Lisa Wynn - Master Certified Coach, Coach Mentor & Agent of Change

Seeing the wood for the trees.

2008-09-23T17:03:00+01:00

As some of you will know I recently moved to a stunning part of the Suffolk countryside. Since moving I have worked hard on my fitness – in particular towards a triathlon next year. Recently I had to have some minor back surgery and had to lay off the exercise for a short while.

It has been a fascinating time for me, being unable to do the thing I really want to do - exercise! I was so frustrated that I couldn't "exercise at all" and as I literally marched round my usual country dog walk this morning I fumed to myself about the lack of exercise. As I stormed up the hill I thought how much I needed some exercise – I virtually ran along the seawall thinking how much I was missing exercise. And as I walked back up the final slope with my laboured breathing and hard working legs I grieved for that feeling of physical exertion.

And then at long last, I heard myself. Here I was on this stunning walk in

beautiful countryside complaining to myself about lack of exercise. Even as my heart raced with the effort, I had missed the real issue – I was missing my focussed training and I hate being stopped in my tracks. I had utterly missed the fact that I have still been exercising more than most probably have the time to do, albeit walking rather than swimming and running. My story about my problem had got in my own way and my complaints to myself had crowded out the real issue.

The minute I saw the “real issue” a training plan seemed obvious – one that incorporated the walking I was able to do as a precursor to the running I would very soon be able to return to. I rewrote my triathlon plan and the walking became a joy again.

I often notice this with clients I work with – they have become so focused on the lack or the challenge or the problem that they lose sight of the solution staring them in the face.

So spare a moment to step away from the “problems” and ask yourself what might be the solutions.

What just might work?

What would never work? (And then see how it may just after all).

Or (my favoured approach to be honest) just take a deep breath or six. Notice the tension in your body. Relax it out with deep breaths. And then when you feel more connected to yourself and less connected to the problem at hand, see which ideas come up for you. Trust them and try them. They may seem left field or “impractical” but if the old approach wasn’t working then what have you got to lose J

Running and Leadership:

2008-06-02T13:46:00+01:00

Some of you will know I am currently in training for my first triathlon!! In true Lisa style this new project involves as much learning as I can manage. One of the books I am really struck with is called "ChiRunning".

"ChiRunning" describes itself as a "revolutionary approach to effortless, injury-free running" and combines the knowledge of a very successful ultramarathon runner and the ancient wisdom of a t¹ai chi master and so far much of it lends itself beautifully to the art of leadership.

So, I have decided to make it the first topic of our new "Book of the Month Club". In this virtual Book Club we will recommend a book each month and then blog about our thoughts on it and invite you to do the same thing. If it ignites people¹s attention enough, then maybe we will offer a teleforum session on some or all of the books.

"ChiRunning" offers a lot of food for thought on general wellbeing, running (of course) and also on personal development. And as I say, I believe it applies beautifully to leadership so something for everyone in it. I will post on this blog my thoughts as I go along and you are cordially invited to read along and share thoughts on the book or just read the blog entries and I hope you will get a lot from that too!

So, the link to the book is in the left hand column if you fancy grabbing a copy (it is an associate link to Amazon and all proceeds go to Cancer Research charities).

Employers want "soft skills"

2008-04-25T14:38:49+01:00

The CBI/Edexcel Education and Skills Survey for 2008 demonstrates how much employers value - and need - the "softer skills" that make people more employable. The report highlights the need for companies to grow their profitability in this time of economic uncertainty and that this requires effective leaders and managers able to drive the business forward with a culture of continuous improvement. And yet 53% of firms are concerned that they may not be able to fill this requirement for skilled employees. Only 47% of companies think that their managers are effective - and only 20% of firms described their team leaders' and supervisors' skill levels as being good!

The key "soft skills" include ...

... great communication skills and being able to work well in a team. A graduate's positive attitude to their work and ability to communicate with others are seen as more important for instance than their degree subject.

At Corporate Potential we are working with clients on these very isuses in the workplace BUT a big passion of mine is in doing what the CBI describe as vital - building links between education and business.

Take a look at our site Coaching for Schools if you would. Maybe you know someone who would be interested in funding a workshop - or a colleague with a CSR budget who may be able to help :)

Back next time with some thoughts on using coaching to boost those much needed skills in the workplace.

A new level of partnership

2008-04-24T15:16:00+01:00

One of the key skills in coaching presence is identified by the International Coach Federation (ICF) as the "depth of partnership with the client". One of the specific areas of competency mentioned in the description of mastery of this presence is the concept of the coach inviting the coachee to help design the coaching process rather than just the agenda.

