Susan Wright

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Engagement During Turbulent Times: A Case Study

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By Gillian Buergin, VP Operations & HR, Algonquin Automotive

“You look great!  Just one last set! You can do this!” As a part time fitness instructor I am passionate about coaching my group exercise participants to set and achieve their personal goals.  During each class I know it is my job to lead the group safely through the journey we will take together and to do it in a way that recognizes individual needs while presenting strong, confident leadership to the entire room.   Being a successful instructor means I must fully commit myself to continuous learning and to mirroring the essence of my program.  More than that, to serve my participants well, I must strike a balance between a highly energizing session and one in which meaningful connections can be formed.  I know that community is retention glue and when my participants feel connected to each other, they are more likely to return week after week, stay motivated and ultimately achieve their fitness goals.

What began as a way to relieve workday stress and improve overall health has grown into an essential adjunct to my life.  Being a present leader, fostering a motivating environment, facilitating the formation of a community; these are lessons that I take from the gym to my role as the executive Operations and Human Resource leader for an automotive accessory manufacturer.

Over the past two years world economic events have converged to create the Perfect Storm for the North American automotive industry.  Having faced a number of downward cycles during my career in this dynamic industry, I felt that I was prepared to weather the storm.  But this time has proven to be very different.  With a weakening Canadian dollar, budget cuts, a tightening credit market and a  consumer shift towards more fuel efficient vehicles, our organization has experienced unprecedented hardship and I have personally faced the most challenging period of my career.

The journey has been arduous and today, our organization is still confronting difficult days as the automotive industry struggles to regain its footing.  Our future still holds great uncertainty but reflecting on this difficult journey I have learned some very valuable lessons.   First, an empowered team is an absolute joy to lead (from behind).  Second, it is possible to engage and motivate an entire workforce to achieve amazing results against incredible odds.  Third, when the number of things beyond your control dramatically outnumber those within it, focusing on process and co-creating SMART goals will bring clarity and confidence.

Is it possible for a Leader Coach to stand in the paradox of creating a motivating environment for personal growth against the backdrop of a declining industry and uncertain future?  To answer, I will share the words of commitment put forth by my management team as they worked to create their Operational goals:

We are the warriors in the battle against waste and apathy

We rely on our team members and trust each other

We honour our core values and remember our past

We keep ourselves focused on the path ahead

We fight for the realization of our vision

We respond to factual feedback

We create an environment in which confidence and expertise can build

We strive to be top performers and remain team players

By inspiring positive change we can take on the world!

Whether I am in the gym or the office, creating the conditions in which an energized, connected team can form is my top responsibility and passion.   I feel privileged to play a part in the successful achievement of so many personal and organizational goals and I know that all that I have learned to this point is simply the precursor to greater experiences.  As a Leader Coach, my journey continues and as for my management team and their direct reports…well…they are ready to take on the world!

Engagement Through Language Coaching

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By Andrea Griggs, TCP Associate

Many new Canadians bring valuable skills to the workplace but sometimes need help to improve their communication abilities.  Language coaching, a combination of coaching, communication training and teaching English as a Second Language (ESL), is designed to do just that.  In the current economic climate, it’s imperative for organizations to be able to exploit the talent they have in their employee pool.  Language coaching is both incredibly empowering for the individual and hugely beneficial for the organization.  In this article, I will link language coaching with the TCP Leader Coach process to demonstrate how to help your employees who speak English as a Second Language.  First, a short vignette to illustrate the power of language coaching:

Anna had been in Canada for 8 months and had found a job in her field (IT) almost immediately.  While her technical skills were excellent, she rarely volunteered any information unless directly asked.  She complained that everyone in the office thought she was quiet and serious but that was just who she was in English, not who she really was.  As a coach, I worked with her on developing her small talk skills.  Since Anna spent most of her time at work interacting with her computer, she needed to create more communication situations where she could practice her English and gain confidence.  I challenged her to take it out on the streets by asking her to have 10 small talk conversations before our next meeting the following week.  She was quite nervous when she left, but she came back triumphant, having had a 40 minute conversation with a stranger on the GO train.  This was a watershed moment for her.  From that point on, she started communicating with more people at work, participating in meetings and giving her own opinion.  Now, instead of just doing whatever she is asked, she will give her opinion about what needs to be done, often saving the company time and money.  People at work wonder what happened to the quiet woman they first met but are very happy with the transformation.

