Muskoka 2010 G8 Summit, A Lesson in Planning

I heard a great presentation last night that serves to make a point about planning. When opportunities are present, the rewards go to those who plan for them.

Gravenhurst is a town at the gateway to Muskoka where the 2010 G8 Summit will be held. Last night they had Ella Kokotsis,  Director of Analytical Studies for the University of Toronto G8 Research Group, give a presentation to interested business people around the opportunities that hosting a Summit can bring.

Ella noted that over the few days of the Summit, about 25,000 accredited people will flood into to the area. And that number doesn't include the general public who will flock to get some glimpse of the world's leaders, their spouses and the Hollywood stars who show up to advance their causes.

Upwards of 2000 organizations could be in Muskoka to make their case to the world through the potential 4,000 media who could be present.

Well, you get the idea. Big numbers. Lots of people to accomodate, feed, entertain, transport and sell to. The opportunities for business are only limited by imagination ... and they start now and go on well past the conference. Favorable worldwide media attention can ensure tourism to an area for several years. A years worth of meetings and activity in preparation for the big event will generate business.

The 2010 Summit is 13 months away. Those business people who are creative and plan now to take advantage of the Summit will do well. Those who fail to create a strategy will not. Fail to plan, plan to fail.

Whether you are local business leader,  one of the 2000 'Civil Society' leaders or anyone else ... plan. Create a plan. Don't wait or opportunity will pass you by.

I have no idea what opportunities might come to our executive coaching firm. I do know that doing nothing will achieve nothing. I do know that there are leaders and executives from around the world who have a keen interest in the 2010 G8 Summit for their own and various reasons. I do know that some of them will want to clarify their thoughts, stategy and action plan with the assistance of an executive Coach, particularly someone in the actual area of the Summit. Further planning follows ...

Gary Wood is an Executive Coach who specializes in assisting corporate, business, government and nonprofit leaders to be more effective at work and in leadership. Gary works internationally by phone but lives in Muskoka, site of the 2010 G8 Summit. You can reach Gary at 705.687.2711

If I Had to Do It All Over Again

 A few years back, one of my coaching clients invited me to work with a large group of young leaders in Ukraine. His instructions were to be ‘intensely practical’ about the leadership training I was to give. The phrase stuck in my thinking since then. 

I have been in leadership one way or another for over 35 years. 

BUT … if I had to do it all over again, there are a few intensely practical things I would do from the very beginning. 

• I would commit to being a lifelong learner on the topic of working effectively throughout my day

• I would spend much more time learning about people

• I would meet regularly with a coach who could assist me to go farther than I thought I could go

• I would squeeze more learning out of everyday life experiences … both good and bad 

Many leaders don’t practice these intensely practical habits. They stumble into the job and fumble along, waiting for something to happen and then react to it. That’s not leadership. It’s more like crisis management. We've all done it at one time or another.

Intentional leaders are prepared for ‘stuff’ to happen. They know where they are going and they have a path to get there. When they realize they have been distracted or diverted, they get back on the path again.

In case you're thinking about what you'd do if you could do it all over again ... it's never too late to make adjustments.




 

 

 

Six Months of Coaching Christian Executives

I recently sat down to reflect on the last six months of coaching Christian executives and leaders.

I wanted to review the topics that clients brought to our coaching calls so we could anticipate areas where we could improve our service to them and so I could do further study for my own personal and professional growth.  I've done this regularly over the past 11 years of full-time professional coaching.

Just what do Christian executives work on with their Coach? Here is my top 10 list from over the last six months spent working with my clients.

1. To make their organization even better. It may sound simple, even trite,  but it has big consequences. Leaders were focused on improving across all areas of the organization. Not satisfied with maintaining what is, they were intentionally reaching for what can be.


2. To increase their ability to leverage their time. Leaders wanted to work on achieving their highest priorities as much as possible. Almost to a person, they realized that there was room for better use of time and planning that could be made.


3. To improve how they work with people. Executives and leaders have to work with people to make priorities happen. Clients have consistently worked on improving how they interact with others. We've done a lot of work on speed reading people for better communications and relationships.


4. To tease out incubating ideas. This is an exhilarating area. If half of the ideas produce that my clients are working on, it will make a tremendous impact for good.


5. To reveal and work on blind spots. Clients know that they need to grow. They know that they have blind spots that need to be addressed and over the course of coaching they expect those career limiting behaviors to be spotted and dealt with.


6. To work more effectively with their boards. Some executives work as leaders of nonprofits and have to prepare for important board presentations, coordinate and strategize with the board chair and generally work in harmony with the board. The want to keep sharp and realize improvements in this area.


