Leaders are like Ducks!

 What is common, yet unique, among Jack Welch, Sachin Tendulkar & Google’s Schmidt?

They all are very successful

They are role models for their people and generation

They are inspirational

& you can add many more here

The one that is not likely to be added or noted is that they all have had “Coaches”

What?

Yes, they have engaged coaches.

Why would they do that?

The probability of leaders to reflect and see what behavioral changes needs to be improved upon, is not very high. Their success is measured by results & outcomes. There is no measurement of what could have been achieved by them with changes to their behaviors at work. You can’t fault them; they have been a success for so long that they start believing they have the mantra and recipe.

Dr. Marshall Goldsmith in his iconic book “What got you here won’t get you there” shares twenty one habits that could hold you back from reaching the successes that you ought to. If I were to share that “Goal Orientation” behaviors could be stopping the leaders from achieving higher successes, lot of eye brows would be raised.

To be successful leaders go out & seek feedback on their behaviors. They then go out and work diligently on building new behaviors which they believe will propel the team and organization to different levels. We all know that it is quite challenging to change behaviors, not until you have feedback. So when was the last time, one has identified a behavior, which is limiting the impact or results. Even if identified how many have gone ahead and successfully changed or improved that behavior.

Feedback is just the beginning, one also needs support to break out of those habits and acquire new. This phase is daunting & challenging.  Well in case of sportsmen, beginners to icons, they have coaches till they retire. So when they face challenges at their game, they go to their coaches who work with them. The coach then observes his player in practice sessions, helping bring the desired changes. The player then moves back to playing more confident of his abilities.

When we see a MS Dhoni, a Roger Federer or Messi playing like a true artist, we do not get to know & see the time spent in practicing just to be able to stay at the top of their game. These sportsmen are akin to Ducks, a smooth performance on ground while under that cool demeanor on ground they have worked hard in practice & net sessions.

Akin to the sportsmen are leaders who need support to stay at the top of their games, consistently. They are working furiously under, like a duck, maintaining a cool and easy demeanor on top. Well interestingly some of the iconic leaders have had a coach in their professional life. In the book Dr. Marshall Goldsmith shares stories of his coaching MD, CEOs of Multi- Billion Dollar global enterprises. These leaders have worked hard on themselves, seeking help from coaches , have led admirably & attained newer heights of success for their organization, yet very few knew that they have had the support from a coach.

So the next time you are inspired & motivated meeting a leader, do ask him “Are you a duck”. If he does not understand, smile and explain. You would see him smiling back.

Thinking of moving on from the corporate world? 10 questions that helped me see clearly

My friends & ex colleagues from corporate world very often talk to me, candidly, their wish to get out of a 10-5 routine and do what their heart desires. Having observed me for close to a year operating independently in the domain of executive & business coaching, the questions are about when I thought about it & how I went about it?.  I do share honestly all of it. It seems to build their confidence. I am however cautious enough to add that each of us who change their career direction have to think through their transition and journey. Each individual is unique and so is their thinking.

At the end of the day, each one of us takes our decisions based on our goals & current situation. It is therefore imperative that we focus on these two and ask ourselves the questions. My ten questions would be:

1.     What would I love doing (goals) if I do not wish to continue a job in the corporate world?

2.     What are my key requirements and desires that I want fulfilled by being independent?

3.     What is so special and unique about these requirements that it can only be fulfilled by being independent?

4.     What more do I need to acquire (knowledge & skills) to do that successfully?

5.     Who all would be helpful & supportive to my plans & thereafter?

6.     Which stakeholders will be impacted by my decision and what would be their needs that I must take care of?

7.     How can I address the needs of my stakeholders (Parents, Kids, Spouse) in the transition phase?

8.     What actions I need to take, to be successful in my new career? Am I committed and comfortable doing those?

9.     What are my financial obligations that I need to manager now & later (within next 2 years of change)?

10.            What would I miss out on, if I do not make a career change now?

There could be questions, different and more, which people who have changed career could tell you. It is my view that answers to these 10 questions would make you reflect hard and take a better decision. My experience having gone through this phase and also coaching people have helped me frame them. I have helped a client make this decision & transition, successfully. Another friend decided against changing career as some of these questions helped him think more clearly.

