“Coaching is estimated to be a $2 billion global industry that is rapidly growing, as evidenced by a dramatic increase in coaches, professional coaching organizations and coaching-related research,” says Connie Whittaker Dunlop in Forbes.  

The positive benefits of coaching are widely accepted now as more and more leaders experience the results. Senior leaders in organizations recognize the value of high quality relationships, shared success and the strengthening of an organization’s ability to make good decisions that can result from group or individual coaching.

If you are considering this investment for your organization, here are a couple of stories that illustrate what other leaders have been able to achieve in coaching.

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What makes an outstanding coach?  What qualities separate them from a good coach?  Is it their knowledge or its application?  Are coaches born with natural talents and skills to be a coach or are they cultivated. 

Dr. Jon Warner estimates that “by 2020 it is likely that there will be 200-250,000 so-called business coaches in the world.” That number doesn’t include life coaches and relationship coaches and all of the other labels that have manifested in the coaching profession.

Clarity coaching & facilitation was founded 17 years ago and we have partnered with coaches from around the world, we have coached other coaches and recently a couple of our coaches became some of the first certified Conversational Intelligence (C-IQ) coaches worldwide. 

Here are some of the characteristics of excellent coaches...

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As a manager in the hospitality business, an advisor to hundreds of entrepreneurs and the founder of Clarity coaching and facilitation, one skill has emerged as the key focus: communication.  It has become very clear that this skill is at least as important to my clients and colleagues.  When I meet with executives and leaders in every type of organization, one word invariably comes up: communication.  Of course I have to “double click” or ask more questions to determine what that means to my client. 

Here is the Wikipedia definition: Communication (from Latin commūnicāre, meaning "to share"[1]) as “the act of conveying intended meanings from one entity or group to another through the use of mutually understood signs.”  Yet my clients are often sharing their concerns that communication in their companies and organizations is not effective, causing stress and challenges they realize are unnecessary and unproductive.  That’s why I immediately related to an article by Judith E. Glaser from Benchmark Communications. Over 35 years of study and research of data gained from conversations in 500 companies, she determined that “9 in 10 conversations miss the mark.” She went on to explain that ‘Fail to hit the mark’ meant, “people walked away from conversations with different views of reality and what they agreed upon.”  So we have intentions when we communicate and yet we walk away with different views...

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The phrases “life changing”, “ground breaking” and “new frontier” have been used to describe her work.  According to Judith Glaser, author and business owner,  “To reach the next level of greatness depends on the quality of the culture, which depends on the quality of the relationships, which depends on the quality of the conversations.”

Increasing their Conversational IQ has inspired many organizations including; American Express, Cisco, Burberry, and American Airlines, Harvard, Kellogg and Wharton, to apply Judith Glaser’s work to get extraordinary results.

Here is a key piece of CIQ that you can apply to your life now: the Three Conversational Levels are:

Level 1: Transactional

• Purpose is to give and receive information in a TELL – ASK format that validates what we think is true.
• We use it to direct people and often it focuses on rewards and punishments and telling people “what’s on our mind”. 
• This approach tends to be about our success or as the author says, it is I-centric.
• The trust is low and the people speaking are not demonstrating an openness to influence.
• When we listen in these conversations, our goal is really to protect ourselves.
• The blind spot is that the TELL-YELL-SELL approach can become more telling than asking.
• The skill to be developed at this level is more ...

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We hired smart, capable people and we can learn from them, right?  It’s amazing how many times I’ve met with senior leaders who aren’t sure about the people on their team.  It’s so easy to assume we know all about someone we’ve had on our team for many years.  And yet I repeatedly watch leaders in our workshops discovering each other…after years of working together.  That’s a great benefit of a workshop as I see increased trust, openness and positive intentions be a responsible leader.

...

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If recent news headlines have you wishing for a safe haven, please read this!!  Many of the “safe” jobs, relationships and habits that we have are exactly the situations that we need to change.  Complacency is a tempting habit and change is scary for most adults.  However, as Robin Sharma, says,” In the new world of business, the riskiest place you can be is trying to do the same things in the same way as you’ve always done them.  Few things are as foolish as hoping old behaviors will somehow present new results.”  Why is that?

May I share a personal life lesson?  In my early twenties I was offered a management position in a ...

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Success principles abound and yet how many of us have the secret to success?  Would you like the secret?  Would you be willing to change to make yourself successful?  What would that mean to you?

Okay, here it comes; the secret to success is to take 100% responsibility for your life.  While we do a whole program based on this principle, we are not alone.  Jack Canfield, the cocreator of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series wrote a book called, The Success Principles.  His number one principle is that we all need to take 100% responsibility for our lives.

If you could have continual happiness, exciting career options, a nurturing family life and blissful personal relationships, how would you create them?  The simple truth is that we have to take responsibility for everything we experience in life.  Simple is not always easy.

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If your organization is one of the growing number using some type of assessment tool…congratulations! Research shows you will outperform those who choose not to use them.

A well respected management consultant, Peter Drucker says, “The single most important competitive advantage will be . . . the ability of a company to attract, hold, and motivate workers . . .”  

To recruit, train, promote or coach your people, how important would it be to have objective information?  Here are some of the challenges for employers and the benefits that can result in a competitive advantage for you.

