Susan

By Susan Wright, TCP President

It is a perfect time of year to think about developing others, how we pass along the gifts given to us so that others can benefit.  When we become Leader Coaches, we make a fundamental transition from looking after ourselves to looking beyond ourselves to serve others, appreciating their unique strengths and development edges, and providing the support and challenge necessary for their continued growth.

We do this at work, of course, as we build high-engagement teams in the organization.  And we do it outside of work as well, in our families and communities in a variety of ways.  It is exciting and rewarding to see others learn and grow.  As Leader Coaches, we often find the more we give, the more we receive in terms of finding meaning and life satisfaction.

As we mature, we tend to extend our perspective on developing others beyond our immediate circle to include those whose growth we can serve in the broader environment, those who are disadvantaged or excluded within our wider communities or people who are struggling in other parts of the globe.  By sharing our gifts more expansively, we take a longer-term perspective on development, making an investment in the future of those we support, their families and communities, and the world in general.   We have seen this natural progression from self to others to the world in many Leader Coaches.  It seems a natural process of development in us that is the by-product of reaching out to develop others.

The Coaching Project and our Associates are involved in many of these efforts locally and internationally.  While they all speak to developing others, one clear example is SchoolBOX (www.schoolbox.ca), a small charitable organization dedicated to providing primary school education in Nicaragua, the poorest nation in the Americas, where less than half of all children complete Grade 5.  SchoolBOX was begun in 2006 by one young Canadian in search of a way to contribute.  One day he gave a little girl a pencil and notebook, and realized he had changed her life because she could now go to school.  With vision, dedicated leadership and single-minded persistence, the organization has grown to support 7,000 students in 30 communities around the country with new and renovated school buildings, dental hygiene and sports equipment, as well as those critical school supplies.

As SchoolBOX President Tom Affleck says, “It is so much more than educational supplies; it is instilling hope in children and their communities to have faith in themselves and a brighter future.”  And by using North American students as interns and project volunteers to build schools and raise funds to furnish and equip them, SchoolBOX also develops these young people as leaders with an awareness of the incredible difference they can make, working alongside members of the local community while learning about their country, culture, and language.

As a Leader Coach, how do you develop others?  In what ways do you contribute to the growth of your team, your organization, your family and your community?   How have you felt this pull toward the deep meaning and satisfaction that come from sharing your gifts more broadly in the world?  During this season of joy and connection, let’s take a moment to reflect on our many gifts and how we might use them in developing others.

By Susan Wright, TCP President

Well-Being is not something that just happens for most of us. It takes a conscious intention and persistent effort, like most things that bring us joy and reward in life. Well-Being is not complicated.  It emerges simply from intentionally performing a set of integrated practices consisting of disciplined action, repeated custom or regular exercise. It is cross-training in life. By exercising the body, mind, heart and spirit routinely, we get tremendous synergistic benefits.

To begin, think about your current activities on the following dimensions:

Physical: healthy diet, cardiovascular and anabolic exercise, sleep, supplements, massage, chiropractic. The benefits of physical Well-Being are agility, coordination, flexibility, strength and speed. How would you rate your current physical Well-Being on a scale, say, of 1 to 10?

Mental: reading, critical reflection, perspective taking, creative writing, drawing, hobbies. The benefits of mental Well-Being are problem solving, information processing, critical thinking, and the ability to take multiple perspectives. How would you rate your current mental Well-Being on a scale of 1 to 10?

Emotional: relaxation, stretching, reflective dialogue, journaling, yoga, Tai Chi, therapy. The benefits of emotional Well-Being are composure, patience, the development of presence, the deepening of relationships, and learning to deal effectively with stress. How would you rate your current emotional Well-Being on a scale of 1 to 10?

Spiritual: meditation, contemplation, spending time in nature, devotions, centering, prayer. The benefits of spiritual Well-Being are calm strength, stronger connection to self and others and the world, deeper awareness, and moving beyond ego. How would you rate your current level of spiritual Well-Being on a scale of 1 to 10?