The metaphor for masterful coaching presence that I love is “to leave no footprints”. It brings to mind for me the experience of having had someone walk “alongside” you, sharing your journey, contributing to the experience of that journey but at the end of the journey, their presence is all that’s left – no footprints; no indentations to show that they were there. And yet, somehow, at some level you know they were a help, a catalyst giving of their energy, but without having directed the walk.

So how do we create such a presence? Here are some suggestions:

Not needing to “get the picture”:

Quantum theory tells us that the observer finds what they are looking for. If they search out the “wave” they will see a wave. If they search for a particle, then it is a particle they will find.

..."You see, really and truly, apart from the things anyone can pick up (the dressing and the proper way of speaking, and so on), the difference between a lady and a flower girl is not how she behaves, but how she's treated. I shall always be a flower girl to Professor Higgins, because he always treats me as a flower girl, and always will; but I know I can be a lady to you, because you always treat me as a lady, and always will."
Eliza Doolittle; From George Bernard Shaw's play, PYGMALION

From the Pygmalion Studies by Rosenthal and Rubin in the late 1960’s, we know that children taught by a teacher who believes that child to be bright or gifted will do better than the same child taught by a teacher who believes them to be a poor student.

As a coach, if we have a clear “picture” of the “issue” or problem – or even the solution – then our attention is given to that version of “reality” – and any amount of open questions will not prevent us from leaving footprints. Unconsciously we will begin energetically and verbally to direct the coachee – limiting them within the scope of our understanding of the situation.

Human beings recognise things by where they are not – we know the shape of a bottle in front of us by its boundaries and limits. The edges of the bottle define it. In the same way when we seek to fully understand something, we are actually building a picture of its limits – we are therefore limiting its potential. By asking questions designed to really clarify the current picture we can limit the future picture.

Being in the space of bewilderment above knowledge:

Rumi told us to “sell your cleverness, and buy bewilderment”. When we are happy not to understand – to be “bewildered” – then we make the space necessary for the achievement of potential. In not needing to know – in being in awe of what we don’t know and celebrating that – we create a much greater space for the coachee.

Greater in terms of quality and size. When we are willing to be with the coachee as a learner, then we are in a deeper and more powerful partnership. The sense of expertise of the coach is diminished further making it easier for the coachee to relax into being the expert on their own situation.

In this space, the coach can take greater risks and make deeper challenges because there is no attachment to be “right” or any fear of getting it “wrong”. And this freedom to take risks and be vulnerable helps to make that easier for the coachee to do the same.

Trusting not accepting the story:

As a coach we can trust that what the client says is their experience of what is happening – their “truth” in this moment – we do not need to judge if it is true or otherwise. In modern society – especially in the corporate world – we are trained not to believe that which cannot be measured or proved.

And yet as humans we cling to what feels right to us – we still talk about the sun rising and setting despite knowing for a long time that the earth moves not the sun. Our experience tells us that the sun rotates around the earth – we “see” it moving through the sky.

In improvised comedy, there are some golden rules that make it look purely free flowing but actually are strictly adhered to in order to allow the humour to flow. One of these golden rules is acceptance – whatever your fellow comedian says you must go with it – accept it into the conversation and work with it. As soon as you say “no” to anything they bring forward, the flow breaks down and it gets hard work and disjointed.

This strikes me as a great approach for the coach too. If we accept everything a coachee says and then work with it, it allows deep respect, trust and rapport to flow through the coaching space. We may challenge deeply whatever is said, but we absorb it like the cricketer with “soft hands” – taking the ball out front, bringing it in and then acting to throw it on or whatever comes next in the flow of play. Once the cricketer looks to catch the ball with firm hands, the ball causes injury and is hard to catch.

The coach with soft hands hears and accepts as true to the client what is said – in order to challenge them.

For example, the coach hears a belief from the coachee that “they are too old to carry on with a workable career plan”. The coach with “hard hands” might recognise the limiting belief and push back against it – labelling it as limiting belief and challenging its truthfulness head on. It may work well but the coachee may well also dislike the judgement made by the coach and the expertise that it may imply.

The soft hands approach might be to ask an incisive question – “If you knew you were easily young enough, how might you get started?” The coach has heard and accepted as true (for the coachee in this moment) the belief AND has worked easily around the belief, opening up the field of possibility without forcefully thrusting the coachee into it!

Witnessing not exposing:

One of the greatest gifts we can give our coachees is to witness them – to listen deeply and without agenda is a gift that creates breakthrough more powerfully than anything else possibly. It creates the space for limitlessness because we don’t make an imprint in the process – we just give it clear, vibrant, creational energy. We become a catalyst rather than an element of the formula.