Benefit # 1: Increased Engagement 

Studies have shown that as many as four out five workers are cast in a job that does not take advantage of their natural skills. It has become popular to “job hop” and long term loyalty in the workplace is not common.  The word engagement has become a popular buzz word in business circles due in large part because a high percentage of employees are not enjoying their work and not giving it their all.

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All we have to do is pick up a newspaper or watch the evening news to know that there is conflict all over the world. How does conflict affect you and your workplace?

Conflict is not good or bad; it simply reflects a difference of opinion or interests. It is also an inevitable occurrence as we work with people who differ from ourselves.

Conflict can arise because co-workers bring with them differing perspectives and backgrounds or in some cases, employees have unclear expectations of their responsibilities. It results from a lack of trust or understanding. Poor communication is a major contributor to conflict. This can include reading body language, failure to share information or receiving inconsistent messages.

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As you think about inspiring leaders, who comes to mind?  Is it a famous person, someone you love, an author, your boss?  Who inspires you to become what you feel you might be?  Who gives you a lift when you most need it or a much needed wake up call? 

I’m currently facilitating workshops for a wonderful leadership team and the subject of leaders they admire came up.  The workshop landed on the same day that my eighty two year old father was having an operation that was risky.  At an appropriate moment I shared my Dad’s comment to me the day before. He said that his “mindset was that he had no idea when his last day would come but that he wanted to live every day before it.”  I felt inspired and grateful.

You may be fortunate as I am, to have parents that inspire you.  There are no limits to the number of people who can inspire you as you deal with challenges or as you float along living your life.  There are many sources of inspiration available to each of us.  How often are you seeking out people who inspire or lift you up?  Are you paying attention to the people who can inspire you? 

According to BBM Canada, the average Canadian adult watches a whopping 30 hours of television a week.  In addition to this, Laurent Maisonnave, CEO and founder of the web company SeeVibe which tracks social interactions with TV content, said that chatter is growing dramatically. “What we’ve seen is it’s booming, in the past two years I think it’s an increase of 500 per cent in the number of interactions around TV shows,” said Maisonnave. 

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What are our next steps?  Who can handle this important project?   Which email do I respond to next and which can wait? As leaders we make many decisions in a day.  So when a Harvard Business School study showed that 80% of business decisions are taken for emotional reasons, it resonated with me.

As a coach to executives and entrepreneurs, I hear a lot of the thinking that goes into decision making.  With many of our clients we use a PXT, a tool that tells us about the learning aptitude, behaviour traits and interests.  One of those behaviour traits is subjectivity versus objectivity.  The ability to be objective and think clearly is when making decisions defines objectivity. On the other hand, finely tuned intuition or going with your gut may seem to be working for you.   

So how can we increase our decision making success as leaders? 

Individual Decision-Making
When you're the only one making the decision, try one of these techniques.

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Some roles of a leader that have not changed are: integrity, communicating a vision, customer satisfaction, competitive advantage, being ambitious for the company while maintaining personal humility. These aspects of leading are very important.

However the role of a leader is changing. Marshall Goldsmith says that there are 5 changing dynamics of Leadership:

1. Thinking globally with regard to suppliers, support staff, markets.
2. The Cross cultural diversity of dealing with cultural, religions, races, sexes.
3. Technological Savvy: how does technology affect your core business? This doesn’t mean you have to be a technician. Hire those who are technologically gifted and competent enough to navigate in the new world.
4. Building alliances and partnerships was less crucial in the past. Now it is a common part of the job. Have a look at the people connecting on LinkedIn and collaborating to create economies of scale in companies like IBM.

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At Stanford University, the Miles Group research found that 96 percent of CEOs say they want coaching and leadership advice from outside coaches and professional advisers, but less than one-third of them receive it (Larcker et al. 2013). Therefore, it seems that excellent coaches are needed more than ever.  

Before making clear what extraordinary coaching is, let’s zoom in on different types of support available.

Where can you get help?
We all have blind spots, and hence we seek help to learn and improve our lives. Professional support may come from teachers, trainers, therapists, consultants, managers, mentors or coaches. They all demonstrate different attitudes, behaviors and competencies (ABCs). By way of illustration, the teacher teaches, shows and tests. The trainer, for example, identifies gaps and develops skills by training. The therapist goes back, diagnoses and fixes dysfunctions. With regard to the consultant, (s)he answers and tells as well as influences but has no direct power. Relating to the manager, (s)he manages and has direct responsibility. The mentor advises and supports.

Critical Clarification on Coaching
Coaching is all about building and sustaining an amazing life personally and professionally.  Evidence shows that coaching works. But what do exceptional coaches actually do? They look forward and help clients develop themselves and achieve their personal and professional best. For that reason, coaching is all about the relationship. How does it work? The coach energizes the relationship. At the same time, the coachee empowers it. As a result, the relationship re-energizes the coachee, and thus the coachee is now able to better understand, gain confidence, transform and deliver.

Five Fundamental Principles of Excellent Coaches.
Hiring a coach is a major decision. Finding an excellent one is not as easy as you might think. I recommend the following five fundamental principles that an excellent executive coach needs to adopt.

1. The client sets the agenda.
2. The client is resourceful and has potential.
3. The coach uses clear evidence-based methodology but doesn’t deliver answers. The coach energizes, asks, listens and invites the client to discover, dream, re-design and deliver.
4. The coach helps really good leaders excel and succeed.
5. The coach/client link is a synergistic, professional and an equal one.

Call or email us today for a no fee conversation to decide how you want to move forward!