This Blog is By Kathie Allen, CPCC, ACC – Guest Writer

As a coach, it has often occurred to me that my clients are afraid to “want” things. They live in a place of wishing but they never take action to go after it.

What is it that you want? What do you want to “Have? Be? Do”? Make a “bucket” list of your desires! Identify those things that will add depth to your life and life to your years so they have a chance to become a reality. Find a friend (or a coach) to record all the things you want to “Have, Be, Do” as you speak. Tell the truth! You will be surprised at what comes out of your mouth.

I encourage my clients to categorize the most important things on their lists, and begin to take action to make those dreams become reality. I check in with them frequently to see how they are doing. And you know what? They make most of those dreams come true!

For more resources, see the Library topic Personal and Professional Coaching.

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Kathie Allen, CPCC, ACC – Professional Life and Leadership Coach. Kathie loves to work with people who believe in the greater good and those in search of deeper meaning for their lives. Contact Kathie: 218-326-9267 • insight@paulbunyan.net

Steve Ober is now co-hosting the leadership blog and that means that readers will be getting a deep and interesting dive into systemic leadership. In the coming months I will continue to provide an overview of some of the more prominent leadership theories, approaches, and practices. I just concluded a four week introduction on transformational leadership and will follow this up with a similar overview of adaptive leadership, followed by examinations of charismatic, dynamical, servant, and authentic leadership. This series will include some guest submissions by writers that are intimately familiar with these various leadership theories, models, and approaches.

Introduction to Adaptive Leadership

The ideas and practices surrounding adaptive leadership have been advanced in large part by Ron Heifetz and Marty Linsky in the books “Leadership without Easy Answers” and “Leadership on the Line” and more recently with the help of Alexander Grashow in the book “The Practice of Adaptive Leadership”. This introduction, and the upcoming blog entries, will draw in large part from the work of these three subject matter experts.

What is Adaptive Leadership?

Heifetz et al believe that leadership is, at its essence, about influencing change that builds and enables the capacity of individuals and organizations to thrive. Specifically, that leadership is the practice of mobilizing groups of people to tackle tough challenges and thrive. The bottom line is that leaders need to understand the importance of adaptation and are able to employ the relevant processes and tools to build the adaptive capacity of organizations.

What does it mean to be adaptive?

The word “adaptive” in adaptive leadership is drawn from evolutionary biology and refers to the process that organisms follow if they are going to survive and thrive. The three components of this process (applied to organizations) are to 1) preserve the organizational elements necessary for survival, 2) remove (or modify) the elements that are no longer necessary or useful, and 3) create (aka innovate) new arrangements that enable the organization to thrive.

What does it mean to thrive?

In adaptive leadership, to thrive is to develop new capabilities and strategies to address changes in the environment (e.g. industry) and realize strategic vision and goals. The key for an adaptive leader is to understand what it means for a specific organization to thrive, and then help make that happen. To thrive is to successfully adapt to circumstances, make desired changes, and stay anchored to what is best about the organization in the process. This requires an appreciation for the core values, purposes (whether explicit or implicit), and the history of the organization.

What are Adaptive Leadership competencies?

The adaptive leadership approach views leadership more as a process than a set of competencies. Having said this, the following are some skills, attitudes, and implied qualities that align with adaptive leadership.

• The adaptive leader needs to be able to connect organizational change to the core values, capabilities, and dreams of the relevant stakeholders
• The adaptive leader seeks to foster a culture that collects and honors diversity of opinion and uses this collective knowledge for the good of the organization
• The adaptive leader knows that change and learning can be painful for people, and is able to anticipate and counteract any reluctant behavior related to the pain
• The adaptive leader understands that large scale change is an incremental process and that he/she needs to be persistent and willing to withstand pressure to take shortcuts

What is the theory that informs adaptive leadership?

The theory that informs adaptive leadership appears to be more about the nature of organizations than about the nature of leadership. In the writings of Heifetz et al, the clearest theoretical underpinning is the speculation that organizations adhere to the same processes outlined in evolutionary biology. It is the task of the leader to understand this theoretical framework (metaphor?) and use it to guide and strengthen the organization. If you are familiar with adaptive leadership, let me know if you agree or disagree with this notion that its theoretical focus is on organizations rather than on leadership.

What’s next?

The next few weeks will entail a more detailed examination of the unique elements of adaptive leadership and some of the different adaptive leadership tools and practices.