I was compelled to write this blog as few days back a close friend and ex colleague met me and shared that he seems to be at the brink of taking a decision to quit. I sensed from his statements that he may be missing out on some pieces (after all I am a coach J ). So I asked him a few questions out of those I mentioned here. He thought & thought and smiled. He said no one has asked me these questions. “These questions are making me think & let me therefore write them down and work on it. It will give me clarity of thinking and possibly way ahead”.

What he revealed later was quite interesting. He shared “when I have bounced these thoughts off other close friends, they were unable to give me any valuable insight to help me set my decision, leaving me as indecisive and confused as previously”.

So when you come to a point where you cannot tolerate where you are, because you want to celebrate your goals, it's time for a new start. Begin with these questions.

Mr HR Manager , There is an elephant in the room !

My own data & findings are not new. It further corroborates which most always feared was the case. Human resource function has to work more to make employees trust people and organizations.

Trust has been long been seen & believed as one key factor in helping people create long lasting and fruitful relationships. Yet we find that this subject is not being discussed by HR at senior levels. Is not building relationship between employees, organization the basis to attracting & retaining talent?

HR and HR systems are very important to the process of building trust. If we do not change the basic HR processes around promotion, appraisal, reward, leader selection and so on to reflect the importance of trust to the organisation, we are not going to get trust.” And it’s just as important for organisations that already have high levels of trust to maintain them.

Here in lies the biggest challenge for HR. HR itself is not trusted by employees.

HR is seen & perceived as siding with top management. The exercise of annual performance appraisal leads a lot to be desired and HR is seen as people & function holding back more than revealing. There association and anchoring of any right sizing & restructuring exercise in the organization also creates trust issues with employees.

HR is also challenged by behaviours at leadership level added to the fact that senior leadership teams tend not to project a cohesive picture. Irrespective HR has a role to play in building & help resolve trust issues? There will always be issues in top teams, but the more dysfunctional they are, the less people trust them. Making sure the head office works as a team and supports the organisation is something HR rarely thinks about.

Why does trust matter at all? Leaders achieve success with teams when they show
& share their vulnerabilities. The willingness for somebody to take a risk, to allow themselves to feel vulnerable, believing the other person has an attitude of goodwill towards them is all about trust building.

It is not engagement. Trust is much more fundamental. If employee just trusts his boss and not the senior leadership team, we can do masses of engagement activities, yet there shall be no radical rise in performance, as people will be viewing those activities through a lens of distrust.Trustworthiness is based on four main drivers: benevolence, ability, predictability and integrity. 

It is not easy. But then HR manager has to decide to get back the respect for his role, team and function. It will be worth the effort. Make a beginning. Make people see the elephant in the room.

Talk about Trust. Make it explicit. 

Establish the business link of trust to results and performance. 

Begin from the leadership level, help them develop self -awareness “How good are they at understanding and managing relationships from their perspective as a leader.”

Invest in training & coaching leaders. 

Help people surface out trust issues, put them on the table and discuss them. Be the facilitator. 

 The role & job is cut out. HR must lead the way and bring trust issues on the table. This “elephant in the room” can be ignored only at the cost of organizational performance in these challenging & competitive times. Begin now.

Believing you don’t have choices is the most common limiting belief.

When faced with options & yet not been able to make a choice, perhaps one needs to look at the desired outcomes or results.  Begin with end in mind, is what we have all heard. When we know our destinations, short or long, we start planning and acting in a manner to take us close & reach our destinations or outcomes. In professional lives we have our goals / KPIs which keep us focused. Thankfully someone does it for us in corporate life. When we work on our own or just purely in our personal life situations, determining what we wish to achieve in short time frames would help us think better and make great choices when options are generated or thrown at us. 

I am sharing a piece from a “coaching conversation” that may help readers in working their way up and out of confusion or dilemmas in same or similar situation. The client operates independently as a financial services professional with a very small team. In this business for last 2 years, he has had many options thrown at him to develop new businesses. He has seen them as opportunities to grow & make money.  Read on further.

