Coach4Growth

The Coaching Model as a Key Management Tool

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 14:57:39 +0000

We’ve all heard of or seen a number of acronyms thrown around as coaching models over the years. Whether in management training or during your own coaching sessions with your leader, Coaching Models have become very common in recent years. Let’s examine the benefits of using a Coaching Model as well as some of the more common and effective models out there.

What is Organizational Leadership?

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 18:28:33 +0000

With the transient nature of today’s managers and the ever increasing changes in economy landscapes, being an effective organizational leader is more important than ever. For this reason, many leaders are looking for ways to grow and adapt their leadership skills. The discipline of Organizational Leadership is focused on the development of transferrable leadership skills that regardless of industry, function, or role will be applicable to managing and leading teams. To be an effective organizational leader, you should focus on being well rounded by developing in 4 core leadership competencies.

5 Reasons Situational Leadership is a Key Leadership Skill

Sun, 08 Apr 2012 05:00:00 +0000

Situational Leadership is based on the principle that there is no best leadership style to use all of the time but that the best leadership style will be dependent on the situation a leader is in. Intuitively this makes sense, right? If you’re trying to engage or motivate an executive with industry tenure, your approach should certainly be different than that which you’d take with a recent addition to the team at a junior level. So let’s take a closer look at why situational leadership is such a key leadership skill.

Trust: A Key Characteristic of Leadership

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 02:37:18 +0000

Most of us learned the principles of leadership through theory generated out of the Industrial Revolution. Authors such as Frederick W. Taylor whose book The Principles of Scientific Management became a cornerstone of leadership theories and helped to define the characteristics of a leader that many of us hold true today. Taylor and other leadership thought leaders taught us that people are innately lazy or unfocused in their work and that we as leaders need to implement systems and processes that ensure work flows at the correct level of productivity. Their focus was on accountability and oversight rather than flexibility and ownership. As the world around us has evolved and our values have changed, we have yet to evolve past these principles in the vast majority of corporations.

Simple Project Planning: Project Plans for Non Project Managers

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 00:48:00 +0000

Creating an effective project plan is a key skill, not just for project managers, but for any leader in today’s business environment. With industries rapidly changing, technology innovations coming daily, and the pressure to optimize businesses ever present, grasping how to create a simple project plan is a key first step in running every business. For non project managers, creating an effective project plan can be a more daunting task amidst all of our other daily responsibilities but it doesn’t have to be.

Leadership Lessons We Learned on 9/11

Thu, 08 Sep 2011 13:35:34 +0000

September 11, 2011 was one of the worst days in American history and provided the most superb illustration of exemplary leadership in action. The local, state, and federal leaders were faced with unimaginable decisions to make in a short period of time. From collecting information, deploying resources, outlining response planning, and directing a nation, the leaders we all followed through this horrendous event not only provided the leadership needed for a nation to endure but also set an example of what true leadership should look like in everyday work and home life.

Performance Based Management - Focus Your Performance Monitoring

Sun, 04 Sep 2011 17:54:20 +0000

One of the more important aspects of a coaching session is to identify the behaviors that positively or negatively impact the employee’s key performance indacators or metrics. As an example, for a basketball player, the behavior that directly impacts the Free Throws KPI would be releasing the ball too quickly, slowly, or the way the player snaps thier wrist. So what are the behaviors that directly align to your metrics? Have you identified your key performance indicators? Have you written them down? Communicated them?

Time Management and Organization Skills begin with Managing your inbox effectively

Sat, 13 Aug 2011 21:00:59 +0000

Time management and organization skills are among the most critical skills for leaders to possess. So why is it that so many of us often struggle to manage our calendars, our email, people stopping by our desks, the fires that pop up, and on and on everyday? Well, for each of us there is a different answer to ‘Why’ but there’s a more critical answer to ‘How’. How do I regain time in my day? How do I juggle all of the balls I have in the air? How do I balance home life and work life? By using some of the tools that we’re all familiar with in, for the most part, a simplistic fashion, we’ll lay out a path to taking back your calendar and your inbox and creating real time in your day.

Too many emails! How do I organize my inbox and get on top of the daily emails?

Let’s start by looking at your inbox as it stands today. How many read and unread emails do you have in your inbox folder? (you can find the number of emails in the bottom left corner of your screen in Microsoft Outlook) If you’re like most people your ...

5 Critical Steps to Take When Starting a New Job

Sat, 06 Aug 2011 18:40:37 +0000

You’ve been looking for that great next job and now that you’ve landed it, how do you ensure you get off to a great start? Looking at successful leaders who are able to join new teams and organizations and ultimately excel, common trends make themselves apparent.

The Role of the Key Performance Indicator in Measuring Performance and Driving Performance Results

Tue, 08 Mar 2011 21:56:07 +0000

Key performance Indicators (KPIs) play an essential role in the performance management system of an organization. KPIs provide an objective viewpoint of your company’s performance, relative to your business goals and to any other industry benchmarks. Leaders at all levels of the company can walk through their business and get a subjective sense for what is happening by listening to employees and seeing the business activities that are occurring, but that is not enough. Without objective data how do managers and leaders know what levers to pull to improve results?