This Blog is by Kathie Allen, CPCC, ACC – Guest Writer

Recently I was coaching a client who was overwhelmed with work and wholeheartedly believed that “quitters never win.” I asked her/him, “What are some valid reasons why someone would quit any of the work s/he is doing?” “Well,” s/he said, “if you aren’t any good at what you do, then I guess that’s a reason. And, if what you are doing doesn’t fit who you are anymore, then that would be a good reason to give it up. And, if someone else is better at it than I am and I don’t enjoy my work anymore, then I could resign.” When s/he heard her/his words, s/he spoke her/his truth immediately: “I’m afraid that if I let go, someone will judge me for that action. Mostly I will judge myself for quitting!”

What about you? What are you holding on to that no longer fits? What are you doing that you aren’t very skilled at or isn’t your passion but you’re doing it because you think you have to?

Clarify for yourself the things you do well, the things you are passionate about, and the places where you make a difference and feel alive when you engage in them. Then set out to do them. Leave the things you don’t do well to someone who can. Don’t rob them of the chance to contribute to what they do well.

What do you really want to quit? I challenge you to do so as soon as possible! Your stress will be reduced, and you will begin to live from a place of passion and peace as you pursue work that is a great fit.

For more resources, see the Library topic Personal and Professional Coaching.

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Kathie Allen, CPCC, ACC – Professional Life and Leadership Coach. Kathie loves to work with people who believe in the greater good and those in search of deeper meaning for their lives. Contact Kathie: 218-326-9267 • insight@paulbunyan.net

“When we know the facts about people, we know what they are. When we know their stories, we know who they are.” John Quincy Adams

Leadership, Systems, and Stories

One of the most powerful ways to understand your leadership, and the reasons you behave and lead as you do, is to understand your systemic story.

Out of my work over the past 25 years with individual executives, executive teams, and large organizational change projects–and from my work with David Kantor, one of the leading family systems therapists and systems consultants in the U.S.–I have developed a powerful leadership coaching process, Creating your Leadership Story. Story work helps leaders make major improvements in their performance in short periods of time. Clients report that, in 2-3 hours of coaching, they create significant positive changes that stay with them over the long haul.

Leaders who choose to do story work learn to see Events–how they respond to particularly difficult leadership challenges. They come to recognize their Patterns of behavior and implicit assumptions, both those that have helped them create desired results and those that have gotten in their way. And, they discover Structure–how Patterns are rooted in their systemic story, the story that reflects how they initially learned to operate in systems.

Many clients describe seeing the connection between their present day leadership and their deep story as transformational. They make a fundamental shift in how they view themselves in the world and as leaders. But the work does not stop there. They then create a new story that is aligned with the results they want to create and the kind of leader they want to be; they identify new behaviors and assumptions; and they practice their new approaches to produce quantum leaps in their leadership effectiveness.

This post is the first of a series in which I will discuss what I mean by “story”, why your deep story is central to how you lead, why seeing your deep story is a powerful way to make desired changes in your leadership, and how you can go about doing that. Also, I will review the broader context for our stories—the theory underlying story work; stories in the context of our life cycle; and our individual and cultural myths, where these mythic stories come from, why we tell them, and what we can learn about ourselves and our world by paying more attention to them.

Questions to Ponder

Have you ever been in the middle of a leadership situation and felt, “I’ve been here before”? The content of the situation may be new, but you still have an underlying “deja vu all over again” experience.

Have you ever experienced a tough, high-pressure situation that was important for you to deal with effectively, but you felt stuck? You may have experienced yourself trying the same things over and over again, each time trying a little harder, and each time feeling more stuck. As in the proverbial tar baby story, the harder you pushed, the more you got entangled.

Conversely, you have probably experienced leadership situations that came out wonderfully despite huge challenges; you were successful and felt great, you performed to the max, and your energy flowed naturally and organically. You may or may not have known why things went so well, but you knew that they did, and you knew you felt great.

Most often, these kinds of instances reflect your deep systemic story.

What is a Systemic Story?

Your systemic story is the story you have told yourself about your experience in systems, particularly the first system of which you were a part. It reflects how you learned to survive and operate in systems; for example, your deep story reflects how you learned to:

• Relate to key players in your life
• Be successful
• Get noticed, or avoid getting noticed
• Take risks, and protect yourself
• Respond to authority, and exert your own authority
• Give and receive love

At its core, your deep story is the internal narrative you have created about your experience of the human condition. As such, it is central to who you are as a human being and as a leader.

