Coaching Businesses to Success News Update

Just back from a wedding in Northern Ireland. Everything went well, including the experience of the Fermanagh weather (wedding day had rain, cloud and glorious sunshine, but hey - we had a great time).

Our fabulous Bed and Breakfast was the Dromard House, with the remarkable Sharon, who cooked us the very best 'Ulster Fry'. An even better one than that in the Europa Hotel, Belfast, where Elaine, (now Walker - congratulations!) and I used to head for, after the 7am flight from Bristol, when we were negotiating our first deal over there. That's why we booked our meetings for 10,30!

Back to Dromard House. We had a great stay there, with the beautiful setting by Lough Erne (although it took another of my experiences with a dog to find out how to get to it - see later this week for more about that).

On our last morning, we suffered what I can only describe as the most fearful groaning equipment in our en-suite I've ever heard. This is not a personal issue, it was definitely mechanical!

As next door's bathroom was right next to ours and I couldn't readily identify where the sound was coming from, we tolerated this for more than 90 minutes. In the end, as I was doing my ablutions, I switched the radiator on (it had been switched off since we arrived as it was quite warm).

Result, the noise stopped immediately! So, you will expect a moral to this story - and of course, there is!

What I got from it was that I needed to try out any possibility remotely linked to that noise. Turning a seemingly insignificant tap made the difference. Missing doing that caused me to lie in bed with a pillow over my head for over 90 minutes - which so easily could have been avoided.

I had missed that most important opportunity - of using all possible tools in my chest. Leveraging everything I had to make the difference.

Notice any business opportunities in here? I'll leave you to make the links on this one and how you might apply it tomorrow, or if you are reading this Monday, today!

The 'Six Thinking Hats' are a reference to that great book "Six Thinking Hats" by Edward de Bono, which shows us that there are as many as six different thinking ways to approach things - trying on a different hat than the one would typically wear, is worth the discomfort.

July 4, 2005 17:56 - It's A Dog's Life

The trip to Northern Ireland was a rich one indeed. As usual, I found it quite easy to extrapolate learning opportunities to share. Those of you who have been around a while will remember experiences I've had with dogs before. Last week's was quite exceptional.

At Dromard House (I'm not on commission!) there was such a beautiful setting, with a working farm, reminiscent of my holidays as a child in North Wales. Set about 100ft above Lough Erne, it was a short half-mile walk to it, but for the first two days, we couldn't find a way down to it!

On the last night there, I was having a stroll around the farm and came across the farm dog (who I later found was called Honey). Using my usual 'coaching style', I entered into a bit of a conversation with the dog.

"Wanna go for a walk?"

At which point she ran off and stopped by a gate round the back of the farm. When I got there, the sign on the gate said

"To the lake"

So I followed Honey, who led me all the way down to the lake, stopping every 100 yards or so to make sure I was following her. When we got to the lake, she jumped in! She swam around a bit and drank some of the lake (and smelt rather 'mature' afterwards).

Solutions come from the most unexpected directions - it's seeking out the possibilities that creates the success. Sort of, you have to put yourself in the very best pace to receive - and then maybe, just maybe, you will.

July 5, 2005 11:03 - Employee Motivation - Access Their Unique Talents

How well do you truly understand the people you have working with you in your business? Why would you want to know? They show up, do what you tell them, take their pay and go home. It's as simple as that. Or is it? In fact, is there a trick you are missing? Your... (Read Article)

July 6, 2005 22:44 - London Olympics - A National Trigger...

I'm not a huge fan of the Olympics. Athletics was never my strong point and I tended to focus on cricket and football. Although I did have an exciting summer, probably back in about 1965, when I won a high jump competition. It was especially exciting, because I never won anything else in athletics, because of a lad named Graham Beaumont, who was about 7 inches taller than me - a definite asset when you are trying to get your legs pretty high in the air.

That summer, for once, Graham didn't attend the Horticultural Show where we also, for some reason ran a strong town-wide athletics meeting. Since he and I came from the same school, and we happened to be the two best high-jumpers in the town, this was my big chance, as he was away on holiday. So I won.

