Being succinct is a communication skill that many of my coaching clients try to master. In today’s business world it is imperative to be clear and concise. Your message needs to get across with the desired effect in the least amount of time possible.

Here are 3 tips:

1. Stick to the facts. Avoid drowning the recipient in nonessential detail.

2. Use fewer words. It may be hard to tell what your point is if you ramble. Also, the recipient may decide not to read (or listen to) what you are trying to tell them if it is too long.

3. Be Credible. Know your objective and the main points of what you are communicating. You show a higher level of professionalism when you state solid evidence versus just giving your opinion.

Your thoughts?

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

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Pam Solberg-Tapper MHSA, PCC – I spark entrepreneurial business leaders to set vision, take action, and get results. How can I help you? Contact me at [email protected] ~ Linkedin ~ 218-340-3330

Moses, Dorothy, and the Hero’s journey

We have been focusing on leaders’ deep systemic stories–how they were formed, how they shape your leadership behavior, and how you can learn to see, and if you desire, change them. In this post, we will look at the larger cultural context for our individual stories.

Making Meaning through Stories

We as human beings are meaning making creatures. One of the ways we make meaning for ourselves as individuals is through our own systemic stories. One of the ways we make meaning of our larger world and our place in it is through the stories we create about life and about our relationships with each other, with our planet, and with the heavens. Examples of these cultural stories include creation stories; flood stories; Eden stories; stories of exodus and deliverance; wandering in the wilderness; stories of light and hope; fairy tales; and stories about birth, death, and regeneration.

Our individual stories are narratives we have told ourselves about our own experiences in our life journeys. Our larger cultural stories are narratives we have created about our broader human experience. All of these stories, our personal ones and our larger myths, are interconnected. Understanding one group of stories helps us learn from the others.

Where do our stories come from?

What are our broader cultural myths really about? Where do they come from? I suggested above that they are about our human experience and our desire to make meaning of that experience. Specifically, I believe our cultural myths emerge from three interrelated arenas:

• Our cycle of life from birth through childhood, adulthood, mid-life, maturity, and death.
• Our relationship with the earth and the seasons
• Our relationships with others—our parents, our families, our friends, and our larger communities.

The Hero’s Journey

Joseph Campbell found that, while there are indeed differences, there are also remarkable parallels among the archetypal stories, or myths, across all cultures. These parallels reflect commonalities in the human condition.

Campbell also indentified a powerful prototypical story he called The Hero’s Journey. Hero’s journey stories appear in all cultures, and their underlying structures are much the same. The basic sequence of a hero’s journey story is:

• The hero begins in a “stable” state.
• Something breaks her loose.
• He goes into a difficult period, the pit, a trauma.
• She emerges from that dark night of the soul and goes on a journey, a quest to accomplish some great thing, meet some great challenge, and/or get to a desired place.
• The hero experiences several tests along the way
• If the hero is successful in his journey, he achieves his goal, meets his great challenge, and reaches his desired destination.

Moses and the Exodus

The account of Moses and the Exodus is a mid-life hero’s journey. Moses left Egypt as a young man and for many years had a stable life and family in the desert. The burning bush experience—through which he was commissioned by Yahweh to lead his people to freedom and into the Promised Land–broke him loose from that comfortable place. He re-entered Egypt and faced the threat of the Pharaoh and his minions. He became the vehicle for the plagues visited upon Egypt. He led the Children of Israel through the climactic trauma of crossing the Red Sea, the closing of which destroyed Pharaoh’s pursuing armies. Moses then led his people in a 40-year journey through the desert looking for the Promised Land.

Dorothy and the Yellow Brick Road

The story of Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz is a coming of age hero’s journey. Though the content is totally different, there are many thematic similarities to Moses’ story. Dorothy was in Kansas on the farm (a stable place). The cyclone broke her loose from that space, and she experienced the storm’s powerful trauma. As Moses had Pharaoh as a nemesis, Dorothy had the Wicked Witches. As going through the Red Sea destroyed Pharaoh’s armies, when Dorothy came through the tornado, the house she was in killed the Wicked Witch of the East. Moses and the Children of Israel came through the Red Sea to a strange desert with a long journey and desired destination ahead of them. Dorothy came through the tornado, landed in the strange Land of Oz, and soon began her journey back home. On his journey, Moses experienced many tests—tests of his leadership; a sometimes rebellious, idolatrous group of followers; the lack of food; and the summons to Mount Sinai. Dorothy was also tested—the plants that made her and her friends fall asleep; getting access to the Wizard; the castle of the Wicked Witch of the West; the fact that the Wizard was hokum. To pass these tests, both Moses and Dorothy needed to use the best resources of their hearts, their minds, and their courage.