In speaking thoughts and feelings - whether familiar or emergent - into the world, the coachee changes the world a little or a lot. The once metaphysical becomes more solid and worldly and therefore comes a step closer to “reality” – to being physically manifest in the world.

If we can listen to and witness the coachee in this way, then we create the space for the release of untold levels of potential – we invite the unleashing not just of who they are but of who they can be into the world. In this way we allow the client to stay “in the question” – not to be exposing their weaknesses or areas for growth but to be in pure, curious, expansive enquiry.

You can explore all sorts of ways for boosting self esteem and self confidence in a coachee – but quietly seeing them as pure potential and listening to them in this way will frequently be the most powerful way in which to shift people’s self esteem. Self-esteem is just a linguistic representation of self-perception – how we see ourselves. Any amount of persuasion or coercion to see oneself differently is likely to fail – we are expert at batting away compliments. Remember that outer layer that we as coaches can potentially “thicken”? We can thicken it by trying to persuade coachees that they are somehow worthier than their current self-image allows for.

But in a space where we are being heard and fully witnessed we can begin to see ourselves differently – to speak our own truth about what is possible is to start to accept it more fully. And once we accept it as a possibility, we can step up to it – it becomes more readily available to us.

Not being the expert:

When we have a personal need to be seen to be good at coaching we can push inadvertently – forging the conversation forwards towards the desired breakthrough or result that is within our sights. When we can relax, set the agenda and then trust the coachee to get there, we actually increase the chances of these things happening.

In the space of relaxation and trust we can access our intuition more fruitfully; giving us a better chance of successfully stretching the coachee beyond where they were getting by themselves – but without needing to make that happen.

Nobody is suggesting that as an internal coach, results are unimportant. They are – very – important. But the exploration and consequential perspective shift means that change is genuine and more likely to be permanent. If coaching does not provide this reflective space then a huge opportunity has been missed.

The highly skilled coach is aware that HOW this reflective space is created is not a formula but a process of understanding what would work for the coachee and then partnering with them to build the space according to that feedback from them.

Behaviours that might reflect this are open questions that invite the coachee to co-create the process and that check back in regularly with requests to find out what the coachee has learnt so far; what is working for them; what could they do with more (or less) of in the process.

What helps you to think clearly?

How do you make your best decisions?

How might I get in the way of your thinking processes?

What can I do to help you reflect more deeply?

What is working well in the coaching sessions?

What would help even more?

At the end of a session or at the beginning of regular sessions, a check in with what is and isn’t working is a powerful invitation to the coachee to fully partner with their coach. It also creates a much stronger springboard for the coachee from the coaching – they are learning new skills in communication, challenging and planning by being in the conversation as well as developing a deeper understanding of how they work best.

The difference between having a powerful tool or process that supports the coachee in making great decisions and using open questions to support the coachee in identifying how they make their best decisions, is a good measure of the difference between a competent PCC and an MCC – the latter exhibits a deeper trust in the coachee and the process and allows the coachee to be more fully aware and conscious of their own personal power and learning style.

Getting out of your own way:

This is good, solid coaching jargon but with a powerful intent. When the coach feels a need to “perform” and to be a “good coach” then the coaching becomes about the coach.

When we need to understand fully the context, then we start to listen to the coachee through our own filters – the questions become about us and our understanding more than the coachee.

An important aspect of this is your own personal development – when you have regular coaching sessions and supervision sessions, it helps to identify your own hot spots and sensitivities, affording you a much higher level of self awareness during your coaching. Whilst we set out to be non-judgemental of our coachees and their situations, a greater awareness of our own values, prejudices and judgements allows us to spot and “park” any that arise during a coaching session.

Team Coaching Seminar

2008-04-24T13:30:29+01:00

On request we are organising another date for the Team Coaching Seminar.

The new date is Thursday 10th July 2008 and will be held in London, UK.

Click here for further details.

We are limited to 8 places on this advanced training workshop, so early sign up is recommended. On sign up, you will be sent some pre-workshop reading so that we can make the very most of the time together.

*****************

"Your style of 'teaching' (although teaching seems an inadequate word to use) is inspirational you make it seem so effortless, enjoyable and simply mind blowing."

Julia Miles, Professional Coach

*****************

Who should attend?

