whether or not this is true may be in question. However, after spending many hours with leaders at different levels of many different organizations, a general consensus has surfaced that we do live in interesting times. 

Some leaders see this as the best of times and revel in the progress that is being made. Others find it an extremely challenging time and believe many key problems are surfacing that have long term implications for their organization and for those they serve. Nevertheless, all of them agree that it is quite an interesting and unique time.

When visiting with all of these different leaders, many whom I have know for quite some time, a common phrase and subject surfaces in our conversation. “These sure are interesting times, Geery. It feels like we are going to be working through an extended trough of chaos.” 

I agree with their analysis. There is quite a bit of work ahead. So, starting today through to the Spring Roundtable in early April, I will be sharing my thoughts weekly with all of you about how to work through an extended trough of chaos during interesting times. 

First, let’s remember that some of the concepts and ideas I will share may seem simple if not simplistic. But experience and research tells us that simple is not always easy. True leadership needs to happen not just during happy times. It needs to happen daily through all sorts of technical problems and adaptive challenges. 

Second, we as leaders need to do our own homework just as much as we need to help others do their homework. A personal review is just as powerful as a company or senior team strategic review. The key is to do this because you understand the importance of it rather than do it just because you read it on a blog or in a book.

Third, during interesting times and when working through an extended trough of chaos, integrity is not negotiable. What you say as a leader and what you don’t say as a leader is always noticed in times like this. How you engage with others and how you work with teams is magnified and examined in great detail. So, the best place to start working and living with integrity is to remember the Grandparent Rule: “Would my grandparents be proud of how I treat others, my team and my family during these interesting and challenging times?” If not, change your behavior. If so, continue on.

I bring up the Grandparent Rule here today because over the course of the last six to nine months I have been visiting with people about integrity. What does it mean? What does it look like? How would you know it if you worked with someone with integrity? 

Over and over again, people have talked to me about their grandparents. Some have said, “My grandfather was a kind man who listened carefully and always treated people with respect.” Others explain to me that “My grandmother was always helping people rather than judging them. She knew that hard times happen even to the best of folks.” And more recently, “My grandparents built a relationship based on love and respect. They role modeled that life can be challenging but it does not have to define who some is on the inside.”

While not all our grandparents lived and worked at this level, there is a large percentage who did and many who currently continue to be people of integrity. What I have realized after much reflection is that these people are people of integrity because they took the time to build and maintain relationships with others. Investing time to make connections made face to face rather than with connectivity, i.e. social media, FaceBook, Instagram, texting, etc., is the foundation of their integrity. They got to know you for you and then showed interest and curiosity as you changed and evolved over time.

This week, remember that simple does not always mean easy. Do your own homework in life’s journey. Think about the Grandparent Rule and spend more time building relationships face to face. We live in interesting times and the trough of chaos will be long, but working and living with the utmost integrity is critical to being the kind of leader who helps people and the organization move forward in a successful manner.

Geery Howe, M.A. Consultant, Executive Coach, Trainer in Leadership, Strategic Planning and Organizational Change Morning Star Associates 319 - 643 - 2257

Live Your Core Values

We were discussing trust, change, and strategic development, when I noticed a gold ring, tastefully mounted on a beautiful piece of wood. When I asked the person about it, his response surprised me: "It belonged to my father. Last winter, he was coming off the highway onto an icy exit when the back tires of his 18 wheeler started sliding on the ice. He was killed in the accident. I grieved long and hard. It happened during his last remaining weeks at work before he retired.

"Still, in the midst of all my sadness, I feel okay, in part because a week before the accident I had gotten up early, picked up a box of donuts, and had driven over to have breakfast with him. At the time, I didn't really have time to go. I was swamped with meetings and appointments, and we had an evaluation coming up that everyone was working hard on. Still, I had a gut feeling that it was important to do, so I went.

"We talked about the weather, trucking, and my work. I encouraged him to skip the last couple of weeks before retiring and take some of the vacation time that he had been saving. I told him I loved him, that I appreciated him and was proud of him. We aren't normally very demonstrative, but I'm so glad now that I went out of my way to see him.

