“Well, I guess if I get some 360 feedback that will help address some of the leadership challenges I’ve been experiencing.”, said Eduardo, a Senior Vice-President with a major EPC (engineering-procurement-construction) corporation . “I think it would be a good start Ed. However, 360 feedback is where the rubber hits the sky. Feedforward is where the rubber hits the ground.”, I responded.

“So what is feedforward?”, Eduardo inquired. “Well, it’s essentially getting suggestions from those impacted by your leadership, your stakeholders, around what it is you can start, stop and/or continue doing . . . what it is you could change . . .  about your leadership behavior that would help them do their work more effectively and fundamentally enhance their overall contribution. Does that make sense?” I asked. Eduardo’s responded, “Absolutely! However, if I did get feedforward from my stakeholders as you put it, how would I know if I’m being successful when doing it?”

“What I offer comes from our collective experience of coaching executives and leaders worldwide, and it is also  based on the research , findings and experience of one of the world’s leading management and leadership thinkers and his associates, Marshall Goldsmith. Keep these basic key points in mind if you want to engage in a successful stakeholder centered leadership coaching initiative. Of course there’s more involved, but these will get you going in the right direction.”

• Choose the behavior you want to improve – improve the leadership behavior that is important to you and be confident that you will indeed improve
• Truly want stakeholder input – pay undivided attention to and  geniunely hear your stakeholders’ messages/gifts
• Appreciate the feedback/feedforward –  take your stakeholders’ input seriously, be willing to respond to the input they provide and take the opportunity to reflect on what it is you are hearing
• Don’t give in to superstition of “negative” self talk - do a levelheaded cost-benefit analysis and commit with a decision on what leadership behavior you  truly want to develop
• Appreciate the help from all your stakeholders - commit to improve and, again, be confident you will improve
• Actively work on what you commit to improve - make every attempt to demonstrate your success and try to reduce the likelihood of a return to your old habits
• Eagerly gain your stakeholders’ insights - actually learn from their experience of you and focus on producing related measureable results

With the support of a highly experienced senior executive coach and confidante to partner with throughout the stakeholder centered leadership coaching process, success and fulfillment is well within reach, not to mentioned the strategic advantage created for your organization.

Thank you for taking a few minutes to read this. What specific leadership behaviors do your people need from you in order for them to be more powerful contributors? I would enjoy hearing any of your thoughts and feelings on this subject? Take care.

Here’s a gift of 5 actions you can start right now in service of strengthening your Leadership capabilities!

1. Build greater trust. You do this by ensuring that you follow up when you say you will. Lack of follow up, putting promises on the back burner because your busyness is the priority, or dismissing the promise to follow up as not really that important can dramatically erode trust. Instead of espousing intentions to follow up, commit to doing so and DO IT, whether you are managing up or down.
2. Put on your big set of listening ears. People want to be listened to, they want to know that you care. Practice harnessing your energy that hungrily wants to take over every conversation and anxiously move things into action. Just decompress for a moment a really listen to your staff, customers, peers, team members . . . hell, even your boss. If you want to develop high contributors, they need space to be heard and acknowledged . . . by you!
3. Increase your self-awareness. How are you showing up for others as a leader? Don’t know! Contact your Human Resources people, Organization Development professionals or your RWBA executive coach to be in service of your finding out what processes, instruments or other support might be available to help you understand yourself better and leverage that knowledge into stronger top and bottom lines!
4. Be a better relationship builder. Vertically, horizontally, and diagonally . . . throughout the organization.
5. Model great leadership to others. You’ve got to walk the talk. Your direct and indirect reports emulate the leadership that they experience with you. Are you proud of everything that you do? If you had to pick one leadership behavior to work on, what would that be? How can you assure you can successfully change that behavior?

Most importantly, have fun with these thoughts and enjoy yourself!

“What happens if you walk out the door and get hit by a bus?” It is not unusual when dealing with leaders in our coaching conversations when a question similar to this surfaces. There’s usual a bit of chuckling involved and an exchange of humorous comments before we get down to where the client wants to go . . . the serious five-sixths of the iceberg below the surface of the initial discussion. There is a tendency for some leaders (not you of course) to feel infallible and indestructible. This can get in the way of building greater capacity in those who report to us.

The metaphor of ‘the bus’ comes in many forms. If a version of the bus does in fact unexpectantly run over you (note Schultz’s Law: Murphy’s an optimist), then who is able to seamlessly step into your shoes should you find yourself temporarily out of the game . . . on the sidelines as it were? Are you ready my friend for such an event? Quickly filling the leadership pipeline is one of your major responsibilities . . . your organization should not expect less! As an executive coach who works with clients around the world, I have the slight luxury of a broader perspective of organizations . . . both private, public and not-for-profit sectors. In fact, this year to date I have seen three key senior leaders be unexpectedly moved over to the sidelines in their respective organizations. One leader, a Vice President – Operations, recently reflected on just such an experience. They shared just how thankful they were for the executive coaching support that was in service of their ability to see the value of changing their leadership behavior of shifting from a high need for absolute control to that of developing a greater capacity in others to grow, develop and increase their skills and abilities to take on increased accountability and delivery of high quality results . . . not to mention dramatically enhanced levels of professional and personal satisfaction. The value of succession planning for this particular leader has taken on a whole new level of importance, not to mention for the organization. 

Letting go of the reins of control can be exceptionally challenging for any leader, yet the return on the invested time and resources for the leader, key staff, other stakeholders and the organization typically exceeds all expectations when (not if) the inevitable reality of an unplanned highly stressful event occurs and readily takes the leader out of the game.

Should the inevitable surface for you, are you or your organization able to operate at you’re the most effective levels? Are you truly able to successfully step back and confidently address the presenting issue when temporarily sidelined? I would be most interested in hearing your thoughts, your truth, when the bus comes screaming through your world.

One of the most common frustrations that I hear from my executive coaching clients often centers around the need for change and to remain a high performance organization even when to outsiders (and some insiders) there is a sense that the organization is doing very well. Jim Collins in his book Good to Great stated that the enemy of great is good and the experience of my clients reflects precisely that.

Often we focus in on the ability of the leader and the leadership team to create a sense of urgency to support and drive the change. This is easy to create when the organization is losing money and market share in a very public way. But how do you create it in a profitable and stable organization. Waiting for the crisis to become more evident is not always a good plan (ask music stores about iTunes or Blockbuster about NetFlix). The key comes down to creating a meaningful sense of urgency within the organization.

Weighing in on this issue is respected Business thought lead John Kotter in his recent book “A Sense of Urgency“. To assist his readers, Kotter discusses three distinct states: complacency, false urgency and true urgency.

Complacency is the known quantity that we all have bumped up against and have to deal with in our own way as it blocks, both actively and passively, action designed to move the organization and the culture forward.

False Urgency is often the unrecognized issue. Because the people involved often are very active it is frequently mistaken for true urgency. These characteristics lead to high levels of activity with little productivity attached to it . . . where people tend to be reactive and defensive rather than proactive and curious, and lack clear direction or planning in their actions. This leaves them feeling overworked and frustrated which is not conducive to achievement and positive change that is being sought.

True Urgency is that rare state where people are fully engaged with a deep personal connection to the issue. It is easy to engage the mind with a well presented and factual business case. To create the deep personal connection you need to engage the heart of the person. This is best accomplished through the use of a story or example which creates a personal attachment to goals. It also creates a strong personal motivation that ties the individual to achievement of goals. It is stories that enroll the person in the desired goals and compels them to action.

Kotter provides a number of tools that can be used to help make this transition and to identify times when complacency and false urgency exist. The bottom line, you as a leader need to act with true urgency each and every day!

Bringing all this back to our executive coaching clients,means that they need to be self aware and curious about their own role. It can be easy to personally feel that once a particular task is done that the foot can be lifted from the gas pedal for a bit and a deep breath is in order. This is often observed as rationale for feeling that the worst is over and that one’s guard can be let down. Are you guilty of the same thing in your position or in managing your career? What messages are you sending to the organization that may be undermined by your behavior? How are you shortchanging yourself and your organization if you don’t act with a sense of true urgency each and every day?

This is where the executive coaching relationship can have its maximum impact and value for each of our clients. The ability of our executive coaching to support you to hold you, the client, accountable for creating true urgency. The ability and to enhance your self-awareness as leader in ways that avoid self-subvertion, but rather to be  in  true service of moving your and your organization’s agenda powefully forward.

For many of our executive clients the biggest learning has come from identifying the blocks that they create for themselves and as a result creating strategies for overcoming them . . . establishing true urgency in their lives. Once these blocks are removed you,  the client,can quickly begin reaping the competitive advantage, both personally and corporately. This comes from living and acting with a sense of true urgency!

I have just one question to leave with you, “What would you be able to create in your personal and professional life by coming from a place of true urgency in all you do each and every day?

There are three kinds of executives – those that make things happen, those who watch others make things happen, and those who really don’t know what the hell is really going on! That’s what was recently shared with my executive coaching client, Beau, who is currently “between jobs” as the saying goes. “So what is it you really want?” I asked him.

“Bottom line, I want to thoroughly enjoy whatever it is that I decide to take on. I want a strong sense of fulfillment . . . truly feel that I’m being instrumental in advancing the success of the next organization and the people I lead. I want it to be extremely rewarding both personally and professionally. So how do I make that happen?” asked Beau.

“Well where do you think you should start” I asked. “I’m thinking I’ve got to begin reviewing my life and professional strategy first?” Beau quickly inquired.

“Absolutely. So let’s brainstorm some ideas that will be in service of your building a solid career transition strategy. Once you’ve got clarity around this, it will simplybe  a matter of your  making it happen and regularly updating it. I appreciate this is certainly easier said than done. But, then that’s why you’ve engaged me as your executive career transition coach for . . . partnering and being in service of your holding yourself accountable for making it happen, and quickly.” I retorted.

The net result of my conversation with Beau was the development of what he referred to as his Career Positioning Strategy. It essentially included some of the following key components.

• Career Objective – when he wanted to have his marketing approach organized; target date for securing his preferred position, etc.
• The Position - nature of the next role, organization level, preferred organization situation, breadth of responsibilities, etc.
• The Organization – its size, growth mode, industry, reputation, etc.
• The Leader –  his/her perspective, style, level of autonomy offered, valuing of Beau’s knowledge/skills/abilities, etc.
•  The Culture – internal/external orientation, customer philosophy, industry respect, centralized/decentralized decision making, mechanistic/organic structure, customer orientation, fit, etc.
• Geography – local/regional/domestic/global/etc. preferences
• Compensation – preferred base/benefits/incentives/deferred income, etc.
• Professional Strengths – Beau’s unique industry experience, global culture experience, experience in special situations, languages, etc. “ Potential Obstacles?Beau’s geographic limitations, competition, etc.
• Other Alternatives – different size organizations, other types of organizational situations, consulting, teaching, entrepreneurial opportunities, etc.
• Next Steps – immediate tactics to consider, reason for leaving statement, personal commercial, marketing tools required, research, strategic networking, etc.