Today, as in thousands of places across the UK, I was excited, scared and in the end very elated at our winning the Games in 2012. I know where I was - I was leaving a Mercedes garage (well, you can dream can't you!) and I'd been spending a few moments before the decision talking to an equally excited garage owner. I left him to scurry back to his office jjust as the result was announced and I hooted my horn as I drove off.

Our personal histories shape our lives. Like Seb Coe in his marvellous presentation, where he recounted his experience as a 12-year old, watching the Mexico Olympics, my athletics experience is etched on my mind and I still have the medal to this day.

We can engage many with personal anecdotes. They are incredibly appealing. In fact one or two have crept into this website because they were powerful and memorable moments for me. (Checkout this page and this one). Experiences that changed my life and my perception of what works and what doesn't in business - and my career as a whole.

Today Seb Coe shared an experience which, because of it's simplicity, honesty and appeal, will change the lives of millions of people in this country and the wide world.

Take note of that. As managers and leaders, you will have ideas and experiences (good and less so) that you can share with and relate to your people. Take that opportunity. It is a fine way to share who you are and show your sincerity and integrity. It is worth the journey.

As a country, we have seemed to be able to mark shifts in who we are and what happens to our confidence by important one-off experiences nationally - I think that this decision will bring a return of national confidence, and one which has been lacking recently.

If you want an excellent resource which shows how to use personal anecdote as a powerful presentation tool, there is a great book by Lee Glickstein called "Be Heard Now" - it is definitely worth a read and it has changed my own presentational style dramatically!

July 10, 2005 22:03 - Pitching it Right

A friend of mine has a background of pretty senior management and experience in a highly specialist area. Such that recently, he was invited to apply for a great position with a government agency, assessing and supporting improvements within sharp end delivery bodies.

When he got to the selection centre, he was intrigued to find others who he knew and were also being assessed. Since there was no one job to compete for, they were all attempting to get past the benchmark and be taken on in these consultant roles, for occasional work.

Rather bizarrely, he found that the various challenges that they were set were bordering on the ridiculous - simplistic and not much of a test.

Anyway, the exercises went on, with my friend wondering what where the catch was and finishing in half the time (as were others too). He felt a bit of a hypocrite as he'd told his daughter, taking exams at the moment, always to use her time to the full!

The final test was to generate a critical report, based on some minimal facts provided, of an individuals performance. Basically finding what was wrong; a guide to where they were underperforming and feed it back to them in report form. Bearing in mind that this was an exercise to prove his worth, my friend took a gamble. He felt that the better way would be to engage the individual (a role-playing member of the assessment team) in 'conversation', building trust and rapport, yet building the role players confidence in him.

This completely threw the assessor at first. Once she got the hang of what my friend was trying to do, she found it a bit of a hoot and took her part well. The assessor of the exercise also realised that this was a novel, yet impressive way to interact constructively with a future potential client.

My friend is not specifically a coach - though we have had discussions about it. In fact he was a manager, worked closely in a constructive way with his people and this was second nature to him. Interestingly, this was not this way those assessing him would have done this work. He does not know yet whether he has passed the hurdle.

Yet his style shows that he has both the required skills as well as an ability to wing-it on his gut instinct. And maybe, just maybe share an insight with others - who will undoubtedly learn much from it themselves.

I say a big well done for taking the chance and bringing two people along in the thrust of change that living a coaching-style life is generating in the world. You know who you are!

July 12, 2005 20:17 - Get Your Head Around This

I don't want to keep going on about it, but I have been thinking about the London incidents last week - no-one in the UK can have been far from considering them, not just for the actual events, but the potential for something like this affecting us personally. Even though I live over 100 miles from London, I have already come into contact with people who were on the next train or who worked close to Kings Cross. So these things reach across significant distances.

Whilst it is so important to acknowledge the bereaved and those injured and the thousands of people who will be directly affected (not forgetting the thousands who will also be affected for months to come, just because of the now fulfilled threat), I want to focus on something else that has become apparent during this tragedy

How do you set about organising such a brilliant response?

Our police get quite a kicking (sometimes literally) from the public, the health resources are often stretched and the fire people have been on and off strike for months. But, the reaction to the huge challenge they faced last week and since was wonderful.