Your own Hero’s Journey

With careful examination, you will find that your story is also a quest that has a sequence similar to Moses’ and Dorothy’s. We start in what we initially experience as a safe protected place, at home with our parents. We feel loved. Over time, we learn that our situation, and the love we receive are not perfect (not necessarily due to the fact that anyone is s bad person—most often simply due to the imperfection of the human condition). We experience our first great test, the first great question of life: “Am I worthy, am I loved? Am I loveable?” We begin our life journey in search of the answer to that question and in search of the love we believe we have lost.

Our next test comes in young adulthood, when we find ourselves answering the second great question of life: “What am I going to do with my life on the planet? Who is the best person I can be in the world?”

During mid-life we face our third great challenge. We look back on our lives, and ask ourselves the third great question: “Have I been the best person I can be?” Have I led a life of worth and meaning?”

And finally, in maturity, we experience our fourth great test. We look both backward and forward and ask ourselves, “How can I leave the planet a better place than I found it? What is the legacy I want to leave behind?”

If we answer these four great questions of life successfully, we reach our “promised land”—the knowledge that we have led a life of worth and meaning.

The Tapestry of Life

Your leadership journey, your overall life journey, and your journey in your current phase of life are intricately intertwined. They are all variations of your own hero’s journey. You reach a plateau and are comfortable there—for a while. Something occurs to break you loose. You are no longer as comfortable; you experience a period of transition. You set out on the next phase of your journey to achieve a certain goal and reach a desired point—to become a powerful leader, to guide your organization through a period of major change, to make your mark, or to establish your legacy–to show yourself, others, and your world that you ARE worthy, loved, loveable, and successful, that you are indeed a good human being. Such is the nature of your life journey; such is your hero’s journey; such is your leadership story; and such is the human condition. They are all part of one whole cloth.

What you can do

To help yourself learn your own present and desired story, ask yourself, “Where am I in my life journey, right now? What was my last plateau? What shook me loose? What is my destination, my goal? And, how do I proceed effectively and humanely to achieve my goal?” The answers to these questions will begin paint the picture of your own hero’s journey.

Where do we go from here?

My next post will the last in this series on Unleashing the Power of your Story. I will end the series by summarizing the steps you can take, the specific questions you can ask and answer for yourself, to identify your present and desired leadership stories and take the steps to move yourself powerfully from one to the other.

Meanwhile, Good Journey…

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If you would like to learn more about story work and/or consider story coaching, feel free to call or email me at:

Steven P. Ober EdD
President: Chrysalis Executive Coaching & Consulting
Partner: Systems Perspectives, LLC
Office: PO Box 278, Oakham, MA 01068
Home: 278 Crocker Nye Rd., Oakham, MA 01068
O: 508.882.1025 M: 978.590.4219
Email: [email protected]
www.ChrysalisCoaching.org

Steve is a senior executive coach and consultant. He has developed and successfully uses a powerful approach to leadership coaching, Creating your Leadership Story, which enables leaders to make deep, lasting improvements in their leadership effectives in short periods of time. He and a group of partners have created a breakthrough educational program, Coaching from a Systems Perspective, in which you can significantly enhance your abilities as a systemic leadership coach. See http://SystemsPerspectivesLLC.com.

Successful people are those who have a Vision. They are fulfilled because they are living a life by their own design. They accomplish more in less time because they know where they are going.

Here are 3 Coaching Tips for Creating Your Vision:

1. Begin with the End in Mind. In 5, 10, 20+ years from now what do you want to accomplish in your life? What are your aspirations? What do you want? When do you want it? What will you take a stand for? What is your purpose? Your legacy? Then, center your priorities and activities on your vision and what is important to you.

2. Focus. Think about what you want, not what you don’t want. Guard your thoughts carefully because they create your experiences.

3. Set milestones. Create markers or steps along the way to assure you are on track. Celebrate small successes to keep your motivation high.

As the adage goes, “If you don’t know where you are going, you will end up somewhere else”.

What is your Vision for your life?

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

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Pam Solberg-Tapper MHSA, PCC – I spark high achieving business leaders to get on fire about their lives, develop their leading edge, be extraordinary and do great things for the world. How can I help you? Contact me at [email protected] or Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/pam-solberg-tapper/13/600/745

There is a lot of information written about motivation. New manager/leader training found in organizations and books everywhere has at least one course or chapter devoted to the topic of employee motivation. Located within the material, one will find lists of tips and tricks to keeping employees happy and motivated to meet performance objectives. There is another school of thought that believes it is not the manager’s responsibility to motivate employees or create the motivation for employees. Instead it is the responsibility of the manager to hire motivated employees and then act in such a way to keep them motivated and stay away from things that would de-motivate.