In the story above, Anna needed some specific English Language instruction focused on how to make small talk and some coaching on how to gain confidence in applying it.  This process fits seamlessly into the three stages in the Leader Coach model used by TCP.

Building Trust involves creating appreciative connections, understanding the story and gathering information.  In order to create those connections, it’s critical to become aware of our own biases – in this case, our own biases when working with people who speak different languages and come from different cultures.  Anna’s co-workers thought that she was shy and not interested in communicating with them.  We react to most cultural differences on a gut level.  When people don’t follow social conventions, such as not maintaining eye-contact or not making small talk, we think of them as standoffish or rude.  It’s important to be aware of your own cultural “glasses” and investigate further.  While working with Anna, I explored how she felt about communicating with others.  She talked about the difficulty of adjusting to a new culture and not wanting to make a mistake.  She said she was not actually a quiet person; she was very talkative and social.  She explored the frustration of not being able to express that side of herself in English.

Building Awareness involves agreeing on what the gap is, getting feedback, creating a goal.  Giving the second language learner feedback on a communication difficulty is a crucial step.  For example, if they speak too quickly, they need to slow down to be better understood. Or when chatting with other employees, they need to understand that both people are responsible for the small talk conversation and it is helpful when they also initiate questions and comments.  In Anna’s case, she needed to know the important role that small talk plays in the workplace.  We explored what being a more effective communicator would mean for Anna and she made a commitment to improving her English. We explored some resistance when I challenged her to dramatically increase her small talk.  She wanted to do it in Chinese first.  This was the chance for me as coach to challenge her story, to remind her of her goal and hold her accountable.

Building the Future includes implementing the improvement goal and supporting success. Anna agreed to complete the challenge and it was a great chance for me as coach to celebrate her accomplishments.  She’d gone from barely speaking to having 10 conversations with people she didn’t know very well in a week.  And one of them had been for over half an hour!  Taking the time to celebrate is important; it gives us the motivation to continue to work and improve.  The final stage of building the future is, of course, to start over again. What is the next goal?  For Anna, the next step involved making small talk with her manager, speaking up more in meetings, and taking on a greater leadership role within her team.

Coaching new Canadians to help them improve their communication skills is a similar process to working with established Canadians.  Sometimes we feel reluctant to acknowledge language difficulties because we are afraid we might be perceived as discriminatory.  However, we tend to promote only those who have excellent communication skills, so withholding help from people who need it disadvantages them and us.  Generally new Canadian employees are extremely eager to communicate more successfully in English because they know it will help them succeed.  They appreciate the organization supporting them to improve their communication skills.

Leadership as Co-Creation

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By Susan Wright, TCP President

Co-creation has become a buzz word in business in the last while, a term that gets thrown around in all kinds of contexts.  For many, it seems like a valuable concept but one that is not terribly useful from a practical point of view.  What does it actually mean to co-create?  Are we really to give everybody a say in decisions?  Let customers and employees set the agenda?

Well, in a word, yes!  Many writers have tackled this issue of co-creation, one of the most recent being C.K. Prahalad, arguably the strategic guru of our day.  His book, written with M.S. Krishnan, is called The New Age of Innovation: Driving Co-created Value Through Global Networks.  He advises that business needs to transform, not just strategically but in process and people too.  His two core principles for this transformation are:

1) the centrality of the individual – how to co-create unique value for each employee and customer, and

2) the access to (not ownership of) global resources – mediated by information and communications technology (ICT).

What Prahalad envisions is nothing less than changing the ‘dominant logic’ of business, the whole way we think about organizations and how they operate.  So what has Leader Coaching got to do with transforming the dominant logic to one of co-creation?

In many ways, it’s a natural fit.  Leader coaches begin by co-creating meaningful relationships with those around them, including employees, peer colleagues and customers, understanding each individual’s unique needs and contributions, working with them to ensure their full creativity and potential are incorporated.  They do this through the Leader Coach® communications process.

Similarly, one of the most successful applications of Leader Coach® co-creation has been in sales organizations where using the Leader Coach® process has resulted in more effective customer relationships and customer service based on a fuller understanding of distinctive customer needs and expectations.

Beyond the individual, Leader Coaches work to co-create teams, again appealing to the unique needs and aspirations of each member and blending them into the best overall performance.  As these teams develop, a Leader Coach® culture emerges which is holographic – each individual within each team within the organization, all individuals and all part of the whole of which they are part.