How on earth do you co-ordinate such a response? Heading up this is the COBRA government response which meets with the powers to instigate significant actions in the case of a major attack. Police, fire, health, transport and other civil bodies have the internal plans to respond accordingly.

For myself, I am in awe of how well such a large and diverse bunch or organisations came together and I hold my hand up in admiration for whoever pulled this together. It was a magnificent effort.

Of course it didn't end there - whilst as a response to the serious challenges the actual incidents precipitated, there have been ongoing actions, such that today, when we are told that CCTV has now identified the possible bombers as they left a train in Kings Cross, just minutes before the attacks.

I have to say that I am really so impressed and the ability to generate responses of this sort, on such an occasion, must put into perspective our own projects and the challenges we face. If such a response in the face of a serious and even unimaginable problem can be successful, then maybe we can deliver what we need to as well.

What can we learn for use in our own businesses and organisations. What can we learn for the teams we lead and the problems we face.

Much, I believe.

There is more in the Daily Telegraph

July 13, 2005 20:23 - Love Work - Love Life

I love the work I do. I love the life I lead. It takes me from the corporate prison I was in, to the opportunities of meeting with new people, sharing their interesting and varied lives with them. Living a different way.

I love the serendipity of what I do and the chances that come my way. It is all part of that great network created out of showing your face a bit and being interested enough in people to find out more - being 'nosy'.

I look after a couple of groups as a CoachU class facilitator - a Teleclass leader even! On a class I began last week for the first time, we worked on the interesting exchanges we have in 'conversations' with people. Not coaching sessions - conversations.

Are conversations not just fascinating? I love finding out about how people are and what their life experience has been. I love hearing upbeat and downbeat folks. Sometimes I am a little wicked with the downbeat ones, because I slip into challenging mode (ever so gently, I add!).

I tease them with little questions I think might make them think...

With upbeat people I bathe in their energy and ask more, find out more, get to know them inside out. I have been doing this all my life, longer than I can remember and certainly longer than I've been a 'Coach'.

With my own coach, Andrea Lee, I realised from a class she's leading at the moment about Coaching Day Jobs' that we can 'coach' (verb) in a day job, just as well as we can be a 'Coach' (noun).

I think that's what I do as I go about my life. I 'coach', but not so overtly as you would spot. Because I use the pleasurable experiences of 'conversations' to be that way.

Maybe it's my north of England upbringing. Maybe subversively they bring us up 'nosy' as they say up there. Everyone living more or less in each others pockets. Indeed in the rows of terraced houses where people lived (though I admit, I didn't), everyone did live together closely. They looked out for each other, used intuition as a safeguard, not a fancy coaching tool!

This conversation tonight has not been what I expected - I was going to bang on about how I enjoy nature and my walks at the moment - maybe another day. I could have told you about the kestrel I saw this morning with it's catch! The woodpecker that flew past me at just a yard away. Even the smell of the lavender at this time of night as the air cools.

But then I'd be getting all wistful on you, wouldn't I :-)

July 14, 2005 19:16 - Make Change Easy - Get Involved!

The level and intimacy of involvement in change makes a big difference to how people are able to respond. Taking 'control' of change can be fruitful, enlightening and, yes, enjoyable. If you are undergoing change, think it through, and then think how you can... (Read Article)

July 15, 2005 22:03 - Delegation for Business Leaders - How Letting Go Works

To create the time for the specific role of a leader, as much as possible of the day to day delivery must be handed over.This level of delegation is very important, not only to create the space for the leader to develop visions and longer terms strategic goals,... (Read Article)

July 16, 2005 22:45 - Coaching in Our Time

Someone recently asked, on a forum I lurk in:-

"If you had been caught up on a bus in London that morning, with a young man clutching a heavy rucksack, how would you have coached him?"
An interesting question. Firstly it supposes that the appearance of someone could be interpreted as a serious threat to life and limb. Secondly, maybe the question assumes that the coach might know what the person's intent was, and be considering ways in which to 'talk him out of it'. Both are rather assumptions on my part, as I interpret my own response to the question.