These are only a few examples of the thousands of practices that you can tailor to your unique Well-Being plan. The idea is to choose at least one practice in each of the four domains and practice them concurrently. Being dedicated to a few practices will create greater Well-Being than half-heartedly practicing more. Notice, too, that many practices benefit multiple domains, such as yoga or Tai Chi.

Before creating your Well-Being plan, there is one other assessment required. In order to achieve Well-Being, we need to engage in practices in three ways: alone, with others, and out in the world. So, for example, you might choose to read and reflect on your own but begin to attend a meditation group with an instructor. Or you might join a book club and set up a meditation area in your home. You might choose to visit the cathedrals of Europe and learn their history on your own or plan to act as tour guide for family or friends. How would you rate your current practices in relation to these three ways of practicing? For many of us, finding time alone where we can be intentional about practice is a challenge.

Designing your Well-Being Plan

There are five steps involved in designing a Well-Being plan. The first you’ve already done: assessing your current practices. If you practice intentionally in each of the four domains in a variety of ways, and you gave yourself a 7 or more out of a possible 10,  congratulations! You may want to tinker for motivational purposes but you have the essence of Well-Being. If you missed one of the domains or ways of practicing, or gave yourself a lower score, read on. You can create or revitalize your practice with great benefits to your Well-Being.

Step #1:  Assess current Practice
What is your honest appraisal of your current practice status? Do you regularly touch base with all the domains and ways of engaging with your own Being? How effective is the connection with Well-Being?

Step #2: Identify Gaps
Once you have a sense of where you are, it is important to decide where you want to go. What does Well-Being look like to you? What is the quality of Being you are seeking? Think of a word or short phrase that would symbolize the quality of Well-Being that is ideal for you. Perhaps you would like to increase the quality of your Presence or Connection or Energy. What would that quality look like on your rating scale? Would some domains be a 10? Would others not change? Think about the size of the gap on each of the domains and in each of the ways of engaging in practice.

Step #3: Evaluate Commitment
Before moving into choosing practices, take a second look at the commitment you are making. Is it doable? Is it sustainable, at least for a period of time you choose, say 3 months as a start? It is better to commit to a realistic plan you will be successful in practicing than to reach too far or expect too much and fail. If your commitment is unrealistic, scale it back so you feel comfortable that you will be successful.

Step #4: Choose Practices
You probably already have some ideas about the practices you will choose in each domain and how you will engage with them. Some may be practices you have been routinely carrying out for years. For these, you may want to add some new cross-training element. For example, you may add a deep breathing practice to your stretching during your workout. Some practices may be new to you. For these, you may want to join a group to benefit from an instructor and the motivation of practicing in a community.

Step #5: Practice Diligently
Once you have your Well-Being cross-training plan in place, choose a period of time during which you commit to fully practicing all of the elements concurrently. It need not be long – a few weeks or months will reward you with observable change in the quality of Well-Being you have chosen. Feel free to make minor design changes as you practice. As long as you are intentional about your plan, you can adapt your practices to your life circumstances.

Good luck, and let me know how you’re doing!

By Susan Wright, TCP President

We all read and talk about engagement but what does it really involve?  It is known by many names – flow, motivation, involvement, effort, satisfaction.  It is a business imperative, resulting in improvements in profitability, quality, productivity, revenue, customer satisfaction, innovation, and retention.  It has been defined countless ways, among my favourites the following from Lominger Ltd:

Employee engagement is a mind-set in which individuals take personal responsibility for the success of the organization and apply discretionary efforts aligned with its goals.

This definition highlights the twin criteria for engagement: both desire to contribute to the organization’s success and personal satisfaction in the work role.  Blessing & White in their 2008 study of engagement say engaged employees are “enthused and in gear, using their talents and discretionary effort to make a difference in their employer’s quest for sustainable business success.”   However, their research indicates that less than one-third (29%) of employees are fully engaged and 19% are actually disengaged.  This data was generated over a year ago.  What do you think these figures look like today?  How would your organization compare?  Where would you place yourself in terms of your own engagement?