Through our coaching relationship he thoughtfully and planfully fleshed his thinking, feelings and wants around the foregoing as well as a number of other critically related areas. Beau was able to put a solid “game plan” together . . . his career transition strategy . . . and begin in earnest and with considerable confidence to build the critical capability to successfully market himself and advance his career strategy . . . make his plan of action really happen!

What in the foregoing were takeaways for you? Where is it you may want to concentrate on in crafting and advancing you own career transition strategy quickly and confidently? I would enjoy hearing what surfaced for you. In the meantime, take care and all the best with your career endeavors.

The CEO, who I have been coaching over the past four years, called and said, “I think it’s time that we expand our coaching arrangement!” “So, what do you have in mind?” I asked. My client responded, “Well we’ve been engaged in a series of strategic planning events where frankly the rubber has been hitting the sky. Now it’s time for the rubber to hit the ground? We need to make those organizational changes that will assure our strategic success, starting with our Executive Leadership Team!”

My client continued by stating, “A primary objective that we need to quickly address is how we operate at the Executive Leadership Team level. To me Bob, our ELT is the number one team in the organization. All of our other line and staff teams, although very important, are secondary to the ELT. For us to achieve our strategy, the ELT needs to be high-performing. My direct reports don’t appear to get this concept, and if this situation continues, we’ll never achieve our current strategy! We appear to be a high-performance team in waiting!”

Together, the CEO and I co-designed an approach that would support the ELT in accelerating their growth and development. We co-designed a diagnostic method that would produce critical baseline of data and information on the ELT’s effectiveness. We did the same for presenting the foregoing results in a positive, non-threatening, supportive, and motivating way.

Because the CEO is a very big picture, strategically oriented individual and the balance of the ELT members are very here and now, data driven individuals (which spoke volumes in and of itself), the data and information collected was presented in a way that fully met their need for facts and numbers that would allow them to move forward as quickly as possible in order to strenghten the ELT’s ability to work more productively together and produce the necessary results.

Our design and process incorporated in part the key concepts developed by Pat Lencioni with a focus on further strengthening the ELT’s ability to:

1. Create Confidence in Each Other – this included the ELT’s comfort level with each other at a profoundly emotional level, a deeper knowledge of each other beyond what they thought they knew, including their personalities and preferences, levels of openness, and the ability to safely be authentic, open and candid with each other.
2. Manage Differences Between Members – the ELT’s capability to be frank with each other in a non-threatening way, call a spade a spade, not take things personally, and to integrate each other’s needs in the development of strategic business plans and actions that would powerfully move the organization forward.
3. Take Full Responsibility For Making Agreements Happen – out of an integrative approach to managing differences between each other, ELT members became individually and collectively much more able to step up and take full responsibility for commitments, these being recapped at the beginning and end of each and every ELT strategic and operational meeting.
4. Hold Each Other’s Feet to the Fire – each and every ELT member understands that they are fully accountable for delivering on their commitments as well as collectively tracking each others’ progress. This means not just being accountable to the CEO, but more importantly holding each other accountable. To this end they do not hesitate to challenge each other when commitments are not being met, acknowledging and championing each other, all in service of each other’s success and ultimately that of the organization.
5. Focus On Both Top and Bottom Lines – the ELT exclusively focuses on achieving specific strategic and operational top- and bottom-line results that have been fully committed to. They place their departments, career aspirations, or ego-driven status completely behind the agreed to collective results that define the ELT’s and the organization’s strategic advantage and success.

The journey with the ELT still continues. Momentum being built is truly wonderful to observe. Authenticity between the ELT members continues to expand and deepen. The connection between the organization’s bottom line and top lines is being much more clearly and concretely realized, and at times with amazement by ELT members. The motivation to move forward with each ELT coaching meeting continues to escalate (and quite frankly was a real concern for me at the beginning of this particular intervention). Oh, the places they’re now going!

If you have had similar experiences, I would love to hear about them. If you’re interested in exploring possibilities with your leadership/management team or project group, let’s talk. In the meantime, let me leave you with this inquiry: “What are the possibilities for team/group coaching from your perspective?” Your comments and observations would be most appreciated. Take care.

We received a call the other day from Tony, a CEO of a major oil and gas company, who shared with us that he was quite concerned about one of his key executives. He said that Frank  had been recently promoted to replace a key member of the ELT (executive leadership team) who had retired about nine months ago. He bluntly stated, “Frank doesn’t appear to be working out the way I had hoped and is quite frankly derailing! Can we explore the situation and help me better understand why some leaders derail and and some don’t? What can I do about it?”

These are not uncommon questions that are raised by our corporate clients from time to time. In our executive coaching conversation with Tony, it was noted that The Centre for Creative Leadership found that approximately 50% of high potential managers and executives derail. Contributing to this is the fact that the initial technical and problem solving skills that had fomerly served a number of these derailed leaders well now can’t be relied on to address the increased complexity of operating at a more strategic leve, nor the resulting demands placed on their leadership that are typically changing from day to day, never mind month to month, or year to year.

Further, research has indicated that those leaders who are in fact successful in their leadership roles exhibit some of the following characteristics:

1. They tend to be highly flexible and responsive to change
2. They have a powerful ability to navigate through ambiguity and complexity
3. They pick things up very quickly and in a variety of circumstances
4. They are able to coach, facilitate, coordinate and develop their teams in a variety of circumstances with many different types of people
5.  They are highly grounded, self-manage themselves and work with others well under highly stressful circumstances
6. One of their mottos is ‘Feedback is the breakfast of Champions’ and thus constantly seek it out from those all around them
7.  They are quite aware that their strengths when overused in fact become their weaknesses, and those identified become their primary focus of professional/personal development
8. They readily acknowledge and champion their people, no matter how small the contribution or how challenging the initiative(s)
9. They are able to authentically share their thoughts, feelings and wants in equal amounts with their staff, colleagues, boss(s) and customers/clients, encouraging reciprocation, and do so with a strong sense of empathy and compassion toward others

Leaders having the potential for derailment include: the overly ambitious, the perfectionist, those who go it alone, over-managing, over-loyal to the organization, those who are over-controlling and 0ver-results oriented, single minded, too focused on technical detail, unduly personable and relying solely on relationships to get things done, having excessive fire in the belly, having too many things on the go, overly dependent on others, won’t be pushed off the mark, caught up with escalating-commitment, the constant need to be right, and loves to scrap with others beyond having constructive differences. 

To avoid derailment or to rerail, the leader needs to learn thoughtfully and constructively how to develop the team; strengthen strategic thinking and decision making; clarify specific expectations around deliverables and follow up; be self-aware and self manage under stress while at the same time being empathetic towards others; creating the right balance between collaboration, independent action and delegation; manage strategic alliances, assure functional strategic alignment and effectively manage differences vertically and horizontally. 

What’s been your experience? What have you learned as result and what did you do with it? What have you done with these insights? We would love to hear your thoughts and feelings on the subject. Take care.

 ”Bob, I can’t tell you how scary the future is!” stated Jim, CEO of a leading oil and gas process equipment engineering firm. This was said with a strong sense of anxiety. “I thought that we would have already started to come out of this economic mess. From the latest I’ve been hearing, the upcoming year is forecasted to be as challenging, if not more, given the global economy. We’ve kept outselves out of the red so far, but have an ever pressing need to assure that we come through this upcoming year with minimal damage to our ability to be on top of the recovery curve when it actually arrives! That’s my mandate from our Board!”

“Given that, what’s in survival and readiness for your organization?” I asked. “Quite frankly I’m running out of options and that’s what I would like to explore with you. Are there any other ways I might approach this?” Jim replied.

“Well, as you know in our coaching relationship I don’t provide advice, counseling, consulting or therapy. However, that doesn’t stop us from brainstorming some creative approaches and cherry-picking those ideas you think and feel will work for you. I’m never attached to what it is I share with you. Choose what will work for you.” I stated. “Hey, that’s just what I want!” Jim quickly responded.

In our following coaching exchange, a key piece discussed was to encourage Jim to step back and look at his oganization in it’s entirety. Support him in breaking it down into sub-components that could be viewed individually, but with the full understanding that each component still has a significant effect on the whole organization. A powerful framework shared with him  in our coaching conversation was McKinsey & Company’s 7-S Model used to diagnose organizations and establish a base from which to make necessary organization design changes that would help Jim deliberately work toward assuring his firm’s strategic success.

Although there’s really no best approach, Jim did confide that this particular model was most helpful in ensuring the organization is in an ideal position to positively respond to the business world around it. From our conversation he learned that there are seven key aspects to his organization that are critical, maximizing his organization’s effectiveness at the individual, groups/team and system wide levels. Again, McKinsey & Company referred to this model as the 7-S Framework that was reviewed with Jim as follows.

1.  STRATEGY:   “ What are the sources of sustainable competitive advantage (e.g. cost, quality, service, technical leadership) Jim’s firm has? “ What are the key strategic priorities (e.g. penetrating new markets, new product, development, speed-to-market, improving customer service) Jim’s firm has?

2.  STRUCTURE:   “ What’s the basic structural form of Jim’s firm? “ How centralized or decentralized is Jim’s organization? “ What is the relative status and power of each of the sub-units of Jim’s organization?

3.  SYSTEMS:   ” Does Jim’s firm have the systems it really needs to run its business (e.g., does it have a system for monitoring staff and customer satisfaction?) “ What are the management systems that Jim and his executive leadership team use to run his organization? What ones do they pay the closest attention to?  Need to pay the closest attention to?

4.  STAFFING:   ” How does Jim’s organization recruit and develop its people? (e.g. formal training, coaching programs/services, stretch programs, developmental assignments, etc.) “ What are the demographic characteristics of Jim’s executive leadership and lower management teams? (e.g. background, education, age, gender, nationality, professional identity, experience outside the firm, etc.) “ Where are the strongest leaders found in Jim’s organization (e.g., in which functions)? The weakest? 

5.  SKILLS:   ” What business activities are Jim’s organization distinctly good at performing? “ What new capabilities does Jim’s organization need to develop, and which ones does it need to “unlearn,” to achieve strategic advantage and compete in the future?

6.  STYLE:   ” How does  the top leadership team make decisions? (e.g. in formal meetings, informal conversations, in the field, with staff, with customers, in product development, etc.) “ What are the demographic characteristics of his leadership team? (e.g. background, education, age, gender, nationality, professional identity, experience outside of his firm, etc.) “ Where are the strongest leaders found in his organization (e.g. in which functions)? The weakest?

7.  SHARED VALUES/GUIDING PRINCIPLES:   ” Do people in Jim’s organization have a shared understanding of why the firm exists? “ Do people in Jim’s organization have a shared understanding of the mission/vision of the firm? “ What types of issues receive the most and least attention by Jim and his executive leadership team? (e.g. short run versus long run, internal versus external, etc.) “ How do people in Jim’s organization describe the ways in which his firm is distinctive? (e.g. focus on quality, emphasis on people, importance of customer satisfaction, etc .)

“This is exactly what I was hoping to get our of today’s coaching conversation. You don’t even have to ask me if I’m up to answering these questions and submitting them to you by our next coaching meeting.” Jim enthusiastically offered.