In fact neither of those assumptions, on the part of the asker might be right or fair.

My take on this isssue is around the very essence of coaching, that we as coaches are not there to 'make' our clients do anything, good or bad. In fact we don't have an agenda for our clients, nor for anyone we might meet in the street or at work or even in our friends and family.

Coaching is a bit of a different animal. Coaching is about being nosy. It's about getting people interested in themselves and what might be possible. It's about facilitating whatever it is that's in them - their latent potential and making the best of it - as long as that's what the client wants - nothing more.

True, sometimes (and in my experience too!), clients might not be aware just yet what they really do want, but we help them find out - sometimes deep down. The superficial stuff is very important to them, but often it's about something they don't want to explore, some place they don't want to go inside themselves.

As a coach, I help them find that and then let them see if that is a place that might be good (and safe) for them to explore a little.

Faced with a potential bomber, it is not, I believe, a coach's responsibility, whatever the justification, to try to coach them out of the act they are thinking of committing.

Yet, by holding a place where I might show interest in them as a person, raise their own self-esteem and make them feel a little more valued in the life they have, maybe that might help - but the decision on their life; their path is theirs - not mine. This, I like to feel I do for many people in many walks of life; in the many places I come across people.

Once I start taking responsibility, being accountable for what people do in their own lives, I am carrying a really heavy burden indeed.

And, in my eyes, that's not what coaching is about at all.

July 17, 2005 17:10 - Creating Trust

It's a little thing, though the number of times it gets abused amazes me. It's about following through and following up.

If you lead people in any way (and many of us do), it is vital that the expectations you create are delivered. Being let down by a leader always leaves doubt.

And doubt, when you need all your people to give you 100% +, holds them back. In fact way back.

Reap What You Sow

So when you fail to deliver what you have told your people you will, remember that they often set great store in what you have, to them, promised. When you let them down, it doesn't just get forgotten.

In fact, in my experience (and, I hasten to add, I am not personally perfect at this, but I am aware of it), failed promises, missed follow-ups and other behaviours of this ilk are cumulative.

By letting people down occasionally, you will find they remember it, and the next one and the next one, so that when you really do need your people to dig deep, funny, but they hold back.

Why should they dig deep for you, when you haven't for them? It may seem a small thing, but this is vitally true.

Because, you know...

...when it happens to you, just how you feel as well. Let down and disappointed - and you will also know how disposed you felt to that person. Often bitter; often lacking enthusiasm for that extra effort.

Sadly it's the way many managers behave today - and they wonder what is missing in the people they manage - sad, but it's not their people, but them.

It's a two-way street.

July 18, 2005 18:56 - Wants List

As some of you know, I work with CoachU as one of their faculty, training the next generation of coaches.

Today, I experienced a bit of a WOW moment when one of the coaches on the call raised something that I hadn't thought about at all (thanks to Janet from South Carolina!).

To empower people, they have to 'want' for something in the first place. Otherwise there won't be any incentive for them to get empowered, right? But what if there are people out there who have lost the will to want?

What if they cannot 'want' for anything any more, because of their circumstances, the behaviour of others in their lives or the absolute lack of hope and future they have for themselves and their loved ones.

I had never contemplated that before. I guess I have had a relatively affluent middle-class life and 'wanting' has always been on my horizon. A future where life got better, not just in the material things I 'wanted', but also in the kind of life I lead.

I guess, a life more aligned to the personal 'values' I spent months and even years fine-tuning.

But what if that possibility is way outside your scope? What is that like then? It must be a very odd place. (To me maybe, but perhaps not to those people who know nothing different). But now I think about it, there must be millions of people and even billions perhaps, in third world countries where their wants are no more than daily survival and perhaps even the thought, the concept of a clean well for their daily water needs is just outside their thinking even.

Makes you think, feel rather humble and realise that each day there is a concept that is around that gives cause for reflection.

July 21, 2005 09:32 - Conversations are the Solution

Managers have a special set of roles in the businesses and organisations they are accountable for. They are relationship builders, task deliverers, results producers. Ironically their focus is usually on the middle item, closely followed by the last and way in the rear is the former, that of relationship building.