7. To expand, clarify and articulate a collective vision and strategy. If there is one area we work on most often it is that of getting clarity .. particularly in the context of seeing what's possible, harvesting the vision of the whole team and reaching for it with well articulated strategy and inspiration.


8. To have a safe, confidential place to vent. It's lonely at the top. There are frustrations and people problems. Things move too slowly or run into complicated roadblocks. I have the most professional, caring group of clients but like anyone, sometimes they just need a few seconds to express their frustration. I'm glad I can provide that place. It happens ... then we get on with moving forward.


9. To get non-judgmental feedback. A lot of time has been spent simply being a sounding board. I become the testing ground for new ideas, insights and musings and because of years of experience am able to provide the back and forth that helps the executive come up with their best.


10. To reduce stress and help avoiding burnout. Leadership is stressful. Clients worked on incorporating the lessons of stress to create greater resilience moving forward. Dealing immediately and head on with those things that sap emotional energy keeps clients avoiding burnout.

You might have thought that because these were Christian executives and leaders, they would be working on great matters of faith. In fact, with all of my Christian clients, their faith forms the backdrop for working on all issues of everyday work and leadership. Their faith is the 'operating system' running in the background and giving direction to the rest.

Looking for an Executive Coach for 2010 G8 Summit?

Are you looking for an Executive Coach for the 2010 G8 Summit?

On July 25 - 27, 2010 the Canadian government will host the G8 Summit. The leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, Japan, United Kingdom and United States will meet at Deerhurst Resort in Huntsville. This picturesque community is located in the heart of cottage country, in the popular Muskoka region of Canada ... my back yard.

If you are a business, government or nonprofit leader looking to work with an Executive Coach who is located right in the area of the 2010 G8 Summit, call us. I live in Muskoka and carry on an international coaching business from here.

Through working with a personal coach, you may be able to achieve your goals for the Summit more effectively. You may feel that working with an executive coach who lives in the area can maximize your advantage in some way. We are available for a consultation.

Phone 705.687.2711

9 Good Reasons to Have Your Nonprofit Executive Director work with an Executive Coach

If you are a board member, here are nine good reasons to have your nonprofit Executive Director work with an Executive Coach ... and I've seen all of them.

There may be 4 - 5  million boards in North America alone. A significant percentage of those will be small to medium sized nonprofits. Years ago already, Peter Drucker thought it was very likely that nonprofits employed "more people than federal, state and local government put together."

Probably the majority of those nonprofits are led by non-professionals. (At least they are not a professional when they start.) That is not to question their abilities. It simply means they have come from other backgrounds to serve in their current position. In many areas they learn as they go. Many of us have done it. Some are attentive to personal, professional and organizational growth. Some are not.

Having said that, if your organization is having conversations that sound anything like the following, it is a good time to engage executive coaching for the Executive Director and very possibly for the whole board. In fact if the board isn't positively engaged at some level, you will often have a challenge.

You might be saying to yourself,

1. Good things are happening so fast that we need to develop new methods of responding.


2. We are seeing opportunities we haven't taken advantage of yet.


3. We want to excel at what we currently do.


4. We think there must be ways we can be even better.


5. We have lost some of your original sense of direction that compelled us to move forward.


6. We are a tired organization. We've reached a plateau and are stuck.


7. We are going backwards.


8. We are having problems we can't seem to overcome on our own.


9. We need to make radical changes soon or get out.

Those organizations that are attentive to deliberate development and improvement will move forward. Those that continue in mediocrity will poorly deliver services and maybe scrape by for several years until they cease operation.

Use this list as 9 touchstones against which to examine your nonprofit organization, its leadership and how you will move forward from here.

Executive Coaching Advice Based on New Research

We came across a well written article with some good executive coaching advice, titled "New Research: The Impact of Executive Coaching" by David Utts on the Anger Management ALA George Anderson Blog.

 

David cites a recent Harvard Business Review research paper and refers to an earlier Harvard Management Update article. Referring to the research paper, he notes:

 

It starts by emphasizing that the use of executive coaching is no longer focused on “fixing” poor performers. Based on the findings 48% of executive coaching engagements are focused on further developing high performers and/or helping them as they make big transitions into new roles. Only 12% of executive coaching initiatives are focused on dealing with “derailing” behaviors.