In an economic downturn, there are particular challenges with employee engagement.  One is the level of uncertainty – how are employees to take personal responsibility for the success of the organization when that success seems so far removed from their control?  And what motivates employees to spend discretionary effort in their work if they’re not sure they will have a job tomorrow?  One of the must-haves for engagement is trust.  Consistency, clarity, predictability – these are the characteristics of a high trust environment.  How do we create that trust in turbulent times?

In virtually every study of engagement, results show that the key relationship is that between the manager and the team.  Managers define the job, represent the culture, set expectations, provide recognition and feedback. In other words, they build the basic trust relationship and through it, create consistency, clarity and predictability for team members. Managers don’t necessarily have the answers and can’t control the broader circumstances, but they can communicate openly and honestly and often, be clear about what they know and don’t know, and give employees as much control over their choices as possible. In other words, they can be Leader Coaches.

Never has there been a better time to be a Leader Coach for your team, your peers, your boss, your colleagues.  The foundation of Leader Coaching is Building Trust, making the appreciative connection with others in every interaction, listening and clarifying using Unconditional Positive Regard, showing up with personal authenticity and vulnerability.  As a Leader Coach, you are a role model for others – your own ability to deal with ambiguity will be mirrored by your team. It’s OK to be nervous; everybody is.  What’s not OK is cutting yourself off from others because you don’t have the answers, or taking your anxiety out on others.  As a Leader Coach, here are five things you can do right now to build trust and engagement in your workplace.

1. Have an individual meeting with each of your team members to find out how they’re feeling, what they need to know, and how you can coach them about their engagement.  Use the three stages in the Leader Coach process for these conversations.

2. Do an assessment of your own level of engagement at the moment.  How personally responsible do you feel about the success of your organization?  How much discretionary effort are you bringing to your work?  What kind of an engagement role model are you for your staff?  If you’re not fully engaged, what is one thing you could do?  For example, who do you trust that you might you get some coaching from to develop an action plan?

3. At your next team meeting, engage your team in their own engagement.  Use an open space or dialogue or world café approach to get your team talking about engagement and creating a list of actions that you can work on together.

4. As Catherine the Great said, “Praise loudly; criticize softly.”  Everyone wants to know what they’re doing well and to be recognized for their efforts. Tough times are an opportunity to dial up the praise, recognize discretionary effort, show compassion and caring.  Take every opportunity to celebrate, and get senior management involved whenever appropriate.

5. Encourage peer coaching.  Peers are powerful coaches for each other – they provide buffers from stress and uncertainty, and create bonds that support both individuals in performing, learning and changing.  Be a matchmaker to help peers connect and support each other.

The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can’t find them, make them.

George Bernard Shaw

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?

By Susan Wright, TCP President

In April, I was privileged to attend and speak on Integrative Leadership at the Integral Without Borders Conference in Istanbul, attended by organization and social sector leaders from around the world. The challenge:  how to bring an integrated perspective to the resolution of complex problems.

The philosopher Ken Wilber has written extensively about this integrated view (www.integralinstitute.com) and believes there are four necessary perspectives to seeing in a holistic or integrated way. The four perspectives include an Individual/Collective dimension and an INTERIOR(inside the person)/EXTERIOR(outside the person) dimension, as shown below. If we take his four perspectives from a leadership point of view, they might look like this:

INTERIOR Individual: Who am I as a leader? Self-awareness	EXTERIOR Individual: How do I behave as a leader? Competency
INTERIOR Collective: How do we relate to each other as leaders? Culture	EXTERIOR Collective: How do we serve our constituents as leaders? Customers, Environment, etc.

As I thought about this diagram, I noticed a few things:

1.  We know much more about the right side (EXTERIOR), the world of tangible objects than we do the left side (INTERIOR), the world we experience but can’t see.  For example, we as organizational leaders are most focused on serving our constituents, whether that means, customers, stockholders, employees, or the community and environment in which we do business (Lower Right).  When we think about leadership and its development, we tend to move toward measurable competencies that can be demonstrated through behaviour (Upper Right).  Much less time is spent on leader self-awareness or ‘consciousness’ (Upper Left) or on the relationships and culture that form the invisible subjective contexts in which the organization functions (Lower Left).  These are secondary priorities, we say, because after all, business is business.  Or is it?

