In our combined 30+ years of coaching, one of the observations we have made is that some people tend to be concerned about giving enough to the organization for which they work, and some tend to be concerned about getting enough from the organization for which they work. The phenomenon peaked our curiosity so we looked around to see if this approach continued over time or was specific to one situation or another. Overall, we found that there is…
In our coaching work with executives and managers, we often run into individuals who are uncomfortable with the idea of learning to be more influential because they equate influence with manipulation. Influencing others requires building a shared vision for the future (that future may be three years out, or it may be how to handle a personnel crisis today). When you build a shared vision, each person shares in the excitement about the future because they each stand to benefit…
“It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.” -Professor Albus Dumbledore (Okay we admit it, we are Harry Potter fans and for good reason, namely, there are quotes like this one.) This quote highlights what we have found to be true in our combined 30+ years of working with people, that every choice you make defines or re-defines who you are more than anything else you do. If you take…
We hear a great deal about the frustration our clients face as they deal with the demands in their lives. In many cases, we can see (because we have some distance) that the frustration is more a result of not having the right tools to responds to life’s demands rather than the demand itself. For almost every challenge we are confronted with, there are tools (some physical, many not) that would make the challenge easier and increase the likelihood of…
There is a wonderful quote from Elie Wiesel, “We must see in every person a universe with its own secrets, with its own treasures, with its own sources of anguish, and with some measure of triumph.” As coaches and consultants, our world is working with people and their secrets, treasures, anguish, and triumphs. It is an honor and a privilege to do this work and to be able to open the hearts and minds of the people we work with…
One of the things we tend to give up when we become adults is the joy of dreaming. We get all serious and grown-up and forget that our dreams provide us wisdom, perspective and direction about how we can create rich and meaningful lives. Lives that are good for us, our family, and for the world. This week, we invite you to answer the question, “What would I do – if I knew I couldn’t fail?” By asking…
We have been working with an extraordinary executive who is powerful, thoughtful, effective, focused and afraid. “What?” . . . you may ask, “how do those five words end up in the same sentence?” Fear is a central part of the survival mechanism the brain has used to keep us safe since the dawn of time. We feel fear quickly and intensely because from the perspective of evolution, it is what kept us alive. Like the rest…
We recently read a story about a young woman who had the opportunity to train with Philippe Petit, the man who walked between the Twin Towers on a wire 1,300 feet above the ground. As she was working with him, he noticed that she would get so excited about getting where she was going, she would falter where she was. He told her she needed to understand the final three feet. He said, “You’re not there yet. You can…
Last week we talked about how important it is for individuals to grieve and heal their losses in order to move forward. Just as with individuals, organizations, as a whole, get “attached” to a truth and when that truth fails to materialize or is no longer true, they, too, need to grieve the lost future in order to integrate the new one. When we say “organizations,” we are describing the people who make up the organization and who by…
There comes a time in each of our lives when we are faced with painful, life-changing events over which we have no control. Whether it’s a big event or a small event, it will require two things of us: time to grieve and time to heal. The life-changing events we speak of here don’t have to be catastrophic in nature. Life-changing events can include: being passed over for a promotion, not winning an RFP, working for someone who is…