Yet, because of the young age of the profession – the article still suggests “Buyer Beware” and goes on to highlight the top measures buyers are using to qualify they have found a masterful coach. They are as follows:

Experience in coaching in a similar setting

Clear methodology

Quality of the Client List

Ability to measure ROI

Certification in a proven coaching method was fifth on the list (29%) followed by experience working in similar roles (27%), experience as a psychological therapist (13%), and background in executive search (2%).

Be sure to read the whole article.

Let's hold up our Executive Coaching firm, G.E.Wood and Associates to the suggestions they espouse.

The article suggests “Buyer Beware”. That's our experience as well. Everybody and their brother is getting in on the 'best jobs to do at home' bandwagon. I suspect much of it is a discredit to the profession. Anybody can still hang out a shingle and call themselves a coach ... and they do. Based on our years of experience and observation of the coaching profession, we can only repeat, “Buyer beware.” It may sound self-serving, but call the experienced, bona fide coaching firms like ours first.

48% of executive coaching engagements are focused on further developing high performers. This is certainly our experience. I would estimate upwards of 80% of the leaders we serve are high performers who are intent on increasing their capacity to work and lead with even greater effectiveness. In other words, they're good, they've already accomplished a lot ... and ... they know that with the benefits of coaching they can go even further.

Experience in coaching in a similar setting. The leaders we coach range from Fortune 100 executives to medium sized business and community leaders, from corporate, government and nonprofit settings, owners, entrepreneurs, emerging and seasoned leaders, from Canada, United States and several countries around the world, from faith-based belief systems to purely secular.

Clear methodology. Before any coaching engagement, our clients understand exactly what will happen in terms of process. We have over thirty proprietary tools and models, some major, to fit almost any situation our clients bring for coaching.

Quality of the Client List. Every leader and executive we serve is quality and we respect their right to privacy so we don't publish their names or companies. You can see a very few names on Linkedin. Suffice to say, our client list is good.

Ability to measure ROI. We have complete Return on Investment methodology for companies and organizations to follow. And that is only part of the complete tracking system we have developed for the use of our clients.

Certification in a proven coaching method. I received training at both Coach University and Corporate Coach University. I was not the first in the coaching profession but I was pretty early on. I am a more seasoned, senior coach and credentialled through the International Coach Federation. All coaches we work with in larger corporate or nonprofit engagements are carefully screened for similar skills, credentials and depth of experience.

Experience working in similar roles. I have been a leader, worked with leaders, led leaders, trained leaders and coached leaders for over thirty five years. There are not many situations that I haven't seen or coached around.

Experience as a psychological therapist. None. However, for many years now it has been my mission to study people, how they behave and how to help them be the very best they can be, whether at work, in leadership or at home and in the community.

Background in executive search. None. And it has never hindered coaching executives.

On reflection then ... I think we tick the boxes quite nicely.

Job Burnout, Who's At Risk and What Are the Symptoms?

Ohio Health Online provide a simple and practical article titled, "Job Burnout, Understanding Symptoms and Taking Action."

The article notes you may be more prone to experience job burnout and at risk  if:

• You identify so strongly with work that you lack a reasonable balance between work and your personal life


• You try to be everything to everyone


• Your job is monotonous


• You feel you have little or no control over your work


• You work in a helping profession, such as health care, counseling, teaching or law enforcement

I want to comment on the first point they mention, identifying so strongly with work.  On our website, we mention the type of clients we work with as being, "highly committed decision-makers with major responsibilities, high expectations and demanding workloads."

"Highly committed" ... men and women who are invested in the organizations they serve and the objectives they are seeking to achieve can become off-balance in taking care of themselves. They can have the temptation to 'sacrifice themselves on the altar of work'. It's easy to miss the point of taking care of your greatest asset ... yourself.

OHO goes on to suggest you ask yourself the following questions that may indicate job burnout signs or symptoms.

• Do you find yourself being more cynical, critical and sarcastic at work?


• Have you lost the ability to experience joy?


• Do you drag yourself into work and have trouble getting started once you arrive?


• Have you become more irritable and less patient with co-workers, customers or clients?


• Do you feel that you face insurmountable barriers at work?


• Do you feel that you lack the energy to be consistently productive?


• Do you no longer feel satisfaction from your achievements?


• Do you have a hard time laughing at yourself?


• Are you tired of your co-workers asking if you're OK?


• Do you feel disillusioned about your job?


• Are you self-medicating — using food, drugs or alcohol — to feel better or to simply not feel?


• Have your sleep habits or appetite changed?


• Are you troubled by unexplained headaches, neck pain or lower back pain?

Good questions. Their first line of attack if you answer yes to many of these questions ... Talk to your supervisor or mentor, or see your doctor or a mental health provider.

