January 26th, 2010 by Guy Bloom
One of the key aspects of a leader and the development of a leadership culture is the capacity to deal with constant and unremitting change. It is often the primary ‘confusion’ for many leaders who engage an executive coach.
A great scenario to pose to yourself and to others is this: If this conversation was an interview for a new job and the job description was a description of this scenario:
- How would you plan to approach it?
- How would your emotional state differ to how it is now?
Two very simple questions that can go along way to reframing your approach and feelings to what in another context might be a highly motivational scenario.
January 24th, 2010 by Guy Bloom
I have a relative whose daughter started to look down at her due to her inability to navigate the latest mobile phone she received. Later on as she started to get the hang of it then the more she grew in terms of her daughters credibility; this is unfortunate but not unlike many senior managers who operate in a non IT literate world.
3 years ago I was the executive coach for a CEO, we had been discussing the poor results of the companies employee satisfaction survey and one of the areas on the survey was around trust and comments people had made about not being allowed to use the internet.
She wondered out loud at the point of it other than wasting time, I asked a simple question, “I notice you do not have a PC on your desk, do you have a PC here or at home?”, the reply was, “No, but my estate manager does.”
She then went on to say, “what does anyone actually use the internet for?”, I looked out of her office and saw two PA’s, one for work and one for personal, they printed emails, made the notes then they typed them out for her, it went on from there. This is a very successful woman, who has made her fortune through organising her day this way and has done a darn good job of it.
Though the learning for her, was not ‘how to use a PC’, but more to the point that the gradual dissociation with the world that everyone else lives in (I know for a fact I can barely function without the internet).
What’s my point? Well, there is a mental note to self here for many senior managers probably on topics more far ranging than the internet, even simple things like getting to work. Most senior managers drive and even have their own parking but guess what the people that work for you probably don’t….. many people get the bus and a train then they have to walk; most senior managers can leave their desk whenever they want to and can go out to have a meeitng, most peole can’t do that….they can’t leave their desk unless they are going to the loo and even then not to often.
Many, many senior managers (not intentionally), but this they are discontected from real living and more often than not completely disconnected from the driving factors of mortals.
As an example: This CEO now has a 45 minute once a quarter, “what’s going on in the world” session with a selection of the most junior people in the business, granted she doesn’t have a Facebook account, but she knows what one is and even sees the point.
Consider:
- Do I understand the lives my people live?
- Have I lost the understanding that I used to have?
- How can I regain not the credibility but the understanding that will lead back to the credibility?
- Who will be my council and advise me?
January 10th, 2010 by Guy Bloom
Consider the ‘new year resolution’ and if I ask when you’d do it, well the clue would be in the question; you do them in the New Year.
It might be worth considering that actually a New Year Resolution can start technically whenever you want it to, as any day is a year later, the start of a new year.
Todd Thomas from the DeVos Graduate School of Management who conducts Resolution research found that, “CEO’s are less likely to make personal resolutions as opposed to ones directed at the companies they run.”
Why? Well in my experience, it’s because the commercial aspect of senior executives life is often more understandable and negotiable than what sits outside of it.
A provider of workplace employee benefits WorkplaceOptions did a survey recently that polled 700 workers on their resolutions for the new year; a 1/3rd of them involved ‘weight loss and improved fitness’.
Maybe there is an opportunity for the employee to demonstrate some more focused commercial goal setting within their resolutions to engender collaborations and sustainability and for the leadership Cadre to set and share more personal goals to increase the humanity in the observation and experience of others.
January 3rd, 2010 by Guy Bloom
The Times carried a story today about James Burridge who left the banking world to become a maths teacher, with the words:”I just thought there has to be more to life than this“.
It’s a valid point and one that any Executive Coach coaching at senior levels finds themselves increasingly coming across and as a coach there is no definitive answer other than the one that sits within the individual and that of course is the point. It’s the answer that sits within all of us.
The role of the executive coach is to enable the thinking of those asking themselves this perennial question, so that they may come to a conclusion that enables them to live within the moment and not lose focus on the reality of their real world situation.
It becomes apparent that for many people the answer is well-known to them, what is not so clear is how to access the courage that may have to be called upon to take the relevant steps.