"And all I have now is this gold ring to remind me of our time together. This gold ring reminds me to create those kinds of connections here at work. It makes all the difference, really. This ring reminds me of the power of taking time, and to not neglect the things that really matter in the heat of the hectic pace."

Every day at work, connections are waiting to happen - opportunities to take core values and turn them into living experiences. Don’t waste these opportunities for genuine sharing and role modeling. As Bill Byrne has stated, “Choice, not chance, determines destiny."

Remember: Make time on a regular basis to live your core values and to build the community you seek. It will be the foundation for today and tomorrow.

Geery Howe, M.A. Consultant, Executive Coach, Trainer in Leadership, Strategic Planning and Organizational Change Morning Star Associates 319 - 643 - 2257

Building Connections Instead of Connectivity

It was many years ago when they called me to stop by and see their state of the art computer lab. As I walked in, the room was filled with computers in rows and a huge screen up front. My host that morning explained to me that the company had invested in all these machines and a new software program so everyone in the room could explore a strategic level question at the same time. Then, once people started typing, they could also read all the other comments people were writing plus add their own comments. A massive level of sharing was going to take place and it would all be recorded on the big screen so people could see it happening live.

I smiled as she listed all the benefits of this new strategic level computer lab. Then I asked a simple question, “Why don’t people just talk directly to each other and skip the computer?

A long time ago, I remember my young son calling up his best friend on the phone and checking to see if he was home. Then, he said the following: “Great! Hang up and let’s instant message.” And they did.

While I like novel approaches, there is something very powerful that happens when people listen and share face to face. They make a deeper connection than just the words. Clarity is more than just a head and ear experience. When it is real, one feels it, not just thinks it.

As Margaret Wheatley wrote years ago, "It is time to become passionate about what is best in us, and to create organizations that welcome our creativity, contribution, and compassion. We do this by using processes that bring us together to talk to one another, listen to one another's stories, reflect together on what we're learning as we do our work. We do this by developing relationships of trust, where we do what we say, where we speak truthfully, where we refuse to act from petty self-interest."

My hope is that this week you will commit to developing relationships of trust where our connections are based on meaningful sharing and listening.

Geery Howe, M.A. Consultant, Executive Coach, Trainer in Leadership, Strategic Planning and Organizational Change Morning Star Associates 319 - 643 - 2257

Unlocking Capacity and Growth

As I noted last week, James  Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner in their book, A Leader’s Legacy. Jossey-Bass, 2006, wrote that “... the single best predictor of [an individual’s] career success is the relationship they had with their very first supervisor.” And as I challenged you last week, now is the moment to spend more time making sure these key relationships work well. Often people start this  process by creating role and responsibility clarity. They also help all involved understand how to use accurate and timely measures of progress so people can feel like they are being successful. These actions help but the focus needs to be on the relationship, which is a more qualitative over quantitative approach.

Marcus Buckingham in his book, The One Thing You Need to Know ... About Great Managing, Great Leading, and Sustained Individual Success, Free Press, 2005, reminds us that great managing begins by selecting people effectively, setting expectations by defining clearly the outcomes you want, and motivating people by focusing on their strengths.

While all of the above are helpful, I sometimes explore this subject by asking the following the question: 

- What kind of relationship do you want to have with the people who report directly to you?? 

The question causes us to remember that people follow people more than positions or job titles.  Therefore, as Kouzes and Posner remind us, “... if people are going to follow you they need to know more about you than the fact that you’re their boss.” 

This week, share more about you and your journey in the land of leadership and organizational change. Then, spend considerable time learning about your people and their personal journeys through the land of organizational change. Sharing our leadership stories is the start of an important journey.

Geery Howe, M.A. Consultant, Executive Coach, Trainer in Leadership, Strategic Planning and Organizational Change Morning Star Associates 319 - 643 - 2257

Preparing for the New Year

Around this time of the month every year, it finally hits home to certain people that the current year is about to end and the new year is right around the corner.  Furthermore, it is very common in the middle of December during executive coaching sessions and consultations for someone to tell me that they are feeling unprepared for the coming new year. And once this realization has come clear to them, they often ask me what to do and how to prepare for something that is coming so fast. My response this year will be to refer them to two important quotes.

