Coaching for Leaders

It’s the new year and an important time to consider ourselves first, so that we can better lead others. This week, I begin a series on personal leadership that will take us through the month of January. Here are a few resources that I mentioned in this episode: The Leadership Challenge by Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner Five Practices – Model the Way is the first one Leadership from the In...

As leaders, we need to support learning right after it happens. In this episode, I’ll review fives ways you can do this as a leader. 1) Provide opportunities Find something for them to start to use what they’ve just learned. If you need to, help create opportunities! 2) Review the actions taken Do a debrief afterwards – particularly if something didn’t work well. The sooner...

Helping people utilize new skills they are learning is an essential skill for all leaders. In this episode, I’ll examine four ways you can do this as a leader. REFRAME Move people away from just task accomplishment and more towards skill mastery. There’s a difference between having knowledge and being an strong contributor to an organization. Challenge people for practical experience....

Frances, one of our listeners, contacted me this week to say that she has $700 in a “use it or lose it” budget within the next week and wanted some advice on what to do. Since many of these resources would be helpful to all of us, it’s the topic for this week’s show. Two overarching rules to keep in mind before you do anything: Talk to people who are doing the stuff you wan...

This week I was listening to the HBR IdeaCast and a recent interview with Dr. Heidi Grant Halvorson about her book: 9 Things Successful People Do Differently *. I’ve also been reading Get Rid of the Performance Review! by Samuel Colbert Examples of actual ineffective goals: “Communicate more effectively” “Develop leadership skills” “Communication skills to be im...

“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Act 2 Four stories from my career of leadership lessons I’ve valued: McDonald’s and the value of humility How I utilize this in daily client interactions now Orientation and the value of excellence I utilize this in teaching and production of this show My first job and the value of...

Bonni Stachowiak: Teaching in Higher Ed Bonni is the host of the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast , Dean of Teaching and Learning and Professor of Business and Management at Vanguard University, and my life partner. Prior to her academic career, she was a human resources consultant and executive officer for a publicly traded company. Bonni is the author of The Productive Online and Offline Professor:...

Courage ( n ) as defined by Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary: Mental or moral strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear, or difficulty Eleanor Roosevelt is famously attributed to having said, “Do one thing every day that scares you.” “If you’re the king of your world, you’re playing in the wrong world.” -Unknown 5 Pieces of Advice: 1) Have a m...

Bonni Stachowiak: Teaching in Higher Ed Bonni is the host of the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast , Dean of Teaching and Learning and Professor of Business and Management at Vanguard University, and my life partner. Prior to her academic career, she was a human resources consultant and executive officer for a publicly traded company. Bonni is the author of The Productive Online and Offline Professor:...

In his book What Got You Here Won’t Get You There , leadership coach Marshall Goldsmith warns against the habit of leaders adding too much value and stifling the motivation of an employee’s independent ideas. He says that when we start improving an employee’s idea, “You may have improved the content of my idea by 5 percent, but you’ve reduced my commitment to executing it by 50 percent, because yo...

Weddings are an interesting place to watch people give positive feedback to others. I give a few examples. The problem with feedback is that intentions are good, but that sometimes feedback still comes out awkward…sometimes it would have been better if the person said nothing at all. I share a story about someone who heard “good job” just one too many times. Here’s the model you...

Bonni Stachowiak: Teaching in Higher Ed Bonni is the host of the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast , Dean of Teaching and Learning and Professor of Business and Management at Vanguard University, and my life partner. Prior to her academic career, she was a human resources consultant and executive officer for a publicly traded company. Bonni is the author of The Productive Online and Offline Professor:...

Gilbert Fugitt: Concordia University One of the biggest challenges I hear from leaders today is how to coach this new generation of young people entering the workforce. We cite current statistics from the Fall 2011 edition of the Leader to Leader Journal . Gilbert mentioned the book Not Everybody Gets a Trophy by Bruce Tulgan as a resource for leaders. Discover More Activate your free membership f...

I begin the episode by speaking about my first job out of school and revisiting our coaching definition from episode #2 . If you want to know what is important to people, look at their calendar and in their checkbook. Why don’t we make time to coach? People don’t know the correct way. Perception that things take too much time. I cited some of Larry Bossidy’s comments and lessons...

Here’s the link I promised to the EDS commercial on building a plane in the air. Socrates said, “The beginning of wisdom is the definition of terms.” (accidentally attributed to Plato in the audio of the show – apologies!) Let’s look at: leading, managing, training/teaching, mentoring, consulting, counseling, and of course coaching. Leading : Creating environments tha...

A brief overview of how teaching fits into coaching. We’re going to examine a few lessons from The Adult Learner * by Malcolm Knowles. Pedagogy vs. Andragogy (art of teaching kids vs. self concept of being responsible for ourselves) (Greek: child-leading, man-leading). You can’t teach adults the way you teach kids. Why talk about kids? As coaches, there’s the tendency to fall bac...

Matt Ross: Liberty Mutual How did things go with the listening assessment from the first episode? If you missed it, download the PDF here . How to start coaching someone: This is a huge missed opportunity for a lot of leaders. Leaders start teaching a new skill, and that’s it…before getting to know someone and without connecting it to the other person’s goals/desires. The model for how...

Welcome to the first episode of Coaching for Leaders. Why I’m starting this show: A bit of background about me How my doctoral dissertation got me thinking about the importance for leaders to focus on themselves One thing I’ve learned for sure: leaders can make a big difference in the lives of others if they take a little time to make a difference in themselves Why I care about this Lo...