Co-creation is also one of the four alchemic principles of Leader Coaches – it is the initiating ‘dominant logic’ of both/and leadership.  It is where Leadership Alchemy begins, with each unique voice becoming part of the chorus, whether at the individual level, the team, the organization or beyond to include customers, suppliers and other stakeholders.

Co-creative opportunities abound in both work and life.  As Prahalad points out, information and communications technology (ICT) is the transformative vehicle that makes possible both a global reach and a personal touch.  Leader coaches increasingly work across the globe with dispersed multi-functional teams to co-create innovative solutions to business issues.  New video capabilities have made face-to-face interaction a reality anywhere in the world.  Social networking sites like Facebook and LinkedIn co-create thousands of new connections each day.  Wikipedia has co-created an incredible dictionary database of available information, to name a few examples.  And there is much more to come.

So what’s next?  I invite you to think about one innovative way in which you might add value to your team and organization through a co-creative process.  What is one co-action you might take as a Leader Coach® to drive value?

Co-creating Change in the World

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By Sue Griggs, TCP Associate

Two and a half years ago, I heard a radio interview about the Grandmothers to Grandmothers Campaign of the Stephen Lewis Foundation. The focus was on raising awareness and mobilizing support in Canada for Africa’s grandmothers who are raising a generation of children whose parents, their own children, have been killed by AIDS.  The campaign has raised money for community-level organizations in 14 sub-Saharan African countries that provide the “GoGo Grannies” with much needed support, such as food, housing grants, school fees for their grandchildren and grief counseling.  Being a grandmother myself, I was so excited when I heard this idea that I helped to organize and participated in the Grandmothers Gathering that launched the campaign in the summer of 2006. As a result, I became co-chair of a group of 20 grandmothers. However, I soon realized that this was not the best use of my skills or my interest. After helping these grandmothers find another ‘home’, I became involved in other areas of the campaign.

At the Grandmother’s Gathering, I was inspired by the African grandmothers’ stories of their lives and challenges. I plunged in with my usual enthusiasm and with a colleague, initiated the idea of publishing a “More Than An African Cookbook” to create direct connections among the grannies and produce a volume of Canadian and African recipes, stories, photographs, etc. that would have broad appeal and raise money for the campaign. Although the publishing date has been pushed back several times, this project has proved to be significant and so far has involved hundreds of grandmothers across Canada and many others from South Africa. As of November 6, 2008, there are 220 grandmother groups across the country and since they all have friends and family, the possibilities for raising awareness of the issues among Canadians are enormous.

Although I admit it takes a great deal of energy, I have been rewarded by making a difference in others’ lives, by encouraging others and seeing them learn and grow, by the connections to new people and my own learning through the process. Late last year, six other volunteers and I organized the Ontario Regional Resource Group (ORRG) to raise awareness, educate, and connect the over 90 groups in the province. ORRG has held four Regional gatherings so that the grandmother groups can share information and connect with each other. It has been wonderful to see the huge amount of collaboration that been has engendered and the “little victories” that are heart-warming to witness. Women from age 50 to almost 90 are working together and are learning to use computers, to run meetings, to understand group dynamics, to support each other and are becoming empowered in the process.

Other Regional groups, based on the Ontario model, will be starting soon. I now see my role as moving from doing to coaching others, encouraging collaboration and shared leadership rather than stepping in. I want to use more of my coaching skills and my ability to see larger perspectives and systems, contributing to the Canada-wide steering committee. I also want to write about my experience with the campaign as a way of sharing the learning from my involvement. It is a fascinating social phenomenon that has tumbled forward with lots of missteps but all the time growing, inspiring, connecting and collecting grandmothers around the world – it is a story that needs to be told.

One World Dialogue: A Call to Social Action

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By Lara Masse, Certified Professional Coach

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” ~ MARGARET MEAD~

Provocative… the word I would choose to describe the last session I attended at this year’s International Coach Federation (ICF) Conference.  The workshop was titled Coaches as Leaders: A Call to Social Action.  An important workshop for me, for the communities in which we live, and for our world.

