Trevor Sherman – The Leadership Coach
An ideas exchange about what makes leadership at all levels in an organisation really work.
In my youngsters days I felt uncomfortable when someone told me one of these five phrases. I’ve now learned how to act upon them.
In my youngsters days, at some point, I felt uncomfortable when someone told me one of these phrases, and even though I’ve learned how to act upon them, these for me are the top 5 things no one enjoys listening to and I want to share them with you. I’m pretty sure you will even agree with me on the reasons why.
We never stop being an individual contributor. Being a leader of others or leaders of leaders, we will still have peers. And, as member of a management team, we need to collaborate with them so our teams can deliver results which will support the overall business strategy. Yes, leaders are individual contributors.
We very often see and publish articles about leadership and what is expected from us in such roles. Less common are the articles about individual contributors and what is expected from them (us) in general. Do you consider yourself being a good Individual contributor?
Being an individual contributor doesn’t mean that we should act individually. It is empirically proved that we achieve greater results when we peer up and collaborate. Basis on that, we never stop being an individual contributor. Being a leader of others or leaders of leaders, we will still have peers. And, as member of a management team, we need to collaborate with them so our teams can deliver results which will support the overall business strategy. Yes, leaders are individual contributors.
So, what is expected from an outstanding ‘individual contributor’?
Continue reading “7 Opportunities To Be The Talent Your Organization Is Looking For!”
A committed individual contributor is constantly asking how he/she can support management in succeeding on the overall business strategy. A committed peer focus on the team overall goal and collective success. A committed manager works actively and genuinely in unison with management to bring outstanding results for the business, develop its people and help others to succeed too. A committed business partner thinks Win-win.
I like to share stories in my posts and on today’s post I start by telling a short one about a constructor called Lucas.
Lucas worked for several years on a company specialized into building houses. After a decade within the organization he reached management level. In different dialogues with the owner of the business, he expressed his desire to grow, earn more and to take higher responsibility.
Different opportunities appeared and he was not selected. The owner explained that he was not ready for some of them and that took a toll on him. Lucas didn’t cope well with setback. At some point, disappointed, Lucas decided to leave the company and explore new pastures.
Lucas then approached the owner and resigned. Continue reading “Commitment Pays Off!”
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
Continue reading “The worse blindness is the one when we ‘deliberately refuse to see’!”
What makes a new coach confident about their coaching approach? How does this translate into their ultimate success as business coaches?
This is the first 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’.
Continue reading “The Confident Coach 1: The GROW Coaching Model”
“I want more leaders in this Company join this great journey; once and forever this will change our way of leading people and managing business. As a coaching ambassador and trainer, I aim to help more people become professional leaders, to use these great tools in their daily life and become great coaches”.
I first started working with the Top Team at the Far East Asia Liner Operations Cluster (FEALOC) in Shanghai when I visited them in January 2013 to kick off the Coaching Master Class program. Michael Han was a member of the senior management team and had already made a start on his coaching journey.
Michael turned out to be one of the bright stars of the coaching work I did in 2013 in eight different worldwide locations. He is a great coaching ambassador and trainer. His humbleness meant he often used to hide this brightness. Here is an example. In one of our coach-the-coach sessions I gave Michael positive feedback on the great results he was achieving with his coaching. Then came the humble bit from him: “OK Trevor – that’s all bright side. But what can I do better?” In another example I observed this characteristic again in group sessions where he instinctively held back from offering his views on a topic to allow others to contribute. He was making sure others were able to shine.
Michael became a facilitator for Coaching Master Class program and rolled it out to the next leadership level in China and in Japan. He is a bright shining star for coaching in the Far East.
Here Michael reflects on his journey three years on. I took Michael through four stages of his coaching development journey to find out what he has discovered along the way, and what can we learn from his experiences.
Continue reading “Leadership Interview: Michael Han ‘My Coaching Journey’”
Coaching is being practiced at the very top of government
Parliamentary copyright images are reproduced with the permission of Parliament.
I have been a subscriber to the Spectator magazine for some time. In fact, it is the only ‘newspaper’ we take in my household. All of our other news arrives online. Once a week this noble publication, full of contemporary political and social commentary, slides through my letter box. Imagine my delight when a recent article by two top Spectator journalists seemed to imply that our British Prime Minister, Theresa May, is using the Coaching GROW model!
Continue reading “Is the British Prime Minister Coaching Her Cabinet Colleagues?”
Are you a Leader of Leaders? If you have the responsibility for coaching leaders then you will appreciate that part of your role is coaching them to be better coaches. What are your coaching goals? When might you intervene? Why is this important? Who will you focus your discretionary coaching time on? Questions, questions, questions!
I was recently asked by one of our Blog Subscribers how I provide follow up coach-the-coach support to participants in my Coaching Master Class Program (CMC). He is aware of the CMC program but has not participated in it himself. Good question I thought. I know what I do, but I have never written it down for the benefit of others. So here we go. Let’s put that right and summarise coaching the coaches in two distinct phases: Phase 1 is immediately after the CMC training; Phase 2 is the ongoing workplace coach-the-coach support.
Continue reading “Coaching the Coach – Who, Why, When & What?”
We follow the fortunes of a senior leader in Northern Europe over a three year period as he learns and applies his newly acquired coaching skills and ends up a senior director spreading the coaching gospel to his direct report leaders.
I first started working with the Top Team at Maersk Northern Europe Liner Operations Cluster (NEULOC) in Rotterdam when I visited them to kick off the Coaching Master Class program in December 2012. At that time Hans Augusteijn was a Senior General Manager, a member of the senior management team and starting out on his coaching journey. Here he reflects on that journey three years on. What has he learned along the way? What can we learn from his experiences?
Continue reading “Leadership Interview: Hans Augusteijn ‘My Coaching Journey’”