“I’m quite excited for you my friend, and frankly I can’t wait to hear what you come up with and how you think and feel you ‘need to be‘ as CEO in supporting where your organization needs to go from here!”

I invite you, the reader, to let us know what your key ‘take aways’  are from this discussion with Jim. What piece(s) would you like to personally cherry-pick and run with. As always, I’d love to hear your reactions and contributions to this coaching discussion. Take care!

Any transition to a new role, while exciting and an acknowledgement of what the organization thinks of you, is a time of anxiety for every newly transitioning leader.
A few of the common errors of a new role leader include trying to do too much too soon, failure to understand the de facto culture/sub-culture, and/or misinterpreting the expectations of their superior. Danger lurks ahead….. in the form of mistrust by others, leader fatigue, compounding anxiety with over preparation, and possibly the creation of an unsafe environment for employees.

As stress intensifies for the new role leader, can you really be making the best decisions for the organization as a whole, your team and yourself?

Stress has a tremendous effect on performance levels, particularly at a time when a leader is under the magnifying glass. Stress studies have demonstrated that it’s effect alters the ability to learn, to remain agile, and to make effective decisions.

I have worked with leaders who admitted that they have hardly slept in three months and leaders who existed on a pop and pizza diet. It is rewarding as an executive coach to support leaders in these circumstances and be part of the process that allows them to gain back a feeling of balance and control, rewarding them with restful nights rather than a continuum of midnight note taking sessions.

With invested and targeted support, these leaders can bring about greater contribution to the organization in a shortened time frame as they learn to manage their stress, embrace the transition, garner early credibility and move powerfully forward with their leadership.

What is the cost to an organization of not readily investing in the transitioning new role leader?  This is not just about the leader’s transition. You have to take into consideration the transitional impact on those who surround the leader and the cost to the organization when their performance falters as a result of how the new role leader shows up for others.

Some thoughts for effectively supporting senior leader new role transitions in your organization:

• Identify communication gaps and improve communication of support and development programs
• Appoint an “ambassador of programs” who can effectively inform, steer, co-design, and co-manage a transitioning individual’s action plan
• Gain commitment of senior leaders to provide face-to-face time with newly promoted leaders, ensuring relationship building, clarity of expectations, and constructive feedback sessions 
• Provide senior leadership networking opportunities 
• Encourage formal and/or informal mentorship 
• Ensure strategic alignment to the overall succession strategy of your organization 
• Utilize psychometric assessments in the early stages to increase leader’s self awareness 
• Design or contract for an accelerated leadership transitioning program that can be self-directed and facilitated by an executive/leadership coach 
• Implement usage of a senior leadership 360° assessment for a transitioning leader at an 18-month interval, with a smaller version of the assessment redone at 24 months.

Can your organization afford to falter in its role to more effectively support transitioning leaders? Is there an opportunity to step back from the status quo and examine the question: How could we transition our new role leaders better and assure their and our organization’s success? Let me know how you feel and what you think. Take care.

It’s not unusual in our executive coaching to come across comments such as “I’m fed up with his micromanaging!”, “I want to make sure they do it right!”, “I need to make sure my group doesn’t make any mistakes!”, “I’m tired of solving everyone else’s problems!”, “I have to stay on top of them!”, “As the head of this organization, I’m getting exhausted working 24/7!”. The litany of comments like this are endless.

We find that leaders often don’t hold their people ‘Big’. Allowing their staff to tackle the concerns they own and to learn from the consequences of their decisions, using this learning to grow, become even stronger performers and contributors, and as a result more satisfied.

What happens more often than not is that the leaders not only holds themselves ‘Small’, unfortunately they also hold their people ‘Small’. Meaning, they interfere by giving them ‘solutions’ to their presenting problems, not allowing them to stumble, fall, get up and try it again until they successfully work it out, allowing them to mature as individuals and professionals.

It’s similar to raising a child. If you insist on ensuring they not run, fall, eat a little dirt, bump their heads, experience life . . . what normal kids do . . . this will only contribute to retarding their growth and development. We’re not talking about letting them get into serious trouble. That’s a given.

Rather, it’s about letting them experience normal day-to-day challenges and allowing them to learn from the consequences of their choices. From these life experiences they mature and grow into healthy, reasonably well balanced adults (god willing).

The same is true for leaders working with their staff. The choice is about either holding people ‘Big’ or holding them ‘Small’. The benefits of the former are clearly obvious once we think about leadership in this way.

Recently a good friend and colleague, Jake Jacobs, and I had a discussion on this very topic. Jake is a leader in the field of organization development, a noted author of cutting edge books on large-scale real-time strategic change and the Principal of The Winds of Change Group out of Marina del Rey, California. We continue having very rich conversations around potential synergies between Jake’s large-scale work and our executive/corporate coaching. You’re invited to listen to our most recent conversation on the subject of leaders holding their people ‘Big’ or ‘Small’. Enjoy!

    Click here to listen to our discussion!

 What’s been your experience on this? What are your insights? How might you leverage your learning? What is it you would like to do with this? We always enjoy getting your thought and feelings. Take care!

We often work with executives and leaders who experience enormous amounts of stress at work. As they say, ‘the closer to the top you get, the closer to the door you get’. In the compensation world, their total compensation is influenced by the size of the ulcers that go with the job. It’s also referred to as being in the grip. We’re sure you’ve  gotten our point .

Naomi Quenk wrote a wonderful primer called ‘In the Grip: Understanding Type, Stress, and the Inferior Function’ based on the personality type theory developed by Swiss psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung. As Naomi mention’s in her work, Jung’s theory was refined and put into accessible form by Isabel Briggs Myers and Katharine Briggs, who developed the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI®) personality inventory.

As part of working with and addressing the issues when each of us feels caught In the Grip, it behooves us to take a little time to answer some questions. Being completely authentic and honest with yourself goes a long way in helping you deepen your understanding of the way you think, behave and remedy the causes that trigger in the grip  reactions. When you partner with a qualified executive coach, you’ll receive amazing insights and the ability to extricate yourself from this potentially devastating situation.

Naomi puts forward that there may very well be times when you feel or behave quite differently from the way you normally do. In other words, the way you see and react to everyday events at work is so unlike you that others you work with would describe you as “not being yourself,” “someone else” or simply “in the grip”. So here’s the invitation, try to think about how you are when you are most like yourself and how you are different when you are least like yourself by answering the following suggested questions from Naomi:

•  What are you like when you are most yourself? That is, what qualities best describe you or define you as an individual? For example, you might describe yourself as typically optimistic, careful with details, concerned about others, future oriented, and so on.  
• What are you like when you are not yourself-how are you different from your usual way of being?  
• What events or circumstances are likely to provoke the reactions and changes you experience?  
• What can you or others do to help the return process?  
• What can you or others do to hinder the return process?  
• What aspects of your work life are most satisfying and energizing?  
• What aspects of your work life are most dissatisfying and stressful?  
• How do you typically deal with chronic stress?   
• What new things have you learned about yourself as a result of your out-of-character experiences?

We have worked with many executive clients who have successfully addressed being caught in the grip.  Because of the great results  they’ve been able to experience, we thought you too would find the foregoing of interest. What was your take away? On a scale of 1 – 10 where is your stress level (1 = none, 10 = let me out of here!)? What’s your next step? We would enjoy hearing your thoughts and feelings. Take care.

With Christmas coming up, Justin, a client who had been a senior executive with a leading hi-tech firm,  raised a big concern now that he is  ’between jobs’. “I’m not really sure what to say when I connect with colleagues, friends and family over the holiday and I’m asked something like “So whats happening Justin? What happened with your job?” I know I’ll probably hear this question a number of times!” Justin was just starting up his job search. It was obviously quite important for him to be able to handle this question with confidence, no matter who would be asking him.

“So what is it you feel you want to do when these questions come up?” I asked. “Well, I definitely want to respond to them truthfully, make sure what I say is acceptable, particularly when I’m in interviews.  I’ll need to respond truthfully and in a way that’s acceptable to my former and prospective employers.”

“Sounds good. Would developing a statement that briefly explains your reason for leaving make sense?” I asked. “Absolutely, I’m quite anxious to be ready and able to deal with any questions like these that may come up.” Justin responded.

“Well whatever it is you develop, I invite you to make sure it’s short and to the point! I’d also encourage you to discuss what you do create with your wife and other family members, or anyone else for that matter close to you, as they will likely run into other associates, colleagues, and important people in your network and be confronted with the same question, “What happened with Justin?” In this way they can respond as comfortably as you and make it a lot easier to take care of these situations and support you by sharing a consistent and positive message.”

“So when you’re trying to develop your statement, what are the key points you believe you need to consider?” I then asked.

“Well whatever I come up with, I think needs to be short and to the point! I also feel it should be as positive as I can make it.” he responded.

“I believe you’re right on. There’s another key point that I would throw in for your consideration. Try to ensure that whatever you do come up with is not only truthful but very easy to explain” I went on.

“What are some of the key reasons for leaving you’ve come across with some of your other clients who’ve faced the same challenge?” asked Justin.

“Hmmm . . .  some of them included the existence of different leadership style, a new boss with a different operating approach, restructuring, downsizing, reorganization, a substantively changed role, buyout. These are a few very legitimate reasons that have been shared with me.” was my observation.

Finishing off our coaching session, “My request of you is to begin drafting your own reason for leaving statement by starting to jot down some of the key points you would like to include in it and then let’s take some time in next week’s scheduled coaching session to review your draft and flesh it out. Will that work?”  “I’m thinking about it already!” Justin responded anxiously.

I know you’re more than capable of coming up with a solid reason for leaving  statement. Once done, you’ll be able to use it as part of your Personal Commercial when in information-referral meetings, engaged in strategic networking, in employment interviews . . . the opportunities will be endless until you nail down the opportunity you really want.”, I went on, ”It’s not if, it’s when it will happen. Trust me.”

“OK, what’s a Personal Commercial?” Justin put forward. I ended our conversation “We’ll visit that at our next meeting as well. In the meantime my friend, you and yours have a happy holiday! Take a good rest because you’ve got a lot of work ahead of you with success definitely at the end of it!”

What were the gold nuggets for you in this coaching discussion? If you were coaching Justin, what would you have asked him?

By the way, if you or someone you know is currently in the midst of a career transition experience and are one of the ready few who would like to join an exclusive coaching group of like minded members focused on being in service of each other’s future success and fulfillment, then  go to Exclusive Group Coaching or call us at 1.866.952.6224. We’re there for you. Take care.

Every now and then a gift is given to the world, and that is just what Paul Hawken gave us in an unforgettable commencement address to the Class of 2009, at the University of Portland. It was recently passed on to me and I want to gift it forward so you too can enjoy his powerful message. Enjoy.

“When I was invited to give this speech, I was asked if I could give a simple short talk that was “direct, naked, taut, honest, passionate, lean, shivering, startling, and graceful.” No pressure there.

Let’s begin with the startling part. Class of 2009: you are going to have to figure out what it means to be a human being on earth at a time when every living system is declining, and the rate of decline is accelerating. Kind of a mind-boggling situation . . . but not one peer-reviewed paper published in the last thirty years can refute that statement. Basically, civilization needs a new operating system, you are the programmers, and we need it within a few decades.