Masterfully facilitated by Susan Wright and Carol MacKinnon, this session brought the whole conference together for each of the 150 participants in the room. While the theme of the conference was most certainly global, with a much greater level of consciousness being evoked, this final session delivered the ultimate challenge. Susan and Carol inspired us to step into both our individual and collective power as coaches, to take action, to impact the world in which we live through a commitment to being Coach Leaders.

An overview of social change needs, and the social evidence pointing the way for collective action, compelled all participants in the room to consider the degree of influence we hold as coaches. While we can and do support individuals, teams, and organizations in change, there is a much greater opportunity at present. As a global social movement, we have the potential to commit our collective resources to social leadership using our principles, skills, and connections. In doing so, we encourage and inspire those around us to consider their own possibilities.

I often ask the person I’m coaching, “How do you want to show up, and be remembered?” Perhaps I am in fact presenting a greater challenge-an examination of values and the corresponding behaviour that reinforces ‘being’ rather than merely ‘doing’. And each time I ask, I am profoundly aware that while the question is posed to the individual, I am also exploring my own values and behaviour as a matter of integrity. It is at precisely this point that the awakening process begins once again and, as Rumi suggests, we “don’t go back to sleep.”

Being fully present at the moment in which Carol and Susan challenged our thinking, and more importantly, our awareness of the possibilities, it was clear. There is only one direction in which we can responsibly proceed. Through powerful role modelling, meaningful conversation in connection with others, and our very own action within our respective communities, we invite others to unite in a significant global innovation movement-in other words, to co-create social change for the positive, worldwide.

These ‘One World Dialogues’ have been held in a variety of locations, with the idea of sharing in provocative, experiential community-building that challenges us to step into leadership roles, to begin where we are and to stretch beyond our current boundaries.  And, if you’re already taking action and making a contribution, why not share your stories? You can visit www.oneworlddialogues.com where you will find an international community of coaches, facilitators, change catalysts, and social innovators making a broader impact in the world.

The Power of Systems Coaching

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By Linda Sadiq, TCP Associate

Imagine this actual client scenario:

  • over the past few years new competitors are redefining the marketplace, making much greater, more creative use of the internet to reach a new client base;
  • until this year your veteran leadership team of 8 remained convinced that the company’s reputation and experience meant that any competition would be ineffective, at best;
  • 6 months ago two members of your leadership team suddenly retire, another leaves the sector entirely and a fourth joins a competitor organization; 
  • you’ve hired one replacement – a capable and motivated leader who, despite a lack of sector experience, is willing and eager to learn; 
  • you’re negotiating with another leader with good sector experience and a conviction that your organization can step more successfully into the challenges of the current marketplace;
  • every year your team participates in a one or two-day facilitated retreat to revisit the vision and mission and plan for the year ahead.  These planning sessions re-focus and re-energize the team though they tend to be more tactical than truly strategic, changing the organization structure somewhat or adding a new client offering;
  • for the past 9 months sales and profits have been down substantially.  Everyone is worried. “Same old” just won’t do; something needs to change!
  • you’ve been introduced to a systems coach whose approach captures your attention immediately.

“The natural tendency in a situation like this,” she says, “is to want to undo or fix what is happening.  I’d like to invite you to consider another perspective. 

What if the changes occurring in the sector and in your organization are only the beginning of something unfolding naturally in the system?  What if there is an inherent wisdom in this situation and your work is to discover what is trying to happen so that you can design the best path forward?”

What she says makes sense to you and you book a day with her and your newly formed leadership team. 

Early in the day an exercise called “the original myth” is especially powerful – you learn that to make conscious choices about the organization’s future it’s important to be aware of where and what the organization system has been.  The model introduced by the coach highlights commonalities, making your organization’s story very visible. 

A follow-on exercise examines current reality.  Once again the model is used to plot what is going on in your system.  This time, the coach puts a chair in the spot you and your colleagues have marked on the model.  She asks: “What is your organizational system feeling about what is currently going on?  What does it know that you do not?  What does it need?  What is trying to happen?”

There is a moment of silence.  Then you feel compelled to occupy that chair, to speak the voice of your system.  You’re surprised that others on your team do the same.  And the words spoken have a clarity, wisdom and emotion quite different from usual planning discussions. 

The final exercise of the day uses your organization’s own values to define the critical elements of its future direction.   Amazingly you have identified a future that is truly “out of the box”.  It feels edgy.  Risky.  Connected to what you now understand about your system.  And absolutely the right way forward.