Coaches who wish to develop their existing coaching skills to work with teams (please note this is not appropriate for those wishing to start to learn to coach)
Experienced coaches wishing to develop their coaching skills and technical understanding of the core coaching competencies
Those coaches wishing to go for ACC, PCC or MCC and who are looking for some developmental training hours to support that process as well as moving their careers along

*****************

Your investment in this full days training is only £199 + vat or

£149 + vat if you are a current/previous programme delegate.

Billing and payment is by invoice and cheque/BACS payment or by secure online payment.

*****************

To book your place:

Please call Tracey on 08707 501966 to book by telephone or to reserve a place and request an invoice for cheque/BACS payment or visit the website for secure online payment.

*****************

All training hours are in alignment with the International Coach Federation's Core Coaching Competencies.

*****************

Click here for further details.

How to utilise coaching skills training to support managers in being better managers:

2008-03-06T10:31:37+00:00

It is a complex question that requires tailoring to the organizational setting, but some of our key pointers are:

1. Start with the end in mind
2. Know how to recognise success
3. Speak to your managers
4. Assure workplace application is included in the training
5. Build in personal development to the training programmes

1. Start with the end in mind
What are the business drivers – problems and aspirations – that your organisation hold dear? How would having managers that can coach well support those drivers? If you cannot answer that question then a) give us a call and we can support you in trying to do so or b) save your money and try something else.

Seriously, I am a huge believer in coaching (clearly!) but I would prefer that an organisation that cannot answer that question saves its time, money and manpower and investigates other avenues for achieving their business goals.

Coaching is not just about “delivering soft skills” and whilst companies insist on these programmes being delivered as “a nice to have” then coaching will continue to waste an awful lot of money and to have its reputation tarnished.

When we get really business orientated about it, we will get to make a bigger difference to the way in which people experience work and therefore their lives in general. Once we accept this need to tie in to business drivers, then we can start to see a real breakthrough in the time, money and working hours that companies are prepared to pour into coaching.

2. Know how to recognise success
Once we are clear on what the business drivers are that we wish to impact, then we can start to ask what the specific success indicators will be. For instance, if we know that the business driver is (as with a huge number of companies) reducing the attrition rate, then we can see how a goal of getting 50% of our managers to attend coach training just isn’t enough. We need to be able to demonstrate that we are having an impact on the attrition rate.

Once the success indicators are clear, then we can manage the measurement of the programme and the design of the programme to make sure it is addressing the need we have.

It may sound a lot like teaching granny to suck eggs as the expression goes, but again and again we find this process is missing from the programme as a whole.

3. Speak to your managers
Again, hardly rocket science but in our experience, the design and sponsoring of these programmes tends to be from on high. Your managers will be able to tell you a lot about what would enable them to coach in the workplace; what they perceive might stand in their way; what would need to be in place after the programme for them to be able to coach and so on.

What we see is that the problems that occur after training could easily have been attended to and overcome in advance if only those expected to coach were included in the initial discussions.

4. Assure workplace application is included in the training
To enable coaching programmes to be cost effective (for that read “cheap”) they are generally very short and lack the support and amount of practical application thinking time that is required for managers to take this complex new skillset and apply it in the workplace.

Coaching as a management competency is a very different skill to being an internal coach. Managers need to understand when not to coach and to have the space and support to think through how to apply their skillset in specific situations. Otherwise, in that pressured, busy workplace environment, they will quickly revert to their previous default setting which will appear easier and quicker than does coaching.

5. Build in personal development to the training programmes
In the rush to cram managers full of coaching skills, it can be very easy to miss that there is an ethos to coaching which requires personal development as well as doing things differently. We find that time spent on this in a coaching skills programme pays huge dividends – particularly actually in creating momentum in your change process; managers will ask to attend the programme because they have seen the change in others. Team members will see an actual difference in their manager and will be more open to being coached by them also.

The benefits of coach training for your managers are potentially huge and the potential for wasting money on coaching skills training is just as big:

Do it well and you will reap the rewards.

Do it poorly and coaching will soon be just “an HR initiative that didn’t work”.

If you'd like to discuss these issues in relation to your company, why not call me Lisa Wynn, Director of Coaching at www.CorporatePotential.com on +44 (0)1473 327433 or email her on lisa@corporatepotential.com.

Why “Manager as Coach” programmes can cause problems:

2008-03-05T10:19:00+00:00

Having done a fair bit of trouble shooting with companies on this topic, here are the top reasons why Manager as Coach Programmes seem not to deliver value:

1. Lack of measurement
2. Lack of proper funding
3. Lack of real strategic purpose
4. Lack of workplace application and support
5. Lack of “walking the talk”

1. Lack of measurement
Most programmes are launched as a “nice to have” or success is measured by how many people go through the training. This lack of strategic success criteria means that even if the programme is going well, there is little if any “proof” of this and the funding for the programme will therefore cease as soon as a financial squeeze is felt.