After many years of teaching motivation techniques to managers, I have come to the realization that the later is actually the way to go. In reality everyone is motivated by something different. People seek jobs that are a match for their needs. For some, that might be a job that provides training or skills in area of interest; for others, the perfect job will allow them to work flexible hours to meet the needs of their family while utilizing already developed skills. Regardless of the motivation to seek a job or the factors that keep one motivated on the job, the first step for a manager/leader who wants to maximize the discretionary effort of employees is to figure it out.

What do you do that de-motivates your team? Have you ever said, “Oh, he loves it when I do that?” assuming your actions are inspiring or motivating? Keep in mind, if you are the manager/leader you have the control in the situation and the employee is well aware of this fact. He might not actually love it.

What things do you leaders do that de-motivate you?

Your thoughts are welcomed and encouraged!

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For more resources, See the Human Resources library.

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In today’s turbulent landscape, change is multidimensional. Leaders must consider speed and scope of change, along with multiple forces buffeting organizations from all directions—new technologies, increasing difference, expanding markets, increased customer and employee expectations, fiscal meltdowns, political battles. Leaders and organizations respond quickly to remain sustainable in today’s unpredictable landscape.

The study of human systems dynamics teaches that sustainability requires a system to adapt to whatever it encounters, as it holds its mission and values. An organization’s ability to thrive depends on its adaptive capacity, requiring it to be

• Sensitive to changing patterns,
• Flexible in response, and
• Robust to withstand multiple challenges.

In our book, Dynamical Leadership: Building Adaptive Capacity for Uncertain Times, Kristine Quade and I offer a model of leadership built on assumptions about organizations as complex systems. While some of these may sound counter to traditional approaches, they express a worldview of human system dynamics that honors inherent complexity of organizations in the 21^st century and explain why adaptive capacity is crucial today.

Life is a tapestry of different textures and colors. The pattern becomes visible because of unique differences from one yarn to the next. Human interactions are similarly woven through life, play, and work. The messiness inherent to human systems makes sense to dynamical leaders, and they see the tapestry that is their organization.

As the beat goes on complex systems organize toward “fit.” Interactions among individuals are responses and counter-responses. One individual shifts, calling for adjustments by others, triggering reactions elsewhere. This balancing act is continuous and simultaneous, creating a system-wide rhythm as the beat to which dynamical leaders are specifically attuned. They know the beat continues as long as the organization is open and vibrant.

There is no “there” there as patterns emerge continuously, whether or not they are watched. A system doesn’t self-organize toward a single point that signals some arbitrary conclusion. Rather, the system’s goal is fitness in a constantly shifting environment, responding to demands, seeking new opportunities, and finding new vistas. Dynamical leaders expect this and don’t wait for it to settle down or stop changing. They value this “dance” between the organization and its environment as necessary to sustainability.

Coherence is as good as it gets when work aligns with values and people across the system respond in similar ways. Dynamical leaders recognize there is no “perfect state,” and sustainability cannot be judged against external measures. The most useful measure of sustainability reflects coherence among parts of the system.

Things will go “bump” as difference within a system creates tension when individuals collaborate, build trust, or acknowledge fear. Tensions also emerge as the organization “bumps” against its environment. The goal of adaptive capacity is not to eliminate tension; it is to understand sources of tension, learn to negotiate their impact, and move forward.

There is magic in fractals as some patterns reverberate throughout the system. When similar behavior is observed in leaders, groups, and individuals, it is a fractal pattern. Behavior of senior leaders may be replicated at various levels in multiple ways. To influence a fractal at one level leverages work at others, magnifying impact of an intervention, increasing adaptive capacity.

Power is abundant, and multiplies as it’s shared. In complex systems, power is the ability to influence, and is no longer associated only with position or title. Everyone can influence, and as they do, creativity and efficacy are unleashed. Sharing power is not about leaders abdicating responsibilities or accountabilities. It is honoring individuals’ abilities to contribute to overall performance.

We believe there’s no silver bullet for today’s complex leadership dilemmas. We also believe, however, there is a path leaders can take to:

• Increase ability to thrive in today’s turbulence,
• Support others in contributing to sustainability,
• Respond productively to shifting needs, and
• Step into powerful roles as dynamical leaders in a complex world.

Royce Holladay

Director, The Network

HSD Institute

[email protected]

www.hsdnistitute.org

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Steve Wolinski provides leadership development, organizational change and talent management services to numerous public, private and non-profit organizations.