What you can do—a first step

If you want to learn to see your story and how it influences your present day leadership behavior, to learn how to keep the parts of your story that serve you well and change the parts that do not, start observing yourself. As a first step, “stand on your own shoulder”, or “on the balcony” and watch yourself doing what you do. Pay particular attention to how you handle the toughest leadership challenges. Notice your thoughts, your feelings, and your behavior. In our next post, you will start to learn what to do with the things you have observed. Eventually, you will learn how to unleash the power of your story and make your life as a leader more consistent with who you truly want to be and what you deeply yearn to accomplish.

To be continued…

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If you have questions and would like more information about story work, feel free to contact me:

Steven P. Ober EdD

Office: 508.882.1025 Mobile: 978.590.4219
Steve@ChrysalisCoaching.org

As I work with my coaching clients, I realize that most people do not routinely reflect or evaluate their progress – unless it is performance review time. I created this simple feedback tool called The 5 Minute Weekly Review to provide a structure for insight, learning and improving performance.

The 5 Minute Weekly Review

• What went well?
• What went poorly?
• What would you have done differently?
• Next week – what will you do more of? Less of?

As you try out this tool, what would you include in your weekly review?

For more resources, see the Library topic Personal and Professional Coaching.

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Pam Solberg-Tapper MHSA, PCC – I spark savvy business leaders to fire up their cutting edge, be extraordinary and do great things for their world. How can I help you? Contact me at CoachPam@cpinternet.com ~ Linkedin ~ 218-340-3330

My coaching clients often ask, what is the difference with working with an internal coach (an employee) or an external coach (an independent contractor)? Here are a couple considerations to keep in mind as you make the decision to hire a coach.

1. Clients tend to talk more freely with an external coach than with someone within the organization. An external is “unbiased” while an internal may be influenced by the goals, politics and culture of the organization. For example, it is very common for senior management to “open up” only to an external coach due to the sensitivity of issues they are working on. No matter how well self managed the internal coach may be, if the focus of the coaching is on strategic issues, executives may not feel free to discuss them.

2. Be sure to have a clear agreement upon how coaching information will be exchanged among the client and sponsor. For purposes of identification, the International Coach Federation defines these roles as follows:

• Client: The “client” is the person(s) being coached.
• Sponsor: The “sponsor” is the entity (including its representatives) paying for and/or arranging for coaching services to be provided.

3. An internal coach may have access to organizational resources that could enhance the coaching. They may also be more available between coaching sessions for extra support.

4. The external coach may have broader range of experience as they often work with many different organizations.

5. This does not have to be an either/or situation. Many progressive organizations choose to use both internal coaches and external coaches in order to provide best match of coach for the client as well as the objectives of the coaching engagement.

What do you think?

For more resources, see the Library topic Personal and Professional Coaching.

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Pam Solberg-Tapper MHSA, PCC – I spark savvy business leaders to fire up their cutting edge, be extraordinary and do great things for their world. How can I help you? Contact me at CoachPam@cpinternet.com ~ Linkedin ~ 218-340-3330

Guest Submission by Steven Ober, EdD

Leaders live and work in complex systems. In fact, we all do. These systems include our organizations, our teams, our families, our communities, and our larger society.

In today’s world, it is incumbent on those of us who coach leaders to deepen and broaden our ability to coach from a systemic perspective—to understand our client leader as an individual human system working and living in larger systems. How a leader proceeds in those systems, and how those systems operate, can have a huge impact on her ability to achieve her goals.

This article presents an overview of Coaching from a systems perspective:

• Definition What is a “system”?
• Why coaching from a systems perspective is critical in today’s world.
• What systemic coaching includes.
• How you can, on a practical level, coach systemically.
• Learning Opportunities that can help you broaden and deepen your systemic capability.

Definition

A system is a whole made up of interdependent, interacting parts. Changes in one of the parts create changes in one or more of the others. All of the parts are interconnected. Examples of systems include: You as a human being, your coaching client as a human system, the system that consists of you and your client interacting, the client’s organization and marketplace, and/or all of the above taken together.

Why is it important to coach from a systemic perspective?

