Trevor Sherman – The Leadership Coach
An ideas exchange about what makes leadership at all levels in an organisation really work.
What can business leaders learn from directors of plays?
It’s been a while since I’ve directed a play. I miss it. I miss the freedom to be creative, I miss watching something take form, I miss seeing other people create performances around me. I miss realising a vision.
This last point is one that really interests me. Directing a play is about the most immediate and swift creation of a product I can think of.
“Breath, breath …. enjoy life” Say good morning to Jessica Applewhaite-Walters, life coach from Panama.
I had the pleasure of working with Jessica in Panama when she was in the corporate world. Now she is working on her own account as a life coach for women. Take a look at her new website Jessica Coach.
As soon as you click the link you will smile. Guaranteed. Her smile, the uplifting music and her cheerful persona are infectious. Good luck Jessica. I expect you to change the lives of women around the world.
As Jessica says on her video welcome: “Breath, breath …. enjoy life!“
Receiving feedback is a great opportunity to understand the origins of the emotional storms it causes within us.
In my recent professional years, I have concentrated on receiving feedback to continue improving. My personal theory is centered on the fact that when a specific situation of my life put me in an uncomfortable place, at the end, the whole situation resulted in personal improvement. There was during an improvised coaching session with a friend when I started referring to these uncomfortable situations as “personal storms”. And it is during this so-called storms that I experienced all kinds of emotions inside of me. This is a unique opportunity that life give us to embrace these emotions and start asking us the “why’s” and understand more about us and the origin of the storm.
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!)
Translating strategy into operational reality; breaking down strategic priorities or business initiatives into key tasks and identifying accountabilities; establishing communication channels, capacity, processes, resources and systems to ensure effective implementation and delivery of business goals; tracking progress.
<
In my previous post ‘Is impossible a fact or an opinion?‘ I wrote about arousing the earnest desire to win and that ‘impossible’, in the context of aiming higher, is an opinion! In business we often use armies or sports analogies when devising strategies to make it ‘catchy’ to our people. After all, we cannot win without the support and engagement of people. A leader succeeding without its people is the part where to me ‘impossible’ become a fact.
Last week it was commemorated the centenary of ‘the battle of the Somme’ and I thought ‘Battle readiness’ could be a handy topic for my next post.
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.
You must be logged in to post a comment.