Good advice. Rule out medical causes first. Talk with someone about your feelings. Seek professional assistance.

I recommend you read the full article. It provides a good starting point.

Executive Coach Attends 2009 Christian Coaching Conference

As an executive coach I am committed to ongoing personal and professional development so that I can increase the value I bring to the table for each one of the leaders I work with. This last week I attended the Christian Coaches Network 2009 Christian Coaching E-Summit, a three day virtual conference of professional coaches from a wide range of specialties and countries around the world.

In the words of the Founder and Director of the Christian Coaches Network, Judy Santos, “Wow. The Summit was a huge success. People who attended are excited, empowered and armed with valuable information ...  great presentations - huge value as well as inspiration!” I agree. It was excellent.

This is the 4th conference held by CCN and it delivered quality content just like the last three. The twist was that this conference was delivered virtually ... no travel, no accommodation costs and very time effective. Given my very full days, I liked the “time effective” part especially.

It would have been a bonus to see people face to face, for sure. But given the format and the back and forth via some great technology, people had ample opportunity to interact.

A glitch developed for two presenters near the closing of the conference who had to hunker down during the tornadoes that were roaring through their part of United States. Thankfully they came through the storm unscathed and we experienced only minimal interruption.

The primary focus this year was on doing business and providing support in an economic recession. It provided a lot of great insight and information that I have already begun to use with my own clients.

CCN is an organization founded by Judy Santos, now a Master Certified Coach from Seattle, Washington. It provides professional development and support for Christian coaches around the world.

I have had the great privilege of being on the Advisory Board of the Christian Coaches Network almost since its inception in 1998. The Board is an absolutely great group of men and women to work with, dedicated to providing and supporting best practices in professional coaching for those who hold a common bond of faith.

If you are looking for a Christian coach, you can search the CCN Find A Coach Service according to your chosen personal, business or leadership criteria.

If you are looking for a leadership or executive coach, my profile is listed here.

A while back I had the honor of being among the first to receive the Certified Master Christian Coach designation.

I welcome a conversation with you.

Leadership Inventory, Keeping Your Shelves Stocked

You walk up to the line of grocery buggies, take yours and wheel down the fresh produce aisle of your favorite grocery store. Then it hits you. The once full shelves only have few and sparse items on them. And the few things that are there are drooping and decidedly not fresh. The whole store is virtually empty. There’s no inventory on the shelves.

Approaching a clerk, you comment, “What’s going on here? The shelves are empty. How am I supposed to do my shopping?” “New policy, ma’am,” she announces. “We only restock when the item is sold out.”

“But you can’t run a grocery store like that. You need stock on the shelves. You don’t know when I’m coming in. If there’s nothing there for me to pick up, what do I do?”

“Sorry, Ma’am. That’s the way it is.”

It’s almost unthinkable.

But, don’t we often run our lives in the very same way as that grocery store. We have no stock on the shelf, no personal inventory of extra. We have a demand and we go reaching to our shelf to take something down and there’s nothing left. There is no margin for anything to go wrong, no margin for someone to demand one more thing. We live life on the edge.

• There is no reserve of emotional energy. One wrong incident is too much and we can’t handle it.


• There is no reserve of money. One emergency bill is too much and we are in financial trouble.


• There is no reserve of personal time. One extra demand at work is too much and we blow our top.


• There is no reserve of love and communication and our relationships spiral from needy to needier.

And the list goes on, unique to the individual.

Often when we go reaching to the shelf for something that isn’t there, we fall into the trap of managing our image or performing to give the appearance that it is there. This only further squanders our emotional reserves and puts us on a sure path to overload.

Solutions?

1. Identify the types of reserve you need in your life. Write them down. Have you had them before? How did you lose them?


2. Commit to putting stock back on the shelves. Create a reserve to fall back on. Determine not to run everything to the edge. Build in the reserve to provide a cushion against the anticipated and the unanticipated. It may take some time, but it will be worth the effort.


3. Tell the truth. It is the truth that sets us free. It’s not that we set out to deceive others. We just don’t admit the whole story to ourselves about our situation. Seeing yourself and your situation with clarity will pave the way for solutions.


4. Enlist others. Get the help of family to set priorities. Make changes at work. Develop a strategy to work differently. If need be, engage a coach to focus on where change is needed and how to introduce it.


5. Set some boundaries for people and things. Don’t let everyone and everything control you. You take some responsibility for your own well being and act on it.


6. Take definite steps each week to keep your levels of reserve up. When demand comes, you will be ready. The shelves will be full and fresh.

