Leading in the Training Room

Leaders have to be prepared to tread the path for others to walk on, not just plan the route.

Leaders and followers training together

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve spent some time working with a regular client. They are an innovative and creative mid-sized company based over three countries.

While the training was very much focused on how they engage with their clients, one thing in particular struck me about what a great company they are. the range of people on the course.

The small group consisted of one person with “Executive” at the end of their job title, who had been in the organisation for ten months, as well as someone with “C” at the beginning of the theirs and who had been there for many years.

While the training wasn’t designed for a specific management level, I was surprised when I learned how senior that one participant was. The training itself was incredibly successful and the dynamics within the group open, free and courageous. The C-level employee told me how she had pushed to get on the course. She was trying to balance her desire to learn and improve while not taking a valuable place on a small and intensive learning experience really aimed at lower levels.

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In Pursuit of Happiness and Success

A book, a poem and a newspaper article – what can we learn about the Pursuit of Happiness and Success from these publications?

There are books, poems and articles that stay with you throughout your adult life. In my case I can cite one of each and recall the person – in all cases A family member – who originally brought them to my attention. When I look back I realise these were the people that influenced me in my early years. They set me on a path in pursuit of happiness and success.

A Book. As far as books go for me it has been ‘How to Win Friends & Influence People’ by Dale Carnegie that set me on my path. I have a 1977 paperback edition. The subtitle on the front cover says: ‘The phenomenal bestseller that is helping millions find success and happiness’. It’s well used, marked up with pencil and has post-it notes sticking out to draw me back to things I must have thought were important to me in the 1970s and beyond. I was introduced to this book by my late father-in-law Ken Smith. What’s even more exciting for me is that I now have Ken’s 1936 hardback imprint of the same book. And it has his pencil marks ups, which give me a great insight to what was important to him in the 1940s and 50s as he started out on his path to happiness and success in his life and in his career. The inside front cover of Ken’s book quotes Carnegie’s ‘Twelve things this book will help you achieve.

A Poem. The poem that influenced me was If‘ by Rudyard Kipling which my mother Peggy sent me in 1968 when I had left home to go to University. I believe at that time she was offering me a pattern for my future life.

An Article. We have to wait until the new millennium for the article that has influenced both my wife and I ever since that time. It was my father-in-law Ken again who sent us a clipping from The Sunday Times of 30 January 2000 entitled ‘How to be Happy’. It was  an article by Gyles Brandreth in which he interviewed the eminent Irish psychiatrist Dr Anthony Clare who offered his seven point plan for happiness. We have followed Dr Clare’s prescription ever since. And just last month my wife Sue introduced me to a new article in the Independent about a ten year research programme by ‘Happiness Expert’ Eric Barker. In the article the Indy’s lifestyle writer Kashmira Gander summarises “Eric Barker has spent almost a decade uncovering why some people seem more happy and successful than others, but his findings don’t always make for comfortable reading“.

There is a surprising fourth source of inspiration from a family member – a Document of State – but more of that later!

What can we learn about the Pursuit of Happiness and Success from these publications?

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Exam season: prevention not cure

School blackboard
© | Dreamstime Stock Photos

It’s that time of year when a good proportion of the population works itself into a state of agitation.  It’s school and university exam season; time to judge the learning you’ve learned.  I guess almost every reader of this blog will have taken an exam at some time and/or shepherded their son(s) or daughter(s) through doing so.  They will have a broad array of memories about the experience.  Does our collective recollection indicate we were affected by the same degree of anxiety that seems to prevail today?  Or, is this one of those situations glimpsed in the rear-view mirror that appears smaller than it really is?  Were we scared, short of sleep and forgot the single most important coaching line ever uttered, “Read the [insert appropriate profanity] question”?

However, is there a deeper, more important question to pose at this time?  That is, “Is our approach to education fit for purpose?”  Have we forgotten what makes sound pedagogy; what represents real learning as opposed to mere information transfer, which like water finds its own course in and immediately out of someone’s head?

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The Confident Coach 4: Challenging Perceptions

What makes a new coach confident about their coaching approach? How does this translate into their ultimate success as business coaches?

This is the fourth in a series of five articles about The Confident Coach. I thought it would be interesting to discover the factors new coaches starting out on their coaching journey report they are confident about; and how this is a predictor of their ultimate success. To do this we must track their progress over the first 18 weeks of the Coaching Master Class programme. Here’s how the programme works. After the initial training I run three coach-the-coach sessions at six week intervals. Session one focusses on the new coach’s confidence in the five key elements of the training. Session two on the business results being achieved with coaching. And session three to assess coaching capability. A couple of years ago I ran a worldwide Coaching Master Class programme for 100 top leaders. I’ve looked at my notes from coach-the-coach follow up sessions with the top 20 from this group to see what makes them ‘Confident Coaches’.

