Part of leadership is about observation. I’m amazed at how little leaders know about their own organizations. We must get better at seeing—just as the old naturalists learned to see the world with fresh eyes every time they went walking. A big part of my work focuses on helping people see and hear what is happening. That’s why I am providing a link to my own works of poetry and photography. I know it might not seem business like, but I can tell you many stories about how listening to the subtle nuance of communication has helped increase effectiveness. Similarly, I have learned to look at situations with my camera in hand and ask, “What wants to be seen here?” In our organizations, I believe people are crying to be seen, to be heard, to be involved in effective ways. That’s what I want to help clients do.
Part of leadership is about doing something. According to Ronald Heifetz, at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, the purpose of leadership is to mobilize people to collectively affect positive change on crucial and often complex issues. Yet, getting from ideas to action is often a breakdown point for leaders. I’m interested in the chain of relationships among people that allows work to get done. Getting things done requires having the right conversation at the right time, knowing how to make effective requests, knowing how to keep work going once it starts, and knowing how to gather in the results of effort—not just the bottom line, but for each person who contributes in their particular way. It also involves letting go of methods and ideas that no longer serve.
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All of it is about being human. There is a lot of effort these days to finding some common ground on which communities and organizations can be built and sustained. We spend countless dollars, euros, pesos, pounds, and yuan dealing with the effects of not having common ground, but finding it is really quite simple. The fact is we are all human. What a concept! That is our common ground, and once we figure that out, we can get on with addressing the enormous challenges we have in communities and organizations across this tiny globe. This business of being human crosses all the boundaries of communities, countries, and organizations. Doctors, farmers, field workers, teachers, politicians, CEO’s—underneath all our situations and titles, we’re pretty much the same.
Overall framework: Five Elements to Consider
In the vast majority of situations, I believe clients (whether coaches or leaders) are able to become reflective, to become aware of their strengths and areas for growth, to manage their own lives, to find a way forward, and to be whole, competent human beings. In the rare situations where this is not the case, coaching is not the proper vehicle of support for the individual. Coaching as a means for enhanced functioning in a role at work is fundamentally a process of learning to reflect effectively on ourselves in action and to generate and put in place behaviors, beliefs, mental models, relationships, communication, and strategies that will help us live into a desired future.
Relationships
Whom do you depend on to achieve your own objectives?
Who depends on you to achieve theirs?
Who will be served by your efforts?
We live in webs of relationship regardless of our position or role. We affect and are affected by others— period. By paying attention to the quality of our relationships, we can achieve more than by acting as if we are alone.
As an example, in my relationship-oriented work, I helped lead the John E. Fetzer Institute’s six year inquiry into Relationship Centered Health Care. The project brought together nurses, physicians, administrators, and patients to examine the importance and practice of building caring relationships among all the people involved in healing. The U.S.-wide dialogs produced wonderful stories about the positive and healing relationships that can be created with minimal effort and substantive effect.
I will help you understand the relationships relevant to your work. This isn’t touchy feely stuff. It can be the most difficult leadership work of all, but results in improved work relationships and rewarding outcomes.
Deep Understanding
What might you hear if you truly listened?
Whose voice have you not heard in recent months?
Who has something to say that will be difficult for you to hear?
It takes courage to listen. I don’t mean listening in the way it often happens in team building exercises. I mean listening deeply, even when it is a person who disagrees with us. It also takes courage for us to listen to ourselves—we generally know what needs to be done, but we are often afraid to act. Deep listening helps us understand ourselves and others and provides a basis for strong partnerships and commitment. Strong partnerships and commitment generate results.
I have a long track record of helping individuals and organizations listen beyond the noise of day-to-day conversations. Taking the time to listen may seem like a big investment, but the cost of not understanding each other is far greater.
Results
What tangible results can you celebrate?
What results are ready to be “harvested” but go unnoticed?
What are the undesired side effects of your success?
Results for an organization are like food for a person. If a person cannot process or absorb food, their health will deteriorate. I think a big part of the exhaustion, depression, anxiety, and frustration we see in organizations of all kinds has to do with our failure to savor results or individual people’s efforts. I don’t mean recognition dinners or prizes, I mean sitting face to face and talking with each other about the effect of our hard work. These conversations can be with individuals or with hundreds of people in a room. When we savor the fruits of our labors, we are nourished for the next round of effort.
I will help you understand what you have already achieved and help you use those past results to fuel the future.
Core Values
What are the real values at work beyond the official lists hung on corporate walls?
What historically long-held values no longer serve?
What values are so important that you would not give them up even if there were negative financial implications?
There are most always strongly held values in groups of people whether they are discussed or not. Individuals operate from values which vary from person to person. All too often, values discussions turn into brain storming activities in which the resulting lists read something like the Boy Scout Law. That’s a good list of values—if the people really adopt and own them. I will help you uncover the real operating values of your organization and initiate establishment of new conscious values and value agreements.
Deeply held values drive relationships and our day-to-day behavior. My own values include: respect and dignity for every person regardless of their place in the organization’s hierarchy and time to listen to every voice in the organization whether we agree with it or not.
New Ideas
What fresh ideas need protection that only a senior leader can provide?
Where is your organization or your thinking too rigid to hear new ideas?
How will you know which ideas can be matured?
New ideas are like newly sprouted plants in a garden. Late winter winds or snow can kill them in an instant. Organization hot houses need to be made where fresh ideas can be protected until ready to survive in the day-to-day world. That’s one reason leadership retreats are important. They provide a time out to explore. Taking time to think of new possibilities might be the very best investment you can make.
I am regarded as very creative. People have said they think more clearly when I am with them. Retreats and individual coaching with me have caused people to say: “Why didn’t we think of these great ideas sooner?”