This planet came with a set of instructions, but we seem to have misplaced them. Important rules like don’t poison the water, soil or air, don’t let the earth get overcrowded, and don’t touch the thermostat have been broken. Buckminster Fuller said that spaceship earth was so ingeniously designed that no one has a clue that we are on one, flying through the universe at a million miles per hour, with no need for seat-belts, lots of room in coach, and really good food – but all that is changing

There is invisible writing on the back of the diploma you will receive, and in case you didn’t bring lemon juice to decode it, I can tell you what it says: You are Brilliant and the Earth is Hiring. The earth couldn’t afford to send recruiters or limos to your school. It sent you rain, sunsets, ripe cherries, night blooming jasmine, and that unbelievably cute person you are dating. Take the hint. And here’s the deal: Forget that this task of planet-saving is not possible in the time required. Don’t be put off by people who know what is not possible. Do what needs to be done, and check to see if it was impossible only after you are done.”.  For the rest of the address go to http://youarebrilliant.org/. “ It is well worth the few additional minutes to read the balance of this wonderful commencement address. Then I invite you to gift it forward!

Paul Hawken is a noted visionary and entrepreneur whose many books can be found on Amazon.com. We would enjoy hearing what your gold nuggets are from reading his comments and observations. Who are you becoming? What are you willing to change? What’s next?

“I can’t believe what he’s doing! We had an understanding within our leadership group that essentially says that if any of us, including our boss, were to consider making decisions that directly impact the rest of us, we would consult with each other first. The whole idea was to assure understanding, ownership and the opportunity to increase chances of success for any initiatives we advanced in our organization. Damn it, did that ever change.” said Kathy, the Chief Information Technology officer of a large software development firm.

“So what happened?” I asked. “Well he just went out and hired a new Human Resource Director without touching base with any of us. Not only that, the individual has now been with us eleven months and has been a total net drain on our resources instead of being a net contributor. We’ve tried to go for a ‘walk in the desert with Mike, our CEO, but he seems to be avoiding the blinding glimpse of the obvious for the rest of the leadership team.” Kathy then emphatically stated, “It’s just not working out and Mike just doesn’t see it!”

It sounds like a possible example of ‘escalating commitment’ on Mike’s part.” I responded. “Can you tell me more about what you mean?” Kathy asked. “Well,” I went on, “It would appear that Mike has made a decision to hire this person based on what clearly seemed very rational to him at the time. Unfortunately, he didn’t consult with you and the rest of the leadership team to assure the successful transition for the individual into your organization as would have normally been expected. This apparent lack of expected consultation has exacerbated the situation.”

“Does this make any sense so far?” I inquired. “Absolutely”, Kathy replied, “Please go on.”  ”Given what you’ve shared thus far about the HR Director’s performance to date and her inability to fit in with your team, Mike has continued to escalate his commitment to the original decision even though things have changed considerably.” I then asked, “What do you think is behind this given your knowledge of Mike and the situation?” 

“Personally”, Kathy went on, “I feel Mike’s ego has gotten in his way and he’s simply digging the hole deeper for himself and the HR Director. If he doesn’t get on top of this, and soon, he will lose a lot of credibility with the rest of the team . . . not to mention his boss Frank. I think the rest of the team feels that what Mike really needs to do now is to stop sinking any deeper before it’s too late, pull the plug out, get back on hard ground by revisiting his decision given the changed circumstances. It would not only be fair to the organization, to Mike himself, but particularly to the individual in question who is no doubt experiencing a lot of pain and anguish herself.”

“Given your thoughts and feelings so far, what is it you think needs to be done?” I asked Kathy. “It’s pretty clear that a number of us need to connect with Mike and encourage him in a very honest and supportive way to address this directly and create some kind of win-win solution for the organization and the individual before it deteriorates any further.” 

“By when I asked.” “Given the sense of urgency, we need to do this by the end of the week.” “How will ‘we’ know it’s been done in follow up?” “I’ll send you an email right after we meet with Mike. Will that work?” Kathy quickly responded. “Sounds like a plan to me my friend. Let me know if I can be of further service in your making this happen successfully.”

“By the way, what’s the concept we just talked about called? It clearly described this situation in a nut-shell.” asked Kathy. “It sometimes referred to as ‘escalation of commitment’ or ‘irrational escalation’, as well as ‘commitment bias,” I shared.

Have you observed escalating commitment in your organization? Is this a personal Achilles Heal? Your observations and opinions are most valued.

“I really don’t like doing it!” claimed Frank, the Senior Vice President, Business Development with a large corporate leader in the energy business. “Doing what?” I asked. “Control. I hate finding myself in the position to have to control my direct reports. It just doesn’t feel right.”

“So what do you want to do?” was my response. “There must be some other way!” Frank said in frustration (always a green light for my executive coaching). “Do you remember when we talked about the four key components of management a few weeks ago?” I inquired. “Yeah, I do” stated Frank. “So what were they?” I followed up.

“Well, if I can remember the first was good old planning. Then, I believe the next was getting organized around supporting the plan. Oh yeah, next was leading. This is about truly caring and creating the environment for my troops so that they become more motivated to make it all successfully happen, thus driving up their work effort resulting in high quality performance . The last component was about control. OK, now I remember, it’s about controlling the plan, not my people. I know you really emphasized this last piece when we previously discussed this. Man, I’ve got to really get this into the marrow of my leadership bones. It’s about controlling the plan and motivating my people!”

“Great on you my friend for getting this clear. Around the motivating piece, here’s a small gift that might help you. As I’ve said many times in our past coaching conversations, you can either keep it or throw it in the garbage. I’m never attached to gifts given to you. This particular one has worked well for both myself and many of my executive clients. By the way, I’ve been unable to identify who the author of this is, but here it goes.” 

HEALTHY CARING IS  

I can listen to you without interrupting

Because I am in a working relationship with you, I choose to listen to you and see how my behavior impacts you  

I will not control and manipulate you to get what I want

I will not punish you for saying “no” to me  

I will not fear your rejection. I understand that “no” to me is a “yes” to you. I truly care about you. I want you to take care of yourself  

If you end up leaving our group . . . the organization . . . I will experience definite discomfort and I know that I, we, can still be satisfied here without your valued support 

I will not ask you to give up who you are to be cared by me

Your security, satisfaction and development will be as important to me as my security, satisfaction and development

I will not try to take away your feelings or rob you of them so I can be comfortable

So there you have it dear reader, all of us are continually in choice as to how we relate! So what was the blinding glimpse of the obvious for you, your team, your organization in the above? I would love to hear your thoughts and gain your perspective. Thank you for taking the time to read this.

“My boss has unbelievable expectations!” “ Nobody in my group is stepping up and I’m having to carry the day constantly!” “ The economy has gone to hell in a hand-basket and I’m forced by the organization to work 24 – 7 !” “ My clients are pushing back hard on our rates and they just don’t understand what it takes to service them!”  These and similar comments are shared with us in our executive coaching more often than you may believe.

It’s simply one perspective our client has chosen. Although they don’t know it, they can create and chose other perspectives on the situation they’re wrestling with at any time. They simply are not aware that they are always in choice each and every nano-second of their lives and that includes alternatve ways to view and address their presenting circumstances.

Often, one of the key reasons our executive clients come to executive coaching  is to engage a competent partner who will be of service in their further developing the ability to powerfully create , understand and position themselves to choose other perspectives regarding the same issue.  Then they can decide what they want to do about it, by when and what success would look like when they hold themselves accountable for making it happen.

In the meantime they have chosen the victim perspective and as a result  simply get stuck there. This can be very disconcerting.

Neil Donald Walsh wrote the following on being a victim. It’s a superb observation on this common personal dilemma. 

A VICTIM 

Nothing happens

that  you do not want to have happen. 

Nothing! 

You can imagine that things happen 

that you do not want to happen, 

but this is not what is so, 

and it merely allows you 

to think of yourself as a victim. 

Nothing holds you back

  in your evolution 

more than this single thought. 

The idea of victimization 

is a certain sign 

of limited perception, 

True victimization 

cannot exist! 

So do you see yourself as victim from time to time? What are the alternative perspectives? Which do you choose . . . to be a victim or . . . . . . (you fill in the blank)? Remember it’s all about you, it’s not about them! I’d love to hear your observations, reactions and/or insights. Have a wonderful day!

“Can you look into developing an approach that can help us drive down coaching to lower levels in our organization at a price point that would be feasible?” is an inquiry we’ve received over the years from a number of our corporate clients. This started our global quest to benchmark and research the best practices in order to design, develop and now make available an ‘Exclusive Group Coaching’ service that is only for the few who are ready to join a select group of like-minded executives, managers, and professionals who truly want to integrate and take their careers and lives to more meaningful, successful and fulfilled levels. We’re extremely satisfied that we’ve now achieved this.

So what are the benefits of our Exclusive Group Coaching service? They include:

• Obtaining exactly what you need to assure your professional success
• Accelerating achievement of what you really want with affordability 
• Collaborating with a powerful group of like minded professionals 
• Collectively establishing and quickly advancing your own agenda
• Being truly listened to, heard, acknowledged and championed 
• Creating and sustaining your professional and personal aspirations

What are the deliverables you can expect? These include:

• Collectively co-creating highly relevant real-time group coaching agendas
• Being part of an exclusive affinity group of professionals that care 
• Sharing valuable insights, experiences, wisdom and key resources 
• Learning how to become an even more powerful leader-coach
• Creating an oasis of sanity & opportunity for yourself twice each month
• Deepening commitment to personal, professional & organizational goals
• Being fully supported by globally experienced master group coach/facilitators

What is the process for joining an exclusive coaching group? It is simple, easy and involves:

• Choosing the group you would like to join by calling 1.866.952.6224 or 1.604.576.4970, or emailing info@rwbenwick.com  
• Registering directly on-line (http://www.rwbenwick.com)
• Planning to regularly meet for one hour, twice a month with the group you choose or you wish to create
• Simply use the free teleconference number & password subsequently provided  
• Individual Laser Coaching support is also available between meetings
• Your Exclusive Coaching Group will number between 6 – 10 people within your chosen peer group (Presidents/CEOs, Vice Presidents/General Managers, Directors/Managers, Project Managers. 

We’re very excited about the plan to introduce the foregoing  through readily accessible free group coaching teleconferences scheduled for October/November, 2009. This will allow you to both experience group coaching real-time and also have any questions of clarification answered. The next exclusive coaching group start-ups are scheduled for January/February 2010.

What do you think of this coaching service approach?  How important do you think this offering would be to you? To others? To your industry? To your organization? What steps do you want to take next? We would love to hear your observations, reactions and/or insights. Have a wonderful day!

“To manage strategy is to craft thought and action, control and learning, stability and change.” , claims Henry Mintzberg, a thought leader in the field of management. I shared this quote with Barb, a client with a large financial organization who wanted to expand her strategic thinking capabililty as a result of a 360 degree feedback exercise that she had been recently engaged in.  

Barb had been left with the assignment of researching the subject of strategic thinking in support of her desire to deepen her awareness of the subject and to strengthen her competency in this area.  