2. Lack of proper funding
The majority of companies (largely probably because of the lack of numbers 1 and 3) try to do this work on a minimal budget. The main fall out of this is that the managers do not have sufficient skills for the challenging moments – they then end up reverting to telling because they do not have sufficient skill as a coach.

3. Lack of real strategic purpose
In those companies where the programme is not appearing to deliver, the thinking behind tends not to have included any kind of strategic purpose – or at least none that the participants and/or business sponsor can easily see.

4. Lack of workplace application and support
Courses tend to be very short and lack sufficient workplace application and also they tend to lack the ongoing support required to put this new skill to work. However intensive a programme is, when the manager goes back to work on Monday morning they will be faced with having to put the new skills to the test in a pressured environment. They will almost certainly revert to their usual patterns of behaviour very quickly.

The funding rarely, if ever, extends to ongoing support and development as a coach so that managers start to feel they are out of touch with the skills and give up.

The lack of workplace application may mean that managers attempt to coach at inappropriate moments – for example when a team is in an emergency situation and requires strong decisions and leadership. A manager who always asks open questions will soon be assumed by their team not to know any answers!

5. Lack of “walking the talk”
Most short coaching skills training programmes focus on the skills of coaching - “doing coaching”. The effect is that managers come back with new “soft skills” that appear not to work – the manager is perceived as not walking the talk of their new approach – of not living the ethos that goes along with coaching.

So how can we utilise coaching skills training to support managers in being better managers? Drop by tomorrow to find out, or subscribe to my feed to receive automatic updates each time I blog.

Manager as Coach - time to rethink?

2008-03-04T10:11:00+00:00

It’s a nice idea – managers who consistently coach their teams day in and day out; ever ready with a lovely open question and endlessly patient, managing never to leap in and tell their team member what to do.

We know that individuals tend to leave companies because of their manager rather than because of the company itself – so it makes sense to have these super managers coaching away and helping to retain your organizational talent.

And yet, strangely enough, we often hear from companies who have spent a lot of time and money training their managers as coaches only to find out that there is no measurable effect despite a large financial investment.

Many of these companies are getting the feedback that their staff does not actually feel they are being coached. Their experience of being within that manager’s team has not noticeably improved.

In fact, some of these organizations have told us that their managers’ 360 results have actually diminished as a result of their coach training – they are perceived as being weaker; finding it more difficult to make decisions and lacking leadership …

So, should we all stop running and delivering “Manager as Coach” type programmes then? Yes. I would say so and tomorrow, I'll look at 5 common problems "Manager as Coach" programmes can cause.

Using our coaching skills to evaluate ROI

2008-03-03T11:07:00+00:00

Last week, I came across an interesting article about evaluating the effectiveness of coaching by Elouise Leonard-Cross over at www.TrainingZone.co.uk. Training Zone is a great site for corporate training professionals, which just like this blog, allows you to interact with other professionals by leaving your comments. Here's the comment I left:

"I have found that giving the client the responsibility for knowing what success would mean to them and how they will evaluate that can be a great deal more powerful than offering any kind of set evaluation approach.

How will they know that their investment in coaching was a good one?

How will they recognise it when it happens?

And how should the coaching programme be set up to best meet these requirements?

What are the check in processes along the way?

How will they know they are on track?

The other vital piece of questioning around evaluation is about sustainability because that often challenges the organisation to shift as well as the few people going through the coaching programme. Coaching is a great way to waste money if the organisation is not prepared to put in place the changes that would support an ROI!

It may well sound like a cop out in terms of rigorous ROI measurement but asking for a strong set of desired outcomes and how the client will recognise those can I believe be a powerful and cost effective way of evaluating coaching."

What do you think? How do you measure coaching ROI - as a coach and/or a 'coachee'? To leave your comments, simply click on the 'Comments' link below this post and fill out the form provided.

Notes about commenting:
1. You do not need to give your email address.
2. If you give your website url, other readers can visit your site simply by clicking on your name.
3. Comments are moderated so will not show immediately.

MyBlogLog - social media marketing fun

2008-03-02T16:21:00+00:00

As part of my new blogging and social media adventures, I've joined MyBlogLog. I'm currently Undergoing MyBlogLog Verification which is what this post is really for, but it's also a chance for me to let you know about this great social media resource.

Check out MyBlogLog here and if you you join/are already a member, please do join my community and say hello. :o)