Determine today to put some inventory back on the shelves.

Dr. Beverly Potter on Dealing with Job Burnout

I think Dr. Beverly Potter's comments on my "Leadership Burnout Assessment" post are worth repeating in a main post. I would highly recommend Beverly's books,  Preventing Job Burnout, Transforming Work Pressures into Productivity and Overcoming Job Burnout, How to Renew Enthusiasm for Work. The first book was a great help to me several years ago when overload was edging toward burnout.

Dr. Potter notes:

Burnout is a kind of job depression, caused by feelings of uncontrollability – powerlessness. It diminishes motivation and performance nose-dives.

Burnout is stressful, but not caused by stress. Stress and burnout are not on a continuum. Stress MUST be dealt with because, when left unchecked, it can lead to health issues. But reducing stress does not reduce burnout, except when doing so increases your sense of control.

The process is unique for each person. So the first step is to identify what is getting you down. Begin by noticing what is going on each time that you get “that” feeling. then makes notes on it in a journal. After several days, review your “data’, looking for patterns. Those patterns point to the causes of your burnout and to the intervention points.

For more info on the symptoms., causes and what to do about burnout visit my site where I have many articles on overcoming job burnout. -docpotter

There are many helpful books out there on avoiding or dealing with job burnout. Take advantage of them. When working with your Executive Coach, tell them what you have been reading.

Leadership Burnout Assessment

I wish to point you to a helpful leadership burnout assessment that will assist you to objectively evaluate your own situation.

Burnout is all too common amongst leaders, executives and professionals. The more you can understand about job burnout, the better armed you are to deal with it. Hopefully we can prepare you for avoiding burnout altogether.

The Overload Assessment is located here:

http://www.gewood.com/burnout-self-assessment.html

Print it off and complete it, then compare score results with the provided commentary. And if you need to take action ... take it.

The leadership burnout assessment consists of a substantive list of reported symptoms common to burnout.

We offer this only as a tool to give you further insight. It does not provide a diagnosis or anything of that nature. Rather, it simply provides you with insight to assist you in making good decisions about your job, career, health and well-being.

As an Executive Coach, I have worked with many leaders over the years who are experiencing overload or burnout. Interestingly someone once referred to me as North America's Beat Burnout Coach for leaders. Interesting indeed. I've actually used the moniker from time to time.

Seriously, burnout often goes hidden amongst leaders because ... frequently and sadly ... it would not be understood or responded to well by others. In my mind and from my experience with leaders, it is (with thanks to Al Gore) the second inconvenient truth.

If you have concerns about yourself and your situation, do the Overload Assessment and take action to reach a solution. Take responsibility for your own situation and well-being. Others will have to play catch-up.

Good Relationships Prevent Leadership Burnout

A lot of leadership burnout can trace its roots to draining relationships. Some leaders are just plain stressed and drained of emotional energy because of relationships that demand increasingly more from them each day. When is the last time you took time to think about your world of relationships?

As you move through different types of interactions throughout your day you can almost predict the emotional dynamics and whether the setting will leave you energized or drained.

Are your relationships mutual, receiving or demanding?

A mutual relationship is a wonderful give and take of friendship, respect and interaction. Both parties enjoy it and are strengthened by it. You feel safe to share across a broad range of experiences, feelings and levels of intensity. No unwanted demands are made. Good things flow both ways.

A receiving relationship moves mostly in one direction, towards you. You are on the receiving end of it. Someone is attending to you. They concentrate their time upon you, primarily without expectation of return.

A demanding relationship moves in the opposite direction to the receiving one. It moves away from you. You are attending to the needs of another. As you well know, this last type of relationship can have varying degrees of intensity and energy drain to it. At its best you receive fulfillment in giving to others. At its other extreme it can be a draining experience, the other person focused on themselves, rarely inquiring about you and by action dictating that all giving flow towards them.

Make a picture of the “relationship world” around you at the present time. Take a sheet of paper and draw a large circle. Put your name in the center. Divide the circle into three sections. Name the three sections, mutual, receiving and demanding. Write the names of the people in your relationship world in their appropriate sector. Do they demand from you, purely give to you or is there a mutual, energizing give and take?

Is your relationship world lop-sided? Does it demand more than it gives? Is it sucking you dry without the emotional return you need to keep giving from a full self?

Each of us needs a balance that is unique to us. If you are continuously giving out and are feeling the strain of it, you may need to take action to find greater balance.