“So what did you come up with?” I asked. She responded with considerable pride over the phone, “Well, it’s basically about my abililty to understand my organization’s strengths and weaknesses, being in the position to clarify whatever opportunities and threats that exist in the market we’re operating in, as well as being able to identify trends and opportunities that can help us enhance my organization’s business performance, and as a result be able to provide us with a clear focus and direction for what we need to make happen . . .  organization wide, within our operating units, and right down to each staff member. Like thinking and operating at the 30,000 foot level.”  “Superb!” I responded.  

”So what’s another other way of looking at strategic thinking?” I continued. “Well, based on what I’ve been able to dig up it could also be looked at as a way of getting clear as to where we are as an organization, where we want to be, and how we’ll get there from here. I’ve concluded that having a written strategic plan is not really the end-all, but rather a benefit of the strategic thinking which has created a collective understanding of our business—now and in the future—and just as importantly, among a critical mass of our people. It’s about being smart about allocating our limited resources toward achieving our collectively crafted strategy.”

“You’ve clearly done your homework Barb. Great on you! I can’t wait to hear more. And on that note, what’s in the importance of strategic thinking for you personally?” I asked her.

“That’s pretty easy.” Barb said,  “First I’ve discovered that it gives me a solid foundation and context for developing our overall strategies, goals, objectives, action plans, decisions and daily actions that we can individually and collectively take from moment to moment. Particularly when our people have actually been involved in its initial creation. It helps us all focus on our customers and their needs. Oh yeah, it also helps us to be in a much stronger position to anticipate and respond to the unbelievable changes every organization is experiencing these days! Bottom line, it positions us to specifically define our short- to long-term competitive position so that we come out of the current economic mess on a wave of success.”  

“Well given what you’ve discovered from your homework, when do you think you’d use these strategic thinking competency muscles you’re developing?” I asked her.

“Well, as I’ve inferred already, our business climate is changing so darn rapidly that we, I, need to continually contribute to the ongoing reassessment of our strategies and tactics and make sure they’re constantly being revised quick enough to respond to these whitewater conditions. It’s a mad house out there right now, not to mention our competitors are making constant moves that we need to turn-on-a-dime and respond to!”  

“Ok, that makes complete sense. For you, what’s the connection between strategic thinking and strategic planning?” I asked.

Always quick on her feet, Barb shared, “Basically they go hand in hand. Michael Porter has written some great stuff around strategic planning typically at the portfolio, business and functional levels. I found out that there’s a whole framework for strategic thinking and planning. Do you want to hear more?”

“Unfortunately there’s not much time left in our call for that, but I’ve got a few more questions to quickly  ask you though. What is it that you might do Barb to enhance your strategic thinking muscles?” 

“Actually there are a few things I could do.” She said. “Starting with my own division, this might include:  

• conducting a SWOT analysis of my division’s internal (strengths, weaknesses) and external (opportunities, and threats) environment.
• Identifying key performance indicators to monitor our progress toward achieving my division’s strategy.
• clarifying what opportunities we will not pursue, making sure we put our limited resources in those fires with the highest payoffs, because I’ve concluded from what I’ve read that the true essence of strategy is in fact denial!
• clarifying the needs and expectations of our key internal and external constituencies.
• clarifying what our division really needs to look like in the future in order to outperform our competition, and they’re fierce; here I’m referring to our vision.
• once we’ve done this, we can then selectively allocate sufficient resources behind the strategy we’ve come up with.
• its critical that as we move forward with this we be open to new information that may require a shift in our thinking.
• last, but definitely not least, make sure we’ve got our folks at every level continuously taking a hard look at how attractive our industry continues to be and our own competitive position with a focus on improving the quality of our overall assessment and thereby assuring maximum buy-in and commitment to our resulting strategy by our people. How’s that?”

 “I’m truly impressed my friend. Can I arrange to have you join my upcoming university class in Management when I teach the Strategic Management section?” I asked. Barb responded with a curt, “Sure, as long as you pay for my flight  and accommodation from Dallas.”   

Barb had made the commitment to strengthening her strategic thinking competency based on the invitation from those who had participated in her 360 feedback exercise and had clearly done a wonderful job of doing just that. She’s clearly well on her way from not only becoming good at being a strong strategic thinker, but also becoming great at this critical leadership competency.

Is this a leadership competency you would like to enhance? What strength do you have that will help you become even more effective in your leadership role? What aspect might hold you back? I’d love to hear your feelings and thoughts on the subject. Take care.

“I can’t believe those people. They just don’t get it!” was the response of my executive coaching client, Gerry, who heads up a key line of business with a leading defense contractor. I typically start off coaching conversations with a check-in question. After listening to Gerry further, I asked “So what’s in the anger my friend?” For a moment there was silence on the phone. I had learned long ago to always let silence do the heavy lifting! “Hmmm . . . , ” he expressed and then went on, “I really resent the fact that we had agreed on what had to be accomplished last week, and they haven’t even started on it. It’s simply damned unacceptable. I really feel let down. I could tear my office door off the hinges right now. I’m going into a meeting with them shortly and I think I’m going to straighten them out . . . make them new rear ends if I have to!”

“Well before you charge on in, are you game to take a few minutes to step back and take a look at what’s happening with you right now?” I asked. Gerry, to his credit had always been very open to self-exploration and said “Yeah, let’s go for it coach?” I love his honesty and candidness.

“So, if your boss was this angry with something you did or didn’t do, and stormed into a meeting with you having the same intent, how would you react?” In his typically succinct and earthy way he quickly responded, “Well I’d probably hang back, not offer much and look for an opportunity to get the hell out of there!”. “Given that, then what would you predict your people will do when you give them the old what for?” “Got it!”, he said with a bit of a snicker.

“So coach, I’d like to hear what the heck you think?” Gerry asked. “Sure. First of all, it’s not about them, it’s about you Gerry! Anger is actually a gift, not a weakness. It only becomes a weakness when this strength is taken too far. Kind of  like manure in the system that gets clogged up. Need I say more? Does that make sense?” “Completely.” Gerry responded.

“So, having said that, what’s in just enough anger for you?” I asked. “Well, for me,” Gerry shot back, “It certainly gets me up and running. Actually a source of energy. It sort of acts like a catalyst for making things happen. Come to think of it, if I become more aware of it in the moment I can actually use it to be more effective, otherwise it can get in my way. I think I prefer the former. Any thoughts on what I can do to regulate myself when the old fuse gets a tad short?”

“That’s a great question. Why don’t we take a quick moment and brainstorm some approaches?” “Ok”, Gerry said, “Maybe I should start not to sweat the small stuff as they say. Hell, if I learn how to better spot it when it shows up, I’d be better able to dial down the intensity a tad, not shoot first and figure out what I shot after the fact!”

“I love what you’ve come up with.”, I said. “You might also consider talking yourself down, for example saying to yourself, hey, this is no big deal, can I put this issue on the backburner for the time being? Perhaps I should give this some thought before I shoot. Why don’t I take  a couple of minutes to just let every muscle in my body, from my toes right up to the top of my head, just relax and decompress. You do whatever works for you.”

“So, when you do walk into the meeting after decompressing, how do you need to be?” I asked. “As opposed to what I would do?”, he responded. “Yes, exactly,” I retorted. Gerry then continued, “Probably be calm, more focused on them rather than me. I need to be honest with them in a respectful way, by sharing what my thoughts are in a fairly specific way, how I feel about it all in terms of its importance to me and what it is I think we should consider doing about it.”

“That sounds like a superb approach, but what might you do even before that?” I asked. “I think I know what you’re driving at. Rather than adversely pre-influencing them in a way that they think they’re getting my orders, it might be a hell of a lot better if I asked them collectively and individually what they thought, felt and wanted regarding the issues at hand, and then do the former. Yeah, that’d work a lot better. Probably generate a lot more information and data that would help us make much more informed decisions. Man, that’s my game plan!”

“What are some other potential payoffs of your taking this approach? I asked. “Obviously, it’ll be a heck of a lot safer place them, we’ll build more trust, they’ll feel heard, buy in will clearly go up, and the solutions we collectively come up with will  probably be a lot more effective as a result.” said Gerry.

“So what’s the take away for you my friend?” I asked in bringing our meeting to a close. “Well I guess it’s that I can use my anger in service of myself, my folks, our customers and our organization, or I can quite frankly let it control me and then blow it!” “If it is the latter,” I asked, “What might be the adverse consequences for you?” “I don’t want to even think about it . . . too scary!” Gerry concluded. “May the force be in you my friend with the upcoming meeting. I know you’ll be more than successful!” I offered.

Does your temper rise at times and get away from you?  Do you find that under stress your anger, anxiety, fear and/or shame show up a tad too quickly?  Do you even notice it?  If you do notice, what do you do with it?  I’d love to hear your insights and experiences. Take care.

Any transition to a new role, while exciting and an acknowledgement of what the organization thinks of us, is a time of anxiety for the newly transitioning leader.

A few of the common errors of a new role leader include trying to do too much too soon, failure to understand the de facto culture/sub culture, and/or misinterpreting the expectations of their superior. Danger lurks ahead….. in the form of mistrust by others, leader fatigue, compounding anxiety with over preparation, and creation of an unsafe environment for employees. As stress intensifies for the new role leader, can you really be making the best decisions for the organization as a whole, your team and yourself?

A recent research article from the University of Washington reported the findings of imposing stress on rats. It took only one uncontrollable stressful episode to greatly effect the behavior of a rat. It actually took the rat several days to recover from the effects of the stressor and return to normal decision making ability. The learning of the stressed rat control group was delayed. As well, this group was unable to readily adjust to alterations made in the imposed stress exercise. Stress altered the ability to learn, the ability to remain agile, and the ability to make decisions. How does this convert to humans? Well, the scientific community has been using rats as study participants for years…there must be something to their selection.

As I look to newly transitioning leaders whom I have coached over the past 5 years, I relate to the news of the above study. Stress has a tremendous effect on performance levels and at a time when a leader is under the microscope and readily judged by others. Clients have shared with me how this has manifested for them and projected in all areas of their life. Many suffer from extreme sleep disturbances and/ or dietary challenges.

I have worked with leaders who admitted that they had hardly slept in two months and leaders who existed on a pop and pizza diet. It is rewarding as a coach to support leaders in these circumstances and be part of the process that allows them to gain back a feeling of balance and control……rewarding them with restful nights rather than a continuum of wide eyed 3 AM note taking sessions. With invested and targeted support, these leaders can bring about greater contribution to the organization in a shortened time frame as they learn to manage their stress, embrace the transition, garner early credibility and move powerfully forward with their leadership.

What is the cost to an organization of not readily investing in the transitioning new role leader? As this is an area of continued research for me I repeatedly see transitioning phases of 14 – 24 months in executive level roles. More complex portfolios can exceed this timeframe. This is not just about the leader’s transition. One must take into consideration the transitional impact on those who surround the leader and the cost to the organization when their performance falters as a result of how the new role leader shows up for others.