2.  If we take this one step further and ask which of the four quadrants receive the bulk of leaders’ attention, we find similarly that the Lower Right (Organizational Systems) is where we focus on strategy in the marketplace, the structure that best meets those needs, and all the functions and activities supporting success.  In progressive organizations, time is also spent to a lesser extent on how success is achieved through leadership culture and behaviour, the Upper Right (Demonstrated Behaviour) and Lower Left (Cultural Values), including how leaders are assessed and developed and how we enact the cultural norms in our leadership style.  Much less attention is given to Upper Left (Consciousness), leaders’ attitudes and motivations, the way we actually experience the world and how that is translated into our every thought and action.

3.  The interesting point about this Upper Left missing piece of the puzzle is that we now know from recent research (Goleman, Schwarmer, Senge, etc.) that our awareness of ourselves as leaders and our impact on others, our level of consciousness about the complex global web of interests and perspectives, is exactly what is required for long term success.  It is the aspect of leadership development that has been under-valued and is therefore under-developed when critically needed.  And more, although there is a growing recognition of the importance of the leader’s interior maturity and worldview, there are very few practical approaches to developing ‘consciousness’.  In fact, some would say it’s a maturation process that takes its own time and can’t be influenced.

So what do we do about it?

As with all development, awareness of the issue is the starting point.  Just being aware that our own level of consciousness or self-awareness determines what we see and how we interpret our own and others’ actions is a great start.

Using the four quadrants as a holistic diagnostic tool in problem solving is another way. What are the components of the issue?  What behaviour is getting in the way?  How might the culture be an inhibitor?  How are my own beliefs influencing my perspective and what other interpretations are possible? How can I stretch and test my assumptions against each of these four perspectives?

A personal reflective practice routine is another necessary element in developing self-aware consciousness.  For example, meditating regularly, walking in nature, any spiritual practice, or some creative expression like art, dance, etc. that allow for reflection are all effective forms of development.

Whatever practice appeals to you, I encourage you to ask “Who Am I as a Leader?” and to spend some time reflecting on how you answer the question.

By Susan Wright, TCP President

There is a lot of focus on intention these days as a concept and practice. New science has shown that what we think about actually creates physical matter. For example, the structure and activity of the brain can change in response to experience, an ability called neuroplasticity. We have known that we construct our reality through our own perceptions and beliefs for a long time but now we know that we also construct the actual physical world around us through our thoughts. For example, Darrell Daybre writes in his book, “The Greatest Secret”:

“Creation of anything in the physical universe is determined by what kind of attention you place on it. In other words, what you think about the most, you bring about. What you focus on, good or bad, you begin to create.”

This has tremendous implication for coaches. We are after all in the intention business. We work with our clients to clarify what they want and then help them to work through their resistance, be it doubt or fear, to focus their intention and action on achieving their goals. In short, we work with the client’s intention to be all that they can be. And we as coaches work from our own intention to bring all that we are to our clients. This article explores both sides of this coin of intention and how our effectiveness in supporting our clients depends on our ability to create and sustain “positivity”.

Positivity in the Client Relationship

So what is positivity? Well, to begin, it is the opposite of negativity. We all have tapes running in our heads all the time. These inner ‘voices’ are sometimes called gremlins or judges or nay-sayers. Whatever your name for them, they are the negative self-talk that keeps us from living at our full potential. They are the self-limiting beliefs that we play over and over in our thoughts. “I can’t do that – I’m not smart enough.” “If I do what I want, others will suffer.” “If I take that job, I’ll fail.” We all have times in our lives when this negative self-talk gets the better of us. The role of a coach is to help us work through it to create a more positive vision of a different future. As coaches, we know that helping clients get their self-limiting beliefs, their negativity, out in the open so they can examine their sources and work on reframing the gremlins into self-fulfilling beliefs is the hard work of transformation. It is changing the client’s story from what Hargrove calls “rut stories” into “river stories”. Rut stories are the negative stuck positions where there appears to be no way out; river stories on the other hand flow from our intentions to our reality – virtually anything is possible.