Quote

Client: I am taken up by various options bordering on distractions that do not allow me to focus on my business. People in my network keep approaching me with business ideas and show their keenness to fund me and / or work with me on same. These business ideas excite me & I do spend time evaluating them. Somehow these fizzle out and / or do not meet my criteria of investment of time & money. Resultantly I spend considerable time evaluating and end up losing time for my own business. I would like to be more focused & less distracted by seemingly good business options.  

Coach: What makes you think these are options?

Client: Well, they are all part of financial services business that I have been part of past 8-10 years. So people who know me and my experience tend to approach me with ideas and options to pursue. All these are money making opportunities.

Coach: How do you currently evaluate these options?

Client: I currently look and estimate the market & opportunity size, competition and returns including time to break even. Any options that meets the criteria, I would pursue otherwise I drop. Incidentally I have not chosen any in last 12-18 months.

Coach: So, in what ways these evaluation parameters either been helpful or not?

Client: Not at all, I still get approached by people with at least one idea each week and then study and evaluate and that takes up my time, energy and effort. That is why I call it a distraction.

Coach: Which nature of options would you look forward to and is most likely to meet your evaluation criteria?

Client: Options closest to my current business of investment plans for high net worth individuals.

Coach: You seem quite clear and confident. So what is that are you doing currently to attract such options?

Client: Nothing at all. I just keep getting other options than what I really desire.

Coach: In your view what could you possibly do to attract options that you desire?  

Client: Well I guess I have to go out and offer people such options and seek their views and commitment. I can also ask the people approaching me with ideas, which I reject, to look at some ideas / options that I have. Who knows they may agree and that would be win-win.

Coach: How would you now be different in same situations?

Client: Firstly I will use filter of options offered against it being closest to my current business. If it is not, I will not even go ahead with any evaluation. Secondly I will create some ideas / options which would be offered by me proactively in my close network and seek commitments. I think these would help me stay focused. In fact I realize, I have been complacent, in I have not been going out with my ideas to sell and have waited rather wasted time.

Coach: You seem quite clear. You had mentioned all the ideas are money making opportunities. With your new approach, you are likely to reject most of them, how do you feel about it?

Client: As I mentioned, I was taking up options for evaluation because I myself was not clear on something– first being, I wanted it to be closest my current business and secondly I have much more money to make by expanding my own business line than put effort in starting a new business. I would now put a plan in place, shrug this complacency, and go ahead with execution.

I have clarity now that those options were not really the options & hence I was not making a choice among them.

Unquote

This coaching conversation (with permission) has been quoted to facilitate readers think about their situations and their dilemmas when faced with multiple options. The process of making a choice begins much before. We need to consider what options we really have on the table and which ones are not there that we need to have. Choosing among available options is not really the same as creating options that we really need to, before we evaluate and make choices.

Some questions asked here by the coach, could be applied. Coaches are trained to facilitate new & improved thinking leading to positive change in client. When reading through the conversation, one can notice that coach is just asking questions and client while responding is sharing his mind. This process itself throws up new thinking and insights for the client and therein lies the transformation and energy to act further.

Be the best ! Practice to Excel !

It is now 13 months that I have been practicing Executive Coaching as an independent professional. All my earlier experience as a coach were internal to organization which provided me an opportunity to practice , learn and hone my skills. The perspectives, I have gained , of coaching internally as a Learning & Development professional and later as an independent has truly been enriching & in many ways have helped my evolution as a coach.The journey has been humbling. Each Client/Coachee has experienced gains from this coaching relationship.  While they attribute their success to me as coach , it has been truly their own courage to reflect & change, get out of comfort zones and go out to try new things which have a radical impact on their desired goals & outcomes. They have experienced & acknowledged transformational , sustainable change.

Relationship with key stakeholders, Executive Presence , Communication , Conflict resolutions, Career Transitions, Managing Board members, Investing time, Building networks & many more areas in Coaching have helped me as a coach too to evolve and hone my skills. In coaching , there have been many a moments when as a coach I have been challenged. These challenges push you to reflect on your own effectiveness .Forcing me to think hard and have a dialogue with myself has helped me continuously expand my portfolio. 

Today as I share these thoughts , I realize that I have now coached for more than 400 hours. This is almost like 8 hours each week past 12 months.