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The worse blindness is the one when we ‘deliberately refuse to see’!

I (all of us) have seen people missing opportunities and I concede, looking back, I may have missed a few too. And why we see it? Because we are watching or looking from a different angle. Like on the Indian-mythology, we often fail to recognize them because we cannot see it. Sometimes they come disguised of something like hard work, as a tedious job (those nobody wants to do), sometimes our own attitude and you name it.

Last week I met a good friend who used to be my direct report. He recently got promoted as general manager and has always been a great sparring buddy. Besides the fact that I feel extremely proud to see him growing and pleased to be part of it, I also find our talks and engagement inspiring myself as he always add something to the conversations which makes me grow too.

Among different things we spoke about, reminiscing about the time we worked together, the adversities we had – how we surmounted them as well as his/our current challenges, we also spoke about long term ambition and discussed ‘why some people get ahead on their careers and others, even being extremely bright, don’t go so far.

“Opportunities come disguised as hard work.” By Bernardinho (Brazilian volleyball coach and former player).

Then he brought in a very interesting analogy from Indian mythology

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The Confident Coach 3: Levels of Listening

What makes a new coach confident about their coaching approach? How does this translate into their ultimate success as business coaches?

This is the third in a series of five articles about The Confident Coach. I thought it would be interesting to discover the factors new coaches starting out on their coaching journey report they are confident about; and how this is a predictor of their ultimate success. To do this we must track their progress over the first 18 weeks of the Coaching Master Class programme. Here’s how the programme works. After the initial training I run three coach-the-coach sessions at six week intervals. Session one focusses on the new coach’s confidence in the five key elements of the training. Session two on the business results being achieved with coaching. And session three to assess coaching capability. A couple of years ago I ran a worldwide Coaching Master Class programme for 100 top leaders. I’ve looked at my notes from coach-the-coach follow up sessions with the top 20 from this group to see what makes them ‘Confident Coaches’.

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Leadership: Your Vote Counts

Which of our politicians shows the best leadership characteristics?

We have a General Election in the UK on Thursday 8th June 2017. The result of which will determine who will lead our country for the next five years. According to the BBC some of the key issues are: Brexit and the Future of the UK; Health & Care; Immigration; the Economy & Taxes; Education & Family.

Many political observers believe this is straight race between two people who want to lead us and become our next Prime Minister – Theresa May (Conservative) and Jeremy Corbyn (Labour). One Social Scientists says this election will prompt some thoughts about what party leadership really requires – and how voters can be encouraged to choose those candidates who are more likely to be effective.

I decided to look at Political Leadership from the perspective of Business Leadership. Let’s see what you, my Blog Readers, think. This is your chance to vote. Not on who should lead the country, but who shows the best leadership characteristics.

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The Confident Coach 2: Purposeful Questions

What makes a new coach confident about their coaching approach? How does this translate into their ultimate success as business coaches?

This is the second in a series of five articles about The Confident Coach. I thought it would be interesting to discover the factors new coaches starting out on their coaching journey report they are confident about; and how this is a predictor of their ultimate success. To do this we must track their progress over the first 18 weeks of the Coaching Master Class programme. Here’s how the programme works. After the initial training I run three coach-the-coach sessions at six week intervals. Session one focusses on the new coach’s confidence in the five key elements of the training. Session two on the business results being achieved with coaching. And session three to assess coaching capability. A couple of years ago I ran a worldwide Coaching Master Class programme for 100 top leaders. I’ve looked at my notes from coach-the-coach follow up sessions with the top 20 from this group to see what makes them ‘Confident Coaches’.

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British Airways – can it ever be again the “world’s favourite airline”?

What’s gone wrong this weekend? How effectively has BA handled this scorching hot potato?

In a past life, someone told me Richard Branson once remarked in the early days of Virgin Atlantic, “We’re in the entertainment business, but at 35,000 feet”.  I can’t now find that remark attributed to Branson on any of the quotation web-sites. However, it came back to me over this weekend as I read and watched the news reports concerning the unending, torrid situation at British Airways.

What entertainment are they now in?  Farce, I suggest.

It is a long, long way since the glory days of Lord King and Colin Marshall when BA claimed to be the “world’s favourite airline” – watch the famous 1989 advert at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxs106rp5RQ

What’s gone wrong this weekend?  How effectively has BA handled this scorching hot potato?

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Happy Birthday Blog

Celebrating one year of The Leadership Coach Blog.

Happy Birthday to you,

Happy Birthday to you,

Happy Birthday dear Blog.

Happy Birthday to you.

Its exactly 12 months since I posted the first article on The Leadership Coach Blog on 19 May 2016.

Many thanks to the Guest Authors, Subscribers and Visitors who have supported the Blog over this time. Every upwards!

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