What is your personal experience in a recent transition, either as the leader or as a direct report to a newly transitioning leader? While you are drinking from a fire hose, what soothing techniques have you found that help to manage anxiety and stress for you? In hindsight, how do you feel your decision making during a recent leadership transition may have been impaired?

“Bob, I’m a little shocked!” This is how my executive coaching client, Danny, the Vice-President-Production Operations with a large energy firm in the oil patch responded at the beginning of our conversation when asked, “How are things back at the ranch?” He went on to explain that when he had been nudged by their Human Resource function to get a sense of forecasted turnover over the next few years through retirements, attrition, etc., his people had collectively come to the conclusion that 70% of the staff in Danny’s division would turn over in the next 3 years. “Well, what are you planning to do to prevent the potential adverse consequences?”, I asked.

In response, Danny stated, “We clearly have to start identifying successors to the key Production Operations leadership positions, and in parallel with this identify and accelerate the development of High Potentials.” “What are your other glimpses of the obvious?” I asked him. “That’s a darn good question. I guess we’ve got to review other critical roles and specifically any flight risk staff!” 

“What generally would be the outcomes you and your leadership team would likely look for by doing this?” I asked again. He quickly responded with increased energy, “Well for one, identify key talent at the senior levels of our division, get a solid sense of our bench strength, get those we identify to be clear on their needed development activities, and agree with our senior team as to what exactly the key succession management metrics should  be!”. Danny had quickly created excellent strategic direction around this challenge that’s common to most private and public sector organizations.

When asked, “What’s really driving all of this?”, Danny said “That’s another great question. We’re anticipating continued strong growth once the economy gets back on its feet and obviously anticipating turnover of our key people. The increased challenge of filling these key roles along with our questionable current bench strength and readiness to backfill are clearly wanting, as well as our lack of being able to identify HiPo’s right now and having them ready to step into senior leadership roles when we need them to surface. I think these are the real concerns here.”

“How do you feel about all of this?” I asked. “Quite frankly, I’m disappointed, mad as hell for allowing ourselves to get into this position, and I’m damned anxious about what might happen if we don’t get on top of it . . . and yesterday! It’s now one of our top priorities!”

“So, what do you want to do about it?” I asked him. “Well, it’s clear that we’re engineering experts and not Human Resource experts so we’ll need to get together with HR and soon. I’ll put this at the top of the list at our next Production Ops executive leadership team meeting this coming Tuesday.”

“If you thought you knew what needed to be done in terms of the overall process for moving this forward quickly, what might that be?” Being the quick thinker he naturally is, Danny stated, “OK, do you just make these questions up? Well first, I would think that we need to scope out what actually needs to be identified through our succession management initiative. Second, we would no doubt have to assess and review our current engineering talent for levels of performance and potential. Third, we’d obviously have to start figuring out what key leadership and individual-contributor engineering roles need to be replaced and when. Last, I’m thinking it’s about making sure we have a top notch development action planning process in place that can be quickly designed and implemented. Does that make sense?”. “More importantly, does it make sense to you?” I responded. “You know, it does. Thanks.”, said Danny.

“So what’ll your next steps be given what you’ve said so far?” I asked him. “Again, the questions Uncle Bob!”, Danny said jokingly. “Well let me see. I’m thinking we start right away by initiating a succession planning meeting between us and HR early next month to agree on role expectations, determine critical roles in the Production Operations division, identify high impact engineer flight risks and begin a talent review to develop a list of HiPo’s.” “Then what?”, I asked. “OK”, Danny said, “Later in the month, we’ll make sure we have a talent replacement plan in place. In the following month we can shoot for having a development plan nailed down, and the month after that have our succession metrics in place with a solid progress plan established. Yeah, that’s sounds like it would do it.” 

Lastly I asked Danny, “So how will we know you’ve done what you’ve said?” “Again, with the questions!” he responded tongue in cheek. “I’ll send you a one page copy of our general plan for making this happen with target dates. I’ll send you an email once I believe each of the key milestones have been achieved. We can also carve out a small portion of some of our future executive coaching calls for us to discuss what’s happening. Will that work?” “It’s sounds like a plan my friend.” said I.

What insights in the foregoing were there for you? What one word captures your reaction? How do you feel about the subject of talent management and succession planning. What do you want to do with it? I would love to receive any gems this may have conjured up for you. For those interested, a wonderful book on this subject is ‘The Leadership Pipeline: How to Build the Leadership Powered Company’, by Ram Charan, Stephen Drotter and James Noel. Take care and have a great day!

Over the years many of my clients who find themselves in the position of having to look for a new job usually begin by dusting off their outdated resumes (if they have one) and shot gun the local market with it. This action comes out of a compulsion to quickly find another job as soon as possible. On the surface, their situation and associated anxiety around being jobless is quite understandable. However, as George Odiorne shared with me over a lunch while attending a workshop in Toronto, Ontario, Canada many years ago, “Bob, if you don’t know where you’re going then any road will get you there, and in all likelihood it will not be where you ever wanted to be!”

So given George’s advice, I encourage my executive and professional clients who anticipate being or who are in career transition to consider the following.

• Get aggressive around narrowing your focus on what it is you really want to be doing next and what it is you don’t want to repeat.
• Ensure you clarify exactly what it is you do want so that you’ll quickly recognize it when it does show up (and it will).
• Then get clear who is in your social network that will help you mine for your targeted career opportunities.
• With this clear picture of what better truly looks like you now have a compelling reason directing and motivating you through the ups and downs of your job search campaign.
• This also gives you a solid opportunity to assure that you’re constantly moving in the right direction and on time with your job search campaign plans.
• Lastly, it gives you the structure you will need to assess your ongoing professional progress no matter where you are in your career.

Doing the foregoing will solidly position you to define and clearly articulate your Career Purpose Statement which should include a number of the following key components.

1. Over – Arching Career Goal (“to start . . . .”, “to secure . . .”)
2. The Position (level, challenge, accountabilities, scope, leader, individual contributor . . . )
3. The Organization (size, private sector, public sector, not-for-profit, dynamic, industry, reputation, . . . )
4. Your New Boss (leadership style, detailed vs. strategic, . . . )
5. Culture (the way the organization does business (how people work with each other and their customers, global vs local, entrepreneurial vs. bureaucratic, high vs. low structure, decentralized vs. centralized, individual vs. team focus, . . . )
6. Geography (local, regional, national, global, where? . . . )
7. Compensation (salary, benefits, incentives, non-financial support. . . )
8. Your Strengths you bring to the table (your special selling points experience, expertise, languages, style, emotional intelligence, . . . )
9. Potential Barriers (geographic preferences, competing applicants, family preferences, . . . )
10. Backup Alternatives (other types of organizations, markets, industries, functions, roles . . . )
11. Next Steps (what do I need to do now, what resources do I need now, making it happen . . . )

While the foregoing will be different for each and every one of you in your career transition experience, it will form the core of your job search campaign. Now you can proceed with developing your marketing collateral such as resumes and  powerful job search campaign correspondence, exploring and researching the marketplace, engaging in strategically connecting with those familiar with your target market, proactively interviewing, and then engaging in successful integrative negotiations for that ideal position you’ve worked so hard at finding and securing . . . and you will!

What in the foregoing for you was the gold nugget . . . the take away? What will you do next? By when? How will you know you’ve been successful? What do you need to say ‘yes to’ and ‘no to’ to assure success? I would love to hear your insights and reactions. Have a great day!

So what is the difference between bad, good and great when it comes to leadership and performance opportunities? This came to mind when Joe Bentley, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus of Management and Organzational Behavior, University of Utah, was talking on the inaugural conference call of Pepperdine University’s MSOD alumni group’s ‘fireside discussion’ on subject of ‘Taming Wicked Problems’. The alumni showed up from various parts of the world to listen and engage in a rich discussion with this pioneer and leader in the field of organization development.

Following the call, I was able to connect with Joe and ask him for clarification about a particular point that he had brought up concerning performance opportunities that dealt with bad, good and great organizational situations. I was most interested in hearing further about this area as it resonated with much of our executive coaching with corporate clients. The following is what Joe shared with me.

“Here are some thoughts on the “Performance-Opportunity” problem model. First of all, all professional work is problem-centered, that is professional people engage in activities designed to make things better, to get them back on track, to correct discrepancies, to remove “noise,” to increase efficiency, health, income, knowledge, quality, productivity etc. etc. Included here are professional activities in government, the law, medicine, science, education, therapy, economics, public health, etc. etc. If there were no problems, or if they were not important, we would have no concept of Professional Activity.

The Professions exist in order to change and improve things. Included here of course is OD (organization development). And as I mentioned in the Fireside, all human action is problem centered, when we define a problem as a gap between a present state and a desired future state, (which is the essence of motivation).

For these reasons I have become tired of some people insisting that problems are bad, too negative, irrelevant, unimportant, etc (I am thinking of course of AI (appreciative inquiry) as a primary advocate of this position). They are all playing a semantics game. There is no interest in change, OD type or otherwise, without something that isn’t working and needs to be changed, i.e. a problem.

My work, over the past dozen years has been in teasing out in what ways not all problems are alike, a principle that turns out to be extremely important when change is the goal.

One of the ways that not all problems are like is that some are “Performance Problems”, that is when behavior, results, etc. do not meet standards, and fall short. Most of what we call problems are “performance” issues, when change means moving toward the “good”, the “acceptable”, the “desired”, the “expected”.

Another kind of problem in this model is where results are acceptable, but cannot remain the same. There is a “Better” or “Great” standard out there in the future, and so the Gap here between the acceptable and the “Best” is an “Opportunity Gap”.

If you draw on a page three vertical lines perhaps two inches apart, the one at the far left is “Bad” or “Unacceptable,” the one in the middle is “Good” or “Acceptable”, and the one on the far right is “Excellent” or “Great”.

The Gap between the Bad and the Good is the “Performance Gap”, and the Gap between the center (Good) and the far right is the Opportunity Gap. So, looked at this way, none of these is necessarily bad or negative, but represent possible interventions. Closing the gaps between the Bad and the Good, and the Good and the Great is one way to think about change, change in any domain of experience: personal life, relationships, organizations, societies, etc. etc.

So, for me, all change is a process of Bridging and Closing Gaps, between the present state and the future state. How that is done varies depending upon how people think about change. That is, there are many interventions that could be used to Bridge and Close Gaps. But the Gaps themselves can best be described as Problems. I mentioned the UN Millennium Goals program (in the MSOD conference call) as a classic example of Performance Gaps as problems. “

Thank you Joe! I found Joe’s perspectives on performance opportunities of great value. What’s your reaction to the foregoing? How might his ideas be used by you back at the ranch? I’m always curious about what you readers think and feel. Have a great day!

“I’m responsible for Strategy.” said Mike Payne, General Manager – Strategy & Portfolio with Shell Gas & Power, while on a Continental flight from Houston, Texas to Seattle, Washington. We just finished introducing ourselves and had an interesting discussion about organizational strategy, employee loyalty and corporate cultures and how they positively or negatively affect organization performance, particularly during these white water times. The whole concept of corporate strategy, its development and implementation have always fascinated me. Having led and facilitated strategic change both in organizations in executive roles and as an executive coach/consultant, I’ve always believed that strategy development, which of course is critical, is really where “the rubber hits the sky.” Strategy implementation on the other hand is where “the rubber hits the road”! The latter is where real management change takes place. I’ll come back to this shortly.