There have been many things which have helped me reach where I am as a coach. If there is one thing that has had biggest impact on me as a coach , it has been my training / helping other people to be a coach. We have all known that " best way to learn is to teach". For me, this learning was there & yet I had made no conscious effort in last so many years to apply it for my own development. This is what happens with most professionals. We forget our lessons. We do not institutionalize our own success behaviors. 

For me it was providence or chance that one of my ex colleague requested me handle a training session that he was conducting as a Master Coach. Providence , as I myself at that stage had just qualified as a certified coach with probably less than 100 hours of coaching experience. It was immediately followed by an assignment to train employees in large MNC to be manager-coaches at workplace. Well, conducting those sessions - demonstrating coaching & then critiquing / giving feedback to trainee coaches started it all for me. I started having inner dialogue with each coaching conversation not only of mine but also the trainee coach.

My own dialogue with myself improved over these experiences , because with each training I was learning more and more. I therefore say that " teaching/ training" has been the best thing for me , helping me learn more.

Research suggests that 10000 hours of practice would make anyone expert / best at what he does.  Well all athletes & musicians have been known to start not only young but also put in practice hours of almost 6-8 hours per day / close to 50 hours each week. This way they practice 10000 hours in 4-5 years. No wonder they reach the pinnacle of performance and success in late teens to early 20s.

Where am I , at 400 hours !!! WOW

Simple mathematics and a basic assumption that if we practice something where we wish to be better , for 10 hours each week , could take us 1000 weeks i.e. close to 20 years. Can we afford to wait so long as coaches or as professionals ? Certainly not. 

We can even argue that corporate professionals need not reach such level of expertise & perfection. Fair enough. Let us slash it to to 2000 hours.With 10 hours each week it would still be 4 years. The biggest challenge, in pursuit to excellence , that confronts the professionals is not time. The challenge is where do they practice & hone their skills. Do they have the luxury in the corporate world today ? Corporates do want almost perfection & yet fail to provide for such an opportunity, an opportunity to their employees to practice those desired skills & success behaviors.

Here is now a suggestion that professionals may consider. If the organizations are not supporting your plans to improve yourself & achieve excellence in any skill or competency you may look at following:

1. Identify every 3-6 months one skill or competency that you are good & wish to radically move towards excellence. 

2. Identify at least one person ( team member/ peer/ colleague) whom you believe will benefit from your support in the identified skills/competency.

3. Discuss with that person & seek his consent for training / teaching in identified skill/competency.

4. Create an action plan & start execution.

5. Keep reviewing the plan & take corrective actions
 
This journey will create new insights & learning's in you , as It did with me, to be prepared each day , each time you interact with your " trainee". To teach him to be good , your preparation would make you learn more .

Over a period you would find yourself "Great " at those skills & competencies which were just " Good " at.

If you have done this , share.

If you consider the approach is simplistic, try it, validate.

Tiger Woods Uses a Coach—Why Not You?

Are you one of the elite performers who recognize the exponential value of leveraging outside advisors? Whether we’re talking about your golf swing or your business acumen, the question is whether you recognize the value in seeking out best practices from best practitioners.
Outside advisors can help us elevate what we do and the efficiency or effectiveness in how we do it for maximum results. I’ve been around gyms for most of my adult life, but I still engage a personal trainer, and a physical therapist (also known as pain and torture specialists!) who are not only knowledgeable about the equipment I should use to maximize my results, given my limitations (availability, physiology, lifestyle), but also provide accountability, consistency, and definitive progress.
As organizational leaders, we are trapped inside our own perceptions, our planning, our execution. Why would we reject the idea that consulting an outsider could free us to think and lead differently? And yet, many of us do. I’ve been musing lately on why, and it has led me to three core questions. As an executive, how would you respond to the following?

1. Are you confident or arrogant?
Confidence says, “I know a lot but there is still a lot that I can learn.” Arrogance says, “I know a lot and there’s nothing new I can learn.” I struggle with executives who seem to be allergic to outside advice. When they are offered an independent perspective, they respond with objections like, “She doesn’t know our industry.” Exactly! That’s why you need her! She doesn’t carry your industry or company baggage. She can also use her unique perspective and independent insight to challenge the critical assumptions you are making in the stewardship of this team or organization.
Dangerous assumptions surface as early as those first conversations about whether an outside adviser may be able to bring real value. When I hear a prospective client say things like, “We know our customers well,” at a cellular level, I’m compelled to simply ask “How?” One recently responded with “we have a great relationship with our customers.” Me: “Based on what evidence or observable behavior?” If I probe, I get archaic answers like sales volume. So you hit $2 billion. Is that because of what you’re doing right, or because a lack of competition makes you the de facto choice? Meanwhile, competition is coming that you don’t even know about. If you are a leader who aspires to a Tiger Woods level of performance, you need confidence, not arrogance.