What would it take to turn a demanding relationship into a mutual relationship? Would it take educating the other person, setting or enforcing a boundary, a change in your own attitude, a change in setting or dropping the relationship altogether?

See if you can balance your own relationship world to make it healthy. Do you need to cultivate mutual friendships that have been neglected for some time because of other demands? Do you need to seek out receiving relationships that will nourish you? It may not involve many people but it needs to involve the right people.

15 Ways Your Organization can Benefit by Giving Leaders Access to Executive Coaching

Providing executive coaching to leaders produces benefits on several fronts. The leader moves forward and through this improvement the organization they lead moves forward. That is why it is not unusual to see very healthy returns on investment reported for executive coaching.

Here are 15 ways your organization can benefit from giving your leaders access to leadership or executive coaching.

1. You will have a leader who has an outside sounding board to develop new ideas.


2. Your leader will clear up personal things they are facing, making them more able to concentrate on the organizational objectives.


3. Your leader will grow and develop personally and professionally, more rapidly.


4. Your leader will be able to communicate to the leadership team and staff more effectively.


5. Your organization will benefit from more enhanced team communications modeled by the leader.


6. Your leader will be able to explore their own weaknesses, strengths, passions and genius in safety, and then build on those strengths and learn how to manage the weaknesses.


7. New vision and direction for the organization is often developed during coaching.


8. Your leader will be able to better integrate and apply training they receive.


9. Your leader will have the safe environment of the confidential coaching relationship to follow their own agenda. They will attend to their most important items.


10. They will see how to better get business results from the people side of business.


11. They will develop better methods of relating to and dealing with staff.


12. They will initiate more collaborative and creative partnerships as a model of management.


13. They may develop faster methods to align people with organizational vision and mission.


14. The leader will see their blind spots and be able to attend to them.


15. The leader will be a better listener and reach clarity faster.

Organizations that pay attention to the personal development of their leaders, do better. The list could go on and on. The benefits are many to any organization that attends to its people.

God, Bach and Being Fully Alive

Johann Sebastian Bach signed his sheets of handwritten music with the initials "SDG", meaning “for Soli Deo Gloria, to the Glory of God alone”. Conductor Sir John Eliot Gardiner notes, “J S Bach appended these initials at the end of each of his Cantatas scores … They signified his deep devotion and his desire to serve God through his music.”

Part of beating burnout and dealing with everyday stresses is knowing that my daily work and how I approach it, fits into a much larger context than my immediate surroundings.

Second century Irenaeus reminds us, “The glory of God is man fully alive.” I assume in a big way that means really alive… living life to the full… running on full with and through all the ‘stuff’ each day throws at us. You’ve heard it before, “It’s better to really live for a few years than merely exist for many.”

We can adopt the SDG mentality. Really live, above and beyond what today you or I might even think possible. Avoid burnout and continue to passionately advance causes, projects and programs that make a significant difference.

Go out and ‘really live’. Make the decision to play a bigger … your best, game.  SDG

Female Executives, Strong Companies and Family Balance

During this week's Corporate Voices for Working Families conference, Michelle Obama shared that when she was an executive she endeavored to provide flexibility for her employees. That flexibility translated into greater productivity and loyalty.

"I found that as I've managed staff, the more flexibility and opportunities that I gave them to be good parents, the more commitment that they made to working with me, the less likely they were to leave because they wouldn't find the same sort of situation somewhere else,"

We can talk a lot about life-work balance. But the First Lady has hit the nail on the head. People are concerned about their families. Years ago balance was achieved by a parent being at home. That ability to choose seems to have largely evaporated today.

Full Washington Post article,

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2009/05/07/work-life_balance_a_challenge.html

What's interesting about her remarks is the connection she makes between strong families and strong companies. Companies endeavoring to provide flexibility engender greater employee commitment. That's good for the company and produces higher productivity and improved retention. It probably seems counter-intuitive to most of today's businesses.

As Michelle Obama says, "So this isn't just about family balance. This is about making work places stronger and more effective, and keeping and attracting the most qualified people."

Seems there are benefits all around in caring about people.

Four Steps to Reduce Poor Executive Decisions

In a guest post for Great Leadership, Sydney Finkelstein, a Professor of Strategy and Leadership at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College, outlines four steps "to reduce our vulnerabilities to making bad decisions."

This is a must read article for executives. It has relevant examples from well recognized businesses.

http://www.greatleadershipbydan.com/2009/04/leaders-and-decision-making.html

Sydney is also the co-author of Think Again: Why Good Leaders Make Bad Decisions and How to Keep it From Happening to You (Harvard Business School Press, 2009)

Here are his four suggested steps, but do read the article in its full context.