Example of KPI’s in the Real World

Let’s take sports as an example. How does a Basketball team, coach, and player measure success and know what to do differently to win more games, make more baskets, or sell more tickets? To be able to solve for these issues, they use KPIs. For our purposes we will focus on the individual KPIs or metrics. In basketball some of the statistics reviewed are Field Goals, Field Goal Attempts, Three Point Field Goals, ...

Performance Management System – Best Practices for Successfully Measuring Results

Tue, 08 Mar 2011 21:13:58 +0000

In every organization, a performance management system is critical to the success and effectiveness of the business. While many companies reference performance management as a key competency, few have robust approaches that enable both manager and employee success. In this article, we’ll discuss the key components or an effective performance management system so that you can better identify gaps in your own processes and implement best practices that will continually enable continuous performance improvements in your organization.

Business Process Improvement – Using Process Improvement Tools to Achieve Operations Improvement

Wed, 26 Jan 2011 22:59:10 +0000

Leaders today are continually challenged to improve team performance often accomplishing more with less resources and increased operational complexity. To accomplish this many managers and leaders are turning to Business Process Improvement methodologies to enhance their ability to deliver results efficiently and effectively.

Leadership: The Quick Conversation

Sun, 31 Oct 2010 17:14:54 +0000

I had occasion lately to ponder the linkage between Emotional Intelligence and Leadership. In the article The Characteristics of a Leader: Demonstrating Good Leadership Skills we identified two characteristics of leadership as being Straightforward and Fair-minded. Let’s explore how these relate to Emotional Intelligence.

As a reminder, being straightforward is about using sound judgment to make good decisions at the right time. It’s about staying focused, planning, and not making rash decisions on the spur of the moment.

Team Building: Characteristics of a Good Team

Sun, 31 Oct 2010 17:09:01 +0000

Team building, team coaching, teamwork, no matter what you call it, you need to know that there are four characteristics of a good team. First, know that we use the term team loosely. You often hear a leader call the folks in their organization their team. As we discuss the characteristics of a good team, you will find that this is a misnomer. The characteristics of a good team are a commitment to a common purpose, performance goals, complementary skills, and an approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable.

Coaching Skills and Good Leadership Skills Recommended Reading

Thu, 28 Oct 2010 21:18:34 +0000

Check out some of these resources that have helped many people develop good leadership skills, coaching skills, and management skills.

Leadership Quotes

Thu, 28 Oct 2010 20:53:38 +0000

We have compiled some famous, infamous, and our all around favorite leadership quotes from leaders such as Winston Churchill, George Patton, Albert Einstein, Stephen Covey, among others. Enjoy!

Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.
- Peter F. Drucker

Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.
- Dwight Eisenhower

Delegating work works, provided the one delegating works, too.
- Robert Half

Don't tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results.
- George S. Patton

A ...

Development Action Plans for Employee Development Through Behavior Changes and Skill Improvement

Thu, 28 Oct 2010 20:27:40 +0000

Development Action Plans can be one of the most important tools in employee development. Successful realization of behavior changes or skill improvement requires not only solid coaching and communication, but a clear plan to make the necessary behavior changes or skill improvement come to fruition. The plan should be used in the 'W' phase of the IGROW Model as well as a tool implemented after coaching has occurred to plan the next steps that will be taken. Keep in mind Development Action Plans are only meant for use in coaching scenarios. If you are working with a counseling scenario, a Development Action Plan will not be your best resource as the employee is not working to make a behavior change or skill improvement but is making a choice not to perform. You can learn more about the difference between Coaching and Counseling in an additional article.

360 Degree Feedback: Behavioral Feedback and Performance Feedback for Team Coaching

Thu, 28 Oct 2010 20:23:56 +0000

360 Degree Feedback can be one of the most essential tools for gathering behavioral feedback and performance feedback. As a people manager, In today's fast paced environments, managers often find themselves not only responsible for team coaching, but for projects, process improvement efforts, training initiatives, and the list goes on and on. Because we can't be with our teams constantly, it can sometimes be difficult to have a true feel for their individual needs and even their performance. Most managers find themselves making a number of assumptions or applying a certain amount of guesswork to fill in the gaps when they're not around. Others have leveraged the 360 degree feedback technique to ensure they stay on top of their teams while being pulled in numerous other directions.

What Sales Managers Should Focus Their Coaching Skills On

Thu, 28 Oct 2010 20:08:47 +0000

In the article Investing Wisely in Coaching we discussed which performers on our teams Sales Managers should focus their coaching skills on and how much time we spend coaching them. Understanding who we coach is certainly the first step, but that’s just the beginning. Determining what we coach and when is just as integral in garnering the most from your coaching time investment.