Positivity is also critical because, as Daybre says, we attract what we focus on, good or bad. I have a colleague who spent two years focusing her intention on being “debt free”. The more she focused on it, the more debt she attracted to herself. Finally, when she realized she had been focused on a negative intention and reframed it to “living in abundance”, she immediately began to attract the kind of work and income that she desired. So part of our role as coaches, as we focus client’s intentions, is to ensure that they are positive and will attract the kind of energy the individual desires.

Positivity is the power that comes from positive thinking, from positive intention. I often tell clients to take 5 minutes at the beginning of each day to set their intentions for the day. How do they intend to behave positively in that important meeting to establish a collaborative climate for negotiation? What positive intention do they have for that difficult conversation with an underperforming employee? It is amazing how setting the intention creates the desired outcome. At the end of the day, I suggest they take another 5 minutes to reflect on their behavior – did they achieve their intention, if not, why not and what do they intend to do differently tomorrow? This simple technique can help clients to begin to change their outlook, to transform their stories from failure, or fear of it, to success in whatever areas they want to address. I also know a coach who calls his clients every morning for a month to set their intentions – only 2 minutes a day helps to change the pattern.

Positivity in the Coach

Positivity is, then, what coaches create in their clients as a transformative agent of change. And it is also the stance that coaches themselves take with their clients. It is the ‘can do’ attitude that helps someone who is stuck to get moving, to see the possibilities, to be excited about a better alternative. Coaches are role models of positivity – they bring their positive energy and intention to the coaching relationship and hold out the possibility for their clients by living a positive life themselves. It is in fact the ability of the coach to embody positivity that allows clients to trust that they too can achieve their best potential.

When working with our clients, we use the term “unconditional positive regard”, a phrase coined by Carl Rogers, one of the grandfathers of the human potential movement. “UPR” is the way the coach shows up for the client, ready to listen, not to judge, to be unconditional in support of the client’s story. It is the intention of the coach to hold the client in unconditional positive regard that gives clients the safety, the trust, to confront the problems or issues they face. The coach does not have to accept or agree with everything in the client’s story – in fact, it is important that the coach be able to see the discontinuities in the story and challenge the client at the appropriate time. The critical point is that the coach is able, despite resistance and setbacks, to consistently hold this appreciative perspective throughout the relationship, and to repair and rebuild it if it is temporarily lost.

Here is a brief exercise in intention you can use with your clients, or by yourself, to reframe your negativity into positivity.

1. Surface the negative voices – get those gremlins out into the open by saying them out loud. Hear how they sound and feel how they make you feel. You may feel defeated, sad or angry at the statements when you say them aloud.

2. Reframe the voices – now take each negative statement in turn and reframe it positively. If you’re the coach, say the negative statement to the client using exactly the same tone of voice. Then ask the client to turn it around and say it positively aloud. Hear how the positive voice sounds and feel the difference in how it makes you feel. You may want to sing it, or dance it, or shout it – be expressive!

3. Make a commitment – to reframing the negative voices each time you hear them into the positive statements you have just made. Monitor your thoughts and know that your positive intentions will attract what you want to you, just as your negative gremlins will keep you stuck in unwanted patterns. And remember, as a coach you can only work with healthy, self-responsible adults. If your clients cannot imagine themselves out of their rut, they may be candidates for therapy instead of or in addition to coaching.

Although the word positivity may be new, the concept is as old as time. As coaches, we can take advantage of this ancient wisdom as well as the new science to support our clients in achieving their dreams, and to live ourselves as models of positive intention.

Begley, S. Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain: How a New Science Reveals Our Extraordinary Power to Transform Ourselves. Ballantine, 2007.

Daybre, D. The Greatest Secret: The Secret to having all you’ve ever wanted. The Center for Extraordinary Living, 2004.

Hargrove, R. Masterful Coaching. Pfeiffer, 1995.

Rogers, C. On Becoming a Person. Houghton Mifflin, 1961.