Strategy development is critical, but my experience and observation is that most senior leaders would simply rather chew through their left arm than spend the usual inordinate amounts of time working through a long laborious strategic management process facilitated by high priced consulting firms over many months (even years). The end result is a strategic document so massive that one could hit a moose between the eyes with it and drop him right on the spot. Typically, along with the other ‘pressing demands’ that await them back at the ranch, the participants never truly want to revisit these documents no matter how well initially intentioned.

So what’s the alternative? Most will agree that organizations have to have a clear vision and supportive strategy! In these turbulent times being faced with imperfect organization systems, people and the world around us, there are truly no right answers. But there is a way to accelerate the development of powerful strategy with the foregoing imperfections. By utilizing full involvement of the whole organization from top to bottom you will be able to maximize understanding, ownership, commitment of the people that have to make it happen (not the executive) and quickly increase the probability of the organization’s strategic advantage and success.

This means moving forward in a way that fully involves the organization’s people while driving up the collective dissatisfaction of all involved with the organization’s current state of affairs and producing substantive clarity around what improvement would look like. Collectively determine the first steps toward moving quickly and powerfully forward on that vision and clarify the capabilities that need to be developed to accelerate the changes needing to take place rapidly thus resulting in the organization overpowering the ever present inertia that resists any planned change.

Now that your organization has a quick and well developed strategy it’s ready to move forward! Whoa Nellie, not so fast. Remember that inertia piece previously referred to. Well it has been temporarily disabled and if you don’t exploit it quickly it will solidly re-establish its dysfunctional presence. You must start to quickly redesign your organization to assure you successfully achieve your organization’s new dream: the strategic plan. The focus now is on redesigning and changing your organization in ways that will enable it to quickly realize the new strategy. This requires you to revisit your organization’s current structure, systems, staffing, competencies, leadership style and the way we do things around here (often referred to as your organization’s culture, those principles that guide how people are expected to work with each other and the organization’s customers/clients).

These key areas must be revisited and fundamentally changed creating full alignment with and producing the strategic results planned for. Otherwise, as Edward Deming put it, every system is perfectly designed for the results it produces! So if you want different results, i.e. achieving the organization’s new strategy, then by definition you must change each of the foregoing components of your organization or it will simply continue to create the results produced to date and perhaps further deterioration of same. Oh, the dangers of being an executive in this day and age! No wonder these positions are affectionately known as ulcer jobs!

Here’s a small insight, the most important aspect of the foregoing is not the strategic planning, strategic management and change in management processes, but rather having the ‘leadership cajones’, courage and confidence to make it all happen! This requires a very unique leader and these are truly a very rare breed, thus being paid the big bucks as they say. However, if the desire is squarely there, then surrounding oneself with the right team who first prepare to invest in themselves working from the inside out, rather than the outside in (i.e. strategic planning, management and change) then you have a fighting chance of success.

This is really all about the CEO and his/her team being different individually and as an executive leadership team as opposed to simply doing things differently. Otherwise, as was previously inferred, the probably of bringing about needed change will be minimal. If anything it will probably become worse. Being different at both the individual and leadership team levels necessitates having the courage to work with highly seasoned executive coaches, being ready to engage in quick and powerful diagnostics, and preparing to first make the personal changes necessary to assure that the new strategy truly sticks to the wall and doesn’t just slide away. Otherwise the whole strategic management process will be an enormous waste of time, money and organizational energy. And if this is the case, it will clearly contribute to executive candidacies for transfer outside the organization!

What feelings surface for you on this subject? What to you think about it? What is it that you want to do with the information? I’m most interested in hearing from you: the good, the bad and the ugly!

“Those guys just don’t get it!”, “I’m thinking of going elsewhere given the new assignment they’ve forced me to take!”, or “This place is a zoo and no one knows which way is up or down!”. Often when engaged in coaching these and a myriad of other perspectives get voiced loudly and clearly. Although many of these clients don’t know it, being ‘stuck’ in a particular perspective or point of view is more common than not. They’re simply stuck because of his/her not being able to see ‘the blinding glimpse of the obvious’. With commitment from the client to ‘want to break through this’ (usually because of the associated pain and discomfort) and powerful coaching they typically make strong breakthroughs quickly and effectively.

So how’s this done? It’s simply a matter of coaching the client to step back and begin looking at the same situation but from different perspectives. Reviewing and clarifying these perspectives, and then making a choice that is ‘integrative’, that is taking in the needs of those significant other stakeholders and his/her own needs, creates a ‘win-win’ resolution and then ‘makes it happen’ as Kathy Dannemiller and Jake Jacobs would put it. Easier said than done, but then that is where a highly experienced senior executive coach comes in, particularly for senior executives, individual contributors and hi-potentials constantly wrestling with those organizational concerns where there is never a ‘right answer’.

A universal phenomenon that exists for us all is that we’re always in choice no matter the circumstances that face us. We’re in choice in the morning when we wake up. “What will I wear?”, “What will I have for breakfast?”, “How will I get to work?”, “Do I want to go to work?”, “How do I want to feel right now, today, tomorrow?”, “What attitude do I want to take toward my organization, boss, peers, sub ordinates, team members, customers/clients, family members, etc.?” The list is simply never-ending.

Another universal phenomenon (oh, they’re limitless), is that for every choice there is a consequence . . . good, bad or ugly! That is why knowing this information is key to our true success and fulfillment as children, parents, team members, employees, leaders and community members. Always consider your thoughts, wants and feelings (in equal amounts) before choosing. If the results impact others, always share with them what the foregoing are for you, and then also ask them what they think, want and feel about the same issue and use this collective information to make choices that satisfy.

Heck, even our dogs are in choice. Say that again! OUR DOGS ARE ALSO ALWAYS IN CHOICE! Let me give you a for example. In June of 2008 we adopted two new rescue Brittany Spaniels through the American Brittany Rescue Association. I drove Skya in from Nebraska, and drove Woody from Montana. Both were to replace two rescue Brittany’s who had passed away from old age a few months prior. Back to being in choice. Skya had been picked up off the street and was about to be euthanized in a Kill Shelter. Fortunately, someone stepped in at the last minute who rescued her turning her over to the American Brittany Rescue Association, and we picked her up a month later. In the interim, in that she came off the street and no one knew her real name, she ended up being called Sidney.

Of course, when I picked her up she did not respond to her assigned name. So on the drive back to Vancouver, BC from Nebraska I called Bev, my wife and fearless CEO of RWBA, and asked that she set up a meeting with Jerry Wong, a well known human and animal psychic. Jerry had worked very closely with Beau, our previous male Brittany who had passed away of cancer. The objective: have Jerry connect with Sidney.

Well to make a long story short, he did it. Initially, after some preliminary work with her he was not able to get a specific name from her. He worked hard at connecting, but to no avail. Then Bev said, “Why don’t you ask her what she wants to be called?” so Jerry went back to work with her. He simply put her in choice! She responded by showing Jerry a huge night sky with a plethora of stars throughout. Bev and I immediately shouted out the obvious: “Star! “ Jerry asked her and she communicated no. You’ve no doubt already guessed that she had chosen and communicated through images to Jerry that her name is Skya! When this was actually said out loud she immediately reacted by jumping up excitedly and running around our family room. I’m getting ‘verpluncked’ just sharing this with you. Yes, even our sweet Skya was and is always in choice. Thank you Jerry for coaching our little gal!

So there you have it, we, all of use, are always in choice! So what was the blinding glimpse of the obvious for you, your team and your organization in the above? I would love to hear your thoughts and gain your perspective. Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Well, it’s no secret that The Benwicks are huge animal lovers! To build on the current theme of Bob’s recent blog on Beau Benwick, I would like to share another perspective on leadership based on the human interaction with canines as we seek to establish the “leader in the pack” not unlike establishing our role as leader in any organization or community.

Cesar Millan, is an incredible animal behaviorist. You may have seen his show on the National Geographic Channel…. The Dog Whisperer…. I tend to tune in the wee hours of the morning on those nights when sleep escapes me – too much late night caffeine! I always get “take aways” from each show….not just in regard to our canine house mates, but I see such parallels to leadership amongst human kind. Cesar’s coin of the phrase “Leader of the Pack” has great meaning regardless of what species provides the context.

While several leadership pathways emerge from observing and reading about Cesar’s choice of methods [read Be the Pack Leader, Millan, C. & Peltier, J.(2007)], I am taken with the emphasis demonstrated on the value of calm assertive energy as a means to bring about desirable outcome…..in canine world this showcases the need for self regulation of the leader’s energy as dogs are all about reading this. It is what they respond to. If we as leader exhibit anger, excitement, anxiety, and/or fear while working with our canines, what will we bring about for them? Clearly we are modeling unbalanced behavior of which they will emulate or respond to. Watching those on TV who reach out to Cesar to bring solution to their canine problems, he is very clear as to who needs the help….the leader! It is interesting to note that those coming from a leadership position that demonstrates anxiety or excitable behaviour also tend to struggle to achieve the bottom and top line results, results they are looking for as their messaging. Just as with canines, they will often come across to others as perhaps reactive and confusing, or unpredictable, intimidating, lackluster and incredulous, often eroding that most important aspect…..trust! 

So what does this mean for us homo sapiens? In our human experience under conditions of stress (that’s constantly around us), the question is, ‘as leaders how do we show up for others and what messaging are we sending to those that we lead? If our anxiety, anger, and/or fear are not well self-regulated, particularly in these challenging times….. can you, the organizational leader, really expect to get desired contribution and performance from your people once you’ve made key decisions? Under continuous growing demands from all around you, in such a state can a you, as leader, clearly produce the best balanced decisions for the organization and its constituents? What tools could your organization provide you with to fully support you to better self-regulate, thus maximizing your leadership effectiveness and providing the leverage for you to become a highly respected “leader of the pack”? 

And….to Cesar Millan, …… it would be a sincere pleasure to eventually have the opportunity to meet a true developer of leaders!

Are there any Cesars in your organization? Are you one? What do you need to say yes to in order to create the possibility! What do you need to start saying no to in order assure its happening?

Jake Jacobs is a wonderful friend and one of the most talented and leading organization change thinkers out there today. A pioneer in the area of large-scale real-time strategic change, Jake is the go to person if you’re at all interested in assuring the strategic success of your organization, no matter what size, in these times of unprecedented white-water change.

Jake teamed up with Dick and Emily Exelrod, and Julie Beedon to write a short powerful book, ‘You Don’t Have to Do It Alone: How to Involve Others To Get Things Done’. This book is a must for any executive serious about the success of their organization’s future bottom and top lines. The New York Times claims that it is “The best of the current crop of books on this topic…a complete blueprint for involving others.”