“Most ailing organizations have developed a functional blindness to their own defects,” notes John Gardner. “They are not suffering because they cannot resolve their problems, but because they cannot see their problems.” To truly see our organizations as they are rather than as we would like them to be is a great challenge and a great gift. The challenge is to accept reality but not to let it define us. The gift is to receive this depth of awareness and understanding to the degree that we own our problems and recognize we collectively created them. Once we start from the place of acceptance, we can definitely move forward to change this reality.

The second quote is from the late Stephen Covey who wrote, “Trust is the glue of life. It’s the most essential ingredient in effective communication. It’s the foundational principle that holds all relationships.” Trust comes at three levels, namely personal, strategic and organizational.  We as leaders need to be constantly monitoring these three levels and constantly strengthening our relationships with others in order that we can communicate cleanly and clearly.  With a strong level of trust in the work place, we can resolve our problems collectively and not allow functional blindness to become the norm. 

Waking up one day and realizing that 2013 is just around the corner is normal. Choosing to stay functionally blind and not building healthy work relationships is dysfunctional.  Our challenge for the rest of this month is to do the following:

- listen carefully to others and learn more about what is actually happening within our organizations, not what should be happening.

- differentiate between technical and adaptive problems so we make smarter choices and decisions as we prepare for 1Q of 2013.

- invest more time in relationship and team building so we can achieve greater degrees of trust and understanding.

When we reflect on the above quotes and do the above actions, we will build a solid foundation for the future, one day and one relationship at a time.

Geery Howe, M.A. Consultant, Executive Coach, Trainer in Leadership, Strategic Planning and Organizational Change Morning Star Associates 319 - 643 - 2257

How Successful Leaders Think - part #2

Last week, I explored how successful leaders think and ended my thoughts on how leaders make a decision. Today, I would like to pick-up where I left off.

First, decisions do not matter if nothing happens afterwards. Many leaders think that once they have made a decision they have solved a problem. But as an executive coach, I have to continually remind them that decisions are not action. Decisions do not equal implementation. Decisions are not the mobilization of resources. Decisions do not equal execution. Decisions are empty without action that follows.

Second, successful leaders understand that effective decisions begin long before the actual call. It starts with the ability of a leader to sense there is a problem within the context of service delivery or the context of the service environment. “Sensing and framing, a term defined by Noel M. Tichy and Warren G. Bennis in their great article, “Making Judgement Calls: The Ultimate Act of Leadership”, Harvard Business Review, October 2007, is critical to decision-making as it gives the decision a foundation or reason “why.”

Still, many executives forget that there is an important next step after they make a decision. What I have observed is that successful leaders focus on mobilizing resources, e.g. people, information, technology, etc., to support the decision and to make it actually happen. The key is that successful leaders also stay involved during the execution phase post the decision by helping to define clear milestones or short term wins so people can clarify their progress and be successful.

Third, successful leaders understand that relationships are not linear, especially when it comes to the successful implementation of important decisions. In a linear relationship, a positional leader will approach it from the point of view that more of variable A will produce more of variable B. Successful leaders do not approach people like they are flow charts but instead recognize that the health and effectiveness of the relationship is based on clarity through dialogue. If this level of work is done in advance of the actual decision, the usual challenges with organizational change, e.g. resistance, is reduced and the forward momentum of the organization can proceed without major complications. However, the key is to build healthy work relationships on an on-going basis, not at an episodic level.

In short, when we step back and reflect on how successful leaders think, we realize that they spend significant time and energy teaching others how to think rather than simply telling them what to do. And this is one of the main reasons why they are successful.

Geery Howe, M.A. Consultant, Executive Coach, Trainer in Leadership, Strategic Planning and Organizational Change Morning Star Associates 319 - 643 - 2257

High Tech, High Touch

John Naisbitt, the preeminent social forecaster of our time and author of the # 1 New York Times bestseller Megatrends, noted in 1999 that as society becomes increasingly digital we will enter a “Technologically Intoxicated Zone.” As he writes, “This zone is a confusing and distracted state where we both fear and worship technology, where we see technologies as toys and quick-fixes, and where we become obsessed with what is "real" and what is "fake"--from the violent games children play to genetically-engineered animals to whether one can claim to have scaled Everest if supplemental oxygen was used.” One solution to this situation is for there to be an increased “high touch” element that is not lost in society. This is not just on the physical level as much as the human interaction level.