There are two fundamental reasons that a systemic approach is critical to effective leadership coaching:

1. We are, in fact, systems living in larger systems. As human beings we know we are part of a whole natural system. We are all interconnected. A systems perspective gives us access to the fullness of this interconnection. Systems thinking is a powerful way to understand ourselves, one another, and our world.
2. The systems in which our clients live and work have a significant impact on their ability to achieve desired results. To serve them best, we need to help client leaders see how the forces in their internal and external systems influence their ability to create what they want and what they can do in their system to increase their success rate. If, as coaches, we do not take into account these broader and deeper systemic forces, we are ignoring huge areas of their lives, areas with forces that can greatly impede, or powerfully support their work as leaders.

What does coaching from a systems perspective include?

Coaching most broadly and deeply (coaching systemically) means being aware of three worlds and how they interplay to produce outcomes:

1. The Face-to Face-World—our interactions with our client, and their face-to-face interactions with other key people.
2. The Larger External World, for example our client’s organization, their business, their customers, and their marketplace.
3. The Deeper Internal World: How/what our client leaders think and feel, their mental models/underlying assumptions, their deeper beliefs, and in some cases, their deep story.

Systemic coaching is about helping our clients “see” the key variables from these three worlds, how they interact, how they help or get in the way, and what our client leader can do to change the system in favor of their leadership vision and desired results.

A leadership coach also needs to have a deep understanding of his own internal and external worlds and how they play out in coaching relationships.

How, on a practical, can you coach from a systems perspective?

1. Approach each phase your coaching work with the client’s (and your own) systems in mind. In each phase—entry, contracting, data collection, goal setting, action planning, and supporting implementation–ask, and help the client ask, “What are the key systemic variables we need to be paying attention to here?” For example, coaching from a systems perspective means having an understanding of the system around your client and how it may impact her. If you don’t have that information, you probably need to structure your assessment so that you gather some of it.
2. Use your client’s goal as your entry point. Focus your systemic thinking on helping your client achieve her coaching goal rather on than on a broad analysis of the entire system. Focus on her goal and how her internal, external, and face- to-face systems influence her ability to achieve it. Help your client set his goals, create his action plans, and implement those plans in ways that take into account key systemic forces at play.
3. Learn and use systemic tools in your coaching. There are many good tools out there that help us work with systems—for example, influence diagrams, causal loops, systems archetypes, the Butterfly model of Complex Human Systems, Jay Forrester’s systems dynamics out of MIT, and David Kantor’s Structural Dynamics.
4. Help your client leader look for leverage. Nobody can take on everything. Work to identify the key systemic forces he can focus on to have the most impact.
5. Always learn. Integrate and synthesize your systemic understanding and approaches through practice, practice, practice, combined with reflection, reflection, reflection.

Learning opportunity

Consider enrolling in an exciting new program, Coaching from a Systems Perspective. How do we increase our capacity for seeing and understanding systemic connections? How can we become more effective in dealing with the complexities of the systems in which we, and our clients, live and work? This three-day course, designed for practicing coaches, offers a basic grounding in modern systems theory and provides specific tools for seeing and understanding systems. We practice these during the program through a sequence of mutual coaching sessions. Participants consistently report that the program experience has taken their coaching work to a new and deeper level.

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Coaching from a Systems Perspective was developed by a group of senior coaches from the Coaching Community of Practice, Society for Organizational Learning. We call ourselves Systems Perspectives, LLC. You will find an overview of the program, dates, locations, and a contact person for each offering on our website: http://SystemsPerspectivesLLC.com. Upon completion of the program, 29 ICF CCEUs are available.

If you want to talk more about systemic coaching, how it can enhance your practice, and you can use it to help client leaders, feel free to contact me:

Steven P. Ober EdD
Office: 508.882.1025 Mobile: 978.590.4219
Steve@ChrysalisCoaching.org

Have you ever noticed that the day before you leave for vacation is your most productive day of the year? From my perspective here are some reasons why we become “super efficient”. I suggest these strategies to my coaching clients who are getting ready for vacation – I trust they will help you, too.

Focus on essential priorities – create a sense of urgency to only focus on the things that absolutely need to get accomplished

Delegate or ask for help – find ways to get assistance for tasks that you cannot accomplish alone

Reschedule the non urgent tasks – tasks or meetings that are non-essential are slated for a later date or cancelled entirely

Understand the finite nature of time – respect your time – no procrastinating, “busy work”, reading junk emails, extra phone calls or unnecessary searching the web

Use block time – utilize uninterrupted periods of time to increase your efficiency

Have a plan – have a “do list” to follow – either on paper or in your mind. It is your “blueprint” for completion of the essential tasks

What do you do the day before vacation?