1. Make sure you’ve got lots of data sources, internal and external, that can enhance our ability to assess what is really going on.


2. Make sure you’ve got the right people around the table. Not just talent, but people who are unafraid to push back and challenge.


3. Make sure you are monitoring any important decisions in real-time, ready to step in and make adjustments before the momentum becomes too great.


4. Make sure to create a robust governance system, perhaps the hardest challenge of all because this really means that the board of directors is active, vigilant, and strong. A tall order to be sure.

Leaders often engage executive coaching to generate even better decisions. It's at the heart of moving forward important companies, causes, projects, programs and priorities. There is probably not a client I have worked with over the years that hasn't sought to adjust and improve their approach to good decision-making.

Dealing with Personal Burnout in Ministry Leaders

Here are two resources for leaders who are dealing with or connected with someone who is dealing with personal burnout in ministry.The second article will also give you some great advice on introducing coaching to your church.

The first is an article from David Yearick, Dealing with Personal Burnout in Ministry. He has pulled great insight and information together all in one article. With 39 years experience pastoring behind him when he wrote this article, he has something to say.

http://www.crosswalk.com/pastors/11554195/

The second is an article titled Start a Christian Coaching Ministry by Dr. Tom Cocklereece. It deals with introducing coaching to your church. While it may not be the direct purpose of his article, three things strike me as relevant to dealing with burnout in ministry leaders.

1. Establish a budget - Absolutely necessary. Put aside the dollars to provide for coaching senior staff especially. Avoiding burn0ut in the first place is money well invested. Don't wait until a leader runs into trouble and then dump them. Make leadership coaching a part of your strategic culture. And remember, this is an investment in the future of your church. It is not like buying a new stove for the church kitchen. Budget more. Your investment will be returned many fold.


2. Provide coaching for ministry staff - I emphasize the senior leadership be coached by a professional coach. This means that those who lead will benefit personally and professionally from coaching. This is where trained, professional, external coaching is valuable. They hold no vested interest in your organization and can coach objectively. The senior leadership can speak openly and strategize privately and confidentially.


3. Provide Christian executive coaching to business people in the church - Emphasize the value of coaching to marketplace leaders. This is not the time for the pastor to be territorial. Point these people to professional leadership and executive coaching. The church doesn't have to pay for it, but can certainly promote it. Again, the benefit will be felt.

For Tom's full and practical article on introducing coaching to your church.

http://www.renovacoaching.com/files/Start_a_Christian_Coaching_Ministry.pdf

Why the United States Recession is the Best Time for Using an Executive Coach

Is there a best time for using an executive coach?

Would it be in good times or bad? Would it be as the economy is going into recession or coming out? Is it now or is it sometime later?  Is there a right time?

I suppose the short answer is 'anytime'. Brilliant leaders recognize that they constantly need to be repositioning and realigning their thinking, attitudes, systems and actions. But there is something to be said about the very situation the United States, indeed, the world is going through at the moment.

We're told we have rounded a corner. The signs point to a slow recovery, but the economy has apparently turned for the better. The damage left in its wake however is all too glaring. There are still a lot of people running scared out there. This will no doubt be the prevailing sentiment for some time.

As I have coached leaders over the years, I find executives often adopt the prevailing messages and attitudes of their immediate times. In my minds eye I picture a bell curve. The executive I am coaching is either behind the curve or in the curve with the majority. Their great need is to be repositioned ahead of the curve with the small minority who anticipate what might be ahead, create a vision around it and move toward it with conviction.

Companies are in chaos, employees are in chaos. People feel snowed under with bad news and uncertainty. The great leader brings clarity and people rally around it. The great leader points them in a direction, refocuses their thinking and moves them forward. Like an elite athlete, that great leader, a corporate athlete, works with a seasoned and perceptive personal coach.

The market goes down and companies pull back. They curtail their efforts. The great leader captures market share during that period. They reposition or reemphasize their brand or whatever it takes because they are thinking ahead of the curve. They do it because they've thought  it through with me as their coach. They used a coach because they knew they could go farther faster with an objective partner to help them think better.

Major divisions of major companies that fell hard at the beginning of this downturn reel in chaos. The great leader sees reorganization as an opportunity to transform systems and come out stronger. They do it because they developed clarity around the leading edge of the curve with me as their coach.They used a coach because they understood they were in the middle of something where perspective could all too easily become distorted and decision making could follow. Coaching could bring clarity, better planning and more effective decision making.