Reflecting on his comments 12+ years later, I realize that more and more companies, customers and senior executives are in the “Technologically Intoxicated Zone” where they fear and worship the speed of technology and technological change. What intrigues me this morning is the power of the high touch element that is to balance this high tech transformation. 

More and more, I observe and listen to successful executives who report to me and recognize the importance of relationship management inside and outside of the work place. Sharing a meal, visiting about a favorite book or article, taking time to get to know and learn more about the people they work with is a process that generates clarity, understanding and capacity at a whole new level. This high touch element is more important than the traditional networking process, which often means knowing a million people one inch deep. In the world of philanthropic work, this kind of work is called “friend raising.” I like to see it as the building of a foundation where we develop a relationship that is meaningful and deep.

The key for me this morning and this week is to encourage more people to proactively engage in relationship management, and to be more involved in friend raising activities. This will bring balance to a work that is intoxicated with technology.

Geery Howe, M.A. Consultant, Executive Coach, Trainer in Leadership, Strategic Planning and Organizational Change Morning Star Associates 319 - 643 - 2257

A Key to Performance Coaching

James Kouzes and Barry Posner write in their wonderful book called A Leader’s Legacy, Jossey-Bass, 2006, that “When we choose to lead every day, we choose to serve. Leading is not about what we gain from others but what others gain from us.”

Every day people are working hard and putting in long hours to get done what needs to be done. Most employees, like their supervisors, are stretched by the pressure to meet these expectations and most want to do a good job even if factors beyond their control prevent them from achieving this on a regular basis. Furthermore, most people are struggling to balance all of their work commitments with their home commitments.

In the midst of these challenges, I am a firm believer that Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman in their book, First, Break All The Rules: What The World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently, Simon & Schuster, 1999, were right when they wrote “People don’t change that much. Don’t waste time trying to put in what was left out. Try to draw out what was left in. That is hard enough.” I also agree with the above authors that a “manager’s role is the ‘catalyst’ role,” namely to “speed up the reaction between the employee’s talents and the company’s goals, and between the employee’s talents and the customer’s needs.”

Yet, when we set clear expectations, motivate people to meet them and develop them for future challenges and opportunities, we, as leaders and managers, need to remember that some people do not have the skill set or know how to achieve certain goals. And thus, every day we need to coach people on their performance.

One thing I am noticing this winter is how few executives truly spend time on relationship building as part of performance coaching. These leaders are in numerous meetings every day and there often is a line of people waiting to meet with them in between these meetings, but on most days this is nothing more than technical and adaptive problem solving. It is common and normal work for a senior executive, but it also can be difficult, burdensome and tiring. Still, this is not relationship building.

Relationships are built on shared experiences and extremely good listening. They begin with someone investing the time and energy to learn another person’s stories and to understand their history. It is not fast and yet it is very important because if the purpose of leadership is “to mobilize others to serve a purpose,” a concept that Kouzes and Posner suggest in the aforementioned book, then we must realize that this depth of motivation comes from having an authentic and respectful relationship with another. It does not come from a contract or being present at a weekly meeting. It comes when we know another and understand another to the degree that we are willing to serve another.

As I move through these first months of 2011, I also note that more and more people want to discuss their whole life, not just their work life. They seek a depth of relationship where they can be seen as whole people rather than as fragmented individuals moving paper from one side of the desk to another while simultaneously filling in small cells on spread sheets in a computer. They seek to be inspired rather than overwhelmed.

In a fast paced, 3G moving to 4G broadband world, we are discovering that we have lost touch with our mentors and sometimes even ourselves. This winter and this spring, I strongly encourage you to spend more time building relationships with your key people and to learn their history and stories. Then, when possible and appropriate, share your own. It is time to coach the young and the old, to build and maintain community, and to recognize that fast is not always effective.

Geery Howe, M.A. Consultant, Executive Coach, Trainer in Leadership, Strategic Planning and Organizational Change Morning Star Associates # 319 - 643 - 2257