2. Are you penny wise but pound foolish?
When a consulting services proposal is met with a “sticker shock” reaction, I’m curious where that comes from. Did the prospective client set out looking for a Mercedes expecting to pay a Hyundai price? Cars are easy to compare, because we’ve been educated on the brand promise that comes with each make and model. But it is harder to make comparisons for professional services. Is the prospect’s sticker shock due to a lack of the advisor educating him on the value of outside counsel? Or is it his lack of experience in working with expertise that will dramatically move his business forward? In either case, the moment is ripe for the advisor to educate the buyer—if he is not too arrogant to be open to thinking differently.
When I hear “It’s too expensive,” I think, compared to what? If an adviser helps you do one thing that dramatically improves the success of a product, or a campaign, or a team, what is the value of that one good idea? In my experience, budget constraints are seldom a financial issue; rather, they are a priority issue. It’s not that the firm doesn’t have financial resources; it’s that its decision-makers do not view outside counsel as a priority for an investment of the required resources. Have they considered the opportunity cost of failing to prioritize seeking the good idea that will yield truly transformative results? If you aspire to Tiger Wood’s level of play, there’s no ROI in being penny wise but pound foolish.
I’m reminded of the proverbial penny wise, pound foolish exchange between a CFO and a CEO:

CFO: “Have you thought about how much it will cost us to train these people, and then have them leave?”
CEO: “Yes. It’ll be a fraction of not training them and having them stay!”

3. Do you say “right relationship, wrong time”?
I’ve never understood that statement. When is it a good time to train your team, to audit your digital footprint, or to start building an agile workforce? “Right relationship, wrong time” reflects sequential thinking. The pace of business is too swift for that approach. Today’s leaders have to think in swim lanes. You have to be able to change the tire while the car is rolling down the highway. The moment you stop the car, pull to the side and get out the jack, you start to become irrelevant.
Of course the swim lane concept can get out of hand. I recognize that every firm must select strategic priorities; I’ve seen what happens when companies have too many initiatives underway. I’ve witnessed companies that hire two different firms to work on the same problem. That’s just silly. Because each brings a different lens, different skill sets, different market knowledge and experiences, one will recommend X and the other will say X is stupid, you have to do Y. But waiting to work on the identified problem isn’t the answer.
My three questions regarding confidence, fiscal resources, and priorities point to one key insight: The most effective leaders balance performance with learning. You need to become, in essence, your company’s “Chief Best Practices Officer.” Whose job is it to capture best practices across the proverbial silos? Especially in firms that are large, or geographically disbursed, or involved in multiple lines of business, this is key. It is no longer sufficient to say, “We’re a conservative company in a conservative industry,” to rationalize your refusal to seek business acumen from outside your fortress walls. Welcome to Generation Flux. Google didn’t get where it is by being conservative. Just ask Yahoo! Defense may win you Superbowl, but it’s not going to win you market share. Defense is not a strategy to thrive, or even survive, in a globally connected, always-on marketplace.
Why does Tiger Woods need a coach? Why do companies use outside counsel? In either case, the answer is the same—because we cannot see ourselves as others see us. Tiger can’t see his own golf swing, to critique and improve his performance. Companies can only see through the lens of their own budget constraints and business plan. Sometimes the best practice is to prioritize learning, to improve performance.
Nour Takeaways
1. An outside advisor can elevate your performance, if you have the confidence to recognize you have something to learn from someone not invested in your current playbook.
2. “It’s too expensive” usually reveals an issue with priorities, not finances. What is the cost of failing to invest in good ideas that lead to exponential performance improvement?
3. The pace of business requires a swim lane approach. Identify problems, and invest in outside counsel where it can accelerate your path to best-practice solutions.

sourced from Linkedin article / discussion by David Nour

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