Berret Koehler, the publisher, summarizes it beautifully by declaring:

“You Don’t Have to Do It Alone: How to Involve Others to Get Things Done” provides a simple, straightforward approach, known as “Pragmatic Involvement,” in order to bring people together to get big things done. Most people in organizations tend to manage projects either as “Realists” or “Humanists.” Realists focus on getting things done. They pride themselves on their no-nonsense attitude. However, they often ignore the human factors that profoundly affect the success of a project. On the other hand, humanists are concerned about people. They care about others and their feelings. Unfortunately, they often overlook practical considerations, such as deadlines and budgets.

You Don’t Have to Do It Alone brings together the practical view of the realist and the people oriented view of the humanist, combining the best of both approaches into one role—the “Pragmatic Involver.” As the authors note, “The question is not ‘whether to involve or not to involve.’ The question is how to do it well.” This book will show you how to avoid wasting valuable time and talents in order to truly work with others to get things done.

You Don’t Have to Do It Alone is organized around a series of five questions that are asked by Pragmatic Involvers whenever they tackle a new challenge:

• What Kind of Involvement Is Needed?
• How Do I Know Who to Include?
• How Do I Invite People to Become Involved?
• How Do I Keep People Involved?
• How Do I Finish the Job?

This book is the Swiss Army Knife of involvement—a set of tools that can be used in any setting to get you the help you need. You will learn to involve others in a way that will actually make your work easier, that will result in less stress, better ideas, and more successful outcomes. The lessons that you learn will apply whether you are working at a multinational corporation, an inner-city hospital, or at the community bake sale.

Check out Jake, Dick and Emily discussing their book and its potential on Youtube. Jake Jacobs is President of Robert W. Jacobs Consulting, Inc., and the author of Real Time Strategic Change and was a contributor to The Change Handbook and The Conscious Consultant. His clients include Marriott, The Home Depot, and the City of New York. Go to Jake’s Winds of Change Group website if you are interested in exploring the creation of more potential for your organization’s future strategic success. 

If you have read this book, I would enjoy hearing what you thought and felt about it. Just go to the comments below and, as Larry the Cable Guy would say, ‘Gitt’er Done!’.

The name of the fellow you see above is Beau, Beau Benwick. He had what Jim Collins referred to as unwavering resolve. We treated him like a son. Beau came into our life when we had lost a previous rescue Brittany Spaniel, CeCe. Within a few months of CeCe passing away, Bev (my wife and CEO of our global executive coaching firm) had gone onto the American Brittany Rescue Association website and shortly thereafter said, “I’m flying down to Chicago on business and while there I’ll be putting our new rescue dog daughter, Honey, on the first plane to Seattle and please arrange to drive down and pick her up.” I dutifully, yet quite excitedly, said, “Absolutely!” Within two weeks of that, Bev said “Would you also arrange to drive down to Sacramento and pick up our new rescue dog son, Beau?” This was about 8 years ago and they would be our first pair of Rescue Brittanys being brought to their ‘forever home’. 

The foregoing is just setting the stage for the wonderful story to come. Both Beau and Honey settled in very quickly and were showered with love and every amenity any human being could wish for. Although Honey came from a good home and background, Beau came to us as an abused, rough and tumble character that never went around anything, but through it. He was a stoic fellow who never whined, but simply took what life handed out. He had a powerful and quiet strength about him. Both he and Honey became very, very close to Bev, who has an extensive equine background. She has this magic around animals that when they see her, they will come considerable distances just to be near her. It’s actually quite amazing to observe.

Now back to Beau. About two and a half years ago Bev began her Master in Leadership degree at Royal Roads University, Victoria, BC. She took this task on with huge gusto and worked on squeezing every ounce of learning she could out of the experience. What I’m trying to say is that she studied 24-7 for two plus years. Once she started on her thesis project, she literally lived in her second story office in our home. Always with her was Beau, lying at her feet on a sheepskin rug under her desk and computer. 

It was soon after Bev started working on her degree that we noticed Beau was experiencing physical difficulties. He was immediately taken to the vet, who after taking a number of x-rays, shared that Beau had cancer and would probably not live for another month. A complete shock to us and heart rending! As is her way, Bev then pulled out all the stops and had Beau provided with every traditional and non-traditional healing alternative available. This included bringing in an ‘animal psychic’ by the name of Jerry, who has since become a dear friend. After being introduced to Beau, Jerry started to work with him with great intensity. It was in one of the early sessions that Jerry told Bev and I that Beau shared with him that he was not prepared to move on until Bev had completed her ‘work’, meaning her studies. It was about being there for her, supporting and protecting her because he had strongly picked up on her increased stress levels. This went completely in the face of his prognosis.

Through the good and bad they were both there for each other. They were absolutely inseparable. It wasn’t unusual for me to get up in the wee hours of the morning on any night of the week and see Bev working hard in her office with Beau at her feet. He never left her. Bev rarely left her office other than to deliver on her executive coaching commitments, eat and get ‘some’ sleep.

Two years after Beau’s prognosis, Bev completed her exceptionally lengthy thesis and pushed the button on her computer with an enormous sigh of relief and a declaration that “It’s finally done!” It was the very next day Beau passed away, March 24th, 2008. It would be an understatement to say his passing was enormous. The lessons learned from this wonderful ‘being’ called Beau Benwick were monumental. In his way, Beau was a wonderful teacher and leader to the both of us.

So, in line with our blog site theme, I believe that Jim Collins, in his influential book Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap . . . and Others Don’t, really captured the qualities of this amazing being who came into our lives and changed us forever . . . and for so much the better. The five attributes that Jim Collins claims typify a Level 5 Leader, were completely aligned with who Beau Benwick was:

1. Self-Confident Enough To Set Up Their Successors For Success – Beau did this in spades for Bev. 

2. Humble and Modest - never did Beau complain during the cancer that eventually wracked his body, but always showed enormous strength in a quiet, loving and caring manner as he supported Bev.

3. Have “Unwavering Resolve” – Beau made it clear the two years previously that he would never abandon Bev, would unwaveringly support and protect her until she had ‘completed climbing her mountain’. 

4. Display a “Workmanlike Diligence” - more plow horse than show horse, this was Beau through and through; nothing deterred him from being at Bev’s side in his quiet, powerful manner.

5. Give Credit to Others for Their Success and Take Full Responsibility For Poor Results - Beau was solely there for Bev, expected nothing but kindness and love in return no matter what the result of Bev’s academic efforts were. She was his hero regardless of the outcome. (By the way she received rave reviews from her Academic Advisor on her final thesis report).

Well that was our Beau. He left an enormous hole in our lives. When he passed away, Honey, who was at the peak of health at the time, quickly deteriorated from his passing and absence and she too passed away three months later. Bev and I simply could not stand the vacuum created in our lives by their loss. Bev got back in touch with the American Brittany Rescue Association and last June and July, 2008, I was instructed to drive to Montana and to pick up ‘Woody’ a five year old male Brittany love machine, and ‘Skya’, a seven your old female Brittany sweetheart who had been rescued from a ‘Kill Shelter’ a month prior (see YouTube). She’s another story because she actually named herself with Jerry’s help. If interested, I would be happy to share this story with you as well.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this little tale. It’s been cathartic for me and I thank you for your indulgence. I admired Beau and learned a lot from his quiet strength and unwavering resolve. I would enjoy hearing about similar experiences. Just go to ‘comments’ below and have at it. Have a great day!

“Given the current market and the organization’s poor revenues over the past year, I wasn’t surprised when they gave me notice of termination.” Tony, a senior marketing executive with a large petrochemical firm had just been let go after 15 years with the organization. “So how are you feeling in this moment?”, I asked. “Well, even though I had guessed my number was coming up, it still came as a complete shock. Not only to me, but to my family as well! It’s been a long time since I’ve looked for a job and I’m not sure where to start.” “Well based on what I know about you so far, I’m confident you will do well in promoting yourself, and strongly believe that you’ll succeed in your campaign to find a new job!” I continued, “Let’s really drill down and build a solid foundation for you to move forward confidently and powerfully.”

“What is it you believe you need to do to succeed?” I asked him. Tony is a very outgoing individual with a naturally positive outlook that he would have to lean on as he moved forward with his career transition. “Well, there is no doubt that the way I will look at this whole situation will form the foundation of my job search campaign and probably be the reason why I’ll succeed at it. Plus, I’d like to make solid progress toward landing on my feet in another position as soon as practical and bank as much of my severance as possible!” he said with conviction.

“How do you plan to navigate through the forthcoming job search challenges and implement a powerful campaign for yourself?” I inquired. “I probably need to start at the beginning!” he said facetiously. “Say that again?”, I responded. “Seriously, I sense that I need to begin taking some kind of inventory of my strengths and get clear on the work I truly love to do, getting some clarity around what it is I want to really achieve, and preparing to package and market myself.” Tony stated.

“It appears that you already have good clarity and a great jump start on how you plan to market yourself and build a strong network of contacts”, I commented, and went on, “What else do you need to focus on?”. “For sure, I’ll need to also take a hard look at my interview and negotiating skills. I just know, there’ll be no room for laying back and taking it easy, not until I’ve nailed down a good opportunity”.” So, how do you need to be as you move forward?”, I asked. Tony, quickly responded with a resounding, “I need to be thoughtful, thorough and persistent in everything I do from here on in. I also need to be physically, psychologically and spiritually at my best!”

With this, Tony and I coached and collaborated around key steps in his career transition plan that would be needed to assure his success. The following capture what we coached around and Tony made happen. 

1. Completed A Full Inventory of Himself: Identified his past successes, current strengths, over-all work and leadership styles, and personal preferences and became expert in the product – himself.
2. Clarified His Career Direction: got great clarity, became focused and realistic all based firmly on his key strengths.
3. Professionally Packaged & Presented Himself: developed powerful résumés (professional brochures) that showcased him professionally.
4. Developed a Laser-Focused Marketing Campaign: created a clear strategy for going after those industries, organizations, roles and key decision makers in a way that took full advantage of his limited time, available resources and assured a successful outcome of his market campaign. 
5. Created A Powerful Strategic Network: engaged in a highly planful and results producing Business relationships building campaign that was vital to his job search success. 
6. Designed Highly Influential Campaign Correspondence: designed and developed a range of professional search campaign letters from introducing himself to following up on key opportunities. 
7. Partnering with His Coach, Practiced His Interviewing and Negotiating Skills: deepened his emotional intelligence that included his self-regulation, communication (particularly asking and listening) skills, and his empathy accuracy and compassion abilities that proved essential to converting opportunities into ready job offers. 
8. Assured His Success In The New Job: We worked together to assure successful leadership transition into the new role by taking steps that would accelerate his transition from being an initial net consumer of the new organization’s resources to a net contributor in as short a time as practical.

Tony was amazingly thorough and persistent in managing his job search campaign. He worked as hard for Tony Inc., 5 days a week, 8 hours a day, as he had for his previous employer. This dramatically contributed to his achieving, and even exceeding, what he truly wanted. In his case it took him five and a half months. He was eventually offered and accepted a position more senior and at a higher total compensation level than where he had been previously working. Nothing to sneeze at! I loved partnering with him as his career transition coach during that part of his life’s journey.

What were the blinding glimpses of the obvious for you in Tony’s experience? What would you add to the foregoing? What part causes you personal trepidation? What would you do differently if you were to do this?