Yes, this is a perfect time to work with an executive coach. If you think you might have adopted some stinkin' thinkin' over the course of all this bad news year, now is the time to reposition your own thinking, attitudes, systems and action. Begin to reach for the front of the curve. Take your company or organization there. Be the leader you have the potential to be.

Staff Retreat Set-up Checklist

Need a setup checklist for your staff retreat?

This checklist should get you started. You will be less frazzled if you use it. And you will probably achieve better results. People hate disorganization and chaos. Good planning goes a long way to creating good results or at least creating the environment where good results can take place.

• You have a meeting space reserved and designated.


• Plenty of well-separated space for breakout groups where participants can hear each other easily.


• Are breakout areas already set up?


• You can gain access prior to the start of the retreat. You are familiar with the layout. Going in without having seen it can be deadly.


• Excess chairs have been removed from meeting room prior to the group activities.


• Is main room set up and ready to go? Your leadership retreat will probably spend most of its time here.


• Do you need special tables set up for exhibits or sales?


• Convenient well marked parking facilities.


• There are directional signs for the participants no matter where they enter the facililty.


• Are there directional signs to breakout rooms, lunch, washrooms etc.?


• Who will be on the other side of any sliding partition? Will this pose a noise or volume problem?


• Are there comfortable chairs.


• Make sure there is adequate ventilation. You need air movement and exchange.


• Is there an overhead projector and quality large screen. Are arrangements made for Powerpoint presentation or the use of other technologies?


• Nothing blocks the screen from any location within line-of-site of the participants.


• In order for the screen to be highly visible, can light levels be adjusted and are the window shades working?


• Is there an on-call AV technician? Your leadership conference can be badly derailed by equipment failure. Make sure this is covered.


• If AV tech is not around, where is spare equipment in case of failure?


• Are there enough flip charts in good condition that stand on their own in all rooms that may need them. Are markers with them?


• Is there a spare extension cord?


• Is there a copier available? How do you access it quickly? Do you know how to operate it? Who will show you?


• Do you have name cards, tent style, letters large enough for the presenter to read and badges.


• Are all participants committed to staying for the duration of the conference?


• Juice, coffee, snacks for break refreshments.


• Water pitcher, bottled water, glasses for participants at their tables?


• Do speakers have water where they will be speaking?


• Lunch arrangements. A retreat is also about talking to colleagues and this is the ideal time for interaction.


• Is the speaker being introduced? By whom? Do they have to meet with the speaker? Who is putting that together?


• Will there be any need to interrupt your presenters? Do they know when this will happen?


• Will handouts/manuals/notes/schedule be available? Where will they be placed?


• Do you know emergency procedures for evacuation or medical emergency?


• Is there a designated area for presenters to sit, rest or meet during the day?

This list will most certainly get you started off on the right footing.

Executive Coach Writes Book on Personal Effectiveness

I can see the headline in my minds eye. "Executive Coach Authors Book on Personal Effectiveness." It's quite something to receive your author's draft in the mail. I received mine on Wednesday. It makes you a little giddy.

I've got a lot of books in the mail before, but when it has your name as the author there is a special excitement. Maybe it's all the hours that were put into writing, rewriting and giving it birth.

I haven't set out to win the Pulitzer Prize. I determined to write a simple book that someone would use for at least a year, a book with action steps and a place to record your progress. Now when I thumb through it, I feel confident we've achieved that.

52 Solutions for Those Who Need a 25 Hour Day is about becoming more effective and productive. It's the kind of book that everyone in the organization should have on their desk. Leaders should issue a 52 Challenge to all their staff, including themselves to read, discuss and implement one of  the 52 solutions each and every week for a year. I'm convinced doing so would revolutionize businesses and organizations.

The leaders and executives I've coached over the last many years have brought some pretty big things they were working on to the table ... major thorny problems, incredible opportunities, far reaching strategic planning, career limiting behaviors, you name it, I've coached them through it. But almost every leader I've coached has needed to review and work on the simple things again, the building blocks of effective work, things like:

• Capture your thoughts


• Prepare


• Know the facts


• Let your purpose determine your schedule


• Reject busyness as a bragging point


• Change pace


• Break it down into parts

When you intentionally work on yourself and lock in good behaviors that maximize the use of your time and effort, it pays dividends. You think more clearly, plan more effectively and execute with greater confidence. Better results inevitably follow. That's the benefit I picture this new book producing.

I'm going on about my book ...

Much like a proud parent.

It's time to finalize the copy and the cover. Amazon should list and carry it in about a month. Lulu will have it sooner. It's not long now ...