Trevor Sherman – The Leadership Coach
An ideas exchange about what makes leadership at all levels in an organisation really work.
The Coach (Leader) deserves no medal! How much are you (as a leader, coach, peer, individual-contributor, etc.) doing for your team to earn a GOLD MEDAL?
The Olympics in Rio closing ceremony took place last week and it is now history! I know you must have read hundreds of articles, stories and analogies linked to leadership but Olympics being a great example of the outcomes of good coaching and dedication to practice, I would like to bring another one and relate it to the ‘coach’ itself.
Did you know that the coaches deserve no medals? They don’t! (I concede didn’t know that!)
This is the second of three Posts on the subject of Performance Management and how the leader can drive for results with coaching. Post #2 – Supporting Performance. The other two are Planning Performance and Reviewing Performance.
What does supporting performance involve a leader doing? What options does the leader have for the way they invest their time? How does the leader add value? What are typical coaching goals? What resource material does the leader need as a platform for the coaching? What tools does the leader need from the Coaches Toolkit? I start with an overview of supporting for performance. I then draw on the experience of two senior leaders I have worked with and observed in action.
Como aumentar as suas chances de sucesso? Esse foi um dos tópicos discutido com estudantes de duas universidades do Brasil.
Na minha estada no Brasil, tive a honra e o privilégio de ter sido convidado para conversar com os acadêmicos de duas renomadas entidades de Ensino Superior na Região Sul do Brasil, Univille e o Instituto Federal Catarinense.
Nessas sessões, tive a oportunidade de conhecer grandes mestres/professores e acadêmicos extremamente interessados, preparados e focados em seu desenvolvimento – uma inspiração para mim!
No convite, a expectativa inicial era para que eu falasse sobre minha profissão. Porém, devido ao termo de confidencialidade que mantenho com o projeto do qual hoje faço parte, busquei outro tópico.
Need some inspiration on preparing for a forthcoming coaching session. Coaching doesn’t just happen. Get more value out of your coaching by asking your Coachee to prepare ahead of the session. There is preparation that you, as the Coach, can do. This was covered in the blog post ‘Preparing & Planning for Coaching’ from May. This is about preparation you can ask your direct report coachee to do. I’ve prepared a list to inspire you. Now you add to the list with your comments and inspire others.
What are the factors you need to consider when preparing for running a coaching session or series of coaching sessions with a direct report? Unless it’s a coaching on demand session, coaching doesn’t just happen. This means there is preparation for both of you to do ahead of the coaching session. This article covers the preparation you can ask your Coachee to do. An earlier article – ‘Preparing & Planning for Coaching’ from May – covered your preparation as the Coach.
How can you build a team in which the word impossible serves as motivation for innovation and out-side-the-box thinking? How can we coach our people (employees, peers and even superiors) to begin with “WIN” or “can-do” mindset? How can we coach our people to build an organization where “impossible” is nothing but a source for of inspiration and motivation to find solutions that will place its organization ahead of competition? What is the leadership style you can apply to prevent your organization from missing good opportunities?
Whether it has been in big or small situations, I believe everyone throughout life has witnessed situations where the word ‘impossible’ has related to a specific action or idea but sooner or later it has been proved wrong.
In the history, there are evidences that impossible is more an opinion than a fact and for the sake of this article, there are two great examples related to transport which are simply undebatable.
The airplane. A number of scientists and engineers confidently stated that heavier-than-air flight was impossible – the most famous statement came in 1895 from Lord Kelvin, the Irish mathematician, “heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible”, only to be proved definitively wrong just eight years later. This one doesn’t need to elaborate further.
The Panama Canal. In 1534, Charles V, the Holy Roman emperor, ordered a survey to determine if the two oceans, Atlantic and Pacific, could be connected and a canal built for ships to cross. The surveyors eventually decided that construction of a ship canal was impossible. A theory that was also disproved. In January 7, 1914 the ship Alexandre La Valley completed it’s maiden voyage going through Panama Canal. Today 13,000-14,000 vessels pass through the Panama Canal each year, at a rate of about 35-40 per day and ships up to 1,050 ft (320.04 m) in length, 110 ft (33.53 m) in width can cross. It is an engineering masterpiece.
How many times have you experienced situations where your projects or ideas have been judged as “impossible to be accomplished”? How often have you witnessed circumstances originally seen as impossible but soon later a solution to surmount every single obstacle has been found.
Being assertive and influencing. What is the difference for a leader? Triggered by a request for resource material about assertive from a friend I decided to investigate.
How would you describe what a leader does to get things done through others? Is it assertiveness or influencing? A friend of mine asked for some coaching resource material on ‘assertiveness’ and this got me thinking.
I have known John for over 30 years. We are fellow consultants, although we have never done any work together. We work in different areas and in different industries. What we do however is regularly exchange ideas and share resource material with each other. Continue reading “The Influencing Leader”