The Sales Execution Model: Pre-Sales Activities, Sales Activities, and Post Sales Activities

Thu, 28 Oct 2010 20:04:47 +0000

I have heard it called Sales Execution Model, Sales Strategy Model, or just the Sales Model but whatever you call it, it’s a process, or discipline, sales reps should follow to analyze, diagnose, prepare, execute and evaluate in their territories or on their calls. There is a flow or strategy to selling that falls into three phases: Pre-Sales Activities, Sales Activities, and Post Sales Activities. We will review the three phases and look at how they apply to all sales rolls.

Why Sales Coaching is Important for Sales Managers to Create Top Performers

Thu, 28 Oct 2010 19:59:51 +0000

Let’s consider the world’s top performers, Tiger Woods, Wayne Gretzky, Bjorn Borg, The Three Tenors and so on. What do they have in common? They all have a coach. The Executive Coaching industry is booming. Top performers in industry, sports, and music have a coach and realize the value. So, why is coaching so neglected by Sales Managers?

How Sales Managers Create a Successful Sales Strategy

Thu, 28 Oct 2010 19:54:38 +0000

When we hear Sales Strategy we often think of our marketing department and their strategy to position what we are selling. As sales reps and sales managers we don’t often think of ourselves as strategists, but we should. Creating a successful Sales Strategy will allow sales managers and their sales team to focus on the right customers, in the right ways, and at the right times.

What Component of an Effective Sales Plan should Sales Managers Spend Their Coaching Time On?

Thu, 28 Oct 2010 19:49:44 +0000

An effective sales plan is integral to successful and productive sales contacts. How many sales managers focus their coaching time and attention on getting sales reps to plan and prepare for a sales call? Think about it, we typically spend our time on the sales call with our reps. We listen to calls, complete ride-alongs, or attend events with our sales reps and clients. Sales managers spend the majority of their coaching time in the Sales Activities portion of the sales rep job and spend little to no coaching time in the Pre-Sales Activities, as described in the Sales Execution Model, planning and preparation for the sale.

Your Circle of Control, Your Behavior Drives Results

Thu, 28 Oct 2010 19:46:02 +0000

Do you ever get so caught up in problems with clients, colleagues, results, angry customers that you lose sight of the only true thing you control, your behavior? You are probably already sitting there thinking, this article is a waste of time. I have to focus on customers. I have to focus on results. I have to focus on what my boss thinks. Ask yourself, do you really? Aren’t results, customer interaction, how others view you really a derivative of what you do or say? It would be very disheartening to think that you have zero control of outcomes?

Leadership vs. Management: What are the Characteristics of a Leader and a Manager

Thu, 28 Oct 2010 19:40:59 +0000

Leadership and management are terms that are often used interchangeably in the business world to depict someone who manages a team of people. In reality leadership vs. management have very different meanings. To be a great manager you must understand what it takes to also be a great leader.

Leading with Questions Shows Good Leadership Skills That Lead to Employee Development

Thu, 28 Oct 2010 19:35:37 +0000

As a manager we're presented with varying types of problems, issues, and questions throughout each and every day. Our instinct is to immediately offer a solution and move on. Is this the right first step to demonstrate good leadership skills? Let's take an example and walk it through to see if your first thought on answering this question will still be your second thought.

Develop Good Leadership Skills: What is Emotional Intelligence or EQ?

Thu, 28 Oct 2010 19:26:16 +0000

As you embarked on your journey to develop good leadership skills, you have probably come into contact with the term, Emotional Intelligence or EQ. While many use this term in their management endeavors, few truly understand its implications. So, what is Emotional Intelligence? EQ is the demonstration of good leadership skills by leaders who are self aware, self regulating, motivated, empathetic, and possess great social skills.

The Front Line Managers Guide to Good Leadership Skills: Effectively Managing Change

Thu, 28 Oct 2010 19:18:05 +0000

Effectively managing change requires front line managers to embrace the saying “The only thing constant is change”? As front line managers we use this statement often to explain why we are asking our employees to learn or do something new. We often think this should be enough, individuals should get that the change we are asking them to make should now be embraced with open arms and that they should understand more change is to come and they should be ready.

The Consciously Competent Leader Demonstrates Good Leadership Skills in Mentor Relationships

Thu, 28 Oct 2010 19:09:57 +0000

I recently had the opportunity to speak with the leader of a corporation about how he set out to develop his executive team. His strategy was to identify the skills he wanted them to focus on and then set-up a mentor relationships with peers that were very strong in that skill. I asked how that strategy worked and he quickly let me know that it was hit or miss. He didn’t understand why some mentor relationships worked well while many floundered.

The Characteristics of a Leader: Demonstrating Good Leadership Skills

Thu, 28 Oct 2010 19:05:06 +0000

The characteristics of a leader come through in our day to day interactions with those around us. Leaders come in all shapes, styles, and forms. If you stop to think about some of the leaders that have inspired you or even some that have infuriated you, the qualities of good leadership skills will become apparent.