For more resources, see the Library topic Personal and Professional Coaching.

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Pam Solberg-Tapper MHSA, PCC – I spark savvy business leaders to fire up their cutting edge, be extraordinary and do great things for their world. How can I help you? Contact me at CoachPam@cpinternet.com ~ Linkedin ~ 218-340-3330

The Four Transformational Leadership Behaviors

According to Bass, transformational leadership is comprised of four primary behaviors. The first is idealized influence, when leaders act in ways consistent with their stated beliefs, goals, and values, following through on commitments, and treating people in a consistent and fair manner. The second behavior is inspirational motivation, when leaders effectively communicate visions for the future of the organization and convey how the work of individuals and teams are connected to the vision. The third behavior is referred to as intellectual stimulation, the leader’s ability to create a work environment where followers feel safe to think creatively, challenge the status quo, and come up with innovative ideas. The final behavior, individualized consideration, is when leaders help followers identify personal development goals and design customized strategies for making improvements on these goals.

The Impact of Transformational Leadership

There is empirical evidence that these four behavior areas have statistically significant impact on various indices of organizational performance and business outcomes. In my previous blog it was shared that there is a clear correlation between transformational behaviors and increased innovation, motivation, perseverance, commitment, team cohesion, and performance.

The Transformational Behaviors that Make a Difference

So what are the specific behaviors that make the difference that makes the differences? The following are a list of ten behaviors, considered to be transformational, that have an impact on some of the target areas just mentioned.

1. Challenging and empowering team members to think independently and consider novel solutions to old or emerging problems is believed to increase the innovative capacity of organizations (Nederveen et al, 2010)
2. Empowering team members to think and act independently has been shown to reduce barriers to the sharing and utilization of knowledge across organizations boundaries (Garcia-Morales et al, 2007)
3. Establishing a clear understanding of the connection between the tasks/values of team members and the vision/values of the organization is shown to increase individual motivation (Wolfram and Mohr, 2009)
4. When a leader espouses a high level of ethics and acts in accord with these ethical standards an increase in follower trust and commitment should follow – variables with a direct correlation to performance (Rafferty and Griffin, 2006)
5. There is an apparent link between the degree to which a leader respects and attends to the emotions and professional needs of team members and the level of team member commitment and performance (Bass, 2006)
6. Inspirational, enthusiastic, and animated communication of organizational vision has been shown to enhanced team cohesion (Ayoko & Callan, 2010)
7. Success of change initiatives increase significantly when leaders include team members in the development of the vision for the future and the demonstrate a clear commitment to that vision (Herold, et al, 2008)
8. Commitment to organizational change initiatives increase if leaders are expressive, confident, and are able to incorporate values into change conversations with team members (Howarth & Rafferty, 2009)
9. The use of image-based messages and the ability to incorporate organizational goals into a compelling vision of the future has an apparent connection with team performance (Colbert et al, 2008)
10. Inspiring and empowering team members to embrace and pursue challenging goals and professional development has been shown to improve project success (Prabhakar, 2005)

The above is evidence of a correlation between specific transformational behaviors and various team member and organizational outcomes. But one must ask, are these behaviors unique to transformational leadership? If not, can it really be argued that there is a connection between transformational leadership and improved organizational performance? Please feel free to share your thoughts or questions on the topic.

A common theme that emerges with many of my coaching clients is that they would like more feedback. They would like to know if they are doing a good job and are on track with what is expected of them. Further, if they are not meeting the expectations, they would like to know what they need to do differently.

I encourage my clients to “coach up” by being proactive and ask for feedback.

Here is a simple feedback tool that works for many situations:

Ask: What should I start doing, stop doing and continue to do?

Another variation is: What should I do more of, less of and continue to do?

These simple questions can help you get specific feedback and information that can help you stay on top of your game.

Try this tool and give me your feedback on how it worked for you.

For more resources, see the Library topic Personal and Professional Coaching.

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Pam Solberg-Tapper MHSA, PCC – I spark savvy business leaders to fire up their cutting edge, be extraordinary and do great things in their world. How can I help you?

Contact me at CoachPam@cpinternet.com or Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/pam-solberg-tapper/13/600/745