Yet relationships with all of their people are vital to deliver both the tasks as well as the results!

In fact, it is virtually impossible to deliver the performance a business, organisation or even team is capable of, without the very best relationship between a manager and everyone else.

Yet managers so often focus on tasks rather than people. It is much easier to do! A thing is inanimate, it doesn't matter if you are bit shy when dealing with things or tasks!, So rather than spend time building strong, trusting and potential releasing relationships, it's far easier to focus on 'doing' tasks and instructing others to do the same!

Why is this?

Sometimes, recruitment for managers is by default. "You've been here a long time, so it's your turn", or a more senior manager cajoles someone who doesn't really have the skills to "have a go". Often, recruiters don't make the best job of finding the right people and then also there is, I believe, a shortage of good, capable managers in the population.

Once selected, managers are often left to flounder, may have poor role models themselves from their immediate (and even more senior - a culture thing) boss, or they may lack experience and never find a way to get the right learning to develop.

In the end this generates much more challenge for any organisation. Poor management, poor relationships and ultimately dissatisfied and disillusioned employees, many of whom leave (feeling failures often themselves), with the underperforming manager blaming the world because he or she can't recruit any decent staff!

So, I can whinge and whine - but what is the solution?

The art of conversation.

Managers need to get themselves freed up to engage in interested conversations with their people and not feel they have to be delivering all the time. Results and task delivery are important - but for a manager, far more critical both short- and long-term are the relationships they build in the many opportunities they come across during their day. This means conversing and especially really hearing their people and building the trust and hence relationships that are vital for successful progress.

The rest just slots into place.

For more on relationship building, click the link. To create almost instant rapport, check this link out too!

July 22, 2005 23:00 - Building on Trust

Someone I once worked with, a 'colleague', related this story just this week. It goes to show how cynically 'trust' as a marketing tool can be used by some organisations.

The organisation is currently pushing 'trust' as their brand, yet with my friend, they have truly shot themselves in the foot.

Despite bloated bonuses and expense accounts for their senior executives, most of the employees in this business didn't qualify for a bonus - disappointing, but they didn't qualify (although their bosses did!).

In my friend's job category, which with it's technical aspect is proving extremely hard to recruit for, a few did qualify for a bonus, ironically, even though they didn't expect it.

After it had been paid, there was a rumour that there had been an error, so my friend checked with his line manager, only to be told that it wasn't a problem for him and that his bonus was OK.

So, he spent it. And, just after he did - guess what - he got a letter from his boss's boss, saying there was now a doubt about the bonus! This week he was told that half was being clawed back!

Trust as a marketing tool for this organisation! Retaining these difficult to recruit employees. Boy is this organisation doing their stuff.

And do we see these senior 'fat cats' offering up their bonuses to pay for their extreme insensitivity - I don't think so! No accountability there then! What an example eh? And they wonder why they are struggling to recruit and retain. They wonder why their business is turning over less than last year.

Probably need a big step back and have a long, hard look at who they are as an organisation.

First rule of motivating your people - get their pay right! Then there might be a hope of getting some 'trust' back into their people, let alone their customers.

Pretty shallow, not to mention unfocussed eh?

For more 'basics' on Motivation, click here.

July 23, 2005 13:30 - Making it Happen!

This article caught my eye this week and I am indebted to Allan Mackintosh at PMC Scotland for allowing me to use it as one of an occasional range of visiting expert authors.Ensuring that your team members have a positive mindset around continuous improvement... (Read Article)

July 24, 2005 18:52 - Thinking Outside the Mobile Box

In Zanzibar, there is virtually no landline telephone system. Almost a whole 2% of the population have electricity. So they are not overly advanced with the technology that most of us regard as commonplace.

Yet, amazingly, they have embraced a certain technology with fascinating results and developed a new business model that is growing their economy as well.

There are mobile phone masts all over the country. In places even where in the west you wouldn't find them (try getting an Orange signal in the Travelodge at Whiddon Cross near Okehampton just off the A30!). As I understand it, virtually the whole country is served by relatively inexpensive mobile telephony.

Fishermen at sea use them to find out which port has the best fish prices and for what fish and adjust their catch and port of call appropriately. For those who actually don't have a mobile phone, airtime minutes are available through resellers. 98% of the population have access to a mobile phone - contrast that with their access to an 'old' technology, that of electricity, mentioned earlier.

When I first started in business, it will perhaps alarm you to know that my first Christmas at work we sold the first calculators. And now where would we be without the sophisticated computers that many of us use each day?

In Zanzibar, they have embraced massive technological change in one leap and as a consequence, they have missed out all the stages in between. There is doubt that they will ever have a landline based phone system as the cabling infrastructure will be too expensive and complicated to set up!

So 'home' phones are now being produced which look like the ones we use, but are different, they have an aeriel rather than a lead to the socket in the wall - just like a mobile and using a mobile system!

So, what can we learn from this?

Well, a great question might be..."If we were starting again, would where we are now be of use, or would it be better to start again, knowing what we now know?

Applying that to the Zanzibar mobile phone example makes it a bit of a no brainer.

July 27, 2005 19:32 - On Contentment

Michale Neill is a UK coach but who now lives in the US. Terribly honest, Michael writes a weekly newsletter which he admits often follows his own path through life.

His offering this week is about 'contentment' and it served as a timely reminder to me, when it dropped into my own inbox!

I'll not steal the thunder of Michael's excellent piece, and you can find a link to it at the end of this entry, but it is surprising how being content with one's lot can be so evasive!

Perhaps it's because such a feeling gets lost in the busy lives we lead and we sort of stop and forget that as we stand, in that moment, we can detach ourselves from that busyness.

It certainly helped me on a hectic day.

I'm delighted to be able to broaden what comes up on this blog for other ideas and concepts and to share with you from time to time.

I ceratinly don't corner the market on ideas!

For Michael Neill's newsletter entry click here and scroll down.

July 30, 2005 20:57 - Time Management and Team Development - The Yes and No of It

When to say 'yes'; when to say 'no' - the dilemma!

You see we human beings spend a lot of our time saying them at the wrong time - and it gets us into all sorts of trouble, expends our energies and wastes our time. In fact, if we said 'Yes' when we say 'No' and 'No', when we say 'Yes', it would make big, big difference in our lives. Sometimes.

In fact making some small changes to the circumstances when we use these two little words, can make all the difference. And it takes practice.

Saying 'Yes' More...

...brings help when we are offered it. How often have you turned down support, because it felt easier to say 'No thanks. I'm fine'? How often have you rejected assistance in all sorts of places and circumstances? Sometimes it seems like the thing to do - a force of habit. But saying 'Yes', truly can be a help for you. But there is more. When you say 'Yes', you build relationships with who is offering.

You see, people love to help others and being in a situation where someone else feels thay have helped you out builds the bridge of relationship. It bonds in a most constructive way. Even more, when someone offers to help and it is accepted, they learn too.

When it's someone in your team, they love to help out (they offered!), especially the 'boss'. And what's more, when this happens, they learn to take some of the burden. Sure, it takes time and a little guidance, but it is a truly positive thing. Accepting help, by saying 'Yes' rather than 'No' is a magic tactic to take some of your load off, build a strong bond and develop others too.

Saying 'No' More...

...generates space for you. We 'tend' to say 'No' fairly rarely - especially if our natural tendency is to help out. We also 'tend' to say it when we want to be appreciated. It fufils a need to be needed - so we say 'Yes', in these circumstanmces way too often - and that means that we get overloaded. Saying 'No' more regularly makes others realise that we are not a soft touch. Training others in this way gets them thinking more about other solutuions and frees up your time too.

Find it hard to say 'No'?

Of course you do - in fact most of us do - so develop some coping strategies.

Like putting off a decision for 24 hours (many's the time others will find a different solution in the meantime); being honest and saying that you have someting else on; filling your diary with 'you' time, and sticking to it. A date with yourself becomes sacrosanct time in your diary and non-negotiable.

Try these two shifts in approach to 'Yes' and 'No' and you will find your life becomes more tolerable, it frees up your valuable time and your people will become much more capable and resourceful.

In fact your relationships with those around you, work and home, will improve immeasurably.

But you have to make the first step.